[SPOILERS] Welcome to the Kuro Corporation! (Kuro and BaII)

[Kuro]

Alright, so, before that overview, I want us to discuss our tech path and unit choices. I'm going to list the options, my thoughts on them and my thoughts on the optimal tech path. BaII, I would like your opinion on this.

Techs

The Wheel: I've been a huge supporter of The Wheel and Pottery from day one. Here is why I think we should go with it. We only have ONE Hunting resource we will be using until our FOURTH city, so to me it seems silly to waste 6 turns on it. In addition, we actually have all the other Worker techs we need to work everything else, save AH for Cows: Our second city's Clams/Corn can be done as is, while Copper City needs Mining and, at most, Fishing, which we both have. In addition, what we want to be our second city is fairly close to WilliamPLunder, I reckon about 8 turns by land (In neutral/roadable territory, so he can road some of it in the fog to get there faster), and that makes me nervous. I think that since he started 2 techs to BW we have no worries about a major invasion, but we need to keep our defenses open, especially since copper is only our third city. It also opens up Pottery and Granaries are probably the best building for an Expansive civilization, while our capital and second city have good/decent cottaging prospects. Therefor, I like The Wheel followed up by Pottery to pursue a fairly grow-y line that gives us The Wheel to keep our cities protected and hook up Copper and such.

Hunting: Probably the second best option here. Hunting would discount Animal Husbandry and allow us to work the forested Deer at our capital, which is an excellent tile (Even if I rate it below the Fish for the early game). It would also get us one step closer to an emergency Archery, which is one downside of the Wheel plan, and would allow us to most prepare for our 4th city that gets 2 Deer and a Wheat. The discount on Animal Husbandry is also quite good and would mean we could pursue it and the possible Cow/Clams city quicker. It also allows us access to Spearmen, in the case of facing a Chariot assault. This isn't a bad option, but I would rather head towards Hunting -> AH after The Wheel -> Pottery.

Animal Husbandry: Really the only other option, going directly for AH. If we did this, we would try to found Cows/Clams quite quickly and would reveal horses, but it is most likely inferior to teching Hunting first. Really, Hunting and The Wheel are pretty much the only options.

Sailing: I guess it gets us Lighthouses LOL?

Mysticism: LOL. We need this eventually but not now!

Masonry: LOL.

Iron Working: LOL.

So yeah, our choices are basically The Wheel or Hunting. BaII, thoughts?

In terms of unit creation, I think that we should use our first Warrior to settle our second city so we can get out a Settler quickly @ Size 2 via chops + Corn + Plains Hill. Our unit path would be something like... Worker (Done in Et) -> Warrior -> Settler -> Work Boat (Whipped out, overflow into) -> Warrior. Barbarians won't enter your borders for a while, so we can afford to keep our capital undefended, especially since we can just whip out a Warrior if something starts to happen. We should get out our second city at a relatively good clip, possibly first, and lay stake with a good claim to our fairly good southern spoils with Sam Walton (Clams/Corn). Thoughts?

[Kuro]

Worker will be completed EOT: With Agriculture still 3T away, I think I will put a doublechop into a Settler (Get a bit more that way since Imperailistic boosts more than Expansive and we will be building a Settler sooner than another Worker: Theoritically we could even quickly build a Settler and send it to copper unescorted since it is mostly defogged...but that is too big of a risk since barbs can spawn in ANY Fog of War).



Scout reveals a secondary and, being on ice, mostly useless Copper resource, but the Furs could be nice: 0/1/4 isn't an excellent tile but it is only our second happiness resource and the only pre-Calender one. A Fish/Fur city could be made as our 6th or so to bridge into making cities here and to give us happiness for sure. Scout will move to the Fur hill next for maximum scouting.



WilliamLP was one of four score gains this turn (To 49), along with Oxyphen (50), Xenu (49) and Wetbandit (43). No other Graphs changed, including his power rating, so he didn't get BW. When you get back BaII, I can get anything you need for C&D.



Demographics.

[pindicator]

IIRC barbs cannot spawn within 2 tiles of any of your units

[Kuro]

IIRC barbs cannot spawn within 2 tiles of any of your units

Doesn't the unit defog 2 tiles in those directions, though?

[Kuro]

Wow, turns out, I'm dumb...but in a GOOD way!

I totally forgot about overflow from the Worker...which will allow us to complete this Warrior in 1T. So after the Warrior, I will put it into another Warrior until we get to Size 2 (3T), then start on a Settler (Which will get two chops). The Warrior will prepare for settling Sam Walton.



Scouting really isn't showing our lands up here to be that great. Which is not good. Obviously. Hopefully we'll start seeing better stuff soon!

Two slight Graph changes.



This appears to simply be finishing the score change from last turn, as CivStats did not show a score increase for him this turn.



He also had a slight power increase. I am fairly certain this is a warrior, but I will have BaII confirm for me.



Demos.

[Kuro]

Scouting continues to show we have some pretty crap land. I think we might want to blitz towards Cow/Clams over Wheat/Deer if this keeps up. Of course, WilliamLP could be in the same boat...but I suspect we're stuck towards the north and him more towards the equator and thus he will have much better land. I also suspect we are on some kind of Ring or Wheel or possibly a modified Donut map script, assuming this is not totally custom. We might need to kill WilliamLP if it comes down to it.

Warrior is moving to clear the way to Sam Walton: All the tiles to it will be defogged, so there should be no worry of barbarians. In addition, both Workers began choppng a forest to prepare for the Settler. When the turn rolls over, we will get Agriculture.

Sisu's score went to 49 and Molach's to 50. Top 5 Cities shows a Size 3 city and many Size 2s, so I wonder if a lot of them are just growing?



Perhaps watching the pop numbers can tell the story.



WilliamLP's production graph went up, but nothing else. My guess? He got Mining, built a Worker first, then went growth and a Warrior, completed the Warrior and then grew. Basically, what we would have done if we did not have Bronze Working. (See how BW takes an early advantage? >D)

I could be wrong, though.

[pindicator]

IIRC barbs cannot spawn within 2 tiles of any of your units

Doesn't the unit defog 2 tiles in those directions, though?

If the unit is on a hill it will. But the barb spawn rule applies even if those tiles are still fogged, due to forests or hills in the way of sight, or whatever else. Note: nothing will stop an already spawned barb from moving onto one of those tiles, but no new barbs will spawn within two tiles of a unit, regardless of if that unit has sight on that tile or not.

How's the capital coming? Haven't seen a pic of that in a few turns

[Kuro]

IIRC barbs cannot spawn within 2 tiles of any of your units

Doesn't the unit defog 2 tiles in those directions, though?

If the unit is on a hill it will. But the barb spawn rule applies even if those tiles are still fogged, due to forests or hills in the way of sight, or whatever else. Note: nothing will stop an already spawned barb from moving onto one of those tiles, but no new barbs will spawn within two tiles of a unit, regardless of if that unit has sight on that tile or not.

How's the capital coming? Haven't seen a pic of that in a few turns

I will do a pic of the capital when the new turn rolls around and we do the T25 writeup. Did not know that about barbs. Thanks for the knowledge!

[BaII]

Wheel sounds like the better here, as we won't be able to work all those food resources we have for a little bit, also, he William prob made a warrior, since you said a lot of people grew to size 2, so likely he grew off on a warrior.

[Kuro]

WHeel it is!

That will allow me to play this turn. Can't do so this very minute: Should do so in about an hour.