Calculating Whip Overflow in slavery

[Skipity]

As a rule of thumb, I know that you generally don't what to whip or rush on the first turn you started building something (unless it's a city that you just took over and those people would starve anyway.

I also know that big whips are better than small whips (better to 5 whip that 10 pop city than 1 whip it.


But I've been watching quite a few of chris67132's videos:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Chris67132/videos

and in them he is often making a calculation about maximizing whip overflow hammers.

For example, right here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1OZAuE6DkA&t=45s

I'm not clear on how to make that calculation. Can someone help me?

 

[JSS]

1 population point equates to 30 hammers. For example a settler costs 100 hammers on normal speed. To 3-pop whip it and get the maximum amount of overflow (29), build the settler up to 39/100 and whip. 2 population points go towards the hammers 41...100, and the 3rd pop takes care of the 40th hammer. 29 hammers are not used, making them overflow to the next thing in line to be produced. 2-pop whip works the same way, you just need to aim at the 69/100 hammer mark.

 

[Ghpstage]

The above is correct but its important to recognise that multipliers affect whip hammers, and the raw 30 per pop is increased to a raw 45 per pop if you have the Kremlin.

The earliest multipliers you will likely see will be forges or OR, assuming one of these is in play then the per pop will be 30*1.25 rounded down, which is 37 and would need to be used instead of the 30 to calculate how many pop are needed and how much overflow will result.
For maximum overflow you want the hammers needed to be one more than a multiple of the hammers per pop.

 

[lymond]

Here's a link to a post that includes links to a few write-ups I did on the subject..fairly simplistic/basic stuff on overflow:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=11671673&postcount=11

There's a bit more to it than that and getting a feel for managing whip OF, but that should get you started.

 

[BornInCantaloup]

I also know that big whips are better than small whips (better to 5 whip that 10 pop city than 1 whip it.

Better:

Whips at small size are better than whips at a larger size. Given Granary, it takes:
- 11 food to grow from size 1 to 2;
- 12 food to grow from size 2 to 3;
- 13 food to grow from size 3 to 4;
- etc.

So the cost of growing is increasing with city size. On the other hand, whipping a size always converts into the same 30 base hammers (pre-multipliers).
Whips at larger sizes are less food-efficient.
Of course, if one works a 3 food tile or better, then its yield offsets the increasing cost of growing a size and it would not be very food-efficient to whip that tile away. Other considerations may apply, however (such as getting an item turns earlier).



When it is said that larger whips are preferable to smaller ones, it is often a matter of happiness.
Abusing 1 pop whips can build up whip anger very high and very fast.
If a city is evolving close to happy cap, then it is better to organize a "whip cycle" (good search keyword, I suspect). Whip every ten turns (roughly), time to let the anger disappear and then whip again. In that fashion, larger whips will indeed be better than smaller whips, since they are more economical in happiness and yield more hammers (3 pop whip: 90H = 1 ; 1 pop whip: 30H = 1 ).

However, if one has a small city and a large happy cap (margin), then the 1 pop whip is that which will allow to get the most items in the shortest amount of time. In such a case, it may be a very good idea to chain some 1 pop whips to have said city evolve closer to its happy cap and get the items faster. Maximizing the use of city caps is a part of city management.