Turnplayer Thread #3

[Sullla]

Season's greetings to all our fine team members. Here were the highlights from T95:

- The biggest news was the founding of our sixth city on the marble. As our "green" dot city, I christened this one Green Acres, which should be an extremely fun name for our opponents because its terrain is not particularly green at all! I set it to the standard granary build (which can be changed if desired) while working one of the clams tiles.

- Here is the view of the eastern continent after moving another turn:



As before, my suggested moves are highlighted with arrows. Feel free to make better suggestions if you see them! Sharon can land this turn, but there's really no place to do so. We may or may not land her next turn, depending on what we find. Jennifer looks like a good bet to explore the western coast of the eastern continent.

- Betty Hur heals 0.6 health per turn, and is currently at 2.0 out of 4 strength. I plan to move her out when she reached 3.8/4, which will be in three more turns (T98). Assuming nothing unexpected happens, we would then be able to capture the barb city on T101.

- Our research increased from 52/turn to 61/turn! (Both base numbers, not adding pre-reqs.) This was due to a mixture of cottages maturing and especially the founding of the new city, which added 1 base commerce + 3 commerce from PAL trade route + 2 commerce from working clams tile. Our expenses only increased by 2gpt, because we were actually over the unit supply limit, and Green Acres helped to remedy that.

- Aesthetics in 1 more turn, with 27 beakers of overrun. We will then run two turns of zero science (on T96 and T97) to raise ~70g - it has to be these two turns because these are the last two turns before we swap China Beach over to working scientists, and it makes more sense to do that when going at 100% science. Then it will take 4 turns to research Literature, @71 beaker/turn base, 86/turn real!

Short story: 1t Aesthetics, 2t min science, 4t Literature. 7 more total turns. I don't really see a way for Imperio to beat us to the wonder at this point.

For lots more pictures and stats, see the "State of the Empire" thread for T95. But use this thread for discussion, as usual.

[Sullla]

Oh, and some final info from C&D spying on enemy city builds. T-Hawk, Mutal built a barracks last turn - they gained 3k soldier points and I can see it in their capital on the world map, plus a barracks costs 50 shields! That was easy.

Foreign Builds from C&D

Templars
Jerusalem = (69 * (148 + 100)) / (3 * 575) = 10 shields (+10)
Jericho = (93 * (148 + 100)) / (3 * 550) = 14 shields (+2)

Not much to report from Templars this turn.

Imperio
Mutal = N/A, zero shields invested.
Lakamha = N/A, zero shields invested.
Chichen Itza = N/A, zero shields invested.
Uxmal = (21 * (116 + 100)) / (3 * 527) = 3 shields (+1)

Either Mutal finished something cheap, or Imperio hasn't logged in yet and picked something to build. Not entirely sure what's going on there. Lakamha finished something that cost about 50 shields - looks like a barracks to me, if I'm reading the world map correctly. Mutal and Lakamha building barracks on back to back turns could be a danger sign! Better watch the Imperio power rating REAL closely.

Chichen Itza finished a worker - we can see him from Cape Town.

[Zeviz]

Should we run min-science before discovering Aestetics?

Pro: Others will not know how close we are to Literature until we are ready to go for it at max science.
Con: Imperio might start researching it themselves.

For exploring warrior, I'd prefer to load her back on the ship to have two units for the eastern part of that continent, because that's where the other civs are. (Unless you think we might see Rabbit boat in the channel.)

Talking about Rabbits, how is their soldier rating doing? Did you take note of it at the start of the turn, to compare with end of turn value?

[ruff_hi]

Betty Hur(t) is healing in the open. She is currently at 2/4 with 4 turns of healing to go. Would it be quicker if we moved her to our Northern coastal city to heal there? That move is on the way to the barb city.

[ruff_hi]

I just updated the Operation "Great Library" thread and we have an ETA of Turn 104 for completion. We are a little short on gold (6) but we should be able to make that up by working some commerce tiles, cottages growing or building science in A1.

[Zeviz]

Originally posted by ruff_hi
I just updated the Operation "Great Library" thread and we have an ETA of Turn 104 for completion. We are a little short on gold (6) but we should be able to make that up by working some commerce tiles, cottages growing or building science in A1.

How does the ETA change if we can't buy Math?

[Sullla]

Zeviz, I can't track the Rabbits' power rating because we don't have contact with them, and they don't show up on the Demographics screen. mostly_harmless might be able to tell you more by working off of the "Average" number and estimating from there, but I haven't been keeping a close eye on that. Sorry.

Ruff, I looked at the pros and cons of moving Betty to Airstrip One, and the extra turn saved by healing was lost by having to move, stop, and move again. I believe it didn't make a difference, so I kept her in place. (That's not to say I didn't make a mistake somewhere along the way though!)

We can indeed definitely hold off on finishing Aesthetics reseach if desired. (We can go min-science -> Aesthetics or vice versa, no problem.) I was under the impression that we wanted to finish it so that we would have the option of trading it to Imperio for Mathematics... But maybe we should delay that (?) Not sure. If anyone sees Imperio in-game, please mention that to them.

Imperio's availability during the holidays sounds like it might be spotty, so I'm reluctant to rely too much on them. Anyway, we can do things either way, so tell me what you all think would be best. I'm fine regardless.

[regoarrarr]

I'd say unless we see Imperio online and with Math then let's hold off. Although it will be only a matter of a few beakers, no sense in giving any other team that happens to be researching Aest any bonus beakers

[regoarrarr]

Okay then. I got BtS for Christmas so I logged in for the first time this afternoon. I hopefully did it right and did not mess anything

With the chunk of Aesthetics we have and Literature, we need 333 beakers. @100% science, we're at 61 [74] beakers. So 4 full turns, with 39 beakers left over. I think it's certainly likely that we can make up those beakers with cottage maturation, building science and hiring scientists at CB (all of which we're likely to do in the next few turns).

So I'd only run 1 turn of 0% and hold off on the 2nd turn until it's sure we need that.

[Sullla]

Congrats! We're glad to have you on board.

Since the general sentiment seemed to favor running min science BEFORE completing research into Aesthetics, I went ahead and made the swap in-game. We will now run two turns of zero science (T95 and T96), then can power through the last turn of Aesthetics research and Literature tech.

We currently have 40g and gain 36gpt at 0% science, so we'll have 112g in the bank at the end of this move. We might be good with 76g, but I think that would be pushing it, regoarrarr. The game is currently paused, as agreed in the General Forum; make sure to unpause it on the 27th if none of the other teams do so.

[Sullla]

Quick note here, I do have Internet access here at the ski lodge where I'm staying, and will be able to play the next turn when it ends in ~10 hours or so. Cheers.

[Sullla]

Here were the highlights of T96:

- More exploration of the eastern continent:



We continue to find even more silver and marble over there - too bad that silver wasn't in our tundra area! Might have settled differently if that had been the case... Jennifer will move along the white arrow, and the galley along the yellow ones next turn, barring any objections.

We could land Sharon this turn on the tundra forest immediately south of the ship, but I think it makes more sense to move another turn further east before landing her. What do you think?

- Cape Town built a second axewoman, which I named Gillian after our favorite barmaid. What unit should we build here next? Keep in mind that we are essentially building the future garrison of Bad Ass/Twin Peaks at the moment. My initial thought was that the permanent garrison should be axe/spear/chariot/archer/archer at a minimum... I've tentatively set Cape Town to a spear next, but this can be changed. Do we want another axe first, or more archers, or what? Let's figure it out.

- Update on the pre-chopping action at the capital:



We have four tiles (out of five) pre-chopped at the moment. But in order to chop them quickly, we also need roads on these tiles, so Winston and Bernard (circled in white) will spend 2 turns doing that, then move to the plains hill tile to pre-chop and road that one as well. This will allow us to have all five pre-chops ready to go in rapid fashion as soon as the worker build finishes in Airstrip One in four more turns.

If we don't manage to trade for Mathematics, we can burn some additional forests as well to chop out Great Library in rapid fashion. We really should have the wonder within 10 turns at the absolute latest.

- We are running the second of two turns on min science right now. Then we take one turn (T97) to finish Aesthetics, and four turns (T98-101) to research Literature.

- The two workers at Something Fishy chopped a forest there, which went into a work boat for the upcoming yellow dot city. Both settler and work boat are due in 4 turns, a nice little coincidence.

- Betty Hur (2.6 health) needs two more turns to heal, then a couple turns to move into position. She should be ready to attack the barb city on T101.

So overall, a pretty quiet turn, at least for the moment. (PAL might capture a Rabbit city any day now...) Stats to follow this post.

[Sullla]

Stats:

General

Active Turn Player:
Sullla

Status:
Played

Tech:
Aesthetics (46t)
100% research (0 [1] beakers/turn) @ +35gpt
383/429 beakers overall

Gold
74g in treasury

Cities

Airstrip One [guarded by Xena]:
Worker (4t)
Emphasizing commerce and research

Pink Dot [guarded by Britney's Spears]:
Settler (4t)
Intended for protected "yellow" spot

China Beach [guarded by Ms Piggy]:
Work Boat (2t) for Green Acres

Cape Town [guarded by Diana and Billy Jean Tell and Gillian]:
Spearman (3t)

Something Fishy [guarded by Svava]:
Work Boat (4t)
Intended for upcoming yellow city

Green Acres [guarded by Robyn Hood]:
Granary (59t)

Non-Combat Units

Scout [Sharon]:
Scouting out the eastern continent

Worker [Winston]:
Prechopping forest tiles at Airstrip One
Roading current tile (2t)

Worker [O'Brien]:
Mining plains hill N of Cape Town (3t)

Worker [Parsons]:
Chop/mine grassland hill N of Something Fishy
Forest chop (done!)

Worker [Syme]:
Chop/mine grassland hill N of Something Fishy
Mining (4t)

Worker [Bernard]:
Prechopping forest tiles at Airstrip One
Roading current tile (2t)

Military Units

Galley [RBS Discovery]:
Exploring the eastern continent

Axeman [Gillian]:
Guarding Cape Town (for now)
Heading to Twin Peaks eventually

Axeman [Adria]:
Moving to Pink Dot region

Spearman [Britney's Spears]:
Guard Pink Dot

Chariot [Betty Hur]:
Healing up after epic victory over barb axe (2t)
9XP - need 1 more!

Chariot [Lady Godiva]:
Waiting to attack barb city of Saxon

Archer [Ms Piggy]:
Guard China Beach

Archer [Diana]:
Guard Cape Town

Archer [Billy Jean Tell]:
Guard Cape Town

Archer [Robyn Hood]:
Guard Green Acres

Archer [Svava]:
Guard Something Fishy

Warrior [Xena]:
Guard Airstrip One

Warrior [Jennifer]:
Exploring the eastern continent with the RBS Discovery

Foreign Builds from C&D

(coming tomorrow, too tired tonight)

[mostly-harmless]

I noticed that the game log says something about an event for PAL again (selling domesticated prairie dogs).
Also between Sulllas screenshot and mine, Rabbits took a 30point plunge, which is massive. Could be either loosing their capital or a round of empire wide whips.

I also noticed that we have the trade route symbol next to Banana.

EDIT: Can I suggest to swap one forest tile at China Beach for working the cottage? It makes no difference for the workboat but helps commerce and cottage maturity.

mh

[Sullla]

Good call, mh. We don't need that shield overflow, and we can use the extra commerce. I went ahead and made the swap from the grassland hill to the plains cottage tile.

Foreign Builds:

Templars
Jerusalem = (139 * (148 + 100)) / (3 * 575) = 20 shields (+10)
Jericho = (106 * (148 + 100)) / (3 * 550) = 16 shields (+2)

Still nothing noteworthy to report from Templars. Hopefully we can get a line of sight into the other Templar cities sometime soon.

Imperio
Mutal = (69 * (116 + 100)) / (3 * 501) = 10 shields (+10)
Lakamha = (185 * (116 + 100)) / (3 * 514) = 26 shields (+26)
Chichen Itza = (27 * (116 + 100)) / (3 * 488) = 4 shields (+4)
Uxmal = (29 * (116 + 100)) / (3 * 527) = 4 shields (+1)

Last turn, Mutal had a second consecutive "zero shields invested" turn, which I took to mean that they built something really cheap. Well, this turn their Soldier points went up by 2k, so I'm going to conclude that they built a warrior in Mutal last turn, for Hereditary Rule purposes. (Because they don't have copper hooked up, I believe that they can still build warriors.)

What do you think Chichen Itza is building? They shouldn't be able to get that many shields on a normal build. Either they got massive overflow last turn, or they're building a settler/worker, or something with a doubling effect: granary, walls, etc.

The Rabbits definitely had a huge dropoff in score, and PAL also lost a tremendous amount of soldier points (from 146k to 130k). Obviously there was a major battle out there. But PAL didn't get any new cities, so they must have razed a Rabbit city. That, at least, is good news for us.