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

[Krill]

You know what is more eye opening? It is over 9 years since that screenshot was taken. And you were playing in that game.

[Thoth]

I want to get the academy first

Fair enough.

[pindicator]

Turn 067, in the Reckoning of the Shire

Writing finished end of 65, and so I've started the library at Took. With the grass mine and the forest chop coming in this turn, we're ready to 2-pop whip that library to completion next turn. Then it's 7 turns to get the great scientist.




I finally realized that planting a 3h city spot was a good thing. First settler will go northeast and settle on the stone; I don't think India is coming as I've had that warrior there forever so we're going to risk Sailing ahead of Archery. After that first settler is out we'll pause briefly to get to size 9 (the gold will come online by then), and then we likely settle the Sheep/Copper next. That will take away the Sheep, so it will be slower settler production, but Chubb will put out a settler for the Marble location.

4 cities on turn 67, and the 5th is still 5 turns away. This isn't a good thing, is it?

You know what is more eye opening? It is over 9 years since that screenshot was taken. And you were playing in that game.

I give it even money that I'm still playing 9 years from now.

[pindicator]

Turn 068, in the Reckoning of the Shire

Double-whipped the library at Took. Next turn we hire scientists, then 7 turns to birth the great scientist. Academy comes turn 77.

My lagging city count has me spooked, and I've decided to start a settler out of Chubb now instead of growing to 7 first:




I'll spend 3 turns on the settler, double whip it, and then the two workers by Chubb & Took will work on the new city. Took might get a few turns working the Wheat instead of the grassland farm now, but I think it makes more sense to be improving bonus tiles for a new city than dry grassland mines.

So new cities on turns 72, 73, & then 77 or 78 depending on where the 2nd settler from the capital goes. Going to need more workers.

[pindicator]

Turn 070, the Reckoning of the Shire

Sailing finishes at the end of the turn. I'd really like to start a galley in Chubb right after the settler, but if Amicalola decides to be annoying then I might just need to go for an axe first.




Perhaps a mistake on my end where I did not continue pushing along his borders. Once he stopped thinking defensively he is now probing forward with his spear - not the nicest unit to do so with. So Brandybuck was not put on a worker like I had intended this turn, but instead is starting another warrior. That warrior will turn into a spear after the copper is hooked up next turn. Unfortunately that spear could be a real pain the backside if it wanted to: I have 2 workers mining the gold, and they will finish next turn. There is a worker already north of Chubb, who will start roading towards the city spot by the marble. If Amicalola keeps playing after me then we could have a situation where my settler ends up right by his spear. So I'm sending every warrior in the area up north to attempt to stall until the axes can arrive, if need be.

In the east we're 2 turns away from settling our next city, on top of the stone. Brandybuck has grown to 4 and taken one of the cottages from the capital; next turn that citizen will work the gold. The capital has a new cottage this turn, and since it did not need the fish to make size 9 next turn we are giving the fish to Took, just for this turn. Next turn we go back to our 20 food-hammer setup and start the next settler. But next turn Chubb gets whipped and then Took can trade Fish for Wheat.

Have fallen to middle of the pack in food. Really need these settlers out. I'm hoping the next one out of the capital can go on a galley and grab an island location.

[pindicator]

Turn 071, in the Reckoning of the Shire

I opened the turn with a request from Open Borders and Fish for Fish from Amicalola. Remembering the spear, I decided it was probably something I couldn't refuse, so I accepted. Then found that he had moved straight ahead on me like so:



Further complicating, I cycled through my units before stopping the workers, and so their actions mining the gold were locked in. So I could not back them away, even if I had wanted to. I really didn't, though.

But I found a way to prevent him from sniping those workers: I moved a warrior on top of the spear, and another warrior to the tile south of the spear for good measure. Now if he wants to attack, he can't just click on the workers because we have open borders. He needs to declare war on me first, which will teleport his spear back towards his capital - and then he can kill the warrior, but I'll be able to defend.

The gold is a nice improvement, and let my capital reach size 9 this turn. Still the largest city in the world:



At Chubb, I whipped the settler as planned. Next turn, if Amicalola moves into my territory peacefully, we'll be able to get this settler to spot beside the marble without trouble. Btw, I'm not positive but I think settling one off the coast here is right long-term. Short term obviously the 2-hammer plant is best, but then we are left with very little production once the tiles get improved. Here we will have the marble and the plains hill, and still retain the ability to build dikes later in the game because we're on the river. We end up with two useless coast tiles, but moving west gives us a lot of poor coast tiles that we're not in a position to really use anyway. Ack, now that I'm thinking about it more it really does seem like a wash still. Maybe I should settle on it; I still can.

Ready to settle in the east on the stone next turn. The work boat is set to connect the fish straight away and then we'll chop and whip a granary then be able to grow onto the cow.




Now that i have open borders and 2c trade routes, getting an island city is not so much a priority. However grabbing the furs is, especially the furs by India (who is already twice my size in city count). I think the next settler will go that direction on a galley out of Chubb. I may switch to Archery over Masonry next turn, now that I'm without cheap warrior MPs. Plus if I'm going to stake my land in the east against India I want to have some defensive units for those hill cities.

[pindicator]

Turn 072, in the Reckoning of the Shire

Remember when I said that i wanted to have defense before planting my eastern city against Naufrager? I should probably start listening to myself.




Going off Naufrager's power, this is probably his only axe. But yikes could it do some damage next turn if it chose to. On top of things, I'm not really sure how the turn split would work here considering we both were in and playing at the same time. But I offered him open borders in a panic, and he said "cheers" in chat in response, so I hope that means he won't burn my city down in 2 turns. Because if he wanted to there is nothing I can do to stop him from burning down my city in 2 turns.

Naufrager is at 10 cities, by the way. This is my 5th.

Amicalola moved his spear onto the gold peacefully, and so I've changed Brandybuck over to a chariot. Meanwhile Amicalola also built the Great Lighthouse.

Demos:




Need more cities.

[pindicator]

Turn 073, in the Reckoning of the Shire

Naufrager did not destroy my game, as he had opportunity to do, and now the opportunity is largely passed by.




Now that he's come into my territory, the worst he could do would be to declare next turn before moving anything, then move the axe in and threaten the city.  However, I'm saving gold again, and next turn I'll be able to upgrade the warrior into an axe if it becomes needed.  I'll also whip the chariot to completion in Brandybuck.

Sackville was founded this turn, and once again I convinced myself that 2 hammers are in fact better than 1.  We settled on the marble and took the Pigs from Chubb right away.  Chubb is going to get the galley finished in 2 turns and I think it's going to build a worker next at size 4.  I'm not sure yet, been working on that.  Part of me really wants another settler there for one of the fur islands, but then I'm going to be incredibly short on worker power.

Speaking of settlers, I'm rethinking where the one from the capital goes.  I could grab one of the fur islands (now I'm leaning the one by Amicalola as that will be faster to settle and Amicalola obviously already has Sailing).  But it also makes a lot of sense to grab the spots that are really good and really quick to grow, like the Sheep/Copper location to the east of the capital.  If I did that then we'd have to slow down our settler pump there and have other cities pick up the slack.

Brandybuck will start a settler as it hits size 6, and then we'll 2-pop whip that for the coastal corn in the north.  That will get me 8 cities by turn 80.  Just need to figure out where the additional workers come from now.

Things to be happy about:

Things to be concerned about:

[pindicator]

Turn 074, in the Reckoning of the Shire

I realize I've forgotten one of the fundamental "rules" of expanding in the early game: only work the bonus tiles. That's why I'm so far behind in city count.

Not that growing the capital and working so many cottages was a bad idea; that was and still could be the saving grace of this opening. However, why was I wanting to grow Chubb to max pop? Why did Took get to size 5 and have improved grass farm and mine that it will barely be using? Better to get the 5- and 6-yield tiles under my control and working first!




So, focusing on bonus tiles fist, there are 3 key spots to settle now, and another after Iron Working: the Sheep/Copper by the capital, the dry corn in the northeast, and the clams/fur island on naufrager's border (and also presumably on Amicalola's border though we can't see that clam yet). After Iron Working we'll also have the clam/horse jungle island. The capital's settler will take the sheep/copper. That will mean Baggins will no longer be able to pump out settlers and instead need to convert more into a cottage-focus while other cities take up the settler slack. I'm starting a settler at Brandybuck next turn, and at first it was going to go north for the corn, but due to some worker micro mistakes (forests don't just magically chop themselves!) I will be lacking any worker power to improve it. So I'm thinking, maybe this settler goes to the east and grabs the clam/fur spot instead. I had hoped for 8 cities by t80, but going this far east will push me back to turn 82.

Next we'll have settlers being whipped out of Took (82), Chubb (85), and then probably Brandybuck again in the late 80s. These will grab the northern Corn, the far north Rice, and another island city yet to be determined. So 10 or 11 cities by turn 90 looks very likely. But finding the workers for them might be a challenge.




That second-to-last place power ranking means my plan to build a library in the capital to go along with its academy is on hold. After the settler finishes, we're chopping out an archer to go to the eastern clams/fur spot, and then probably another couple units. I'm mostly worried about naufrager because he's right on my border in the east. Amicalola has appeared to settle in the other direction, or just not as rapidly as Mr. 10 City Count.

Speaking of the academy, I have decided to just keep saving gold. We'll burn it all when the academy comes up. Except I need Archery for Archers, so we'll finish that up next turn. Afterwards, I think Iron Working makes sense.

[pindicator]

Turn 075, in the Reckoning of the Shire

I feel like for the last 3 or 4 turns I'm completely changing my settling plans and micro each turn.  I've gone and done it again; we're not racing east to try and beat naufrager to the fur island.  Because instead I'm going to settle the western fur island 3 turns earlier and with immediate worker and work boat support.




A couple reasons I went this way.  First, to go east we were waiting on my galley to get all the way across my empire.  The galley is already in the west so it makes sense to settle that way.  Second, I have an abundance of workers in the west and can whip out another work boat here so that the new city isn't twiddling its thumbs on unimproved tiles while we wait for a work boat to come all the way east.  Third, Amicalola has not pushed down south yet, and so instead of competing with naufrager and potentially losing a settling race (or winning and making an enemy), we're going to try and establish ourselves on the western island before Amicalola even begins to consider it.  There's a real risk of going all the way east, losing a settling race, and then coming west later, and losing that race too.  This way we're taking the more sure thing.

This is also accomplished because I realized my chopping into Brandybuck this turn put the city at 39/100 for its settler.  All I had to do was take the plains hill from Baggins for a turn and then I was set for a 2-pop whip.  Speeding up the settler a turn means things just line up nicely for shuttling everything west.  I loaded the warrior from Chubb onto the galley and we'll drop it off on the western island on t77.  We pick up the settler from Sackville on t78.  Unload on t79, and city #8 ends up coming on t80 after all.  Chubb is going to whip the work boat next turn and then put all that overflow into an archer.  Archer gets picked up on t80 along with a worker.  And we'll have another archer ready on t81, which I'll probably shuttle over as well.

I just missed out on being the first to have a Great Scientist.  Darn.  Well, it's nice to see that I'm not the only one going for this strategy.  I am the only one who is CHM though, and so I think it could work a little better for me because of it.