[Spoilers] Commodore as Darius of the HRE

[Ceiliazul]

In bad world news, Rana now has cities size 7 and 6. This indicates that Rana has 2 happy resources hooked up already... while you don't even have 2 POSSIBLE hookups until Calendar. Maybe he's trading with someone, but if that's the case then the trade partner is a sucker.

More demo analysis coming soon. I'm not sure if I can divine who has writing, but I will try. Remember, you're racing 2 Industrious civs with a proven attraction to shiny things... I hope Maths doesn't cost you the race.

(But hey, worst case is some resource-doubled failgold for a consolation prize!)

-ceil

Updated after Demo investigation:
MNG has writing on turn 32... no other big techs. His low GNP and lack of Marble take him out of the race. He's got an axeman.
Yuri has one big tech on turn 39, I suspect writing. We think he has marble... He's a player.
Rana got one on turn 40, I suspect writing. We really need to know what resources he has... pattern says "stone"
GES, I have completely lost track of. I think he's swapping research often (starting with the lost Poly race, he got harder to track.)

Additional consideration for Rana's huge cities... he'll be tough to beat unless he whips down. Also, I've been staring at my charts trying to figure out when he could have researched sailing, and I'm not so sure he did. Do we know he's working on the Lighthouse? He gives every appearance of working on some big project... I'm wondering if he's got stone online and is working on the pyramids.

It's just too hard to read now with more and more score/power/pop changes, and not enough graphs.

Summary:
You're at least on tech parity. If either IND civ beelines it, you're toast, obviously. If you can't get marble hooked up, still toast.

If you can get marble hooked up on the turn the Liturature comes in (~22 turns)... and if you clearcut your capital... it's worth a try.

[Ceiliazul]

Have you been talking to GES at all? We need to know how he feels about Rana. Also, you can confirm with him that Mali doesn't have marble? Thats our only chance at the Library.

Rana is the clear leader, and GES is important to keep close to for that reason. Also, find out if they're trading happy resources with Rana...

[Commodore]

Okay, did a little chatting with GES last night.

tgoldsmith: I need to take a new photo

since you sent me a bare map one'
10:26 PM
me: Sure.
10:27 PM
Sorry, I was playing turn, just got back.

jtgoldsmith: Your warrior got boned anyway

I had hoped you would be forced north

me: Yeah, it's okay.

Sent OB request in-game.

jtgoldsmith: Cool
10:28 PM
me: Yep!

jtgoldsmith: I see that barb city

Wish I had one

me: Sigh. Messes with my dotmap

jtgoldsmith: just raize it then

me: Oh, are you stone or marble, btw?
10:29 PM
MNG is stone.

jtgoldsmith: marble

me: Know about RL7?

jtgoldsmith: He is stone

me: Hrm. Curious about Yuri then.

jtgoldsmith: Yeah, lets hope stone

me: Heh, yeah
10:30 PM
South marble, north stone maybe?

jtgoldsmith: maybe

me: Eh, we'll see.

So Ranamar is stone, which sucks for MNG but give us a shot at the GL. GES in general seems to feel "close borders spark tensions" with Ranamar, but he's not doing so poorly that he's going to screw himself with an early war. I wish I knew how much Lew is influencing things in RL7 land...looks like the worst of all worlds, in that he's helping micro and yet not touching diplo...which sucks because that's his biggest weakness as an otherwise excellent player. RL7 probably has gems/gold nearby as well as ivory for that huge happy cap.

I do need to butter up GES a little more.

Also got a reply from MNG:

[COLOR="DeepSkyBlue"]Hi Commodore,

Good to hear from you guys. I'll address your note point by point.

*When I get the turn from you tonight I'll take a peek and give you directions. There isn't a great way to go, but you'll basically head north through my land and then east at the spoke. Yuri's borders are practically touching mine there. So once you enter my land it should only be 6-7 turns to meet them. That's based on the screenshots in my lurker thread, so I'll give you better advice in a few hours.

*Sorry to hear about your barb city. Mine also messes with where I'd like to settle, but that site is fairly low priority. As for silks, we already have them, so we won't need any from you. Our excessive resources are ivory and spices. Maybe we could set up some kind of spice road in the future?

*I'm amazed you and GES are that far apart. Yuri and I have a land bridge of just 4 tiles to separate us, so you certainly have a lot more room.

*Do you have a read on GES or RL7? I just met RL7 this turn. At least I have a bit of a read on you and Yuri, but I'm trying to figure out the geopolitical relationships. The nice thing is everyone seems to be playing a pretty casual diplomatic game thus far?

Oh well, I've gone on long enough I'm sure. Until later....

MNG, Hattie of France[/COLOR]

Seems to be getting along, and I need to keep on good terms with him too. His creative early game is strong and once spiritual comes into its own he'll remain a contender, but unless he manages to snag either the Pyramids or HG I don't see him as a first-order threat. I'm really glad to be Org on this map, gives me hope...although at the current heavy civic load, I'm hurting as-is. My nice GNP is getting chewed on by the high-maintenance OR, need to turn that into infrastructure post-haste.

Thanks for the C&D, it's really helping to get reads here.

[Commodore]

Ah, need more pretty pictures. Here's the prettiest:



Have I mentioned how much I love my core? It's a nice area that's about to get even nicer with ivory hooked up. Ignore all the chariot builds, Ophir's about to get its granary and a library goes into Aquilonia. As can also be seen, the venturesome little barbarian suicided into Ophir's garrison without even scratching them. Nemedia is going to rapidly compete with Aquilonia for the title of "crown jewel of Hyboria".



The river plain next to the copper gets roaded and cottaged next, and then it's whip, whip, whip for any higher growth.

My neighbor spying/contact hunting parties are both in motion.



GES has a nice new plant that will call for IW soon, as those gems cry out for a mine.



MNG, on the other hands, looks like he's about to expand again, to the plains hill where his warrior is currently sitting.

Maybe it's just because of my neighbors, but I feel really under-expanded right now. Dangit, we're Darius of the HRE, not Cardith Lorda of the Kurios!

[Commodore]

Sent pleasantries back to MNG.

[COLOR="Yellow"]Hi back MNG,

The spice road sounds nice, although sailing shouldn't be too far away for us. Got to get those cheap lighthouses in play, right?

GES and I are the most distant from each other of any neighbor pair, it looks like. He's a good deal more intense than any interactions with you, although I think that's just how he comes off. It didn't help that the first unit he stepped next to me was a settler, which I think made him kind of jumpy...and I beat him to founding not one but two of the religions he was chasing. Things have been improving since the early tension, though, and long fences make for good neighbors. I do get the impression that he really wanted to play with his War Chariots, and he's somewhat bummed about the awkward distances in this map.

In-game tensions aside, this does seem to be a nice group of players, I'd quite enjoy having a beer with anyone here, and the play speed has been phenomenal. What's your own read on Yuri? He seems to be doing strictly middle-of-the-road (like me) from the C&D. Oracle and Buddhism certainly means he's kept up nicely.

-Commodore[/COLOR]

All well and good, although my entertainer finger wants to start pushing buttons and stirring the pot. That will wait until I get a solid read on Yuri and RL7 though.

[Ceiliazul]

You ARE under expanded at the moment. That's the tradeoff for delaying slavery.

Keep working with GES about how strong Rana is. You're probably right about gems and gold, but anyone trading them resources will be giving them an even bigger lead.

[Commodore]

Had a little chat with GES, mostly just pleasant chatter to keep the phone lines open, he seems to be much more favorably disposed towards me, although I'm still waiting for his map screens. He did mention how good Org is on this map...I think city maintenance is hurting him too. His one piece of good info is that RL7 had unjungled Gems. Gaspar, your anti-Fin prejudices are showing through.

I have a play to fix that under expanded feeling. Congrats, Ceil, you've convinced me to postpone maths to heard directly to Literature and the GL.

Okay, out of anarchy, running slightly below break even research (to go 100% after Aesthetics/ Library built). Sailing would be awesome for Nemedia and Red Dot, but it can wait unless I can drop it below a two-turn delay (with overflow) on the path towards Lit.

Okay, so here's the (fuzzy, unsimulated) plan:
*Workers delay hooking up the copper for two more turns to let Nemedia and Aquilonia each make a warrior for cheap MP. Then after the road and cottage are done 2S of Nemedia, both go to mine hills/prechop around Aquilonia.
*The worker currently roading towards Red Dot will hop down to make a quick riverside cottage for the capital and Red Dot to share, then it's onwards roading towards the marble (covered by Aquilonia's warrior).
*Worker near Ophir makes a camp under cover of the chariot and finishes the nearby cottage, then swings down to help the marble push.

Nemedia makes the warrior, then grows while building granary to the minimum allowed 2-pop whip (max efficiency if Hinduism doesn't spread). Once growing into unhappiness at size six (remember, ivory is coming online), whip granary to overflow into settler, jiggering that overflow to get a headstart on the library.

Aquilonia makes a warrior and starts a library, two-pop whipping for max overflow into a settler. Then make a barracks until (just before) it is two-pop whipable for max overflow and hold until Lit comes in, then whip to overflow into the GL.

Ophir builds a granary and then an axe to take out the barb city, beyond that weaves in a worker if growth is an issue/need an extra.

Again, for reference:

[Ceiliazul]

Fyi, GES sent their map to your inbox. I saw it (with marble) last night.

[Commodore]

Odd. Why am I not seeing it?

[Ceiliazul]

I don't see it either... I'll check the history on my other computer this evening.

Edit: is it possible to recall a Gmail message?