[PB63 Spoilers] Fabled, Amicalola, and JR4 are woven into the pattern

[Fabled]

Turn 37

It's late here, so not much commentary today.



Overview of the empire.



I've been bouncing the pig tile back and forth, this turn it comes back to Caemlyn to finish the granary (along with the chop 1S of Caemlyn that finished this turn). We're also just crossing the "half of a food bar" threshold mentioned earlier, so I think this is just in time.



Working a grass forest for 1 turn to finish the warrior in Tar Valon ASAP. Cornflakes hasn't had another power bump yet, but I don't trust it.



Charts. We have Mr. Cairo now, too. Nothing crazy, but they've done their first whip if I'm reading the hammer chart correctly.



Demos. No comment.

[Tarkeel]

I hope this incarnation of Tar Valon is more successful!

[JR4]

I hope this incarnation of Tar Valon is more successful!

The placement of Tar Valon in PB 62 was a totally fair and justified land grab.  

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In hindsight, I can see why the city was seen as a provocation. Lesson learned, if you want to settle aggressively, you should be prepared to defend that city too.

[Fabled]

I'm wiped out sick today, can someone take my turn? Thanks.

[Amicalola]

I can get it. It will be an opportunity for me to look around and do some micro.

The server seems to be down currently though...

[Amicalola]

Ok so I did a few things. Didn't have any instructions so I followed my heart. 

Caemlyn took the Pigs because it isn't very good for Tar Valon, with the latter's granary build.


We can whip T42, but due to the road timing we would found on T45 regardless so whipping on T43 is better (realised after picture. Sign is updated in game though). It also lets us overflow into a spearman if necessary, which brings me to...

We don't have Hunting! Against Egypt!  That's dangerous, Cornflakes could absolutely kill us here if he tries. So I set research to Hunting before Animal Husbandry, which I hope is alright. 

At Tar Valon there is another micro headache. We can work the copper and finish the granary in 3 turns, but then there's no point chopping. Or we can work the floodplains and grow on the same turn we finish the granary. 


I decided to work the floodplains and chop. This is less efficient than just working the copper into the granary, and letting the worker cottage in a vacuum, but the worker is already there, and I think there is a decent chance that we need to emergency 1-whip a spear from here on defense, where being stuck at size 1 would be the worst feeling in the world. We can hit avoid growth on T42, which by some wizardry should get us a little excess food when we turn it back on next turn (perhaps a better player can explain this?). I may have that wrong; I always try to just hit half-full, because I don't have a good grasp of the 'avoid growth' trick. Here we probably should have either had the worker ready to chop ~3 turns ago, or committed to not chopping at all and just slow-built the granary. Not a disaster by any means, just worth considering for next time.

This worker is a conundrum, I'm not sure what we should do with him. 


He can't get to anything very efficiently right now. My best answer is putting some turns into cottages before AH resources come online, in the floodplains/shared tile. Alternatively you could cottage until he can improve the corn by City3. My cottage prio sign is more meant relative to the non-floodplains ones; floodplains cottages probably come over shared grassland ones.

[civac2]

Granary mechanics:

After the granary is finished it starts accumulating food up to half of the current food bar. The granary gains the entire food overflow generated each turn. Crucially it also does this on the turn of growth!

Example: Suppose Tar Valon is at 13 food in the food bar.

If it grows with the flood plain it will reach size 2 in 3 turns and also finish the granary in the same turn (due to chop). The granary will not do anything for the 1 -> 2 growth as it is not finished in time.

If instead you finish the granary with the copper tile Tar Valon in 3 turns and start growing afterwards with the flood plain. Tar Valon will reach size 2 in 6 turn with 9 food in its foodbar (from the 9 food accumulated in the granary over the 3 growth turns). Comparatively, the first option would be at 12 food in the food bar here (3 turns to grow, 3 turns with 4 food per turn) at the cost of 18 hammers (but with some extra commerce gained).

Avoid growth is useful because it delays growth by one turn and thus allows for time for the granary to gain food. If you follow the second option and then activate Avoid growth in 5 turns Tar Valon will be at size 1 with 22/22 food in its food bar and 9 food in its granary on the 6. turn. Deactivate Avoid growth and it will grow to size 2 the following turn with 14 food in its food bar (3 from overflow, 11 from the granary). Comparatively you would be at 16 food at this point with the first option (3 turns to grow, 4 turns with 4 food per turn) at the cost of 18 hammers (but with some extra commerce gained).

Note that with Avoid growth excess food over the amount required to completely fill the food bar will get wasted.

[JR4]

The power graph on t37 doesn`t look too scary but yes, we need Hunting asap. At least it`s just a 4 turn tech at this point so we`ll still have a good chance of getting away with it. As we have Copper connected already and a second Settler soon enough, things are looking good as long as we can avoid a rush. 

Granary mechanics have always seemed like dark arts to me. Understanding how to get maximum food is a good way of getting the snowball to roll faster. 

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There is a lot of activity in the thread of pindicator/Krill. Maybe they are up to something?

[Amicalola]

Thanks for that, Civac, really helpful. It sounds like my instinct was right that working copper is better than working floodplains here. But I think personally that the ability to whip a spear outweighs that. The turn has not yet rolled, if you feel differently Fabled  (although the chop has already been started).

[JR4]

So, what on earth is going on here? Still no new turn and it`s been a while since the last turn roll. Surely, Superdeath and pindicator/Krill must be in some sort of a turn split. Perhaps it`s a settling race or something. 

@Amicalola: Having the option of whipping a Spear is probably better than setting up the perfect micro short term. We should prepare for the worst outcome (an incoming War Chariot Rush) by being ready to make the aggressor pay the price. 

@Fabled: Are you feeling better? Being sick isn`t much fun. Could you post the graphs again next turn? I`m really interested in the demographics and the power graph.