[PB79] Giraflorens & Magic Science -- "Fear+Curiosity Gazpacho"

[giraflorens]

T040

   

3rd. mistake --  I should have moved the warrior near the City3 to the west to unreveal land, and I could have send the warrior in Juneau to protect the settler in city3.  I have lost 4 turns of exploring with the warrior.  What a pity.

Now I sent the warrior in Juneau to Unalaska and to explore, because the new warrior produced in Unalaska will take 6 turns to be able for exploring.
In Juneau, the new warrior will be done at the same time POP3 and then start a Worker.

[Magic Science]

Where do you plan to build more Roads? Will the rivers block them from being useful?

At 3rdAlaskan, the Plains Cow is a better resource for yields (more food), but if you are really worried about not having a strategic resource yet, then you could improve Horses first.
And don't forget that the Grassland Cows can be shared between Unalaska and the new city. That could help the new city.

I forgot that we need Hunting! . Pottery vs. Hunting is a tough choice. It is possible that Hunting is better.
Sooner improved Ivory vs. sooner Granaries and Cottages. I guess that sooner Granaries and Cottages is better. The Cows are better for 3rdAlaskan before Ivory, and Plains Horse is not much worse than Ivory, and both Pottery and Hunting will be done soon anyway.
After those two technologies I do not know. I will think about it.

For 3rdAlaskan, Granaries will be unlocked to build soon.
I like scouting with Work Boats, but there needs to be a seafood tile for the Work Boat to improve. I don't think it would be worth it to build a Work Boat just for exploring. Only if the Work Boat is built to improve a resource, but has enough time to explore first.
Will we settle for the Clam west of Unalaska soon? Then maybe a Work Boat to scout before then would be good.

[giraflorens]

T041 & T042

   

Next road will be at Ivory to get both cities connected and then I plan to go to horses.   The 3rd city will be establish next turn and will work the cows improved . I am still doubting what to build in this city: warrior or boat.

Juneau goes for a worker in 5 turns.

The warrior near Unalaska will go to explore NW tile of the city.
In Unalaska a warrior and pop4 will be done in 3 turns. Perhaps I should have built another worker, and not wait until pop4.

Horses: I think it is good to have this resource first to make 1 or 2 chariots for defense, or to explore.
Copper: should we make 1 or 2 axes also for defense?
Villages: I plan to make a couple villages soon. They can be shared btw cities so they'll keep worked all the time.

Research: I plan to res Hunting after Pottery. It will go in 3 turns. I don't understand the dilema btw Hunting-Pottery. I don't see Ivory so important at this moment. Might be in 20 turns it will for the happiness, but not now. And granaries and villages are really urgent. And we must think about afterwards: Archery is good for defense, Writing for research and growing up cities with libraries. Sailing for commerce and lighthouses. and metal casting for so many things....

[giraflorens]

T043 & T044

   

Unalaska finish a warrior and grows up to POP4.  What to do next?  Granary, Worker or Settler.  All of them will take 5 turns (settler with whip2).  We are making the 3rd worker in Juneau in 3 turns. There is so much to do...
Besides that I think that the granary is not so important now, we have a lot of food and the city grows up fast after whipping.

[Magic Science]

Rename city3 to "Anchorage." Anchorage is the largest city (291,247 people) and located in southcentral on the coast.

You are right that Pottery is better than Hunting. I just doubted myself because I forgot to think about Hunting.

And I think you made the right choice for what to make in Unalaska and Juneau.


Make as few units for defense as possible. We want to save the hammers. Chariots are good for fighting barbs because they are so fast and strong enough to defeat warriors and archers. Maybe make 1 axeman to have ready.
Always think, if an enemy comes in sight, can we defend in time? Sometimes a city could whip a unit in time to defend, so you do not need a garrison yet. Or a unit stands between two cities and can go to the one that is threatened. Vision to see enemy units coming is very good.
Other players could be a threat too. We have not met them and we do not know where they are. There is a lot of land, so they are probably not too close.

I think you should make Granaries quickly when you discover them. Granaries are extremely good buildings. Unalaska can quickly grow 2 or 3 pop higher, even to unhappiness, then complete a Settler or Worker with a whip. Granaries will make that very effective. Workers make Cottages for the higher population to work before it is whipped.

[Magic Science]

Here are two useful links for barbarian behavior:
Barbarians.
When do barbarians enter cultural borders?

Basically, at this time, the barbarian animals are dying and the barbarian humans are spawning. When all players together have enough cities (more than 3 per player), then the barbarian humans get more aggressive.
Warriors can stop cities from being captured (don't forget, Warriors have a secret +25% bonus when defending cities). But Warriors are bad at stopping enemy warriors from pillaging our improvements. We need Axemen or Chariots soon.

Also, don't forget that on Turn 51, Unalaska's borders expand to 3rd ring. Then Juneau gets another Sheep tile. Maybe a worker could go to the sheep tile before the border expands, build a road, then build a pasture after the border expands?

[giraflorens]

T045

   

The west is been revealed. 
In Unalaska a granary is been built.  And I changed in Anchorage from warrior to a granary.  The worker near Anchorage will go for the horses.

In Juneau a worker in 2turns, after a granary and after another worker.  This workers should provide the roads to the capital and the new Sheep.  Also there are 2 mines near the capital.  In Anchorage after the granary we can make units. It has a good hammers availability.

What about research? (I placed the slide to 0%, so next turn must go back to 100%).  Might be Libraries?? That will help with research and growing radius of cities.  Might be Sailing for commerce?

[giraflorens]

T046

   

We have coast on the west.  I guess that the comunication to the Player on the West will be by the NW mountains.

Unalaska next turn I would change the bananas by a plain forest hill to get the 3 harmmers that will accelerate the granary and won't delay the growth. After the granary we can make a new Settler and whip it at 2pop

Juneau, the worker should make the road of the coppper.  And the new worker should start the road on the forest SW. After the granary is done we can make another Worker.

[Magic Science]

I logged in on Turn 47. I will log in again and play if you do not play in the next few hours.

Technology: The big picture is that for about the next 20 or 30 turns, we only want to make Settlers, Workers (and Work Boats), Granaries, and military units. With few exceptions.
If we discovered Sailing, we could make a Lighthouse, but why make a Lighthouse when you could make a Worker instead? The Worker can build Cottages (better than working Lighthouse Coasts) and chop trees (better than +1 food on seafood). If we discovered Writing, we could make a Library, but why make a Library when you could make a Settler instead? The new city can work more commerce.
New cities are very strong! As long as there is room for more good new cities, we should keep making Settlers and the support (Workers, etc.) they need. If we take too much time, then someone else will settle the land. It is much cheaper to settle empty land than to capture land from another players.
Buildings and other things are only good when you run out of room.

Do you see how this matters for deciding what technology to research?

Think: will this technology be useful when we are mostly making Settlers, Workers, Granaries, and military units? Does it unlock a rare exception that is good to make during the early expansion time? Or does it get us ready for when the early expansion time ends?

Example: Writing. Writing is not good for Libraries at this time, unless you want to make only 1 Library to get an early Great Scientist for some reason. But it does unlock Open Borders. If we knew another player and had trade with them, then Writing would be worth +1 Commerce per city (peaceful foreign trade on the same continent is worth +2, vs. +1 commerce domestic trade). But we do not know another player. But Writing does go towards Mathematics and Currency, two very good techs.

Archery: Archers are sometimes good for defending against other players. Unlike Chariots/Axemen/Spearmen, Archers in cities are weak to no units. But we don't know any other players, and against Barbarians Archers are not so good.

Sailing: Not for Lighthouses! But it also is for Galleys. A Galley is support for sending Settlers across water. A Galley would let us settle south of Unalaska. That could be good.

Mysticism: We are not CRE, so we want to settle for first-ring resources, if possible. 30 hammers for Monument + waiting 10 turns is a long time.  But maybe there are 1 or 2 places where a Monument would be worth it. Maybe Anchorage? Monument gets Banana and Floodplain.
Also, no one has started a religion yet. Or made any Wonders. In my greens game, everyone took a long time to get wonders or religions. It could be the same in this game. And no IND players, and not many players at all.
Researching a technology for a Wonder or a religion could be worth it.

Last thing for now: it could be worth it to research a technology to unlock a Wonder, then build that Wonder instead of a Settler or two. Wonders, like empty land, will not be open forever. And some Wonders are really good. Do you want any Wonders?

I will think  about this more. I hope this post is helpful.

[Magic Science]

Turn 47 and Turn 48 – 2120 BC and 2080 BC
   
Old Worker at Juneau made Road on Copper. New Worker from Juneau went 1SW. All cities making Granaries. Discovered Hunting. Set technology to Sailing for now but also set gold to 100%.
And the exploring Warrior revealed the west.


Big things:
The Copper is connected in Juneau but not in Unalaska or Anchorage. When we have more Roads and the Copper is connected to Anchorage, the production in the Warrior in Anchorage will automatically go into a Spearman instead. Do you want to try to train the Warrior before Copper makes Warriors obsolete, or do you want to let the production go into a Spearman? Don’t forget that after 10 turns of not making a unit the production invested in the unit starts to decay.

Two more resources in the west! Good! Unfortunately, no city spot can get more than two resources in the first ring. I think it makes sense to settle for Grassland Hill Cow (same yields as a Plains Cow) and Fish on our side of the water, then research Sailing and settle for Grassland Hill Corn (same yield as the Sheep at Juneau) and Clam on the other side of the water.
Sailing would let us build 1 Galley for 50 hammers that would let us reach at least 2 good city spots. I think it could be a good exception from just building Settlers, Workers, etc. like I said.

I think that maybe Unalaska should make a Worker after the Granary, then a Settler after the Worker. When a city grows and works tiles other than resource tiles, you want those tiles to be improved (usually Cottages) not unimproved like it is now. We need more Worker power.

Also, when Juneau gets the other Sheep, it will have 4 resource tiles and only 4 happiness. 5 happiness with Ivory, but still low. I think a city 1W of the Gold to take one of Juneau’s Sheep and raise the happiness cap would make a lot of sense.


Little things:
Giraflorens, would you please remove the orange city spot dots from the tiles of Juneau and Anchorage? I do not know how to use the BUG features and those markers clutter the map.

There is a trick for Workers on the borders: after they have done their work for a turn, you can press “cancel” and stop their action. This means that the Worker will not automatically continue working next turn. This could be important if an enemy approaches. For example, if a Barbarian moves to the tile 1E of Anchorage’s Horse, then we want the Worker to run away to be safe, right? But if the Worker is ordered to “Pasture (2)” then he might automatically spend the turn making a Pasture before we notice the Barbarian, and then the Worker already did his turn so he cannot run away. Do you see what I mean? It is a bit annoying to do, and it is alright if you decide not to, but it is a good trick to know sometimes.
Just press “cancel” after the Worker works on a turn, then input the action again every turn.