[SPOILERS] scooter peruses RB's Greatest Hits

[rho21]

Scooter, would you mind changing the X labels to all be colours? I think it would make it a bit clearer what's going on... and it would be more fun, in an RB sort of way. Possibly add anticipated settling turn numbers, too.

Yeah, I can add a prettier screenshot at some point. The signs were mostly there to save me some time. It's also helpful in-game to have an easy reminder of where cities are planned so I don't have to try to remember or consult a screenshot while in-game.

Sorry, I wasn't clear enough. I meant changing the signs in game to say colour names, like red does at the moment.

[darrelljs]

Mackoti's power is not going to seriously spike in the next 20 turns because he wants to win the game.

That's a nice QotM candidate...too bad is mildly spoilerish.

Darrell

[Brian Shanahan]

Brian: The Sakkra would have been a good naming scheme for this game, especially with our green colors. With our traits and unique building, we definitely want to expand outwards like the plague.

As regards naming, I was digging that interesting Aztec scheme ye had going at the start. I even had my pick got for the third city, Tlatelolco.

[Nekira Sudacne]

I have a question, would finishing that farm in the capitol to spread irrigation to the Rice make any difference in the settler whip times? not just the +1 food rice but the option of a 3 food grasslands farm while regrowing.

[scooter]

Nekira, it does help. In fact, we completed that farm this turn.

Turn 203

We met Alhazard this turn, so we've now met everyone. I'm not actually sure where we met him. His explorer must have passed ours. I was simply greeted by an offer of map + ob swap. I went ahead and said yes.



Here's his updated map, and yeah Alhazard is in serious trouble. Basic worker tip: if you're mining a plains hill in the first 25 turns (two of them really since that desert marble mine is 0/4/0), 85% of the time you are doing something very wrong. Those worker turns would have been much better spent going into chops or other tiles, and that pop should have been whipped rather than sitting on 0/4/0 tiles. FWIW, RMoG also mined their plains hill.

I missed a picture, but Alhazard is in HR, Bureau, Caste, Merc, and Pacifism. So he's trying to generate great people right now. Yeah, he's toast. What I'd give to be in Mackoti's position.



I don't think I ever noted this, but based on mirroring there will be stone 2E of this tile. We'll care about this for Moai and a couple other things down the line.



We need to decide now what to do with our Explorers. There really isn't a whole lot left for them to do because we've basically defogged everything on the mainland (even fogged stuff we know due to mirroring). I was hoping to catch a glimpse of Plako's settler here, and then I'm thinking we send it home via the land bridge east of here which we need defogged.



As for this explorer, I'm debating between heading northeast along that desert landbridge to find the edge of Mackoti's land, or just sending him home and using him as a sentry. The upside of heading towards Mackoti is that his map may be difficult to get via trade. The downside is we risk losing the explorer if we stumble across one of his units. Any thoughts?



I confirmed Nicolae did settle two new cities, and I spotted one of them with my ninja skills. This marked tile is jungled for everyone else, meaning he likely settled on it this turn which auto-cleared it. I couldn't find the other one, though. Looks like they've timed it nicely to borrow the deer while that city is regrowing from whips.



Pocketbeetle got double whipped this turn, and it'll overflow into 1T worker next turn. The Pilot will get triple whipped next turn. Lurker Killer is growing on the deer pair (borrowing one), and it'll get its own second deer hooked on T205.



Not quite sure how that 38 GNP is happening. That seems nearly impossible with prereqs.

[Sullla]

Nekira, you're correct and we definitely want to finish the farm that chains irrigation to the rice tile. In fact, the workers finish that farm on this very turn in the micro plan... which scooter has already played according to CivStats, so I expect he'll be posting about it later tonight. Good Civ4 instincts.

I spent some more time in the micro plan tonight and extended it a few turns further. I'm very happy with what's in there now; we will absolutely be able to hit 8 cities (and 14 workers!) by T218 so long as we're able to follow the sandbox in the actual game. In order to pull this off, our cities are frantically building workers, sacrificial altars, and longbows (the cheapest unit that has actual defensive usefulness) at the best possible rate. Aside from the market in the capital for Great Merchant generation and a monastery in Pocketbeetle for religious spread, we lack any other infrastructure. Zero libraries, zero barracks, etc. But do we really need anything else? We can fill those things in later. Our economy is actually pretty solid with Organized plus Sacrificial Altars in every city. Virtually every tile we're working is riverside and has the free 1 commerce, and that helps too.

Let me know what you think if anyone has time to play through it. I can supply sandbox save files on request.

EDIT: Ninja'd by scooter! Well we did finish that farm after all.

[scooter]

Let me know what you think if anyone has time to play through it. I can supply sandbox save files on request.

Yeah, can you send me the latest? I should have a little time tomorrow to play through the next batch of turns to see how it feels, especially now that the turn pace has settled down to "very good." We're also looking at a short-to-medium pause while the server stability stuff gets sorted out.

[Epoxy]

Do we later intend to settle the landbridge over which the Plako explorer will be returning? It might be ideal to return the explorer to the region later if we want to be aggressive there.

[Epoxy]

THE DAILY ROLL

TURN 203: ALHAZARD IS TOAST

The celebrated 8/18 Project is about to become the 8/16 Project, as the C&D have further optimised the upcoming volley of whips, workers, and settlers to complete two turns sooner (ETA: T218). But impressive as this is, this accomplishment is presently overshadowed by the fact the Khmer have just settled two cities, making them the first nation to stretch out to four. This news is in turn appeased by the intelligence that has been gathered from Alhazard of the Ottomans. Intelligence that they are attempting to summon great people at this early stage of the game, instead of growing. The Aztecs are now very envious of neighbouring Byzantium, who should have no trouble in the future disassembling the Ottomans for their own benefit. Now with most of the sovereign borders mapped, one of the Aztecs' venerable explorers will be sent on a perilous mission: to spy the designs of a hostile Mackoti.

[Dp101]

I find the concept of the Byzantines conquering the Ottomans absolutely hilarious from a historical perspective.