[Cornflakes] 57 Christmas Treats That Will Make You Hungry

[Cornflakes]

   

Ummm ... this is a powerful city. PLAINS_GOLD WITH PLENTY OF FOOD TO WORK INDEFINITELY! Triple food (two of which can be shared to boost new cities to the west). I have to think now because seeing this my initial thought is that is that I need to prioritize development of the capital ASAP. If I got to do this over again I would probably put my capital somewhere else so that I could purchase a border pop and work boat here on T0 to speed things up. But that would unfortunately waste the free capital border pop that I get from the capital Hmmm ... what do I do? I'll need to sleep on this puzzle.

[Cornflakes]

Given this additional info I'm really liking Shaka over Ragnar The demands for early worker labor just skyrocketed. Before when I ran my sim, my earlier workers were sitting around mostly idle waiting for either Bronzeworking to chop or Pottery to cottage. Now I could keep them busy.

Also, so far everyone has logged in, settled their capital, then logged out and posted in their thread. Did we all settle in a similar location and now have to re-work our plans?

[Cornflakes]

I finished the Advanced Start:

   

After mulling over a couple different alternative I returned to my original plan. The biggest issue is that without Hunting, any worker that starts in Cashew Bars sits idle for 2 turns before starting to improve (3-turn Hunting research, but the first turn is idle by default since Advanced Start units can't move T0). And on top of that, the easier resource to improve is the 4-food Cow. As-is I can start with the worker in Caramel Popcorn, then send to Pig and complete the pasture just as the worker finishes at Cashew Bars, and I get the following for Cashew Bars:
- Worker EOT11
- Growth to 2 pop EOT15 at +6 fpt, Cow is improved by the time it grows
- Growth to 3 pop EOT18 at +8 surplus, Sheep is already improved and ready
- Growth to 4 pop EOT21 at +11 surplus, Gold is mined and ready
- At 4 pop we get 16 food-hammers per turn for 6-turn settlers and 4-turn workers.

I didn't end turn yet. The last decision is whether to start a worker or warrior at Caramel Popcorn. Do I take the higher-risk play, or stay conservative? I have revealed 76 land tile of my 120 "fair share", and there are another 35 in the first ring of fog. That is 110 of 120 ... suggesting that my neighbors' first-rings-of-fog is equivalent to my 2nd ring of fog and therefore I could see enemy warriors as early as T5, and could easily get approached by 2 neighbors as peace is expiring. Considering the abundance of the capital and the overall optimism of this start I'm inclined to play more conservatively. A disruption of micro at Cashew Bars would more than cancel out a few turns of gained worker turns at either of the northern cities.

[Cornflakes]

   

Gavagai is my northeastern neighbor. This screenshot is from last turn. Gavagai has since moved NW and then back again to the tile in the above screenshot (I forgot to take a fresh screenshot this turn). Enforced peace end in 2 turns, and Gavagai is in position to step onto my corn farm on the first turn that would be legal. This is a situation where I wish we were already in sequential-turns mode instead of simultaneous. I would much rather plan my moves with the certainty that Gavagai's warrior will move one tile between each of my moves rather than 2 tiles on some turns and 0 tiles on other turns.

[Thoth]

Could you PM him and ask for a turn split?

[Cornflakes]

Could you PM him and ask for a turn split?

I could, but at this point the enforced peace it up (edit: meaning I can enforce peace with a war declaration). He moved right onto my border 1N of the corn. He is certainly not gaining any goodwill with that movement. I’m quite glad I didn’t play a pure farmer’s gambit and built the 3 warriors that I did.

[Cornflakes]

   

I declared war. I couldn't take the double-move uncertainty any more and prefer to lock into the split. I don't think that I'll press an attack, but I can't just allow Gavagai's aggressive move at the expiration of enforced peace go unpunished. I made a mistake though and should have stacked my warriors on the forest. I wasn't originally planning on declaring war and only did it right before I logged off.

I PM'ed Gav and let him know that I want to preserve the turn order. I'll sign peace in a couple turns after venting displeasure by waving my clubs on his border for a couple turns.

[Cornflakes]

I ended up offering peace to Gav. We each have 3 warriors on our border so further jockeying will not be productive.

[Cornflakes]

   

Gav accepted peace so we are secure until T23 at least. My warriors will scout for now. My plan is to scout north along Gav's border for now, and returning south along the coast so as not to present a threatening posture towards Gav at expiration of peace.

Bronze Working research completed this turn, and copper popped up in the feared "dead zone" between my cities I expected one of either horses or copper where it popped or 2W. Since copper popped there I'm now looking at the two grassland tiles 1N of Dominostein for Horses. I revolved to slavery with the plan to whip Dominostein's worker T16 to improve Rice, and Caramel Popcorn's Armory to pop borders for Copper. It hurts a little spending an early whip on a non-expansion build, but Copper will ensure safety and the high-yield mine is a great tile to work, especially considering my penciled-in Colossus attempt at CP and the production that will be required to set that up.

Tech plan right now is generally Pottery > Metal Casting. I will probably slip AH into there because the extra luxury for +1 pop and +1H from ivory camp should pay back the investment in Colossus timing, and horses will be another high-yield tile to work if they pop in my borders (or will give me a target for my first or 2nd settler to claim).

[NobleHelium]

Copper appearing in the BFC of an existing city is not something I expected a player to complain about.