[SPOILERS] naufragar, Charriu, and Zalson's Threepenny Opera

[naufragar]

Pictureless post today, I'm afraid.

Last turn, Xenu offered open borders, and I accepted. I tried to cancel open borders with Rusten, but we signed too recently. I'll keep trying until I can. We did, however, get a Confucianism spread from trade with Rusten, but I don't have much to do with it yet.

We found a city next turn. We could found a city the turn after that but it would be an island city with no garrison. (It would get a bowman the following turn.) Perhaps I'm too conservative; perhaps there won't be a random loaded galley that declares war, moves into our borders at the right spot, and sees the empty city.

We are still behind on city count. Commodore has gold and silver, now. Rusten hasn't hooked his gold yet. BGN has marble and so could be a competitor for the Great Library.

Last turn we spawned a Great Scientist. Next game I play, I'm going to try to play Philosophical. I'm so bad with great people and need to work on it. I sat and stared at the scientist for a long time. Our capitol wouldn't especially benefit from an Academy. Mea culpa partially, but the lands a bit dry and hilly. A golden age would've been good, but we had no civic swaps incoming or additional great people on the way, and our next golden age would've been more expensive. So I did end up bulbing Maths for the chopping bonus and because it's an important prerequisite. (Construction, Calendar....Music. )

We keep trucking. We're third in soldiers, but all this water feels so bad. I'm settling cities with two unit garrisons, which slows down settling considerable. Our GNP is very respectable but our other metrics are second to last. We still have plenty of (marginally productive) land to peacefully settle, so the priority is grabbing all that without becoming overexposed.

[naufragar]

Merry Christmas. I did a stupid thing. I canceled open borders with Rusten in order to sell them back to him for a few gold. (I was thinking 4gpt? Didn't do much math.) Of course, Rusten and Hitru just finished Philosophy (and landed Taoism), so they were running negative gold per turn and the diplo window does not let me request money. So I just cratered our economy.    Oh, and I checked, Rusten is now getting trade from Commodore, so it's possible he doesn't need or routes or at anything resembling a useful rate of exchange.    

Founded another city.


Borders will expand to grab a fish. A work boat will be in place the moment borders expand. In the meantime,  

Still kicking myself about the Rusten thing.

[superdeath]

Well, good game, superdeath. I promise this game I had planned to be more attentive to your wars and was going to be on the lookout for ways to skewer our mutual neighbor.

[naufragar]

Turn 100 rears its ugly head. Time to introspect.

Remember how my only wish for the random map process was "not archipelagic"?


This is scary stuff. (Now, I was pretty sure the unguarded settler was ok: I hadn't met any civs, hostile or otherwise, in that direction; there was little reason that a loaded BGN/Xenu galley would come from the West (as opposed to the more likely East).)

Let's talk about the north of our homeland.


There's a dry corn (which'll get irrigated eventually) and a fish 1N of the western X. Otherwise, it's a jungled mess, which has slowed our growth in this direction but means the land is pretty green. If we have unlimited time, we can settle those eastern dyes. BGN might try, but there's no food and it's really a tough row to hoe. (Because of the jungle.) Once Sunken Citadel's borders pop, Auldale will have early warning from BGN galleys.

The heart of the hearland.


The capitol is the Standard RB Experience ™. This white whale of Great Library has made me do terrible things to that eastern city of Bafford's, which I'll talk about when we do the city tour. Basically, I'm getting cold feet about preserving the forests. Lastly, we have a desert city, a naufragar special.

Our south. It's land, by the strictest legal definition, so here it goes:


My civ instincts tell me there's food in the western shadow. Chances are a city planted 2S of my "x?" gets seafood. I'll test this hypothesis soonish. Also, there's a luxury resource down there. [Ed.- Insert bitter joke before publishing.]

We have a western enclave on Commodore's continent, which makes us his next target.


These cities will fall over to a stiff breeze, but we've had to keep units on our BGN front. I'm consoled by the fact that this spit of land is pretty close to our core, even over water. It is more near us than Commodore, I think. There's a barb city in the fog. I'm building axes for it.

Now it is time for our city tour. This is part self-flagellation, part pity party. You may therefore want to skip to the geopolitical overview after.

I'm happy to have these forests in tact. They'll go to the cap's forge, which is always an expensive project. Would've been nice for that unimproved grasland to be a cottage, but it would never have been worked. So it's a workshop to be. I'm building a market for the happiness, I guess. Honestly, I didn't realize how happy I'd be with Expansive's market discount. It actually feels pretty good, 2 pop and some hammers. There's some plan at the back of my mind to run full merchants and scientists from here for a golden age, timed for when the Great Library's up and running.

City number two. The signs were put up when I first calculated how to get max hammers out of this place. (But then I threw a cottage down when I realized this is the most opium-packed pipe dream.) This would be a great city if it had a happy cap of 10+. It makes me so sad that this city can't grow. Moai here?

Seem to be missing a city for city #3. Don't know how that happened. Cragscleft is working some cottages, has bronze, has clam. Does not have a lighthouse. Is building a market. With it's river-fed grasslands and pair of mines, this is another city done dirty by our lack of happy.

Oof. Trying to do some wonder overflow shenanigans. Got a great scientist from here. I realize I am brought to insanity not all of a sudden but by degrees. Each step makes sense: preserve forests for the Library; use infra builds to set up overflow. But taken together, we end up with the ridiculousness that is city #4 working two unimproved forests. This city really is the emblem and indictment of my game.

(Because of my odd setup currently, I get my pics confused. I think this is the next city...) Shipping was our first overseas city. It's a good one. Grabs horses and a fish. Is incredibly defensive. (Although Commodore is somewhat close SSW, but over ocean.) The worker is needed as you will see, gentle reader, with horror. The happiness was probably mismanaged.

You saw a worker getting made at Shipping. Mine+workshop soon. Having these two cities this close makes me feel a little more secure, but in reality Commodore will be able to lightning strike these in a million ways. A problem for future naufragar.

I've made some impact on this game. I forced BGN/Xenu off this island and founded this city. There's a worker somewhere. On the hill perhaps? I didn't have time to think during the turn about whether I should be working bare hill or non-lighthoused coast. The mismanagment of this city wasn't some subtle mistake by degrees or whatever bs I was spouting earlier. This is just bad. In fact the next few cities have just been horribly managed, but I won't dwell on it. There's a second city of ours on this island but either due to the computer or user, there's no screenshot. It was founded this turn. I didn't get the workboat to its fish in time, so it's working an unimproved fish this turn. Kinda the theme of my play so far.

It's got food (1 border pop out ). It is in the direction of an opponent. Settle it. Naufragar doctrine.

My name scheme has been absolute dog shit. But at least Cathedral has marble. For having six tiles of desert, this city isn't bad. Do you want me to talk about it? Ok. It's a city I somehow let grow into unhappiness. I'm pretty sure that unhappiness expires next turn (working from memory). I think we don't keep on that lighthouse, but instead go for a library.

Alright. Done. Big stuff.
Two Minutes Hate Domestic Policy
The plan is still the Great Library in order to net scientists for eventual Astro bulbs in order to maraud and pillage. Better plan would've been Monarchy for Hereditary rule so we could get a happy cap at least approaching every other player. Unfortunately, I've already invested too much to back down now. Our city count itself isn't a disaster. What is a disaster is that I've directed our settling overseas. There's on more juicy mainland city to settle. It's covered in jungle but will net us our sixth fish. This accumulation of overseas colonies has left us incredibly vulnerable. The potential defense is simply that any enemy would then themselves hold these exposed positions. I don't know where BGN is exactly. I've got a galley en route to find out. Once our islands form a natural extension of a rival empire, expect them to be snatched. We have a bunch of cities in pairs so hopefully they can mutually reinforce in a protracted siege, but I still fear the lightning strike.

We have southern continent to exploit still. There's one visible food resource down there (a crab), but as mentioned I'm expecting at least one more. It'll get done because these cities are GNP profit. Of course, the hammer cost to improve and defend that land makes the stable administrator balk.

A consequence of a watery map is a low MfG. Don't know what to do about it, but I include it in my report. Workshops, I guess. Yeah. Needed to stick to the lower part of the tech tree instead of flitting among the upper parts.



Foreign Policy
Managed this terribly as well. I've had wars with two of our three neighbors and then voluntarily closed borders with our third. Wtf, naufragar? Well, the answer is simple. I'm bad at this game.

Commodore doesn't have easy expansion towards Shipping and Receiving. He's boxed in by some peaks, and, with luck, I'll grab a barb city above those peaks, enclosing him yet more solidly. He's also a conqueror, so expect galleys if he can. Expect galleons, if he can't.

I said I don't know where BGN/Xenu are. I know they have a city right off the NE tip of our continent (which has got have two food resources from how fast it grows). And I would be a touch concerned about them settling across the strait, but they'd get a plate full of jungle. The real concern is I don't know how close to our islands they are. Whatever. For the moment, they've been pushed back. No doubt that slight won't be forgiven, but it was necessary.

I've pissed off Rusten, no doubt. I've rejected open borders a couple times and then canceled after I did accept. This was originally a misunderstanding of the game rules on my part. I thought if one had open borders, one could cross ocean tiles in the ally's territory. This would've allowed Rusten to scout our south. That south is inhospitable, sure, but it is still ours by RNG birthright! My understanding of the rules was flawed. I could've opened borders. I canceled borders to try to extort him, but this was mishandled as well. He is on an island like us, but he has two religions and the Pyramids. Does he think his continent gives him enough land to win? I highly doubt that. Does he then attack us, the most feeble of the pack, to solidify his lead? Sure. When? Galleons. If he wants to encroach on our southern continent before, then we'll dance.

I've neglected military techs something fierce. Current military doctrine is that the logistic difficulties involved in an amphibious invasion provides adequate defense. Next real military tech for us is Construction. If someone has enough galleys to land a real force of horse archers or longbows before then, I'm fucked.



To hell with this game.


P.S. I mentioned how I hadn't wanted to play an archipelagic map on sign up, but I stayed in when I knew the map script, partly because I just wanted to play, partly because I wanted to improve. The grand strategy mistake I made was misreading the map settings. My plan going in was "play well." On a natual map, this wasn't enough, ignoring generously that I didn't even manage that. On a natural map with this much water, I needed "play well + something," where that something was religion, Pyramids, Colossus, Great Lighthouse. I kind of thought the Great Library would be my "thing," but it's way too late to matter. So, lesson learned, RB-crafted maps provide the resources for flexibility. Natural maps need laser focus on a tight plan.

[naufragar]

A Pindicator worker outside of his borders and this close to the barb city makes me worry. Looks like Pindicore is hatching his own plans for grabbing the city.

[naufragar]

Rusten is paying us for trade routes!



Wait a minute. Check our Import/Exports.


That dirty rotten scalliwag! (Just kidding. I have no idea how to manage trade. One day I'll learn, and I'll be able to price tariffs accordingly.)

Spotted a promoted Pindicore galley.


Promoted galleys are scary. Not sure how it got so promoted.

Spotted a settler in BGN lands.


And there's a galley for it. No escort I can see, but it could be coming down the roads. We should have vision if BGN/Xenu try to found a city on our coast. They could bus a bunch of units over quickly, but given time I could deal. We watch and wait.

We met Cairo, and I forgot to take a picture. He is BGX's neighbor by land. And look at this.


They have open borders now, but there was a war in the past. Obviously we have no idea if it was a real war, but it's nice to know they are honest to goodness neighbors.

[naufragar]

First things first: Charriu or Zalson (or any interested lurker), are you able to sub for me from Jan. 2nd through Jan 5th? I'll be traveling and civ-less, although I should have internet access intermittently. I don't foresee much difficulty to the turns, plus given the civ's position on the leader board, these turns have been very low stakes...


On to the report.
Commodore wants to bail us out of our unhappiness situation and offered to sell us his spare gold.


You can just make out behind the trade screen the state of our finances and time to Literature. I declined this offer, micromanaged the empire to emphasize gold production, and sent it back. I've been able to broaden the error margin for finishing the tech, but if something unexpected happens, we could be delayed. Not the end of the world because I screwed up the wonder planning by a turn. More on which later.

Finally got a scouting chariot down to check on presumptive food resources, and the barbs decide to have a laugh.


Barbs can't spawn in our north thanks to our and BGN's vision, so expect the south to be chock full.

Speaking of BGN/Xenu, our galley found his capitol.



Here's a broader view for context.


Our islands are not especially distant from his mainland. In fact, we got lucky to grab them. My conservative and paranoid nature had us send an axe + 2 bowmen to the big island (with Moira's and The Maw). We got lucky to encounter BGN's settler guarded by a lone axe with our superior forces. This map shows that that was a bit of a greedy play on his part, reaching over his close island for the juicier one. I'm not sure why he didn't sail right back to the two tile island and grab it. Perhaps worried because I had flashed a bunch of unit and at least two galleys? I guess I had said in thread that if we found that island occupied, we'd go to war over it.    Regardless, our islands are on the cusp of his sphere of influence and will need garrisons.

Here's our contender for Great Library home.


I'm not very competitive when it comes to wonders. A fault of too much single player. I should have whipped the barracks last turn, but I was greedy for the overflow. Unfortunately, this means we still have a lighthouse in queue when Literture comes in. It also means I can't chop the forests until after the lighthouse is done in two turns. Every forest in there finishes with one chop. There are three workers currently on forests. They will chop, move to second forest, chop. So, I've put in a lot of worker turns. It'll be the height of agony if I miss the Library because of my screwy micro.  

[Charriu]

I think I can take over for that time. If you can provide some plans for that time period that would be great. I hope that there won't be any problems due to the server change with the new year, but we will see. Will you post about this in the IT thread?

[naufragar]

I think I can take over for that time. If you can provide some plans for that time period that would be great.

Thanks, Charriu! I'll place notes in game and also provide a check list in the thread, but don't worry about taking it as law. I've been playing one turn at a time recently, so anything you notice that should or shouldn't be done, I've probably straight up missed, and you should feel free to correct me.

Depending on when the turn rolls, I might be able to play on the 2nd and 5th, but I can't guarantee it.

I hope that there won't be any problems due to the server change with the new year, but we will see. Will you post about this in the IT thread?

I've been so out of it. I read up on the server stuff just now. I'll keep an eye on it and cross my fingers.

That's a good idea. I'll do that.

Thanks again. I'll try to post good instructions, but don't let that stifle your creativity if you see better moves!


(Report and IT thread post to come soon.)

[naufragar]

Commodore noticed we were making gold again, so upped the price.  


I'm pretty sure this is still an excellent deal, so I grabbed it.

We're not 6th in Crop Yield anymore!


We'll keep working.  

My civ instincts turned out to be just misguided optimism.


No seafood.  Note also that Rusten's city has expanded borders to cover the ocean between our continents. I suspect this is the Taoist holy city. He can now use galleys to settled down here (although the crab is really the only tile he will want. I think I remember him already having whales).

I set research to Iron Working originally, but then looked at rivals' resources. No body has iron hooked,  and there probably won't be piles of it lying around as in  PB38. It would be usefully to chop our jungles but that gets us scant hammers and a little food. Instead, I'm saving gold sitting on Music.  

   
So, Music is probably 11 or 12 turns away.  I've fallen off the C&D wagon, so I don't know if anyone has been hitting the upper part of the tree like us. My reasoning is two-fold: 1) I'm already at it because of the Library, might as well see if I can grab this too. 2) We're behind, so high variance plays are more palatable. These two boil down to: why not?

I might as well talk about the other tech choices. Iron Working I've said is too little gain and unnecessary currently as a military tech. I thought about Construction because I live in constant paranoia. We have no military techs and people could have horse archers or longbows. (Don't tell anyone but I haven't built a single spear yet...) On the other hand, we are third in military and very near second. (First is Commodore with his gigantic post-superdeath army, but he's made friendly noises in trade.) And again, since we're behind, we need dramatic economic improvements, and building my final road segments over rivers ain't it. (And Creative lost its 100% bonus to colosseums.    )

I thought about Calendar. We have a city founded on dyes, so we would get +1 happy, but to unlock the (very many) other dyes, we would need iron working, and those two techs are too expensive for a couple of 5c tiles. (This point is debatable.)

I thought about Monotheism to Monarchy for Organized Religion & Hereditary Rule. (Hence Monotheism over Priesthood, despite Monotheism's higher cost.) The trouble is we wouldn't be sitting on those techs without a golden age for a long time. I expect our first golden age in 19 turns. (Not from the Music artist!    )

So, I'm happy enough running the research slider at 0% for 6-7 turns  to test the waters for a Music run.


EDIT: Metal Casting was another fine choice, given our desire for forges on a hammer-poor map with (borrowed) gold. We'll want triremes eventually, but I don't see a need as yet. MC would've been the more realistic choice. But Music!

Oh! I almost forgot to mention that the Great Library is due EoT 106. (I just played turn 104 now.) We're in that awkward spot where we're committed and we've started chopping, but there's still time to get burned.  

EDIT: The thought occurs to me that BGN has marble hooked, which means he went to Masonry. Perhaps he went to Masonry for Monotheism's Organized Religion (he founded Buddhism). It is, however, possible that he too has a Library plan. His marble was close enough to his cap that he could've started planning early.