One Last Roll of the Dice

[grandad1982]

The only thing about yhou dot map Cam H is that I look at all those grassland hills N of Paris and want to work them. For this you idealy want to have the rice. Apart from that I like you dot map (which has nothing to do with it agreeing with most of mine ). I guess if we went with yours we could just put in a later filler city with a farm or two and cottage the rest.

Just to let you know I'm colour blind so I'm not sure which is the green city. Is it the marble/banana city?

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

Green is indeed banana marble in the NE

 

[grandad1982]

Sweet. I'd be happy with that next.

Want to know whats in the fog E or the rice....

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

I usually shoot for Aesthetics and back-trade for Alphabet

That should make this discussion interesting, since I've never done that... Not that I'm unwilling to, but you'll need to explain it to me with small words and short sentences.

I still want to fog bust and find out where Suly and the Turk are.

might be a good idea to have an axe for that green, banana/marble city.

Want to know whats in the fog E or the rice....

me too

OT - regulator coat, sheriff's hat, lucky shades. Also have the lucky 8 ball, dart gun and atomic atomizer (or whatever it is called). IIRC, this is about my 10th try with F3. Clearing EGM.

 

[Cam_H]

The only thing about yhou dot map Cam H is that I look at all those grassland hills N of Paris and want to work them. For this you idealy want to have the rice. Apart from that I like you dot map (which has nothing to do with it agreeing with most of mine ). I guess if we went with yours we could just put in a later filler city with a farm or two and cottage the rest.

Just to let you know I'm colour blind so I'm not sure which is the green city. Is it the marble/banana city?

I like the Dye-Dye-Dye-Dye-Cows-Rice city, or the light blue one on my proposed dot map, which is a bit different to yours, but 'yes' largely the same ;

Spoiler :

The interest in settling Marble-Bananas (green) sooner rather than later is largely for blocking I take it? With three clear Grassland tiles for Cottages and a Marble Quarry, I guess it could start to pay for itself after not too long.

That should make this discussion interesting, since I've never done that... Not that I'm unwilling to, but you'll need to explain it to me with small words and short sentences.

Forgive this hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian post, I hope it does not bring about exsibilation, for some may cast it as inaniloquent witzelsuchet.

Indeed some may cast me as an ultracrepidarian philosophunculist and floccinaucinihilipilificate all of this, but DeGaulle the abecedarian? It does allow for French algerining!

… anyway … most AIs will pursue Alphabet instead of Aesthetics, and therefore the idea is that we pursue Aesthetics to acquire the monopoly technology. We put a turn or two into Alphabet ourselves so the first AI tribe to acquire Alphabet may be prepared to consider the Alphabet for Aesthetics trade, and then we’re likely to have two tech’s probably only known by one other tribe. We can then back fill through trades other available technologies.

 

[grandad1982]

@ Cam H I offer my most enthusiastic contrafribularities.

Thats the reson I usually go math > Currencey. To get the monopoly and then back trade. Also Currencey is a vital tech for the REXer, as you can run merchants and you get the multiplier on binary research to make catch up even easier.

No sure I like trading Aes round till we know that we can grab the GLib before the others.

The marble city is indeed about blocking.

 

[grandad1982]

Hey Nictel. You out there dude? Its been 48 hours since the save went up. I'm affraid that if you can't play by this evening then I'm going to swap you with Cam H.

Roster will be

Roster
grandad1982
Meiz
Cam H - up now (swap)
Nictel - on deck (swap)
Admial Kutzov

In future could people try to incude the roster at the end of their reports please? Cheers now.

 

[Meiz]

I'm good with Cam_H's dotmap. There's still room for filler city below orange dot (fish / iron). Coast access, picks the left over dyes and grassland hills, can work rice as well and picks one lake which is 3 food with lighthouse. We need to explore east before deciding the next city site, so might as well build more workers before another settler. We really do need them.

Now that we have access to stone, it wouldn't make much sense to skip Pyramids. I still vote that Paris builds it (we can chop all those forests, which is huge bonus for Indrustious + stone access). Representation speacialists allow us to REX as much as we can.

I wouldn't build the Great Wall, because it generates spy points and monarch barbs are not that threathening. Basically free experience for our units.

We have so much good land available, that we should settle as much as possible peacefully. When the land is filled, it should be easily to take Mansa's developed cities... So I don't see any rush to attack soon. That would basically let other's to steal all the lands right under our noses. Maces + Catapults might be good time to attack.

My tech path would be Metal Casting next for cheap forges and then head for Currency / Aesthestics / Literature / Calendar (we can most likely trade Calendar at least).

 

[Cam_H]

OK, my personal timing isn't good, but I'll be able to play within 18-24 hours.

The plan seems to me to be;

Paris: Complete Chariot (grows to 5 population) > finish Worker > The Pyramids.

Lyons: Swap to Library (in time for the culture to access its nearby Iron before Mali's Djenne). Grow to 2 population (Floodplains and Cows) then swap to a Worker. Eventually we can add some chops / whip to hurry the Library.

Rheims: Complete Granary > Chariots.

Orleans: Press on with Library. Grow to 3 population (Copper, Grassland Farm, Rice) then swap to Worker. Eventually we can add some chops / whip to hurry the Library.​

I would pull the two Workers building Farms off those temporarily, and get them to build and hook up the Stone Quarry to Paris.

I should get close to finishing Mathematics about the same time as the turnset ends.

 

[grandad1982]

If you can whip a worker in Paris with overflow into the mids that would be good.

Workers to get the stone quarried and roaded to Paris is a good idea as well.

@Admiral kutzov. I liked the shady hat and rangers armour personally. For my gun I like the hunting rifle that fired magnam slugs (Lincolns something?).

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

Forgive this hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian post, I hope it does not bring about exsibilation, for some may cast it as inaniloquent witzelsuchet.

Indeed some may cast me as an ultracrepidarian philosophunculist and floccinaucinihilipilificate all of this, but DeGaulle the abecedarian? It does allow for French algerining!

… anyway … most AIs will pursue Alphabet instead of Aesthetics, and therefore the idea is that we pursue Aesthetics to acquire the monopoly technology. We put a turn or two into Alphabet ourselves so the first AI tribe to acquire Alphabet may be prepared to consider the Alphabet for Aesthetics trade, and then we’re likely to have two tech’s probably only known by one other tribe. We can then back fill through trades other available technologies.

thanks for the explanation. Need to try that.

@Cam - plan sounds good.

Workers to get the stone quarried and roaded to Paris is a good idea as well.

ditto

@grandad - I'm now sneaking around in stealth suit, picking stuff off long range with a gauss rifle.

 

[Nictel]

Yeah I'm having too many RL things going on at the moment to concentrate on this, I'll have to drop out. But you're seem to doing fine so I wish you good luck for the rest of the game.

 

[Cam_H]

If you can whip a worker in Paris with overflow into the mids that would be good.

I'm not so excited about this;

• Paris does not have a Granary, so whip recovery of the city will be slow.

• We won't have Stone hooked up by the time of whipping, so we nerf the effectiveness of the whip. I'd rather whip later than now to leverage the value of our whips.

• We'll be whipping off good developed tiles, not junky coastal or Farmed Plains or something of that ilk.

Maybe at some later point we can interrupt The Pyramids build for another Worker / Granary / Library and do it then, when we have Stone and low-yielding tiles being worked?

I am also only going to part-chop any Forests prior to the acquisition of Mathematics due to the improvement in value of chopping that this technology brings.

Please advise if (a.) you still want me to whip the Worker with overflow to the Wonder, and/or (b.) want me to chop out the full Forests prior to Maths.

Nictel, Best of luck with 'RL'!

I offer my most enthusiastic contrafribularities.

Robbie Coltraine and the Blackadder team! One of the best episodes of that series!

 

[Cam_H]

Opening Turn | 1375BC

Farming Workers ordered to head towards Stone.
Science dropped to 50%
Lyons: Library

Turn 1 | 1350BC

Paris grows to 5 population.
Paris: Chariot > Worker

Turn 2 | 1325BC

Zzzzz

Turn 3 | 1300BC

Lyons population grows to 2.
Lyons: Library (interrupt) > Worker

Turn 4 | 1275BC

Paris: Worker > The Pyramids
Parisian Chariot kills Barbarian Archer.

Turn 5 | 1250BC

Zzzzz

Turn 6 | 1225BC

Warrior defeats Barbarian Archer.
Stone Quarry hooked-up.
Trade routes now open. Mansa has heaps of (commerce heavy) Fur resources for trade, while Mehmed has heaps of (commerce heavy) Clam resources for trade. Nobody appears to have metal??

Turn 7 | 1200BC

With the Stone Quarry done, Workers disperse.
Mehmed adopts Christianity somewhat ironically.

Turn 8 | 1175BC

Orleans: Library (interrupt) > Worker

Turn 9-10 | 1150BC-1125BC

Zzzzz

Turn 11 | 1100BC

Paris grows to 6 population.
Rheims gets the whip along on its Granary

Turn 12 | 1075BC

Rheims: Granary > Chariot
To the east our Chariot kills a Barbarian Warrior.

Turn 13 | 1050BC

Our Warrior kills a Barbarian Warrior.
Mansa picks up Alphabet, and is missing Agriculture (have) and Mathematics (researching).

Turn 14 | 1025BC

Iron Mine near Rheims is constructed. Road back to the city is the next move.
Science rate increased back up to 70% now that we’ve got 100 in the reserve.
Suryavarman completes The Great Wall in his capital; Yasodharapura

Turn 15 | 1000BC

Mansa learns Agriculture.

We have a whippable Worker possibility in Orleans (to be discussed)
Paris is about to grow.

Screenshots of empire and north eastern jungle;

Spoiler :

Roster:

• grandad >>> on deck
• Meiz
• Cam
• Admiral Kutzov >>> up now

 

[Meiz]

Solid round

We need to decide our next tech. I'd go for Metal Casting or Currency. Metal Casting has tempting cheap forges which would rocket our production ahead of AI's. So that gets my vote, followed with Currency.

Next player, remember to cancel chops before they are finished, so we can get full benefit from Mathematics.

 

[grandad1982]

If you used trhe BULL mod it auto stops the chops on 4 turns.....

Nice round Cam H.

Personaly I likle to drop sci too 0% then put it back to 100% when as cash reserve is built. I've been told this is more effecient but can't really vouch for it.

I'll look at the save in a bit and compose my thoughts.

Sorry to lose the Nictel. Good luck with RL!

 

[grandad1982]

There is a barb city by the exploring chariot. This suggests to me that there cant be an AI very close. Where are they?!

In Paris the next pop (next turn) is going to an unimproved tile. I'd happily whip him away for now since our workers are pre-chopping and not improving tiles.

I'd increase sci to 100% as Math will be in in 4 for only 40 gold.

I'm happy for the Lib in Orleans to be whipped as untill its up we're not going to be able to run those sci specs.

My normal tech path at this point would be Currency > CoL. However IND does boost an early MC. I'm not totally sure whats best here as forges would speed our expantion whilst the others pay for it.

There's so much room for some lovely cities in this jungle. Vassalage for the back fill anyone?

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

Looks good Cam. I've got it.

Here's da plan:
1. Turn off chops until math in
2. build roads, mines and cottages
3. increase science to 100
4. keep exploring and whip as appropriate
5. chop/whip the mids at the right time

 

[Cam_H]

1. Turn off chops until math in

Well, just don't complete the chops if we want the +50% bonus. That one to Paris' east should only take a turn or two to finish off.

2. build roads, mines and cottages

I must confess that I've directed that Worker on Iron Mine road to hook it up to Rheims (auto-moves into other peoples' turnsets is usually frowned upon in SGs).

Unfortunately both Orleans and Lyons just fall a bit short on a (pre-Biology) food count, so we'll still have to think about Farms on a few of the tiles if we want to max the population later on, however both could comfortably develop a few Cottages on riverside Grasslands.

3. increase science to 100

I built our treasury up to over 100 mostly in case of a random event that required some cash. I don't mind if we go to 100%, but could live with 80% with a 1 turn delay on Maths. Your call though.

With so few Libraries about to go up, and our desire for Mathematics, we can't really leverage 'binary research' at the moment I think.

4. keep exploring and whip as appropriate

While we're still building terrain improvements around our cities, and our population is tending to grow faster than terrain improvements are being completed, I agree that we can afford to whip away. I think Rheims probably should be working the Iron and the Stone, so we should probably hold off the whip a bit there and let it sit a 5 or 6 population. Paris really would benefit from a Granary and a Library, so when the Pyramids are done, I can see some whipping there. Orleans and Lyons both have Granaries, so 'Yes' as appropriate.

Tech'-wise I'm pretty divided. I'm actually inclined to start self-researching some of the early technologies such as Fishing and Sailing (for Calendar) and Polytheism (for Literature in time) as I tend to try and avoid the "We fear you are becoming too advanced" issue. With that said, very comfortable with Currency or Metal Casting.

Given that we've increased our number of Workers, can we review the REXing approach?

 

[Meiz]

I'd like to settle the iron / cows spot before heading into the jungle. We are probably headed towards Sailing anyway, so Moai statues would make that site quite good. And we would deny the iron from Mansa.

After Pyramids + the spot mentioned above, we have most likely explored eastern region and can plan our blocking cities better. I would guess that three well placed cities should be enough to guarantee rest of the jungle to ourselves.