The Dark arts - C&D Master Thread

[kjn]

T39 Breaking News!

Given the performance of the first 30 turns, which team would you guess would be the first to three cities?

CivFr would probably top the list, together with the Germans and us. But no, it's Univers who gets that honour. Since it was 8t since they settled their second city, they pretty much has to have gone settler-settler in their capital. But this performance gets more impressive, since they managed to grow their cities on T35 and T38 too.

The only way I can see this happening is that their second city is their size 3 city, ie must've grown to size 3 in 7t. That requires it to work a 6F-tile since T31, getting 24F at eot 34, then adding working the 6F and at least a 4F tiles from T35 to T38. Meanwhile, their capital must be working two 6 foodhammer tiles to manage to build a settler in 8t.

Quite impressive city management, that, but they can't possibly have a worker force that can keep up with that kind of growth.

Demos:

This adds 1000 to the rival worst, and we now know they have an army of 2 warriors. They add 7 tiles to their empire, so the new city might be coastal, or it overlaps with their capital.

Note also what has happened with the GNP values between my first C&D report this turn (and Sullla's main turn report), and now:

Best: 28 -> 36
Average: 22 -> 24
Worst: 18 -> 18

That's another team getting a gold mine online and worked. Civstats give the following options: Univers and CivPlayers.

CivPlayers settled their second city T37, so they would need two workers to just finish the gold mine, and their second city isn't size 2 yet. That leaves Univers. They teched Mining (not Wheel as I had guessed) on T35 and must've started their mine the next turn.

But I still have trouble thinking how they could reach 36 in GNP, even with ORG.

Of course, this just means we need to be the first team to four cities.

[kjn]

A closer look at Civstats gives another candidate: Apolyton. They got Mining on T36, and could thus finish a mine this turn with a pre-placed worker.

For that matter, average GNP rose 21 (eot 38) -> 22 (sot 39) -> 24 (now).

Thus, I wouldn't be surprised if both Univers and Apolyton got gold mines up and worked this turn.

The other teams have some talented players too, if we just can light a fire under their asses.

[Sullla]

That's a bizarre opening from UniversCiv. Here's how I read the numbers:

* Moved on T0, settled T1.

* Grew to size 2 with warrior first opening, until T9.

* Built a worker at size 2; this should have taken them 9t. Worker finishes T18.

* Immediately start settler. They began at 7 foodhammers/turn, and this got better as they improved resources. Probably took about 11-12 turns. That puts them at a finishing date of T29 or T30. Second city founded T31, so this lines up as expected.

* There's a pop growth on T35 and another pop growth on T38. This has to be the second city growing really fast to size 3. No other explanation.

* Third city settled T39. The capital must have built another settler at size 2. However, the downside of this is...



There's no room for another worker build in there. UniversCiv has 1 worker for 3 cities. Uh, good luck with that one, guys? Given the maintenance costs on this map, they'd better hope that they settled next to the gold resource.

I do think we're going to see city #3 from CivFr any turn now. There's no other reason why their capital is still sitting at size 2.

[kjn]

Yeah, I pretty much agree with your assessment of Univers. No way for them to have a single worker. They've shown considerable micro skills in pulling off a strategically stupid opening.

For those looking at evaluating openings and so on, I can recommend the Turn analysis and History overview sheets on the C&D spreadsheets. The Turn analysis is the scratchpad where one can put in hammer/beaker totals et c, and the History overview shows significant events.

[kjn]

T40 - 2400 BC

Cliff's Notes: CivFr researched The Wheel, WPC grew their capital to size 5, and a team (not CivFr) built a warrior.

Demos:

Apart from us gaining BW, WPC had a score increase of 3 (pop), and CivFr had a score increase of 6 (a tech).

WPC grew from size 4 to size 5, which matches the population increase in demographics of 42000.

Top power rose to 22000, and rival total power rose 6000.

CivFr researched their tech in 6t. I had earlier estimated CivFr's research power to 22 base bpt, with costs of 3 gpt. That fits well with them researching The Wheel, and with them now being the new rival best in power.

That leaves 2000 unaccounted for, a warrior build. This could be from any team, except CivFr.

Of other interest is that top rival life expectancy rose from 76 to 78. It is likely the Germans or Univers that has connected a food resource to their trade network.

[kjn]

Spanish team just got their 2nd city - can someone log in and get demos?

[kjn]

Thanks for the demos, Sullla.

The Spanish second city added works a 3F tile (added 5F to their food output), and added 9 tiles to their land area. The only team at one city now is WPC.

Of note is that there are now 18 settled cities on the map, ie the next city will trigger more aggressive barb behaviour. Thus, our next city must be able to connect (not only work) a strategic resource. Luckily, they will only be warriors for quite some time.

[kjn]

As m_h noted, WPC has settled their second city now - 2 in the same turn!

Not much to say about it, other than that it claims 9 land tiles (ie landlocked and no shared tiles in the inner ring). WPC gets another 1000 pop and power.

Of interest is that their capital grew to size 5 on the same turn as they settled their city. Might be interesting tile management, or simply bad build order.

Demos:

[kjn]

T41 - 2360 BC

Cliff's Notes: CivPlayers grew their second city to size 2. A team built a warrior.

Demos:

Not much happening, except that overall power rose with 2000 and that CivPlayers gained a pop point. The overall and rival best population numbers gives a gain of 5000, ie it is a size 1 city reaching size 2.

We currently have a total of five unassigned warriors out there.

We should get graphs on CFC (and they on us) next turn.

:zzz:

[Sullla]

kjn, any chance I can delete some of the unused tabs in our Google Doc spreadsheet? F8 Screen, Start Micro, Prod Tracking, and GNP don't seem to be used for anything. Possible to clean that up? It might make the whole thing load a little faster too.