[SPOILERS] Back to Basic - Mardoc plays Augustus of China

[Commodore]

Agg warrior going to be a problem?

[Mardoc]

Maybe?

I guess I shouldn't assume he'll just turn around.

It is wounded, so unless he spends the time to heal I ought to have odds anywhere flatlandy. But I suppose I should consider making an axe instead of only granaries and wonders. For insurance.

[Mardoc]

Ok, so we can whip the axe next turn if it seems necessary.

Also in the news: no Stonehenge or Buddhism for us! Shouldn't be a problem, really, wasn't counting on either and our demos still look pretty good. Does mean that I need to find the worker turns to help chop toward Oracle, though. Gotta make up for the axe turns somehow.

[Mardoc]

Twinkletoes turned around, but I decided to go ahead and finish the axe anyway. I need to chop forests off my grasslands to put up cottages, at least three of them, so that ought to greatly speed the Oracle in any event. Add in a whip, and I think I'll still get it.

[Mardoc]

Isn't there a rule of thumb to whip granaries at half food box?

I acted as if that were true, anyway, whipping both here and at Haley. Besides, in both cases I was whipping off of an unimproved tile.



Three forest chops incoming, 25 hammers overflow, decent base production, should see the Oracle finished in 3-4 turns. Haley will either start on a Lighthouse or another worker, not decided yet. It would be fun to get the Great Lighthouse, on top of everything else...maybe I should go for that directly.

Twinkletoes decided to pause to heal outside my borders, so I'm shadowing him with the new axe. Shouldn't have any trouble if he decides to come in.

[Krill]

Basically, from the turn after you complete the granary, the amount of food you want to produce =total food required to grow/2, and food you produce on the turn you grow counts to that number.

In this instance, you need 28 food to grow, with 14 saved. You 1 pop whip to drop it to size 3, so you now need 26 food to grow, food produced the turn you make the granary doesn't count. That means you will end up at 20/26F, making 6fpt, so you grow end of next turn and only save 6 food. You actually did that about as wrong as you possibly could, with the 1 pop whip.

[Mardoc]

So to do this more efficiently, I ought to have whipped the granary last turn instead? Then I'd have saved 10 out of 12 possible food with the granary (only 4 food surplus if I whipped off the FP farm), and also made it a two-pop whip with more overflow, if I understand you correctly. Would have had the downside of one more pop to regrow, but saving more food would make that not hurt too badly.

Edit: hmm, I think my math is off on the amount of food saved in the hypothetical, but it still would have been more than I'm actually getting.

[Mardoc]

One more turn...



At least the demos are looking strong:



Next major projects:

• Cottages on all the tiles we just cleared
  
• Need another worker or two, and to get a road to the eastern sites
  
• Need two more settlers to grab the Stone and Silver sites
  
• Need to build the Colossus somewhere - probably in Vaarsuvius, it could use the culture. Of course, this time, we do it by lining up a lot of overflow, not just a little, and we put up a couple mines as well.
  
• And, maybe, to build a Great Lighthouse in Haley. Although our only advantage there is Industrious, I doubt we're first to Sailing or first to a Lighthouse. Still need to think if this one's worth attempting
  

Also, tech. Need to figure out what's urgent and what can wait. I've been heading in the direction of Currency without any particular plan, but I suppose I should pick up Masonry if I want any wonders (especially Stone ones), and possibly also Hunting for chariot insurance.

[Mardoc]

Of all the turns for Sian to hold the save 24 hours...


I mean, I'm pretty sure I'll get the Oracle. But pretty sure wants to be certain!

[Mardoc]

Got it!




We'll take Metal Casting, of course. Roy will start slow building a Forge, then Library, taking a break every little while to 2-pop whip something we need. Haley, I'm debating between Forge and Lighthouse as more urgent; probably worth swapping to Forge. And Vaarsuvius, of course, needs to finish its Granary.

Next two 2-poppers need to go to workers, I think. We're nearly caught up on improved tiles, but nowhere near ready to establish new cities. Five workers ought to be enough to let us handle that, though, so after the workers I'll knock out a pair of settlers.

Techwise, I think it's time to go back and fill in some of the gaps. In particular, I want Hunting in case Twinkletoes decides to raid with chariots, and one of either Meditation or Monotheism to open a means of building Missionaries (although I've been hoping someone would take Judaism so I don't have to deal with dueling religions. And Masonry, to unlock a few more wonders.