[SPOILERS] scooter peruses RB's Greatest Hits

[scooter]

Turn 221



REM landed a scientist as I assume they're trying to churn out some great people during their golden age. I'm really interested to see if they get themselves into Representation or not before it's over. I'm pretty sure they haven't gotten a Merchant, in which case it shouldn't be possible as their golden age should be about over. I have a document where I've been keeping tabs on great people generated, and I need to update that tonight.



No changes on the tech front in recent turns. Mackoti has a strong GNP (Academy I think?), so I think he's got to be teching Astro at this point or else he would have gotten a tech by now. Plako I'm less certain because his tech isn't considerably better than ours, but we'll have research visibility on him in like two turns.

scooter: 8
Mackoti: 7
Nic/REM: 6 (on this reported turn. +1 more on current turn according to Civstats)
Plako: 5
WK: 5
Alhazard 4

Mackoti and Nicolae both just settled those cities on this past turn.



Our costs are pretty low for 8 cities due to the Altars. They're saving us around 12 gpt at this point, and that should continue to grow. It's not an enormous amount, but it's not nothing either. We've got a couple libraries up now, so we're edging closer to 100bpt when we turn on science. We should easily clear that soon as a couple more libaries and cottages complete, and we grow onto some nice commerce tiles that are hooked or being hooked.

Capital triple whips the settler next turn (this turn, really) - T222. I figured out the plan for Rage Quit last night, and it's easier than I thought to get that settler out. Anyway, the settler will get single-whipped to completion on T225 (ignore the sign). If I stick with the banana plan, that means city #10 gets planed on T228, so we'll have a cool 10 city golden age. I don't see an obvious candidate to get out the settler for city 11 since the capital will be growing up for golden age mode after this upcoming whip, and the other big cities need to use their pop for great people, but I don't really want to wait until 17T from now to get the settler for that. I'm still puzzling over that.

I also finally got around to clearing that jungle off the Lurker Killer deer. It's just +1F, but we're going to need all of it for the golden age upcoming.



A lot of others are saving gold, so I wouldn't read too much into the GNP figure. In reality our early science output is going to be heavily dependent on how many bulbs we can get out of our golden age. In terms of per-turn rate, I think we're going to be average at best for awhile, especially if other players start plopping down academies.

[scooter]

On a related note: are the two Epics available on this era start?

Yep. I don't expect Heroic Epic to be unlocked all that soon, but National Epic will be pretty important for sure. I'm not quite sure where to put it yet. I thought about Masterclass given the high food area, but the reality is it'll likely be sharing those foods. I've also considered Lurker Killer because we could theoretically stick National Park in there and preserve some of that jungle.

[sisko197]

Just a note to say I registered for Realms Beyond after enjoying the recent Industrial Pitboss game and have been really enjoying reading through this thread too! Great to see Civ IV going strong after all these years, I have so many fond memories of playing it as an undergrad when released.

Consider me a convinved ded-lurker for team Scooter :D

[Fluffball]

Just a note to say I registered for Realms Beyond after enjoying the recent Industrial Pitboss game and have been really enjoying reading through this thread too! Great to see Civ IV going strong after all these years, I have so many fond memories of playing it as an undergrad when released.

Consider me a convinved ded-lurker for team Scooter :D

If you don't want to contribute to Sculla's strategies and discussions, the other reporting threads are excellent as well.

[scooter]

Turn 222

Minor note: I'm going to start referring to the Nicolae/REM team as simply REM since he's pretty clearly the primary player here.

I went ahead and updated the great person list.



REM did indeed build an academy with that scientist. It was, uh, fairly well hidden in case you care:

?

!

In any case, it looks like REM and Mackoti both went for an early academy. It's making a pretty big difference. Since I can see REM's tech pace via EPs, I can guess during the golden age he's pulling down over 200+ beakers/turn - probably 2-2.5x what we can. Updated city counts:

scooter: 8
mackoti: 7
rem: 7
plako: 6
rmog: 5
alhazard: 4

No new techs completed this turn by anyone other than us completing Nationalism. Here's a couple charts and demos in case you care since I don't have a whole lot to add:

The chop up in Rage Quit is happening now. REM's Explorer is trapped up there.

I've been periodically offering them map trades, and they typically reject it. I decided to offer another map trade paired with open borders. The upside for them would be that they can untrap their explorer and bring it home. The downside for them is that once we have their city centers defogged, it makes gaining city visibility an option using our EP advantage. I'm counting on that being a nice perk for us here. I'm trying to get Mackoti's cities defogged too for the same reason by pestering his neighbors for map trades.



I miscounted slightly last turn and should have swapped to the Galley 1T sooner. If I wait until size 4 to whip the Galley, the settler will sit in the city for a turn twiddling its thumbs. I also noticed I was going to come 1h short of being able to whip it the following turn, so I did the painful thing and worked the grass hill rather than the (unhooked) fish. That got me to 8/45, exactly 37h short allowing me to single whip the galley next turn and have it ready for the settler right on time. Speeding planting the city by 1T is easily worthwhile given how much commerce it'll add to the bottom line.

I'm tentatively aiming to settle 2S of the fish on the grass hill depending on what we see in the fog. Hopefully there'll be an extra fish in the fog or something.

[Dp101]

How worried about Mackoti's start? He appears to have almost the same number of cities as you, and will also have Cataphracts soon, as well as being up an academy on you.

[antisocialmunky]

Mackoti just planted #7, Scooter's been on 8 for almost an entire settler whip cycle or am I mistaken?

[Nekira Sudacne]

*thinks*

Is the worker micro plan updated? I agree, you really should crank out another settler before the golden age starts, but it'd need to be played around with to see if it's possible. what turn are you gunning to pull the trigger on the golden age for? It's far enough along another sandbox file would be appriciated for the participating lurkers, sinse trying to re-create a 9 city empire in sandbox from some screenshots would be a few hours all by itself

[Epoxy]

THE DAILY ROLL

TURN 221–222: THEY REFUSE

Several Khmer and Byzantine envoys have been stopped at the northern border, the condition of their free passage being the donation of their maps. They are still unwilling to give up the secrets of their city locations even after interrogation and pestering, so it is hoped that eventually the heads of these balanced nations will see more benefit to gain than to lose from such disclosure (unlikely, says the C&D). The Aztecs are still assuredly in front in the city count: the runner-ups, coincidentally Byzantium and the Khmer Empire, have just reached seven cities while the Aztecs have been sitting on eight for the past five turns. Preparations are being made in the port city of Masterclass to reach for another city in the horizon, whose primary benefit will be wealthy intercontinental trade routes with cities on the mainland. So the Aztecs await the awakening of new great people to blossom their own golden age.

---

Scooter's Great People Tally City Counts: Aztecs: 8, Byzantium: 7, Khmer Empire: 7, England: 6, Netherlands: 5, Ottoman Empire: 4.

[scooter]

How worried about Mackoti's start? He appears to have almost the same number of cities as you, and will also have Cataphracts soon, as well as being up an academy on you.

Well, it's Mackoti. I'm not surprised.

Mackoti just planted #7, Scooter's been on 8 for almost an entire settler whip cycle or am I mistaken?

Yes. I settled 3 on 3 consecutive turns, but I've been on 8 since. I'll be on 10 in a few turns, though.

*thinks*

Is the worker micro plan updated? I agree, you really should crank out another settler before the golden age starts, but it'd need to be played around with to see if it's possible. what turn are you gunning to pull the trigger on the golden age for? It's far enough along another sandbox file would be appriciated for the participating lurkers, sinse trying to re-create a 9 city empire in sandbox from some screenshots would be a few hours all by itself

Nah, I couldn't keep up with the sandbox/spreadsheet on my own. It was too much work to keep those updated, play the turns, and also report them, so I'm playing by feel now (along with small notes here and there when needed). Keeping those updated is a full job on its own, which I'm sure Sullla can attest to.

Anyway, the tricky part is that there's two competing priorities.

1) Generate settlers
2) Generate great people

Our core cities cannot do both, and they're being more or less set aside now for #2 (need to grow to a proper size in time for the golden age). Some of our newer cities might be able to whip out a settler eventually, but not before the golden age, and whipping during a golden age is painful. So I guess the question is whether going with 10 cities during the golden age and then whipping like 4-5 settlers as soon as it's over is good enough. More on this later when I have a better feel for what I'm going to do.