[Spoilers] AT Makes a Thread for PBEM 73

[AutomatedTeller]

Turn 21

Ooh - been awhile. Still not a lot going on, but the animals are out. Fortunately, this is super scout mod, so I killed a lion in 3 hits without taking any damage.




The land to my west seems to be an island. Might wrap around later, we'll see. My guess is that there's at least one foe off in that direction.




This seems to be a big peninsula up here.




Here's my big decision: where does city #2 go. It has to go here, to keep Jowy from shutting me out of the (relatively) good land.

Red circle: can share the corn and a hill, provides a naval canal. Wastes a forest.
orange circle: Does not waste the forest (which would probably go for a workboat), plants faster, provides a naval canal. more usable land tiles than red. Only (near term) food is the clam.
Yellow circle: grabs the cow, is a strong general site. Cuts Jowy off from the peninsula, which is likely to piss him off, though any city I put there is likely to do that. Makes getting the clam hard, does not provide a naval channel.

I suppose I could do 1N of orange, too, but that has no 1st ring food. It does give me a shot at the ivory, but I think Jowy will be very unhappy at that plant.




Demos looking sucky, mainly because 2 opponents are size III and I'm at size 2 for the next few turns - I want to build my settler.

[AutomatedTeller]

Turn 25

Things are getting more interesting.

I open up the save and there is Sian!!




he's not who Jowy has met, though. They don't have contact, so I presume that Auro is off to my NE.

That, as it turns out, is incorrect:




The f4 screen is very interesting:




Auro is who Jowy has met, but also, he and Sian are at war. Presumably, that's not a hot war - more a war dec to get through territory.
A shot of top cities:





Demos:



I think that I'm going to push for the cow city - I think I need to seal off that penisula as mine, because the middle is kind of contested and if I don't, Jowy will get on it fairly easily. I don't really like the shape my empire looks like it will have - kind of narrow and thin with a fragile center, but that looks to be what I;ll get. the great lighthouse looks very strong on this map.

[AutomatedTeller]

Turn 29




I hadn't mentioned that I found Auro's cap, which is very close to bordering Jowy's. I presume that Sian's is close to the south. We seem to be pretty jammed in there, with me being perhaps a little further away, but also needing to be aggressive in settling to not just get screwed into having to need sailing to do much expansion. It's kind of interesting.

Anyway - under that axe is a settler that has been there for several turns. Sian has managed to slow down an imp civ's expansion - well done sir. I may end up settling the same turn as an imp civ. At least one city, that is.




My settler comes out this turn. I've debating going to a spot where I can grab an ivory, but I think Auro is settling toward s Jowy as well and if I put the ivory in my fat cross (and he'll probably put it in his first ring), i'm asking for more trouble. He can do that, along with a pig.

Jowy, btw, is looking to 2 pop whip his settler - he's size 4 and switched into slavery.

Demos

[AutomatedTeller]

Turn 30

Auror is 1st to 2 cities!!




Demos:



I'm very weak in soldiers, though most of that is not having BW.




My settler is made and I'll finish off the terrace in 1 turn - growth, whipping, culture - all good.

I took this last turn, but it's still interesting:




I wonder if Sian is closer to me than I thought. Seems to me he's probably due south of Auror, though.

I took this after I ended turn and found copper:




That WAS where I was going to put my city. Now, I dunno. I might SIP, I might go 1N, I might go to where the bear is. The animals make it complicated. The bear is a real threat, though the panther shouldn't be. 1N looks pretty strong, I have to say - copper, ivory, crab and cow, but the only way to get the banana is to go to the hill, and it's likely to piss off jowy. SIP looks better than I thought - SIP, move back to chop the forest for a WB. Clam and Copper are ok, but not great. I really don't have any great sites.

[AutomatedTeller]

Turn 31

Found Sian, switched to slavery, decided where to put my city.

Also, survived the panther attack flawlessly.




He is south of Auror - maybe a little W, as well.



I think this means he's close to me to the east, though I'm not sure. I'll have to look at the dimensions again.




With the bear moving the way it did, moving the settler 1N was not at all dangerous. I think this settling spot is likey going to upset Jowy, but I don't see much choice. it's by far my best spot - copper, cow, clam and, possibly, ivory, plus 4 forests and some hills. Actually, it's about as good a military base against Jowy as I could get. It's not on a hill or behind a river, though, so that's not great. And I doubt that I'll actually be able to get the ivory - Jowy will have it first ring, I'm sure. Not great to not have food first ring, but the copper is great and the terrace will get me food soon enough.

[AutomatedTeller]

Turn 32

Settled No Way Out (I guess I'm going Kevin Costner movies)




Cities are expensive! I had to drop to 0% science - that's kind of a problem with settling where I did, but I don't see where I had a lot of choice - I had to go out this way, or I would have gotten cut off.

As you can see, plan is to get the terrace up as soon as possible - I'll probably build a couple of workboats after the terrace, since they'll be fast and I'll need them. really, i need 3 so I can send 1 exploring - maybe I'll chop it out.



but the silver and gold (from down south) will help off set that.


Growth here - looking to get to size 4 in 3 turns, then 2 pop whip a worker and then grow back with either an axe or a quecha.

one quecha here will go north, the other south to barb bust.

City #3 will go south, I think - I don't think I can pick up the pig spot, thought if Jowy leaves it, I will.




Happier about demos.

[AutomatedTeller]

Turn 33
2 turns in a day!!

Looks like I upset Jowy with my plant. A) he made his 7th post to his thread and B)




His warrior is clearly coming to take a peak. Dunno if he's going to declare to see if I left the city empty or not - if so, he'll have about a 10-12% chance to kill the city, which kind of sucks. I have another quecha coming up, but it'll be a turn too late. Well, this could be the most important turns of the game for me, cause if I lose my 2nd city, that's gonna suck. That said, I shouldn't lose it.

Obviously, I presume that krill mod hasn't changed the fact that animals aren't allowed inside cultural borders




hey, I'm expansive, so direct build of the worker is faster. Also, I only had 9 excess food, so it took 3 turns to grow. I dunno - maybe the quecha was a better idea, anyway, to keep Jowy from killing me. If he has copper hooked up, things could get painful.

[AutomatedTeller]

Turn 34




Jowy did not come in to attack, so my city will survive.

if Jowy moves to A, I'll move warrior #2 to the red square.
If jowy moves to B, I'll move warrior #2 to city.
If Jowy moves to C, warrior #2 will attack him and #1 will (probably) follow up, presuming he's badly hurt.

If he stays there, I'll probably move to the red Square, as well, though I might just stay where I am.

Warrior #1 will continue to fortify.




Vaguely amusing - Auror's city #2 is bigger than his city #1.

Neither Jowy nor Sian have a 2nd city yet.




next turn, I'll try to post some dot maps for future (crappy) cities - well, they aren't necessarily crappy, but they'll either be food poor or hammer poor, as far as I can see. I think Jowy's pissed about No Way Out, but it's the only city that will, long time, have food and hammers besides the cap... and I needed to settle it without food to get that!!

he's got a nice pigs site and a nice fish/copper/silk site.

I'll stop whining about the map and make plans to kill Jowy in 100 turns.

[AutomatedTeller]

Turn 35




As we can see, Jowy moved along the north of the city. Thus, I went to woods hill. 2 turns will copper mine is finished.




whip in the worker. That gives me 14 overflow, which goes down to I think 11 after the 35% bonus is removed, which doesn't quite get me a WB next turn, but we'll get the WB anyway while the worker improves the silver.



Just at a guess, I'm saying Auror wins. He's got a corn and a pig in an easy to get to location. Or maybe Sian, looks like he has some good land. Jowy got map-screwed, I think - near 2 civs, one of which is basically constrained to expand at him or get screwed.




Demos, cause why not?

Some dotmaps:





Next city is the one just south of the cap. After that, I dunno - moving south on the coast is dangerous, the rice one sucks and the rest need sailing. Gotta think this through.






Dunno when these cities get done, either. In any case, I need to explore more.

[AutomatedTeller]

Turn 36




Finished the copper - we'll go granary->axe, presuming that Jowy doesn't have horses yet. the big risk is a couple of axes.

I'm debating going for sailing and trying for the lighthouse here or my 3rd city. I think Jowy is the only ind civ and I think he's landlocked - though, frankly, I can't remember if anyone is ind. But this is a strong hammer city and the extra culture would be useful.




More overflow than I thought - I forgot that all the foodhammers I created would overflow, as well. I think I'll overflow enough to build a quecha right off next turn. That quecha will go to No Way Out, so one can explore North and, perhaps, go sentry jowy to get an early warning.

Cap will build 3 quecha, I think, to get to size 4 or 5 and will then build the next settler.