[Spoilers] DZ'CH is apparently a catchy name

[greenline]

Edit: Also, is there any way to bias the religion algorithm to put it in the northern city? I think you want to settle that one first, though it might just be random.

I believe the algorithm prioritizes non capital cities with the highest population. So you would want to grow the city you wanted it in before turn 5

[Cheater Hater]

Edit: Also, is there any way to bias the religion algorithm to put it in the northern city? I think you want to settle that one first, though it might just be random.

I believe the algorithm prioritizes non capital cities with the highest population. So you would want to grow the city you wanted it in before turn 5

Makes sense, especially with how I thought it prioritized early cities. So maybe we chop the worker at S, and let N grow on something? But on what--the gold buildings for a possible shrine? For that matter, we probably don't want the holy city to be our IW city. Decisions, decisions.

[Donovan Zoi]

I am fine with NW, although will be left with some unused tiles. That argument appears to be a non factor for now though.

It looks like we will have 8-10 hills on this site, which will be great, but we will need to forgo commerce here in favor of growth to sustain all that, obviously some Windmills will be needed. Looks like we may have 7 chops too.

I'd say we build culture here, but that kind of defeats the purpose. Or does it? To me, neither site screams out commercial juggernaut, so I say we just let the chips fall where they may and build culture in the city that does not find religion.

Side note: I see that two of our rivals (Dreylin, NobleGas) are already whipping, which makes sense for the short term with unimproved tiles. But I still think we come out ahead with continued growth and 6 plus Workers at eventual 200%.

I'll be sending our capital worker to land on the forested hill 1E of new site this turn. Do we want to put shields toward another Explorer in the meantime?

[greenline]

Side note: I see that two of our rivals (Dreylin, NobleGas) are already whipping, which makes sense for the short term with unimproved tiles.

In NobleGapars's case I still don't think it's the best short term decision, since they're not SPI and they'll be stuck in slavery until they either get a golden age or just eat a turn of anarchy. Don't think slavery is that valuable when caste workshops are available and factories are just around the corner. Dykes + factories is a really strong MFG combo that doesn't work if you whip a lot.

But what I know about micro couldn't fill a needle so I'm definitely missing something.

[Donovan Zoi]

Turn 252 - 1710 AD







In addition to the Ivory, we also picked up another source of Horses. We also came *this* close to adding Pigs, but they only became visible before I planted.

Next Moves?

OK, there were a few things I was not certain on this one so I went with the tried and true in the new cities.

What goal should we have for the free specialists in the other two cities? I started with Engineers for now.

I also queued up workers in both as well, even though we are chopping them out too. They are so easy now to get that we may as well start with an average of 2-3 per city, so that our infra keeps up with city size to allow us to consider Settlers sooner. But CH is right in that we do need to consider other builds:

Culture - This should be built in the city (or cities) that does not win the religion.

University - is the next logical build for our capital, since it's the PHI bonus building and will add to the Library and upcoming Academy we will have there. Not sure how it plays in both other sites, since they both seem like they'll be more hammer-centric.

Courthouses - Our new city plants brought the expected maintenance hit with them, leaving us with -7gpt at 100% research. But we can also switch to free Merchants to absorb some of this. In the meantime, Brick graciously bestowed us 100g to weather this transition.

Chariots - will these really be available once we hook up Horses? Cheaper than Explorers, these would make some good fogbusters to act as lookouts for our roving workforce.

Research - We can shave more turns off of Steam Power by devoting production to beakers, but i would only suggest this once we have 8 workers, and the benefits outshine any other builds.

Once our cities start to thrive, we can start tapping into happiness builds like the Mausoleum. The Colosseum/Theatre could come in handy if we are able to afford a 20% cultural expense to boost our defenses (no Walls this game). But that is talk for later.

Next Turn

We have a new FW in Delhi, to replace the one I am sending NW. Instead of going to the Pigs, I suggest that this worker go to chop the Silks in order to get us the Workboat we missed earlier (putting growth on autopilot), with overflow going into a second FW.

Doing this will allow us to pursue our Academy project, since I noticed that our first GP also follows the 20% rule and will only take 7 turns to get it. I still think it will be worth it to have this research benefit so much faster than the others, and only at the expense of 1 laborer.

[Cheater Hater]

Hooray, even more hammers in the northern city!

Which city do you want the religion in? If so, make sure it grows if possible. As I mentioned earlier, the northern city can use the extra culture better, but I don't want to commit to Wall Street in it.

Bombay doesn't really seem like a hammer city, unless you're putting Moai in it (which is another stone-boosted building). Actually, it has so many water tiles it doesn't have that much of a use :/

How soon do we want to start with Setters? I'd say that's a good use for Bombay, but it doesn't have enough forests to chop--maybe it's fine anyway since it doesn't have many tiles it wants to work other than the resource tiles?

[greenline]

Chariots - will these really be available once we hook up Horses? Cheaper than Explorers, these would make some good fogbusters to act as lookouts for our roving workforce.

Sadly I believe the only horse units we can build are cavs.

Also we might consider building an observatory or two in high science cities.

Which city do you want the religion in? If so, make sure it grows if possible. As I mentioned earlier, the northern city can use the extra culture better, but I don't want to commit to Wall Street in it.

I wouldn't worry about Wall Street because getting a Great Prophet probably isn't going to happen, since we can only manage one priest with a temple and don't have any great prophet enabling wonders.

How soon do we want to start with Setters? I'd say that's a good use for Bombay, but it doesn't have enough forests to chop--maybe it's fine anyway since it doesn't have many tiles it wants to work other than the resource tiles?

It might be better to wait until factories so our largest hammer cities can actually build them in a reasonable time frame? That would depend on where coal is, of course.

[Cheater Hater]

Fair enough; I didn't think about how hard it is to get a prophet (though Cathedrals are more Priest slots).

Really, no fourth city until after Factories? That's at least 50 turns away, even if we beeline them. There's no reason Vija can't 10T one in ~20 turns with a chop or two.

[greenline]

Cathedrals provide priest slots? Neat! It might be difficult to get 6 temples early though.

I don't think it will take 50 turns to beeline factories as research should go up once the cities grow and start working more tiles. That's what I saw in a few of my test industrial games anyway. But it might be worth setting one of the higher production cities to build them. It would probably depend on how many foodhammers each city can make once it grows. If it still takes 30t to build a settler then it might be better to just build infrastructure and ships to scout(?) I dunno.

[Donovan Zoi]

Turn 253 - 1715 AD

Hey guys, played the turn earlier, here's a quick recap.

- Switched to Research in Vijay, in order to post 1 food there in hopes of forcing the religion here. Steam Power in 37 turns now.
- Ran two Scientists in Delhi, GP in 6 turns if we keep the pace.
- New worker on way to chop workboat out via Delhi Silks forest, but stopped to put a turn into an adjacent road since he can still land and chop at the Silks next turn. Otherwise would have been a lost turn.
- Found Dyes and Copper to our far east.

Any questions let me know.