SilentConfusion
Emperor
Nice, detailed report! Not too much bad luck vs the barbs.
I glanced at the save and noticed that Aksum is size 3. I guess he whipped something?
We don't need the fogbuster in the northeast any more...We and Zara have busted the desert, though maybe not the river.
Barb questions: Do we want to fully fogbust the continent, or do we want barbs to spawn? Perhaps even a city? If I understand the spawning rules, units won't spawn within 2 squares of an existing unit, but cities can still sprout up in any tile that's unseen by anyone. (Right?)
I'm off on a trip in the morning. Back Monday. Timmy is up. Sounds like we could use some micro-management to suggest Masonry/City4 timings, but perhaps it's not as critical.
Hope we get the Oracle....
About the spawnbuster near Vijay... You're right. I forgot about his culture. We can slide him the other way. Still want someone in range in case a Barb appears from the south.
About Barb spawning rules... Barb units won't spawn within 2 tiles of a unit and won't spawn in a visible tile. This even counts Barb units. So that Barb Warrior up near the clams is helping us spawnbust, and we don't have to pay his unit supply cost. Barb cities on the other hand won't spawn in a visible tile, but can spawn within 2 tiles of a unit. So if you want to make sure Barb cities don't crop up you do need to actually fogbust (make tiles visible). For stopping unit spawn, you just need spawnbusting.
About whether we want barbs to spawn. A well placed Barb city saves us the cost of a Settler. A poorly placed Barb city gives us capture gold when we raze it. Barb units give us experience. I'd say that we'd prefer not to have Barb units walking around, but if we have a city pop up, that's not too bad unless it interferes with a short term plan and will take a little while to capture it.
About Aksum being size 3... I wrote a note about it in the Keeping Your Neighbors Close section in the hammer chart, but I'll add more about it. Zara did a 2-pop whip from size 5 to size 3 on T68. He had 18 hammers invested when he 2-pop whipped, which means he whipped something that cost between 63 and 108 hammers. I think the overflow would have been around 42, meaning a possible unit cost of around 66. The rest of the time, he does not grow his capitol even to size 4, while building something that cost more than 133 hammers. This is almost certainly a Settler, and it's time he built a settler anyway. Whatever it was was built on T77. I bet he'll have another city up within a few turns.
Thanks, SC.
Prelim thoughts:
Micro: Delhi gets the corn this turn to speed growth.
Bigger thoughts: Do we want stone city (still on the stone right?) as city 4?
The megafood city is going to whip out a lot of settlers but it will take some time to get running - needs culture, and probably needs to build its own boats, and no forests in the first ring. So maybe that should be #4 and stone #5, what are people's opinions on how much a risk of not getting Pyramids that entails?
About swapping Corn to Delhi... If you swap Corn to Delhi you slow the Worker set to come in 2 turns in Bombay down to coming out in 3. Not that growth in Delhi a turn sooner isn't more potentially more valuable than a Fast Worker a turn sooner. Depends on what you need for you turnset. If you don't need extra worker turns then I'd say grow Delhi faster. If you are short on worker turns then leave the Corn worked by Bombay.
About Cities 4 and 5... If Stone City is City 5 then how much it hurts chances for Pyramids depends on how soon after our 3rd Settler does our 4th Settler come. Building part of the Pyramids without Stone is inefficient. Off hand I'd prefer the Stone City as City 4 and GPF City as our City 5 so we can build the Pyramids with stone. I think the GPF city can be up and running in not that long. It needs a monument, a granary, and a work boat right away. The Plains Cow can be improved immediately which is a 3f3h tile and should give enough hammers to build a monument while growing. Then the monument can be whipped to completion with overflow going into a granary. The pig can be improved 15 turns after monument and the two workboats can be whipped. Then it's Settler/Worker building until we have enough and somewhere in there a Library to run scientists for an Academy in Delhi.
For counting purposes: My Vote = Stone City next, then GPF This could change based on hearing arguments by other Barley Demons.