[SPOILERS] Suboptimal's Arabian Adventure

[suboptimal]

Turn 40

Woden mentioned in our organizing thread that Ed Beach had tweeted that save games might not see all of the balance changes.  In checking the district & settler costs I see that my first district would cost 88 cogs and my next settler would be 100.  Pre-patch the district should be 97 cogs and the settler post-patch should be 110.  Looks like a mixed bag on that front.  In improvement news, Jerusalem has built a plantation on its mystery resource tile and is getting +2 gold.  That’s good news for my economy.  

Describing the situation around Tomatin (since I deleted my screenshots before converting & saving them) , the warrior has killed itself on my warrior near Glenfarclas.  The slinger is still hanging around as well and wounded scouts are back in the north and south.  A builder has also completed in Tomatin.  The moves:

- redlined warrior takes the battlecry promotion.
- Glenfarclas warrior moves back to Glenfarclas
- Tomatin warrior stays put
- Northern slinger moves west and attacks the scout
- Warrior attacks barbarian slinger.  That warrior is redlined but has a promotion available.  Will it survive the slinger’s attack next turn?

The builder/build plan at Tomatin is to move to and plantation the dyes over the next two turns while a slinger builds.  On Turn 42 Tomatin will switch to a settler and the builder will cross the river into the forest.  On Turn 43 I switch back to the slinger, chop the forest and then switch back to the settler.  That will complete the slinger and put either 40 or 35.5 cogs into the settler, depending on if the district discount has carried over to chops (will find out next turn).  Tomatin will finish the settler then build the holy site (which is getting placed on Turn 42).

Over at Jerusalem the scout reveals the mystery resource at Jerusalem to be silks and finishes its move on the marble quarry.

Ichabod has also been found in the southwest as All Along the Watchtower is roughly east of Shido.   Looks like Kaiser forward-settled him to try to bottle him in.  Going to have to keep an eye on that.  Picture of that front next turn.

[suboptimal]

Turn 41



I’d consider going after that slinger now, but that warrior is beyond redlined.  It can promote, however, so I take Battlecry and heal up.  That slinger will die next turn.  Before putting down a plantation I check the chop value of the jungle tile:



A total of 32 for a chop value is still using the 1/3 of the old district cost (20) instead of the discounted one (18).  If that holds for the game it means that three chops will get out a district with a bit of overflow.  Builder puts down the plantation and it shows two gold.  Both Tomatin and Glenfarclas become Happy and I get the +5% bonus to all yields in both cities. 

As a just-in-case with Ichabod (though he hasn't tried yet) I move the warrior in Tomatin to join the builder.  The other warrior moves into Tomatin for extra healing.  I checked the tile-picker and the next tile up is the forest east of the farmed rice in 20 turns.  Glenfarclas’ tile picker is going after the eastern silver.  Good for gold, but I’d much rather have that Tsingy deer tile.  I also can’t really work it until Glenfarclas gets another builder to get some farms up.

Still no sign of a quarry at Stockholm.  A picture of the Japan/England front:



Also of note here is that Kaiser has closed borders, so he’s finished Early Empire.  He’s also the only one who is generating any great people points and is at 12/60 for a prophet.  

The city-states relationship display is interesting – I can’t tell if everyone that I’ve met has met all of the city-states but everyone is displayed.  I don’t think Rowain got far enough southwest to meet either Stockholm or Kumasi but Teddy’s picture shows up there.

I was going to offer Rowain peace but the display tells me I’ve got one more turn left.  We shall see what happens next turn.  If I can’t get peace with him I will assume that he’s settling in the area I previously marked for Glenkinchie.  We’ll see if iron is over there on Turn 43 when Bronze Working completes.

[Cornflakes]

Unfortunately you will have to buy the 3rd ring Deer Tsingy tile if you want it anytime soon. The tile picker seems to take all 2nd ring tiles before any 3rd ring tiles.

[suboptimal]

Unfortunately you will have to buy the 3rd ring Deer Tsingy tile if you want it anytime soon. The tile picker seems to take all 2nd ring tiles before any 3rd ring tiles.

Yeah, I'm trying to limit my purchasing of tiles - that tile is currently 95 gold and will only go up.  I've already got 60 gold budgeted for the holy site location at Tomatin and, if I settle Cragganmore, another 60-70 gold budgeted for the diamond tile up there.  Settling Strathisla at this point is a non-starter as that's a more food-poor site than Cragganmore.

[suboptimal]

This post is in response to Ichabod's post in the organizing thread and is for the lurkers to go over and digest.  I will post pictures when I get home, but for now, text.  This info is also in the start of the Turn 40 post.

Settler Costs

The old progression was 80 -> 100 -> 120....  The new progression should be 80 -> 110 -> 140...  Based on what I'm seeing on-screen my settler builds are on the old progression:

[reserved]

District Costs

Based upon my progress in the game and the formulas available at CivFanatics and Reddit, with 5 techs and 3 civics completed, a pre-patch district (base cost 60) would cost 97 cogs.  Post patch the calculation (base cost 54) works out to 88 cogs.  I appear to be building districts at the new, lower rate:

[reserved]

District Building Costs

I don't have a district so I can't comment on this yet.

[Cornflakes]

Are your currently building a settler? I saw a comment somewhere that the settler cost was showing 100 until it started building, and then updated from 100 > 110 on the next turn.

[Woden]

Are your currently building a settler? I saw a comment somewhere that the settler cost was showing 100 until it started building, and then updated from 100 > 110 on the next turn.

This was pure speculation on my part and not confirmed yet. But if you have/are built a 2nd settler would be good information to have.

[suboptimal]

Are your currently building a settler? I saw a comment somewhere that the settler cost was showing 100 until it started building, and then updated from 100 > 110 on the next turn.

This was pure speculation on my part and not confirmed yet. But if you have/are built a 2nd settler would be good information to have.

We'll find out with the upcoming turn.  I need to delay slinger completion by a turn and will be starting a settler for 1 turn while my builder positions for the chop to complete the slinger.  I'll update the settler cost when I start the build next turn and resume the build on T43.

[suboptimal]

The First 41

Turns 1 – 25: Went according to plan.

Turns 26 – 36 or so: I probably earned the scorn  and laughter  of the Lurkerati, and probably broke a couple of necks from all the vigorous head shaking .  I'll find out when the game is over, or I'm out, and subject myself to their judgements.

Turns 37 to 41: Starting to level out and get back on track.  Rowain and I are currently in the basement in tech and culture generation, so that's where my attention is focused.

The Next 19

Since I didn't get up “The Grande Planne” around Turn 30 and seem to have things a bit more under control I figured I'd lay out where I go from here, at least for the next 19 turns.

Tomatin

Tomatin will finish the slinger, part-chop/part-build a settler then get the Holy Site built.  There will be a 1 turn delay on completing the slinger to get into position for the chop, but the settler will be started during the upcoming turn.  The settler + Holy Site should take me through Turn 55 or so.  After that I'd probably be looking to get out a builder to run to City #3.  After that I need to see what the game state is.

Glenfarclas

A slinger for defense so that I can get the warrior on barb-clearing duty SE of Tsingy.  After that the warrior may go on to Hattusa and/or scout out the east and northeast.  Glenfarclas will most likely build a trader followed by a builder.  There is a good spot for a Holy Site 2 tiles east of the city center (+4 adjacency), but I don't want to have to buy that tile right now.  After those two units I'd consider a second scout or start attempting to crank out units.  I'd also like to not have to buy the Tsingy deer tile (as I've spent enough on tiles so far), but the yield is too juicy to pass up.

City #3

The city sites to choose from are Aberfeldy and Cragganmore, with Glenkinchie being a consideration only if iron shows up there.  The dilemma between the Aberfeldy and Cragganmore sites is one of food vs. production. Aberfeldy has food and Cragganmore has production.  In working out some numbers, Cragganmore can generate twice as much production in its first 20 turns (~100, not counting policies) but will be stuck around population 2 until Feudalism comes in.  However, it also provides an economic boost with +3 gold (for the diamond tile, which I'd buy), an amenity once I get a builder up there and the +4 adjacency campus.  The plan, barring iron showing up elsewhere, is to settle Cragganmore and have it start immediately on a campus.  The settler should be out on Turn 49 and Cragganmore would be settled on Turn 55.  If it's Aberfeldy it's be on Turn 53.  

If I go after Glenkinchie it'd also be settled on Turn 53 but I'd need peace with Rowain, no American settlers in the area and, preferably, still be in the 10 turn enforced peace to avoid another DoW until I get the settler into position.  It remains the best city site, even if Rowain were to buy up both horse tiles when I settled.

Resources & Military

Unless I make a push through Rowain for Glenkinchie or there's horses in the fog at Cragganmore I'll be horseless until Mamluks come in.  If there's no iron I can get to I'll be looking at spending a good portion of the game down on strategic resources.  In this instance my plan will be to crank out a combination of heavy chariots, archers and possibly warriors or spearmen to flood the battlefield with units.  With 1 UPT it would make an opponent's maneuvering very difficult and allow me to gain some flanking and support bonuses once I can get Military Tradition.  Any war would be one of significant attrition.  I also have no idea if that would work, but we may find out.

Research

Gotta do what I can to speed things along.  I'd like to get Archery and Writing finished (Writing first) then get working on Masonry and Wheel.  I won't be able to get eurekas for all both Wheel and Masonry given my current settlement plan and I'll probably wind up slow-researching Masonry (or pillage-researching it).  If there are no strategic resources available I'll have to get Masonry & Wheel done then beeline Stirrups.

City States

I need to see what Hattusa is up to.  If it's a pillage target I'll send a warrior over there after I clean up the barbarian camp.  I also would like Stockholm to build that quarry so I can pillage it for the culture and the envoy in Kumasi.  Beyond the next 20 I will give serious consideration to taking Stockholm once its campus is up.  Kumasi is also a potential invasion target.  If I come across any others I will probably declare war and pillage their mines and quarries for the catch-up science & culture.

La Venta is also a question mark.  Like Jerusalem I can use envoys to really get the faith cranking.  Additionally, the Colossal Heads improvement might actually be useful this game.  There are many spots along and in the forest belt where the improvement would get boosts, in some cases being a total +4 faith improvement.  On the other hand, it has some reasonable 2/2 tiles and a completed Holy Site that would be quite useful in my empire.

[suboptimal]

Turn 42

I’ve realized that I’ve based my settler turn count on the pre-patch values.  If the build cost updates itself to the new values after a turn or two then everything I’ve posted about the settler in The Next 19 is delayed by one turn.  No matter.  Let’s see where I’m at...you know, in having to listen to Sean Bean talk about Shikken of Japan Hojo Tokimune I’ve become slightly...bemused...by the fact that the commas before “Shikken” and “Hojo” are used by Mr. Bean as “proceed with authority” rather than “take a breath and pause.”  Anyway, To The Screenshot!



No peace offer by Rowain.  Baltimore has grabbed one of the horse tiles.  The American slinger appears to have retreated.  Stockholm has not built a quarry.  I might be tempted to just grab the 1-charge builder to send it up to Cragganmore.  That’d mine a hill for me which is all I’d really need to get started.  Hmmmm.  

First, off with the barbarian slinger’s head.  It dies, warrior moves up.  I may wander it over to Glenkinchie to see what’s over there, American-wise.  The scout starts to track back to Stockholm in the latest instance of me turning something in this game into “Ahab and the Whale”.  Builder at Tomatin crosses the river.  Warrior stays put to heal some more.  My northern slinger also stays put as that will be on settler escort duty.  I decide that the warrior in Glenfarclas will accompany the English scout and bust the rest of the fog that’s west of the city.  

Settler is queued up in Tomatin and will get a turn of cogs.  Next turn the slinger will be chopped to completion.  I’m estimating the chop, with Agoge, will be 51 cogs.  The slinger only needs four so the settler will get 47 cogs plus this turn’s production of 9.4.  That’ll leave it with 5-6 turns of production depending on how the cost shakes out.

Internationally, Bacchus is in last place for military, with less than 57 in military power.  This is actually a concern, because it means he hasn’t felt threatened (probably because both Japan and America have been busy over here) and because he’s been putting his cogs into building his economy.  I didn’t offer Rowain peace, partly as an oversight, partly because I started thinking about what’s in the next paragraph and partly because I’d like peace to end on Turn 53 or 54, just in case I do go for Glenkinchie.

I’m also beginning to wonder if putting a settler down here, instead of at Cragganmore, would be more trouble than it’s worth.  Lots of 2/2 tiles and I’d start by working a 3F/2P tile.  Hmmmm…….



Hit next turn and am serenaded by the dulcet sounds of a warrior (or two) doing combat.

For the lurkers that are monitoring the patch situation, here’s my current settler and district costs (5 techs, 3 civics completed):