BTS Beta 8

[Methos]

BTS Beta-8 has closed with Andrei V taking first place with a 445 AD finish date. HolyHandGrenade took second place at 520 AD and Thlypsis took third with a 640 AD finish date.

 

[jesusin]

Congratulations, Andrei_V. Very good explanation of your strategy, thank you very much.

There is a little detail...

Meanwhile the city grows to the size 4-5, then I switch to Settler. Once the Settler is complete, on the next turn I whip the Galley, and send both to found my 2nd city.
...
Meanwhile I build one more workboat in the capital, then switch to Granary and max growth until the happiness cap, then switch to another Settler. Once the Settler is complete, whip the Granary, build a workboat (if necessary), set to Library.

When you produce a settler while working lots of seafood, you are transforming 1 into 1 .

When you are whipping 2 pop at size 5 you are transforming 28+26 into 30+30 (assuming normal speed and no granary).

So, wouldn't it be better to whip 2 pop on the settler, instead of on a Galley or a Granary?
(Now that I have writen this, I think maybe you are already whipping too often, so you don't want 1 more and 1 less ).

 

[HolyHandGrenade]

Yep - thanks Andrei for this deep insight into your strategy and congratulations for your amazing result

 

[kkatta]

Great, great, great.
Thanks to Andrei_V for the explanation of his strategy. Reading it I have understood some big mistakes in my game.

 

[Andrei_V]

There is a little detail...


When you produce a settler while working lots of seafood, you are transforming 1 into 1 .

When you are whipping 2 pop at size 5 you are transforming 28+26 into 30+30 (assuming normal speed and no granary).

True, but in this case I found it's better to build Settlers when recovering after previous whips, while working max. seafood, which brings lots of commerce as well.

So, wouldn't it be better to whip 2 pop on the settler, instead of on a Galley or a Granary?
(Now that I have writen this, I think maybe you are already whipping too often, so you don't want 1 more and 1 less ).

The point is to work max commerce. If you build Granaries etc. not by whipping, you have to work mines rather than seafood, only the mines do not generate commerce. 3 seafood = 6 commerce (1 gold mine = 7 commerce.)

So, max commerce from seafood, please, but don't grow into unhappiness.

Another point is, you can convert food into hammers by whipping at a better rate than directly converting food->hammers by building Settlers, only if you have moderate amount of food. If you have excessive amount of food, you will have to switch to mines at some point, since you have happiness cap, which is not very high. You grow too fast, so you can't take advantage of all that food, you simply lose much of it, this way annihilating all hammer benefits from whipping. But if you build Settlers directly from that food, you can use it infinitely.

After Bureaucracy things change, whips add +50% hammers, so whip a Settler as well, then switch to Caste right away, and max food + specialists rather than mines.

 

[Thlypsis]

Thanks for all the strategy advice! I'm stoked to have made the main page news!

 

[HolyHandGrenade]

True, but in this case I found it's better to build Settlers when recovering after previous whips, while working max. seafood, which brings lots of commerce as well.

The point is to work max commerce. If you build Granaries etc. not by whipping, you have to work mines rather than seafood, only the mines do not generate commerce. 3 seafood = 6 commerce (1 gold mine = 7 commerce.)

So, max commerce from seafood, please, but don't grow into unhappiness.

Another point is, you can convert food into hammers by whipping at a better rate than directly converting food->hammers by building Settlers, only if you have moderate amount of food. If you have excessive amount of food, you will have to switch to mines at some point, since you have happiness cap, which is not very high. You grow too fast, so you can't take advantage of all that food, you simply lose much of it, this way annihilating all hammer benefits from whipping. But if you build Settlers directly from that food, you can use it infinitely.

After Bureaucracy things change, whips add +50% hammers, so whip a Settler as well, then switch to Caste right away, and max food + specialists rather than mines.

This explains why I never can reach the top position. I don't micromanage in this detail. A lot of my decisions are made from my stomach instead of my brain and therefore I always loose a lot of turns. I remember a game where the 1st vote comes in at 325AD and in my fealing of a great victory I forgot to finish Gardens which was hanging in the queue with 1 turn left and then I lost with 2 votes. Leaning back and checking and calculating everything at this and only this point could have give me the top but I pressed return - waiting for the victory message ...