[SPOILERS] Isabella of Carthage, starring Ellimist, SleepingMoogle, and Nicolae

[SleepingMoogle]

Hmm, no borders is indeed a little odd. We shouldn't be too far off though.

Anyway, I'm guessing the Worker plan is something like this?



This is kind of assuming we get Hunting next, but given the growth potential in both cities getting an extra point of happiness is never a bad thing. We can run 0% science for one turn, and then get it in two.

I'm not sure I agree with your road building plan Ellimist, because that road would serve no real purpose at the moment. Instead, getting Pedro back to Sirius asap would get out the cottage faster as well (we're working too many unimproved tiles already). Plus we can load him onto the Galley once it has finished to start scouting the mainland. This probably means the 'blue' Worker will need to finish the cottage but it keeps lost Worker time to a minimum.

Judging from earlier comments, Sirius will whip out a Galley next, and Canopus a Granary right? We'll probably want to 2-pop whip the Galley (so we work all 4 improved tiles at Sirius) and 1-pop whip the Granary (so both food resources and the gold continue to be worked).

After that, my suggestion would be to start grow Canopus to size 5 (working on either a Scout or MP Warrior) and then start on a Worker, and load the Warrior and a Worker at Sirius into the Galley, while building a new MP Warrior while growing back to size, and then starting on a Settler. If Canopus can finish the Settler earlier though, we can switch the Worker/Settler builds around.

Sending the Worker and Warrior over asap allows us to scout a fairly big section of the mainland before the Settler finishes. Also, Sirius will expand borders at the end of turn 49, so that should reveal a few more tiles to the south and southeast. I'm guessing that the Copper/Gold location will remain very important though, so that's where our initial scouting efforts should go.

[Ellimist]

Yes, that was my worker plan.

I like the plan of putting the warrior and a worker on the donut asap, and Sirius does need more improved tiles quickly as well. The road is a lower priority so let's have the same worker who builds the camp build the road. I'd like to at least road the gold tile as it speeds units toward Sirius by a full turn.

Nicolae was thinking we should skip cottages at Sirius and do farms because it will be our Moai city with Colossus powered coastal tiles.

[SleepingMoogle]

Turn 49 came in, and it was an interesting one.

First off, we got out bonus tech from the Oracle of course.



I'm guessing the tech plan is still Hunting -> Writing so I set the next research to Hunting, and turned down the slider to 0% for this turn. If we change our mind and switch to Writing, the difference in beakers is pretty minimal. The Workers moved according to the screenshot posted earlier, so they are in position to start building a road, mine and cottage next turn.

Sirius started working on a Galley, which it can 2-pop whip next turn, and Canopus, now back on a food focus, started on a Granary. It grew to size 4 at the end of the turn, so will invest a base 7 hammers next turn. We'll probably want to whip it to completion as soon as the population cost goes down to one, and then overflow into a MP Warrior so Canopus can grow to size 6 (7 once the Ivory is hooked up).

Scouting was good as well. We finally made contact:





Green borders mean Kuro is our southern neighbor. This is actually great, since of all the teams, Kuro is the one most likely to have gone for early Writing. I'll send a short greeting after finishing this report, and see if he is interested in opening borders.

Finally, demographics after ending the turn. We're looking good!

[SleepingMoogle]

Sent to Kuro:

Hey there Kuro,

Our Workboat has come across your northern border this turn, and I would like to send warm greetings on behalf of our team. As the first of the teams that we have met, I am hopeful that our meeting can be the start of a mutually beneficial cooperation between our two teams.

Our civilization is located some distance north of where you are located, far enough that we don't have to fear aggression from each other. I would therefore like to ask if you are interested in an exchangin of information (about the map, other teams, or anything else for that matter), and opening borders with each other once we can, so that we can both benefit from traderoute income?

Best wishes, and a safe journey,
-SleepingMoogle

The mention of a NAP is absent. They kind of have lost their charm with me, but perhaps agreeing to one later on will make Kuro more inclined to ally with us.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Good chop micro, you guys did it better than I ever did. I'd like to make a point that it's not worth whipping the granary in Canopus, our food surplus is simply not high enough and we're working too many good tiles. I'd be happier slowbuilding it and growing onto as many grass hills as possible. After all, between religion, cheap temples, forge-gold and ivory, we'll be less limited by happiness and more limited by food.

I'd still lobby for farming Sirius, use the capital to whip out workers and settlers and galleys. The city and corn and fish give +11 food surplus, the mines give -2. I'd say farm the rivers and whip our capital like mad, don't be scared to stack whip unhappiness so we can catch up to the others who have been pushing growth.

Remember, if we're whipping, we can either kill citizens on farms, mines, or cottages. Whipping off cottages is a bad idea unless you're going to immediately regrow and rework the cottages. Whipping off mines is situational, grass mines turn -1 food to +3 hammers, plains mines turn -2 food to +4 hammers. Whipping off farms is fine, work them so we can work improved tiles anyway, and putting a citizen on them will speed you towards your next population point and another 30H worth of stuff.

And our numbers look great! Food looks great as we're working all improved food specials (so glad we landed poly to grab 2nd ring borders). We're probably not the #1 researchers though, oracle + holy city accounts for ~13 culture, but of course we're not getting any pre-req bonuses.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

The message to Kuro sounds good. He's comes across as a pretty peaceful player, sure he picked Shaka of Zulu when I played him online but he never really made use of it (though it could be because I choked him with warriors and later axes). Feel free to use me as the "bad cop" in negotiations a la Team Rego/Sunrise (Good cop/bad cop).

[SleepingMoogle]

Hmm, currently Sirius has a +5 food surplus while working both mines, which increases to +6 once we build a Lighthouse. That feels like it is enough to sustain rapid growth to me, especially since none of the other tiles will lower it.

Having a Worker/Settler pump is nice, but why not let Canopus (eventually) grow into that role? The area around that Copper resource has a lot of hills as well, so the city we would place to claim it would not do good at commerce. By farming rather than cottaging the tiles around Sirius, none of our first three cities has a commerce focus, and that hurts our tech rate and leaves us less able to sustain REX maintenance costs.

I don't mind slow-building the Granary in Canopus if it makes sense on a micro level. Getting it done faster would increase the growth rate though, to the point where Canopus can also produce tons of hammers by regular whipping. We'll get more Workers and Settlers faster that way. As long as Canopus can continue to work both Food resources, the Gold, and the Ivory once it is hooked up, the city still has enough of a surplus to grow every 3-4 turns in between whips.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Whoops my numbers are way off yeah we have a +5 food surplus. I think there's an argument either way towards farming or cottaging Sirius, depending on how high we prioritise the water-boosting wonders (Moai and Colossus). Once we get them down we're going to want to move our citizens off the mines and onto the 2/1/3 coasts. The if we cottage those tiles, then we'll want to keep working those cottages forever (alternatively some non-Moai filler cities grow the cottages).

I'd say minimise whipping Canopus though, we have too many good tiles and I'd prefer to grow onto grass hills instead of whipping them off. I'm a bit unsure if whipping the granary is worth it, it's going to appear in ~5 turns anyway. Remember, it's going to take time to grow back to our previous size, and them some more. If you adamantly want to whip the granary, then I recommend waiting until our food bar is nearly half-way done.

I do agree with roading those key tiles, the boost to movement speed is worth it even pre-construction.

[Ellimist]

I have no plans for any NAPs either, it was meant to be humor to suggest to him a "short" NAP that was really quite long(as Parkin kept doing.) In this case, longer than the game itself would last.

You might have mentioned hinduism to Kuro. Getting some religion spreads is another free benefit of OB that he may be interested in.

I'd still like to get AH before writing, especially with Kuro likely to get writing soon. Going hunting-AH-writing stacks up the prereq bonuses and saves a lot of beakers. We'll save nearly a turn's worth of beakers on writing if we get the third prereq and we'll want AH soon anyway. If we're in expansion mode, we're not planning on libraries too soon, and knowing where the horses are when placing cities is handy even if we don't plan to build units with them right away.

[Ellimist]

Kuro replied. Here's the full diplo so far:

[COLOR="DarkOrange"]Hey there Kuro,

Our Workboat has come across your northern border this turn, and I would like to send warm greetings on behalf of our team. As the first of the teams that we have met, I am hopeful that our meeting can be the start of a mutually beneficial cooperation between our two teams.

Our civilization is located some distance north of where you are located, far enough that we don't have to fear aggression from each other. I would therefore like to ask if you are interested in an exchanging of information (about the map, other teams, or anything else for that matter), and opening borders with each other once we can, so that we can both benefit from traderoute income?

Best wishes, and a safe journey,
-SleepingMoogle[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Green"]Yo there Ellimoogle.

Here I was hoping my Work Boat would find somebody first! =P Oh well. Considering we're not going to be doing anything to each other for a long time, here's here to a successful partnership!

I'll have Writing in 1T, so we can Open Borders then. Does that sound okay?

I'll show you your info and you show me mine, eh? @_@ Oops, got that one backwards! Yes, information exchange would be awesome. Knowledge is, after all, half the battle.

(Killing is the other half)

I'm quite willing to exchange some information. What do you have in mind? We could throw ideas about the map at each other. If you want, I can tell you my tech path and you can tell me yours? I'm sure we would both love to have confirmation on when we got what.

We could have a nice little discussion about how the game is going too, heh he. Do you have MSN? I hope you have MSN. That wau I'm not the only one without a live chat! I'm, well, [REDACTED] (SHOCKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!) on MSN.

Have a good time dog,
Kurorororororororororororooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Oh, wait, actually. Another question: Can I expect everyone to diplo me or are you the team quick speaker?[/COLOR]

He seems quite eager and accomodating, which I think are good signs. I'm in favor of sharing most of the map knowledge I have with him(flat map donut etc.) and being otherwise pretty open with information. (Of course this excludes information he'd be able to use against us. He'll learn it all soon anyway and this should help us make a good impression. As the only creative civ, he'll have the advantage if we end up in any land grab disputes.
I can write something in about 2 hours, but I'm interested in getting additional opinions first.