[SPOILER] Dark Savant's thread: Competition for limited resources remains a constant

[Dark Savant]

Preliminary micro shows I can get the first settler on t34, with 2 workers, a work boat, one and a half warriors, and already in Slavery.

That goes work boat first.  Worker first is much more awkward than that.

  I hope that move turns out to be worth it; that's a significant slowdown early on.  (No way to really know without knowing much more about the surrounding terrain.)

[taotao]

Oh wow, that was a real surprise with the riverside GOLD there.
I see why you moved, the capital will be a lot stronger eventually.
Short term is looking bleak though, t34 sounds late. First instinct is to question whether you really need the second worker or if the 1½warrior could be a wb? Ultimately though I'd say the date of your 2nd city isn't that important. The date when you have your two first cities meaningfully contributing is. Hopefully there's a good city site that can share the pigs with the cap.

Anyway, I'm really happy  about getting an early game happiness resource, and one that is doubled by a building you'll build most anywhere to boot. Early tech also seems like it'll be slightly less of a trouble/risk.

[JR4]

Fwiw, I think that moving was 100 % the right choice. The new capital will pick up several more forests and having easy access to an early happiness resource is nice.

Building the first Settler at t34 does sound a bit slow to me too. Is there any way of speeding up that eta?

[Dark Savant]

My instinct would have been to not move if I weren't Expansive.  The first few dozen moves are going to go at roughly non-Expansive speed.  (It'd be worse if we weren't.)

I think I can shave a turn, maybe two, off of a turn 34 settler, I'll look into it soon and post the actual plan.

Yes, the second warrior can actually be a work boat instead.  The current plan has significant overflow from whipping the settler.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 1 (3960 BC)

Everyone else planted on turn 0.

I gave our initial settler a name, actually!



I'm also giving all units (other than this one ) random numbers.  (Not sequential, so the German Tank Problem doesn't arise.)

Our scout doesn't find any reason not to plant on the pigs-fish-fish-gold site, so I plant and kill the forest the settler is on.  (Good thing this is not Civ 1 and Civ 2, where planting on forest didn't actually destroy the forest.  Those games didn't have the modern rule from SMAC/Civ 3 and later that all city centers produce at least 2 food, so you were stuck at 1 food from the city center!)



Windhoek starts on a work boat, working the convenient 3-hammer forested plains hill to get it done in 6 turns.  Research set to Fishing; good thing we can produce work boats without it in RtR now!

Gameplay observations:

• I was last to play turn 1, so I've already played turn 2 as well.
  
• There's already what's probably an island out there.
  
• We don't need to squeeze in a potentially awkward city to work the fish the settler move got us.
  
• This is quite a bit of forest, which is good for chopping workers, work boats, and wonders.
  
• Rival worst production is 2 hammers, so everyone else likely settled in place.
  
• Rival largest land area is 8000, so everyone has at least one water tile in their city center.
  
• Rival smallest land area is 4000; that's five water tiles like our original plant site had.
  

[Dark Savant]

Germany didn't grab much in the way of colonies during the Scramble for Africa, since it kind of hadn't existed for long. 

They did originally grab what is modern-day Namibia, though (yes, Otto von Bismarck was involved).  Windhoek is its capital.  Namibia doesn't actually have a lot of people for its area, as it's mostly desert, but it's well-run compared to most other sub-Saharan African countries -- two reasons right there you rarely hear about it.  (And a lot of its wealth comes from mining, hey we have that as a starting technology.)

You may hear that sub-Saharan African countries tend to have arbitrary borders drawn by European colonizers.  That's true for the larger countries (Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, South Africa), but not generally true of the others.  Namibia's natives are Ovambo (barely, I think), who themselves had migrated south during the 14th century and eventually outnumbered the former locals.  (There was a lot of such migration worldwide during that century.)

Though there's another reason the minority count is low there.  Colonial Germany launched an outright genocide against them while they controlled the area, and some think that was an explicit model for more famous later genocides.

There's someone else I'm thinking from Namibia.  Kind of:



CEO Morgan of Morgan Industries, from Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.  He made his money mining diamonds in Namibia.  The fluff actually says he was born in Kenya, though.  Eh, close enough while I run with this theme of real cities that aren't Mali/Songhai or South African or Ethiopian.  

I named the civ Morgan Industries, though, simpler that way.  (The quote in the thread title is from SMAC.)

[Dark Savant]

Turn 2 (3920 BC)

Scouting continues:



  Wow, this is already a lot of food. 

Yes, that's a forested sheep; this map script sometimes does that (including at your start site ... awkward).

[Dark Savant]

I can produce a work boat, 2 workers, and a settler by turn 33:

• t7 Fishing, work boat complete -> warrior, work 2f1h
  
• t8 boat fish and work it, swap to worker 
  
• t11 Hunting
  
• t18 worker complete, resume warrior
  
• t22 size 2 just in time for the completed pasture
  
• t24 Bronze Working, worker #1 starts first chop
  
• t25 size 3, swap to worker, revolt
  
• t26 first chop done
  
• t27 whip worker
  
• t28 worker #2 emerges, worker #1 starts second chop
  
• t29 overflow into first warrior (it was mostly done already, we can produce it sooner if needed)
  
• t30 second chop comes in
  
• t31 third chop comes in
  
• t33 settler emerges
  

There's enough leftover worker labor to start a fourth chop into a work boat, or build a few roads to speed along the settler.

Work boat + 1 worker + settler can happen earlier, but two workers is probably better.

[Miguelito]

You may hear that sub-Saharan African countries tend to have arbitrary borders drawn by European colonizers.  That's true for the larger countries (Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, South Africa), but not generally true of the others.  Namibia's natives are Ovambo (barely, I think), who themselves had migrated south during the 14th century and eventually outnumbered the former locals.  (There was a lot of such migration worldwide during that century.)

Though there's another reason the minority count is low there.  Colonial Germany launched an outright genocide against them while they controlled the area, and some think that was an explicit model for more famous later genocides.

Not sure if I misunderstood, but Namibia is actually pretty diverse ethnicity  wise, see https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Namibia ,according to which Ovambo make up just 50% of total population.
And the borders were totally drawn at 19th century conference tables, y he Caprivi strip is actually kind of a prime example?

[Dark Savant]

I spent much of today traveling to Jasper National Park.

Travel Internet works (aside from abbreviating all players and civs to 2 letters ), but I've been supremely tied up with travel for the past 36 hours or so.  I'll get back to my normal posting schedule tomorrow.

(Scout has now found corn, but too far away for a second city.)