RB Pittboss #1 - SPOILER - Washington/Carthage

[ZPVCSPLFUIFDPEF]

Now for my cities.

First of all, here is my capital, Carthage.



I have just built Stonehenge, and am building the Settler for Yellow Dot.
sunrise089 has informed me that he was 1 turn from completing it himself, but there hasn't been a war declaration, and I don't expect one. :neenernee

I have built a Library for the research boost, but I am not running scientists here to generate a GS for my Academy, for two reasons:

1. The gene pool is polluted by Stonehenge, and I don't want to risk spawning a Great Prophet
   
2. The city isn't overflowing with food. I have had to build several grassland farms to get it up to size, and I can't hire two scientists without seriously reducing its production potential
   

Instead, I have another plan to generate a Great Scientist - it will come from my third city.

My second city is coming along strong as a worker pump:



It can also work a couple of cottages for Carthage, so that they mature without having to divert my capital away from production yet.

I already have 4 workers, and will build as many as I need. Since I am going to commit two (plus maybe the odd turn here or there) to building a road to Yellow Dot, and plan for wholesale chopping and fast growth at each new city, I can use every worker I can build.

The only exceptions to this use of the city will be: work boats for cities with seafood, and warriors for military police before I hook up Copper. Note in particular the work boat in the queue now - this will go to my third city to hook up the fish.

Here is my third city:


I will sink a couple of hammers into the Granary to allow the possiblity of whipping it at a moment's notice, but then I will resume the Library.
I have two workers in position to chop some forests, so it will complete in 4 turns. I will try to hire scientists as soon as I can, for the research boost and the GPP.

Once I have the Great Scientist, this city will convert into a unit pump. It can use the seafood to grow, and while working as many of the hills as appropriate and adding in the occasional chop and whip, it can produce Numidian Cavalry very quickly indeed.

[ZPVCSPLFUIFDPEF]

Foreign Policy

First I will state my current agreements.

With regoarrarr, I have a settling agreement, that allows me to take a nice site with the horses (Yellow Dot), and a little bit of land to its southeast, in return for attacking Shadyforce, and handing over his capital. To do this, I will need several Numidian Cavalry, (which I hope to produce very quickly with all my workers for chopping (with Maths available around t80)). I think 10 should be enough at this stage of the game - possibly overkill if he isn't prepared, but still has a good chance of success i he doesn't stunt his growth to build a stack of his own for some time before my intended attack. They will move very quickly, and I might have an extra element of surprise, because I can promote them to Mobility (with the 2nd promotion enabled by stables), to traverse forests and retain a movement point.

I also have a trading agreement with regoarrarr, sunrise089, Dreylin+Kalin, and Broker. In the short term, we have an embargo against krill (who stole a worker from sunrise upon being black-balled by the group), and will trade between us Alphabet, Iron Working, Horseback Riding, Monarchy and Mathematics.
We have also agreed to a 2nd round of trading, likely to consist of Code of Laws, Calendar, Currency, Metal Casting and Construction.
We had some discussion about trying to disrupt attempts to form a rival trading group, by trying to get them to duplicate research by selectively trading with them. I am undecided on this, but my instinct is against. In case we agreed to pursue this path, I secured this deal with dsplaisted:

I give Horseback Riding and Writing for Metal Casting. I will have to cancel this, but since I know he hasn't started researching MC yet, I think I can do so without too many repurcussions. If goodwill seems too thin, I'll offer him a one-sided deal, along the lines of Writing for a work boat.

Now for my future plans.

I see the 5-way agreement continuing for at least a 3rd round of tech trading, but then we will hopefully be far enough ahead of the outsiders (or have eliminated/weakened many of them) that we will split into a 3v2. I think that regoarrarr will definitely be on my side for this, so I think it is to our advantage to find a third partner - otherwise we may find ourselves outmatched. I guess Broker would be the most logical choice, since sunrise and Lins (dreylin+kalin) will share a longer border than most, and won't want to end up on opposite sides.

Beyond that, it is hard to say what will happen, but I want to cover as many eventualites as I can, so I will found border cities on hills where I can, even where the neighbour is currently an ally.

[Sullla]

Thanks for the update, very informative. You seem to have things planned out well for the immediate future.

[ZPVCSPLFUIFDPEF]

Thanks for the update, very informative. You seem to have things planned out well for the immediate future.

Thanks a lot!

I know you can't say much, since you designed the map and can read the other threads, but I really appreciate this type of comment. It's good to know there are people out there reading.

I know I can look at the number of views in the forum, but this seems more personal, and has a greater psychological effect.

[scooter]

Thanks a lot!

I know you can't say much, since you designed the map and can read the other threads, but I really appreciate this type of comment. It's good to know there are people out there reading.

I know I can look at the number of views in the forum, but this seems more personal, and has a greater psychological effect.

Well in that case I'll echo Sullla's comments and say thanks for the update, and I'm impressed with your planning .

[ZPVCSPLFUIFDPEF]

Thanks, scooter!

[Mortius]

Thanks, scooter!

OK, I repeat once more, thx for this review
For us lurkers it's sometimes hard to know what's going on, and any detailed explanation, particularly with screenshots is very helpful.
I can ensure you, many people read this, but it's sometimes hard to comment without giving spoiler information, like in the case with Wonder race.

[ZPVCSPLFUIFDPEF]

OK, I repeat once more, thx for this review
For us lurkers it's sometimes hard to know what's going on, and any detailed explanation, particularly with screenshots is very helpful.
I can ensure you, many people read this, but sometimes is hard to comment without giving spoiler information, like in the case with Wonder race.

Thanks for the support. I think I'll try to continue with this style, of big updates every 5-10 turns, instead of the minutiae (e.g. my worker spent another turn building a mine, and my scout moved 2N and saw some grassland :zzz) I'll try to include some of my MM plans - doing odd things like working a coast tile for a couple of turns to get a tech 1 turn earlier, and the like, but I don't think it would be productive to detail these on a turn-by-turn basis.

I feel quite lucky about Stonehenge, actually. I mismanaged my workers, so that instead of having 4 chops available on the two relevant turns (the one before, for overflow, and the turn I started building it), I only had 3. This meant it took 2 turns to build instead of 1, leaving me a greater risk of having my forests converted to gold. I could try and blame the queue system for not doing what I want... but it is my fault really. :blush:

This does remind me of one thing I forgot earlier - Stonehenge centred my world map. I have decent exploration to the east and west, although my eastern workboat has found the end of the fjord between dsplaisted and shadyforce, near Imhotep. All in all, I am about 30 tiles short of circumnavigation, and I have a hunch that it is possible just by land. I don't know how well other people are doing with regard to exploration, but the extra movement point for ships would be a nice bonus to pick up. However, it is just a bonus, and I'm not going to be commiting more resources to it than just my scout, and perhaps one more.

[RefSteel]

Just adding my own to the flood of thanks/compliments for the overview! I definitely find it easier to follow along with "periodic state-of-the-empire summaries with important changes/diplo noted" than "worker actions and builds reported by city initials and ETA every turn." Thanks!

[ZPVCSPLFUIFDPEF]

Hello and welcome! We have reached 1000BC!

I suppose that means it's time I wrote another report. Watch this space (or the one right after this one )