I think the answer to that is: As much as our opponents let us get away with.
(Apologies in advance for the following novelette.)
I've been mulling over a few things for a while, particularly this post by Krill. Considering how thoroughly he is spanking me in 23, I'm giving it a fair bit of weight. I know I had offered to run spreadsheets for us, but now I'm wondering if that's really a good use of time and energy. Looking back at my play in 23, I'm not sure that I could find a single time that my spreadsheets helped me make a better decision.
I won't say that there's no value. I think that tracking things like military power and gold spent is the easiest way to try and track what units an opponent has trained, for example. But honestly, I think you can get close enough by just comparing power scores and seeing if an opponent is ahead or behind in the tech tree. You posted in that thread and mentioned you don't use spreadsheets that heavily, either.
Honestly, the most value I got out of spreadsheets in 23 was for planning wonders and trying to trim down the time on them, although I can't say that the hours I poured into the spreadsheets was worth it. Perhaps the best play is to follow Krill's advice: Play the best game possible and play our opponents as much as the game.
Anyway, that's a lot of words to say not all that much.
A lot will depend on the map, who we have as neighbors, and whatever other factors the game throws at us. I can tell you from experience that, early game, we can be safe with a handful of archers and a couple of promotions into, well, in our case, Ibrahim. The Head Falconer promo is functionally similar to Victor's Garrison Commander promo, but Ibrahim is a more valuable Governor overall imo.
Woden is the only player I'd worry about, but even then I don't think we need to worry about an Ancient Age rush. Just make sure that we don't delay Archery by too much.
The biggest factor that affects our farmer's gambit and expansion, I think, is the fact that we're trying to hit a Gunpowder timing. There's going to be a point where it is better to stop building Settlers and start building up our infrastructure, and identifying that point will be key.
By the way, how do you feel about Granaries? I realized that I built almost none in my PBEM23 game and I think that was a mistake. If you're familiar with the YouTuber PotatoMcWhiskey, he's a big proponent of them. He argues that while +1 food and +2 housing doesn't seem like much, you have to look at it in context of a city's yields. The example he uses is that if a city currently has a +2 food surplus, the Granary increases your growth rate by 50%. If you're making +3 food, then your growth increases by 33%. Etc.
For me, I think it feels bad to build a granary because there's always a lot of other things we want to build that feel more pressing, but growing pop in Civ 6 is important because each pop adds value even beyond the tile they work. Remember each pop adds +0.5 science and +0.3 culture. I've also felt like growth is generally slower in Civ 6 compared to Civ 4, so getting that extra food from the granary early is important. Likewise, we'll want at least one Water Mill for tech boost, but it will be very valuable in any city with at least a couple of farmable resources.
It looks like the game could start while I'm out of town. We're going to want to make sure that I will have access to the turns while you're out of town. I'm still not sure if we can both sign up for the same civ in PYDT?
In case I can't be around for the opening turns, I wanted to say that we'll want to settle T1 if possible, but T2 is OK if we're getting something out of it (like settling a tile to give us a 2/2 city tile, or settling on a luxury). I don't think we want to wait for T3 to settle.
2 food/2 prod tiles are the gold standard to work at the beginning, but I think a 3 food/1 prod is better to work than a 1 food/3 prod. I have no idea if CMF's balance run includes giving everyone a plains hill or if it's just making sure no one gets a start like greenline did in 23.
Something else to consider that isn't really relevant in the first turns, but Niter ALWAYS spawns on flat land. I wonder if a young world cuts down on the number of niter resources or not. But we'll definitely want to have some flat land within our borders and hope we don't have to settle for niter when we reveal it.
One more thing. Any naming scheme you want?
(Apologies in advance for the following novelette.)
I've been mulling over a few things for a while, particularly this post by Krill. Considering how thoroughly he is spanking me in 23, I'm giving it a fair bit of weight. I know I had offered to run spreadsheets for us, but now I'm wondering if that's really a good use of time and energy. Looking back at my play in 23, I'm not sure that I could find a single time that my spreadsheets helped me make a better decision.
I won't say that there's no value. I think that tracking things like military power and gold spent is the easiest way to try and track what units an opponent has trained, for example. But honestly, I think you can get close enough by just comparing power scores and seeing if an opponent is ahead or behind in the tech tree. You posted in that thread and mentioned you don't use spreadsheets that heavily, either.
Honestly, the most value I got out of spreadsheets in 23 was for planning wonders and trying to trim down the time on them, although I can't say that the hours I poured into the spreadsheets was worth it. Perhaps the best play is to follow Krill's advice: Play the best game possible and play our opponents as much as the game.
Anyway, that's a lot of words to say not all that much.
A lot will depend on the map, who we have as neighbors, and whatever other factors the game throws at us. I can tell you from experience that, early game, we can be safe with a handful of archers and a couple of promotions into, well, in our case, Ibrahim. The Head Falconer promo is functionally similar to Victor's Garrison Commander promo, but Ibrahim is a more valuable Governor overall imo.
Woden is the only player I'd worry about, but even then I don't think we need to worry about an Ancient Age rush. Just make sure that we don't delay Archery by too much.
The biggest factor that affects our farmer's gambit and expansion, I think, is the fact that we're trying to hit a Gunpowder timing. There's going to be a point where it is better to stop building Settlers and start building up our infrastructure, and identifying that point will be key.
By the way, how do you feel about Granaries? I realized that I built almost none in my PBEM23 game and I think that was a mistake. If you're familiar with the YouTuber PotatoMcWhiskey, he's a big proponent of them. He argues that while +1 food and +2 housing doesn't seem like much, you have to look at it in context of a city's yields. The example he uses is that if a city currently has a +2 food surplus, the Granary increases your growth rate by 50%. If you're making +3 food, then your growth increases by 33%. Etc.
For me, I think it feels bad to build a granary because there's always a lot of other things we want to build that feel more pressing, but growing pop in Civ 6 is important because each pop adds value even beyond the tile they work. Remember each pop adds +0.5 science and +0.3 culture. I've also felt like growth is generally slower in Civ 6 compared to Civ 4, so getting that extra food from the granary early is important. Likewise, we'll want at least one Water Mill for tech boost, but it will be very valuable in any city with at least a couple of farmable resources.
It looks like the game could start while I'm out of town. We're going to want to make sure that I will have access to the turns while you're out of town. I'm still not sure if we can both sign up for the same civ in PYDT?
In case I can't be around for the opening turns, I wanted to say that we'll want to settle T1 if possible, but T2 is OK if we're getting something out of it (like settling a tile to give us a 2/2 city tile, or settling on a luxury). I don't think we want to wait for T3 to settle.
2 food/2 prod tiles are the gold standard to work at the beginning, but I think a 3 food/1 prod is better to work than a 1 food/3 prod. I have no idea if CMF's balance run includes giving everyone a plains hill or if it's just making sure no one gets a start like greenline did in 23.
Something else to consider that isn't really relevant in the first turns, but Niter ALWAYS spawns on flat land. I wonder if a young world cuts down on the number of niter resources or not. But we'll definitely want to have some flat land within our borders and hope we don't have to settle for niter when we reveal it.
One more thing. Any naming scheme you want?
I'm just doing my best out here.
