April 24th, 2014, 08:05
(This post was last modified: April 24th, 2014, 08:07 by Fintourist.)
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Turn 33
My eye surgery is now successfully behind. World is still blurry/foggy, but I simply had to check how our brave troops managed.. And report it... And yes! Our warrior won! 
It took two annoying hits, but well at least we won! It also seems that fortify bonus comes in before barbs move (good to know).
Mardoc+Brick are heading NE, works for us, let's see if they manage to dodge that bear, which we spotted couple of turns ago.
And our scout found another resource, which makes that plains hill plant NW of wet corn look amazing. Oh god, I need somebody to stop me from pink-dotting that hill!! Well, maybe that's simply so damn pink that we skip it, are satisfied with our own planned spot and plan for taking that pigs-sheep-ivory city from Azza later... 
Next scout move is probably SE-SW.
(April 23rd, 2014, 20:17)retep Wrote: Now that you meet more people I expect more thoughts about your opponents!
Incoming! Might still take a while, but in near future!
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Wow, I'd be tempted to pink dot that too. Not that this is actually my advice.
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Every time that someone quote and I read myself my eyes hurt. 
Pink dot Azza? Not sure is a good idea, although I bet OH also wants to do it 
April 25th, 2014, 04:32
(This post was last modified: April 25th, 2014, 04:34 by Old Harry.)
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I think it'd make a good fourth or fifth city, before or after the gems city, but best case scenario is that Azza overstretches to get it, we wait for it to hit size two and take it off him with pigs already improved on our way to capturing his capital... 
Actually there are three decent cities over here in Azza's sphere of influence - one with fish and corn up on the coast, another for the pig and sheep and one either 1W of the sugar (to share the corn with the coastal city) or SW of the sugar (to share the pig). I wonder if we can use IMP to beat Azza to one of them?
A or B would give us a salient right into the heart of Azza's empire, and might allow us to cut off reinforcements to the provinces.
Completed: RB Demogame - Gillette, PBEM46, Pitboss 13, Pitboss 18, Pitboss 30, Pitboss 31, Pitboss 38, Pitboss 42, Pitboss 46, Pitboss 52 (Pindicator's game), Pitboss 57
In progress: Rimworld
April 25th, 2014, 08:41
(This post was last modified: April 25th, 2014, 08:41 by Fintourist.)
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Turn 34
Super-quick report, will come back to these bigger topics!
Our scout was ambushed by angry Mufasas. He retreated by moving NE and we try next turn a different path..
At home our warrior did not spot new resources so our 2nd city was founded on the intended spot:
There were so many interesting dot-map options available that I could pull my hair off for ages, but hey, grass cows, wet corn, immediate trade routes! It can't be that bad.. 
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Turn 35
Even more lions!
Any ideas for Scout moves? W-NW? SE?
It other news IND/IMP Ruff built Stonehenge, preeetty early.
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Turn 35
I would love to uncover that stone area, but in the end I decided not to try anything too fancy with those 3 lions...
That is Azza's 2nd city, which was founded last turn (T35). I'm kind of happy to see that it does not have copper in its BFC. Sure, we are more worried about chariots than axes, but it's still nice to note that Azza needs to settle a city, which is not towards us in order to be able to build axes/spears.
At home we finish our 3rd worker:
I know that I'm still lacking re comments on our opponents and dot-map, but somehow I still have hangover.. 
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Looks like you moved the scout how I would have, SW-SW or SW-SE next turn? I'd go for SW-SW. Lets hope those lions don't move towards our third city spot...
Azza putting that city there is good news, unless he got two coppers or researched AH already (I'll check a bit later). Looks like it might not be on a trade route yet and even if it is he'll be researching slower than us due to greater distance between cities.
My guess for the farm at his capital is that he got AH not BW and so had a bunch of worker turns to use up when we were chopping forests. Or that his EXP worker finished improving his cap before BW came in. Or that he wanted to grow to his CHA happy cap quicker. Or something.
Completed: RB Demogame - Gillette, PBEM46, Pitboss 13, Pitboss 18, Pitboss 30, Pitboss 31, Pitboss 38, Pitboss 42, Pitboss 46, Pitboss 52 (Pindicator's game), Pitboss 57
In progress: Rimworld
April 27th, 2014, 13:48
(This post was last modified: April 27th, 2014, 13:49 by Fintourist.)
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(April 25th, 2014, 04:32)Old Harry Wrote: Actually there are three decent cities over here in Azza's sphere of influence - one with fish and corn up on the coast, another for the pig and sheep and one either 1W of the sugar (to share the corn with the coastal city) or SW of the sugar (to share the pig). I wonder if we can use IMP to beat Azza to one of them?
A or B would give us a salient right into the heart of Azza's empire, and might allow us to cut off reinforcements to the provinces.
Yeah, I would love to have all of these!  But it probably won't be possible as we might need to compete for a spot in the east with Cheater Hater and those fish resources at C+D sites might well be contested by someone in the north. I'm forecasting competition everywhere! I hope our IMP trait helps us and we get a decent chunk of land.. Btw, let's just note that "C" will be pretty impossible if we don't manage to land "A". Defending the area would be a nightmare in that situation. Of course we could gamble that pink-dotting "C" will make Azza lose interest regarding the river area at sugar..
(April 27th, 2014, 05:31)Old Harry Wrote: Looks like you moved the scout how I would have, SW-SW or SW-SE next turn? I'd go for SW-SW. Lets hope those lions don't move towards our third city spot...
I guess I'm fine with both options, SW-SE is maybe tempting me a bit. I'm speculating that if we start heading west there won't be any new huts, because that's where Azza has his city (and probably has scouted) and it looked like Brickdocs came that way. I'm hoping that "the stone area" would still have one containing AH or Pottery or something.. I think our scout can't get anymore experience..
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Let's quote retep again because he loves it!
(April 23rd, 2014, 20:17)retep Wrote: Now that you meet more people I expect more thoughts about your opponents!
And then let's get started with Azza. Based on our current knowledge our western neighbor, Azza, is probably our most important opponent and the biggest threat/opportunity when it comes to an early conflict.
Here is our pre-game evaluation as a remainder:
Quote:Azza: Washington (EXP/CHA) of Arabia (Mysticism/Agriculture/Camel Archer/Madrassa)
Evaluated by Old Harry
Civ and Leader: 1/5
As with AT EXP is going to miss cheap granaries. CHA is useful if you're lacking happy or want to whip hard early on, but I wouldn't want to play it. Arabia's got Agriculture now, but the Camel Archer is pretty lame. The only reason the combo gets a point is that the Madrassa makes it easy to get a great prophet and with Mysticism Azza could snag a shrine and make a lot of money in a game this big. I'd have re-rolled.
Player skill: 2/5
He plays his turns pretty quickly and doesn't seem to do a lot of planning. PB13 is probably his strongest showing yet though, and he's not going down without a fight (this time)
NACOR: 3/5
A pretty generous neighbour
Old Harry:
This’ll be the game where he disproves his reputation
Fintourist:
Washington of Arabia has potential to start fast, but I would be surprised if Azza manages to build a strong mid-game economy.
Me, OH & THH have all played against Azza and also done it pretty successfully. In PBEM45G Azza played a fairly decent game, he expanded pretty quickly and did not get punished in the early game despite his lack of military due to large distances. However, Azza's buildering wasn't quite on the same level as mine and Sareln's and he fell somewhat behind and was eventually ready to concess without a real war. In PBEM46 Azza tried a Keshik rush on Serdoa and THH if I remember correctly, both times without success and that caused him to fall behind and I think in the later game both THH and OH took some cities from Azza without too many problems. In other games Azza has become known for his pretty crazy early city plants, but I think in both PB8 and PB13 (and probably other PBEMs) Azza has shown that he is not a someone who just gives away his cities without a fight.
So yeah, I think overall Azza has played games with very different kind of approaches and I don't think he can be plainly considered as an aggressive or passive player. Risky expansion without much of military and rush with ancient units are both options that can't be ruled out. I'm hoping that if one of those scenarios happen it won't be targeted at us.. Let's hope Azza has had enough from skirmishing and competing with us! 
As OH pointed out above, Azza's play seems to be more leisure-like and not a super competitive sandboxing-heavy effort. That is the main reason, why I think we have a decent chance of gaining an edge here if we don't get too unlucky or screw things up. However, Azza is not a jackpot neighbor. There will probably be couple of cases where some players gain enormously through their neighbor playing terribly, but I don't think Azza will be one of those providers (there's a minor chance that he goes for a non-military expansion and does it fully asleep to threats, but I would not count on it). That said, we are obviously happy that we met him instead of Krill+Novice or plako or pindicator etc. 
Overall I think we probably got an average luck with Azza when it comes to neighbor lottery. Maybe slightly above average luck when it comes to expected player strenght, but you don't really want to see early traits in the hands of your closest neighbors. This evaluation is of course very preliminary... Whether we were insanely lucky or totally screwed will be revealed during the next 100 turns.
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