[SPOILERS] How do you make this thing work: Krill randomly mashes some buttons

[BRickAstley]

Heh, we even have the same processor.
That's good news, thanks!

HP elitebook 840?

[Rusten]

Lenovo E31 notebook.

Be careful what you wish for Krill! 

[Krill]

Well we need a fifth for a new PBEM. I'm masochistic enough to say I'd enjoy your opposition (so long as you are on the other side of the map!)

[Krill]

Update T118

There has been a precipitation of how I need to play out this expansion process, regarding the districts, city location and builder micro over the past two turns.




What is not shown in this screenshot is that Pin has a galley on the fish, 7777 of my northern Xbow, a barb sword 7 of the visible barb sword. I am thinking that I can only fit cities onto the tiles 9 of the peninsula's northern mountain, and then 111 of the same mountain. The southern city location will be on freshwater and the northern city can also use an aqueduct if needed for +3 housing. I struggle to form a defensive diamond, but I would then put Encampments on the tiles 74 of the northern mountain and either 44 or 1133 of the same tile. The former option is probably the most aggressive option against an amphibious assault, but the latter is probably more prudent as it gives additional defense to land based approach. A compromise would be this:

Note to self: SS settler complete T123, settles city 8 T131, MS settler complete eot122, settles city 9 T132, VV settler complete eot121, settles city 7 T125.





This looks defensible to me. I am also considering an IZ here, because the current layout for IZ means half my cities would not get production from factories. Also note the pin "Entertainment 10". The Entertainment district at CS covers every single city currently built. This location would then cover every city to the west, leaving the only city not covered the city to be built near Jester. Add this to Zen Meditation as the founder benefit from the religion and I should have every city not require an amenity from resources until size 7. Also, should have put a Pin 9 of City 9 as a Harbour and I know that an IZ 4 of City 8 would cover cities 8, 9, and 12 whilst potentially being well protected and surrounded by hills.

I've mentioned before that list of districts that will be discounted once I finish teh Acopolis at SS, Campus as EF and the proposed Holy Site at CS. To repeat them, they are as follows: 2 encampments, 1 harbour, 1 commercial district, 1 holy site, and 1 acropolis. The Entertainment District was not mentioned but is also discounted. This is where they will be built, in the rush to discount the fourth district of each type and get the west defended:

• Encampments: City 8 via Limes forest chop from ancient walls and City 9, via Limes forest chop from ancient walls (roughly 120 production from each chop, discounted cost 140 production or less)
  
• Entertainment District: City 10 via Maneuver forest chop from Heavy Chariot
  
• Commercial: City 11 via Maneuver forest chop from Heavy Chariot
  
• Holy Site: MS via Maneuver rain forest chop from Heavy Chariot
  
• Acropolis: City 7 via unmodified forest chop
  
• Harbour: EF via base production

You can just see in these screenshots that there is a Holy site placed at CS. I'll come to that in a moment, but sufficed to say that the Campus at EF is the limiting factor to discounting districts. Once all of these are built I need one further district to be built at full cost to make the 4th district type discounted. This will likely to reached at city 11 or 7 via a marsh or food resource clearance to reach size 4 and then chop the district. I favour City 11 because I could build a "full price" Acropolis for 1 chop and a handful of production. What all this means is that I probably need to run both Limes and Maneuver at the same time so I will need to make sacrifices with civic cards.





With the plan for the second ED placement, I have a bit more flexibility with City 11, so I've placed it in a greedier area. I intend to harvest the rice to grow, via buying 2 tiles and buy use a triangle of farms on the wheat for excess food (plus the wine and horse now I have exploration for extra pasture food) for a good food surplus. Lot of hills here I want to claim and work. The IZ probably not going to be built, it's not like it will be starved of production. City 11 also claims third ring silver, if I need to grab it for some reason.





I've moved on to thinking about how to guard the isthmus between the peninsula and Valetta and my core. Ultimately, I have to be wary of a backstab from Lisbon via Pin staccking up Envoys and dumping them in at the start of a war. Levee'd troops would be enough to win the war in a variety of circumstances. So whilst I have two separate dot maps for this region, I know that I may have to take Lisbon in the future to guard against those options. The Suzerain bonus isn't worth much, definitely trade it for Zanzibar. hell, probably have to take it so the units don't get in the way.

I think I prefer the City 12a location. Harvest the wheat, and at size 5 it can work the niter, 3 plains hill mines and a grass hill mine. With a granary, that is food neutral. Housing and the lack of fresh water is then not a concern, it just needs religion spread before the harvest and it shouldn't even need amenities. Size 5 requires 117 food to be produced, size 6 requires 172 food. So really a single harvest gets there, also need to sit at size 1 for a few turns to buy tiles, improve them so there is enough food to sit at size 5. Asking if it's worth buying the granary is probably wise though, seems excessive. But if the tiles are mined, it could starve for a few turns and 4 turn build the granary. It's approachable over 3 tiles but it gets me a second source of niter and gives a solid line of encampments





OK, micro. I fucked up and miscounted at CS, I had it one turn behind on production. So on T119 it dumps roughly 30 production into the Holy Site. T120 works the library and plains forest hill instead of a wheat until T124, when I probably have it work a wheat instead of the forest to come to about 318 production in a 320 cost settler eot125. Then chop the settler with the plains hill forest T12, and send that settler to city 10 location, settled T131. (EF settler is completed eot124, settles city 11 T132 for comparison). eot126 with that forest chop, overflow about 120 production plus that turns production into a 30/132 Holy Site, so eot127 dump the overflow, roughly 50 production plus that turns production, into a builder, so close to 80/94. Then save that builder until Humanism is complete, revolt into Serfdom and build that builder plus one more afterwards. Use CS Holy Site to found my religion (waiting about 3 turns) because I figure CS is a more defensible city than Scombridae, waiting 3 turns isn't that important (famous last words). With CS getting 2 builders out in that fashion, EF can go from settler to complete the Campus so I can get the districts discounted ASAP.


And as a bonus to those loyal readers: have a quick look at Japper being used as a banquet:

[Krill]

Gold.

I know that by T128 (when I finish Humanism) I should have almost 1500 gold saved.

I need to figure out how to spend it. I was thinking about buying that Armoury, but I think it may be wiser to swap Conscription for Veterancy and build it at VV after the settler at max production. Saving 660 gold, minus roughly 120 gold of unit maintenance means I would save enough gold to buy two builders or a builder and a sword. Probably 2 builders once Serfdom is in, in the cities where they are needed which removes travel time from the purchase. I need to work out how many charges I need, but I know just from the core I need 10 charges, never mind the new cities. Two builders from CS, one each from SS, MS and Scom only gives 30 charges. I also need to not build too many heavy chariots. I need to buy and improve that horse tile at city 11 so I can instead use horsemen for the chop multiplier as they upgrade to cavalry, and so I can research Stirrups sooner. So tile buys need to be calculated, what is needed before Mercantilism is finished after Humanism. And the use of Theocracy to allow a short term swap into Land Surveyors...and what cards to use if I'm using Veterancy pre-Humanism and Maneuver and Limes post-Humanism.

[Krill]

Quick back of the envelope calculations, taking into account natural tile claims over next 20 turns

CS: 3 mines
VV: Chop and 3 mines
EF: Chop and farm (towards the end of the 20 turns due to water tiles)
Scom: Mine
MS: Chop
SS: Chop and 2 mines

Total: 14 charges on core cities

City 7: 3 second ring tile buys, 2 chops, 3 mines, farm, pasture. 2 farms wanted. (immediate need: 7), 2 delayed. LS tile buy cost: 300
City 8: 2 second ring tile buys, 1 farm, 1 chop, 1 camp. (immediate need: 3). LS tile buy cost: 200
City 9: 2 second ring tile buys, 1 third ring. 1 chop, 2 mines, 1 plantation. (immediate need: 4), 1 delayed. LS tile buy cost: 350
City 10: 3 second ring tile buys, 1 chop, 2 plantation, 3 mine. (immediate need: 4), 2 delayed. LS tile buy cost: 300
City 11: 4 second ring tile buys(?!), 1 third ring tile buy, 1 pasture, 1 resource harvest, 3 farms, 3 mines. (immediate need: 6), 2 delayed. LS tile buy cost: 550

Total immediate need: 24, delayed need: 7

I need to prioritise, but 2 builders from CS, 1 each from MS, SS and Scom gives 30, with bought builders in City 7 and City 8 I should be able to make it work. Could always try to squeeze out a builder from EF before Serfdom is rotated out and SS should be able to get another one as well. The main issue is buying tiles. With Land Surveyors and current costs that is 1700 gold, that's just not going to happen. In some cases the tile picker should pick the wanted tiles naturally, buying a monument is cheaper (200 gold, cost of 2 tiles which I would then get over next 15 turns). Need to work this out. Some just can't be delayed though. The Horse, the iron, the niter?

[suboptimal]

Some just can't be delayed though. The Horse, the iron, the niter?

Are these the three you think can't be delayed or are you trying to figure out which of the three should get purchased?  If the latter, I'd say the niter so that you're ready to build/upgrade when rifles are available.

[Krill]

I'm trying to figure out the order of tile claims from culture. The culture needed for the first three tiles are 10, 20.27 and 35.29. If I buy a monument I can get teh first two tiles in 5 and 7 turns respectively. Monument is 200 gold, buy two second ring tiles also costs 200 gold. Then there is the delay in hooking up tiles as I move builders about etc.

I know I need the horse the moment I settle the city, because I need to put production into horsemen with maneuver, and that is the second horse allowing me to build horsemen without encampments. This allows me to finish Stirrups and research to Gunpowder. The iron allows a sword or two to be built to upgrade to muskets in other cities as well, before I finish Gunpowder. if I delay those tile purchases, I fuck up overflow chops for districts, and I harm my ability to build units before I unlock the next bunch of stupidly expensive units.

I think I will end up buying a monument at city 10, with the citrus it will make 3.3 culture per turn from settling, which means tiles claimed on TX+4, TX+10 and TX+18 because of Oral Tradition. The tile picker should go Wines>[niter or citrus]. I need to figure out if I can make this work with buying fewer tiles. I already think I can do so at cities 11, 9 and 7, but I will have to buy tiles. Iron, marsh at city 7, wheat and horse at city 11 as both reach size 5 immediately. 2 tiles for Encampments and 1 for Entertainment district, but I think I can limit it to that, these need specific tiles that the tile picker will not get to for 50 turns. With Land Surveyors, this would be 700 gold. I can't make this work any other way without those tiles.

[suboptimal]

The tile picker will take strategic/luxury resources before bonus resources, using the total tile yield as the first tiebreaker (higher yields first). The second tiebreaker is terrain type (plains/grass before tundra/desert). If two resource tiles have the same terrain and total yields the tile picker will flip-flop.

At which specific city locations are the resources located at? I'll try to locate them on a screenshot and see if I can provide specific information.

[Krill]

There are two screenshots:




This shows city 7, with iron the only strat or lux resource in the second ring. I need that iron, and I need the marsh.




This shows cities 10 and 11, I think that I buy the tile for the ED at city 10 and I only want the three resource tiles afterwards which are prioritised anyway. City 11 must buy the horse, but after that it is the stone and wheat, and I want the wheat. I think that's a 50/50 chance of getting either.

Cities 8 and 9 want tiles that will not get picked by the tile picker as they have no resources and lowest yield, except for a single banana tile.