Cheater Hater, Ruler of the Modbreakers

[Cheater Hater]

What are "good tiles" in this scenario? Lots of resources? Lots of food and a bunch of cottages? I mean, big capitals (and big cities in general) certainly have a place once production/commerce modifiers start showing up, but until then it seems like going wide lets you get more yield (both because the city center is like a free pop in each city, and because good tiles (mainly resources, but riverside and floodplains tiles also count to an extent) are spread out).

Of course, in my game, I have an extra incentive to go wide, since I'm in the perfect position to get an extremely cheap Hanging Gardens.

[Cheater Hater]

*sigh* I'm not really in the mood for a report right now--but because I'm a tease, I'll leave you with the big news of the turn:




Since this means I'm (probably) in a settler race with Whosit, does that mean I should be moving before him every turn?

[Cheater Hater]

T78 Report:
Well, I didn't get my T77 Report written--I was busy
Anyway, since I left you hanging for 24 hours, I might as well start with what's going on with that barb city:


Only two warriors are guarding it, and they have a worker as a prize? That seems worth it--but not only do I need to take it before Whosit gets it, but I need to make sure Whosit can't take my stone city in the process (which I value a lot more than I do a worker and some experience). Right now Whosit has the warrior on the hill overlooking Bactrian, along with a warrior and archer guarding the worker who's currently roading (presumably to my stone city, in preparation for settling it). To combat it, I have the two Impis you can see on the scene, along with a chariot I just started building in Kamigawa this turn--I'll be able to whip it next turn if I have to, and if I see an axe next turn when I move the Woodsman Impi to the stone tile to scout Whosit a bit, I probably should. Of course, I'm also looking to see if Whosit's settler is actually in range of the stone city--I just whipped the settler in Theros, and I'll settle the city on T81. Of course, if I see a force I can't reasonably defend against (say, he has two or three axes accompanying the settler), I have a reasonable defense: I can settle the silver city on T81 if I change course next turn, T82 if I don't. Now that I think about it, I don't want to settle the city then see the three axes either--but as I said, I think this is a risk I have to take, especially considering if he did declare I could probably burn Prairie Village if I really wanted too--remember, I still have a large production advantage since I have nearly double the number of cities.

(more coming tomorrow--it's late here )

[Ceiliazul]

*sigh* I'm not really in the mood for a report right now--but because I'm a tease, I'll leave you with the big news of the turn:




Since this means I'm (probably) in a settler race with Whosit, does that mean I should be moving before him every turn?

yes.

[Cheater Hater]

T78 Report Part 2:
Darn--I thought I was going be able to start a post with something other then domestic stuff--then I split the post into two




I did just the two whips this time: the settler in Theros as I mentioned above, but also the Granary in Lorwyn--that was an edge case, but Lorwyn needs to get a lot of stuff built (the Granary, a Monument, at least one workboat, and a Lighthouse--and that's before you consider that I almost certainly want Moai there (silver and furs give it some competition, but they don't have that much production), and it'll have a lot of food in the near future (don't forget those Lighthouse lakes). Again, I don't expect many whips in the near-future--other than the possible emergency whip in Kamigawa of the chariot, the only whip I have planned is 4 turns away in Ravnica, where I've started Settler 9--this will go to silver if I do get the stone city, or if I don't, it will either go to whales or furs--I'm not sure which of those I want to settle first; furs is clearly better in the first ring, but whales is easier to settle.

Other than that, not much is going on--Math finishes this turn (then I'll turn research back to 100% to Masonry, which is only two turns), there's a bunch of worker stuff going on (including one of mine by the stone retreating, since it would be exposed if it continued roading to the stone), and I'm getting some more military built.

Let's move to stats now! Does anyone have a better name for the C&D-type stuff, since I'm not really doing C&D, just taking stock of my place in the world


Wow, I'm doing so well in production! I'm worried this might be inflated since I'm generally playing my turns right as the turn rolls--if a city doesn't have any build assigned (the last build completed and you haven't logged in yet), does it count towards the production totals? Also, whips don't count towards that, only raw hammers+modifiers do, right?

At least the production's finally starting to show itself in the graph--though it's still not competitive with dtay:




You can also see my power continues to creep along, although it's going to get lots of boosts in the upcoming turns--Math is 4k, Ikhanda in Theros is 3k, the Impi and Chariot are 4k each, Mirrodin's going to start building military of some kind next turn (an axe I think), and after I finish Masonry I'm probably going to be able to 1T Archery, after which a round of archers will likely follow.

Finally, a couple news tidbits:

• Last turn, Krill/novice founded their 7th city, and dtay founded his 9th and 10th--someone stop him please?
  
• This turn, someone got Great Lighthouse--the only person with a big score increase on the interturn was plako, so I assume it was him--no clue who it was, and they aren't a top city (at least not yet).
  

[Ceiliazul]

Maybe demo analysis...

-whips do not show up in mfg stat ever
-unassigned builds do not change the mfg of that civ

Can we get a shot of your exploered area? How happy are you with your Whosit border?

[Cheater Hater]

Maybe demo analysis...

-whips do not show up in mfg stat ever
-unassigned builds do not change the mfg of that civ

Can we get a shot of your exploered area? How happy are you with your Whosit border?

That's good to know that my raw hammer values really are that good--I'm still surprised I'm somehow doing so well

What do you mean the explored area? Don't forget, my scout is still trapped between dtay and Whosit's borders, and other than getting visibility on one of dtay's cities, it hasn't done anything in 20-30 turns

I'm not sure what you mean about being "happy" with the Whosit border--the stone city will be the last city in his direction for a while (with the possible exception of stuff by the barb city/the barb city itself, but I'd rather backfill the main 5 cities at this point (silver, whales, furs, rice, ivory)). I mean, I don't like that I'm trailing Whosit in power still, but it's something that should improve soon.

T79 Report coming soon

[Cheater Hater]

T79 Report:
Let's start with the barb city stuff:


Good news: No sign of anything else from Whosit, neither military nor settler. This means I shouldn't have to whip the chariot (though I'll still complete the build just so I have some barb axe defense, if nothing else)
Bad news: I didn't realize there was a river between Theros and Kamigawa, so my settler's going to be delayed a turn. Even so, thought it would still work, since it was going from 1.5->1; I didn't realize that the game would be smart enough to go from 1.5->0.5

Anyway, let's move to the domestic stuff:




Not much here, except a lot of military builds to try and defend against Whosit's ambitions and nurse my deficient power score. I'm also 2-turning Masonry, just barely--less than 100% doesn't do it (though I might get a grace period this turn; I'm not sure), and I'll go down to exactly 0 gold in the bank to do so. After that, 40% is break-even--that will be painful

Now to "demo analysis"--thanks Celiazul


Wow--who would have thought food would eventually be the worst of my three yields? Also, the production isn't even being boosted by much--technically I'm building a worker in Tarkir, but I don't even think there's much raw production there anyway
My soldier ranking's even starting to be respectable, and that will only improve as all my military builds complete. The other stats aren't that important at least, considering I'm doing horribly in a lot of those




GNP is looking good--ignoring dtay's one turn spike, we're all pretty clumped together. As for production, how is dtay still able to be at the top of everything? He has to have made a tradeoff somewhere, right?

[Cheater Hater]

I'm going to bed soon; hopefully I'll still be able to play before Whosit--what happens if he doesn't realize we're in a de-facto turn split because of what I assume is a settler race and he moves before me? And how is this situation resolved if he doesn't have a settler ready in the first place? (I'm thinking he might just be roading and trying to take the barb city?)

Edit: Or I could just play now that the turn's rolling shortly

[Cheater Hater]

T80 Report:
Let's start with the bad news: I'm not getting the stone city


The settler's with the axe on the gems, but the point is the same--Whosit's going to get his settler in the area first. In fact, based on score changes, it appears Whosit actually settled the city this turn--or at least a settler, since the site that I'd assume he'd settle in the east that he actually can (the spot where the archer/warrior stack is, 1E of my planned site), actually isn't a legal site as long as the barb city's still around (and unless he's attacking it from the other side--which is plausible, since it lost a warrior this turn--all the troops I can see can't reach it this turn). Still, even if we assume he razed the barb city and settled it in that spot, it's actually not that bad, all things considered--he won't be on the hill in that case, so that will be an easy city to take once I get to that point

As a response to Whosit likely taking the stone, my domestic plan has changed slightly:




As you can see, I'm basically giving that area to Whosit without a fight and planning to settle the silver city on T82--though if Whosit's somehow not planning on settling the stone, I'm actually still on track to settle my stone city on T82 as well. I also moved my Impis--my Woodsman Impi is in position to take the barb city and/or scout, while the other Impi is heading to guard the silver city. Other than that, things are still boring--lots of military, I got my first full chop in Lorwyn, I'll whip the settler in Ravnica in two turns, etc.

Demo analysis time!


Unfortunately, my stats are a bit more average now--but average is still pretty good when there are so many civs


Of course, regressing to the mean works both ways--by the time all my builds are done (the four builds you can see, along with researching Archery), I should be average in power, if not a decent bit above it