A management exercise

VoiceOfUnreason

VoiceOfUnreason

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Dec 5, 2005
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Taken from a recent thread....

civ4screenshot0001g.jpg


Normal Speed, Noble Difficulty, so your tech costs are

  • 75 :science: Mining
  • 150 :science: Animal Husbandry
  • 180 :science: BronzeWorking

No production bonuses are in play.

Problem: starting from Turn 0, what is the best development plan through turn 35?

Edit: Hijacked copy of the save
 
A couple of thoughts.

I believe that if you are going to train a workboat first, your best plan is
  • Grassland forest for 5 turns (waiting for the border pop) - 10/22 + 10 :hammers:
  • Cows for 4 turns (fastest growth) - 0/24 + 14 :hammers:
  • 4 turns at 5 F+P

City tile + improved clams + cows is 6:hammers:/turn toward a worker, but you only get 5 per turn while the workboat is in transit - so worker next would be an 11 turn build. If you arrange at least one hammer of overflow from the boat, the worker can be trained in 10 turns.
 
Going mining before AH just for lucky huts doesn't make a lot of sense. You can get writing or HBR off of AH using hut luck, and if you get none of that, you can still get BW before you have an idle worker if you open workboat (grow to 2 ASAP then stagnate) ----> worker.
 
Trying to map out a run with Worker + Animal Husbandry.

T15 Worker Done. 0/22 :food: 0 / 30 workboat
T19 Pasture Done. 10/22 :food: 6 / 30 workboat (That's one turn on a green hill forest, then cows)
T20 Mining.
T22 0/24 :food: 15/30 workboat.
T25 9/24 :food: 30/30 workboat. (the mine comes in just as the boat finishes - worker is now stalled)
T26 12/24 :food: 6/30 workboat. (Max food now, at +6)
T28 0/26 :food: 12/30 workboat. (+5 :food: +6 :hammers:)
T31 15/26 :food: 30/30 workboat.
T32 20/26 :food: +6 hammers

T33: at this point you have 172/180 on BronzeWorking, pulling in 13 commerce per turn; 2/28 on food +7, and 9 hammers +6. You've also had plenty of time to put your worker on any tile you want to start chopping next turn.
 
You could go worker AH then mining, BW. If you do that you get 2 hammers for faster work boats. After you build the stable build a mine on the grass hill.
 
T09 0/24 + 14/30 workboat. (pure hammers now)
T13 0/24 + 4 overflow (start training the worker)
T14 0/24 + 9/60 (don't forget to use the clams now)
T23 0/24 + 4 overflow worker heading to pasture
T27 18/24 + 9/30 workboat pasture finished
T28 0/26 + 12/30 workboat
T32 22/26 + workboat in position. Bronze Working discovered (+2 overflow?)
T33 2/28 + 2x clams + cows + copper.

13 commerce per turn, +7 food, +8 production with 4 hammers invested.

In essence, you are just about two turns of research ahead, but 3 hammers and a worker move behind.
 
I had expected that an earlier Bronze Working could be leveraged for speed, but observed two things

(1) it gets you production speed, but not so much in the way of food or improvements.
(2) Animal Husbandry blocks the pasture.

Which is to say, even if you were to discover AH at T32, and had the worker turns timed perfectly, you would finish the pasture at the end of T35, and would have spent no turns actually working it.
 
Wreck said:
Speeds the settler to the 2nd city by 1 turn. Also connects the cities for the purpose of barb defense with chariots, so it wants to happen anyway.
Click to expand...

Both of these are also true if you road the grassland tile, which is one fewer worker turns. Or the plains tile, if you are choosing a southern location for the city.


I suppose theoretically it could save you a turn when it comes time to improve the floodplains....
 
VoiceOfUnreason said:
I suppose theoretically it could save you a turn when it comes time to improve the floodplains....
Click to expand...
Yes. Actually given this setup, the order of improvements should be horse, then floodplains. So the road is more likely to save a turn when it comes time to leave the floodplains and go back to Washington. It may also save time getting to the wheat after the first border pop in New York.

Not that I would actually think that out, and I doubt Dave did either. I just know as a rule that I like to have roads on tiles that I plan to come back to.
 
Wreck said:
Yes. Actually given this setup, the order of improvements should be horse, then floodplains. So the road is more likely to save a turn when it comes time to leave the floodplains and go back to Washington. It may also save time getting to the wheat after the first border pop in New York.

Not that I would actually think that out, and I doubt Dave did either. I just know as a rule that I like to have roads on tiles that I plan to come back to.
Click to expand...

Hmm. I guess I buy that - once you've decided you have 8-10 turns to invest in roads, you might as well put them exactly where you want them.
 
I did a test run. For grins I didn't build any warriors, which I would never do at my normal difficulty.

Completed workboat > worker > settler on turn 35, and had improved one clam, cow, and copper tile. Washington was at size 2 with no food in the bar. AH > Mining > BW was finished and Wheel started.
 
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