[Spoilers] Pindicator accepts his fate

[pindicator]

Maybe? It's a big world out there and we have a decent amount of innate production. More so when I get those iron spots across the sea up and running.

And yeah, I'm going to have a ton of happiness. Right now my thinking has been just to grow, grow, grow, but I could see some strategic whipping. Some kind of path involving: Currency >> HBR >> Calendar >> Construction for a Horcher / Sword / Ele / Cata stack. Or skip calendar and just go straight on MC >> Machinery >> Feudalism >> Guilds.

Also, I'm keeping up with IMP/ORG chumchu right now in expansion, so I'm not too eager to just throw that away either.

[Commodore]

I'm always loath to launch a conquest using 1-movers, but maybe India makes that whole stack a lot more mobile than I'm used to.

[pindicator]

I think I'm leaning towards either teching naturally towards knights and invading a neighbor when the time is right.

Or bee-lining Astronomy with bulbs and Alpha Strike against OT4E's coast with CR swords

[pindicator]

Turn 097

We met Kim Jong Nicolae, and he seems to have hostile intentions, or at least opportunistic ones. Much like real life North Korea, his bark is (so far) worse than his bite:



Borders pop at Vemish in 2 more turns, which means we'll need the axe and chariot both to defend the workers when they start to improve the sheep.

There was a big change in GNP scrying as somebody I know has HBR now. Looking at score changes from the last turn, nobody earned more than 6 points (except me; I got 14 ) over the IT. So that means that nobody teched HBR last turn; instead it was Nicolae who had the tech and it didn't show in my C&D sluething until I met him this last turn.

Also, that OT4E engineer is concerning. I imagine that's going to be a Hanging Gardens. I'm still going to go for it, though. Fail gold will be very nice for getting myself along towards Currency.

My neighbors are spamming settlers: StarDoor and Nyles have both planted multiple cities the past 2 turns and gone up to 9 and 10 apiece. I'm sitting tied for the lead in total cities with 11, but chumchu and OT4E both have the same amount. (OT4E has recently picked up Iron Working, which he grabbed back on t94 I think. This means he won't have Math for some time, and while I doubt I'll be able to snipe the wonder out from under him -- again, what could almost be better for me is for him to cash in some fail gold for me.


Speaking of cities, I've got settlers for cities 12 and 13 a few turns out. I changed some tiles around so that Orandrad will finish in 4 turns and started a settler in Andrad to be done in 5 turns. What this means is I have to figure out how to get a pair of settlers from my east up north where I want them. I was looking at ways of roading up north from Orandrad, but that was just a bit slow unless I took 4 workers to the job (didn't seem worth it), and on top of that I really didn't care about the Fish/Cow spot as much as I cared about the Sheep/Rice spot and the double Iron / double Clam spot. So in the end I figured out something like this:




Settlers will move north through the core along the blue lines. On t103 they both will be picked up north of Atuan by my galley and head north. One will be dropped off in Havnor t104 and then move east to settle the Sheep/Rice on t105. The other will continue on the galley north unloading on t106 and planting t107.

What isn't pictured is that my galley is going to need to shuttle some serious units around between now and t103. We need to get 2 more workers and some units for defense north. It has a worker on board it already; that worker is going to be dropped off on the plains hill to help chop out the granary in Havnor. It will come back and pick up an archer and axe north of Atuan on t99, then drop them off t100. Pick up a pair of workers t101, drop them off t102 and move to where the t103 sign is on the map. Meanwhile the 2 workers at Havnor (well, 1 is there and the other gets dropped off next turn), are going to double chop the granary at Havnor, build a road on the cow so the next settler can move into position in time, and then scoot east so they can be improving tiles for that city on t105 when it's founded. Not a lot of time if a barb unit comes along, but we'll have that chariot farther north that we can pull back south too.

Anyway, it's a tight fit, and we'll have a wasted worker movement here or there to get them in place in time, but that should get us everything we need. The nice thing is that we'll also have an area that will be relatively well staked out after planting these two spots, free from marauding Nicolae chariots or horchers.

I also included this screenshot because I wanted to show you guys what the resources in "my" area look like.

[pindicator]

Turn 098

I don't know if this is technically the right play, but we're going for it at Karego:



I'm going to assume that I'm going to lose the HG wonder race.  For one, chumchu has had the tech much longer and it fits with his traits very well.  And two, OT4E has that GE that he just needs to pop once he finally gets Math.  With that assumption in mind, Karego is making me 28gpt -- but only after paying the cost of the Aqueduct.

And if that assumption is wrong, then we should be getting Hanging Gardens in about 12 turns, just after we finish Currency and will be wanting to whip some markets.

[pindicator]

Turn 099

OH YEAH! 



Elkad is now my favorite person.  I probably won't invade him now, like ever.  Well, unless it's convenient, then I might

But seriously, this is such a huge boost for us.  I swapped every city that wasn't building a settler back to growth again -- and with the extra commerce those citizens are going to bring in, I think I can get Currency by end of t105.  I was even thinking about whipping the aquaduct at Karego for overflow into the wonder, but now I just want to grow that city again and work another mine, bringing it up to 31hpt.  Fired the specialists at Kameber to grow that guy a bit too.

Anyway, we're pulling in 40gpt now.  With all the population growth I'm figuring that goes up above 50gpt within the next 3 turns.  So we'll have enough gold to turn on science on t103.  This is where I should probably cut back the Hanging Gardens play and have Karego work it's cottages too, to bring in an extra 5gpt, but I really want to try for that wonder.  I only need to be pulling 160bpt in order to 3-turn Currency, and actually less because the scientists at Atuan are adding 9 beakers to the total every turn.  So taking that into account we just need to be making 150bpt.  And we make more than that already at max.  So I'm really feeling good about t105 for Currency.

Chumchu got Currency this last turn.  Another 4% bonus to my beakers

[pindicator]

Turn 100




I dunno...



What do you want to see?

[Commodore]

How you gonna win?

[pindicator]

How you gonna win?

See the afore mentioned shrug?

Also, when was the last time I played in a game that didn't have me dead or dying by this point?  I'm pretty much flying in unfamiliar territory here.

In all seriousness, I've got 3 ideas, and I don't really have to choose between either right now.  All them involve eating a neighbor, and one of them even lends itself to getting crazy and going after the other hub.  I haven't really fleshed either out, but here they are:

1)  HBR right away, kill someone now.  Or at least soonish.  Downside here is that OT4E would definitely be in place to pick up some pieces if I go after StarDoor, and if I go after Nyles it's going to be a tougher fight because he has a bunch of his military on my border.

2)  Knights.  After Currency and HBR tech to Guilds, kill someone later.  Guilds works well with EXP for cheap grocers, but I'm not sure that's all that much to get crazy about.  That's a bit farther out though.

3)  Astronomy.  Build swords and horchers now.  Get 2 scientists and bulb Astronomy.  Use the swords as "bullets" in galleon guns and horchers for controll/conquest.  What I like about this is this map is such a hugely friendly map for boating things.  And on top of that we're Creative so getting half-priced Observatories could be one of the nice ways of leveraging that trait into something of an economic boost.  But are we going to be building galleons or observatories?  And really, observatories are kind of the poor man's universities, so I'm not too thrilled about that either.

One neat thing about Galleons is I could choose to head east with them as well.  Chumchu?  Elkad?  Kim Jong Nicolae?  The options open up a bit more with Galleons.

Still, I really like the Astronomy idea.

[Commodore]

In all seriousness, I've got 3 ideas, and I don't really have to choose between either right now.  All them involve eating a neighbor, and one of them even lends itself to getting crazy and going after the other hub.  I haven't really fleshed either out, but here they are:

1)  HBR right away, kill someone now.  Or at least soonish.  Downside here is that OT4E would definitely be in place to pick up some pieces if I go after StarDoor, and if I go after Nyles it's going to be a tougher fight because he has a bunch of his military on my border.

2)  Knights.  After Currency and HBR tech to Guilds, kill someone later.  Guilds works well with EXP for cheap grocers, but I'm not sure that's all that much to get crazy about.  That's a bit farther out though.

3)  Astronomy.  Build swords and horchers now.  Get 2 scientists and bulb Astronomy.  Use the swords as "bullets" in galleon guns and horchers for controll/conquest.  What I like about this is this map is such a hugely friendly map for boating things.  And on top of that we're Creative so getting half-priced Observatories could be one of the nice ways of leveraging that trait into something of an economic boost.  But are we going to be building galleons or observatories?  And really, observatories are kind of the poor man's universities, so I'm not too thrilled about that either.

One neat thing about Galleons is I could choose to head east with them as well.  Chumchu?  Elkad?  Kim Jong Nicolae?  The options open up a bit more with Galleons.

Still, I really like the Astronomy idea.

Hum. Well, I'd most strongly advocate a laser-direct focus on a plan; flexibility is for bronze medalists.

Beyond that...I actually don't know. I'm reasonably certain that with those power numbers OT4E isn't going to snipe your StarDoor conquests so much as you snipe some of his. Given what I know about OT4E, he'd actually probably be a better neighbor if he felt like he took some of your gains than if you took some of his, but a strong border is going to be a must in any case. I don't think you're going to have much option, really in the end, he's going to be your neighbor to beat.