Comments for Irgy
Okay, Irgy, I've spent a lot of time going over the saved games that you've uploaded. Please accept the following feedback. The suggestions that I present are in no way meant to offend you, so please do not interpret any sort of offense into my words. My goals in giving you this feedback are to try to help you and to share my knowledge with you.
Hopefully, armed with this info, you'll be able to put together a PPP that won't need too many rounds of reviews.
Some overall suggestions for the Workers of things that I think they are better off NOT doing. Please note that these comments are based off of your FIRST uploaded T232 (870 AD) test saved game, so you may have already decided not to do these things, but I will include them for completeness and will explain the reasoning behind these points, so that you can make more-informed decisions yourself:
1. I suggest that we DO NOT pre-chop the Tundra Forest 1SE of Riverdale. That way, if Zara manages to Culturally steal the square for a turn, he won't be able to chop it within a turn or two himself. For the same reason, we wouldn't want to put a Road on that square. The point is that if we do lose it to Zara's Culture, the more turns that it will take for Zara to chop it, the longer of a buffer time that we'll have to Culturally-steal the square back, such as temporarily running some Artist Specialists. Since we won't need to chop this square for a long time and since we have other squares that require Worker improvements, let's do something else instead.
2. I noticed that the Ice Iron in the south, by Whales, got Roaded. Perhaps it was from an automated Worker, which is one strong reason to avoid automating all of our Workers, as they will immediately rush to do tasks like this one that we do not want them to do. If we hook up a second source of Iron, Horse, or Ivory, an AI will Demand it. Likely, it will be the very AI that we do not want to have this Resource who will demand it. Thus, given the precarious nature of our game (4 AIs at war or who are planning a war, with a 5th one--Saladin--easily bribed by another AI into joining their war), we do not want to risk the possibility of such an AI using said Resource against us.
3. There are a few more Roads that we really have no use for, especially around Crabs, while not every other square that we want to be improved is improved. Again, it might just be from automating the Workers, but here is one example of overkill that I hope you can see my point about: Relative to the GPig, we have 3 Roads, of which we can at most make use out of 2 of them: 1SW of the GPig (Grassland--1NW of Grt Person Farm), 1W of the GPig (2E of Crabs), and 1NW of the GPig (the Riverless Flood Plains square). We certainly don't need a Road on the Grassland square 1W of the GPig (2E of Crabs), so those Worker actions can be potentially put to better use elsewhere.
4. On your last turn, if you aren't sure about what a Worker should do and he isn't already in the middle of doing something, kindly try not to start a new action, so that the next UP player has the flexibility to use the Worker in a different way that might lead to some overall empire efficiency. Failing that, where all Workers are busy, try to leave at least one unit "active" with movement points available, so that at the start of the next player's turnset, they can change Civics, build items, etc, as required, without accidentally advancing the turn easily by pressing the Enter key. As it stands with this saved game, if I were the next player, all that I would need to do is accidentally press the Enter key and I would miss out on being able to make further changes on T232 (870 AD).
5. I noticed that Worker 6 just finished Farming a Plains square by Crabs, but Crabs has hired several Scientist Specialists and isn't even making use of all of its 3Food squares. I'd rather see us Farm a Grassland square elsewhere, which would increase the number of Specialists that we could hire and increase the growth rate in said City before we started on irrigating Plains squares.
6. I noticed that the PRiv square 1S of Riverdale got Farmed. We won't quite need to make use of this square until after your turnset. So, if you delay Farming it (i.e. leave that task for a future turnset), we'll have a greater chance to grow a Forest there. In the next player's turnset, they can begin by hiring Scientists (or maybe even Artists) in Riverdale. As for the Artist Specialist idea, although it won't affect your turnset, since I brought up the issue, I'll elaborate now that we do need 4 "random" Great People at the end, so a Great Artist isn't a bad Great Person to get, and Cultural points are useful in that City. In fact, if we find ourselves with too many Great People, then Great Artists are our best friends, as they can help to Lightbulb either Radio or Mass Media, the last two techs that we need to research and the same two techs that Great Scientists CANNOT HELP US to research.
Updating the Test Saved Game
I'll tell you what: if you can update the test saved game to include all of the suggestions that I gave before, including up-to-date techs for each of the AIs' Research, re-adding the Confucian Holy City, giving us Metal Casting, reducing Pacal II's attitude towards Zara by -2 so that it is at an Annoyed level, and even updating which AI got which Wonder (basically, I think all that means is put the Shwedagon Paya in one of Pacal II's Cities, using the World Builder--preferably a City that has a Japanese name, so that it will be a City that won't get deleted later); then I'll take your updated test saved game and throw in a bunch of Signs like I did for the real game, so that it will be easy to remember where not to put a Road (only put a Road where a Road sign exists, for example), where to chop or not chop, etc.
Some comments about your latest series of test saved games (the ones in the .zip file):
Comments based on the T211 (565 AD) saved game
It will be more efficient for us to whip the Forge in Delhi on T210 than on T211, so we would be best off switching into Slavery and whipping there on T210.
Bedrock really could have afforded to switch to building a building instead of a Longbowman on T209. In fact, since in your T211 saved game, you have Bedrock working an unimproved square, I would say that we'll want to whip that population point away before we have to work an unimproved square. So, on T209, I'd suggest that we queue up: Confucian Temple, University, Longbowman, in that order. On T210, you'd whip the Confucian Temple into the University, still being able to grow back to Size 6 in time to whip the University, while benefitting from the extra Hammers from the Confucian Temple.
As of T211 (565 AD), EDIT: in Wheaties, if we switch one of the PH Mines to a PIrr square, we'll grow in 5 turns instead of in 8 turns, while the Library will take 7 turns to complete instead of 6 turns to complete. There's still going to be a bit too much Food there, so if you plan things out correctly by swapping a PH Mine to a PIrr square a couple of turns later, you might be able to grow to Size 6 a bit early, while putting as many Hammers as possible into the Library. The hope would be to be able to speed up the time of when we can whip our University here by somewhere between 2 and 3 turns. If this City will be our last City to be ready to whip the University, then that savings in the number of turns will have an empire-wide effect. Presumably, if we are able to manually complete the Library while still at Size 5, then get some Hammers on the last turn of being at Size 5, then be able to whip as soon as we grow to Size 6, we'll have maximized the efficiency in this City.
On T211, I noticed that a Priest got hired in Grt Person Farm. We'd rather generate a Great Scientist here, right? I'd be tempted to instead build a Forge, like I mentioned in my last message, on T209 and whip it on T210, so that we aren't running non-Scientist-Specialists in Grt Person Farm and so that we can increase our Happiness cap, and so that we can gain 2 Hammers per turn (PCow + City Center = 4 Hammers; 2 Confucian Buildings = 4 Hammers; 4 + 4 Hammers = 8 Base Hammers * 25% Forge = 2 additional Hammers per turn from the Forge for every turn that we work the PCow in the future, at least until Scientific Method comes in). After that, sure, go ahead and start building Buddhist Missionaries at an even faster rate of production.
On T211, I see that Three Clams is working a Coast square when there is a shiny, new GIrr square that was just farmed SW + S of the City. The GIrr square "belongs" to Risaia right now, which is why you might not have noticed it, but Risaia is stagnant at Size 3 while building a Settler, so it has no use for this square yet. Since there is still an unimproved Flood Plains square at Risaia, the only reason that I can see Mitchum putting a Farm on the GIrr square SW + S of Three Clams before Farming the Flood Plains square is so that Three Clams would be able to make use of this GIrr square.
Comments based on the T216 (640 AD) saved game
On T216 (640 AD), I notice that Silverado is still building a Library and is about to grow to Size 8. Sometime before now, we could have whipped the Library and also have been able to whip the Univerisity before now. Similar to our attempt to speed up the completion of a University in Wheaties, we could have completed a University in Silverado even sooner. To be honest, as soon as you find that you are able to whip the Library for 1 population point in this City, you should do so. It won't be the ideal time for this City to whip, but honestly, you would then be able to whip the Univeristy 2 turns later, which, if doing so would speed up the timing of starting on Oxford University, would be worth this minor whipping inefficiency.
On T216 (640 AD), I see that Sugar Daddy is about to complete the Lighthouse while it still won't have Confucianism. Therefore, back on T211, when we were working an unimproved Coast square (essentially, as soon as the City grows to Size 4), I would recommend that we would whip the Lighthouse. I considered the idea of waiting to whip the Lighthouse, in order to get the Org Rel bonus on it, but since we'll manually complete it anyway before getting that bonus, we might as well whip Sugar Daddy as soon as it turns to Size 4 on T210. There's yet another reason to switch into Slavery on T210.
On T215, we should have whipped the Granary in Goldfish, as we really need to whip out some Cultural buildings there ASAP and getting that Granary on T215 is the way to do so. ALSO, with some micromanagement on your part, you can gain us some extra Food in Goldfish. Specifically, on T215, after whipping the Granary, work a DesH Gold square for one turn. Then, on T216, be sure to switch back to working the Fish square. We will gain 5 free food by doing so, which we lose by not working the Fish for one turn, so the next result is whatever gain we get in Hammers and Commerce from the Gold square, meaning that the total gain is 2 Hammers + 7 Commerce minus 2 Commerce from the Fish, for a total of 2 Hammers and 5 Commerce gained just by being extra vigilant with this micromanagement. Please do not forget to switch back to working the Fish on T216. Once we have a plan in place, if you want, you can periodically save the game and upload it to the server mid-turnset. That way, I can help you by quickly scanning our empire for any little details like this that you may have forgotten about, such as returning to working the Fish in Goldfish on T216. After the Granary, I'd suggest that we have Goldfish build a Confucian Temple.
Comments based on the T223 (745 AD) saved game
On T223 (745 AD), I see that we didn't build a Confucian Monastary yet and only built our University at the last minute. I'd still advocate building:
T209 Forge, T210 whip the Forge, T211 overflow in the University of Sankore, T212 Confucian Monastary, T213 whip the confucian Monastary, T214 overflow into the University of Sankore, T2XX (but not as soon as T215--much later) build the "regular" University and whip it on the following turn, perhaps before completing the University of Sankore.
On T223, I see that Crabs is working an unimproved square (a PFor square). Either we should have built less Roads and more Farms or we should have followed my suggestion to whip an early Confucian Temple here, which would buy you more time to build Farms (but I'd still push for Farms before Roads when we are within a citizen of needing to work a Farm like we will be here, even if we whip the Confucian Temple earlier on).
On T223, Three Clams has 1 unhappy person. While the Longbowman that gets produced there will help, it might have worked out to have whipped a Confucian Temple into the University--I'm not sure--I'd have to try it out to be certain, but since we've already grown back to Size 7, there was probably an opportunity to have whipped a Confucian Temple, preferably while we were still in Organized Religion, and also hopefully without ruining the timing of whipping the University. It's tough for me to check when I'm just looking at the T233 test saved game, so hopefully you can check for us.
On T223, I see that we are working the Clam in Ivory Towers. I wonder--could it have been better to have been building a Granary all of this time, starting from T209? Well, let's see... we were working the Fish plus the Ivory, and the City Centre gives us 4 Hammers, which means that the Org Rel bonus would have given us 5 Hammers per turn into a Granary and only 4 Hammers per turn into a Work Boat. Since the Worker will have a Mine prepared in time for the 3rd citizen to work, I would suggest that on T209, we build a Granary in Ivory Towers. On the first turn of Police State, we can switch to building the Work Boat and whip it, in order to get the 25% production bonus on the Work Boat, while still being able to put a Fishing net on the Clam within a reasonable time frame. Sound good?
Comments based on the T226 (790 AD) saved game
On T226 (790 AD), I see that we still do not have Confucianism spread in Sugar Daddy, meaning that we can't build the extremely-useful Confucian Temple and Confucian Monastary before building a Forge. Do you think that there is a chance of getting Confucianism here a bit earlier? For example, can you aim to get Confucianism spread here before the Longbowman gets built, so that it will benefit from Theocracy's bonus experience, while the overflow Hammers from the Longbowman will be able to benefit from Organized Religion?
On T226, I see that Bedrock is set to build a Galley. Well, we just finished switching out of our Military Civics, so it's a bit too late to build it, don't you think? You could also argue that it is a bit too early to build it, if we plan to switch into the Military Civics again shortly in the future. Of course, comments like this one may not have much of an impact if earlier comments cause you to change your build order in this City.
On T226, I see that we are starting a Forge in Wheaties. While the Forge WILL net us 3 bonus Hammers per turn, if we don't whip it, it will take us 11 turns to build. Compare that to 4 turns to build the Confucian Temple. So, if we first build the Confucian Temple, we will get 11 - 4 = 7 more turns of 2 bonus Hammers, or 14 bonus Hammers, which would take 14 turns of having the Forge for 3 bonus Hammers to make up for. Now, to be fair, we have to factor in the 25% Hammer bonus from the Forge.
I think that even in a heavy-Hammer City like Wheaties, we should build the Confucian Temple before the Forge. Now, here's the interesting part: this analysis works because we are building the buildings over time. HOWEVER, if you have a City that is large enough to whip a Forge on Turn #2 (Wheaties is not large enough to do so) AND if you plan to subsequently whip the Confucian Temple and Confucian Monastary, then building the Forge first would come out ahead, as you'd build all 3 buildings within a short period of time, while by whipping, you'd get a big bonus due to having the Forge, but since we'd only be using up a few turns, we wouldn't get that many extra turns of +2 Hammers from the Confucian buildings. So, the rule of thumb is that we should build the Confucian Buildings first (Temple then Monastary), followed by the Forge, UNLESS we are going to whip the Forge and at least one of those buildings, in which case we should build the Forge first.
On T226, Risaia is back to building a Library, after having built a Longbowman. We're not making enough Commerce here to justify building our Confucian Buildings plus Forge before building a Library. So, since the City isn't really large enough to whip a Forge YET, and since it also seems that we slipped out of Slavery, we should put a Confucian Temple here and even take the Library right out of the build queue, so that you don't accidentally start building it once the Confucian Temple is done.
On T226, Crabs is building a Forge. Hopefully, by now, we've built a Confucian Temple. Technically, since the City hardly makes any Hammers, it could use a Confucian Monastary before building a Forge, but we have Happienss issues, so a Forge it will have to be. Indeed, I wonder if we could have whipped less here for 1 population point at a time, preferably whipping our Missionaries for 2 population points at a time. What that will PROBABLY mean is that after whipping a Confucian Temple on T211, we should let the City Centre's Hammer plus the 2 Hammers from the Confucian Temple get used to complete the Buddhist Missionary manually, rather than whipping it for 1 population point. Essentially, that would mean something like:
T209 build a Confucian Temple, T210 whip the Confucian Temple, T211 overflow the Hammers into the Buddhist Missionary, T212 switch to building a Confucian Monastary, T215 the Buddhist Missionary is completed while we are at Size 4 with 2 turns to grow until Size 5 and we start to build a Confucian Monastary, T216 whip the Confucian Monastary
On T226, the same order of building Confucian Buildings before a Forge that I talked about for Wheaties should apply here, since we are unlikely to whip a Forge followed by whipping Confucian buildings, since our Lake squares are probably more powerful if we work them instead of whipping away the citizens that will work them. Pretty much in any City where we aren't going to be whipping a Forge, we should build our Confucian Buildings before the Forge (and if on T226 790 AD we are going to switch into Caste System like you did in the test game, there will be nowhere that we can whip a Forge soon enough to justify building it before building the Confucian Buildings).
On T226, I'd even build any remaining Confucian Buildings before starting on a Lighthouse, since we even more desperately need Cultural output here than we do +1 Food on the Fish. Consider that if Saladin uses a Culture Bomb or if his Cultural expansion is faster than Isabella's (I set totally arbitrary Culture values for the AIs' Cities in our test svaed game, so this situation is very possible), then having +1 Food per water square won't help us if we don't have the Cultural pressure to maintain control of the Fish Resource itself. Food (seafood) for thought. Darn, now I want to go out and eat sushi...
On T226, we still don't have Confucianism in Mystic. Is it possible to spread it here before now, so that we can whip the Granary on T226 to make use of the Org Rel bonus? Is T226 a fair enough date to be able to get one such Missionary spread here by?
Comments based on the T232 (870 AD) saved game
On T232 (870 AD), I see that Silverado has paused building its Forge in favour of building a Buddhist Missionary. While I would have had you building at least a Confucian Temple in place of the Forge, I would also say that if your goal is to get Buddhism spread ASAP, wouldn't it make sense to immediately begin working on a Buddhist Missionary on T226 (790 AD), instead of partially completing a Forge that will not add any value to our Civ if it just sits there to rot? You could argue that you might WHIP the Forge, and thus you want SOME Hammers to be invested into it, but if that's the plan, then we should just capture the overflow Hammers into the Forge on T226 and then immediately start work on the Buddhist Missionary. However, I'd advocate for a middle-of-the-Road approach, which has us start on a Confucian Temple on T226 and then build a Buddhist Missionary next, so that we'll get SOME extra Hammers from a building (the Confucian Temple) without delaying building a Buddhist Missionary for TOO long of a time period. A similar argument could be made for Wheaties, which is suffering from the same scenario: a partially-completed Forge and is building a Buddhist Missionary, although, as for Silverado, I think that building a Confucian Temple instead of a Forge on T226, followed by building a Buddhist Missionary will give us the best of both worlds.
Other, overall thoughts
Another possibility for Missionary-spreading is to build one out of the list of Missionaries: a Christian, Taoist, Jewish, or Hindu Missionary. Then, it could be used to spread in Crabs, which looks like it would be due for another Temple around the time of the end of your turnset. There's no RUSH to get such a Missionary out, but if you can fit one in somewhere in place of a Buddhist Missionary, it would be my recommendation to do so.
Another thought: since we are sticking with Organized Religion in our Civic Switch on T226 (which may actually happen earlier in time if you manage to leverage my suggestions about speeding up Wheaties and Silverado into getting us our Universities Whipped sooner), perhaps it makes sense to stick with Slavery for that post-Military-Civics-switching time. That way, we could probably whip out a couple of more Missionaries (where we are building them in Cities that don't have a Monastary) and/or whip out a few more buildings, followed by switching into both Caste System AND Pacifism at the same time, allowing us to really make use of the extra Specialists' GPP to the maximum extent possible.
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It is located "under" Wheaties. Fortunately, a Desert Iron is a weak square, so it's not a big deal that we settled on it.
