[SPOILERS] Dazedroyalty - Move along! Nothing to see here

[dazedroyalty]

Just got back from two days of being completely out of contact so I sent brief "what's up" emails to every player in this game. I'm a little worried that somethign may have developed while I was MIA that I'm not aware of. I didn't get any emails but I also wasn't on chat once since Monday. That's not normally a big deal in games but this one is diplo heavy and it's a critical moment. We'll see what responses I get.

[dazedroyalty]

Full turn update commencing! It's been 5 turns since the last update. Let's see where we're at! Note, all these pictures are from after I hit end turn on T80, so things are not reconfigured for T81.

Let's go through cities first:



In the capital, I am trying to work as many cottages as possible for as long as possible. However, last turn I was 2 hammers (or food) away from completing a worker so I swapped off one cottage to work the plains hill. Next turn I'll start a Market and grow which will be perfectly timed with the gems that are due to come online next turn (see below). I'd really like to have a library here but it's never been in the cards as a high priority build but it's ironic that I have four libraries and none in my best commerce city. The market here will be worth 9gpt.



Quadratic needs some more worker turns itself since it's already working an unimproved plains forest. The thing here is that I was hoping to make this a GP farm, but I need to hold off working any more specialists here to avoid getting a great scientist first. I may just suck it up and pop the great scientist because once the gems come online I can grow to size 9 and won't have much better to work.



I let Integer grow into unhappiness because I am about to get Gems online (again, see below). I'm working all the hammer options in order to get the market asap. I'm gonna let it grow into another unhappy face and then whip it off to get the market faster. The market here is worth 7 gpt.



Base 10 is just a settler pump. I'm not sure why I snuck a library in there (krill, no need to say anything). It was before I had currency and was considering the need to run scientists to get currency ASAP and I didn't have the deal with Xenu yet for the gold that funded me. I had played around with working the plains hill but it couldn't make the settler finish any faster so I just stuck with the river cottage to get more gold!



TI-83 is gonna be a military pump with a considerable amount of whipping since it doesn't really have anything worthwhile to work beyond size 5. I did decide to take a shot at the Great Wall. I can chop one forest (NW of the city) which I'd want to chop anyway for defensive purposes. I'm only gonna use one worker for this project because it's a low priority for me right now. The only reason for it is for the +2 culture which would help in this contested region. I'm actually thinking I'll swap to a spear, work it 1T, whip it, then let the chop come in on the GW. I want to spend as few turns actually working the GW as possible in the off hand chance someone else finishes it. Conversely, I may just spend one turn on the spear, then go back to the GW and whip the spear after the wall. It'll depend on the micro for the chop coming in. I'd like to finish the wall with the chop.



Building wealth here is kinda a joke since it only get's 1 hammer per turn. However, it's allowing me to save the overflow from the last build a few turns. I'm going to 1T a WB for the new city to the west. I know buildings that are part done decay, but question for lurkers! Will the overflow from the last build decay as well if I keep building wealth? If so, how long does it last? After the WB, I'll go lighthouse for the extra food.



All three of those forests are prechopped so you're about to see some Moai-stone chop multiplication coming in. The only bad thing is that I think the grass forest is only 1t pre-chopped. I'm gonna want this city to grow a lot to take advantage of Moai so it won't be a worker or settler pump. Military is the way it will go.



Have I mentioned before I don't like Calculus? Well, I don't! If Base 10 had the surplus food I'd borrow seafood and let it grow quicker but it doesn't. Granary then lighthouse. Then.... whatever I can get out of it.



The Archer here is probably inefficient but I need more military down here and Geometry isn't making enough hammers to build wealth. I just need it to grow bigger!



Granary -> lighthouse -> max growth in Square Root. Will work the Iron at size 5 and still be at +6 food! Will probably mine the plains hill and work that too and do whipping at sized 5, 6 or 7 depending on the need.



Need to get another WB here asap. I can't do anything with the silk until I get calendar. I'm actually planning to just leave it as is for now until Calendar comes in. You'll note that I did tentatively change research to Calendar because I can actually make use of Calendar immediately after teching it while if I did CoL first, I would have to build courthouses and I'm currently working on Marketplaces instead.



Algebra is the newest city currently in the empire. I am skipping a monument for now becuase I don't need the 3 ocean or 2 coastal tiles. In fact, I won't need them for a long time. It'll work two river side grass cottages, I'll have to farm the plains to irrigate teh corn and I'll be at +6 (after civil service). Then i'll work mines or lighthouse coast depending on the need.

Overview shot of the core:



Here's the site I'm bee-lining a settle for in the middle:



Once the jungle is all cleared, that's an awesome site. It's also important to note that Sian's focus on the islands means that he will have no dyes, gems, pigs or sugar. Also, if he's slow, I may get his banana too (not pushing that becuase it'd be hard to defend).

The tundra for fun:



That worker there on the snowy hill is a gift from slowcheetah in exchange for a NAP. HAHA! I feel a little bad but heck, if I can get a free worker out of a NAP that I really want, I won't complain.



I'm not sure how much to prioritize this new city site. It'd be hard to defend in a war against Xenu and would get significant cultural challenge from Gary Johnson . I don't know if he settled ON the stone or on the plains hill either. If he settled on the stone, that makes a lot of overlap there. If I want this site, I need to make it happen asap. I'm leaning towards not pushing too hard on Xenu since he's the only one I don't have a long NAP with.



Slowcheetah has a trireme up in Xenu's land. If you ask me, that's a waste of a good trireme when he's at war with Sian. But whatever, his choice.



Notice that Sian has a vulture in his capital. I know the capital is the most important city, but if I were him I'd switch the vulture and the warrior. No one is gonna attack the capital without him knowing well in advance. Look what else I noticed about his capital:



Obviously, I can't see his whole capital yet, but those are three rather undeveloped cottages. I know he's relying on the GLH right now, but still, he needs to be thinking long term too. I see 7 mines and 7 cottages right now. It's the same deal in the city I can't see to the west:



Anyways, back to the home front:



I am gonna use that scout to pick the best sites on this island. After the jungle, this is my next major goal! I will also use the galley to pick up the two workers on the marble island and take them to a place where they can be more effectively used.



Hmmm... do I go for this site? terrible to defend in a war. will fight sian for crab. but, it's a great site......



My worker army is gonna get the Gems online and then move down to start clearing jungle. There's two more workers on the way as well. In case you wanted a better close up on the jungle:



I'm also going to settle the border site I negotiated with Xenu. I shoulda settled it one turn sooner but I didn't notice that the worker had already exhausted it's turn so when I went to switch him from cottage to road, i couldn't.



Here's the whole empire:



And another version that's less crowded:

[dazedroyalty]

Diplomatic update (won't be as long as last time):

Xenu: we have a tentative deal to work together to research towards a common goal. Xenu still sees me in the bottom of this game and I try to keep him thinking that. I just had to repay him 100 gold for what he lent me. It hurt since I could get calendar in 2 turns if I didn't repay him, but my economy is significantly stronger because he lent me that gold so I can't complain about repaying him. Instead of making +10 gold a turn I'm now making +50 or so (that is also aided by a OB agreement with Sian that included 3gpt). i'd actually like to lock him into an even longer term NAP if possible, but I need to play the game carefully with Xenu and try to get him to propose it.

Slowcheetah: convinced him to gift me a worker in exchange for a 30T nap! I put pressure on him by telling him Sian was trying to get me into the war with him (true) and that a straight NAP wouldn't benefit me (not really true). So he offered a worker and I said, "Sold!" He also willing offered me "first strike" for when the NAP runs out.

Sian: he offered me OB plus 3gpt without chatting/emailing first which was a surprise. I accepted even though the deal is in his favor becasue 1) I want to keep him happy with me, 2) it does help me too by about 10 gpt and 3) since we didn't make a deal before I can scout his land and sell info to the highest bidder. We also made a NAP. I think ours goes to T100 and I negotiated for first strike against him too.

I don't really want to strike either of them but I don't want them to be able to first strike me.

So basically, I'm pretty much set for the next 20 turns which is while my last post reveals that I'm playing a big farmers gambit. I don't have hardly any military builds and the ones I do have are just archers for garrison. Fortunately, I have two cities about to swap to military duty to help me keep pace. Tundra is easily defendable ATM and will be until catapults come my way.

[dazedroyalty]

I don't post many (any!) direct diplo updates but it's a slow afternoon here and learned some interesting tidbits that make me VERY happy!

me: how's the war with Sian going?

Slowcheetah: sorry went to wash up

me: wash up? what are you, civilized?! :P

Slowcheetah: haha, occasionally :P yeah it's going ok, so far been mainly defensive from me

me: good. get him to waste units on the offense, that's more painful

Slowcheetah: got lucky with a border pop at OHP which allowed me to take out a ministack

me: nice. you gonna counter push?

Slowcheetah: this is confidential right?

me: it can be if you'd like. so off the record, what's up?

Slowcheetah: I may try and counterpush through the tundra or at his new island city

me: nice! i'm not sure where the island city is

Slowcheetah: have you seen the central island that Xenu is occupying? it's on the south of that

me: hmmm.. not 100% sure. you mean the one to my south east?

Slowcheetah: yes i believe so

me: good. since we're off the record, i thought we could share some good news. Sian won't get any Gems, Dyes or Pigs between the two of us! :D

Slowcheetah: yeah I spotted your warrior there with my scout this turn

me: sadly... so much jungle to clear!

Slowcheetah: yeah, definitely do you have IW yet?

me: yes. i'm not gonna pull a Xenu and settle in the jungle before IW :D

Slowcheetah: technically we did that to, but it was only one jungled banana

me: that's different. haha. if you keep sian busy, i'll steal his banana too

Slowcheetah: haha, although that would be funny I don't think war is going to go on too much longer

me: sad face. i hope you mean cuz you're gonna give him teh smack down

Slowcheetah: well we can't let you take ALL the land

me: nonsense. who else would be better?!

Slowcheetah: probably me :P

me: well i think we'll have to agree to disagree!

Slowcheetah: or you could gift me your cities for ten turns and see what they look like when you get back. Consider it a vacation :P

me: haha. you shoulda let me know about that option before i went on the work trip. coulda saved us a lot of time

me: turns moving fast today! It's nice

Sian: its at you?

me: you according to the tracker! i just played and so did slowcheetah

Sian: ahh ... just got in7

me: well, good luck! kill some cats, will you? is slowcheetah telling me the truth about killing a mini-stack?

Sian: very mini

me: any plans to pay him back somehow?

Sian: got a few ideas

me: if you need to purchase troops, let me know

Sian: pumping out some 5-6HA's out every second turn

me: nice. that's gonna hurt someone!

So they are both investing significant resources into this war! That's what I like to hear. They've both lost a few units already. Plus, from previous conversations I know that Slowcheetah is going for Catapults and Sian clearly has HAs already, so that's a good combo. I'd prefer it to be the other way around, but no reason to complain. Also, they both have plans to inflict hurt in some way. Cheetah is unstoppable on the seas because he has triremes. However, if Sian is really investing heavily in HAs, he'll be able to overpower Cheetah on land. I really don't want Sian to have the MoM and Mids so I just have to decide if I should tell Slowcheetah to build lots of spears. If Sian was gonna raze it, I'd be thrilled. If he's gonna keep it.... not good.

[dazedroyalty]

Never mind! They made peace! Very sensible of them both. I just need to hope that they go back to war on each other and not me or even Xenu (he'd fold too quickly)

[dazedroyalty]

Bad things happened this turn! Very bad indeed. So, you know how it takes 20 turns for score from land to show up... well some serious land score hit on the same turn that I was able to 1T deficient research Calendar and that the Great Wall completed (not to mention 3 or so cities growing). I think I feel a target appearing on my back.



I actually much preferred being the lowest score. I have Naps until T100 and T110 with the two big guns (sian and slow cheetah), but I don't have a NAP with Xenu, just a tech arrangement and he's the one MOST influenced by the perception of score. My GNP was still about 100 behind Sian with full research on so that's not exactly amazing. But I've got more cottages than him so the longer I don't have to fight the better.

On a funny side note, I've never built the Great Wall so late before. It makes some interesting graphics. The new jungle city is outside the wall. Poor guys. Surrounded by nasty jungle, sweating and they don't even get the safety of the wall....



Gotta decide where to settle on the big island. First thoughts, will need revision:

[scooter]

Dotmap looks good to me. The mirroring on that map looks funny.

I think you'll be fine. Got NAPs with Sian and Slowwalk, so just Xenu to worry about. Try to keep him relaxed. Point out that "in your experience" score is pretty meaningless this early... which is true. Point to other indicators like Sian's strong GNP or your struggles in the demos or whatever to be a much better indicator of future success. In the same way he might "fear" you more, he might also take your experience more seriously in that way.

[dazedroyalty]

yeah, I've been playing that angle already! Yesterday I sent Boldly/Xenu an email about the island site. Even though I had already decided not to settle it, I thought it could be good to "discuss" it so that it seems like I'm making a concession.

Hail Ronald Reagan!

I just wanted to touch base with you about settling. I had been building a settler to settle on the big island between us but as I've been looking at it closer, I realized the spot is an area that could be contentious. To avoid another border issue, I wanted to talk to you about it. I've attached a screen shot of the area so that we can discuss it clearly. I'm hold off any plans for the area until I hear from you.

Dazed

Boldly emailed me back:

Hail Supreme Leader of Logic!

As you realized, that location does appear to be in a somewhat crowded area, between two Republican districts. The location you selected, on the forest, would help itself to a seafood lease that our party has been grooming for the campaign of Mr. Pawlenty. He anticipates being able to canvas that resource (pop borders) in 2T. We would be most appreciative if this resource was available for his campaign's continued use, and would be open to discussions on a city location for your logicians to study in elsewhere. We did have a notion to establish another candidate in that area, 1S of that crab, and further from your study group 3W, 1N of the wheat. We would be happy to treat you to some libations (wine) for your troubles, should you have an appetite for such Epicurean things. My guess is there is another spices resource on the SW corner of this island. Has that been taken yet?

In other news, we can cancel borders with Sian in 7T, so that means you could do so in 6? His GNP is very strong, likely from trade routes. While he will reap significant advantages from his overseas cities, I believe we are probably helping him more than he is helping us in these deals (else he would not have suggested them). I recommend we recommence the boycott at the earliest opportunity. What are your thoughts? Whatever we decide, we should bring Catwalk/Slowcheetah on board.

Boldly

Since I hadn't responded yet, after playing this last turn, I sent back this email:

Hail Ronald Reagan!

Sian has a firm hold on the rest of this island. I am moving onto the other large island and noticed that you have a settlement there. I am going to concede this site to you but will be moving forward with my settlement on the other big island. We will overlap on the mountains only--no workable terrain. Unfortunately, because the middle section is so narrow, there's no other way for me to settle there.

Also, when you play the next save you'll notice a few things. First, I have the highest score now. I'd like to highlight that it's not a strong score it's mostly just land score--graphs still show a pretty poor state of affairs. Also, I build the Great Wall in the Tundra area to fight back on Sian's culture. It's essentially meaningless as a wonder (though it gave me a big boost in that score). The culture is small (just 2), but it'll double in 1000 years!

Sian's GNP is strong. I'm going to renegotiate with him. If he's not willing to cough up more GPT, then I'll close borders.

Dazed

It's too blunt probably and not very subtle. I suck at intentional diplomacy craft. This whole games ideal diplo situation for me has been something I've mostly just been throwing gasoline on but I can't take any credit for stoking the fire.

I imagine in the next 5 turns I'll sink back down in score--hopefully to at least 3rd. If that doesn't happen though, I'll need to shift to military production before my NAPS expire.

[dazedroyalty]

Sian tells me he is going for Astronomy to "prevent his cities being forked." But it also means he could fork my cities. So I may need to go that direction soon since it'll be much harder for me to get there than him.

My tentative plan, having just finished Currency, was to tech Alphabet and CoL and then us a GS to pop Philo. While that's a good plan, it doesn't actually gain me anything for my military defense. I'm gonna start looking like a good target without construction, feudalism, HBR, Machinery or anything else. I think I may need to change plans. Krill, thoughts?

[dazedroyalty]

Sian wants a NAP extension (yay!), except that he's trying to use it to settle the fish/banana spot next to my coastal city in the jungle. That's not acceptable. I'm glad i mentioned that I don't want him settling up on me before signing the NAP. Maybe I should have just signed it and settled it myself because I'm pretty sure I can get a settler there much faster. I have a few around and I could have diverted one.

There is no spot besides right on my border that he can settled and get the fish/banana. Which sucks for Sian. He feels it's in "his" area. In my opinion, the jungle is contested area and he chose to prioritize the islands first, while I went after the jungle. It's not a coincidence that it was my original goal when I started this game and I've managed to grab about 50% of it in a 4 player game! He can say it's closer to "his area" all he wants, but I still won't let him settle where he can double move my city and steal some of the BFC tiles from my city. He also chose his dotmap that forced him to settle another city to get his crabs that prevents him from settling further south. I don't have a good screenshot that captures the situation so I'll try to take one next time I get the save. In the meantime, here's teh best I could do with what I have available: