[Spoiler] Any volunteers for a human sacrifice? Brennus of the Aztecs, by Krill

[Krill]

Corrected.

[novice]

Demographics.

Not bad. Your land must be really good.

[Krill]

People underestimate the power of working mines. Seven tried to quantify it, but it's really not that easy, it's too dependent on what you have to build. And with the extra happiness from CHM, I can see Crapital carrying the empire for the next 40 turns easily.

[mackoti]

I can see Crapital carrying the empire for the next 40 turns easily.
__________________

And if you use burocracy which for me looks the righ choise for next 100 turns.

[Krill]

Bureaucracy would be really nice, unfortunately it's about 3K beakers down the road on a straight beeline.

[mackoti]

Well i was talking about next 100 turns...Did you get any changes to the tech tree? and burocracy needs other pre not math and col?Becasue from what i know shouldnt be that much...

[Krill]

I need to tech Writing, Maths, Priesthood, CoL and CS to open Bureau, on top of that I need to tech Monarchy first regardless. That's something like 180+400+100+520+1200 beakers, then add Monarchy on top at 500. OK, so maybe only 2.9K beakers...

The only changes to the tech tree were rgarding AH/Hunting/Archer, and Paper needs Lit, MC and CoL.

[mackoti]

But only good tech, if i remeber corectly you are spiritual so col its an excelent tech, math for better chops,monarchy its indeed a must, becasue if your capital its small : what is good burocracy?

[Krill]

OK, this has been a rather difficult turn to play. I've decided to take a bit of a gamble over the next 10 turns, nothing that will set me back if anything goes horribly wrong.

First of all:

Got bored with exploring the jungle. Going to look for somewhere else for a bit. That and I didn't want to explore around that barb city.


Then onto the real part of the turn:

So I landed Buddhism, but not in the city I wanted it in. However, I did get the religion, now I just have to hope it spreads to one of my other cities so I can build a monastery and build some missionaries to spread it. Could be worse.

So now the borders are about to expand, I can quarry that marble. That marble means I can chop out the Oracle using 4 forests in a single turn. That would be a more enticing prospect if it weren't T58 with a bunch of IND leaders that have already head up the religious segment of the tech tree. And I'd have to tech Masonry which is a wasted 100 base beakers if I don't land Oracle. DF will just overflow out that warrior and continue to pump warriors for military police and barb defence.

Actually...I only have 3 forests at WTF? but I could build the Oracle here...I'd need to build 30 hammers naturally, but that shouldn't be a problem if I went Priesthood>Masonry. It would slow down a potential Oracle date, but I want the workers in this area of the map anyway, which has got to be better than keeping a bunch up at DF sitting around doing nothing. I still need to road down to the gold site, and don't need more than 2 workers at DF to cottage and make that quarry. And it would mean I don't have to build a monument What would it build whilst growing? A barracks seems like a reasonable build, if I don't go for the Oracle, it will still pop the borders for me, and as WTF? is a probably HE city, it's even a necessary build.

The capital...it can make a 5 turn settler after this worker is completed, but I would only have 1 warrior spare to gaurd it and the workers roading down to the gold...and I might need to build a worker after the settler to help with the Oracle chops or marble quarry...

OK, at this point I take a break and have to think about if the Oracle is even worth it. It's a risky play, and even if I want to go for it, I need to minimise that risk. That means I have to go Priesthood>Masonry, if Oracle falls before I finish Priesthood, then I don't have to waste time on Masonry and can carry on teching Monarchy. But why am I building the Oracle? Actually, I'm building it simply to pop the borders at WTF? the tech is just a bonus. What tech would I take? MC or Monarchy are the only reasonable options IMO, MC worth 250 beakers more than Monarchy...and makes windmills and watermills a more reasonably attainable tile improvement. I could use a GE bulb for Machinery. And makes triremes available in my sole coastal city. Monarchy is a critical economic tech but I don't need the happiness drastically, with 3 happy resources available (furs, gold and silver). In fact, with MC forges worth an extra 2 happy, it's not a bad choice.

So I'm happy to have a go at building the Oracle. I'd like to build it at WTF?, which means that I need to find a way to get WTF? to make 30 hammers after Priesthood is researched eot T62, and Masonry T66 is the quickest it will be researched, with the quarry completed T68. If I need to save gold to finance tech, I can get it by running 50% slider on Priesthood (and not losing beakers due to rounding), and try to get Priesthood to within one beaker of being researched, which saves beakers being put against Masonry if Oracle falls on a bad turn. I can't chop that last forest, so I have to slave the granary next turn, T59. T60 it will grow and save 6 food in the granary. It works the silk to grow eot T63, meaning it will make 2 hammers. At size 3 it can work two plains hill mines, for 9 hpt. By eot T66 it will be at 29 hammers, so not a problem getting the hammers together, it's more a question of maximising growth, with the corresponding worker MM.

On that note, how am I going to hook up that marble?

Next turn I get worker number 5 from Crapital, and 6 from DF. I need 6 worker turns for the quarry, 2 for the road, 2 for the road on the forest and 1 turn to move a worker onto the forest. 11 worker turns, 5 of which can be done before Masonry is researched but after I get Priesthood. I will need 2 workers for the roads but 3 for the quarry. I could build a seventh worker from Crapital, but I don't think it would get finished in time to help with the quarry, unless I steal the pig back for a single turn. Stealing that pig isn't possible until after Priesthood is researched, but that is a bonus IMO.

That means I need to leave 2 workers at DF cottaging. DF shouldn't grow faster than twice every five turns anyway, and 2 workers can easily keep up with that rate of growth. So Next turn I'll move Worker 6 (W6) onto the fp 7 of Crapital to finish the cottage. The other 3 workers will cottage the other fp. T60 the second fp cottage is finished, and I have 2 spare workers to either move towards WTF? or start cottaging DF. I think as DF won't regrow to size 2 until T61, the workers can move towards WTF? and I'll still have the first cottage ready in time.

So that is DF MM sorted.

This MM is a bit more weird. The forest 1E of WTF? has been pre-choped and the worker action cancelled. The worker 87 of WTF? has also been stopped, but is 1 turn into a farm. WTF? should regrow to size 3 by T64, but what tile does it want to work at that point? Working 2 plains hills is too many hammers, so I want it to continue to grow. And don't forget on the last turn of building that Oracle, base hammers will be doubled, so if it works both plains hills on that turn, it will make 18 hammers, meaning I'd only need to have made 12 hammers beforehand, which can be made with just the one plains hill mine.

So I can continue with that farm, but the worker on the forest has to move. I think it ought to move to 1S and road. This is because the settler from Crapital needs to move to the tile 5S of WTF?:

It would take 4 turns for the settler from Crapital to reach that tile without roads. If every tile except the city tile was roaded, it would take 3 turns. Not that great an investment of 12 worker turns IMO. But if the tiles 2, 22 and 221 of WTF? are roaded, it still takes 3 turns for the settler to reach the city tile, and I think that is a reasonable as with 1 more road (which can be completed the turn that the city is settled) that gets a trade route to the city. I would only need 1 extra worker turn to get the entire road completed in time, and that worker could easily come from pretty much any of the other 3 available.

So that leaves me 2 workers to allocate work to. I want one of them to mine the other plains hill eventually, but I need all three of them to chop forests at WTF? yet that isn't going to start for another 6 turns or more (with the last worker just moving on the turn before the chop is needed). So one of them could help with farm, the other could do a bit of roading (like linking up DF and Crapital, because I need that road for the seventh worker to quarry in time).

So...the MM will work, for both an attempt at the Oracle and a straight run to Monarchy. The workers are all doing something productive, and the cities are following reasonable builds.

Now to see if someone wants to screw it up for me (and no, I don't mean you, Darrell).

[Krill]

I just realised that's a 1500 word post.

Sorry for the wall of text...at least there are a few pictures in it this time.