china opening: 300w as second card
Posted: 15 May 2019, 16:37
One thing I notice with standard china 700g FF play (tp start, vill card first) is that when you hit age2, you have 2 shipments in queue and one ends up sitting behind the other while it ships. If shipments are resources, in effect this is equivalent to an idle villager. So I’ve starting shipping 300w with my second shipment and making another TP asap, since intuitively it felt better. Now I’ve done a little study to show that I am pretty sure it’s a more powerful way to start as China, as long as you don't lose that second TP immediately to pressure.
I played two 16 minute games against the AI, one in which I shipped 300w as my second shipment, and one in which I didn’t. In both games, I followed the same build order, got roughly the same treasures, and kept pretty much everything else the same.
With standard 1 tp play, I can queue 700g and 700w at the same time, but with this build, I queue 700g immediately when hitting up to age2, and then I am able to queue 700w JUST as 700g arrives. And then when I hit up to fortress, I have a shipment ready to go with more on the way. It almost feels to me like this accomplishes the same effect as Mitoe's no-700g FF, but rather than saving a shipment it just gives you more, and perhaps has the added bonus of setting you up better for a longer game.
I've attached my shipment curves and the recs. From what I can tell I'm already a shipment ahead by 4:30. I know my age-up is a tiny bit slower in my 300w rec, but I think thats just because I'm a sloppy 1st lieut and not because of the 300w.
The other benefit is an extra free 100w after the TP, for a market or your next village.
What do y'all think? Has someone else thought of this before? Is there a reason why we don't see this much in tourney play?
I played two 16 minute games against the AI, one in which I shipped 300w as my second shipment, and one in which I didn’t. In both games, I followed the same build order, got roughly the same treasures, and kept pretty much everything else the same.
With standard 1 tp play, I can queue 700g and 700w at the same time, but with this build, I queue 700g immediately when hitting up to age2, and then I am able to queue 700w JUST as 700g arrives. And then when I hit up to fortress, I have a shipment ready to go with more on the way. It almost feels to me like this accomplishes the same effect as Mitoe's no-700g FF, but rather than saving a shipment it just gives you more, and perhaps has the added bonus of setting you up better for a longer game.
I've attached my shipment curves and the recs. From what I can tell I'm already a shipment ahead by 4:30. I know my age-up is a tiny bit slower in my 300w rec, but I think thats just because I'm a sloppy 1st lieut and not because of the 300w.
The other benefit is an extra free 100w after the TP, for a market or your next village.
What do y'all think? Has someone else thought of this before? Is there a reason why we don't see this much in tourney play?