[Spoilers] Fintourist and Old Harry have nothing to see here

[Old Harry]

Turn 59

Boring turn. Which way should Lunch go? E to uncover our jungle or S for safety? Or W, then N-NE next turn? I'll do the latter if you don't reply in the next three hours...


Demos

[Fintourist]

Is Cannae working grassland mine?

EDIT: Scout move fine.

[Old Harry]

It is, warrior in three turns:


Lunch uncovers cows and sheep by a lake. That's pretty nice for someone who isn't us.

I'll be around to play this weekend but from Monday can you take the turns?

[Fintourist]

Looking as good as it gets

I'll be around to play this weekend but from Monday can you take the turns?

That's the deal!

EDIT: Meaning I decided not to fly to Milan. Too much stuff to do and flight prices increased pretty significantly.

[Old Harry]

But where will you get your wardrobe for next season?

[Fintourist]

I just carried my old suit into laundry. Let's see if they can make it look like that trendy stuff in Italy.. I guess I must satisfy myself with the offering in Helsinki and Stockholm, which I btw will visit for couple of days in October..

[Old Harry]

Turn 60

Agincourt works three food and will grow again this turn. Bay of Pigs whips the worker. Dunkirk works the new, improved rice for one extra food and will grow in four turns.


Lunch spots the first barb warrior, going N-NE doesn't reveal anything else, next turn I think E is our best move. I thought warriors would be spawning a long time before this, maybe we just haven't seen them? I'll have to look up when they enter borders.


Demos & power

[Fintourist]

The fact that we are 3rd in food means that we have done at least something right. If we had better land where to expand I would feel more optimistic.

I think warriors could already enter our borders. We need to cross our fingers for at least a couple of turns, after that things should be under control. Luckily our pet panther in the east prevents barb warriors spawing there. Good job!

IIRC, next turn the worker in the west completes the road and freshly born worker moves onto gold. 1 worker moves to copper tile and 1 to the forest NE of Dunkirk. I have played our start couple of times until ~T75 and at least the next 7-10 turns should be pretty clear. However, if you want to improve our micro or have some other comments regarding the turns that I play while you are on holiday, it would of course be awesome!

[Old Harry]

I did wonder about starting a grass cottage and roading the copper before using both workers to finish the mine, then the chop can come in with the maths bonus, but several turns later, meaning the cows are ready several turns later. So we probably lose those ten extra hammers.

Alternatively road the copper and chop the forest, then using both workers to finish the mine means you don't waste a worker turn on cottaging the plains tile SW of Dunkirk.

Alternatively we do what you said originally...

I haven't worked out if either of those get our fifth city set up quicker, or how the forest growth changes that, but I might have time to test tomorrow.

[Fintourist]

I did wonder about starting a grass cottage and roading the copper before using both workers to finish the mine, then the chop can come in with the maths bonus, but several turns later, meaning the cows are ready several turns later. So we probably lose those ten extra hammers.

Alternatively road the copper and chop the forest, then using both workers to finish the mine means you don't waste a worker turn on cottaging the plains tile SW of Dunkirk.

Alternatively we do what you said originally...

I haven't worked out if either of those get our fifth city set up quicker, or how the forest growth changes that, but I might have time to test tomorrow.

Yeah, as you kind of said, setting up the 5th city in an "optimal" way requires earliest possible support from both of those workers. Therefore the only actions that they do in my sim after farming the rice are mining that copper (not roading) and chopping that forest (+1 pre-cottage turn while moving north). Btw, in my sims I have 1-pop whipped the settler in Agincourt (we have granary, yay!) and then those workers manage to build the road just in time (wasting 2 worker turns as they move together on forests though). Cannae also manages to build a worker before border pop so delaying the culture pop does also delay cow pasture with an equal amount of turns.

Okay, that said I'm no way claiming that my current approach is optimal, but maybe that info helps you with simming. Perhaps delaying our 5th city by a turn or building trade routes into it with small delay can be accepted if that delay brings real benefits (i.e. not wasting those worker turns allows us to get something valuable done faster in future). E.g. I do also like roading the copper, as it costs in essence only 1 worker turn as you said, but I wonder if it's still too much. Ability to build cheap military police warriors is not necessarily useless either.

Btw, that forest growth was only good and did not delay anything. Extra 30 hammers

I'm looking forward to you showing me how we solve this jungly puzzle!