[spoilers] Commodore: Worse than Toku, it's Giggles of Siam!

[Thoth]

I've moved the scouts (popped a map in the north and found no seafood yet in the south).

I haven't ended turn yet because we may want to change plans slightly here.

The missed turn of production into the worker means we can't whip the worker until eot27 (including the anarchy turn).

If we keep building the worker instead of growing and chop one of the riverside grass hills we can finish the worker with a chop eot26. We'll either have 14 hammers overflow (if we delay the slavery revolt) or 7h if we revolt immediately. We'll grow to size 2 at eot29 and can work a mined riverside grass hill on t30. t30 we'll also complete a chop with the second worker. Two more chops complete t33 and 34, so we the settler should still complete t35 with 60h from chops and 5t of 8foodhammers. We won't have the second warrior complete but assuming we delay slavery until the settler is in transit we'll have 5 hammers invested and can complete it quickly.

[Commodore]

Oh, that is rather elegant. So we're less some chops, but not much slower on the second city, I like it. A riverside GH mine is only 1gpt worst than the marble quarry, and if I'm not mistaken that also allows the workers to stick close enough to the eastern side to road 1E of the capital, enabling a 1t move (which, yeah, is when we'd revolt). Then it's a case of bustling around and making a third worker before it's work boat/granaries time.

[Commodore]

Foods of the Ancient Genericans
Professor Ji Mar Dok, Culinary Anthropologist

People today move about the world for the strangest of reasons. I have a sister who teaches in France because it is the seat of high fashion, and we have a cousin who lives in Viking lands because he was attracted to the women there. While in the modern era, we can move wherever we want, for whatever reason we chose, in the distant past there was only ever one reason to live in a given place; food.


The Genericans were migrants from the north after the Great Upheaval, settling in the southwest of our continent at the still-current location of Lakeside Garden. The earliest cities that the Genericans settled were primarily located for trade and food. Archaeologists and historians have identified four primary staples in the diets of the early human civilization here.


First, and most widely spread, is maize. There were major corn farms throughout the areas of Generican civilization by 3000BC, and the crop only spread further as the culture did. The ancient Generican farmers would plant their corn with ashes, adding nutrients to make corn an interesting and effective staple food. When Zulu farmers first imported the crops, many suffered great malnutrition as the calorie-efficient but unenriched crop was widely adopted as a staple, ignoring other crops and food. Corn, while to this day remaining a vital crop the world over, if much more healthily incorporated into a balanced modern diet as only a part, not the whole.


The tribes displaced by the Generican settlements were hunters on the main, hunting mammoth, deer, elk, and seal as well as smaller game. Deer, although commonly seen in the area around Lakeside Garden, were never present in large enough herds to become a mainstay of the Generican diet. Mammoths were found much further to the east and south in abundance, although they were never hunted exclusively for food, rather eventually being domesticated in camps once the Genericans learned more of animal husbandry.


The first animals hunted and then swiftly enclosed in pastures were the gentle Salt Sheep of the east. Flocks of the small, hardy breed were found among the marshes and plains on the western edge of the Bitterwater. As much as the early focus of Woodview Lawn was on commerce and trade along the Warm River Valley, the wool and mutton of the pastures were the city's totemic exports. Mutton was the earliest staple meat, eaten monthly by the poor and daily by the wealthy in the ancient empire. The red meat was highly valued in society, considered much more important than fowl or fish.


It seems ironic now when we look at our current diet, but in the early centuries of civilization seafood was never considered a mainstay of the diet. While Zulu were harvesting the near clam-beds to feed their first city only marginals on the edges of Generican society consumed fish from the river or crabs from the coasts. The massive crab-fishing operations of today are in stark contrast to the occasional supplemental gathering done in the sand in the earliest days of empire. For all that, in later centuries crab, clam, and fish grew more and more prominent in Generican cuisine.

[Commodore]

Found deer for the ivory city, so it's a lot more viable now. Then a look for copper...

[Thoth]

Sorry about the mix up on Friday....I thought I was covering Sat/Sun and that you were going to do the final tweaking and end turn. My bad.

In any event, we wound up continuing on the Warrior build and growing towards size 2. So we're now in Slavery.

But that's ok. We can whip the worker t27 (chop completes t26) and take the overflow into a settler. Then on t29 swap back to warrior (Note: Timing is important. ). 4 turns to regrow while we chop two forests (we'll need to be careful with the chop timing to make sure the chops go into the settler). t33 we swap back to settler at size 2 and take both chops into the settler. t34 we whip the settler and both workers road the newly unforested riverside grass 1 E of the cap. T 35 settler moves and one worker starts road on corn. t36 finish road, *then* found city.


Techwise, once Wheel is in. Fishing/Pottery/AH/Writing is our strongest eco path, but we'll need Archery probably before AH if we want a Pink Dot city in any kind of reasonable timeframe. I like the site on the GH 1 E of the "Midline" sign. Unpillageable seafood, forests to chop and it's on the only hill for miles and miles on our side of things.

[Commodore]

Ach, oh well. All's well that ends. For those lurking at home, most interesting in the long term implications sense is that we are pretty alone after all. Thoth's popped map made things look grim as it was...


...but going north, we confirm not only is this a dead end, but it's a largely foodless dead end as well. Bleh.


At home, we're sticking slavishly to the plan to make benefit great empire! The chop went in as planned, and Andy the worker is slightly miffed that his mining efforts will go awry. Ah well, no great harm done.


Finally, we just came out to the whole civstats-watching world as a slavery-using people. Whee? Whee!


And that's been all of interest, of late. Fishing and Pottery will see us with most of our REXiest options unlocked, and riverside cottages plus cheap granaries will actually make Sailing (whales) and Hunting (ivory) attractive.

[Thoth]

If there's seafood to the north I can see 5 decent cities in the north and 16 or 17 mainland cities we can found with at least one food resource each (counting the FPs as one Food spec for the pair) plus one island city that has a fish plus possible goodies in the fog close by the capital and at least one more in the far north.

If we were completely isolated, I'd say that's enough.

But we're not. And our (only) neighbour is Fin, and we aren't Org or Philo and our land isn't great for commerce (and the limited land means we want as many land tiles to be used for hammers as possbile).

So NM the fact that the Scooticator capital is the best site I've seen yet on this map for a GP farm and is worth owning in it's own right. I think we want to secure our continent ASAP and then fill out the hinterlands.

With most cities having only one food special slavery won't be very useful for long even at BTS rates. At 20h per pop (+10 flat)

Bleah. Just noticed: Coldspring way has no way to bring irrigation to it. We can irrigate the northlands but CSW is limited to it's food specs for growth.

[Commodore]

If there's seafood to the north I can see 5 decent cities in the north and 16 or 17 mainland cities we can found with at least one food resource each (counting the FPs as one Food spec for the pair) plus one island city that has a fish plus possible goodies in the fog close by the capital and at least one more in the far north.

Agreed, the overall land rating here is "pretty okay". A dry rice hiding in the middle will help make dotmapping a little more flexible, this isn't amazing but once we learn how to work iron there will be a few nice cities up here.

...And our (only) neighbour is Fin, and we aren't Org or Philo and our land isn't great for commerce (and the limited land means we want as many land tiles to be used for hammers as possbile).

So NM the fact that the Scooticator capital is the best site I've seen yet on this map for a GP farm and is worth owning in it's own right. I think we want to secure our continent ASAP and then fill out the hinterlands.

With most cities having only one food special slavery won't be very useful for long even at BTS rates. At 20h per pop (+10 flat)

No disagreement here. Land for hammers means caste workshops, weak slavery means caste system, and a potential +15 food GP farm means caste system. Unfortunately, actually acquiring said location will take more than arrows. Unless said arrows are launched from a gigantic crossbow-thingy on a mammoth's back.

Bleah. Just noticed: Coldspring way has no way to bring irrigation to it. We can irrigate the northlands but CSW is limited to it's food specs for growth.

I'm actually okay with this. A dry corn and banana will certainly be enough food; it's the lack of hills that I find most annoying. Still, this is Krillmod, so workshops ho!

Finally, I've been bad and sloppy with the plans, but I have a modification of the hyperspeed settler path. We're going to delay by two turns in exchange for finishing the riverside gh mine, so that we have at least something else worthwhile to work while Woodview is stealing the wet corn.


Need to get those crabs online...

[Adbekunkus]

The pictures don't show, don't know if it is just in my PC. Going to believe the grimminess of the north implicitly, anyway. Since the plan is points towards securing the continent with the sexiness of the flowery mammoths... do you have an estimation of how soon? Soonish, perhaps? What is the scooticator team up to? What can they do to counter? Is aggression from their end a likely scenario in the short term?

[Thoth]

I'm looking at the game now.

We grow at eot 31 and will finish wheel at eot 33.

T32 we swap back to settler and take two chops. 8 food hammers from production puts us at 79/100 at start of t33

t33 whip settler. Wheel and settler complete at eot.

t34: Both workers road the grass tile 1 E of LSG then the settler moves to the WVL hill.

t35 both workers road the Corn to complete the trade linkup. Then we settle WVL for +3 commerce, +3 hammers and +2 food per turn.

We'll have 0 food left in storage in the capital so we'll need to work the corn until t37.

I think we get Fishing at eot 38. I haven't looked closely enough to see if we can do it eot 37 but I don't think we can. But we can find a use for 7hpt somewhere for a turn.


There is one glaring problem that I don't see a way around: We don't want to finish any chops until t32 (and we want 2 to complete that turn exactly).

So Nell is going to lose two turns (1t delaying the chop and 1t with nothing useful to do before wheel). Andy will make use of one turn by putting a turn into a mine on the currently forested riverside grass hill that's shared between LSG and WVL and used to have a "Chop and Mine" sign on it and is so far virgin as far as worker turns go.