Zalson plays one turn at a time [COMPLETE]

[Mardoc]

T1: 16/26 +7 FPT
T2: 23/26 +7 FPT
T3: 30/26 +7 FPT
T4: 18/28 +7 FPT (add a cottage)
T5: 25/28 +7 FPT
T6: 32/28 +7 FPT
T7: 19/30 +7 FPT (add a cottage)

I don't understand this. Either your math is off, or your notation is confusing me. How can you be at 30/26 food? Surely you would have already grown? And when you grow, I'm pretty sure you start with half the food of the old box size, so 30/26 turns into 17/28 (4 overflow, plus 13 free food from granary)

[Zalson]

I think it's bad notation confusing mechanics.

At the end of turn one, you have 16/26 food in the box. End turn gets you +7 food.

My notation is that on turn 2, you have 23/26 food in the box and you get 7 FPT. But you are exactly right, ending turn with +7 food surplus means that you grow to size 4 at the end of T2 (with 17/28 food in the box on the start of T3). Thanks for the quick feedback and helping me check my math.

So the corrected notation is this (can someone check my work again pls thx):

T1: 16/26 +7 FPT = 23/26 Food in the Box
T2: 23/26 +7 FPT = 30/26 Food in the Box (grow to size 4)
T3: 17/28 +7 FPT = 24/28 food in the box (add a cottage)
T4: 24/28 +7 FPT = 31/28 food int the box (grow to size 5)
T5: 17/30 +7 FPT = 24/30 (add a cottage)

Okay, definitely understanding why the +1 FPT isn't valuable at this point as a worker (obvious value) or a missionary who adds +25% hammers to buildings and +1 cpt.

Thanks, again, Mardoc and T-Hawk.

EDIT: just seeing Mardoc's other explanation as well (on whipping settlers and workers). I really appreciate that. I probably just haven't seen the value that clearly explained before. Or if I did, I forgot.

[Zalson]

T91
I shift Damascus to a worker and remove Moai from the queue. Then, realizing I am being dumb, I keep the city on the light house and configure it to grow in 1T. Will start the worker next turn.



T92
Realize that what I thought was a floodplains is actually just a stupid desert tile. Blargh.



Worker started in Damascus, due in 6T.

T93
Workers complete in Mecca and Medina. Both places start missionaries to be whipped in 2T.





Baghdad grows next turn. Will then start a worker (finish barracks with overflow)



I need to start thinking about how to get my GP. Unfortunately, no cities have enough food to particularly attractive. the only play i can currently think of would be the fish/cows area in Ramesses sphere of influence.

[Zalson]

T94

Chop completes south of Damascus and completes the worker.

Baghdad finishes the barracks next turn and will start a worker.

Did a dot map and have realized that my land is terrible. I'll post that shortly.

[Whosit]

You just realized that now?

Just take someone else's land.

[Zalson]

You just realized that now?

Just take someone else's land.

It’s not so much *realized it* but just had it driven home. I’m going to expedite dropping the hammer on Ramesses. He’s got 3 cities total and 0 strategic resources. … I may have misplayed my hand here…

Here was my tentative dotmap. I’m going to revise it as I go because I realize that some of these spots are just putrid — made more so by my inability to dotmap in any kind of effective format. The land ain’t good but that doesn’t mean I need to make it work.





T95
Getting missionaries out for Najran and Kufah from Mecca and Medina, then they’ go over to axe production. Baghdad is going to chop out some axes.

T96
Currency finished. At 100 beakers per turn!

Not exactly sure what to research next. Catapults might be nice — but i feel like calendar is a longer-term investment. Science is at 0% for the next turn, in any case.

Other valuable choices: HBR (don’t have horses yet so don’t need to emphasize), Monarchy … that’s about all we can use right now.

Double whip a barracks at Damascus (switched to a barracks next turn), overflow to axeman.

Double whip Baghdad’s axe. Overflow into another axe.

I shouldn’t have founded Kufah without any kind of culture. It can’t work … any valuable titles except the oasis.

[T-hawk]

The dotmap looks quite well done to me. Although expect that you won't beat Egypt to the southern locations.

One adjustment I'd suggest: Move the northernmost ice dot 2S 1W to where it can reach all of the fish, crab, copper. Then build (whip) Moai Statues there. That will make that site perfectly decent. Once Moai is up, then the next city south of there retakes the fish.

I shouldn’t have founded Kufah without any kind of culture. It can’t work … any valuable titles except the oasis.

This is the sort of thing advanced players see and get right. I would have had a missionary built and ready to go along with that settler, probably from Baghdad instead of the barracks. Baghdad could still do that next, perhaps by chopping.

If you are really attacking Egypt next, then Mathematics for catapults is the way to go.

It's quite possible Egypt is slow on building cities because he's building wonders instead. Do you know the trick to spy on a city's current production count via the espionage menu? You can tell if they have some hundreds of hammers in the box indicating a wonder. It requires having the city tile unfogged, though.

[Zalson]

That site in the north grabs another fish that isn't pictured. I'll see if I can illustrate it better tonight. (You can see it but not well; the resource indicator is obscured by the UI).

Thanks for the encouragement!

EDIT: removed autocorrect typo. I also completely missed the other half of your message. I'll have both missionaries out in the next turn or so (I think).

Catapults it is. Unfortunately, I can't see any of Egypt's cities yet. I know where they are, just can't see the city center.

Some more on the dotmap: the putrescence is definitely a product of the bad land. Most of the sites aren't viable without chain irrigation. I think the biggest adjustment is going to be a city N-N-N-N-NE of Kufah instead of moving it 1 extra NE. Let's avoid those no food until you pop borders spots.

[Mardoc]

You eventually want to grab the silver. Seems to me you have two options:
a) build an otherwise worthless city just for the silver. Still probably worthwhile, since it's 1-2 happy everywhere in your empire. Build city, work the silver and run Wealth forever to try to pay for its maintenance.
b) use your 'another fish' as its food. Still a low value city, but with food and some coast, it can grow and contribute a bit more. Downside: must supply culture, wait ~10 turns for the silver happiness.

Which you prefer probably depends on how fast you expand and how well your wars go. My gut says you'll want option a, you'd rather boost your strong cities ASAP than have another iceball fishing village, but it depends on how the rest of your empire is going.

Similarly - you need to grab a horse somehow. If I'm seeing correctly, the only options are the jungle horse beyond Egypt and the Tundra horse? Jungle site is better, but you probably want a backup plan for the tundra horse if you can't get to the jungle first. Maybe 1NE of the cow? Plains cow + Floodplain is weak, but worth it for a strategic.

[Zalson]

There's also a horse on the west coast, next to a sheep and floodplain ... and a whole bunch of desert. I'll stitch together a better overview tonight.

If there's one thing that this exercise has taught me, it is the tremendous amount of effort that people on this site put into reporting their games. It takes about 2x to 3x to report a turn.