[PB59] Pindicator's One Thread to Rule Them All

[pindicator]

Oh, naufrager retreated his axe back out of my borders this turn. That seemed strange. But I've got things covered if he thinks he can move back in and declare this turn - I'll upgrade the warrior to an axe and then chop out an archer. And then we can kiss all the settling plans goodbye because I'll be making units.

[pindicator]

Turn 076, in the Reckoning of the Shire

Our great scientist is born and moved to the capital. Lots of citizen work going on here:




Next turn we'll make the academy and turn on the science. The new settler out of Baggins is moving to settle Proudfoot at the Sheep/Copper spot where it will take the Corn from the capital for the time being. Worker E will chop Proudfoot's granary and then worker C will improve the Copper and then the Sheep for Proudfoot. Copper first because with the chop we still don't quite get to 30h for that granary whip, so there will be a turn where we work the Copper at size 2 before whipping. Actually we even give the Corn back that turn, funny enough it comes out ahead because we need the extra hammer from a grass forest to get to 30h and be able to whip.

Naufrager has moved his axe back and a scout has come forward, so it seems he is pretty peaceful for the time being. At least, I'll have opportunities to react. I will need to get a scout into his lands - and have thought about making actual scouts so I can get through his lands quickly. Perhaps a chariot will do though. But with naufrager signalling a peaceful border I'm going to go back to building the library at Baggins straight away.

Worker B is going to improve the Cow up at Hornblower and I marked worker F because he's in the screen, but he's just adding a cottage after chopping at Brandybuck because that city will need a new tile. Although now that I've decided to build that library perhaps I could start scientists at the capital in place of the plains hills? I have taken them off Took for the time being to allow that city to grow a bit - Took took the Fish and Wheat - but I'm going to need to get the scientists going pretty soon in order to get enough Great Scientists done in time. We still need at least 3 more: 1 for a golden age to revolt into Classical Era civics, and 2 for Astronomy. (Another idea is 1 for Philosophy, 2 for Education, and the taking Astronomy with Liberalism.)

Iron Working is probably the next tech, but I'm not counting out a run at Literature and the Great Library. With so many people in this game I'm going to have to be quick about such a decision. But I can't be the only one thinking on it.

[pindicator]

Huh, this looks like a bug

[pindicator]

Augh, I didn't think to see how fast I could get Iron Working until now, and I find that it's really freaking fast: 3 turns in 4 turns if I turn on the science now. So naturally we want that iron hooked up right away, and that means Brandybuck really needs to go straight into another worker next turn. Now the cottage I started with worker F is not needed, and even worse: if I had looked into this before this turn I could have sent Worker F straight over to road the Gems right away. Now delay will cause the Gems to be improved a turn later, which is a big loss of commerce. Or I need to bring over another worker from somewhere.

Also: I'm looking at going straight to Literature. Iron Working next is for certain, but I feel like i have a window to go after Great Library as long as my neighbors continue to show peaceful intent. But I have to go now.

EDIT: Found a solution! And it is an improvement to boot: instead of shipping 2 workers to the new island city we'll only send 1 and the other will go east to the gems. Plus, hooking up the Gems will actually be faster than hooking up the Furs, so we can even grow the capital a turn faster now.

[Lewwyn]

EDIT:  Found a solution!  And it is an improvement to boot:  instead of shipping 2 workers to the new island city we'll only send 1 and the other will go east to the gems.  Plus, hooking up the Gems will actually be faster than hooking up the Furs, so we can even grow the capital a turn faster now.

Happy accidents!

[pindicator]

EDIT:  Found a solution!  And it is an improvement to boot:  instead of shipping 2 workers to the new island city we'll only send 1 and the other will go east to the gems.  Plus, hooking up the Gems will actually be faster than hooking up the Furs, so we can even grow the capital a turn faster now.

Happy accidents!

With unhappy follow-ups.

My costs jumped from 25 to 30 this turn and if growing 3 pop costs 5g then holy crap we're going to need more cottages (and less settlers, which in a strange way is a blessing).  Now I don't have enough gold in reserve to get IW by end of t79 so I need to step back and re-evaluate all that worker micro again.

Overview teaser shot, complete with new city. Also to help me figure out worker turns without having to sit in the game:




You can also see that naufrager brought his axe back to the border, which I can't see any good reason for.  But again, I've got that covered.  If he invades I have a spear ready to move into the city next turn and we're going to delay the granary to set up an axe whip for next turn.

And if there's a galley coming from out of the fog then I'm screwed. Dang, I guess I need to think about whether I burn 85g to upgrade the warrior now or if that is worth the risk. But really, he should just have the axe on the galley in that case. Also, his power isn't that much ahead of mine so he can't have more than 1 or 2 unseen metal units in total.

EDIT: Well, naufrager played after I logged out so either he double moved me and we need a reset or I'm not in any danger.

[pindicator]

Turn 077, in the Reckoning of the Shire

Answer for the workers was that we're just going to have to delay the gems by a turn. But it also means we're going to use the overflow at Brandybuck to finish a chariot this turn instead of turning the worker into a 3-turn build. Now a faster worker is pointless. So better to get another unit out to move east (Amicalola is far enough away in the west that I have ample time to react and have sentries in place.)

Proudfoot you saw from the last screenshot. It is stealing the corn since Baggins is at the happy cap, but we'll give it back in a few turns.

We did set up the academy this turn, and so as promised here is my first shot of Baggins:




The library finishes in 2 turns but I don't think I'm hiring scientists quite yet; instead we'll get out more units. Or maybe another galley.

Baggins is no longer the sole size-9 city in the world:




Cocoon is Amicalola's city, and the others are impossible to tell.

And this has propelled me up to #2 in GNP.




Interesting demos. Crop yield is middle-of-the-pack, and I'd wager the GNP is lagging behind someone with higher culture output (perhaps my neighbor who has built 2 wonders). So I am very happy with the upcoming research rate.

If everything stays peaceful I'm going to head straight to Literature. So that means Poly > Aesthetics > Lit for the tech order. Hopefully we can get a Great Library out before turn 100

[pindicator]

Turn 078, in the Reckoning of the Shire

Kind of a quiet turn here. I turned off the science this turn since I can't get Iron Working in 2 anyway, and the library finishes at Baggins end of turn. The chariot out of Brandybuck moved east towards Hornblower. I put it right alongside naufrager's scout so he saw it was coming. I might actually just push east with it and scout out his lands.

In the west, I have a decision to make:




Do I settle on the hill or on the forest? On the hill gets me the fish, which Amicalola hasn't even attempted for yet. If I do this, then I'm building a monument first to get the Fish under my culture quickly and try to get a leg up on any settler that may be coming my way. However, that's no guarantee that Amicalola won't just be able to just plant a city on the coast and win the culture war later down the line; he does have Stonehenge after all. Also, a city on the hill will be harder to reinforce. On the other hand, archers do better on hills, but the city won't have production if I found on the hill. If I thought he wasn't going to settle anything in the area for 20 turns I would grab the hill spot without a question.

[pindicator]

Turn 080, in the Reckoning of the Shire

When I told Commodore what my naming scheme was he said he had a name request.




When I realized that all Amicalola had to do was settle on the shore within 20 turns and he would likely win any culture war I figured going for the fish was not worth it. The city only really needs to claim fur for me; everything else is gravy. So it will never be a huge city (no "Fatty" Bolger here), but it will still be an important one.

Bolger makes 8 cities by turn 80, which I think is a good pace. I fear someone like naufrager may be gutting his economy a bit too quickly, unless he has followed this up with strong cottage growth. However the power graph makes me think naufrager is going to turn to a raze/pillage economy to support his cities. Just when I thought I was leveling off with him he had a huge surge this turn. Iron Working? Or something more sinister? In either case, my IW finishes next turn and I have 3 archers and an axe in production, so hopefully I do not look like the juiciest target.

I fell out of the top spot for top city. Someone out there is putting themselves in the early driver's seat with the usual wonder power play:




I don't think it's any stretch of the imagination to guess that Colossus went to the same civ that built Oracle, but BUG and CtH confirming it by the color scheme really shouldn't be happening either. Further, if this is the actual color of the civ that built it and not some placeholder then that is a pretty big "leak" of extra information. Purple civs would be Commodore, Frozen, TBS. I don't know Frozen, but I know Commodore enough to say it is not him (he's probably building praetorians right now), and this all does have the hallmark of a TBS power play.

Iron Working finishes end of turn. We will grow to 10 at end of next turn and have 1 turn of unhappiness before hooking up the gems on t82. The fur connects on t84 so we grow straight to 11. I know I've said I want to go for Great Library next, but it is also very tempting to go Metal Casting and just focus on growing upwards as much as possible with forges. In truth, I probably go Masonry next and build a wall in Hornblower. Naufrager just has me on guard right now. He's got lots of cities, so lots of production, and lots of maintenance so he won't have anything to build except more units. Smells like a recipe for invasion.

[Lewwyn]

I think unknown is a purple default color and not indicative of the civ that built the wonder.