So; what's the next actual decision we're going to need to make? As far as I'm aware, we're happy to:
* Research bronze working and the wheel. I would suggest pottery next.
* Improve both golds with the worker.
* Build a workboat as the next build item, to claim the ocean fish.
* Camp the warrior, once it's finished exploring, on the second northmost silk to spawnbust the entire island (by turn 25 when our borders pop again at least anyway). Actually no-one agreed to this but no-one's disagreed either.
All agreed. Also note that the Worker should improve the
southernmost Gold first, then prebuild a road on the tile 1NE of that Gold, then improve the other Gold. We might want to come back and finish off the road before the Settler is built to shave 1 turn off its travel, but only if this won't interfere with its arrival time through chops.
So, that will keep us completely busy for at least the next dozen or so turns. In the meantime, I propose we start arguing about what to do next. I'll start it off with some more controvertial statements.
1. I think we should beeline writing via pottery, and build a library as soon as writing is finished (subject to maybe finishing what we're building first).
Sure.
2. I think we should get Animal Handling before Writing if and only if it won't delay the library by more than a turn or so anyway. The 25% bonus from the library is better than the 20% bonus from having AH before Writing anyway.
I think (have to check) that this would delay the Library by 2 or 3 turns. Also, we have to keep in mind that we're researching pretty fast, and other teams are likely to be researching similarly fast, so someone will likely have Alphabet early and we may be able to trade for AH (and other early techs we may miss).
3. Before the library, I think we should build a (third) workboat, then a settler.
Disagree respectfully; this'd delay the Library by probably around 3 or 4 turns (have to check). I'd rather meet another team 3-4 turns later than sacrifice around 30 beakers.
EDIT: Hang on, isn't this what we already had planned? Our builds, as I had planned in my tests, were:
Work Boat -> Worker -> Work Boat -> Work Boat -> Settler -> Library
So yeah, this is no different.
4. I think we should plant the (third) workboat on a fish near the second city. The second city is as good as the capital, the sooner we can get it in action the better.
Oh, you meant for working a Fish and not exploring? In that case I disagree even more. The second city will be able to build its two Work Boats in not much more than 10 turns; I don't see much benefit in speeding that up by 5 turns or so. (It'll have to be size 2 before it can even use the second Fish as well, not to mention taking 5 turns for the border to expand.)
EDIT: Actually, if you meant the build order above, then the third Work Boat will have at least 10 turns of "dead time" while it sits around waiting for the second city to be built and expand its borders before it can work the Fish, at which point the second city will have its own Work Boat anyway. This is why we should send the third Work Boat exploring instead.
5. Along the same lines, I think we should send the worker to improve the gold in the second city as soon as we settle it.
This seems like something worth investigating. I'm inclined to think that getting the second city to build its own Worker after hooking up the 2 Fish might be better; that or getting the capital to build another Worker after the Library (or both of these options). That's just because chopping at the capital will be so necessary to get out the things we want (Library, more Work Boats, perhaps Granary, etc) faster. However, this should definitely be tested, as hooking up the river Gold early at the second city site would also be a pretty strong move.
6. We should have a turn or two of 0% research slider to save up some cash just before we build the library. Maybe between getting writing and building the library.
Possibly, if we're going to be at a loss of at least -1 GPT after building the second city. If not, I'd keep running at 100%.
If we send the (third) workboat exploring instead, we should still build a (fourth) workboat in the capital to help get the second city off the ground quicker. I'd personally prefer to build a galley (or two) a little later, put a couple of warriors on it, and start exploring with the galley and the warriors.
I thought the plan was to send the third Work Boat (the build before the Settler) exploring? Certainly we need to meet at least 1 other civ fairly early on to try to ensure we have at least one good trading partner in future. I also anticipated the fourth Work Boat from the capital being sent exploring; indeed, this one would be hard pressed to reach the second city before it could improve its own Fish.
Waiting for a Galley before we begin our exploration would put us at quick a diplomatic disadvantage (because some of the other teams would surely meet earlier and make deals between themselves). I would rather do the Galley + Warrior thing later on in combination with the earlier Work Boats.
. We could just follow this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minor_planets:_1%E2%80%931000 ?
