[Spoilers] SleepingMoogle's thread

[SleepingMoogle]

Thanks!

Generally speaking, I'm terrible at the long-term and even here I'm at a bit of a loss other than to try and continue expanding quickly. The fourth city will be purple dot, and I hope I'll scout enough of the eastern island in time to plant city 5 there. Animal Husbandry has revealed horses 2E of the capital so a city in that direction definitely is a good idea.

Tech will probably be set to Mathematics after Writing finishes, and then focus on the bottom of the tree for a bit to pick up Monarchy and Organized Religion. Aside from not joining the race for the Oracle (I suspect scooter will win that one), I'm considering going for one of the Great Lighthouse, Hanging Gardens, or Great Library wonders. Perhaps the next 10 or so turns will dictate the path to follow.

As long as I can keep peaceful relations with my neighbours, I don't really intend to go to war with either of them, at least as long as there's still room to expand. But we'll see. I'm a bit low on military, so perhaps one of them will pick up on that and start having ideas.

[SleepingMoogle]

A quick pictureless update (screenshots will feature on the T50 report ):

Purple dot has been settled and again a bit later than initially expected. With so many food resources around, cities are growing so fast that it's hard to not break the happy cap, even with whips every 6 turns. I'm starting to get the hang of it, but trying to balance it all ended up delaying the Settler a bit. Happiness is the biggest problem by far and now that Mathematics research has finished, it's time to focus on the bottom of the tech tree for a while.

The planned tech path is Polytheism -> Masonry -> Monotheism -> Priesthood (for the discounts) -> Monarchy

Hinduism was founded a few turns ago, so I'm hoping that I can pick up Judaism instead. There's always a slight chance that Buddhism will spread to one of my cities, but founding one seems slightly more dependable. After Monarchy, double revolting into OR and HR should finally get rid of that pesky happy cap, at least for a while. Techs after that will depend on how the game has developed by then.

A Worker and an Axeman have been ferried to the eastern island to prepare for city 5 (hopefully to be planted around the turn 50 mark) and scout the land area. Right now settling on top of the Silver resource may work out best, as it leaves room for another city to the south. The city will have a decent amount of water tiles, so it could make for a decent Moai city down the road.

On the mainland, Workers are starting to catch up with the initial expansion, and cities now have a decent amount of tiles to choose from. One city has finished Barracks and will train military units for a while, both to serve as a deterrent against aggression and to prepare for the happy cap increase of Hereditary rule. Eventually purple dot should take over as the prime military center though The second is on Workers and Settlers, and the third will start on a Wonder next turn. I'm still divided whether to go for the Lighthouse or Hanging Gardens.. perhaps I'll try for both.

The western coast is being defogged now, and it looks like I can fit an additional two cities there, pending discussion with Twinkletoes for the southern location. He will gift a Workboat next turn and still owes me a Worker, but now that he finally finished Stonehenge (a good pick for a Charismatic leader, especially since the map is a bit light on happiness resources so far), it hopefully won't take too long.

Dazedroyalty has told me that there is a landmass similar to the starting one east of the islands. I'm wondering if there are different health and happiness resources to be found there, but it will take all of us a while to get there. So far my leader and Civ picks seem to play into the map quite nicely though: Extra health and happiness to compensate for early shortages.

The political situation is interesting, but I can see trouble down the road. Serdoa and scooter are busy carving up Dazedroyalty's land, and will both have a large chunk of extra land after the last city falls. It's probably the right move to make for both, but it's bad news for Twinkletoes and me (not to mention Dazed himself of course ) Up until this point, I have been able to safely run a Farmer's Gambit since I had NAP's with both neighbors, but I'm not particularly interested in being the next target. A few Axemen have been trained already, and more will follow soon enough (needed anyhow for HR happiness).

For now there's still room to naturally expand into, so aggression is not really something to focus on in the short term. If I had to pick though, TT may prove to be the more tempting target. His lands are right next to my capital for one, and I probably feel a little more confident taking him on than scooter (whose contact has been cordial to say the least). But by that time I probably need Catapults to break cities, so it's not something to do in the near future.

[SleepingMoogle]

Attachment to the above:

After ending the last turn, Li Heng received a random Hinduism spread so the Malazan empire will have a religion around with even if I fail to get to Monotheism before someone else. Also, realized that I can't build Aqueducts without Masonry (whoops), so that is being researched before Polytheism now.

[SleepingMoogle]

Turn 50:



In the end, I didn't manage to plant my 5th city before this report due to the load/unload sillyness, and losing another turn because the city will be placed on a hill. But to make up for it, a second city will be planted on the western coast next turn as well, bringing up my total to 6. I tried comparing it to the number of cities that other players have, and think I'm doing pretty well, all things considering. When these screenshots were taken, Serdoa has 6 cities, scooter and Twinkletoes both have 4, and Dazedroyalty is down his last city. Serdoa has captured at least 1 (but possibly 2) of Dazed's cities, and has the additional benefit of having an Imperialistic leader. Scooter diverted resources into raising military units and captured one of Dazed's cities as well, and has leveraged his Industrious trait to land the Great Lighthouse (on turn 47 if memory serves me correctly). Twinkletoes worked on Stonehenge instead, and captured a barb city that had spawned west of his capital. It's hard to value the different development paths against each other, but considering I will equal Serdoa in city count again next turn, I think I've done pretty well so far.

The Malazan empire is currently preparing for Organized Religion and Hereditary Rule. Monotheism research will finish soon, and after Priesthood, Monarchy is next on the list. After Hinduism randomly spread to both my capital of Unta and the second city of Li Heng, I decided to convert on turn 49, after finishing two Settlers and a round of whipping. Interestingly, after I managed random religion spread in the previous posts, Hinduism spread to two cities, and Buddhism hit a third. If I finish Monotheism before anyone else, I'll have access to all three early religions. For the moment, I'll stick with Hinduism though and will try to spread it to the other cities after revolting into Organized Religion. Eventually I'll want to switch to a religion I founded myself, but that can hopefully wait until a Golden Age. I realized afterwards that attacking the founder of Hinduism may not be the best of ideas in terms of unhappiness, although it would be great if I can capture the Hindu holy city in the process.

(The next few screenshots haven't been downsized so they are likely cropped by Photobucket. Hopefully all information is still readable for everyone)

Unta:


The Malazan capital pretty much is a swiss-army knife right now. Depending on the need, it can focus on Workers or Settlers, commerce, or pump military units. For the next period, it will probably focus on commerce while building some military to increase HR happiness and missionaries once they become available. In addition, Unta will probably end up being my primary shipyard for a while as Li Heng has another focus. In any case, the city needs to grow now. It has recently whipped a Settler, but now the happiness cap has increased by converting to Hinduism, and it will increase again once the silver city is founded. The sooner it can work all those juicy cottages along the Ivory and Horses, the better.

Li Heng:


Li Heng will be my Hanging Gardens city, since scooter made my indecision easy after nabbing the Great Lighthouse. A Worker is currently working on getting those Hills mines online, and Li Heng will want to work as many of those as it can, aided by the occasional whip or chop. This should keep the city occupied for a good while to come

Quon Tali:


After supplying military for a while, Quon Tali will next reinvent itself as a Worker/Settler pump, and the city that will work scientists for an Academy once it can support them. An upcoming chop and emphasis on hammers will finish the Library in a single turn, and it can work three Corn resources to quickly train Settlers while other cities can focus on different goals. Quon Tali will really benefit from an increased happy cap, so it will most likely be the first city that will be visited by a missionary.

Cawn:


My latest city, and the up and coming military center. The Barracks will soon be whipped to completion, and the Corn resources allow it to work all hills in its radius. Cawn will be where most Malazan units are trained for the next period.


Aside from settling the western coast, the main goal for the next 25 turns is to settle the island east of the starting landmass, and use it as a base to expand further east and claim as much land there as possible. Courtesy of a 3-move Work Boat and exploring Axeman, this is what the island looks like:



The Settler suggestion included the silver Hill, and the hill north of the Gold resource, but the latter location would make the island even more cramped than it already is looking to be. I don't really want to make a practice out of it, but settling another city on top of the Gold would allow for a city to be placed in the NE corner of the island as well. Add a fourth filler city to the SW corner to pick up the Bananas later on, and there's 4 cities all rubbing shoulders with each other. Anyway, the goal for now is to have the NE and SE cities settled by T75, along with a second city on the Western coast of the starting landmass. After that, any further expansion will have to go east.

Another option is to attack Twinkletoes and absorb some of his cities. It will probably come to this after I have catapults available, especially if one of his border cities turns out to be the Hindu holy city. A scouting Warrior is currently walking through TT's lands getting visibility on his cities, and I'm thinking of turning him south again after that and make a second pass to get an updated map. So far no one has gone through my lands which is interesting.. scooter's Quecha is walking along my border even though we signed Open Borders a few turns ago. Anyway, I will probably get in touch with Serdoa soon and see if he can be persuaded to attack Twinkletoes from the south. An attack from two sides should be pretty succesful.

Some graphs to end the report with:

Units:


Workers are looking good, but military is lagging behind again. Even though I know I need more units for military police soon, I always seem to find something else to build. Maybe Cawn can change that a bit; having a city purely dedicated to training units could improve the situation a bit.



Demographics are looking good. GNP is lagging a bit behind scooter's Lighthouse and Buddhist holy city combo, but not by much. Once my cities can grow to work more cottages, that distance should close again. Other than that, Food and Production figures are both very good as well. Production doesn't matter too much at this point since most of my hammers have come from whips, but being second even without working too many mines is promising.

Without having kept up any C&D, it's hard for me to really take good information from the demographics. Dazedroyalty's single city empire is keeping the rival average figures down, so I can't really say how everyone else is doing aside from the rank and rival best entries. Overall though, I would say that I'm doing well.

More graphs:

Score:


GNP:


Production:


Food:


Power:

[SleepingMoogle]

Well, Judaism is mine.

My new cities gave me just enough income to finish Monotheism research at the end of T51, founding Judaism in the new western coastal city. Interestingly enough, it immediately spread to Cawn as well. I didn't know it could do that on the same turn it was founded, but I guess I'm not complaining.

[SleepingMoogle]

A quick status update for turn 64:



Most good early wonders have been picked up by now. TT built Stonehenge, scooter got the Great Lighthouse, and Serdoa used the Oracle to chop out the Colossus long before anyone else researched Metal Casting (and with Copper available, that was a really nice move. Kudos!).

There was no Stone available to anyone yet and the Gardens took a while, but scooter has the only Industrious leader and I'm the only one in Organized Religion so far so I had a decent shot. Having expanded to 8 cities shortly before finishing the wonder, the hammer cost is pretty much refunded by whipping the population gains. And I may have to do some serious whipping soon. Happiness is still the primary limiting factor by far, and adding more military will cripple my research through maintenance costs. Not to mention it might scare my neighbors. Even with Currency just finished, it's getting harder to stay at 50% research every turn.





The next tech will be Construction for the Creative Ball Courts and this should allow most cities to grow to the point where they can work all useful tiles. After that, there's a lot of choices depending on how the game develops. Code of Laws, Metal Casting, Archery/Horseback Riding, Iron Working, Calendar.. maybe even Aesthetics/Literature to work towards the Great Library.

In the meantime, city and tile assignments are increasingly creative to ensure the cities don't explode past their happy cap. That means Workers and Settlers, limiting food by working mines, etc. Unta is also cultivating two scientists to get started towards an Academy. Other than that, the main goals to reach by turn 75 are to finish settling the eastern island, spread Hinduism to most cities, and get some additional navy units out to scout the land further east.

Demographics are also looking promising.

[SleepingMoogle]

Two more cities were founded this turn (T70), bringing my total up to 10. The eastern island is settled now, and I'll briefly hold expanding further while making sure all cities will have a sufficient number of improved tiles.

Here's the island after settling:



There are four Workers currently improving the area, but I will ferry over two more from the mainland, where most of the useful tiles are improved by now. As you can see I'm currently researching Calendar, mostly to hook up the Bananas and give Ubaryd a good tile to work on while growing. Also, I will probably try to get the Mausoleum. I would like the Great Library as well, but Aesthetics and Literature are not on my current tech path, and it's likely someone else will build it before I can. Longer golden ages are always very helpful.

While working on the island, a galley is exploring the lands further east. I know there's deer and furs to be had already, but not enough tiles have been defogged to start considering city placement. I'm planning on doing a large report again on turn 75, and hopefully I'll have more to say about it then.

In the meantime, the major development is that Serdoa and I will be partnering up to divide the Ottoman empire between ourselves. We quickly agreed that an alliance would benefit the both of us and allow for a quick assimilation of Twinketoes' cities. After finishing Calendar research, I'll be focussing on military tech for a while. I'll definitely want Archery/Horseback Riding for a mobile force, and Metal Casting for Triremes (and Forges). A strike force of Horse Archers should be able to take his northwestern city, and a mixed force of Axes and Cats will march on his other two northern cities. Planning is still in the early phases, but since the attack won't happen before T90, there is lots of time to prepare. I may try to secure a long-term NAP with scooter beforehand to secure my northern border.

Current state of the starting landmass:



Most tiles have been improved now, and with a combination of HR units and Ballcourts, the cities can grow into the double digits. Code of Laws finished last turn, so a round of Courthouses will go up soon as well. At this point the road system could use some more work, and I'll need to figure out what to do with the plains tiles as well at some point. My third city of Quon Tali (centre south in the screenshot) can work such an ungodly amount of cottages that I'm considering building the academy there instead of in my capital, and moving the palace after conquering TT. It should help research a lot, and has the added benefit of protecting the capital from a naval attack.

Demographics are still looking good. Serdoa is really keen on the production, but his power isn't really increasing yet. I focussed mostly on cottages and food so far, and whip every 6 turns for hammers instead.

[zakalwe]

Looks like you're doing well.

I'm curious why you left a grassland and a grassland hill unclaimed on that island?

What's your motivation for attacking TT?

[SleepingMoogle]

Looks like you're doing well.

I'm curious why you left a grassland and a grassland hill unclaimed on that island?

What's your motivation for attacking TT?

Thanks. It would of course be preferable if all the tiles were in range of a city. The layout of the island allows for a number of different placements, but the current ones seem to have worked out best for me. The first city was placed on the Silver for example, because I didn't want it to interfere with the capital's tiles. And further east the city would take up too much of the island to make other cities fit as well. Maybe in hindsight a more efficient layout may emerge, but for now I'm reasonably happy with it.

As for the impending attack on Twinkletoes, it was actually Serdoa's preference. I proposed teaming up with him to take out one of our mutual neighbours to improve our odds of winning. If he had suggested scooter, we would now be planning against the Incans. As it happened though, Serdoa preferred to attack TT due to some past diplomatic bumps. And it actually has some good benefits for me as well. If I were to add the northernmost cities of the Ottoman empire to my own, they would form a bufferzone protecting my capital and the lion's share of my cottaged land from aggression. And one of those cities is the Hindu holy city as well. Twinkletoes recently finished the Hindu shrine, so capturing it would be a nice boost of gold as most of my cities have the religion spread to them.


I'll continue this post into the snapshot of the Civ at the turn of the calendar. At the moment, I'm feeling pretty confident that I can end up winning this PBEM. The Malazan Empire is ahead of the others, and if I can keep it that way, that advantage can continue to snowball. The most important thing to do right now is to ensure that scooter will leave me alone during the attack on Twinkletoes. In a few turns, I'll let TT know I won't renew the NAP between us in preparation for the attack. At that point I would expect TT to try and ally up with scooter, especially once he realizes that Serdoa won't renew his NAP either. So I'm hoping to get a binding NAP with scooter before then.



The Demographics speak for themselves. The land area is actually the most interesting statistic in this picture is actually the Land Area figure. It means that I can't quite take a breather when it comes to expanding yet if I want to stay ahead. Another reason why assimilating some of Twinkletoes' cities is a good thing. While I can continue expanding east, distance and maintenance costs are starting to take their toll. But I have been scouting the islands to the east as well:



The map is continuing to be very interesting so far. It's a bit like the layers off an onion. Every set of islands has its own quirks. This set of islands looks to have Deer and Fur resources, and I spotted Crabs, Whales and Gems on the next. It provides a nice incentive for continued expansion for sure. I'm thinking of planting cities north of the Deer and E-SE of the Furs. There's a smaller island to the north, and another further north that I haven't mapped out yet but they may eventually be added as well. Naval security will become a concern if I expand too rapidly though.





Here is the Malazan empire as it exists at the turn of the Calendar. Archery and Horseback Riding research have been finished, and research is set to Metal Casting for Forges and Triremes. Most cities are busy on Courthouses right now, before moving on to a more military focus.

More details later on.

[SleepingMoogle]

I realize that I have been a bit negligent with reporting on recent developments. Then again, we played a huge number of turns for a PBEM last weekend, and I haven't felt well for a few days. But this is the eve before battle, and I find some time for a report. A military one this time around. A few posts up, I mentioned that Serdoa and I would team up to attack Twinkletoes. That will start happening next turn (T90). Between the two of us, I don't expect too much in the way of resistance.



For someone who knew 10 turns ago that he could be attacked, TT seems to have done very little to prepare his defenses. And even though I'm not entirely satisfied with my own preparations, he would be in serious trouble if just my own forces attacked him. Combined with Serdoa's, I expect resistance to crumble quickly.



Here is a picure of the border area on turn 89. Unfortunately the layout of the terrain means there's no easy way to conceal approach, so this turn my forces have positioned themselves for the attack next turn. The main stack is in the centre, composed of 3 Maces, 4 Axes, 1 Holkan and 6 Catapults. Not as many units as I would have wished, but it should be a match for the Ottoman main stack anyhow. The idea is to advance and threaten the middle city, but keeping open the option of swinging to the east coast if it's an easier target. The Holkan is along just to protect the stack from mounted attacks. I don't think TT has many mounted units, but it never hurts to be prepared.

The second stack is a group of 7 Horse Archers who will harras the western city. I have visibility on the centre, and as of last turn it's protected by two Axes and a Catapult and surrounded by Walls. All HA's have two upgrades available to them, but still I'm not too convinced they will be able to take the city. I might try running some sims to see what happens, but I'll also consider simply locking down the city if that fails. Again, I wish I would have more units but I'll have to work with what I was able to train in time.

The final stack is in the eastern sea, 3 Triremes and 2 Galleys. Along with the Circumnavigation bonus, they should be enough to overpower TT's naval forces. Once Trireme is slightly further east, trailing an Ottoman Galley in case he has any funny ideas, the remainder is docked near my Capital and in range to launch a quick strike. In addition, one of the Galleys has two Maces on board. Depending on what happens, I might send them over to the island to harass TT's cities there. Or I might land them near a weekly defended city on the starting landmass. Either way though, I'm fairly sure TT won't be expecting it.

The real ace in the hole is Guilds though. I'm currently researching it and am preparing to start upgrading Horse Archers to Knights in the near future. And this is something I doubt anyone is expecting as this point. My relations with scooter have been good so far, but aside from TT, I'm going to have to keep a close eye on Serdoa. He's been rather erratic this game, and the willingness he's shown to deceive TT means that I need to be prepared for the eventuality that he'll try to do that to me as well. I approached him regarding a NAP and some other outstanding topics to see how he reacts to those. I'm also going to try working on scooter. He was allied with Serdoa against DazedRoyalty and he'll probably use the upcoming turns to catch up to us. If I can convince him that Serdoa's quirkiness is more dangerous than my demographics, it should go a long way towards preventing a the possibility of a 2v1 alliance against me.

This will be my first actual war against a human opponent. My knowledge so far has been gleaned from reading reports in other RB games. I'm definitely looking forward to it though. Here's hoping I don't make an utter mess out of it.