[SPOILERS] PB7: Winning The Hard Way - Mao Plays Craps

[spacetyrantxenu]

I wonder how serious Plako is with this "trade mission" to HitAnyKey? I think it would be a fun quest to undertake once I have a unit or two available for the mission, but I also wonder if Plako would then try to kill my units if/when we find and conduct the raid on HAK. After all, there is no honor among mercenaries or something like that.

I met HAK's scout down in the south next to Plako's land (evidently that's about where the medic "accident" took place) so it's possible he's more Plako's neighbor than mine, but it's also possible that in the time it took me to move my scout that far south he could have arrived there from a similar distance. It would be good to know where he is before we ride out into the fog looking for him. Then again, if you're going to go looking for a fight, it's better to do it with proper units rather than a scout.

[spacetyrantxenu]

T14 - I was going to post earlier when I played the turn so I may forget something, but the server was busy. The most important development of the turn is that Mackoti/SevenSpirit's scout wandered into my territory "by a misclick." I'm not sure the misclick is necessary as it is a scout and not a warrior. They probably just wanted visibility on my capital. Anyway, from the moves I took he probably won't stay long (as he they have said in the public diplo thread):

Diplomatically it would be best if he left without me killing him, but if he moves and is still in range of my warriors when I log in to play the next turn, I'll have a decision to make. Their safest move is to go around, otherwise they're asking A LOT of restraint from me for an AW game. This is a case where the public diplo thread, while fun, makes in game situations a lot harder to judge. I could of course whack the scout but it would probably piss Mack and Seven off, and I could do without two good players angry at me. I'd rather they go chase someone else. It's the same with this Plako/HAK thing...I'm not sure if it's sensible for me to go hunt HAK down and try to beat him up, but if it makes my closest (known) neighbor more friendly, what's the harm in it? [SIZE="1"]The harm is that Plako is a shrewd player and for all I know he's baiting me to move units out of my territory so he can come after me. < /tinfoilhat> [/SIZE]

Since I trust my neighbor so much I left all my EPs on him so I can at least track someone. with 18 nations in this game it's going to be hard to know what is going on from demographics or graphs, so I'll probably just try to keep tabs on my neighbors for a while.

If anyone lurking wants to have a go at this, knock yourself out. We're average at best

[spacetyrantxenu]

T15 - Played this quickly while at lunch, but the main news is that Mack/Seven's scout did an about-face and is going back the way he came. I think my two warriors blocking his path may have had something to do with it and he didn't want to chance it. I would have done the same thing, to avoid the potential to lose the scout. I'm not sure if I hope that barb is still out there, or if he has already killed it (his unit is wounded).

Otherwise not much going on right now, but I'm still spending all my EPs on Plako to get graphs quickly. I think he has responded and is spending most of his points on me, but I don't have a number to compare to from last turn so I'm not sure. I hope he doesn't view it as aggressive, but he's the only negihbor whose location I have verified. It doesn't make as much sense for me to watch HAK or Mack/Seven since I don't know where they are.

Also, we're headed toward the bottom of the score list.

[regoarrarr]

Ah I was wondering why you hadn't researched a tech but I saw that you swapped off of AH.

For the record, known civ bonuses don't usually come into play this early - I think it takes about 25-30 beakers before you even get 1 beaker from known civ.

Your other reason, for messing with C&D folks, is still valid though

[spacetyrantxenu]

Thanks for the heads up. I knew the percentages were small, but I didn't realize it wouldn't make a difference yet.

I found HAK's borders, so Plako will be interested to know who his closest neighbor is:

Not much else for now. End turn!

[spacetyrantxenu]

Interesting choice to leave the capital undefended this many turns into the game. I wish I had a warrior down here instead of a scout.

HAK's worker is building a cottage, so he has pottery already.

[spacetyrantxenu]

T18 - HitAnyKey still does not have a unit defending his capital, even after he knows I've seen it. That likely means he had his defending warrior out of garrison range, which is a bad idea this far into the game. If Plako had scouted this way with his warrior HAK would be dead right now:

Otherwise not much else to report for now, 3T to finish the worker and Mining. I'll switch to AH when the worker is 1T from finishing and then finish Mining the next turn. That should get me off the bottom of the scoreboard. The fact that I was able to delay a tech I didn't need, though, meant I was researching the wrong tech from the start. If I hadn't spent that time on AH I could have been close to BW now and could have started chopping another worker to clear out these forests, for settlers, garrison, etc. Bad tech choice at the start compounded my bad decision to grow to size 2 before beginning the worker. I played it safe with building a second warrior and playing it safe doesn't usually get you ahead. Then again, I'm not HAK with an unguarded capital, either. :neenernee

I have graphs on Plako so I switched my EP allocation to be distributed evenly between HAK and Mack/Seven. If someone else turns out to have a location closer to me than Plako I may spend on them instead of these guys, but Plako seems like a good player to keep an eye on.

[spacetyrantxenu]

T19 - HAK played after me last turn and before me this turn, yet when I logged in to play my scout STILL did not see a unit in his capital. I know he has no reason to worry about a scout in his territory, but since I've advertized it broadly in the public thread that he has no capital garrison I would have thought he'd secure the area by now. If he gets his capital burned down in a walk over he'll have no one to blame but himself.

Here's my map so far:

My scout is heading back toward my lands so I can begin to figure out a dot map. I still like the C2 site early and I really like all those trees I'll need to chop. It beats all the jungle Plako has in his land (in the short term...I have a lot of plains under my forests where he has grassland everywhere). Since Plako is closer to HAK than he is to me I hope he'll prioritize settling toward him and maybe I'll win an extra city location or two from him. I think he'll for sure want to control that mountain pass, but he'll probably wait until he has IW to settle that way. We'll see.

Not a lot else to talk about, except that I'm #1 in MFG! (But nearly last in several other categories) :

Things will get better. Mining is due in 2, worker in 2 also. Next turn I'll switch back to AH to finish it. The turn after that I'll finish Mining and the worker. After that....well it's clear that I haven't spent a lot of time thinking out my tech decisions. I need BW for the Mining research to make any sense, but 18 turns is a long time. I don't want to be without roads for that long because I'll waste so many worker movements (but the wheel is a 9 turn research, too!). Also, I need Hunting to put a camp on my ivory but that will wait until I hit size 3 - Hunting is 6 turns. I should have researched it before AH, though. In general I think I've made a mess of my early tech path.

I think the only way out of this for now is to go ahead and get BW after Mining. Pasture the cow, farm the wheat and I can just work those two improved tiles while researching more worker techs and chopping workers/settlers. Have I said this start feels slooooooow?

Maybe I should play a few SP games on normal speed to get a feel for it again. I always play on quick these days, maybe that's shading my expectations on the game's pace too much. But I doubt it. I know I've played a bad opening and I'm going to be behind quite a few people in 20 turns.

[spacetyrantxenu]

T20 - This is last turn, I played it last night and did not have time to report on it then. In international news I met LP in the area north of HAK's city. I adjusted my EP allocation to add him into the spread. I'm spending points on everyone I've met except Plako, who I already have graphs on.

Here's the upcoming tech path. Next two turns will net me two techs and get me off the bottom of the scoreboard.

Finally, an overview of the area around my capital. The warrior is still headed for the hut I first spotted when I popped another hut and got a map out of it. Mack/Seven had a scout in this general area earlier and they probably scouted the coast so this hut is likely gone by now, but I can't in good conscience leave it on my map like this.

[spacetyrantxenu]

T21 - Anyone lurking has surely seen my post in the public player thread by now wishing HAK good luck vs. a lion. Here it is, up close. LP and I are both on hand to offer moral support:

If the lion kills his warrior that's fine with me. I'd rather he didn't scout my territory anyway. If the lion sufficiently wounds the warrior and HAK doesn't stop to heal I may send out my own warrior to finish the job in an obvious mercy killing That's only if I get high enough odds, though. I won't use my only nearby city garrison in a risky attack just to snipe an exploring warrior. If I lost that battle I'd have to turn my own exploring warrior around and get him back to the city posthaste because it would be about four turns before I could build a warrior to replace the one I would have lost.

Speaking of warriors, I've moved my capital garrison out of the city to march around with the worker that finally finished. This turn he's starting the pasture, when that's done he'll go farm the wheat. After that...maybe just build farms wherever he can since he can't do anything else until BW finishes.

The one downside of having so many forest tiles is that it really restricts what your workers can do until you can chop. I can't even build roads yet so even pre-roading all those forests to save worker turns when BW finishes isn't possible. I've already said it enough times so I won't belabor the point, but my tech path so far has been .

With that said, I'm going ahead to start building a second worker even though he will have a few turns with nothing much to do before BW finishes. Once BW is in they're going to be chopping for a thousand years clearing out this territory so I want that workforce available ASAP. Those trees are going to get me moving in this game - I need them working for me instead of being in the way.

I'll have to consider my builds more when the worker finishes, but it's likely I'll want another garrison unit before building a settler, especially if my second warrior is still out exploring.