[spoilers] - pindicator is excited for the next Realms Beyond league mechanics

[pindicator]

Oh! Biggest change in the plan is the tech end of things. No Pottery any time soon: what's the point of spending 60 hammers on a granary that will help me grow 2 sizes? So instead Sailing > Animal Husbandry is the order, possibly sneak in Archery for cheaper MP units, and then on to Pottery > Writing

[pindicator]

047

Whipped out worker #3 at Onslaught




The city has a few more turns before borders pop and we'll want to improve lots of resources by then. I decided to reach for my 4th city, to get the Whales with a border pop. Defense will be a little tight should barbarians show, but I think the extra happiness coming online sooner is going to pay off more with this city than waiting for another settler to come out. Plus this way I'm not settling on top of all the nearby mountains and actually have some production outside of the whip.

Then Onslaught will whip out a settler in fifteen turns or so to claim the gems. And ideally that one goes for the gems .... ugh, but that might be where the Sheep and floodplains city comes in.

[pindicator]

Also my worker micro is shit. Have these guys going back and forth and wasting turns all over the place.

[pindicator]

Today's look-ahead was trying to figure out where my cities would be population wise when the luxuries start getting hooked up in the 60-70 turn range.

First off, I'm leaning towards settling directly on the elephants.  It's a 2h plant just like the plains hill, but it becomes a worse tile later in the game and saves the forest for chopping. Downside is it gives up the clams so it's possibly a worse city overall. Really I need to explore the island in full to know how I want to settle but my work boat in the area needs to turn back next turn and I'm not sure there's another unit available for me to shuttle over. (My scout is exploring the east and might turn northward. There's some really interesting geography that direction that may warrant its own post later.)

Second, I'm reworking city plans for Anarchy and Onslaught to be ready to grow to max population as soon as those elephants and whales start getting online. That means granaries. After looking at house everything lines up it actually means Pottery after Sailing and before Animal Husbandry. That lets me whip in granaries right before the luxuries come up and grow to size 6/7 after. So probably a lull in settlers after these next two get planted, at least until we can grow back up to happy cap. 

 I'd really like to fit in Archery too somewhere, just to let me build cheaper MP's, but I don't know if that is going to get to come in before or after Writing. I would really like to have an alternative to whipping monuments as soon as possible.

I'm also about to have 3 workers for 5 cities. Going to need to change that!

[pindicator]

048 & 049

Met Mouseferatu to the west




The work boat heads back after that to hook up the clam at the capital.

I whipped that settler on 48, and so at turn 49 I only have 4 pop to my name.




Winning!

[The Black Sword]

I love those early game moments when every single pop is working a resource tile.

[pindicator]

050

I do too! Except now we are going to need more pop




Pig done next turn. Settler heads north, but I didn't cover the route ahead of time well. There shouldn't be anything up on that peninsula.

After the pig is done I will only need 1 worker to go north. Since I'm whipping monument first, granary second there won't be a need for a ton of improvements beyond Fish, Sheep, Whales.

Well, I need to farm that wheat too. So maybe they both go north. Some just go farther north than others.

[pindicator]

051

This may be the first time I've ever been mad to see a luxury resource turn up




Okay, mad is overstating it by a bit. But it's getting a little tiring, seeing this peninsula give me all these 2nd ring resources in horrible locations. It's like someone forgot to pass me the memo that I was supposed to pick CRE. I know random maps favor CRE a bit more, but every location within 8 tiles of my capital required it. So seeing that whale a bit beating the dead horse; the joke has gone stale.

No, I will not be re-routing my settler. Another awful location that needs 15 turns to even start being productive because I have to chop out a monument first? No way. This is a filler spot; I will settle down south by the stone and let that location pop borders up to the fish before I settle this whale.

Anyway, my cities should finally start getting some growth here soon. I really wish I could just settle on top of that forested hill north of Onslaught, but I need to get the Whales coming online with the border pop there. (Unlike the newly discovered whales; this spot actually has first ring food!)

Also thought I should share what I've managed to uncover out north and east since it's been a while since I last sent a picture that way:




Looks like the divide between OH and me isn't quite as narrow as I first thought; that is looking more and more like a large inland sea. It also means he's less likely to even want to push towards me as he'll have avenues in more attractive directions.

[Hollybombay]

Do you have a dotmap ready for that tract of land?

[pindicator]

Not yet. A number of the food resource icons got chopped off by the software I used to put the stitch together, but there aren't many obvious good spots. The settler currently on the forested hill north of Onslaught is going to end up settling directly North of the Fish, getting it and the Sheep first ring. To be honest, I'm not in love with the spot. It's too spread out for a multiplayer game, and since cities rarely get into the upper teens you do always want some bit of overlap to help new cities get started faster by sharing food. Ideally, I'd settle it in place on that hill next turn. But I want that Whale hooked up by turn 70, and that means I can't wait for another settler.

After that I believe SE-E of the Pigs by Onslaught is going to be at how I get at the Gems.

I am going to settle on one of the desert hills by the flood plains east of the wheat.

If I get my way I would like to settle the plains hill northeast of that, that would get the wheat and sheep in second ring. That would come after settling more southern locations that are better overall.

I'd like to get that strange long isthmus to the north. Right now that is a wonderful shield protecting me from any invasion from the north. I only need to think of land based attacks coming through Onslaught, or naval attempts from the southwest. I'd like to keep that "land shield" under my control as much as possible.