[SPOILERS] This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land. But Mostly Mine.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Bearing absolutely no resemblance to reality...




...because I would absolutely get murdered by any opponent who was half-asleep at the keyboard with this military, and probably a proper barb or two (non-animal). Despite that, it is possible to get out to 9 cities and get Currency on T80. Without EXP or IMP, I think that's pretty good!

I'm not quite so insane normally to sim this far ahead (T50 is quite far enough), but I was waiting around on Xenu for a while as he putzed around with the PB19 map and this is the result. In case you can't see from the picture, cities found on T0, 30, 45, 47, 66, 75, 77, 79, and 80. T80 should have been in the north where my workers were prepping, but Xenu hurried me along finally and I wasn't paying attention. It would have had bronze to work immediately or a sheep to peel off the capital. Anyway, alternate universe...

A question for lurkers: Who has demonstrated the best (fastest) opening recently in RB Mod and which game? I'm always up for a little reading. I've noticed a bit of difference in speed due to the whipping nerf and I'm interested to see how good four cities by T50 is.

[mackoti]

Bearing absolutely no resemblance to reality...




...because I would absolutely get murdered by any opponent who was half-asleep at the keyboard with this military, and probably a proper barb or two (non-animal). Despite that, it is possible to get out to 9 cities and get Currency on T80. Without EXP or IMP, I think that's pretty good!

I'm not quite so insane normally to sim this far ahead (T50 is quite far enough), but I was waiting around on Xenu for a while as he putzed around with the PB19 map and this is the result. In case you can't see from the picture, cities found on T0, 30, 45, 47, 66, 75, 77, 79, and 80. T80 should have been in the north where my workers were prepping, but Xenu hurried me along finally and I wasn't paying attention. It would have had bronze to work immediately or a sheep to peel off the capital. Anyway, alternate universe...

A question for lurkers: Who has demonstrated the best (fastest) opening recently in RB Mod and which game? I'm always up for a little reading. I've noticed a bit of difference in speed due to the whipping nerf and I'm interested to see how good four cities by T50 is.

4Cities is good but is not about cities doesnt count workers you have number tiles you work , what kind of tiles.I start to like your new dotmap, you cn improve alitli bit(not having the riverside wheat improved till so late is a crime) .

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

In most runs, I've had 4 workers and usually one in production on T50. The good thing is that I can share so many early tiles, except at the western pigs/fish/clams city, so this allows me slightly less worker labor than otherwise. City #2 also gets whipped a bit, so as long as I am able to stagger whips between there and the capital I can live with fewer worker turns. The cottage 1W of their shared wheat is my very first cottage. I do spend a lot of worker turns chopping, and remember having to think very carefully pretty much the whole way about how not to waste worker labor because I was always this close to being behind, or was in fact a tile or two behind overall a turn here or there before a whip, but with so much overlap between cities I was able to tile switch like a madman and usually keep cities growing well and not be at 23/24 food or 98/100h into a settler, for example. But, this is only 7 workers for 9 cities. That was manageable to get to this point, but will not sustain itself any further. I have good buildings now (granary, library) to chop into early, and lots of forests immediately available. Ten workers would make more sense right now to keep the expansion pushing hard. One thing to note here is that despite this high number of cities, my tech rate is still breakeven at 50%. Techs are expensive on this map size, but maintenance is significantly cheaper than I anticipated. So the libraries will continue to be a good build, particularly once I can build wealth.

I agree about the river wheat. One way to address that would be to make the cottage filler south of the capital be city #5 on T67 (or whatever its equivalent is in the real game where I am forced to build more military). I didn't mention specifically (though I named my picture if you hover over it), the capital has a library and an academy, so the extra cottages are awesome there, and the sooner they are developed the better off I'll be. With this tight dot map, every cottage tile in the capital can be shared to a secondary city, though the last one by T80 is quite a long wait for sharing, but by then I won't need to share every tile. Still, this sets up for a very nicely developed cottage capital early in the game and makes city development flexible.

But yeah, if I actually try to do this I'll be dead by T80. As always, thanks for your input.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

T24




My worker completed a chop to finish a second worker and overflow into a settler. The bear wandered another tile to the east, so I chanced moving my worker west another tile to see if maybe I could determine whether the land to my NW is on the same continent. I'm less certain that it is connected than previously after a bit of flying camera snooping, but it is not 100% conclusive. The tile between my curved lines is certainly water, but beyond I don't know. Anyway, I can beat the bear to the GFH where I'll be settling, and I'm enjoying having the bear serve as a line of defense from incoming scouts. I hope he gets to eat soon, as long as it is not my scout. Speaking of my scout, it will move N/NW next turn to the designated tile. Moving this way rather than NW/N will give me a chance to see if the lion is on the hill NW of the wheat. I'll still end up with the same vision in the west from across the bay except the plains forest 3W/1S of the scout's current position, but if something is there and moves north, I'll know it by the time I'm on the PHF on T26. Tedious scouting movement thinking brought to you, again, by Boring Early Turns. You're welcome!

EoT, Agriculture finishes and borders pop to third ring. If I'm SUPER LUCKY, I'll get Animal Husbandry, but really, any tech would be awesome. I'm also hoping for some seafood along that northern coast, but if I don't get any, I'm still quite happy with the land available to me.

In game T23 score changes:

Caledorn Score changed to 57 from 51 (tech from hut, I think his second hut tech).

EoT score changes:

Cheater Hater Score changed to 47 from 46 (pop)
Mardoc Score changed to 62 from 56 (tech)
scooter Score changed to 57 from 51 (tech)
The Black Sword Score changed to 46 from 39 (tech + pop)
MYKI Score changed to 44 from 38 (tech)
dazedroyalty Score changed to 53 from 52 (pop)
Oxyphenbutazone Score changed to 56 from 50 (tech)
Jowy Score changed to 46 from 45 (pop)
Krill Score changed to 50 from 44 (tech)
Farmer Augrufftus Score changed to 52 from 46 (tech)

In game T24 score changes so far:

FinHarry (Vicky/Aztec) in game score changed to 46 from 39 (new city + hut? This would be the first team to a second city.)

Two size 4 cities now. Lurker civ remains size 5.

[mackoti]

Usualy not good to chop that much till you have mathemathics , qand you have plenty resources and riverside grass,and defenitly seven workers are to few, you need more and to get a second city with coatges up.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

I've slacked on turn reports the last couple of days.

T25




After waiting so long for the capital's borders to pop third ring and capture the hut, I was a bit disappointed with the result, 49 gold. I guess I got spoiled after popping a tech last time. However, expanded borders did reveal stone and a whale. This will require some thinking. I know that some teams are going to scramble for stone at nearly any cost, I'm guessing that islands are in short supply, and I know that the sea lanes are quite narrow and will be important to control. There will be serious competition for stone, most likely. But, can I really allow a city to be close to my "backline" area? This would require me to garrison more units than I had anticipated. I'd prefer to be able to just build a wooden wall because they could be offensive or defensive by virtue of serving as a deterrent. I'll have to see how I can work a possible city here into my future plans and what cost that would impose on settling more fruitful, land-grabbing cites elsewhere.

Research is set to Fishing--> Pottery. It will be good to lay down a couple of cottages to give me a good tile to work between whips and I want to get some grown for the capital. Not being FIN, I'll need to work harder to get commerce, so early cottages will help. I won't cottage everything, though, but the capital will be carpeted with cottages. Also, granaries. Not much to say there, gotta have them. I'm still trying to determine the best time to get them in my sandbox runs. Early is always good, but I want to get to four cities and have the most immediate sea lanes and seafood resources firmly established as under my cultural control.

Also, you may have noticed that my warrior is not where I planned for it to be. I think that I accidentally set it to explore while I was doing some flying camera stuff. Anyway, as long as the warrior gets back on time, all is well. And, GOLD! Plains river gold, actually. Very nice. Is it mine? I have no idea, but that looks like a good candidate for city #5, 2S of the clams and gold second ring. This wouldn't stop someone from settling with the gold first ring, but I don't think I can get a good city with food on my side of the water with gold first ring, so this will have to suffice. More exploration is needed, as usual.

Finally, we met Dhalphir. His scout is healing on the GFH in the east of the shot. I'll keep all EPs on Mardoc until we get graphs and then switch. Dhalphir has met someone else, based on EP spending.




I thought this was interesting so I took a picture of how thoroughly the land near my capital is spawn-busted.

T26




Not much new to add from the last turn. My scout continues south, Dhal's scout continues to heal, workers chop, etc.

Here is a micro plan that I've sketched out. It needs improvement, as it does not yield the most efficient run that I have done, but it will help me figure out which one was best. I don't write down micro for every run because that takes way longer than just playing the turns. I honestly don't remember enough about my thinking to describe my aims because this is from several days ago. Anyway, have a look if you want.

Code:

T25 - FISHING (6 + revolt turn)
T26-8 - workers chop
T29 - workers road wheat, settler to GFH. Capital build worker C (5). Revolt.
T30 - settle #2--> warrior (8). Workers farm wheat (2/5). Fishing due EoT.
T31 - farm wheat (4/5). POTTERY (8).
T32 - farm wheat (5/5), B 1W/road1/cancel.
T33 - A 1W/road2, B move SW/S/road1/cancel.
T34 - A move SW/S/road2, B 1S/road1/cancel (cover with warrior from city #2). worker C due EoT.
T35 - Capital -->warrior (3). A road2 (for unit transport flexibility). B farm1/5. C move SW/W/SW/NW to gems.
T36 -  A/B farm3/5, C road1.
T37 - A/B farm 5/5, c road2. Pottery EoT. Capital & City #2 warrior each EoT.
T38 - Begin AH (8). Capital-->worker D (5t), City #2-->granary. A/B move N/N/NW to gems, mine2/4. C move SE/NE cott1/4, cancel.
T39 - A/B mine4/4. C cott2/4. City #2 swap to settler (9), (granary 3/60).
T40 - A/B move SE/NE, cott4/4. C move E/NE/SE to GFH.
T41 - A move NW, B move W, C chop1. Capital swap from ivory to grass cottage.
T42 - A chop1/3, B chop1/3, C chop2/3. Worker D due EoT from capital.
T43 - A/B chop2/3, C road1 (chop remains 2/3, flexibility for defense, etc), D move 1E. Capital-->settler. AH due EoT.
T44 - ARCHERY (3). A/B chops complete [City #2 settler 112/100]. C road2, D chop1.
T45 - A move NW/N (pigs), B move NW (PH), C chop3/3, D chop2/3.
T46 - A road1, B road1, C move NE, road1, D chop3. SETTLER FOUND CITY #3 SW of pigs, build WB. ARCHERY due EoT.
T47 - Begin WRITING (7). A/B road2, C move NE/road1, D move 1E/road1. WHIP CAPITAL (settler 125/100). City #2 grow to 4 EoT.
T48 - A pasture 1/4, B move NW/NE, pasture2/4, C road2, D move 1N to forest. City #2 work cottage. SETTLER found #4 1S of rice (build WB, work cows).
T49 - A/B pasture4/4, C [either farm rice, not immediately needed, or hook up bronze.], D chop 1/3. City #2 whip granary, work gems, cottage, corn (food 13/26 EoT). Capital work wheat/sheep.
T50 - #2 begin Archer, retake wheat. A/B move SW/SE mine2/4, C road1 on bronze, D chop2.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Usualy not good to chop that much till you have mathemathics , qand you have plenty resources and riverside grass,and defenitly seven workers are to few, you need more and to get a second city with coatges up.

I meant to reply to this in my last post. I don't like chopping that much at all. I'm in a kind of hurry up and expand frenzy, though, because there are so many players and it appears that there will be strong competition for land, despite me not seeing anyone on my side of the water yet. Also, I have so many strong city locations nearby that even if I'm losing some efficiency in hammer yields by chopping before I get Math, hopefully getting the cities established earlier will be beneficial overall because they'll have strong tiles to work.

But yes, 100% more workers! And I've thought about the possibility of a second academy/commerce city being worthwhile since I'm PHI and the GP aren't so hard to come by. Maybe this would be a nice tradeoff for not being FIN. A city on the PHF 2W/1S of the corn at my second city location looks like a good target for this. Or, possibly the capital's cottage helper 3S/1E of the capital. Something to keep in mind as time passes.

Edited for bad/unclear writing. I have not yet met an opponent on my side of the water.

[Commodore]

New neighbor met? ANALYSIS!

[Gaspar]

Finally got around to reading this, Boldly. (I'm not following this game closely since I expect tears.) But figured I owed you at least that much for the yeoman's work you've put forth in my game.

I have two comments - very entertaining so far and I'll make sure to keep reading and I think mackoti speaks wisdom.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

New neighbor met? ANALYSIS!

One day! Soon!

Finally got around to reading this, Boldly. (I'm not following this game closely since I expect tears.) But figured I owed you at least that much for the yeoman's work you've put forth in my game.

I have two comments - very entertaining so far and I'll make sure to keep reading and I think mackoti speaks wisdom.

Hopefully the tears will be less than Serdoa's Ocean of Tears. Also, mackoti's wisdom is recognized and most welcome!

T28




More gold. I think this gets me all the way through Math at 100%. So, Currency ~T78? Cheating Lurker Scum spawned another Great Spy to cover the land in Lurker Scum. I you guys. Also pictured, a lion, an invasive, non-native species to Yellowstone. It will need to either relocate or be removed. If it stays in my way along the coast, I'll move to the forest hill with the scout next turn.

The hut was a good sign for me beyond just the cash. It means no one has been down here yet. Is this ALL mine down here? Hmm. Another explanation is that no one bothers to scout terrible tundra when looking for potential expansion targets in the early game. I'll keep looking for more huts.




Both chops came in, settler due EoT. Scooter has beaten me and most everyone else to an early second city, which I first assumed by the 1 point in-game score increase and confirmed via his reload request for a misclick while settling.

Scooter - Shaka (AGG/EXP) of Ottomen (Wheel/Agriculture)

Best guess is Scooter put a couple chops into the settler and has comparable starting tile yields, but his expansive trait got the worker out sooner.




That crop yield is looking good! It will improve soon. I'm still working on graphs for Mardoc, Dhal is putting full EP into me.