[PB62] naufragar and Rusten earn their wage in rostygold

[naufragar]

Bing's warriors are all in the area.


He finished the copper mine in the first half of turn 38. Bing is not in slavery, so he can only chop, not whip, emergency metal units. Next turn, Bing has to decide how to split his warriors. If he defends the copper with 0 or 1 warrior, I might move to disconnect it. His capital is size 3 on a plains hill, so I imagine it can pretty easily produce 8 hammers per turn. That means he only needs 2 turns of production plus one chop. Is his other worker already chopping somewhere? If so, he can produce a metal unit in time. If not, I should be able to disconnect the copper before he finishes.

On the domestic front:


On the plains hill are a worker and a settler. Please let me know if there's some danger I've overlooked. Otherwise, I think this is the best arrangement for fogbusting before the city gets founded.

Here's the power graph.


I'm pretty sure Bing only has three warriors. Everything else is a pop growth or Bronze Working. It's a pity all three warriors can reinforce Eridu. With only two this would be a lot easier.


By the way, I know I've mentioned how Bing having his copper on flatland by a river compared to our desolate hill chaps my ass, and you can see how important one or two extra turns are to all this timing, but I'm not terribly heartbroken about giving the new guy a bit of an advantage. On that note, I hope lurkers can show Bing love if possible. I don't want to scare him away from the community and getting ancient era attacked in your first two games, back to back, doesn't seem fun. Of course, I still want to conquer him with the strength of our mighty axes, but I feel bad. (Empathy revoked if something unexpected happens and this turns dangerous. )

[naufragar]

Have y'all been letting me bitch at Commodore for no reason? Does Bing need Sailing to use the river to hook up Copper? Sorry, Comm.

[Rusten]

DW, there's always something to bitch about regarding the map.

[Rusten]

It looks auto-connected to me though, IDK why you think he needs fishing.

[naufragar]

The mouse-over in the screenshot says "need route mine" so I went into world builder and put a copper mine on a river 3 tiles away from a cap, connected the river to the capital tile, and upped the borders. The copper didn't show as connected until I added the Sailing tech. I could have gotten something wrong somewhere. I'll try to run more tests tonight.

[naufragar]

Bing moved one warrior to cover his copper.


Killed it without issue. His scout was also in the area, so he's got another unit to put into Eridu. This is the crucial turn. If he can get a metal unit out by the end of turn, this gets more complicated. Otherwise, I cut the copper next turn. (And then probably move 1S to get eyes on his capital.) His power went up 2k, which I think was Hunting, so he can start teching Archery next. Speaking of Archery, one of our neighbors has it. Interesting.

Welcome into the world our 3rd city, The Flit:


Cities are expensive.  Veilgarden's borders expanded and gave me cause to hope that there were islands nearby for some intercontinental trade routes.

[Rusten]

I see that you crossed the river to kill it. What were the odds? Your screenshot doesn't show --did you get 1 or 2 XP from it?

[naufragar]

It was 95%, so only 1XP point. But no wounds! The chop at Veilgarden comes in next turn, so eot40 we get a second axe.

I wonder why that worker is roading instead of chopping.

[naufragar]

Honestly, it was kind of anticlimactic:


Bing attacked with both his warriors and got one hit in. (I believe this is the expected outcome. We had ~51% chance to go unharmed for each.) I then killed his scout garrison. (And took another hit. )

The 10 capture gold is another turn of research, so that's very nice. The fact that Bing felt he had to attack out, rather than hunker down, suggests to me that he was not able to get a metal unit out in time. (I'll return to this later.)

A bit of civ4 trivia/curiosity: I wonder what happens to the Ivory worker. Will his command get voided at the end of turn or will he be able to improve a tile outside his borders?

I don't give Rusten enough of a domestic overview to poke holes in, so here's this:


When I saw Bing attacked, I assumed he wasn't able to get a metal unit out in time, so I considered for a long time whether to pause the Axe in Veilgarden in order to let the chop go into a Work boat. I decided to finish the axe in case I'm wrong, or in case Bing can get Archery before we can kill him. (I think he'll just be able to get Archery. Whether he can complete an archer, I'm not sure.) That build can be changed, but I think the Axe is ok.

At the capital, the worker finishes next turn. The cap can grow to size 4 in one more turn, which I think is a fine idea. We then need many more workers. Our empire is very extended. After we conquer Bing, we'll basically stretch from each "pole" of this toroid. I think a couple of workers at 4 turns each wouldn't go amiss. We need roads, improvements, and eventually woodcutters for the Pyramids.

Speaking of Pyramids, The Flit is working a lake tile instead of the tundra deer, trading 1 hammer for 2 commerce. I think this is right? We don't really care about a faster warrior, but we do want to get to Masonry as soon as possible. I always forget that tundra takes longer to improve, by the way, so I don't think it's worth roading that deer after the camp. I assume our tech path is Wheel->Pottery->Masonry.

Any of this can be changed if we beat Tarkeel to the end of the turn.

[naufragar]

I was tempted...



But I stayed strong:



Empty cap and as of last turn Bing didn't have Archery. We also got Vanrober+Miguelito's graphs. I'll put them up and analyze them when I'm less swamped.