[SPOILERS] WillPlunder as Mehmed of Arabia: Noobs meet world

[WilliamLP]

A quiet builder turn. Gems will be online next turn, allowing for a little more vertical expansion empire-wide. A settler will finish next turn, and then another shortly after. Boldly is now in Representation.

Party in Molach's capital, with my scout, Oxy's scouting warrior, and a defending warrior:




The plan is to swing to the NW to see what Bandit's empire looks like, but I could argue for going more south too.

Getting a better idea of the geography to the southeast of us:




I think we're looking at Noodle Cove here, and it connects to a main ocean separating the two sides where our scouting axes are. Really if we wanted to land-grab a banana and gems site there I bet we could... I doubt anyone else in the area is currently as equipped to settle crap jungle cities right now, either technologically or psychologically. Oxy has copper so I doubt he'd have any reason to have iron this early.

This kind of settlement plan would be an economic drain though, and lead to a longish awkward border with Oxy. Still... perhaps does fortune favour the bold?

Demos:




Top GNP for the time being! But I know at least one other team has a higher capacity next turn. Be we will rise some more, too.

One could argue that this means we aren't settling enough cities. But I think it's going to be pretty important to have Calendar nearly as early as possible.

[Lord Parkin]

And also, I don't believe for a second, now that "he's" posted, that Lord Parkin is not your main. Busted!

damn did you trace our IP addresses or something?!

They're onto us! I mean, me... no, you.

You can tell I'm not him because we haven't built Stonehenge, we haven't aggresively planted our second city to claim the wet corn across the mountain range, and we're not winning.

But... maybe I just changed my personality and play style to fool everyone!

By the way, isn't this game supposed to be AI diplomacy? I notice someone's Warrior is named "I Am Exploring" in your most recent picture. Probably pretty minor, but is that sort of thing okay? (I have no idea how strict or not the rules are supposed to be.)

Congrats on the #1 GNP, even if it's only temporary.

I may have missed it, but which cities are you planning to settle next on your dotmap?

[NobleHelium]

I Am Exploring is kind of over the line but it's pretty obvious that he's exploring so I would let it be.

[Plunder]

I think "I am exploring" is kinda unacceptable, it does give information what would otherwise be unavailable. I this particular case it's maybe kinda obvious that that warrior is exploring, but if the names go to "I am attacking Azza" it's problematic. I guess one has to draw a line somewhere.

It would be nice if we could get some cities down the water early, just to avoid to be boated, or at least cover the coastal regions with our culture to at least make city placement for the others trouble some.

Did you notice the red-scout in the east earlier?

[WilliamLP]

I took it as a joke for I Am Molach, but it could be a slippery slope. I won't be the one to make a fuss over this case though.

Parkin: Next will be black dot immediately W of the capital, to be planted the turn after next. After that I'm not sure. I was thinking Red then Yellow, but going for the newly discovered banana / gems site is tempting.

Plunder: Yeah, the red scout is how we met Azza. Which water do you mean? Any interest in rushing a city south of Noodle Bay to claim banana and gems? I'm kind of tempted by it since though it's far from the capital and will suck for a while, it makes a strong claim on the whole waterway being ours, and also gems mean it will most definitely pay for itself.




The proposed site would be 1E of the banana. 1N of the banana isn't nuts either.

Also this could be crazy but if there were ever a game to consider Serfdom, this is it, with high happiness and tons of worker turns needed.

[WilliamLP]

So Noodle Bay is actually Noodle Lake!




We'll check out that barb city of courseAnd Oxy planted a new city last turn that is shown. If we want to race to settle a spot there we need to do it with our next settler, which comes out in 2 turns. We do have significantly higher power than Oxy right now. It would be nice to know how Oxy's empire is shaped, and how close to his capital this is.

It's time for a long term gameplan, maybe? We might be at a crossroads here. If we rush to settle here we get some nice extra land, but have a much more difficult border to defend. If we ignore it we can focus defenses in Alfredo, shore up, and fill in and develop the rest of our natural land.

And then our long term expansion plans might be... war with Kuro? They are in second last place right now, and could be falling behind in GNP. I suspect we can beat them to Maces or Knights (Camels). And their land to the north of the mountain range is pretty nice. Their capital is still size 3 right now, which seems pretty weak.

Here's some more info about Molach's land:




There's ocean to the south of him. Our capitals are pretty far apart, so fortunately we're not natural geographic enemies with Rome.

I probably screwed up in Alfredo:




I put the granary chop overflow into a monument without thinking too much, but I suspect it would have been better to wait and whip a Madrassa instead and not waste 30 hammers. Oh well, we'll get a little bit earlier border pop like this and the culture in a border city isn't useless.

Here's how city counts are doing:

Us: 5. (6 next turn).
Boldly: 6
Bandit: 5
Molach: 6
KuroBaII: 7
Azza: 4
Oxy: 6 (including the one immediately settled)

So we're basically at par for this bunch. All the players we haven't met are the score leaders though: Sisu, Suttree, and Retep. I wonder if we're looking at two (or more?) continents in this game.

[NobleHelium]

Well "I am attacking Azza" would surely be unacceptable.

[Commodore]

...unless it's the name of every unit of a stack literally at war with him, next to his city. Then it's just hilariously literal.

[WilliamLP]

Oxy settled his seventh city last turn. Here's the situation with our south and the barb city:




He has an axe that will beat us to the barb city by 1 turn... unless he's been waiting around for it to grow to size 2 all along or something. I'm guessing he doesn't know about our axe to the north. His worker is roading the hill which suggests he might be planning for that barb site to be part of his empire. This wouldn't be the end of the world, but it does mean he's our immediate neighbour on both sides of Noodle Lake, with a head start in land.

I also wonder if he'll keep open borders with us, allowing the axe on the west side to scout his city. It would be an interesting situation if there are multiple warriors in the barb city and we stand there playing chicken or something. I don't think I can afford to keep that barb city site right now, but I'd much rather it be razed than to let Oxy have it.

I feel like we're just a little behind in the land grab game. But I'm thinking that grabbing a jungle site to the East of Alfredo isn't worth it right now. We have a ton of jungle and long term investments already, and not enough worker turns to go around. The advantages we do have are good room for a vertical empire after Calendar, and also a nice shrine boosted economy. (Prophet is due in 13 turns.) Eventually sheer land mass wins, but we'll be competitive in tech I think, for a long time.

I double whipped a monastery in Spaghetti, and now its job will be to build a few missionaries.

Here's Ravioli, our sixth city:




It's not really going to work the clams - the capital gets more benefit right now with a lighthouse and library. I'm thinking this city will be the Moai site, and that we will build it stoneless more or less immediately, right after a granary and lighthouse. It will get the first Missionary for a border pop. This is a slower border pop than I would like, but it has things to do in first ring, sharing the clams from the capital if necessary.

I highly doubt we can get stone anytime soon. The only source we know of is Boldly's team, and as IND there's no way they'd trade it. So... that makes Ravioli another very long term investment. However it will be able to build a few workers / settlers, using overflow to fuel Moai production. Moai's too good not to build I think, even at 250 hammers.

The seventh settler comes out next turn, and I'm thinking I'm heading to the E to settle the high food coastal site (marked by red dot a page or two back).

[Plunder]

would it be possible to send a worker over to that copper?