Krill - PBEM5B - Return of the King!

[novice]

Max. 15 characters is going to be a challenge.

Axes And Arrows
Big Bad Bowmen
Crazy Car Chase
Dozy Dogs Drool

[zakalwe]

Deep Doo Doo
Evil Easter Egg
Final Fantasy 5
Gr8 Garlic Girls

[Adlain]

Mine Mine Mine

[zakalwe]

What a shameless way to win the post count war btw.

How is your economy coping with all of these aggressive plants? Will you need to slow down soon?

[regoarrarr]

What a shameless way to win the post count war btw.

Yes I was just thinking of that myself. Though I'll point out that, even with all that jibber-jabber, and me giving you a free post here, I'm still winning :neenernee

[zakalwe]

Hot Hell Hole
Isn't It Ironic
Jam Jar Jet

[novice]

Kick Karate Kid
Let Love Live
No Name Needed
Out Of Office
Pat Pet Pig
Queen Quit Quiz
Rivers Run Red
Ships Set Sail
Tic Tac Toe
Ulcers Undo Us
Very Vast Void
Where Was Wally
XXX
Yes You're You
ZZZzzzzz

[spacemanmf]

Wait a minute... Ulcers Undo Us??

[Krill]

So here I am, stuck without internet, no saves to play, and everything done today (apart from tidyding my room...been putting that off since I got my new desk about 5 months ago). So, what about a little strategy session?

As you can see above, I have just managed to complete the main part of my land grab from Cyneheard. There is the secondary objective, to settle the two southern locations to completely block off the map from tundra to tundra, but that is currently being worked on (and has been for the past, what, 15 turns?) which leaves me wiith just the economy to focus on.

So, back to the old conudrum of tech. Cyneheard currently lacks Alphabet, but is up Hunting (I will likely not tech for a long time, until I need to hook deer), Sailing (about to finish in 10 turns from scientists whilst saving gold), Meditation (probably going to tech as soon as I can get it in 1 turn, as I need Monasteries) and Monotheism (tempting...but OR costs just so much. OTOH, I am about to start slaving out courthouses and/or markets, so maybe the saved hammers, when turned into wealth makes it worthwhile...).

But let's look to the future. I have already said that I will end up in FS/Emancipation/SP/FR, which means that I need Lib, Democracy and Communism,and one prerequisite in PP that is useful in itself. I currently have something in the region of 40 villages/towns, so by the time I get to PP, it is very possible that I will have over a 100 towns/villages, so that is worth about 100 commerce per turn to me. So worth noting, but I would also need MC/Macinery, which is expensive, 1725 adjusted beakers for the both of them. Another side tech which we both need to hook up the jungle cities is Calendar, because most of the food in the jungle belt is bananas.

Cyneheard has a significantly better GNP than myself, OTOH, I have reached the pointy where I dare not plant any more cities, and have plenty of workers (ie unit costs are fairly expensive, and I am working improved tiles), but could still do with more. I expect to get beaten to Lib, so the value of that tech (and the expensive Education) is in the civics and Oxford (but Oxford is junk when you have no single science city). So my aim has to be, IMO, to pressure Cyneheard into taking a cheap tech with Lib, ideally no more than Rep, while getting as many cities down and working as many cottages as possible. To further that aim, I am one turn from completing a new Palace in the current "centre" of my empire, which should hopefully cut maintenece costs a bit and allow a few more cities...I am playing the horizontal growth game after all.

Now, a point on worker micro. It has been shown that the most efficient way to grow cottages in a cottage city isn't to just grow it from a food resource and cottages, but, in basic terms, to irrigate it until it grows pretty damn fast and then cottage over everything when it is almost at max size. To do this, I will need 2 things. A shitload of workers, probably around 100+ which would almost bankrupt me atm, and Civil Service. That is where I am heading to next, after the smaller tech situation is sorted out. I'm about capable of making, without slavery, 2 workers/turn from my hammer cities. With slavery, I reckon I could have 100 workers by turn 150, no real trouble, but the ability to build wealth is important, maybe even critical, and slaving courthouses, and, well, that situation is probably more pressing right now than extra workers, but I'm definitely going to stop and look at the situation again. That's because a courthouse maybe saves me 4, 5 gpt per city (plus the ep which are useful to keep an eye on Cyneheards' tech progress), but I could make that back quickly in new cities if they were to grow faster, hence give me more commerce sooner as the game goes on. And The Game isn't fun if you're not pushing boundaries, yet it is enjoyable to skirt around strike with a proper worker army and a billion cities (Sorry Speaker, but I always liked it in the back...).

However, getting 8 courthouses for the FP is probably a wise move, and I have had the foresight to road down to the south with 2 workers, in two different parts of the map, to bypass the jungle. And I can slave out/build the courthouses with no difficulty, so send down 4 workers and a settler, and I could have the FP up real quick in the North and a (third) Palace in the south (this is because the palace only costs 160 hammers, but the FP costs 120+200=320 for the CH and FP).

[Krill]

Oh and regoarrarr, not for much longer.