[PB81] Dreylin vacations in the Isles

[Dreylin]

T016 - risk management

Scout is taking risks to uncover the last few nearby tiles:


If the Panther attacks it will have odds, but at 0.78HP it's nothing like a guaranteed win. With the mountain range this area could even be considered "backlines" which I'll see anyway with the border pop, but it would also be by far the fastest way to get a second city going if there is a second food over here and I think it's worth the risk to know sooner and be able to plan accordingly. But if I don't settle this area straight away, I will at least not need to fear Barbs.

Getting back to the possibility of Chariot rush, I wondered whether I should skip AH and go straight to Bronze Working? I do have a turn of leeway on AH under either Worker plan, so I went ahead and switched for this turn anyway. I ran some sims and I can definitely get a Settler out faster (t31 vs t34/35) by skipping, but it is really going to impact my growth curve afterwards.

So I went back to techs and my neighbours. I can see 2x Agriculture and 2x AH, but no other known tech researched. Greenline's Persia starts with Hunting/Agri and he could easily have taken Mining and be on the way to BW unless he wanted Fishing for WB start. He does have the Chariot UU, so could be a candidate to rush someone. We are at opposite corners of the "square" and he's closer to xist... xist started with Sumeria's Wheel/Agri and just finished a second tech, so Hunting and AH are 2 of the techs and the 3rd could be Fishing or Mining. When I saw his Worker the Deer Camp was complete, so I think he must have skipped the Workboat and gone Worker first - which means no fishing so probably Mining the 3rd tech and now started BW. Gira's India started with Myst/Mining, would have to have taken a food tech 3rd. They are one of the players who grew the capital to size2, which means they took Fishing, went WB-first, and then grew while researching food techs. It's unlikely they have Mining, so not on the way to BW.

Looking at this analysis, it seems like a Vulture-rush from xist is the more likely vulnerability, so AH and securing Horses should be the priority. Chariots at least can be used to counter Immortals, while BW would have to split between Axes & Spears. OK, so I'm going back to AH next turn.

I've also put down a tentative dotmap as first thoughts:

[Dreylin]

T019 - our survey said?

<whaa-whaaa>



Well that's shit. (must not complain about the map, must not complain about the map)

OK, so dotmap is probably going to have to look something like this:


Although I'm having doubts about whether I should combine red and yellow again back W of the Wheat and then push another out to the fogged tile SE of the Marble? Maybe I shouldn't be thinking so much about maximising the usage, and more about getting the 3-4 best city spots planted and then Praeting someone else's territory.

Scout will cut back through borders, pause to heal, and then explore the West past the Sugar.

Everyone else is now on 2-pop, 2 techs researched. None of my neighbours have BW, so that's a good sign.

[Dreylin]

T024 -

Not much going on; first Warrior is out and starting to move down the ridge. Scout has been healing and passing across Great Britain's culture, so nothing new to see. AH finishes this turn, then 8-9t for BW. Neither Xist nor Greenline have it yet, so I'm feeling a bunch more secure.

[Dreylin]

T025 - with special guest star!

Good News Everyone! We have a special guest turnplayer today; it's everyone's favourite crustacean of the future, Dr. Zoidberg:



Hello, hello, it's lovely to be here, what have we got today:



Alright already, I'll settled the damn Gems! What does a crab have to do to get a decent meal around here?

Thank you Zoidberg, now shut up!

[Dreylin]

T026 - zookeeping



So literally all the food is on this side. Good, good.

[Dreylin]

T029 - slowly does it

My Scout reached Gira's borders and made contact; they have met greenline but not xist. I have both their graphs, so can immediately start to put some EPs into Gira. None of them have BW, which is a good sign.

Xist was the first on our island to plant their second city (MJMD beat them to it by a turn on the other island). It's going to be 10t before I plant mine because I decided to go for a second Worker first:


That's a delay of 4t for the second city, but everything felt so slow afterwards needing Worker turns. The second Worker will chop the tile E of the Ivory, and then both Workers will chop into the Granary. It also gives me more time to do a 180 and reconsider after BW comes in.

[Tarkeel]

Interesting choice to go for the double worker opening, but it can pay off to go for a slower start with more power behind it. Loved the Zoidberg appearance!

[Dreylin]

Interesting choice to go for the double worker opening, but it can pay off to go for a slower start with more power behind it. Loved the Zoidberg appearance!

My sons have ~30mins in the morning before they head out to school and have started watching Futurama, so I'm watching it again with them and eventually we'll get to the more recent stuff that I haven't seen. I'm actually quite tempted to change my naming scheme, but maybe I'll just hold it for the next game. Anyway, it just felt like every time I thought about settling elsewhere, something would turn me back to that spot and when the Horses popped there suddenly Zoidberg was in my head saying "Alright already".

The problem I was having was that after settling the city, I'm basically committing the Worker to improving the Horses and then the Gems, but that means I'm not chopping, nor improving anything at the Capital, so I'm having to whip off without a Granary. This way I get a chop into the Settler and then 2 chops into the overflow Granary (well strictly speaking 1.8 chops because I'll chop the forest where the city will be planted so as not to waste it.)

Anyway, it must be nice to have backlines:

[Dreylin]

T31 -

Gira finished Stonehenge, which means their second city won't be down until around the same time as mine. My Scout exploring their backlines (which keep going BTW) has met a Lion; we'll see how that goes.

Unlike Gira, my backlines are islands, so I'm going to have to make a choice about how to prioritise expansion; do I push aggressively into the jungle to the West - researching Iron Working early - or do I push towards the islands and land some intercontinental trade routes? Jungle requires Workers, while islands require boats. Islands fit with my commerce-first approach, but early IW fits with Rome...

My current plan is for the new city (Eire) to grow to size 3 or 4, work Pigs, Horses & Gems (& Ivory?) and pump foodhammer units. Meanwhile GB settles into a 2-pop whip cycle from 5-3 then 6-4 once I have more tiles improved.

[Dreylin]

T34 -

Copper showed up about where I had expected:


Yummy FIN Hamlets there already.

Worker1 finishes the Camp next turn, then moves to chop and cottage the forest 1S of "free". Second worker completes the chop between Ivory & Gems (also next turn) and then moves NE to chop the city tile for Eire, and on to Horses then Gems.

Agriculture is a 3t tech, so I can hold off researching it until I have the second Settler ready to head South. I want to concentrate on settling the available land before going to sea so Sailing is also currently low priority. A cheap Library will be great, but I've already made an investment in early commerce with the Pottery-Cottages play and I think it would be a mistake to double-down when I could spend the 45h on another Worker.

Iron Working gets me access to my UU, the Jungled Pigs in the West, and another strong tile to work. With Horses and Copper where they are, I'd expect to find Iron popping up at the capital itself or possibly in the clearing between the Western Sugars.