[spoilers] Gaspar and Commodore welcome you to the islands, mon!

[Commodore]

Ah well, it happens sometimes. By all means take it, might be another 2-3 hours before I can play it.

[Gaspar]

Okay. I'll try and do an old-school Gaspar report since my reports have been terrible of late.

First off, I saved the game after looking at it then went ahead to play PBEM24. I loaded that save rather than the fresh one and check this bug out:



I actually think overall that'd suck for us. No real value in pretty much any of those Civics save Free Market for us at the moment. I wonder if it would keep those Civics if I didn't reload the original save? 2T of Anarchy no less.

Anyway, moving back to reality... Alphabet in, research set to Feudalism at 0%. I think we should hold off on the revolt until we capture the Pyramids and/or research a religious Civic. As I look at Mr.Einstein, birthed in the Echo Isles, I seriously debate whether the Optics bulb is still worth it. We already control the seas, can produce more Triremes than Sian can if necessary, and don't really need Caravels for anything until potential regoarrarr hostilities commence. What we will need soon however, is a Golden Age. Both to catch up a bit and to get free revolts. Since we'd like a Prophet next, that means we're 2 GPs away from a GA with no buildings to support quicker growth. Another scientist alone would be 22 turns right now. I think we can hold onto the Scientist a turn without suffering anything as there are no places where I really feel a Caravel build is required. What do you think, Commodore?



Onto the turn itself. As previously stated, we lost the numids to spear attacks and Sian revolted to war civics. Here's the situation around Zits before I do anything:



So basically I just continued my unit shuffling. 3 more units land next turn, and we pick up a few more and start moving them towards the front as well. Maybe we really should wait 2-3 more turns until we have overwhelming force in the area. I went ahead and pillaged the mine because 2g seemed a decent price for my general spite.



I whipped a couple places to kill off some Hippies, but mostly leaving things to heal. We can get a couple crossbows to the front soonish. Really had to fight the instinct to whip the Galley in Revantusk. Here's a look at the builds:



And the demos, such as they are:



I signed the crap out of everything again. The 2 galleys in Revantusk are heading back to pick up X-bows/Numids from the mainland. D-Day is approaching, one way or another.

[Commodore]

Anyway, moving back to reality... Alphabet in, research set to Feudalism at 0%. I think we should hold off on the revolt until we capture the Pyramids and/or research a religious Civic. As I look at Mr.Einstein, birthed in the Echo Isles, I seriously debate whether the Optics bulb is still worth it. We already control the seas, can produce more Triremes than Sian can if necessary, and don't really need Caravels for anything until potential regoarrarr hostilities commence. What we will need soon however, is a Golden Age. Both to catch up a bit and to get free revolts. Since we'd like a Prophet next, that means we're 2 GPs away from a GA with no buildings to support quicker growth. Another scientist alone would be 22 turns right now. I think we can hold onto the Scientist a turn without suffering anything as there are no places where I really feel a Caravel build is required. What do you think, Commodore?

Firstly, I think I need to communicate better. I'm sorry, I had the Explorer there to protect a Numid stack. Looks like an outside chance in taking Zits next turn if he's dumb enough to avoid building a mace there.

RE:The Scientist. This seems very early for a GA in general, and I generally like to have an early GA either able to make a couple GP or the Taj to make a second. The turn lost revolting ain't exactly doing much for us either right now...that being said, five turns from now things look different. I need to examine our tech screen and see where we are, relative to the rivals. Certainly, no massive need for caravels right this moment.

[Gaspar]

Firstly, I think I need to communicate better. I'm sorry, I had the Explorer there to protect a Numid stack. Looks like an outside chance in taking Zits next turn if he's dumb enough to avoid building a mace there.

Nah, just silly impetuousness on my part.

RE:The Scientist. This seems very early for a GA in general, and I generally like to have an early GA either able to make a couple GP or the Taj to make a second. The turn lost revolting ain't exactly doing much for us either right now...that being said, five turns from now things look different. I need to examine our tech screen and see where we are, relative to the rivals. Certainly, no massive need for caravels right this moment.

I think an early GA has its uses - though this is probably not one of those times. Its an and/or situation, once we research CoL Optics is off the table and I think sitting on a GP this early is foolish.

[Commodore]

Got it. Upshot, he got in a mace, but in two turns we'll have options with crossbows. Meanwhile, I tempted him with flatland trash that might have him expose stuff outside of the walls.

[Commodore]

This was a turn of not-doing. The G2 explorer took to the hills and spotted a second mace, this one in Donald Duck. If it tries to make it to Zits, we can most likely smash it beyond all walls.



I figured hey, why not give him even more shots at screwing up? The every single unit out from under the main stack can be taken out, but that's not to his advantage here. His very best shot is to try to kill the G2 explorer with his Zits mace and then bull-rush through with the DD mace against the Numidian, but even that will come out with us retaking the hill.



The medic and a CR1 axe are aboard the western galley, and could probably profitably be dropped off at DD, the Numidian on the grass hill mine, the axe 1S of that to tempt an attack across the river. If he declines, the axe can move to the plains hill across the river and the medic go via wines towards the Zits front. Generating mistakes for the win. *



Okay, here's the vital bit of micro. The Shadowhunter, selected here, has two crossbows which, promoted to Drill 1, are the units that can actually hurt Sian's maces. The galley is too far away to get them into play in two turns, but it can move 1SW, transfer to another galley, and that galley can chain to the next, etc. This will get three crossbows in range the turn after next. *(Possibly worthwhile to upgrade an archer too, see what's available).



The Shadowhunter only moves one because there's still more to pick up, Zandalar is making a 1-turn crossbow on overflow, bless its little heart. Definitely need to look into getting the ToA in play here.



Einstein sat on his duff once more this turn. I really think we'd be best served by the Optics bulb, but I'm willing to hear counter-arguments still. No rush, Feudalism is a 3-turn tech at 100% and then CoL is two turns, plus whatever gold saving is needed. Thanks to a large number of markets and the cothon power, our gold saving is actually pretty good.



Here's the tech screen, actually not as horrific as I thought it'd be. We're behind, but I'm skeptical of the utility of Civil Service on this map, and the Literature/Music train is still available.* Of course, everyone else can see when we go for it too now.



A final note, I fired the scientists via the whip in Echo Isle, our first natural-made forge is online. A celebratory whip of a galley is called for, I think, for the Shadowprey site, then a couple workers ferried to marble. Things are looking up domestically. *



[SIZE="1"]*we hope[/SIZE]

[Mardoc]

So, we're skeptical of the value of bulbing Optics to save the 2-3 turns of research. Well...I can't help but notice that nearly next on the list is Astronomy. Which costs a heck of a lot more, and as far as I can tell, is available as soon as we have Optics + Calendar. Can a GSci finish it? And if so - what do you think about going for that? I bet Galleons would be more useful than caravels .

[NobleHelium]

I assure you Optics is not 2-3 turns of research...

[Mardoc]

I assure you Optics is not 2-3 turns of research...

Well, it's only double Alphabet, which I think we managed in 2. So ok, 4-5 turns, plus gold saving.

Anyway, I just want to throw the idea out there.

[NobleHelium]

Yeah, the gold saving is the important part. Tech speed at 100% is meaningless.