Freeciv LongTurn (LT57 report)

[HansLemurson]

You can see that the Wheat is now irrigated and is able to give 3 food, which my graphic indicates as giving +1 surplus.

Is that the tile 1SE of Danzig?

Sorry about that. I've been staring at my graphics and land for so long that everything is obvious and clear in my head.
I forget that this is not obvious for newcomers.
This is where the wheat actually is:

The wheat is being pointed to by the helpful arrow, and being worked by Mount Vectron.  Dense cities with large radii make for some tangled tile-usage.
The 3 green dots on that tile denote its enhanced food yield. Also note that there's an extra yellow pip on that tile now, indicating the Trade produced by the newly-built road on that tile.

And now, here's a national overview with the fancy "City Box" display turned on for a slightly different view of the land.

image key: 
X means city is ungarrisoned, 
hammer is what the city is building
green arrow is the time 'til growth.

Danzig:  One worker nearby became a veteran, but not in a place that would be useful for speeding up irrigation yet.  It's building a road W of Danzig while another worker puts in the first 2WP of labor into irrigating the bonus-grassland.
Meideborg:  My champion production city, thanks to being founded on Buffalo and working the Pheasant NNNEE, is now ready to produce my first real worker!  "1/11" means it's built in 1 turn, and would cost 11 gold to rush-buy.  If I rush-bought, the extra production would carry over into the next project.
Mount Vectron: Working the irrigated Wheat NNNWW is going to let it grow a turn sooner than it otherwise would have.
Bronswiek: The Buffalo it's built on and the Whale its working are about the best this city will have to offer.  It's future is as a filler-city, a fishing village.  But for now, while land is plentiful and labor scarce, it will prove as worthy as any other city for growing my empire.  The non-veteran worker nearby is still irrigating that plains.
Lübeck: With the flag moved out of the way from behind the city, you can see a glimpse of the wheat it was founded on.  This gives the city center 3 food, allowing this city to grow next turn!!  This will not be the only city in the world to grow on Turn 4, but it puts it ahead of the curve.  The Veteran Worker has already finished irrigating the Plains-River NNN of the city, and is moving on to irrigate the plains to the N.  (The irrigated Plains-River is obscured by Mount Vectron's city-box)

Here is an internal view of Lübeck:

Note the granary size of 12.  This is why 3 surplus lets it grow so early.  It can afford to work on a settler because it's going to be growing population very fast in the upcoming turns.  When it grows at the end of this turn, it will be able to work the Plains River immediately, and thus never have to waste time working un-improved tiles.

My explorers have also continued to peek around the edges and corners of my island, but have not uncovered anything interesting.

[civac2]

Thanks.

I think you mixed up the worked tile directions for Mount Vectron and Meideborg (or E and W). That confused me for a minute.

[HansLemurson]

Thanks.

I think you mixed up the worked tile directions for Mount Vectron and Meideborg (or E and W). That confused me for a minute.

Eithout your eatchful wyw, I nwvwr eould havw caught thw wrror!

Fixed.

Turn 3 demographics

https://imgur.com/yBs0cOH
Production dropped to 18 because Mount Vectron switched from working the 2f/2p pheasant to the 3f/1p wheat.
But I'm still #1
Next turn the Tr

[HansLemurson]

Turn 4

The first turn that the Top 5 Cities report is interesting:


Cgalik, captain of my team, has opted to double-settle one of his cities.  Settlers are similar to Civ3's settlers; they are worth 2 population to account for the fact that a newly settled size-1 city works 2 tiles.

Ireland, my neighbor, had the fortune of settling two cities on turn 0 either on or nearby Fruit, which doesn't require any development in order to exceed the Despotism Threshold.  Thus Ireland has two cities on this list.

Rome clearly had similar fortune.  If it was due to Fruit rather than Lake-Fish, then that would place Rome right in the middle of the "Endotropics".

My city of Lübeck was settled on Wheat, and so makes up the final entry on this prestigious list of early-growing cities.

Were there more cities that grew this turn that simply didn't make it onto the list?  Perhaps.  But 4/5 of the top 5 cities are one my team, and I can't help by think that's a good thing.

I personally think that double-settling in Turkey Dinner was a foolish move.  Cgalik's plan is to let it grow big sooner so that it can build a helpful national wonder sooner, the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum.  This extremely cheap wonder gives the city it's built in a small bonus that can be quite valuable in the early game:  +6 Luxuries, which is enough to turn 3 content citizens happy, and thus bring the city its in into Celebration.  Under Despotism, Celebration removes the yields penalty from tiles in that city, so Hal Saflieni can bring a major growth and production boost to the city in which it is built.

Only cities of size 3 or higher can celebrate, so Cgalik's plan is to gain the advantage of this building ASAP.  We'll see if his gambit pays off.

Turn 4 Demographics:

With the growth of Lübeck, I now have 6 citizens, but the Irish have 7 due to their double growth.
My production is back up to 19 due to Lubeck working its new tile.
Research rate is middle of the pack.  Some people have already gotten their first tech, but not me yet.  That'll come next turn.

Research:

A team-mate, Baden, researched Ceremonial Burial already due to their high trade income.  This is why it costs 27 Bulbs instead of the standard 30. The more civilizations know a tech, the cheaper it gets.  This helps people in the rear not fall TOO far behind.
Once I get Ceremonial burial, I will build Hal Saflieni in one of my cities.  Not quite sure yet which one should be given the privilege.  Either Danzig or Mount Vectron.

Empire View:

A: Irrigating the bonus-grassland will finish next turn.  If I'd gotten luckier with worker promotions, it would have already been finished.  Also note that the Oasis is NOT going to be worked this turn.
B: Danzig is working this wheat instead of Mount Vectron.  Mount Vectron was 10/12 in its granary, and there' nothing to gain by giving it 3 food, as any surplus is sadly lost.  However, this lets Danzig grow a turn earlier.  Veteran worker wastes its potential by building a road to kill time until it can participate in irrigation projects.
C: Meideborg built my first real worker this turn.  3WP right out of the box!  I'm building roads first, because it's better to enhance movement so that you can concentrate labor later.
D: Irrigation here finished, Bronswiek has its 2nd tile ready to work now.  Might as well irrigate this plains while I'm here.
E: Irrigation continues.  I'll have a settler out soon!  Is this too early?  I hope not.
F: Shallow water indicates another island there.  I'll need map-making (and the special Longboat unit) to settle it.  Plenty of land to settle on my home island before then, but I can't wait too long to go to sea and let our opponents claim all the good islands.
Fruit: These are the two Irish cities that had early growth.  May fortune follow upon fortune!

[civac2]

Why is your new worker more real than other workers? And what are WP?

[NobleHelium]

(The starting workers are "Tribal Workers" and only work at a rate of 2/turn, but this is balanced by their lack of upkeep.  Later workers that I can build will work at 3/turn.)

[HansLemurson]

Turn 5


New turn brings new growth, and new cities to the front lines.  The Inca seem to win ties on this chart, since they also appeared when cities were first being founded.  Who knows what the future will bring?

Demographics:

Mount Vectron grew, giving me 7 citizens, but Baden stormed ahead with an impressive 9 population.  Most of their cities had a +3 food tile to work, and so they are off to a good start.  For my part, I'm expecting 3 more growths next turn, but that's going to be true for every city founded on t0 with no food bonuses.

Research:

Ceremonial Burial finished last turn, and I got an extra discount on it due to other nations discovering it slightly ahead of me, hence I start my next tech with 9 bulbs in the bag.  I probably won't be first to Mathematics, but my hope is that I will be first to build my Pyramids.

Empire View:

A: Irrigation continues, but now there's a "1 turn team" doing the work.  Plains will be irrigated on t6, and Wheat (finally!) on t7.  t9 should get me the Oasis too.
Danzig will grow next turn, thanks to borrowing the all-important irrigated wheat!
B: Another irrigation-team preparing a tile for Meideborg's soon-to-be second citizen to work.
C: Bronswiek provided a new worker this turn, which for now will just build a road.  There's no immediately necessary projects in the area since its second tile has already been prepared for it, but you can't go wrong building roads for the future.
D: Second plains irrigated, but probably not necessary since Lübeck will build a Settler soon and will drop down in pop.

City Focus:

A: Danzig is building Hal Saflieni now, and I hope to finish it soon!  I don't like the low production rate in this city, but hopefully this will be offset by growth.
B: Here we can see that Danzig is working the wheat, but also that another city (Meideborg) is using the Pheasant.  There will be a lot of tile-trading in the future.
C: Danzig grows next turn!  You can also see that its 2 Trade produces 1 Gold and 1 Science.  Not a lot, but early techs are cheap and I need everything I can get!
D: This is the warrior that Danzig was building last turn.  I rush-bought it last turn in order to "hit the ground running" on construction of Hal Saflieni.  Given the lack of military threats for the forseeable future, this warrior may end up being disbanded to hurry production.  It seems weird to buy production only to throw away half of it on disbanding, but I calculated it would be slightly more cost-effective than not doing it.  Wonders can be hurried with gold, but it costs $4/production, and buying the Warrior netted me +3 production for the cost of $8.  It's nickel-and-diming, sure, but it's also the early game from which all other growth is compounded.

[HansLemurson]

Turn 6

Cities grow, and Baden again surges forward.  Baden is played by kamBLR who as one might guess from his name, loves his Belarus.  But why then Baden?  Because it was the closest match to the Belarussian Republic flag.

Bela-baden-rus's secret?

Lots of food!
Just look at that Capital city of Belarus.  Founded on Wheat, it had a Lake-Fish within its radius as well!  That's a lot of food surplus for this early in the game, and so it's no mystery how it grew to be the largest city in the world.  I expect it to be the first to Pop 4.

My Demographics:

3 cities grew last turn, which I thought would put me tied for first place for population, but I didn't count on Belarus.
Still #1 in production though.

Research Report:

Major price discount on Alphabet!  I technically already have the bulbs to research it this turn if I wanted to, but there's no reason to.  Bulb overflow is handled generously.

Empire View and Analysis:

My empire, with a bunch of size 2 cities.  I have labelled which tiles are being worked by which cities.  You can see that that one irrigated wheat is really getting passed around!  Growing from size 2 to size 3 takes 7 food, so the 3 cities with access to the wheat can each get it for a turn and generate 2+2+3 food in order to grow a turn earlier.

I thought about letting Danzig hog the wheat for maximum growth, but did some very long analysis about growth, production and wonders and decided to change plans.  Hal Saflieni will now be built in Mount Vectron, which will need to grow to size 3 as soon as possible to make use of it.  The benefits of Hal Saflieni would be somewhat wasted in Danzig, since it would actually end up with more food surplus than it could usefully use.  Building it there would roughly break even, which means it would be a waste of potential.  I'll build it in Mount Vectron where I'll get some better use out of it.

Instead, Danzig is building the Mausoleum as a "pre-build" for the Pyramids wonder, just like you remember from the glory days of Civ3.  My plan is to be able to finish the Pyramids on the turn that Mathematics research completes.

[civac2]

Is SAY_WOW_PLZ a reference to the Dota player from times of yore?

I remember wonder shenangigans (prebuilding, disbanding units) from SMAC.

[NobleHelium]

Using supply crawlers to finish Projects in SMAC was very effective for sure, but also seemingly an intentional part of the game design given the fact that they are specifically designed for that purpose (as well as harvesting resources).