[PB27-SPOILERS] Yup, it's HAK here...no idea what I might do this time...

[HitAnyKey]

Thanks for that info GJ.

So I'm sure everyone is commenting about how insane I am that I built this thing so early. I probably am, but it was fun to do. Do I now hold the record for the earliest Oracle build?
If nothing else, I'm sure I'm the first person to build it before getting out my first settler. Now my next task is to get out 2 cities as quickly as possible. Did some SIMs tonight, but need to do a few more and try all sorts of different ways of doing it. And also choose which site to settle as C#3. I keep flipping between options.

[GermanJoey]

So when do you think your first forge will come out?

[HitAnyKey]

So when do you think your first forge will come out?

Haven't yet had time to fully sim out when I'll get my first forge. I was busy trying to sim out the fun game of catchup. I've set myself up with quite the interesting challenge here....
REM & Yuri are already up to 4 cities. And 7 other people are at 3 cities.
And I get my second city in 3 turns on T47. And my current preferred SIM has me getting City#3 on T57 and I think getting the next city about 10 turns after that. But I gotta redo the sims for those far out a few more times and make better notes of any ways I can speed those times up.
The biggest reasons I went for the wonder were to make quick use of my PHI trait to get a Shrine quickly and then also start getting the second great person rolling. I'd expect to have my Forge in the capital done before that second one comes out, such that I can at least add some chance of getting a Great Engineer as the next one. Though another Prophet would be just as good for bulbing a tech or something.
The one thing my sims have shown me so far is that by getting out the shrine, I can go even further at 100% research without having to pause to save gold. At some point most of the other civs will have to pause/slow research for saving gold. I'm hopeful that will also help me.
So right now the biggest obstacles to me are getting my city count up while also getting enough appropriate military to make sure someone doesn't try to rush me (and to protect from barbs).

I didn't take any photos yet, but I also just recently met Grimace to the close north of Gavagai. Trying to get that scout to keep going north to meet more people now that KTBs come into play, but it just had to backtrack to get out of the way of a barb warrior near Grimace's borders of his 2nd city. I'm currently researching Iron Working and will likely go for Writing->Math after that. With any luck others I've met will beat me to those techs, such that the KTB helps me slightly.

[HitAnyKey]

Just a quick update, since I have to do some work tonight to catch up from travelling this weekend.
Settled my 2nd city last turn.


Same turn that I finished the Rice farm (so the city instantly had the food) and this turn finished a chop SE of that city to speed up the worker. Next turn that worker goes 1S to help the other worker finish a Cottage. Then the workers will split up with one of them going east to road from Corison to the C3 spot. The warrior will finish this turn along with the city growing and it'll start the settler next turn. The other worker will then go pasture the Pigs with the new worker helping. At some point one of those workers will split off to go camp the Ivory.

[GermanJoey]

Didn't like the copper?

[HitAnyKey]

Didn't like the copper?

I probably should have made that become my 2nd city when the location came about, but I kept liking the Pig/Rice spot for a quick growth city (which I had originally decided on before knowing where the copper is). And with being able to build Holkans if I needed to without the copper, I felt it could wait to be my 3rd city. I'll have it online at T57 and the copper online by about T65. If someone comes at me with Chariots, then my Holkans will be able to defend me. So I simply just need to hope for no Axe-rushes. And TheWannabe only just got his copper hooked up within the past couple turns. Don't know about Tsargon though. I don't think I've seen where his copper is.

Any of those proposed locations may also change depending on where Horses appear in the next two turns. Since for me, being able to build Holkans without Copper, having the ability to build Chariots will actually be more important than hooking up the copper.

[HitAnyKey]

Ya know...sometimes....well many times.....this game sure can just make your brain turn to mush.

Tonight I've been staring at my dotmap, I've run a couple sims with various reloads, trying all sorts of different things. And now I have almost no clue which direction I want to go.

But the more I've stared at it, and tried to get out some cities to good spots, I've realized those four cities to my east that I have planned right now make for a pretty cramped land. And with the northern few being kind of barren with all those plains, not much for rivers, and even a little lacking in food. And most of this dotmap was set up starting with choosing that location that I think would be ideal for Moai, because it would be able to have 2 Grass Hills to help build it. I did originally contemplate the tip of that peninsula for the future Moai, but knew it would take forever to build it there. And that precipitated spreading all the rest of the potential cities based on that future city.
I won't be able to grow those eastern cities very tall with them being cramped and placed like that, so I've run a couple of sims trying them in different locations. I've gotten some of these ideas be having just spent today staring at what Commodore's core looks like in PB25. So I've tried a sim of moving C3 south 2 tiles, C4 stayed where it is, C5 moved 1SE, and C6 & C7 stayed in place, and C8 moved 1SE also. That also pushes Maoi city 1S onto the hill, which isn't exactly great since as stated previously it'd take forever to build. But that also makes me move that other SE marked potential city site. I could move that 1S2E to that corner of the lands....and in that spot, it might actually make a good Moai spot as that spot has 2 Grass Hills to help build it.
I could also consider moving C4 1E, but that moves it more than halfway between me & TW and puts it on flatlands. I originally liked those C4 & C6 spots because they are decent spots and are on plains hills.
But that aside, the other benefits of moving C3 south include getting it on a river. Which means I only need to road one tile SE of my Pigs to get hooked up to trade routes, and then also when the Copper gets mined it is also immediately hooked up without needing a road. Plus the fact that I get those Pigs hooked up earlier by not waiting for my Moai city. And then C3 also gets to make use of LOT of grassland tiles to grow TALL & COTTEGEY.
Having made that sign for the future Moai as soon as I had that land explored I think basically locked my brain on that spot, which then snowballed the possibilities for all the rest of the cities. So at this point I think I may end up writing off those bottom 3 tiles to not be used until I plant a filler city on that hill.
I'm also considering leaving C8 where it is and moving C5 just 1S and not 1SE. This would give it that Wheat. If I moved it SE that makes me need to move C8 SE as well so that I don't strand the wheat which I definitely don't want to do.

I might try running a couple other sims to see if anything about my original dotmap could be better, but since I don't think I'd be doing that original Moai city anytime soon, I'm sure it's better getting those Pigs now. In my earlier sims I just kept not seeing them at all in my haste of trying to get cities settled in the east and north. Anything to the south of me I just kept thinking of as filler. And not having time until now to do any additional sims, I couldn't try anything different than those original plans.
Next will be trying to decide on the exact order of city spots. And whether I think I can risk pushing C4 to the east. The nice thing about that spot is that it's still on the same river. So again no roads necessary for trade routes, and it puts it right next to those Gems while still being next to the Deer. But I'd probably be battling TW for those Pigs, since I'm sure he'll settle a city somewhere in that area for the Pigs/Gems/Cows/Furs...and maybe Marble. So he may aim for 1NE of the Pigs. So that spot would put us at having our first ring borders touching. Which means I'd need to ramp up Holkans quickly.

Ooof, just realized I rambled a LOT just now....but it's allowed me to think about a whole bunch of stuff that I hadn't really put much thought into before. I've probably completely confused you lurkers...but I've also confused myself.
Especially since I need to make a decision for next turn regarding where to send this worker to start roading to C3...since I either send him to the Forest Dyes as originally planned or I send him to SE of the Pigs to road to the river. Maybe I'll just flip a coin tomorrow....

[HitAnyKey]

Whooo!!! I Haz Horsies! And right next to the city I built.



So gonna need to do a quick sim to see how that changes what I might do with workers before I move them this turn. But it may not change too much. In this new screenshot I marked various city spot changes for the dotmap based on last night's sims. One of the other things I had realized was that in the other dotmat, that SE city would have stranded that Fish off in that SE ocean tile. Putting that city on the new marked tile, gets the fish for that city with it also having access to 3 Hills to help build Moai at some point. The SW city would just be some filler city at some point in the distant future.
Sadly, TheWannabe's horses are in my direction (forgot to check Tsargon's before I logged out, so will check that area later)....which means he is almost definitely going to build a city on that tile 1S of his Horses. It's a great spot grabbing Pigs, Horses, & Gems first ring with being capable of grabbing wet Wheat, Furs, Marble, & another Gems second ring. So if I try to push C4 east to grab those Gems first ring, I'll literally be right up against his city. This can be a good thing, but I think being on the Plains Hill will be better for production & protection. Since it'll be able to use the Copper when it needs to, plus be better defensively.
I may want to then settle that C6 spot before C5 to start influencing my culture on that Marble, etc. Those two cities will create a nice barrier right up the middle between our lands. I'd just need to make sure I can get appropriate unit protection over there before he comes at me with his stuff.
That'll also give me a little bit of time to decide which C5 spot I want. If I go for the one on the hill, then C8 needs to come down SE in order for it to grab the Wheat. And I'll put a city up on that coast for grabbing the Stone, since it'll also be able to get the Crabs from there. So most of it's food will come from building a Lighthouse and working the lake tiles.
A lot to consider, but I'm definitely liking the beginnings of this dotmap better. It will allow both Corison and C3 to grow nice and tall with them both having a good amount of grassland and river tiles for good cottage economy.
So the toughest decision at this point would be which C5 spot to pick. That's going to be difficult for me to figure out which could be better.

For this turn, one of the workers is definitely going to go up and pasture the Horses. The other worker doesn't need to go down to road SE of the Pigs right away, since that road would be done too early to be really useful and then I'd have to figure out what to do with him. Though I guess I could have him road the hill that the warrior is currently on after connecting to the river. I'll have to sim that to see if that delays pasturing the pigs with the new city.

[HitAnyKey]

So I have confirmed that this new plan is most certainly better and what I'm using. I just tested it and I can have the worker road SE of the Pigs. Then he moves E to the hill and roads that. The turn he finishes that road is the same turn my settler is completed, so the settler can move directly to the C3 spot. This gets me that city a turn earlier than the original forecast and gets me started working on the Pig pasture a turn earlier as well. After the worker finishes the Horse pasture, he then moves to the Ivory to camp & road that, and then he moves to join the SE worker with finishing the Corn farm and then they both Mine the copper. The worker that Wellington builds stays at that city to pasture it's pigs and then build a cottage on the FP and then mine the Gold after I get Iron Working. So he'll be busy at that city for quite some time.

[HitAnyKey]

Haven't provided an update in awhile, so figured I'd do a quick one.
Had a little scare last turn with Barbarians. There was one that started coming into my borders from the SE. Last turn it got to the spot which is flagged below:


The turn prior I started sending my warrior from Wellington towards Corison to protect the city, however if the barb had moved to the Pigs it would have blocked my settler getting into position. So I moved my SE warrior off of the worker to the tile he is on right now with hopes that the barbarian would attack him and die. Luckily that is exactly what happened.
The other scare is that there was also a barb that showed up on the tile in the north with the C8 marker. This put him exactly 3 turns (if he kept going in a straight line) from Wellington, which as stated above I pulled the defender from to protect Corison if need be. So I had to put the Granary on hold to start a Warrior (working the Horses instead of the Rice), which if that barb kept coming would complete exactly in time for it to be there if the barb decided to attack the city. But that barb went off somewhere else, so this turn able to put the city back on Granary and growing using the Rice. When able to, I'll whip the granary and finish the warrior.
So all in all, I lucked out. Next turn I'll be settling C3 and starting the Pig pasture. The worker on the forest that you see will be moving to the Ivory next turn to Camp/Road it.
Over in the east my scout is watching what TW does with his settler. There is also a Krill warrior right in that area, so just waiting to see what happens. I'm assuming he'll be trying to settle the tile 1S of those Horses. Though if Krill is pressuring him in the north, he might be needing to start a city blockade of his own to get his lands there before expanding towards me.

My Demos are currently pitiful, but hopefully with this city coming online next turn, and getting a Chariot in 3 (after which Corison starts the next Settler by reaching Size4 again) turns will help get me off the bottom.




With at least 5 people getting their capital to size 6, mine has now fallen out of the Top 5 for the first time in awhile. But in 2t I get my Great Prophet for my shrine and my next border pop, so that alone may bring me back into the top 5. But turn after that I'd be hitting size 4 again, so that'd surely put me back on this chart.
I'll be plopping down C4 the turn after I get Iron Working, so getting the tech won't decide where I go for that city. If Iron doesn't appear within range of these first 4 cities, that may just alter what spot I choose for C5....maybe.