Items to be dealt with pre-turn:
1. Science.
I shut off research, as discussed. No shields had been put into Mysticism, at least. As a result, we go from -1 gpt to +26 gpt. 27 gpt is, effectively, an archer rushed from scratch every three turns. Realistically, it's a library rushed from not-scratch every six turns.
Overriding principle here--don't research something we don't need and can eventually get for free.
2. City production.
Leipzig: I change the entertainer in Leipzig to a taxman. Either way, the city will not riot; this way we get an extra 2 gold totally for free. I also reassign the tiles at Leipzig to make sure that we get the settler next turn.
Mini-principle: specialists are fine, entertainers are usually not necessary. Here, where we have one happy citizen and two unhappy ones, you have to pick up one citizen which gives us 1 happy and 1 unhappy. That's what you want. The second happy citizen does nothing for us (either way the city doesn't riot), so change him into something more useful. Normally a scientist (which gives
3 beakers per turn) is just better than a taxman (which gives
2 gold per turn). Here, though, we aren't researching anyway--so the beakers are useless.
Heidelburg: I change the regular archer being built to a worker, due in 4 turns (will actually be 5) after I swap to the forest tile.
Koenigsburg: I change the regular archer being built to a barracks, due in 3 turns.
Hamburg: I change the worked roaded forest tile to a roaded grassland. As we've already pop-rushed an archer, I can't do anything different. I could change the build, but the archer build is right.
Frankfurt: I change the regular spear being built to a library. I also reassign the citizen from the forest to the bonus grassland. This will help the city grow faster, which is a good thing. It will slightly slow the library, but not by much.
Blitzkrieg City: I leave the worker to be built, but switch to forest so we get it in 2 turns (will actually be 3, you'll see why) instead of 4.
Overriding principles here are simple--almost
never build regular units. Build barracks first, then build veteran units. This is especially true when we are militaristic and get barracks for just 20 shields. There are exceptions, but they usually involve really really early game situations, or times when the enemy is on our doorstep and you just HAVE to have an extra defender.
3. Worker operations: I wake the workers that are mining S of Frankfurt and W of Berlin. The one at Frankfurt moves two squares due south to begin a road. The other one had just started mining, so can do nothing with him this turn, but next turn he will join his friend for a roading.
I also wake the worker northeast of Berlin, who had just started mining.
Overriding principles here are a little more subtle, but here they are:
A. We need to complete roads to our new city sites. That helps our settlers get where they are wanting to go faster.
B. In situations like around Frankfurt/Berlin/Leipzig, where the tiles are roaded, it's smarter to group the workers to mine. If you start three individual workers mining three separate squares, in 6 turns you will have three mined squares. If you group all three and have them mine one square in two turns, then move/mine another, then move/mine the third, you will also have three mined squares after 6 turns--but you will have had one square mined for 4 turns, and another square mined for 2 turns, which is a clear net gain of 6 shields.
C. Do what you can to get our cities to "magic" numbers for production. For archers and spears, which we have now, that's 3, 4, 5, or 7. Six shields means 18 after 3, or 24 after 4, which is four wasted shields.
However, despite this principle, RIGHT NOW, Berlin is set up perfectly as it was.
Quiz question #1: Do you see why? Think about it before reading. Answer in spoiler:
4. Military operations.
All our military units have moved, except the ones in our cities and the warrior. I click on each of our ten units in the large stack. This may not be necessary, but just in case you had set that stack on auto-move, this will stop it.
VERY VERY IMPORTANT succession game note: never have units on automove. That's a sure way to screw up your teammates plans and want to make them cry and/or kill small furry animals when they thought they had units to deal with a brand-new problem, and then watch the units go scurrying off in a different direction.
I have no idea what the situation here was, but better safe than sorry.
I move the warrior off Lookout Mountain to the west, onto the mined wheat. I also move the regular spear out of Hamburg to the same square.
Quiz question #2: why would I do this? Answer:
Quiz question #3: How much of a risk am I taking by removing a defender from Hamburg? What if some Dutch archers show up in a turn or two?
Anyway, I'll be using your numbering for the following discussion.)
Holy cow, you are even crazier than me... But you may be right: settler-disbanding would probably take too long, and during that time the new settlers from Leipzig would stock-piling and not be able to set up the "good" towns. But please calculate it through: if we can still build other useful towns while waiting for a settler-disband, try to get a settler from at least one of the two towns. Or let Leipzig build a couple workers during that waiting time.
