[PB61 spoilers] vanrober lonely in a green field

[Tarkeel]

IMHO, fillers are best if you have some sort of per-city bonus going. Some examples being trade routes (Lighthouse/Circumnavigation), monk wonder buildings, free specialists (mercantilism/StatueOfLiberty). They are also another build queue, especially with drafting or whipping available. Most filler cities end up paying for themselves, just not right of the bat.

[civac2]

There has to be something to make them worthwhile. A dry rice, a couple river tiles, a new happiness resource, growing cottages for the capital.

[vanrober]

Turn 117-118

Thanks both for your answers. Im not sure you know the cities I was talking about, i did yesterday some pics for you. The rice one is clearly the best one, but im afraid of pissing Bellarch off, he is building up catapults and he is making archery right now.

The spices one is full of forest but lacks food, so im not in any rush to build it. And the one left to Marygold is a bit slow, but safer, i think i would start with this one.

   

The dye city is pure crap, i would need to control the second ring, to work a couple of farms and those are from cologne, i wont be able to steal those tiles from cologne soon enough unless i chop all the forest into the library, which might piss off josh.

   

Right now i settled Aster, will get the deer in a couple of turns, but this city lacks food, i was thinking on making mills around, but this city wouldnt be able to work them, so maybe i need to farm the river tiles instead (at least some) and keep that city low pop making workers or cheap defenders or things like that.

   

On turn 120 ill settle the last rekenner backlane city getting 20 cities, and in 121 i should be able to kill Essen finally. Jesse has 5 archers already, so better atack with 15 units than 9, if he gets a 6th archer it will be still good enough, also if he gets 7 units, atacking with 15 should be enough.

This is an overview of the empire i did on turn 117

   

Demos are improving as i grow cities, just 10 food is 5 pop grown and 3 hammers is about the same, so im feeling really nice with this possition. The fear is the dogpile. Josh is losing money at 0% and he is falling behind on tech, holding the jesse area cities will be costly for him, which might make him a good victim for bellarch, i dont want that to happen, since his capitol is closer to bellerach than me, and that academy is juicy. But i prefere to work with bellarch on killing josh than josh helping bellarch to kill me xD.

       

Bing has already 9 cities, he is trying really hard to recover from the bloody atack of rekenner. He is doing really good to be that set back. I am giving him silver so he can recover better and be strong enough for an eventual atack of bellarch and jack. None of them seems to be whiping hard an army into any atack so im fine with that as long as that allow me to consolidate my position. Indeed im thinking on the next plan, i think getting monarchy engeneering for savety and then turn to Epics and great library is a nice call. GL is 12 beakers and thats a lot. I plan to get it in the rekenners capitol which seems really good for the culture and also the beakers, that river is really juicy, That would also alow me to get the free artist and try to make a run into nationalism for taj. Lily is finishing a forge this turn and whiping a market next, its makign 25gpt with the shrine once on turn 122, so if i get market online it will be like 12 extra gold (with the other comerce tiles included) and thats really nice.

Finally the economy of everybody, the economy of jack and bellarch proabbly is better than mine, bellarch is not using binary so im unsure if he does have it better or not, but i feel strong. Jack is getting 95gpt without courthouses nor shrine, so hes economy is big.

   

[civac2]

I'd settle the city west of Mariegold quickly but one tile further west on the plains river tile, delay the spice city until later (maybe) and not settle the other cities at all.

[vanrober]

Why wouldnt you get the rice? I thought that city was the only one decent.

[civac2]

Because it'd piss off bellarch. You can settle it if you want. It's a fine city. But you'd need to stack some longbows into the city.

[vanrober]

I know that, thats why im not settling 5hat city any fast. But i think ill be able to defend in some turns. What i dont understand is why you think the city 1 w is better, i feel that farming those river tiles is better than settling the city there, i think health its not a problem. And i ve never get to levees. So what is your reasoning?

[civac2]

That's a plains tile. Farming that will get you nowhere. The locaction 1W picks up more tiles some of which are decent.

If you do settle the rice city you have no choice but to settle your marked location anyway.

[vanrober]

Lurkers question, if i sit a worker in a tile of Jesse i avoid jesse to work that tile?

[Miguelito]

To add on the fillers question, you get to a point where the number of cities maintenance reaches its limit in most of your old cities, and does not increase anymore upon aquiring new ones. People talk of the conqueror's plateau. There is a formula somewhere, but you can easily check, if all your cities with at least some pop have the same round number for number of cities maintenance you're there. From then on every new city basically pays for itself from the get go, as costs increase only locally. Especially with currency and CtH circumnavigation any filler that can work coast will be an economic plus, although of course you still have to find the hammers for the settler.

Like Tarkeel said, per city boni like free specialists, a shrine or monk economy, and whipping and particularly drafting make fillers more useful.