Micro Challenge 7

[pandamancer]

Given this one's complexity, feel free to quote this post and post in your results in table format as spoilered below. Just replace the numbers with your results.

Did not attain the 70 total pop

Spoiler table format :

1st attempt...

City Pop Food WMs
One 7 20
Two 8 20
Three 6 30
Four 8 25
Five 10 25
Six 8 27
Seven 6 27
Eight 6 31
Nine 5 15
WM 2 5 16
Total 66 236

I'll try again. Thanks Kossin for an interesting challenge.

 

[Izuul]

So Math is off limits?

 

[kossin]

Research is off limits, you are given everything you need already

 

[Doshin]

Understanding how WMs work is the mark of real Civ mastery.

Well, that and figuring out how to use the National Park.

 

[Benginal]

To those trying to improve: The Inner Mechanics of Food, Growth, Granary, and Whipping

 

[MyOtherName]

My first instinct is that serfdom is also worth it, had you not forbidden research! Some of these cities will grow really fast, and serfdom would mean several extra farms, which might make up for the extra turn in anarchy. The no research rule certainly makes things a little easier to think about.

 

[kossin]

My first instinct is that serfdom is also worth it, had you not forbidden research! Some of these cities will grow really fast, and serfdom would mean several extra farms, which might make up for the extra turn in anarchy. The no research rule certainly makes things a little easier to think about.

With the extra turn of Anarchy (you do need Slavery), I don't see how it could make up for itself over ~10T.

 

[MyOtherName]

With the extra turn of Anarchy (you do need Slavery), I don't see how it could make up for itself over ~10T.

It would be close for most of the cities; it would take some effort to work it out, IMO.

Spoiler :

The biggest effect for this specific challenge, I think, is that you could afford to build farms at Watermill Me, without having to build another worker there.

 

[Izuul]

The best I've gotten so far...

Spoiler table format, no spoiler here :

City Pop Food WMs
One 7 29
Two 8 28
Three 7 16
Four 8 27
Five 10 28
Six 9 18
Seven 6 30
Eight 7 28
Nine 5 19
WM 2 6 16
Total 69 229

Current goal is just to get 70 total pop. City 7 seems like the best candidate for improvement given that I'm just 2 food short there and i don't really like the method used to get it.

 

[kossin]

@Izuul

Spoiler :

6/10 for food count, obviously 1 is due to the missing population. Very good.

 

[Thrar]

Well, that and figuring out how to use the National Park.

How would that be?

I put it into my NE city recently that had 4 forests left, which may be the best use I've ever gotten out of it. Still, that's not really much. How do you use it?

 

[Izuul]

Made 2 minor improvements in 2 cities so i do at least know 2 of the 4 cities that i did not have correct, but i still have not figured out where to get the last pop.

Spoiler table format, no spoiler here :

City Pop Food WMs
One 7 29
Two 8 29
Three 7 16
Four 8 27
Five 10 28
Six 9 18
Seven 6 30
Eight 7 28
Nine 5 19
WM 2 7 16
Total 69 231

 

[GKey]

Kind of macro micro-challenge! 10 cities, each one with completely different micro...

Got 68 pop once, can't repeat this result...

 

[rfcfanatic]

My 1st attempt: total pop. 61+3=64 and 14 watermills.

Spoiler :

Worker priorities:

1. Improved food resources first - from the best to the worst
2. If yields were equal, I preferred those resources which were faster to build (pasture over farm)
3. Once food resources had been dealt with, I improved any other resources (Iron, Copper, Horse)
4. If there were anything to chop - I chopped
5. Non-resource farms

It seems that chopping may not be a better priority than farms. Just look at Nine.

Granary:

• In pure food cities, I whipped them at the beginning of pop. level 4. Except the city with 3 food resources - I waited until pop. 5 (never whip away food resources!!!)
• In cities with some chop or Iron/Copper/Horse I had to 1-pop-whip at the beginning of pop. 3. Why the beginning and not the end? It's because Vocum Sineratio - The Whip guide says so. I don't know why, but if it says so I'll believe it works.

Watermills:

Not much to say here except that I considered grassland tiles with fewer riversides a higher priority. Because a watermill takes 8 turns to improve for 1 worker, I guess no worker turns will get wasted if I team up 4 workers for one watermill. I'll try this next time.

 

[Fippy]

I seem lost, after lots of testing i get exactly what Izuul shows..disturbing how we miss the optimal on 4 cities

 

[pandamancer]

I am also getting the same values as Izuul's result. We must be missing something...

 

[GKey]

Must be something with optimal granary whipping thingy. Some cities are obvious - some not obvious at all.

 

[Fippy]

Izu = maths genius, i have no illusions that i could find the solution if he cannot

 

[kossin]

Keep looking

 

[MyOtherName]

My first optimization pass yields

Spoiler :

City Pop Food WMs notes
One 7 29 can shave off 2 worker turns
Two 8 25
Three 7 16
Four 8 27 two ways: one doesn't chop tree
Five 10 28
Six 9 18 only chops one tree
Seven 6 30 two ways: iron first and rice first
Eight 7 28 two ways: one doesn't chop tree
Nine 5 14 only chops two trees
WM 2 7 16
Total 69 221

Technically I haven't actually built the WMs, but I do have enough worker-turns available and the ordering on building them, and I just haven't yet looked at how to move the workers to avoid wasting turns. I want to get the pop thing figured out first!

City 7 feels like the one most likely to give up an extra pop if I can find an optimization I'm missing.