[Spoilers] Lazteuq and RefSteel's PB51 Adventure

[Lazteuq]

I see you were right about what tiles to work, I was getting mixed up between cities. If I'm already confused, imagine how bad it will be when we have 6+ different Mexican foods!
As a last minute action before the turn ended, I moved Enchilada's warrior out to the mine and switched Enchilada to work on a warrior. This is unfortunate because that warrior will be needed for happiness.

T43: Praise RNGesus! The barb warrior decided to go east so the immediate threat is removed.
I switched Enchilada to a settler and moved the warrior back in for policing. Thankfully, this means no value was lost to unhappiness. The settler will be at 38/100hammers next turn, so close to a 2-pop whip.
I think there should definitely be 2 warriors leading the path for this 3rd city, so I'm considering sending the warrior currently in Enchilada West next turn. That loses a citizen to unhappiness for one turn, but then the warrior coming from Quesadilla can arrive. That still does leave Quesadilla with a warrior nearby, currently 3E2S watching over the lakes.

I sent the scout continuing past the barb warrior, I'm hoping to find our southern neighbor soon, it seems so strange to not have met them yet. I estimate there are about 14 tiles between capitols based on Girapolis location. Maybe that southern jungle is forming a bit of natural barrier? Hopefully the scout lives long enough to find out!
Intel: Giraflorens is now splitting their espionage points between us and someone else.

Somehow, Quesadilla does have a trade route, even though the road to Enchilada is not complete. I have no idea how it's possible, since we don't even have Fishing, but the commerce is nice. Am I misunderstanding how trade routes work?

[RefSteel]

If I'm already confused, imagine how bad it will be when we have 6+ different Mexican foods!

This is definitely part of the fun, it seems to me. We could take a page out of Old Harry's book and use alphabetical city names like Antojito, Bolillo, Chalupa, Enchilada, Flauta, and so on, but first of all we'd need more than a dozen city names before we got to Quesadilla - an unacceptable delay! - and second of all, there'd just be more confusion because of the name changes. I don't expect to keep building empire-wide microplans far into this game anyway, whether we end up following them or not!

T43: Praise RNGesus! The barb warrior decided to go east so the immediate threat is removed.

Great news! Are we prepared in case it changes its mind and comes back in our direction?

I think there should definitely be 2 warriors leading the path for this 3rd city, so I'm considering sending the warrior currently in Enchilada West next turn. That loses a citizen to unhappiness for one turn, but then the warrior coming from Quesadilla can arrive. That still does leave Quesadilla with a warrior nearby, currently 3E2S watching over the lakes.

I'm having trouble picturing where everything is, I think. Was it Quesadilla that switched to building a Warrior last turn, or Enchilada? (Note that the microplan I posted will no longer be correct for the builds of whichever city switched to a Warrior, and will also be incorrect for Enchilada if we move the Warrior out a turn early, so definitely don't rely on it even if you were doing so before! I can try to build a new plan if you'd like me to (and if I can tell what the cities have done so far!) but I'm also happy to just hang around and answer questions and things, so don't feel obligated to keep me up to date on the details!

[EDIT: Actually, if the warrior was built in Quesadilla, as I suspect from a close reading, the only change to the microplan there would be that the Granary whip would have to be delayed - not possible until one turn later - and we would NOT use Avoid Growth at all there! In that case, it was a trade of 5 food (lost from what would have been stored in the granary after growth) for getting the Warrior about 3 turns sooner in an emergency, which is fine. Letting the capital be unhappy for a turn would likewise cost us about 5 food there (also lost from granary storage after growth) because the granary would be delayed by a turn, but this might also be worth it to manage the risk if you don't think the Settler and/or Worker would be safe otherwise.]

Hopefully the scout lives long enough to find out!

Hear, hear, pRnG! (Although with our defenses as thin as they are, we might regret not having the Scout as a fog/spawn-buster closer to home. I hope that's not the case though; we'll have to see!)

Somehow, Quesadilla does have a trade route, even though the road to Enchilada is not complete. I have no idea how it's possible, since we don't even have Fishing, but the commerce is nice. Am I misunderstanding how trade routes work?

No tech is needed to trade along rivers and coast as long as the necessary coastal and river-adjacent tiles are all within our borders. So our road 1S of (double-corn) Quesadilla connects Quesadilla to the river which in turn connects to our capital (now that Quesadilla's borders have popped, giving us at least one tile in our control on at least one side of each tile-length of the river between our capital and the road). Note that roads connect to cities and rivers, but do not connect to the coast: You need a coastal city (or fort) to establish a connection through lake or coastal waters.

[Lazteuq]

T44:

A barb city has already appeared 7W5S of Enchilada. I think the city3 plan can continue, assuming the western barb warrior doesn't block us and/or kill everyone.
Here's a map: Dots for city sites, red squares are barbs.

Lime green dot would be an easily defensible spot to establish a border with Giraflorens, maybe that should be city 4. I don't like dark green as much. Red dot is a way to claim a lot of land by the inner coast, but we certainly won't have the military to back it up. Maybe that will be city 5.... too soon to say.
I wonder how aggressively Giraflorens will settle along the inner coast, and how much we should compete for that land? I assume inner coast access is somewhat important on a map like this, but otherwise I'm not very interested in that area, it's relatively poor land. Red dot does have fish, but even so, it would be a slow growing city at first.
Also, I started doing binary research.

[RefSteel]

Ah - okay, so it looks like Quesadilla finished its Warrior and Enchilada is keeping its MP Warrior this turn. That means Enchilada should be able to continue as planned and Quesadilla just has a 1-turn delay in whipping its granary (and therefore costing us about 5 food when it grows back to size 2, but that's not the end of the world given the emergency). Just note that Quesadilla should NOT use Avoid Growth with this change!

That barb city indeed looks like it shouldn't interfere with our dotmap, but we'll have to respond to it somehow; we just don't have a way of doing so for a while yet under the current plan. I'm a bit worried about the western barb, but we'll just have to see how it moves and respond accordingly.

[Lazteuq]

T46: Amicalola has been eliminated, by El Grillo.
Enchilada will finish the Granary in 3 turns and grow in 4, so the growth will get the granary benefit.
Quesdadilla is working on another warrior (4turn), because there is only one up north. A barb warrior is currently 4E4S of Quesadilla. If moves on us, that would be really bad because the worker would have to stop farming corn.


I moved the leading warrior west onto that forest as area denial because it would be really harmful to let that barb enter that forest. City 3 will be founded in 2 more turns, assuming the barb warrior does something dumb. If he does something smart. the settler will have to waste time waiting for escort.

Down south, I see borders:
I believe that is Superdeath's color. hmmmmmm....concern.
Currently, we still haven't technically met eachother. I'm thinking it's best to keep it that way. Only benefit I see to meeting him is the ability to put on espionage points.

[RefSteel]

T46: Amicalola has been eliminated, by El Grillo.

Wow - that was quick. And that could still be us if someone comes after us with chariots soon, especially if barbs help disrupt our game! I suspect this game could get out of hand pretty quickly with all the sharks in the water, one of them now (presumably) with two capitals, but it should be fun to play in the meantime!

Enchilada will finish the Granary in 3 turns and grow in 4, so the growth will get the granary benefit.

True, though it will only store 7 food instead of 12 because of the overflow lost to the turn of unhappiness. Except...

Okay, want to hear a crazy plan? I'm pretty sure we can finish the granary one turn sooner (and still grow to 3 at the same time) by working Cow + Mine(!) next turn (T47). If I'm right, this would finish the Granary at the end of that turn. We'd then go back to working Rice + Cow starting T48, and we'd still be at size 3 T50, but with 1 more food in the bin than if we'd worked our best tiles and more production in the next Warrior! Such is the power of the granary (and the reason I like to emphasize getting them early). My only worry with this plan is that it presents a couple more opportunities to forget something, which is a very real issue no matter who's playing! (When I actually sim out a sufficienty-intricate microplan in a "sandbox" worldbuilder save, I frequently forget to execute parts of it myself!)

Quesdadilla is working on another warrior (4turn), because there is only one up north. A barb warrior is currently 4E4S of Quesadilla. If moves on us, that would be really bad because the worker would have to stop farming corn.

Makes sense to me!

City 3 will be founded in 2 more turns, assuming the barb warrior does something dumb. If he does something smart. the settler will have to waste time waiting for escort.

Yup. Here's hoping the barb dies trying to attack our warrior (though of course the worst case scenario would be the barb attacking our warrior and getting a very lucky roll)!

I believe that is Superdeath's color. hmmmmmm....concern.
Currently, we still haven't technically met eachother. I'm thinking it's best to keep it that way. Only benefit I see to meeting him is the ability to put on espionage points.

Another benefit would be that our Scout might be able to get a look at his cities and terrain, but you may well be right that we're better off staying under his radar for a while....

[Lazteuq]

T47:
Bad news: The western barb warrior and a wolf coordinated their attacks on our warrior and killed him. RIP. Most tragically, the barb warrior didn't even take damage from that fight!
Good news: The eastern barb warrior disappeared, probably wandered toward Girapolis (I hope)

Thanks for the counterintuitive cow+mine idea, but unfortunately, even working the mine, Enchilada needs 1 more hammer to complete the granary in 1 turn. Aaargh, it's painfully obvious now how all the inefficiencies from earlier are stacking up.

I've sent the two warriors out toward the city site, but now I'm questioning whether we should settle somewhere suboptimal instead. I'm considering the tile 2W3N of Enchilada as a safe bet. If things go poorly again with this barb warrior(who is now probably promoted), I think we'll have to give up on that lakeside spot. I don't really like the 2W3N spot because it blocks any possibility of fitting another city farther north, but otherwise its a pretty good spot I think.
In light of this uncertainty, I had the worker start roading 1W of Enchilada instead, because that will be useful in any case.

[Lazteuq]

T48: Not great, not terrible
The barb warrior was kind enough to move to open ground, but it is ON the planned city site. This could still go very wrong, and I think we need to commit to something by next turn. The settler is waiting 2W1N of Enchilada right now, I'll wait to see what RefSteel (or anyone else) thinks about potentially changing the city site.
Giraflorens' scout has appeared 4E2S of Quesadilla.

Speculating about Superdeath:

• He is second to last in score
  
• It appears he hasn't been exploring or expanding north toward us at all
  
• He is infamous for early aggression
  
• (metagaming) His thread has not been exceptionally active recently. (I found this thing from lurking other games: http://shielded-dawn-3575.herokuapp.com/index/index/#87)
  

Based on this, I think Superdeath is focused on his southern neighbor. Maybe a war didn't go well, or maybe he is still in the process of whipping an army, and that is keeping his score low. I really can't say for sure.

[RefSteel]

T47:
Bad news: The western barb warrior and a wolf coordinated their attacks on our warrior and killed him. RIP. Most tragically, the barb warrior didn't even take damage from that fight!

Impressive work by the barbs, one-upping the worst-case scenario with an Insult to Injury move. Good job making sure we'd have other units available to help guard the Settler though!

unfortunately, even working the mine, Enchilada needs 1 more hammer to complete the granary in 1 turn.

Ah; I must have missed something then - trying to combine old micro with too many changes when I wasn't actually sure what had happened, I guess. Could be a lot worse though!

This could still go very wrong, and I think we need to commit to something by next turn. The settler is waiting 2W1N of Enchilada right now, I'll wait to see what RefSteel (or anyone else) thinks about potentially changing the city site.

I can't comment very intelligently since I don't know where our warriors are, nor where they were last turn. If we're going to found near the desert copper, why not on purple dot on the desert hill 1W of the copper? But given that we moved two warriors both west to deal with that barb, are we not able to guard our Settler against it effectively en route to either the white dot site or (for extra saftety and speed of connecting copper, at the cost of further delaying the city) ON the grass hill copper? I know I must be missing something here, but I can't tell what the situation is.

Speculating about Superdeath

Interesting speculation. It sounds like we have our hands full dealing with the barbs already though! (Even just dealing with one lucky, ill-placed barb, actually!)

[Lazteuq]

T48:
The warrior kindly cooperated by suiciding himself into our warrior. Now the path is open to settle city 3 next turn. We will be able to start the cow pasture next turn.
This whole episode has the following consequences:
-2 turns delay on founding city3.
-A dead warrior
-Reduced fogbusting, so we'll have more barb problems coming soon
-Inefficient use of a few worker turns
Overall, not good but not a disaster by my standards.

Quesadilla's wet corn farms are done, giving it a fantastic food surplus of 10.
Quesadilla and Enchilada are both growing to size3 next turn, working on warriors until we can 2pop whip workers as planned. After that, I wonder if it will be time to get a library started in Enchilada. I mean, we are creative and philosophical for a reason... Quesadilla could make the settler for city4.