PB81 - Continental Drifters (TBS)

[thrawn]

If going for the Pyramids, would it be PHI/CRE or PHI/IND America? And if IND would it be Stonehenge first?

Though since we are second last to pick there is a good chance that America is gone by then and it's best to keep an open mind.

[The Black Sword]

You mentioned EXP thrawn, and I think with the tech acceleration this could be a start where it is super-powerful. If we could finish Pottery in the 10t (haven't checked how well this matches up) we are building the worker, we could use the 4h ivory to get full value out of a size 1 Granary while the worker is completing the wheat farm. The extra immediate happy from the Ivory also alleviates some issues with running into the happy cap.

I wouldn't rule out Eygpt, War Chariots are great, but I wouldn't be committing to an early rush before the game begins. I'd keep the option of an attack open, but most likely after we have already settled a decent base. Horse archer attacks at that stage are very powerful and WC get to skip the tech and have a better hammer/strength ratio.

If we get America, I think Phi/Cre is hard to turn down. If we wanted to do a similar strategy with a different civ then I could see Phi/Ind. If we are Ind then Stonehenge is always a possibility if we can fit it in. The prophet points might throw off the scientists though. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing. I'm trying to keep an open mind until the pick gets to us.

I did check out Charriu's America game and it looked like settling the GS was going quite well for him, even without Mids, before the game was abandoned. His plan was 2 settled GS and an Academy before hopefully finding more powerful things for the GPs to be doing.

[The Black Sword]

Yeah, the early EXP granary works, and it's crazy good.

We start with Fishing, Wheel, Agri and build a worker into a size 1 Gran:



Then we grow to 6 before building a settler:



(Not actually a 4t settler, this sim is with Joao, EXP/IMP ).

I think if it gets to my pick and America is still available, I'll go for that and try to pick Phi/Cre or Phi/Exp afterwards.

If America is gone, I'll probably take EXP with something.

[thrawn]

It does look great. I also tried it slighly differently with whipping the settler but the worker isn't as effective and it's not as good.

T32 settler
- Start with the same techs, pottery T9, mining T16, BW T28, hunting T32, AH T37
- Worker T10, granary T16, WB T22, warrior T27, settler T32 after revolt and 6->3 whip.
- Worker improves wheat T14, road T16, cottage 1 T20, cottage 2 T24, then ?

T34 settler
- Start with the same techs, pottery T9, hunting T15, mining T21, BW T32, AH T37
- Worker T10, granary T16, WB T22, warrior T26, warrior T30, settler T34 after revolt and 7->4 whip.
- Worker improves wheat T14, ivory T19, cottage 1 T23, cottage 2 T27, then ?

[ljubljana]

It does look great. I also tried it slighly differently with whipping the settler but the worker isn't as effective and it's not as good.

T32 settler
- Start with the same techs, pottery T9, mining T16, BW T28, hunting T32, AH T37
- Worker T10, granary T16, WB T22, warrior T27, settler T32 after revolt and 6->3 whip.
- Worker improves wheat T14, road T16, cottage 1 T20, cottage 2 T24, then ?

T34 settler
- Start with the same techs, pottery T9, hunting T15, mining T21, BW T32, AH T37
- Worker T10, granary T16, WB T22, warrior T26, warrior T30, settler T34 after revolt and 7->4 whip.
- Worker improves wheat T14, ivory T19, cottage 1 T23, cottage 2 T27, then ?

as a genlurker i have no feedback, but i just wanted to thank you for doing the lord's work of prodding TBS to fill this thread full of valuable insights, since i am unable to do so

wishing you all exactly enough luck to maximize the amount of tricks that have to be pulled out of the hat, and therefore exposed to public scrutiny, to salvage the gamestate

[Hitru]

There's really good discussion here so I would also join as a dedlurker.

I do disagree that CRE gives 30 hammers per city in comparable manner as EXP or IMP. The latter 2 are absolutely needed, while border pop can be delayed or even not needed before later in game with carefull dotmapping. Also IMP/EXP give the bonus immediately and get the city running faster, which means faster snowball. I agree that CRE gives more options though.

I will also say that you need a plan for culture and border pops. It can be religion ( my favorite ), Henge, CRE or something else.

I think EXP start looks really good, but trying to break CRE/PHI America is fine too. In EXP start I'm not sure I would grow to 6 before settler though, depends a lot how good 2nd city spots we have and how the overall micro works out.

[The Black Sword]

Great to have you Hitru too.

Regarding the later micro, yeah it's not finalised, have to see what we find. Same with thrawn's BW first run, although I think it will be hard to beat getting the cows online earlier, some of the worker turns there could be redeemed with a plan for the 2nd city site. We'll have the 10t while the worker gets built to have a look around. 

Been thinking about this too

 You can theoretically build a quick Library for colourless GPP while teching toward MC, then when MC comes in you can build a forge, hire an Engineer specialist for a turn when the GP is about to pop to guarantee a GE, then use him to rush 'Mids.

And the timings look quite good to me. If we hit Writing around T45 and whip/chop(2t) in the library immediately then we have 17t to get through the 450b of Metal Casing. Then 1t Forge, 1t Whip, 1t Eng. 19t total to tech MC is a pretty tight timetable and really can't afford getting thrown off course, but sounds doable with judicious cottage usage early. After that we can farm everything and go for specialists+hammers.

There would be quite some engineer pollution from the Mids and the Forge's engineer. But getting a GE for another wonder isn't a bad thing, even if it isn't as cool as settled GS. 

We're definitely putting one bulb into Education too, so Oxford and discounted universities aren't that far away tech wise. That's already 27bpt from the settled GS, so they are possibly still viable a little later than I expected.

[Hitru]

I think you can't really have too many GE in early game, especially in game this small. We will have good wonders available to us.

And we can take forge engineer of after Mids are done and easily rush GS from another city after if we want before Mids city would produce GE.

[Hitru]

Regarding leader I think we do not want IND with Ameeica as idea is to use GE for Mids + any other wonder we really want. So rather Phi/Exp I think.

[Hitru]

Also as a minor detail: With only 4 river cottages and 9 cottages in total I have seen better starts for academy play. But if you guys want to try settled GS I'm ok with that. It's nice to try new things now and then