[pb72 spoilers]: the esteemed gentleman's literature and book club

[Tarkeel]

Monarchy definitely makes some sense here, and it could be worthwhile to push some extra warriors for MP duty before improving the copper. On the other hand, we might need a credible military if there's a neighbor to the east. One configuration that makes sense is that we're in a diamond around that body of water, but I'd expect to see some borders over there by now then.

With only four players, Stonehenge might not fall very soon. We could possibly slowbuild it once stone is hooked, for the failgold if nothing else. Pyramids seems like a distraction from the phracts.

[greenline]

Short update before I head out for the day:

Pottery in, set research to 0% on Polytheism. I think monarchy is the best short term tech goal for now.

All cities swapped to building granaries.




Scouting the land south of bing reveals an interesting peninsula shape.




With the pigs pastured, we take the lead in CY again. Now the challenge becomes churning out settlers to keep pace with the IMP team.

[greenline]

Hoping this isn't a ton of bad micro.

Got to play another double turn when I got back to my PC. Dune and Creation 1 pop whipped granaries - while 1 pop whips are generally something to avoid, it seems appropriate since we are EXP and the main benefit of EXP is the cheap, quick granary. The capital granary was instead chopped to completion on the next turn, with the plan for the capital to overflow into a settler and double whip.




The main micro thing I'm concerned with is that we're running out of improved tiles to work. I am hoping to start putting down cottages in Republic once the chopping work is done and the copper is improved. Dune doesn't have room for good cottageable tiles - I think it makes more sense to lumbermill the forests and make it a production city. Creation is probably going to be stuck with a bunch of windmills, and mines in the short term until we get to machinery. But I still don't like having to work a bunch of plains hill forests at the moment.

With research going 100% into Polytheism, I checked the religious advisor was surprised to see two players went for the early religion. No wonder some people had a ton of early score inflation. Judaism is still up for grabs, although given that people are probably already headed for Monarchy, it may not last for much longer.

On the plus side, it probably means we are leading in early growth and expansion. Hoping to keep that up as the game continues. 




Dune is going to finish a monument while growing to size four and then be in a position to double whip a settler. As for Creation, it is using the whip overflow to finish up a couple more warriors for military police purposes.

[greenline]

Another green type question: how bad is it to be working unimproved forests around turn 47-48? Is that a map dependent thing? I haven't yet settled a lot of flat land where it would make sense to begin overlapping cottages yet in favor of early growth.

[greenline]

Micro tweak for the next turn: swapped the second wheat over to Republic as it starts the next settler. This will slow the growth for Creation slightly, but I feel like getting the next settler out is more important. Creation only has one worker available to improve tiles and only has some grass hills to grow onto, so I'd rather just slow build a worker or something at size 3 until the wheat is available again.
edit: changed my mind on the wheat. would rather grow all cities up to size 4 to allow for double whips, need more workers and settlers ASAP.



Bing catches up in city count. This has me a bit concerned. He went tall with his capital and seems to not have whipped once. This might have been the better way to go for this start. We will see if having granaries in all 3 of our cities is enough to change that. I don't think Bing has many granaries, but I don't know how you check.




The land to the north of Bing proves to be pretty barren. I think we should be putting all resources into racing east with our settlers.

[Tarkeel]

Hoping this isn't a ton of bad micro.

Got to play another double turn when I got back to my PC. Dune and Creation 1 pop whipped granaries - while 1 pop whips are generally something to avoid, it seems appropriate since we are EXP and the main benefit of EXP is the cheap, quick granary. The capital granary was instead chopped to completion on the next turn, with the plan for the capital to overflow into a settler and double whip.

I'm more worried that they grow as soon as they complete the granaries, negating any benefit from it. The short version is to aim to complete the granary at half full box; the long version is that whenver the city increases the food box it will also store the same amount in the granary, if the granary isn't full already. If they grow exactly, you can be better off by delaying growth for a turn.

The main micro thing I'm concerned with is that we're running out of improved tiles to work. I am hoping to start putting down cottages in Republic once the chopping work is done and the copper is improved. Dune doesn't have room for good cottageable tiles - I think it makes more sense to lumbermill the forests and make it a production city. Creation is probably going to be stuck with a bunch of windmills, and mines in the short term until we get to machinery. But I still don't like having to work a bunch of plains hill forests at the moment.

While I love lumbermills, this is not the game to mess with them. We're going for cataphracts; the forests needs to go into improving our economy.

Another green type question: how bad is it to be working unimproved forests around turn 47-48? Is that a map dependent thing? I haven't yet settled a lot of flat land where it would make sense to begin overlapping cottages yet in favor of early growth.

It's usually a signal that you've underbuilt workers or not whipped enough. It can be passable for the odd turn or so, but not much more than that. Situations like these is why I bother simming/planning the first 50-60 turns.

Bing catches up in city count. This has me a bit concerned. He went tall with his capital and seems to not have whipped once. This might have been the better way to go for this start. We will see if having granaries in all 3 of our cities is enough to change that. I don't think Bing has many granaries, but I don't know how you check.

Civac is dedlurking Bing and seems to have taken an active role in the early micro.

E: Fuller answer

[greenline]

Ugh, that's what I was afraid of. I never liked simming much and now it is going to bite me. I also had forgotten or not internalized the rule about granaries with the food box half full - it has been a long time since I played with EXP.

How bad do you think our situation is now? We are still #1 on CY in the demos, but that could easily be misleading.

What might make sense is whipping a worker out of Dune instead of a settler, and then deforesting that whole area for more workers and settlers.

For this turn, there was nothing to do besides chopping another forest at Republic into the settler. The copper is mined at creation, giving the city three good tiles to work at size three. Need to lay down the first cottages at Republic, and also work on improving the cows for the next city. Tricky tricky tricky.

[Tarkeel]

Half-full food box isn't the correct answer, but it's the easiest to remember, and it's not far away from correct.

I don't think the situation is bad in any way, but it is hard to gauge when we've only met one of three opponents. Is Bingvac putting full EP into us btw?

I think we want a settler for Animal Farm out before the next worker, but then probably push two workers before reaching to Nirvana.

[greenline]

I'm not sure how to tell if Bing is putting full EPs into us. We have his graphs, currently.

Two workers can easily be next on the plate after the 'Animal Farm' settler. Creation will be able to work the copper, wheat, and pigs to knock it out, and Dune can double whip one from size 4->2. But man, am I missing the base BtS EXP worker bonus.

[Tarkeel]

I'm not sure how to tell if Bing is putting full EPs into us. We have his graphs, currently.

On the espionage screen (CTRL+E) you can click the (very small) "Show AI Espionage" link on the top right of the opponent list. This adds a second line for each opponent showing how much they have spent on you, and whether they have your graphs and tech vision. If Bing has spent less EP than us it's a sign he's met someone else.