[Spoilers] Breaking Newbs: A Title I Already Regret Writing

[Bobchillingworth]

Btw, REM's copper is kind of unfortunately positioned, with the land not being particularly conducive to setting as a first expansion- and with Jowy expanding toward him, that could make him vulnerable to War Chariots. Should that occur, I would very likely jump in with Skirms. Eliminating Byzantium early would be excellent.

[Bobchillingworth]

Second expansion:




I'm happy with the location- it'll establish a decent border with REM, and it should give me a lock on an excellent Moai location a few tiles to the south.


Capital just whipped a Granary- I'll build a warrior, perhaps overflow into a Skirm, and then complete a Worker followed by a Settler.


Oddly neither Cornflakes nor REM has three cities yet, despite both having settled their first expansion quite a few turns before mine. I'm fairly satisfied with my double Worker opening so far.

[Bobchillingworth]

Hey look an update:


Settled a new city:




I'm at 4 (including the capital), as is Jowy and Cornflakes. REM has 3, which judging by score is very likely the case for retep as well.


That's about it for my civ status. Doing okay keeping up with expansion I guess, and I've got a few skirms so I'm not too worried about being attacked atm, right now I desperately need more workers.


The main reason I wanted to update was to further demonstrate after my PBEM 54 thread the wonders of Settler Scouting-


I built another Settler at the end of my turn. Let's have some fun with him:










The Settler's potential city radius shows that Cornflake's latest city isn't actually near me by land, even though the culture is visible. In fact I can narrow it's potential location down to being one of two tiles, depending on whether he has popped his borders or not. This also proves that it's on the same landmass (which admittedly was always extremely likely), otherwise I'd be able to settle 2 tiles away from the city center, on the coast.


Other interesting stuff the Settler revealed:





The REM / Jowy border remains unsettled. Seems REM is relying on culture to claim his copper.





Jowy has not yet begun to settle toward me.





REM has not expanded to his SE either.





Neither has he settled his NW. This means the only place his second expansion could be is the SW. The same is the case for Jowy. Interesting that my empire has a strong north-to-south bias, whereas both of them are settling along a diagonal.

[The Black Sword]

That is one very nice city.

[Bobchillingworth]

This map is so rich, it would be hard to not settle excellent cities






Latest city. Not an optimal location at the moment, but it'll be pretty good with two seafood after the borders expand, and I needed to grab it soon to make sure it was culturally viable. Def. going to eventually stick the Moai here. It's also vulnerable to a flanking attack, although less so while a certain jungle tile remains. REM doesn't seem to be building his power much at the moment though.


I'm also tied for most cities. Jowy offered OB, I accepted. Neither of us has units close to the other, as far as I can tell. He'll be a natural ally vs. my closest neighbor (REM, obv.), so I'm happy to humor him.


I realize that 90% of my player analysis has focused on Jowy, but I think that's the key to this game- it is inevitable that Jowy will slam into someone, and that player will almost certainly lose. Whoever can capitalize on the conflict has an excellent chance of winning.

[Bobchillingworth]

This is utterly baffling:







Why the heck did REM found a city here? It doesn't have any decent food, and the Incense it secures can't be improved for a long while yet. It only contests three tiles with my new city, two of which I was never likely to work anyway, so I'm not too upset about it, although I am mildly annoyed. REM has the second best power though, right behind me, so sending in a couple Skirms to burn the stupid thing would very likely be a mistake. He is handing me an opportunity to later flank two of his cities though. I also can't discount the possibility that he intends to chop a wonder here- that would be unfortunate, and very likely lead to war between us.

[Bobchillingworth]

Operation: Soggy Cereal is a go in two turns.



Koreaboo military experts have confidently predicted a 20% chance of success, before gliding from the room in an overproduced music video sequence.

[Bobchillingworth]

Behold my crap-ass empire:







Forgot to name my latest city. Several obnoxiously-positioned lakes / seas and one neighbor with a holy city and the other with Creative means that my empire has this absurd vertical alignment thing going on. Also the fact that I've done a lousy job prioritizing city sites. And have invested a couple hundred hammers in this:






Ugh, I really should have built a Barracks first


This whole thing is probably going to be a boondoggle. I saw Cornflake's culture and panicked- his island (or peninsular) city is positioned so that he could easily sack my capital from the seas, which I can't sanction. I'd rather load skirms up on some boats and see if I can raze his city than just leave a few sitting around in my capital in case he decides to get saucy.


REM meanwhile looks to be attempting a Guild's beeline. Siiigh. At least I've been keeping up in expansion, backwards as I am.

[Bobchillingworth]

I think Cornflakes might be a little checked out here...







At the very least he could have whipped a Warrior there, if only to spite me. He surely saw the Galleys last turn. Well, whatever, I kept it. No way I could allow that city to stand. Proposed peace, since my objective is complete and I'm not interested in spending any hammers if I can avoid it. If he refuses I'll head deeper into his territory and play pirate.

[Bobchillingworth]

Cornflakes rejected my peace offer, so I captured a Worker. I can hit one of his cities next turn- it's empty at the moment, but I expect he'll whip an axe or something and I'll have to retreat until I can construct a larger fleet.


Currency in 6 turns, followed by Metal Casting.