[PB65] Pinch-Hitting Pindicator

[Zed-F]

Is there any possibility of islands? Coastal or otherwise?

[pindicator]

Not pre-Astronomy. There are one or two spots that could open up to islands with a city planted in the right spot and 2nd ring culture, but that would be a bastard move by our map maker. So no, not pre-Astronomy.

[pindicator]

087

I did not realize Mjmd meant he was going to declare on Bing right now




I shifted the pair of axes in Sushi Go a bit to the west; perhaps if we get an opening we will be able to move a small stack in and raze a border city of Bing's.

Honestly though their power has been fairly even throughout.  If anything, our posturing against Bing has caused him to build more troops lately, and unless he completely gaffes the tactics he shouldn't lose too much here.  (Or he's already gaffed the tactics and this is a war of opportunity.)

The Great Prophet is probably Cornflakes getting his second one out already - although it could be Superdeath with a low odds GP if he ran some scientists in his Stonehenge city. 

Speaking of great people:




Eldritch Horror triple whipped a library immediately after Writing came in; on the first turn we hired 1 scientist (5 GP pts) and over the next 12 turns we'll hire 2 (12 x 8 = 96) to get us over 100.  This means our first golden age comes on turn 99, which is going to be right in time for when most of my cities are pushing up against the new happy cap.

I was really debating between growing another size before hiring the specialists - those hamlets and cottages would be nice to be working right now!  But that has been the whole point of all this:  now that we are out of room to expand outward, we need to expand upward, and with this glacial tech pace that means Hereditary Rule and religion swaps.

Happily we also had wines to take advantage of with Monarchy; workers are already racing to hook that up:




Out of our 9 workers, 7 are pictured here.  3 are around the wine:  1 roading on the wine which will finish next turn;  the other 2 advancing will start next turn and all 3 together will get the 5 worker-turns needed to complete.  Then 4 more are building cottages around Wingspan/Azul.  There are 3 tiles Azul can work cottages for the capital; I am aiming to get cottages on all of those - in fact every flatland tile at the capital is going to have a cottage built and being worked by turn 89.  (No wait, every tile except one of the plains tiles.  Close enough.)  But I'll talk more about Azul & Wingspan in another future turn:  there are some interesting challenges in getting both of those cities up to the happy cap right as we get to the golden age, and then pushing onwards once the happy cap is lifted.




Decided to fit in Archery.  Being PRO the archers are going to come promoted, and in addition a number of our border cities are on hills.  Plus, watching the lines on the power graph go up made me realize if I didn't do something soon then I was going to be sweating bullets by the time Currency was coming in.  (Sailing, however, did not make the cut.  Don't galley me, bro.)




Improved to -2 GPT at 0%.  Except that was also our last 2 gold pieces...

[pindicator]

088

Back in the black! (Or is it being in the green for Civ?)

Mjmd is really a natural ally for us. A stubborn defender and strong opponent, he also is the only other PRO leader - so that neither of us are giving up anything for Open Borders with each other. He offered us OB this turn and I accepted. I would like to keep on Mjmd's good side and maintain an alliance there if at all possible.

Cornflakes also offered OB; I declined. No free commerce for him.

I haven't seen any peace or power dropping yet from the Mjmd-Bing war. Speaking of power, Superdeath is running a very light ship. We're 1.5x his power; I imagine Mjmd and Cornflakes are close to double.




Above is the cottage plan, after a little revision this morning when I realized I had some logistics backwards. It might seem like the wrong order to cottage the plains tile first (the turquoise worker group) but really it is better because that tile is off the road network. Next turn the 3 workers will cottage the grass tile to their left (there's 1 turn into it already) and be back on the road network, letting them get quickly to the northwest where they'll meet up with the orange workers. Light blue, all by himself, will cottage the tile he's on now (currently has 2 turns put into it), and then cottage the last flat tile in the capital on t93, with help from one of the orange workers. Orange workers will finish the winery next turn, finish the cottage up at Dominion on t90, then 2 of the orange and 2 of the turquoise will 1-turn another cottage for Dominion.

After that things are a little unclear. Do I send the 4 combined orange & turquoise workers to cottage all the green tiles at Sushi Go? Do I split them and send 2 northwest to improve tiles at Gloomhaven? Dom & Gloom are in desperate need of improved tiles. Currently they are like so:







Dominion had given the Rice to Gloomhaven last turn so that it wouldn't grow into unhappiness, but this turn took it back, swapping it for the grass hill mine. Embarrassingly, Dominion will have to work a bare grass tile next turn, but just for one turn as the orange worker group will finish those cottages. Worse, Gloomhaven will have to work a bare plains for 2 turns. So I think I need to send some of those workers north after the cottage finishes on 91. I already plan on whipping Gloomhaven when it reaches size 4 - probably to complete a barracks and then put it on unit duty.

Maybe I won't build a cottage on the plains tile north of the capital, and instead send those workers to cottage Sushi Go...




Also, the Great Prophet last turn was absolutely Superdeath's. With the year on its birth being 700BC, the turn after Mjmd declared on Bing, there's nobody else it could be. I imagine either a shrine or a Theology bulb is upcoming for that guy.

[pindicator]

Yeah, I'm not going to cottage that plains marked as 93. It's one thing to cottage bare plains that the capital can share with neighboring cities, but I'm always going to want to work a riverside grass hill mine over that plains tile. Better to send light blue and that one orange worker over to Sushi Go.

[pindicator]

089

All the exciting stuff happened in foreign events:




Mjmd took a city off Bing and then went for peace. Supderdeath then used his Great Prophet for a shrine in Jinga Jungle (pictured below). I'll have to look up how many cities he has that religion spread to, but I think it's something like 5. Maybe this map is too small for a shrine, but the game certainly has the feel of every gold mattering.

We hooked up the wine at Eldritch Horror and started working it. I am wondering: do you work a 2f3c Hamlet over a 2f1h3c Wine in this situation? The hammer isn't really valuable right now (unless we think the spear is really necessary), and the hamlet being worked would get us to a village 3 turns earlier. Perhaps not worth it, perhaps it is. We also finished another cottage at Wingspan; 2 more set to complete next turn.

I don't think I will ever understand expenses in this game. It had seemed like we were getting a steady 1 gold added to our cost for every 2 pop. At the end of last turn we grew 4 population in anticipation of the wine being finished - and we gained 4g expenses for those 4 pop. After ending turn again this turn? We grew 2 population in 2 more cities, and our expenses went down 1. No clue at all.




Speaking of ending turns, after I hit enter we jumped up to #1 in food and mfg. It's hard to really count those numbers, but these are still really good. Feel really good about our strat here (even if I would have preferred Mids and Rep).

[Ginger()]

I would argue that a river cottage is a 5-yield tile, each turn of unwork on that 2F3C is a turn you're not working a 2F5C town (assuming you'll inevitably invest in working the lesser levels all the same)

By your strat you mean Monarchy and the cottages it will be enabling?

[pindicator]

I would argue that a river cottage is a 5-yield tile, each turn of unwork on that 2F3C is a turn you're not working a 2F5C town (assuming you'll inevitably invest in working the lesser levels all the same)

By your strat you mean Monarchy and the cottages it will be enabling?

Yeah, but you're comparing 1 hammer per turn now against 2 commerce per turn 40 turns from now. Even if you don't count the idea of a yield now being worth more than a yield later, you still have to make up a 40h deficit. And of course comparing hammers to commerce adds another layer to it. 

Strat is indeed the early Monarchy and Heteditary Rule to grow onto more cottages.

[Zed-F]

You mentioned before maybe making use of Serfdom, can you expand on that? Are you planning to keep it long-term or just during the GA? I don’t see many windmills etc in your empire….

[Amicalola]

I have fallen behind in lurking but I would work the wines, FWIW. Foodhammers do be real good. Even if the cottage is a 2/0/5 in practice (which I would somewhat contest), I prefer a 2/1/3.