[Spoilers] naufragar's fist full of pesos (Montezuma)

[naufragar]

Ok, ok. Y'all are motivating me to report.

Got some unexpected luck:


The Scout survived at 25% battle.

In the wider world, people have been getting wonders. I've been bad about paying attention. I think Pico (Washington) got Oracle and 2metraninja (Bismark) got the Great Wall. I think. Although I would've expected Oracle from Bismark, I guess. Ziankali (Joao) is up to 4 cities.

Next time I remember to take a screenshot, I'll ask about the stop-growth granary overflow trick. Might have a chance to use it.

[Rusten]

Did the stop-growth trick come off? Rest assured I'm just hoping for another amusing whipgate.

But perhaps you're still on the same turn a week later.

[naufragar]

Did the stop-growth trick come off? Rest assured I'm just hoping for another amusing whipgate.

Don't give it a name!

This pic is from two turns ago:


As I understand it, if I turn on avoid growth when the food bar is at 24/26 and the granary is at 57/60, then the granary completes, the food bar goes to 26/26 without growth, and the granary banks 4f. Then the next turn when the city grows, the food bar gets 4 natural food and 8 food from two turns of granary storage for 12f total. Without the trick, the city grows to 2/28 food bar and then the next turn it adds another 4 natural food plus only 1 turn of granary storage (4f) for 10f in the bar. So, the trick gets us 2f (and like -2 commerce).

I don't think I'm going to use it, though. My original plan was to get an axe out next, but I think I'm going to put a different city on axe duty so I can go straight to a settler. This makes the 2pop whip of the settler a little less efficient, but I'm worried about my development. Joao is now on 5 cities and has whipped twice this turn. If anybody wants me to use the stop-growth button, speak now or forever hold your peace! There are twelve hours left in the turn but only 2 people left to play, so we might have one of those fabled early turn rolls.

For what its worth, I'm not sure how well I've managed my development this game. I just switched to slavery this turn in order to whip a granary. The next thing I whip will be the cap's settler in ~4 turns. Every city now has a granary, so I sacrificed early whipping for more efficient later whipping. With how low my crop yield is, I think I'm ok with this trade. Spiritual has saved us a bit of gold. Maybe like 8 gold? I've already whined about the start. Monti of the Aztecs is not known for his blistering speed, and I lost the only Agricultural resource site to Joao, so I've had to wait for Animal Husbandry to improve my cities. That comes in next turn, so we'll see where the horses are. I honestly have no clue how I'm doing. Joao is blowing by me, but that's to be expected even without the river+Ag resources. No clue how I stack up to everyone else, but my plan after Animal Husbandry is to try for Monotheism. I've talked about this a bit before, but I'm Spiritual in a big game, a religion would be nice. Doubtful that I'll be fast enough: low GNP, too many other required techs.

I'm weirdly superstitious about talking about bigger plans for some reason, but one nice thing about the Monotheism line is it leads to Monarchy-->Feudalism-->G***ds. It would probably be too stupid to tech Alphabet and avoid Sailing, Math, and Construction so I could make use of some Merchant specialists...  

[Rusten]

As I understand it, if I turn on avoid growth when the food bar is at 24/26 and the granary is at 57/60, then the granary completes, the food bar goes to 26/26 without growth, and the granary banks 4f.

Wrong on 2 counts.
1) You only start accumulating food in the granary after it's completed, so you'd bank 0.
2) You only get the "extra" granary space on the turn you grow. If we assume the granary was due in 1 turn in the image above (instead of the actual 2), then ticking avoid growth at 24/26 food with a +4 surplus would still only accumulate/save 2 food in the granary. But unticking it next turn (still at +4 surplus) would result in 6 extra food carrying over thanks to granary. You rarely want to use avoid growth if you exceed the food cap that turn.

[naufragar]

Thanks. You've saved me from (another  ) blunder.

You only get the "extra" granary space on the turn you grow. If we assume the granary was due in 1 turn in the image above (instead of the actual 2), then ticking avoid growth at 24/26 food with a +4 surplus would still only accumulate/save 2 food in the granary.

This is hurting my brain and maybe that's because I've got some deeper misunderstanding. I can't see why the granary would only bank 2f. I had thought that every turn that the granary was "active" it stored the full amount of produced food up to its limit (of half the current food bar). Edit: Actually, now I'm not sure. I'll test how much food gets stored on a growth turn. Maybe this is revealing another deep civ misunderstanding of mine.

I'll have to ponder all this in my heart some more. But I'm hearing that the stop growth trick is not relevant nearly as often as I had thought.

[Rusten]

Yes, it's something you do only a few times per game, but it can be very fruitful. I've got one example at hand from PB46.

In image 1 (T47) the granary has just finished this turn and the city is at 17/22 food. By ticking avoid growth it goes up to 22/22 and remains size 1 with 5 food saved in granary. Image 2 (T48) the option is unticked again. T49 the city is size 2 with 15/24 food in the basket (10 from granary and 5 from food surplus).

If I had not used avoid growth I'd have 5 less food (but 1 extra hammer from earlier growth if we're assuming working the 2F1H tile). 5F is way better than 1 hammer. Approximately 10-15x better in fact.

[naufragar]

We discovered Animal Husbandry this turn. Would you believe I opened the game up excited? "Oh boy, finally proactive rather than reactive decisions to make!"


Just kidding. So now I get to decide whether to continue my (probably ridiculous) play for religion, or if I am forced to go to Sailing next in order to have any relevant units for the next 200 turns. Fishing and Sailing unlocks the seafood and could get me intercontinental trade routes if I plant on the Stone fast enough. (There's water 2 tiles north of the Dyes, so that's not hiding horses. Maybe there are horses in the northeast fog, but that's likely just my endless optimism talking.

My horses are near Aspi (who's higher on the scoreboard than Ziankali):


Agg Axes from me should beat Skirmishers from him, but it would be unpleasant.

A neighbor is scouting with an axe:


I have to whip an axe in my second city as soon as possible, so he doesn't cut my copper. Because then I would be completely dead. (No chariots, you see.) I don't think he'll do this. He seems very distant, but stranger acts of aggression have happened.

I just wanna play some Civ, man. Reacting to curveball after curveball isn't it.

[Rusten]

No Polish cavalry? Unfortunate and unexpected.

[naufragar]

No Polish cavalry? Unfortunate and unexpected.

[naufragar]

Axes to the left of me. Axes to the right. Here I am, stuck in the middle with you.