Gavagai creates a spoiler thread

[Gavagai]

Well, I'm pretty late to the party... But after the end of PB16 I think I will have an energy to actually report it. And AlaePB makes me want to focus on a game in which I'm not yet doing a terrible job.

[Gavagai]

Frederic of Korea, RB-Mod, flat, immortal, no barbs:







1) Past. Well, what has happened in this game? I started on sugar SW from the capital but after much hesitation decided to move to a plains hill to bring the cow to the BFC and free up sugar to work it in the future. I researched Agriculture, Hunting and started to research BW but changed it midway to the Wheel - Pottery path. I realized that I'm not especially desperate for BW here but really want cottages ASAP as tech costs are huge on Immortal and early commerce is relatively more important (also, the cost of the few first cities would be relatively higher than normal with flat/immortal). I have chosen to farm Wheat tile first and then send my worker to Corn because 1) 1 additional hammer worth delaying food resource for a turn and 2) I would want to pasture cows after farming two agri resources anyway, so starting with the Wheat would actually mean less worker turns wasted.

2) Present. I have water to my east and tundra to my west - north-west. My first rough guess about the map layout is that it is a circle (or pentagram) with tundra in the center and water around.

3) Future. This land is well suited for vertical growth but lacks pre-calendar happiness resources. This makes Monarchy a key tech here. Also, high tech costs makes the Oracle relatively more valuable. So, I think, oracling Monarchy is the way to go. If I miss the Oracle, I will just self-research it.
After Monarchy Calendar will be the next key tech because Calendar resources are present in quantities.

[Gavagai]

And yes, buildorder. I decided to go worker - grow on warriors until size 3 - second worker - settler. Size three is chosen because I have three really strong tiles and even without all of them improved I can work sugar or forrested spices which are both decent tiles. Actually I now think that stagnating at size two for a little while would be an interesting alternative as I grow much faster than I improve resources but I didn't think about this option back then (and was too lazy to sandbox or even just think about it seriously). Second worker over settler is chosen because this land needs a lot of work. After cows are pastured I will still have a hill to mine, sugar to farm, a road towards the second city to be built.

[Gavagai]

My planned second city site. This is the only spot which a) shares a food resource with a capital and b) has a first-ring food resource of its own. This is my usual criteria for an ideal second city location. Also, it has a lot of riverside immediately available, so that I can start to lay down cottages at once.

[Catwalk]

Thanks for starting a thread I'm only lurking you so far, but I'm a terrible dedlurker so don't expect much!

How are you planning on managing without an early happiness boost? How do you plan on whipping? I always find that whipping is a major pain without one early luxury to hook up no later than your third expansion.

[Gavagai]

Well, I'm usually a terrible reporter, as I can just stop reporting for quite a long time. Dedlurking is always welcomed but it's a dangerous idea.
My first plan is to improve happy cap ASAP, that's why the Oracle plan. Putting it aside, the way to deal with the low happy cap is dense settling and fast horizontla expansion. This way you'll be able to grow cities which you want to grow and stagnate those which you don't want. And if you can stagnate a city without wasting a food resource, than low happy cap isn't a problem, so you can whip liberally.
In this case I have two food resources near capital (wheat and corn) which both will be split off to the first two cities. I will also need to split off a sheep in the southern city but by that point I should have Monarchy, I think.

[Gavagai]

I thought I should clarify - an important factor in my decisions is the fact that I have a lot of riverside available. It can be cottaged and make building additional cities profitable rather quickly, even on immortal. If it wasn't the case, my strategy would be different.

[Gavagai]

Met Eastway. He is coming from north-east.

[Catwalk]

Do you have the beginnings of a dotmap for your surrounding lands?

[Gavagai]

Here you go:





I'm pretty much locked on cities #1 and #2. City #1 is the only spot which allows us to split off one of capital resources and add a new resource; city #2 doesn't add any new resource but opens up a lot of riverside to cottage (keep in mind that this is quick speed and capital will pop borders in 5 turns making the flood 2W from Corn also available) and also has five forests to chop.
And this may be important because I thought about an alternative to my "Oracle Monarchy" plan. What if we Oracle usual Metal Casting, chop a Forge in City2, run engineer and then rush Pyramids? In this version of RBmod Philosophical trait gives 150% bonus to GPP and we will be able to get our Engineer in just 10 turns.
I still have to think about it and it is too early to decide anyway. Mainly, I need to decide if specialist economy would be effective with this many riverside to cottage.
Also, observe that we have found Eastway and he is really close to the north-east. What is interesting, we don't have any close neighbors anywhere in the south, hence my initial guess about the map layout is already proven incorrect. Eastway has a scout near our borders who can potentially camp on the corn. I decided to one-turn an additional warrior in the capital and then allow it to grow to size four instead of starting a settler immediately. It delays the second city by a turn but speeds up future production.