[SPOILERS - PBEM17] regoarrarr - Bismarck of Inca

[regoarrarr]

Okay lush resources it is!

Initial thoughts - 1S is obviously a plains hill to plant, or I can settle in place and get the Exp bonus once borders expand. I'll have to check in a test game to see how many turns that is and how long a worker takes.

First optimization will be "fastest settler". What's the fastest I can get a settler out?

[Cyneheard]

1S for the PH plant is well worth the turn.

Settle in place: 3t @ 4 resources/t, 6t @ 5 resource/t = 9t worker build, ends at 42/40, but lose 1h due to rounding, for 1h in overflow.
Move 1S: 1t @ 0. 3t @ 5 resources/t (don't get the Exp bonus off of the first ring...), and then 5t @ 6 resources/t = 9t worker build, at 45/40, losing just 1h due to rounding, for 4h in overflow. Already +3h, and we're earning an extra 1hpt from now until the end of time.

I suggest we move the Quechua 1SW to see what else is down that way, and the Settler moves 1E and then 1SW onto the PH.

Do we know the difficulty level and map size? That would help us know what our tech costs are...

[Cyneheard]

Standard/Prince/Quick (Toroidal...)

So, tech costs are 95.8% of base beakers.

Early tech costs:
38: Fishing, Hunting
47: Mysticism, Mining
57: Wheel, Agri, Priesthood, Archery
76: Pottery, Masonry, Meditation
95: Poly, AH, Sailing
114: Writing, Mono, Bronze

I'm going to set up a WB file.

[Cyneheard]

T0 WB Save (After I moved the settler and Quechua, that's easy enough for you to fix if you want to try settling somewhere else):

WB Save

Islands/Prince/Toroidal, and I put the other 4 players on because I could.

I guessed on the tile bleeding (badly, I suspect) to fill out the BFC; we lose out significantly if there aren't ANY 2h tiles in the BFC of the central Plains Hill. It looks like at least one of the forested tiles is a plains (2E of the current settler?).

Also, I've got a settler built EOT19, size 2 city with both food res improved, 1 warrior built. Worker --> Quechua (1t into a Barracks to grow to size 2) --> Settler. The tech path doesn't really matter for that start, although I did Mining --> BW --> Wheel --> Pottery (T25-26ish? Depends on city #2), and expecting to go AH next. We could then revolt T20, get a second worker EOT22 with some overflow off of a chop, or EOT23 if no chop.

[regoarrarr]

Okay I messed around a little bit with the save. It seems like Mining/BW is the right call to open up - getting chopping and whipping available ASAP. Plus with all the specials, it will be awhile till we want to lay down any cottages anyways.

It does look like the tile 2E of the settler is a plains forest - I'll move the quechua 1NE to verify

[Cyneheard]

Something to check:

Whether or not it makes more sense to improve the wheat first.

Why might this make sense? Saves a worker turn if we got AH in time to improve the cows right after the corn. We lose 1f (but gain 1h) while growing to size 2; the difference while building a settler at size 2 is 0.

EOT8: Worker completes, 4 overflow if PF exists.
T9-11: Gain 3fpt while working the corn. Quechua completes EOT12 (2hpt + 4 overflow).
T12: Gain 5f working the improved wheat, to 14f (instead of 15f). Work on a Quechua.
T13: Move Worker to city
T14-17: Finish Corn.
T18: We'd need the Pasture as an option here. That would require delaying BW until after AH. Grow to size 3 after the settler completes EOT19.
T20: Pasture completes. The worker could then move onto a forest on T21, and start chopping T22, or join the new settler in heading for the new city. Finish the Quechua from earlier.
T21: Grow to size 3, complete BW, have another Quechua sitting there half-complete.

That gets us to +11fpt and +5hpt at size 3. I think hand-building settlers and chopping/whipping workers (as usual for Exp) is going to be the way to go, at least until we get a Terrace up; with just 1h of overflow, settlers are a 4t build at size 3. There's no reason to ever go below size 3 IMO: we could grow every turn with a Terrace (and this capital is remarkably flat, which means it probably shouldn't be our wonder source. It would have no hills in its BFC, but a 2nd city can build the Oracle, assuming that's our plan).

We would then finish BW and grow to size 3 EOT21.

[regoarrarr]

Okay Turn 0 (4000 BC) played. As discussed we moved the quechua 1NE to make sure that we'd have a 2 hammer tile in our BFC if we moved to the plains hill. Indeed we had a plains forest, so we moved on to the plains hill and did not settle.



Here's the demos



Only novice / spaceman settled this turn - Kyan and darrell both moved their settler as well, and Shoot the Moon is behind us in turn order (we're 4th of 5)

I did confirm that Mining is 47 beakers

[Cyneheard]

Good; that gives us the Exp bonus hammer option (although we may end up wanting the commerce instead, to get BW EOT20 instead of EOT21, to revolt on T21 while the new settler is likely moving)

Novice's life expectancy is 90: That's 9 health, 1 unhealth, which for an Exp leader settling on a river (likely, since that's what we've got), he's got 6 or 7 forests in his BFC.

C&D by score counting:

There are 813 land tiles, and the map thinks the theoretical maximum population is 1139. Those #s can be found by mousing over your own score. This means:
5000 / 1139 = 4.39 score points per pop point
2000 / 813 = 2.46 score points per land tile held for 20t
Techs are always 5.99 * Era (Ancient = 1, Classical = 2, etc. etc.)
Wonders are always 1000 / 62 = 16.13 score points per wonder

[regoarrarr]

Turn 1 (3940 BC) in the books. Kyan and darrell also settled this turn, and shoot did not settle on Turn 0 also.

I love the AI



Why would you possibly want to settle on the plains hill with 3 resources in the first ring? No, let's put blue circles anywhere BUT there!

Here's the demos. Novice's borders as Creative have already expanded.



Looks like GNP of 21 means that Kyan (the other Cre civ) is working a pre-req tech. Novice's GNP was 19 last turn so he's working a first ring tech, probably Agriculture. Kyan starts with Ag / Fishing so my guess would be AH.

[Cyneheard]

C&D Work:

3 out of 4 opponents have settled, for 9750*4 = 39 land tiles. That is 1 @ 21 tiles, and 2 @ 9 tiles: None of our opponents have any water tiles visible yet.

Known data so far about GNP:
GNP of our 3 settled friends is between 55 and 58 (+1 for StM = 56-59 / 4 = 14). We know 56 of that (Kyan = 21, Novice = 19, and Darrell's is at least 16). So Darrell isn't working a river tile WHILE researching a 2nd tier tech. Being Egypt (Agri/Wheel), he's probably working a river tile (being, you know, not Exp), so he's almost certainly not on AH or Pottery, which isn't surprising. I assume he's on Mining.

Hammers and food:
Someone's working 4 hammers. Since we're pretty sure it's not Novice from our T0 data, and neither of the other two are Exp, that's probably a PH plant. Hammers worked are between 8 and 11, with a minimum of 6h known. Not all that helpful.
Food: Someone's on 5f (Shocker!), and a total of between 12 and 15f, minimum of 9f (5+2+2). So...no data there yet. Frankly, we'll get better info once StM settles this turn.

Approval rate: No one settled on a happiness resource; the 3 of 'em that have settled are at 83%. Nothing interesting there.

Health: Novice is at 9 health, as previously surmised. 90/x/y/0 = 66*4 = 264 - 267. That leaves 174 - 177 health for the other two.
7 health: 87
8 health: 88
9 health: 90.

Therefore, the other two players have between 14 and 16 health between the two of them. Not enough to draw (m)any meaningful conclusions.

I've updated what I've got onto the Dropbox, which is remarkably little new info. All I can do is set the constraints on what we know, frankly.