Calculating Conquest: Q Duels BaII

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The Texas Instruments Business Analyst series is a product line of financial calculators introduced in 1976. BA calculators provide time value of money functions and are widely used in accounting and other financial applications. Though originally designed specifically for financial use, current models also include basic scientific calculator and statistics functions. The BA series competes directly with other mid- to high-end financial calculators, particularly the HP-12C and other models from TI competitor Hewlett-Packard.

Notably the BA-II PLUS is increasingly the calculator of choice for business school programs, due to its lower cost and ease of use. While financiers over the age of 45 still choose the HP-12C, the BA-II continues to gain ground in sales.



This is literally the first thing that comes up under BaII, so I'm choosing to guess that it is an obscure reference to his favorite calculator chain

Edit: For those viewing this later, the lack of images is because dropbox changed their functionality. This is a common problem across the fora.

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I chose Zara Yaqob of China:


The Darius of HRE proposal was one that I thought would be fun and equal, a chance to try out the ultimate n00b combo in a setting where it might be fun, especially as I haven't used either trait in a game before. But when BaII went for Mehmed of Sumeria, I changed because it is an obviously weaker combo, especially with the river-happy Mirrorland script. I noodled around a bit with Asoka, Rammesses or Louis, but the trait I most wanted to play around with was ORG, and, as I like going for combos that offer civ-synergy even when it's not optimal, (which is one of the funner things about duels IMO) I settled on CRE China, for the fun pavilion synergy. This is not the only reason, I didn't want to end up with a combo too weak and CRE is the closest trait to EXP. I actually considered Wang Kon of China, but I wanna play ORG

Here is our start:


I moved 1S to settle on the sugar, which turned out to be much better then I had guessed, with a free pig resource and an oasis tile to be worked from t0:



We've had a good blitz, and gone through 12 turns so far, so here we are:


I researched Animal Husbandry->The Wheel and have started pottery. It is a bit of a silly move to pick China and then not go for an early Bronze Working, but on quick speed chopping is much weaker and on Mirrorland one makes much more use of cottages, so I feel this was the right move. I built a worker, and have started on a second warrior. This is actually a situation where I would have preferred to build a scout, but it turn out they require hunting! Says a lot about them that I've never worked that out till now.
BaII settled on t1, on the signed tile 3N. I imagine he chose the plains hill for the EXP worker boost, but even with that I think it is worse then just settling where I did, as it doesn't waste a turn and moves inland for more river. His city pulls in a nearby fish, but that hardly compensates for a grassland pig. I will probably settle a city there as well at some point.

I sent my exploring warrior north:



Then looped him back around the south:


Yet another advantage of this start! I will be able to pull in these beautiful agriculture resources much sooner.

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And another turn!

This one is important because my borders third ring popped, revealing BaII's warrior:



It also revealed enough to decide where my second city will go:


I'm probably going to place it on the plains hill tile SE of the wheat. I'm also considering the grass hill to the north of the wheat, but that is a bit too far from the cap, and would take two turns to get there, as well as losing the 2h city tile. Advantage is the corn, of course, but I don't think it's worthwhile.

[TheHumanHydra]

Good reports, Q; good luck.

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Some more turns.

My warrior keeps on exploring, some lush terrain here:


I have two choices with this windmill, and indeed with every improvement:
1) Burn now, or
2) Let it stand.
The gold output in the short-term will probably outweigh the benefits of the tile long-term, and certainly will for most of the tiles encountered...but for the windmills I make an exception. It may not be the right move, and in a more serious game I wouldn't do this, but I'm probably going to keep this one. Especially as I'm vaguely thinking of planting a city on the plains hill to the NE, giving it a good tile to work at size 1.

I built a second worker at size 3, and am growing to start a settler at size 5:

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More turns happened while I wrote this, so the pictures are slightly out of date.

My second city is up and running, having just whipped out a granary, and I'm starting to think about the third city:


Those are the three locations I'm considering. The one with the corn/silver first ring is probably the most likely, as I have no real interest in getting fishing until I have to. My warrior is heading towards the mirrored section and will check that out before I have to make a decision.



BaII's borders popped around him last turn! Because of the rules I moved out though.

I'm researching mathematics this turn, with the intention of heading for either currency or iron working later, depending on the happy cap.