I had held off on updating waiting to finish scouting the south, and also expecting the turnpace to be a bit faster (we are at 1 per day, which feels slow when all there is to do is to move the scout. Anyways, we are at turn 9 and the south is scouted now, but first let me respond to your last comments:
The question is of course when we can "afford it". Right now Calendar finishes with 2 overflow and Mining with 6, and both are needed right away (which is why this event was great for us, because for Mining we're already burning some gold). Exploration finishes exactly at 77/77 beakers, but 1 turn before we actually need it. After that we could make a pause to fill the coffers, but we'd be losing out on GK income. So, after GK? Well that delays cottages and AH, but I guess at some point you have to make a cut?
Before answering Kaiser's post, let me give you a look at what the scout has found first:
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City 2 is set, pretty much.
For city 3, I'm debating between A1 and B.
If we decide for B, A2 makes some sense.
I am also trying to be careful with settling sprees, as immortail costs have spooked me a bit. Sure we have gems+gold and should not go broke easily, but before education our other cities don't really have commerce. Of course, must not fall behind in cities either.
Otoh naufragar also revealed that he used the Totestra map script. That usually produces several continents. That could mean several things:
(although it loses the river commerce
).
But we can't without education, so probably until something like turn 60+. Now an agri GF farm is nearly as good as a bare grassland farm (it does lose the coin though), just more expensive. And once we switch out of agri, which I am planning for rather early - as soon as it can be replaced with foreign trade, we will of course be glad to have them.
(February 2nd, 2021, 20:18)Bobchillingworth Wrote: Your capital is loaded with hammers and gold, so GK seems kind of obvious tbh.Yessir! Worth noting, in the screenshot I posted break-even is around 70% already, so the gold bonus from GK will come into play soon enough. The question is should we wait for apprenticeship (actually, in that case tech AC-Edu-Myst)... but I have strong doubts. We can take it together with foreign trade, and we should really find a way to do this in a GA (although I've taken note of your academy suggestion which makes a lot of sense as well).
(February 2nd, 2021, 20:18)Bobchillingworth Wrote: Oh, I should mention, try to keep a stockpile of at least 50 gold around once you can afford it; there's an event which usually crops up at least once per game which gives you a Great Prophet for that much.That was what I meant with the even fund I was talking about in my last post. I seem to remember that some players (Dave) used to keep it as high as 130, but from your post I get that 90-100 would be fine, and ~60 still at least something?
There's also another event which grants a Great Engineer for around 85 gold.
The question is of course when we can "afford it". Right now Calendar finishes with 2 overflow and Mining with 6, and both are needed right away (which is why this event was great for us, because for Mining we're already burning some gold). Exploration finishes exactly at 77/77 beakers, but 1 turn before we actually need it. After that we could make a pause to fill the coffers, but we'd be losing out on GK income. So, after GK? Well that delays cottages and AH, but I guess at some point you have to make a cut?
(February 2nd, 2021, 20:18)Bobchillingworth Wrote: Beyond that, if you see an event your aren't familiar with which gives you multiple options, I recommend looking it up online before selecting one; some events can lead to pretty amazing outcomes via guaranteeing other events down the line, and it's often not obvious which choices will result in the best outcomes.Do you have a reliable source for that info? I seem to remember that I saw an event list in some PBEM thread here years ago. Have the events changed from base FFH, or would that list also be valid if I found it somewhere?
Before answering Kaiser's post, let me give you a look at what the scout has found first:
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City 2 is set, pretty much.
For city 3, I'm debating between A1 and B.
- A1 gets founded a turn earlier, is easier to defend while we still have only like 5 units (otoh B has the hill), needs less immediate worker help, will cost less, has the wine, and can work the gems/gold while the cap goes full foodhammers on settlers/workers/Deruptus
- B has lots of forest, claims more land, and in a strategic direction, gets the new gems (but it's jungled, so we'll need bronze working first), plains hill city tile,
If we decide for B, A2 makes some sense.
(February 4th, 2021, 14:41)Kaiser Wrote: So the spreadsheet works out until T41, are we going to speed up the Settling spree? From your last in-game picture it looks like the E are backlines, so SW-S-SE claims land most likely. (Or at least supports further claims in that direction.The sim I posted had the third settler finishing T50. It can be achieved slightly faster by building less workers, but I think this is rather optimal, else we delay the gold/gems/FPH mine a lot (my initial attempt had another worker from the cap, but that seemed overkill). I'll try to mathc the spreadsheet with that plan during the next days.
I am also trying to be careful with settling sprees, as immortail costs have spooked me a bit. Sure we have gems+gold and should not go broke easily, but before education our other cities don't really have commerce. Of course, must not fall behind in cities either.
(February 4th, 2021, 14:41)Kaiser Wrote: The Pig city will also want fishing, maybe we can settling it with the finish of AH and Fishing should come not much later either to connect 2nd and pig city and be prepared to take the backlines in the E.Yes, 2 fishes now in the immediate north, more seafood in the south... we can't delay that forever, but I am leaning to settle the first few cities inland to reduce the research pressure at least on one front. Imo we have the following tech goals that around turn 50 we'll want asap:
- AC -> Mysticism for Godking
- AH for cows and capturing animals (btw the scout found the first elephant in the south)
- Edu for cottages
- Hunting for military
- BW for that gems, the resource, and the warrior bonus
- The mentioned event fund
(February 4th, 2021, 14:41)Kaiser Wrote: All in all I feel we have to decently flexible cities for early game both with strong food and decent commerce potential (the cap might be actually good outside of someone having all grassland river tiles). So the next city should maybe be a bit more on the production site and optimally claim some land?Hm, that would be B, but as I said I have my doubts...
(February 4th, 2021, 14:41)Kaiser Wrote: Is there a plains cow and a floodplains in the SW?should be clear now from the pic above, but yes
(February 4th, 2021, 14:41)Kaiser Wrote: Do you expect the other players to be far away?So the map has 200 tiles per player, which is a lot. PB 46 I believe had only 150 and people were not bordering before guilds. It makes some sense for EitB, as the barb aspect of the game is a lot more relevant and fleshed out.
Otoh naufragar also revealed that he used the Totestra map script. That usually produces several continents. That could mean several things:
- He may have connected the continents manually. The suspected landbridge in the SE could be such a case
- We may be on different continents. I would not be happy about that, since with 5 players that would mean at least one duel island (or several lonely ones), but it's possible
- A good share of the land might be empty continents which can only be reached by boat or even galleons. That would mean that players start a lot closer.
(February 4th, 2021, 14:41)Kaiser Wrote: Is it beneficial to build Cottages on GFRiver to not loose the hammer due to Agrarianism?It is, in general, beneficial to build cottages, and in forest they are even more lovely
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But we can't without education, so probably until something like turn 60+. Now an agri GF farm is nearly as good as a bare grassland farm (it does lose the coin though), just more expensive. And once we switch out of agri, which I am planning for rather early - as soon as it can be replaced with foreign trade, we will of course be glad to have them.