Someone is annoyingly confident. An unescorted Settler at t64 - really?
As long as we manage to block off the Killers that city in itself is no problem as it`s clearly within their sphere of influence. Hmm, I wonder if Gavadeath are up to some more greedy land grabbing here.. I`d definitely consider attacking a city further east if they want to test the ice.
We have the biggest city of the world (Gower will even grow to size 7 end of turn). That`s something I guess.
@RefSteel: I forgot to check this turn if the 2/3 chop sign is correct. Hopefully there will be another chance in the next turns (before moving a Worker to a hill or something). These days I hardly have much time to plan ahead (or make any micro plans for that matter) so let`s follow the plan you`ve made until we encounter a point of diminishing returns.
(May 29th, 2019, 12:03)JR4 Wrote: @RefSteel: I forgot to check this turn if the 2/3 chop sign is correct. Hopefully there will be another chance in the next turns (before moving a Worker to a hill or something).
Oh! I think there will be, but also there's a trick that lets you check without actually moving to the tile. Here's how, in my usual excessive detail:
1) Finish all your Worker actions as usual (to avoid silly misclicks while checking stuff).
2) Select a Worker who has already done something this turn, preferably a Worker currently on a tile where the improvement type you want to check on would not be legal (e.g. a Worker not on a forest if you want to chop).
3) Hold down the shift key, and keep it held down while doing the following:
3a) Click on the "Go To Mode" button on the control panel at the bottom of the screen.
3b) Click on the tile you want to check, e.g. the river grassland forest 2S of Antiochus.
3c) Mouse over the icon for the action you want to check (e.g. the Chop icon). If the icon doesn't appear (because Civ's interface isn't always consistent for some reason) you may have to cancel out and start again, but hopefully it will be fine.
3d) At the bottom of the mouse-over information list in the lower left-hand portion of the screen, the number of turns still needed to complete the relevant action on the relevant tile will be displayed. However, because you selected a Worker who has already moved this turn, the game automatically adds 1 to the actual number of worker turns still required. Thus, my expectation is that doing this with the forest 2S of Antiochus will say "3 turns" which would mean we've already put one turn into the chop. If the in-game sign is right though, it would say "2 turns." Note that it doesn't take turns to move or prior worker actions into account when adjusting the number of turns supposedly required; it only cares about whether the Worker you have selected has any movement points left.
3e) Hit the "Backspace" key on your keyboard or the "Cancel Last Mission" button on the control panel, resetting the Worker so that it won't wander off to the wrong tile next turn.
4) Release the shift key. And of course you can start over with another tile and improvement, like checking the river grassland just NW of copper to make sure it has 2 turns already invested in a cottage....
Anyway, if we're going with my microplan, I should probably keep it up to date, right? The idea of this latest version is to build more mines (and another forest chop or two) for production at our first two cities.
T65: Gower is now size 7 and begins a Settler (with Spearman on hold) and works Fish + Cottage + Cottage + Cottage + Sugar + Forest, with one Angry Citizen (who eats no food while building a Settler). Antiochus is now size 4 and works Pig + Cow + Fish + plains forest hill (0/3/0). Chop complete near Gower. Road complete near Antiochus. The Worker nearest Tyre begins a Road. The Workers on the furs begin and complete a Road. T66: Spearman complete at Antiochus, which is now size 5, starts a Worker, and works Pig + Cow + Fish + FP Cottage, with one Angry Citizen (who eats no food while building a Worker). Gower WHIPS its Settler (7 -> 4) and works Fish + (the other) FP Cottage + Sugar + Grass Cottage. Military units start moving/shuffling in preparation to cover the southeast (since, unlike Gavadeath, we don't have special magic Settlers and units that can pretend barbs don't exist). The Worker on the plains hill forest completes a Road. The Worker near Gower moves 1SW to a part-roaded river grassland tile and completes the Road. The Workers on the Furs move S-SE to a grass forest hill. The Worker on a grassland forest moves N-NE-NE to a grass hill shared by Antiochus and Gower. T67: Settler complete at Gower, which resumes its Spearman, working Pig + Fish + FP Cottage + FP Cottage. The Settler moves S-SE-SW-S to Hesperides. Antiochus WHIPS its Worker (5 -> 3) and works Cow + Fish + Grass Cottage. Hesperides is now size 2 and works Rice + FP Cottage. The Workers on the grass forest hill begin and complete a Road. The Worker nearest Gower moves 1SW to a part-cottaged river grassland tile and resumes the cottage. The Worker on the grass hill shared by Antiochus and Gower begins a Road. The Worker on the plains hill forest begins a Mine. Increase science rate to 100%! T68: Worker and Spearman complete at Antiochus and Gower respectively. Gower is now size 5 and begins an Archer, working Pig + Fish + FP Cottage + FP Cottage + Sugar. Antiochus starts another Worker. Settler moves 3SE to the site of Thaliard. The Workers on the roaded grass forest hill near Hesperides move 1SE to a river grassland tile and begin and complete a Road. New Worker from Antiochus WAITS while the Worker on the nearest grass forest hill completes a Road; THEN the new Worker moves 1NE to the same grass forest hill and begins a Mine. The Worker on the roaded plains hill forest continues to chop this turn, but then CANCELS orders! T69: Gower is now size 6 and works Fish + Sugar + All 4 Cottages. Hesperides is now size 3 and works Rice + FP Cottage + (unimproved) FP. Antiochus begins an Archer (with its Worker on hold) and works Pig + Cow + Fish. Workers on a roaded grassland tile beyond Hesperides WAIT while the Settler founds Thaliard on the desired city site; the city begins a Granary and works the Cow. THEN the Workers near Thaliard move 2SE through the city to the Cow and begin a Pasture. The Worker on the roadedd plains hill forest moves NW-N to a roaded and part-mined grassland hill and resumes the mine. The Worker on a cottage in the middle of our empire moves W-SW to the just-vacated roaded plains hill forest and resumes the mine there, but then CANCELS orders!
T70: Antiochus is now size 4. The Worker on the roaded plains forest hill moves NW-N to join another Worker already on a roaded grass hill and the complete the mine. Antiochus works Pig + Cow + Fish + Mine. Make sure Gower controls the grassland forest hill it shares with Antiochus. Pasture complete near Thaliard. Reduce science slider to 30%.
If cottaging near Hesperides seems more valuable than mining near Gower and Antiochus though, we can continue with the previous version of the plan, which diverges (slightly) from the mining version as soon as T66. Repeated with one minor transcription error corrected at the end:
T65: Gower is now size 7 and begins a Settler (with Spearman on hold) and works Fish + Cottage + Cottage + Cottage + Sugar + Forest, with one Angry Citizen (who eats no food while building a Settler). Antiochus is now size 4 and works Pig + Cow + Fish + plains forest hill (0/3/0). Chop complete near Gower. Road complete near Antiochus. The Worker nearest Tyre begins a Road. The Workers on the furs begin and complete a Road. T66: Spearman complete at Antiochus, which is now size 5, starts a Worker, and works Pig + Cow + Fish + FP Cottage, with one Angry Citizen (who eats no food while building a Worker). Gower WHIPS its Settler (7 -> 4) and works Fish + (the other) FP Cottage + Sugar + Grass Cottage. The Worker on the plains hill forest completes a Road. The Worker near Gower moves 1SW to a part-roaded river grassland tile and completes the Road. The Workers on the Furs move S-SE to a grass forest hill. The Worker on a grassland forest moves E-SE-SE to a roaded river grassland and begins a Cottage, but then CANCELS orders! T67: Settler complete at Gower, which resumes its Spearman, working Pig + Fish + FP Cottage + FP Cottage. The Settler moves S-SE-SW-S to Hesperides. Antiochus WHIPS its Worker (5 -> 3) and works Cow + Fish + Grass Cottage. Hesperides is now size 2 and works Rice + FP Cottage. The Workers on the grass forest hill begin and complete a Road. The Worker nearest Gower moves 1SW to a part-cottaged river grassland tile and resumes the cottage. The Worker on a roaded river grassland tile near Hesperides moves 1S to a floodplain and begins a Cottage. The Worker on the plains hill forest moves E-SE to the just-vacated roaded river grassland and resumes the cottage there, but then CANCELS orders! Increase science rate to 100%! T68: Worker and Spearman complete at Antiochus and Gower respectively. Gower is now size 5 and begins an Archer, working Pig + Fish + FP Cottage + FP Cottage + Sugar. Antiochus starts another Worker. Settler moves 3SE to the site of Thaliard. The Workers on the grass forest hill move 1SE to a river grassland tile and begin and complete a Road. New Worker from Antiochus moves SW-S-SE to a plains forest hill and resumes building a Mine. The Worker on a roaded grass tile just beside Hesperides moves 1S to join another Worker on a Floodplain in building a Cottage.
We have made contact with every other player. BGN (or rather Mr. Cairo) moved up a Warrior S of Hesperides. That Warrior is quite close to the Settler of Gavadeath, just saying. But I fully expect them to have a metal unit right behind. Anyway, we need to start getting units down to the SE of Hesperides. A Warrior is on its way this turn already and our zone defending Spear moved to Hesperides. On this turn only we`re vulnerable to a Chariot rush (as we`ll move in a replacement Spear next turn) but seriously, what are the odds? We may have to whip out an Archer if a random barb Axe turns up.
I think it`s better to focus on improving our strongest cities and getting mines built will allow us to keep up in production. So we`re going for the first micro plan.
Hinduism was founded in a faraway land. That`s very late. We are working hard on getting our fifth city down but several others have five cities already. Elkad seems to be the only player really struggling as he`s still stuck at three cities.
(May 30th, 2019, 02:25)RefSteel Wrote: Here's a trick that lets you check without actually moving to the tile.
Heh, that sounds more like dark magic than anything to me! Civ 4 never ceases to surprise. I mean, there are just so many things that aren`t obvious at first sight that allows a tiny bit of improvement on any given plan. If we can`t get another Worker to check the tile on its way to somewhere I`ll try it out.
When is that information needed?
(May 30th, 2019, 02:25)RefSteel Wrote: Here's a trick that lets you check without actually moving to the tile.
I think you can also use this trick to check how much gold a Great Merchant would get from a trade mission, but don't hold me to it.
That does make sense. Surely there is a way of telling how much gold you can get from a trade mission and I think that it`s at least somewhat connected to the size of the city the Merchant goes to and distance from your capital. Maybe you get a bonus from Open Borders?
(May 30th, 2019, 02:25)RefSteel Wrote: Unlike Gavadeath, we don't have special magic Settlers and units that can pretend barbs don't exist).
TURN 66
Apparently, Gavadeath are not the only ones to think that sending out an unescorted Settler is the best way of boxing us in. Seriously, that`s awful news for us. We simply won`t have land to compete if Wetbandit does the same in the east.
As our Settler obviously won`t go SE now I had to take a big decision while playing the turn. I think going for the plains hill 2SE, E of Gower is our best bet. It won`t have a lot of food but what is the alternative? It will get us Horses (as long as not a random Axe decides to interfere) and will be a good city long term plus it`s on a plains hill. Our units are on their way to check the area. Hopefully the Workers completing a road on the Sugar won`t destroy the micro for the mids. I just didn`t feel that we had any choice.
I`m really frustrated with the way things are going right now. What if we save up a ton of gold and build up for a big attack? That means going for Horseback Riding and/or Construction asap (probably after Writing). I`ve always wanted to do a War Elephant rush as they don`t have a clear counter until Catapults and Pikes start to turn up. I think we have a good chance of knocking down the front city of one of our neighbours with Catapults.
Not much time right now, but I wanted to at least quickly reassure you about this:
(May 31st, 2019, 11:52)JR4 Wrote: Hopefully the Workers completing a road on the Sugar won`t destroy the micro for the mids. I just didn`t feel that we had any choice.
Don't worry, those two workers were assigned to Thaliard for the duration of the pyramids plan; moving them in accordance with a new location for the city won't disrupt anything. The Pyramids part of the plan is extremely resilient to early changes in Worker plans.
I don't think we should be looking for an attack just yet? I think we do get a lot of value out of Calendar + IW and there looks to be cities in the E that are currently up for grabs. Especially if we end up being able to grab mids I don't think we're in too bad of a position this game.
Seriously, that`s awful news for us. We simply won`t have land to compete if Wetbandit does the same in the east. 