Specializing cities

[donsig]

I don't think map making is so scary. It appears even galleys will have to spend time in unsafe waters to reach other lands. (Unless the galleys are booested by the GLH.) But, I agree, it would be good to have a barracks. Here's our specialization so far:

The Chamber: settlers
The Admiralty: wonder
The Bayou and Brown Dot: curraghs
The Gulag: workers
The Silo: forbidden palace
The Treasury: science - but what else?

 

[Paul#42]

Here's my suggestions (first build of the queue already in progress):
1. The Chamber: settler-worker-worker-worker-library
2. The Admirality: curragh-Lighthouse (or Colossus as fallback)
3. The Silo: MoM (FP prebuild) (or Courthouse - FP)
4. The Treasury: warrior - library-barracks-warriors
5. The Gulag: granary - workers (library casually)
6. The Igloo: worker - barracks - warriors (library casually)
7. The (Pink Dot): Library - worker - harbor - worker

But, I agree, it would be good to have a barracks.
...
The Treasury: science - but what else?

As I had suggested earlier, The Treasury indeed would qualify to produce some vet units - after it got its library.
I'm not certain however if we should build more than one barracks especially not before we got libs. We won't be facing other units than barbs for quite a while.

For The Igloo I'd also rate a library over barracks now.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

The treasury building a barracks, then a prebuild for a market makes sense.

I agree that there is no need for lots of vets right now.

 

[zyxy]

Even the rax would be a bit of a gold eater...

Do we intend to build vet warriors for upgrading? Or do we want to hook up the iron so we can build vet swords in Treasury? Otherwise I don't see much point in a rax.
A market though would be rather helpful, and a prebuild after the lib and a few warriors sounds good to me.

 

[donsig]

I see nothing wrong with holding off on the barracks for now, but the time will come when we want one. I think if we get to the point of needing swordmen it would be better to just hook up the iron. Upgrading warriors would take gold we could use to further our research.

 

[donsig]

We've been gaining on SABER in score but that may only be because Chamnix's team is keeping their population down by producing a great workforce. They may be building workers in all their new towns while we are taking a different route with a worker pump. I thought it would be good to look at our progress here.

The Gulag's granary will be done in 8 turns. Form that point it will be able to produce workers every three turns from what I can see.

We currently have 8 cities with another to be settled soon. With 9 cities we should have atleast 14 workers - we have 7. The Chamber will complete its library in 4 turns and then produce 4 workers, taking us up to 11. These 4 workers should proceed to the vicinity of The Admiralty to improve tiles for our Great Lighthouse run. Two of these workers should then join The Admiralty so we can finish the wonder in less than 30 turns. (See zyxy's post in the Grand Strategy thread.

By the time these workers join The Admiralty, The Gulag will be producing its first workers and The Chamber will have made a couple more settlers. At that point we'll have 10 workers and 11 cities/settlers. With The Chamber making settlers every 4 turns and The Gulag making workers every 3 turns, our workforce will have passed the number of cities around the time we (hopefully) complete the Great Lighthouse. It seems we won't really be able to get up to 1.5 workers per city until we've

• stopped building cities so the worker pump can catch up OR
• slowed down our settler output OR
• set up another worker pump

It seems to me we do need to put more effort into producing workers. Perhaps we should let some of our outlying cities (The Igloo and The Institute, for example) produce workers?

 

[peter grimes]

Saber is likely to be producing a worker in each new city founded, based on how MIA was grown last game. In addition, there is likely to be a worker pump.

If you look at how many tiles we have to improve on our island, and how many turns each improvement will take, it is a small matter to sum up the worker turns required to 'finish' our land. I'll bet that Saber already has that schedule worked out.

 

[General_W]

I agree... I've always liked workers, but Chamnix and MIA showed me the real POWER of having lots of workers.

I think we should prioritize (just behind the Great Lighthouse) setting up a second worker pump.

 

[donsig]

Currently: The Chamber and The Gulag are settler pumps. The Admiralty will produce military after the library. The Ways could focus on ships (though we really only need one more for four total). The Treasury is on a wonder pre-build.

We need a good place to build workers! Also, what to build after libraries in our cities? I think we should build a galley in The Ways (7 turns) and switch The Bayou over to something else.

Anyone care to put together a more comprehensive city specializing plan?

 

[Paul#42]

With a granary, The Bayou could run as a 2-turn-worker-factory.

At size 5, it works like this:
CC +2fpt 1spt, iFp +2fpt, fish +1fpt, sugar 2spt, 2 iPl 2spt.
that's +5fpt and 5spt, -1spt (the 4th) lost to corruption. 2 shields on growth (mined plains or desert).
Backside: One of the flood plains is wasted...

The granary should be (part-)cash rushed because building it would take ages...
If it gets both sugars for some time, it could do 8spt at size 5 (CC, 2 mSugar, 2 iPl, 1 mPl = 9 raw = 8 net).
it has 19 shields after #106, might grow to 5.0 after 107. We need the granary before growth or have two more turns to build it.
Rushing 41 shields is 164g, out of the question imo.
I'll make a plan...

It needs to work at size 5 because it can't grow to 7.0

 

[Aigburth]

What about chamsuri's cove? I know it has the wheat and two bg's, it can also have some plains when culture expands, maybe its too corrupt though?

 

[Paul#42]

32% corruption, means shields 2, 5, 8, 11 are lost...

It would need 7spt raw to get 5 net.
CC, 2 mBGs, that's already 5spt at size 3.
well two more mined grasslands or just one more BG...

But a quick granary would be quite expensive...
Only one forest left to chop.

 

[zyxy]

forests can be planted of course...

But I don't know that we need that many worker pumps.

 

[donsig]

Well, we need to figure how many workers we need. We'll have at least 23 cities. Let's say 24 for the northern island. So we want at least 36 workers for 1.5 per city. Then we may want workers to beef up our city sizes. I'll pull a number out of my, err, hat and say 10 for that. That's 46 workers. We have 17 with a new one coming next turn for 18, So we need 28 more workers. The Gulag and The Chamber can make some after settler production ceases. How soon depends on how many cities we decide to settle. We'll need 3 to 7 settlers. If we only need three we can end settler production in 4 to 6 turns. While we wait and see I advocate switching The Bayou away from a galley build. If we don't need a granary there for a worker pump we could build a temple or have a university pre-build.

Is it too early to build temples right after libraries - or are we now in doubt as to building Sistines?

 

[Paul#42]

I'd like to start a wonder in The Chamber soon, maybe even while The Gulag is still on settler duty.

I'd rather have the science wonder in The Treasury, but this is blocked by Sistines prebuild...
But as slow as research seems to start in the MA, we might well build Cope's after Sistines there...