Scooter is up to 3 cities and still has only 1 axe for units. I don't think he's axe rushing me
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[SPOILERS]yuris125 looking for inspiration in Pitboss 73
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I think I figured it out
I take the risk and settle NW of the corn. I give corn to the 2nd city and let it grow to 2. In the meantime, the capital works unimproved tiles and builds a worker Once the 2nd city is at size 2 and the copper mine is finished, it can get to 8 hammers working the copper and a plains forest, and can build another worker with 2 hammers expansive bonus. The capital gets the corn back, grows to 4 while building an axe, and gets a quick settler out with the help of a chop and a whip This approach minimises the need to work unimproved tiles, maximises working improved tiles (building a worker in the 2nd city at size 1 would mean switching off the copper mine after it's finished and not working it for 5 turns while the city grows to size 2), and lets me have 3 workers in time for the 3rd city, when I need them. There are ways to get the 3rd city sooner, but they sacrifice the 3rd worker, and at that point I really need one - 3rd worker makes farming the wheat at the 3rd city a turn faster, I need to start cottaging the capital's riverside, I need chops.... having only 2 workers at that point really hurts I am taking the risk of delaying my first axe further and further - copper is connected T36, from then on I can get an emergency axe out if needed, but ideally I don't get one until T44 (a turn after the 3rd city is settled - overflow from settler whip goes into granary, and only overflow from that finishes the axe). I'm happy to play the game of no military until T50 if scooter is. My plan involves building an economy capable of researching two expensive techs in a reasonable time, and the less military I can get away with until cataphracts and the more I can invest into economy in the early game, the better
I connected the copper without dying!
 Worker plan: both worker chop the hill NW of the capital (the first worker is already there), then mine it. New worker from Thessalonica, once finished, puts 1 turn into chopping the forest W of the capital, then goes to start building a cottage W of the wheat. The existing workers finish the mine, then finish the chop W of the capital. Then all 3 finish the cottage just in time to start farming the wheat the turn the 3rd city is settled Scooter just met someone else (last turn I think), and purely by accident my scouting warrior is on top of his scout this turn  So the peninsula I'm about to enter will likely let me make contact as well
Currently thinking something like this for city planning
 Subject to change depending on where horses and iron are. I initially planned to settle city 4 between pig and furs, but at this point furs is likely to be claimed by capital borders expanding on T50, so no need to be next to it, and no need to settle cities too tightly Post-IW, I would like to settle this city, which would be a good staging point for cataphract invasion  If scooter doesn't claim it first, I will try for it to be city 6, and probably the last city settled before transitioning to expansion via cataphracts I don't think Oracle plans are on, there's not enough forests, I don't have marble, and my start has been super slow. I am last in crop yield by far, and while there are good reasons for it (better starts for Oxy / Cairo, expansion-focused traits for Oxy, fast settlers and better starting techs for Scooter), it is worrying (orphaning my fish doesn't help, but don't think it's a defining factor, and I still believe that moving for a significantly faster worker was correct). I feel the need to fully commit to and focus on bringing cataphracts online, I will have much harder time if I let Scooter research Feudalism and/or Machinery, and with his fast start it won't take him that long So the plan is Hunting (need it for furs, researching it speeds up AH, and it's very cheap thanks to Scooter knowing it) - AH - IW - HBR. Pretty much decided on IW before HBR, the benefit of going HBR first would be to build stables before cataphracts are online, but if all goes well, cataphracts should do just fine against what scooter has even without promotions. IW first lets me know where iron is and adjust the dotmap if necessary, and I can get started on clearing the jungle (July 22nd, 2023, 15:33)yuris125 Wrote: Pretty much decided on IW before HBR, the benefit of going HBR first would be to build stables before cataphracts are online, but if all goes well, cataphracts should do just fine against what scooter has even without promotions. IW first lets me know where iron is and adjust the dotmap if necessary, and I can get started on clearing the jungleSo no benefit to being able to prebuild the phracts using horse archers? I know chariots let you get 29 hammers of prebuilding in, so I get it if the 49 hammer isn't better.
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Horse archers require Archery, which I wasn't planning to research. Prebuilding with chariots still lets me double-whip the turn after units upgrade in the queue, just with less overflow, so I doubt putting beakers into Archery would be worthwhile. And the idea of finding out that iron is in an awkward location and requires an extra low value city settled just to connect it worries me
It will be important to keep an eye on what Scooter has, but I suspect having 5 cities ready to double-whip phracts the turn after HBR is finished will be good enough for the initial wave. If his defences worry me, I can put some chops into getting a quick 2nd round
Scooter's warrior fortified on the jungle N of the pig, so maybe he's thinking of settling the pig/rice spot now. I'd be ok with that tbh, just will have to be the first phract target
He's up to 4 cities btw (so he had 3 cities before I had 2, and now has 4 cities before I have 3). As I said, he has a fast start, and if I give him time to benefit from it, he might just get enough stuff to hold even against cataphracts. It is tempting to let him develop his cities before attacking him, but I shouldn't be greedy He also has Sailing, and I thought about picking it up myself to build lighthouses and work the coast, but don't see myself putting hammers into Lighthouses to make it worthwhile. With a happy cap of only 5 (once I connect furs), and no way to raise it pre-Calendar/Monarchy, fairly certain I have enough land tiles to work
Made a misclick on settler movement which will delay the 3rd city by a turn. Not worth asking for a reload, serves me right for playing a turn just before going to bed (at 4am, because that's what reasonable adults do)
Scooter founded Hinduism, which reaffirms that he's probably working towards a very particular bulb plan (since the main reason to go for Hinduism over Buddhism is to avoid Meditation prematurely unlocking Philosophy bulb). If he continues onto Priesthood and Oracle, I had no chance of stopping that in any case with my slow start. That said, if he Oracles Metal Casting, that's probably not the end of the world. If his research is fast enough to hard-tech MC and Oracle Machinery... then we could be in trouble - that's been my big worry from the very start, and it's sad I can't do much about it (admittedly, phracts do quite well even against zerkers, if Scooter pulls it off it's still not the end of the world, just makes things more difficult) |
