One Last Roll of the Dice

[Cam_H]

Admiral Kutzov,

Thanks for the turnset. Well done on Stonehenge. On Orleans' Worker, I'm fine with the switch, as I wasn't sure myself what was wanted or needed, but an extra Worker will be more than handy. Masonry's in! I'm personally fine with it, but I'm not sure if that was the plan. I'm not sure if Orleans is right for The Pyramids (if we even go down that path ) and (if we do) the Stone city itself - wherever it may land - might be a better choice (?). As far as The Oracle, we're some distance from Priesthood ... is that our next destination?

'The roster',

Just my two cents:

I am not sure in what year Barbarians enter cultural borders, but we might need to get the Warrior out of Paris to tackle the Barb' if he does cross into our lands to make sure we don't start losing improvements.

I'd hook up the Horses next as suggested, and then maybe Farm the Bananas. Paris could work on a Granary until it's able to get a Chariot or two out before stalling the population again with a Worker/Settler.

I can go along with grandad's alternative settling proposal. The 1NE of Stone will overlap with mega-juicy commerce city to its north (still undecided) and Paris, but it has plenty of other tiles to focus on first. An alternative to the alternative; 1E of Stone picks up some Grassland and won't overlap with mega-juicy commerce city (still undecided) and gets a bonus hammer for settling on a Plains Hill. So we'll need to get out maybe three Settlers fairly promptly after the one that's going to be produced in Paris so we can get Stone, southern Cows, and two jungle cities to part-appease Meiz.

 

[Meiz]

How about one city 1E of the stone, on the plains hill?

And another SE of the cows, as granddad probably meant to suggest (at least that would be logical )

These two spots will give less overlap and are good for production. I'm fine with pyramids if we go this route. We could even build it in the stone city as Cam_H mentioned.

I think the southern cow spot should come first, and the stone city soon after that.

Spoiler :

The AI's not contesting for the jungle either are they?

What I mean is that if we settle the north eastern cows, bananas, dyes site as per grandad's dotmap, we are probably blocking the AI's from the other sites. So in my opinion those sites can wait for later.

 

[Meiz]

1E of Stone picks up some Grassland and won't overlap with mega-juicy commerce city (still undecided) and gets a bonus hammer for settling on a Plains Hill.

Ahh.. just noticed this part of your text. Not trying to steal credit from you!

You can see what I think about this in the above post.

 

[grandad1982]

Nicely done Admiral!

I might have held off masonary till after writing myself but with the gems that matters not.

I did indeed mean SE of the cows

There's so many positions for the stone city my head is starting to spin! Plains hill suits me as a location for the4th city (after SE of cows).

I'll look at the save and post my plan. Probably play tomorrow evening (after England crash out of the world cup .... or not).

 

[grandad1982]

Ok here's my plan of action.

Paris
Finish settler > Warrior > Warrior >?
Road up the Horses and send the cities garrison out to protect from the Barb if needed.

Orleans
Finish Worker > Granary
Worker will build some farms.
Seems to me that Orleans should be a commerce city. Well spec city to begin with any how. Got some nice riverside grassland and the incence.


The new settler will go to the spot SE of cow. I'll use the fog busting warrior as the garrison.

Tech after Writing > IW (to see iron and for those future jungle cities).

If not IW then Math would bean idea for the chop boost. What do the team think on this?

 

[grandad1982]

Oh yer I'll set the EP so Mansa gets the most points (in anticipation of him getting a beat down first )

 

[Meiz]

Sounds good. I'd go for mathematics after writing.

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

I always like to know where the iron is, so my vote for IW. I'm not ready to dotmap until we see the iron.

I see Orleans as more of a mixed production city than a commerce center. 3 hills and copper and rice once the borders pop.

Once the horses are hooked up, I'd like a chariot slotted in for use as a fire brigade against the incoming barbs.

If you can grab the SE cow city, by all means do so. I'm just feeling pessimistic and really want the stone.

 

[grandad1982]

Inherited Turn

Start to road towards the horses.
Tweak EP settings.
Move the fog busting warrior S towards cow city dot.

1

A barb warrior is near our warrior so he gets promoted to C1.
Paris, Settler > Warrior.
The settler start his journy S.

2

IBT we kill the barb. Owned. Also Sury adopts slavery.

3

Zzzzzzz

4

Paris, Warrior > Warrior.
Warrior sent to protedct the horses.

5

Writing is in and after a brief pause to reflect I switch to IW.

Spoiler :

Found Lyons and start a granary.

Spoiler :

Horses are connected.
I OB with all AIs.

6

Paris worker moves to forest next to bananas to chop next turn.

7

Worker starts chop.
Paris, Warrior > Chariot. Warrior moves to the stone area.
Orleans, Worker > Granary. Worker starts a farm.

8,9

Zzzzzzzz

10

IBT Mehemed adopts slavery.

11

Chop into a settler in Paris.

12

Swap settler back to Chariot.
Start farming the Bananas.

13

Paris, Settler > Settler.
Chariot heads E to explore.

14

Farm in Orleans is done.

15

Orleans worker moves towards the bronze.


Info

Our Empire

Spoiler :

Glance

Spoiler :

Demo. Apart from our military strength this looks ok ATM.

Spoiler :

So the Settler in Paris can be whipped for max overflow in 2 turns with a little micro. I reckon overflow into a worker. Also I think we should consider chopping out another worker.

The initals in the sighns mean C= Commerce and P= Production.

After the granary in Oleans I reckon aLib as there will be a culture battle here till we deal with Mansa.

Tech mafter IW to Math?


Roster
grandad1982 - just played
Meiz - up now
Nictel - on deck
Cam H
Admiral Kutzov


The Save

 

[Meiz]

I think I'm up, but I can play on friday at earliest. Nictel, do you wan't to swap your turns with me?

 

[grandad1982]

Sorry forgot to edit the roster. It's corrected now.

 

[Meiz]

Anyway, looking good so far

So the Settler in Paris can be whipped for max overflow in 2 turns with a little micro. I reckon overflow into a worker. Also I think we should consider chopping out another worker.

After the granary in Oleans I reckon aLib as there will be a culture battle here till we deal with Mansa.

Tech mafter IW to Math?

Yes for all of these. We need at least 2-3 workers to get Lyons and new stone city up and running.

 

[Cam_H]

I agree, 'looking good', and Maths after Iron Working works for me, although weren't we considering The Oracle? With loads of Dye, Incense, and Banana in the distance, plus a passive / REX / developmental approach to the game, I put Calendar up for consideration as a medium-term tech' option.

No 'close border' tension with Mansa yet, which is a bit unexpected.

Curious what our thinking is about settling in the northern jungle, and in particular do we go for that 6-resource spot or split the resources across several cities? Also, do we hold off on settling these cities, or continue to REX as earlier suggested? As Admiral Kutzov noted, we should also grab an Iron spot when it appears, which may or may not be conveniently placed (if Iron appears at all!).

All the best Meiz!

 

[Meiz]

Turn 0

Nothing to do except press enter.

Turn 1

I'm not so familiar with whip microing, so I'll just whip the settler now, before I screw it Hopefully not a big deal

Turn 2

With overflow, the worker is coming in 4 turns. Settler heads towards stone site while our exploring chariot meets barbarian archer. Uh oh...

Turn 3

And the chariot is dead! Archer was left with 8hp so it was a close call.

Turn 4

Rheims is settled, and it starts a granary.

Turn 6

Worker finished in Paris. I start a chariot replacement while max growing. Fresh worker heads for Lyons while another starts to chop forest for Paris.

Turn 8

IW -> Mathematics. We have plenty of irons, all withing good reach.

Turn 10

Chop goes towards worker in Paris.

Turn 11

We are stated to be the largest. No surprises

And... Oracle built in a distant land

Resume chariot in Paris and continue growing. Worker starts to road towards the stone.

Turn 14

Whip granaries in Orleans and Lyons for 1 pop.

Turn 15

Orleans starts a library and Lyons a barracks. Not sure if we should get one axe out before barracks for safety?`No hammers invested in neither of builds.

Paris grows and finishes chariot in next turn. We should resume and complete the worker that is on queue.

Paris has still a lot of forests so I'd recommend we chop the Pyramids in there once stone quarry and road are finished.

Good luck for the next player!

 

[Meiz]

With loads of Dye, Incense, and Banana in the distance, plus a passive / REX / developmental approach to the game, I put Calendar up for consideration as a medium-term tech' option.

Definitely.

Curious what our thinking is about settling in the northern jungle, and in particular do we go for that 6-resource spot or split the resources across several cities? Also, do we hold off on settling these cities, or continue to REX as earlier suggested?

In my opinion we should REX towards AI's in east and backfill northern jungle later.

I still prefer granddad's dotmap. We can add the fish / iron city 1W of the iron.

Spoiler :

 

[grandad1982]

Nice one Meiz.

That Iron by the fish is good as that was a no hammers site before.

Can't belive the barb killed our Chariot!

To micro the whip you just need to swap tiles so that it hits 103 hammers invested then whip (on epic sans IMP).

Whilst I love the idea of a super commerce city I think that the two cities can work that land more efficently. If some one can prove me wrong then I'm all good.

I think an axe first might be a good idea. We don't want any nasty suprises.

Agree about chopping out the Mids in Paris. This will keep Rheims free to pump troops.

That iron/cow site is a contender for the Moai Statues.

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

I'm an idiot, but you knew that.

Mansu has 3 cities; we can see 2. Suggests the other is to the south. Where are Sury and Mehmed? Have we actually seen their borders? In the NW is that a peninsula or an isthmus? how far does the land to the NE and E extend? I suggest we need to find some more borders.

We have 4 cities and 3 workers. this is a problem. 3 more workers before the next settler?

Grandad, I'm taking it as a given that "choose religion" is on. otherwise, theocracy, COL and philo have already been discovered and we may as well give up. Let me know, please.

Why not Alpha next? Can usually find a mark that will trade math for alpha (and down the road, calender). Alpha opens up trading.

I still think we could have chopped out the Oracle in Paris, but that's water under the bridge.

I really, really don't want the 'mids in Paris. Rather use the hammers for swords or axes.

No more settlers for at least one set, please?

I'll do my dot map after Nictel's set, since I'm advocating a pause on settling. If I did one now y'all would think i'm an idiot.

And here are my main suggested priorities.
1. get more workers and connect the iron and copper.
2. replace the warriors that are guarding our cities with axes and send the warriors out to explore. Even if it means delaying the construction of buildings. Axes are cheap to whip.
3. my main focus - I suggest that we prevent MM from hooking up the iron in the SE even if it means declaring war or cancelling open borders. I don't want to put a city there yet.

Sorry for the bad grammar and bad spelling.

@meiz, nice set.

 

[grandad1982]

Choose religion is on

I agree we need at lest 2 or 3 more workers and they should be a top priority.
I also agree that we should get Rheims pumping some units ASAP so we can explore and defend our cities better.
If we don't build the mids soon then we're going to have to start cottage spamming IMO. I think that Rheims can keepm our power rating up if we chop out the mids in Paris. Expesially if the other cities contribute the odd unit.

Closing borbers with Mansa won't help preventing in him getting the iron ATM as our borders don't block it. DoW might be a bit much cconsidering our military position.

On the tech front Alpha or Currency would be my choices before Calender. If we go Alpha then putting some more EP in to Mansa and getting a spy out might be nice as we can slow him down pre-DOW. In fact Allpha would be good if he doesn't settle on the iron as we can pillage the mine with out the DoW.

These are mostly ideas that will take 2 or 3 sets to workout.

My sugestions for the next set are in order of priority:
1. get Bronze connected
2. get 2/3 workers out (I'd send the next one to Rheim first to get it going as our military pump)
3. after the bronzer is connected chop the lib in Oleans se we can get a couple of sci up
4. explore E
5. if money is low adopt binary research

 

[Cam_H]

Mansu has 3 cities; we can see 2.

I still have him at just Timbuktu and Djenne.

We have 4 cities and 3 workers. this is a problem. 3 more workers before the next settler?

Don't mind either way. As most of the north is jungle, we'll need lots of Workers anyway to make these cities worthwhile. On the other hand, we were discussing a REX strategy that I assumed meant more than four cities. Given that we will soon have Iron in our borders, and there's no visible culture from our neighbours in the east, I'm quite content to put Workers before Settlers.

Why not Alpha next? Can usually find a mark that will trade math for alpha (and down the road, calender). Alpha opens up trading.

I usually shoot for Aesthetics and back-trade for Alphabet, but I’m happy to go with the roster. As noted earlier, I think Calendar (req. Fishing and Sailing) will be an important technology for us, and if we want to hit Mansa, then Construction has its appeal. Metal Casting for cheap ‘Industrious’ Forges is there too, and it also usually has good trade value. The tech’ tree should be discussed further.

I really, really don't want the 'mids in Paris. Rather use the hammers for swords or axes.

My leaning is to Reims, and let Paris get on with its Granary, Library, etc. so it can leverage its 'hybridness'. I'm guessing (without doing a single sum) that it will be just as quick to get the Stone Quarry, the Iron Mine, and another Mine and Farm(s) up around Reims, than have to wait for chops to come in and build Mines as well around Paris.

I take it that there’s little interest in The Great Wall once our Stone’s hooked up?

@meiz, nice set.

Likewise.

My dot map for the north to add to the debate.

Spoiler :

It leaves a gap admittedly, but covers most resources and includes the 6 resource commerce city site. If we're really desperate for those tiles in the gap, there's still room for a city there.

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

My dot map for the north to add to the debate.

Pretty much what I was thinking.

green first.