[SPOILERS] Pindicator promises brighter days ahead

[pindicator]

Turn 055



Lim Hyo-Jin won South Korea's first gold medal of the winter games, taking gold in the 1500m short track for speed skating. Hopefully he has another performance in store for when his namesake city gets up and running... Hoping to get my early military out of this city, as it will have plenty of production and not a lot of food, at least initially.

Fallen to the middle of the pack on demos, but I'm just hitting my push now. We'll see just how half-baked this plan was.

Commodore has a woodsman2 warrior. Need to watch my borders for that guy doing sneaky stuff.

[pindicator]

Turn 060


Christine Kalla, by the way, won the 15km Skiathlon for Sweden. Apparently my list isn't exactly in order, because the little bit I'm reading about her now is stating that she was the first gold medal winner of the 2018 winter Olympics.



I think I've forgotten how to play Civ 4. Turn 60 and I'm just getting my 4th city down? This doesn't feel right at all. Demos are reflecting this, fueling my angst. In addition, I have no plan right now. I'm expanding ... and may be CKN rush? That doesn't feel right, that feels slow.

Chopped into a barracks. Was considering putting it into a library, but I want to build some more warriors and if I'm going to get units then adding in the barracks makes sense. Probably will mine that plains hill, get a cottage going, try to grow that 2nd city a bit now that it has the granary down. I probably need another worker here, but there will be time to bring one over, as I'm going to be whipping at Hyo-Jun after it's chop and i don't think it will be working more than 2 tiles for a little while still. That city still needs a barracks and a fishing boat before it can really grow.

[pindicator]

Turn 065

Iron Working came in last turn, and I have plenty of sources nearby.



Originally I had wanted to settle on the desert hill, and claim this additional iron in the desert. But I think this is extending a little too far so I instead brought my settler and warrior to the jungle hill. I will miss out on the iron, and the 2nd ring sheep to the south will be harder to connect. However, I do grab the silk with this city instead. And this is a better defensive location. The desert hill was vulnerable to 2-movers coming out of Gavagai's lands, and this city will have a mountain on the diagonal to prevent that move. Commodore will not be able to one move from his diagonal side as easily as the lake is in the way.

Notice that everyone is looking to push down here at about the same time. Commodore has his Woods2 warrior in this area, likely to keep it claimed as his. I honestly don't care about this spot. Okay, that's not the right way of putting it. Rather, I am ceding the area here in the hopes that it makes it less likely Gavagai and Commodore look towards me for conflict and more likely that they look towards each other. The other reason is I've decided to push my expansion in the opposite direction.



The choice for early Iron Working was not just for the gems alone. I'm going to try to grab this land before TBS thinks to encroach here much, and so after my current settler in the capital finishes I'm going to push several more out of the capital and Lundby to start grabbing good locations. Especially the stone, that is a priority. There could be also some more land farther north, but I don't yet have the units to push out that way. Fishing should change that, as I will try to get several work boats out to scout.

I whipped Kalla this turn and then immediately regretted it. I think that the optimal whip there was next turn, since there's absolutely no food in the box right now.

There was also a barbarian warrior that showed at Lundby, and I killed him with my shock warrior I had just completed with Lundby's barracks - my first. Hyu-Jin is building my second, which will let that city grow with a border pop. Also, that's my best production spot outside of the capital; that will be a unit pump early and probably a navy pump later.



Demos are all middle of the pack. I think my score is a little deflated right now because I spent so much time going for Iron Working, and so I may look a little weaker than I actually am if people are using score to judge my progress. I'll be grabbing a few cheaper techs -- Fishing, Archery -- but the religious ones I'll be skipping for some time.

Still not sure about a plan for when to hit a neighbor. I'm not exactly surrounded by easy targets, which is another reason I'm pushing for the jungle belt: it actually is the easiest land for me to grab. Hopefully there's something over the ocean, it would be nice to have a second avenue to pursue after.

[pindicator]

Turn 066



Laura Dahlmeier is a bad-ass. She was the first person ever to win both the Biathlon sprint and Biathlon pursuit races. And don't ask me what the difference between the two, because I'm just going to run with the fact that this sounds like something a bad-ass would do. And I need a bad-ass to lead a city that's going to be at the focal point for my southern defense.

[pindicator]

Turn 068



Spent 2 turns diverting at the capital for a chariot. With Commodore being a D towards me and not his other neighbors (go figure) I need to have something to cover workers on my borders.

[pindicator]

Turn 070



TBS spies my borders up north. Down south Commodore was just happy enough to bother me for one turn and then retreated.

I'm sending my next settler to claim the stone. Archer and a pair of warriors will escort. Plan is to go Math -> Masonry -> Metal Casting and then go for a Great Engineer as my first great person. Along the way I'll try to land Hanging Gardens.

Copper was hooked up this turn, so that warrior will swap to a spear.

I'm even in cities with all my neighbors except TBS - he has 7 to our 5

[pindicator]

Turn 071

Complications...



After taking this screenshot I realize that I've alerted TBS to know something is afoot because I have both warriors on the same tile. Better would have been to hold one back on top of the settler/worker stack and then he wouldn't be tipped off that I was about to come forward with civilian units in this area. Silly mistake.

I had to shuffle my chariot west to account for the barb axe. My original plan here was to start a settler straight away at Lundby, but now I think we need to build some more units and grow. With the gems hooked up that city can reach size 6 with whip anger, so it makes sense to grow into it. And we could use the units.

Also, Gavagai's power and mfg are both going up. We have the #4 mfg in the game; his is higher. I'm slightly concerned but am keeping a warrior poking around his borders

Finally, my work boat finished at Hyo-Jun. The borders don't pop for 6 more turns, so we'll build an archer and then another work boat and that 2nd work boat will hook up the fish. Then that city just pumps out military.

[pindicator]

Turn 075



Sven Kramer, our 2nd Dutch Olympian, gets a city named after him for his gold in the 5,000m speed skating. That was his third gold medal in a row for the 5,000m and he's the only person in history to do that. In addition he set a world record with his time.

As for S. Kramer the city, I could have picked better overall city locations, but this was the only good location that was not a crazy stretch -- here we are 4 tiles away from Kalla and I'd rather not go farther than that -- and also did not put the stone 2nd ring. I do not want cultural TBS to be able to plant a city right up in my face and steal the stone away. I don't think TBS has any immediate plans for this area, but if I'm going to build Hanging Gardens (I am going to try) then we need to settle with that in mind. There's a lot of jungle up here to chop, so the two workers in the screenshot will likely stay up here for some time.



A little bit of a priority change, as now instead of pushing into the jungled area I'm going to build a galley and try to settle this island ahead of Gavagai. I'm sure that will not go well with our southern neighbor, but at least getting my share of that island is a good policy for getting +2 commerce trade routes coming in. As such I'm going to try to get my next 2 settlers out that way. Well, I just whipped the capital for a settler which is going to grab the gems on my east coast, but the next 2 after that.

Oh yeah, I whipped the capital! We are finally switching off of the mass settler push from here after doing 5 in a row and now we'll use the overflow to get onto a granary, grow up to size 8, and then probably go right back to workers and builders. Actually it will likely be time for Hanging Gardens by then. But we have other cities growing up to be good settler pumps: Lundby is already working on one to head to the eastern island, and Kalla will be adding one or two more. Actually, I am going to need more workers so Kalla will probably get worker duty. But Kalla is going to be a fantastic city when it's borders pop in 9 more turns - I just whipped the barracks there last turn.

Gavagai is nosing around with an archer, but I'll have my own archers in border cities for when the new settler is done. I'll try to get a couple axes out of Hyo-Jun, although I may just stick to archers for the island cities. There's probably 4 more cities I want to grab right now, so if we can stay unmolested we'll try to do all that before turn 90.



Demos look really nice, all things considered.

[pindicator]

Turn 076

Since there's I'm going to need a substitute for turn 77, I'm just going to post what needs to happen along with some pictures of the empire. I'll list things out city-by-city, but there are some worker operations that don't really tie to a specific city.



Achtereekte
City is set, just grow on the granary and then in a few turns I get to decide if I build a library or a unit. But the goal is to get the capital to size 8 and to start working some cottages.
Workers W of city: 1 worker finishes the cottage on the tile they're on now. The other worker moves E-SE-NE-N (6-3-9-8 on keypad) to the bare grass hill, so it can start mining that hill for Hyo-Jun.

Dahlmeier
Whip the barracks right away, I want culture started. After that I'm building an axe here, in case more turns are needed.
Archer goes in the city.
Workers N of city: 1 worker stays and finishes the cottage. The other moves NW-NE (7-9 ) and then puts 1 chop into that forest; its heading to cottage that flood plains for the capital.

Lundby
Every time I look at this city I think it's working tons of unimproved tiles. But it's only working that 1 plains forest, and we're going to whip that settler as soon as the settler gets to be a 1-pop whip. So everything's good here, I guess.

Chariot stays put unless something comes up that needs it's attention.




Hyo-Jun
Borders will pop next turn and the work boat that just finished is already in position to hook up the Fish. And the city grows to 4. I like to say I planned it to do exactly this, but I didn't micro anything. It's been a bit of a relief not doing micro for everything actually...
After the archer finishes, Sailing will be done, and then this city will build a galley. Then archer + settler out of Lundby are headed to the east island. Going to be bold here and just grab the one centrally best spot on that island, SW of the horses. It's a little vulnerable to Gavagai, but it blocks him from founding anything on the island himself.

Settler highlighted
Found city on the marked hill. I've just been taking names from an arbitrary list of gold medal winners (see front page), but if you have a person you want to highlight from your country or anywhere really then go for it.
Accompanying archer moves in to garrison the city.
We have a builder who's been laying road / wasting worker turns on the city tile right now; have him mine the gems for the new city to work. Maybe I should be chopping this out because we can't really grow until we get that clams in 2nd ring but then we're working crap tiles for 10 turns anyway so just mine the gems.
New city starts on a barracks.

Work boat in the east keeps scouting along the coast.




Kramer
Workers will finish the quarry, but we're not going to build a road to hook up the stone yet. I dont' want to clue in other teams aside from TBS that I have stone until I actually want to use it, so they're just going to go straight to the pigs after.
Warrior north of the city will move to the hill to the NW (6) but then head back. I need to bring this guy back for MP duty to Kalla or somewhere similar.

Kalla
Kalla finishes it's spear this turn. If that spear is not needed anywhere else (or in Kalla for MP duty) then send it south to Dahlmeier.
Next build in Kalla will be a settler. I might regret this, as it makes worker turns become a little tight, but I think I can squeeze stuff out as there are a number of cities (Kalla, Achtereekte, Lundby) that really don't need worker turns for the near future). We're about to be 7 cities for 7 workers, so like I said: I might regret this.

There's also a warrior way to the north that's been scouting ahead. Let's keep moving north up the coast.


I think that covers it? Tech will be Math after Sailing. That should get us through the next 2 turns at least.

[pindicator]

Turn 077

Turn rolled in the hour before it was time for bed, so we get to do it all over again



Redmond "Red" Gerard had the distinction of being the first US Olympian to get a gold medal at Pyeongchang. He won the snowboard slopestyle, which to me I can't understand why they had to make about fifteen different variations of the same sport and then give medals for each, but I'm sure each comes with it's own technical merits. I apologize to any slopestyle fans, I've had an extra glass of wine with dinner tonight. Hopefully that didn't impact my playing...

As for what Gerard does, that is easy: worker continues the gem mine, city stays the course.

Dahlmeier whipped the barracks and will regrow in 2. Next turn that city should start an ax.

Achtereekte needs nothing special next turn. The workers will finish that flood plain cottage next turn (I moved the worker on the grass cottage after the screenshot was taken).




Lundby should get above 70 hammers next turn so it's whipping time. Also, the city loses it's whip anger at end of turn, so once again I'll take credit for planning that even though I didn't. As I mentioned last post this settler is heading east to Hyo-Jun.

Hyo-Jun finishes the archer end of turn, and then starts a galley next turn. 4 turns to complete, so the settler will have a turn sitting around. Archer at Hyo-Jun should sit tight. Worker at Hyo-Jun should mine the hill I moved it to.

Kalla will keep doing Kalla things.

The workers at Kramer should both go to the pigs at end of turn. Pasturing and chopping jungle come next for them; no need to hook up the stone yet. I think that warrior can go up to the gem hill next turn, though I really shouldn't go farther than that.




And then we found another neighbor! Let's keep this warrior moving north a little more, at least to see where the next borders appear up here. There's also another island up north; maybe we can get out there too?

EP switched to Dreylin. He has only 5 cities. All the neighbors around me are at 7 now, just like myself. TBS is still at 7 himself so I expect to see him climb again soon.