Project Taj Mahal?

[regoarrarr]

I prefer to think of the Taj in just base hammers. The wonder is 700 hammers, but at our 2.5 multiplier, we need just 280.

29 from the whip
6 on T149
6 on T150
210 from 7 chops

That means we need 29 left.

So 8 on T151, 8 on T152 and a 15 hammer whip would do it as you mentioned. Even 7 base hammers each turn would seem to do it, though I'm not sure I'd risk it due to rounding and such.

Naturally, I do support speeding it up by a turn if possible.

W/o current access to the game, I am assuming that it's impossible to get Bluebell up to size 4 in the next few turns?

[sooooo]

OK, great. We have a new eta of T153 for the Taj.

And yes, we can't get BB up to size 4. It only grew 2 turns ago.

BTW we should probably rename Bluebell Woods to Bluebell Fields after all this chopping is finished

[ruff_hi]

BTW we should probably rename Bluebell Woods to Bluebell Fields after all this chopping is finished

[mostly-harmless]

The Banana boat we originally met in Rabbits' land sailed up the East coast, right? If so, I don't think there's any way it could have got past the Northern signed spot without seeing a city there. That either means that the city is on the plains hill, or that it was settled later on the coast.

Excellent point.

Also, the Egyptian city order starts with Thebes then Memphis so I doubt that they would have placed their first three cities with as much overlap as the Northern city has. I'm pretty certain the Southern of the two cities is Thebes, placed to grab the Copper.

Edit: m_h, how does the sim change if Thebes is the Southern city?

The southern city only gets 13base hammers, which would set the ETA for TAJ in the 160s. That's why I find it unlikely they would chose the southern city over the northern city for the Taj.

mh

[sooooo]

Arggghhh, just logged in and disovered a spanner in the works - Helmholtz cannot reach Bernard's forest next turn. The road network does not work out because the road he is standing next to is a hill road. The situation is this: Bernard's forest still needs 3 chops, as does O'Brien's. Dave's forest only needs 2 chops since he did a chop this turn. But Helmholtz can only reach Dave's forest and Steve can only reach O'Brien's forest.

My proposed solution, to get Taj on T153, is to emergency triple-whip a worker from China Beach this turn. The new worker can only make it into Dave's forest. On Turn 151 The new worker goes into Dave's forest, as does Helmholtz. Dave then moves into Bernard's forest and Steve moves into O'Brien's forest. O'Brien and Bernard both chop. On Turn 152 we have 2 workers each in 3 forests that need 2 chops to complete, so it is done.

On the downside we waste hammers from having to emergency whip China Beach. But on the upside we get to draft sooner, are less likely to lose the Taj to PAL and also we have 1 more worker.

[mostly-harmless]

Go for it, I say. Stealing Taj from PAL will be priceless. Something to carry in every RBer's sig.

mh

[sunrise089]

I'm always for 3-pop whips with penalty

[sooooo]

OK, I've just discovered an even bigger flaw in the plan: We can reorganise our chops to complete on T152. But we cannot also whip on T152 because the hammers don't arrive in the build until the start of T153. Thus we will still be 35 hammers short.

So, in summary: Ignore everything I just said and just have everyone chop the forests they are currently in. We chop 8 forests in total and they all complete on T153. No whipping.

Taj will have to wait until T154 I'm afraid. No way around it that I can see.

[Swiss Pauli]

Yeah, seems a price worth paying to me.

EDIT: talk about being ninja'd

[Dreylin]

The southern city only gets 13base hammers, which would set the ETA for TAJ in the 160s. That's why I find it unlikely they would chose the southern city over the northern city for the Taj.

I agree, but in your previous message you make two statements which refer to "Thebes" and I wanted to make certain that it was applying a label so as not to have to say "the Northern city" every time, rather than "we know the city called Thebes is size11".

The city is size 11, so we can expect it to work all the hammer tiles in range.
Thebes is by now the only city that could have started the Taj. It was last whipped on T146.

[ruff_hi]

So, in summary: Ignore everything I just said

This sounds like me in relation to the 201 plans I put forward for The Great Library .

[mostly-harmless]

I agree, but in your previous message you make two statements which refer to "Thebes" and I wanted to make certain that it was applying a label so as not to have to say "the Northern city" every time, rather than "we know the city called Thebes is size11".

From my numbers, the city that PAL has working on the Taj is Thebes (PAL's second city after The Warning). Thebes is size 11. Where Thebes is (northern spot or southern spot) is not confirmed. I lean towards northern spot (on the hill), which makes sense over the southern spot, as it has way more base hammers.

mh

[regoarrarr]

So what do you have for its configuration, for either northern or southern site?

Has it grown in size recently at all?

[Dreylin]

From my numbers, the city that PAL has working on the Taj is Thebes (PAL's second city after The Warning). Thebes is size 11. Where Thebes is (northern spot or southern spot) is not confirmed. I lean towards northern spot (on the hill), which makes sense over the southern spot, as it has way more base hammers.

Righto, that was what I wanted to check.

From a "where to build Taj" perspective, I can't disagree with your conclusion that the Northern spot is best. I strongly disagree that Thebes is the Northern city though.

Assuming no jiggery-pokery to confuse us: The Warning, Thebes, and Memphis are PAL's first three cities. Looking at the location image you sent, I cannot believe that a team which has played as effective a land-grab as PAL has in the rest of the game would have settled their first three cities with as much overlap (and as few resources) as they would have done if Thebes was in the Northern spot.

I find it a far more likely scenario that Thebes was settled at the Southern spot to secure Copper (we suspect they had early BW, right?) and borders with Banana, then later (after the Banana boat had passed) the Northern city was founded on the coast as a filler with Great Lighthouse trade routes.

[T-hawk]

We can reorganise our chops to complete on T152. But we cannot also whip on T152 because the hammers don't arrive in the build until the start of T153. Thus we will still be 35 hammers short.

Just so you know you're not going insane, that was a change in one of the game versions, I think the initial release of Warlords. The old behavior was to credit chop hammers immediately. So chopping towards a whip threshold in the same turn used to be possible. It was changed to reduce MM concerns ("oops! I meant to change that build order for the chop!")