Ministry of Silly Walks 2: Walk Sillier/Harder

[superjm]

Oh right, I forgot about the blocking.

After tweaking the plan, it fortunately looks like we won't lose much at all by switching to the plains forest for a turn. It delays growing to size 2 and size 3 each by a turn, but we end up on size 4 on schedule losing a net total of 1 food only and 2 hammers only. Well technically we don't even lose any hammers, they just get diverted from the settler to the warrior in the long run. Since we can still get our necessary units out on time blocking the rice won't hurt us.

EDIT - I originally had it where we put the overflow from the second work boat into the settler for a turn before growing to size 4, but since we lose 2 hammers of that overflow if the rice gets blocked it's probably a better idea to just grow to size 4 a turn sooner for the extra commerce and start the settler then. Be sure to comment on any potential changes like that that you think would work. I'm taking care of the spreadsheet mechanics but you all have to keep in mind that I suck at this game

[Shoot the Moon]

Hey I'm not going to be able to get to the turn until late in the timer. If one of you guys wants to quickly play the turn just so we're not holding it up that'd be fine (it's just a scout move) although if not I will make it in time.

[WarriorKnight]

Done.

I'm not a huge fan of working all those unimproved tiles while building the work boat (especially since once both forests are chopped, after the rice there are no other 3fh tiles in the BFC to work so there's no yield improvement aside from commerce) but we got to get them built somehow. Is there an easier way of telling which tiles are worked? (perhaps you can add that in). My intuition tells me we'd be better off building those wb's and settler's ASAP at a lower size (3?) working forests rather then growing to size 4 to whip without a granary, but maybe the numbers tell a different story.

[WarriorKnight]

Ugh, I can't believe I'm almost stuck on C&D already.

So both Joao from LAM and Elizabeth from Smackdown both grew to size 2. Trouble is, Smackdown got a tech and there are a number of warrior builds out there that together need to total 4k. We can definitely put a warrior down for both Elizabeth and Joao, the cow pastures ought to put them a turn ahead of Shoot's start (I know the map isn't mirrored but bear with me here). But I don't know where to put the other 2k. It can't be Darius as rival power low is still 7k so that belongs to him, Mehmed from Smackdown is a reasonable guess for one of them, but I don't think 4H could have built a warrior yet since they don't have AH (perhaps Vicky built one since my scout is on her border maybe? that would make everything fit...).

Also there's Smackdown's tech, the obvious choice for 5t research is pottery. I don't think they got a power increase since they should have AH already, and Hunting and Sailing are both fairly useless right now. So Pottery it is then (incidentally, they can get a granary up VERY fast in the seafood start since they are EXP, scary...).

[superjm]

Done.

I'm not a huge fan of working all those unimproved tiles while building the work boat (especially since once both forests are chopped, after the rice there are no other 3fh tiles in the BFC to work so there's no yield improvement aside from commerce) but we got to get them built somehow. Is there an easier way of telling which tiles are worked? (perhaps you can add that in). My intuition tells me we'd be better off building those wb's and settler's ASAP at a lower size (3?) working forests rather then growing to size 4 to whip without a granary, but maybe the numbers tell a different story.

Chopping both forests is the absolute fastest way to get the fish and clams improved to my understanding. You could argue that netting the clams isn't strictly necessary and we could go straight to farming the rice and building the settler at size 2/3. I'm not sure what approach is best, I'd need to plan a bit farther ahead to see for sure.

Also, regarding 3f tiles when do you guys want to go for sailing? Four lighthoused lake titles would go a long way in improving the food potential of the capital in higher populations.

[WarriorKnight]

Done.

I'm not a huge fan of working all those unimproved tiles while building the work boat (especially since once both forests are chopped, after the rice there are no other 3fh tiles in the BFC to work so there's no yield improvement aside from commerce) but we got to get them built somehow. Is there an easier way of telling which tiles are worked? (perhaps you can add that in). My intuition tells me we'd be better off building those wb's and settler's ASAP at a lower size (3?) working forests rather then growing to size 4 to whip without a granary, but maybe the numbers tell a different story.

Chopping both forests is the absolute fastest way to get the fish and clams improved to my understanding. You could argue that netting the clams isn't strictly necessary and we could go straight to farming the rice and building the settler at size 2/3. I'm not sure what approach is best, I'd need to plan a bit farther ahead to see for sure.

Also, regarding 3f tiles when do you guys want to go for sailing? Four lighthoused lake titles would go a long way in improving the food potential of the capital in higher populations.

I'm not arguing about chopping the forests, I agree with you there. I'm arguing about growing to size 4 and then whipping the settler to completion. Personally, I would rather not whip the settler and instead whip a granary as soon as we get Pottery, assuming that there isn't too much delay on the settler. The problem with that is that there is almost no reason to grow to size 4 before settler if we're not whipping it, since there are no other good tiles this early. So maybe build the settler at a lower size?

I've has a brief look at the Maya start. Farm gets finished, but after that the only thing they can do is chop until AH comes in (must be why LAM and Smack went AH first). Using 1 chop for a 2nd worker isn't terrible, then AH comes in shortly after that and they can improve the cow and then maybe the sheep? Haven't really done the numbers on this start, Shoot, what do you think?

Sailing is ages away, there's no need to think about that right now. If we want help getting food in the short term then we should get a granary ASAP. Otherwise my biggest concern right now, aside from starting out on the right foot, is ensuring we land Oracle.

[WarriorKnight]

Hope you don't mind Shoot, but I played your turn since I really wanted to know what was to my north. And behold:



I was wrong about the floodplains, but this is an excellent site regardless. Corn + Gold + river + lots of grassland, with hills and incense as well. I think it's a great cottage wealth site to switch my capital to, it might even be good enough for my 2nd city if horses appear.

Also notice we have more EP's on 4H now, that means they've met someone else. Hopefully they are near my scout as well. We should keep our EP's on 4H until we have their graphs, I've changed our espionage preferences so we don't misplace EP's.

That lake to my E is huge. I'm starting to think it's not unlike the great dave-Sulla lake in PB6, and will be quite significant to control (especially if another capital is on this lake). If so, that's another benefit of MC, early Triremes.

I spotted an error in your micro superjm. There's no reason I can think of to finish our half built road before chopping the other forest, so that should cut a turn off the eta of the 2nd workboat. I've tried modifying it to compensate, but I think all I've done is made a mess of your spreadsheet.

[superjm]

I spotted an error in your micro superjm. There's no reason I can think of to finish our half built road before chopping the other forest, so that should cut a turn off the eta of the 2nd workboat. I've tried modifying it to compensate, but I think all I've done is made a mess of your spreadsheet.

Doh, you're absolutely correct. Roading makes sense if we were farming the rice first but that isn't the case in the current plan. That'd give us one more food and a little early extra commerce.

Also if my micro is right then we can either overflow into a second worker or to the granary. What do you think about that?

Also I haven't done much with the plan for site 2, what we do there should be determined soon. As I said in the PBEM37 thread, I'm going to be gone for at least a week starting tomorrow, so I unfortunately won't be much help in that regard since I may not be able to access the spreadsheet on a PC.

[WarriorKnight]

As much as I'd like a granary, I think a 2nd worker is higher priority.

BTW, I don't lurk many other forums so I didn't know you were going away. I'll see what I can do for the 2nd city.

[Shoot the Moon]

Superjm, just to check what's the status with planning my capital? The spreadsheet (in addition to being basically unreadable for actually playing the turns) seems to be way off. My thoughts are building a worker since there's no point growing onto unimproved tiles and chopping the forest SE of the worker.