The Devel's Workshop I - CS Slingshot

[Velociryx]

Welcome to the "Vel's Workshop" series! The goal of this series is to demonstrate via step-by-step instruction and illustration, various types of "plays" that will enhance your game. In time, I envision that there will be a whole series of these mini-tutorials, that will focus in one one very specific aspect of the game, allowing you to concentrate on that piece of it, and practice it until you've mastered it, and then move onto something else.

Particulars
All games in this series will be randomly generated maps. Unless otherwise noted, all games will be with defaults accepted, and with randomly selected civs unless the exercise in question revolves around a particular civ attribute or a specific civ itself. All games will be played on Monarch level, on the thinking that a) most players will play at or below this level, and as such, Monarch will "reach out" to the biggest audience, and b) Monarch represents the first big step up in difficulty in the game.

Finally, note that all games will be played on Marathon speed unless otherwise noted. This is because Marathon speed really puts the mechanics of the game "out there" in plain view, which is important to this kind of learning, IMO. If there's a request for it, we can set up other types/speeds of games as the series progresses.

Methodology

I'll post a savegame file, and some objectives, followed by step-by-step instructions and illustrations on how I met the stated objectives, and the thought process that went on in pursuit of those objectives, and then invite you to download the game, and step through the exercise with me until you've mastered it (and perhaps even improved on it!). In this way, we can all practice "on the same page" as it were, and help each other refine our techniques on a common set of ground. Also, by replaying this same scenario repeatedly, not only will it help the learning, but it will allow several games to be played out in their entirity, experimenting with different techniques or shadings each time. Plus, I'm hoping that the shared conversations makes the learning fun!


Objectives in this Workshop

* Explore the strengths of Vertical Growth

* Execute a successful CS Slingshot ("Civil Service" Slingshot - a means of radically catapulting research to great heights)

Addendum: The goal, with the "CS Slingshot" is to maximize the number of beakers in the Capitol, via the following structures:

--> An early Library (+25% to research)
--> Two Scientist specialists assigned to generate G-Man points, which in turn, will give me an early Great Scientist
--> Use of the Great Scientist to found an Academy in the Capitol (+50% to research)
--> Research all the pre-requisite techs to Civil Service
--> Complete the Oracle (wonder), JUST AFTER I get Code of Laws (the last, and most expensive pre-req to Civil Service)
--> Take Civil Service as my freebie Oracle Tech, and switch to Bureaucracy as my form of Government (+50% to both hammers and commerce in the Capitol)

And thus, create a research engine that will drive the rest of the game.

It is important to note here that timing is of the utmost importance. If the Oracle finishes before I get Code of Laws, then I cannot take Civil Service as the free tech, and the whole operation depends on that.

Likewise, I MUST generate most, if not all of my G-Man points BEFORE the Oracle completes, in order to maximize my chances of getting a Great Scientist (because the Oracle, upon completion, will be generating points toward giving me a Great Prophet, and he can't create the Academy I need)

And here's our opening save file.....
(actually, the zip contains both the "before" and "after" saves, but don't worry over the "after" save just yet.... )

-=Vel=-

[Velociryx]

Initial Notes

You know, sometimes a start just SCREAMS for vertical growth strategies, and this is certainly one such time. We've got gold, we've got food....it's a perfect start. Okay, maybe not *perfect* , especially considering the Civ we drew (Rome...and we lost the land lotto....fishing but no coast....*sigh*). The good news is, we'll be able to make up for it and then some by turning our capitol into a research powerhouse that will drive us through much of the rest of the game.

In this particular instance, I'm gonna scoot us over one tile "6" and found Rome on the green tile, just east of our starting position. My reasoning? Not much production around here, so let's get off of the tile that produces a hammer, and onto a tile that produces food. Also, we just might get lucky and snag another flood plain or two in our "fat cross" (which we can take, since we're expansive and all), AND it won't impact our abilities to reach that corn and the gold!

[Velociryx]

Getting Started
As you can see in the second shot, I opted to move the warrior to the forested hilltop adjacent to him. It's too early to need protection from barbs or wildlife, but it's good to stay in the habit of moving on "protected" tiles as often as you can. That way, when you ARE attacked, you'll gain some type of defensive bonus, and thus, be more likely to win any of the early battles you have.

In other news, it appears that our move to the east was a good one! With that one little nudge, we just brought two more resources into the "fat cross" of the capitol (incense), so once we get Calendar, it'll add handsomely to our bottom line. In short, this city is gonna be SWIMMING in money!

[Velociryx]

Initial Choices
Observe a few details as you look under the hood at our new city. For instance, if you focus on growth (work a floodplains tile), it will take the city 22 turns to reach size two. Thirty turns to build a warrior (and we know it would actually be less than this, because AT size two, we'll get another point of population to assign, and can work some hammers to speed things along). Still, this is not really optimal, given our starting terrain.

Also observe that it will take only 25 turns to research Agriculture. Now, normally, I'm all about getting Bronzworking ASAP, but in this particular case, it's not the best play, and here's why: 22 turns to grow, under optimal growth conditions. 30 turns to make a worker (thus, delaying size two by a total of 8 turns from what it otherwise would be, BUT....five turns before the worker completes, we'll have Agriculture, and before that even, we'll get a border expansion that will bring the corn field into our workable zone. Farming it will add +3 food per turn, which will cut the time to grow to size two IN HALF. This will more than make up for those eight turns "lost" by going worker first, rather than letting the city grow. Also note that by going with Agriculture first, we'll have everything we need to get this city on a paying basis....a farm and a mine. We won't need more than that for quite some time!

Oh...one other thing....also note that right now, we're bringing in 10 beakers of research per turn here in the capitol. Pay close attention to that number...it's gonna get huge.

[Velociryx]

Exploration Pattern

The ridge-line looked tempting, because it will give us something that our current city does not. When we get around to founding a second city, that area has potential, as it'll give us (possibly) a hammer-heavy site that can crank out troops! Of course, it'll need food, but you'll note a few additional flood plains tiles in the region, so we just might get lucky.

Also, we've found some clams by heading off in this direction, so settling over here will put our fishing tech into play. It's certainly a region to mark and pay close attention to as we uncover more of the map!

[Velociryx]

Lucky Hutness!

Well....this game will either show you how to get incredibly lucky with huts OR how to execute a good CS Slingshot. That's just freaky, and we just gained some 40-odd turns of turn advantage by not having to research one of the most powerful ancient era techs in the game. This....changes our objectives slightly. We're still going for vertical growth of course, but now, we'll also be keeping an eye out for sources of copper in the region, as this would be a compelling reason to settle in a given region.

[Velociryx]

Marking our first possible city site

We're focused on vertical growth, true, but we've also got to think about the day we DO expand, and this would be a HONEY of a city site. We got crabs, we got cows, and we got hills. Good food, good production. Nice site. We'll see what else the map has in store for us, but it's looking really strong so far!

[Velociryx]

Hunting Cave Bear

Tactics matter, and here's why....on paper, this cave bear is bigger and stronger than us, and if we stand toe-to-toe with him HERE, we could die. On the other hand, we could move one tile "3" from our current position, and give ourselves two key tactical advantages, that just *might* turn the tide of the battle. a) We'll force the bear to attack cross-river, and b) we'll gain the 50% forest defense bonus. Let's give it a go, and see how we fare....

[Velociryx]

Victory!
Not bad...as you can see from the picture, we're down to half strength. We can fortify here in the woods and recuperate, then continue exploring.

[Velociryx]

First Border Expansion

An important piece of the puzzle just fell into place....our borders expanded, and our sphere of influence now encompasses both the corn field and the gold mine. It won't be long, and we'll be in business! For the time being, it doesn't change our work assignments tho...we're good, just as we are.

[Velociryx]

Promotion!
Encountered a wolf on the hills north of Rome, and won another battle, earning us a promotion. We opted to take the woodsman I promotion, since none of the others will really help us as much just now. After that, we withdrew to the woods to heal, before continuing on.

[Velociryx]

Another piece of the puzzle

We just got Agriculture, and now, we're making another detour...this time, to Pottery. Normally, I would say that we don't have time for it...that if we want to make sure we get the Oracle completed, we should hurry through the religious arm of the tech tree, but given our starting position, setting up two cottages on those floodplain tiles is just too good to pass on.

[Velociryx]

3380 BC - Getting Serious

Worker is completed, and has moved to the corn farm. Once the farm is up and running, we'll be growing like a weed, and we'll see our research capabilities skyrocket too. Given our chosen start, any time we're not working on a library, we're gonna be stockpiling hammers on warriors, which will be our ONLY defense for quite some time yet.

"Off camera," our warrior has fortified on a hill in preparation for battling a rogue lion....will keep you posted as to the results of the fight!

[Velociryx]

Copper located

This city site isn't as good as the other one we picked out, but it's okay (crabs, copper, marble)...and it appears to be in a protected area. Definitely one to watch!

[Velociryx]

Progress on multiple fronts
3060 BC was a good year for us on a couple of different fronts. First, and most importantly, our Corn Farm is now in operation, and our worker is heading for the gold mine to begin working on that all-important terrain tile. This has prompted us to change our city tile assignment. We are no longer working the Flood Plains tile, but now, working the Corn Farm, and we see our food output skyrocket for it! Rapid growth is ours!

Secondly, our warriors won another engagement with lions (saw them coming, fortified in the forest, and won easily), and for that victory, gained themselves a Woodsman II promotion. Now we'll begin to see faster map clearing!