What have I done wrong so far?

[The Foo]

@Njorls: worker and bronzeworking is actually better than WB first, but not by much and not if you have your worker sitting around doing nothing.

If you have tiles to improve and roads to build then yeah it's fine to go worker first but in this case the OP didn't get good worker techs to make use of the worker. getting that bronze mined up and the first WB chopped out would make great use of that worker and you'd still get your WB's out quickly in that situation and tech something that will keep your worker busy with things other than chopping. I think Agriculture should have been the tech after BW then Myst

I think, from reading everyone's comments so far, that my main issue is that I'm not optimizing. I used to play on the lower levels when I was learning, and I'd rarely have more than a couple workers for my entire empire, because I figured I didn't want them hanging around after everything's done.

I see now that they're basically the key to the game in a lot of ways, because without them you're not making full use of your tiles.

the worker was a bonehead move but it happens to best of us when not paying attention. The fact that you weren't paying attention makes me think there were many micro management opportunities missed if you can't even micro a unit you may not be working the best tiles for your goals either.

Ouch!

I do tend to manage which tiles are worked in my cities, but I also often leave that to the auto-manager. (I do tell it to emphasize prod or food, etc.)

As for 2, if OP was trying for a wonderspam strategy building pyramids without stone is not that big a deal, if it's going to take 25 turns for a border pop to gather in the stone, not to mention the worker turns to build the roads then that's time spent to ensure you get the wonder. Unfortunately I think it was more of an ooh shiny distraction than an actual thought out strategy. This, I feel, is the biggest problem with your game play. You have no clearly defined objective on how you want to get this win off.

This is true. Well, not the "ooh, shiny" thing, but the fact that I like wonders (and great people). I think for Churchill, however, it may be smarter to play things a little more military and less peaceful.

Oh yeah and you need more workers, I like at least 1-1.5 per city based on resources and things like irrigation about of land vs water tiles yadda yadda, yadda.

This is my key lesson for today: more workers!

 

[The Foo]

If your happy cap is five, then, you would be able to work 2 crabs (4F/2C each), 1 plains hill sheep (3F/3H ? -- I may have this wrong), 1 grassland river bronze mine (1F/5H/1C ?) and 1 grassland hill mine (1F/3H). Combined with your city tile, that's 15F/12H/5C plus the commerce from the Palace.

15 food at size 5 means a +5 food surplus for good growth/whipping. 12 hammers makes an axeman in 3 turns.

That makes London a solid production city with some commerce as a bonus. As the city gets larger and you get the tech, you can get some plantations and cottages going to improve the income.

This is the kind of analysis I have to start training my brain for!

 

[stuttrboy]

Ouch!

I do tend to manage which tiles are worked in my cities, but I also often leave that to the auto-manager. (I do tell it to emphasize prod or food, etc.)

Well you did say rip you to shreds, but I do this myself. I think there are many opportunities I miss to micro my cities. Ideally you would check every city every time your city grows, an improvement is built, a build is completed or started or the city is whipped. I usually only check them after a whip or I'm building something that needs to be done quickly and cycle through all my cities to make sure they are doing what they are supposed to be doing about ever 20-25 turns. I get impatient or too focused on "that one thing" and ignore other aspects of my empire. My suggestion would be to try and pay more attention, count food and hammers and growth. after a while you will begin to do it instinctively.

 

[tycoonist]

before starting the pyramids, i always consider whether the time would be better employed somewhere else. for example, even with stone, the pyramid is 225 hammers which represents a very big expense at that stage. this would take about 20 turns even with decent production. now considering you have neither decent production, industrious trait or the stone hooked up, this could be expected to be bumped up to 35 turns.

35 turns: is it worth it? in that time, you could build about 2 workers, 2 escorted settlers and an axeman army big enough to take the barb city. you could also focus your capital onto more food and commerce to help in the long run.

the other side of this is what you expect to get out of it. Are you planning to run a SE? if so, this could cut many turns off future research. however, the land, while having a lot of food resources, i would not consider as food rich enough to make representation a priority. The happiness is nice but can be easily achieved and then increased by HR which isn't far down the line, especially because of your oracle bid.

the pyramids really aren't worth the hammers unless, IMO, you have two of the following: Industrious, stone hooked up, or incredible production. without these, it is hard and a waste of time to build unless you plan on running a powerful SE.



Aside from the pyramids, you definitely should have begun on a work boat at max production, possibly followed by another. also, why build workers when they have nothing to do? i am afraid you are guilty of this mistake at least twice. research animal husbandry i can't emphasize this enough: when you have cows and sheep, it is a crucial tech especially considering the luck in getting hunting.

despite all this, this game still looks ok from your point of view. Good luck

 

[tycoonist]

@Njorls: worker and bronzeworking is actually better than WB first, but not by much and not if you have your worker sitting around doing nothing.

Oh yeah and you need more workers, I like at least 1-1.5 per city based on resources and things like irrigation about of land vs water tiles yadda yadda, yadda.

best starting build is nearly always a work boat if you have fishing and access to a sea resource. on the workers point, true but don't build them in the new cities, they need to grow and build monument for culture.

 

[stuttrboy]

best starting build is nearly always a work boat if you have fishing and access to a sea resource. on the workers point, true but don't build them in the new cities, they need to grow and build monument for culture.

building two workboats at maximum production stagnates the city just like a worker would the time it takes to build two work boats is almost the same amount of time as a single worker, then you stagnate again to make the worker granted it comes about twice as fast. Worker first you can increase production (build mines chop forests) without stagnating your city, again it's probably a wash but if there's a gold mine to mine and fish to fry, I guarantee it's worker first. If I'm thinking of an early axe rush I want that worker to hook up copper that much faster. You are trading worker turns for a little extra commerce. If the worker doesn't have anything to work then yes fish first is better, if there are other things that need to be done worker first is the best choice. I think in his situation, and especially with copper popping in his borders worker first was solid if not the best move.

If you value a little extra commerce to your worker turns then by all means build a workboat first. work boats cost half as much as 1 worker but can only be built by hammers. so if there's no 3 hammer tile or better its probably faster to build the worker and make a 3 hammer tile with a mine or more, not to mention the hammers from forest chops. In fact it is just the opposite of what you suggest in that the best starting build is nearly always a worker.

Let's not hijack this thread though there are plenty of threads that hash this out. I think his worker first move was solid, he just needed to follow that up with worker techs as well.

Skipping AH is not that big of a deal, if those were pigs up there I might have said AH is a must but I'm unimpressed with sheep, don't get me wrong 2h 3f 1c tile is nice but when working a 2 seafood and grassland copper you could just mine the sheep and be fine with it.

 

[Gocho]

The biggest mistake I got from your post is you never really went for any of the wonders you sorta just put turns into them. As you go to higher levels you need to focus more, if you want the pyramids for example you should have settled stone city before marble city and done some chopping for it.

 

[The Foo]

Thanks for all the input and especially the discussion about the workers/fishing boats.