The Antisocial Team

[Ichabod]

Neat... had forgotten you were going for one, but that'll be nice. I'd be surprised if it wasn't founded in your second city... don't think I've ever seen a religion founded in the capital when another city without a religion is available. I've heard it's theoretically possible, but the odds must be pretty low as it's never cropped up in any games I've seen.

Yeah, it went for the second city (and propped a instant border pop at EoT, which was nice).

[Ichabod]

I've been neglecting the updates here due to lack of time (between the end of PB7, subbing for Kyan in 3 games and having to support my soccer team in some important matches). Unfortunately, I think my micro might also have suffered a bit, but, oh, well.

Anyway, there's a big decision to be made soon, so I'll post an update soon to get some advice.

[Ichabod]

Ok, so let's try to make some report of what's going on.

*We are at turn 35.

*We have 2 cities:

a) First Touch, the capital, is size 5. It's working a wheat farm, a FP cottage, an ivory, a grass mine and a plains hill forest tile. There's a FP farm avaiable, but I rather get the imperialistic bonus, since I'm building a settler.

b) Pace, second city and Hindu holy city, is at size 2, working corn and cow. It's building a WB. The WB can net a crab tile for this city or a fish for the Horse city, if we desire to go for it as city 3.

You want visuals, right:

*We have 3 workers. 2 are roading/pasturing a cow for Pace. The other will chop a forest for a quick settler for city 4.

*We met Yuris, Dave and Commodore. The 2 former had warriors close to our territory, which led me to build warriors for defense, albeit only when the micro wanted growth. We have 4 warriors. Perfect scenario would be only 3, with a granary closer to finish.

*We are finishing BW. After that, probably save cash for a turn and go for Writing.


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Ok, that's the basics covered. So let's try and make this a bit more entertaining. Let's talk about capital micro. here's the capital after growing to size 4:

I changed the production from a granary to a settler. It'd take 5 turns to be ready. I could grow in 2 turns. The worker would take 3 turns to finish a mine in the grass hill.

So I did the following: I built the settler for a turn. Than I grew to size 5 in two turns. Than I went back to settler, finishing it in 3 turns. So the settler finished in 6 turns, but only 4 of production, as opposed to 5 turns of production without growing to size 5. But we reached size 5 in the cpaital 4 turns earlier. And I think settler 3 will be faster too.

Maybe it was worth, maybe not, I can't really tell. But that's what I did.


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Regarding the 3rd city placement. We could settle north, so let's take a look there:

Very good land, land that we definetely want. But I prefer settling the 3rd city here:

In the desert tile. Why is that?

*Very good tile to work from the get go, the 5/0/1 fish, which I can improve before it's settled. There's also easily improvable horses (plus shareable cows), instant TRs with the roads already in place and workers are already close.

*Enables horses as protection for the next settlers. Chariots can keep up with settlers and have enough strenght.

*With this solid core of three relatively safe cities, we can get military and push to settle the north.

Mist tells me to wait for copper and seeing where it's avaiable. That's good advice. We'll know at the end of next turn and we can plan accordingly, regarding worker turns and everything. Maybe there's a very good copper city somewhere.

But in a general thought, what do you think is best: the safe horses or the daring north? The north city would probably go near the corn, in the sites suggested previously.

[Mist]

If we have copper, we don't need horses, and thus can settle north.

If we don't have copper we have to settle for copper or any axe/spear stack from Yuri will roll us over.

If there's no copper to be had, or it's too far to settle safely, we must settle horses.

Horses city now is the least desirable option. We give up claim over the gold, we don't grab any desirable terrain, we don't grab land in a contested direction.

[Ichabod]

*Grumble, Grumble* I concede the point to Mist *Grumble*

We have copper! And a very nice third city spot, with copper, corn and cow. How about this for a plan. Settle the third city in the "blue X" and grow it while building Axes. Keep pushing for settler in the capital, with chop help. Pace will grow + build workers.

I quite like it!

Here's inside the capital, for your viewing pleasure:

[Ichabod]

Question for the pros. Look at this city:

Constantinople can grow in 3 turns while working corn + 2 cows. It also can grow in 2 turns by doing the following:

1. Working Cow + Corn + FP farm in the first turn.

2. Netting the crabs -> Working Crabs + Corn + FP farm on the second turn.

My question is, is it worth it to grow on tiles with lesser yield to get on the next size faster? What's your general rule about these situations? What about this situation is particular?

[SevenSpirits]

Ouch, that granary is painfully late. Should have built it before WB.

What will your happy cap in that city be? And will you have access to slavery anytime soon?

[Ichabod]

Ouch, that granary is painfully late. Should have built it before WB.

What will your happy cap in that city be? And will you have access to slavery anytime soon?

In the real game the city is still size 2. It needs another turn to finish the WB. In my defense, the Wb was supposed to net the fish for the horse city, so it's a Macro mistake, not a Micro mistake.

So it seems it's best to go granary as soon as possible. We just finished BW in the game, but I think we need to finish the settler before revolting. So, in the situation you see above, there's potential for more hammers invested in the granary and slavery too. Hope I made myself clear here.

[Mist]

We have copper! And a very nice third city spot, with copper, corn and cow. How about this for a plan. Settle the third city in the "blue X" and grow it while building Axes. Keep pushing for settler in the capital, with chop help. Pace will grow + build workers.

Sure, we need some way to pop borders though. OR soon?

Also, city #4 here?

[Ichabod]

I prefer a more ambitious 4th city. Probably near the marble. I think we can get an axe soon to protect it. Yuris power is lower than ours, so he doesn't have anything meaningful in his army.

I'll try to make a more detailed plan soon.