[Spoilers] Pindicator's Nice Thread

[pindicator]

042

This came at the perfect time:




My warrior was going to sit put in the capital for the next 4 turns as we were growing into unhappiness at size 4 (no garrison, whip anger), but now he can head out and fog bust the city spot ahead of time.

Started the settler this turn. Connected my first two cities as well. Next turn my worker will start a chop which will finish the next work boat and get city #3 a food source quickly.

[pindicator]

045

I didn't note (or notice to be honest) it before but naufrager managed to build Stonehenge. He must have a crazy strong start: first to his second city, first wonder, and now he's whipped again this turn, making me wonder if he's about to settle his 3rd city. Buddhism has also fallen, and thankfully not to Commodore. In fact, it looks like my fears of Commodore grabbing the center of the landmass have been largely unfounded, as I was finally able to discover this turn:




No signs of his borders anywhere. I've tried looking around to what food tiles are improved, but so far I'm not seeing anything in the fog that has been hooked up. So I'm not really sure where he put his 2nd city.

Chop finished this turn and it went into the settler. Actually it's not for the settler at all, but it's a favorite trick of mine to put a 20h chop into a settler right before it hits 40h so that it becomes 60h and the chop then naturally rolls over to the next build. In this case it will allow me to one-turn the work boat that is going to feed city #3.

Worker #2 finishes at end of turn out of DtG and it will move NW to chop out the granary for that city. But Worker #1 I'm still unsure what to do with next turn. I have 4 or 5 turns of doing something before it's time to improve the Sheep. Originally I was going to get a riverside cottage started for DtG, but now I'm leaning towards building a mine on the hill he's just chopped. Hammers before commerce in the early game, right? It would be a nice tile to improve because both DtG and the capital can use it. Secretly I'm hoping one of the grasslands in my borders will come up with a horse on it next turn and make my decision for me.

Speaking of cottages, I think I need to aim for Colossus this game. I don't think I'm going to be able to Oracle Metal Casting because I'll probably spend as much in commerce researching up to Priesthood as if I just teched MC straight away. But I'll want Sailing first to at least get the coastal commerce going. With how my territory is, I could see myself getting most of my commerce from the sea. So something like Archery > Mysticism > Sailing > Metal Casting as my research order. Oh, I'll want to fit in Agriculture somewhere in there too.

[pindicator]

046

That's not where I wanted the horse to be, but I won't complain.




I don't think this changes where I'm settling next, and we still go for the coastal site in the far east. But it does make the filler spot NW of the horses a lot more desirable. Well, it now becomes a legitimate backup spot should there be any reason we can't get the settler out to the fish.

As for my worker quandry, in the end I decided to mine the hill. I need the hammers, but I also need some growth, so don't be surprised to see me work a 2f1h forest tile even with the mine up. Thought about roading towards the next city site too, but it didn't work out to get anything meaningful down. In the end, this is one of those decisions that I probably needed to sim out 20 turns farther to see what I needed first but I just didn't want to put in that kind of time. I think we'll be okay.

[pindicator]

049




I didn't particularly care for Thundercats, but I didn't hate it either. It was perfectly fine as a cartoon went. Except for Snarf, that guy was insufferable, even for a 6 year old. However, what makes Thundercats memorable was the running joke in our house is our dad liked watching the cartoon more than his children did.




I believe we're the second fastest civ to 3 cities, behind Joao. The work boat will connect the fish next turn, and then Thundercats needs to whip it's own granary; there's no worker support here. Then one of the workers comes down from the north and chops the forest to get a monument done, letting us improve the horse and sheep. TC is going to be a great Moai city down the line. Probably better to settle it 1W but then I can't fit in another city between it and DtG.

Or - and I'm just thinking of this now - I grow to 2, whip out a worker, and then try to get the overflow plus chop to get a granary going. Slower for the city, but I am going to need more workers. Plus then I can keep the 2 workers in the west. I'll look that one over.

Speaking of the west, we finished our mine and our chop. Chop goes into 2-turning a granary, then DtG is on Skirmisher duty until it reaches size 4. Which really is just 1 or 2 skirmishers. The warrior it just finished is going to head west, to fog-bust the area for my next city and to try and get eyes on whether Gavagai is up to anything in the area.

Speaking of Gavagai, I can see he still has not hooked up his copper or horse. If that is still the case by the time my skirmisher is done then I'm just going to send that thing west.

The one advantage of a start pressed up against hte ocean and the map edge and 2 close neighbors? No barbarians.

[pindicator]

050

I was hoping that I would have some space to the east, but no.




I did meet Bing, though. Sailing shoots up in priority, though it was already high on the list. Need to see if we can get across that gap as soon as possible; maybe I should even get a work boat out there before hooking up all the seafood.

In the west, my warrior began fogbusting, carving a trail for the workers to follow:




I've been checking each turn, and I still don't see any resources in the fog hooked up. No Copper, Sheep, or Horse for Gavagai; none of the central cows or the western Pig for Commodore. This is all great news for me.

The workers roaded the tile north of David the Gnome this turn instead of the sheep itself because this will speed along skirmishers coming out of DtG. At the end of this turn the capital pops its 3rd ring and so we can finally get the Sheep improved. After that I'm pretty sure I'm going to split the workers up: one roads west and the other roads towards Thundercats and chops the tree there into a monument - or maybe even roads to the south if I send my skirmisher that way.

Capital grows to 4 next turn and starts the next settler, to be whipped on t55. That's the capital's role in the early game here: whip settlers at 4 and use the turns regrowing to pop out work boats. Once the silver gets hooked up we can start a 3 pop rotation from size 3 to 6, but we might also fill up by the time that happens.
DtG starts a skirmisher next turn and builds skirmishers until it reaches size 4. Depending on how much land is still available when that happens in 10 turns, we may go for a settler or a worker at size 4 there.

Turn 50 Stitch:




I'm thinking I might send the first skirmisher south instead, to try and claim the central spot I have had marked. This would certainly make me lose my window against choking Gav, but it could also lock down a very production spot in the center and give me a single point of defense against Commodore. Then again, if I get the chance to smother Rome in the crib I might just take it... I'll have until I finish my first skirmisher to decide, which is t57. That's a lot of time for Rome to get their stuff hooked up.

Graphs, Top 5 Cities:



















Not last in everything any more, so that's an improvement.

[Tarkeel]

Thanks for the stitch. This map looks like a real treat to dotmap. Third city goes on the tundra for the deer? Any concrete plans on where to settle after that?

[pindicator]

I'm considering sending the next city south to claim the center, assuming Commodore didn't do that with the city he just planted. If I send both workers to it, I can get a settler and a skirmisher there on t59. If Commodore has taken that spot, then after the deer I will settle by the horse and we'll try to make that the defensive bastion for the south.

[pindicator]

051

I was going to show my plan for fogbusting, using just 2 warriors as a net to capture most of the incoming barbarians and/or neighboring opponents. But then this guy had to show up and ruin it all.




So I improvised a new plan on the fly.

Assuming that our barb friend is coming towards Thundercats, I'm going to bring the warrior down by Thundercats onto the forested hill next turn. Ideally the barb slams itself into my heavily fortified defender and I can mop up easily.

As a backup, the fresh warrior from the capital came south and can provide extra coverage next turn. Should the barb warrior miraculously win, this warrior would be able to clean up and save Thundercats.

However, should another barbarian appear to threaten David the Gnome, then we can still pivot back to cover that city. (Note that the only reason the capital is not unhappy without its garrison is due to the Herbalism event.)

More confirmation that Commodore did not settle on the coveted central hill with his 3rd settler. This is good news and I pretty much am set on sending my next settler that way now. So my workers will improve the sheep (started this turn), and then after will start roading south to this location.

[pindicator]

052

The barbarian retreated and I updated my warrior plan:




Circled warrior will stay in place, to prevent any barbarians from spawning south of Thundercats. Then the Rectangled warrior will move south to cover the workers as they start roading towards the center. This leaves the capital unhappy at size 4 (herbalist happy wore off this turn), but since I built the mine instead of the cottage we can still get the settler to 40/100 on time for the whip.

I could also have used this time to go after Gavagai, who is behind in cities and also in a turn split with someone in the west. But instead I will focus on grabbing what land I can before getting into any conflict.

Mysticism is next tech due to needing immediate border pops in my next 2 cities. The central location can't feed itself without 2nd ring food and the Deer/Wheat/Silver location has 2 resources in the 2nd ring. After that it's a debate between Sailing and Writing. Someone is already going for Sailing, and I would guess this is Civac since I couldn't see a 2k power jump on Commodore or Gavagai. Going for an early lighthouse or just FIN coast? That makes me want to get a work boat out to scout to the east and find out how close my next neighbor is in that direction. I would guess they are very close.

[pindicator]

I'm reconsidering sending my next settler to the center and instead just sending my first skirmishers that way. Biggest reason is it just eats up so many worker turns and the spot is so slow to get going. The cost in worker turns ends up slowing the development of Thundercats as well. 

I need to decide this turn because the workers need to go one way or the other next turn