[SPOILERS] Dazed and scooter play Stalin of Vikings and make a big mess

[NobleHelium]

1 Turn 123/161. Science is 32. So 123 + 32 makes 155, not 161. Why? How?

Raw beakers are multiplied by 1.2 on most technologies because of the prerequisite arrow. And you get a bonus one not seen on the interface as well.

[flugauto]

Thanks.

[scooter]

Can I ask why Redhead wasn't settled 1N? Or have I missed the answer?

Wish I had a good answer for this . I mean I remember throwing it out there as a Moai location, but the spot north of SoF is better for that because it has a fish to grow on instead of crabs, sooo.....

[scooter]

So Dazed and I obviously noticed the odd exchange between Commodore, Regoarrar, and Krill. I'm trying to piece it together. It seems either Commodore or Krill are involved in some sort of conflict or settling race with Regoarrar... Or maybe 3-way conflict? Either way, there's definitely SOMETHING because soon after that conversation happened, Regoarrar logged in and was in game for over an hour and didn't end turn, all the while a flurry of activity in his thread (ok ok that's normal). So yeah... I'm happy about that - especially if Krill/Regoarrar get into a tangle because the two of them are in really strong positions right now it seems.

[scooter]

Another thing that I don't think made it in here - Dazed told me via chat that he can now see Brick's resources via diplo screen, and Brick... does not have copper hooked. This is amazing. First, it's bizarre that he's gotten to about 5 cities and none of them are for copper - we know where his copper is at! But the cool thing is, that means our Spear on a forest can seriously defend our entire empire for a lot longer. Seriously, we are defending all of our cities with 1 Spear right now.

GLH is just a couple turns away now if we get a GE. Fingers crossed. Would REALLY suck if we burn a GE on it and then lose a coin flip. There's no way around that risk though, so we'll have to take it.

[scooter]

Welp, Commodore swiped a city off Regoarrar, and then promptly whipped a couple times. Some warring is good for the soul - at least if it's other people warring. Maybe this is why Commodore was lagging behind so badly? Anyways, the Regopin team was one of the stronger teams, so it's nice to see the knocked down a peg. Now if someone would only do that for Krill too.

Mist has been doing some serious whipping for Brick since taking over for him. Not sure what to make of that.

Great person due end of next turn. I'll scream like a little girl if we get an engineer.

[scooter]

Ok, I've been meaning for awhile to do a post on our gameplan here. We've been doing a ton of our planning for this game in chat. It's super convenient for us because we go through and discuss everything, but I lose track of what I've shared in here and what I've only discussed in chat. So anyways...


We're in a weird spot. We have Pyramids. We're going to get Colossus. We've got a decent shot at GLH here if we get an engineer and nobody builds it in the next 2T. I've said to Dazed for awhile that I think the odds are higher of us getting a prophet (~25%) than they are of the GLH actually falling. The wonder is nerfed, so it's only strong if you've got a start like ours - and most people don't on Big&Small. So anyways, we have respectable chances of GLH on top of Mids + Colossus. Also, we have a small empire that is commerce-biased. In short, we will be very good techers and very poor in terms of production and land total. So we need to leverage the tech somehow, because we'll need to be much bigger at some point.

Enter Berserkers - aggressive ones at that. We'll have 3-move Galleys, Agg Berserkers (with at least 1 promo via barracks), and a neighbor who will likely be lagging in tech. We should have a decent fleet of Nav1 galleys at that point, so load up with Berserkers, snipe a few cities early, and then roll over Brick's other cities. Also, we can leverage our commerce in getting them quickly. Meaning, once we unlock them, shut off tech and upgrade axes because we lack for hammers, not commerce. If we can get Zerks before Brick gets crossbows/longbows (good chance at that), it'll be a slaughter.

So the next question is how do we get Berserks as fast as possible? Well, you need Civil Service and Machinery. We are capable of teching Machinery right now, so that's unlocked. To tech Civil Service you need Code of Laws and Mathematics, and Currency is an optional prereq. We'll obviously want Currency. So key techs to get is: Currency, Maths, CoL, Civil Service, Machinery. Not necessarily in that order. We can also tech quickly by working Colossus coast + Rep scientists, and even get a few extra great people rather quickly. Speaking of which, that's the next thing. Check this out, the Great Engineer bulb list:

Machinery
Assembly Line
Industrialism
Combustion
Metal Casting
Mining
Iron Working
Engineering
<snip>

Actually, better yet:

Machinery
<snip>

Ahhh, much better. Our first Engineer here will definitely rush GLH if that's available. If it's not, we may just bulb Machinery now and be done with it. However, our second GP will come rather quickly (mids, oracle, colosuss, engineer specialists, maybe some scientist specialists). Decent chance that comes out as an Engineer as well. If so, bulb away. Also, what if we get a Merchant? It's not as great, but there's options here too:

Currency
Banking
Economics
Corporation
Metal Casting
Code of Laws
Mining
Constitution
The Wheel
Alphabet (BTS)
Pottery
Sailing
Paper
Railroad
Industrialism
Monarchy
Civil Service
Guilds

Let's cut that down and remove irrelevant techs and techs we already have so it's not so overwhelming:

Currency
Code of Laws
Alphabet (BTS)
Monarchy
Civil Service

Well, we can technically bulb Civil Service. Currency and CoL are stuff we'd want anyways. Alphabet would be mildly useful. Monarchy though... Nah. We have Rep - no need at all for Monarchy. So bulbing CS is not really all that great. However, bulbing CoL would be solid and helpful. That's required for CS, and it would speed that up considerably. So we've got a plan in place for a Merchant.

The Great Scientist options are not great bulb-wise (best option would probably be Maths which, eh, not really worth it I don't think), but an Academy would be super useful in the capital where we can run several Rep scientists and really make it valuable.

Great Prophet would be the least likely, and the options for it are not great. We could shrine of course, but the payoff for that is limited with our small empire. Could settle, but settling so late is bleh. Don't really want to burn our 0-man golden age THAT early either. So shrine is probably preferred option at that point, but what's the bulb list? Removing Divine Right, Myst, Masonry, Meditation, Polytheism, and Priesthood (either have them or won't matter), we have:

Monotheism
Theology
Code of Laws
Civil Service

Theology is the kicker. We have no need for that. However, Theology is roughly 2/3rds the cost of Civil Service. So it's not ridiculous to tech Theo and bulb CS. That's certainly quicker than shrining and slow-teching CS. However, how much quicker remains to be seen. If it's just 2-3 turns, we would just shrine for sure. Overall, hoping for not a great prophet.

So here's a final layout of our options for our second great person:

Engineer: Bulb Machinery
Merchant: Bulb Code of Laws
Scientist: Academy
Prophet: Shrine or maybe bulb CS after teching Theo

That's more or less in order of preference. Scientist/Merchant are mildly interchangeable, but Engineer is clearly best and Prophet clearly worst. We can make do with all those options, but we should definitely 1) get Colossus quickly so it contributes to GPP pool 2) run engineer to increase those odds 3) possibly run scientists. Merchant will be less likely than Prophet sadly (because if we get it, GLH has to go in SoF to get it quickly rather than capital), but Engineer should be most likely with Scientist second if we get a Library up. As long as we can avoid that Prophet.

So bring on the Berserkers!

[dazedroyalty]

If our second great person is a prophet, I'd still like to consider settling. I'm guessing we won't really have had a chance to spread our religion yet by then so the hammers, plus rep powered science are nicer short term benefits that can result in longer term benefits as well. The only reason I like a shrine is because it would help spread our religion for us.

[scooter]

If our second great person is a prophet, I'd still like to consider settling. I'm guessing we won't really have had a chance to spread our religion yet by then so the hammers, plus rep powered science are nicer short term benefits that can result in longer term benefits as well. The only reason I like a shrine is because it would help spread our religion for us.

If we get to that point I'll run numbers so we can see what we're really choosing between.

Also, Lord Parkin end your turn already . Seriously, team Regopin have managed 6-7 logins, ~45 posts, and 0 ended turns in the last 20 hours or so. The great person suspense is killing me and we still have another turn to wait for.

[dazedroyalty]

YES!