[Spoilers] Commodore as Washington of the Mongols

[Ceiliazul]

who's your favorite founding father, other Americans?

Got to include Sam Adams, Tom Jefferson, John Adams. Get some diversity points with Liz Adams, Abigail Adams, and Martha Washington.

In more important news, is the E/W landbridge closed by peaks??

[yuris125]

Coming along nicely. Now I just need to get BW and start pumping out settlers, although my high happy cap is going to have me doing this at a much higher population, I think a 7->5 whip cycle will actually be best. Stonehenge is probably a capital build, with a pair of chops going into it. First GP bulbs Theology, maybe? The AP would be a nice snag away from Spiritual Gaspar.

Hmm, 7->5? I hate whipping large cities, because you need more food to regrow. Up to you, of course, but I don't like 2-whipping cities larger than size 5. Of course, 3-whipping at sizes 6 and 7 is just fine in my book

[Commodore]

Hmm, 7->5? I hate whipping large cities, because you need more food to regrow. Up to you, of course, but I don't like 2-whipping cities larger than size 5. Of course, 3-whipping at sizes 6 and 7 is just fine in my book

I'd normally agree, but one advantage of this high-food capital site is that it will only take 4 turns per whip to regrow back to 7, if I'm working the fifth population point on the copper mine. When I get the furs online that will basically mean everlasting whips.

Speaking of which, got the turn just recently, and had Confucius tell my people how to very inefficiently mine:



I sent Ben to road the hill where I'm expecting the copper to show up. After Bronze Working it's directly to Mysticism and a quick Stonehenge chop. The lads are cheerfully keeping up the growth here, means I need more settlers.



Why am I certain that tile is copper? Well, notice the change in the demos, Gaspar's good bet is paying off, I think.



My warrior is about to double back around to escort a settler in a few turns (8, to be precise). Where he's standing is probably where I'll found a backlines port when I get the chance and the techs for it. A bit weak in production, but almost Manticorian levels of food there. It'll also grow a grassland cottage for the capital.



Finally, rest a bit easier, Ceil, there is an opening to the west, although with all those hills it would sure slow down an invading army unless they were Mobility promoted.



Ah, it's a good year to be Mongolian.

[Commodore]

'aight, Ceil, here's the first set of graphs, full of sound and thunder, signifying...something. Interestingly enough, there's nothing TT can see until we switch off him to our next contact, so for the moment we have his graphs but he lacks ours.

Score:

GNP:

Power, or "TT loses a warrior to a bear: The Graph":


An interesting aside, there are now more Mongolians on the planet than all other peoples combined. The demos are looking really nice, actually, I just need to hurry out a settler before Gaspar's copper mine supercharges his expansion.



So, then, if I'm not going to grow yet, there's not much point in finishing the granary, is there? I'll let it sit in-queue for a fiver while I knock out a quick settler. I'm pleased with this size, and an early hamlet will be really nice.



The problem, as always, is where to stick it. According to our scout, there are no amazing north-west passage sites, although a few rather nice ones do present themselves. I need to find the time to build a world with my mirror-gleaned knowledge and do a dotmap.



Meanwhile, my warrior is turning back to base, so wherever I do decide to send the settler, it will have an escort.



One sad note, I'll no longer be able to make any warriors once BW comes in, assuming that hill I'm mining is indeed full of copper.

[Commodore]

Not a very interesting turn this time, workers are moving and mining, warrior is doubling back to escort a settler, Manticore builds said settler, and in the far south, scout Joe Buckley heals up from his near-death experience with the bear.



Still top population, which has that nice distorting effect on the demographics. I need to push that settler soon, because this snowball is off to a good start. Bronze Working will have a lovely effect on the power graph. TT is emerging as last place contender thus far, which is lovely. If I were him, I'd try to go fishing, sailing, settler-spam now to catch up, leveraging those dirt-cheap lighthouses. The good news is, his lack of growth probably does not mean he's building Stonehenge right now, although that might soon change.



Took an early stab at a dotmap, tell me I'm daft here please. Green is right now my plan for settling once the settler comes out, it will work the forested plains hill for a 8-turn worker once settled while Manticore finishes its granary, an MP axe, and the Stonehenge (chopped). This is not a great spot, but nothing else picks up the very valuable furs and at the same time grabs the second wheat for food. Yellow moves north if seafood is available, else stays in place.



The central area dotmap I'm much happier about, and I'll be expanding down here next. I might actually just go blue -> red if I land the 'henge for cheap culture. I'll need a big worker force for this to work, but that's why I'm expansive.



For reference, here's TT's land, south of the mirror.

[Commodore]

And another turn over lunch. I'm liking this pace, not as breakneck as 19 but still brisk enough.

My curiosity is going to kill my scout. Still, glad I looked a little further, the tile 1NE of the scout is a decent city spot. I like the pigs, and again I'm thinking that navy will be unusually important this game. Colossus build or capture, maybe? C'mon, more pre-season baseless speculation!



Mine is done, worker off to pre-road the Stonehenge chop tiles. I hope to see that go to a nice 0/6/1 tile in three turns, which will be awesome. Highlighted is part deux of my plan, the impending border pop. I'll be roading then camping the furs for a nice tile for the new city to work.


Gaspar's gotten his second city out already. TT should be ashamed, actually, his IMP trait could have beaten even Gaspar's early push. Still not sure why he's sitting at size 2 there. Is he going for Goo-Goo Dolls song titles as a theme? That would be awesome.



Demo McDump.



Getting fuzzier and fuzzier about what's going on. Although I think I'm the first to start a cottage, which should be nice.

[Commodore]

Turn of inexpressible dullness. Moved scout.



Looked at demographics.



Gaspar's new city is already showing its value.

[Ceiliazul]

I did some work on a dot-map assistant. I can't call it a sim because after I created all the terrain I realized it was set on marathon speed! :-(

I took a shot at dotmapping but was stymied by the mountains. I'll try again later...

The screenshot doesn't include the rich, chewy center, but the save file does. (emailing to you now.)



Notes: The mountains in the sea suggest a full N/S wall, we don't know that yet. The diagonal deserts toward the center are speculation, but we know there's at least a hint of connection there.

[Ceiliazul]

After giving it some thought, I like this for the first-ring resource in most/all of the cities. I suggest settling south to the cows site first. The capital will expand borders (and claim the furs) before the settler can get there, and the cows will immediately be in range. Sugar will help in the medium term, and of course opens options for the 3rd city to move on the gold/sheep/rice sites.

I love the setter/bronze timing for a slavery swap as the settler moves, and also the timing of the border expansion couldn't be better.

I dub thee "Sir Commodore, micro genius!"*

[Commodore]

After giving it some thought, I like this for the first-ring resource in most/all of the cities. I suggest settling south to the cows site first. The capital will expand borders (and claim the furs) before the settler can get there, and the cows will immediately be in range. Sugar will help in the medium term, and of course opens options for the 3rd city to move on the gold/sheep/rice sites.

I love the setter/bronze timing for a slavery swap as the settler moves, and also the timing of the border expansion couldn't be better.

I dub thee "Sir Commodore, micro genius!"*

Why thankye, sir, I am happy with the current setup for slavery swap and the furs expansion, it's going to be nice to work that strong 1/2/5 tile.

The only thought I have to quibble with is that we lack AH yet, obviously as there's a distinct lack of horses in our area. So the cows-in-immediately aspect isn't going to help. 3/3/0 tile is nice though. Farming the flood plain does give enough food for a start, and three mines, plains cows, and plains forest furs make for a hugely productive second city. I'm less than convinced about the western city's shift...wet grass land wheat is enough food to begin with and I think I want the fish to be permanently given to the banana hill-choke spot, AKA the whipping city (as it's not worth much else outside of Colossus.

Thanks for making this, Ceil, the marathon thing isn't actually an issue if you roll it as a custom scenario. I'll be using it to sim things out quite a bit, I think. One other nice thing about the southern site for the second city is that is owns an insane number of forests for the chopping. If I was a bit less worried about losing Stonehenge to TT, I'd say to just chop it out down there. Hrm...now that I think about it...