[SPOILERS] Tres Equis: Mardoc plays the Most Interesting Civ in the World

[Mardoc]

Turn 2 of the war - boring. Looks like Molach probably built his second city to the south - either that or he built it far away so it doesn't even touch borders.



In other news, we spotted our first barb warrior! I guess I was right when I said they were due to spawn soon, and hence Molach coming to visit in the near future is unlikely.



I think I'm going to delay Strawberry even further, and make city 3 a lake city (green tea, not sure if I've shown a picture of it yet or not). That way I don't need to build any more workers til city 4, and we should get a pretty decent boost to GNP in the short term.

[Mardoc]

Molach built himself another worker. I think he doesn't take the threat posed by my scout all that seriously!

I probably need to stop wandering around his land sometime soon, before I indelibly imprint hostility on him. I want to find his second city first, though.

[Mardoc]

Huh.

Molach offered me a Peace Treaty this turn. Along with this tactical position (haven't moved anything yet, obviously, since I'm still debating the treaty):


I'm moderately confused. All he had to do was cover the worker, and I'd probably go ahead and take peace - on the theory that I can't do much anymore anyway. But without it covered - is this a test? Take peace now or forever war?

Or is this just an oversight? Or does he truly believe that losing a worker is a fair price to pay for getting my scout onto flatland?

And again, am I willing to antagonize him some more, to set him back further, or should I let him have a little peace? Certainly if I kill his worker I lose my scout - possibly I lose my scout even if I don't, depending on how clever he is with bloodpets. At which point I can't hurt him any more even if I want to.

Seems there's only two reasonable choices at this point. Take the peace, or kill worker #2 and then offer peace (possibly twice, once before losing scout and once after). And it mostly depends on my read of Molach, is he truly giving me another worker, or is this the line I shouldn't cross lest he bend his whole game to my destruction?

[Dp101]

Always kill the worker. Always.

[Mardoc]

Always kill the worker. Always.

Well, I dunno about always, but I did talk myself into killing it this time. 2 workers down starts to be a pretty serious penalty, especially this early in the game. I just need to grow fast enough myself, and I can handle an angry vampire .

Offered peace afterward . No reason not to try to save the scout for further nefarious deeds...

Fishing is in, and I went for Crafting next. Want to get some mines up, and some bronze wouldn't go amiss either if I'm gonna keep poking Molach . Nothing's particularly urgent, except maybe Animal Husbandry for Green Tea to grow off of.

In other news, our settler for Mint is en route, and we will join the ranks of the 2-city-havers next turn. I debated growing Vanilla some, or just going straight into the next settler; ended up deciding to go for the settler. I want to get a lot of these lake tiles worked; not nearly as good as later stuff will be, but it's commerce now, today, and it's commerce that doesn't require any worker turns, so it'll set up fast.

[Dp101]

Always kill the worker. Always.

Well, I dunno about always, but I did talk myself into killing it this time. 2 workers down starts to be a pretty serious penalty, especially this early in the game. I just need to grow fast enough myself, and I can handle an angry vampire .

I ment it just as a joke/call for blood, not as a serious suggestion.

[Mardoc]

I ment it just as a joke/call for blood, not as a serious suggestion.

.

Figured. You're not named Azarius or Darrell, so you're a bloodthirsty general lurker. Don't worry, I just used you as an intro to my post, you didn't actually change the game.

Really what made my mind up was deciding this isn't really any different than the first worker steal. Well, except that I had to delete the worker rather than have a low-odds chance of bringing him home alive. Since it made since the first time, it makes sense again, I think.

Only difference is that the extra anger induced in Molach is probably less than the anger from the first steal . At least, if I were him, I'd be madder about war than about continued casualties. I'm still relying on distance and other players also making offending moves.

Well, and also this time relying a bit on him being set back even further. Hurt him enough, and it doesn't matter how much he wants to burn my cities .

On thinking about it some more, I think I need to change my research path to Animal Husbandry next turn. I'll have a sheep at Green Tea dying to be hooked, it'll pay for itself by speeding growth onto lake tiles, and part of why I'm doing these two lake cities next is to be able to skip building workers for a bit - but that means no extra worker turns for chopping and mining in any event.

[Dp101]

I ment it just as a joke/call for blood, not as a serious suggestion.

.

Figured. You're not named Azarius or Darrell, so you're a bloodthirsty general lurker.

What did they do? I mean, it appears that you are referencing events I am not aware of.

[Qgqqqqq]

They're his dedicated lurkers (and thus free to say what they will).

[Mardoc]

Had a turn this morning. With mixed good and bad news. Lots of both!

Bad
Turn came in about 20 minutes after I went to bed.
Good!
This crew is generally fast enough, we might catch up to the standard pace anyway. I might see the save this evening.

Good!
Our scout killed a bloodpet! 116 hammers destroyed for 16 lost, that's a pretty good ratio.
Bad
Our scout died to the second bloodpet.

Molach hasn't taken peace, not that I really expected he would. If I want to cause peace, I need to threaten him somehow again.

Good!
Founded Mint this turn, and it's already working a grass farm, with two workers present to improve the rice and corn
Bad
Planting Mint revealed a Calabim scout 2N of Mint's borders, on a hill. So much for hiding in the fog of war! I may need to retreat those workers back to the core, depending on what Molach does.

Good!
Another barb warrior appeared, this time near Mint. The wilderness is getting hostile!
Bad
Another barb warrior appeared near Mint. Bad timing, assuming Molach intends to return a favor

Bad!
I swapped the capital from settler to warrior. I think I need a few more boots on the ground. City 3 will be delayed.
Good!
I was thinking of doing that anyway, Vanilla has 2 excess happy to use.

Bad!
I forgot to swap from Crafting to AH
Good
Delaying the settler means we don't need AH quite as soon anyway. Founding Mint increased our beaker rate substantially, as well (1 city tile, 1 riverside farm, 2 trade routes). And that'll only get better.

Good!
The stolen worker is still alive!
Bad
That means barbs aren't ubiquitous yet.

So, interesting times. I definitely want more of everything now - more military, more worker techs, more military techs, more cities. And apparently I'm going to need to get to Priests of Winter earlier than planned, since Molach knows where I am.