RB Pitboss #2 [SPOILERS] - Peter of Byzantium

[regoarrarr]

Okay - settled Athens in place. I decided to go with a city naming theme of cities that have hosted the modern summer olympics. Plus, with Greece also in the game, should add some fun :-) I will also name our units and workers after Olympic champions, unless someone else has a better idea.



I set us off on worker (15t) and Agriculture (9) as placeholders.

A few things to note. 2 land masses (or peninsulas) to our north.

We have no 3 hammer tiles to get our free hammer for building an expansive worker.

At least 2 of the civs (Athlete and Dantski) are working 1 commerce tiles, but neither of them start with Myst.

[darrelljs]

Okay, it looks like I only have time for one scenario during lunch today, so I went with my "gut". There are some alternatives (namely Fishing first) that might work better, but this works nicely.

Turn 1
Build: Worker
Research: Agriculture
Tile(s): Grassland Forest

Turn 9
Research: Agriculture -> Fishing

Turn 15
Research: Fishing -> Hunting
Build: Worker -> Workboat
Tile(s): Grassland Forest -> Grassland Forest Hill
Worker action: Walks to Wheat

Turn 16
Worker action: Build a Farm

Turn 20
Tile(s): Grassland Forest Hill -> Wheat

Turn 21
Research: Hunting -> Animal Husbandry
Worker action: Build a road

Turn 23
Worker action: Move NW

Turn 24 (Pop + 1)
Tile(s): Wheat, Grassland Forest Hill
Worker action: Build a road

Turn 26
Build: Workboat -> Warrior
Tile(s): Wheat, Grassland Forest Hill -> Crabs
Worker action: Move E + Build a Camp

Turn 28 (Pop + 1)
Tile(s): Wheat, Crabs, Grassland Forest

Turn 29
Tile(s): Wheat, Crabs, Grassland Forest -> Fur
Worker action: Build a road

Turn 31
Research: Animal Husbandry -> Mining
Worker action: Move NW + Build a Pasture (Horse, anyone?)

Here's a screenshot of where we are at on turn 31:



Darrell

[darrelljs]

We have no 3 hammer tiles to get our free hammer for building an expansive worker.

Yeah, I noticed that too...it sucks because we finish Agriculture way before the Worker.

Darrell

[sunrise089]

Looks great Darrell. One question though - early isn't production more important than commerce? Would it be better to make a grassland mine than the fur camp? I'd probably make a camp in my own game, but I wanted to make sure the hammers won't be more valuable.

[regoarrarr]

So - let's think of the different opening options we want to explore

A) what darrell simmed out above - worker and agriculture
B) Fishing first worker->workboat
C) Fishing first barracks (or warrior - something that lets us grow)->workboat
D) Religion first

If we go worker first it finishes on T15
If we slow grow to size 2 (11t) before swapping to a worker, we'll pull in 6hpt (1 free), meaning worker on T21 - so 6 turns later but we've gained 22 food. Not having the farm online does cost us 6 turns of wheat farm but that's only 18 food.

It does also delay us 6 turns on all future builds as well

[regoarrarr]

So here's a thought. If I am calculating correctly, we cannot be beaten to Meditation. We can have a coin flip, but I don't think we can lose by a single turn, except in very limited cases.

In this game, Meditation costs 119 beakers (80 raw)
We make 9 cpt, +1 free beaker, * 1.2 for knowing Mysticism. So we put 12 beakers towards Meditation each turn.

It will take us a full 10 turns, which we'll hit with 1 beaker overflow.

But consider a civ working a 1 commerce tile (forest spices, unimproved river rice, etc)
They make 10cpt+1 * 1.2, or 13.2 beakers, floored down to 13.

So after 9 turns, they will have 117 beakers, and still need 2 beakers on the 10th turn. So at worst a coin flip.

Compare that to Polytheism, which is 149 beakers. At 12bpt, it will take us 13 turns (we'll be at 144 after 12 turns), but somebody at 13bpt will be at 156 beakers after 12 turns, and so we'll lose by one turn.

So I feel a bit better about our chances to land Meditation, especially given that Speaker / Sullla have lost a turn of commerce - though if they are working a financial 3cpt tile (oasis, river spices), they will make 14bpt and finish Med in 9 turns even with the delay.

DMOC / Nakor are also financial and start with mysticism, but have not settled yet.

The other thing to consider is a civ working a 3/0/1 tile will grow after T8, but I still think that they will be 1 beaker short after T9, if I'm calculating correctly.

[darrelljs]

Looks great Darrell. One question though - early isn't production more important than commerce? Would it be better to make a grassland mine than the fur camp? I'd probably make a camp in my own game, but I wanted to make sure the hammers won't be more valuable.

Its basically a 2H vs. 4C tradeoff. Its definitely something to consider. Do we want AH first to reveal Horse or BW first to reveal Copper? I went AH first this sim, so I wanted the 20% research discount for Hunting. We could just as easily go Mining -> Bronze Working instead. That unlocks chops and we have lots of Forests, and of course Slavery altough I believe we'll be food poor.

Due to the Palace, the 4C is only about 25% of our research. A Mine would double our production. That's significant.

Darrell

[darrelljs]

So here's a thought. If I am calculating correctly, we cannot be beaten to Meditation.

The only problem is it will dramatically slow our growth down. We should definitely do some sims with this approach to see how bad the hit is, though. From your list + Meditation permutations, I'm thinking a dozen sims or more are in order .

What's the turn timer set at? What if everyone ends turn?

Darrell

[regoarrarr]

Turn will end sometime tomorrow morning. I have not ended turn myself so we still have time.

If you're around and want to chat about it, feel free to ping me on gchat or aim

[Square Leg]

A mine would be useful as it enables your exp trait to be used for building workers. I notice in the sandbox shot above that the city only generates 3 hammers still... unless a forest randomly grows on your beaver... ahem...

It adds flexibility really...