[Spoilers]Luddite- Isabella of Aztec

[luddite]

Thanks Serdoa! Right now I've got 59 points from ten ancient era techs (hunting, mysticism, agriculture, meditation, mining, bronze working, the wheel, pottery, animal husbandry, and writing) . So each tech is worth about 6 points. Plako gained 6 points this turn, so that's exactly one tech that he researched.

But that still doesn't explain how he jumped up 12 points the turn before, from 132 to 144 points. That's after he already got the big jump from the oracle. He only has two cities, so at most he could have gained 4 points from growing two population. Add another 6 points for technology. The only other categories are land (impossible because it takes 20 turns for land to show up in score) and wonders (just the oracle). So where did the other 2 points come from???

The only thing I can think of is that he must have researched another classical era tech. That would give him another 12 points. Perhaps iron working? That's quite cheap, just 191 beakers on this map.

[Serdoa]

edit: nvm

[luddite]

So Mardoc/Seven have built another city, and greatly increased their food yield. Meanwhile they're still getting massive GNP. Some of that is from their religion, but a lot of that is actual commerce I'm afraid.

I whipped a worker in FullMetalJacket, which will temporarily decrease my own food yield.

[luddite]

Time to do my first update in a quite a while.

Basically everybody is in an expansion race. The only one doing a noticably different strategy is Plako, who has built both Stonehenge and the Oracle despite not being industrious, so he has a massive score. It'll be interesting to see how that works out for him. He and Amelia have both built cities on the coast to claim that fish site:


I'm the first person to reach 4 cities. This one was GNP-neutral, since it was so close to my capital. It's not a great site, but it will help develop the cottages in the capital to prepare for beauracracy. I had never even heard of "Barry Lyndon" before I went to look up the full list of SK movies. It's quite a strange movie. Seems appropriate for this city.


Doing quite well in demographics. Tied for 1st in MFG, close to #1 in crop yield. Plako has a massive GNP lead, but most of that is culture. I'm quite low in population though, since all my cities are so small. That will change soon.

[luddite]

I managed to just barely finish Mathematics this turn. Judging from the score increases, Adlain, Mardoc, and GES did too. That will let me finish the mine for the full 20 hammers, and increased me to 2nd place in score ( a lot of big score increases this turn!). Next step is to grow the capital a bit.

[luddite]

I'm trying to figure who best to use FullMetalJacket. I want to pump out as many workers and settlers as possible. Military units would be nice too, but I don't really need them right now.



Originally, I'd been planning on doing a 2-pop whip to finish this worker. 2-pop whipping with a granary is a pretty nice deal, because it turns 8 or 9 food into 20 hammers. More than a 2:1 return. However, I'm about to finish a grassland hill mine, which gives me a 3:1 return (I lose 1 food from surplus but gain 3 hammers). Forest hills aren't so good, since they only give +1. However, by building workers instead of whipping them I can use all available hammers towards them, instead of having to build other things while regrowing.

I think I'm going to just finish this worker without whipping. With the extra hammers from chopping the forest, it will finish in 2 turns. Then I can build another worker, grow to size 5, and build a settler. There's so many hills on this site, I might as well use them.

[luddite]

So this game is still creaking along. Finally got the save again after a 3 day wait. I finished two mines and a corn farm this turn, so I'm doing well in demos- 1st in both food and MFG! And really, my mfg should be even higher, because I'm producing 2 workers and a granary while expansive. Too bad my GNP is so low (less than half the first place lol). I guess I probably won't get confucianism, but that's fine, I've still got a good chance at getting taoism by bulbing philosophy.

demos

What I don't understand though, is why plako isn't #1 in MFG. Look at the graph:

mfg

So either he dropped massively this turn, or the graph is screwed up.

[luddite]

I've also decided to just let full metal jacket build workers and settlers normally, instead of whipping it. Any comments on that? I guess it's probably close either way, but I like having the option of switching it to mines or the deer camp immediately without needing to pause work/sett production and regrow.

[Lord Parkin]

Surely it's faster to build them normally? Regrowing from the whip will take multiple turns every time. I don't see how that puts you in a better position to churn them out.

[luddite]

Well my original thinking was that slaving with a granary would basically double the food output, at the expense of losing production (because you can't put hammers into a worker while growing). So I calculated it as getting 10 extra food. However, thinking about it now, it's only the excess food that gets doubled, which would be at most 6 food, vs 8 production.

I guess I just feel weird because I'm hardly using slavery at all. I've done 1 whip so far, and I might not do any more for a long time. But then, the real advantage of it is that you can produce both military and civilian units at the same time, and here i'm just going for broke on civilian units with no military.