[SPOILERS]The Tyrant realizes that once the world burns it gets really boring....

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Lurkers, are you as bored by this thread as I think you are?

Thread isn't boring. I do wonder what you plan on doing to get into a better position to win the game though.

The Plan: 'Phracts.
Corollary to the Plan: Hope that Sisu isn't too far ahead by then.
Corollary to the Corollary: Prevent Sisu from getting too far ahead to be too far ahead to 'Phract.

Lurkers, are you as bored by this thread as I think you are?

Thread isn't boring. I do wonder what you plan on doing to get into a better position to win the game though.

I'm pretty bored by the game, not the thread, but I guess I'm splitting hairs. As for what to do about it, I assume we'll try to kill anyone we get a chance to. Ride the representation wave to catch up in tech a bit, go after HBR + Archery, build a force, and see if Sisu can survive it. If he can, we're boned, probably. If not, maybe we're back in the game.

I'll take over turns and ease your burden. I know you're sick of Civ at this point. Also, we're not boned, we're doing fine. Ok, not great, but ok. Byzantium is slow as hell, we have more jungle than anything else, the map is (vastly, seemingly) unbalanced, and we've had some (but not all) bad barb luck. Overall, we're doing about as well as I would expect, given those things. We're not financial and we don't have a multiple flood plains city, so we're going to be behind in tech basically no matter what we could do. I think landing Mids is going to be about the best thing we could hope to do. Then we can farmer's gambit a bit. We'll have a couple of 6/3 settler whips ready after Mids finish (overflow for libraries), then we'll grab up some easy locations (double clams and the rice/cow/clam spot) and get those productive ASAP. The questions is do we go for Math/CoL, which will certainly take eons but is an absolute must to get to Currency, or do we go Archery/HBR and stake our game on beating up on Sisu? We won't have metal until ~T88, so a lot can happen between now and then, but I don't think it is in our best interest to do anything to him...yet.

What I would like to do is build those couple of cities, then when we get bronze online we whip out ~4 axes and take all the barb cities we can find. There are a few in the neighborhood that we should have a decent shot at, especially the one to our direct north. We can crash the economy and run 0% slider and build libraries for the Representation specialists. That can get us limping to Currency until we can build a little wealth and get things going properly. Also, we actually NEED IW, as two of our four cities are total gimps until we get the jungle chopped.

So, whaddya think?

[spacetyrantxenu]

Sounds like a plan to me. We need more cities (with libraries) to run a bunch of specialists anyway, we can only run two scientists at a time. Go wide or go home. Going tall with CHA / rep is for civs with good land to highly develop. We're having to play pokemon and grab all the tiles, so aim wide for now. Go tall in the capital if it makes sense there -- we're going to need cottages to get us through Currency, so grow the cap tall on cottages, I guess. Run specialists elsewhere (and at the Mister Love when we're at the happy cap).

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

T82

Or, the turn we piled up more rocks for make improvement of happy society.

No splash screen, so here it is:




Mids. Mission Accomplished.

So, now what? I outlined a basic plan in my last post and that seems as good as anything else I've come up with, so we'll go with that. Here are some basic thoughts on how to go on from here, from a chat I had with Brick this morning.

Brick: Mids mids midz?
BGN: PB11. got mids
Brick: Mids! mids mids mids mids MIDS mids mids
BGN: yup. not revolting this turn
Brick: mids mids )
BGN: Going to wait until we get a settler on the move. Only one city is unhappy this turn but it will be happy again next turn and we aren't running any specialists until we finish writing anyway. Probably next turn will be a good turn to triple whip a settler. We don't really have enough workers though to set up the cow/rice/clam spot.
Brick: yeah, smart
BGN: I'm spending the turn building the settler in the capital since it is the unhappy city. Unhappy folks don't eat when you're building a settler/worker. I think I'd rather whip the settler out of HF though and keep the cap growing on cottages. HF is building TGW for a second turn. I want it to get closer to insta-recovery before triple whipping a settler there. Once it swaps to settler I'll start building TGW in the capital for fail gold. Those who can't build wealth... ya know?
Brick: heh. Do what you can. yay for fail gold.
BGN: I don’t have any practice running a SE, so this should be interesting.
Brick: with mids and with some of Sisu's goodies if we can get them, I think we're in a really strong position.
BGN: I'm wondering about Sisu. He's built up a lot of military. He must see that we don't have copper yet, although we will shortly.
Brick: yeah

Nothing groundbreaking. Basically I throw out ideas and Brick is a very agreeable fellow. Xenu, care to shoot holes in my plans?

I took a bunch of pics this turn. Here are our cities:

Mister Love again. We have only 1t of whip unhappiness remaining, thus the settler build. The savings of 2f is totally offset by building the lighthouse a turn later, but whatever. Within 10t, we'll whip this sucker before hammers spoil. I'd like to stagger the 3-pop whips between here and HF so that we don't have so many tiles unused. We'll see how that goes. I'm laying down cottages here while we still have the workers around.




Still building TGW while we grow. I'm pretty much hoping that someone else will build this for us so we can cash in on failgold. Yo XENU, are spies banned? I can't remember and can't be bothered to look it up right now. Basically this would be for the GG/IMP bonus if nothing else, but as crappy as our GNP is, I think we need the money worse to catch up on techs. I don't love working the unimproved forest, but it's only 1h worse than the mine that will finish next turn. What do you think, 2 more turns of TGW, then swap to settler, then 3pop whip? We're really slow expanding, maybe I should just swap next turn and whip the thing the following turn and swap to Representation. I think clams city before cow/rice/clam because we don't have any workers for cow/rice/clam just yet.




I just hate this city right now, but it's a sight better than it was, for sure. +5f and growing one cottage for us. Until we hook up some happy (which I suppose means settling for Ivory in more shitty jungle), we'll keep working these four tiles (cottage the river grass) and work two scientists.

Preview edit: We'll be swapping into Representation, so on me. Add in a few cottages as needed from this point out. I don't feel like retyping everything.




Another city that has been basically a net zero for us so far, finally about to do...something for us. Size 4, swap to worker, double whip. I'm sending a worker from Mister Love's Mids chopping spree back here. I want to chop the two forests. I can only cottage the flat grass, and I can mine the other, as well as the bare mine. Again, size 6: Corn, cottage, 1-2 grass mines, 1-2 scientist(s).

Keep plugging along on that lighthouse, buddy. At least when borders pop we can speed that up a bit. BTW, this piece of shit is tied for second in bpt in our so-called "empire" with 6 beakers.

We haven't showed this yet, so diplo screens and other sundry:

Surely Sisu has noted we lack metal, and the power chart indicates a build up (see the end of this post). We're tied in city count for the moment. We've built two wonders and have the same number of cities. Am I to suppose that their extra hammers have gone to units? I suppose I do. I hope they aren't aiming at us, given how bad that jungle looks. But, we don't have metals and we do have 'Mids. We can't get that bronze hooked fast enough... Sisu does not have Writing, which is the obvious economic move. This is a bit disconcerting. Could he have gone for Archery/HBR instead?




Suttree has been ripping up the crop yield all game, so it's no surprise we're behind (even with us capturing a barb city). Writing has been researched.




Writing has been researched, tied in city count for now. I expect Oxy gets another city down before we do.




Has Writing (we already have OB). Early gold is definitely a plus. Plenty of good resources available, it seems. Tied on city count, but again, I'd be surprised if we get another city down before they do.




Has Writing, despite being relieved of a city already. His power is also rising, so more blood seems to be in store here.




No Writing, tied on city count, not much in the way of variety of resources. I can't quite figure out what these guys have been doing so far. Based on the scoreboard, not much, but that oft is misleading. Still though...




I turned the boat around to get closer to a potential city founded on double clams. No need to open borders here.




Turns out retep is the builder of TGL, so no open borders here either. My His empire for a galley/warrior.




Confirmation of retep having TGL. Nothing to see here folks, just ignore our lack of metal and bounty of wonders...

Has Writing, no metals but horses, and a nice luxury. Who needs CHM/Henge when the map gives you goodies?




Nice GNP. I think that was Sisu, probably getting Writing finally. Yes, we're dead last in soldier count, by a single warrior/population point. Gulp.




Hopefully Azza is going to do some noob bashing (Sisu!!!).

[Commodore]

Calendar rush? Or going to setup Christian?

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Calendar rush? Or going to setup Christian?

Well, saying rush is a bit of a stretch with our current tech rate, but sooner rather than later is probably accurate. But we have other needs to address as well, notably Iron Working. On the other hand, going for Theology would take less investment and we would get a better return on either of building units (Theocracy bonus) or putting up infrastructure. And then there is the benefit of having a religion. If I could choose, I'd take the religion right now. We shouldn't have a problem getting a second priest for a shrine if we really need one. Realistically, if we go for a religion we will be building libraries and granaries and a barracks here or there as we will be ages away from courts and markets. Definitely something to think about here. I do not anticipate winning MoM in any case. Sisu should beat us there if he's trying.

[spacetyrantxenu]

Shooting holes in your plan: We need military soon. I'd feel better with Archery soon and at least put some archers in our two front cities. I know we have metal coming but archers are cheap and effective until catapults come into play. And by then we'll have some power going ourselves, I assume.

RE: Spies - Espionage: Can't build spies, Great Spies must be settled or used for Golden Age. So we can't infiltrate anyone or use it for a super scout (did we specifically ban that? Anyone?) I guess the language of the rule is quite specific, only two options, so that rules out scouting...unless you scout first and then use it for a GA or settle later on. But no...I doubt that was the intent. I assume it has to stay inside our cultural borders. If anyone remembers the conversation from the setup thread feel free to chime in. It doesn't matter, though, we're going to get that 2% Engineer!

As for Sisu's buildup, wasn't he just at war? If he got attacked I'm sure he built up a force to fight off the aggressor. If he has units left over maybe he'll turn them toward us, but I have to think he'll keep his focus and military presence focused on whoever just attacked him. At least I hope so. But yeah, as soon as the copper comes online I'd like to see some axes and a few spears ASAP. And get eyes on Sisu's border if possible. When we can get OBs with him I'd say do it and park a unit in his front city to keep an eye on things.

[NobleHelium]

"Must be settled" means they cannot be used as scouts.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

I don't want to open borders with Sisu. We have an island trade route. We can nearly as we'll just put a couple sentries in the jungle. Really, though, the jungle ought to defend us. Why slog through a nasty fight (for surely BGN & Xenu like to fight, right?) just to win more jungle that is not easily integrated into his empire? Sisu is going to be a tech monster. Better for him to sit back and play the long game. Now, that's the rational approach. I don't know if he has the patience/ability to play the long game.

I don't care for archery much, truth be told. We will hook up metal and flash a few units at Sisu so he knows not to bother "Ho, ho, ho, Now I have a spear"-style. Let's keep pushing economy. Or Iron Working, that's valid too. I don't want to play to not lose, I want to play to win. We may have to play a little loose wih defense to get our economy up. Also, a few extra axes can do some barb adventuring for us And maybe get us caught up on city count. Who knows?

---

If you see us holding up the turn this weekend, go ahead and play. My wife has a friend in town and she is staying in the computer room. I can probably cover but be aware anyway. Thanks. I've already played this turn, just Azza and the vacationing Molach to go.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Hmm... looks like the last turn I reported was T82. Here are some pics from previous turns:

T83




Getting roads in place to found the rice/cows/clams city. I've noticed that when I draw lines that the lines aren't there when I next log into pitboss. Any reason for this? I'm assuming just another little quirk of the game.




Pre-whips, Writing-inflated GNP. Ehhh...




Azza is looking for some revenge, it would appear.

T84




Well, we have an option if we decide to not go for Theology.




So much for thoughts of capturing this little beauty. It was a pipe dream anyway, retep was always going to get here first. And, I let half our chariot army die anyway.




Retep has more cities, about to be 3 more by next turn. We gotta turn up our expansion speed.




Looking....good?

T85




Hmm. More cities than us. No thanks on the OB, for now.




That would be why they have more cities. I may not let this stand. It's pretty far from any other Kuro city, and if push comes to shove, I'm pretty sure I can take Kuro. Axes!




Retep, lover of ice cream and other finery, has another city. He definitely bears watching. I can't let him get all that land to his west.




The turn of many whips. Last place military, so whip away 7 pop on workers/settlers.




Owwwww..... Azza's thread title is a self-fulling prophecy, seemingly. That, or wetbandit is no noob.




We better make these Mids pay, eh? We've dug our hole, time to climb!




Hey, someone with as few cities as us! Thanks...Azza?? And with two settlers on the move, we'll be ahead shortly. I declined OB for now, I still have my overseas trade route, and I have no idea where wetbandit's land is, so no freebies from me.

T86

I'm pretty sure I just moved the workers and revolted to Representation while both workers are on the move. I really didn't want to wait ~15t to tech to Monotheism for Organized Religion.




Revolting/Revolted. Revolted/Revolting.

[spacetyrantxenu]

I'm not sure that Wetbandit having a city name with a % in it is a good idea. Isn't that how Twinkletoes became the original nuclear rage quitter?