[PB63 Cornflakes] Boudicca hunts crocodiles along the Nile

[Cornflakes]

Can I just say how much I appreciate map theory time. Any guesses as to who X and Y are?

The unknown rivals are Jack and MJMD. Both have met all neighbors, but they do not know each other. The only real data point that I have to make an assumption is that Jack and Superdeath recently war/peaced which edges them towards towards being starting neighbors (as opposed to neighbors through former-Pindicator land) ... wait, X and Y both neighbor Superdeath's starting position ... Scrolling back through the thread I see a sign that I met MJMD's scout near Fabled/Ginger midpoint (near X), and at that point I hadn't met Jack. So my best guess would be MJMD at X and Jack at Y. My scouting workboat will make contact next turn.

Time for another graph, this time GNP:

   

Ginger is sitting at 5 cities with GNP of 11, which accounting for capital culture and EP equates to +3 net gpt His traits are SPI/PHI of Rome ... read "blank for the ancient era" ... I don't know how he recovers from this. He did reach Pottery (granary visible in capital) before tanking the economy so at least he can start growing cottages. But on the topic of granaries, he's sitting at the Size 4 happy cap so the granary is useless Same with Fabled to my north; he's EXP and built cheap granaries, but to what end? Growing into unhappiness to whip?

All-in-all I'm quite pleased with my no-whip opening:

• 3 cities (vs. rival average 4 ... 2@5, 2@4, 3@3)
  
• 16 pop (vs. rival best 12, average 10, worst 6)
  
• 4 workers. Don't know how that compares to rivals.
  
• 1 hamlet and 4 cottages (3 maturing in the next 3 turns, the last just completed and will be worked starting next turn)
  
• No forests chopped, thus dry powder for future expansion/war/wonder
  

[Cornflakes]

Rival Y is revealed as ...

   

Jack! The Vikings are not an ideal neighbor-by-sea. The Vikings are lead by Victoria (FIN/IMP). I really dislike the FIN nerf in CtH 2.0, which includes the requirement for lighthouse in order to gain the bonus commerce on water. Playing as FIN I often work un-lighthouse water tiles in the early game as they essentially act as building wealth before reaching Currency (work 1/0/3 coast instead of 1/3/0 grass mine). I greatly prefer the RtR nerf FIN has no effect on riverside tiles. With RtR FIN, bare grassland actually becomes a decent tile able to reach 2/0/3 hamlet yield in 10 turns. But in CtH it takes 30 turns to gain a bonus commerce on bare grassland, and the present value of the +1 commerce in 30 turns is 0 making FIN irrelevant to the decision whether or not to build a cottage on bare grassland. RtR FIN opens up different strategies that can be pursued and decisions/trade-offs to make (save riverside tiles for watermills/workshops, and thus prioritize those techs and Serfdom civic). CtH FIN is boring.

[chumchu]

I think RTR fin is more interesting and elegant. It is my least favourite trait in CTH

[civac2]

BTS FIN is overpowered on barren maps specifically. RTR does not fix that.

[chumchu]

That is true as well.

[Cornflakes]

Copper popped up in a very convenient location, 1W of Heliopolis on my road network already. So I was able to rapidly connect copper. I'll show off that copper location with a screenshot of my 7-pop best-city-in-the-world capital

   

Why the Obelisk, you ask? Because I'm growing to Pop 8! and it's cheap with CHA +100% bonus. Actually with Furs coming online soon I'll grow all the way to size 9! Then I'll swap the food away and stagnate the capital, working a couple more riverside cottages short term, and then swap to more mines as the soon-to-be-planted northern city grows and takes over some of the cottages.

To the north I'm putting some pressure of Fabled with the expiration of the 10T peace treaty this turn:

   

My goal is to force a couple more unit builds in response, a suboptimal whip or two, and generally to disrupt economic progress while I research to Construction. A standing army costs him more as compared to me, smaller cities prevent him from working cottages. I feel bad, but I also believe that this is the best play to squeeze Fabled now and then let Catapults take care of the rest. Back of the envelope numbers project Construction is achievable in 20 turns, possibly as early as T80 but certainly by T85.

[civac2]

How many cities will you have when you attack?

[Cornflakes]

How many cities will you have when you attack?

Likely 5 mainland and 1-2 island cities. I will overflow cascade off war chariots and axes into a catapult at all of my current cities the turn after I get Construction (3 cats). Forests will be chopped (3 cats). I'll whip cats at my 2 newest mainland cities and the 2 islands (4 cats). And my base production capacity will be 1.5 cats per turn, or 2 axes per turn ... whichever seems more needed to maintain the advance. If deemed necessary I can whip further depending on how the initial wave of the attack progresses.

[Cornflakes]

Foreign News:

Fabled founded a 4th city and I think recently 3-whipped the capital which would mean a 5th city upcoming (unless my timing is off and the 3-whip was for the 4th city). My 2 war chariots + warrior (75 hammers) prodded Fabled into producing 2 additional spears and a barracks (120 hammers) over the last couple turns ... plus previous military builds of 2 axes and 1 spear ... all together 225 hammers of military. I also incurred unit support costs of 1 gold for one turn when the war chariots were outside my borders.

BING recently teched Writing and signed Open Borders, so I received 2c foreign trade routes before founding my island city BING and I are the only players left with just 3 cities. I still have world best pop with 18 vs. rival best Ginger with 17.

Someone founded Buddhism this turn. My first thought was BING due to consistently rival best GNP. However BING recently discovering Writing does not make as much sense, unless he plans to 1-turn build the Oracle and take something with a writing prerequisite. I considered doing that myself but judged it to be too risky for a poor ROI. Oracle into Mathematics would only yield about 8 empire-turns of research at the cost of 7 empire-turns of production and 5 empire-turns of research through Medication > Priesthood.

Mr. Cairo still does not have Bronze or Horse connected I assume he has bronze mined but it waiting to road in order to build cheap MP warriors. I debated sending my 2 war chariots his direction instead, but Fabled's territory will integrate much better into mine. Therefore I leave Mr. Cairo alone for now. I need to beware of CKN threats to my borders in the future, especially naval threats, as part of my risk management. Mr. Cairo is also still missing Silver on his trade screen even though I have see a silver mine active for a dozen turns. Apparently 2 worker turns at the time were more important than +1 happiness at all his cities.

Ginger surprisingly is not rival worst GNP as expected in my post from a few days ago. Mr. Cairo is slightly lower, but they are both double the rival worst GNP Ginger is rival best in food and production both! Leading in food for a half dozen turns, and only recently overtaking the #1 production slot last turn.

And the graph dump from which the above highlights are mostly derived:

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

Currently I save 35 gpt at max tax, and spend 10 gpt at full burn for 45 bpt which equates to an average of ... 35 bpt without any modifier building the average bpt is the same as the max tax rate.

[Cornflakes]

I founded the island city for furs, no screenshot sadly. Expenses increased by 10 (-5 gpt maintenance at the new city, primarily due to distance maintenance, -2 gpt maintenance in the rest of the empire, and -3 from civics cost increases). However the city is producing 6 gpt from a 3c trade route, fish, and city center so it is paying for its own maintenance. When the fur camp is added in 5 turns at pop 2 it will break even in empire-wide costs. And if BING cancels OB then it will immediately turn a profit from IC internal trade.

Ginger is already up to 6 cities! But only 19 pop compared to my 21 with 4 cities. I'm making use of 4 CHA happiness right now across 2 cities, and I'm set to grow both of those cities in 5 turns when Furs are connected ... actually all 4 of my existing cities will grow on that turn, and I'll found city #5 a turn prior. So in 5 turns my pop will increase 25%! Most of that growth will go directly onto mines.

I still have no granaries The issue with granaries is that since I'm not whipping I don't benefit from quicker growth since I've been consistently at or within 1 of the happy cap, and maintaining sufficient growth pace to match Obelisk, gems, and now furs happiness. I am planning to chop a granary at my upcoming 5th city, probably double chopping with Math to complete it at pop 2 and gain the benefit of growth from pop 3 -> 8.