JFC-3: Ping Pong

[pigswill]

Jet: 1927 save took more than two minutes IBT but didn't crash! I'll give it a whirl (if you'll have me). Should be a nice relaxed pace.

 

[BurnEmDown]

I think I can't handle emperor :S I'll be lurking around, giving my advice and strategies from a non-player POV.

 

[mushyman]

So does that give us four up (Jet, myself, pigswill and Quotey)? Just for info with regards to roster order, I can play tonight but otherwise I'd have to wait until next week.

 

[pigswill]

Played up to T107. Went wheel> AH> writing> maths. 3 cities. Got GS in T103 which I used to bulb alphabet. No barbarian hordes yet, guess I'll have to wait a bit longer (just as well as I don't have BW or copper).

 

[Jet]

OK. I took the liberty of starting and playing 30 turns.
Jet - 30 turns (played)
mushyman - 15 turns (up)
Quotey - 15 turns (on deck)
pigswill - 15 turns
(open) - 15 turns
Jet - 10 turns
mushyman - 10 turns
Etc.

I added the scientists in Worldbuilder:

I settled them in Beijing 1SE for the coast and river. I researched Mysticism and built a Worker and most of Stonehenge. Mainly this is for Caste System for fast border pops and maximum research at low happy caps. It's also to make use of production which otherwise might slow our research. Then I researched BW for chopping and Axemen, and started The Wheel, for trade routes and because it's on the way to other techs.

I sent the Warrior on a southern tour and popped 55 wealth from the hut on the bananas. He met Asoka and promptly forgot about him.

We got a good event on turn 27:

I'm chopping a forest, but I think it will be too late to affect Stonehenge, so take care with the overflow or cancel the chop.

I'll try to hang back from the discussion until it's my turn again.

 

[mushyman]

I'm afraid it's unlikely I'll be able to play over the weekend - please swap me with Quotey or pigswill.

 

[Jet]

Jet - 30 turns (played)
Quotey - 15 turns (up)
pigswill - 15 turns (on deck)
mushyman - 15 turns
(open) - 15 turns
Jet - 10 turns
Quotey - 10 turns
Etc.

 

[Quotey]

I was sure I posted some discussion fodder after Jet's set. Tee hee, Jet's set.

Anyway- I think we should decide what to settle, when to settle, and what to research.

Where? In my game I went Dairen (1NW of Wheat) and Seoul (Guiyang?). Unfortunately, this put at the mercy of the barbs. So perhaps a better idea would be comething in the Macau region then the copper. Or even better, Seould then copper city, though that will cost more. I wouldn't like to lose Seoul, it's a fantastic city.

When? After Pottery IMO.

What? Wheel > Pots > Writing?

 

[mushyman]

Anyway- I think we should decide what to settle, when to settle, and what to research.

Where? In my game I went Dairen (1NW of Wheat) and Seoul (Guiyang?). Unfortunately, this put at the mercy of the barbs. So perhaps a better idea would be comething in the Macau region then the copper. Or even better, Seould then copper city, though that will cost more. I wouldn't like to lose Seoul, it's a fantastic city.

When? After Pottery IMO.

What? Wheel > Pots > Writing?

Re. city sites: I think Dairen flips to the Mongols, so we definitely don't want to go there. Seoul spawns soon enough and we can get it for free. Macau is definitely necessary soonish, and since we're spending time on Stonehenge it probably needs to be the second city. IIRC the spot 2E of the copper looked the best to me, but I'm away from my civ computer so I can't check.

The tech path isn't what I'd pick normally (I'd have gone for BW much sooner), but with the supercharged research we probably have time for this. Maybe get BW before Writing to guarantee we have it in time?

EDIT: We also need to get Sailing in at some point - it's the quickest way to connect Beijing up with the Copper.

 

[pigswill]

I'm obviously an RFC noob so feel free to correct me. At emperor one of the problems is the high cost of research which means that production is relatively cheap. I'm not sure we need BW quickly because we're limited to what we can chop and whip: we can't build stuff until we've discovered the relevant techs, we can't spam units or cities because of maintenance costs.
Therefore I would tentatively suggest ignoring BW for now (we know where the copper is anyway) and go for AH and wheel (so we can have chariots for defence and exploration) followed by writing. Two more cities, revolt to caste so they can run scientists. Once we've got writing we open up lightbulbs for maths and alphabet. After writing we can backfill early techs (BW, pottery, fishing etc) while waiting for the GS to appear. Use first GS for maths (if we are really lucky we might get confu), use second GS for alphabet. Alphabet helps us to redress the hammer/beaker balance at emperor: if a city doesn't need anything built at the time it can just build research.

 

[mushyman]

It turns out that I'm a dumb noob - Jet's already researched Bronze Working! Sorry for the confusion

In which case Quotey's suggestion is probably fine - AH would be useful soonish to get the Beijing pigs and horses hooked up but not essential. IMHO the only things we need to make sure we get in time are Hunting (for Spears) and Sailing (to connect Beijing to the copper quickly), but both should be quick to research.

 

[pigswill]

Had a quick check on beaker costs by level. Alphabet is 444 on monarch and 1105 on emperor; lib is 2220 monarch, 5528 emperor. A very different game indeed .

 

[Jet]

Just some facts.

Dairen (1NW of the Korean Pigs) doesn't flip to Mongolia. The atlas says so.

Seoul spawns at size 2 with no defenders on turn 120, or later if it's blocked and becomes unblocked. It can be blocked by parking a human unit on its inner ring.

 

[Jet]

I'm not sure we need BW quickly because we're limited to what we can chop and whip: we can't build stuff until we've discovered the relevant techs, we can't spam units or cities because of maintenance costs.

Agreed. To elaborate why I researched it, I thought we might want:
* chops to speed up important builds
* chops where necessary to improve tiles
* Axemen, although it should be a little while before we would need them for anything

 

[mushyman]

Dairen (1NW of the Korean Pigs) doesn't flip to Mongolia. The atlas says so.

So it does. Not sure where I got that from. How embarrassing! I will try and research my statements better in future

OTOH, it seems a bit closer to Seoul than we'd like anyway. A city for free seems better than one we had to build, no?

 

[Quotey]

I don't think it matters how close to Seoul it is- it still gets its own tiles, and Seoul simply cannot use all its food until much later. Will Seoul spawn if there is culture infringing on its first ring?

 

[Jet]

Will Seoul spawn if there is culture infringing on its first ring?

Yes. 67890

 

[Jet]

You're up, Quotey.

 

[Quotey]

Yep, will play today or tommorow, I think that's ample discussion. So, Macau and Hangcheng are our objectives? Won't settle them on mine, obv.

 

[pigswill]

Noob question: Where's Macau and Hangcheng?

I'd guess Hangcheng is the copper city and Macau is coastal on the same river as Hangcheng (but I'm only guessing).