I agree that the barb city W of Antiochus is in a pretty awful spot, invalidating a lot of potential city sites. And just to be clear - I really don`t want to concede that area to Cornflakes. If that city has Warriors only we need to prepare to take it asap. Our Scout is on its way to have a peek into the city itself. Note that Cornflakes seems interested as well.. Our Scout could go further west or head back east afterwards.
Two more Workers finish this turn, actually doubling our Worker tally. 4 Workers for 3 cities sounds just about right. We need to get up our cottages in order to afford aggressive settling over the next 40 turns.
Gavadeath has prioritized crop yield over basically everything it seems. 37 food at this point is not bad.
You know, this is the game where we should have had dozens of Keshiks running around, outflanking our enemies. Those Jaguars are a bit ineffective as they`re low strentgh but perhaps a Horse Archer rush could be worth a try?
It turns out that RefSteel is right, the barb city only has Warriors as defense. That could lead to an interesting situation if Cornflakes decides to have a go at it. Hmm, let`s get out another Settler and connect Copper - and then reassess. Gavadeath alse have a wounded Scout nearby keeping an eye on the area.
We`re slowly improving our tiles, the Pig came online this turn, thus adding to our total crop yield. Actually I didn`t realize that a city E of the Rice would orphan a forest riverside grassland tile. That`s not the end of the world but still something to keep in mind. I`m undecided as of where to settle next (but somewhere near the Rice sounds good).
In international news: Gavadeath whipped four pop this turn (T47) - presumably two pop each in two cities, or two in one and one in each of the others - all in quick succession (i.e. faster than PBSpy updated). So that's interesting.
In other international "news," this is long overdue: We met our third neighbor a good long time ago! (Out of four though, at least potentially: We know very little about the paths to our northeast and southeast except that wetbandit is in one of them.)
- Cornflakes -
Tier: Once and Future Veteran
Previous Encounter: None
Analysis: Cornflakes hasn't played MP Civ4 in a long time, and never with this mod, but I believe he won the only MP game I remember him in, and if my Extremely Lazy C&D is correct, his early micro for this game, given his picks and start, has been mostly excellent. The (possible) exception - a Settler double-whip that in effect turned 26 food into just 20 hammers - may have been part of the learning curve for RtR ... or may be a case where I'm missing something! Cornflakes is hard-working, knowledgable, savvy, and even-keeled, and can be relied upon to consistently make the best decisions for his civ. His military tactical execution, ability to handle unpredictable neighbors, and awareness of the current MP metagame may not be up to the standards of his micro and strategic planning, but unless he's gotten a lot rustier than I think, he's not actually bad at any of these things. Unless someone wrecks his game and their own with an early rush or something, I expect Cornflakes to be - at least - a serious competitor in this game.
Additional Note: Cornflakes is an absolute Realms Beyond hero. He invented a means of creating hand-made Civ6 maps about a year and a half (and about 10 MP games) before the game designers got around to it, stepped in to rescue the Civ6 team PBeM in which Sullla played, and did a huge amount of the heavy lifting on creating the map for PB38 after two and a half other mapmakers dropped out for that monster game. None of this will impact our strategy or relationship in-game, but it still deserves mention. Cornflakes is frankly terrific.
- Ramesses II -
Traits: Industrious, Spiritual
Analysis: The great Ozymandias himself is very hit or miss: If you have the skill, and are willing to spend the time, Spiritual can provide enormous mid- and late-game power (and a full turn of production and commerce in the capital relatively early on) - and some of that power can be pulled forward to a much earlier date if you land the Pyramids. Industrious provides a big boost there: The Great Pharaoh only has to find 250 base hammers with stone connected, where we would need at least 334! But if someone else manages to build the 'mids out from under you, especially if you don't get any other early wonders, the combination becomes a whole lot weaker ... and if you lack any of one the time, the skill, or the inclination to leverage Spiritual to the hilt, it becomes a much weaker trait. The combination here could be extremely powerful if the player and circumstances allow it ... or, if not, could completely fall on its face.
- Inca -
Techs: Agriculture + Mysticism
UB: A Granary that comes with +1 culture
UU: A Warrior that beats up Archers and can be built until Maces
Analysis: Inca with neither Pro (which makes it a superciv) nor Cre (which makes it trash tier*) nor Agg (which makes it relatively meh) is a Pretty Good Civ. The Q is for nearly all intents and purposes an economic ability that says, "token MP units cost only 15 hammers" with bonus points for murdering barb archers when they show up, and the Terrace is going to get built in every city and help all of them to some extent except pure fillers - but the need to find 60 hammers and then wait through ten turns before you can use your city's second ring means they aren't a replacement for real sources of culture.
* What about Gilgamesh though? Turns out when you mix trash tier with a superciv, you still end up with something fairly bad. Fortunately for Cornflakes, that doesn't apply here.
- Overall -
Ind/Spi Inca is a rather awkward combination to play well on a map like this one. If one or two other players with faster-starting combos prioritize Oracle and the 'Mids, Cornflakes may be playing catch-up for a long time - for that matter, he may be doing that anyway. If he can land and make full use of SPIramids though, and find time to pick up OR, there's a good chance that Cornflakes can steer Ramesses here into a commanding position, even with Inca's uniques contributing only some extra options, cultural pressure, and flexibility - and either way, if he's still contending by T100, he'll probably only get stronger from there.Cornflakes will be one to watch.
That does look like Zulu borders right N of Gower. There is no way to reach our capital by boat just yet but we need to make sure we don`t get hit by a random raid later on. I don`t know much about Cornflakes as a player but from the last post it certainly seems that he`s competent enough and a potential threat long term.
After thinking carefully about where to send our Scout it was decided to go NW. We should find out if Cornflakes and Donovan have a border dispute. I haven`t forgotten about the area near the Rice S of Gower, though. Once our Warrior has healed up it can go and act as a fog buster on a forest hill. Settling N of the Rice seems like the safest option at this point (but I could be convinced to go for one of the other spots).
We started research on Animal Husbandry. Those Furs will make a very nice addition to our gnp - 2/5/0 is nothing to be sneezed at in the early game. Plus, getting to know the location of our Horses would come in handy.
Regarding that massive reduction in score for Gavadeath last turn, top power didn`t go up and rival average power increased ever so slightly. So it`s probably something like a Granary and a Worker.
(May 17th, 2019, 05:28)RefSteel Wrote: Cornflakes is an absolute Realms Beyond hero. He invented a means of creating hand-made Civ6 maps about a year and a half (and about 10 MP games) before the game designers got around to it, ... Cornflakes is frankly terrific.
All true, none of it will prevent you brutally murdering him this game, right?
And yeah, I was being ... optimistic ... about the chance of Jaguars being actually useful this game earlier. Just trying to keep you cheerful!
It may have looked easy, but that is because it was done correctly - Brian Moore
(May 17th, 2019, 14:50)shallow_thought Wrote: All true, none of it will prevent you brutally murdering [Cornflakes] this game, right?
TURN 49
We have graphs on Cornflakes and his power is.. pretty high. But I`ll get back to that. Donovan made contact with us this turn and he`s at war with Cornflakes! That`s likely a phony war but you never know. Our Scout went NW and found this:
TWO Axes on the march towards the barb city between us. Wow, that`s quite unexpected but at least I`m glad we have early warning. We`ll hook Copper next turn so we`re not in any danger short term but I`m less than enthusiastic about ceding the fertile floodplain area to our western neighbour. If he razes it and replaces in a more sensible spot I`ll happily share the resources but if he gets greedy, well, we may well find ourselves in a conflict within the next 30 turns.
Graphs and demos: Annoyingly, we lost graphs on Wetbandit this turn but we`ll get them back soon enough. Our demos look more than decent for the time being but we might have to invest more into military units.
(May 17th, 2019, 06:35)JR4 Wrote: That does look like Zulu borders right N of Gower.
Wow.
A request: Could we see a shot of the sea up there with tile yields (Ctrl-Y) turned on? Or just mouse over the ocean tile just south of Zulu culture and see if it has any tile yield at all.
