[spoilers] Commodore: Worse than Toku, it's Giggles of Siam!

[Commodore]

So, while I've been slack about reporting, we've been playing them turns. Mostly, just following the plan right now...the capital makes a settler, which is now in route to the plains hill in the north.


As can been seen above, I've been exploring New Moosesnake. I'm now poking about the edges, refining the dotmap information...one more unfogged tile in North Junglia, it might nothing but it might have a hut, so down I go. Pooter's scout is also returning south with the knowledge that in spite of all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage.


Tech pathwise, we just finished the Wheel, now it's Fishing. I've included this for reference; Fin Scopin will be research 50% faster than this.


Murder is the only option...and I think we might need to just assume Archery after Pottery.

[Commodore]

Dotmap time! It's my favorite time of the game! Let us first of all review: We have a decent capital, a solid foodhammer/cottage booster second city, and nearby whales for a happy boost. The second city, Tranquil Meadows, is going north, so we need to go east one way or another with the next few cities, or else we'll be stuck on the tip of the snake, which is as nasty as it sounds. So, let's examine them:

Plan One: Default Pink Dot unto Balistaphants.


This here is what Thoth has been talking about, and it has much to recommend it. Moving Woodview 1E thanks to Blue Dot is okay, it allows a nice supportive work boat to head over to support the pink dot for gold. The hill there is excellent for defense, and if we go all out I think we could manage to make it there in time. Unfortunately, I think that also means Zulu have copper from the tundra (assuming, you know, they don't have copper elsewhere). Impi vs. archers isn't fun, and I sadly don't think they'd be willing to sit still and let us contest their gold right next door. Zulu cities are where I'd dotmap them, Scooter and Pin are fairly conservative so I expect they'll have similar dotmap thoughts.

If we do go with this, the plan is to survive until Construction and HBR, and roll out the Ballistic Elephants to contest deeper. If we think we can hold and grow with this pattern, we'll do this.

Plan Two: Operation Neon Pink Dot


This goes from the fairly bold above to the possibly insane, but I don't see any copper nearer to us. We make workers and settlers and archers and settle in an aggressive line directly towards the tundra copper (and grass sheep). This is kinda doubtful, because if Scoodicator saw that copper, they might well beat us to it, so basically once we get Blue Dot's corn online, it's a pure line drive towards the metal. I've run some numbers, and I give us about a 32.33% (repeating, of course) chance of making this. King of the hill or bust.

Plan Three: Nice Stuff Locally Grown


This can be supplemental to either plan above, or to a simple and cowardly settling on the midline. There are three excellent cities north of us in addition to Blue Dot, plus a nice money money money island. These places are a bit weak in the long-term potential compared to the green reaches to the east, but short term that's a lot of riverside and a fair food potential. Gems mean IW is prioritized, with the hopeful additional benefit of getting us iron to make axes so we don't die (Quick Tip: We Still Might Die). Orange actually pushes one west to get the stone and beyond that we just try to outplay/outresearch Pindicooter. The Fin guys with a nuts capital. But yeah, might still be possible if we look scary and there is a lot of land to the Zulu north.

Plan Four: Hopefully Before It's Colonized By Foreigners In Boats


Yeah, not much to say here. Needs IW like a bad fix, but with IW in hand, this is an excellent quartet of cities, which can also springboard us northward into the greener grass of the other side. Just need to keep it in mind.

[MindyMcCready]

Thanks for the pics! Long-time, formerly silent lurker wishing you the best of luck!

PS I voted: A horrific mad hurricane of violent destruction, like a toddler. Consequently I support option #2!

[Thoth]

I can get you t 56 and t58 settlers from our two cities without breaking a sweat. I can shave at least two turns off each of those times, but that will cost worker turns in chops rather than roads and I haven't figured the city producition builds out to the last hammer in terms of what we put our non worker/settler hammers into (warriors for now, Archers soon if we want Copper).


It'll take at least 18 worker turns to road to the Gold/Crab site. I haven't run the math on how many chops (other than two into wbs and one into a worker) but I don't think we'll be able to grab the Copper site circa turn 63 if Scooticator go there first.


We're going to want Archery soonish, but I think (maybe) we can delay it until after Potter/AH (remember that we need AH to camp the Mamoths )

But I'm up way past my bedtime

I'll try and get my current efforts at city/worker plans posted in the morning. (we're good for the next few turns.....especially with the bonus 2t we seem to have in the mine 1 SE of the Cap). Looks like t41 netted crabs if my math is correct.

[Commodore]

So, given extra turn, care to speed up the third worker?

Blue dot settled t36--> starts worker. Works a Grass Forest. 5hpt.
t37: worker 5/60
t38: Work Farmed Corn. +8hpt. worker at 10/60.
t39: worker at 18/60
t40: Blue dot border pop at eot. Chop starts. Worker at 26/60
t41: Worker at 34/60
t42: Chop completes. Worker at 42/60. +28 h for chop + production = 60 h at eot.
t43: worker 3 on the board. Blue dot growth to follow.

...

t35 both workers get back on their hills.
t36 mine.
t37 mine.
t38: mines complete in time for LSG to work both of them and pass the Corn to Blue Dot.
XD

(turn 39 we move one worker to the PHF to chop for LSG's WBs and the other to the GF 1N of the Corn to chop into Blue Dot's Worker)

Math is off above, 42+28=70, so if we can move up a turn, all the better. It just means a capital forest goes to Tranquil Meadows, no big deal.

Cross your fingers for a hut and AH/Pottery?

[Commodore]

Thanks for the pics! Long-time, formerly silent lurker wishing you the best of luck!

PS I voted: A horrific mad hurricane of violent destruction, like a toddler. Consequently I support option #2!

Thanks for honoring me with one of your first posts. I believe the violence vote has carried the day pretty convincingly, it's just a matter of actually winning the war too.

On the other hand, here's a pretty picture; I think Generica is beautiful.


Here's Tranquil Meadow, helpfully with a river connection already. Following the plan, she's working a grassland forest and making her own farmers for now, she's been given a capital forest as well for Andy to move to and chop next turn.


In real life, I think this would be a very picturesque city.

[Thoth]

So, given extra turn, care to speed up the third worker?



Math is off above, 42+28=70, so if we can move up a turn, all the better. It just means a capital forest goes to Tranquil Meadows, no big deal.

Pretty much all of the above is off at this point.

Here's my revised plan for the next few turns:

t37: move Andy to 1 North of the capital (resigned in game ) Main reason for this rather than the tile you wanted to chop is that we're not going to be improving either of Andy's next chop tiles for some time to come, so I'd like to maximize the chance of forest regrowth by chopping in a checkerboard pattern as much as practical.

t38: Cap now size 2. 2/24 food. 13/15 hammers into warrior. Tranquil Meadow: 10h into worker. 0/22 f.
Cap works both mines for 7h/0f. TM works Corn for +8 fhpt. Andy starts chop (Nell finishes mine). Fishing completes EOT with 5 beakers OF.

t39: Warrior on the board in capital, 5 h OF. Start WB at +7 HPT. TM: 18h into worker. Keeps working Corn.
Andy puts turn 2 into chop. Nell moves to forest 1s of TM. Start Pottery at 14 commerce + 1 free bpt + 5 OF beakers. 20 bpt x 1/4 = 28/128 beakers into pott after eot.

t40: Andy finishes chop adding 20h to LSG's production (12h into wb at start of turn). WB finishes EOT with 9h OF.
TM: 26h into worker. Nell starts chop. TM: 26h into worker. Pot: 28/118 beakers at start of turn. 49 at eot.

T41: Net Crab. LSG works Crab and Corn for +8 fpt. Andy moves to chop (exact tile TBD) 10h go into wb #2 from OF plus this turn's 1h production.
TM: 34h into worker. Works unimproved Corn for 5fhpt +1 c. Nell puts turn 2 into chop. 71 beakers into pot at eot.

t42: LSG: 10/30h into WB. 10/24 food. Andy starts chop. Nell finishes chop. TM at 39h at start of turn, 64 at end.
93 b into pottery.

t43: Nell and new worker move towards corn (pretty much unusable worker turns here for Nell but new worker can put one turn into a road while on the move). LSG: 11/30h into wb. 18/24 food. Andy puts t2 into chop. TM works 3f/1c corn. 115 beakers into pottery at eot.

t44: LSG: Size 3 2/26 food. Works 2x mine, 1x netted Crab. +2f/+7hpt. TM: Works farmed corn. Currently 3/22 food. Nell + New worker farm north corn. Andy completes chop. WB done Eot with 9 overflow (into settler? or Worker? or Warrior?). 140/128 beakers into pot at eot. ~ 8 adjusted beakers of OF.


T45: LSG: 9h OF + 7hpt = 32 h into gran in LSG at eot. WB sails. 4/26 food. TM: 9/22 food. 8h into warrior #3. Work Farmed corn. Andy moves (and maybe puts a turn into Marble Quarry). North Corn farm 4/5 worker turns at eot.

T46: Second farm completes and second crab netted. TM: Size 1. 15/22 food. LSG: Size 3. 6/26 food. 2x Corn farms, 2x netted crabs and 2x riverside gh mines. Work Corn +2 Crabs in LSG for +10 fpt (and growth to size 4 at eot 47). Work North Farmed Corn in TM. (worker movements dependent on expansion plans).

t47: Workers move/do stuff.

T48: LSG now size 4, TM size 2. Build stuff while workers do stuff.

Cross your fingers for a hut and AH/Pottery?

Looks like no joy there. I'd like a look at the rest of the water tiles near the end of the peninsula while we still have a live scout in the area. Fish makes a city near there a viable deal....another seafood would be very nice if there is one hiding in the fog.

[Thoth]

Dotmapwise:

I like dotmap 1 with a couple of mods:

City 2 moves 1 sw and gets settled as backfill to work some of LSGs cottages for it pre-Monarchy/Beur.
City 4 moves 1 NE and gets settled as city 5 (we'll need the Mamoth happies to work some cotts to pay for city 6)
city 3 as city 4 ASAP.
and our next city (also ASAP) on the grass hill 1 sw of the sheep/knights move from the copper. (city 3 in dotmap 2)

city 6 is either offshore on Golden Isle or Verdant Acres. VA makes a pretty nice early GS farm. High food, limited number of good tiles. Perfect combo for a couple of Scientist specs for an Academy plus 2nd GS with 50t of double scientists.




Looking at the pattern of worker moves Scooticator have been making, their first settler is headed our way. (see Helpful Signs tm ingame. )

[Commodore]

Dotmapwise:

I like dotmap 1 with a couple of mods:

City 2 moves 1 sw and gets settled as backfill to work some of LSGs cottages for it pre-Monarchy/Beur.
City 4 moves 1 NE and gets settled as city 5 (we'll need the Mamoth happies to work some cotts to pay for city 6)
city 3 as city 4 ASAP.
and our next city (also ASAP) on the grass hill 1 sw of the sheep/knights move from the copper. (city 3 in dotmap 2)

city 6 is either offshore on Golden Isle or Verdant Acres. VA makes a pretty nice early GS farm. High food, limited number of good tiles. Perfect combo for a couple of Scientist specs for an Academy plus 2nd GS with 50t of double scientists.

So, then, you favor this:

That's...whoa. I'm for being aggressive, but if we do this, we need a very good plan to get that copper location safe and secure, and we need to be focused hardcore here...I mean the turn we hook copper, which is the turn its within our borders, I want to have 4 axes, at least two of them with C1. Sailing needs to be considered to hook #3 to our trade network efficiently (we need whales anyway).

One last thought, how about that stone? I'd dearly love the 'mids, which we could probably seven-turn in the capital after hooking up stone if we want that. Not sure if it's worth it, but we ought to at least consider the possibility.

Looking at the pattern of worker moves Scooticator have been making, their first settler is headed our way. (see Helpful Signs tm ingame. )

Aha, so it is. Man, these guys have some gnarly tile improvements. Still, an unnetted clam is a 2/0/3 tile, or what we call a riverside hamlet. They're heading for gold, I'd bet my eye on it. Pity all the wildlife seems to have skeedaddled, I'd love to be able to push a 5xp Woodie II warrior into that mess.


Of mild interest; the GNP stackup. Recall we're Creative, and they aren't, so they have a real edge. We're fine, but I don't want to delay cottages for too long, or we will have issues.


So nice to be next door to our primary rivals. Xenu and Brick are leading scores, CFC JesterFool is providing a boost to Nakor's Mansa/India, but I still thing Pindicooter are top threat to winnit. Or they will be if they win the duel, at least.

[Commodore]

HALT, I have a different plan. Dangit, Thoth, you've unleashed the beast, I need think about this crap.

Here's my revised plan for the next few turns:
...

t39: Warrior on the board in capital, 5 h OF. Start WB at +7 HPT. TM: 18h into worker. Keeps working Corn.
Andy puts turn 2 into chop. Nell moves to forest 1s of TM. Start Pottery at 14 commerce + 1 free bpt + 5 OF beakers. 20 bpt x 1/4 = 28/128 beakers into pott after eot.

t40: Andy finishes chop adding 20h to LSG's production (12h into wb at start of turn). WB finishes EOT with 9h OF.
TM: 26h into worker. Nell starts chop. TM: 26h into worker. Pot: 28/118 beakers at start of turn. 49 at eot.

T41: Net Crab. LSG works Crab and Corn for +8 fpt. Andy moves to chop (exact tile TBD) 10h go into wb #2 from OF plus this turn's 1h production.
TM: 34h into worker. Works unimproved Corn for 5fhpt +1 c. Nell puts turn 2 into chop. 71 beakers into pot at eot.

t42: LSG: 10/30h into WB. 10/24 food. Andy starts chop. Nell finishes chop. TM at 39h at start of turn, 64 at end.
93 b into pottery.

t43: Nell and new worker move towards corn (pretty much unusable worker turns here for Nell but new worker can put one turn into a road while on the move). LSG: 11/30h into wb. 18/24 food. Andy puts t2 into chop. TM works 3f/1c corn. 115 beakers into pottery at eot.

t44: LSG: Size 3 2/26 food. Works 2x mine, 1x netted Crab. +2f/+7hpt. TM: Works farmed corn. Currently 3/22 food. Nell + New worker farm north corn. Andy completes chop. WB done Eot with 9 overflow (into settler? or Worker? or Warrior?). 140/128 beakers into pot at eot. ~ 8 adjusted beakers of OF.

T45: LSG: 9h OF + 7hpt = 32 h into gran in LSG at eot. WB sails. 4/26 food. TM: 9/22 food. 8h into warrior #3. Work Farmed corn. Andy moves (and maybe puts a turn into Marble Quarry). North Corn farm 4/5 worker turns at eot.

T46: Second farm completes and second crab netted. TM: Size 1. 15/22 food. LSG: Size 3. 6/26 food. 2x Corn farms, 2x netted crabs and 2x riverside gh mines. Work Corn +2 Crabs in LSG for +10 fpt (and growth to size 4 at eot 47). Work North Farmed Corn in TM. (worker movements dependent on expansion plans).

t47: Workers move/do stuff.

T48: LSG now size 4, TM size 2. Build stuff while workers do stuff.

Okay, just reference, here we are, t38:

Lakeside Garden
2/24 in food box
20/15 on warrior

LAKESIDE:
EoT39: 2 GH mines (7hpt), WB 12/30
EoT40: 2 GH mines, WB 19/30
EoT41: 2 GH mines, WB 26/30
EoT42: 2 GH mines, WB 53/30 (Nell's chop, WB done!)
EoT43: 2 GH mines, WB 30/30 (Second WB done! First WB goes to further-away crabs)
EoT44: 2 Crabs, 8/24 in food box (make stuff)
EoT45: 1 Crab 1 corn, 16/24 in food box (start granary)
EoT46: 1 Crab 1 corn, 24/24 in food box

Tranquil Meadow
0/22 in food box
18/60 on worker


TRANQUIL:
EoT39: 1 corn (8fhpt), Worker 26/60
EoT40: 1 corn, Worker 54/60 (Andy's chop)
EoT41: 1 corn, Worker 62/60 (Worker Olaf done)
EoT42: 1 corn, 6/22 in food box (Olaf goes north to corn, hammers into barracks)
EoT43: 1 corn, 12/22 in food box (Olaf farms, Nell moves north to help)
EoT44: 1 corn, 18/22 in food box (Olaf and Nell farm)
EoT45: 1 corn (new!), 24/22 in food box (farm done! Start granary)
t46 Whip, or work a fresh cottage, or whatever.

Make sense?