[SPOILERS] Team EggHeads: DMOC and TeddyKGB (Now Lurker-Friendly!)

[DMOC]

Turn 139 - 580 AD

This was a fairly quiet turn for us. We just kept growing while building our forges. Hinduism successfully spread into Princeton.

SutOxy built The Taj Mahal, as expected.

I don't see any news in technology for either SutOxy or B4andit. SutOxy can also research Gunpowder, Engineering, and Replaceable Parts. B4ndit can research Construction.

A quick shot of our core:

We are slowly catching up to the leader in food. We've got about eight cities that will grow in the next two turns.

[DMOC]

Turn 140 - 600 AD

We just kept growing and growing. Our food output is actually just about even with SutOxy, though they're probably channeling this coming Golden Age into a future war versus Arkipeller or classical_hero.

A quick shot of the northern part of the empire. Washington's definitely growing like a weed.

We got tech visibility on Bisons. He's one turn away from ... Paper. Hopefully he goes and researches Philosophy followed by Education. I may just keep our points on him to get city visibility.

Uh, Barteq ... I was going to mine that and gift it to you, as I explained in my previous email. Oh well, this saves me worker turns.

In foreign news, we finally have something interesting going on ... Yossarian declared war on Aivoturoso! It should be a one-sided war.

Meanwhile, B4ndit is realizing that his weak southern neighbors mean that he has lots of expansion room to the south. Lucky them. Notice that he has maces, as we knowl

Tech, demos, etc...

Tech (no new updates)

Demos (note the food! and we have five cities that increase in population at the end of this turn)

Cities:

TODOs for me:

1. Get National Epic and Heroic Epic set up
2. Get a city to produce the settler for the 17th city
3. Plan out which cities get barracks and which get stables for the upcoming wars
4. Get a galley for the 1-tile jungle island in Washington

PS: I wonder why suttree is spending 3 hours a turn into the game when it's pretty much decided.

[DMOC]

Turn 141 - 620 AD

To start out the turn, we got a substantial number of diplomatic messages. I've put all the stuff in spoilers and you can skip if needed.

Dinosaurs:

We happy or not it doesn't matter. Rome has moved hi SOd . He is going to get our cities ,soon..we couldn't stop him whithout your help.
Will you attack Rome... Have you macemans.You will be next and You will have very strong neighbour having more cities .
I send msg in the game.

Raptorous
DT

and

I ask you ..if you have any macemans for sell....HOw many and if you interested to sell to us?

DT

Raptorous

I sent a response:

Dinosaurs,

Unfortunately, we do not have any macemen at all, and we actually deleted our army after making peace with Rome to save on maintenance costs.

Sincerely,
DMOC

And now from Aivoturoso:

Hi DMOC,

As you probably noticed, Yossarian and Caledorn decided to declare war on us. Due to your very convenient location right north of their team, I must ask that is there any way you could join the war against them? If you can't, is there any other way you could help us in the war efforts?

Cheers,

My response:

Bowsling/Aivoturso:

Unfortunately, we have a long NAP with Yossarian/Caledorn, and it is currently in our best interests to support them.

Sincerely,
DMOC

And finally, from Bisons, who finally noticed our espionage points.

HI
i saw you have met some spy point on me. it seems to not lost my graph si i just put that i need to have yours.
i hope there is no intention to start a spy war between us, i've already the most of spy production, and i've no intention too spy you, since we have very good relation.

in other case
have you already use of your stone ?
do you want start to speak about a nap extention ?

Bisons

I had to think a bit before responding, since it's clear that Bisons is starting to get concerned about us.

Bisons,

(1) I am sorry about the espionage points, I was trying to get tech visibility into other civilizations so I thought I would put them on you. I switched the points into Yossarian.

(2) After Alphabet, what tech plan are you considering? I am researching Aesthetics and Literature so I can finally build the National Epic.

(3) I also offered a map trade since you now have Paper. We have most of the world map scouted out, so I think this is a good deal for you.

(4) We are still using the stone but if you really need them we can gift to you (or for small gold payment). What do you plan to use the stone for and how long do you think you may need it?

(5) Let's discuss the NAP at roughly turn 150. I am always hesitant about extending NAPs due to Pitboss 4 at Realms Beyond. (I'm not sure if you read that game but if you did, you will understand.)

Sincerely,
DMOC

There are some lies sprinkled in here. I'm really trying to fish him for information.

As far as the turn goes, we have some good news with respect to our ally. They captured one city and look to capture a few more in the next few turns. I sent Yossarian a message about the unit composition in some of the cities our scouting chariot could see.

We are still growing, building forges and other economical buildings. (Three cities will grow this coming turn.) By the time it's turn 150, a lot of these will be barracks. Oh, and research is back to 100%. We should get Aesthetics and then Literature in short order. Our marble will be conveniently hooked up for our capital to build National Epic on turn 143.

Also of interest is that we are now tops in food again, and I have a feeling that SutOxy aren't putting all their cities into Great People production, as they did during their first Golden Age.

And will you look at that? The victory screen says we are #1 in population.

No updates in tech. Bisons will get Alphabet soon, so we can see his techs. This sort of lessens the need for us to pump espionage points into him.

[DMOC]

Turn 142 - 640 AD

When the turn first started, we got an AP vote.

I just did nothing, but if I recall correctly, these proposals come every 10 turns. We could try to stop SutOxy's war with Arki (if that's where they're headed) but they've got enough votes to stop it, I'm pretty sure.

So it seems like B4ndit and Bisons are cooperating. Or it could have been Asterix and Yuufo. I wish we could get our hands on some fast workers!

With Bisons' world map, we now have an up-to-date map of his cities. (I'll save that for the turn 143 report.) Here's his surprisingly small city that has The Oracle and The Pyramids.

Our ally continues to have good news in his war against Aivoturso. I'll keep a scouting chariot there to inform him of Aivoturso's defenses. Also, take note of SutOxy's civics! Nationhood = drafting.

Demographics and tech (SutOxy have gunpowder, and Bisons is one turn away from Alphabet:

And for diplomacy, Bisons sent us a response.

1) dont worry =) i have all the tech of the others . i just havent yours ( because we have good term =) ) and bandit ( asterix use great spy a long time before ) if you want some indication on your neighbor, just ask =)

2) it depend i've a lot of think to considerate ( sutree tech/bandit orientation/etc) . i'm not totaly sure that i have to tech.

3) i've accepted, i'll dont forget this =)

4) stone is for Moai. i think i can use it only a few turn ( so 10 turn was a minima for a trade, just that will be good.)

(5) to be honest : i dont read other game. i just want too avoid to lost time to make a cold war with you . i prefer have my NAP's a litle extend in this party of the game. i see a lot of civ teching powder. so it's better for us to have a good cooperation. and a nap who during => 180 will be a good sign =) in order to conter sutree who have take an advantage.
we can discuss to have military cooperation in the future too

Bisons

So he still thinks we're "allies." Let's see what happens around turn 150, when he'll no doubt ask about the NAP again. I'll try to figure out some way to delay things further, such as "TeddyKGB has reappeared and I need to discuss with him first."

[DMOC]

Turn 143 - 660 AD

We finally finished up Literature (research is now on 0% while we collect gold for a bit) and that is conveniently timed with our first marble.

Carnegie Mellon can now start the long-overdue National Epic. It will get done in five turns due to the growth. I'll assign some priest or engineer specialists to speed things up, since we really need another Great Person.

Cornell is building the Heroic Epic. It will NOT finish it ... Washington has more potential for production and will get the Heroic Epic, so Cornell is just building it for the fail-gold while Washington (already at size 13) will build it once its Forge completes.

MIT is another high-production city, just about to finish up its own forge. It's finally becoming a nice, 10+ size city due to the farms.

Our builds (I changed Cornell to Heroic Epic after I took this):

It's definitely getting to the point when we need more barracks.

Oh, by the way ... here's an updated map of our neighbor. He's done a relatively good job cottaging the land, but the weakness there is that he'll be severely limited in terms of growth due to the lack of farms. And indeed, the extra farms we've got primarily due to chain irrigation will mean we've got more whipping potential.

I offered stone to Bisons, to continue feigning friendship. Come to think of it, I should have asked to cancel on turn 150. The reason is that he might ask on turn 150, and upon an NAP rejection, use the stone to build walls. Oh well, I'll figure out some way to "delay" the NAP signing.

And since Bisons also got Alphabet, we now have three civilizations whose technology we can see:

Fortunately, Bisons doesn't seem too advanced. He's also missing Construction and Machinery. He's up Alphabet, Philosophy, and Paper, while we are up Construction, Machinery, Monotheism, Aesthetics, and Literature. I'd rather have Construction and Machinery over Philosophy and Paper. (Note: SutOxy researched Horseback Riding.)

One thing I notice is that no one else but us and SutOxy appear to have Aesthetics/Literature! (If Bisons and B4ndit don't have it, I doubt the others do, and Yosssarian I'm pretty sure doesn't have that either.) That seems to be pretty poor planning, to delay Heroic Epic and National Epic for that long. It's not like this map is short on marble, either! I know we're fairly late to this, but we would have gotten Literature a lot earlier had we not diverted research to Construction earlier when we were paranoid about Rome.

I also sent more information to Yossarian about his enemy. Note to Aivoturso: if I've got a scouting chariot there, you realy should ask me what its doing.

Lastly, demographics (though I did play first so tiles might get shifted, etc.).

Note to self: next turn, switch espionage points off of Yossarian, since we'll get his graphs. We'll probably put them on suttree.

[DMOC]

Turn 144 - 680 AD

Not much to say -- we're just growing our civ and making preparations for a future war. I'll put some empire-wide screenshots up since I feel like those give a better view of one's civilization, rather than one or two detailed city screens.

Here's the northern half of our civ (Wisconsion I switched to a barracks after this, since Wasington can build one faster with Forge and Heroic Epic (naval units count, right?).

The southern half:

Next turn, I"ll bump research to 100% to finish Horseback Riding (takes advantage of the Library we finally get in UIllinois), then 0% to finish Archery for a turn, possibly 0% one more turn, then it's onto Feudalism -> Guilds.

Updates on the war between Rome and DT:

Tech/Demos (b4ndit got Guilds):

[DMOC]

Turn 145 - 700 AD

Updates will be a bit brief now, since my schedule is extremely busy, and I typically have only a 30-minute window where I can do all my playing and reporting.

On a related note, Teddy seems to have disappeared. I'm going to be traveling on Feb 20 through 22 and cannot play civ on those days. If I don't hear back from Teddy I will need to find a substitute, unless the game happens to get called within the next week.

I bumped research up to 100%. We'll get Horseback Riding, and then the turn after that we'll finish up Archery so we can get Horse Archers, which should automatically convert to Cataphracts if we get Guilds later. (I'll check this to confirm.) Bisons is researching Education, and he can do it in 6 turns, so his research is actually fairly good. He's got 192 gold now; I'm curious to see how much he'll have next turn.

Next turn, Washington will start the Heroic Epic. It's a great city -- size 14, and right now it's actually lending Berkeley the corns. We'll get lots of fail-gold from Cornell's "Heroic Epic." Also, notice that Bisons is bringing some more axes by the border. That's fine --- cataphracts don't really fear axes.

Tech/Demos:

Our food/population lead should increase in the next few turns. We've got four cities about to grow, plus four more the following turn, and I have no whips planned.

[DMOC]

Turn 146 - 720 AD

Since Washington has a Forge, we are now starting our real Heroic Epic in that city. We've got 157 hammers invested in Cornell, quite an efficient use of three turns.

Meanwhile, the capital continues to work on National Epic. I offered a 2gpt trade for clams to B4ndit for the health help. Washington will also run in to health problems soon.

The core of our empire:

Tech/Demos (no new tech updates, but Bison's gpt didn't drop down much so his research rate is pretty good):

[DMOC]

Turn 147 - 740 AD

We finished up Archery, so now we can build Horse Archers. I ran a test in World Builder, and if we whip them to completion the same turn we are 1-turn away from Guilds, they will automatically convert to Cataphracts, which actually saves us on hammers, I believe. Research is down to 0% for another turn, but then for turns 148 and 149 it will be at 100% and we will be onto Guilds on turn 150. By turn 150, we should also have a max beaker output of over 500 beakers.

Carnegie Mellon will finish up National Epic. After that, I'll probably assign two more citizens to be merchants (that's the most amount of specialists we can get). We will have 92/300 points next turn (NE doesn't count for that, right?) and with the two extra specialists, we get +36 GPP a turn. 208/36 = 5.7, so maybe a new Great Person in 6-7 turns? Since we really should be playing for the near-term now, I think it might be worth it to hold off on Vassalage until we get a new Great Person from the capital to start off our first Golden Age.

Washington is still working on the Heroic Epic. After HE, it might build a temple, a stable, and then only military units from that point on. Next turn, I think it should get the corn.

And our cities as a whole:

I whipped UC San Diego for a lighthouse and Michigan for a barracks. In Michigan, the overflow will go to finish up its Hindu Monastery, and from that point on, it will probably be military.

Unfortunately, Bisons is starting to get suspicious of us. I am not too worried ... these are just axemen, after all.

Demos/Tech:

We are still first in population points, but second in the "demographics population" since our citizens are spread across more cities. One thing that's disconerting is that Bisons seems to be researching really well. He actually gained more gold from last turn, and is still researching Education relatively quickly. SutOxy obtained Military Tradition.

[DMOC]

Turn 148 - 760 AD

Unfortunately, no one has offered to play my turns and I haven't heard back from Teddy. I'll be making a detailed turn 150 plan and then hopefully someone can continue for me while I'm away or the game can be paused.

Classical_hero canceled our fur-spices deal so I gave this to Yossarian. (Fortunately, the cancellation didn't make any cities go into unhappiness, and some cities that are close to the happy limit will have forges being built soon.)

Some city shots:

I ended up deciding to build that colloseum after all (a barracks will follow after that). It gives us extra breathing room in case some of our happiness resources stop being traded, or if we suffer from war weariness. Our next Great Person is in six turns. The plan is to start a Golden Age with it on turn 154 and use that to revolt to new civics if needed. We get Feudalism in two turns, by the way, and then I'll research either Guilds -> Alphabet or Alphabet -> Guilds, as spies will be pretty important for us.

Cornell will soon build a settler for our 17th city. I made a mistake and somehow workshopped that tile, when I really wanted it farmed. Oh well. Workshops are garbage for us right now and farms are going to be more useful arguably in even the long run.

Meanwhile, with other teams, it seems like Yossarian isn't doing well. He's got a stack of wounded catapults so I'm guessing Aivoturso attacked out of his cities. Also, some Great Generals were born, and Yossarian switched to Bureaucracy.

Tech/demos (note Bisons' surprising strong GNP):