Wow. Okay, first instinct: I'd move the Warrior SE-S by road to the hill just outside our borders and start exploring our south, and I'd have Borte swap to a Warrior to grow in two. I'll think more about the implications and microplan changes and post as I come up with ideas.
Also: Based on the graphs and the turn he got his second city, I believe dtay planted hyper-aggressively toward his other land neighbor; his capital is presumably now working its copper mine at size 4. He could have it hooked as soon as T39. We could have ours hooked by T42 if needed. (Growing on a Warrior now does NOT delay this.)
I moved the warrior S-SE and switched Borte to a warrior. It`s good to finally being able to find out what is down south! If dtay planted aggressively towards his other neighbor, that surely is good news for us. Getting that copper mine built is so important for us now as Borte is short on good hammer tiles. Not to mention the need for building axemen. I think a 3 turn window for dtay is not enough to hit us. I don`t think he`ll try either.
Updating the microplan now that we can see all the copper nearby; here's my first suggestion for the upcoming turns:
T37: The Worker on the Corn moves 2S to the grassland forest. Muqa swaps to building a Warrior. The worker on the copper begins a Chop. Set Research slider to 0%. (Even though we don't need to reduce the research slider yet, we know we will have to before we finish our next tech, and saving gold before it's necessary gives us slightly better flexibility going forward. Also note that Muqa's warrior will probably/hopefully never be completed, at least until it's ready to become a spear; we're just putting 1h into it now because it won't delay the barracks and it will allow us to emergency-whip a pair of warriors if we absolutely have to.)
T38: Borte is now size 4 and switches to building a Worker, working Cow + Clam + Rice + Copper Forest. Muqa is now size 2 and resumes building its Barracks, working the Corn and the plains forest. The Worker on the forest south of Muqa begins a Chop. Set Research slider to 100%.
T39: The Worker on the Copper completes its Chop.
T40: Worker is complete at Borte; it moves SW-NW to the copper and begins a Mine. The other Worker on the same tile also contributes to the Mine. Borte resumes its Warrior, working Cow + Clam + Rice + Forest Hill.
T41: Warrior is complete at Borte. Muqa WHIPS its Barracks (2 pop to 1) and works the Corn. The Worker by Muqa moves 1W to the Sheep and begins a Pasture. The workers on the copper complete the Mine. Borte resumes its Settler and works Cow + Copper + Clam + Rice.
T42: Barracks complete at Muqa, which is now size 2. It starts an Axe, working Corn + Plains Forest. The Warrior in its queue (still with just 1 hammer invested) will upgrade to a spear at end of turn. (Because...) The Workers on the Copper begin and complete a Road.
T43: Pottery is complete; tech AH. (Workers do stuff; we need to pick a location for city 3 before we know exactly what. Also Muqa may change things up again here, etc.)
T44: Borte WHIPS its Settler (4 pop to 3) and works Cow + Copper + Clam. The Worker on Muqa's Sheep completes the pasture and Muqa works Corn + Sheep. (Note this whip does NOT speed up the Settler at all! The purpose of the whip is actually to pour a bunch of hammers into the next Worker so we can complete it in a single turn.)
T45: Settler complete at Borte. Borte builds a Worker.
T46: Worker complete at Borte. Borte grows on a granary? Etc.
Note in passing: If you have a chance before Gav rolls the turn, I would recommend turning our science rate down to 0% for turn 36, even though it isn't immediately necessary. Not the end of the world if you don't get the chance, but it does increase flexibility, and for instance would mean we could tech AH before pottery with no time lost if that looks like a good idea. Some reasons we might want to do this:
- The presence of copper at the capital, with the ten worker-turns it's taking us to connect it, mean one less capital citizen available to work cottages and less worker labor available to build them. Furs and time will help with these, respectively.
- Silver at Muqa makes the immediate acquisition of more commerce less urgent, most likely.
- Chariots are quite helpful for dealing with barbarians early, and for scouting, among other things.
- The large quantities of food at each of our first two cities, together with RtR's nerf to slavery, arguably make granaries less attractive than they would be in a normal BtS game, especially if we want to grow on units for a while, while the furs (and/or ivory if Mardoc remembered to give us any) would help us make use of the food by raising our happy cap.
- Probably horses won't also be in Borte's BFC, but who knows at this point?
Obviously there are counter-arguments: Getting cottages started sooner will increase their value as the game progresses; we should be able to get both Pottery and AH in time to hook the furs by the time Borte's third-ring borders pop anyway, and our third city probably won't have furs or ivory in its first ring anyway; we do plan to do more whipping with all this food, and that's always more efficient with a granary: The sooner we complete one, the sooner it starts paying for itself.
I think AH first is still worth considering though, and if we do manage to set research to 0 before the turn rolls, that at least allows another turn in which to consider it with no time lost. (No worries if you don't though: Even if we do switch, it's not the end of the world if it shows up one turn later; it's not as urgent as techs like Bronze Working.)
Gavagai still hasn`t played his turn so I put the slider on 0 % science. I`m willing to consider going for AH before pottery. Early chariots are very nice against barbs as you say. If we can get a 5XP chariot we can make a sentry, which would be very helpful for fog busting. As pottery obviously would be our next tech (after AH), we won`t delay the cottages and the granaries forever.
Also, I like that micro plan! It feels like we`re playing a strong opening with a lot of cheap EXP workers.
Cool; thanks! I'll probably still propose at least one alternative to the microplan just because I like tinkering with different possibilities, but I like the posted one too. Thinking about AH vs. Pottery a little more:
- I agree, these should be our next two techs regardless of order, so it's just a question of which we get first.
- I don't think either tech would help us get the other one faster. The second one will probably complete by T51; I haven't simmed it out. It's possible it can be sped to finish T50.
- Pottery is cheaper, and all these cheap EXP workers should indeed give us a chance to at least get started on a cottage or two before we could get both techs. If we turn science back on T37, we'll have Pottery by T43: Sooner than we would use it most likely, but perhaps by only a couple of turns.
- AH would complete by T45. If we do this, it might be worth using an alternate microplan that gets a 4th warrior, keeps Borte above size 3, and delays the settler and 4th worker by two turns. With AH coming in, the extra two turns would give us a little time to road toward what would be a horse city. (In order to get 4th warrior out, this plan would also delay roading the copper by a turn, and would therefore put 6-8 hammers into Muqa's spear-to-be that would have gone into an axe under the other plan.)
EDIT: Note that in either case, we would of course set the tech slider to 100% again on T37. Also, both microplans are the same through T39.
I went for AH, as we don`t want to delay getting horses online. We have just enough money in the bank to 8 turn it. Our warrior discovered a couple of new tiles. There are quite a few lake tiles to our south. I think we might get to meet our southern neighbor soon. We`re not that far away from the half-way point of our civs (assuming 14-ish tiles between us).
Investing one or a few hammers into a warrior is a good idea in MP I think. The difference between normal and marathon speed is exactly what could have gotten me into a world of trouble if I was playing alone.
