Next turn plans up to 50AD

[vondrack]

Well, since the Discussion to the Chronicle thread has become quite heavy over the time, I believe it's time to get our affairs better organized. The Discussion to the Chronicle shall remain open for comments, suggestions, and error reports regarding the Chronicle itself, but should no longer be used to discuss our short term strategy and plans. That discussion is supposed to be happening here from now on.

[vondrack]

movement/action proposals for 1710BC

1) Jason N, then road & mine
2) Jimbo to road
3) Marky Merc S
4) MercG W (then perhaps S-S-S?)
EDIT:
4) MercG SW, attacking the barbarian
--- we can't lose!
5) Gaul SW, attacking the camp
6) Conan N
7) Angus NW
8) change worked tiles in Panama (we forgot to switch to working the newly irrigated plains tile and are still working the unimproved horse hill, suffering from slower than possible growth)
EDIT:
9) Merciless W

Only 7) deserves a comment, I believe - I would take it for granted now that Legos Minor is actually just a big peninsula, leading to "nowhere". Let's have a look as far into the surrounding waters as possible, rounding then the whole western coast of the Legos Minor... there is obviously no hurry...

[Sharpe]

1) Jason N, then road & mine
Agreed

2) Jimbo to road
Assuming this is Farmerville settler - if so agreed

3) Marky Merc S
Agreed though you will never catch me calling him that name
4) MercG W (then perhaps S-S-S?)
West now then see if we can attack the barb and then south to find the camp hopefully

5) Gaul SW, attacking the camp
Agreed

6) Conan N
Agreed

7) Angus NW
North might be fine too - we might want to see some of the interior too in case there is a hut or barb camp nearby.

8) change worked tiles in Panama (we forgot to switch to working the newly irrigated plains tile and are still working the unimproved horse hill, suffering from slower than possible growth)
Yeah I noticed that too late too - oh well it won't kill us ...

(scene from the future)

Legopolis 1850 AD

Space Commander Tiberius XXXVIII walks in with a scowl on his face into President Vondrack XXXIX's office.

"Greetings Space Commander what news do you bring?"

"Bad news Mr President - we would have completed our glorious spaceship this year except Panama didn't grow this year. As a result we didn't have enough resources to complete the ship... and worse yet the Roleplayers completed theirs. Here is a message to you from their leader:

Nyah, nyah WE BEAT YOU !!!!

"Curses Space Commander, what went wrong?"

"We have traced through the history of Panama sir... It seems that a mistake was made in 1750 BC when our farmers weren't moved to the new irrigated plains southeast of Panama. Instead they remained working on Horse Hill. That mistake then affected us now and led to our doom!"

"Our doom?"

"Yes sir, just as the Roleplayer spaceship left Earth's orbit the sky started to become dark and the land has started to disintegrate! As well a mysterious message has appeared!"

"What message?"

"Sir, it says.... New Game???"

(Don't worry Radek - I will edit out that story in a few days)

[ZargonX]

Instead they remained working on Horse Hill. That mistake then affected us now and led to our doom!"

Well, now you've made me gone and feel really bad about that It was a one time oversight! I was overcome by the thrill of taking the turn! No jury would convict me (I hope!)

But, honestly, I'm sorry I missed that. Promise it won't happen again!

[Sharpe]

Of course I am just kidding Zargon - I suspect that all of us missed it! No harm done...

[vondrack]

No worries, Zargon - I made exactly the same mistake after that barb situation around Jackson some time ago. It never hurts (and actually I always do that now) to go carefully through all the city screens and really closely look if what they are doing is what we want them to do, but it's not a big deal, really.

[Tiberius]

I agree with all moves, except 4:

Why not move MercG south? First, the defence bonus is bigger on hills (not that the barbarian had any chance against a mercenary) and second, he'll see much more from the S, SW area, possibly even the camp.

Oh, and one more:
9) Merciless W.

Space Commander Tiberius

I like that

[vondrack]

Originally posted by Tiberius
I agree with all moves, except 4:

Why not move MercG south? First, the defence bonus is bigger on hills (not that the barbarian had any chance against a mercenary) and second, he'll see much more from the S, SW area, possibly even the camp.

Well, the chances of the barbarian warrior killing MercG are nil (MUCH less than 0.018%), so the defense thing can be neglected completely. MercG wil not see "much more", I think. We have already been on that mountain before and we were unable to see more than two tiles away. Also, we will "stay in touch" with the barbarian that is most likely to head for Farmerville... I would prefer not having him get there, as he might mess up our local improvement projects... Let's move MercG W now, then kill the barb (that will likely move W, too - the chances of killing him even across the river will be 99.823%).

Originally posted by Tiberius
Oh, and one more:
9) Merciless W.

Added, thanks.

[Tiberius]

Well, I wanted to move MercG S not to uncover more unexplored area, but to see if we can find the barbarian camp. Moving W to kill the barbarian is equally good, even though I don't think the barbarian has any chance to mess up with our improvements. We could even attack the bastard; not sure about the odds, but it should be a kill.I don't think that there would be a dramatic difference between the options.

[vondrack]

Originally posted by Tiberius
Well, I wanted to move MercG S not to uncover more unexplored area, but to see if we can find the barbarian camp. Moving W to kill the barbarian is equally good, even though I don't think the barbarian has any chance to mess up with our improvements. We could even attack the bastard; not sure about the odds, but it should be a kill.I don't think that there would be a dramatic difference between the options.

I did not mean he would be actually able to pillage anything, but he might force us to move the worker out of schedule or something else that would be annoying... but... you know what? Thinking of it, attacking head on is probably the best way to go. According to the civulator, the chances of MercG killing the barb are 99.497%. Anyone still having doubts?

Due to the heavy Chieftain combat bonus, it's like attacking the poor warrior with a tank...

[vondrack]

movement/action proposals for 1700BC

1) Jason to road, then mine
2) Leopold to move NE (YES! North-East! It is very important!)
EDIT:
2) Leopold to move WEST (to chop down the game forest there)
3) Marky Merc S, then W, stationing him in that area
4) MercG S, then SW, S (to uncover that shrouded area ASAP)
5) Gaul N, heading home
6) Conan NW, NW... until he spots the barb camp
7) Angus N, following the coastline
8) Merciless W, then NW and to Legopolis, to fortify there

ad 2) I know it might seem better to mine the horse hill... unfortunately, if we decide to go for the O2E plan, we would have troubles synchronizing Leopold with Robbie, the new worker coming later from Red Bricks. As I gather we are all mostly in favour of a two-wonder plan (whatever the second wonder shall be), it is a must that we move Leopold onto the hill just WEST of Panama and mine it. We will be losing 1gpt because of working this hill and not the horse hill, but we will be able to perfectly synchronize both workers, not wasting their time.

There is still one more possibility I am going to check today, involving cutting that game forest and irriganting afterwards. That was the way to build the Lighthouse on Turn 104. I have to check though. I just hope the save will not make it to us too soon, as I have to leave shortly and will be back only three hours later...

EDIT: after rerunning the sim, correcting the mistake I did earlier (incorrent starting values), it has become apparent that we need to go a very different route. We need to cut the game forest first, irrigating it then (see the table in the O2E thread)

Generally, I believe we should withdraw our exploring units home right after unshrouding all of our continent. We will need them to protect our cities. And as we will not build too much military during O2E, we might better have them where they can do use any good.

[vondrack]

movement/action proposals for 1675BC

1) Leopold to chop down the game forest (part of the revised O2E plan)
2) Jimbo SE, then mine & road

3) Merciless W and then to Legopolis, to fortify there
4) Marky Merc W, then fortify, watching over the area
5) MercG N, attacking the barbarian (leaving the shrouded area to be uncovered by Gaul)

6) Angus N
7) Conan N, then N again, attacking the camp
8) Gaul N, then N, N, N, N

9) Legopolis to start building a Merc

[Sharpe]

1) Leopold to chop down the game forest (part of the revised O2E plan)
OK, if this is required for the O2E plan.

2) Jimbo SE, then mine & road
Agreed

3) Merciless W and then to Legopolis, to fortify there
Agreed

4) Marky Merc W, then fortify, watching over the area
Ok, either on the hill or the mountain is fine.

5) MercG N, attacking the barbarian (leaving the shrouded area to be uncovered by Gaul)
Since this is probably Chieftain, I guess so - can't believe we are attacking a unit on a mountain though (though that 1600% bonus helps)

6) Angus N
N or NE is fine - N if you want to see more of the sea

7) Conan N, then N again, attacking the camp
Agreed

8) Gaul N, then N, N, N, N
Agreed

9) Legopolis to start building a Merc
If your simulation says this is better than settler, ok - but if we find out otherwise later ...

[vondrack]

Originally posted by Sharpe
4) Marky Merc W, then fortify, watching over the area
Ok, either on the hill or the mountain is fine.

Stationing him on that mountain is a good idea. I will move him there on this turn and fortify.

Originally posted by Sharpe
9) Legopolis to start building a Merc
If your simulation says this is better than settler, ok - but if we find out otherwise later ...

Basically, the reason for building a Merc first is that we will let Legopolis grow to pop 4 and later pop 5, thus increasing its shield output, in turn speeding up the unit builds. After one or two initial "rounds", Legopolis will be periodically going from pop 3 to pop 5, spitting a Merc+Settler combo in the end. If we went straight for the Settler, we would make it operate on pop 3-4 level, which would result in slower builds. Have a look at the following table (I do not guarantee it's 100% error free though - this schedule I have not verified by running a simulator based test, unlike the ones for Panama and Jackson).



Can you see how smoothly the combos will be produced? And how perfectly the end of one cycle matches the beginning of another one?

Similarly, for Farmerville, it's better to build a worker now and settler then - the delay in getting the settler is actually three turns. If we order that worker to build a road to the Forkmouth site, we will be able to recoup two turns right after finishing the settler thanks to the faster movement. Not mentioning better gold output from the wheat tile...

OK, plans for 1650BC:

1) Angus NE
2) Marky Merc S, then fortify
3) Conan N, attacking the camp
4) Gaul N
5) MercG E, looking for a barb camp (those warriors must have come from somewhere)
6) Merciless NW to Legopolis, then fortify
7) Jimbo to mine

[Tiberius]

I agree with all moves.

Have a look at the following table (I do not guarantee it's 100% error free though - this schedule I have not verified by running a simulator based test, unlike the ones for Panama and Jackson).

I did verify it a while ago, and things were happening exactly like in the table. Being always bigger than 3, Legopolis is building faster and also is producing more commerce. This is the way to go. Building a settler now would be actually a lost on the long run.