Turn 2

[Shiber]

Now that AP is no more (or rather, will be no more once the save returns to NYE), what are the final orders for turn 2?

[Arrian]

I would argue that in order to avoid wasting the forest shields, we should use the forest tile for 3 turns (1 shield from city + 2 from forest = 3 per turn, giving us 9 at the end of turn 4), then switch to grassland. The warrior would be built on turn 5, and then the forest would be cut down on turn 6, wasting only 1 shield of production.

That would slow early growth, which is big, but I figure we can make that up by irrigating some floodplain.

-Arrian

[alexman]

Arrian, I was just going to suggest the same thing.

Early exploration with two Warriors by turn 6 might even be as good as early growth.

[Dominae]

I too missed the excitement of the first turn, but I'm excited enough now that I've seen our sweet start!!!

I know I'm not a member of the Economic Schola, but I'd like to make a comment. Shouldn't we even consider using the Flood Plains early on? Irrigated Flood Plains produce crazy food for some early REXing, and Forests can be used for production. The Worker can thus be used to set up the second city (after minimal work on the capital). I know pure REX will be fatal if we're next to a neighbour, but Flood Plains are just too good to pass up. There is the random factor of losing pop, but that rarely happens in my experience.

A second thing to note is that we're playing on a pretty low difficulty, so hooking up luxuries isn't a big priority. Granted, if we're cutting down trees where the Furs are next to the capital we might as well build a road.

Second city? I say expand North to use the second Flood Plains. Again, I'm a fan of Flood Plains.


Dominae

[alva]

I was thinking in that direction too, waiting for a pop4 city to produce the settler, and keeping it just to produce food.
Slower start maybe, but we would be catching up quickly

[Arrian]

The problem with the floodplains is twofold:

1) worker movement: we would have to move the worker to the floodplains. He's already on the fur forest, and can immediately work it, whereas we would waste a couple of turns of movement doing fp first. If we work it right, we can minimize wasted turns moving our worker.
2) disease.

More thoughts on subsequent turns (if we do as alexman and I propose):

Turns 2-6 are spent chopping forest. At the end of turn 6, we have 2 warriors, the forest is chopped, and we are working the grassland tile next to the river. We will have accumulated 7 food (3 turns @ +1 food, 2 turns @ +2 food).

Turns 6-8 are spent irrigating the plains/furs tile, so it will produce 2f/2s. Until that is done, we are producing 1 shield (I say we build another warrior). On turn 8, we move our citizen to work the fur tile. We now have 11 food, and 2 shields in the production box.

Turns 8-10 are spent roading the fur tile. We now have 15 food, 8 shields in prod box (warrior done next turn).

Turn 11 is spent moving the worker to the grassland tile on the river. Now @ 17 food, warrior complete. Order one more.

Turns 12-15 are spent mining that tile. Grow to size 2 on turn 13. At the end of turn 15, we have: 5 food in the box, 9 shields toward the warrior, and are now producing 4s/turn. *Consider switching to Temple depending on early exploration results*

Turns 15-17 are spent roading that tile. Now @ 9 food, 13 shields towards a temple.

Turn 18, move worker to forest/fur/on grass. Now @ 11 food, 17 shields toward temple.

Turn 19, start chopping forest. 13 food, 21 shields toward temple.

T20 - 15f, 25 shields for temple.
T21 - 17f, 29 shields for temple.
T22 - 19f, temple complete, start settler.
T23 - Size 3, 1f, 4s for settler.
T24 - chopping complete. 3f in box, 19 shields for settler.

T25 to 28 - mining tile. 9f in box, settler complete. City drops back to size 1, using roaded/irrigated fur. Start warrior.
T28-30 - road tile.
T31 - move worker, via roads, to floodplain north of city.

Tell me if I screwed up somewhere, alexman.

-Arrian

[alexman]

Arrian, sounds good.

If we want extra food, an alternative would be to chop and irrigate the second plains-forest before mining and roading the grassland. That would move the worker closer to the floodplains, in addition to working a better tile in the meantime.

[Arrian]

Edit: nevermind, I think I did do it right.

-Arrian

[alexman]

Here is my proposed turn sequence:

1. 4000 BC: Played already
2. 3950 BC: Plop city, start building Warrior, work forest, start chopping forest, research Wheel at 100%
3. 3900 BC:
4. 3850 BC:
5. 3800 BC: Work grassland
6. 3750 BC: Warrior built, work grassland, build Warrior
7. 3700 BC: Forest chopped, Warrior built, work forest, irrigate plains, build barracks
8. 3650 BC: Work plains with fur.
9. 3600 BC: Plains irrigated. Move worker to plains-forest NE of city.
10. 3550 BC: Start chopping forest
11. 3500 BC: Continue exploring with Warriors
12. 3450 BC: Borders expand. Pray for bonus grassland in 2-tile radius.
13. 3400 BC:
14. 3350 BC: Pop 2, work plains and grassland,
15. 3300 BC: Forest chopped, irrigate plains
16. 3250 BC: Barracks built if working bonus grassland. Work both plains tiles.
17. 3200 BC: Baracks built for sure. City producing 5 shields per turn with +2 food surplus, will grow in 7 turns. Move worker to floodplains for irrigation and roading. Build a veteran Warrior in 2 turns and then a Settler in 6 more turns. Note that we have not yet roaded a single tile because there is no extra benefit in the fur+river tiles in Despotism.

[Arrian]

Edited because I initially though the second forest tile was normal, but it's actually fur too, so it will produce 2f/2s once irrigated. I had it at 2f/1s.

Running with your idea for more food... picking up on turn 11:

T11 - move worker to 2nd forest tile. Warrior complete, start new one.
T12 - begin chopping. 3 shields toward warrior, grow to size 2 next turn.
T13 - Size 2, 6 shields towards warrior, 1 food in box. Now using the irrigated fur tile and the grassland tile. +2f, +3s/turn total.
T14 - 9 shields toward warrior, 3 food in box.
T15 - Warrior complete, begin temple. 5 food
T16 - Chopping complete, 13 shields toward temple. 7 food. Begin irrigation.
T17 - 16 shields, 9 food.
T18 - 19 shields, 11 food, irrigation complete, switch citizen to new tile (now producing 5 shields per turn).
T19 - EDIT: no road for now, move to floodplain. 24 shields, 13 food.
T20 - begin irrigation. 29 shields, 15 food.
T21 - temple complete, begin settler. 17 food.
T22 - irrigation complete, begin road. 5 shields toward settler. 19 food.
T23 - Size 3, allocate new citizen to floodplain, 10 shields toward settler, 1 food, now gaining +3 food per turn.
T24 - Road complete, either move worker north to road to new city site or come back down to work grassland on river. 15 shields toward settler, 4 food.
T25 - 20 shields, 7 food.
T26 - 25 shields, 10 food.
T27 - settler complete, drop to size 1 (use irr floodplain), begin warrior. 13 food (or is it 12?).

That's enough for me... I'm beginning to worry myself.

-Arrian

[Arrian]

alexman, we're both out of control!

Interesting idea on the barracks, the only objection I would have is that the sooner we build one, the sooner we have to pay 1gpt upkeep on it.

We will know about bonus grassland (or other goodies) once our 2 exploring warriors get out there (1 north, 1 towards the mountain in the SW, I figure).

-Arrian

[alva]

Well, that's the first year taken care of

Now tell me, when do build out first tank ?

[notyoueither]

I like both plans. Leaning a bit towards alexman's barracks. It could save the empire (literally).

Very good.

btw, who has thought of using the editor to recreate a mini island with terrain identical to what we can see? Load as scenario and run tests till you drop.

If anyone wants the scenario, let me know. I can email it.

[Arrian]

Tanks? We don't need no steenking tanks! We have war chariots. The first one of those ought to roll off the assembly line sometime in early 2004.

-Arrian

[alexman]

OK, OK... will seek help ASAP!