Immortal, No huts no events, to turn 32:
Turn 0:
Zooming in on the settler it's pretty clear that the three tiles at the bottom of the fat cross are all forested -- so no food there. Is that necessarily true? In standard games can deer be on forested tiles? We do look pretty far south.
. Anybody know?
The warrior makes the only obvious move available and reveals -- as foretold by prophecy (also Nate) -- a plains cow. *Blergh.
The warrior also reveals coast to our East. And it look like a pretty long coast stretching from at least three tiles north of us to two tiles south. We can potentially block off this land. This also means that, barring either a weird map or isolation, that AIs will be found to our west. Something to keep in mind.
I did consider SIP, but I had a good idea of the tiles I would be losing if I moved to the plains hill 1NW -- and none of those tiles is particularly attractive. The new tiles at 1NW though, would almost surely be riverside. And maybe we'd get lucky and find a grain.
No such luck, but a pretty decent regardless. It'll be a little slow at the beginning of the game due to the 7 turn farms and the lack of a 6F tile. But once we get it to a reasonable size it'll be great. I think I'll farm three or maybe four flood plains depending on the health resources. The other tiles will be cottaged. Something along those lines anyway. Farming over everything and then working a ton of mines is also possible. But I like the cottages in the capital, even when going heavy specialists.
Turn 1:
The warrior took another move to the coast and found crabs -- so that's some more health already. Nice. It looks like there's a one tile island down there. Settling that will be a low priority though.
Assuming we are on the east of the landmass my settling will be to the west to both share cottages with the capital and settle enemyward.
Tech choice is mining. I'll farm two flood plains to get growth going and then mine the golds. The second choice is interesting. Pottery for cottages or BW for chopping (and whipping, to a lesser extent). I'll think on it. Let's see what the warrior finds. The warrior will head north east as I'm pretty sure we're on the south of the map.
Turn 6:
I meet Hammy. Let's consult Kaitzilla. I still use this very helpful guide all the time. And to those you interested. Kait just played a game that broke 11,000,000 in score.
I'm still not sure where Hammy is other than, as expected, westward.
Border popping has revealed that I also have likely access to clams. Excellent. Not as good as grains for health, but useful nonetheless. Hopefully this land to my south and east isn't super contested. It's not particularly good, but I'm already feeling protective of it.
I'm still thinking that settling along the river for the flood plains second is the best play. I like the idea of settling a city that can work the southern gold. But it'll really have to be a super site to get me to settle in the wrong direction.
Turn 7:
. Look at that resource there. Super nice. Cheap Oxford for my early education. And maybe cheap pyramids. I'll build them late, if I do. I view oracle and Code of Laws bulb as more imporant. But maybe that's wrong? Regardless, I think I get both. I might even be able to wait for math on most of the chops. Will I build them in my capital? Or somewhere else? Depends on forest availabaility and timing.
Turn 9:
My warrior finds gems under jungle. Not worth adjusting any settling plans for, but would be nice to get eventually.
Have to pick a next tech now. I think the two best choices are pottery and bronze working. Does the order matter or can I just tech one and then the other? Let's look at upcoming worker turns.
Turn 13 - 19: farm 1E (I'll put cottages on the west side for sharing)
Turn 20 - 26: farm 1NE
Turn 27: Move to 1N
Turn 28 - 31: mine 1N
BW would finish on turn ~22/23. And then pottery on turn 30 or so.
So If I went with BW first, I could interrupt the farm 1NE to chop 2N, but I don't think that gets me anything. Builds are going to be warrior after this worker and then a settler at size 3. Or, I might go warrior to size 4, then settler. Chops into the settler, then revolt to slavery while the settler is moving. Then 2-pop whip a second worker in the capital. Then grow and chop more. I know I'm going to need more workers than normal because of all these flood plains.
So it doesn't look like I need pottery in the next ten turns. Although, I'll want it right after BW. I think it's kind of a toss-up which to research next. But BW reveals copper.
Turn 10:
Hinduism found in a distant land. So somebody started with Mysticism. Got to keep my eye out for Stonehenge and decide if trying to Oracle is feasible.
Turn 11:
And grassland cows! This is looking like a useful early city spot. A city 1 NE of the cows gets a lot of great stuff. Farmed FP, cows, gems, stone, grassland hill, coastal, 3 forests to chop, and everything important in its first ring. Nice.
Turn 13:
The worker comes out and I put him to work on his first farm.
The warrior reveals so many flood plains. Lots of early specialists looking possible. Each flood plain supports 1 specialist. So at size 8 we can be working 4 scientists, 4 flood plains, and still be growing (very slowly)! How many cities can we fit along this river?
Turn 14:
Son of a biscuit. Fortify and plan to move up towards the forest. Gonna have to play some hide and seek the next few turns.
Turn 15:
Run away!
Turn 17:
Hammurabi's scout took a hit for me and got attacked by the lion. He survived, which is too bad, but it means I feel safe moving along the coast.
I'd rather move back south and check out the flood plains area. But with that bear still down around there that's just aksing for trouble.
Turn 19:
The farm is finished and Istanbul will grow to size 2 next turn. I'd planned to make a second farm, but maybe I should be mining the gold instead. What are my growth plans exactly?
The benefits of the mine are the quicker research early and that I can get it online 2 turns fast (1 turn to move + 4 turns to mine). The cost is that I'm slower growing. I'd still work two flood plains until the mine is done. Which gets me to size 3 on turn:
turn 19 (1): (18/22) + 4
turn 20 (2): (0/24) + 5, move to mine, [working farm and flood plain]
turn 21 (2): (5/24) + 5, start on mine (1/4)
turn 22 (2): (10/24) + 5, mine (2/4)
turn 23 (2): (15/24) + 5, mine (3/4)
turn 24 (2): (20/24) + 2, mine finished, [working farm and mine]
turn 25 (2): (22/24) + 2, move to 1W start farming (1/7)
turn 26 (3): (0/26) + 3, farm (2/7), [working farm + FP + mine]
turn 27 (3): (3/26) + 3, farm (3/7)
turn 28 (3): (6/26) + 3, farm (4/7)
turn 29 (3): (9/26) + 3, farm (5/7)
turn 30 (3): (12/26) + 3, farm (6/7)
turn 31 (3): (15/26) + 4, farm finished, [working farm, farm, mine]
turn 32 (3): (19/26) + 4, move 1NW of Istanbul cottage (1/5)
turn 33 (3): (23/26) + 4, cottage (2/5)
So with mine first, as of turn 33 I'm at size 3 and 23/26 in the bin. And I've worked the gold for 10 turns for about 80 commerce. If I build the farm first:
turn 19 (1): (18/22) + 4
turn 20 (2): (0/24) + 5, move to FP 1 north and farm (1/7), [working farm and flood plain]
turn 21 (2): (5/24) + 5, farm (2/7)
turn 22 (2): (10/24) + 5, farm (3/7)
turn 23 (2): (15/24) + 5, farm (4/7)
turn 24 (2): (20/24) + 5, farm (5/7)
turn 25 (3): (1/26) + 6, farm (6/7), [working farm, flood plain, flood plain]
turn 26 (3): (7/26) + 7, farm finished, [working farm, farm, flood plain]
turn 27 (3): (14/26) + 7, move to mine,
turn 28 (3): (21/26) + 7, mine (1/4)
turn 29 (4): (2/28) + 8, mine (2/4), [working 2x farm, 2x flood plain]
turn 30 (4): (10/28) + 8, mine (3/4)
turn 31 (4): (18/28) + 4, mine finished, [working 2x farm, flood plain, mine]
turn 32 (4): (22/28) + 4, move 1NW of Istanbul cottage (1/5)
turn 33 (4): (26/28) + 4, cottage (2/5)
With farm first we're an entire population point higher, but have been working the gold for only 3 turns. So we're about 55 commerce short. Is a population point worth this much gold? If it gets out the first settler and warriors and another worker out much faster then I think it is.
If we go with the faster settler do we have enough workers to support this growth.
Are we more likely to be beaten to the Oracle or beaten to good city sites? So far it looks like Oracle. Nobody nearby yet except Hammurabi. But we've already seen Hinduism and Buddhism get founded. But I think an early, nearby on the flood plains, second city will make up for it.
So after all that waffling I'm going to build the farm first -> faster second city.
Turn 21:
I'm still planning to build the second city in the flood plains to the northwest. But because of the gold down south I'm going to take a quick peak and see if there's something really good down there. And to verify that I am for sure at the edge of the landmass and I'm not going to get surprised by some landbridge or something.
Turn 22:
I can finish BW this turn. Do I want to? Nah, I think I'm going to wait and revolt until after the settler is out -- missing my Hatty spirtuality right now.
Turn 23:
My southern warrior uncovers dry corn. Interesting. Settling 1N of the corn for a second city is not unreasonable by any means. It will take a few turns to set up trade routes. But being able to work the second gold right away is super useful. As a size two city it could work the corn and gold and build workers and settlers. And then when masonry is in and stone is hooked up it could chop out the pyramids. No reason it can't be a third or fourth city and still do all that though. Especially since it looks pretty obvious we can backfill that land.
Turn 28:
My northwestern warrior survives a fight with a lion and is healing. I've moved the worker to the gold and started mining. After he finishes the mine he's going to head to the forest 2N of Istanbul and chop out the settler the city will start on the next turn.
Turn 32:
Pottery has finished and I'm thinking something like this. Writing -> Priesthood -> Oracle Code of Laws. Another option is to first self-tech math for better chops and then Oracle -> Currency. It'll probably depend on how confident I'm feeling about the oracle. It's turn 32 and still no stonehenge, so that's a good sign.
I've got some early spawnbusting going and I've found Hamm. He's close, but I imagine that's the border of his second city, so he's not too close.
A preliminary dotmap looking something like this:
I'll settle white city first. It'll be able to work some cottages from the BFC of Istanbul. And eventually can work mostly farms and still have enough hills to be useful.
It might be better to try and squeeze in more cities on the river. Each flood plain is a rep specialist. So I really want to be working all of them asap, which is easier with more cities. Hmmmm.
Blue and Red cities are both for blocking. The red city also claims a happy and a healthy resource. So, even though it's short on food, it'll be handy to get fairly early. Purple city up north is for the stone. I can settle that one fairly late. I'll wait until the roads are mostly in place and the forests are mostly pre-chopped. There's no rush. I should have plenty of time to get the pyramids.
I'll be pleased if I get all five of the cities, but I think it's realistic. Then I can back fill two cities along the east coast -- one on the corn and the other on the cows and crabs. I'll farm one of the tiles on the west of Istanbul and can that way irrigate all the way to the corn. And a few other green tiles along the east coast. 7 cities will be plenty.
For micro: the worker currently on the gold is moving to the forest 2N of Istanbul. He'll chop that forest which will finish the settler. Istanbul will then immediately start on a worker. While the settler is moving I'll revolt in to slavery. The worker will then get a ton of overflow hammers the next turn. But I'll micro to make sure it stays under 30 hammers. Then the next turn I'll two-pop whip Istanbul to finish the worker. A ton of overflow will then go in to the next worker. I'll bump that worker down the queue, and build a few more warriors. Eventually I'll finish the worker with a chop.
And this is why it's good to stop and take stock. I forgot about IMP, so I should be working the forested PH, not the flood plain. Sheesh. Fixed.
Spoiler :
Turn 0:
Zooming in on the settler it's pretty clear that the three tiles at the bottom of the fat cross are all forested -- so no food there. Is that necessarily true? In standard games can deer be on forested tiles? We do look pretty far south.
. Anybody know?The warrior makes the only obvious move available and reveals -- as foretold by prophecy (also Nate) -- a plains cow. *Blergh.
The warrior also reveals coast to our East. And it look like a pretty long coast stretching from at least three tiles north of us to two tiles south. We can potentially block off this land. This also means that, barring either a weird map or isolation, that AIs will be found to our west. Something to keep in mind.
I did consider SIP, but I had a good idea of the tiles I would be losing if I moved to the plains hill 1NW -- and none of those tiles is particularly attractive. The new tiles at 1NW though, would almost surely be riverside. And maybe we'd get lucky and find a grain.
No such luck, but a pretty decent regardless. It'll be a little slow at the beginning of the game due to the 7 turn farms and the lack of a 6F tile. But once we get it to a reasonable size it'll be great. I think I'll farm three or maybe four flood plains depending on the health resources. The other tiles will be cottaged. Something along those lines anyway. Farming over everything and then working a ton of mines is also possible. But I like the cottages in the capital, even when going heavy specialists.
Turn 1:
The warrior took another move to the coast and found crabs -- so that's some more health already. Nice. It looks like there's a one tile island down there. Settling that will be a low priority though.
Assuming we are on the east of the landmass my settling will be to the west to both share cottages with the capital and settle enemyward.
Tech choice is mining. I'll farm two flood plains to get growth going and then mine the golds. The second choice is interesting. Pottery for cottages or BW for chopping (and whipping, to a lesser extent). I'll think on it. Let's see what the warrior finds. The warrior will head north east as I'm pretty sure we're on the south of the map.
Turn 6:
I meet Hammy. Let's consult Kaitzilla. I still use this very helpful guide all the time. And to those you interested. Kait just played a game that broke 11,000,000 in score.
I'm still not sure where Hammy is other than, as expected, westward.
Border popping has revealed that I also have likely access to clams. Excellent. Not as good as grains for health, but useful nonetheless. Hopefully this land to my south and east isn't super contested. It's not particularly good, but I'm already feeling protective of it.
I'm still thinking that settling along the river for the flood plains second is the best play. I like the idea of settling a city that can work the southern gold. But it'll really have to be a super site to get me to settle in the wrong direction.
Turn 7:
. Look at that resource there. Super nice. Cheap Oxford for my early education. And maybe cheap pyramids. I'll build them late, if I do. I view oracle and Code of Laws bulb as more imporant. But maybe that's wrong? Regardless, I think I get both. I might even be able to wait for math on most of the chops. Will I build them in my capital? Or somewhere else? Depends on forest availabaility and timing. Turn 9:
My warrior finds gems under jungle. Not worth adjusting any settling plans for, but would be nice to get eventually.
Have to pick a next tech now. I think the two best choices are pottery and bronze working. Does the order matter or can I just tech one and then the other? Let's look at upcoming worker turns.
Turn 13 - 19: farm 1E (I'll put cottages on the west side for sharing)
Turn 20 - 26: farm 1NE
Turn 27: Move to 1N
Turn 28 - 31: mine 1N
BW would finish on turn ~22/23. And then pottery on turn 30 or so.
So If I went with BW first, I could interrupt the farm 1NE to chop 2N, but I don't think that gets me anything. Builds are going to be warrior after this worker and then a settler at size 3. Or, I might go warrior to size 4, then settler. Chops into the settler, then revolt to slavery while the settler is moving. Then 2-pop whip a second worker in the capital. Then grow and chop more. I know I'm going to need more workers than normal because of all these flood plains.
So it doesn't look like I need pottery in the next ten turns. Although, I'll want it right after BW. I think it's kind of a toss-up which to research next. But BW reveals copper.
Turn 10:
Hinduism found in a distant land. So somebody started with Mysticism. Got to keep my eye out for Stonehenge and decide if trying to Oracle is feasible.
Turn 11:
And grassland cows! This is looking like a useful early city spot. A city 1 NE of the cows gets a lot of great stuff. Farmed FP, cows, gems, stone, grassland hill, coastal, 3 forests to chop, and everything important in its first ring. Nice.
Turn 13:
The worker comes out and I put him to work on his first farm.
The warrior reveals so many flood plains. Lots of early specialists looking possible. Each flood plain supports 1 specialist. So at size 8 we can be working 4 scientists, 4 flood plains, and still be growing (very slowly)! How many cities can we fit along this river?
Turn 14:
Son of a biscuit. Fortify and plan to move up towards the forest. Gonna have to play some hide and seek the next few turns.
Turn 15:
Run away!
Turn 17:
Hammurabi's scout took a hit for me and got attacked by the lion. He survived, which is too bad, but it means I feel safe moving along the coast.
I'd rather move back south and check out the flood plains area. But with that bear still down around there that's just aksing for trouble.
Turn 19:
The farm is finished and Istanbul will grow to size 2 next turn. I'd planned to make a second farm, but maybe I should be mining the gold instead. What are my growth plans exactly?
The benefits of the mine are the quicker research early and that I can get it online 2 turns fast (1 turn to move + 4 turns to mine). The cost is that I'm slower growing. I'd still work two flood plains until the mine is done. Which gets me to size 3 on turn:
turn 19 (1): (18/22) + 4
turn 20 (2): (0/24) + 5, move to mine, [working farm and flood plain]
turn 21 (2): (5/24) + 5, start on mine (1/4)
turn 22 (2): (10/24) + 5, mine (2/4)
turn 23 (2): (15/24) + 5, mine (3/4)
turn 24 (2): (20/24) + 2, mine finished, [working farm and mine]
turn 25 (2): (22/24) + 2, move to 1W start farming (1/7)
turn 26 (3): (0/26) + 3, farm (2/7), [working farm + FP + mine]
turn 27 (3): (3/26) + 3, farm (3/7)
turn 28 (3): (6/26) + 3, farm (4/7)
turn 29 (3): (9/26) + 3, farm (5/7)
turn 30 (3): (12/26) + 3, farm (6/7)
turn 31 (3): (15/26) + 4, farm finished, [working farm, farm, mine]
turn 32 (3): (19/26) + 4, move 1NW of Istanbul cottage (1/5)
turn 33 (3): (23/26) + 4, cottage (2/5)
So with mine first, as of turn 33 I'm at size 3 and 23/26 in the bin. And I've worked the gold for 10 turns for about 80 commerce. If I build the farm first:
turn 19 (1): (18/22) + 4
turn 20 (2): (0/24) + 5, move to FP 1 north and farm (1/7), [working farm and flood plain]
turn 21 (2): (5/24) + 5, farm (2/7)
turn 22 (2): (10/24) + 5, farm (3/7)
turn 23 (2): (15/24) + 5, farm (4/7)
turn 24 (2): (20/24) + 5, farm (5/7)
turn 25 (3): (1/26) + 6, farm (6/7), [working farm, flood plain, flood plain]
turn 26 (3): (7/26) + 7, farm finished, [working farm, farm, flood plain]
turn 27 (3): (14/26) + 7, move to mine,
turn 28 (3): (21/26) + 7, mine (1/4)
turn 29 (4): (2/28) + 8, mine (2/4), [working 2x farm, 2x flood plain]
turn 30 (4): (10/28) + 8, mine (3/4)
turn 31 (4): (18/28) + 4, mine finished, [working 2x farm, flood plain, mine]
turn 32 (4): (22/28) + 4, move 1NW of Istanbul cottage (1/5)
turn 33 (4): (26/28) + 4, cottage (2/5)
With farm first we're an entire population point higher, but have been working the gold for only 3 turns. So we're about 55 commerce short. Is a population point worth this much gold? If it gets out the first settler and warriors and another worker out much faster then I think it is.
If we go with the faster settler do we have enough workers to support this growth.
Are we more likely to be beaten to the Oracle or beaten to good city sites? So far it looks like Oracle. Nobody nearby yet except Hammurabi. But we've already seen Hinduism and Buddhism get founded. But I think an early, nearby on the flood plains, second city will make up for it.
So after all that waffling I'm going to build the farm first -> faster second city.
Turn 21:
I'm still planning to build the second city in the flood plains to the northwest. But because of the gold down south I'm going to take a quick peak and see if there's something really good down there. And to verify that I am for sure at the edge of the landmass and I'm not going to get surprised by some landbridge or something.
Turn 22:
I can finish BW this turn. Do I want to? Nah, I think I'm going to wait and revolt until after the settler is out -- missing my Hatty spirtuality right now.
Turn 23:
My southern warrior uncovers dry corn. Interesting. Settling 1N of the corn for a second city is not unreasonable by any means. It will take a few turns to set up trade routes. But being able to work the second gold right away is super useful. As a size two city it could work the corn and gold and build workers and settlers. And then when masonry is in and stone is hooked up it could chop out the pyramids. No reason it can't be a third or fourth city and still do all that though. Especially since it looks pretty obvious we can backfill that land.
Turn 28:
My northwestern warrior survives a fight with a lion and is healing. I've moved the worker to the gold and started mining. After he finishes the mine he's going to head to the forest 2N of Istanbul and chop out the settler the city will start on the next turn.
Turn 32:
Pottery has finished and I'm thinking something like this. Writing -> Priesthood -> Oracle Code of Laws. Another option is to first self-tech math for better chops and then Oracle -> Currency. It'll probably depend on how confident I'm feeling about the oracle. It's turn 32 and still no stonehenge, so that's a good sign.
I've got some early spawnbusting going and I've found Hamm. He's close, but I imagine that's the border of his second city, so he's not too close.
A preliminary dotmap looking something like this:
I'll settle white city first. It'll be able to work some cottages from the BFC of Istanbul. And eventually can work mostly farms and still have enough hills to be useful.
It might be better to try and squeeze in more cities on the river. Each flood plain is a rep specialist. So I really want to be working all of them asap, which is easier with more cities. Hmmmm.
Blue and Red cities are both for blocking. The red city also claims a happy and a healthy resource. So, even though it's short on food, it'll be handy to get fairly early. Purple city up north is for the stone. I can settle that one fairly late. I'll wait until the roads are mostly in place and the forests are mostly pre-chopped. There's no rush. I should have plenty of time to get the pyramids.
I'll be pleased if I get all five of the cities, but I think it's realistic. Then I can back fill two cities along the east coast -- one on the corn and the other on the cows and crabs. I'll farm one of the tiles on the west of Istanbul and can that way irrigate all the way to the corn. And a few other green tiles along the east coast. 7 cities will be plenty.
For micro: the worker currently on the gold is moving to the forest 2N of Istanbul. He'll chop that forest which will finish the settler. Istanbul will then immediately start on a worker. While the settler is moving I'll revolt in to slavery. The worker will then get a ton of overflow hammers the next turn. But I'll micro to make sure it stays under 30 hammers. Then the next turn I'll two-pop whip Istanbul to finish the worker. A ton of overflow will then go in to the next worker. I'll bump that worker down the queue, and build a few more warriors. Eventually I'll finish the worker with a chop.
And this is why it's good to stop and take stock. I forgot about IMP, so I should be working the forested PH, not the flood plain. Sheesh. Fixed.
. Maybe I should have worked in a third settler and tried to do a better job blocking. Had I had a city on the Teal site that would have blocked off that whole area. 
. Probably a mistake there on my part. 
. Okay so my whole plan for this game has worked approximately not at all. At least ten turns away from actually getting it myself. Hadn't even started yet. It's not so bad though. Well, yes it is. It was a huge part of my gameplan -- which is why I oracled Code of Laws instead of going to Currency. But no worries. 
, probably too ambitious. I'll finish this game and maybe try again. I think it's possible to do it. I probably should have swapped the cottages for farms. Whipped more early and forgot about the second gold. Tech was not the constraint here. Settlers was. Which is ironic because IMP. 
. Now 7 turns from CS. No-one's got philosophy yet. Got a couple of blocking cities to north west, now backfilling. Nine founded, should get other three cities fairly soon. Ragnar is pretty big but friendly (religion and civics). Roosevelt is teching like crazy. Chuck's annoyed with me and has the biggest army. No idea how I'm going to win this one, cuir rush appears obvious.
If Charlemagne makes peace I can't progress.
