[SPOILERS] The Legend Ends - Whosit's Adventure

[Whosit]

So, my faithful, the end of Turn 19 finally brought some answers:



We have copper, and it's in a very nice location. However, due to settlement plans, it won't be connected until around Turn 60. As long as a player doesn't rush me, I don't think that will be a huge issue, though I'm hoping I'll have Horses somewhere as well. The copper will be like an extra mine for Great Bay, making it a real shield factory. I'm estimating that at size 7, it can produce 2-turn axemen or spearmen or galleys, 2-turn Workers, and 3-turn Settlers if it has 1 point of overflow from a previous build.

The bigger issue will be barbarians. In my sims, they haven't been very aggressive for some reason (possibly due to me messing with the terrain?), but I won't have the Great Wall until Turn 55, and it seems unlikely I won't suffer any incursions before then. Hopefully Warriors will suffice.

The upshot is that if I really need Copper, I can settle for it in a hurry, even if it will disrupt my plans.

[Whosit]

The north looks like it will actually be a strong commercial sector. Snowhead can work 3-4 grassland cottages, the furs, the silver, and still run a specialist. Zora's Domain is weaker, but it can eventually work the Silks for some commerce, a few cottages, but it will have a large food surplus (especially with a lighthouse), so it can run several specialists. "Tundra Town," which will probably be Ruto Town, can work 5 cottages, and looks like it can support at least 3 specialists, maybe more if it can borrow the sheep from Great Bay for any amount of time.

Great Bay may also get the plains hill mine from Hyrule Castle, because there are going to be a lot of grasslands to be cottaged and grown into around the capital.

I'm also looking at other wonders. If those are indeed islands to the west, the Great Lighthouse in Great Bay may be attractive. With the cost of the lighthouse factored in, it looks like it could take 8-11 turns to complete, depending on how many hammers the city is pulling at the time and if I get any overflow into the build.

The Hanging Gardens are also attractive to me because I have the Stone, could use the extra health, and will probably have the happy cap to support more citizens in most towns.

The big bottleneck for me is going to be Metal Casting. I really want the ability to build Workshops, and Forges would be nice as well, but it's such an expensive tech. I'm definitely not going to make an Oracle play, and even though my expansion and growth will be slowed by the Pyramids, I anticipate needing Currency to sustain expansion after that. Great Bay will likely serve as a Settler pump for the remaining northern cities and anything offshore, while other towns will produce settlers and Workers for me to expand to the south (I'll need Iron Working). I'm definitely looking to get a Library in Kakariko and Hyrule Castle post-Pyramids. Snowhead and the northern cities will want Libraries for specialist purposes. The upshot of getting the Pyramids is that I'll probably actually get some use out of the Republic. And having Monotheism will be nice because I also plan to swap into Organized Religions so I can build Missionaries without Monasteries and get the production bonus.

In fact, if I get Judaism spread to Great Bay, then the cost of the Great Lighthouse project goes down. If Great Bay is large enough, it can get the whole thing done in 7 turns. Great Bay may also be the place to build the Hanging Gardens, although I'd rather build it elsewhere if I'm able to. Not really sure where, though. I doubt Gerudo Fortress will have anywhere near the infrastructure needed at that point. However, Hanging Gardens are not a big target of mine. Just something nice to get if it's still available when I get Maths.

[Whosit]

The save got passed to me just now, but of course I went and tried out another plan where Great Bay gets settled first, and at first glance it appears to be a bit stronger than my current plan.

Current plan:
Kakariko founded t26 - 2 workers
Gerudo Fortress founded t36 - 2 workers
Great Bay founded t50 -5 workers
Pyramids EoT 52
Great Wall EoT 55
Snowhead founded T58

New plan:
Great Bay founded T27
Kakariko founded T34
T46 have 5 workers
Pyramids EoT 50
Gerudo Fortress founded t51
Great Wall EoT 53
Snowhead founded T58 - 6 workers

Very rough, like my notes. In the second plan, copper doesn't get connected until T60 (it gets mined much earlier, so there's the possibility of connecting it earlier if needed). Considering that I get the Wonders earlier, and get another Worker out of it, this may be the way to go. I just need to compare the plans in more detail, so I'm going to hold the save for a bit. Shouldn't be a big deal.

Also, this second plan gives me a bigger city. Great Bay is size 6 about to be size 7 on T58, while in both plans Hyrule Castle and Kakariko are stuck at or under size 5 the whole time, mostly because each gets stuck with a single +5 food source. Also, in the second plan, I've been a bit more coherent about throwing down the cottages after the Wonders are done, and getting max hammers per turn at Great Bay seems much more feasible.

Maybe I'll stop changing my mind eventually, but on the other hand, I suppose it's good that I'm finding something else. The one downside is that Monotheism gets delayed 4 turns, from EoT 42 to EoT 46, but I'm not terribly worried about losing Judaism, and if I do, I'll just truck on.

[Whosit]

I decided to change my plans to go for Great Bay first. It looks like a stronger path overall. Hopefully no one else rushes for Judaism, and hopefully the Inca aren't as close to the Gerudo Fortress area as I fear. With luck, my scout will live long enough to discover their location.



Here's the plan, in my scrawled notes:

Great Bay 1st v3.2
T20: BW > Fishing, work plains mine. Hyrule: Worker EoT
Hyrule Castle: Settler
T21: Workers chop 2 forests.
T23: Fishing > Pottery. Both chops finish.
T24: 1 Worker Starts road on plains hill. 1 Worker road grassland.
T25: Hyrule: Settler > Warrior
T26: SLAVERY!! Hyrule: Warrior > Settler. 2 Workers finish road

connection. Settler reaches Great Bay.
T27: Great Bay founded: Work Boat. 1 Worker Farms, 1 Worker Mines.

Pottery EoT.
T28: Animal Husbandry.
T29: Copper mine finish.
T30: Wheat Farm finish. Copper worker RUN to road to Kakariko.
T31: Second worker RUN to road.
T32: Whip Work Boat in Great Bay (max+ overflow) > Granary. Settler

EoT.
T33: AH > Masonry. Hyrule: Settler > Worker. Great Bay: Work Boat >

Granary. Workers road to Kakariko: Granary, take Sheep. Chop forest 1W

into Granary.
T36: Masonry > Polytheism. 1 Worker Camp Ivory. 1 Worker 2E, 1T road.

Great Bay work Wheat + Copper.
T37: Hyrule: Worker > Granary. 3rd Worker Mine hill. 2nd Worker quarry

Stone.
T38: Great Bay: Granary > Warrior, Work Wheat, Clam. Turn on Science.
T39: Ivory Worker finish road E Kakariko.
T40: 2 Workers on Stone. Great Bay: Warrior > Warrior
T41: Great Bay: Warrior > Worker. Hyrule: Whip Granary after road Stone

> Pyramids.
T42: Poly > Mono. Pyramids 0/335 + 70 (overflow + chop + work mine).

Assign all forests to Hyrule. Move Stone Workers to forests N + S.
T43: Move hill worker to other hill. Start chops. Great Bay: Whip

Worker > Worker. Kakariko: Granary > Settler* *Granary not used, maybe

sub for some other build. Settler 6 turns, due EoT 49.

ALT**use this**combine with previous turns.
T40: Whip Kakariko.
T41: Kakariko: Warrior, work Ivory.
T42: Kakariko: Work Stone to grow, warrior in 2 turns.
T43: Move hill worker to other hill. Start chops. Great Bay: Whip

Worker > Worker. Turn on Science. 2 Warriors hold Gerudo spot.
T44: Kakariko: Warrior > Settler (6 turns). 2 pre-chops complete. New

Worker head to NW forests, 1t road on plains. Workers: 4; Warriors: 6
T45: Start 3 new pre-chops.
T46: Pre-chops done. Great Bay: Worker > Work Boat. New Worker to

pasture Sheep.
T47: Monotheism > Sailing/Writing? South choping worker move E Kak to

road. 1 Worker 1T road sheep Hyrule.
T48: Kak Worker 1t Cottage. Sheep Worker finish road. Great Bay EoT

Work Boat > Worker.
T50: Great Bay: Whip Worker > Worker. Kakariko: Settler > Worker. EoT

Pyramids (with some tile fiddling).
T51: Gerudo Fortress founded: Warrior?.
EoT53 Great Wall, 8 Workers (T54).

---other stuff to iron out---

T57: Revolt.
Snowhead founded T59, 8 Workers, 6 Warriors, 1 Axeman, 1 Spearman
T59: Missionary in Great Bay.

[Whosit]

The city of Hyrule Castle has grown slowly but steadily over the years. Now holding 21000 souls, and having trained two teams of skilled workers to improve the lands, the Hylian Chief Whosikhan has determined it is time to expand the reach of the Hylian people. Meanwhile, Farore's Wind has completed their trek back through the tribe's territory and are ready to discover more things for the glory of Hyrule.

Those bears up north have been prowling around for many turns, and I was worried my scout might fun into them. Fortunately, they showed up there again, so I don't think they'll catch Farore's Wind. Crossing my fingers that my scout will live long enough to find the Inca.

No one has a second city yet, but it can't be long now. I've managed to stay top in score, mostly due to extra land tiles. Schedule says Great Bay will be founded on turn 27, so now it's just a matter of waiting. Fortunately, the turns have been coming 2 a day for the most part, so it shouldn't be a long wait.

[Whosit]

God damn it. There were two bears. Stuff like this tempts me to cheat and reload and move the scout elsewhere, but alas, he'll have to take his chances. There's a small possibility that he'll survive, but not much. Our units also get a +20% against animals at this level. How do all these bonuses get factored in? The scouts +100% vs. animals, the forest defense of +50%, and the difficult +20%? It's not added to the scouts power, right? Isn't it subtracted somehow from the bear? I never really got a handle on these.

Hm, no, just did a world builder test and the combat log lists it in the more logical way: Bear 3 vs Scout 2.7, 68.7% odds in favor of the bear. Scout actually survived in the test, not that it means anything for the actual game. At least I can have a little hope, but I'm fully expecting to lose that scout. Which is horrible because my world knowledge is not nearly as good as I want it to be. I probably can't spare any units to go scouting until I finish the Great Wall! I can send out a couple warriors, but by then, there will probably be Barbarian Axes and such out there. Bleh.

[Whosit]

I found the article on Civ 4 combat. I thought CivFanatics was down, but it looks like it's back. Anyway, good to refresh myself on that, but it doesn't do anything for my poor scout right now.

[Whosit]

Farore's Wind perished at the hands of the Bear. I feel I owe them a little story time segment, but it's hard to keep up motivation for that when I'm basically talking to myself.

Somehow has a 10K power lead on me (and everyone) though. Looking back the last few turns, it was a 4K increase, then a 6K increase about 2 turns later, and it was neither of the players I've met so far (I just got graphs on the French). That could mean someone researched The Wheel, connected Copper, and built an Axeman. If that were the case, it would have to be Yuris. Not sure, though.



Two players revolted to Slavery (neither of the Spiritual players). My guess is that they both finished their Settler last turn, so I am a turn behind on that. It will be interesting to see if my instinct is right and that one of the non-expansive players got a Plains Hill start.

Anyway, nothing to do now but to press on blindly. I won't be able to explore for some time, and I predict that my power is going to rapidly sink to the bottom as I'll only be building Warriors for a long while. I will try to play catchup once the Copper comes online. After that, I will have to seriously consider if a Wonder is worth not building units.

[Whosit]

Little to report, though there appears to be happenings in foreign lands.

Dhalmed and Cylios both founded cities this turn (or last turn? At any rate, it happened between the last save and this one). Dhalmed also got a tech. Looks like I'll get my second city founded 2 turns after the leaders, in that regard. Not terrible. I wonder if I'll be the last to city 2. I might be the first to city 3, though, but we'll see. Haven't seen any sign of any of my neighbors, which is probably good. Will have to keep an eye on power, though. I'm not doing awfully well in the demographics, probably due to the fact that I haven't grown any of my cities in a while, and the capital isn't going to grow much in the near future, either.

[Whosit]

I'm probably going to be the last person with a second city, but that seems typical of me. At least I get a free forest for Great Bay.

Also revolted to Slavery:

In the year 2440 BC, the priests of the Shadow Temple would record the beginning of Hyrule's bloody history of greed and hatred. The Chieftan of Hyrule Castle decreed that all servitor classes must offer up one child, each generation, to serve in labor for the glory of Hyrule. These unlucky many would be destined to shed their sweat and blood laying the bricks of Hyrule's great monuments, and it would be the priests' duty to see that their angry souls found their way to the Goddesses' final reward.

(After the revolt ended, Pottery was 1 turn. Not complaining, and I think that occurred in my tests, but I'm not entirely sure why.)