AT Can't Drive 55

[AutomatedTeller]

So, plans:

I have a couple of possible dotmaps for the west/south of the land





The main difference is the placement of the green dot - in map 1, it gets food, in map 2, it does not.  

That said, map 2 ends up with another city and, frankly, I like it better.

[AutomatedTeller]

Turn 28:

And the first one to settle a city:

Commodore, with protective/spiritual Saladin. I'm guessing he grew to size 2 and then built a settler?

My settler is built. it moves to the hill next turn and settles turn 30. I'll stay at size 3 for now, but will be ready to grow to size 4. At size 3, I'll make 6 hammers (2 cap, 1 wheat, 2 deer, 1 forest) and at size 4 I'll make 8, which go to 9 and 12 for a settler. With ivory and a PH, that's 7 and 10.

[AutomatedTeller]

Turn 30

DriveMyCar is founded:



This will end up being a strong city - fish, cow and stone. I might end up buidling Moai here. I might not - it might be better to get the hammers whipping. Moai I think should be build in a city where there are multiple water tiles you'll end up working all the time 2-1-2 is ok, but not great.

it's building a monument, but will whip a worker when it gets a chance


Demos are pretty good. Need more cities.

Cap builds a worker until the deer is finished, then a warrior to grow, then worker->settler.

Research is 0% for 1 turn, then BW in 8. After that, fishin->pottery->masonry. Probably sailing after that - might go metal casting.

[AutomatedTeller]

I've been meaning to do a post on Moai, which I think is one of the best gameplay buildings in CivIV, because it has obvious value, you can only build it one place and it's not always clear what the best way to use it is.

I think most people put Moai in a city with mainly water tiles. This gives us a great benefit in the long term, because it makes a marginal city a powerhouse late in the game.

The problem is, of course, getting to that size 20 city with moai tiles.

Personally, I think the best Moai city is one with a seafood or two, strong hammer tiles (stone, horse or metal), a couple of hills and a few lake tiles. Why this? Because you will always want to work a lighthoused lake tile, so the benefit accrues very quickly.

If that is true, then my best Moai city might be the fish/horse one that can share deer. Or an offshore island.

The other question with moai is when to build it. its available very early, but it's also a lot of early hammers and it takes quite a while to return value. I think people tend to build it too soon (at least, I do), when they should be building settlers

[AutomatedTeller]

Some thoughts on dotmaps


Thinking isn't really well formed and I don't have a good idea of all the land there, but I'm wondering if this blue line is a reasonable delineation of a border between Ruff and myself.

If I put a city for the wheat, it's difficult for Ruff to hold a city in that yellow area, but easy for me. Maybe I get that and he gets city that goes over the line up north. Lots more to figure out up there.



Very prelimnary. Only cities that are for sure are the wheat one and the one out on the peninsula. Probably the rice one, but dry rice sucks, so it gets settled late (or moved south 1, I suppose)

One thing I might do is push that gold one 1 south - 2 bananas and wet rice, combined iwth 2 gems, 2 dye and some good rivers make that a potentially great commerce spot. Up against a non-imp civ and I should be able to get it. It might be a priority, though I'd definitely need a city in between to support it.

[naufragar]

Re: Moai, I think you're right that it's hard to evaluate and its best use is probably to make an ok city great. But so much of Moai's draw is... it's fun! It feels like you're gaining a ton, even if, when you actually do the math, it's not earth shattering.

[AutomatedTeller]

thought about switching to a settler, but I'm going to go worker->settler.

Micro is that the current worker will finish the deer, 1 turn road the wheat, camp the ivory, finish the wheat road and chop/mine the PH.

new worker will mine the PH on the river, then go to chop the forest by the other wheat.

Cap goes worker->settler->warrior->settler. Grow up to size 4. 3rd settler goes for either horse or copper.

[AutomatedTeller]

Huh.  Do we have drama going on?   It seems early for a war, but Amicalola/Mjmd rolled the turn but did not end it.  And Ruff/civac logged in, planted a city and did not end turn.   I get one of them forgetting, but both?  

Well, drama elsewhere for Ruff is good for me. Confusion for my neighbors!!   It just seems really early for aggression on a map this size.


One thing to note:   the age of animals is done.   As I noted before, Animals run until A) turn 25 passes and B)  4 people settle city #2.    Last turn, we had the 4th ciy #2 planted.

btw - I had completely forgotten that Ruff was Imp/Fin OF ROME.   I need to be careful about crowding him.  The land seems to have an unfortunate lack of hills my side of the dividing line, so I'll have to come up with something.

[AutomatedTeller]

plan for now is to set up DriveMyCar as a second settler/worker pump. I was thinking of adding a granary to it, but I think I'll wait on that until after I pump out settlers. It will have plenty of hammers with cow, stone, hill. monument to grow, whip worker, finsih monument, chop out workboat/warrior until it grows, I guess. have to figure out the micro of getting it to size 5 fastest.

[AutomatedTeller]

Drive My Car is, obviously, the famous Beatle's song that leads off Rubber Soul (is there really such a thing as an obscure Beatles song?) Rubber Soul is one of my favorite albums of all time - everybody sang lead at least once on that album and everyone got a writing credit. I always think Rubber Soul and Revovler get short-shrift, because they aren't Sgt Peppers or the later ones, filled with drama.

Drive My Car was, apparently, an old blues euphemism for sex (which makes sense, since everything is a euphemism for sex. It's not one of my favorite Beatle's song, but I like it more now that I know about the euphemism. Not that it was all that hidden before, of course.