[spoilers] Boudica stars as Lady Mongolia feat. wetbandit

[Fenn]

So much food everywhere! It's a good thing the demos don't track obesity rates.

Good luck with the Keshik, or something rampage.

[wetbandit]

So much food everywhere! It's a good thing the demos don't track obesity rates.

Good luck with the Keshik, or something rampage.

There are certainly a lot of four-legged creatures around. And some high fructose corn syrup to wash down the al pastor tacos. 

I have no idea how close I am to anyone else, but there are a lot of tiles for 8 people. I would assume 40-60% water, but who knows?  That doesn’t help keshiks necessarily, but since we are horsey proficient, To which you out allude fenn, knights/cuirs are boosted also. 

I’m going to be out of pocket likely all of today. If a lurker doesn’t mind moving the scout to the cows, that would be great.

[wetbandit]

Instructions: pasture the pigs, move the scout generally south if possible watching the wolf, play twice. Try not to get scout eaten if possible. Thanks to whoever helps out.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

I can get to it in 4-5 hours. Others feel free to get to it earlier if you can.

[Erwin]

Scout moved twice SE, keeping it on hill and watching the wolf. Worker set to pasture northern pigs. Keeping research on pottery. We encountered a (kinda) choke point to the east.

[wetbandit]

Posting...updates?  It's been a hectic 10 days.

Scouting:

I think I've benefited through dumb luck to get a good idea of the map.  Of course, the scout (appropriately named Moptop by BGN) is now on a forested tile heading to unfog the area south of the capital and needs to survive a lion (already had the free win combat).  I took a deep dive southeast and found this Contested Area:



That stone hill is a crucial spot not just for the plethora of resources, but also canal flexibility and an incredibly defensible city.  Nine tiles from the capital.  This tells me that the map very likely has these spokes running off the main belt of land.  So I likely have a neighbor west-east and to the southeast.  There could be a similar spoke to my northeast or southwest that I just haven't found yet.  All the jungle makes does discourage it somewhat, but the two (!) lake fish will provide enough early growth if I can get there.  I must presume that someone is down that way and I decided to turn back so I don't tip someone off that there's this type of spoke if that person hasn't discovered it.

3W1S is still best early city candidate.




This is a very nice area to the east.



If horse isn't in cap or proposed 2nd city area, 3rd city will settle for it.  Other than that,  I have no idea where to settle the 3rd city.

Home Front:

The cap generally looks the same.  Grew to four and working two unimproved tiles.  Cottage is done in two turns and then the worker heads to the ivory, unless I luckbox horses in the capital.  Started the settler.  Growing to four before settler seemed best, not sure if the extra two turns to do so before starting the settler will be worth it.  I think growing taller makes sense given eventual whippage and the fact that I will have enough tiles to work soon will be best.



 The likely height of the Beatgolian Empire:




Opponent Divination:

It looks like Yuri and I have the exact same micro plan.  I lead in GNP thanks only to the double arrow bonus on AH.  I think ipecac built a settler at size 2 and has it out already, since max hammers is 2.  I can't really figure out what Superdeath is doing.  He seems to be lagging in growth.  Expansive guys jumped ahead thanks to early worker.

Questions?  Thanks again to everyone for playing for me.

[wetbandit]

Horses...are not in a convenient location.  I have two sources: the one seen below and another one N-NE of the capital on the coast.  In other news, Yuri found me from presumably from the east.  I think I've bordered him in half of the games I've played here.  Spiritual Pro India will probably develop faster than me, but maybe he'll found a religion for us to "culturally appropriate" some day.



Out west, discovery of that wheat is going to make me move my second city to that plains hill.  I can't turn down the two first ring wet agri resources, on a plains hill to boot, and it does pick up the horse 2nd ring.  And there is a lot of coast, so having a good naval city will be useful.

I also found a panther at .6/2 health, which is great news for me.  I am sending the scout west until I meet whoever is over there whose scout ended up panther chow.

Because I'm awesome at micro, I will get maximum overflow on the settler (14), which will be dumped into a worker.  I will switch off to put one turn into the granary to prevent decay, and also put granary hammers from 9/60 to 14/60, allowing a 2-pop whip some eon in the future.  I may build another settler after the worker, but flying by the seat of my pants for the moment.

Somewhat considering a religion play for ease of border pops if nothing else.  Fishing is the only real other tech that I might have some value after BW (aside from Emergency Archery) necessity, so myst to polytheism is intriguing.  That's a lot of sunk turns into research which could otherwise be used on...I'm not really sure.  Early writing doesn't seem to make sense what with the capital backlogged on settler/worker production.  OR is very valuable and I think I got buddhism absurdly late (50s)  in whatever pb I was doing well in as Charlemagne of Inca. Soooooo, maybe that's a thing.

[wetbandit]

What, if anything, do people want to see in this thread? Other than blood for the blood god. It's very ho-hum so far in the game. Do we need more Beatles puns?

Game talk: I see quite a few settles so far so I'm guessing I'll have the last or one of the last settles. Settler is done after this turn and can settle in 4 (gulp) turns. If this is what costs me the game, call this my revolt against opening with beelining BW.

[wetbandit]

 



Well, at least I have bronze in the capital...

City founded next turn.  Found WLP to the west.  Not an ideal neighbor (pro skirmishers).  He has already founded his 2nd city.

[wetbandit]

City founded and it seems appropriate to use the name WLP suggested.




Last turn, there was a theoretical chance that there was a panther/wolf that could come eat the worker if it was on the tile it is currently on, which is why you see these suboptimal pre-roads instead of insta-farming the corn this turn.  C'est la vie.

I'm virtually certain my bronze will pop on that plains hill as it is in WLP's cap.  The demos and scouting strongly suggest that starts are mirrored.  I will probably have the new worker go there to mine the hill.  I am very nervous that bronze will not appear on that tile, which would cause 6 wasted worker turns.  That's a catastrophe. 

WLP put 4EP on me which suggests that I'm the first person he's met.  Makes sense if his scout was eaten early.

I am definitely past my initial sims.  I think another worker is the way to go after this one and then can push out a settler reasonably soon thereafter, whether that's before or after the capital granary, I'm not sure.  It's been awhile since I've played, but I definitely think CHM is going to be big on this map.  It appears early happy is limited to the ivory, rushing whales, or settling on top of gems.  The latter seem suboptimal plays.  So I will have 7-8 happy which will comfortably allow good whipping cycles and to work the fantastic tiles available.  Commerce is limited as well, so cottages sooner are important.  I might spare the whip too much because of the tiles that can be worked.