[SPOILERS - PBEM29] spacetyrantxenu - Mao of Babylon

[Commodore]

Um, might want to edit out the 25g stuff there, I saw it was mentioned so I had to glance away. Dunno about Peg and Ad-Hoc, but Ceiliazul and I (I'm his dedlurker) play there.

[spacetyrantxenu]

Oops, terribly sorry. It will be fixed posthaste.

[spacetyrantxenu]

Commodore, you can safely read the diplo chat with Catwalk now. I've spoilered the PBEM 25 section inside the chat to protect the innocent.

[spacetyrantxenu]

So T14 is played and we have two in game developments for this turn. First, Archery is in so we need fear our enemies no longer (for now). I haven't exactly decided when to build a bowman, but I doubt I'll wait too long. Now that no one has walked a warrior through my capital it's likely that the better research path would have involved either going for mining or pottery before archery, to give our workers more to do early on (otherwise why did I build two workers?). I don't want to delay using the whip for too long but I think that I'd like to start laying down cottages ASAP, so Pottery is probably next. That will avoid wasting worker turns (I could build roads toward upcoming city sites to give them something to do, but that's not as immediately productive work for them to do).

Maybe this is a slow expansion plan, but we could farm the one FP tile in the BFC, giving us a 6 food surplus. Using that we could quickly grow the city to work a few cottage tiles and build a granary or a few bows while growing. With maybe 2 bows completed I can halt growth, build a settler (or chop it hopefully if we're near BW by then) and send it to the northwest to a yet undetermined city site. I'd like to be able to garrison a city up there with two bows to guarantee safety. These are just ideas, nothing is decided yet. I'm not even sure about Pottery next.

The other development from this turn is that I got graphs on Slowwalk. Nothing too exciting at this stage of the game, but I'll switch EPs to Sian next turn. What is interesting is that Kuro's capital is still size 1. I can't imagine he's building 2 workers from size 1, or a settler. Maybe we'll find out later what happened but it seems like a slow start to me.

I traded maps with Catwalk via email, here is what he sent me:

As long as he wants to give me his HUD I'll take it. So Meditation in 4?

I sent him back our world map from this turn:

I had a chat with Catwalk yesterday that was interesting. I'd have to edit it down since it strayed around Civ, but apparently Catwalk and Sian are in a race for the Oracle. There was discussion about them trying to find an agreement on building wonders, but they couldn't come to a resolution so a race is on. That surprised me since I thought for sure Sian would make a quick run for the Great Lighthouse. No one could possibly beat IND/ORG Roosevelt to it if there was a real race. As for the Oracle, it seems they both want to take MC and that Sian wants to run for the Colossus, too. I would like the Great Lighthouse as it seems we'll have a fair number of coastal cities on this map. If that's the direction we go, though, we'd have to change our tech path and settling direction. The land SW of the capital looks promising for chopping out a lighthouse and tGL if we want to do that. One thing I don't want, though, is for one person to clean up both the Colossus and tGL.

Boldly, if you ever get back from vacation we need to discuss a few of these things and work out a new dotmap.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Boldly, if you ever get back from vacation we need to discuss a few of these things and work out a new dotmap.

[/SPOILER]

Back from vacation, kind of. I only read forums at work, and this has been a long holiday. Lucky for you I go back to work on Tuesday.

Having said that, in brief, one thing you need to do ASAP is scout to your SE. It appears that the land is better that way than the tundra north, so your expansion may need to look in that direction sooner rather than later. Obviously you'll see to strategic resources first, but even if you don't have fishing, once you have the ability to cottage, the FP location will be profitable, and likely along the line of preferred cities.

And also, settle toward Kuro, master of turn-holding. I at his second 48-hr hold up. Did he mention anything in the tech thread, other than saying he was playing Wii? In fairness, I have not checked, but this was a reason given before.

So, lock up your horse in the ice.
FP/bronze location? I don't recall where your bronze is.

Also, when Team Kitty first revealed they were on Meditation, they had not invested any beakers into the tech when they did the screen capture. As it turns out, they are in fact doing Meditation, as they subsequently confirmed with a later screen shot. But, you appeared certain after the first picture and I would caution you against being so certain. They could have been intentionally misleading you. Again, it turns out they were not, but be mindful of this if it will potentially impact your planning.

Back to my Bourbon now.

Overall, fine work in my absence. Keep it up.

Happy New Year! :2dance:

[spacetyrantxenu]

T15 - Archery is in. I set research to Pottery so we can start laying down and working cottages. Since I detoured to Archery for bows early in the game instead of getting worker techs earlier I'm a bit behind the growth curve most likely. Pottery is due in 6 turns, maybe a turn sooner than that. We're already +6 on food production once we hit size 3 so I don't really need more farms for now. I think we'll spend a few worker turns getting roads ready on hills or toward a settling site until Pottery comes in, or maybe double up and get the ivory up since a 2/2/2 camp on the ivory is a good tile. Maybe the worker that completes next turn goes 1S and puts 1T in a road, then begins working on the camp. Meanwhile the existing worker roads the cow, finishes the road 1S of the capital, then can double up with the other worker to finish the camp 1T sooner. Then both workers peel off to a GHF to road them while Pottery finishes. I'd rather build something more than roads but that's what I get for opening double worker and choosing Archery.

Kuro's score still has not increased, no idea what is going on there. I switched EPs onto Sian now that I can see Slowwalk's demographics. Looks like Sian may be a bit ahead of me, the EP cost to see his demos is 34. Or maybe that's a function of turn order? It shows both Sian and Slowwalk at 102% EP cost on screen, so I don't know. I'm sure I'm ahead of Slowwalk so maybe it is turn order.

Next turn I'll switch off the barracks placeholder and onto a bowman while growing to size 3.

Photos:

By the way, Kuro held the save for close to two days again before it came back around to me. That's another -1 diplo. Boldly sent me this message as a PM, presumably drunk when he got home from New Year's revelry:

I find it mildly amusing (more than, really) that Kuro has the save before and after the New Year rolls. Pardon the pun.

Auto declare on him when you meet. That should spice things up, and set him straight. You can "normalize" relations with him if he can ever manage to play turns within the proper time slot, within reason.

#wasted_Happy_New_Year_rhetoric.

Well, I've lost count of our diplo modifier but I assume we're at about -3 by now since it's been about three times he's held the save for 2 days. Mao isn't furious yet, but he's certainly at the "we don't like you enough" stage where making deals will be difficult. Maybe Kuro will make an arrogant demand and send Mao running to his generals! An auto-declare "your head would look good on the end of a pole!" email would definitely be funny, though.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

An auto-declare "your head would look good on the end of a pole!" email would definitely be funny, though.

Win.

I hate to be too harsh on Kuro, so let's stop bashing him for now. I'm sure he's doing the best he can.

With all the FP in the region to the SE, it looks like your move to pottery is going to be helpful. I can live without the early BW with so many cottages available. When are you thinking about sending out a settler?

[Ceiliazul]

By the way, Kuro held the save for close to two days again before it came back around to me. That's another -1 diplo.

In 25g, Cull repeatedly had trouble playing his turn, and was the first to be attacked. In that case, his disinterest correlated with an poor (or perhaps "self-defense challenged") opening. Keep an eye on the demos to see if the same thing happens here.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Sounds like tacit approval for the pointy stick. :hwar1:

Muahaha...

[spacetyrantxenu]

How's this for approval?



Edit: [SIZE="5"]-5!!![/SIZE]