Turn 102
Writing this immediately after "replaying" T102, as I came to the conclusion that I'm going to have beeline Banking. It comes down to windows: I think I can get there, and then double back for whatever other techs I need before anyone can call a "farmers" gambit, and before total costs eat me alive.
I need a GM to bulb Banking which is almost the entire cost, a GS for a golden age which speeds everything up, to spend a turn revolting into Serfdom and Vassalage, and to basically build wealth in most cities between now and then. Well, after I've built the core infrastructure and one or two other builds, not really force the issue, but I don't have anything critical like the need to double whip HA everywhere. But then Mercantilism will pick up the rest of my tech rate to recover the Medieval and Classical era techs that have been missed, and I can hide behind Longbows in the meanwhile.
I'll still need to put out scouting units to the NW to push for circumnavigation and new contacts, I'll still need to build military units (longbows), and critical infrastrucutre. I'll still need to push out the last 4 cities ASAP to benefit from the GA, but the rest is keeping people happy for the next 30 turns.
First things first: TBW is a dick, but not really.
He hooked his own ivory. So I check GKC, for some reason I could see his resources, and he also has gold, but then I lost it. Does everyone have gold and I'm the only person who'se been screwed over by the RNG?
Well, Elkad also has only silver, so maybe not. Unfortunately, I can't trade for any other happy, and therefore WT and Westminster are already in unhappy and I can't improve that until I get Monarchy. So...more whipping?
GKC settled for food inner ring, but has left open the desert hill 1NW of the cow as a valid city location. I'm going to attempt to dissuade that. Cavendish is going to turn around and come back, he can't get any further. Unfortunately, he can't get vision on the newly settled city until a forest gets chopped, so I might have to wait until GKC settles his other front city to get a trade route in place.
Rusten has met no one I've met, so where the hell did he come from?
Could Rusten have come from down here? Is he my neighbour? Next turn I'll retreat the galley to load Gilbert, and then head around the tip of this peninsula. I'll send the scout down the coast to see if it's an island, and the chariot will be able to check all relevant tiles and reload onto the galley on T105. It could be dropped off on the other side of the peak, or the galley and Gilbert will roll on to the next landmass before the galley returns for the other scout.
I somewhat want that land mass as it gives me a great barrier for the mainland, and looks like a sound little production area (there is fish 1SE of that horse). There is no route to it except along this coastal path, from what I can see, so this is something else that impinges on my settling thoughts. (EDIT: After playing T104 I think I have an unorthodox answer)
tl;dr Can't grow, Banking bulb affects GP needs, gonna whip, question is 4 pop, 3 pop or 2 pop whip, when are wines hooked and does it steal the wheat? Answers on a postcard, going to figure this out later. Guess is that as Owlthorpe grows to size 7 and runs out of happy cap in 3 turns (EDIT: Wrong, can grow to size 8 due to wines and whip unhappy wearing off), Westminster could use the wheat to grow from T104, which would suggest a 4 pop whip isn't stupid. 4 turns of extra growth is 40 food compared to a double whip, which puts Westminster back to size 8 and restarts the whip timer sooner.
It does affect commerce output though, and the worker micro would be a bitch to sort out. Still, I want to get the dye city up and running ASAP if I am planning to rush to Banking, and I need this GS to trigger the GA.
I also considered a 4 pop whip into a settler, but that seems excessive due to lack of workers. So better to use this worker to help road towards the city site for the Westminster settler.
Unfortunately, it doesn't really help the happy situation
One whip unhappy wears off eot104, and I will now leave this city on a settler and triple whip that from 6>3, for the fish/wheat/sheep city. Finish the work boat eot103, and overflow 12 hammers into a settler means that making 9fhpt would allow settler whip T106. (EDIT: This settler comes out so fast that it gets to dyes before the Westminster settler, so all the worker micro is null and void anyway, it is probably better to improve the wines then traipse the workers over afetrwards).
I don't need this GS for an Astro bulb just get, so I only focus on growth (and I do expect to steal the fish back for a few turns here and there, so don't think the whips are overkill). Growth is a bastard. Realistically, the prep work here is to ensure there is enough pop at the start of the GA to push out as much gpp as possible after the GM is born in Aldeburgh (which has it's own set of issues). Hence getting the settler out to allow as much growth as possible.
The below spoiler was written after playing T102 and is almost completely wrong, but leftin for people to laugh at:
On, Owlthorpe: just giving up the wheat on T104 means growth is slow enough that nothing really matters, so onto wealth after finishing the archer. Theoretically the market is wanted, so I need to balance up when to stop wealth and grab the market, but that also depends on when and how I research Feudalism. With the roaded plains tile cottaged, and the timings for the whip unhappy to wear off I can probably just grow straight to size 9 and delay growth as needed by giving away the wheat. Probably worth cottaging the other plains tile eventually ie after the wines and a bit more growth, around T120?
Not building the settler here immediately, building wealth and holding the chop hammers. Working the cottage to grow in 3 turns. Good chance that I just finish the library with the chop hammers but I'm not sure: I don't want to forward settle against TBW if I'm rushing banking. I don't want to give him anything to hit. I will finish the settler though, which is why I'm leaning against the library. Could just send this all the way to the triple food fish/wheat/sheep location though, but I still lack the workers to do that. Just waiting 3 turns to grow to size 5 actually helps out because I need to improve all the wines tiles.
I'm actually looking at cottaging the copper T106: lose 30 hammers over 10 turns, gain 10 commerce but if I'm building wealth it's only a net 20 gold loss, and then after a further 20 turns it's a 1/3/4 tile and it starts to improve. I'm not convinced it's the right more, but I have worker turns to dump into tile improvements and not sure if that is the least worse option here.
I always find it amazing how you think you are OK with workers then you suddenly need a load more.
I need to dedicate a single worker to improving Scarrow, but even that is difficult. Probably more important to do this than improve a new city...as it keeps workers where I need them to improve the wines.
The market isn't that important just yet. It will be, but wealth until Monarchy seems smarter, if the workers are in place to improve the wines. If they aren't then Market seems the better choice.
So...if I were to rush Banking, then I "need" a GM (tl;dr if it brings Merchantilism forward 10 turns, due to also bringing forward the GA 10 turns, then that's roughly 750 beakers I'll generate. Compared to a GS bulb into Astro it appears pretty sound given I don't know what benefit Astro will be other than a beaker sink but Merc and earlier Stock Exchanges gives me an immediate benefit).
There is no difficulty regrowing Aldeburgh to size 8 at 10fpt, it reaches there by T109, way before I can run a bunch of merchants. I could whip it again, a 3 whip into a market is happy neutral and could occur on T107, and that way I could also pick up a few merchants before reaching the happy cap again to start accruing a pure GM pool. Running 5 merchants in a GA gives a GM in 7 turns anyway, but I can easily shave that down to 5 or even 3 turns before a GA was triggered, especially when Serfdom slots come into play.
Growth onto coast is order of the day. I know I want Moai but that isn't happening just yet. Going to throw down archers in both these cities for MP.
Eventually I will want a galley to head SE, but I will get a galley out of the capital after the settler whip. Huxter and Catfish can provide a chariot/archer pair to go on it. Other than that...wealth. And I'll be switching the corn between the cities as well, with the grass hill being mined after the sheep is improved.
This screwed my head up when playing T103, I honestly couldn't figure out any micro. I was just looking at the screen and my mind went completely blank.
I came to some rough conclusions: the lighthouse is more important at Lucker than Seahouses, as Lucker lacks good 2f tiles to work and Seahouses has flood plains. With this in mind, I'm getting a work boat out of Seahouses via a whip, which was going improve the crab at Sneatonthorpe, then overflow and the remaining forest chop gets the lighthouse at Seahouses, and both workers finish up farming the nearest flood plain (I know, the further fp is better because it can't be watermilled, but I'll probably farm both and watermill later on). As it is, I'm actually going to send this first work boat north and see if there is a coastal passage past TBW. If so, I'll get a galely out a bit later, if not, I'll bring it back to hook the southern crabs. And I'll just get another workboat out somehow, probably before the lighthouse truth be told.
Lucker is still going to whip a workboat (T104), and then whips a lighthouse (T108, works pigs and improved clams). I could do it the other way, but I have to wait until size 4 to do that (T107), and I think if I get the work boat first I still work the hill mine which means I'll accrue enough hammers to one pop whip it again at size 3.
Sneatonthorpe will have the pleasure of working the horse on T107 due to my fuck up, then works the improved cows to grow. I'm going to save the chop in case I need it for military, but I need to grow the city to work all the resource tiles anyway.
The stone will be hooked by a single worker, does that take 6 turns? or 7? (EDIT: 8 turns, hooked T111) Could have sped this up but decided I want the second horse as trade bait.
Whip T103, regrowth@3 eot105, growth@4 eot108 IIRC. Going with the library whip. I'll dump overflow then probably just put hammers into wealth (if I need an MP I can get one from another city that has production). Expect to whip the library T109 for border pop eot114. I figure a one pop whip solution takes longer than this to hook up the wines, so probably better to just suck up the double whip.
There could be an argument against this, if I considered the need to push the fish back to WT, but I don't think WT needs the food that much.
Restart tech next turn. Still feeling better about a strategy to maximise output rather than minimise costs.
Is that a preat? Looks too small.
Rusten has overtaken me on land maybe? I need to fix the power discrepancy...
