[SPOILERS] The Chemistry of Victory - Mardoc plays Mehmed of Sumer

[Mardoc]

Definitely straight for currency. We should probably focus on getting 2-3 more cities out quickly, as it looks like we've got the worker labour for it and we're lagging a bit expansion-wise.

Well, Propane founds next turn. After that I think the next one is Propylene (up by the horse and gold). After that - I want more workers before founding the sixth city. Three of them is probably only barely enough to get Propane and Propylene launched.

Also more scouting done. The EOT spearman completion brings us to 3 units for four cities, so...got some work to do there yet Could use at least 3 more 1-movers, and 2 chariots, at absolute minimum assuming not much more expansion.

[Qgqqqqq]

Well we have a great surplus of imrpovements for now, and Propane only requires 7 worker turns (for the horse, and that's assuming we want to hook it as we are hooking the other atm), after which it pretty well functions on its own, and Propylene is largely pre-improved, while the current cities really have nowhere they CAN be improved, what with all the cottages and the one remaining forest. I dunno, it seems to me like we aren't going to need any more workers until we're up to 7 cities, possibly even more. And we definitely want to expand fast, so I see us just building military to grow and whipping settlers for a while now.

[Mardoc]

Well we have a great surplus of imrpovements for now, and Propane only requires 7 worker turns (for the horse, and that's assuming we want to hook it as we are hooking the other atm), after which it pretty well functions on its own

Definitely want the horse. It's something like 2/3/1, that's a great tile. Propane will have tons of hammers. Plus, well - insurance is always a good thing too, when it comes to strategics.

, and Propylene is largely pre-improved,

*will be pre-improved. At the moment I have no improvements within its BFC. Yes, I will get the horse and gold done ASAP, but that pretty much uses up my worker turns from now until settler ETA. And I absolutely need at least one worker, preferably two, ready to pasture the sheep on the turn it's founded.

while the current cities really have nowhere they CAN be improved, what with all the cottages and the one remaining forest.

Pretty much true. At least until I get more happy cap going. Definitely overbuilt cottages for this early in the game. At some point I need some core mines, but for now the seems sufficient.

I dunno, it seems to me like we aren't going to need any more workers until we're up to 7 cities, possibly even more. And we definitely want to expand fast, so I see us just building military to grow and whipping settlers for a while now.

Well, I don't want to found a city without, at minimum, a road to it and a worker ready to improve its best tile - and a worker hanging around afterward to get its good tiles improved, cottages or mines or such. I suppose I should spend some time to figure out if three workers really can do that for me. My gut says no, that the workers will have their hands full with Propylene and Propane, but maybe I can find a way to at least squeeze one more city before workers.

That said, as Expansive, a worker is fairly cheap. 2-pop whip with a lot of overflow, and at the moment the overflow is nearly as useful as the worker itself. And our limit on whipping is definitely happiness - so in a lot of cases it's a choice between 2-pop to get a worker and almost 20 hammers into a thing, or 1-pop to get 20 hammers into a thing.

[Mardoc]

New city!



These are the next ones in the plan. I don't think I see how to do this without more workers - but probably the method is going to be Ethane building workers while Methane works on settlers. Shouldn't slow us much, since Methane is currently the only city with the food and happy to run a 6-3 whip cycle anyway.



EOT demos, finally looking a little better. But of course this is approaching the top of a whip cycle, with a 60% prereq tech researching at 100%...and we still have a lot of catching up to do on food in particular.

[Mardoc]

Neighbors!







Definitely need more military. Got lucky in which way the spear went, though, glad to have him on the Egypt border with a vulture to address the barbs.

[Mardoc]

Played last night, but was too tired/busy to report. Whipped out a settler from Methane and worker from Ethane; overflow should give me two Vultures to bring me up to 1 unit/city . Then I'll probably grow on chariots or spears, since 1/city is still incredibly light. Next turn Ethylene whips a worker, mostly so that I can do a 2-pop whip instead of 1-pop for its lighthouse . That's going to be incredibly handy in general, I think, getting workers as a byproduct of building cheap buildings. At least with the current situation, I can't whip more often than 2-pop whips anyway, so it's literally a question of building or worker + building.

That depressed my demos as expected, but I'm still 3rd in food somehow. And 2nd in GNP, by a slim margin. Maybe TheStick's recent banter comment explains it, maybe someone's in a real war. Which would pretty much have to be Jowy-Sian, unless Bob's better at bluffing than I think he is.

Jowy's poking around the border, probably just scouting but I'll send out a real unit to shadow his warrior soon. Preferably a spear - if he's in a real war he'll have WC's built, and I don't want him to get any ideas. And, well, if he's in a real war but doesn't want his warrior home, he's probably winning.

I got the gold hooked, horses are due next turn, and my worker force is migrating eastward. Combination of that being the direction of next settlement, and not having any extra units to cover workers near Jowy . But then Propane doesn't really need any more improvements at the moment, just a lighthouse and time. Eventually I'll want cottages, and once I get culture, to improve the horse, but it's not urgent.

[Mardoc]

Alright, 2 Vultures completed last turn, that puts me up to a total military of 3 Vultures, a spear, and a warrior! Four cities in existance, and one more to found next turn - but I've one unit/city now.

Ok, so that's pretty sad But I haven't needed more, so I prefer the term 'efficient'. Well, except if I should have scouted something awesome to the south that I'm unaware of. So I'm still going to leave Methane and Ethane on military growth builds. Planning to send the Methane warrior south to Ethylene, as that's the closest I have to 'backlines' at the moment.

Ethylene whipped its worker, for enough overflow to 1t a lighthouse, as expected. The worker will migrate north, building a road en route. Next construction at Ethylene: probably a chariot. Or else a galley. Actually a galley's probably better, on reflection - scout the sea, enable settling the island, and defend the coast, all in one piece. Methane can get chariots built - and I really ought to make myself a galley from Ethane, too. Or two - that looks like a bigger sea.

And Propane is still trying to grow and fill its granary. It may actually be worth 1-pop whipping a lighthouse here, since crabs + lake is its only food. Would take too long to get to size 4 to get a worker/lighthouse combo. Although, hmm. I could instead work the copper mine to convert food to hammers - 2 food to 6 hammers is probably even better than whipping, and it leaves pop in place for emergencies too. Probably should do that instead of whipping.

[Mardoc]

Why does the turn for this one always come in the morning?

(ok, rhetorical question that I know the answer to. It's because it doesn't matter, I could hold it til evening if I wanted and we'd still get the same pace. Maybe a better question is 'why do I play it as soon as it comes in, even if I should be hurrying to work?')

Anyway. Founded our fifth city, Propylene. Gave it the horse tile to work while building granary and growing - this means Ethane had to suffer with a mere riverside village . Should have the sheep pastured next turn, at which point I'll shuffle tiles again. Although I do plan to leave the core cities a size or two higher, now that I've gotten my hands on some happiness - too many good tiles to leave fallow.

That settlement, plus growth, brought us up to only 5 food short of the crop yield lead. Finally starting to cook with gas here!

Worst maintenance is ~2.5 gpt, so even ridiculously cheap 30h Ziggurats aren't worth building yet. Soon, though. Just gotta push the expansion hard.

Nothing particularly exciting built. Started on a chariot and pair of galleys, but their real role is to enable the cities to regrow whipped pop. I mean, they'll be useful when they finish, but I'm not going to rush them.

No foreign news, but I offered open borders to Jowy. Can't use them yet, but it will be nice to have foreign trade available as soon as I scout down his way. Offered now because he has a scout on my border - seems backward, but I want him to say yes, so that gives him additional incentive. And with chariot/galleys in queue, I ought to be able to afford to scout quite soon. If my banter theory is correct, Jowy won't have any options for trade routes but me, and that might buy me a bit of safety. At least enough to obsolete WC's.

Math is in, currency is up next, most likely followed by Calendar. Don't have calendar resources in borders yet, but the next two mainland cities will claim some. Not sure what should come after that. I don't feel like I need more military tech yet, no near neighbors (er, I think). When I do pick something military up, it probably ought to be Construction. Cats are always in style! But for the meantime - maybe research toward Civil Service? Or pick up Iron Working and Metal Casting?

Starting to consider Organized Religion. Propylene would really benefit from culture, to pick up its fish tile. Propane could use it too, to acquire the horse. And this ignores the happy and +hammers and defense bonuses. I don't think it's quite worth revolting yet, but sometime soon it probably will be. The main holdup: I don't even have enough hammers for minimal military yet. Where am I getting hammers for missionaries, too? Especially when my military demands are likely to increase rapidly with my new cities. Heck, by the time I border someone I'll want at least a vulture + spear in each border city, and that assumes a fairly peaceful border.

[Mardoc]

New city:


EOT demos:

[Mardoc]

Nothing much to say tonight, so have a picture: