[SPOILERS] Serdoa - PBEM47

[Serdoa]

Very preliminary dotmap with markings which tiles which city works.



Some stuff will certainly change as some of those cities need a Granary in order to grow even to size 4 without annoying me like hell because it takes forever. Which means that they get a border-pop a few turns after that build finishes. Also, a few tiles will probably get farms additionally, just so that the cities can actually grow.

And no, none of those cities is really good long-term. I am sacrificing long-term potential for short term gains here. I will keep my cities smaller and expand like crazy. Either that will crash my economy, or I will outexpand anyone and can later think about which cities to grow bigger (blue pretty certainly, the others probably just to grow into grassland cottages or later workshops). I expect mackoti to do the same but grab some wonders on the way. I will have to see if I can get one or two myself.

Oh and Commodore, if what I have scouted so far is an indication for the whole map, expect much whining incoming. I have scouted 77 land-tiles by now and only 2 of them have a food resource? No, I do not consider 4 food tiles or tiles that are jungled AND need a plantation as food resources. Honestly, thats really low, considering that Gaspar did ask for a lush map and nobody opposed that. I don't have the full picture of course, but right now I get the feeling we have no food on this map. Not sure if I am unhappy myself about that though, I haven't decided yet. It does make growing cities really hard, but thats the same for everyone of course. Building settlers and workers though should be much quicker for me, as everyone has to use mostly hammers for it, and that of course favors me.

[Commodore]

I always expect whining, so no worries there. I note with interest your 1/4/0 plains hill sheep, you don't plan on pasturing?

What wonders are you pasturing?

[Serdoa]

I always expect whining, so no worries there. I note with interest your 1/4/0 plains hill sheep, you don't plan on pasturing?

Not right away at least. I have to I guess, sooner or later. But for settlers and workers mined it is 1 more fh every turn I work it. And I'm fine to give up 1 commerce for that. I probably will farm the FP that can be reached from the capital and yellow though, instead of cottaging it. Should make growing less painful for both.

What wonders are you pasturing?

Well, lets see:

1) SH: I don't need it with Terraces. It is nice, but 80 hammers are 2 settlers instead.
2) Oracle: I am interested in a religion (because your map does not seem to have any :P) but I don't think I want to put 100 hammers or the equivalent of 2 settlers and 1 worker into it. And for what tech? Metal Casting loses some of its appeal without coast for Colossus and half-price Forges.
3) Pyramids: Yeah, because I will invest 335 hammers for it. Thats... a giant shitton of settlers and workers. I think this game I will try to get around with cottage spam. I mean, if I plant my cities closely, every single one might only work 4-5 cottages, but with nearly 8 cities more (the equivalent of all those hammers), I should be fine nonetheless.
4) Hanging Gardens: Now, that one is interesting. I think I can be at around 10 cities by the time I can build that. Will it be around for so long? Maybe. And if so, I'll probably chop it out somewhere, simply because getting 10 pop more will pay back the cost immediately.
5) MoM: Yeah, with all the cottages I intend to have longer GAs would be kinda helpful. But they are helpful anyhow. Not sure I can get it with the competition I expect for it though. Depends also on what resources I am going to find. If there are more plantation ones, I might very well grab Calendar very early.
6) GLib: Well, no? I don't see myself getting this because I don't see myself going up that route anytime soon. Same for all other wonders up there.
7) ToA, GW, GLH, Parthenon: No, NO, NOO, no.
8) Religious ones: Depends. With all the city spam, might be worth it. Much too early to think about it.
9) Taj Mahal: Certainly - I want Drafting asap. Many cities that can all be drafted one after the other and coming back to the first which has no draft anger any longer? Yes, please. Taj would just be icing on the cake.

I think that covers all the wonders which are early to mid-game and are actually relevant in most games. But to look at it in general: I am not going to try and build wonders much in this game, simply because with 2 INDs, one of the mackoti, it is kinda pointless, except for getting failgold. And that makes only sense pre-Currency or if I find doublers. And I doubt we have Stone or Marble on the map, I think you dislike them pretty heavily, don't you Commodore?

[Qgqqqqq]

Anything a hap-owning?

[Serdoa]

Yeah. But I'll do the PBEM46 update now and then I'll probably have the next turn for this game and make an update as well. But as a teaser: I have changed my micro-plans again - on the fly. Which is obviously bad because in 95% of the cases that means I have made a decision not based on rational but based on some half-baked data. In that case, I decided to build a third worker before my settler. I'll finish that settler T20 now, settling T22. Instead of finishing it T18 and settling T21. I think that is better as I have another worker earlier, giving me more chops / improvements earlier. But I am not sure if that is really the case, I simply had not the nerve to really go through all possible iterations of my micro-plan.

Thats really my biggest issue (and why I fall back in the mid-game): I am not good enough in decision-making, as I miss still the experience to make a good decision when it is not able to sim it out in detail.

[Serdoa]

Overview T26



Yeah, I know, I promised the update earlier. Sorry for that. Somehow, save didn't come in when I expected it and then it was too late...

Anyhow, as you can see, I am at 3 cities. Tiwanku has 2 pop (didn't realize that isn't visible when I took the shot). So I am at 5 pop, which I think is up there with the others, though they have it on 2 cities I guess. I haven't done any C&D for this game and I won't start now. If anyone wants to do that, I can provide all the saves from the start till now. I know I will sooner or later be upset on my self that I didn't do it. But I had intended this game to be light and fun, who could know that Seven and mackoti would join? Well, anyhow, it is how it is now.

You can see some signs for cities (though my color is barely visible - I really had loved to get another color, should have asked for it. Anyhow, I have 3 workers which will be joined EOT27, EOT28, EOT31, EOT32, EOT36, EOT38, EOT40 for a total of 10. Next settlers by EOT29, EOT35, EOT39 for a total of 6 cities. 10 workers, 6 cities by T40? I hope that is competetive, not sure though.

[Bigger]

where are you building the other 3 cities? and why have you turned off the research bar for the pic? I'm curious of your research path, and if you plan to build any wonders, or just pure rex.

[Serdoa]

Had to Alt+I so that I could take the shot without interface blurring out details.

Research: Pottery right now to get my Terraces into play. I have gone Mining -> BW -> Wheel -> Hunting -> Pottery (which will finish EOT28). My actual plan was different (getting Pottery earlier and forgo either Wheel or Hunting but in the end both became more important. I simply don't have the food to grow (one 5food tile that is shared by two cities, thats it). My next research target is not certain. Pretty certain it will be AH though. After that Writing -> Maths -> IW -> Sailing -> Calendar maybe. There are so many Calendar-resources and so much jungle, that you are basically forced to get that asap.

Further cities: I had hoped someone would point out that my city-markers invalidate themselves in the southeast, so that I than could have told you my plan. Oh well. Right now the following spots are planned:

a) on the copper: This will only be settled if it will yield a 2 hammer-plant. I think it would, but I am not sure. Someone knows? Anyhow, with 2 FP-cottages + Corn it should grow quickly, getting whipped continously. Not sure I like that city but I need copper and none of the possible settling-locations have me jump in joy. I probably will wait till city 5 before I settle it though.

b) 1E of the desert hill within the FP: My commerce city. I'd rather settle it on the desert hill, but that would invalidate the copper plant. I would get copper in my borders with a Terrace though, so in theory I can forgo the whole copper city. Thing is, Seven is to my west. I'd rather not have copper on the outskirts of my border, easily pillageable for him. Unfortunately, this has to be my next city, otherwise I'll crash and burn my economy for good. So I can't ponder too long about this decision. Lets look at the differences

Wet Grass Corn -> Coast
Desert Copper -> Lake
Plains -> Plains
Grassland -> PH Sheep
Plains -> Grassland

1 the desert hill is clearly better. 2 I'm indifferent about, I don't want to work either of those tiles. 3 is the same. 4 the plains-plant is theoretically better, but again, I'll probably don't work either tile. 5 the plains-plant is better.

In the end, I don't think it makes much difference. I intend that city to produce a Granary, Library and work cottages. Thats it. So I'll probably do the plains-plant in order to keep the desert-copper-plant.

c) Gems-city: Gems are currently jungled, but that city would still be strong. Cow + PH-plant would already yield 10fh for a settler and 9 for a worker. Add the PH for 14fh settler, 12fh worker. 2 GH-Mines added for a total of 4 pop producing 21fh for a settler, 17fh for a worker. Add a 5th pop for 22fh and you have 3-turn settlers. Probably my next or second to next city.

d) Up in the north east, near the Banana-city has to be some food. I'll send my Quechua up there soon. It is kinda akward though, because I seem to have only a small 12-tile stretch horizontally for myself and then it already becomes the land of somone else. But north and south seem to be mine alone (at least thats the only explanation I came up with for this map 5 players, each having 12 tiles horizontally (giving 60 total) and 32 vertically. Lets just hope I don't have mackoti as my eastern neighbour...

e) The city in the northwest, on the jungle next to the cow. Cow is still a superb tile and it could share the (dry) rice. Also an Oasis available. Seems like a good spot to build a city.

Haven't thought much further than that. For example, I feel it might make sense to "waste" 10 hammers on a scout, just to get more information about the land more quickly. I'm not sure when I can shuffle that build in though. And I need some troops as well.

Wonders: I don't plan to build any, anytime soon. See my post from 30th December, explaining my feelings for most of them. That hasn't changed since.

[pindicator]

where are you building the other 3 cities? and why have you turned off the research bar for the pic? I'm curious of your research path, and if you plan to build any wonders, or just pure rex.

I can't tell either. He's appeared to run out of calendar resources to settle on

[Bigger]

you might want to world build test settling on the chopper. Im not sure desert copper will give you an extra hammer (may need to be plains copper).