[PB75 Mjmd] Call to Power

[Tarkeel]

For serfdom, grasshills are one of your best tiles available long-term. Consider them to be grassland watermills, because the yields are about the same.

[Mjmd]

I hadn't planned on reporting until BW came in next turn but two things



1) Gav had a crab start and went work boat first??!?!?  
2) Greenline found me. Guessing he is north (probably NE or NW). In any case its long past time my scout went that way. My warrior was going south, but hooked him back to wheat just in case.

[Mjmd]

Ouch.



Sent my warrior to see if there is a hidden plains hill sheep, but I probably should just go settle the good city first in either case so should send warrior that way. I know Gav teched sailing and opened with a crab work boat opening so he will be slower. Little more worried about Greenline actually.

The copper is clearly meant to steal my best capital food, which I did in PB66. That capital was significantly more green though. That being said if it wasn't for the fact it would have good odds of being a holy city I might still settle SE of copper as 2nd. Instant river connection and its forests could help race down the river to grab the Gav border spots (size 1 work copper and chop out a settler; that line of forests leading to it are sweet for India). I also like my 2nd cities doing something right away, which the corn city doesn't. But I keep on having to remember I'm playing Neb. I want a good holy city and while its not guaranteed to be 2nd city it does influence the odds quite a bit. Also obviously the corn cow is the strongest city I've seen even if I lose 10 commerce for no trade connection. Ironically forcing myself to be slower on expansion will help my tech quite a bit.

[Mjmd]

T30

Well the good news is that Gavs copper looks worse.



Now its possible everyone has two coppers. Which means I really need to scout NE. If nothing else though it means his horse is likely not towards me, which is the most important thing. This will be one of the latest 3rd cities I have ever done. Part of this is the capital, but part is due to civ / strategy. 

Right now T33 settler and T38 stonehenge is still the plan. There is some awkwardness for the next settler that might delay it a turn if I want to be more efficient. So in my past games its pretty common that I've needed overflow hammers from a scout or warrior and therefore you alternate between so you can save a turn of growth. If I had had a 1st ring river resource of any type or the deer had been on the river or Gav had teched BW / someone else found me with I would have needed this. My sim for some reason a couple beakers ahead and therefore that was my original micro. However I should have adjusted with the assumption I would not get in time. This is important as because I started scout before warrior finished it will start decaying and I lose 1 hammer on the scout even with some very specific micro. This hammer is important because in order to get to 40/100 on settler I have to work a plains forest for 1 turn to overflow from a warrior. This puts me 1 food short of growing after whip, so I may delay whipping a further turn for 3rd settler so I only go two turns without working the plains cow. 

Maybe I'll post full micro later. I used to do that; there are some nice bits. I just enjoy India. Stonehenge perfectly pops culture so worker that goes to improve corn can come back and start improving the grassland cow with only wasted worker turns those that are it moving.

[Mjmd]

Evidently Greenline is to my east. A warrior has shown up going right for where I'm settling. Will I regret letting his scout live?

[Mjmd]

T35

Thought for sure turn wouldn't roll until tomorrow.

PB67 border city with Ginger. PB70 ended up not using until game was almost over settling Charriu land.



Did I think about turning my settler around for copper site when I saw his warrior. Only for a moment!



In all seriousness. I should have sent a peace treaty back instead of accepting the cease fire. But I didn't kill his scout. That decision took longer than settling decision. I did that specifically because I want Greenline going elsewhere. And if he is east it looks like there is a nice mountain range taking up a lot of the tiles on my side of the border that will make for a safe border for both of us. If he just goes along border I will declare and try to get a peace treaty so I don't have to worry about worker. Will see how friendly he wants to be. It looks like we should have a good border but people have horrible miss read such things before.

My scout has been looking to see if anyone is NW but no culture so far. I'm vaguely wondering if that silver is supposed to be mine or if its a halfway in desert situation. Debating about hooking east then down to cover copper settle as I was going to do or if I keep going east. Gav did go into slavery but still hasn't settled second (I would be on this turn though).

[Mjmd]

T38

Roots - PB70 gold, fish, deer, and cow city. And yet was only my 2nd city settled. Built my 17 city HG and some of the workers and settlers to get there. Site of major maneuvering and defense against SD.



Speaking of Roots I have completed the root of my current game in a big circle of stones.



I also lucked into horses. I guess it makes up for my copper being garbage. Cows come in range due to stonehenge culture perfectly for the corn worker to improve. Other worker will start making his way to copper city.

First scout ran into a mountain wall and is turning south. I'm pretty sure I'm going SW to keep a picket line vs Gav. No sign of horses between us, but could be north of him where I didn't scout, but that way is very hilly so still have to determine where I want scout. Middle seems to be desert anyways, which has implications I may discuss later. Once I have another warrior out / ability to whip another will send scout east out currently defending just in case. Greenline did move warrior away however after I tried war peacing he just did a cease fire AGAIN. Is he taking lessons from Magic Science now??? (PB66 reference, didn't end well). Anyways, not feeling super trusting and my power graph reading ability is garbage. I'm pretty sure he only has 2 warriors, but better safe than sorry.

[Mjmd]

T42

Big news is that there appears to be a thin ocean to my east. 



I could go settle a nice hill border city behind a river and DOUBLE the number of non capital grassland river tiles I have!!! (you know from 1 to 2). And I may if for some reason Greenline leaves a hill pig horse site go long. Which he might because he might make the same decision I am. This is a good natural border, I'm going to focus the other direction. Grab the wheat/cow city, grab the stone city, and go all the way up to grab the silver city. 

I do have to go check if there is a better Colossus site east. 

I have a whole bunch of micro stuff, does anyone actually want that? I know I just glaze over when other people post. I do kind of want to revive my India saved worker turn tracker.

[pindicator]

I have a whole bunch of micro stuff, does anyone actually want that?

Yes please!

[Mjmd]

I have a whole bunch of micro stuff, does anyone actually want that?

Yes please!

PB59 city. I mainly use this song whenever I'm feeling proud of pulling of some logistical feat. In PB59 it was changing research to engineering for a final invasion of Ramk along with GKC. Timed invasion for turn I finished engineering for a little more surprise. Also got to use Carracks pretty efficiently as part of cross channel invasion.



So I used to write down stuff and I would post it as well. Try to better it ect. I eventually decided that a philosophy of "if it feels good that is probably good enough". And that is what I did earlier. I hadn't really done long term simming and lost a hammer as a result, but no big deal as still got to 40/100 settler currently in queue.

Well I was doing a little more simming just trying to find a "good enough feeling" and I realized I had a problem. My capital doesn't grow very fast. A lot of games I just spam 4>2 whip overflow into settler or worker I'm going to 4>2 next. Obviously this game is 5>3, but still its a long grow time. Also unlike other recent games I don't have a lot of expansion in immediate area so need more roading. So how do I get another worker AND settler out in a reasonable time? Minimize turns not growing. So ya this micro results in a two turn worker at capital and 40/100 settler and also a 40/100 settler down at PB70. And its a little more complicated so I actually wrote it down. I used to do worker movements but those are pretty easy to remember. Note gets vaguer as it goes on for non capital cities. CTP = capital Call To Power.

T42 CTP scout to hold in queue
T43 CTP Warrior
T45 whip settler CTP, worker in PB70
T46 overlow CTP into worker
T47 CTP warrior
T48 whip worker PB70
T49 settler in queue PB70
T50 CTP warrior finishes overflow into mostly done scout (note could fin scout T49 then switch back to warrior); PB70 grow on warrior
T51 CTP overflow into worker; see PB70 notes below
T52 CTP puts settler in queue worker finishes finish chop with overflow giving 40/100 settler. Decide when to whip. May end up whipping a granary first 5>3 so I can 4>2 settler after (with gran can give wheat to copper city at least temporarily)

I mainly worked on capital, but PB70 was easy just have to go back through and write down turns.
PB70 grow on spice not horse; two turns scout size 2, 3 turns size 3 overflow into settler when grows size 4, T58 whip;
I think my copper city will be size 1 work copper worker into chopping out a size 1 settler, this is mainly due to needing a 2nd worker to roads towards future Colossus city (either east or south).

Worker turns saved by being India as of current turn = 7 (some of this was dancing between two forests to get current settler perfect). I'll obviously do things like you saw noted last screenshot where I'm chopping on way to copper city I wouldn't do if I wasn't India, so maybe "saved" is wrong term, but "used" might be better. I still think Julius of Zulu was the correct pick for this, but I am pretty convinced the 2nd best pick for this start is Neb of India. I'll put a counter on some mountain peak next time I'm in.