(November 20th, 2012, 15:46)Catwalk Wrote: I find Currency to be somewhat unimportant in AW. You'll be getting a whopping +4 cpt, that's not going to make or break anything. Most important growth factor in the short-term is food and happiness. You have great food surplus in all your cities and you're in HR now, so you're able to grow very nicely over the next 5-10t.
I wouldn't work the gold in Swiper, I'd rather work a river cottage by your capital and switch your capital to the GH mine. 0/1/7 is not a great tile, and food is worth a lot right now.
Thanks for the input. In general, I agree about growing my cities. And, I have plenty of workers to develop them.
Any thoughts on the other 90% of the post that talks about taking a shot at Slow's city?
What, you have an issue with me only reading 10% of your posts? I definitely like easy raze chances. What other troops has he had in the area? It looks like an axe is guarding his Commodore border up there. Also, what's the culture situation around Cobra Commander and Swiper? Any chance of capturing more tiles?
Quick answer to Catwalk's question about Megatron, no, I don't believe we'll take any additional tiles there for now. The ratio is now 52/47, but I'm going to be adopting a religion soon, and I'd rather keep cultural dominance near Cobra Commander. At some point I see Sian building a city on the hill 4E of Megatron, so he'd keep cultural control there at that time. It could happen, but I'm not holding my breath.
On to the turn. I executed my plan to take a shot and came up short:
Well, you win some, you lose some. Losing the chariot drops us to last in power, but it was worth a shot. I don't see a vendetta against us for this, but I do not anticipate Slow will offer me a second chance at an easy raze. I moved my axe/spear combo to cover the two workers.
Still chugging along on the settler.
Growing like a weed. Need more units, need more tiles fixed up. I'll be transfering units from the DH region to here over the next couple of turns. We're behind schedule here, but I've prioritized other development with the workers. Rightly or wrongly.
Not pictured: Megatron is still growing, Growth in 2T, whip not long after. Swiper grows next turn and completes a spear in 2T.
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
Dang, too bad about not burning his city down. Yeah, I'm going to guess he'll garrison that a bit more now that there is a road and an obvious vulnerability. I'm going to guess you're right about him targeting Pyramids. But depending on what you find in the central lake in terms of garrison you may be tempted to try burning his island city. Just throwing that out there. Finish Sailing, load up a pair of axes and see if he has sufficient garrison. Just don't get your axes sunk on your galley because obviously he has one as well. If he gets cultural control of that lake he's going to have a really nice city there. Good thing he is diagonal from your end of the lake and not right next to you. I think Sian will be squeezed out completely in there if he isn't careful.
Played: Pitboss 18 - Kublai Khan of Germany Somalia | Pitboss 11 - De Gaulle of Byzantium | Pitboss 8 - Churchill of Portugal | PB7 - Mao of Native America | PBEM29 Greens - Mao of Babylon
So, thoughts on where we stand. With our failed attempt at razing Holly, I've now taken some aggression out on all three other players in the game. Commodore doesn't seem to be interested in me at the moment, and I don't have a very good handle on his game plan. He has one border with me, at Swiper, which I've tried to garrison decently. He has cultural control in the area, so he is probably content to sit back and defend with advance warning if I were to come his way. Fair enough. The injuries from my early choke are a distant memory, and since he has very little border with me, he must have more antagonism with someone else. My guess would be Slowcheetah, given he's spread out fairly widely. I'll say my threat level with him is relatively low.
Slowcheetah will not like that I took a shot, but he can hardly blame me. Also, I think that he's doing everything he can to maintain his far-flung cities. He emphasized getting a city on the pond, built a galley/settler, and settled the Stone resource. This has cost him...something. He has also settled close to me/Commodore, so I'll put him at 5 cities. He had horses before settling Holly (#3?), must have settled for Bronze (#2), Capital (#1), coastal to build a boat (#4), and Stone city (#5). His GNP is in the tank, too. Finally, he is matching Sian in military production to garrison/protect all these cities and cover workers improving tiles very near to hostile borders. He'd love to get back at me, but he's a cool, rational customer, and I think he'll bide his time. The last thing he can afford is a costly hot war with me as he's trying to consolidate his holdings and put his economy back on solid footing. Thus far he has not had an antagonistic relationship with me, until my attempt on Holly, which he can't hold against me if he thinks about it for a second. I'd say that he is more concerned about Sian than me, as I think they share tighter borders than Slow does with me.
Now, Sian. I put him on only three cities (Capital/Henge, #2/Bronze, #3/Horses in my fucking face). I must assume that he only settled on the horses in my border out of necessity, as certainly he would have probably preferred to not have to leave three units camped on that hill for eternity as he has done. Slowcheetah settled the horses before Sian could.
I took this last turn but forgot to post it. Here we have confirmation of Sian's Copper city (#2), and what I think is Slow's city #3 for horses. I think he settled on the gold as Sian has done, but with his creative trait does not have the crushing border culture that Sian is facing due to my first holy city's culture. For reference, in the picture above, Slow's horses should be 1S of the garrisoned tundra hill. Slow and Sian have matched power ratings throughout the game, so I think they are primary adversaries for one another, and I think the theater in the south may be where a lot of this is playing out. I hope so at least. However, I've been thinking about things and I've put on a decent economic gambit, running slight on military, low on production, and light on whipping trying to grow my cities vertical while expanding. I have certainly been inefficient with unhappy faces throughout much of the game so far, but now that I have Monarchy for HR I believe I will get some value back from that.
And here I come to the point: I will get value back now IF I don't get kicked off the rails. I have the smallest army (though not by a wide margin). However, I rate Sian as my biggest threat, and he does have a larger army, based on demos, than I have. But, because his GNP has been high for quite some time, I do not think he has been focusing on working mines for the production necessary to produce units. In fact, he's cottaging over one of the mines at his capital now. He has whipped a bit recently, but generally he has grown vertical to get synergy from his charismatic trait and Stonehenge build. So, good GNP, but not incredible production to build a lot of units. I've only built one more city than Sian, so he should have a surplus of production over me (production that I've put into more workers/settlers), especially given my preference for commerce up until now. But, I don't think it accounts for the gap in power, so I think that Sian has focused on military techs, and this worries me.
Here's where I stand on techs, including the highlighted Monarchy off the side of the picture. I have spent a number of turns on that investment that Sian has not, so he is up on me techwise in another part of the tree. I guessed that he went for Writing, and I hypothesize that he whipped or will whip a library in his copper city and run specialists for his capital. If he's cottaging hills, he wants to wring out every efficiency possible there. Not a bad plan. But, Sian had a second spike after writing and I'm not sure what that was. I don't know if Sian has researched Masonry (70), I doubt he went for Polytheism after I landed the religion (88), or Priesthood (52), and certainly not Monotheism (105). That's 315 beakers that Sian could have put into a military tech. Math/Currency/CoL makes sense, but Math/(Masonry) Construction makes more sense. Sian is boxed in and has only three cities, so he needs CoL less than others will. But, he'll need a religion at some point, I'd think, and he's in decent position to get it. Slow can't beat him to CoL, and Commodore and I don't need it for religion. So, CoL is one possibility. However, given his power rating is already up and all the unaccounted beakers, I think he already has Horseback Riding (221). I know he has Archery (52), because I've seen Skirmishers for ages. This is cause for concern.
First, Megatron is hanging by a thread and is very weakly garrisoned. Sian may well be capable (and indeed planning, given his worker positions) a similar attack as I've done on Slowcheetah. The only way I can up the timetable for units in Megatron is by whipping, but I won't have a Terrace in for another couple of turns, much less be able to whip in more units, efficiently with a Terrace or otherwise. Swiper I am loathe to whip down as it grows slowly, but I may have no choice. Even so, Sian has moved his workforce, at least three workers maybe more, west of his capital and in Megatron's general direction. When he finished the road next turn on the hill he can attack out of the fog and kill my axe, and would then be free to road up to the border where he could 2-move Megatron, with only a Quechua on garrison duty. That won't work I feel like I don't have a lot of time, but I don't really have good options here either.
The only thing I can think of is that I need to tech Archery immediately. All of my cities are on hills, and if I play defense inside the city he can't hurt me too badly at Megatron. I'll trade archers for HAs all day (16/33). If I can get two more turns, I think I can whip the Terrace and JUST overflow for a 1T archer, if I can get it teched by then, which I think I can do. However, if Sian is not going for HAs and is instead going Math/(Masonry) Construction, I have a bit more time but still need to tech HBR so I can flank his cats. Sian can't win with just three cities, he's squeezed on every side, and has population to spare to the whip, so I think an attack is coming. It's either me or Slow, but Slow has a better power rating. I better get to work on that immediately. As much as I want to continue pushing economy, I just don't think we can afford it now. Settling my fifth city will not help me defend, either, so I need to pump units. Gotta come up with some hammers, so I may have to whip DH. Just when I thought I had things under control. I just hadn't put information together into a coherent picture. Ignorance really is bliss.
I need a Plan of Action. I'll think about this some and post it soon.
I'm out of time to think about my response, time to hit the road for the weekend. Here's the plan:
T60: Move axe/quechua from Swiper toward Megatron. Leave one Axe to defend Swiper. Taking a risk here, but the spear will complete there soon, and if Commodore makes an aggressive move we can always turn one of the units around and put it back next turn.
DH:
T60 - Size 8 18/24, Change from Settler to Spear, work coast over the deer.
T61 - Size 9 12/25, double whip spear to size 7, 12/22. Overflow into a second spear. Work deer.
T62 - Complete spear, see how things look from there.
Megatron:
T60 - take wheat from Swiper, grow.
T61 - double whip Terrace.
T62 - hopefully overflow for archer.
Next turn in DH, work a water tile over the deer (painful), change build to a spear. The following turn this will be a double whip (after growth to Size 9 12/25) down to 7. Not good to whip after growing, better to do so before, but I feel a real sense of urgency with Sian's road approaching Megatron. Something is in the works.
Send the first spear as quickly as possible to Megatron. The roads aren't set up perfectly for this, unfortunately. Delaying the settler means juggling the worker micro in the north. I'd prefer to pull two of those workers toward CC and get some cottages up. If things look dire militarily, triple chop a forest to get a unit up for T63. I anticipate Sian completing a road on the hill 2,3 of Bearback Mountain (Axe in Sian's territory) on T60. If two-move units are in sight, make best judgement as to whether to stand firm or fall back to Megatron.
The axe/spear combo on Slow's borders will be unable to help Swiper in time if Sian is up to anything, so be opportunistic with them if you see a chance. We can always pillage Slow's silver mine. Be bold.
Given these changes, I wish I was playing the turn, but now it looks like I will leave town first. Do the best you can, and if you're stumped, just don't play the turn. Don't forget to switch the tech to Archery and go 100% for it. I'm hoping that I can get an archer with the overflow from the terrace whip in Megatron next turn.
(November 21st, 2012, 12:07)Boldly Going Nowhere Wrote: Given these changes, I wish I was playing the turn, but now it looks like I will leave town first. Do the best you can, and if you're stumped, just don't play the turn. Don't forget to switch the tech to Archery and go 100% for it. I'm hoping that I can get an archer with the overflow from the terrace whip in Megatron next turn.
Upon further review I think I'll leave this turn to you. I opened the save and didn't really have a good grasp of what I was supposed to be doing. Combination of playing on this laptop instead of my usual nice desktop setup (wtf who can play this with only one monitor???) and the usual distracting pandemonium over with the family. Also, we're watching yet more football (who knew Mark Sanchez could turn over the ball so frequently? Oh yeah, anyone who watches the Jets! ) so this may not be the best time to play. (GZOMG the Patriots just returned another fumble for a TD. hahahahaha Jets suck!) Sorry to the other players, I'll post a lame excuse in the tech thread now.
Played: Pitboss 18 - Kublai Khan of Germany Somalia | Pitboss 11 - De Gaulle of Byzantium | Pitboss 8 - Churchill of Portugal | PB7 - Mao of Native America | PBEM29 Greens - Mao of Babylon
(November 21st, 2012, 12:07)Boldly Going Nowhere Wrote: Given these changes, I wish I was playing the turn, but now it looks like I will leave town first. Do the best you can, and if you're stumped, just don't play the turn. Don't forget to switch the tech to Archery and go 100% for it. I'm hoping that I can get an archer with the overflow from the terrace whip in Megatron next turn.
Upon further review I think I'll leave this turn to you. I opened the save and didn't really have a good grasp of what I was supposed to be doing. Combination of playing on this laptop instead of my usual nice desktop setup (wtf who can play this with only one monitor???) and the usual distracting pandemonium over with the family. Also, we're watching yet more football (who knew Mark Sanchez could turn over the ball so frequently? Oh yeah, anyone who watches the Jets! ) so this may not be the best time to play. (GZOMG the Patriots just returned another fumble for a TD. hahahahaha Jets suck!) Sorry to the other players, I'll post a lame excuse in the tech thread now.
Do you think you will get to it tomorrow or should I ask Catwalk, if he is able? I would feel very badly about holding the turn 100+ hours until I can get home to play. I don't have any more specific instructions than what I've already posted without seeing the save myself. Catwalk, if you're up to and Xenu hasn't played in another 10-15 hours, feel free to play. I'd rather blame him for mistakes if possible. =) If things are a total mess and you don't feel comfortable proceeding, just let me know. I'm marooned in central Kentucky and lucky to have wireless/phone connection. No need for a time machine to go back in time. Go to Kentucky... Password is bebold. Turn instructions are a couple posts back. Focus is defense in Megatron. I've come to the conclusion that I'm in a precarious position and that Sian is a likely aggressor soon. Need spears ASAP. See my micro plan for specifics and use your best judgment where I didn't prescribe moves.
I definitely like easy raze chances. What other troops has he had in the area? It looks like an axe is guarding his Commodore border up there. Also, what's the culture situation around Cobra Commander and Swiper? Any chance of capturing more tiles?
![[Image: PBEM%2044%20T59%20attack%20odds.JPG]](http://dl.dropbox.com/u/59892754/PBEM%2044%20T59%20attack%20odds.JPG)
![[Image: PBEM%2044%20T59%20attack%20fail.JPG]](http://dl.dropbox.com/u/59892754/PBEM%2044%20T59%20attack%20fail.JPG)
![[Image: PBEM%2044%20T60%20DH.JPG]](http://dl.dropbox.com/u/59892754/PBEM%2044%20T60%20DH.JPG)
![[Image: PBEM%2044%20T60%20CC.JPG]](http://dl.dropbox.com/u/59892754/PBEM%2044%20T60%20CC.JPG)
![[Image: PBEM%2044%20T60%20Chariot%20explores.JPG]](http://dl.dropbox.com/u/59892754/PBEM%2044%20T60%20Chariot%20explores.JPG)
![[Image: PBEM%2044%20T60%20Demos.JPG]](http://dl.dropbox.com/u/59892754/PBEM%2044%20T60%20Demos.JPG)
I'd say that he is more concerned about Sian than me, as I think they share tighter borders than Slow does with me. ![[Image: PBEM%2044%20%20-%20T59%20Tech%20update.PNG]](http://dl.dropbox.com/u/59892754/PBEM%2044%20%20-%20T59%20Tech%20update.PNG)
