[PB37 SPOILER] Coeurva, Bacchus -- Cyrus of Carthage

[Coeurva]

The land bridge is bleeding through the fog (peak, forest hill) in the T34 screenshot with the sheep. There's nothing more I know about it, either, except that these tiles became uncovered when warrior #3 ("Avoirdupois") moved onto a hill this turn.

I should have taken a screenshot of the military advisor earlier:

The dot south of Sicil is our worker. Names, numbers, and positions of warriors:

#1 -- Arithmetician -- north-west
#2 -- Ames-Ace -- north-east -- heading towards Savant
#3 -- Avoirdupois -- south-west -- heading towards sheep
(warrior #4 appears in Sicil on T38, and can use a road on the corn, which we'll need anyway, to save a turn going south)

Moving #1 towards our next city site (hammy silver; 4 of #2's current position) frees up #2 to scout deeper towards Savant, but there are three interesting land bridges to our south that we'll also want to scout. Call them "east", "west" and "panther's nest", I guess.

[Bacchus]

Hmm. I do think doubling up Arithmetician and Ames-Ace makes sense, but then so does scouting one of the southeastern directions. I guess Ames-Ace can scout a bit and then return, no harm done in this. The south looks like its bigger in terms of opportunities, if less urgent.

[Coeurva]

...

This spot is situated less than eleven tiles from Castle Ironfist (and Savant's scout was here on T4, as we can now assert). We should assume that Savant wiil send 1-2 axes at it if we settle it and he sees warriors inside. Connecting the copper to this city will pose problems; Archery perhaps required (64 beakers).

The originally-planned #3 looks very defensible with the newly revealed information, and does not require an outlandish worker trek to improve (indeed, fits very well with the plan). Are you feeling lucky?

Assorted news: The south-western plains hill next to the sheep has saltwater crabs in its second-ring borders; Krill's capital has grown to size 5; in the graphs, Savant has had a growth spurt and equalizes in food again (hopefully we'll pull away once more with the now-finished corn); other people have overtaken us in soldier count (ranked #4, but Wheel due next turn).

[Bacchus]

Note the lake to newly revealed corn's north.

If we really wanted to be awkward, we could settle that plains hill, also settle coast 1W of the Whale and research sailing. Problem is, that whaling village would be really shit and pointless. The plainshill city post-lighthouse would be kinda epic though.

[Coeurva]

With CRE or religion, so that the city doesn't get stuck without a food resource until T65, the plains hill would be the obvious correct choice. But even if we slotted in Mysticism after Wheel, slow-building a monument takes 7-8 turns depending on silver mine completion (whipping takes 11; that the whip is slower for this site probably says it all) and 10 more to pop borders.

Thinking that we should settle #3 in the place marked as such, and 88 of plains hill later (T80-ish?), if possible. Or on the other plains hill, if Savant allows it.

[Bacchus]

Need to see what's forward, but I don't think 88 of current plainshill will be possible around T80.

As for the food, that scenario in my mind involved giving a pig to this city (hence making the whaling village useless, it would do something like work capital cottages). But anyway, the only reason it's even possible to discuss is that the current placement of #3 makes our care maximally sparse, there isn't even a place for a filler. That's only a concern many turns down the line, but then this game is pretty big and will go long. #3 on a grass hill making it cothon eligible with a view to #4 on the hill W of silver? It will then have 3 peaks and 2 non-lighthoused lakes :/ Or maybe a city on the banana (#3), the whaling village (#4) and then, later, a city on the coastal plains 1W of the warrior in the above screenshot? Again, mostly just ideating, but it'd be nice to lighthouse these lakes.

[Coeurva]

T37. We're close to the bottom in crop yield now (ranked #8), at 20 total, same as Savant and ahead of CML, who has received a pop increase and a tech on this turn. Sicil grows, so we're adding 2 next turn.

Scouting the south-west reveals rice and grass cow near the sheep, such that a city could be founded with either of those + sheep in first-ring borders.

North-eastern concerns: the hill 88 of plains hill has turned out to be... grass hill forested copper, connected by river. Yeah. So we could found 8 of ph as #3 or #4, gain three excellent tiles in first-ring borders, and defend it with locally-produced axes/spears if need be, without getting all the roads in place (capital can send more of them).

Allocating the pigs to plains hill was my idea as well; doubling up 6f resources is the reason to found on that spot. That city picks up five tiles of coast, which is as useless as a lake lacking a lighthouse, but that just means we'll want to run five specialists off the food surplus.

A problem with plains hill is that city #3 needs to fulfill the double role of bolstering our economy in the short term (by working silver) and producing a GSci (via library chop + size3 or size4), unless we change the plan, of course. The village would only pick up whales after Sailing, which is too late to matter, unless we tech Sailing before Writing, which causes the same delay for a different reason.

If we found the whaling village after all, then 4 of whales, not on the hill; that overlaps four capital cottages rather than one. There's also one job it could do besides that: whipping galleys into the eastern sea before the pigs are redistributed.

#3 on banana is something to keep in mind (if quite a pink dot); warrior will move 99.

[Bacchus]

Grass river silver, river corn, river grass hill copper? Wow. That's ... overbearingly tempting. The southwestern news are good too, who needs wonders with land like this.

Shall we plant #3 to the southwest, for which a warrior should be enough, and then go to the contested eldorado with an axe escort? #3 can then churn out some worker labour which will be lacking at the capital.

And whaling village at #5 perhaps, to get that sweet, sweet ICTR when we will be pushing towards 7-8 cities. Or actually we could plant it later, when the islandbound settler is under construction, and quickly chop/whip a galley, hopefully with a maths boost by then.

[Coeurva]

South-western plant for #3 (grass cow, grass sheep) alleviating food problems (still refusing rice, and will be for some time), build an axe before T50, settle All That Glitters (sadly that name breaks all of CTON rules, the theme, and the character limit) for #4?

Sounds adventurous. Sounds good. Lack of commerce will delay Writing, and worker #2 is unfortunately out of position for city #3 (I sent him into the forest 89 of Cowish on the last turn, when cows were not visible yet). Other than that, though, the temptation is strong indeed. Since the week is off, I'll even have time to sandbox this.

Just to refresh your mental picture, workers come out of both cities on T43 and T44 respectively; the two gentlemen of Sicil will be occupied with chopping the fourth settler a.s.a.p., but the other two workers are essentially free to improve city #3 and the capital. Agree that #3 should focus on a worker.

Edit: Third settler due T40, fourth T48.

[Coeurva]

T38. Let's catch a bananafish.



Savant, where art thou? The area is utterly quiet (because I've turned off the game's ambient sounds).

Note that we'll have to save gold after all. I don't know what was off about the sandbox (wrong count of land tiles?), but in the harsh reality of the Pitboss, the second city costs 1.65 gpt at size2 and the capital costs 0.44 gpt.

Warrior #4 is heading south from Sicil. I'll grab a screenshot of the south next turn, when we reveal the second ring of projected city #3 (grass sheep + cows).

Demographics see us drop to #8 in crop yield at 22 score; Rival Average is 23. There are two size5 capitals, Krill's included, and at least three size4 capitals, all belonging to unmet players. Can't wait to get the next litter of settlers and workers out.