[PB59] Pindicator's One Thread to Rule Them All

[pindicator]

Turns 017 & 018, in the reckoning of the Shire


Naufrager (Joao of India) is our neighbor to the northeast.




With a combination like this he is going to want to REX, REX, REX. I think it will be important to get a border city in his direction soon, but I'm already eyeing that spot as it is.

I'm trying to remember naufrager from past games and I sadly don't have the encyclopedic memory of someone like Commodore in these matters. I guess he hasn't really stood out from the newer players in my mind, but I'm surely missing some of his accomplishments. I guess this means that I'm happy to have him as my neighbor; I'm certainly not looking for warmongers with my strategy. Speaking of strategy, I think we try to be a good neighbor here, at least early on.

In a more general sense, I have a map theory already but it's largely tied to the limited options for dividing 25 players evenly. I suspect we are on a ring with 5 players right now, each player getting their own starting area and having jungled land bridges towards their neighbors. There are five of these rings divided among the map. Now, the first thought might be to then put these 5 rings into a star formation of its own, but that wouldn't work well on a toroid. However I can't see for certain what the map wrap ended up being. So if it is a cylindrical map then we may still be in a 5-pointed star for our 5 rings. If it is a toroid then I think we'll have the 5 rings staggered evenly around the map.

In either case, East Indiamen are starting to look pretty good.

Found that I was the last person to play 16 and so I did my next turn as well.




Back at home the corn is now farmed and my worker is moving to camp the deer. Capital has grown to size 2. We're going to grow to size 4 before the first settler - not so much because of the abundant bonus tiles to work but more because of how little hammer production this opening gets that we won't have the warrior done until we hit 4. I think this makes it important to share a food from the start even more for the 2nd city - we really need to get a quick-starting 2nd citiy to make up for this slow first settler.

[pindicator]

Turn 023, in the Reckoning of the Shire

Updating because something different happened this turn. Mostly, I moved a citizen



Anti-virus overlay rears its ugly head.

Moved the 3rd citizen off the unimproved elephant and onto the forested plains hill this turn so that the warrior will finish with growth and we can start our settler next turn.

So this opening was not a popular one, and I can understand why. Only 2 other people have gone with settling on the sugar and growing to 4 before their first settler. It makes for a slow settler, plenty of turns working unimproved tiles, low mfg (need a work boat!). Again, I know now that the plains hill and making a work boat first was the better approach; I'm just sad I never thought to check it because it only took a bit of mental math for me to realize that when I did.

However, 2 other brave souls have gone my route. (I know its not a demographics tie trick due to the fact that I moved that 3rd citizen around to other tiles and looked at demographics there.) There are some plusses. With a lush capital I certainly want my capital to be as large and working all the nice tiles as quickly as possible. With Charismatic this is doubly important. I'm hoping to turn around a slow first settler into a faster 3rd or 4th settler. So I'm not entirely disappointed in my missing the earlier opening. This still has some legs to it.

Scout has moved past naufrager and is onto the landbridge separating him from whomever is to his northwest. Landmass still looks star-like.

[pindicator]

Turn 028, in the reckoning of the Shire

What if I plant city #2 on top of the incense?




Idea: revolt to Bronze Working the turn it finishes, t31, with the settler at 97/100. On t32 whip the settler for 40-something overflow. On t33 we one-turn a work boat. Settler founds on top of the incense on t34 and we connect the Fish on t35. City #2 will grow to size 2 end of t38, which is precisely when the wheat farm will be finished. Capital does a worker after the work boat, probably doing so at size 3 but possibly regrowing to 4 first.

Alternatively: complete settler as normal end of t31, revolt t32, settle t33 and start work boat at capital. Whip work boat t34, but the fish isn't connected now until t36 and City #2 doesn't grow to size 2 until end of t39 (in the end its only 1 food difference, but that 1 food makes a big difference). We also are working unimproved wheat for 3 turns with this version as opposed to one turn above, even though we plant the city a turn earlier. Our whip anger refreshes 2 turns later (I'm anticipating whipping out the next settler with all this food at the capital, but that could change).

Contrast to the Original City #2: complete settler as normal end of t31, revolt t32, settle t33 and steal the Deer from the capital. Capital is now in need of an improved tile so it starts a 2nd worker instead of a work boat. City #2 grows to size 2 at end of t37, which is the turn that the pig is improved from worker #1. Capital probably whips worker #2 for 2pop and for max overflow - which would be on t35. Overflow goes into a work boat which hooks up the fish on t37.

This seems like i need to actually sim the difference between the original and new idea for city #2. It might come down to how the capital looks in both versions after the 2nd worker is done, because we will want to be set up to put the next settler out as quickly as possible.

[pindicator]

If I settle on the incense 2nd then I can move the pig/gems city spot 1 tile west and also capture the gold. Why can I do this? Because I'll count on the capital popping 3rd ring borders on t51 to collect the pigs!

[pindicator]

Oh hey, I actually need to research Animal Husbandry in CtH to work those kine resources. Well, I guess that makes city #2 a lot easier to place

[pindicator]

Turn 30, in the reckoning of the Shire

I had a realization this turn. A big "aha!" moment. Well, more like a little one. But an "aha!" none-the-less.




The standard practice is to keep binary research in the early turns. But really, once you get past first tier techs then it doesn't make any difference whether you binary research or not.

For instance, I am making 13bpt at 100% and am at 213/216 for Bronze Working. Normally you would keep the slider on 100% because otherwise you are losing a commerce to rounding. And in fact I am: at 20% I only get 2bpt and 10gpt. So why am I doing it?

Because I'm losing a commerce anyway. If I stayed at 100% those 13bpt get turned into 16 "true" beakers. We then end up at 229/216 and have 13 beakers overflow. Those 13 beakers are divided by 1.2 because of Bronze Working's pre-requisite tech bonus and ends up being 10.83333, which rounds down to 10. We lose that commerce anyway due to rounding down the overflow! So instead of 10 gold I would get 10 beakers - effectively no difference.

In my case, I'm betting the 10 gold will be better for me than the 10 beakers because I'm about to settle my 2nd city and will now have expenses. I'm betting that 10g will let me continue to research at 100% and "save" a turn on my next tech because I won't have to pause a turn to raise money at 0% science.

Anyway, the point to this is "don't sweat the small stuff". Stick to the big strategy decisions.

[pindicator]

Turn 031, in the reckoning of the Shire

Our scout's time may be at an end:




Stupid of me to move inland, but i got a little greedy. Hopefully he wins the low-odds fight, but I'm likely not going to get contact with the 2 other people in our ring now.

Bronze Working finished and like I mentioned before, we are revolting the turn before our settler is done.




Again, this delays founding city #2 by a turn, but it speeds up the work boat that will be that city's chief food source and ultimately speeds up city #2's growth by a turn.

Finally, where is the copper?




Some City #3 might go in the west now; that pig/copper/crab spot looks very nice. Also, in the east, settling on top of the plains hill to grab the fish/copper looks solid. With all these locations having kine I think I'm going to have to put AH in ahead of Pottery. There's just too much good growth here to ignore it. Sure, this means we delay our fast-academy strat a little bit more, but getting the growth curve going is certainly better.

[pindicator]

Once I get that Fish hooked up I'm looking at a capital with 13 food (when he's stealing from other cities, that thieving Baggins). So the question is: do we whip or do we grow to max size and then push out as many settlers in a row as possible? Lots of high-quality tiles in the capital, lots of rivers; this lends to growing.

Next question: do we do that right away or is city #3 so good that I need to whip that settler out first? (Also, where is city #3?)

[pindicator]

Turn 032, in the reckoning of the Shire

Alas, the poor scout did not make it

[pindicator]

Turn 034, in the reckoning of the Shire




Took feels like my latest 2nd city in a long time. I'm a little shocked by it costing me 2 maintenance - perhaps this map isn't as large as I expected? We have enough in the bank to finish Wheel, but Animal Husbandry won't be done until t45 now. Maybe Wheel was a mistake...

I think the capital grows to 4 and then goes worker > settler and we chop out that settler. Could whip - I have something absurd like 13fpt at size 3 with the fish - but my gut says that it's better to get to max pop ASAP and then just pump out settlers. At the same time there's 2 really good spots I want to settle as soon as AH is done: to the west with the copper and to the north with the gems and gold.