[Spoilers] Alhazard goes back to BTS

[Alhazard]

then again, SD is not exp so how can get enough production to 1 whip a granary right after he produced a settler? doesnt make sense that he also could 1 whip a worker or settler unless his settled his 2nd city far. Maybe he 1 whipped a WC?!

[Alhazard]

T34




Commodore grew cap to 4 (4 pop = and 26.5252, 5 pop = 33.1565), and DZ gained 13 points. I determined from population math that he only grew his cap to 4, and that the 6 points was due to tech, not 6th pop (39.7878 pts). From the large power increase, it is likely BW. No other global rise in power.

T35




Commodore gained 6 points but since the top population is now 54k, we can deduce that his 2nd city grew, which is really fast. He must be have shared capital food. From population math, Discord team grew their cap to 3 and RM grew his cap to 4. Someone also built a warrior. Not honestly sure why people are growing their capitals. Unless their food surplus is immense, I don't think you should grow cities to work unimproved tiles since you don't have granaries to help recover from whipping, if that is their plan.

EDIT: Also realized that Commodore doesnt even have BW. The indian city is bringing up the rear power as you can tell from changes in rival worst. What is he thinking?

[Alhazard]

T36




Gavagai grew his cap to 3. Noted top power is now 27k and lowest power is 15k. Global power increased by 6k. Now this does not mean that SD, who is the only person who could have this odd number of thousand power, has the top power now. Someone could have built an axe, which is 5k, since the high mfg means that someone is working their copper.

EDIT: On 2nd thought it could be SD with 27k power. I have 19k power accounted for and 2 WC could bring it up to 8k more. Why do I think this is a possibility? the 1 whip he did several turns ago and 1 chop could be 2 WCs.

T37




Chumchu got 6 points, which has to be a tech since growing to 5th population would give 7 points. The Discord team got 13 points, but population math shows that they only grew their 2nd city to size 2. What did they tech? There was no increase in global power. Agriculture and fishing seem reasonable to the Discord team and chumchu respectively based on tech times.

[Alhazard]

T38




I don't think anyone is even thinking of the 3rd settler from the way they are growing. SD, Comm, Discord, and chumchu all grew.
SD grew his cap back to 3.
Commodore grew his 2nd city to size 3!
Discord team grew their cap to 4.
chumchu grew his 2nd city to 2.
SD already has pottery I think so I can understand his point, but like chumchu and DZ doesn't even have the wheel? Commodore doesnt even have BW.

So I think this is a good time to show why granaries the most important building of the game.

Oh hear ye, hear ye, hear ye. Read these words from Lord (or Lady?) DTG. I hope DTG doesn't mind, but any civ4 player must read this.

Hey Al,

I downloaded some random files from your PBEM 70 game. Here are some comments relating to micro:


(1) Citizens eat Food (except for the first citizen)

When you plant a city, the first citizen is fed by the center tile. The first worked pop-point is therefore a pure gain, so (e.g.) a regular Grassland Farm provides +3F, a dry Corn +5F, a wet Corn +6F, and so on.

At size 2, the new citizen has to be fed by the new worked tile. Citizens eat 2F each. So if you grow onto a second Grassland Farm, the tile now only offers +1F surplus. That's still a gain, but what if you're growing onto an unimproved tile? If, e.g., you were to grow onto a regular Grassland Forest, the tile would be food neutral, and supply +1H in total. That isn't very good, so you should aim to whip it ASAP and start to work an improved tile instead (you could whip a Worker, after all).

If you grow onto tiles that only supply 1F, or even 0F, then it is probably better to whip. For instance, a mined Plains Hill can't feed its citizen. The actual yield is –2F +4H. This tile actually works out as a negative, because...


(2) Tile evaluation

How good is a tile? As a general rule, use the following:

1F = 2H > 2C

This is a rough guide, but consider: a size 2 city with a Granary needs 12F to grow to size 3; a size 3 city needs 13F to grow to size 4. Therefore, if you 2–pop whip from size 4 to size 2, you convert 25F into 60H. At lower pops, whipping is a bit more efficient; at high pop, it is a bit less. Hence the general rule: 1F = 2H > 2C

Because citizens eat food, and because 1F = 2H, you can see how poor mines and Workshops are as improvements until the late game. For instance, to return to that mined Plains Hill, the yield initially seems to be 0F4H. Factoring in the cost of the citizen (eating 2F), the actual yield is –2F +4H, and if 1F = 2H, then the tile offers nothing in relative terms (and even adds some maintenance to the empire).

(Exception: if you are using a mine to build a Worker or Settler, they're decent tiles. Sometimes they are also needed to control happiness issues. Multipliers can make them better.)


(3) How to Set-up a city

Basically, you want a Granary ASAP. The Granary doubles the food surplus. Consider Gopherwood in my game. At size 1, a wet Corn was the best tile. At size 2, I had a choice to work a Fish @ size 2, or whip a Granary:

Size 1, city works a wet Corn. Food surplus = +6F
Size 2, city works a wet Corn + Fish. Food surplus = +9F
OR
Size 1, city works a wet Corn with a Granary. Food surplus = +12F

In general, you don't want to grow beyond size 2 without a Granary. There are lots of exceptions, but you should aim to set-up a city in the following way:

(A) 2–3 Workers improve a source of food
(B) After the food is improved, 1 Worker moves to a Forest and chops. This should complete on the turn before the city reaches size 2.
C) The city 1–pop whips the Granary ASAP.

There are lots of nuances to this.

In an ideal world, the Granary would be fully chopped at size 1 while the city is also working an improved source of food. But for most cities, this isn't realistic, because you'd need 7–8 Workers to improve a food resource and chop 2–3 Forests.


(4) Workers and Settlers should be chopped/whipped

Remember the rule: 1F = 2H > 2C

This doesn't apply to food hammers, which converts at a rate of 1F into 1H. Compared with whipping, that is a terrible rate. So never stagnate upon Workers or Settlers: whip them ASAP (although the Granary is priority #1, obv.).

Only slow-build these if the city is experiencing happy problems, or if you need to start an OF chain for a wonder (I did this in PBEM66).

This applies to Imperialistic civs too... e.g., a 2-pop whip @ size 4 converts 25F into 60H, which is then multiplied by 1.5 for 90H. This, coupled with regrowth, will complete Settlers far quicker than stagnating on Mines.


(5) Whipping is OP, but Happiness is the Limiting Factor for Whipping

To solve happiness problems in the early game, do the following:

(A) Start the first whip ASAP. This starts the "whip counter" sooner. If you 1–pop whip a Granary at size 2, the countdown will usually be at 0 by the time the city finally reaches size 4.

(B) When you build a Worker or Settler, the unhappy citizen doesn't eat any food. So, in the early game, start building a Worker or Settler as soon as you acquire an unhappy face in a city, and then continue growing once it goes away.

C) Run Scientists to slow or stop growth. You probably want a GScientist, so get it from a city that's getting too much unhappiness too soon.

Whip management is really tough, but if you master it, your early game will be 100x faster.

------

Hope that helps. I focused on micro, as macro decisions are far more game specific.

Let me know if you have any thoughts or questions.

–DTG

So therefore. Definitely 1 whip granaries at size 2 as much as possible, even putting a non-math chop to achieve this. I think I recall mackoti mentioning this in Pitboss 27 also. Growing onto non-improved tiles is bad but even worse when you are growing without a granary. If you are a veteran, this might be obvious already, but wasn't to me at all until I read this advice. After I read this tip, I stopped building mines in the beginning as much as I have, and I think my early game improved a lot, for example.

[Alhazard]

Noted last turn that chumchu 1 whipped his 2nd city likely for a workboat.
So let's talk about unit discount cards in civ6. If you want to hit a timing attack, the best strategy was to make like 4-6 ancient/classical units then upgrade them into medieval/renaissance units like knights/caravel/frigates. The policy cards that give increased production to ancient/classical units, however got obsolete when you researched the civic that gave discounts to medieval/renaissance units. I personally can recall the numerous times, I intentionally avoided researching monarchy or exploration because I was still building the ancient/classic era units I needed, and it felt really bad. Now the GS patch actually fixes this so that the later discount cards does apply to earlier era units, but this should have been the case from release.
SD, Gav, DZ all got techs and the overall global power increased by 12k. At this point, techs researched is purely a guess based on what they should research. I have SD down as Archery?!, Gav as pottery, and DZ as the wheel.

[Alhazard]

I am going to admit. Spent the whole day actually racking my brain over how did Commodore got Stonehenge on T40. The only way he could have done this by putting hammers into stonehenge while growing even before the settler. Now I played this out using my start, assuming that his start is similar because of the techs he researched and got the SH on T41, even making sure to build the warrior that I noted from C&D.
Now I know he was salty in PBEM77 because yuris, who was also playing Roosevelt, beat him to henge by 1 turn but seriously? He has 1 worker for 2 cities on T40 so his growth is utterly crushed. He will probably get BW next turn though and could catchup by chopping with his lone fast worker, but wow I don't think that was worth it at all. Seems the population stopped growing in everyone else's cap so everyone else is making workers/settlers. I have to say that the Discord team really messed up but they probably didn't imagine Comm would go for this since they probably didn't read some of the game reports. If they were going for SH, should have picked Bismark 1st then a wheel+myst civ or Korea.
In other news, Gavagai grew his 2nd city to size 2 and RM teched, assuming archery because of the global 6k power increase.

[Alhazard]

Correction. There was a global increase of power by 8k on T40 but still think its 6k archery and someone making a warrior.





I thought I would play a peaceful turn and head to bed except this turn was not uneventful at all. That warrior could threaten Discount Card on T48 if he wants to be aggressive. On T48, I will only hook-up my copper. Even though it pains me, I think I need to pull back the scouting warrior to greet his potential hostile warrior. Very surprised that RM's warrior made it all the way here but he has 5 warriors that I could account for so he has spares to scout. So after DZ, it is RM?
SD grew this 2nd city to size 2 and Commodore grew his cap to 5!. The Discord team just researched Mystism this turn. Curious decision to tech this over pottery first. Global 5k power increase besides Commodore reaching 8 population means that someone just produced an axe.

[Alhazard]

T42




Warrior gone from view but I am sure he will be back. Discount card needs to pop it's borders ASAP. Bambi is now working both deer and floodplains for a health 6+ surplus. Capital is working the 3hammer tile because it now needs to whip the granary, with the chop from the just finished worker, and I do not want this city to grow to size 4 without the granary.
Globally, SD whipped both cities last turn and grew the cap back to 3 so I don't think that was a granary whip. Commodore grew this 2nd city to 4. Discord team grew their cap to 4. Global power increased by 6k so could SD possibly have whipped 2 archers? What is going on in that side of the world.

[Alhazard]

T43




Lot happened this turn. This barb warrior could be a pain and mismicroing the warrior didnt help. If this warrior did head towards my cities, I could be in big trouble.
Globally, Commodore finally teched BW and immediately 2 whipped his 2nd city. Gavagai 1 whipped his capital. DZ actually got a tech based on math, while RM grew. No global change in power so I am thinking he got pottery. But argh this SD and chumchu war. Now I am sure that SD is whipping WCs and he must have settled his 2nd city on the horse because I can't see how he could have 1 whipped out what I am now sure was a WC on T33. Chumchu also looks to have settled his 2nd city close to capital and he does have archery so he is probably dead in 10 turns. Despite this, it's too early to despair I think. the maintenance of chumchu's cities, when they come out of revolt, must be crushing because of the distance.

T44





Barb warrior moved away which is a huge relief. Actually miscounted when RM's warrior could arrive but my forces would still make it in time. Hope that the barb warrior moved E and attacks the player's warrior next turn.
From land tiles, I assume that chumchu's 2nd city actually grabbed 9 tiles because otherwise, the Discord team's new city only would have to claim 1 new city tile, which is impossible. Did take into consideration that SD has +1 land tile from his capture. RM's capital grew to 5 and he whipped his 2nd city to 1. No change in global power aside from Discord team's population increase but the highest power is now 40k so chumchu is likely eliminated soon.

[Alhazard]

T45






Whipped granary at capital. Not sure where I read about avoid growth but you want to avoid growth when the foodbox is full and the granary is built because otherwise, the city will fill the foodbox 1st and grow before the granary. Not else going on much besides following the microplan.
I have to note that I messedup the C&D on T20 for SD. Of course he got mining because he got BW after. Not sure why he took an extra turn than expected.
SD grew his 2nd city back to size 2 and tech pottery? Probably need cottages because of expected mainteance. The Discord team grew to cap to size 3. Gav grew the cap back to size 3. After I played the previous turn, DZ settled his 3rd city. Looks like RM also tech pottery. Noted global power increase of 5K and now top power is 45k. Would feel a lot safer once I get my metal units online.

T46




Building a warrior 1st in capital for its own MP, then warrior upgraded to a spearman while in queue, which will be completed the same turn capital grows to 6 then slaves out the next settler. Nervous about RM's warrior but I did move all 3 units into position.
Commodore planted 3rd city after I played. chumchu teched what I have to guess is archery and dry whipped one after I played.
For land tiles, only DZ settled last turn but there was a 17 tile increase? chumchu's city must have come out of revolt.
Globally, there was 2k power increase but I am guessing that in reality, it was a net 4k loss given the archery tech. Noted top power decreased to 43k. Who I think is RM.

T47




RM's warrior fought with the barb warrior and now feeling a lot better about the situation there. Sending the 2nd warrior finally back to north to scout out the land there.
From pop counting, figured out that SD grew his cap to 4. Both the Discord team and Gav teched and one of them found Buddah. Guessing it's the Discord team since I have it down that they teched Myst last and probably now going for oracle. Wonder when they will research pottery. The religion border pop only seems have gained 1 tile. Guessing that Gav teched pottery.
There was a 1k loss in global power which is actually a 4k loss since I presume that chumchu's archer completed. Noted also global power drop to 39k. Finally will hookup copper next turn though.