[SPOILERS] Smackdown Game Thread

[SevenSpirits]

I don't see us getting a shrine.

1) No Stonehenge or Oracle to get the prophet.
2) First GP will be a scientist for sure.
3) Value is less when we can have a whole civ with only gold multipliers, that can simply run 0% slider.
4) Value of additional scientists for academies is higher since they are functioning on 100% of commerce. And value of additional scientists for bulbs is higher since there are more raw beakers earlier that can be bulbed efficiently.

[Ichabod]

I don't see us getting a shrine.

1) No Stonehenge or Oracle to get the prophet.
2) First GP will be a scientist for sure.
3) Value is less when we can have a whole civ with only gold multipliers, that can simply run 0% slider.
4) Value of additional scientists for academies is higher since they are functioning on 100% of commerce. And value of additional scientists for bulbs is higher since there are more raw beakers earlier that can be bulbed efficiently.

Can't really argue against this.

I like the idea of more than 1 academy for Rome. The point about bulbing is also very good (even philosophy might end as a "more than a bulb" tech).

I'm going to post some screenshots and an update shortly.

[Ichabod]

Let's take a look at our empire, shall we?

First, Roman Lands:

Overall view:



Tortilla Soup:



Pad Thai:



Roman Prospects of Expansion to the south:

I'm not sure, but I think the deer will be improved next turn and Tortilla Soup will be able to grow to size 6 in only one turn. Knowing Seven and mack, I guess that's what's going to happen. Where do you plan to place the 3rd city? We could settle that hill that gets wheat, copper and gold. Seems like a good city.

Sumeria:

Overall view:



Orange Juice:



Iced Tea:

What are we building next on Iced Tea? How about a WB for exploration? More on the exploration issue later.

We found Korea:

Some screenshots to show the distances between players:

And here's why I think we should get the WB. I assumed before that we'd be connected to RMoG's coastal capital by the sea where OJ is placed. That's not confirmed. But it seems likely that we are connected to LAM's coastal capital, as can be seen in this screenshot:

A lot of the borders we see here are not from the city of Aspen, but from another city. It has to be third ring borders, less Aspen couldn't be placed where it is, so we can assume is LAM's coastal capital. And if we look to the West of Aspen, I think there's coast after that peninsula, which is almost certain to connect to our side of the sea (as shown in the picture above).

I think this speaks in favour of a big sea connecting all coastal capital from the teams, in order to make things balanced. If I'm right, settling anything in that sea and those islands will require a lot of defenses, because the area will be incredibly vulnerable. So, we need to consider carefully if we want to invest in that area.

What do you think?

[SevenSpirits]

Thanks for the overview and very good point about map layout. I think this makes sailing a high priority, though not as much as Monotheism. How about:

Poly, Masonry, Mono, Sailing, Math, Currency?

[SevenSpirits]

From looking at rival top GNP and some other stuff, I believe (but don't know) that Victoria of Korea has a Hindu second city and is researching a 2-prereq tech. (They have 6 pop like our own Lizzie, so it's easy to compare.) This can be one of:

* Pottery
* AH
* Writing
* Masonry

They have researched 5 techs so far. I think it's really implausible they don't have AH yet. In fact I think (just from what makes sense for them) that the 5 techs they've gotten are BW, AH, wheel, pottery, and Polytheism (leaving them without hunting... but that makes more sense than other options). Therefore I think there is a pretty decent chance they are teching Masonry right now and of course planning to continue to Monotheism. If they do, we can't catch them. If they are not, we should be able to get it.

This turn I put Mehmed's research into Masonry (before realizing the stuff I posted above) and had Lizzie save gold. I think we may be best off having Mehmed put his beakers into Sailing next turn (while Lizzie spends another turn saving), and not go further for Poly or Masonry until 4H show up with another tech that's not Masonry.

[Ichabod]

They could be going for Masonry for a wonder (pyramids, TGLh?), though. If that's the case, we'll divert our research to other targets, even though we could have gotten Mono. Decisions, decisions...

[Ichabod]

Turn 30:


Sumeria is about to settle its 3rd city, due on turn 32. The workers will road NE, than NE again in the copper, allowing the 3rd city to be settled on the 2nd turn the settler is moving. I'm guessing the 2 workers will double up on the corn on turn 33.

As I predicted, the workers finished the deer tile this turn, allowing Tortilla to use the wheat and grow to size 6. I'll have to look at the micro in Tortilla, because I'm curious about what'll happen.

I've done some data analysis, that I wish to share. We currently lead in population, mostly due to Rome's capital, I'd say. RMoG leads on land area, so I'm guessing they already have a 3rd city for one of their civs. Much like in PB 6 (was it?), RMoG seems to favor heavy horizontal expansion.

But the most interesting thing is this: look at the culture victory progress. Our main competitor is mt. Loon, capital of Native America civ from 3H. Does that mean that Native America only has 1 city, since no other appear in the screen?

We found out Holy Rome capital, though we don't have vision on the tile. It's almost a mirror from our coastal capital.

This makes me think we should scout in this direction next, if the team agrees:

My reasoning is the following. As we can see in the screenshot below, we are pretty close to Holy Rome. But they have an advantage regarding the contested land, due to a powerful copper, rice, fish (possibly hill) city - the marked red X on the picture. We need to have full information about that area quick, so as to know how we can contest that land and how can we defend against LAM. The blue X is the only reasonable hill city we can place there, I think, based on what we know. We also need a city to claim the seafood. Yellow X is in a defensible naval position, with the added advantage of a possible canal with a fort, making a strong shortcut between OJ bay and the contested sea.

But before making any decision, we need more info. That's why we need to scout there. Even if we'd end up scouting there anyway later, I think it's better to have it soon, since it's more valuable than the area which we can't contest (east of Holy Rome).

Our exploration of RMoG and 3H land also helps us determine the placement of João of England, as shown below. We also need to explore the costested land there, to better plan what to do.

I think we can safely expect some sort of elaborate, but crazy, plan from team LAM to get the lion's share of the contested land between our teams. Or a plan to slowdown our team. So, it's very important to have the most information we can to use against them. They need to be scouted, sentried and possibly spied, when our EPs don't have a better use (like other teams graphics).

What do you think?

[SevenSpirits]

t31, rival best GNP dropped a lot, while 4H did not get a tech. Most likely they switched to saving gold. Other option is they were actually not the rival best GNP like I'd thought. In any case I continued with the Mono plan, researching more of Masonry.

t32, rival best GNP is up again, but 4H still didn't get a tech (and still no one has masonry). I dunno, I guess we are going for it. I think we are likely (but no longer certain) to lose the race if someone else is racing.

Here are some pics from t32:

Got our library EOT. I've reconfigured citizens already.


Chopping a granary in Pad Thai. Then we'll do some cottaging, and we'll camp the furs if we get Judaism.


Rival best GNP.


This scout might get trapped. Btw, I noticed on civstats that Joao founded a city last turn and gifted it to Darius. It's the one I've highlighted in the screenshot here.


Founded Ginger Ale this turn. It was possible to bring the third worker over towards there to mine the copper in 1t and slowbuild GA's granary, but it actually works out equally well to grow on the corn and whip it, even though that entails working an unimproved tile 1t longer. So worker #3 started a grass farm for OJ. This tile is pretty much solely for situations where it lets us grow 1t faster, but I think it will be useful.


Looks like Bismarck still only has one city - crazy. Could they be specifically hoping to get Judaism there so they can build a shrine in their capital??

[SevenSpirits]

LAM just finished their tech. I logged in to see if our prereq bonus on Masonry increased. So, is their new tech Masonry?

No, it's not!

(It's probably Writing, like Mackoti was expecting.)

[Ichabod]

Where's the new OJ settler going?