[Cornflakes] 57 Christmas Treats That Will Make You Hungry

[Thoth]

[Cornflakes]

T31: T32: The turn after the calendar leaped forward.

   

I settled city #6 Pinnekjott. I have the most cities in the known world. I haven't been recording score increases from PBSpy but OH settled another city this turn which must bring him to at least 6 if not 7. In the cloud-level view above you can see HO and Pindicator culture peaking out of the fog. I have 1 wide land border towards Gavagai to my N/NE, 2 chokepoint borders towards TBS in the SW and Pindicator/OH in the west, and one coastal border with OH in the E/SE.

Given these choke points, I expect that the game will have relatively stable land borders and will be won/lost at sea with a galleon strike. As AGG/America I have an advantage since I can build amphibious swords with just an Armory (Barracks replacement). I am already pondering the long-term path towards Astronomy. My Philosophical rivals have an advantage in bulbing to Astro. I have the option as well, but at greater GPP opportunity cost.

   

The newest city Pinnekjott was settler this turn in that cluster of resources. Expenses rose to -19 from -15 (up from -11 a couple turns ago before founding Mincemeat Pie). Breakeven research is still about 60%, for 30 bpt which is enough to comfortably achieve the 13-turn MC research target. I therefore did another pass on the microplan to tighten things up. The only way I found to accelerate Oracle was to chop earlier. I already had the one chop ready to bring the build down by 1turn. I couldn't find the worker turns in the existing plan to bring another chop forward, so the new worker from Dominostein will be whipped T34 and will chop a forest before proceeding with other duties. I'm down to 11 turns on the construction, and I believe I will be able to squeeze out the required tech between additional commerce from:
- Connecting the newest 2 cities to the trade network (2c/each)
- Growth onto riverside tiles at a few cities (3c total)
- Pastures on sheep and horses (2c total)

If necessary I can do some poor-man's wealth builds by working FIN coast for a turn or two instead of a food resource or two. Completion time now projected as EOT42 (including the lost turn where the calendar advanced). I don't think I can squeeze out any more improvement. The clock is ticking for TBS if he wants to contest. Ever turn that he doesn't complete a tech is a good turn from my perspective as I bite my nails in anticipate. I'm also nervous about TBS heading straight for Metal Casting and challenging the Colossus build.

I'm taking some risk here gunning hard for a couple early wonders, especially with the quality of land available yet to settle. I have 1 good city and two decent FIN fishing villages in the east, a very nice fishing village in the northwest (BROWN dot). I also have options for a GREEN dot city (or two) in the west. I definitely need to focus on expansion and growth after my wonder construction so as not to fall behind on production and food demos.

   

My production continue to lag behind everyone, but will be doubling over the next 5 turns. Best food should be OH. I don't know where TBS sits in the demos. I met TBS about when I was halfway through unlocking Pindicator's graphs and just started on TBS last turn.

   

[NobleHelium]

How does the map line up with the parameters you set for it, so far?

[Cornflakes]

How does the map line up with the parameters you set for it, so far?

So far I am quite pleased, no complaints! This map actually reminds my a lot of my first PB (PB9) which I liked as well, so it gets bonus points for nostalgia I quite like the fact that we don’t all have access to every luxury resource. I’m pleased with how the border areas turned out. It is nice not having to jam a forward city towards a neighbor immediately in order to claim a resource-filled paradise as in ‘53.

[NobleHelium]

I just noticed the Armory still has the shopping bag icon.

[Cornflakes]

I just noticed the Armory still has the shopping bag icon.

But wait! There's more!

   

The Armory although an ancient era building is a sleek modern structure!

[Cornflakes]

Buddhism was founded this turn, and only Pindicator and TBS researched a tech. It doesn't make sense for Pindicator to research Meditation when he clearly wants to hit Monotheism for his UB. Therefore I'm pegging TBS for the Buddhism founder Just 1 tech from Priesthood I'm still 8 turns away. I think I could even shave the production down by 1 more turn (at the cost of a turn slower for Colossus) but I don't think I can shave a turn off the 8T-MC research time. I'm already scraping together every piece of commerce to hit it ... currently it is a 9-turn tech with my treasury balance, but growth will get it to 8.

[Cornflakes]

   

With the road to Mincemeat completed, I actually achieved just enough commerce to reach Metal Casting at the EOT42 deadline. Commerce will go up a couple over the next 5 turns which should balance out cost increases from growth and ensure that I remain on track. I turned on research early before banking the full amount of gold because I want to save for a turn later on once my commerce-per-turn increases a couple more, in order to run higher slider on the last turn (or alternatively to run breakeven on the last 3 turns).

The road to Mincemeat also granted a trade route to TBS, confirming that he has Sailing in order to trade over the river outside of our territory to the west of Mincemeat. Sailing suggest a run at Great Lighthouse.

   

Most notably, TBS has neither copper nor horses! I put hammers into s spear last turn at Cashew Bars and was going to continue slow-building it while growing, but decided to cancel that build and finish the Armory first. With the 2 new workers I'm at the "free support + 1 handicap" limit so any additional unit will cost support. So far I have only spent 1g for unit supply on one turn where I wasn't paying attention.

He also lacks gold which is a huge commerce tile in addition to happy resource. Maybe I got extra lucky with hitting Gold 2nd ring to my capital while he missed it. I have a couple more food resources, but I also have my road network crossing through pigs and cows while TBS may have improved resources off of his road network.

   

MFG remains low, while GNP leads the world. I think rival 50 is TBS with Buddhism + Stonehenge contributing 18 culture (compared to Hinduism + 2 Armories contributing 7 culture for me). Subtract rival best and worst and the remaining 2 rivals average 39/each.

One stat that jumps out as odd is my land area. I have 11 more tiles of land area than next-best. Subtract rival best and worst and the remaining 2 rivals have 50/each compared to my 69! That's 19 more tiles, even though one of my cities is a 1-tile island! Counting up tiles from my 2 Armory/Hinduism border pops I'm getting 15 tiles, so that actually makes sense. Three of my cities are completely landlocked, and my capital just has a couple 2nd ring land tiles. This also suggests that OH (who I believe has at least as many cities as me) must have settled on an island already in order to be so far behind in land area.

[Cornflakes]

Screenshot of the day:

   

Pindicator's culture graph has a discontinuity corresponding to the founding of Buddhism a couple turns ago. This brings slight relief in the pressure that I was feeling from TBS to compete for Oracle with an IND civ. The only concern now is that TBS researched Polytheism after I did and masked a run at Oracle, or at worst lost a coinflip to me TBS also researched a tech T29 the same turn I founded Hinduism, while we were still in simultaneous mode. Still 6 turns of suspense!

[Cornflakes]

Screenhot of the day:

   

Commerce will easily meet the T42 target for MC. By working extra coast tiles for 2-3 I would have been able to just barely scrape together enough commerce to shave off a turn down to T41. Oracle will complete with the chop of 2 forests (W and N of the city) on T42. I'll save gold next turn T40, then research on T41 and 42. Will this be in time??? Hopefully!

Bonus screenshots of the day:

   

   

I got graphs on TBS so we can deduce where OH is in all of the demos. I haven't done a detailed look, but it appears that OH is #1 production, and I think #1 food too? I think it's close between OH and Pindicator or #1 food.