[SPOILER] PB37 Dark Savant tries not to be a blatant MP n00b

[Dark Savant]

Turn 60 (1600 BC) - Part 3

Coeurva played his turn in the meantime.  He moved his visible warrior up the seam in our territory.  If he advances further, our spear can kill it if we feel like it, but I think he realizes I might well treat that as an aggressive move.

Crag Hack, our solitary axe, moves towards Castleview.

With no sign of real action from Coeurva, I whipped the barracks in Sorpigal.  It can complete a work boat with the overflow next turn, which is intended for the whales all the way up at Castleview (yay RtR change).  In the meantime, it can get some scouting done if we get circumnavigation, since otherwise it can reach Castleview so quickly that we won't have Sailing yet for whaling boats.  I'd like to scout the islands east of our core with this boat, since the next two work boats are for Sorpigal's second-ring seafood.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 60 (1600 BC) - Part 4 (C&D)

Score tally:

• CML: +3 points for +1 pop; -3 points for a -1 pop whip this turn (11 pop total)
  
• Coeurva: +2 points for +1 pop (13 pop total)
  
• GermanJoey: +2 points for +1 pop; +3 points for planting city #4 seen by our scout (12 pop total)
  
• Krill: +3 points for planting city #4 (14 pop total).  It's called 12 Monkeys.  That, uh, isn't by George Orwell?    I guess its director is famous for dystopias, but still.  Also, ugh, he already has 4 cities without an early expansion trait!
  
• Ventessel: +3 points for +1 pop (8 pop total)
  

The new cities of GermanJoey and Krill combine for a total of 8 new land tiles.  Heavenly Star has at least 5 of those.  (edit: JR4's Buddhist holy city would have also expanded this turn, but either it already expanded or it claimed a tiny number of new tiles.)

No one completed a technology this turn.

Power watch (for last turn):

• Coeurva: completed an axe (or otherwise got +6000 power).
  
• Gavagai: only got the +1000 power for +2 pop.
  
• Krill: built a military unit that looks like a spear?  (+4000 power)  What does he need that many early spears for?  He can't possibly have had Animal Husbandry for long enough to have built a chariot, and he gained no pop that turn.
  

Ventessel still hasn't declared war on Krill, though he has yet to play this turn.  His military buildup looks like a complete bust to me, so I'm projecting him to be eaten by Krill and GermanJoey.  In fact, I wonder if we should just point espionage away from him, but we might as well at least get graphs since we're already close to it.

The technology Krill got 2 turns ago cannot be Archery, since it did not cause a power spike.  In fact, he didn't gain any soldier score at all that turn, so I doubt it's Animal Husbandry, which I don't think he's had the research power to get even with his absurd capital.  But he was rather slow in getting The Wheel back on t52, so his tech might actually be Priesthood, and I'm marking Krill as a threat to build the Oracle.

[Dark Savant]

Incidentally, we're getting 4 EP per turn put into us -- Gavagai 2/turn and Ventessel 2/turn.  GermanJoey hasn't started; Krill for some reason put 2 EP and then stopped (uh ... is there some game reason for this I don't know?  That's one lurkers can answer); Coeurva put several points into us and then stopped shortly after we stopped.

Also, I don't believe anyone else is a threat to circumnavigation.  We know of no one who has made contact with a non-neighbor, and we haven't seen any scouts, impis, or work boats show up out of the blue.  If it's possible, we should get credit for circumnavigation on t62 or t63.

[ipecac]

-do we want/need the whales so soon? if not the overflow at Sorpigal would be good for a granary.

-2EPs from Krill could be because of the computer auto-assigning EP spending to us, then Krill stopping that once he noticed.

-Krill and Oracle: well, you were wondering in gchat how Krill might get Prophet points for shrine.

Could you summarise the Ventessel situation? He built some military but didn't attack Krill?

[Dark Savant]

One other thing I forgot: since I didn't know that a whip could come in during an unpause, that "razed city" of CML's ~10 turns ago could have been a whip.

Though maybe not, since they're definitely in some sort of tense situation.  Not terribly surprising in CML's case since he put production into Stonehenge, though dtay seems to be in rough shape.  However, that would be strange, since dtay is Aggressive and has impis and CML isn't and doesn't.  It'd be clearer if I could just make contact with them to confirm city count, since they're the only ones who I'm unclear on city count on to begin with (a reason to actually make contact with them).

-do we want/need the whales so soon? if not the overflow at Sorpigal would be good for a granary.

I think we do, both for the tile yield and the happiness.  It'd take a while for the granary to come in at Sorpigal anyway; my thought is that it'd be better to develop some food tiles and whip the granary later.  Though now that you've asked I'll re-think this (the turn still hasn't rolled).

-2EPs from Krill could be because of the computer auto-assigning EP spending to us, then Krill stopping that once he noticed.

Well, I was operating on the assumption that Krill didn't make a mistake.  

-Krill and Oracle: well, you were wondering in gchat how Krill might get Prophet points for shrine.

I'm still wondering, as you did in chat, why Krill even wanted a religion that badly on this map, which is a question I was asking before the game even started.  JR4 and CML have better reasons to chase religion from what I can see.

Could you summarise the Ventessel situation? He built some military but didn't attack Krill?

Ventessel has built significant military in response to the proximity of Animal Farm.  He has at least two axes and a chariot, and very likely more, all with still just two cities.  His chariot seemed to be produced without a barracks, and only got a promotion because it killed that barb warrior.

It still almost certainly isn't enough to break through, especially now that Krill can actually whip defenders in an emergency, which was his main problem.  Krill built a barracks before his units, so his units have two promotions over Ventessel's.  The best Ventessel can do is pillage some of Krill's seven resources, or take a front city if Krill planted in the gap between them.

Aside from non-Aggressive vs. Aggressive, Ventessel didn't commit to a rush hard enough by chopping all the forests near his two cities -- that might have given him enough units to crash through.

But he didn't, and at most he's just slowed down Krill's snowball some; some of those forests we saw Krill chopping clearly went into that barracks, spear, and axe that we saw.

Ventessel is ending his turns late in the turn cycle every turn lately (even when he rolls the turn), sometimes logging in before actually ending turn, and both last turn and this turn he's been the slacker, forcing other people to pause the game for him.  I thought he was angling for the latter half of the turn split, but now I suspect he realizes he can't win and is demoralized.

Also, no other third party can possibly know more than a little of this -- neither of their other neighbors has contact with the other.

[ipecac]

If you met Krill after her ended turn, I think the computer could have automatically assigned EPs to you.

Ventessel is ending his turns late in the turn cycle every turn lately (even when he rolls the turn), sometimes logging in before actually ending turn, and both last turn and this turn he's been the slacker, forcing other people to pause the game for him. I thought he was angling for the latter half of the turn split, but now I suspect he realizes he can't win and is demoralized.

Bah. We need him to hold out as long as possible.

[Dark Savant]

If you met Krill after her ended turn, I think the computer could have automatically assigned EPs to you.

Ventessel is ending his turns late in the turn cycle every turn lately (even when he rolls the turn), sometimes logging in before actually ending turn, and both last turn and this turn he's been the slacker, forcing other people to pause the game for him.  I thought he was angling for the latter half of the turn split, but now I suspect he realizes he can't win and is demoralized.

Bah. We need him to hold out as long as possible.

Well, in the tech thread he just said that he needs to plan his play time better, so he'll bring a laptop to work.

But Krill said when Ventessel would be playing today.  It's a little strange that he both knows that when Ventessel said nothing publicly, and would say so publicly.

Oh well, we'll see what happens, it's not like there is anything we can do but observe.

[Dark Savant]

Actually, there must exist a land connection northeast of Sandro.  I just noticed that the body of water to his north is fresh water.

So the only thing that can stop me moving Sandro northeast is a peak or city, or getting killed.  (Okay, not the right word -- Sandro is undead. )  That can still easily happen, since that strip of land is narrow compared to the other northeastern connections to other players.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 61 (1560 BC) - Part 1

Turn just rolled, and I played a partial turn, but would very much like your input.

Let's start with the less urgent stuff.  No one got circumnavigation together; I moved Sandro and Gem closer together:



That should do it, if it's enabled in the DLL as it seems to and if no one else gets it this turn.

Note also that there's an island with marble east of Ventessel's start position, just like ours.  That suggests we should look for horse island to our east too.  And yeah, some of those horses are 2f4h1c, because they are forested.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 61 (1560 BC) - Part 2

Next up, Ventessel.  Just as he rolled the turn, he did a 1 pop whip and a 2 pop whip.  That leaves him with only 5 population, half that of second-to-last.

We also got graphs on Ventessel this turn.  From the culture graph, he did build one barracks.  And uh, look at this:



Yeah, Ventessel's spiking hard, and that doesn't show the two units he presumably just whipped, either.  I don't think this can be anything other than an all-in attack on Krill.  Ventessel again did not end the turn despite being the turn roll player, and again did not actually declare war upon Krill.

But we've got other potential problems: Coeurva is also spiking hard.  That's a power spike of about +12,000 last turn, so he likely has 4 axes now.  I think he's Up To Something.  Coeurva did not get any power from either population or new technology last turn.

I don't think he's attacking us, but we have to have something ready.  We need at least one chariot, perhaps two, and I can shift the axe I was moving north back south too (but that would require whipping a unit in Castleview to cover everything, which I'd prefer to avoid).

The worker due at Harmondale next turn can overflow into a chariot.  I can 2-pop whip the settler at Castle Ironfist next turn and complete a chariot with the overflow (no barracks there, though; I was hoping to complete a barracks with the overflow).

What do you think the proper response is?  I'd love to get away with as much as a builder's game as possible.  These are axes; it'd take quite a while for them to get to us.  He can't possibly have chariots, thankfully.

We know his Coeurva's neighbor is CML; we know CML has tense borders with dtay; Coeurva's thread is a busy place, he's likely inferred that too; Coeurva knows we're Aggressive with barracks; Coeurva already accidentally implied some sort of conflict with CML; and Coeurva isn't putting any EP into us, which may or may not be a sign he has peaceful intentions towards us.

So I think CML is the actual target, and we probably can get away with building, but I want to know how little military you think we can get away with.  I'm sorely tempted to not change my plans at all and trust my read of Coeurva.

I'll certainly try to avoid ending turn until I can see what Coeurva does, and to give you a chance to put in a word.