Using Catwalk's info, I've aligned my map and colored in the Roman region. There are 3 disputed "X" areas on our combined border. This will be true of each other pair of teams as well. How to get the best possible share of this may get complicated.
This might be a situation rife with complications, but it's also full of potential. Any more contact with Catwalk? Are you his first meeting? He and his Preats are close to you, but they also are near every other rival, getting in good with him is essential.
If only you and me and dead people know hex, then only deaf people know hex.
-Settler finished at EOT, destined for 1N of Horse
-Worker will complete road in perfect time to start a pasture immediately
-lonely warrior guards the empire from his watchtower, but will break North to garrison the new city.
-Holy Cheesepuffs, +11 food in the capital. Worker is the next build, but maybe grow first and double whip it... I welcome any ideas.
-Catwalk's warrior is hangin' out. That's ok, but a good enough reason to keep in touch:
Quote:[COLOR="DarkGreen"]Hi there Catwalk,
On the save today, I saw a couple things:
Your warrior apparently has a soft spot for our fish. It makes sense, him being from feline and all. I don't mind his presence, but I'm wondering will he be hanging around for a while?
More importantly, Bieber is beating you! I wouldn't wish that upon my worst canine enemies... but I'm sure it's just all the CRE land points and you'll rebound in due haste. However, if you need any help in hastening the destruction of Justin Bieber, let me know.
Bigger news!! Copper is in the absolute best possible spot, on the hill shared by middle and lower dot... and I know cuz Catwalk is awesome:
The chatty diplo I sent yesterday generated this exchange today:
Indeed, just the other day I overheard my warriors discussing setting up shop as fishercats, arguing it was a lot more fun than taking orders from idiots and be used as cannon fodder. Naturally, I executed the leaders of the little mutiny and the rest got better ideas. We'll be heading E/SE from here to clean up a few blanks on our map. I would be interested in seeing the information saying that Bieber is beating me, I'm guessing it's inference from the demographics. I don't bother much with those numbers, although I did think our numbers looked decent the other day. Should we decide to feed Bieber to the dogs, you can be assured you'll have first dibs.
[COLOR="Green"]I was referring to game score. It's not a good indicator at this point anyway... just a Beiber joke. I have been doing demo work, and by all indications your massive capital is roaring along. You've had leading demos for most of the game so far, but now they're all Pegasus. :-)
Sounds like you've done quite a bit of scouting, have you met anyone else? For my part, we have not, but we'll be fixing that asap.[/COLOR]
It seems I was the only one going for a workboat first, which was the reason why I changed my mind about Byzantium and switched to Rome. I think that paid off well, working a lake fish early on pays huge dividends. I'm actually not quite sure what the recent score jumps indicate, other than techs. My next one will hit next turn, so I suppose all it says is that we're still all about even. I have met Ad Hoc and Cull, and will meet Pegasus in a few turns. The map is almost completely symmetrical, only minor differences in jungle/forest coverage and resource type. I have it mapped out in Excel, I can send you a copy if you'd like. Your neighbours are located at 6E12N (me), 6W12S (Pegasus), 12E6S (Ad Hoc) and 12W6N (Cull) in starting conditions similar to your own.
[COLOR="Green"]Wow, that is fantastic map info, thank you. I admit, I've been kicking myself for leaving Rome on the board. You're off to a great start, especially in GNP. You did it without CRE bonus so it's especially impressive.
Some info in return: Pegasus also went boat first, but finished it slower than you did. Adhoc went warrior first, Cull likely went worker/worker. (Which makes sense for Expansive without fishing.)
Pegasus is really off to a blazing start, being the first to get pigs and fish improved. He's the one with 18 food on t19. He's also spiritual, and likely in slavery already. (Can you confirm from F4 - "info" tab?) I expect he'll whip within the next few turns.
Peg has to be the favorite to win, with more experience than all of us combined... so far he's looking the part.[/COLOR]
[COLOR="Magenta"]Thanks for the demographics information, I know the basics of how to work it but it was way too much effort to figure out how to put it to practical use. I'm surprised Pegasus finished his workboat slower than me, as I worked the fish first while waiting for the workboat. Maybe he did the same and then took the flood plains on size 2, I switched to production tiles on size 2. I built a warrior after the workboat, as I had 2 turns left for growth to size 3. I'm guessing he went straight for the worker after that, giving him a small edge. Pegasus is the only one I haven't met yet (warrior meeting him in a few turns), so I can't see anything at this time. I've attached the Excel map I'm using, most of it is unexplored but I've seen enough symmetry (combined with knowledge of the capital tilted cross locations) to generalize about the blanks. The boxes are for my expansion plan, I imagine it's quite similar to yours. And in the event that you don't have AH or BW yet, you can see where the copper and horses are at. I had a theory that there'd be marble or stone in the middle of those peak/desert formations, but no such luck.
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[COLOR="Green"]
Wow, thanks for that map info! I'll get Bronze Working in 3t, so special thanks for the peak at copper. I like your dotmap, and yes it is similar to mine.
One small thing, you said AdHoc was SE of me, and Cull NW, but your map shows opposite. Can you confirm that info?
These swift emails are great, I look forward to working closely with you in the future.[/COLOR]
I did indeed mix up Ad Hoc and Cull, the map has them right.
For those with wall-of-text-itis, here's the summary:
-Plugged Peg as the early leader and game favorite. This is both useful and true.
-Encouraged Catwalk for his early GNP lead.
-Catwalk told me where all opponents are
-I love this guy, and honestly hope to work together in the future. Not just cuz Praets either.
-Finally, he donated this little gem to the cause:
There's a ton to think about there. I've been glancing at it all day, here's some thoughts:
-Copper is in the BEST possible spot, shared between Middle and Lower dots.
-His expansions plans are similar to mine, but his "middle dot" will cost 2 additional dist maint, and be unable to share power tiles. It will also be settled in Peg's rightful territory, and somewhat hard to defend. On the flip side, it will press on the disputed zone to my North.
-So the centers are rich indeed, with flood plains and within reach of each opponents 2nd lux. I must consider that and settle my Southern gold early!
-The "X" zone furthest from me has sugar... matching my own calendar lux. Seems likely that each person's lux is duplicated in the center furthest from them. If Stone/Marble is on Catwalk's unexplored tiles those sites would become emergency placements. Gotta explore that ASAP.
-He has silver on plains/hill tiles. I guess that's fair for balance... With 5 of us, I wonder who got the duplicate metals... might be important for trades later. It seems likely we'll each get a calendar resource. Fur/Ivory not yet spotted.
Demos are before settlement, with "after" numbers inset.
-I'm the first to settle my city!
-Pegasus hit the first whip of the game, a 2pop whip.
-GNP went up, but beakers went down! (13 -> 12)
-With that one little pop1 city, expenses +5 GPT!
[b]
Edit: removed cuz Seven corrected my math.
Finally, a view inside the little giant. By t36 this city will have:
4 pop
3 food surplus
10 hammers
13 gold (working the gold tile)
The maintenance on this map will kill expansion better than any Raging Barbs.
In most early games, gnp is not the most important stat... but in this game it will drive EVERYTHING. My early plans for 3 settlers before t40 are on hold, even 4 cities brings tech to a complete halt.
Ceiliazul Wrote:-With that one little pop1 city, expenses cost me FIVE GPT!
-If I didn't have trade routes, this city would be -7 net gold right now.
How could both of these possibly be true?
AFAICT the city's costing you 5gpt and gaining you 5gpt (center tile, 2 TRs, 2 from the seafood). So the city is adding 5 to your expenses but netting you 0 commerce. It would net -2 commerce if it weren't for the trade routes.
SevenSpirits Wrote:How could both of these possibly be true?
AFAICT the city's costing you 5gpt and gaining you 5gpt (center tile, 2 TRs, 2 from the seafood). So the city is adding 5 to your expenses but netting you 0 commerce. It would net -2 commerce if it weren't for the trade routes.
You are correct. Maintenance did jump from 0 to 5, but the net effect was only -1 beaker per turn at breakeven science. Thanks for the correction. I'm not sure where that last coin was lost, maybe rounding errors?
Seven, you're an accomplished guy, what's your take on binary research?
Ceiliazul Wrote:You are correct. Maintenance did jump from 0 to 5, but the net effect was only -1 beaker per turn at breakeven science. Thanks for the correction. I'm not sure where that last coin was lost, maybe rounding errors?
Seven, you're an accomplished guy, what's your take on binary research?
Yeah, rounding errors.
If you research only at 0% and 100% you will avoid rounding errors. A good rule of thumb is to collect gold until, at 100% research, the number of turns it will take to research a tech is the same as the number of turns it will take you to run out of gold. It's pretty simple, removes most rounding inefficiency, and doesn't delay your techs.
There are a lot of posts by now that explain binary research in more detail - I don't really want to write another right now.
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