[spoilers] - pindicator is excited for the next Realms Beyond league mechanics

[pindicator]

052

Work boat done, axe is next.




Chop came in for the axe, which was needed because I need an MP for when the city grows to size 4. This axe will go with the next settler out of Anarchy and we'll plant city #5 on the island to the south in a dozen turns.

Meanwhile, this work boat is going to just be scouting.

Seriously, this is the one. He's not turning back.

I mean it.

[Cornflakes]

Just wanted to say I’m enjoying your thread I’m rooting for you

[pindicator]

Thanks!

Not much to report on turn 53. Sailing finished, and started a galley at Domination. The turns feel slow right now because I pretty much have the next 10-15 turns set in stone. Everyone is so spread out that the odds are pretty low someone is going to try to piss in my sandbox.

[pindicator]

054

Judaism falls.




City #4 settled.




Yikes, I severely underestimated my costs. I figured I would jump from -3 to -5, -6 at the worst but instead I'm sitting at -8gpt at 100%. I can still barely hit Pottery in time, but my hopes of squeezing in Archery before Animal Husbandry are probably not to be.

[pindicator]

055

Demos are looking a little better now!




Capital finished the axe and started on my next settler, this one for the southern elephant island. Oh, that better not be a snakey peninsula; i want those ICTRs!

According to my best interpretation of the PBSPY logs, I'm not doing too bad in expansion, but Old Harry has been leading the field in getting cities out. He was the first to plant a 2nd city, tied with Borsche on t29. I was a few turns later at 32. Then he was the first to get a 3rd city, on t41; but once again I was right behind at 42. And he won again with city #4, getting that out on t52. Nemesis would have tied him if I hadn't wanted to put it so far north to get the whales. So I am encouraged.

Old Harry has met someone else. He was gaining EP on me after I switched off to Mouseferatu, but lately he's been holding steady at 20 EP above me.

[pindicator]

056

I think we got a good run out of our scout, but this looks like the end of the line.




Certainly an interesting map! I don't know if Old Harry has met someone farther east here, or if his scout then went south and met someone down there. Either way, it seems like there is a lot of room but I do need to be mindful about keeping OH bottled up while at the same time not over-extending and leaving myself open for an invasion from the east.




Whipped the galley out of Domination. The timing works well here on a couple levels: first, the borders are set to pop in 2 turns, so we'll be working the Copper for 2 turns for 2 food and then the fish for 4 turns to get to 22/22 and grow back to size 2. Secondly because I want to shuttle over a worker down to the elephant island ahead of my next settler. The island looks like it is large enough for 2 cities, and I still would like to settle on top of that elephant, but I don't know for certain quite yet and getting a unit on that island ahead of the settler will help me make sure I don't mistakenly orphan a resource.

I also thought about bringing 2 workers onto the island to pasture the pigs as soon as possible. However, I don't think this is worthwhile. It means pulling the worker who is currently farming the wheat at Onslaught all the way over; and then when the pig is finished there really isn't anything else that requires 2 workers on that island. On the other hand I will have lots of tasks for my workers on the mainland soon enough: as granaries get whipped and chopped in and the next wave of settlers comes out I am going to need roads out to these new locations and ideally a pair of workers for each new city to get initial resources hooked up and forests chopped for granary whips. I have things pretty well figured out through turn 70; however I do still need to hammer down worker turns and I need to think beyond that range to where the next settlers are going and what worker actions are going to be needed. Then the inevitable give and take about where I can get away with 1 worker and where I need to have 2.

That is on the to-do list for a post here: screenshot where the next cities are going and plan out better where the workers need to be going.

Internationally we had lots of 4th cities go down. There's a large group of us really close together in expansion rate; I think everybody has realized how wide open this map is and how much of a farmer game things are.

This gives me an idea....

[pindicator]

057

Galley is done and heading south. I think I've either messed up my worker micro, or I've messed up writing down my worker micro when I added it to my main notes. Somehow I have the same worker going on a boat to the elephant city and also chopping out the granary at the capital. Both those can't be right .... so I think this is what I meant by running into worker troubles last post, heh.




Onslaught chop finishes the spear, which I need for MP, and also lets me start onto the granary next turn. We will 2-whip out that granary, grow to 4, pause for a worker at 4 to let happiness resources get hooked up and whip unhappiness subside, and then grow to 6 to triple whip out a settler.

For dot-mapping purposes:

[pindicator]

I have no good first ring locations to settle here. Everything worth settling is second ring or farther.

Can we do a little map edit and add a desert tile north of the elephants? Pretty please?

[pindicator]

058

Domination borders popped.




Work boat connects the fish, and we are growing back to 2 in 4 turns.

Then down south my plans need to be completely redone.




Settling on the elephant orphans the fish, and there's no way it's worth orphaning a fish. So we will settle on top of the forested plains hill. This means we need to bring 2 workers to get that elephant improved and connected, but I don't think I can get it hooked up fast enough to keep Onslaught from growing back into unhappiness. Onslaught started its granary this turn, and we'll 2-pop whip that as soon as it hits size 4. Now that city will certainly put out a worker at size 4. Maybe this is better: forcing me to get more workers out now and not walking the tightrope by trying to get settlers and workers out and shuffling everyone around.

I'm not complaining too much here. This is going to be the better city location since it will have clams and pigs in its BFC. And then down south we can fit another city in that will share the pigs and claim the fish. These will be good cities to produce galleys and triremes in the future.

[pindicator]

060

I like how right after I comment on how I'm happy with how I'm keeping up in settlers, Old Harry and Hitru drop new cities on successive turns. They're now at 6 and the rest of us are just getting used to the idea of having 4.

My 5th will be planted in 4 turns, but I have to pause a little for more workers before getting 6 & 7 out in the early 70s.




Worker and axe embark this turn, ahead of the settler. The axe doesn't plan on staying here; I just want to make sure there are no surprises before I'm able to fog-bust the entire island in earnest. I had messed up my micro at some point; I thought I could get the elephants hooked up and roaded by 65 in addition to chopping out that forest for the capital's granary, but somehow I came up a worker turn short. So I decided the granary was more important: next turn the capital will whip the settler for max overflow. Then the chop will ensure a 1-turn granary. After that we grow back to size 5 to work all the desirable tiles and then pump out settlers.

It will be interesting to figure out exactly when I want to get madrassas down and start running great people. Honestly it may not happen at the capital at all: cities like Onslaught and Nemesis are high food and have very little natural production and seem like far better candidates.




In general I feel I have a good fogbusting setup. This turn it gets tested for the first time with a barbarian warrior from the south. He came at the ideal time for me though: for the next 3 turns I don't need an MP in Onslaught as I just 2-pop whipped the granary there. With the elephant being delayed this now means the city will be unhappy at 4 even with an MP, but only for 2 turns. Normally I would just start a worker at 3, but I need to get a work boat out of here first to connect the whales at Nemesis on t70. The work boat scouting west of the capital could make the trip back if it turns back right away, but then we're losing all those travel turns and it already is uncovering new tiles near the capital. I value the scouting information more than a little bit of efficiency right now.

Finally, we have graphs on mouseferatu: