Chairmen NobleHelium and Gaspar Demand Your Presence in the Collective

[Gaspar]

I think this turn best left underreported, but for Mardoc and Dave:



And so the C&D efforts aren't lost. (Har, har, har)

[Gaspar]

We're definitely boring you guys. We lost GLH and the only reaction is whatever Serdoa posted in the lurker thread. Whatever you said, Serdoa, screw you, btw!

I should really get more in the habit of posting Noble and I's chats about the game - that's the downside, we sort of discuss everything there and the thread's dull as a result.

Our reaction to losing GLH was really no reaction at all. We determined we can't get math in time to make a reasonable pyramids run before no7 presumably lands it on T53 via GEng rush so we're going to go currency and expansion from here. Noble really wanted to go Poly > Mono first but I was worried Lewwyn would beat us there and it would be wasted beakers. Not that we won't need mono eventually, but I'd rather research later with overflow if we're not getting Judaism. Looks like another Gaspar Confucianism or bust special. Worked a treat thus far.

The news of this turn really is just that we basically completed scouting of the FP area. Here are many signs:



Sort of the first bash at a dotmap down there, so plenty of room to change it still.

Here's the north, with signs filled in for cities based on the previous dotmap. We still haven't decided really. NH prefers red, I think I prefer yellow:



Demographics:



We got graphs on mack this turn, so here's the full graph picture for everyone. Not really anything we didn't already know in here, but I took my time cropping and pasting, so look, dammit:

I aim to inspire.

[Mardoc]

We're definitely boring you guys. We lost GLH and the only reaction is whatever Serdoa posted in the lurker thread. Whatever you said, Serdoa, screw you, btw!

What's to say? You said you weren't going to get it, and then you didn't get it! :neenernee

[oledavy]

What's to say? You said you weren't going to get it, and then you didn't get it! :neenernee

qft

There just really didn't seem to be anything to say, to be honest.

[Gaspar]

Got another turn in. I'm going to try posting NH and I's chat logs about the turn rather than writing boring fluff and see if you guys find that more interesting. Though I don't think we insulted each other much this turn. The usual warning about salty language applies:

NobleHelium:
LOL
lewwyn has a city on the tundra hill
hahahaahah
Gaspar: seriously (popped afk a sec)
NobleHelium: yes seriously
founded just this turn
Gaspar: he put his 5th city in the tundra?
NobleHelium: well it's there
Gaspar: does he know there are FP the other way?
Gaspar: check the diplo screen
Not they (liberate) lol
NobleHelium: well
seems he only has ivory hooked
Gaspar: he basically has settled straight towards us
cap > wheat city > tundra hill
thats probably why he offered peace
so he could settle that
NobleHelium: we've already been at peace for 4t
Gaspar: well
NobleHelium: we couldn't really have gotten there in time
Gaspar: his settler had to be in transit
no, we couldn't have
NobleHelium: unless you want to attack a hill city with bowmen
G2 BOWMEN GO
Gaspar: if he has only warriors in there
its a consideration
NobleHelium: well
he's got copper
Gaspar: yeah
NobleHelium: anyway we could sign OB with him
although
TRs are useless right now
so no point
Gaspar: if we move NW we can see the city tile
NobleHelium: maybe later
sure let's do that
Gaspar: yeah
empty
prick
NobleHelium: he has a road to it
Gaspar: yeah
NobleHelium: we could use this as an opportunity/excuse to get into an endless war with him
if you want
Gaspar: well
heres the thing
my normal response here
would be to be pissed off and do nothing about it
NobleHelium: well if you're not doing anything about it
then no reason to be pissed off
Gaspar: well anyway
i mean yeah
it would seem our options
are 1. endless war with lewwyn
2. take it and like it
NobleHelium: well
assuming we don't take the city
where would you want to plant now
Gaspar: well
almost have to plant red now
NobleHelium: well
at least that makes our choice easy
maybe we could try a culture bomb attack
if everyone is too busy to grab music
Gaspar: bomb and 1-move the city
i mean ultimately
we have no choice but to war lewwyn eventually now
since hes basically made his intentions clear
NobleHelium: well we'll see
but i wouldn't mind
getting into a war with lewwyn
Gaspar: id still rather not get in an unproductive war with him
but
if he wants war we can certainly give it to him
NobleHelium: aight so
let's move stuff
Gaspar: okay
mack went to 44 EPs
NobleHelium: yeah
i'm pretty sure you were hallucinating
and he was still spending 2 ep a turn
n7 spent 1 ep
Gaspar: though I think maybe we should put 4 on lewwyn
to show displeasure
NobleHelium: well
that either causes him to build extra defense
do we want that
Gaspar: yeah i suppose
all on mackoti this turn then?
NobleHelium: we could just spend 3
and spend one on n7
Gaspar: okay
so scout
se-se?
NobleHelium: yeah
Gaspar: everything else we already discussed last turn
NobleHelium: working mines and lake in WN, yes?
Gaspar: yep
NobleHelium: k
Gaspar: guess thats it then?
NobleHelium: yeah
we'll need to work the hill forest in colony next turn
Gaspar: kk
exactly 33 hammers
how elegant
Gaspar: so we shouldn't send lewwyn a trade offer to liberate the city, right?
NobleHelium: i thought about it
it would obviously be a threat
Gaspar: yeah
Gaspar: alright
gonna end turn before i do something ill regret later
speak softly and carry a big bow
NobleHelium: big bows are pretty impractical
Gaspar: was just rhetoric
NobleHelium: i know, i couldn't help it
Gaspar: a big rock hucking apparatus is more likely what we'll bring to that particular party
NobleHelium: it's funny
how the civ4 cat idle model
is totally wrong
catapults are vertical when idle
then they get pulled back
it would be totally retarded to have them in cocked position all the time
Gaspar: yeah
NobleHelium: this game is basically 100% fucked up
for everyone except n7
lewwyn has never planted like that
Gaspar: maybe not precisely like that
but this sort of move is exactly the kind of stuff he did in PBEM14

In pictures:

[Gaspar]

So, 2t day!!!11111eleven

First things first, in micro news:



Noble postulated that perhaps his economy is crashing and hence he needs the yield from the silver. There's no doubt his expansion priorities have been... questionable to say the least. While no7 also hit five cities this turn, Lewwyn has basically settled in a Parkin-line right from his cap to this site. Interesting, since I know that he knows its better to settle out radially from his cap, but games like this cause a rush of blood to his head and he just starts acting like an idiot. In other foolish Lewwyn news this turn:



He does realize this game is AI diplo, not Always War, right? Probably not a great strategy to piss everyone else off by T45. He's now screwed with all 3 of us one way or another.

The turn itself was wholly uneventful, exploring territory we've already seen as we reposition our scout to explore the jungle hub and our warrior to explore the tundra hub. In home news, galley for gold city completed this turn and we're going to 2-pop whip it's settler out of Worker's Nest in 2t. Settler and Galley for stone city completed this turn. So we'll be on 5 cities with 2 island holdings in 5t. We'll probably overflow The Hive directly into another settler which will be whipped for Furs, also around 5t. After that there's a decent amount of indecision. Factors which will impact settling priorities:

• What we see when we move our galleys around those islands (i.e. more islands - marble in particular would be a large priority.)
  
• Actions of our rivals - specifically more aggressive plants from Lewwyn and/or no7
  
• Our commerce rate after these settlements. If we're struggling we'll need to prioritize the FP sites to get more cottages worked faster, for example.
  

I'll maybe try and stitch together a large bare map for a bigger picture settling discussion later.

Here's our empire:



And demographics:



Any questions?

[oledavy]

Care to share your thoughts on how the other teams have played the game thus far? How many cities/pop is each team at? The impression I've gotten thus far is:

N7 - Solid expansion game + pyramids.
Mackoti - Wonderspam!
Lewwyn - .....

[Gaspar]

Care to share your thoughts on how the other teams have played the game thus far? How many cities/pop is each team at? The impression I've gotten thus far is:

N7 - Solid expansion game + pyramids.
Mackoti - Wonderspam!
Lewwyn - .....

I'll give a little bit more with the next turn report, but the current city counts are Lewwyn 5, no7 5, mackoti 3, us 3. Not surprising to see the two Imperialistic civs in front on that tally. No7 of course appear to have settled like grown-ups as opposed to Lewwyn, so naturally they're doing better. Mack got to 3 cities like a turn before us.

In terms of their early game, you fairly well have it pinned. Right now I'd put the pecking order at N7 > mackoti > us > Lewwyn in terms of current civ quality. I think Seven is in mackoti's head a bit and he's overprioritizing wonders, but at the end of the day, PBEM14 showed me you can have a terrible start and still compete - wonders are really good for the most part.

Going forward, I think a lot is going to depend on a few things: How much of a rocket boost no7 get when they land mids and start popping GPs left and right and bulbing like crazy. I actually think 23 is a good example of how that strategy can be really dangerous. If mackoti and luddite had the level of trust to coordinate they could have really been hurt there because they almost moved through the tree too fast. Or rather, they moved very deep but it left them exposed. I don't think they'll zip through this one as fast because this is a slightly less forgiving map I think, but its something to look out for.

As far as we're concerned? A lot depends on what's on those islands. If there are some quality sites beyond gold and stone, I think we're in good position to nab them. And Pro, while quite terrible, means we're a tough nut to crack if we're first to an area. So if there's some quality contested land out there, it could be a real kickstart for us. Other than that, sure - I'd say we didn't have the home run opening we really needed to keep up with the elite players here, so we're going to need some things to break our way to keep in the conversation.

It would also help if Noble wasn't completely convinced we're going to lose and was applying himself a bit more to the game. Personally, while I know I'm not as good as novice, SevenSpirits or mackoti, I'm enjoying the challenge. We'll see how I feel in 50 turns.

[NobleHelium]

Guess what Gaspar! I played turn 46 by myself!

And it comes with a worker micro plan!



Next turn we load one worker onto the galley. Other worker goes to the forest hill. The worker between Hive and Colony moves along the road three tiles and puts one turn into a cottage then cancels. Worker next to that tile scoots over to the sheep and starts pasturing. Turn after that we finish the road with the eastern worker, then he can help pasture or return to cottaging the forest, which will go into the new city for (probably) a monument.



Warrior found more silver in the tundra. So if we can take this central city spot we'll be pretty well off. Although looking at it again it looks like we're asking to be forked by Lewwyn...



N7's warrior moved next to the scout on that tile 2S of the sugar, so I moved away to be safe. We can double back next turn.



Important note: two people signed OB. It was probably mackoti and N7. That's interesting, eh? We have a trade route with Lewwyn but they wouldn't be worth anything, and we'd only get an actual trade route with one of his cities, I think.

mackoti isn't spending any EPs on us so I reduced our spending there to 1. I believe N7 spent 2 on us so I increased ours to 2 there.

[Gaspar]

So we opened the turn to this:



Not bloody likely, jackass.


We landed settler for Stone and whipped settlers for Sheep/Furs and Gold. This revealed a bit more of those islands:

Stone area:



Gold area:



Results of exploration in the tundra hub:



Results of exploration in the jungled middle:



Seeing N7s warrior made us think we probably should get a sentry unit on that red dot there to see any incoming opponents, since we haven't settled in that direction yet. That tile should catch anyone incoming.

2 Bows complete next turn from overflow, so we should be fine if our dear friend Lewwyn decides to annoy us again.

The Demographics: