Quote:I'm curious on your thoughts of trading 4 worker turns for 10h. Is it just because it fits nicely with the micro?
It fits very well with the micro and there aren't enough forests to choose a 20 hammer one over it. Including the 10H one I only have 4 forests for 2 cities that both need granaries. I could've had another 20H one with Hinduism, but it was not meant to be. So while it sounds not too great on paper I deemed it worth it because:
-Worker had to remain in the area and do something useful. It was also the only worthwhile tile he could reach after chopping a previous forest (south-southwest of Leviathan), so it's more like 3 turns spent, really. The turn's movement was to be spent doing nothing otherwise.
-The 10 extra hammers is enough to complete the granary in Plankton in time and makes a difference. It's also 10 hammers that would disappear forever as I'm settling a city on the tile. Delaying it to improve the yield is not an option.
Quote:Another reason why that 15 hammer discount is so much more than it seems. It's the difference between needing two forests and three. (Man, I'm getting the itch to play with RtR India or Babylon myself.)
Yeah, I'm a big fan. Less worker turns spent, but perhaps more importantly the 3rd forest might not even exist in many cases.
Have yet to post demos this game. Not very meaningful at this stage, but early signs are good. 2nd in area shows how this looks to be a very watery/snaky map, but if you're reading this you have access to every thread so it's old news.
I believe the early and frequent 1-pop whips have made an impact, but starting with pigs certainly doesn't hurt.
I made an early decision to use a "free" (cost = worker turns) riverside PH mine instead of a clam tile for settlers/workers and whipped it away when settler completed. Improving the clam now that the granary is completed to quickly grow to size 5, but I feel the 4F2C seafood tiles can be a bit of a noobtrap for the starting turns, even with the EXP bonus to work boats. For workers/settler you get the same output (minus commerce) from just improving a mine. Having the river made the decision easier.
Having a work boat to immediately improve a tile for 2nd/3rd city is great, but when your capital already has +7 from pigs+sheep it's usually better to delay the work boat and get an earlier settler instead.
I found some more food resources down south. I keep expecting to run into someone and I imagine there will be someone on the continent west/southwest of the scout, but all the wild animals are telling me they're still a way out. The further away the better.
Sailing after monotheism for sure. Need a galley for crossing the bay area. And of course there's still the pigs east of Leviathan (capital).
Minimum goal right now is to settle a city on the hill between the two fish and another on the hill 2N of the grassland gold. But depending on how close the expected neighbour is I could get even more greedy.
Or maybe this whole pitboss is a practical joke and we're playing a terra where I have the Americas all to myself. The other threads are all blank post and you're waiting for April 1st to reveal it to me.
Still up there with the best of them and granaries are completed.
The nice thing about being in your own corner of the world is being able to create a true sandbox and reliably make long sims. Played out the game until ~t60 today which is where I'll stop for good and rely on rule of thumb and basic calculations. It's such a great feeling when everything just clicks. Work boats arriving in the nick of time, workers barely finishing roads in time for the settler movement, efficient whips and granary completion, and my personal favourite, the tile swapping of sheep and plains hill mine between Diatom and Plankton. They never build a settler/worker at the same time, so there's always full growth yield from the 5F sheep. It's never wasted converting 1:1 with hammers. Helps compensate for the lost fish.
City future: 1t archer --> [size 5] 1T settler --> 1-pop whip archer with max overflow (work forest over mine to regrow in 1 turn) --> [size 5] settler --> settler.
Archery was inserted as a tech to protect my copper from barbarian interference or a random enemy chariot. It's a minor tech so I'm playing it safe and getting the one archer with my warriors to escort my settlers and workers.
Plankton:
City future: Finish worker --> partial worker (1t) --> take sheep and grow to size 4 on warrior+wb (whip for 1) --> complete worker in 1 turn with wb overflow.
The wb is needed for the fish as I project Plankton being a holy city in 5-6 turns.
Diatom:
City future: Wheat is improved next turn. Warrior in build queue for rounding reasons. Whip work boat for 1 pop the turn before growing to size 3 (Plankton takes sheep) --> complete warrior --> whip work boat for copper+fish+pigs city.
IIRC the plan is 6 cities by turn 60.
In other news Gav completed the Oracle. Expected and also very welcome. Hopefully Gav builds the Colossus too (he 100% will) to deny a financial leader to double up on coast. He'll make a strong rival, but much rather he build it than OH+hitru Victoria for instance.
I checked the sim and city #6 is settled turn 61, so make that 13 turns.
It's the power of early granaries. You take a minor development hit to burst ahead shortly after.
Perhaps a rename to Scrooge McDuck of the Klondike Empire is warranted. Found some more of the good stuff and I'm not keen on sharing.
My diligent workers are preparing the road network for the pig+fish+copper+gold and corn+gold+clam cities. It would take an eternity to move there otherwise, which is part of the reason why neither city was settled 3rd.
And the old boring demographics. You know you're in good shape in the early game when you're top of food and mfg and have your granaries completed already which may not be the case of the other high yields. Even more so when you're about to settle a bunch of cities. Top GNP is probably DS with Stonehenge+free monuments, but it could also be Gavagai.
. Are you really able to double city count in 12 turns with no city currently working on a Settler?
