Mr. Yellow's diplo Wrote:Gold again? This is getting ridicolous.
Erm no. It isn't. Sciz paid 48 h before t40 as a result of trying to pop that lair and I won't be able to work that tile before t100. (I'd be able to work it earlier, but since I need to build/upgrade an army to neutralize the Bannor, that settler will have to wait for a bit.
) The extra commerce will be nice but it's hardly an "I win" result.
unsent reply Wrote:Not really. The first time Sciz popped that lair it cost him 3 warriors before t40. That gold tile won't be worked until around t100. Not a great tradeoff IMO.
Ridiculous is the people who managed to get starts with 2+ happy resources nearby. I have 1.
A bit of misdirection. The folks who have size 7/8 capitals may not have 2+ happy resources. They may have Bear cages and or Carnivals for the extra happy.
Other musings:
Mr. Yellow waited 2 turns after getting Cartography before revolting to City States/Apprenticeship.
I suspect he was waiting on a settler to finish before revolting. From what he's told me, he's cramped for space and looking to claim "blocking cities".
I expect to see his 5th city founded around turn 82-83 somewhere in the floodplain valley to his south.
City States vs Aristocracy also means he's going cottage heavy. The Bannor world spell produces "free" units in every city and on every Town. The "free unit" on every town is a bit of a red-herring. In order to get that unit you need to have worked a cottage long enough to get a Town + researching Religious Law. A lot depends on the available land, but it's usually better to just take the +1 unit/city and run Aristocracy/Agrarianism to get to RL faster.
(observant lurkers have already noted that I have 2 cottages in GLT....why?)
Because I'm delaying Aristocracy until turn 94 and some extra commerce is going to be helpful. GLT has a great deal of food already so the extra food from more farms isn't going to be all that helpful (until I get my happy cap raised significantly). In the meantime, some extra commerce will be very useful. Those villages will also come in handy later when I swap out of Aristocracy in favour of Theocracy or City states.
His second city had no impact on his GNP. It was worth (at least) 3 commerce to him (1 for the city tile, 1 for the trade route to the city, 1 for the trade route to the capital).
Conclusion: His second city is *at least* 4 tiles from his capital.
His third city reduced his GNP by 4 (tile juggling may throw this estimate off).
He claimed in his diplo that he would have access to copper and that the Elfs are close to his Eastern borders. (the copper claim may or may not be true. Claiming to have access to copper tends to discourage rushes, OTOH, the map has been vetted by our map-maker so I'm inclined to think that he does have access to copper with his third city). He settled a Great Artist in this city 2 turns after founding it.
Conclusion: His copper city is at least 4/5 tiles East of his capital and is currently annoying the hell out of the Elfs.
WAG: He's finished the settler for his fifth city and it is currently enroute to settle in the floodplain river valley to his south.
WAG 2: He's light on workers (complaints about not having an internal road net set up by t70).
Conclusion: His fifth city will be nothing but a drain on his economy and can easily be claimed by a strike force of Redshirts skipping through the desert. (founding cities on desert tiles isn't a good idea in general and is suicide if you have hostile Malakim as neighbours) If I have the hammers, I'll slip a Lightbringer upgraded to a Thane into this force for the added visibility.
Overall, his city spacing seems a bit weak. With cramped land + FFH's gold/beaker per city buildings a tight city spacing would serve him better than a wide "perfect late game city" spacing.
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