[SPOILER] Yell0w - Rhoanna, Hippus

[Ellimist]

Speaking of research, I often see players pursue binary research, where it's either all or nothing each turn. Apparently it helps avoid loss due to rounding (though I'm not sure how much of a factor that is in the current version of Civ - I remember back in the day it was a real issue). Is there a reason we're not doing that?

Binary research has other advantages as well. The most important one, to me, is that it allows me to delay making a decision on tech priorities without delaying the completion dates. The next is that some turns may have a comparative advantage toward either beakers or gold, and you can take advantage of that to effectively get the best of both. For example, if you expect to complete an Academy or Library soon, it's better to do 100% gold until you do.

A few less beakers lost to rounding is pretty minor after the early game.

[Mafro]

While we're talking about binary research, I also understand that the actual cost goes down if other players have completed a given tech. Is that true? If so, might that mean that holding off on starting a tech for a few turns (in order to save up money so you can 100% it) could allow you faster research in the event that some other player completes it while you're saving up?

My knowledge of game mechanics doesn't hold a candle to some of those on this board...especially the undocumented stuff....

[Ellimist]

Yes, that is also correct. It's not a particularly large bonus, but it's still potentially worth a few beakers that are worth taking.

There are a few late-game reasons not to run binary, such as the happiness from gambling houses, but otherwise it's almost always worth using. (No matter what your breakeven slider rate would be)

[Yell0w]

Hey, thinking creatively again...can we farm gold from the citadel we're holding? Seems like we should be able to pillage it back to castle level and then let it grow back to a citadel. Keep doing that and we might make some decent money over time, enough to help us focus on research. And unlike the other self-improving improvements, it doesn't require a city to work it.

Indeed, that works. I'm questioning myself if giving up the +15% str. bonus 3 tiles around and the +1 view is worth destroying though. If I do this I should do it now though, so when we really need the defense it will have regrown. Pillaging twice should give us about 50 gold, and I think thats worth it.
So I went ahead and pillaged the Citadel for 29 Gold. I don't really know if the vision will be reduced next turn, after ending turn I still could see all the tiles. Also the extra 15% str. didn't show on my units in the region. Next turn I'll pillage the Castle, then it'll take 39 turns to grow back to a citadel.

I also turned on binary research.

[Mafro]

So I went ahead and pillaged the Citadel for 29 Gold. I don't really know if the vision will be reduced next turn, after ending turn I still could see all the tiles. Also the extra 15% str. didn't show on my units in the region. Next turn I'll pillage the Castle, then it'll take 39 turns to grow back to a citadel.

Cool.

I think I've only ever seen extra defense from forts show on city tiles. I've also noticed that the number doesn't seem to update immediately after pillaging or capturing a fort, though it does seem to reset after a battle on that city tile or after the next turn.

This whole area seems a touch glitchy, but I THINK that's just on the display side of things. I haven't seen any evidence that the bonus itself doesn't get applied in battle.

[Thoth]

Forts ect need to be in your cultural borders and unoccupied by hostile units in order to provide any benefits.

[Mafro]

Forts ect need to be in your cultural borders and unoccupied by hostile units in order to provide any benefits.

It looks like it gives its defense bonus to any units on the actual tile, as well as the visibility bonus. And, strangely enough, it appears to continue to give the visibility bonus even a turn after being pillaged down to castle level - probably a minor bug.

However, I think you're right that it doesn't give any defense bonus to surrounding tiles unless it's within your cultural border.

[Mafro]

Dunno if you noticed, but it looks like Mardoc beat us to a third city a couple turns back. Chilly Willy is expanding faster than we are!

Also, the Population demographics are rather off-putting. We're 2nd with 383K. However, Rival Best is 807K. What??? Playing around with the formula, I believe it means someone has both a size 9 and a size 8 city. Hopefully that means someone screwed up and blew past their happy cap. If not, they've got a bunch of happy that we don't. It can't be Mardoc, as he's got 3 cities, so it's got to be HidingKneel, Suttree, or Molach. Molach has the lowest score, and rather poor crop yield...but maybe it could still be him as a result of casting River of Blood early on?

Our happy cap is currently 7, though we could build carnivals to grow that to 8 (though we should probably be putting hammers into growing out rather than up for the time being). We're about to hook up Incense, but without some sort of Temple I don't believe it will increase our happy cap.

Our GNP is 36 at 100% coin at the moment, solid middle of the pack. However, next turn our new city Radonnor should grow to size 2 and start working the improved Incense tile, which should give us another 7 commerce (nice timing on the city growth and tile improvement!).

Are you planning on planting any cottages? If so, we might want to turn research on now and get Education to enable that. I see 4 or 5 plains tiles that could be home to cottages and supplement our eventual agristocratic economy, unless you have other plans for them.

In the meantime, good to see we've got a solid event fund.

[Yell0w]

It's Mardoc with the population would be my guess, he has a size 9 city.
He also beat us to our 3rd city by 1 turn, which ain't a problem I think. My guess is that we will have our 4th and 5th city before him.

I'll start with education next turn.
I think I'll cottage some gl tiles as well, at least down at our 2nd city.
I'll also put up a Turn 50 turn report today or tomorrow. Right now we are either Nr. 1 or 2 in every category.

[Mafro]

It's Mardoc with the population would be my guess, he has a size 9 city.
He also beat us to our 3rd city by 1 turn, which ain't a problem I think. My guess is that we will have our 4th and 5th city before him.

You're right...I neglected to check the Top 5 Cities screen. That said, I'm having a hard time making the numbers add up. Wait...it appears the population numbers are rounded down on each city before being added up...that would explain it. In that case Mardoc has the following:

Vanilla - size 9 (469K pop)
Mint - size 8 (337K pop)
Green Tea - size 1 (1K pop)

That makes for a total of 21 active pop, including the city tile itself, assuming he's not constrained by happiness, compared to our 17, 18 next turn. He's got a huge crop yield, 67 versus our 49, so he's definitely been focused on food. His Mfg. Goods looks to be half ours, so that's what he's been sacrificing to date, and he's right with us on GNP at the moment. His power is a touch low as well, so he's got to be engaged in high-risk expansion.

I'll also put up a Turn 50 turn report today or tomorrow. Right now we are either Nr. 1 or 2 in every category.

Yeah, we've got a solid start, though at this point Mardoc is definitely the one to watch. Just realized that Charismatic gives him +1 Happy per city, so that and possibly an extra Happy resource (or Carnivals) is what is allowing him to grow up higher than us. However, we should realize the bulk of his traits haven't kicked in yet, whereas ours are definitely in play.

Of course, I'd rather not be seen as the leader. If we can be seen as 2nd for most of the game, I think that'd be in our best interests. With Rhoanna, though, even if we don't have the score lead we'll likely be seen as a threat...good thing you didn't play as Tasunke...civilizations with Raiders are just too dangerous to ignore...!