[Spoilers] All rho21s lead to Rome

[rho21]

Turn 6

I am first to 2 population. Also, working that tobacco has apparently put me back in the lead in the race for a pantheon. Not sure if I trust that Russia has actually just gained 1 then stopped. I could apply God King next turn for the 6 turns until my next civic switch just to make sure I'm ahead barring religious city states. Or I could accelerate my snowball slightly with Urban Planning. I'm leaning towards the latter.

The capital has grown to size 2 this turn; the new population is working the sheep.
The scouting warrior is going to pass to the west of Mohenjo-Daro, loop around the eastern side of the capital investigating anything interesting, then head off to the N or NE. The next warrior will follow the coast to the SW of the capital for a bit before heading to the east.

[rho21]

Turn 7

No-one grew this turn, so none of Brazil, Russia and Germany have been working a 3-food tile.

Code of Laws is complete; I start Craftsmanship. My people now follow the tenets of discipline and urban planning.

Latest scouting information (there's nothing on settler view):

[RFS-81]

About Russia's faith, maybe they forgot to assign the citizen to the tile they actually wanted to work. Sound silly, but it happened to me too in PBEM 10.

Seems like your builder won't be finished in time to land the Craftsmanship boost. Are you going to switch to International Trade when it's half full? Since the boost for IT is one of the more random ones, it feels less of a waste if you end up researching it without boost. But Craftsmanship unlocks better policies (at the moment).

[rho21]

Seems like your builder won't be finished in time to land the Craftsmanship boost. Are you going to switch to International Trade when it's half full? Since the boost for IT is one of the more random ones, it feels less of a waste if you end up researching it without boost. But Craftsmanship unlocks better policies (at the moment).

Good question.

The three things to consider are:

• What do I build next once the warrior is done?
  
• Do I finish off research of Craftsmanship or delay it for the boost?
  
• If I finish Craftsmanship, what policies do I run?
  

Here are four possible strategies starting on T9 when the current warrior build has just finished. In each case the builds after the builder aren't set in stone, but it won't matter much to the numbers.

1. Produce a builder, research Craftsmanship at full price, set policies to Ilkum and Agoge.
   

   Turn	Building	Effective	Notes
   9	Builder	7.3
   10	Builder	7.3
   11	Builder	7.3
   12	Builder	7.3
   13	Builder	8.1	Craftsmanship done, Ilkum adopted in place of Urban Planning
   14	Builder	10.9	Size 3
   15	Slinger	12.6	Builder complete
   16	Slinger	14.1	Pasture built
   17	Slinger	14.1
   18	Warrior	15.7	Slinger complete, mine built
   19	Warrior	15.7
   20	Warrior	15.7

   Total: 136.1
   At the end of turn 20, I would have 3 warriors, a slinger and 1 builder charge, with 14 overflow.
   
   
2. Produce a builder, research Craftsmanship at full price, set policies to Urban planning and Agoge.
   

   Turn	Building	Effective	Notes
   9	Builder	7.3
   10	Builder	7.3
   11	Builder	7.3
   12	Builder	7.3
   13	Builder	7.3	Craftsmanship done
   14	Builder	9.4	Size 3
   15	Builder	9.4
   16	Slinger	14.1	Builder complete
   17	Slinger	15.7	Pasture built
   18	Warrior	15.7	Slinger complete
   19	Warrior	17.3	Mine built
   20	Warrior	17.3

   Total: 135.4
   At the end of turn 20, I now would have the same 3 warriors, a slinger and 1 builder charge, this time with 13.3 overflow but better income thanks to urban planning.
   
   
3. Produce a scout, research Craftsmanship at full price, set policies to Ilkum and Agoge.
   

   Turn	Building	Effective	Notes
   9	Scout	7.3
   10	Scout	7.3
   11	Scout	7.3
   12	Scout	7.3
   13	Scout	7.3	Delay Craftsmanship by a turn
   14	Builder	10.9	Scout complete, Size 3, Craftsmanship done, Ilkum adopted in place of Urban Planning
   15	Builder	10.9
   16	Builder	10.9
   17	Builder	10.9
   18	Builder	10.9
   19	Slinger	12.6	Builder complete
   20	Slinger	14.1	Pasture built

   Total: 117.7
   This third option means the builder can be produced efficiently with the +30% bonus throughout. But it comes out behind on both development and production. I would have 2 warriors, a slinger and a scout, with 2 builder charges left and 0.6 overflow.
   
   
4. Produce a builder, delay Craftsmanship.
   

   Turn	Building	Effective	Notes
   9	Builder	7.3
   10	Builder	7.3
   11	Builder	7.3
   12	Builder	7.3
   13	Builder	7.3
   14	Builder	9.4	Size 3
   15	Builder	9.4
   16	Slinger	9.4	Builder done
   17	Slinger	10.5	Pasture built
   18	Slinger	10.5
   19	Warrior	11.5	Slinger done; Mine built
   20	Warrior	11.5

   Total: 108.7, up to 20 saved.
   So here we have 2 warriors, a slinger and 1 builder charge left, with a bit over half of another warrior built. Craftsmanship would be boosted on T22.
   

So option 1 comes out marginally ahead of option 2 in total thanks mostly to getting the builder done a turn sooner. Option 2 would overtake it if the next civic change was after T21.
For all the advantages of building efficiently, the delay to the builder in option 3 practically costs far more than it saves.
Finally option 4 shows that the cost of saving those 20 is going to be 40-50 (once T21-23 are taken into account). Seems very expensive, and were I to find a new continent during a certain set of turns less culture would be saved in practice due to wasting the boost for Foreign Trade.

The last thing to consider is that the final builder charge, if not needed to boost craftsmanship, could be used to chop out most of a really early settler (with overflow from a military unit). This has the potential to really help accelerate the snowball, and gives a better chance of reaching 6 total population in time for the boost of Early Empire.

[RFS-81]

Interesting, that's not what I expected.

Finally option 4 shows that the cost of saving those 20 is going to be 40-50 (once T21-23 are taken into account). Seems very expensive, and were I to find a new continent during a certain set of turns less culture would be saved in practice due to wasting the boost for Foreign Trade.

That's indeed not a good conversion rate, especially with your high supply.

Personally, I'd probably build a settler after the slinger, but you shouldn't take advice on that from the guy who got rushed last PBEM Chopping the third warrior into a settler sounds like a good plan!

[rho21]

I've realised that those numbers are slightly wrong because I'd forgotten that mines only provide +1 at this stage of the game.

The total production values should actually be:

1. 131.3
   
2. 132.2
   
3. 117.7
   
4. 106.7
   

Not a huge difference, but plan 2's Urban Planning now definitely wins out over plan 1's Ilkum if the government runs until T20. If it's any shorter plan 1 is still better.

[rho21]

Oh yes, I played a turn yesterday morning and ran out of time to report it. Looks as though the next turn will be delayed until at least tomorrow, incidentally.

Turn 8

Score tracking
The Aztecs grew a second population, which suggests they've been working a 3 tile.
Brazil built a warrior.

Doing stuff
The barbarian scout moved one square W, remaining next to my warrior. Rather strange, perhaps it was scared off crossing the river by another unit of some sort there. Anyway, my warrior could either attack the scout or go looking for the presumed other unit. I decided to attack the scout, in the hope of killing it with the second warrior if it strays into range.

The attack (pictured) is at 25 vs 10, which will cause 44 to 66 damage and suffer 13 to 20. In practice the scout takes 61 damage while the valiant Roman warrior is wounded for just 16 damage. Good rolls.

P.S. I've finally worked out what I want for a naming scheme: great Roman military defeats. I'll rename the capital to Cannae next turn.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Hmmm, Cannae, Carrhae, Edessa, Adrianople, Teutoburg...Then you might have to start reaching. If you're counting the eastern empire (as I do), then you can get things like Pliska and Manzikert, too.

[rho21]

I have a few more than that on hand (all praise to wikipedia). There are 2 or 3 from Hannibal's foray over the alps alone.

[rho21]

Turn 9

Score tracking
Russia built a scout.
Russia and Germany both gained a second population.
Looks as though Germany is working a tile which produces 1.

Doing stuff
Acting on the belief that a unit off to the east had caused the barbarian scout to remain next to my warrior, I stepped said warrior onto the rainforested hill to get a better look... and oh my!

I am first to meet both of those city states. That's the first pantheon almost guaranteed and Political Philosophy boosted already. Plus even more culture! Craftsmanship is now due in 3 turns at 8/turn. At this rate I'm going to be at the next tier of governments while some people are still working on their third civic.
Nan Madol's quest is to send a trade route, while Kandy wants me to get the eureka for Archery.

I should also make the assumption that I have a competitor over to my E or NE, as 3 city states is more than my share.

I imagine both city states will be conquered by the legions down the road, assuming someone else doesn't get there first.


Back at home I forgot to rename the capital. It produced a warrior and got started on a builder. The new warrior heads off to the SW to scout out the coast in that direction. The old warrior will be close at hand to guard the builder when it's done.