[SPOILERS] Dark Savant leads the noble Inca as half-noble Churchiill

[Dark Savant]

Turn 105 (250 BC) - Part 3

Oh, and demographics and graphs.  I'm still running low food (running 4 scientists still, and short on happiness).







is putting all 4 EP into me, so I'm having to defend my own graphs against him.

[Dark Savant]

My currently having Open Borders with WilliamLP doesn't mean that relationship is going to last.

He's a serious threat, of course -- he's already got a decent chunk of land that by all rights should be Charriu's.  WilliamLP is also reaping the advantage that comes from playing hardcore farmer's gambit and no one calling him on it.

I'm wondering how to take and hold Charriu's capital before WilliamLP gets to it.  Well, we'll see what happens after I play the current turn.

I also don't know if Charriu will really try to defend it that hard.  He's not whipping as hard as he probably should.

[Dark Savant]

Lurker question:

I'm considering taking action to slant the odds of where the Jewish holy city spawns.

I know holy cities prefer first of all to spawn in a city without a religion to begin with.  After that, it prefers not to spawn in your capital.  After that, I think it prefers the largest cities.

By how much is that the case?  I'd prefer to get the holy city into Highgarden rather than Casterly Rock (currently slated for Heroic Epic) or Winterfell (currently slated for National Epic) if possible (all of King's Landing, Oldtown, and Castle Black already have other religions), but that won't be practical if the difference isn't large.

If no one knows offhand, I can check this either inductively or deductively (both if I have time) before I play my turn this evening.

[Zargon]

I found the actual code via google:

Code:

for (pLoopCity = firstCity(&iLoop); pLoopCity != NULL; pLoopCity = nextCity(&iLoop))
{
    if (!bStarting || !(pLoopCity->isHolyCity()))
    {
        iValue = 10;
        iValue += pLoopCity->getPopulation();
        iValue += GC.getGameINLINE().getSorenRandNum(GC.getDefineINT("FOUND_RELIGION_CITY_RAND"), "Found Religion");

        iValue /= (pLoopCity->getReligionCount() + 1);

        if (pLoopCity->isCapital())
        {
            iValue /= 8;
        }

        iValue = std::max(1, iValue);

        if (iValue > iBestValue)
        {
            iBestValue = iValue;
            pBestCity = pLoopCity;
        }
    }
}

Your interpretation is basically correct.  Every city gets a score of 10 plus size plus a random number from 0 to 9.  Divide by 8 for the capital, divide by number of existing religions plus one, then the highest score wins.  It also looks like in the case of ties, older cities are preferred unless that iterator is doing something weird.

[Dark Savant]

I found the actual code via google:

[...]

Your interpretation is basically correct.  Every city gets a score of 10 plus size plus a random number from 0 to 9.  Divide by 8 for the capital, divide by number of existing religions plus one, then the highest score wins.  It also looks like in the case of ties, older cities are preferred unless that iterator is doing something weird.

Ooh, thank you!  I hadn't realized it was that likely for a holy city spawn to appear in a city with religion when you have cities without.

So if the difference is only 1 per pop point on top of a base of 1d10 (in this case, it's 100% impossible for a holy city to appear in my three cities with religions), it's absolutely not worth it to whip multiple pop points just to try to make Highgarden the largest city without religion.

I had thought the difference was larger than that.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 106 (225 BC) - Part 1

Let's see if nine axes are enough.

• Axe attacks C2 Shock axe at ~1% odds, inflicts 1 hit/15 damage before dying
  
• Axe attacks C2 axe at ~11% odds, inflicts 3 hits/48 damage before dying
  
• Axe attacks 85% C2 Shock axe at ~11% odds, wins!
  
  
• Axe attacks C2 spear at ~68% odds, wins
  
• Axe attacks 52% C2 axe at ~89% odds, inflicts 2 hits/38 damage before dying
  
• Axe attacks C1 spear at ~89% odds, inflits 4 hits/92 damage before dying
  
• Clean up badly injured units
  

That's one unlikely win, two unlikely losses; oh well.



The plunder cash will be enough to 1-turn Monotheism, and hopefully Judaism.

Is there any counter-attack imminent?



Nope!

I advance a few units past the city, to see if I can cause trouble at the city beyond it.  The nearer city visible in the screenshot has an axe and a spear on a hill, which is a bit much at the moment.

I also have the option of extorting cash from Charriu for 10 turns of peace.  I'll wait one turn before trying that.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 106 (225 BC) - Part 2

Losing four axes was enough to drop me from 1st to 4th in soldiers.  It's crowded at the top ranks in many categories.

I have five axes left on Charriu's front.  That probably won't be enough to take Charriu's capital of Academia.

yuris125 accepted the (Silver + Sheep) for Gems deal, so now cities near the cap are set to grow.  It shouldn't be too long before I can hook up whales, one way or the other.

I spawned a Great Scientist this turn in Castle Black.  (Andrei Sakharov?  He has much more to do politics and pacifism than science, really.)  Sakharov will found an Academy in King's Landing next turn.  Winterfell will continue running scientists towards 200 GPP.

Plunder cash being used to get Monotheism in 1 turn.  The Jewish holy city will probably appear in either Casterly Rock or Winterfell.

is still busy; this turn he planted another city (an exploring galley of mine saw this) and whipped three times. 

No sign of anyone else declaring war on Charriu.  WilliamLP's peace treaty with him will expire in 5 turns.

I'm wondering why JR4 still has yet to declare war on Charriu.    JR4 is now #1 in power; what is he actually going to use it for if not for invading Charriu?

[Dark Savant]

Turn 107 (200 BC) - Part 1

Charriu's city of Pandidakterion now has 2 axes and a spear.



It is on a hill, and also might get 20% cultural defense before I can get there; that's a little too much to crack at the moment.  I'm going to push forces north towards Nalanda while some axes recover health.  



Nalanda currently has one spear, so I couldn't just capture it this turn.  It also just whipped, so I expect an axe to appear, and it also shouldn't auto-raze.

I currently have an axe, two chariots, and an archer next to the city, and those two axes on the road should join them next turn, which should be enough to capture Nalanda.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 107 (200 BC) - Part 2

Monotheism comes in, and I now have the Jewish holy city, in Winterfell.  That's pretty decent for a commerce-city long-term; if the game goes long on enough I can put the National Epic and Wall Street there.  Next up for research is Meditation, due in 1 at a slight deficit, which I can manage without contortions after Andrei Sakharov founds an Academy in King's Landing.

Heh, I'm going to end up researching Polytheism, Monotheism, Meditation, and Priesthood all in a row, and all in 1 turn each.

Winterfell is going to be very busy on domestic builds:

• work boat (yeah, one of its seafood is still unboated!)
  
• Jewish monastery (not as unrealistic as claimed; for comparison, monasticism is outright haraam in Islam, which I've never seen mentioned in discussions about Civ 4 "realism")
  
• Jewish temple
  
• 1-2 Jewish missionaries (also not as unrealistic as claimed -- it's strange, yeah, but it's low on the strange scale compared to so many other things in Civ)
  
• lighthouse (yeah, Winterfell doesn't have that for its 3 seafood; quite a few other cities now have lighthouses -- but not Winterfell, which was overflowing with food for a long time, constrained by the happiness cap)
  

JR4 built the Great Wall.



I'm actually considering taking a flyer on the Temple of Artemis just because I can.  The Great Wall wasn't worth considering since I don't have Stone, but I just connected Marble.

After I get Meditation and Priesthood, I'll probably next research Iron Working:

• Charriu has two random Iron resources in the middle of nowhere near the two cities I'm considering capturing next.  Maybe I can get significantly better production if there's as much Iron available as that suggests.
  
• If I get Iron Working soon, I get the KTB from Charriu's knowledge of it.  If I wait too long, he's dead and that bonus no longer exists.  
  
• It'll actually be quick to research -- probably 3 turns, 4 at most.  That was much faster than I was anticipating.  Yay, Currency!
  
• I can offer a Peace Treaty with Charriu (encouraging him to shift defenses towards JR4 and WilliamLP, if nothing else) and produce swords for the next round of war.  The age of axes as a primary military unit is now over; I need better units of some kind and the peace treaty will also give me some time to build and move them.  I don't think Horseback Riding will accomplish much for its cost (though I do need to start thinking about defense against horse archers).
  

I will actually probably slow down production of the next Great Person for a Golden Age.  I'll want Monarchy and maybe even Civil Service before I do that.  I'm still wondering if Civil Service and Bureaucracy are a good pay off.  I'm RtR-Charismatic, so I don't want Vassalage nearly as badly as usual in MP, and I did just build an Academy.  I'm mostly wavering because Civil Service is so expensive to research.

Here's my current core:

[Dark Savant]

Turn 107 (200 BC) - Part 3

I have a settler in production in King's Landing.  No other settlers in production at the moment.

The original plan was to send this settler to the plains hill 2N, 3W of Winterfell.  That also lets me start whaling boats immediately.  The problem with that site is that it denies me a good plant site in the zone between it, King's Landing, and White Harbor.

So the new plan is to plant that settler 3N, 2W of Winterfell, which I feel is stronger for long-term dotmapping -- but for the problem that I can't get whaling boats quickly.  I don't particularly want to wait for a terrace and border expansion, either.

So I'm now thinking of sending this settler 3S, 1E of Highgarden.  This site is not great other than for claiming a source of whales, but I currently want the luxury more than anything else.

I will still have 4 strong unclaimed city sites in my backlines (two north of King's Landing, one southwest of it, and one north of The Eyrie).  I was busy planting cities on frontiers and on potentially contested islands, and building military to claim cities from Charriu, and also holding off on planting cities because I can't afford them.  But now I can finally think about expanding.