[spoilers] wetbandit prioritizes civ4 over more profitable endeavors, again

[wetbandit]

T56

Two turns! And enough time to give a detailed (by wetbandit standards) overview of the fledgling empire:



Cities:



The capital will grow to 6 and onto wonderful cottages.  The bananas will be cottaged for as long as that lasts for the food surplus to take advantage of the early happiness.  This needs a library pronto.



2nd city will be abused for the foreseeable future for workers.  Badly needs a granary to promote mass whippage.



3rd city is much more than a helpful cottage grower, it has some decent long term potential as well.  Furs and the ability to consistently work the shared cottage space with the capital will may enable financing the city spam next turn.



Mycenian should fall next turn.  First axe healed to 3.5 and will heal to 3.75ish next turn.  Current odds are 93.5%.  With heal and presence of 2nd axe, barring construction of another warrior, should mean city falls.  There's a C1 warrior present in case Shit Happens.  Absolute best outcome would be construction of a worker next turn, but I don't think that's possible given when city grew to 3.  



Well this picture sucks, but the settler/axe pair is on the city spot and will found next turn.  I prefer settling on the hill given relative proximity of players.  Civ advisor says to settle on the furs.  Meh.

The border with JR4 appears favorable.



Other than to claim horse, I can't see any reason for him to settle to his east, barring good food in the undiscovered area.  And the potential spots are really awful.  That tundra is prohibitive to settling efforts, and orphaning the clam seems atrocious in a barren area.  So I suppose he could settle/have settled that tundra hill, but that seems like a terrible city.  I might be able to settle up on the "t14 lion spot" and secure a strong position, even though that's a pretty crappy city.

I have enough EP on JR4/RefSteel to potentially get research visibility next turn, which will be very nice.

5 cities this early on is going to wreak havoc on my finances, but I think I can dig out of it without too much opportunity cost lost.  It is notable that no religion has gone yet. I really need some way to pop borders cheaply, so that's why I'm on myst.  It seems like a cheap turn to spend on research before acquiring two more cities, but writing is a Super-Duper priority (technical term) and eschewing it for myst seems bad.  I might change my mind in the morning and stockpile gold.



I am very surprised that I am only 3rd in soldiers with 3 axes, 2 warriors, and all of the early power techs, except, I guess, archery.  Is there an early war?  

I am very excited to be so close to top CY (which is JR4 as best I can tell via graphs).  BGN is top MFG as far as I can tell which makes sense because of IMP.

14000 pop means someone is on 2-2-1-1 cities, which is BGN or cornflakes I think.  24 CY right now is low, but with 4 cities and 6 pop (with at least 2 on a 6f and 5f tile), I would think you'd easily exceed that.  So that suggests to me that someone is on 3 cities (or less) and doing...something.  I haven't been scrupulously recording demos every turn. 

Near future goals are to worker up, cottage spam, and get a library in the cap before t70.  Seems feasible?

Questions/comments/grievances?

[wetbandit]

Screengrab from last turn, 2 turns more for revolt.  Warrior heading up to fogbust the coast, disappointing that those clams are orphaned unless there the deer is settled.



JR4 heading for Masonry.  Assuming that means the mids is his play.  I'd happily attempt to relieve him of them.

BGN is close.



After the annoying road misclick (delaying the rice farm by a turn), I noticed Talibanjos has a monument and a granary.  Looks like a good city.  The way we have settled really limits prospective city locations, so this might be a stable border.  The western water also appears to be a large lake.  I'd certainly like to plant there and NE of the dry rice.

I also read Talibanjos as the Spanish for bathroom rather than the Florida theme.  Is Florida really renowned for banjo play?




Whipped granary in 3rd city, which should grow quickly now onto loads of cottages.  Cap is at 5 and heading to 6, needs MP.  Will switch to library and pop out a scientist for an academy.

[Old Harry]

Settle on !

[wetbandit]

Settle on !

Looks likely!

Meeting an overseas friend next turn.





Totally missed that BGN landed stonehenge, hence the monument in tali-komode. 

Maintenance sucks, pop is growing.  MP finishes next turn along with writing.  Will end up getting to 7 after next turn and working on a library.  Embarrassingly under the amount of workers, and 2 more are coming pronto.  I need to pop borders in 2nd city for that ivory.

[wetbandit]

Hi everyone, it's time for some (quasi) sober thoughts about the game from your pal, wetbandit.

- Man, there's not a lot of early happy out there, huh? Inferring what everyone else is dealing with, I'm sure glad I have charismatic.  With maintenance being what it is, it's going to be expensive to expand, thus making the most out of the cities you have paramount.  Not surprising to see a strategy that addresses that in JR4's apparent play for the mids.

- Atheists R Us.  I don't think the new mode to make RtR comply with Zulan's pb server disables worldwide notification about religion, unless I'm lazy and ignorant (as a general rule, yep) about the changes.  T61 is the latest in any game I've ever played in which no religion has yet to go.  And everyone has happy problems.  It's odd.

- Where's the food?  No wheat and corn observed anywhere.  One grassland cow, and the two pigs.  Dry rice? Astro super islands? Tech pace will be slow.

- If JR4 builds the mids, I'm going to take them.  Sometime.  Maybe not before T100.

- Does JR4 really have horse hooked up yet?  I'm really thinking of sending those 2 axes his way just to say hi.  And visit his improvements.  And see the half-finished mids (by the time they get there).

- Naming Scheme.  The only inspiration I've had that's not horribly boring or esoteric is French-themed puns on Metallica, because Lars Ulrich is Danish.  I think it sucks, but it's better than the current situation.  Talibanjo drives me crazy.  Winning the civ game will be good, of course, but we must have good names.

Nothing Elba Matters
Armorik in the Jar
holy good god I need more names

[Charriu]

- Atheists R Us.  I don't think the new mode to make RtR comply with Zulan's pb server disables worldwide notification about religion, unless I'm lazy and ignorant (as a general rule, yep) about the changes.  T61 is the latest in any game I've ever played in which no religion has yet to go.  And everyone has happy problems.  It's odd.

I'm working on the code for RtR and I can say no, the notifications are still in there.

[Old Harry]

What does the religion advisor say?

I got nothing on Metallica puns. Now if the theme was Lego related...

[wetbandit]

What does the religion advisor say?

I got nothing on Metallica puns. Now if the theme was Lego related...

Religion advisor says nothing has been founded.  That's what I've been relying on for the last 20 turns or so.

I always forget that a Dane invented Lego.  And I currently live less than 50 miles from Legoland.  I have no idea, because wetbandita is too young for legos, how or on what to make lego puns.  That sounds like I would need Young Harry's help.

I've only come up with the other name Seek and DesTricolore.  I don't speak French, yet I am horribly embarrassed at that desecration of the language.



Library is up.  I don't think I can avoid this worker.  I am at 1:1 city:worker ratio, which is also horribly embarrassing.  Fortunately, I can start on scientists next turn with 1 and 2 thereafter.  I see the capital as the massive commerce and bureaucracy city to power through the mid-game.  But I am tempted to make a chariot to harass someone, namely, JR4/Refsteel.  They appear to be committed to the farmer-pyramid gambit and any harassment might be very impactful.  Settling up on them looks to be profitable.



This really does look like a stable border to me.  I'd prefer to keep it as such given BGN's penchant to be aggressive when he perceives an opportunity. I went back and forth on declaring and offering peace.  In the apropos words of Jackie Chan, I don't want no trouble.  I could see BGN perceiving this as harassment and I hope I haven't encouraged him to hide a chariot in the fog to wipe my guy.  I see him settling for the ivory gems and I think there's not much I can or should do about an apparently foodless city like that if he prioritizes it.  Certainly it's much closer to his core than mine and I'd rather go after the guy who looks to be piling stones together.



I've met DZ and Elkad fortuitously the last 2 turns.  Only superdeath/gavagai remain.  This area looks ripe for the next city, albeit the area south of the barb city looks very promising, especially if there is a food resource outside of the grass cows in its 2nd ring.

IW and calendar look particularly attractive.  Marble is abundant (found a 2nd source in south), which supports the conclusion that everyone has easy access to wonder building material.  I do wonder if there are any corn and wheat out there.

[Hollybombay]

Any updates before you pass the baton?

[wetbandit]

Any updates before you pass the baton?

It's a real pain to provide photo updates right now.  My time has been better than anticipated, but that doesn't mean trying to do things on a 3gb RAM dinosaur is much fun.  I'm still shocked this thing runs Civ4.

T85 just elapsed and, while I'm still on 6 cities, they are good cities.  I spawned my GS last turn and built an academy in the capital.  Sailing was researched and I secured OB with Donovan Zoi for +2 routes.  I asked Cornflakes for OB (separated by water), and he turned me down.  Tough break for him.  I am first in CY at 92 (ish) with a small lead.  I trail in MFG by a few hammers (at 5th or 6th place).  I am first in GDP at ~115.  2nd is 47.  That's pretty nice.

BGN is on 8 cities though, and he's a long term threat because he's one of the stronger players here.  He can formulate a plan and then take steps to achieve it.

I am finishing Meditation this turn because Buddhism is still attached to it.  I will run through Math and then decide on Currency/Calendar.  I have 5 calendar resources (all but spices), but no IW to clear sugar and dye.

City 7 is coming in two turns.  City 8 a little behind that, but the grow tall plan is in effect to clear the early bigger techs.  

Not that I ever play a tight game, but I've made a lot of small mistakes here and there that simply would be avoided if I had more time.  Things like proper roading and routing, not two-moving a chariot and ending up in a potentially dangerous square.  Missing a whip or tile assignment.  I did get some funky barb luck earlier (a spear and an axe, at the same time bro!, and in the same tile).  The plus side to that is I did clear HE and have a C2 shock axe to dissuade.

Refsteel/JR4 will be a forever conflict.  They settled a city SW from my two SW cities.  It is 4 tiles west of the barb city I captured, which means they will be fighting over 2nd ring tiles.  I need those tiles to get to the cow and silk I expected them to settle there and didn't want to contest that immediate area because I wasn't ready to a) back it up and b) commit to a forever war that I instigated.  But their placement, while defensible, is going to cause a war.  I have clear, uncontested borders everywhere else, with the possible exception of the DZ western netherlands, so all of my focus is going there.  I moved 2 chariots and an axe, the aforementioned C2 shocker, to possibly threaten the city.