[SPOILERS] Ceiliazul's First Dance: Louis of the Ottomen

[Ceiliazul]

Glad I could help. Those cows being on plains does sound like an important detail.

:-0 I thought I fixed that...

[Ceiliazul]

Good news Commodore, the plains cow doesn't change the effectiveness of the sim, just the final demos (+1H, -1F)

Scouting:
I realized last night is that I had probably better find some copper with my 3rd city. First chariot hits the ground at 2020, if copper is not local, he'll do rings until it's found. Else he will scout the Eastern clam/wheat site first, and then go meet some new friends.

Techs:

Bronze and Pottery are definitely next, in that order.

If an Oracle try looks good, it'll be straight to Priesthood from there. Route depends on religions. Ad-hoc is the only one starting with Myst, I may have a shot to get a religion on the way. Working the Gold will help here.

If copper is in the existing dotmap, then city 4 goes toward lower green. Hunting will come before priesthood.

Either way, writing is next. If paired with Oracle, options are open. Casting or Code of Laws seem most likely at that point, depends on how maintenance looks. If no metals in sight, Oracle may give Iron Working. If we all have horses and no copper, chariot rushes must be planned for.

[Ceiliazul]

Let's get Industrious!

With early expansion capped, there will be enough hammers to divert into an ancient wonder or 2. I have no intention of wonder-spamming like RL7, but I'm looking forward to judicious use of my IND trait.

In rough order of interest:

Oracle is on my shopping list, likely bee-lined after worker techs. We've said this start is commerce limited, so turning 67 hammers into 400 beakers sounds good to me!

Pyramids and Representation would help the vertical grow by a lot. Denial value to the PHI civs is also notable. I'll give this a try unless someone has stone and I don't. Masonry isn't on the early tech list, if stone is sighted that may change.

Stonehenge is unnecessary, but if Catwalk leaves it out there too long, I may go for it. If production is abundant, partial build it for the failgold, a less-best way to get some extra commerce, at 1.5 gold per hammer.

Parthenon looks good for PHI lite, but crazy expensive

Hanging Gardens derive much of their power from the REX. With few cities, this wonder falls down the list. With so many health resources nearby, this is only useful if the extra pop can be whipped for a good return on the build cost.

Statue of Zeus only if I have the doubler and others don't. Depends on 'Henge too. I've been doing some research, this doesn't seem like a big impact wonder for MP. Am I wrong?

Great Wall Unlikely. Spy points are pollution, and if I have that much extra production, then battles shouldn't be being fought in my territory.

GLH, Colossus, Moai: unbuildable.

[Ceiliazul]

Mining done, BW started.

Growth and build finished at same time. We're large and in charge, jumping over Ad-Hoc this turn.

Just between us, I'm expect to put distance between me and Ad-Hoc going forward. His opening so far hasn't shown any growth urgency. That's not to say we can't be friends, but our snowballs are on different flight paths.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/404...t0008.jpg/
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[Ceiliazul]

the good news: fish and pigs cultivated!

the still pretty good news: someone beat me to it, i think Pegasus, by 1 turn. considering i didnt start with fishing, i can accept that.

Pics later, but the important thing is demos show our 17 food is one off the leader (Peg = 18)

i'm out of town and away from my demo-mining spreadsheets... more analysis soonish.

[Commodore]

the good news: fish and pigs cultivated!

the still pretty good news: someone beat me to it, i think Pegasus, by 1 turn. considering i didnt start with fishing, i can accept that.

Pics later, but the important thing is demos show our 17 food is one off the leader (Peg = 18)

i'm out of town and away from my demo-mining spreadsheets... more analysis soonish.

That is good news! Kind of odd though. Why is he working a 2/1/0 tile then? Also, why are you? Foodhammers are the same 1/2/0 and 3/0/1, but the other nets an extra commerce. Looks very good, sorry, I just tend to focus on the little nits when everything major is going swimmingly.

[Ceiliazul]

Why is he working a 2/1/0 tile then? Also, why are you?

i dont know about Peg, but you'll be happy to know that the 1/2 tile was only for 1 turn to complete the build and grow. Cap will be working Pig, Fish, FP until the settler completes.

i'll do more demo work soon, but for now i'm feeling good.

[Ceiliazul]

Hello Ceiliazul, this time it would appear that we have in fact met. My warrior can glimpse your nets, and that seems to bring us in touch. Well met! I hope all is well in your lands, and that we may have a prosperous relationship. I think I know most of the map by now, and sadly I have not come across any stone or marble yet. This makes your leader pick a very competitive one! I hope you'll refrain from going for Stonehenge early on, being the only non-creative player I need it rather badly Let me know if you need any map info.

[COLOR="Green"]I haven't checked in game, as I'm on a cross-country drive in real life. I trust that our green-shirted fishermen provided food to help your scouting party recover.

We also have not sighted any stone or marble. That's a bummer for industrious souls like ours, but it makes map balance easier I suppose.

Congrats to being the first to size 4 capital, and the first to get fish nets in the water.

We did note that your Romans are alone without the Creative trait. I'm sure that difference won't come between our people. In fact, we offer the rights to Stonehenge until t40 (inclusive) along with an NAP for the same length.

We suspect you are 12 tiles and 6 tiles away, can you confirm the directions?

-Ceiliazul of the Ottobots

P.S. because there seems to be some controversy here at RB, a definition seems prudent. To me a non-aggression pact means no declaring war, no proxy wars by giving units to another party, no accepting gifts that would otherwise be trophies of conquest.[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Magenta"]I greatly appreciate your gesture, it makes planning a lot easier. It stood to reason that no other civs would benefit as much from Stonehenge as we would, but it is nice to be certain. Being Industrious, I figured there was a risk of you wanting to pick up easy culture and GP points. I am also happy to accept your proposed NAP (and agree with the definition of it), as we desire a peaceful start to this game. Being my first online game, I wouldn't want it to be over too soon I can confirm that my capital as 6E12N, in a location mostly identical to your own. We have silver instead of gold to the north, and there seem to be minor differences with jungles and forests.

Best regards,
Catwalk[/COLOR]

Upshots:
-Catwalk is pretty loose with map info, offering gold::silver and the absence of marble/stone without my asking. We know he's running multiple warriors, so his scouting info is probably good.

-He called his position at 6E12N, which all but confirms my earlier suspicions. Asking him straight could have made me look foolish, but it worked out well. He said his capital was "mostly" identical" to mine, confirming our starting regions are mirrored.

-NAP until t40 should be early enough to allow re-negotiation before he brings praets to the table. As far as the Stonehenge give, I wouldn't have built it that soon anyway.

-No Marble or Stone! It makes general wonderspam much less likely, but also ensures no one will have a leg up on me in wonder competitions unless they out-tech me.

[Ceiliazul]

Using Catwalk's info, I've aligned my map and colored in the Roman region. There are 3 disputed "X" areas on our combined border. This will be true of each other pair of teams as well. How to get the best possible share of this may get complicated.

The cultural borders after establishing Horse city are colored in this pic to show how cramped this map really is. After the first 5 or 6 city sites, EVERY city could be called "aggressive" by someone.

My next city puts the North "X" within striking distance. Exploring wheat/clam is important but may need to wait just a couple more turns...

In fact, it sure looks like a chariot could go around the world wrap and meet EVERYONE in short order. Depending on how contacts fall, this may be a good option too.

Oh, and turn played... settler due in 2.

[Ceiliazul]

Demo update:

My GNP jumped when I met catwalk, making me number 1 for the first time in any demo. This also confirms Cat has Bronze working, meeting him gave me a boost to my own research.

I did good keeping track of all techs until t19. Peg got BW, and global power went up by 10k. BW accounts for 6, and catwalk got a tech. It was a 5t tech, so Occam's Razor demands Catwalk got "wheel"... but I can't be certain. I argue he should have gone for Animal Husbandry, but 5 turns isn't enough to get there.

Cull spent 9 turns researching something powerless. He's still at 2pop, so that works out to ~90 beakers. I pegged Pottery. If true, he has: (Wheel,Ag) Fishing, Mining, Pottery. No AH, no BW. Cull is almost certainly the rival least food.

Ad-Hoc has researched 2 techs so far. Agriculture (t6), AH (t14). He started with mining, maybe he'll show up with BW soon? There's one problem though: no fishing!

Catwalk opened with Bronze Working, then Agriculture. The recent mystery would seem to be wheel. After meeting Rome in game, I confirmed he is not yet in slavery. He could have double-whipped on t16 and beat us all to city 2... not sure why he didn't.

Peg has hunting, AH, Bronze so far. His opening is ahead of us all, he's the only one with AH and bronze so far. He could be in slavery, cuz he's SPI. We'll know soon enough when he double-whips.

If we suppose that all my tech guesses are correct, there are 10 warriors wandering the land so far. I have one. I'm comfortable with this because my capital can produce a 2t warrior starting whenever it is needed. Starting warrior will assist in founding city 2, then recruit some backup.

City 2 will have horse pastured in 10 turns, then I'll feel safer.

I'm pleased with the demos, the only one that really matters right now is food, and I'm drafting the leader. In 2 turns, we'll know if Pegasus will beat me to his 2nd city as well.