[spoilers] Commodore: Worse than Toku, it's Giggles of Siam!

[Commodore]

There we go, editted in above. Basically, why work undone tiles? What are we, Zulu?

[Thoth]

So, then, you favor this:

I was thinking Gold/Crab as 3 and copper as 4. If we commit 2 workers to road building duty ASAP after the 2nd Corn Farm is up (ASAP meaning after 1 cottage I think) we can settle copper second almost as fast as if we go copper first with no roads. But I haven't worked it out in detail as a lot will depend on how we juggle tile usage/city growth/chop assignments.

We'll want city 6 overseas on the island. That extra +1 commerce per city pays for city 7.

That's...whoa. I'm for being aggressive, but if we do this, we need a very good plan to get that copper location safe and secure, and we need to be focused hardcore here...I mean the turn we hook copper, which is the turn its within our borders, I want to have 4 axes, at least two of them with C1. Sailing needs to be considered to hook #3 to our trade network efficiently (we need whales anyway). [quote]

I like Sailing soon but we'll want roads for military movements anyway. Archery is only 64 base beakers and we get a 20% boost to our beakers while teching it so 2/3 turns once we finish Pottery and AH (I think we want AH first for a locate on Horses and I think we can squeeze it in before the settlers complete.). Safer would be to grab Archery immediately after Pottery and get an Archer moving East in time to garrison city 3.

I agree we'll want Axes ASAP. If we do manage to bag the copper, and there isn't a source it Scooticator's north, then we won't have to worry about Impis.

[quote]
One last thought, how about that stone? I'd dearly love the 'mids, which we could probably seven-turn in the capital after hooking up stone if we want that. Not sure if it's worth it, but we ought to at least consider the possibility.

Stone would mean ceding the Copper and Gold region to Scooticator. We do have a very high hammer production capacity in the capital (17 hpt at food neutral size 7 working both Crabs (netted, not lighthoused) 2 riverside grass mines, 1 non river grass mine, Quarried Marble and PH mine). We'd need Sailing and AH (and the Mammoths online) but it is doable in a reasonable timeframe if we're not settling aggressively.

With that kind of production we could have a very good shot at the Mids. Early Rep would be very nice, but even with Stone Mids are expensive. And we can tech to HR in reasonable time and grow LSG as big as it's food will permit. With Rep we're going to be limited to size 11 in the capital until we spend hammers on Colloseum (cheap +1 happy with Cre), Forge (+1 happy with Gems, we can't count on the Gold even with aggressive settling. If we go for Mids we won't have gold until we pry it from Scooticator's cold, dead hands. ), and/or Market (+2 happy with Mammoths and Whales).

I'm not convinced that Mid's are worth both conceding the Eastlands and the hammers (that could be going into Workers, Settlers, Archers, mebbe Axes/spears/chariots ect). HR and a stupidly large capital is a viable eco option for us. If we want a Wonder to boost Specialist output, how about Parthenon?

Aha, so it is. Man, these guys have some gnarly tile improvements. Still, an unnetted clam is a 2/0/3 tile, or what we call a riverside hamlet. They're heading for gold, I'd bet my eye on it. Pity all the wildlife seems to have skeedaddled, I'd love to be able to push a 5xp Woodie II warrior into that mess.

Yeah, they've played a low foodhammer opening in favour of a high commerce opening. I'm wondering if they're doing a Religion/Oracle MC gambit? With that cap it's a very strong play (two early wonders in a GP farm cap is a nice boost to the GPP pool) plus fin/colossus coast and Ind Forges. And their expansion city would be a Holy City. The culture will be a PITA.

Of mild interest; the GNP stackup. Recall we're Creative, and they aren't, so they have a real edge. We're fine, but I don't want to delay cottages for too long, or we will have issues.

Meh. We're well ahead in effective food/hammers thanks to the second worker (each chopping worker is worth 5hpt pre Math) and our two whips. We've got some catching up to do growthwise, but that fixes it's self very quickly if we take the Andy chops into the WBs and grow LSG ASAP.

So nice to be next door to our primary rivals. Xenu and Brick are leading scores, CFC JesterFool is providing a boost to Nakor's Mansa/India, but I still thing Pindicooter are top threat to winnit. Or they will be if they win the duel, at least.

I think we can do well with this land. We've got plenty of decent expansion sites in the North. We'll need IW and a decent pile of workers to get the land improved but I see a solid empire here.

[Thoth]

There we go, editted in above. Basically, why work undone tiles? What are we, Zulu?

Looking at it now.

[Thoth]

HALT, I have a different plan.Dangit, Thoth, you've unleashed the beast, I need think about this crap.

Mission accomplished.

Okay, just reference, here we are, t38:

Lakeside Garden
2/24 in food box
20/15 on warrior

LAKESIDE:
EoT39: 2 GH mines (7hpt), WB 12/30
EoT40: 2 GH mines, WB 19/30
EoT41: 2 GH mines, WB 26/30
EoT42: 2 GH mines, WB 53/30 (Nell's chop, WB done!)
EoT43: 2 GH mines, WB 30/30 (Second WB done! First WB goes to further-away crabs)
EoT44: 2 Crabs, 8/24 in food box (make stuff) hammers into warrior
EoT45: 1 Crab 1 corn, 16/24 in food box (start granary) Andy's second chop completes after putting 1 t into a cottage on the tile 1 NW of his current location) 42/60 h into gran at eot.
EoT46: 1 Crab 1 corn, 24/24 in food box Andy Start moves to Marble and starts quarry 44/60 into gran.
t47: Work crab, crab, mine. 5/26 food in box eot. 52/60 h into gran
t48: same. 10/26. Gran done eot.
t49: Crab/crab/corn. 20/26 food eot/+10 food into gran.
t50: Same. 30/26 food. +6 food into gran.
t51: Same plus Marble. 17/28 food at start of turn. 26/28 at eot.
t52: Swap Corn for a mine. 30/28 food at eot.
t53: Size 5. Start settler. 2x Crab/1x Marble/2x RSGHM.

Tranquil Meadow
0/22 in food box
18/60 on worker


TRANQUIL:
EoT39: 1 corn (8fhpt), Worker 26/60
EoT40: 1 corn, Worker 54/60 ([b]Andy's chop)
EoT41: 1 corn, Worker 62/60 (Worker Olaf done)
EoT42: 1 corn, 6/22 in food box (Olaf goes north to corn putting 1t into a road on the bare rs grass 1 NE of TM, hammers into barracks Warrior)
EoT43: 1 corn, 12/22 in food box (Olaf farms, Nell moves north to help)
EoT44: 1 corn, 18/22 in food box (Olaf and Nell farm)
EoT45: 1 corn (new!), 24/22 in food box (farm done! Start Skip granary for now)
t46 Whip, or work a fresh cottage, or whatever. Olaf and Nell start cott 1 NE of TM. TM works corn/grass forest. 8/24 food in box.
t47: Work corn x2 . Olaf 1 s and Cottages. Nell cottages in place. 18/24 food in box
t48: . Olaf cottages. Nell finishes north cottage. 28/24 food in box.
t49: Olaf and Nell finish 2nd cott. Work North corn + 2 cotts. 10/26 food in box.
t50: Olaf and Nell do stuff (either move to chop or road). 16/26 food in box.
t51: 22/26 food.
t52: Work double corn + 1 cott. 32/26 food.
t53: Start settler at size 4.


Make sense?

I like it for the most part, but TMs hammers should go into a Warrior not barracks. We'll need a Warrior in LSG and TM in order to grow to size 5/4 respectively.

Edits to plan in bold. I'm sure we can tighten this up a bit.

Granary in TM won't pay for it's self fast enough vs putting the hammers into something else and working tiles (yet). If we want to claim our fair share* of the Eastlands, then every hammer counts right now.




















*"our fair share" = all of it OFC.

[MindyMcCready]

I like the way you guys are thinking! Hope you'll be able to quote Hannibal when all is said and done.


(from the A-Team of course!)

[DaveV]

Spoilers or screenshot tags for giant images. Horizontal scrolling is very bad.

[Thoth]

Irony:

Youtube searching this tune:

http://youtu.be/byNahoRWeZU

and getting an ad from HMV trying to tell me I really want some Aerosmith.


Um.


No.



You couldn't have gotten it wronger if you'd tried.

[Commodore]

Hah, I approve of the edits in the near-term, and I really like the size-five settler build in Lakeside, working all those good foodhammer tiles is nice, and even nicer is having a halfway decent commerce output from that configuration too. I need to look over the worker moves, I think they can be tightened, but obviously for the next few turns getting the wet corn online is of paramount importance. It hurts not getting those four shared riverside grassland tiles cottaged ASAP, but this is war after all. I've been following the plan:


We lost our freebie scout to a lion, but in the end, I'm okay with it. We got our money's worth and then some.


Chopped the worker in Tranquil, sighed about the lack of ability to cottage yet, and moved along with Andy.


Scooticator settled right where I would have settled, which isn't surprising. McDonald's will be a nice second city, already sharing that obscene food bonus. I'm expecting them to invest in a religion to pop its borders, although ikandhas are nicer than barracks. The warrior defeated the lion, by the way, but now needs a while to heal. My kingdom for Woodie II right now.


Scooter went into slavery as they moved, not unexpectedly. Welcome the new hotness Olaf into the fold. Why yes, this is an Advance Wars worker theme. Next up: Grit and Max!


In case anyone was curious, here's our demos. The GNP is a wee bit inflated, given Pottery has Fishing, Agriculture, and the Wheel boosting it. Our MFG is good, but holy crap is someone else pushing the hammers out there. I'll comment on CY in two more turns. Nobody has real soldiers out yet, but we're all bronzies.

[Commodore]

Ethics test time! I just moved our warrior. Scoodicator has yet to move their scout this turn. They can either double move, or expose their scout. How do we think they'll do?


*keeping it in range as a diplomatic test is also a possibility.

[Thoth]

Ethics test time! I just moved our warrior. Scoodicator has yet to move their scout this turn. They can either double move, or expose their scout. How do we think they'll do?


*keeping it in range as a diplomatic test is also a possibility.

The scout has little value to them at this point other than as an expendable picket.

It'll be in range next turn to tempt you if you want to telegraph our real intentions a lot earlier than we want to.