(October 6th, 2019, 12:47)Rusten Wrote: Alright, I'll play before the timer runs out tonight then. All the bad news will be relayed then.
Edit: Couldn't connect and posted in the tech thread. Might not be able to play before you return at this point.
Thanks for being willing. Sorry this turned into a situation.
I was able to log in and play. Think I'm trying to do too much. (Doesn't help that I've been on the road for ~10 hours. I kept on thinking through lines I'd already thought through. Had trouble focusing.) Superdeath did not accept our ceasefire and instead moved his axes up, threatening invasion.
Very well, a pair of axes is very tough to remove from rough terrain without chariots and we're quite a distance away from chariots. On the other hand, axes sitting in our forests doesn't really harm us, so unless he brings reinforcements, it's tough to be more than mildly annoyed. I made these moves in response.
Looking back, if I had thought this would delay Pajarocu's forge, I probably wouldn't have killed the warrior, but I don't care too much. I've roaded the forest instead of chopping it. I'm still bringing the settler down. We don't have units to defend Pajarocu, and a new city, and a gems mine, but I'm impatient. Like I said, I'm trying to do too much. Pajarocu switches off the axe. If Superdeath keeps moving in, it does whip it, unfortunately, and we're down to cows+engineer again. Next turn Gaon two-pop whips its axe. The overflow completes a spear the turn after. Our workers (under the spear) move to the plains hill 1SW of Gaon and road. This speeds up reinforcement.
It would be incredibly annoying to trade axe for axe with Superdeath. Our barracks promoted Agg military needs to get better exchanges than that. The settler will likely have to be sneaky and tip toe around out of site to found. (I'll admit this was a mistake by me. Shouldn't have hit the warrior if I was going to be displeased with this reaction. We don't want to get in an ancient era slog right before our window of opportunity.)
Turn splits. Grumble grumble. Means I can't have civ with my coffee. Just think about the game impotently.
Pajarocu doesn't whip an axe. The forge has been delayed too long. If I don't spot a Superdeath army in the next two turns, I whip the forge. He has a 3% chance of defeating the axe. If he attacks and we have average rolls, we should be able to use our wounded axe to get a 75% shot to clear him out. We need to get cracking on invading SD. Mr. Cairo has a monster GNP. (Pic for reference.)
And MSCC has a booming crop yield. (Pic for reference.)
And none of this takes account of B/GKC.
The axe invasion still isn't nearly as big a problem as the settling race that sparked my aggression. If Superdeath settles for gems before we do, we're in trouble.
I'm not happy that I have to deal with an axe invasion, but it is a fascinating game state.
Superdeath moved a scout in along with his axes. I love this play. The scout can camp an extra tile, provide reconnaissance for the axes, or in desperate times try to sacrifice itself so a mortally wounded axe can escape.
I was trying to be sneaky with the settler. Unfortunately, I moved the warrior out of Gaon so it could wack the scout if it stepped on our cottage. This makes me think the scout will move 1NW, see the warrior on the hill, and then back off 1NE and spot the settler. If the scout doesn't spot the settler and the axes advance, I can move the settler forward. I'll offer peace next turn if the settler is undiscovered and I don't see a settler of Superdeath's in position. (And honestly, if he does get a settler in place next turn, I'll probably just give up the gems spot and offer peace, shipping the gems settler towards horses.)
I'm expecting Superdeath to reinforce. The turn I played (72), his power was 7900. After the turn rolled, I glimpsed the demos screen and his power was up to 9100. Ours is 6900. Since PBSpy doesn't indicate that he gained a tech, I guess I missed him getting Iron Working or Horse Archery somewhere and he's cranking out classical units? If that's the case, it's probably overbold to plant for the gems, but I'll go with the flow. I've sent MSCC a cow for cow. Hopefully they don't interpret it as a sign of weakness. If I offer Superdeath a peace treaty and he refuses, I'll make the same offer to Cairo.
We're still a long way away from New Viron producing the horse settler. Our second city is not so great. I'm still trying to get infrastructure up. Superdeath tied us in city count and MSCC has two more than us. So I need that horse settler and to find a home for the gems one. The cap is producing a forge. Slow as Christmas, but oh well.
Exciting times. I'm obviously not happy to have to react to Superdeath, but its fun to see what's going to happen. (My entire gameplan depends on getting a Great Engineer out of a border city; not boring!)
If he's intending to settle our gems then that is a declaration of war in itself, and we'd have to kill him even if we had no samurai plans already. He already has a plethora of luxuries in the area, so if he tries to deny us every single one, when we're not even settling a food resource, that's just unacceptable. But if you feel the best way to solve it is to sign peace and capture the city by force in ~15 turns that's OK.
If gems settler goes to horse, then horse settler can go to whale, but I'm not particularly happy if that's what we end up doing.
Let me be upfront: I'm the asshole here! I tried to body Superdeath by getting a cheap shot in on his warrior. I didn't like SD parking military units on our borders and we needed to clear out the gems area, but I still didn't have to do it. I'm interpreting Superdeath's push as a middle finger in response. Just how far he wants to push remains to be seen.
I liked this turn.
I was thrilled to see Superdeath's axes in the fortify pose. He might be screwing with me, but I'm taking this as a sign that his plan is to prevent me from chopping Pajarocu's forests. (Did you know that a Shock axe is not guaranteed to win against a plain one even on flat land? Nerve wracking!) I'm not troubled by pretty much anywhere those axes move, although if they move 1NE I have to think about what to do with the settler. Don't know why they'd make that move, but I mention it. In this pic, the axe in Pajarocu doesn't have shock, but I remembered in time. (Changes the odds from 91% to 98% which is significant.) The spear gets much better odds at surviving with Shock but my read is that Superdeath doesn't attack. If he doesn't, I'd like to have Combat 2 for the Horse Archers.
I decided against offering a peace treaty, since there's a tiny, tiny chance that he has a settler currently on the easternmost elephant and can found on the tile I've marked with an X. I'll offer peace one our gems city gets founded, although the whole point of offering this turn was that he is more likely to accept if we aren't settling up on him. I can be talked out of it before the turn rolls, if people play slow.
Rusten Wrote:If he's intending to settle our gems then that is a declaration of war in itself, and we'd have to kill him even if we had no samurai plans already. He already has a plethora of luxuries in the area, so if he tries to deny us every single one, when we're not even settling a food resource, that's just unacceptable. But if you feel the best way to solve it is to sign peace and capture the city by force in ~15 turns that's OK.
If gems settler goes to horse, then horse settler can go to whale, but I'm not particularly happy if that's what we end up doing.
Oh I'm with you. The question is just, can we take out that city in the turns the peace treaty covers or would we be better suited having guaranteed breathing room to get ready for the attack?
I am so naturally averse to scouting that I was bringing this work boat home in order to connect our clams in time. I made it two turns around that ice ball before I remembered that it's a scout...
Edit: Came back and offered peace to Superdeath. If, after waiting 6 turns, this is the turn a settler finally pops out and invalidates our gems plant, so be it. By the way, Lander isn't actually building a lighthouse.
What units are on that plains hill tile? Axe, settler, spear?
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
(October 7th, 2019, 22:34)Merovech Wrote: What units are on that plains hill tile? Axe, settler, spear?
The settler is now 2S of the incense and can found next turn. The hill has an axe and two workers. The workers roaded that tile to speed up reinforcements from Gaon. The two tiles north of the cow have half a road segment each, so if the scout moves to camp the cows, I can kill it next turn. Whether I would want to is a different question. Assuming Superdeath makes no moves, the axe on the plains hill goes to the forest 2E of Pajarocu, where it can get to gems city or Pajarocu as needed.
The tricky situation, besides SD reinforcements, is if his axes move east next turn. If that happens, I can't beat him to the gems city and would have to fight him in the open, and I'd have a 20% shot of not killing all his axes, which would cause me to lose the city. 20% is very, very high. I might not found the city if the axes move east, although, again, why they'd move to the two forests to their east rather than staying put or retreating is not something I'd understand.
If the bad moves don't happen, the workers on the plains hill move to the forest 3E of Pajarocu and start chopping its granary.
I'm about to head to bed and I can't remember the details completely so I can't be of help right now. Your morning coffee turns are better for me, but the timer is running low.
Anyway, I'm sure you can handle whatever he throws at you on your own.
Ours is 6900. Since PBSpy doesn't indicate that he gained a tech, I guess I missed him getting Iron Working or Horse Archery somewhere and he's cranking out classical units? 
If that's the case, it's probably overbold to plant for the gems, but I'll go with the flow. I've sent MSCC a cow for cow. Hopefully they don't interpret it as a sign of weakness. If I offer Superdeath a peace treaty and he refuses, I'll make the same offer to Cairo. 
I'm still trying to get infrastructure up. Superdeath tied us in city count and MSCC has two more than us. 
So I need that horse settler and to find a home for the gems one. The cap is producing a forge. Slow as Christmas, but oh well.
