Research is now set to Animal Husbandry.
Teotihuacan whips its worker, that will be set to cottage some floodplains.
Meanwhile, the worker by Tenochtitlan proceeds to chop a forest.
Asoka is sending us a missionary. Adopting Buddhism instantly makes him Pleased.
Capital city gets its Granary from whip overflow and a few hammers:
7+7 = 14H/28
52+8 = 60H/60
This wasn't calculated but this is an optimal Granary build.
Bad news in the East: Asoka is threatening the pigs spot with 2-moves settler party:
Our settler will have no choice but to settle 1N, with pigs in the 2nd ring. This is quite bad, since it means the city will need culture to protect its power tile.
The city won't be connected to our trade network for a while. It will need a border pop (hopefully from religion). Once Asoka will have connected us, the lack of trade network will lose us 2 commerce per turn (non-negligible).
A worker could be used to road up there but that is work for 8 turns (!). Can't afford that: cottaging is much better.
On the bright side, this northern area looks very secure (from barbarians).
So the city starts on a granary, in hope for Buddhism to spread. A Monument may still be whipped, but there is no need to invest hammers into it at the moment (before growing to 2).
Asoka will trade silver for this turn but I don't have anything to offer. Next turn the deal will be off, he'll be getting Iron from Churchill for his happy resource.
Some slight barb harassment comes from the South. But, with the Granary done in Tenochtitlan and hammers from a chopped forest, there's no real issue, there.
The Axeman goes 1S and skips turn. The warrior from Tlatelolco goes on standby 1SW of the city...
... and the barbs are cleared :
Meanwhile, the 2 workers are teaming up to cottage faster the floodplains between Tenochtitlan and Teotihuacan.
We have enough espionage on Asoka to see his research. He'll have Alphabet in two turns. It will be a long time before we can trade anything to him, however. Pretty please, Asoka, would you gift me tech ?
Turn 57, a second Granary is on the way in Tlatelolco.
A Granary is a minimus problemus that comes with maxibus benefitus. So it's often worth solving a few turns ahead.
Here, we're comparing two columns.
On the left, the city works max food and whips this turn.
On the right, the city maximizes hammers and whips when it reaches 30H/60.
Every turn, columns go down until the city grows back to size 4 again. A simple means to assess which option is best :
So we'll whip 1 pop and Tenochtitlan can work the corn for the time being.
A minor trick :
The city has 1 hammer stored and produces 9H/turn. 3*9=27. It lacks two hammers to whip on T60.
To get those hammers, we can either work a grass forest for 2 turns, forgoing a floodplains, or work a plains forest for 1 turn. Despite the fact that working the plains forest loses 1F on that turn, both options come out with the same amount of food. And working the plains forest comes out 1 commerce ahead.
The axeman is sent to scout South-East, where Churchill is menacing to grab insane amounts of land. Hopefully, he'll find a city spot. Tenochtitlan grows to 7 in a turn and will start on a settler.
Turn 60, 1600 BC,
The granary is whipped in Tlatelolco and the city also gets religion. Good ! With cows in the first ring, that tile will be controlled effortlessly.
Texcoco is growing to size 2 next turn. It could switch to a Monument to get culture and control over the pigs tile. However, a Buddhist Missionary is spotted, so I'll refrain from doing that just now. I'd rather have the free culture.
Cows are discovered in the South-East and a worker starts roading there, in anticipation for a city spot. Churchill is keeping up his expansion and has now claimed the eastern rice. If we want to prevent him from carpetting the map with cities, South-East is the only place to expand.
The other worker remains cottaging (a little slowly...).
Asoka and Stalin are crowding the map with units. That's why we didn't have any barb troubles. In addition, borders with Churchill and Asoka are so close that barbs can't meddle in.
Bye-bye, Missionary, you were just passing by. I'll whip my Monument after all. Protecting that pigs tile will be tough. Texcoco will need some heavy culture.
Can you see it ?
Yes, that's a spot for the Heroic Epic.
At this point, it's clear that we're being late to Writing. Researching Animal Husbandry played a big part in that delay. However, now discovering Horses in a good blocking location makes me feel better about it.
Let's say we just sacrificed some research. Maybe we can stay in the race from behind and eventually catch up.
Tenochtitlan has no use whipping that settler, especially since the road isn't complete. Whipping now would only gain 1 turn on the settling.
This same turn, t62, is a good turn to plan for Teotihuacan's Granary. Indeed, the worker has finished the 3rd cottage and the city is 3 turns from size 3.
Here it goes :
The worker can chop 1 forest : 20H
City at size 3, working a forested plains produces 3H/turn = 9H over 3 turns.
Meanwhile, it produces 3*3 = 9 food.
If we aim to 1pop whip, the city will gain 4 food (working 2 floodplains) the turn it completes the granary. Making it 14F/24. Not optimal but very much acceptable.
To get the hammer that lacks, the grass forest will be worked for a turn at size 2 (hence the use of planning ahead).
On the left on the above pic, Asoka's chariot is actually escorting a settler.
Asoka spawned by the sea, in the tundra and lacks space to expand into. So now he circles us. He won't DoW us at Pleased, so we're safe. It's also appreciable that he'll serve as a buffer between Stalin and us. Hopefully, Stalin will join the Buddhist gang, too.
Turn 64 clearview :
Tlatelolco is starting on the 3rd worker (will whip next turn).
Tenochtitlan is completing the settler for the 5th city.
Granary advances as intended in Teotihuacan. I feel safe about the barbs so our fogbusting warrior is called back to garrison.
Asoka's missionary is still hanging around. India goes for Mathematics and has settled Agra by our borders.
Churchill is getting out of control, as it seems he's meant to be and has his 8th city.
When the worker is out, he heads straight for Texcoco with the intent to chop a forest into the Granary. Then he'll improve the pigs. Buddhism has spread so the city is only 4 turns from popping borders.
Tenochtitlan has completed its axeman with the settler's overflow and Tlatelolco will complete another with the worker's overflow. That will be 3 axemen for us.
1320 BC, turn 67, end of this set. Status and objectives for the future :
We have Writing and an important tech decision to make.
Tlaxcala is settled by the horses and immediately starts on its Granary.
Tenochtitlan is size 8, can grow to 9 in 2 turns and will start on its Library this turn. It can 3 pop the Library, overflowing hammers into a settler and start hiring scientists.
At this point, the prospective city sites are south, south-west. Due to happy cap issues, we can't work that many tiles with our cities and hiring scientists won't make things any better. So I'd like a helper city by Tenochtitlan to grow cottages. 3S is good location, that can work 2 Bananas long term (and produce GPs).
Texcoco and Teotihuacan will need a lot of culture to protect their tiles. Thoses two cities are going straight Granary into Library.
That leaves Tlatelolco to work with. It will produce at least an extra worker and aim to go Barracks --> Axemen.
Clearview :
I know (I just know ^^) some Barb cities have spawned somewhere over the map and I'd love to capture (or even raze) some of them. The capture gold is badly needed. And the denying value is pretty strong, too.
So our 3 axes are going to scout the jungle South, South-East and hope to be in time.
I'd also like to find Ramesses' borders, so as to know how much room there is to expand into. In the East, at least, we've secured some space.
At this point, I can't help but point out we're only doing 17 gold at 100% slider. We need at least 200 gold to research another tech. Only 3 tiles are cottaged and, surely, that isn't enough. Cottaging wide and fast is now a high stake. Maybe roading to the horse site was a mistake, after all, and keeping the worker closer to cottage more would have been better.
So further settling will require some care. Workers and Axemen may be more desirable. Although I'd really like to protect that stone tile we can see, before settling further south.
I need an update on Stalin's borders, too. Interestingly enough, Asoka is Stalin's worst enemy and the two haven't opened borders. Maybe a war will break out and we'll get some opportunity.
Tech wise,
Aesthetics offers some nice options. It's a safe trade bait. It means I can store beakers into Alphabet (even after hiring scientists). It may grant wonders to our continent. And it makes us closer from both the National and Heroic Epic.
I'm very much tempted, however, to make the mistake of going for Metal Casting (and discovering after the fact that everyone already has it). Being first to MC would allow to backfill a tremendous amount of techs (including CoL or Currency) and would put us closer to Astronomy.
For now, Asoka will complete Maths and he'll surely have the time to research another big tech (maybe even 2 or 3, he's researching so fast...) before we're ready to raise the slider again.
This feels uncomfortable. The earlier Writing from Sampsa may place him in a much better position at this point, at least tech-wise.
There's also the possibility to research HBR. AIs have iron, so it's not very likely they'll research that (or is it ?). An upside would be to get 1 step closer to War Elephants. There's a possibility that our axemen discover Ivory in the jungle (would be very much appreciated, if only for the happiness).
I'm not sure how bad it is to slow down research, at this point, and settling further. Earlier Alpha trade would allow to mine the gems but, apart from that, running behind may not be too bad. Provided we get enough land to make up for it.
.
on him though.
.
