[SPOILER] Dark Savant graduates from blatant n00b to plain n00b

[Dark Savant]

Turn 14 - 3440 BC (Part 2 - C&D)

8000 soldier points showed up this turn.  It's unlikely any of that is military; I'm expecting almost everyone to be producing warriors right now, but it's doubtful anyone produced a warrior yet even if they finished a worker on turn 10 (next turn is the earliest they might reasonably do so).

Aretas gained 7 points this turn.  This must be a technology and another population point, so he must have been growing to size 3 working two 3-food tiles, which would get him from size 2 to 3 in 6 turns.

His technology is likely Agriculture (it's too slow to be Mining, and it probably isn't The Wheel because the soldier points don't work out for that), but he grew to size 3 without producing a worker.  He's probably producing an archer, likely at 18/25 this turn (2 hammers/turn from the city tile) because he was working maximum food.  He can squeeze out the archer next turn  working 7 hammers.

What is he doing?  It's one of the two scenarios he likely has experience with:

1. He's played single-player Civ 4 Deity with Raging Barbarians.  In that case, you pretty much need to research Archery and build an archer immediately -- you don't have time to build a worker first.
   
2. He's played multi-player Civ 4 against a single human opponent.  If you build a quick archer and send it against your opponent who went worker-first, you may have just won right there.
   

This is 25-player Civ 4.  That archer might end someone else's game, but it'll probably benefit the target's neighbors more than Aretas.  This probably will only work out well if everyone has exactly 2 land neighbors like in PB37, but that's unlikely on a 25-player map.

Donovan Zoi also got a technology.  This is probably Bronze Working, which would account for all 8,000 soldiers.  Bronze Working in 14 turns is fast at this setting (you'd need to manage ~14.8 flasks/turn, not easy even with a 2-commerce capital plant tile and the +20% arrow bonus), but he's Financial and could have actually managed that working a 3f3c oasis.  That oasis is likely not in first-ring, since it did not show up in Rival Best GNP in the first 5 turns.  He's also Expansive, so it doesn't sound like he produced the normal RtR-Expansive 10-turn worker, which he couldn't do with an oasis.  So I think he actually built his worker in 11 turns, only working the oasis once his capital's borders expanded to include it.

I wonder what Donovan Zoi's capital terrain actually looks like.  This strikes me as a weird play unless the mapmakers put some wild stuff there, like double grassland gems and only deer and oases for food.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 15 - 3400 BC (Part 1)

I move Wandering Aengus and Antigonus to try to bust as much fog as I can before Hunting comes in.



That lion is probably going to attack Antigonus.

I won't be able to scout as much as I want to in 3 more turns, but I'll have to make do.

That deer-furs-wheat site does look great longer-term, but it'll be slow to develop with all that forest and lacking either of the techs for those resources.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 15 - 3400 BC (Part 2 - C&D)

18000 soldier points appeared this turn.

elkad and Mr. Cairo both just got points for what pretty much has to be Bronze Working for both of them.  naufragar is now the only rival who hasn't yet finished researching a technology.

That leaves 2000 points.  superdeath also got a tech, and it can't be The Wheel since that's worth too much (he's Protective and already has both Agriculture and Fishing; it's great to get now if he doesn't have a Hunting or Animal Husbandry food resource), so he probably actually has Hunting to cover the other 2000 soldier points.  (edit: Okay, superdeath might have actually directly researched The Wheel then Pottery.)

That means Aretas didn't actually finish his archer his turn.  I'm not sure what the point of researching Archery first is if you don't finish the archer promptly.  Also, no one built a turn-15 warrior like I did last game (not a surprise, you have to be Expansive and even then it's unlikely).

[Dark Savant]

Turn 16 - 3360 BC (Part 1)

I was next-to-last to play last turn, and am first (not second? ) to play now.

The lion attacks Antigonus.  Antigonus wins a flawless victory.    I suppose he's truly weak only against bears. 

Scouting to the west reveals that there is indeed a strong 3-food site.



That site is going to take quite a lot of tech and development to make it strong.  Also, I do not have an early need for stone.  I'll have to sim it, but I'm seriously considering planting the second city far to the east, on a 3-food site which I already have the technologies to develop.  It's probably pink-dotting someone, but can you really pink dot someone when you don't even know anyone is actually there? 

Speaking of someone, I'm beginning to wonder when I'll actually make contact with others.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 16 - 3360 BC (Part 2 - C&D)

Aretas isn't producing an archer because he must still be producing maximum food; someone is producing 11 food and has been for a few turns.  That must be him.

17000 soldiers appeared this turn.

1000 of these must be from Gavagai growing from size 1 to size 2.  He's Expansive and probably was able to quickly improve a tile to 6 food.

8000 must be from naufragar completing Bronze Working.

GermanJoey also completed a technology, which is likely Mining for another 2000 soldiers.

The other 6000 points are probably completed warriors.

Someone is somehow only producing 2 food.  I'm not sure how that makes any kind of sense. 

[Dark Savant]

I'm still waiting for the clock to wind down on 2metraninja.

While I do that, let's go over ... inconsistencies in computer programming languages, since that came up today?  (I'm going to try to keep these non-Civ posts as varied as possible.)

In most languages:

• Attempting to dereference NULL, or calling a method on a NULL object, results in an immediate crash.  This is usually not held to be too bad, since that makes problems stand out.
  
• Managing memory: Attempting to free(NULL) in C, or delete NULL in C++, does not do anything, which makes sense.  (You're trying to free nothing?  Okay, doing nothing isn't a problem!)
  

Apple is different, of course.

• In Objective-C, calling a method on a nil object won't crash; it does nothing if the method returns nothing, returns 0 if a number, and returns nil if an object.
  
• Managing memory with Apple's Core Foundation: If you attempt to CFRelease(NULL), you get an immediate crash, because Apple thinks that's the result of bad design that should stand out immediately.
  

That's very different thinking.  That Objective-C behavior is in fact awful, as it results in serious bugs which are much harder to find.  I think Apple now agrees, since it nuked that behavior from orbit in Swift.  

This has been a Dark Savant Blog / postcount++ Post.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 17 - 3320 BC (Part 1)

Wandering Aengus and Antigonus don't reveal anything exciting.



That jungle to the northwest seems to be rather extensive, though of course it's entirely possible there's great farmland just outside my vision.

I finally push out my worker, which will start to pasture the pig starting next turn.  I can produce a settler on turn 30 on the same schedule as before, but with everything accelerated by one turn.  That's about the same time as someone who is neither Expansive nor Imperialistic will produce a first settler, which is hilariously slow for someone who is both.

I'll need to start to run extensive sims after next turn, when I need to decide what to research after Hunting.  It doesn't help that there is not an obvious spot for city #2.  I'll have to consider the two 3-food areas, and the relatively convenient sheep/pig location nearby.

In particular, there's no obvious spot with lots of great Agriculture resources, which you often get even on a standard Civ 4 map.  That means it's likely it's best to leverage Expansive and Imperialistic and head directly to Bronze Working, which I can get on t38 if I need to, but I should play out multiple different plans.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 17 - 3320 BC (Part 2 - C&D)

I still have yet to make contact with anyone else, but Wandering Aengus will soon be pushing finding other players instead of searching for nearby good city sites.

14000 soldiers appeared this turn.

6000 of these was Commodore, Dreylin, OT4E, Rusten, Shallow Old Human Tourist, and WilliamLP reaching 2 population, worth 1 point each.

Gavagai and WilliamLP got 6 points each for technologies.  Gavagai probably got Mining in 7 turns, and WilliamLP probably got one of Agriculture, Hunting, or maybe Pottery.  A few warriors also showed up.

No one is currently producing more than 4 hammers.

[BRickAstley]

This is why Apple is eeevil.

[Dark Savant]

This is why Apple is eeevil.

Eventually they come around on things, but they have the habit of taking longer to do so than some of the people reading this have been alive.