[Spoilers] Commodore as Darius of the HRE

[Commodore]

He's a good man, our Mr. Nice Guy:

[COLOR="Yellow"]Hey MNG,
Just a quick note, please head 1SW this turn and then head west along the coastline and you'll be home before you know it.
Cheers,
-Commodore[/COLOR]

Got back.

[COLOR="RoyalBlue"]Thanks for the note, I followed the instructions. I've forwarded them on to the local farmers to have a celebration ready for the return of our prodigal son.

Until Later,
MNG - Hattie of France[/COLOR]

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Red Dot got me winced at by Sven, and I see why, being decidedly forest-poor. One quick question, can I "assign" the capital's two forests to Red if I want chops of them to roll into it?

Yep. You can! You can assign ownership of tiles in overlapping BFCs without working that tile by just clicking it on the city screen, it "defogs" that tile and any chops that get assigned will go to the city that has it defogged. This doesn't work for tiles outside of BFCs, then that tile belongs to whatever city is culturally closest to the city.

[Commodore]

Thanks Nico! That makes Red a lot more viable, which I suppose is the upside to not having chopped anywhere yet.



Man. I think we're doing phenomenally well considering the obscenely late Bronze Working snag. Copper revealed itself beautifully.



Thanks, Gaspar, for fitting that into my dotmap so well. Yellow it is! I set the workers to roading, ignoring the wounded Frence warrior limping to the north.



He'll be trusted, although as you can see, Ophir is building an escort anyway, just to reduce temptation. Any halfway competent C&D can see I'm running a farmer's gambit anyway, might as well make it explicit.



The result? Not one but two hamlets, pushing my GNP up nicely. You can actually reduce the GNP by two and up the production by 4 as I reconfigured Ophir to push out the chariot in time with the settler. Which is nice, because soldier points are going to go down again:



Alas, poor Sven the Scout. You served us well, lad. As you can see, Masonry is in in 2, Monotheism ETA 5 turns...just in time to make the next settlement also a holy city and allowing a nice double revolt at the same time. At least I think that's still a kosher tech...how do I look up the information logs, rather than the default top-of-screen announcements? Sorry, newbie to the format question there.

[Ceiliazul]

Scouts don't count for soldier points.

Wow! What a city there where your scout is standing. Probably not enough room for you and mng to both be happy there...

Waiting 5 turns to revolt to slavery would be not so good... you're food heavy an hammer poor. Both existing cities should be cracking the whip asap. Especially in your capital, those extra turns without slavery would force you to work unimproved grassland forests instead of flatland sheep. Tough call...

I assume you're heading to monarchy soon too? Maybe the revolt to OrgReligion could wait for a double to Hereditary Rule?

[Ceiliazul]

A escort to yellow dot is a great idea, and follow with a warrior for garrison duty so the chariot can head east. You really need contacts with the others.

[Commodore]

Wow! What a city there where your scout is standing. Probably not enough room for you and mng to both be happy there...

Waiting 5 turns to revolt to slavery would be not so good... you're food heavy an hammer poor. Both existing cities should be cracking the whip asap. Especially in your capital, those extra turns without slavery would force you to work unimproved grassland forests instead of flatland sheep. Tough call...

I assume you're heading to monarchy soon too? Maybe the revolt to OrgReligion could wait for a double to Hereditary Rule?

Yeah, that might very well be a fool's errand to try and reach for. A canal/fishing village 2SW1S of the scout is more viable with those furs though, and then 1NE or even 2NE of the scout is also nice...still just as much reach positions, but less overtly aggressive. Also need to see how viable that little IC-trade-route island is in the fog. Overall, very interesting map, pulls me in two directions strongly.

Thing is about the whip, I'm not in danger of growing Aquilonia after the settler immediately, as I'm desperately needing workers. Ophir likewise will be putting out a worker once its at four to speed up the ivory. I'm not working any unimproved tiles in the configuration, with Wheat/2sheep/both riverside hamlets on Aquilonia (2-turn worker with overflow) and FP cottage/pastured horses/dye farm(at growth) for Ophir. Now the worker will get done and then the granary needs the whip...but that's in, yep, 6 turns.

[Ceiliazul]

Good point about the workers, that should take up the slack turns nicely before OR.

An idea: ask MNG to allow your chariot to pass through French lands to meet Yuri. Not such a big request since he already has a warrior in your lands. This would legitimately be the fastest way to meet Yuri, and maybe give you eyes on Paris as well. I'll sim it, but I suspect that your chariot can be in his borders before his warrior exits yours. (You'd need to build a warrior for garrison duty of course)

The importance of this is that the shape of the map is less like a pentagon, and more like a house. Long supply lines and high maintenance will prohibit conquest along the south strand for a very long time. This makes MNG your natural rival. You need more intel on his lands, and you need to build a good reationship with Yuri.

[Commodore]

Good point about the workers, that should take up the slack turns nicely before OR.

An idea: ask MNG to allow your chariot to pass through French lands to meet Yuri. Not such a big request since he already has a warrior in your lands. This would legitimately be the fastest way to meet Yuri, and maybe give you eyes on Paris as well. I'll sim it, but I suspect that your chariot can be in his borders before his warrior exits yours. (You'd need to build a warrior for garrison duty of course)

The importance of this is that the shape of the map is less like a pentagon, and more like a house. Long supply lines and high maintenance will prohibit conquest along the south strand for a very long time. This makes MNG your natural rival. You need more intel on his lands, and you need to build a good reationship with Yuri.

Man, it's a pity, because I could see myself actually working well with MNG, and Yuri seems to be off to a slow start. Ah well, nowhere to go but northwards.

Yeah, I'm feeling pretty isolated here. Oh, here's the end finally in sight:



Daaaang that's a long landbridge. I will be annoyed if the runaways are this isolated from the other end. Still too early to be hooting about "teh runaways, oh noez!" though. I'll wait until the Stonehenge team sweeps Oracle and GLH first.

I feel like I have a pretty optimized plan for the next few turns.



Gaspar here will be finishing the road on the hill the same time the settler and chariot are ready to move, which means city #3 comes just one turn after both are built. The forested valley gets a road next, hooking up for enough trade route commerce to justify new city as it begins to build up a workboat (1t into warrior while fishing completes) and works the lake. Then, on to coppermine, maybe via the pasture square for a faster hookup.



Aquilonia has been micro'd for max overflow into a worker after settler, bring it to 2-turns, then it's time.



Ophir's growth will kick up once the chariot pushes out, coinciding with the dye farm's completion.

I actually feel like I'm in a decent 3rd place right now, with a good map for the HRE to pick up in the later game.



Dunno if the demos bear that out though.

[Ceiliazul]

Man, it's a pity, because I could see myself actually working well with MNG, and Yuri seems to be off to a slow start. Ah well, nowhere to go but northwards.

If my assumption is right about Buddha, and your assumption is right about the Oracle, then its safe to say that Yuri is way off the usual "snowball" growth path... but hey, he still got Bronze Working before you. :neenernee

I feel like I have a pretty optimized plan for the next few turns. . . I actually feel like I'm in a decent 3rd place right now, with a good map for the HRE to pick up in the later game.

I agree, you look good for the next few turns, and I agree you're in a solid position on a favorable map. No worries, keep it up.

Dunno if the demos bear that out though.

When I left off, I put you in 3rd place on the growth track. I'll catch up on demos this weekend.

[Ceiliazul]

We've got MNG's graphs! Checking into it soon.