[PB65] Pinch-Hitting Pindicator

[pindicator]

028

Second city costs 3gpt, which means we'll need to run 0% on the slider for 2 turns, and then get Bronze Working done at the end of t34 IF we camps the deer first. Otherwise we can road the camp first to still get BW done by end of t33, but this would delay growth of Eldritch Horror a turn, and also delay the worker it builds a turn. So if there are no whips or chops needed immediately, then we should camp first - and there aren't so I did.




The capital finished my second warrior and started a turn on another, but as soon as I hit size 3 I'm changing it over to another worker. The idea is to get the worker force out now, and then once BW is in we'll whip and chop out another pair of settlers to grab the next best 2 spots.

I have graphs on Superdeath; he was the person I noticed picking up Bronze Working. With Mysticism/Wheel he must have gone Hunting/Agriculture > Mining > BW as his opening tech route. Don't think I need to worry about a copper unit rushing my way yet. Speaking of which, my scout did spot a warrior from Conrflakes heading my direction, but it won't be until t35 that I see it near my capital.

[pindicator]

029

More things i've forgotten to check:




Someone decided to go for a very early religion, landing Hinduism on t23. So two first-round techs and then Polytheism. I know it is not Mjmd (no Mysticism) and not Superdeath (went BW), so I would guess either Bing or sucksatciv.

Wingspan reached size 3 and at 12 food-hammers is now putting out a 5-turn worker.




Bing also grew his capital to size 3 this last turn.

[pindicator]

Running into some issues past BW and the timing for city #3.

I had AH finishing end of t41 and city 3 planted that turn up by the Sheep/Pig. But now with the extra costs we're looking at end of t43 for AH. So I can either just eat the extra turns of city 3 working a 2f1h1c tile (and the workers doing something), or I can split the diff and have the next worker come out a little slower, but gain some extra commerce by working a lake tile at the capital:




We finish the worker a turn slower, grow to 4 a turn slower, get the next settler out a turn slower. But then all those turns working the lake tile is enough to get AH end of t42.

Hitru asked me about improving the Corn first at Eldritch Horror, if the extra commerce there would help. And really yes it would, but for the reason that hooking up the corn first would mean you want to road to EH and complete the trade route (otherwise you're just wasting a turn moving to the corn instead of taking 2 turns to build a road and moving to the corn for free). Unfortunately that was something I should have looked at when I first founded the city, and I wasn't looking far enough ahead at that point - I thought we'd be fine with a delayed BW not realizing that meant also a delayed AH and delayed improved pastures.

At this point we're only 2 turns away from finishing the camp, so I think we should continue that route. But I went ahead and canceled the worker action just in case it's still better to finish the road.

So the plan, as I have it right now:

Capital works both deer and the lake, finishing 2nd worker end of t33. Builds warriors after. BW finishes end of t35. Anarchy t36. Grows to size 4 end of t39. Starts a settler t40. Whips and completes on 41. Settler moves 42 and founds city #3 on 43. AH finishes end of t42, so we can improve the Pigs on the turn we found city 3.

Worker #2 starts roading towards the Sheep/Pig spot north of the capital after it finishes end of t33. Might have some tricks to it to improve the movement of Worker #1 as it comes back after improving the corn at Eldritch Horror, so something for W2 like: t34-35 NW, road. t36-37 N and road the sheep. t38-39 NE road. t40 move to pig. t41-42 road pig, and then we're ready to improve the pig on 43 after AH comes in. Worker #1 will finish the deer (t30 & 31), road the deer (32 & 33), farm the corn (34-38), come back SE-SE-NE on 39, and then do something 40-42 before improving the pig. Could possibly chop the grass hill 2W of the capital on these turns if we're okay improving the sheep before the pig.

Eldritch Horror is going to grow to 2 while starting a warrior (t33, warrior is at 12/15), then swap to another worker on 34, finishing it end of t41. At that time it's working improved corn and deer and can probably grow to 4 before 2-pop whipping out something. Worker 3 can start roading towards the Silver, because I'm pretty sure that's where I'm going to want my 4th city at with all these costs.

[pindicator]

030

Mjmd revolts to slavery, so he's the other person who has Bronze Working. It also means his settler is out.




Scout has circled north of Cornflakes' borders and I think I'm going to head north by northwest next, and see if there is any neighbor in that direction. Perhaps we circle back around towards the capital in a grand arc.

[pindicator]

033

Found Mjmd's borders. He just settled his 2nd city, so next turn we'll find out whether it's his new plant or his capital that we're coming up on.




Looks like this is not quite due north of Cornflakes, so I'm thinking it could be his second city. Also, this seems to put the Gems+Marble location in the middle of us all, even if I'm the closest. Cornflakes has a gold pointing him towards the center of the three of us which is closer to him too, so maybe some kind of symmetry there.

Also, superdeath revolted to Slavery so that's a clear sign his settler is finally done.





In other news, I've been beating my head against the wall trying to find a way to start a Navarra game in eu4.

[pindicator]

034

Scout finds that this is Mjmd's 2nd city we have spotted.  Back home Eldritch Horror has its road finished and trade route complete, but unfortunately that good news is diminished by our expenses growing to 4.




I've been constantly amused by the fact that I can build a work boat at EH.  I thought 1 tile lakes were not possible to build a WB in unless a resource is present; is this a giveaway that Oil appears here later?  Mental note for later, but more likely it's unintended behavior.

I'm never too sure on how population is factored in, but is it safe to assume it costs 1 gold for every 5 population (in addition to distance costs)?  Or is that too simplistic?

In any case, we're a turn slower with AH than planned, so we can either plan some slack into the worker tasks (which might be useful if Copper shows up in borders) or we can try to get back on schedule.  I started a worker in EH this turn, and one possibility is to delay that worker until we grow to 3, then work the lake at EH at 3.  This would keep our schedule for Animal Husbandry (barely) but delay the 3rd worker by 3 turns.




Still leading crop yield by a healthy margin

[pindicator]

After talking it out with Hitru, we're going to delay that worker in Eldritch Horror and grow EH to size 3, then start Worker 3. Working the lake tile at size 3 will get us AH on schedule for the next settler out of the capital, and will delay the settler for city 4 by a turn. But better to get resources now than resources later.

Plus this will give us an extra warrior before BW comes in, and I'll be able to scout abroad with the first warrior.

[pindicator]

035

Buddhism is founded. Might be tough to get one of those early religions after all.




Let's talk worker turns and lining things up for cities 3 & 4. W1 is in purple, W2 in green. Worker 2 just finished from the capital end of last turn and put 1 turn into a road NW of Wingspan this turn. For a line of basis, the projected tech times are BW end of 35, revolting to Anarchy on 36, and AH end of t42. Settler for city #3 finishes end of t41, moves to the plains hill on 42, and then found the city on 43.

W1 is going to finish the corn on t38, move SE-SE and put 1 turn of chopping into the forested deer on 39 (can't think of anything else for him to do other than waste the turn), move NE-E and put a turn of chopping into the forested hill by the capital on 40, then on turn 41 will finish the road NW of the capital, and on t42 will finish the road on the sheep.

W2 is going to move north and put 1 turn into the sheep on 36. Then 37 & 38 will road NE of the sheep. 39 will move to the pig and 40-41 will road the pig. I have a turn to spare here that I don't know what to do with - more on that later.

The settler for city 3 finishes end of t41. On 42 it will move to the plains hill marked on the map, and on t43 we will found our third city. W1 & W2 then both start pasturing the Pig tile, and complete it on 44. Finishing the pig in 2 turns will mean that city 3 will grow to size 2 in 5 turns: one turn at 2 food, and then 4 turns working the improved Pig at 5 turns.

So my one question is that I have an extra worker-turn to do something with W2. I can't finish the roads I leave half finished, because I need to leave them for W1 to give it something to do as it moves east to help improve the pig. So far the only thing I have thought up is putting a turn into a farm next turn, but I don't know if there's any guarantee I complete a farm there. Another option is to have W2 finish its road next turn, and W1 can then complete a road SW of the sheep instead of putting a turn into chopping the forested hill at the capital - now that Worker 3 is being delayed until end of t44 this may be the best bet.

Continuing on, after City 3:

Capital starts on the settler for city 4 immediately after 2-pop whipping the settler for City 3. On turn 45 we reach 70/100 on that settler, which means I need to finish a chop into the capital to get the settler out by then, but slow-building the settler means it finishes end of t48 instead. This makes me really want a forest chop.

What I could do ... instead of putting a road on the Sheep, I could put a road on the plains forest east of the Sheep. So W2 would move onto that forest on t36, build a road on it 37 & 38, put 1 turn of road on the tile 1N of it on 39, and then 40-42 will be moving to and roading the Pig. W1 then moves as shown in the picture except it doesn't complete the road on a Sheep on 42: it completes the road 1N of the forest (so the sheep is left without a road in this scenario.)

Then after the Pig is pastured on turn 44, the 2 workers can move to the forest and chop it on t45 and finish the chop on 46. Sadly worker 3 is too far away to move and chop in one turn; it can only reach the forested hill. And if I try to put 2 turns of pre-chop into that forest then there's no way to get W1 up to the Pig in time to start the pasture on 43.

And Bronze Working finishes end of turn, so I'm sure Copper will show up somewhere and ruin all of these plans. Well, I'm not presently happy with any of them, so I think that's fine if it does.

[pindicator]

Figured out the worker turns.  This was close:

What I could do ...  instead of putting a road on the Sheep, I could put a road on the plains forest east of the Sheep.  So W2 would move onto that forest on t36, build a road on it 37 & 38, put 1 turn of road on the tile 1N of it on 39, and then 40-42 will be moving to and roading the Pig.  W1 then moves as shown in the picture except it doesn't complete the road on a Sheep on 42: it completes the road 1N of the forest (so the sheep is left without a road in this scenario.)

Then after the Pig is pastured on turn 44, the 2 workers can move to the forest and chop it on t45.

I can change W1 to move SE-SE-NE on 39, finish the road NW of the capital on 40, put a turn of chopping into the plains forest on 41, and then finish the road NE of the sheep on 42.  That gives us the full road connection to the plains hill so the settler can move on 42 and found on 43.  Workers 1 & 2 improve the Pigs on 43 & 44, and then they follow the road back to the forest and finish chopping it on 45.  Settler for city #4 finishes end of 45.

And now that the turn is rolled, we know now where city #4 is going to be planted:





Will play later today

[pindicator]

036

A couple more things to report for the turn.  First of all, this is our anarchy turn, revolting into Slavery.

Second, we found some more opponents.  Bing is to our northwest:




Mjmd's capital is to our northeast:




Map layout is looking like a strip of land with 3 players on each coast.  North and south is offset from each other with stone/marble and luxuries in competition locations at the center.  I don't see any toroid wrapping with flying camera, so while I might just suck at flying camera I would bet there are still some islands to settle.

We also have graphs on Cornflakes this turn: