T12: First warrior appears in the world! That should be either JR4 or BGN who are the only rivals at 2 pop. I'm penciling in JR4 since I tagged them as swapping to PFH after creative border pop so they will presumably have had the highest game-long production. Could be BGN though since he has been at 2 pop for the longest BUT I think his opening mirrored mine so if he is going for a warrior it should come out next turn, otherwise I suspect he is going for a worker now like me. No pop growths or techs researched.
Given someone has a warrior, I was slightly concerned about their warrior reaching me before I have a Quechua completed. My first will be done EOT22 which is 10 turns, with 2nd as early as 3 turns later. So given 14 tile spacing I could have 2 Q in place before I could be reached on a direct beeline. No sweat.
T13: Mining complete, 12T to Bronze Working now. JR4 and Superdeath also researched mining this turn (rival power increase to 7000 confirming JR4 completed the warrior last turn). Scout spots its first lion, but no imminent danger yet.
Double Furs can boost Elkad's early economy nicely. He can split off pigs to grow a city there along the river (maybe his 3rd?) that can then stagnate at happy cap working both furs, a couple mines, and a couple cottages for the capital.
T14: Lion did not follow the scout, but I wasn't sure where to go this turn. I could have moved SW to the forest but the lion could have moved 1S adjacent to that forest. Ultimately I decided to "play it safe" by making an even more risky move
Decided to move to the flatland coast-adjacent tile rather than the forest which had 25% chance for adjacent lion. FOOD! dry rice. Worse than a floodplain since it doesn't get the commerce. Top-5 indicates no pop growths so BGN got another tech, rival worst power (formerly BGN) increased and total rival power increase by 2000 suggesting Mining, which works as a 6 turn tech for BGN. Rival best GNP is up to 23 suggesting that creative JR4 2-pop lake-working JR4 is researching Bronze Working.
T15: moved scout SE-S to the forest. No new tiles revealed, nothing of interest occurring in the demographics. I did notice that Elkad only had 14 EP into me compared to 16 I had towards him. He has definitely met someone else. I haven't been checking regularly so I don't know when that contact may have occurred.
T16: Two more turns until the worker is complete! For now just another turn of "move scout > end turn"
Sorry for the lack of resource bubbles. I entered worldbuilder in the sim and I haven't remembered to turn them back on. There is a sheep 1SW of desert-stone where the scout is standing. Plan next turn is scout W-W along the coast. If I do not find seafood next turn I will have to assume that the mapmaker forgot to add seafood outside of the starts
Elkad grew and completed Bronze Working this turn. Rival max power now matches Elkad at 13k, but average shows world power is still 2k short so someone other than Elkad built a warrior. I don't have enough information to definitively peg the warrior to anyone at this point. I have penciled it in to DZ because his worker would have finished 4 turns ago, and without fishing he has no reason to build a workboat now. And it makes sense for him to emphasize hammers while improving his food resource.
T18: More luxuries! I found Ivory this turn. With only AH + Mining I can get to 8 happy cap, with Forges I can get to 10. Am I only missing Gems now from the complete set? We are going to see some big cities this game.
Superdeath grew to pop 2 (only score increase this turn, and Top 5 indicates another 2 pop capital). Rival max power is up 2k so Elkad completed a warrior, and that matches rival average.
Here's an updated map of the west with ivory plus a 2nd silver. Looks like this may be a peninsula with the western body of water connecting back to my capital:
T19: Wetbandit & DZ both grew this turn so we are all at 2 pop now. No other score or power increases. It's looking more and more likely that the immediate west is a safe peninsula, with rivals to the north, northeast, and southeast. I should have enough time to completely scout to the forest south of stone before heading back to the northeast wheat area to fogbust ahead of the settler.
Our capital has a name: Great Unconformity ... in addition to an epic-sounding name for a city, it is a fascinating geologic feature most notably found at the bottom of the Grand Canyon but also found throughout North America and elsewhere in the world.
The below quotes are taken from Timmons, J. Michael, and Karl E. Karlstrom. Grand Canyon Geology: Two Billion Years of Earths History. Geological Society of America, 2012. I found one chapter available free at https://www.researchgate.net/publication..._years_ago, the full PDF can be purchased from http://rock.geosociety.org/Store/detail.aspx?id=SPE489P if you want to "dig deeper" Or just search Great Unconformity on google and see what you find.
Grand Canyon Geology: Two Billion Years of Earths History Wrote:The Great Unconformity, described first in Powell (1875), and named by Dutton (1882), represents several rock contacts that record erosional intervals between the basement rocks and the overlying, flat-lying Paleozoic strata. We now know that in some places as much as 1200 Ma (1700–500 Ma) of rock record has been removed by erosion. This is true where the Vishnu basement rocks are overlain directly by Paleozoic strata, with no 6 Karlstrom et al. intervening Grand Canyon Supergoup. This amount of time “missing” is ~25% of Earth history and 65% of Grand Canyon’s geologic record. What happened during this vast time span?
[...]
The main erosional unroofing (the greatest unconformity), and the most rock removed by erosion, are now marked by this contact between the basement rocks and the basal Unkar Group, an erosional episode that took place between 1660 and 1255 Ma and that removed a thickness of >20 km (12.4 mi) of rock from the region. This would be analogous to taking high mountains, like the Alps, and eroding them down bit by bit to form a flat erosional surface that exposed rocks that were once 20 km (12.4 mi) deep in the core of the mountain belt.
At the Grand Canyon, metamorphic baserock at the bottom of apparently of deep origin (as much at 15 miles below the earth's surface!) is overlaid by a series of sedementary rock layers of marine origin. Clearly some amount of time passed between the baserock formation and marine deposition of the layers above, and estimates range in excess of a billion years of missing geologic history! During that "missing history" the baserock was metamorphosed through extreme pressure, temperature, and deformation; followed by massive amounts of erosion to expose the surface that was previously deep within the earth! And the Great Unconformity is noted elsewhere across North America, Europe, and Siberia. What would cause erosion of such a massive scale (both depth of erosion and breadth across the world)? And where did that eroded material go?
There is an intriguing new theory published just a few months ago: Neoproterozoic glacial origin of the Great Unconformity (https://www.pnas.org/content/116/4/1136). Paraphrased in a single sentance: glaciers covered the entire earth like a "snowball" and the glaciers scoured thousands of feet off the surface of the land into the ocean, where it was subducted down and regurgitated up again through volcanic activity. Here is a quick youtube summary of that theory including a brief background of the Great Unconformity:
The spoiler contains a series of quotes also pulled from Grand Canyon Geology: Two Billion Years of Earths History, describing the fascinating details that have been discovered about the formation and subsequent metamorphoses of the baserock. I will follow up with some more as I have time.
Grand Canyon Geology: Two Billion Years of Earths History Wrote:Granite Gorges of the Grand Canyon provide a record of numerous geological events associated with amalgamation of southern North America: the formation of offshore (oceanic) volcanic islands simi-lar to the modern-day Aleutian island chain; plate tectonic move-ment of these islands (microplates) toward North America; colli-sion of the microplates with a growing North American continent; and the metamorphic and igneous processes that went on at 25 km depths (15 miles deep!) within the roots of a now-eroded collisional mountain belt that extended across the southern part of our conti-nent and may have extended to Baltica in the northeast and Austra-lia (or Antarctica) to the west (Fig. 1A).The basement that underlies all of the Grand Canyon region consists of metamorphic and igneous rocks called the Granite Gorge Metamorphic Suite and the Zoroaster Plutonic Complex (Ilg et al., 1996; Karlstrom et al., 2003). These rocks are superbly exposed in the bottom of eastern Grand Canyon from river mile 77 to river mile 118 within the rugged Upper Granite Gorge.
[...]
About half of the basement rocks exposed in the Granite Gorges are rocks that were originally deposited at the Earth’s surface as sedimentary and volcanic rocks. Because they have been metamorphosed, we call them metavolcanic rocks and metasedi-mentary rocks. They form the dark schists and layered gneisses within the basement rocks. The deformation and metamorphism that took place during plate collisions as these rocks were buried to middle crustal depths has obliterated many, but not all, of the primary depositional features (bedding, ripples, mud cracks, etc.) that formed while they were at the Earth’s surface.
[...]
The other half of the presently exposed basement rocks is made up of intrusive (plutonic) igneous rocks that solidified from magma deep within the crust. These rocks tend to be light-colored granites that crosscut the darker metasedimetary and metavolca-nic rocks, commonly as tabular intrusions.
[...]
One of the most intriguing aspects of metamorphic rocks is gaining an understanding of the journey they took from the surface as sedimentary (Vishnu) and volcanic (Brahma and Rama) rocks, at 1.75 Ga, through different crustal levels during the evolution of the Vishnu mountains, from 1.72 to 1.66 Ga, and back to the surface by the time of Unkar Group deposition (ca. 1.2 Ga). This is called the pressure-temperature-time (P-T-t) path or loop (Fig. 10C). The steps in this progression were as follows: (1) The metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks of the Granite Gorge Metamorphic Suite began as deposits at the Earth’s surface. (2) They were progressively buried, a bit by other sediments, but mainly (the prograde part of the journey) by sheets and slabs of other rocks that were thrust on top of them during plate tectonic collisions. (3) They were heated and intruded by magma as they were buried. (4) After their maxi-mum depth of burial (~25 km), they underwent variable tem-peratures (of 500–750 °C), depending on the locality and prox-imity to melt conduits; some of these areas partially melted, and their peak metamorphic assemblages grew. (5) The minerals record a rapid decompression from 25 to 10 km levels during and following the growth of peak temperature minerals owing to rapid erosion of the highest peaks, with intermittent temperature spikes when intrusions came in. (6) As temperatures slowly waned, and mountains further eroded, the rocks cooled to temperatures that existed at ~10 km depths (250–350 °C). (7) The rocks decompressed back to the surface, and the mountains were completely beveled before deposition of the Grand Canyon Supergroup. This journey is documented by the tem-perature and pressure changes that can be recorded by changing mineral assemblages in the rock.
[...]
The most intense deformation, metamorphism, and magmatism that took place between 1.74 and 1.67 Ga ago is called the Yavapai orogeny. This orogeny created moderately high mountains, perhaps more like the Alps than the Himalayas. The collisions caused thickening of thin oceanic plates, and the result was like the Indonesian region: tectonically active, with complex evolving subduction geometries, and volcanic peaks and thrust sheets well above sea level. By 1660 Ma, the continent had grown south to about the modern U.S.-Mexico border, and plate collisions had ended, or at least were no longer creating new rock fabrics in the Grand Canyon region. There is little record of the next 300 Ma, but the region was eroding and exposing progres-sively deeper levels of the mountain belts. The 25 km of crust that once covered the rocks of the Granite Gorges was eroded and reduced to particles and then transported elsewhere—we know not where. By ~1.25 Ga ago, a broad, relatively flat plain of meta-morphic rocks had been exposed and was slowly sinking, ready to receive the Grand Canyon Supergroup, ~4200 m (14,000 ft) of new sediment, three times the thickness of the Paleozoic sedi-ments (Tapeats through Kaibab Formations).
Any lurkers have an interest in the sciences? I will take suggestions for fascinating scientific mysteries or conundrums to use for future city names.
(April 25th, 2019, 11:52)Cornflakes Wrote: Any lurkers have an interest in the sciences? I will take suggestions for fascinating scientific mysteries or conundrums to use for future city names.
Sort of! Can't say I'm much of a scientist, but I recently read a sci fi book called Three Body Problem by a guy named Cixin Liu. The aforementioned Three Body Problem refers to the impossibility of predicting the movements of three bodies in a closed system. Or something like that.. Don't know if it qualifies as enough of a conundrum, but the book was great.
(April 25th, 2019, 15:46)naufragar Wrote: Can't say I'm much of a scientist
Me neither, but I quite enjoyed the chemistry, physics, biology, and geology classes. I was an engineering major but one of my more interesting projects actually was in a geology class. Because I had taken a semester off in the middle, my schedule ended up whacked out and the "typical" engineering elective options conflicted with my catch-up core class schedule. My advisor said that they would accept an upper level geology course as an engineering elective if I could get permission from the geology department (without having the prerequisites), and so I found myself in a quite interesting elective. For a project towards the end we went to a bay behind a small barrier island and collected several core samples of the soil where the water was just a couple feet deep. After classifying the soils and collecting any clues that we could from the samples, we had to use the data to determine the history of the island. For example the data would look something like this:
Reading the history from bottom to top we have:
coarse sand and shell fragments indicate high energy waves => Open coast
Fine sand indicates lower energy => a sandbar has formed which blocks energy. The smaller waves carry smaller sand particles over the sandbar
Silt indicates even lower energy, and the presence of organics indicates vegetation => the sandbar has now grown vegitation. Perhaps it is even starting to show above water at low tides.
The top layer with mostly organics indicates that the island is now blocking virtually all energy from the ocean => the "sandbar" is now and "island" above even the high tide. Leaves and other vegetation debris are accumulating freely in the still waters of the protected bay.
The three "out of place" layers of shell fragments indicate high energy, but they are just small layers of brief out-of-ordinary activity => large waves have pushed over the sandbar/island for a short period of time, likely a large storm.
Comparing this geologic timeline to the storm records, you see that the last major hurricane hit the area 5 years ago. About 20 years ago there were two hurricanes 3 years apart. Assuming constant rate of soil accumulation you estimate the sandbar started forming 30 years ago and the island rose above high tide about 12 years ago. If you assume that the silty and organic material accumulates quicker since the bay is protected then maybe the island rose above high tide 10 years ago and the sandbar started forming 40 years ago.
The Great Unconformity and associated rock formations above/below/around represent a similar historical geology mystery on an infinitely grander scale! Epic clashing of continental tectonic plates, erosion of unfathomable proportion, and the deposition of many vast and varied layers (not to mention the fossilized remains of creatures such as dinosaurs!) all record clues of the history of the world.
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T20: Land points were credited this turn. Elkad and DZ have 8 land tiles, everyone else has 7. Elkad grew to size 3 this turn but no other power or score increases. I find the demographics analysis interesting in a similar manner to the historical geology analysis above, taking the limited clues and trying to reconstruct a plausible picture the could match the data.
Scout stepped out onto the open grassland, in defiance of my directive to exercise all caution in exploration. Fortunately his intuition about the safety of the peninsula turned out correct. SW-SE should give me a complete picture here, just in time to dotmap over the weekend. Resource bubbles are off again plains-hill-sheep are hardly food. But if I could just find another seafood off the southern cost then I have a decent candidate for Moai Statues with high production to knock them out quick.
T22: Me and one other person grow to size 3. DZ and Wetbandit I'm pretty certain both researched Bronze Working this turn, leaving Superdeath as the only other score increase who must therefore be at size 3 now. There was an additional 2k power added in the world which I'm penciling in as a warrior to Superdeath. My warrior will complete next turn and I assume that Wetbandit will and BGN will be getting their warriors in the next turn or two as well.
This turn the wheat far finished, and I also swap to working the PFH for 1 turn. This allows me to complete the Quechua this turn instead of next turn, as well as giving me enough overflow into the next Quechua that I will have enough hammers to 1-turn that Q if needed by the time I start building the settler. This way I only delay the settler 1 turn if I need the extra Q. I will go back to working the floodplain next turn and will still be able to grow to size 4 in 3 total turns rather than the 4 currently shown on the foodbar.
And now the moment you all have been waiting for Dotmap #1!
Double RED line is the halfway point between me and Elkad. Notice that there is a hill on either side of the dividing line. Either of those hills would make a nice border city for us, and whoever plants first will invalidate the other. The dots that I have outlined are fairly loose with minimal overlap. But this puts all my exposed cities on hills, and there just isn't enough food to support closer spacing. I have put little dots of corresponding color indicating which good tiles that cities have to work. I did not include non-riverside tiles as "good" but once workshops are enabled those tiles will be decent as well. With happy cap of 10 easy this wide spacing works well. I will just have to be careful about having enough forces to defend the wide spacing.
I'm thinking YELLOW > BLUE while researching to Pottery, then hit Hunting and plant PURPLE for Sheep. The river unfortunately just doesn't have food to support an early city this pushes pretty aggressively against Elkad who will have a slight early edge from Expansive. If copper does not show up 3rd ring to capital or Yellow/Blue then I'll probably have to reconsider and settle 3rd city for copper.
Note the seafood that the mapmaker graciously placed around the peninsula. I was getting a bit worried there. Green can temporarily steal sheep from Purple until border pop picks up Crabs. Orange at the south tip will have crabs + clams after a border pop and looks like as good a candidate as I will find for Maoi. The black X's are tiles not claimed by any city. I just don't see a better way to pick up those tiles at this point.
T23: This was a more involved turn demographically with 4 score increases. JR4 and DZ were credited creative border pops. Wetbandit, DZ and BGN all grew. Rival power increased 4k so I'm giving warriors to Wetbandit + BGN (bringing all rivals to 1 suspected warrior). I also completed my Quechua this turn. I'm not sure how I beat BGN to size 3 by a turn, our opening appeared to be mirroring one another except for that anomaly.
2 turns to Bronze working & copper revealed. 5 turns to settler complete. 8 turns to 2nd city.
dry rice. Worse than a floodplain since it doesn't get the commerce. Top-5 indicates no pop growths so BGN got another tech, rival worst power (formerly BGN) increased and total rival power increase by 2000 suggesting Mining, which works as a 6 turn tech for BGN. Rival best GNP is up to 23 suggesting that creative JR4 2-pop lake-working JR4 is researching Bronze Working.
plains-hill-sheep are hardly food. But if I could just find another seafood off the southern cost then I have a decent candidate for Moai Statues with high production to knock them out quick.
this pushes pretty aggressively against Elkad who will have a slight early edge from Expansive. If copper does not show up 3rd ring to capital or Yellow/Blue then I'll probably have to reconsider and settle 3rd city for copper.