[SPOILERS] The Legend Ends - Whosit's Adventure

[Whosit]

So, I think I'll be getting the Pyramids in the Capital after Gerudo Fortress. I'll build a Granary there (with a whip to finish) then just build the Pyramids. I'll need a lot of chopping for it, and I need to really work on the Worker micro for that. Kakariko will grow to size 6 to work 4 cottages, ivory, and stone, then I think it will slowbuild a Settler for Great Bay. I'd like to have it faster, so I'll see if whipping it will make sense. However, what with the whip nerf and the fact that I just want Kakariko to remain stable (not a lot of food there), I'll probably slow build. Gerudo Fortress won't finish Granary until size 4 (with 1 pop whip). Might want to consider doing a 2 pop whip despite inefficiencies to get Workers out faster.

After Masonry will tech Poly and Mono to get Judaism (triangle religion!). Not entirely sure what I'll tech after that. Want Fishing and Writing, though. Capital will probably actually do the Great Wall after the Pyramids if that wonder is still available. It's cheap with stone, and it would be nice to not have to worry about Barbarians much.

Basically, I have a lot I want to do, and I'm going to be tugging my civ in many directions. Loosely simmed, I can get most of this done by turn 60, but I'm wondering if only having 4 cities at that point is too weak. For military, I'll probably just have 3-4 Warriors, so that's not an awful lot, either. Hope no one attacks me!

[Whosit]

Skimming a few old threads, it seems like, on Quick, a new city every 10 turns on average is what I should be shooting for. So 4 cities on T60 is pretty low. I know I'm building a Wonder, but I should probably aim to have city 5 by then, as well. Maybe it's possible.

[Whosit]

So I've been doing a bunch more sims, and I came up with some good stuff, with the caveat that I've been playing with the assumption that there are no horses, copper, iron anywhere, so I'll surely end up adjusting things and sinking worker turns into connecting strategic resources and producing things other than Warriors (maybe).

Anyway, I improved my initial projections. By turn 60 (roughly speaking) I can have the Pyramids AND the Great Wall in the capital (at the cost of all the forests), and I will have settled my 5th city (probably Snowhead for deer, fur, and silver) on T57. According to my rough metrics of "1 city per 10 turns," that seems to be good, considering I build a Wonder (Great Wall hardly counts as it's 3 turns after completion of the Pyramids).

Great Bay looks like it will be such a strong city, I'm wondering if it should be my number 2 instead. The downsides are that I'd have to come up with entirely new plans, and it would be settling a spot that I'm at no risk of losing. Still, though, with three +4 food tiles, it grows ridiculously fast and with the 3 grass mines, it has base hammers of 13 hpt. I plan to build an extra work boat out of it to scout, and I'll probably grab Sailing if there are islands to settle.

Of course, I didn't make any detailed recordings of Worker actions or anything, but I can probably figure out how to reproduce my results. The takeaway from my ramblings is: I'm pretty sure I can snag the Pyramids without crippling myself. At this point, the Pyramids are basically a roleplaying build/denial, although I could possibly make use of Republic further down the line.

I also realized I can completely skip the Granary at Gerudo Fortress for ages because by the time it finishes the Granary, I won't be growing it any further, anyway. It will just build a Warrior then pump out 3/4 turn Workers for 20 turns.

[Whosit]

Tried a couple times to sim it if I went Great Bay as my second city. I can settle that on Turn 27, and get Kakariko on Turn 33, compared to turns 26 and 36 for cities 2 and 3 in previous build. However, things seem to go downhill from there. I think it's because I lack the Workers I need, and getting Fishing early for Great Bay, despite adding another discount to Pottery, delays AH (might have been oversight on my part, though, I delayed it to get Judaism). Great Bay and Kakariko both need Worker actions, and I found that Hyrule Castle was a little more underworked compared to the original plan. Gerudo Fortress, for all its problems, only needs that one Worker.

I don't even get started on the Pyramids until they're about done in the original plan, and Gerudo Fortress wouldn't get settled until around turn 50, and it's possible I could lose it if the Inca are close enough to contest the area. Great Bay is definitely a great city, but settling it early will sap attention from Kakariko, which needs quite a bit early. And I think I'd still prefer to settle Gerudo to ensure my control of that region. Who knows if I'm making the right choice, but I'm going to see if I can optimize my current plan a bit more.

[Whosit]

Argh, that's what I get for not writing down what I'm doing as I'm doing them. I've already forgotten how to do my main plan! This is not so good.

[Whosit]

Somehow I stumbled into a sequence of events that gets me Great Bay on Turn 52 (turn later than previously done) but the Pyramids finish EoT 51 (instead of EoT 54), but Kakariko is under developed and Hyrule Castle is size 5 instead of 7. I don't know. I'm giving up for the night.

[Whosit]

OK, just got the save. Played the turn, but then spent a couple hours reworking my plan before sending it off. Not sure if what I have is ideal, but it's a plan and it works? I still think I lost some development time around Kakariko, though I'm not longer sure which plan allowed for all those cottages to get done. Perhaps not one that let me expand as quickly. Here's what I got, again assuming I don't run into any major hiccups.

Kakariko founded turn 26 with trade route.
Gerudo Fortress founded turn 36 with trade route.
Great Bay founded turn 50 with trade route.
Pyramids finished EoT 52.
Great Wall finished EoT 55.
Snowhead founded turn 58 with trade route (and silver connected as a bonus).

At the T58 mark I also have: 7 Workers (1 more due soon), 8 Warriors, 3 connected health resources (corn and wheat remain unhooked), 2 connected happies (ivory and silver).

Health looks to be an issue, especially when I clear out all the forests around Hyrule Castle. I expect to get Judaism unless someone rushes for it. It will probably land in Kakariko. I'd rather have it in Gerudo Fortress, but not a big deal. If I got a free spread to Hyrule Castle, I'll have to see whether 2-turns revolting to State Religion and Organized Religion would speed up the Pyramids and if it was worth the delay in everything else.

If not, I will probably just do the revolts after Snowhead is settled.

Gerudo Fortress pulls its weight, I think. Or at least does so well enough. From its founded in T36 to T56, it will have produced 2 Warriors, 2 Workers, and a Settler. It's possible I could get more out of it with whips, though I'm not sure that I can afford to get a granary until later, and with nerfed 2-pop whips, not entirely sure it's worth it. Though the more I think about it, maybe producing those 5 units in 20 turns on Quick isn't so good? Though it only ends up at size 3 with Pigs, Farmplains, and Grassland hill mine. All cities lack some amount of attention because most Workers are either chopping forests or building roads for new cities.

I am a bit proud that with the current plan I save most of the chops for the end. A couple worker turns get sorta wasted (mostly from movement), but my understanding is that it's better to get as many chops in at the end of the project to reduce the risk of spending chops on a Wonder you'll lose. I get 6 forests chopped in 2 turns to finish things up (well, technically 5. I save the 6th for the Great Wall).

Part of me wishes I had a partner to reality check me, but the other part is happy to learn on my own and make my own mistakes. And I have to remind myself that I'm here to have fun. I mean, I'm putting all this effort into the Pyramids for practically no reason at all! Ha ha. Great Wall will be nice, though. I wonder who else will have Stone? This isn't a mirror map, and I believe it was semi-randomized, but I'd bet most people have at least a Stone or Marble somewhere around.

In the next few days, I think I'll see if I can improve Gerudo Fortress' output with more whipping. I also think that after Snowhead is founded, I'll probably pick up Sailing if Great Bay is able to confirm islands. I'm not really sure where I want to go, tech wise, after Writing (I end up with Writing a bit earlier than I need it, oh well). I'll have a Library in Kakariko for sure since it's gonna stagnate on 4 cottages for a while. Capital will probably keep producing other things, though a Library might work for specialists. Much to think about, but once I'm out of my Wonder phase I think I'll be a bit happier.

[Whosit]

I think I'll also try to buzz a few older PBEM threads to see if Pyramids EoT 52 is at all competitive.

[Whosit]

This isn't relevant to anything, but I found it looking through old threads:

Most likely Hydra will lose the game. He made a huge mistake trying to kill everyone without taking any spoils. He can still win, but he needs to expand starting RIGHT NOW and build cities in Azza's land that he has cleared.

He should watch some 40-minute Starcraft matches where someone was already way ahead after 15 minutes but couldn't win the game for a long time because he needed to slowly further build his advantage until it became unstoppable. (This is particularly important against terran who are ridiculously cost-effective on defense.)

I love StarCraft and I like it when people make references to it.

Oh, Serdoa was doing a StarCraft theme in that game, and I remember someone in PB5(?) did a Protoss theme, too.

[Whosit]

Not much to say. I'm just following my little plan, building a second worker. Scout hasn't seen anything new yet (traveling back through my territory to get to the east). Someone grew their capital to size 4, but I forget who because I didn't take a picture and I'm too lazy to reopen the save now. I'd like to scout with my Warrior, but I'm worried about venturing too far on the off-chance that someone else pops up at my borders with a warrior of their own. Well, I am large enough that I could produce a Warrior in time to save me if I had to, but it would mess with my plan a lot. I think I'll venture out a little, but I can't let my warrior get killed, either.