[SPOILERS] Mardoc's Magical Mystery Tour

[Mardoc]

Two turns so far this morning. :jive

Killed a barb near September, and we've already got two more marching inward. I don't think we'll be sending out a lion hunting party anytime soon, but we're keeping busy anyway

Decided to split the workers and mine two hills simultaneously. Less promptness but more efficiency

[Qgqqqqq]

Ooh, nice placement, should help with MFG. The southern city will be hurting all the more for food, though, so we should farm the NE tile.

I don't think we've spoken on it, but do you plan to go Aristocracy in the medium term?

[Mardoc]

No, not planning on Aristo. I don't think we have enough riverside farms, for one thing - and GNP isn't our limiting factor, for another. I'm thinking I'm going to lean heavily on Elder Councils + Libraries + Sages and probably a few cottages, for now. In the long run, it's looking like leaning on Wanes is feasible.

Barbs started coming 12 turns ago. In that time, our fighting units have accumulated 26 XP. That's basically a Wane and a half, spread out over three units so we can't cash in yet. With the Academy + God King, each wane is worth either 10.5 bpt or 10.5 gpt and a hammer or food. Granted, I've been somewhat lucky and haven't lost any of my battles, but that's still a solid pickup rate. Eventually it'll tail off, as the wild gets settled, but we're going to need to pick on our neighbors to win. On the other hand, that's starting our units off with 0 XP. If we put a lot of effort into XP, Wanes will be even more abundant. I want to get into at least Apprenticeship, probably also Conquest, and get the MilStrat command post. Ideally also FotT. If I manage all of those, units will be born with 9 XP, already halfway to Wanes.

I'm also not counting any passive XP, which should also be feasible. We might go for Cultists there, or maybe adepts/mages, or both. Our starting adept is up to 9 XP in 45 turns, which isn't great, but it could be doable given enough starting XP.

Then, on top, commerce multiplier buildings will be worth a lot to us once we start the Wane Train. Library is easy; we can already research Writing. The other multipliers aren't that hard to get to, though. Bazaar of Mammon is particularly attractive, of course.

[Mardoc]

Third turn of the day, we only had one fight, at 95%, won for 3 more XP. Incoming we have a goblin + warrior for next turn, and another warrior coming from the east ~3 turns out. I'm pausing the settler for at least one more warrior, maybe two.

Our warriors are at 11, 11, and 7 XP - not going to be wanes immediately, but it's already time to figure out when to slip in their replacements. Fortunately Bananas is going to finish its Elder Council next turn; should be able to get a warrior or two out while it finishes growing up.

And we have our first mine! If #1 crop yield weren't ~50 to our ~30, we'd be sitting pretty. As it is...it still might work out, but it's rather more nervewracking. I have to believe that's Jalepeno working mostly coast tiles and hardly any hammers, if I want to keep hope.

[Mardoc]

And...14 XP. Now I just need one more victim and we'll have our first ghostlike researcher!

[Mardoc]

Two turns, and we ought to get our northern warrior to level 5. Meanwhile, I expect the other warrior in the south to be worth at least three XP to our 11 XP warrior - although he's only got ~90% odds, so there's a chance it's several XP to a less promoted warrior instead, I suppose.



Who needs cities?

Ok, ok, so we can't get all our production from Wanes. Demos continue to be very lopsided, more than ever now that September has its Elder Council and Sage on top of the cap's EC + Sage. Enough that I'm toying with the idea of an GEng instead of GSage...but I probably won't actually do that. Too many techs we want, too many first-to bonuses, and it's not like the next Wane is all that far away if I change my mind




If it weren't for that 52 food monster (gotta be Jalepeno from the score) I'd be extremely happy with these demos. As it is...I'm still pretty happy . But I don't feel like a runaway. Want to find a way to scout him so I know if he's only got food, or if he's also the MFG leader.

[Mardoc]

Hmm. So, two Wanes are due soon, and our next Great Sage is also not that far away. I think I will settle them all in Bananas, probably two Sages/ one Merchant. That's a solid 31 commerce with Academy/God King, which should basically double my research rate again. Also a slight boost to hammers/food. I don't want to bulb KotE, 10 bpt breaks even with that in 25-30 turns, and I don't have any use for KotE just yet. A golden age...is a little more viable, especially since I'm going to want a revolt into OO and a revolt into Apprenticeship, both pretty soon. I've only got 12 population to boost, though - maybe a few more by the time I get the Sage, but I still don't think that'll be enough to outweigh the 10 bpt til the end of time. OTOH, I will be continuing to work my Sage and Inspiration.

I really need to get a third and fourth city out. This GNP is great, but it's hard to use without more production. I guess I could settle Engineers, but IIRC they are only 4 hpt/1 bpt, which isn't enough better than a GSage. Maybe if I didn't have the Academy it would be a tougher call - but 9 bpt > 4.5 hpt, in my opinion. Will get even more lopsided once we get a library in place.

Well, I've almost got my third settler - just delaying it for enough warriors to be comfortable pushing outside my borders. Fourth won't take that long; I've got settlers down to eight turns already, and still more mines to build. Both of these cities should be able to produce a good amount of hammers.

But on the gripping hand: we are already paying 5 gpt in maintenance with my two cities. Although I feel like I've got a cash surplus, it really won't stay that way. I wouldn't be surprised if our maintenance bill is in the 15-20 gpt range once we have four cities. That'll shift our balance back toward something reasonable, and hopefully slow everyone down.

[Mardoc]

...and we get immediate lurker thread posts. Here's hoping they're talking about how ridiculous our GNP looks (and will be with Wanes) and not how idiotic my plans are .

[Qgqqqqq]

Agreeing with the tone of it all. But definitely focus on settlers/expansion - from hereon in, most of the boosts in the other direction are passive, except for a touch of warriors, so we should definitely pour resources into improving food/hammers. Remember, if a city is costing too much, a merchant will probably overcome a lot of that. And whilst we're not awash with wanes by any means, it's still probably worthwhile as it pushes us up in the other direction.

[Mardoc]

I, um. Could you maybe rephrase that? I'm not quite sure what you mean by "from hereon in, most of the boosts in the other direction are passive, except for a touch of warriors" or "And whilst we're not awash with wanes by any means, it's still probably worthwhile as it pushes us up in the other direction. "

I got the 'focus on foodhammers' bit and pretty much agree. I'll keep building Phi Elder Councils because they're so cheap, but our build queues are going to be mostly the holy REX trifecta: workers, settlers, warriors. What we need most is more and bigger cities. I'm slightly debating with myself how much effort to put into growing cities tall: in particular, whether it's worth the turn to revolt into OO for the happiness or just use it passively for culture for now.

After the fourth city goes down, I'll need to reevaluate priorities. I suspect REX will still win, but you can't marry your plans in this game.

As for tech - after OO comes in, I think I will pick up Animal Husbandry and probably Education, then try for Drama, and follow that up with Bronze/Warfare/MilStrat. With this kind of research power, it might well be possible to get *all* of the first-to bonuses; at least, I feel like I should try. Haven't decided what to do with the Artist if I get him; maybe he's Sanitation, but maybe he'd do better saved for a golden age. We could use the Sanitation boost, but, well, normally that's so valuable because it saves a ton of beakers. Beakers do not appear to be our limiting factor, however.