PB75 - A New Beginning

[ricketyclik]

Ok, next time I will go straight to bronze working.

I'll be leaving at 21:00 Feb 9 GMT (19.5 hours from now) so any turns after that please take.  I'll be back on deck about 30 - 36 hours later.

The only thing that needs attending to before I'm back is to change tech research to mining (ie bronze working) as soon as sailing is finished (next turn, could have already happened before I leave).

Password is HCI.

Thanks for playing for me xist10

[ricketyclik]

Oh, the scout. West to the coast (one tile) then north along the coast, then curl back east adjacent to mapped territory. Superdeath's territory may get in the way. If so, skirt around whichever direction seems best. West, unless coast, then east.

Edited because last bit didn't get included in the original post.

[xist10]

So T36 and maybe T37. I can do it.

[xist10]

   

I think, bronzeworking is to late.

   

And this is bad news.
SD is in my opinion one of the most aggressive players here and plays one of the best combinations for an early war (not especially rush).
I'm not sure. I think Praets aren't that good as rush unit, but I'm not sure how good they are in combination with catapults against axemen/horsearchers+catapults.
And defensive are the one of the best (the best) UU.

   

~ 15 tiles distance.
Good new, you founded SD, I hope ?

   

A important information: SD knows at least 1 other player.
You can aren't able to not spent your EP points. So if SD don't invest EP in you...

   

And this is what I mean with bronzeworking.
forest aren't good fields.
You could have a mine on one hill or even better cottages near the river.
And you could could whip the settler in ~ 2 turns.

A second settler is okay, because your worker can't do something. - At a second thougt, maybe a seonc worker first and finished the settler with BW.
You need a terrace and more worker.

   

I don't like Tiwanaku. I think it's a good city, but not a good second city.
3 food ressource are good, but you need a monument to get them. This is bad. - And I would recommend to share the food ressources. I like to have about 1 food tile per city - and more citys.
It would be better, if you built the city 1 or 2 tiles further north and you had the wheat next to it.

   

I forgot the east, but this is your north.
Where do you plan your next city ?
I think, I would go north.
Corn-8 on the coast maybe. - with another city later between the pigs and the silk.
Or the hill north of corn and pigs.

And at last a small point of civ machanics.

   

In the moment, you have a research rate of 90%.
You make +12 research (and +1 gold for +/- 0 gold per turn).

   

At 100% research rate, you have -1 gold cost per turn and + 14 research.

   

At 0% resaerch, you make 13 (14-1) gold per turn. (and 1 research per turn).

Civs rounds it numbers down. So you lose 1 commerce, if your research rate isn't 0% or 100%. Late not that important, but in the early game ?
So most players collect gold at 0% and research with -gold per turn at 100% to avoid the rounding losses.
This has a few secondary advantage too.
1.) You have more gold avaible. I'm not sure if you play with Events and gold costs, but even a emergency upgrade can help sometimes.
2.) You invest your commerce in research later. You get a small bonus, if you know players, who already have researched a techs.
I'm not sure, 3% ? This is (can be) only a rounding error, but still.
For example if you only have 300 research remaining at turn X and a research rate of 100 at +/-0 gold and 50% research rate, you get ~9 researchpoints more.
If you still have 600 research remaining at turn X, because you collected gold, but a research rate of 200 at 100% research, you get ~ 18 research points more.

Another important point. In most cases, you are with 0/100 as fast as +/- 0 gold.

[ricketyclik]

I'm back! Thanks for all of the input xist10

[Tarkeel]

While pottery can be an early power tech, it usually has to come after atleast one of AnimalHusbandry and BronzeWorking. Sailing I don't see any reason to research here at all; trade outside your borders isn't a factor for a long time yet and there are no islands visible.

I agree with Xist that Tiwanaku is a good city down the line, but too slow starting. I'd rather plant something between the wheat and cow just north of it, or the corn and pig north of the capital. Given the presence of Superdeath I'd propbably sacrifice the whale and plant on the hill. Both of these sites want an early AnimalHusbandry though, and you really need to get chops and whips online here.

One last point for binary research: Delaying the "burn-phase" will sometimes let you take more advantage or libraries or other science modifiers that are being built. Ie; if a tech would take 12 turns on break-even or 10 of saving and 2 of burning, and you have libraries finishing on T10, then all your research would go through them in a binary play. It often isn't that clear cut a difference though.

(Note: I'm commenting slightly more detail than is usually customary for a non-ded-lurker, so I am expressly limiting myself to what is visible on the screenshots)

[xist10]

A lot is a bit case by case, but I agree with tarkeel.
The classic techpath should be (tech to improve food ressoure ->) bronzeworking.
After that, you have to set priorities.

To research:
1) Pottery for cottage - cottage are the options for an economy
2) more worker techs (animal husbandry (horses !), fishing, (pottery), maybe the quarry tech)
3) you need culture. This means mystik (monuments) (or writing (libaries)) (- you could even risk to research further an get an religion).

After a bit of expansion, you need to stabilize your economy - this means in the most cases currency (additional traderoute and markets) (and code of law for courts).

If you need military techs, this means construction for catapults (collateral is the second most overpowered mechaninc in civ (after slavery)) and maybe horseback riding.

Sailing is relative late - if you don't want to built the great lighthouse.
Galleys are maybe needed to settle island, but island have no high priority in most cases.
And the lighthouse is not that good. Coast are a trap. They are okay for FIN, but cottages are better down the line. And the one food of the water resource is not worth the investment (research and prod) so early on.


Another point - where do I settle ?
You need to set priorities too.
1) You need copper (and horses). If you have no copper or horse, you should settle the next city next to a source (or even on a source).
2) The city should be productive in short time - a food ressource is needed, at best in the 1 ring (the 8 tiles you get, when you settle). - 1 food ressource in the first ring is better than 3 in the second for the frist ~ 3 cities.
3) IF your city are at the happy cap, you should tyr to get acces to a new luxus ressource
4) A city in direction to the enemy (other players) is better than a city in the backline. - this is one reason, I want to settle the next cities north (east) of the capital. Nobody can be faster than you for the cty west of Cuzco



And short excourse about the need for speed for copper (or horses).
Spoiler for the PB74, even if I think it's long enough

I was a bit lucky that I moved my capital in the PB74, but I had the first axe in turn 35. I could attack the enemy capital in T42. My enemy was lucky enough (okay, good enough) to get his first axe in T42. - If I had invaded my other neighbour, I would be succesful. No bronzeworking o(or animal husbandry).
Okay, 7 turn travel time is not much, but I'm resonable sure, you can't really defend, if SD sends a axe down south.

And a short guide:
How to add pictures ?

You can take a screenshot in civ4 with PRINT - if you run Win11, you need to disable Snippingtool (Settings->Accessibility (I hope, 3rd from bottom)->Keyboard->Using the Printbutton to open the screen recording -> OFF )

You find the screenshots (on windows) in C:\Users\"Username"\Documents\My Games\Beyond the Sword\ScreenShots

In the monent, RB can upload screenshots agains.
To do that, you open "Preview Post" and you have below the text field "Attachments".
Upload there and insert the screenshot with "insert at post" on the courserposition in the text field.