[SPOILERS] Pindicator promises brighter days ahead

[Coeurva]

Hi, here's your MapCad-generated sandbox to help you plan your opening. You'll need to have RtR 2.0.8.4 installed. If something doesn't work as it should, let me know. However, I've overheard that you enjoy codebreaking, which is why I've encrypted yours, and only yours, with a Vigenère cipher.

(I didn't.)

[pindicator]

Thanks Coeurva! I was too lazy to do the math on costs this time for the game settings, so I appreciate the sandbox

[pindicator]

Civ 6 does give me an idea for a second list of city names: all the random stuff that gives you era points in that game.

[pindicator]

So it looks like worker -> warrior -> settler is the right opening. Going for slavery and whipping out the first settler doesn't seem right with all this production. Maybe I should have rerolled China and tried harder for a Hunting civ, but eh - I'm happy with this. Not a good early sign for having a killer instinct, I'm afraid!

Tech order feels like Hunting -> BW -> Wheel -> Pottery and chopping + slaving a granary in my capital as I want to get that city up to it's pop cap as soon as I can. For some reason I was thinking Wheel = Granary which shows you how much Civ 4 I've been playing recently. But maybe you just mash out some warriors for defense to start, and hope copper shows up nearby for the first settler.

Capital gets 12 food-hammers at 2, 14 at 3, 16 at 4, etc. So it might make more sense to go for a quick 2nd settler than it would for a quick second worker -- up until I need to improve tiles that is...

[pindicator]

Since growing the capital to 3 after the settler doesn't speed up a 2nd worker any I'm thinking about just going for a worker straight after the settler and then growing on warriors until size 5 before getting more settlers out. I don't think I'll do any whipping here, save maybe to get the granary out right when I get some happiness resources hooked up.

Anyway, next question: what does my first worker do after finishing the second pig pasture? Right now we have worker done eot11, capital grows to 2 eot17, finishes warrior eot18, and finishes settler eot27. Meanwhile the worker finishes first pig pasture on t16, finishes second pasture on t22. So assuming that first worker is going to go along with the first settler we have 5 turns to burn. Now BW also gets done eot22 so if copper shows up we obviously go mine that. And mining a hill in general may be good just for the fastest way to get another 4 foodhammer tile. Wheel doesn't finish until eot 30 so pre-roading is unfortunately out. (This is why I was thinking I should have tried to reroll for a hunting/mining civ, but on second thought I think everyone who got one of those first round held on to them.)

The other thought is to farm one of the flood plains. If our main goal after the settler is to get the capital to 20 foodhammers for 5-turn settlers, that means a size 6 capital - and I can't remember if monarch difficulty lets you grow that high without hooking up a luxury. But if we are going to grow that early then I suspect the farm would get us there better.

I'll have to run the simulations on those this week.

[pindicator]

If copper is at the capital, then we only need to get to size 5 to reach 20 f+h/turn. Monarch difficulty means the capital can grow to size 5, so if there isn't copper then we need to hook up the ivory with Animal Husbandry to reach size 6.

Napkin math has me reaching size 5 at eot40 with farming a flood plains. I'd reach unhappiness and need a luxury at eot43. Animal Husbandry probably gets in at eot39, but might speed up depending on the second city. This would be in time to camp the tile but not to put road down to connect it ...

... unless my first city goes in that direction and worker #1 can take those roading duties. But that doesn't seem like something I can bank on. I think we need to assume worker #1 is tied up with improving the 2nd city.

Would a 3rd worker help? That seems like a good investment before settler spam begins.

Also: no food sharing from the capital with this plan. New cities are going to need that worker help to stand on their own feet quickly.

[pindicator]

Turn 000

Feels good playing a civ game that correctly starts counting at 0 again...




Looks like water to the east - do I scout it out or just follow the river?

t0 Demos show everyone has a similar start, though 1 or 2 people got lakes:  8 opponents have settled with an average of 8.75 tiles per player

[pindicator]

001


I thought of a better naming convention.  In honor of the Olympics we're going to name every city after gold medalists, starting from the first event of gold medal given out to Carlijn Achtereekte of the Netherlands for Speedskating in the women's 3,000m.

Some of these names might be tricky later on, especially the team or doubles competittions.

Also, I found water.

[pindicator]

If someone wants to move my scout while I figure out the technical difficulties, just follow the coast west and north in general, moving faster and uncovering more fogged terrain where possible.

[Cornflakes]

Made the following 2 moves ... 2NW: