[SPOILERS] Regoarrarr rides again

[regoarrarr]

With Ichabod teching The Wheel last turn, I think that I am in good shape for landing Buddhism in 2 turns. Pindicator got Mysticism 2 turns ago (T39) but that is 2 turns after me, so I'm hoping even with his higher GNP that I'm safe.



Whipped my settler last turn and we'll found that in 2 turns. The road there won't speed up the city settling time but it will at least get it a trade route on the turn of its founding.

Plan will be for the new city to work the plains hill mine while getting a chop for its granary, then borrow the corn. I do need to start laying down some cottages at Couch.

Last chance to guess my city naming theme before the third city makes it super obvious.... (well, obvious if you were ever going to get it in the first place)

Oh - astute observers will notice that Plum is working on Stonehenge. I don't really have any plans to land that wonder but it's better than anything else to build while growing and will be nice for some failgold.

[regoarrarr]

There are a few benefits to delaying the whip of the settler by 1 turn. One is this



I can overflow into a nearly 1-turn worker. So I got an extra turn of working 4 tiles instead of 2, as well as minimizing the number of turns I'm "stuck" at size 2 building this worker. I'm still not 100% convinced that it was worth delaying everything at the new city for 1 turn forever, but what's done is done....

Ichabod and I have been weirdly on the same vibe this whole game. He also whipped his capital from 4-> 2 this turn (well 1 turn after I did), and also grew his 2nd city to size 3 this turn (as did I). I will found my 3rd city next turn, and I expect that Ichabod will as well (or possibly the turn after, since his road network is non-existent, having just got The Wheel 2t ago )

Meditation due at EOT next turn, so that will be nice. Hopefully it "behaves" and founds in Plum.

[regoarrarr]

First to 3 cities!!



Though as I stated last turn, I expect Ichabod to join me next turn. I actually simmed out a bit of micro, so this turn while Couch is building a worker, I took it off the 5/0/0 corn and put it on the 0/4/0 Plains Hill mine (equivalent when building an EXP worker). That way Sipe can work the corn this turn while its granary is being chopped out. The next 2 turns Sipe will work the PHM while the worker is chopping, completing the granary in 3t.

Sipe is not in a great spot - it only has one food, and it has to share that, but it does have some grassland river, and most importantly, it's coastal. I really needed a spot here - I'll be working on Sailing next, and then chop/whipping out a galley to settle across the sea (maybe?). Settling Sipe gave me vision on a 2nd gold tile which will be nice. Potential city site 1S of the crabs?



Landed Buddhism

And it even landed in Plum where I was hoping. The worker will move to the gold tile next turn since borders will pop at the end of next turn.

[regoarrarr]

Busy turn! Hinduism and Stonehenge both show up in the event log.

In doing score analysis, it was Pindicator who landed Polytheism (4t after teching Mysticism ), and Ichabod who (unsurprisingly) built Stonehenge. He (Ichabod) also founded his 3rd city, again as expected. Ruff whipped a pop in his 2nd city, very likely for a granary.

I am really surprised / amazed by Pindicator. Polytheism is 132 beakers, which means 110 "raw" beakers. Even if we assume 15 or so beakers of overflow, that's around 25 raw beakers per turn. Now he IS Financial, but he only got Pottery on T35, so he can't have a ton of cottages. Hopefully he thought he was in a race and I made him work a bunch of crappy coast tiles

I think that he WOULD have beaten me to Polytheism - I'm not sure if I could have gotten it last turn. Though I do have a fair amount of overflow from Meditation, so maybe so.

I'm trying to figure out the best way to micromanage my tiles



I have the plains hill mine going to Sipe. It will work that for 2 turns till the chop comes in finishing its granary. Then it probably wants to take the corn farm, but at least for the next 2 turns, it's set.

I can get either Couch OR Plum to grow this turn, depending on who takes the fish. If it's Plum, then I do also have to work a bare grassland. At EOT, borders expand there due to holy city culture so it will give me a few other tiles I could work (grass forest at least). Plus in a few turns I'll have the 0/2/8 gold mine.

I guess really what I need is a settler (and probably another worker). And some more improved tiles. Currently I only have corn, PHM, GHM, mined sheep, fish and maybe you can count grassland river sugar (3/0/1).

So how fast can I get another settler (and a galley). I can get Sailing in 5t I believe (I'm assuming that my 10g of Stonehenge failgold will power a max science run there. So that means T48. Worker Three is chopping out the Granary in Sipe T43,44,45, so if he moves to another forest T46, he can chop 47-49. That would allow me to whip the Galley on T50 (asusming Sipe is size 2 by then), and be ready to move on T51, unload on T52, and found a (theoretical) city on T53. If I waste a worker turn and use another worker to put in 2 chops (and line up the overflow right), I can get the galley 1 (or MAYBE even 2) turns earlier.

Okay, after looking through the micro, even working the corn tile, Sipe can only grow to size 2 on T49, so no sense in the chop coming in before T48. So that means I need one worker turn there to speed up the next city by a turn.

My next thought is whether the island city should be the NEXT city. Is there time to put in another city? I'm thinking probably it should be city 4 - the galley can then explore those land tiles to the NW also. I need Animal Husbandry for those pigs anyways, which will be my next tech after Sailing (possibly with a Hunting detour).

So after ALL that, now that still doesn't answer the question of which of my cities should grow this turn. I want to have a settler done in time to be in Sipe (and load onto a galley) on T50. Getting a settler any quicker doesn't really help me (though that's only 6-7 turns away, depending on where it's born and if it has to move). Actually I do have one extra turn, since the settler isn't going to be able to unload the same turn it loads, so it can still move onto the galley on T51.

I think I have it set up so that Plum will spend a turn building a settler, allowing Couch to take the fish and grow to size 3. Then Couch will go onto a worker build and let Plum grow to size 4 before completing the settler, which I can whip on T49, just in time to make it over to the new island.

Do you see how many of my paragraphs start with the word "I" or "my" up there? That means I'm talking to myself a lot over here!!! Where is everyone?!?!?

[Commodore]

Waiting for action. Normal speed, man, we'll be chatty once stuff starts popping.

Although just to make you feel good...Sareln (who is in your position, greens) proved you should have settled 1S, given he just popped gold in the mine where your capital went.

[regoarrarr]

I know... I know... I do like this map, but it does seem to limit early player-on-player conflict (which isn't necessarily bad from a game standpoint but obviously keeps it dull from a standpoint). Other than early skirmishes such as the ones I had with pindicator and scooter, there's not really much to do.

Everyone is running a massive farmer's gambit at least at this point.

Still, I was hoping to impress all the lurkers with my mad micro skeelz

As for settling spot, I have given a bit of thought to that. I am still miffed that Scooter had a choice to settle next to the fish with his capital while also still settling on a plains hill (not to mention that said plains hill also got his copper in the BFC). And while I do think what I did led to the fastest opening, it definitely constricted my settling spots for the future. I "had to" settle with the gold in the 2nd ring so I could be next to the fish, which means I'm off the coast, which meant my 3rd city had to be less than optimal just to get on the coast, etc.

We shall see if that makes a difference. I do think that Pindicator probably settled his 2nd city with his gold (or gold equivalent) in the first ring, which might explain why he's teching so fast.

[regoarrarr]

Quick shot of the T45 demographics, in a coincidentally named screenshot (also #45)



I'm #1 in food and production, which is nice.

C&D wise, Ichabod and Scooter got techs, while Ruff grew his 2nd city back to size 2. There was an increase of 2000 soldier points (well 3000 counting Ruff's pop growth). It took me awhile, but I'm pretty sure that Ichabod teched Pottery and Scooter teched Writing. Someone also picked up 11 land tiles, which I believe are due to Ichabod's capital expanding to 3rd ring a few turns early due to the 8cpt of Stonehenge

I'm actually 100% sure on the Writing, because I can now get Open Borders from Scooter. Makes sense, given him being PHI. I would expect a library to be chop/whipped shortly and 2 scientists run for an early Academy. Fairly certain on Pottery for Ichabod too - he has delayed it this far but definitely needs it for granaries / cottages. Also, I have scooter's graphs and I believe the 2K soldier points are his.

Over in domestic matters, here's a screenshot from EOT



Got a lucky spread of Buddhism - it will be great in Sipe to pop the borders there, but the capital would also have been nice for happiness purposes. Maybe that will have to be next turn

2 workers mining the gold, which will finish next turn and hopefully be enough to keep me on pace for Sailing in 2t, although I don't have the gold to run 2 turns at max science. I did realize I needed to revise the micro plan and whip that worker in Couch next turn in order to stay on the plan for a T53 "island" city.

I am still noodling / planning, but I believe my plan is that after their worker / settler, Couch and Plum will build settler / worker. With no barbs, and everyone fairly far away, farmer's gambit seems like the way to go. Sipe will likely build a workboat after its galley, for the 4th city.

[Merovech]

Why did you place Sipe on the East coast and not 1SE or 1SW of the pigs? Those city sites are still coastal, still can share the corn, pick up a pigs, and either have more riverside grasslands and a few grass hills or a second ring crab. They do require additional turns of movement on the galley to the Eastern gold/crab spot, but I would think the better city location would outweigh that.

[regoarrarr]

Why did you place Sipe on the East coast and not 1SE or 1SW of the pigs? Those city sites are still coastal, still can share the corn, pick up a pigs, and either have more riverside grasslands and a few grass hills or a second ring crab. They do require additional turns of movement on the galley to the Eastern gold/crab spot, but I would think the better city location would outweigh that.

What is this? A lurker comment?!!?!?

The biggest reason is that I don't have Animal Husbandry yet . Those are definitely spots I'm working towards, and AH will be my next tech after Sailing (possibly with a Hunting detour).

And since this is the new, content-rich regoarrarr, I will even put this turn's report into this same post!!!!

I had a bit of a conundrum while reading through the tea-leaves. I noticed through GNP-scrying that somebody has Masonry which confused me. At first glance, I thought that perhaps I had mis-assigned some of ruff's 36 point score increase a turn or two ago (and missed a tech by him) but upon further review I realize that last turn Ichabod researched Pottery Masonry. Makes sense for him - as the only IND he is probably going for the Pyramids.

Pindicator got Priesthood this turn which also makes sense. He's Sumeria and is probably unlocking his UB while also heading for the Oracle. Ichabod grew both of his first two cities 1 pop each and Ruff got a tech (and likely 2K soldier points). I think he may have been engaging in some counter-C&D measures as it's been since T33 since he last teched something (13 turns ago). But despite that, GNP confirms that he is the 3rd team to tech Animal Husbandry.

Ruff's power increase is further confirmed after I whipped the worker in Couch, which will overflow into a settler. That dropped me down to 23K power, but put me in 3rd place (tied with Scooter and Ruff at 23K, but they beat me on the tiebreaker)

I did also finish up my gold mine this turn, which put me up in first place in GNP. I do have 6 extra culture, but Pindicator also has a holy city and Ichabod has Stonehenge. I am making 27 raw bpt, which seems pretty good at this point.

[regoarrarr]

Been a few turns since my last report. I got Sailing, which was timed perfectly to get a chop-whip of a galley



The next turn, Sipe grew to size 2, and I whipped the galley to completion. I believe that is the first galley built. Ichabod got Sailing back on T35, but he spent his first 50 coastal hammers on a lighthouse (going for GLH I assume). His first 2K power increase was also on T49 (so we may have gotten a galley out on the same turn).

Interestingly, Ichabod and Scooter now have open borders. I proposed OB to Scooter but he did not accept. Perhaps he's angry about my aggressive scout moves .

After getting no techs since T33, Ruff got techs on T45 and T47, so I think that he was engaging in C&D countermeasures, and I have put him down for Animal Husbandry and Sailing. Pindicator I also penciled in with Sailing on T50.

Speaking of whipping, I also 2-pop whipped my settler in Plum, dropping me down to 5 total pop and lagging in most of the demographics. I plan to settle 2 cities fairly quickly. Note that these are my 4th and 5th, while Scooter just settled his 3rd and Ruff still has 2!!! I kind of get the feeling that Ruff is playing some sort of "variant" game here, but we'll see.



After all that hand-wringing about which of my cities I "wanted" Buddhism to spread to, the RNG smiled on me by spreading to Couch as well the very next turn