[SPOILERS] Margarita and the Lurkers

[Asterix]

Thanks! As I said, my recollection of it was rather vague

[Asterix]

Researching religious techs seems in fashion this turn: Eggheads got Meditation this turn, Classical Hero got Polytheism, Suttocrats Monotheism. First two probably on the way to Monarchy, last for Organized Religion.

Watching other teams development is a lot of fun through Alphabet, here is another screenshot:

   

And here is the promissed tally of "beakers researched" (including technologies researched this turn):

1. Us 4015
2. Orgy 3870
3. Suttocrats 3853
4. Eggheads 3177
5. Yuufo 2463
6. & 7. Bowsai and Rome: both 2004
8. Classical Hero: 1939
9. Dinosaurs 1836
10. Yossadorn: 1715

Comments:
* Orgy score is inflated by prophet-bulbing Theology (>800 beakers), I do not think they will stay at #2, especially that Suttocrats just got a (second?) Great Scientist this turn. Since they have MoM, may be used for a Golden Age, but anyway will increase their teching rate
* the last two places are occupied by AGG Rome neighbors - self-explaining, I think
* Classical Hero is the only team with Archery

[Asterix]

Things continue to go pretty well for us, settled our 11th city . Although since our unit maintenance costs became high - that is > 0 - I have used the confu missionary I got from CoL to spread religion in the capitol. I was anyway almost 98% sure it will go to the capitol, but kept it for added flexibility. But since it began to cost us decided it is not worth it.

Here are our costs (before settling city #1):

   

We are also doing very well in "biggest city" competition - all due to our excellent UB :

   

Our beautiful capitol will soon grow to size 13 and beyond and will become probably the first beauro capitol in this game about 15 turns from now - that is the plan, at least.

   

[Asterix]

Dear lurkers, one more game mechanics question: is there an added benefit to building granary not at the last moment before the city grows, but earlier?

I have thought that to granary magazines food only during turns it is already built, but it seemed it this game that I built granary 1-2 turns before the city grew - but couple turns after food box half-full point - and I still got normal food bonus? Unfortunately, I was distracted with other things and did not kept notes so I am not sure.

I have to know before this turn rolls so may not manage to test in WB - so please chime -in, I am sure everybody but me knows ...

[Asterix]

OK, I checked, it works as I thought. I was confused by Lord Parkin's comment in RB 4 that he forgot to chop the granary just before city grew, but he probably did not mean the situation that granary is completed the turn city grew that I thought about.

[WilliamLP]

Dear lurkers, one more game mechanics question: is there an added benefit to building granary not at the last moment before the city grows, but earlier?

Yes, very much.

Granaries store food as you produce food. For every food surplus added it stores a point of food. They store food up to half of what's needed for a pop growth. (So it stores up to 11 when you're size 1 since 22 is needed to grow.)

When the city grows, it immediately gets the food stored in the granary (including from food added that turn), and the granary empties.

However, on the turn the granary is built, it stores no food at all.

So the turn a city is due to grow is maybe the worst time you can finish a granary, since it contributes nothing that turn! If you do complete it then you might want to use the "avoid growth" button.

In general you want them to finish when the city is about half full of food at the end of the turn, because they'll store food equal to the next half, which is the maximum.

But, you can still get the maximum at higher food values than half. E.g. if a city at size 2 has +6 food, if a granary finishes at 17/24, then the next turn the city is at 23/24 with 6 food in the granary, then it's 29/24 with 12 food in the granary, and will then grow to size three with 17/26 and you get the maximum value out of the granary (+12 food for the growth).

[Asterix]

Hi,

Thanks, William, I have always thought is is working more or less like that, but by testing now I figured also out what you are talking about - the 23/24 trick . I have one very slowly growing gold city - desert gold, 0 food - it is called Black Eyes. I have settled it ages ago, but it is still size 2 . Next turn it will finally grow, it is now exactly 23/24 and settled to have 6 food surplus this turn, so I should get 12+5 in the foodbox, I guess - which will be 17/26 and I will continue to keep it set up with +6 foods for a while, so now it should finally grow rapidly .

Just to completely clarify things - if I can complete granary the turn city grows - and it grows in the way that there is not even single food being carried over to the next size - completing granary the turn city grows is not any better that completing it after it grew? I could actually wait as well with completing it until food box is half full, I understand. I think I just misunderstood LP's remark to meaning that there is always a benefit to completing granary before the city grow - even if it is exactly the turn it grows - and that created this whole confusion.

[Asterix]

Every turn is exciting now that we have Alphabet - we know exactly what other teams are researching. We could even figure out what is their exact research rate (we also see their gold), although at the moment we are too lazy - and there is no real need to do that, frankly.

Turn 107 Suttree got Priesthood, Orgy got Iron Working and Yossadorn got Currency. This turn (108) Yuufo finally got Mathematics (as the last team in game). We would rather have him get Monarchy, although he does not seem to need happiness - he is whipping forges everywhere, he has gold and silver, almost all his cities have religion and they are small now. Again, from Math it would be better for us that he would go construction, although he would almost for sure go Currency . Damn, what can we do? Having #1 and #2 civs as your neighbors (we think Eggheads will eventually go down in score and Yuufo will rise) is tough ...

[Asterix]

Suttocrats are researching at the terrifying speed, they just got Monarchy this turn, taking only 2 turns to research it - and a Priesthood overflow. They are actually researching at the speed very similar to ours, but do not have to worry about a stronger neighbor attacking them (Yuufo in our case). Looks like Suttocrats will finally complete Great Lighthouse in a couple of turns - I had a suspicion this is going to happen when they suddenly changed their game long policy of not opening borders with us :P (but currently we cannot accept anyway). This and they had iighthouse in their capitol like forever :D. BTW, it is a shame Orgy has not built GLH yet, they are the only IND team on the map! I think everybody was so sure Orgy is gonna get it - or in my case, Orgy or an EXP civ - that others where not giving it a serious try ... Anyways, that is far from my biggest worry - biggest concern is what to do if an Indian army will shop up on my doorstep T130? On the other hand, even though my power score is horrible now - 9th - I am still not sure India wants to really attack me. It seems also likely that seeing I am too weak to attack them, they want to keep me preparing for their attack to thwart my economic growth ... Have to build some units anyway - but the question is how aggressively? Any advice?

EDIT: Suttocrats are also now about 400 beakers ahead in techs researched, Orgy ahead by about 100, Yuufo doing almost as good as Eggheads - which is remarkable, as we were all hoping he overexpanded - apparently not

[Asterix]

Rather uneventful turn, nobody researched any new tech.

We settled our 12th city - that puts us on par with Eggheads and Suttocrats and only one city behind Yuufo. The city was technically in the contested area between us, India and even England - but Yuufo showed no interest for ages, he also indicated there is another source of marble to his East.

We are doing both very well and very badly - well because we cemented further our supremacy in land area and we still hoover around #1 in GNP, even at break-even research (which is 50% for us). We will have Civil Service in 5 turns and soon afterwards Mono and we will then switch to Bureaucracy/OR with just one turn of anarchy . The bad news is that our army is still #9 and it will take time to change that - and generally #9 army plus #1 land score is a very dangerous combination. On the other hand, we decided to gamble a bit and stay a couple more turns in expansion mode. Just 2 more cities :P.