SGOTM 17 - The Shawshank Redemption

[Dhoomstriker]

After more than 7 hours' worth of effort, here's an updated test game.

There's no way to accurately reflect the Cultural Battle near Djenne and Prague since Monte has been running Judaism instead of Confucianism. So, it's anybody's guess as to when we'll get control of the G Pig Pasture there.

We can't know which City of ours will "get control" of it (actually, maybe the test game can tell us--probably Prague, since it's the "older" City, but it's hard to say for certain if the test game will reflect the real game on this point), but we'll probably want GP Farm to take control of that square, so we'll just have to manually check every turn when playing the real game.

We're also short 1 Hamlet turn on the SE G Riv Hamlet at Prague and we and Monte obviously know more AIs than in the real game.

Other than that, I think that everything else reflects the real game.

 

[chopster]

I hate to break this news, but the window for me to play the next set has effectively closed.
We had an incident at work last night, and there's simply no way I'll have time to plan and play even a short set before flying out.

I should be able to catch up over the week after I fly out (hotel rooms are boring) with a view to playing a set approximately 12 days from now.

If someone could pick up the game for some turns between now and then it would be good.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

Personally, I do not think that Representation mixes well with either Horseback Riding or Construction as our next tech.

So, if we really want to keep the Representation-in-the-short-term door open and if we fear that it's a bit too late for a rush, let's just go for Alphabet. It's a good all-around choice and then we'll know exactly where we stand on the tech-trading scene with Mansa and with any AI that we meet.


We cannot speed up The Great Lighthouse by whipping Work Boats in Rice City. We COULD speed it up by 1 turn by 2-pop-whipping either a Galley or a Barracks. We could also speed it up by 2 turns by 2-pop-whipping either a Spearman or an Axeman. Do you have a preference for which build item to make from that City?


We have several Worker tasks ahead of us:
1. Farming the wet G Banana at Ivory City
2. Improving the G Ivory For at Ivory City
3. Chopping the GH For 4E of Aachen into The Pyramids
4. Chopping the G For NE + 3N of Aachen into The Pyramids
5. Probably building a Plains Cottage 1N of Fish City (using the Galley to help shuttle a Worker there)

Future Improvements:
6. Roading the G Gem Jungle
7. Roading G Pig Jungle squares
8. Building a G Cottage SE + S of Horse City (we'll need to wait 7 turns for the Cultural Borders to expand there)
9. Mining the GH NE + E of Ivory City

If we can figure out from where to build a Settler (Ivory City?--Prague and Aachen shouldn't be building any more Settlers in the short term):
10. Chopping the 2 Forests at Dual Banana City into a Granary
11. Cottaging the Flood Plains square at Dual Banana City


Aachen can probably do with 3-pop-whipping a Temple when it's about to grow to Size 7, as per Jastrow's suggestion. Alternatively, we'd whip 1 or 2 Axes/Spears if we feared an AI beating us to The Pyramids, which is a potentially realistic fear. We really are relying on getting that Wonder. We don't mind whipping away the Scientists there as we'll get our next Great Person out of Prague.

Prague can build the Temple for 1 turn and then 2-pop-whip it. Once we've regrown to Size 5, we can work Pig + Cow + 2 Sci + 1 Priest to get us a Great Person ASAP and giving us maximum flexibility in terms of which Civics we pick (Representation for 7 turns and Police State afterward???).

Ivory City could probably build Settler -> Wealth

Rice can keep building The Great Lighthouse until we're ready to 2-pop-whip a build item to get us a few more Hammers into The Great Lighthouse.

Island can build the Lighthouse until there are 30 Hammers in it, whip the Lighthouse at that time, and then can build Wealth.

GP Farm can build Wealth now. We can switch back to the Library when we've reached Size 4 or are about to reach Size 4, which is a ways off unless we get the G Pig Pasture square, since we only need 5 turns of building the Library to be able to 2-pop-whip it.

Horse... I'm toying with the idea of working 2 Coasts for 2 turns and growing to Size 3 faster... or else we grow in 4 turns' time while working the Coast + Horse. Regardless, once we have 30+ Hammers in a Granary, we can whip the Granary and can then build Wealth.

NE can build Wealth now and can switch to a Library in 3 turns' time to "execute" the 3 Chops plus overflow Hammers, then return to building Wealth.

I'm still not sure whether Fish, after completing its Monument, should start on a Granary, a Lighthouse, or Wealth.

Silver can go Monument -> Wealth, since we can use 1 Chop after 11 turns' time to complete the Granary as a 1-pop-whip.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

We had an incident at work last night, and there's simply no way I'll have time to plan and play even a short set before flying out.

I'm sorry to hear that. Hopefully, your incident didn't involve injuries and everyone is safe.

I will be heading out of town shortly myself and don't have time to pick up a turnset, so someone else is going to have to pick up the slack.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

Mansa's capital is very juicy-looking with the extra G Riv Pig and G Riv Hamlets. It, unfortunately, does not have much in the way of production, so I think that we can forget the idea of waiting for him to build the Temple of Artemis for us.


I toyed around with Unpromoted Horse Archers versus 2 Skirms in Cities with 40% Cultural Defences and I am VERY IMPRESSED by what I saw.

1 battle = 4 Horse Archers won with 2 losses
1 battle = 6 Horse archers won with 3 losses and 1 retreat

We can certainly strike at Djenne on the first turn of war, facing only 2 Skirms.

Timbuktu can be reached on the second turn of war from south of his capital, having us face only a small army of Skirms, too.


City capture Gold from capturing both Cities = roughly 200 Gold.


If we go in with extra Horse Archers, we can roam his Roads after capturing his Cities since he doesn't have overlapping Culture in most cases (only a little bit by his capital and his coastal City).


By capturing 3 Cities (even if we only get a small amount of Capture Gold from the third City), we can earn enough Capture Gold to research Alphabet within the span of 3 turns' time.


So, let's do that:
- Horseback Riding with the intent of building up an army to take on Mansa
- If we can explore the south and see an opportunity to take on an AI down there, we can keep pumping out Horse Archers; otherwise, we can take a break to leverage Org Religion to build Barracks and Stables and go after Construction for War Elephants + Cats, to be supported by our surviving Horse Archers
- Use City capture Gold to get Alphabet if Mansa doesn't research it for us by then
- Take Polytheism for Peace (we can't expect much)
- Trade with Mansa, since he'll still like his brothers and sisters of the faith enough to trade with us


Ironically, Mansa doesn't seem to want to build many Spears or Chariots, since he favours his Unique Unit, which also has 4 hitpoints.


Horse Archers are the killer unit for Skirms because Skirms get extra First Strikes and Horse Archers are immune to First Strikes.


We'll get +1 Happiness from the Gem Resource of Mansa's regardless of when Iron Working comes in for us.


We should be able to capture most, if not all of Mansa's Workers using his vast Road network (which we helped to build, heh heh) once the Cultural Borders quickly fall.


All that we need is for Mansa to build one more City so that we don't eliminate him when we capture his 3 current Cities. If we're close to attacking him and he STILL only has 3 Cities, we can build him a cheap Settler and Liberate a City to him (or even gift him the Settler if it will take us too long to walk the Settler through the Jungle). Such a gifted City could also draw a defender or two out of one of his Cities right before we attack.

 

[Mitchum]

I too will be out of town this week, so the soonest that I could possibly play would be next week. So if Jastrow can't play, I guess we're stuck for a while. But we should be able to put together a high-level plan as a team so that as soon as someone has time to play, they should be able to do so.

@ Dhoom Thanks for updating the test game. I think after this update, we should put it to bed since it's likely becoming more trouble than it's worth.

It appears that we're all in agreement on researching HBR next. However, we may not be in agreement on how soon we actually start to build up troops for an invasion. Let's not get overly worried about that just yet. A lot can happen between now and HBR. Hopefully we know about the culture bridge and Mansa has learned Alphabet. From there, I think we should leave all options open (i.e. DoW Mansa, focus on research, DoW AI #2, etc.), so let's not commit to anything right now beyond learning HBR. Doing this should keep us from going back down the rat hole of debating when to go down on Mansa.

Also, when we decide to DoW will determine whether we go PS or Rep. So I think we can safely ignore that debate since the situation when we learn HBR will dictate which way we go. By the way, don't forget that Representation gives +3 in our top 5 (is it 5?) cities.

Regarding the GLH, do we need to speed it up? If so, I think I'd whip a galley as we know for sure that we'll need a few of them. Of course, speeding up the wonder by 1 turn really doesn't do a ton for us (EDIT: as far as securing the wonder), but two +1 TRs in 5 cities = +10 commerce one turn sooner sounds like a good deal.

Regarding the galley, it needs to be at the corner of our culture bridge city in 9 turns with a unit on board, preferable a chariot (or two?) so that we can quickly explore once we hit land on the other side. If we can do that and still use it to shuttle a worker to Fish City to build a cottage, great. If not, then the worker can walk there. Or, we can use the second galley, should we whip one into the GLH, to explore the SW.

Can we afford to settle Dual Banana now (should be doable post GLH)? Or should we wait until we have IW?

Personally, I "think" that the Mids are safe but I have zero experience with Classical starts. I'd prefer to just 3-pop the temple. We could 3-pop the temple and then 2-pop an axe/spear I guess if we're really nervous about losing them.

I'm fine with 2 popping a temple in Prague and trying for a quick great person. I think launching a GA with him will be fairly good timing. Of course, we could wait and launch a GA later but I think the longer we wait, the less impact it will have.

I'm fine with the Ivory City plan, although I'd also be fine if we just skipped Dual Banana for now. Although if we're going to settle it, the sooner the better. I'm fine either way. This city should also finish its barracks before it starts cranking out units.

I think Fish needs infrastructure, so a granary and LH should be built at some time. We also need a WB for the fish resource in 10ish turns.

For the other cities, I'm fine with Dhoom's suggestions or I'm indifferent.

I like Dhoom's plan of quickly getting Mansa to one city, but I don't want to commit to it just yet. Let's keep it on the table and reassess the situation once we've learned HBR. At the time we're planning to go to war with him, we should also plan on getting a settler for the coast in the NW which will have to quickly build/chop a galley so that can figure out what's going on up there.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

By the way, don't forget that Representation gives +3 in our top 5 (is it 5?) cities.

So, what are you suggesting?

Switch to Representation, grow our Cities, then switch to Police State and whip away the citizens that have become Unhappy from the loss of Representation?

Regarding the GLH, do we need to speed it up? If so, I think I'd whip a galley as we know for sure that we'll need a few of them. Of course, speeding up the wonder by 1 turn really doesn't do a ton for us, but two +1 TRs in 5 cities = +10 commerce one turn sooner sounds like a good deal.

A Galley is fine.

Note that Galleys and Work Boats will be cheaper post-Police-State.

A Barracks will only be cheaper post-Organized-Religion if a City has Confucianism (Rice City might never get Confucianism, or at least not unless we were to manually spread it there).

Then again, it wouldn't hurt to have 2 Galleys for our initial southward exploration.

Regarding the galley, it needs to be at the corner of our culture bridge city in 9 turns with a unit on board

We haven't even completed the Monument yet, so it will be 10 turns after the current turn (11 turns away). There's plenty of time to get the Galley into position.

Can we afford to settle Dual Banana now (should be doable post GLH)?

Well, we can plop down a City in the test game to find out. Note that we will stop working either the G Riv Banana Hamlet or the G Riv Hamlet while we are generating Great Person #2 out of Prague, so there'll be an opportunity to work the G Riv Banana Hamlet in Dual Banana City and Prague can work the SE G Riv Hamlet.

Dual Banana still might not quite pay for itself initially, but it should come close to paying for itself to the point that it should be worth settling now. Two Chops into a Granary can make it so that we can whip a Monument there, giving us an extra chance at cross-Ocean travel.

I'm fine with the Ivory City plan, although I'd also be fine if we just skipped Dual Banana for now. Although if we're going to settle it, the sooner the better. I'm fine either way.

The other nice thing about stagnating Ivory City now is that we're hardly growing anyway, since we have yet to Farm the wet G Banana. Until we get that farmed, there isn't much City growth out of Ivory, so it's a reasonable investment to put mostly-Hammers into a Settler build item.

At the time we're planning to go to war with him, we should also plan on getting a settler for the coast in the NW which will have to quickly build/chop a galley so that can figure out what's going on up there.

Sure, that makes sense to me. One thing that has been bugging me is just how long it will take to build a Galley out of Mansa's Gems City, so it will be nice to have an alternative City that can produce a Galley or two much quicker.

 

[Mitchum]

So, what are you suggesting?

Switch to Representation, grow our Cities, then switch to Police State and whip away the citizens that have become Unhappy from the loss of Representation?

I wasn't suggesting anything. It seemed that the focus of the argument between PS and Representation was focused on the beakers generated from Representation specialists without mention of the +3 which also needs to be considered.

I'm not sure if growing cities during Representation is the way to go as we'd prefer to be running specialists than working food tiles...

We haven't even completed the Monument yet, so it will be 10 turns after the current turn (11 turns away). There's plenty of time to get the Galley into position.

11 turns, 9ish turns, whatever it is, I agree that we have plenty of time. We just need to be sure that we have that end goal in mind of being at the edge of our cultural borders with a unit(s) on board ready to go on the turn our borders pop.

Dual Banana still might not quite pay for itself initially, but it should come close to paying for itself to the point that it should be worth settling now. Two Chops into a Granary can make it so that we can whip a Monument there, giving us an extra chance at cross-Ocean travel.

Post GLH, this city should surely pay for itself with +4C from TRs and working a cottage. I guess it does make sense to settle this city sooner rather than later.

 

[Jastrow]

Regarding the GLH, do we need to speed it up? If so, I think I'd whip a galley as we know for sure that we'll need a few of them. Of course, speeding up the wonder by 1 turn really doesn't do a ton for us (EDIT: as far as securing the wonder), but two +1 TRs in 5 cities = +10 commerce one turn sooner sounds like a good deal.

I was thinking that two times 1-pop whipping a WB was the fastest way to get GLH. We need a WB for fish, an the other could esplore. Having said that, if a galley is near as efficient, I dont object to that either.

Regarding the galley, it needs to be at the corner of our culture bridge city in 9 turns with a unit on board, preferable a chariot (or two?) so that we can quickly explore once we hit land on the other side. If we can do that and still use it to shuttle a worker to Fish City to build a cottage, great. If not, then the worker can walk there. Or, we can use the second galley, should we whip one into the GLH, to explore the SW.

Agreed. Having the galley in place is more important than getting the worker to fish sooner.

Can we afford to settle Dual Banana now (should be doable post GLH)? Or should we wait until we have IW?

I think that any coastal city which can be setteled as soon as possible after GLH is good. I would holf of on non-coastal cities for a while.

Personally, I "think" that the Mids are safe but I have zero experience with Classical starts. I'd prefer to just 3-pop the temple. We could 3-pop the temple and then 2-pop an axe/spear I guess if we're really nervous about losing them.

I agree... I am not too worried either.

I'm fine with 2 popping a temple in Prague and trying for a quick great person. I think launching a GA with him will be fairly good timing. Of course, we could wait and launch a GA later but I think the longer we wait, the less impact it will have.

It feels a bit too early for a GA to me... I would have to llok at the numbers more closely one we get there however.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

I was thinking that two times 1-pop whipping a WB was the fastest way to get GLH.

Earlier, your trick of "dumping Hammers into a Work Boat" was great.

What happened there was that instead of manually-completing the Lighthouse, we temporarily "parked" some Hammers into the Work Boat.

Then, we earned 30 Hammers because we were able to whip the Lighthouse.

When we whipped the Work Boat, it felt like we "earned" Hammers, but all that we really accomplished was using the whipping action to complete all 30 Hammers' worth of the Work Boat and then the Hammers that we "temporarily parked" into the Work Boat got dumped into The Great Lighthouse. So, we didn't actually gain any extra Hammers by building the Work Boat.

The same will be true now... if we make 8 Hammers per turn and then whip a 30-Hammer Work Boat, we'll have 38/30 Hammers in the Work Boat after whipping and will overflow 8 + 8 = 16 Hammers. Well, if we didn't build the Work Boat at all, we would still have made 16 Hammers over the course of those two turns. So, all that we effectively accomplish is lose 2 Commerce per turn in exchange for a Work Boat, with no change in the date of completing The Great Lighthouse.

Now, if we take a build item that costs less than a multiple of 30 Hammers (i.e. a Barracks, which costs 50 Hammers, and 50 Hammers is less than a multiple of 30 Hammers... i.e. 50 < 60). In that case, we can 2-pop-whip the Barracks, earning us a base 8 Hammers on the first turn of building the Barracks, then 60 Hammers from whipping, and another 8 Hammers of overflow when we complete the Barracks.

The net result is that we will have 8 + 60 + 8 / 50 = 76 / 50 Hammers in the Barracks, giving us 76 - 50 = 26 of overflow Hammers. 16 of those 26 Hammers came from the base production that we would have earned for those 2 turns, leaving us up by 10 Hammers (60 - 50 = 10).

Given that we make 8 Hammers per turn and 10 Hammers is slightly more than 8 Hammers, we can then say that by 2-pop-whipping away 2 Coast squares that were not producing any Hammers for us, we exchange 4 Commerce per turn for a 1-turn-faster The Great Lighthouse.

Whether was worth it to whip that Barracks (or an equally-priced Galley) depends upon how much we want that build item and how much we plan to gain out of getting The Great Lighthouse one turn sooner relative to simply continuing to work the Coast squares for roughly 6 turns plus roughly 6 turns of just working 1 Coast square (a rough total of 18 Commerce lost).

Of course, the exact amount of Commerce lost depends upon when we whip relative to how full our Foodbox is and how much we could continue to grow without whipping (generally limited by our Happiness), but that's a rough estimate of the cost.

We're not going to earn back 18 Commerce from getting The Great Lighthouse 1 turn sooner, but you also have to weigh the other benefits... +2 GPP, a greater chance of actually completing the Wonder, the use of the Galley, the Maintenance Cost of the Galley, and the amount of production we can have in Coastal Cities if we do not whip*.

* We're not in too bad of shape, as we have both the Copper and Stone Resources.


Now, in a City that is faster-growing (like Rice will be after the Pig Resource gets improved), the amount of time lost working useful squares by the whipped-away citizens gets reduced.

So, it's not necessarily going to be a winning choice to whip Rice City at all if we do not feel that The Great Lighthouse's date is in jeopardy and if we feel that we do not need a Galley or Barracks in the short run, relative to the extra Commerce that we can earn over time instead.


Most whipping actions have a price, but in a high-Food City where you can regrow quickly, that price is often reduced to make the decision favour whipping. In this case, the numbers favours not whipping, unless we have another reason (wanting a 2nd Galley badly, being concerned about the date of The Great Lighthouse, etc).

 

[Mitchum]

I was wondering what the benefit of 1-popping WBs was earlier but I forgot to ask. If we do want to make a more significant impact to the GLH date, we would need to whip a build item that costs 35H like an axe or spear. We would put 4H or less into it and 2-pop whip it for a much bigger impact, likely speeding up the GLH by 2 to 3 turns rather than 1 turn.

@Jastrow Are you still to busy to play or have things cleared up for you?

 

[Jastrow]

I will be very busy for at least this comming week... I expect the comming weekend to be hopeless as well.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

I was wondering what the benefit of 1-popping WBs was earlier but I forgot to ask. If we do want to make a more significant impact to the GLH date, we would need to whip a build item that costs 35H like an axe or spear. We would put 4H or less into it and 2-pop whip it for a much bigger impact, likely speeding up the GLH by 2 to 3 turns rather than 1 turn.

The biggest problem is that we'd have to stop working the P Copper for 1 turn, and with the Railroad on it, it's a strong square to give up.

So, we'd lose 6 Hammers just to earn 25 Hammers, for a net gain of 19 Hammers. We would still come out ahead by 2 turns of a faster The Great Lighthouse but that Unit will likely cost us Unit Supply Costs. I suppose that we could use another Military Police unit, so he wouldn't be a total waste, but we would be sacrificing the Commerce lost from not working the Coast squares while we regrow the City. That would also be one less whipping action that could otherwise give us 2 Horse Archers later.

Thus, probably the best thing to do in Rice City is not to whip at all until we need a Work Boat and not whip the Work Boat for extra Hammers but simply for the fact that Fish City needs a Work Boat, so we'd be reinvesting the whipped-away Commerce in additional Food.

Then, we'd still have enough population for a 2-pop-whip post-Police-State, be it for 2 Galleys or for 2 Horse Archers.

 

[Mitchum]

OK, so we'd not be working two coast squares in Rice City but we'd gain two +1 TRs in 5 (or 6) coastal cities for +10 (or +12) commerce per turn two turns sooner. As you said, we'll need the unit for MP duty soon anyway. Plus, even if the GLH feels secure, speeding it up by 2 turns makes it just a bit safer. The sooner we finish the GLH, the sooner we can start building Wealth to speed up research. Finally, I'm not sure what the current whip is in Rice City, but if we're not whipping there occasionally, we're not being efficient with our whipping resource there (although it is a bit light on food to whip too much). So, on balance, I think the pros outweigh the cons.

I'm not going to lay down on my sword over this battle. The point of this post is to show that there is more to it than having to ignore the copper for 1 turn or losing a couple of citizens working coastal tiles as you've outlined in your post above.

 

[Jastrow]

I was wondering what the benefit of 1-popping WBs was earlier but I forgot to ask.

Yeah, I meant fastest way to get GLH, a WB for fish, AND an exploring see unit, all of which we need. Obviously, this is not the fastest way to get TGL only.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

OK, so we'd not be working two coast squares in Rice City but we'd gain two +1 TRs in 5 (or 6) coastal cities for +10 (or +12) commerce per turn two turns sooner. As you said, we'll need the unit for MP duty soon anyway. Plus, even if the GLH feels secure, speeding it up by 2 turns makes it just a bit safer. The sooner we finish the GLH, the sooner we can start building Wealth to speed up research. Finally, I'm not sure what the current whip is in Rice City, but if we're not whipping there occasionally, we're not being efficient with our whipping resource there (although it is a bit light on food to whip too much). So, on balance, I think the pros outweigh the cons.

Rice Peninsula City Micro
Turn 81, 400 AD (or 1 turn sooner, to be sure that we don't forget), we can:
a) Work Fur + 3 Coast squares (feel free to "activate" a Coast square that gets stolen from Aachen)
AND
b) Build a Spearman

Turn 82, 425 AD
a) Whip the Spearman
AND
b) Work the Fur + Copper

T83, 450 AD
We'll have enough Hammers to complete The Great Lighthouse this turn with 4 overflow Hammers
We have 13 Whipping Unhappiness

If we were to instead "do nothing," then two turns later, on Turn 85, 500 AD, we would:
i. Complete The Great Lighthouse with 1 overflow Hammer
ii. Grow to Size 5
iii. Have 1 Whipping Unhappiness remaining (0 next turn, meaning -1 aka wasted usage by the time that we can whip another build item)


So, sure, let's go with your plan of starting to build the Spearman without working the Copper on T80, 375 AD (that is one turn sooner than the ideal case, so that we don't forget--our team is notorious for forgetting to look inside of City screens and adjusting things at the last minute for this type of micro--one turn too early won't hurt that much, but one turn too late makes it almost pointless to do). As long as we don't try to get tricky at the last minute by building the Spearman for 2 turns (we'll lose out on the Copper for 2 turns that way, which will delay The Great Lighthouse by 1 turn), then doing it one turn than ideal earlier should be fine.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

More Worker Micro Comments
At some point we should build a Grassland Cottage NE + N of Island City. Pre-Lighthouse, the City Governor likes to pick that square anyway, although that fact shouldn't matter as we should be whipping the Lighthouse. Still, it'll do better in the long run than a Coast square and we're going to be relegated to working Coast squares in that City for quite some time to come.


On the other hand, Cities like NorthEastern, Ivory City, Silver Bridge, and GP Farm would probably do better with Lakeside, Grassland Farms instead of Grassland Cottages. Eventually, Horse City could, too, but it will have so many strong Resources squares to work that we won't need Farms there for a long time to come.


In terms of the NorthEastern Workers, we eventually want to get probably all but 1 Worker out of the area.

The best way that I can see to do that is:
Worker 3 (on the G For 1W of NorthEastern) Chops the Forest and then Roads that square
From there, Worker 3 can move to the G Ivory For and Road it

That way, when other Workers are done in the area (Chopping the NW and N G For squares), they can move to the G Road square 1W of NE City and partially Farm

Then, they can move to the Roaded G Ivory For square and partially Camp

One Work can finish the Camp while the other one will have "moved out of the NE area without wasting any Worker turns."

The remaining Worker up there can probably finish off the Grassland Farm, then move to the GH For 2E of NE City, Chop it (and by then the Cultural Borders should have expanded over top of that square), Mine it, then lose a Worker turn, then probably Chop the last G For within NE City's Cultural Borders.


When leaving the Roaded G Ivory For square, one Worker could move SE G Ivory For Road Camp, SE G (1E of Ivory City) and partially Farm, then move 1SW G (1S of Ivory City) and partially Road, before moving to the wet G Banana to Farm.

Another Worker leaving there could move to the G For that is NE + 3N of Aachen, to Chop it into The Pyramids. He could probably then move 1NE G, 1SE G For (2W of Ivory City) and Chop that For.

The third Worker leaving there, after completing the Camp, could move to the G Gems Jungle square and Road it, then move 1SW to the barren Grassland square (assuming that Jungle hasn't grown there yet) and Cottage it for Horse City, assuming that we don't yet have Iron Working.

Obviously, if we get Iron Working at any time, then our entire Worker prioritization strategy will have to shift to improving the important (Pig, Gems, and Silver) Junglified Resources. To that end, it probably makes sense to mass-whip Workers as soon as we learn Iron Working.

One whipped Worker will be more than paid for itself by improving a Pig Resource... given our Granaries, a Pig can very quickly regrow the 2 population points needed to whip the Worker.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

Worker by Aachen Micro
We're going to want a G Cottage at Aachen if we're going to consider 2-pop-whipping a Spearman into The Pyramids at the last minute, so Worker 5 (NW + W of Aachen) can probably move 1SE G Road and finish the Cottage that we put 1 Worker turn into there.

From there, we could probably move 1E (into Aachen), 1NE GH Mine, 1NE G Road and partially Farm. Eventually, once we get Civil Service, we'll want to chain-irrigate this Farm to Aachen's Rice. Then, we could move 2SE to the GH For and Chop it into The Pyramids.

That leaves us with either moving 1NW G and partially Roading, followed by moving 1NW G Road and partially Farming again; or, we could move 1N G and partially Road, then move to the wet G Banana to help out if it hasn't been fully Farmed yet.


Worker by Prague Micro
Worker 4 (SE + E of Prague) could probably board our Galley and then unload inside of Rice Peninsula City. It's possible that we might want to Cottage the Plains square by Rice City, which may possibly speed up The Great Lighthouse by 1 turn.

Then, we could move to Cottage the Plains square 1N of Fish City.


Espionage?
Could it be that Mansa has extra Espionage not due to an Espionage Slider increase (which he has a low probably to increase relative to other AIs) but instead due to having a couple of Courthouses? If yes, then capturing those soon could translate into them either dying (which would suck) or giving us a couple of free Rathauses (which would be awesome). If he has 2 Courthouses, then hopefully luck will work in our favour to give us at least 1 Rathaus out of the City captures.


Work Boat for Fish City
Note that the Cultural Borders of Fish City will not expand over top of the Fish Resource until Turn 87, 540 AD (Turn 85 is 500 AD, when the date counter switches from every 25 years to every 20 years). We'll have The Great Lighthouse by then. It may make more sense to whip the Work Boat out of Island City than out of Rice Peninsula City, since Rice Peninsula City has less Food and it also takes a Work Boat 1 more turn to travel to the Fish Resource from Rice City than it does from Island City.


Prague + GP Farm Pig
Prague did indeed get the G Pig, so we'll have to keep an eye on that square and assign it to GP Farm when we get control of it. Too much Food in Prague will just lead to Unhappiness, but extra Food in GP Farm means being able to make use of one more City's Whipping "Resource."

 

[kcd_swede]

For Dhoomstryker:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0vXxH1IEmQ

 

[Mitchum]

Is anyone going to be able to play before Monday?