[SPOILERS] Pindicator as Qin Shi of China - Boring Ol' Vanilla

[pindicator]

Turn 033



Luckily his warrior is injured, otherwise I might lose my scout here.

Also, I wonder if he's just going to name all his warriors Duncan. Wasn't that the sixth book of the series where they cloned him over and over again? Oh, spoilers

[pindicator]

Turn 035

Cyneheard's second city is pretty lush.

[Ceiliazul]

Jungle hill saves scout from crush!

[pindicator]

Turn 036

Another eventful turn! Happiness ensues.



To start, Pottery is finished and we switched Scales right over to a Granary. That city will grow to size 2 next turn and we'll whip the granary straight away. Also at Scales, the worker has finished farming the corn, so it no longer needs the rice from Madrigal. Madrigal's worker is at 48/60 right now, so the second worker will finish at the end of next turn with 8 hammers overflow. This sets up a wonderful 1-turn granary at Madrigal right after the worker finishes: 8h overflow + 2h natural production + 20h from the chop, all coming together in 2 turns.

I took some time to think over just going straight for Metal Casting. If I start it now, I could finish it in 21 turns. But things just get awkward for setting up the third and fourth cities. So I'm going to do AH to unveil horses and allow myself to camp the ivory, possibly camp the deer even if I decide to go that direction. I'll probably grab Mysticism and Fishing as well and just keep focusing on developing tiles and cities before moving to Metal Casting. The big question is do I go for MC before Writing or after.



Out east we're set up to go after Barry's capital with a warrior and see if he has any native defense. He probably does, but it's worth taking a shot and seeing if we can get a cheap advantage. And there's a hill to the SE, so I should at least get sight into his capital next turn, letting me make a decision on whether or not to advance without having to declare war.



Our scout survived the lion attack and only took a single hit, so we're still doing well with HP. But more importantly, we took a peek at the coast and met Azza. Washington of Arabia across the way, so more than likely that is his capital on a coastal location? It seems way too early for that to be a border pop in a second city, considering Cyneheard just set his second city and I have had mine only for 5 turns.

I swapped my EP spending over to Azza - I already have graphs on Cyneheard and Barry, although Barry still isn't swapping away from me so I may lose his stuff soon.

World I know:

[pindicator]

Figuring out the next 20 turns...



Like I said before, I was looking at doing Metal Casting before instead of Animal Husbandry. Been trying out a couple of combinations for tech, but I'm going to stick with playing things basic and developing the resources we've been given. So look for Sailing to make an appearance, possibly even before Writing, as we try to hook up those whales and up the happy cap. Metal Casting and CKNs will just have to wait. Or maybe I'll try that 50/50 shot with a GS like I was talking about earlier.

Google Docs PB19 Micro Spreadsheet

I've got what I think is a pretty solid plan for settling cities 3 and 4 over the next 20 turns. We'll whip our next settler out of the capital, after we get the granary chopped. I'm a little surprised that I'm whipping a settler again, but it kind of makes sense once we get a granary in place. That settler will found city #3 on the north coast between the wheat and cow, founded on t48 with workers in tow to immediately pasture the cows. City will chop a granary, then whip a monument, and we'll probably end up running specialists there once we get the right building unlocked. In the meantime that will be a good spot to build more settlers & workers. And we'll want the whales for growing more.

City #4 comes from the capital again, this time with a chop, and we'll found the Sheep/Gold/Copper/shared Corn spot on t58. Another granary chopped, another monument whipped, this time to grab the gold with a border pop.

City #5 probably goes south of that to claim the ivory, but it won't be until the 60s. So immediate techs necessary are going to be AH, Mysticism, Fishing, and Sailing, and then we can look at Writing and Metal Casting. Which means MC probably finishing in the 80s and not getting a Great Eng until around t115. Not quite the rush we could have had.

I'll try to keep posting the spreadsheet link when I make major changes to micro plans, for those interested. And if you have any questions about my shorthand please let me know. Keep in mind those notes are firstly written for me, not so much to be read easily.

[pindicator]

Turn 037

Probably not going to declare now



Better idea seems to be to send the warrior south and see what the apparent landbridge down there is all about.

Whipped the granary in Scales. Worker #2 finishes end of turn in the capital and next turn we chop the capital a granary, too.

[pindicator]

Turn 038



Two granaries in two cities on turn 38. Gotta feel pretty good about that.



I saw Barry had a score change after ending turn - at first I thougth this was going to be a whip and that I should definitely stay away. I was fearing possibly an axe even, which would really mess my plans up if he decided to send it towards me. But when I went back through the pitboss portal page, I realized that it was a score increase for Barry. So he just planted his second city on Turn 37. Forget warrior rushes, I'll be able to out produce him with a CKN or even a Horse Archer rush.

Now i wonder about those roads. Either Barry is really wasting worker turns by building superfluous roads, or my warrior really screwed with his city founding plans. If he was planning on setting up a city out west and had no defense, then I potentially set him back. Then again, fi that's what he was planning then why wasn't the rice being farmed? So maybe he isn't planning out his early moves well at all.

Just to make sure, I checked all my neighbors and they all have 2 cities. Which means I beat Cyneheard and Barry both by a good number of turns to city #2. Considering Cyneheard is EXP, I feel pretty good about that.

Gotta make a note to self: Cyneheard is also Egypt. Need to have some spears up when I get that copper online, which will be around turn 60 with my current plan.



My scout's got 77hp. Hope he survives

[pindicator]

Turn 039

The scout did survive, but only because the panther did not attack. Screenshot not included.

Out east things are a little more interesting...



We have a warrior playing zone defense, and cultural borders that indicate city #2 was planted south on the coast. We'll head to the hills next and see if we can get visibility on the city center tile before his CRE borders pop. EDIT: Actually, it looks like the city center is east of the hill, meaning I won't get sight on it without a DOW.



Since the granary finished last turn, the capital was sitting at an empty granary and 16/24 food in the box. We would have normally made 8 this turn and grown to size 3, and had 8/26 food from the granary next turn and 16/26 the turn after. But instead we're going to hit No Growth and keep the city at size 2 with 24/24 food. Then next turn we turn off No Growth, and let the city grow to size 2 with 32/24 in the box and a full granary. This will give the city 8 overflow + 12 food from the granary, and the turn after we'll be at size 3 with 20/26 food instead of 16/26 food.

I know this trick is quite well known, but just in case there's someone who hasn't come across it yet, this is one of the very few times where that No Growth button is good for you: when you just built a granary and will grow without filling the granary first. Here it's going to gain us 4 food (at the expense of 1h and 1c, a very worthwhile trade).

Next turn our first cottage is planted!

[pindicator]

Turn 040

I did remember to turn off No Growth at the capital!
The other big improvement was we have our first cottage finished. Scales grew to size 2 this turn and immediately started working it. It's on a tile shared between Scales and the capital, so we're going to try and work this cottage every turn if possible.

I just realized that Barry's second town is called Horsieville. Really hope this doesn't mean a chariot rush is coming. We're actually close enough that a chariot or two thrown at an opponent quickly could do some damage.

Out west our scout has spotted some crucial tiles of Cyneheard's:



I'm going to defog the coast and then try to sneak past his capital next turn. (Edit: Forget defogging the coast for now; we can do that later with a boat.)

[pindicator]

Turn 041

Looks like we should be able to get by Cyneheard with our scout.



Later Cyneheard played his turn and gained points. I'll have to see if he planted city #3 --- if he did that's rather impressive succession of cities. He didn't plant #2 until after me, so possibly some kind of double-worker, grow, double-settler build? Anyway, I'm not sure that it was a city or if I'm just not reading novice's game tracker right.

Back home...



One worker split east and is starting a cottage south of Scales. The other finished the road between my two cities; next turn we have two turns to put into another cottage east of Scales before we need to head to the forest and road it.