[SPOILERS] Cornflakes brings the popcorn (because creativity is overrated)

[Cornflakes]

   

On the barb camp attack I rolled exactly average on the attack, taking below average damage. Can't complain about the dice this game also shown, Scout is complete. TAD's power is still at 45, suggesting that he does in fact have Warrior + Scout + Slinger [no change from either healing or combat]. Settler moved into position and far as I could tell, it doesn't appear that anyone else has founded a 2nd city yet. Nothing indicated on the score at least. 

Next build at the capital is confirmed to be another Settler. I'm currently working horse + Rice in order to grow in 2 so current settler build time is 12 turns. After growth I'll work Horse + Cow + PFH which should drop the build down to 9 turns overall (EOT 30). By T30 I'll have just enough food in the box 

Cows were acquired this turn, with my builder in place to immediately improve ....

   

Resulting in the Craftsmanship eureka. 6 turns remaining on Craftsmanship, but it will be held at one turn remaining until the capital's 2nd settler completes. 

I'm interested to see how my production-heavy start compares this game. In every case I have chosen to maximize production over growth. I'm only working the rice farm now because the quicker growth will result in more overall than if I just worked the PFH now.The militaristic CS boost is definitely a huge help. Not sure I'd choose it over a cultural CS if I had the choice ... but it has returned 40 so far and by T32 will have provided the equivalent of a monument ... so maybe it is better. OTOH the early culture would have powered me through Craftsmanship (with the eureka this turn) and foreign trade almost done, Early Empire by T30 to boost the 2nd settler. Also probably 15 turns quicker to Political Philosophy. So I think I'd still favor the cultural CS.

[Cornflakes]

Results of some fog gazing I did yesterday while waiting for the next turn to arrive. The descriptions on the pictures speak for themselves. I almost always play in strategic view which doesn't allow for fog gazing. Have I mentioned previously that I think the standard view graphics took a huge step backwards? Sure they are 3D and all, but I have the most difficult time differentiating hill tiles from flat land. And if there is a forest present on the tile? Forget it! No telling whether it's a hill or flat land without mousing over for the tooltip. At least in Strategic view the hills can be easily distinguished. 

Don't even get me started on the fogged tiles. I dare you to turn off the tile yields and then tell me which tiles in the fog are plains and which are grassland. I play with the tile yields on mostly to help differentiate what the terrain type is in fogged tiles. You give me 3-dimensional animated units and resources, details such as animated flaming torches outside the gate of my palace that I can only seen when zooming way in on my capital ... and then make me feel like I'm playing in color-blind mode all the time because I have to look at the tile yields to distinguish the terrain

And what about the districts? Without any buildings, the only obvious difference to me is the teeny-tiny-itsy-bitsy little colored flag in the center of the district graphic     Maybe some more trained eye can tell the districts apart by the landscaping, but after playing half my first game in standard mode I gave up and use Strategic where the district type is glaringly obvious.

How did I get started on this rant? Oh, right, fog gazing ... go ahead and take a look for yourself:

   

   

   

   

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

For some reason, Cornflakes, your photos on this page (and this page only) aren't rendering for me. Not sure if the problem is on your end or mine, but thought I'd best let you know.

[Cornflakes]

Curious ... no clue why this page doesn't show up. I've been uploading them through the forum site like always. Anyone else having an issue on this page?

[Cornflakes]

I had the game still up in the background (almost always just leave Civ open rather than closing it and re-opening) and in absent-mindedly browsing the diplo screen I noticed the gossip item that TheArchduke had adopted his pantheon ... Earth Goddess for +1/turn for on tiles with charming or better appeal. TAD getting it as a 1st or 2nd pick surprised me. I was considering that as an option because I thought for sure it would be available for me as last in pick order, and I think that I can get about 80% of my tiles to charming or better without trying. Back to the drawing board!

[Cornflakes]

Another quick test game today confirmed:

• [previously know] district discount only updates after a tech or civic completed ... Q: can the tech/civic complete simultaneously with the district that satisfies the criteria? A: NO! discount only updates if the tech/civic completes at least a turn after the criteria are met.
  
• Q: Does God of the Forge pantheon apply to ships? A: YES! Making it useful for when I start pumping out Quadriremes for upgrade. Although I suspect that one of Aztec/Rome/Greece will take it before me.
  

On to the latest turn:

   
Scout reveals a couple of new tiles to the north of my capital. Oddly, on of the Valletta warriors is damaged apparently there must be another barb camp in the couple tiles of fog remaining?? Surely 3 barb camps wouldn't spawn in such proximity to just me, right? Ah, a more likely scenario just occurred to me: that the scout from the camp I recently killed in the north probably went berserk against the CS warrior.

I can fit a decent city either on the Rice tile, or 1SW between rice and horses. 4 hills + horse are enough  to make the city pay for itself. Not a high priority though, especially because I found ...........

   

Lots of resources in the south! As a reminder, the anticipated midpoint between me and TheArchduke is right along this river. After promo-healing next turn the warrior will head 1SW onto the hill and then cross the river to explore this area further. I still anticipate sending the next settler out of the capital to the NE. Even though NE is clearly backlines it is a faster starter than this area, picks up Dye to start slowly working towards pantheon.

Also founded 2nd city on the Coffee as per plan. That extra +1 is very welcome  I am quite thrilled with all the culture-producing resources present in my immediate vicinity, and I plan to make maximum use by planting for them as quickly as possible. I estimate Early Empire is estimated will land on T39 (17 turns) assuming I can find another continent within the next 9 turns for the Foreign Trade inspiration. Warrior is going west and scout north-northwest in hopes of accomplishing this.

   

Hallelujah! Firaxis gave us the numbers! It does take clicking into another screen, but at least the numbers are there if desired. The amount of food remaining matches my spreadsheet, as does the production invested in the settler  I've put a screenshot of the spreadsheet below if you want to take a more detailed look at my start. 

Score tracking indicates Banzailizard was in fact the first to settle his 2nd city last turn. Empire score of 13, so 3 total citizens?

Micro plan spreadsheet:

   

Settler projected to complete in the capital EOT30, with enough food in the box to remain at size 3. I'm planning to work Rice over Cows because that speeds up growth to size 4 by several turns and earns back almost the full production that is traded for food, and the settler timeline is not affected either way.

Anything else to note? Hmmm ... i'm considering what a good asking price would be to purchase TheArchduke's first great work of writing. The +4/turn will be a welcome boost to me, the equivalent of 2 monuments (120 / 480 ). His writer can make a 2nd great work and is otherwise useless except as an invincible scout. Maybe we can come to a mutually agreeable price. I don't want to give up that much gold though. I'm thinking of offering 80, hoping TAD counters with 100. If I have a spare luxury that he lacks I'll throw that into the deal too.

[Cornflakes]

New turn came in!

   

Went ahead and re-named my cities. Chose just to go with simply naming after some of my favorite board and card games. No particular order, just games I enjoy and play often (or in some cases wish I played more).

Having grown to size 3, Chess is now reflecting the EOT 30 completion of the settler. I decided to move the warrior 1SW before promo-healing. I could see all tiles across the river and therefore knew that no enemy would be in range to attack next turn across the river. The barb scout should be programmed to run away. Maybe I'll stumble upon the barb camp and make an extra 50 The plan is to promote next turn, then cross to coffee, then head west as quickly as possible for the next 3-5 turns. Hopefully I'll locate some combination of another city state, continental divide, and/or TheArchduke's territory.

[Cornflakes]

Contrary to my expectations, the barb scout did not run away from my warrior. I wonder if they run away from Zone of Control (which doesn't extend across the river)? It moved to the coffee. Without enough HP to attack I proceeded to promote, and this turn it continued moving to the northeast.

   

I suspect the barb scout will continue a beeline to Pinochle over the flat terrain. I think it actually needs sight of a city center in order to trigger, not just sight of culture. It'll be at least a turn or two before I get spotted. Then at least 5 turns for the scout to report back (if the camp is right outside current vision). Then at least 7 turns for the hoard to arrive on my doorstep. So I'm looking at approximately a T40 threat. Ample time for me to get slingers out of the capital. And I can use the barbs to earn the Archery eureka.

TheArchduke's scout appeared at Chess rather than continuing north. I suspect he identified my 2nd city settlement on Settler Radar and thus turned east. This throws a little wrench in the plans, with my settler completing in 5. I'm not going to tempt TheArchduke by sending out a naked settler, unless I'm sure it will be safe from capture. Good news is that I'm holding Craftsmanship at 1 turn from completion, and with 12 base /turn I can 2-turn a slinger. Worst cast I bring settler to 1 turn from completion, finish Craftsmanship, pop out a 2-turn slinger, and I'm good to go. My northern warrior will be heading back south as per the original plan, after revealing a grand total of ....

   

... 3 additional tiles. I did get confirmation of coast to the north. Settler vision is still blank in the north. Scout will stay on the current side of the river for at least 1 more turn, following the flat land to the W-NW. Warrior has already started back south. Given TheArchduke's scout I resisted the temptation to continue exploring further.

   

Back in the south, warrior crossed the river. I'm looking at 2 potential city sites here. For continued scouting I considered RED, with the purpose of re-directing the settler to this region if TAD's scout is being annoying to the NE. But with just a maximum 2-turn delay if I need to slip in a slinger I'm going to stick with the NE site. Therefore I'm planning to send the warrior along YELLOW route. Moving 2SW to the PFH should give me enough vision to lock down the location of the ORANGE city. Then swing north to uncover the remaining tiles around GREEN. I'm also hoping to uncover and clear the barb camp for another 50 reward before it has a chance to erupt.

Score tracking shows Banzailizard and I are the only two players to have settled 2nd cities yet. TheArchduke still has the only district completed. No resources connected on TAD's trade screen yet so I can't tell whether he has a builder yet.

[Cornflakes]

Here's a look at the current tech and civic trees and my short-term goals.

I'd like to reach Apprenticeship for the +1 towards mines, and Machinery for the Lumbermill improvement. Masonry for Pyramids is an intermediate goal. Factoring into my priorities are (1) what districts do I want to build, and what districts do I currently have good locations for? And (2) how easy are the eurekas? The path to machinery has many eurekas which I just can't do with my present empire. Ancient walls and water mill are production intense at this stage of the game. I need BW to reveal Iron, and then I need to acquire and mine and Iron tile before even unlocking The Wheel. I don't want to unlock BW now because that throws the district discount calculations all out of whack. I'd have to build an early encampment to keep the district discount practicable. I'd much rather be building additional settlers and escorts than a mostly-useless encampment (that I would also have to buy a tile to place).

I have a decent Commercial Hub location 1SW of Pinochle which has enough production there to knock it out quick. My 4th city is planned in the west, probably on the northeast of the two GREEN tiles from the post above, which leaves a +5 adjacency tile available on the southwest GREEN tile. Combined with the campus at the capital and 3rd city, I will then be able to achieve the discount on the first of my 3rd and 4th district types to get unlocked.

Since my Theater district locations are on jungle tiles they will require Bronze Working in order to place. This means that I can either go for BW + D&P for my 3rd and 4th district types, or Apprenticeship + G&R. With G&R I can build multiple cheap carnivals (35) to essentially lock in the district discount permanently for all future districts I build. I then can skip building an early encampment. Early Apprenticeship will allow me to lock in cheaper IZ's as well as gain the modest boost earlier. I'll then proceed down the long road to Machinery.

[Cornflakes]

Found another continent with 5 turns to spare

   

Played the turn quick so I didn't check the continent overlay. Another freshwater lake appears to the northwest. I'll have to skirt around the southern edge of lake before continuing to the northeast. There's some decently productive terrain there with some builder love invested. I'm surprised I haven't detected another city state on settler-radar. They must be quite spread out, or maybe scattered on tiny islands except for one per player?

Thinking more about the barb scout's movement in the south, it struck me as odd that he would stop on the plains tile when the terrain to the NW/W/SW all cost 3 movement points. A scout coming from any of those directions would have had enough movement to cross through the plains tile and end up either on the Coffee (if coming from the W/SW) or the hill (if coming from the NW/W). Therefore I'm pretty sure the scout came from the south, over the hill, and landing on the plains tile. This solidified my decision to send the warrior along YELLOW to the southwest. No new terrain revealed so no screenshot.

TAD's scout circles my capital, ending up 1E of Chess. Does he jog south to peek at my 2nd city? I think not. I suspect he'll go E-NE cows-forest and continue on to the northeast in search of city states and additional contacts. Still only Banzailizard and I with 2 cities, and Pinochle is growing to size 2 next turn. Everyone has size 3 capital so surely 2nd cities will be founded shortly for the remaining players.