[SPOILERS] Magic Science and Mr. Cairo in Pitboss 40

[Mr. Cairo]

If there's a seafood resource on the coast there, it might be a viable spot, but having to get fishing this early is a bummer.

[Magic Science]

Turns 4 and 5
   
I played Turn 4 a while ago, but I was so slow in getting the report up that Turn 5 rolled while I was working on it, so I just played Turn 5 and wrote one report for both turns.

On Turn 4, Moncacht-Ape (our scout) moved two tiles northeast and discovered a riverside corn, although sadly that riverside corn cannot be obtained in the first ring of a city that shares the sheep.

On Turn 5, Cuzco’s borders expanded and did some scouting for us, revealing a fish by the sheep. However, that fish requires a border expansion to obtain. I also shifted from working a grassland forest hill to working a sheep on a grassland hill (it gains one commerce and costs no time on the worker because RB Mod gives Exp +35% to worker production). Moncacht-Ape moved southeast.

I am now very concerned about where we will put our second city. Settling in the south to share the corn and sugar does not look very appealing, but settling in the west to share the sheep does not look very appealing either. Maybe going farther afield would be best, but I don’t know. I would appreciate any thoughts that you have about this. Where should we settle? I might try a few sims to get a better idea of what to do.

[Mr. Cairo]

Of the options currently presented to us, I think that settling to the south is better than to west. It isn't ideal, but it can certainly work, with plenty of worker labour. Growing on the corn and floodplains, it'll get big quickly, and we can 2pop a worker out fairly soon, then grow again for a settler whip. The cap will have to make do with the sugar and sheep (which will need to be pastured) + mines.

Maybe there'll be a really nice spot with multiple first-ring foods in the east?

[Magic Science]

Turn 6
   
Nothing of great interest happened this turn. Moncacht-Ape moved east, and Cuzco kept going on its slightly changed course. I did notice an ice tile in the fog to our north, so we must be on the northern end of the map.

[Magic Science]

I have done a few more sims, and now I have some more thoughts about the game to share.

The Second City: I agree with your assessment that the second city should be in the south unless we find something awesome in the east, and I don’t expect to find anything awesome (I didn’t bribe Commodore enough ). I see two tiles that the city could go on: the incense, or one tile west of the incense. It is basically a long-term vs. short-term question. In the short term, settling on the incense gets one extra commerce on the city tile and two floodplains instead of one. In the long-term, a plantation will be worth many more commerce, and once borders expand a city one tile west gets a bunch of nice riverside grassland tiles that a city on the incense doesn’t get along with all of the floodplains. I am currently leaning towards settling one west of the incense. The extra commerce from the incense does not make a significant difference, and Protective Terraces will get those two floodplains in our borders quickly anyway. 

Tech Order: I think that our first three techs are set in stone. They will be Mining, then Bronze Working, then Hunting. After that, I am currently thinking that going The Wheel then Pottery is best. Even if we settle by the sheep and fish for our third city (I hope not, see the next section), we need Pottery before Fishing because we need to expand borders to access the fish. That second part is not set in stone though. It could change if we settle a different third city with other resources, or if getting the crabs at the capital improved earlier proves to be better, or if I start feeling particularly paranoid and want Archery early.

The Third City: It is a bit early, but I have been thinking about where to put the third city too. If we don’t find any other spot, I thinking we should put it two tiles west of the sheep. It shares the sheep, and it can get the fish and corn with a border expansion. Having to go for a border expansion to get critical food resources is not ideal, but my sims show that we should have Pottery in time to start off by building a Terrace and that we should have the worker labor to chop it out within three turns after founding the city. Still, I hope that we can find a city site in the east that does not require a border expansion.

Production and Improvement Order: This is the most complicated part by far. I have only a rough plan for this past Turn 19. I will post it after a few more sims when it is more refined, but the basic idea is that both workers will chop and mine, then one worker will head south to farm the floodplains at the second city while the other pastures the sheep and then chops at the capital again. The second city should grow to size 2, then produce a worker via the whip, while the capital grows to size 4, then produces a settler with a chop and a double-whip. The cities will produce military units whenever they need to build something while growing.

City Naming Theme: Ha! I bet that you thought we weren’t going to have a city naming theme, but we will!  You see, we aren’t the Incan Empire in this game, but the Incan League. The capital is still Cuzco, but the other cities will be named after city states from Civilization V. I plan to name the second city Sidon, which was the first city state I met in my first game of Civilization V.

[Mr. Cairo]

about the third city spot, while it is a good one, it's also one I don't think we need to settle right now. It's essentially in our back-lines, and I'd rather push our cities further afield, to claim more land. Of course, with how limited our vision is of our surroundings, it's pretty hard to plan in much more detail.

about the naming theme, I don't really mind one way or another, I never really got into Civ5 much.

[Magic Science]

Turn 7
   
In our own civilization, not much happened this turn. Everything continued along the course it has been going on already. However, some stuff happened in foreign civilizations, so I had to do my first real Cloak and Dagger work of the game. What happened was that superdeath and shallow_thought each had score increases of 6 points. Those score increases are obviously technologies, so the question is, what technologies are they? My conclusion is that they both got Mining. Rival Average Power increased by 800, and Mining is 2000 solider points. I also divined one other thing via Cloak and Dagger. Someone, now that borders have expanded, has three water tiles at their capital. The rest of the other players have two water tiles, like us.

[Magic Science]

Turn 8
   
We finished Mining. Bronze Working is up next, due Turn 21. No one else had any score increases this turn. Moncacht-Ape finally finished going through territory we already know about and started revealing the east this turn. I think that next turn he will probably go northeast, then southeast. I plan for him to travel through unrevealed territory in a semi-circle around the capital, which should end up with him over by the riverside corn in the west. What do you think? Also, from now on I will be sure that Moncacht-Ape ends each turn on defensive terrain, because there are barbarian animals out there.

I have been doing some more sims too, and I should post a plan up through the completion of the first settler sometime soon.

[Magic Science]

Turn 9
   
Moncacht-Ape moved as planned, and he found a plains forest deer! Next turn I think he will move two tiles east to the grassland forest hill, then he can see about moving south to start the semicircle.  Besides that, there was some more Cloak and Dagger work to do this turn. Three players, Coeurva, Charriu, and RFS-81, got score increases from technology this turn! I believe that Coeurva and RFS-81 got Agriculture, and Charriu got Hunting.

[Mr. Cairo]

oh wow, plains forest deer, so much food :/

scouting routes all looking good, I only wish he was revealing better land, this is pretty unappealing