Turnplayer Thread #3

[T-hawk]

On Sooooo's decisions (edited after logging in):

- Lake at Saxon. 1 food beats 2 commerce and the next growth just gets both tiles.

- Winston's best use is to step 1N and begin roading the silks, after Mustapha finishes the plantation. This avoids losing this turn to moving Winston, so the hill road has net cost 2 turns, and should be skipped.

- Agree with roading the deer.

- Helmholtz should road first. Road + chop takes 5 turns in either order. The chop does no good until the granary is actually completed, which won't be on turns 4 and 5 from now. Road now does do good in the form of trade routes.


Checking on Mellow Yellow, it has 40 hammers this turn including overflow, needing 210 more. Three chops is 3 x 30 x 2.25 = 202 hammers. Mellow will be easily on track to finish the Colossus as soon as the third chop comes in.

[T-hawk]

And a big overview screenshot, because I like them.

[T-hawk]

I'm chain-posting, but here's a plan for worker moves in the north.

T128: Helmholtz moves NE onto the silks. Mustapha finishes plantation. Winston moves 1N and starts road on the silks. This Helmholtz move might seem wasteful, but it's key.

T129: Winston finishes silks road. Mustapha uses that road to move to the tile where Helmholtz began T128 (2S 1W of Bluebell.) Helmholtz starts road.

T130: Mustapha starts road. Helmholtz finishes road. Winston starts another job, probably the mine on the hill 2S of Saxon.

T131: Mustapha finishes road. This connects Bluebell on T131 which is the fastest we can do it. Helmholtz starts chopping the silks forest.

T132: Mustapha joins Helmholtz and the silks forest is chopped.

Also, meanwhile, after Steve finishes the deer, he moves to the sheep and starts on that. He should have the sheep ready right about the time that Bluebell finishes the granary and the city will be ready to grow.

[sooooo]

Looks good T-Hawk

Don't know why I missed the 1N move for Winston - seems obvious now.

[Sullla]

Alright, time for a somewhat belated turn report for T128. (I was pretty busy yesterday, sorry!)

- We discovered Engineering tech, and are back to min science again. The current thinking (as discussed in our Tech thread) is to run min science on Philosophy while we see if Templars are amenable to a Drama trade. If not, we research Drama, then Philosophy, then Nationalism.

- In other tech-related news, Rabbits agreed to buy Monotheism from us for 40g, which means we essentially pulled 40g out of the ether. Hey, it pays for about 2/3 of a turn of 100% science all by itself!

- Pink Dot great to size 9, and is spending a turn working the unimproved forested grassland hill tile (1/3/0) to complete its library in 1t. (Our workers are going to connect the dyes plantation here next after Colossus to fix this suboptimal situation.) What do we want to build in Pink next? A courthouse would be a nice infrastructure build, giving us additional spying power and cutting out about 3gpt. But military may be the more prudent suggestion, depending on whether or not Templars go for our offered NAP. Thoughts, comments, suggestions?

- Cape Town builds catapult (Katrina) giving us three cats there. I have selected a Pikeman (1t), but this can be vetoed if desired. It seemed like a natural time to build one, given our iron situation with Rabbits. Please offer thoughts here, especially if sunrise has any special military recommendations.

- I followed the worker action plan laid out in the north by T-Hawk, which involved moving Winston north this turn and building a road tile. Well, half of it, anyway!

- We completed the Pink/Cape road! That frees up Syme and O'Brien for action elsewhere, as detailed last turn. We discussed this without really coming to a conclusion, so back to the earlier question - where do these guys head next? Assuming our settler from Green Acres goes to red, I think we should have O'Brien start work on the connecting road:



O'Brien can still move this turn, and would build a road on the two tiles highlighted. I would still favor having Syme farm/chop the plains tile next to the lake at Twin Peaks, but obviously only if we plan to pop out a settler shortly from Something Fishy. This is another subject we should discuss. O'Brien still has moves left this turn, so his decision needs to be made fairly quickly!

- Colossus due in 3t at Mellow Yellow. No, that's not a mistyping.

- Imperio has not moved their big stack of units as yet. Whether they will do so remains to be seen.

I think that's it. A somewhat quiet turn, but a good one to spend going over diplomacy and sorting out our plan of action during the next ~15 or so turns (we have had some disagreements over this). I think we're making progress and clearing the waters, getting close to a unified plan of action. So keep up the good work.

[Sullla]

Whoops, actually I missed the Helmholtz move NE onto the silks tile this turn. That was bad of me, apologies...

[Dreylin]

O'Brien roading to Red is good.
Sticking one Pike in Cape is probably OK, then back to Cats.
Military at PD - maybe an Elephant?

(I'm with m_h that we need to have better defenses in the S)

[mostly-harmless]

A road to Red is not that important, as it is connected by coast to the network and we won't see any units coming out of Red any time soon. I rather have O'Brien chop some forests and lay down some mines for Red & Bluebell Woods.

I am actually for a Pike out of Pink Dot. No question, we need to beef up the defense in the south. Seeing that Imperio has not much 2movers and sunrise explained, that Pikes are not that good anyway, I suggest to have a couple of Pikes out of Pink Dot. We don't know the composition of the Templar forces, so a defense against 2movers seems prudent there. We can also march them up and down the border if we want. We have Iron for another 10 turns at least so plenty of time to get a couple of Pikes going.
Cape Town should start on another catapult and two more phants, as sunrise suggested.

I am in favor of getting another settler for Twin Peaks out of Something Fishy asap. If we feel that Templars are going for the Music-Artist and bomb Jericho we should settle there as soon as possible. If some team members think it is not a wise move to settle Twin Peaks as long as (sluggish) negotiations with Templars are ongoing, we can always use the settler on Burgundy.

mh

[sunrise089]

I'm cool with a pike out of Pink, I agree it should be on military for now.

I think Cape should make a jumbo or mace. We want to have an equal number of 8-strength units to Imperio so we make sure we can kill their maces and elephants after hitting them with cats.

[sooooo]

No preference on military at Cape Town, we could use anything. At Pink I'd go for a catapult. I'd send one worker to the north, helping with either roads or improving bluebell woods until the settler arrives. The other worker I'd send to improve pink dot.

[sooooo]

I've done some calculations and it looks more efficient for O'Brien to build the two roads Sullla marked out, starting this turn. That will get the settler to Red dot a turn earlier, T134. It looks like the worker turns to build the two roads and a mine on the grass forest hill will time nicely for Red hitting size 2 (T140), assuming the fishing nets are in place when the city is settled.

Also, I've tried to work out when SF will be able to whip out a settler. Assuming we want a double whip from 7 to 5, then is will take 12 turns (8 to grow, 4 turns of production and a whip). That assumption is based on T-Hawk's statement that you never want to whip away a grass miner. That's much slower than triple whipping a second settler from Green Acres, especially if you take the distance to travel into account.

[Zeviz]

In that case let's get second settler out of Green Acres. (Unless that city has to start working on Barracks and Theatre already.) SF can whip a worker instead.

What about a couple HAs out of Pink? We don't have enough to completely destroy Imperio's catapult stack, so do we need more?

And I am strongly opposed to pre-farming at Twin Peaks, because that would broadcast our intentions to settle there to Templars, and we don't want them to go on war footing before we even have a settler for that spot.

[sunrise089]

In that case let's get second settler out of Green Acres. (Unless that city has to start working on Barracks and Theatre already.) SF can whip a worker instead.

What about a couple HAs out of Pink? We don't have enough to completely destroy Imperio's catapult stack, so do we need more?

And I am strongly opposed to pre-farming at Twin Peaks, because that would broadcast our intentions to settle there to Templars, and we don't want them to go on war footing before we even have a settler for that spot.

Sure do, but we also need more jumbos/maces and more cats

I'm keeping a fairly close track on the Imperio/RB unit situation in the north, but not so much in the south with Templars. Therefore Pink should contribute units towards the Imperio front (and HAs make the most sense) so long as it can credibly defend against the Templars.

[sooooo]

Pink cannot credibly defend against templars - it only has 3 units. I really think we want more cities on military. We took a risk by taking China Beach off its horse archers and building a lighthouse, forge and a worker. Let's hope we don't get burned by that and lets get it back on military as soon as the worker is finished. Something Fishy really has to go on military soon. Barracks, whip elephant. Enough with the workers, we have plenty of available workers after the colossus is done.

[Sullla]

Wrapping up the turn:

- Based on sooooo's post, I sent O'Brien to build the road up to red dot. This not only speeds the settler along faster, it also puts the worker in prime position to chop forests and mine hill tiles for red to work.

Everyone has another ~20 hours to decide where we should send Syme next turn, the other worker on that same tile. Debate away! (And please try to come to a consensus. )

- I changed Cape Town from pikeman to war elephant, as suggested by sunrise. We will have enough overflow to build a cat next turn, and I suggest that we do so. That would make 2 maces, 3 elephants, 4 cats, 2 (+2 if needed) horse archers, 3 spears, 1 axe, and 3 archers at the Cape.

- Please continue to think about the next build at Pink. It sounds like we want military, so do we want pike, mace, horse archer, or catapult? I'm probably leaning towards cat, because we can upgrade the spear and axe in Pink if we really need to in an emergency, but we can't upgraded anything to a catapult.

- Imperio's stack in Mutal has moved again, unfortunately I don't know where to because our units had already used up their movement points. They may already be moving towards Cape Town! Again, no need for total alarm, but... these be interesting times, nonetheless.

- mh, I think we should probably reallocate Espionage spending to divide our points between Imperio and Templar. No need to let Templars see our research if we don't have to.

And with that, I'm away to Paris for the next five days. I should have Internet access and be able to play the turns, but if I disappear for the next week, grab someone and take over.

Stats:

General

Current Turn:
Turn 128 - 325 AD
Turn Timer expires at approx (UTC)

Active Turn Player:
Sullla

Tech:
Philosophy (82t)
0% research (10 [13] beakers/turn) @ +92gpt
0/1144 beakers overall

Gold
106g in treasury

Cities

Airstrip One [size 10] [guarded by Xena and Mariah]:
National Epic (2t)
Infrastructure: Palace, Granary, Barracks, Library, Forge, Academy, Great Library
Great Scientist 176/200, +8 GPP/turn, due in 3t

Pink Dot [size 9] [guarded by Secretariat and Adria and Athena]:
Library (1t)
Infrastructure: Barracks, Granary, Aqueduct, Hanging Gardens
Slipping in some infrastructure, then probably more military.

China Beach [size 6] [guarded by Ms Piggy]:
Forge (12t) [anger duration 8t]
Infrastructure: Granary, Library, Barracks, Lighthouse
T-Hawk optimal whipping plan: swap to worker T129, whip T130

Cape Town [size 6] [guarded by Diana and Fyre Errow and Gillian and Jamie Lynn's Spears and Hannah and Christina and Aphrodite and Demeter and Affirmed and Allydar and Akara and Gladys and Nelly and Mrs Jumbo and Kitty and Kat and Katrina]:
War Elephant (1t)
Infrastructure: Barracks, Heroic Epic, Walls

Something Fishy [size 5] [guarded by Svava]:
Forge (3t) [anger duration 8t]
Infrastructure: Granary, Library, Courthouse
Settler whip to follow?

Green Acres [size 5] [guarded by Robyn Hood]:
Forge (30t) [anger duration 10t]
Infrastructure: Granary, Library, Lighthouse
Swap to and whip settler upon hitting size 6

Mellow Yellow [size 2] [guarded by Hera]:
Colossus (54t) [3t] [anger duration 9t]
Infrastructure: Granary, Forge

Saxon the Beach [size 2] [guarded by no one!]:
Moai Statues (120t) [anger duration 6t]
Infrastructure: Granary, Lighthouse

Bluebell Woods [size 1] [guarded by no one!]:
Granary (27t)
Infrastructure: none
Priorities: connect to road network, connect sheep, start building silk plantations

Non-Combat Units

Worker [Winston]:
Build road on Saxon the Beach's silks plantation
Roading (2t)

Worker [Bernard]:
Chop/Cottage grassland river tile at Airstrip One
Cottaging (3t)

Worker [Mustapha Mond]:
Chop/road/plantation silks at Saxon the Beach
Building plantation (done!)

Worker [O'Brien]:
Road towards "red" dot location
Moving to tile (done!)

Worker [Helmholtz]:
Build road connecting Airstrip One to Bluebell Woods
Roading (2t)

Worker [Parsons]:
Chop forest at Mellow Yellow for Project Colossus
Moving to tile (done!)

Worker [Syme]:
Road between Pink Dot and Cape Town
Roading (done!)

Worker [John the Savage]:
Chop forest at Mellow Yellow for Project Colossus
Moving to tile (done!)

Worker [Bob the Builder]:
Chop forests for Project Colossus
Chopping (3t)

Worker [Serious Steve]:
Improve deer tile at Saxon the Beach
Roading deer (3t)

Worker [Energetic Erik]:
Help chop Colossus at Mellow Yellow
Chopping (2t)

Military Units

Galley [RBS Discovery]:
Exploring Banana territory

War Elephant [Mrs. Jumbo]:
Guard Cape Town

War Elephant [Nelly]:
Guard Cape Town

Maceman [Gladys]:
Guard Cape Town

Maceman [Akara]:
Guard Cape Town

Horse Archer [Secretariat]:
Guard Pink Dot

Horse Archer [Camilla]:
Shadow snooping Imperio chariot, then move to Cape

Horse Archer [Allydar]:
Guard Cape Town

Horse Archer [Affirmed]:
Guard Cape Town

Catapult [Katrina]:
Guard Cape Town

Catapult [Kat]:
Guard Cape Town

Catapult [Kitty]:
Guard Cape Town

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

Axeman [Adria]:
Guard Pink Dot

Spearman [Mariah]:
Guard Airstrip One

Spearman [Christina]:
Guard Cape Town

Spearman [Hannah]:
Guard Cape Town

Spearman [Jamie Lynn's Spears]:
Guard Cape Town

Spearman [Britney's Spears]:
Guard workers on the Pink/Cape road

Chariot [Betty Hur]:
Move east towards the projected battlefield
10XP - our most heroic unit!

Chariot [Lady Godiva]:
Get intel on Imperio/Templar cities

Archer [Ms Piggy]:
Guard China Beach

Archer [Diana]:
Move to Saxon the Beach (long way to go!)

Archer [Billy Jean Tell]:
Exploring Imperio territory

Archer [Robyn Hood]:
Guard Green Acres

Archer [Svava]:
Guard Something Fishy

Archer [Fyre Errow]:
Guarding Cape Town (for now)
Heading to Twin Peaks eventually

Archer [Hera]:
Guard Mellow Yellow

Archer [Athena]:
Guard Pink Dot

Archer [Aphrodite]:
Guard Cape Town

Archer [Demeter]:
Guard Cape Town

Archer [Persepone]:
Bust fog in the north to stop barbs from appearing

Warrior [Xena]:
Guard Airstrip One

Warrior [Jennifer]:
Exploring the eastern continent

Foreign Builds from C&D

Templars 172EP
Jerusalem = 39 shields (+13)
Infrastructure: Palace, Barracks
Damascus = 126 shields (+88)
Infrastructure: Terrace, Barracks, Forge
Jericho = N/A, zero shields invested
Infrastructure: Walls
Acre = 24 shields (+5)
Infrastructure: Monument

Damascus pretty much has to be building a wonder, and doing so with a doubled resource with a forest chop this turn added. Not sure what that could be though; guesses? Jericho finishes a 25-30 shield build.

Imperio 233EP
Mutal = 40 shields (+20)
Infrastructure: Palace, Barracks, Granary, Monument, Stonehenge, Oracle
Lakamha = 61 shields (+20)
Infrastructure: Barracks, Monument, Islamic shrine
Chichen Itza = 16 shields (+4)
Infrastructure: Granary, Monument, Lighthouse, Barracks
Uxmal = 140 shields (+140)
Infrastructure: Monument
Mayapan = 54 shields (+8)
Infrastructure: Monument, Barracks
Calakmul = 14 shields (+14)
Infrastructure: Monument, Library

Whoa, what the heck is going on at Uxmal?! Some kind of massive chopping with doubled resources on a wonder? Really curious about what that could be.

PAL 70EP
The Warning = 34 shields (+34)
Infrastructure: Granary, Barracks, Lighthouse, Library, Forge, Confucian Temple, Obelisk, Academy
Heliopolis = 83 shields (+83)
Infrastructure: Granary, Barracks
Alexandria = 32 shields (+32)
Infrastructure: Granary, Forge
Giza = 46 shields (+2)
Infrastructure: Granary, Lighthouse
Byblos = N/A, zero shields invested
Infrastructure: Obelisk

Man, what is up with these other teams? They all seem to have cities pulling insane amounts of shields this turn. Byblos finished something costing exactly 30 shields = Obelisk.

Rabbits 48EP
Caerbannog = N/A, zero shields invested
Infrastructure: Palace, Barracks, Library, Great Wall
Digger's Burrow = 6 shields (+6)
Infrastructure: Barracks, Monument, Granary, Walls
Phrygian = 24 shields (+2)
Infrastructure: none

Caerbannog has assuredly finished a settler. Expect to see a new Rabbit city sometime soon.

Banana 4EP
Doal = N/A, zero shields invested
Infrastructure: none

Doal finished something in the 55-60 shield range. Does not appear to be infrastructure, oddly. mh suggests worker, and is probably right.

Population census:
PAL 61 (size 12,9,8,7,7,6,5,5,2)
RB 46 (10,9,6,6,5,5,2,2,1)
Imp 42 (10,8,8,7,5,4)
Ban 27 (9,8,5,4,1)
Tem 26 (8,7,6,3,2)
Rab 8 (4,3,1)

Treasury report:
Templars: 166gold (+14gpt)
Imperio: 213gold (-31gpt)
PAL: 148gold (-91gpt)
Rab: 43gold (+8gpt)
Banana: 36gold (+2gpt)