[Mjmd #51 No Players] Mjmd Rambles - a civ story

[AutomatedTeller]

hey! welcome to RB!! Complaining about your start almost makes you a vet!!

[Mjmd]

I stand by moving with a financial leader, but really I didn't miss much by moving. I am a little confused looking at his start; I'm assuming there is a 3rd food resource....... Still not happy with this lake or that his copper was towards me while mine was away towards Vanrober who is farther. (I mean until he settled on it I was happy with it but only because I had moved and could settle on mine). As predicted the copper for both of us can share a capital food. Mine gets the silver but his get floodplains and food > commerce right now. Mind if I had settled for the fish I would have gotten that 15 turns from now but wouldn't have gotten to "share" the deer.

Also, to be fair the lake would be fair for both sides except I'm facing aggressive prats!

I do feel bad sending that poor warrior to his almost certain death. I actually wonder if just attacking the city would have been better. That was slightly less than 10% but at the point your ok taking risks for high upside might as well go big right? Whats 2x the odds to win if the payoff is probably 10x with the lower odds.

[AutomatedTeller]

I'm fairly sure that SD will be bitching about his start Settling on the copper is probably a reaction to not having much food nearby it.

[Mjmd]

People like to complain its human nature. I am not immune, so no hard feelings Commodore. As a fellow father to 3 I salute you.

I'm almost positive he settled on the copper due to all my posts. It would be much better to work it long term and he could have settled 1E and still shared the rice but also eventually have gotten the cow. I mean there could be something west, but still think he read the posting activity. In any case it saved his arse.

He may still be complaining though. The warrior won!!!!!        And then died.... Before I moved while I calculated the risk, what I didn't factor in was what his worker that had been on the forest could have done. It started a road on the plains which then SD finished this turn. So my warrior beat his shock warrior and then lost to the one from the copper city. Probably a metaphor for this game. I might get lucky and do ok for a bit, but then will miss some mechanical or tactical thing and lose. Which honestly I'm probably fine with as long as I don't get bummed rushed by prats into oblivion, which seems likely.

Below is current map. Redid dot map along with order of settling.




Rather than settling a crap city right up against him for the holy city I'm just going to go for the fish which is what I want anyways. Its quite a stretch. I can have 4 axes out at that point, so hope! He will hopefully settle his horse city as his 3rd which should be away from me if map maker was kind.

3rd city and 4th will be focused on food early. I need some whipping cities. My capital will be focused on cottages and you know is going to give away its best food to the 2nd city which doesn't' have another food. Really need cities to whip out the rest of my empire and those 2 spots are good for that and good bulwarks against SD. You'll note all 3 cities I have dotted on his border are on hills with flat ground towards him. 4th city also very likely to be HE city as predicted back on turn 0.

5th city I just want the stone for cheap walls and establish myself in the area. 6th is just so SD doesn't' settle it. I could see switching these two.

Eastern scout is looping around a bear but will go back to coast and continue around inner ring of donut for decreased travel distance to people.

I likely won't report every turn anymore as hopefully will be entering a building phase. I extended a peace treaty to SD this turn. I Imagine he just wants to get to developing and getting to prats.

[Commodore]

Oh hey, you complained about the map, I see that now. At this point map complaints just make Peanuts adult "wamp womp" sounds to me. Water, duck, back.

Really appreciating the reporting though.

[AutomatedTeller]

It's only about 50/50 that your city #3 will be the holy city, assuming all goes to plan. The algorithm essentially weighs non-caps by their population.

I do want to point out that A) you are financial and B) there is a long river system near you that your first settlement won't have food.

[Mjmd]

Turn 37: SD extended a peace deal this turn. I took it. I realized I shouldn't have extended to him originally. I should have waited until like turn 45. Land NE of Vanrober continues to look good, so my theory of contested land with near neighbor seems valid. In world news Giroflorens took Stonehenge as predicted.

I plan on whipping Leap frog to 1 before. I've done tests and most times a size 3 will get picked before 2, but like 10-20% the size 2 will, so will just be safe.

A) I am very focused on SD and his aggressive prats. Plus #3 & #4 are high food cities which is more important than commerce at the moment. When I get pottery I will be starting cottages at capital ASAP.
B) Some of them will not have food in 1st ring, but I don't see good alternatives. #5 was the only spot that grabbed a food and the stone. #6 I wanted on hill. #6 especially has plenty of chops that need done for safety so I figure can get a library there pretty fast.

How do I insert a spoiler tab thing? Just so people can skip my pathetic attempts at simming if they want.
Below is all assuming SD doesn't take the fish city as his 3rd. I will just make #4 holy city then. #3 is very much a stretch, but I really want access to that island. Could be anything there! (marble?!?) Plus it will be a good food city early. Can switch it to cottages later or possible a GP farm. There is also land to my SW, which I'm assuming is probably contested island with whomever is on that side of the donut, but would rather take good land from SD first and that fish city is good.

Agriculture > Fishing > Pottery > Poly > AH > Writing
Turn 35 switch deer back to capital and switch to axe
Turn 36 axe finishes; Bob starts roading to wheat
Turn 36 kevin roads tile west of Leap Frog; Lemmings is going to work on spear for 1 turn to stop hammer decay from happening then switch to axe
Turn 38 Kevin is going to road 1turn E of deer while waiting on agriculture to finish
Turn 39 Kevin is going back to farm grassland for Leap Frog; Lemmings grows size 3; work mined  hill so axe and city growth happen in 4 turns
Turn 41 axe finishes from leap frog; start another axe; Bob heads back to chop forested hill
Turn 43 start settler in Lemmings; keep axe in lemmings for 1 turn so not unhappy; whip Leap frog
Turn 44 Bob goes to mine silver;
Turn 45 Whip Settler
Turn 46 overflow into worker; bob roads W of sheep, finish road before settler moves next turn
Turn 48 Bob moves towards #3
Turn 49 settle city work on a farm; after will go chop workboat
Turn 50 Leap frog steals deer (note I may keep deer with cap and try to get out another settler sooner or do some micro to share. Too far out atm)
Turn 51 Leap frog grows back to size 2 and works silver; new worker Stuart roads deer 
Turn 63 target for growth to size 3 and poly, maybe can do turn quicker; whip leap frog to the ground before

So city #3 will be covered by 3 axes while I leave 1 axe at home. SD is a warmonger, but he is very aware of his early game economy and I think this is a safe period. I will be watching power graphs. let me know if you think one of the 3 axes should be a spear.

[AutomatedTeller]

Just make an open/close html tag with the word spoiler - like

[spoilert]
this is spoiled text
[/spoilert]

Except don't use the t

So, I think you'd be better off planting city #3 next to the sheep to the east.  If that catches the holy city, you get the stone and at this point in the game, you need to settle for food.   Long term, the #3 you had has more food, but #3 gets up and going fast.

I think the fish city you have planned for #3 is just chum bait for SD.   It's a long ways away, so reinforcements take a long time to get their and it needs a WB which it has to build on it's own.   If it's a holy city, then it's a target - if it's a holy city with a shrine, it's a major target.  I think it's a good site, but I really think you need to settle it well after you settle the one you marked as 4.

[Suite]

From a tactical standpoint, the city #4 is much stronger and way easier to develop in this stage. I do quite like the idea of expanding somewhat towards your enemy and this very position allows you to have a firm defence, just one road tile away from connecting with your trade network. If somehow this city will be a holy city (would not bank on this, though), all the better for free food resources, defence and vision.

[Mjmd]

AT your not wrong and you don't even know the worst part.... which is that the road network probably wouldn't be completed until turn 60 something.

I was actually logging into to suggest what Suite said. I think a holy city in the east would be a waste. It needs to be on SD front for vision if nothing else. I would consider NE of the sheep on not a hill, but other than not being on a hill and having a line of hills leading to it, if SD settles NW of fish as his 4th city then that invalidates all city spots I could do for the fish.

I have 10 turns to decide. I can watch power graphs and keep units in the area to see if SD would notice #3. If I swapped settling order, I would for sure keep the deer with the cap and try to chop whip out another settler to then go grab the fish.