[SPOILERS] Isabella of Carthage, starring Ellimist, SleepingMoogle, and Nicolae

[Ellimist]

Played the turn. I swapped Canopus to both food tiles this turn, which delayed the Wheel by 1 turn but it will grow much sooner(in 2 turns.) Sirius finished another worker this turn, and will either build a fourth one or a workboat next.

I'm getting more comfortable with the micro, and I want to try to figure out whether we need a fourth worker. It would build in three turns, but it would take six more turns(two turns moving, 4 turns chopping) after that to chop a single forest. Chopping a single forest 9 turns from now doesn't seem that significant, the three workers we already have could have it handled without much delay. I'll have to see if it delays the Oracle by much(if anything.) I think the target we're planning on right now is T51 if we don't whip.

[Ellimist]

I have added the demographics information to two of the reserved posts at the start of the thread. I didn't have time to analyze it in depth, though. I also added the top five cities screen on every turn where it was different than the turn(s) before it.

And apparently there's a limit of fifty images per post. So I won't have room to keep this up for too many turns. It's not too important though, as C&D gets harder as the game goes on.

[Ellimist]

Okay I think I have the micro figured out now. The fourth worker doesn't make much difference to the T51 plan so we'll just use 3.

I started a WB in Sirius. It can build a granary next.

The wheel is done at EOT, pottery will take 2 turns.

[Ellimist]

Played the turn. The most noteworthy thing is that our exploring workboat found the equatorial "bump" that donut maps have. So it's definitely a donut and we're halfway to our southern neighbor. Another exploring workboat finishes in two turns in Sirius.


A possible tech path after pottery is sailing-writing. SM and Nicolae, I'd like your input on this.

My reasoning here is that it will allow us to (hopefully) get open borders and trade routes with our southern neighbor, as well as let us start settling the mainland. I'd like to put city #3 on the donut and get some exploration started on it.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Interesting, good to notice that it's kind of an inverse of the PB2 map.

Definitely go sailing after pottery, and make sure to send the workboat out east to defog the copper. I'd like to REX out to 2-4 more cities on the mainland before we go for an infrastructure push with forges and the colossus.

[Ellimist]

Since we will be making contact with somebody soon, we should prepare an initial message. I'll put something together and see what you guys think.

After Oracle(win or lose), I'd like to put a granary in Canopus. We're expansive and that city will have tons of hammers so it won't take long.
I agree that we should hold off on our main infrastructure push, maybe until we get organized religion, but it would be nice to get a forge in Canopus soon too.
Sirius can push out settlers with food, but Canopus will have hammers. An early forge would accelerate the snowball advantage that early MC gives us.

Also, I'm thinking of renaming our civ to "Celestials" or something like that. What do you think?

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Yeah, do all those things, I guess granary-forge in Canopus sounds good. I'd really like to get a galley and a settler out onto the mainland (just so that our workers will have something to do) before we put a forge in Sirius.

Due to our high happy cap and cheap granaries and early metal casting, I'm thinking that we farm the riversides on Sirius for now, and use those tiles for whip fodder. Don't whip off grass hills, do whip off farms. It's much more efficient to whip workers/settlers than building them with food, you get a much better food ratio. I think whipping workers/settlers is better on normal speed than quick speed, as the turns spent in the inefficient 1:1 food phase is a smaller proportion of the entire build time. Thanks to our high happy cap, feel free to stack a bit of whip anger.

[Ellimist]

Yeah, do all those things, I guess granary-forge in Canopus sounds good. I'd really like to get a galley and a settler out onto the mainland (just so that our workers will have something to do) before we put a forge in Sirius.

I agree. The workers still have a fair bit to do on the home island, mines/cottages/farms. Either way, putting a settler on the mainland is a high priority.
Should we plan on chopping the galley with our last 2 forests?

Due to our high happy cap and cheap granaries and early metal casting, I'm thinking that we farm the riversides on Sirius for now, and use those tiles for whip fodder. Don't whip off grass hills, do whip off farms. It's much more efficient to whip workers/settlers than building them with food, you get a much better food ratio. I think whipping workers/settlers is better on normal speed than quick speed, as the turns spent in the inefficient 1:1 food phase is a smaller proportion of the entire build time. Thanks to our high happy cap, feel free to stack a bit of whip anger.

Whipping definitely makes sense. I'm less sure about the farms though, should we try to get any cottages started?

[Nicolae Carpathia]

I don't know if it's worth cottaging our current capital, remember we're putting the Moai here and building the Colossus, we're not going to have the happy/health cap to work the hills AND the Moai/Colossus coast AND the cottages. I freaking love cottages, but I don't feel this is the right time and place to put them down. I want to whip the shit out of Sirius to power a colossus-fueled Rex.

Hopefully we'll come to a decision on what cities are worth cottaging later. This is normal speed, so there's more time to decide.

[Ellimist]

I don't know if it's worth cottaging our current capital, remember we're putting the Moai here and building the Colossus, we're not going to have the happy/health cap to work the hills AND the Moai/Colossus coast AND the cottages. I freaking love cottages, but I don't feel this is the right time and place to put them down. I want to whip the shit out of Sirius to power a colossus-fueled Rex.

Good point. Somehow I hadn't considered that. So Sirius will be working mostly coast tiles boosted by lighthouse/Moai/Colossus. Not only that, but farms are probably better for spiritual shenanigans later with slavery/caste.

Hopefully we'll come to a decision on what cities are worth cottaging later. This is normal speed, so there's more time to decide.

This will be easier once we actually know whether we get the Oracle. Even with their stonehenge detour, I'm not sure whether we'll be able to beat Noble/Lewwyn to it.
You mentioned possibly working an engineer to eventually grab another decent wonder(pyramids?). I think this might be best done in city #3. Canopus will get prophet GPPs from the Oracle, so it would be a coinflip. Of course, that might be okay too, I guess it depends on how much we value a shrine.