[Spoilers] The Crack'd Pot Civ

[mackoti]

Nice updates.
But what i would say is forget about workshops for now, and get food and whip, working workshop will put so much behind, WS worth just when you reach Comunism and till then its alot.This is plain Bts isnt it?

[Mr. Cairo]

Nice updates.
But what i would say is forget about workshops for now, and get food and whip, working workshop will put so much behind, WS worth just when you reach Comunism and till then its alot.This is plain Bts isnt it?

It is base bts, and yeah, I don't plan on relying on workshops now, just that I'm going to plan for workshop cities now, rather than scramble around later workshopping over cottages etc. Even if workshops were good already I don't have the workers to build enough of them. Whips are much better right now, although I'm not going to swap back into slavery until the end of the GA.

[Mr. Cairo]

Sorry for the lack of real updates, I was at a conference.

Anyway, I had a Golden Age during which I ran Serfdom and teched to Theology, I swapped back to Slavery and converted to Christianity at the end of it. I had originally intended to swap to Theocracy, which was half the reason I got Theology, but in the end I realised that would be to obvious a signpost that I intend to war someone, and with GJ my only neighbor... So I kept OR.

I also met a few more players, including OT4E who went for Circumnavigation and got it. I also gave him OB for some reason, I can't actually remember why, maybe I was worried he'd DOW and raze my boat with his Trireme. Anyway, he's getting TRs from me and I'm not from him, which sucks.

Here's some pictures, I'll edit in some comments after work:

Demos were of course better in the GA, but these aren't bad for being on the lower end of the city count, and I'm sure at least one other player is in a GA.


After this I'm going to start an axe that I hope will become a Samurai before finishing, I may have to swap off of it for a turn. I need a few Samurai to kill the barb city I'll show in the next report.


There's no hammers here yet but lots of food, so after this settler I'm going to build a worker to start on some mines.


There's that barb city, saves me 136 hammers, but it has 3 longbows, so it wont be easy to take. This city has no hammer potential so I'm just going to whip stuff and build workers from it.


There are three forests about to be chopped here, which might as well go into a forge since there's a lot of hammer potential. One of Japan's disadvantages is apparent ehre since I'd much rather build some samurai, but I don't have Iron yet. Normal maces I can build with copper.


Newest city, Chritian Holy city, which makes border expansion easy. Lots of forests to chop, after the barracks just putting those into units for now.


Current tech tree. Guilds next for knights to try and kill GJ.

[Mr. Cairo]

Turn 141 update:

I've founded a couple of cities in the last few turns.
Seti, on the border with GJ:

Fin + Col + free Lighthouse makes working coasts great.

Malaz City, on an island:

I got a missionary in there the turn it was founded, and already chopped out a WB, so I'll be able to hook up the clams as soon as borders pop. 

Here's the city I'm going to take from the barbs soon:

One of their LBs must have wandered off into the Jungle since it was founded with three. I'll probably have to lose the cat to take the city, but that's still saving 86 hammers compared to a settler. And I might get lucky.

Speaking of barbs:

A far cry from the single archer and axe I saw earlier. There's more to the north of my explorer, where TBS just founded a city. He's got a WE and some other stuff and the barbs are greeting him with a couple of Maces and a LB (I think).

Demos:

I'm pretty sure someone is in a GA rn (either OT4E or Chumchu), so that I'm still #1 GNP is pretty nice.

[Mr. Cairo]

Aren't War Elephants usually banned in base BTS games?

[mackoti]

Aren't War Elephants usually banned in base BTS games?

usualy it is, but if you didnt stated so at begginig of game then is not.

[Mr. Cairo]

I figured as much, I wonder why it was overlooked? Especially as there appears to be an uneven distribution of Ivory.

[Mr. Cairo]

I got lucky this turn and took that barb city without any losses, my catapult retreating.

I also whipped a settler to go to the Aren spot. I'm hoping to be able to put a chop into a monument there the turn it is founded, as the city really needs to pop it borders to get to its full potential. I debated founding on the plains forest, but ultimately, I think being on a river is more valuable. I'm going to try and chase that barb worker down with my knight, but I'm not hopeful.

In much worse news TBS got the Hanging Gardens to go with his absurd number of cities. He is looking to be favourite this game so far.

I'm still on top with GNP though:


My current plan is to go Philo -> Paper -> Edu -> Liberalism (Nationalism). Then building the Taj Mahal? If it's still available, and I manage to luck out and get a GE out of my capital. Otherwise I get Gunpowder and eat a turn of anarchy to swap to Nationhood and Theocracy and try and conquer GermanJoey with drafted Muskets.

[Mr. Cairo]

First things first, I'm dead:



Second of all, I'd like to apologise to the other players for not investing enough effort into this game and making myself into a easy target. There's no real reason I should have missed this power spike:



And if I had really thought about it, I would have realised that getting Engineering for Pikes is necessary in a Medieval start since Knights are so readily available (hell, I was the first player to Guilds  )

Nevertheless, I hope to make this conquest as painful for GJ as possible.

In that screenshot I left a LB and XB in the city, with 4 Samurai + Cat 2SE of Dal Hon, and my 4 Knights SE of them. My plan is to hit against whatever units he has in Dal Hon after he takes it, utilising my Samurai to the best of their ability.
Next turn I revolt into Theocracy and Nationhood, eating a turn of Anarchy so that I can start drafting. It's entirely possible that that is a mistake, as not enough of my cities even can draft. But nevertheless it is still the most efficient way to turning population into hammers.

I also sent TBS an offer: Ivory for Marble. I had just hooked up the marble to go for the Hagia Sophia, since no-one else has marble. Hopefully TBS will see the wisdom of that. Make your closest rival's conquest a little harder and make progress on yet more wonders.

Overall, I'll probably live on on my islands, but my game is basically done.


Here's GJ's army (that I can see):



and my army:

[Mr. Cairo]

Geez, even in "last stand mode" I was hasty and ignorant. Forgetting that GJ had Engineering himself, I foolishly left my only attacking forces where they could be reached by his knights. I lost them all basically. My Samurai and Knights killed I think 4 of his Knights defending. Two of my Knights survived to try and do some damage back, 1 succeeded and killed one of his.

I also lost Quon Tali (as well as Dal Hon), which I had left with only a single Warrior. The result was I didn't finish Nationalism on time, and I never will. I didn't even bother to see if TBS had accepted my offer, but it seems unlikely since he has attacked Gavagai.

This game has been a pretty lackluster showing for me so far. In retrospect I really should have waited for a regular PB to join, but at the time it didn't look as though another game would be starting soon, so I jumped into this one, but I wasn't particularly enthusiastic for the Medieval start.