Freeciv LongTurn (LT57 report)

[HansLemurson]

World map is appreciated. There could be some fireworks soon.

Several of your Hanse cities have odd spellings.

Some fireworks just happened!  Stay tuned for the Turn 32 report.

World map is appreciated. There could be some fireworks soon.

Several of your Hanse cities have odd spellings.

They seem to be local dialectical spellings, for example Duorpm is the local Low German dialect name for Dortmund.  And when you consider the provenance of most Hanseatic cities, it's obvious that they're mostly Low German dialects, as the Low German language is centred around Northern Germany.

Yeah, I think the city name-list for the Hanseatic League is dialectical.  I just use the names I'm offered. 
And maybe the Hanse are just too cool for High German.

[HansLemurson]

Turn 32

Top 5 Cities:

Looks like 13 was only unlucky for the nation that didn't have it!
Plague struck Turkey Dinner, and it lost a population instead of growing.  This will set it back in the race about 3 turns.
Fortunately it's just a race to Size 16, since ain't nobody gonna have Sanitation for some time.

Demographics:

#1 in Population.  
Big bump in science from the Observatory, boosting me from #1 to #1.
I hope that my #4 rank in production is because my enemies are neglecting food surplus.

Science:

Despite my boost to research, but it still says I'll get Magnetism on Turn 36.  However, some quick math says that I'm just 7 bulbs short of getting it on Turn 35.
I think I can manage that.

City Feature:

Vectron's Glory, looking even more glorious!

29 Science per turn.  That's what you get when the Colossus and the Observatory are stacked in the same big city.
All 14 squares being worked are receiving a bonus of +1 Production, +1 Trade, and +1 Science.  (Well, the pheasant and peat aren't getting any Trade, but you know what I mean).
Also note the 4.1% Plague Risk.  This is a "fun" random event that cgalik already had the fortune to enjoy.  
Civ4's Health mechanic was much nicer to deal with.  But Freeciv only recognizes the existence of Civ1-3.

Back on topic, you see that I'm going to disband a warrior.  Why?  To get the Marketplace built one turn earlier!
That will earn me +5 Gold per turn, paying for itself in ~20 turns.
Disbanding the warrior wastes 5 production, but earns me 5 gold, which is slightly unprofitable if you evaluate 2 gold per production.  (gold can also be spent in far away cities, so the relative value can be debated)
But I just wanted the market built as soon as possible so that VG can start to focus on other things, like maybe some military production.
I didn't build that Barracks for nothing, you know, and I'm just about to get some ocean-going ships that can actually ferry troops.


Disbanding the Warrior had consequences though, since VG no longer had enough Military Police to keep order.
The only city that could supply the needed replacement warrior was Mount Vectron, but that put it in disorder too!
So I sent a spare warrior from Lübeck, completing a shuffling chain.
All so I could have a Market one turn earlier. 

Plans:

We decided that I will be responsible for colonizing Island [44].  Any ideas on what to name it?

This plan showcases the earliest possible landing I can make on [44].  The cost is that I'll found a city in the swamp, which will cost it valuable growth time.
Alternately, I could have my Longboat refuel in Danzig, and have my landing be on Turn 35.  
One turn later, but it might also accelerate the time table for getting the second settler to the new island if I ship it over from the northern peninsula instead of settling.
So many possibilities...

Overview:

I decided to give a full-screen view of my main island and neighbors.  I may at some point provide a world-wide map like this.

Mount Vectron and Lubeck are ready to grow, and will have supporting warriors built in Hannober and Meideborg so that they'll have enough Order for size 10.
It will be nice when the Temple of Artemis is completed and my Temples become super-good, but this is the price I pay for not building it in my super-production city.  I just didn't want all my eggs in one basket.  Nukes happen.
Hameln will also get its supporting Warrior so it can stop using an entertainer.
The mountain north of Kiel is getting mined by my Settler team.  This will give the city more production, which it really needs.  It has food surplus, but no infrastructure to grow safely.
Estland built a warrior to support Size 5, and is continuing to build its ship on schedule.  Annoyingly, I don't have any units I can pre-build with that cost more than 30, and Caravels cost 40, so I'll have to do some rush-buying if I want them done on Turn 36.
Spice Harbor built a Migrant, since it had surplus population.  The Migrant will act as a worker that will never gain ranks, and when I'm done with it, it can join a size 7 city to boost its growth.
Nearby, Ireland has dropped the final settler for Avalon.  I'll see if my workers can assist it, since settling on Forest is sub-optimal.

Cashel, Tara, and Waterford are Ireland's "Big Cities" that can grow early due to their fresh water supply.  Cashel technically has a choice between a River and a Lake Aqueduct, but there's really no difference.
The Irish invested big in Migrants to shift people from cheap-growing cities to larger more growth-expensive ones, and I think that Dublin is showing signs of such population boosts.  I'm not convinced that this is as worthwhile as he thinks.

Naoned in the North is the Breton Capital, and had the amazing fortune of starting with two wheat!  It's not a large city, since YKnot has been using it as a Settler Factory.  Probably not the best move, since it's on a river and should grow tall.  He's a newer player though, and is still learning the art of empire development.

kamBLR seems to be doing ok in the west, though I think he should be settling cities a little faster.  There are still a few sites to be claimed on his island, like on the bonus grassland peninsula that he has irrigated despite it being out of reach of any city.  Perhaps he intends to settle next to it?  He's not a noob, so I'm hoping he knows what he's doing.

Exploration:

Cgalik spotted island [20] on Turn 31.

An Aleut Longboat ferrying an Incan Settler!  They're using...TEAMWORK!!!!
That explains why Ghamath was using his longboat to ferry xandr's units in the north.  Xandr's boat was busy!

Cgalik decides to go for the attack, and strikes first blood in the war.  What's a Trireme for if you're not going to use it to sink enemy Longboats?

He is victorious, and he discusses further strategy with the team.



Bamskamp clearly thought along similar lines.  This colonial war is...not going well.
The Inca get the first city-kill.  Fortunately not a capture, though!

Extra Info:

Ste is currently on a break, so you can see that Wieder is the controller of the Czechs.
Wieder is the admin of LongTurn.net, and is acting as the back-bench "regent" for the other team should a player drop or go on vacation.
Louis94 is our team's backup-player, and has recently taken control of the Irish, though that is not pictured here.

[HansLemurson]

Turn 33

Top 5 Cities:

Oh no! Where did my population go?  Did people forget to wash their hands?

Demographics:

Uh oh, somebody else is #1 in pop now, and it's not on our team!

Science:

I might not be able to finish the tech on T35 after all...

Plans:

Warrior from Meideborg goes to Mount Vectron.
Warrior from Hannober goes to Lübeck.
Order is maintained.

City Spotlight:

Plague! Plague in Vectron's Glory!  Maybe the new market made people forget about social distancing?


Still a pretty nice city though.  Market is generating +4 gold, and will give +5 next turn.  It's also enhancing the Luxury bonus from the Hanging Gardens.
The city is now going to use its spare production to build 3 warriors in a turn.  All veterans thanks to the barracks.  
This will mean that they are actually valuable for upgrading, and have a future.  Veterancy gives a +50% combat bonus, and lack of it makes units rather weak.

Overview:

I have a number of cities that I would like to grow bigger, but I can't quite afford the Granaries and Temples yet.  Kiel and Bremen in particular.  Could rush a Granary in either of them this turn, but not both, and I think my gold will need to be spend elsewhere soon.  Hopefully I won't regret holding off on growth.  Population is Power, after all...
Bronswiek will get its temple the same turn it grows.  Nice!
Ossenbrugge is also going to grow now, thanks to working the Oasis.  This gave it +3 surplus, letting it grow a turn early.  The Peat is really limiting its growth ability, but I do like the production it gives.  I may end up draining that swamp in the future if I think it needs more food.  The swamp can be restored later.  Grassland -> Forest -> Swamp.
Incidentally, I just converted a Forest into a Swamp over by Wismer.  That swamp will now be drained, and the tile will be Grassland rather than Plains.  The cities in this crowded corner will need all the food surplus they can get.

Exploration:

Danzig didn't build its settler as hoped, which I should have predicted, since production happens before growth.  So the Settler hops back on board the freshly refueled longboat.
I opted not to go for the "Build a city on the swamp" plan.  Hopefully things will work out.  I'll land on [44] on T35 most likely.


Ireland has finished building cities on Avalon[7].  He has 20 cities total, and has no desire for a 21st, since that would give him -1 Happiness across his empire.

Iceland has also finally landed a second settler on Prismatic Springs[13].  She has been investing more in Settlers, and so should be able to colonize this land.



The other team gets to explore too!
Here you can see an Indian Longboat sailing past Scotland.  Is this a one-way journey, or is he heading to refuel at an allies island?
Who knows?

[mackoti]

3 units in a turn? And you cat have more then a longboat, this is kind of silly.

[HansLemurson]

3 units in a turn? And you cat have more then a longboat, this is kind of silly.

It's not to silly.  I'm going to need a lot of military police since I'm about to build my 21st city. 
And as for limited shipping...you'll see.

[HansLemurson]

Turn 34

Top 5 Cities:

Despite the plagues, Vectron's Glory and Turkey Dinner keep up with the pack.

Demographics:

I'm increasingly worried by my production rankings, but I can't imagine how I'd get more production without sacrificing necessary growth.
Econ is still good though.  I wonder why.

I also wonder if I'll ever regain the #1 spot in population?
Well certainly not if this keeps happening.  Which I'm sure it will. 

(This is from the game's "Event" printout screen.  Any interest in seeing more of this?)

Science:

I re-arranged my workers to try to maximize trade a the expense of production and growth, but I was already producing a lot of Trade, so there wasn't a lot I could do without causing serious economic damage.

Sooooooo close!  But I'd have to do something crazy like switch a city from working a Hill to working open ocean.

In consultation, a team-mate suggested that I use Scientist specialists.  If I need more science, make it directly!

That seems to have done the trick.  Magnetism will be completed on schedule next turn.

City Spotlight:

And here in Bronswiek are the two scientists that will be doing the work.
Making 4 science instead of working on Grassland costs me 6 food, and 2 Trade.  A bit pricey, but my shipbuilding schedule depended on a strict completion date.

Colonization:

My plans for the North...

I am just one tile short of being able to drop off the settler on island [44] (still need a name!), so I plan to head diagonally on the off chance that the island dips south a little bit there.

It does not.

I think [44] is going to be a small island.



Northern tip of Lemuria, with swamp now cleared, is settled with the city of Derpt.  3 more city sites exist on the island.
Danzig's newly built settler heads out, and will arrive in Derpt on T37, just in time to catch the Longboat departing once more.
The other cities of Lemuria will be settled by settlers provided by the mainland.

Overview:

And here's the mainland!

I paid for the Granaries in Kiel and Bremen this turn.  Both will grow to size 5 next turn with full food, ready to grow fast to the Aqueduct Limit.
Ossenbrugge, Estland, Riga, and Wismer all continue on their Caravel pre-building.  They will all almost finish next turn.
Lübeck isn't the same size as Mount Vectron any more.  
MV continues on the Temple of Artemis.  That thing can't finish soon enough, since I'm about to build a 21st city, and get a -2 happiness penalty across my empire.  MV will be working the Iron mine from here on.
Bronswiek, for some reason isn't growing.  What happened to it's food surplus?  
Both it and Hamborg will make Barracks to produce units because they'll have nothing better to do with their production once they hit the Aqueduct Limit, and Construction is still far away.  But not THAT far.

Spice Harbor makes another Migrant.  More cheap workers who can develop the land, and then rejoin the city once I decide to grow it.

[HansLemurson]

Turn 35

Wonders:

Both team captains building the Great Library.  This is likely just bluffing, since the standard policy is just to accumulate caravans and then build a Wonder in one go with no warning.  The main personal benefit of the Great Library is to get a free technology, but few of the techs available at the moment would be worth the price tag.

Top 5 Cities:

I wonder how many of the other front-runners will get struck with plague.  Here's hoping it's not me again! 

Demographics:

Almost 100 citizens!
What's up with that now...6th-rank production though? 
Are their islands filled with nothing but Coal, Iron and Buffalo?  
And it's not like I've been neglecting production in favor of other stuff...
Glad to see that I've been overtaken in Econ by an Ally, though.

Science:

Daaaaang, early-techs are CHEAP.  I'm going to clean up the low-end of the tech tree soon.
I want this for a Library in Vectron's Glory. Soooo much science.
We suspect that the other team though is avoiding science investment, and instead pocketing the gold to help buy infrastructure faster.  
Let us do the heavy lifting while they get discount techs.
Not a bad strategy, but some techs give you essential abilities that you need sooner rather than later.  I don't think my research policy is wrong.  
I mean it's not like spending an extra 20-30/turn on science is going to impoverish me.  Maybe once techs get pricey I'll think twice about Gold vs. Science.

Colonization:

Landed a settler on island [44], and Longboat is heading back to Derpt.  Should be able to pick up the second settler there.
I wonder if my first locations should be nearby, or as far forwards as possible?

Overview:

Vectron's Glory distributed its warriors and also built a phalanx last turn.  This turn it's going to do another round of warriors to help keep order when I cross the 21 city threshold.
Meideborg, Bronswiek, and Hamborg continue on Barracks.  I plan to avoid building any more "Green" soldiers, so that they will be useful in the future.  The green warriors I have will probably eventually be disbanded to save on upkeep once I switch to Republic.
Kiel and Bremen are size 5 now, and I realize that I'm going to need boatloads of settlers to fill my boatloads of boats that are coming off the shipyards.
I rush-bought the Caravel in Ossenbrugge so that it could depart as soon as possible with Settlers bound for the colonies.
Technology rushed, Mount Vectron can now walk the path of Iron, and get the Temple of Artemis done.  It will free up a lot of military police which can be redistributed to the smaller cities to keep order there when I get to 21 cities in a few turns.

[HansLemurson]

Turn 36

Top 5 Cities:

Hmm...I think the Incans got a taste of plague too.

Demographics:

Chugging along, and crossed the 100 population mark!

Science:

Trade is my next target, for it brings with it many benefits to production.  Cuts distance-based production waste in half, and gives access to Caravans which can transfer production to projects.

Colonization:

Re-arranged my UI a bit to show off my new Caravel and it's passengers.  Heading off to the Colonies!!!



Longboat returns to port to resupply, and awaits a new Settler to hop on board.  Also see the boring boring island.  I promise to make it interesting some day.


I scouted Island [44] for good city locations with my settler, and with the full island visible, I think I can fit 4 cities if I place them just so.
I wonder which one I should settle first?

Overview:

Vectron's Glory starts on a Library to enhance it's already tremendous science.
Mount Vectron is nearly done with the Temple of Artemis.  Just in time for its growth!
Riga will build my second Caravel, which will be sent over to ferry Slovakian troops to the fight on [15].
Wismer is building the world's first Warship: The Square-Rigged Caravel.  A national "unique unit" like the Longboat, and the later Flagship.
More settlers and Ships are under construction in various cities.
Several level-3 Tribal Workers are scheduled to complete roads into the jungle.  Jungle roads cost 4 WP which is exactly what these workers provide.  Efficient!  And once roads are built into a tile, I can move in other units to quickly clear the jungle without them losing a turn.

Neighbor Spotlight:

Iceland is now colonizing Prismatic Springs in earnest!  There's yet another Settler in that Trireme in the north.
The Irish have been using their longboat to ferry Icelandic settlers across the deep water gap, letting them transfer to the Icelandic trireme.
Teamwork!

War:

Late last turn, an Aleut trireme was spotted off the shores of Nova Scotia.

What was it doing?

xandr launched a revenge raid on the Scots after jwrober sent a diplomat to open an embassy with him, giving him intel access.
xandr apparently didn't know that a recent change to the LT ruleset allows Diplomats to do some basic non-violent actions against cities (investigate, make embassy) directly from boats, and accused jwrober of dishonorable manipulation of the Turn-Change and unit-wait timers in order to land a diplomat and then move it immediately after the turn change to do its dirty work before xandr could respond.
This sort of "TC warfare" is a lingering problem in the game.  Even though you can't move a unit twice within a 10 hour window, this still means that there's a chance for "double-moves" that your opponent can't respond to if they don't log in during that window.  Such behavior is considered unsportsmanlike, and xandr was upset by this percieved transgression and vowed to respond in kind.  
jwrober is however, innocent of these charges.

The Aleut trireme escaped back to base later on Turn 36, before jwrober could log on and deploy his own navy.
Isn't this supposed to be a turn-based game? 

(Additional note: Although units cannot attack from ships, capturing units doesn't count as an attack.  Sail a ship with a military unit next to an enemy worker, and you can capture it and bring it home.
Tribal workers can't be captured though, so it can be a good idea to use those for terrain work on the front lines.)

On a different front...

cgalik is planning on planting another city, and has some speedy moves planned for just before the end of T36 so that he can land a settler on one turn, and then found the city a few minutes alter on T37.
Building a city apparently doesn't count as a "move".

Warfare inevitably devolves into such Turn-Change shenanigans, and people take turns complaining about it and then exploiting it mercilessly.
This is why the turns last 23 hours: so that the TC time will never permanently favor any one time-zone.

[HansLemurson]

Turn 37

Top 5 Cities:

Two Hanseatic cities on the charts, declaring to all the wonders of Lord Vectron!

Demographics:

Icelanders are #1 in Econ for a bit, because in a quirk of accounting, Anarchy technically has zero corruption!
My production had a bit of a jump from researching Trade and decreasing the waste levels.  More analysis of that at the end.

Science:

After researching Trade, I had 36 bulbs left over.  I decided to clean up some of the early military techs, and I'll need them anyways.  15 bulbs per tech is bargain-basement prices.

I gained both of these technologies mid-turn, and then set my sights on Ironworking as a prelude to Construction.

Plans:

Longboat departs from the north of the island and is just close enough to drop off its settler on the same turn.  Nice!

My caravel sails into Danzig harbor with 1MP to spare.  I decide to let it refuel there.  Who knows when the next good fuel-stop will be?
In a bid to be extra-fancy, I let its worker hop out for a turn to build a road through the forest before it has to depart again.  This forest has been slowing down units coming out of Danzig for far too long.
Because the worker is level 4, it has 4.3 Movement Points, and forests cost only 4 to enter.  If a unit has any MP left when it's on a tile, it can do a full turn of work.  The "Hardened" rank on workers is so good because it finally lets you move into and build a road on rough terrain in a single turn.  Blaze a trail through hills and forests for your slower brothers to follow.

Overview:

Cities continue on their plans.  Settlers coming soon to populate the far distant isles.
Vectron's Glory is getting a Library!
I'm going to need to do a lot of thinking next turn about how to handle the happiness drop from my 21st city, since that will mean that even Size-4 cities will be unhappy.

Colonization:

I settled my first city on Island [44] which I will be calling "Osilia" from now on.

This far from home, the corruption is a little high. 
Fortunately production-waste is mitigated by Trade now.

Exploration:

kamBLR's longboat has gone on a long adventure to meet new friends.

Uh oh! they don't look like friends.  I think we may have another colonial war on our hands.  Kam could be in for a rough time, since he's facing the enemy team captain!

War:

On the scottish front, we can see that the raid was conducted by a Horseman, and it stole a level-5 worker!!! (other unit in stack with horse)
You gotta be careful with those things!  They're hard to replace.

Meanwhile in Slovakia...

The horseman that destroyed the city of Wilson has died in a suicidal assault against an entrenched opponent.
The mystery of why Bamskamp had a lone trireme up river has been solved though.  He used it to send a diplomat to create an embassy with Cgalik.

The trireme later headed back to base, but Cgalik's naval investments have begun to pay off.

Victory at Sea!

Trireme heavily damaged, but victorious and now a veteran.  Veterancy is important, since it grants extra movement and toughness.
However, a wounded veteran nearby an enemy port might not be long for this world when Bams seeks his revenge.

Extra Info:

Having researched Trade, I decided to compare "Before" and "After" pictures of my cities.

Here is the chart for Turn 36 with the cities ranked by how much production they lose to Waste.


Here is the chart from Turn 37.

Annoyingly, the cities are in a different order, so it's going to be a royal pain to analyze properly.

But the most important detail is the aggregate number:  
-On T36 I lost 26 Production to Waste.
-On T37 I lost 18 Production to Waste.

Not reduced by a lot, but Trade only reduces waste caused by Distance, not the base-level caused by your Government.  (See how Vectron's Glory received no benefits, since it's so close to the capital, and even Mount Vectron itself has waste.)
Also the main effect of this was to allow me to increase the production in many cities whose production levels I had capped just below the threshold of losing 2-waste, which can now make use of more production.
So overall it's quite worthwhile.

[HansLemurson]

Turn 38

Top 5 Cities:

The Aleut managed to avoid Plague for long enough for their city to be first to hit the Sewer System limit.

Demographics:

Was #1 in science before, but now it's ridiculous.  With the Library built, my Science output is bigger than the majority of most economies.
The not-high rankings in city-count, land area, and production continue to concern me though.  Some people must have had a lot of good islands available.

Science:

Aqueducts and Colosseums, here I come!  Well, next turn.  No real urgency in trying to get this one turn earlier.

Colonization:

Caravel with the Worker and Settlers sails north.  Should reach the port of Bargen next turn.  
Road out of Danzig was completed, and Danzig also produced its first worker, thanks to a little gold infusion.  
This island will be "back-filled" once I've determined there are no more islands to claim.


Osilia now has 2 out of its 4 possible cities.  Longboat is going to explore north.  
To the right of the longboat, we can see some shallows which must certainly belong to The Arctic.  No new lands that way.
A lone Slovakian settler continues its journey due north.  These were the evacuees of cgalik's unfortunate quest for island [10].
At some point they'll get picked up by a spare ship and taken back home.


The founding of Bargen was my 21st city, and resulted in a loss of happiness across my whole empire.  
Cities with Temples were largely spared, but I had to do a lot of warrior-shuffling to restore order, and assign a few entertainers as needed.

City Spotlight:

Vectron's Glory is now, if you can believe it, even MORE glorious!!!
It's now providing nearly half of all science for my entire nation.
Do however note that it only has 2 happy faces now, not 3.  Luxuries have to first convert an Unhappy citizen to a Content one before they can convert a Content to a Happy.  With only 2 free content citizens now, the 6 luxuries can only guarantee 2 Happies.

Overview:

Hameln gets its temple next turn, while a Caravel waits off the coast to pick up settlers built in Duorpm and Meideborg.  The Settler from Kiel will have to wat for another boat.
Vectron's Glory builds some Horsemen, which will be able to shuffle between cities for mobile happiness patrols.  Will probably ship one to the colonies too to act as defense, or even raiding.  Maybe it could capture some coastal workers from an adventurous Caravel.
Hannober will need some support after it grows, but the temple should come soon enough.
Lubeck, Mount Vectron, and Bronswiek will all grow.  I think I have enough happiness boosts for them.  That 21st city certainly threw off my careful balance.  Oh well.  More is better!
Wismer is about to build the world's first and finest warship!
Spice Harbor builds its own police, then maybe a temple later.

War:

Aleut Longboat explores the other side of Scotland.


Hanseatic Caravel sails towards Slovakian Port.  Will depart with Reinforcements for the Colonial War.


Slovakian Trireme seems to have survived without revenge.  It was able to move later in the turn, but is so damaged it can only creep along at 2 squares.  Will be vulnerable for a while.
Phalanx gets ready to hop on a river boat for quick transport to Tom Hanks.  The city wall should grant this city security for some time.