RB Pitboss #1 SPOILERS - Mansa Musa of Spain

[sunrise089]

Thanks for the vote of confidence Sooooo. I think two factors will work against me though:

1) I suspect, though I'm not at all certain, that each civ will have similar quality of land.

2) I'm a poor micromanager. My game will feature essentially zero attempts to time builds and growth and overflow and any of the other cool stuff that lets a player squeeze out extra hammers and beakers to gain the edge.

I'd add that I'm putting almost no effort into tracking the progress of the other 11 civs as a third flaw in my game, but I suspect that's hardly unique.

Of course, what will be really interesting is if the rush civs (Zulu, Rome, Persia, Carthage) come into play early. For example, a single Impi landed by a galley would knock me out of the game, and I doubt I'm unique. Note that Sumeria, Mali, and Inca also have early UUs, but they are more choking units than rushing units, and I doubt anyone will declare war just to choke their enemy.

[athlete4life10]

I'd add that I'm putting almost no effort into tracking the progress of the other 11 civs as a third flaw in my game, but I suspect that's hardly unique.

Thank goodness for this...I thought I was the only one who didn't do this... :rolleyes:

[sunrise089]

FOOD!



I'm now up to 70% confident that the land I see to the east is close to at least one civ's cap if not two. Otherwise I can settle four coastal cities all with 2 food tiles. With financial, and the ability to swap into Caste System and run specialists with the food surplus without taking an anarchy...well I assume I won't be able to get all the due to cross-channel cultural battles.

That said, I bet I can get ONE of the eastern side food resources by settling a city and then discovering Judaism. I should be a favorite to get Monotheism first, unless the number of civs means that another Mysticism ream really wants to beeline the tech.

[Swiss Pauli]

I think the best tech path is agriculture -> mining -> bronze working -> masonry, so my worker is never idle and so I grow as quickly as possible. This will also let me have a decent stab at Stonehenge, since at pop 4 I will be working my food tile and several grassland mines. However hunting allows me to hook up my Ivory, which is a 2/2/3 (!) tile. What do you lurkers think?

Agri => Mining is a given. I'd be tempted to sneak in a cheeky Hunting before BW, depending on how many turns Hunting would take, and how well you're positioned to take advantage of Slavery & chopping a few turns sooner by skipping Hunting.

re: your micro skills - you've done pretty well so far (religion, worker exactly at size two). Whether that's luck or judgement I don't know :rolleyes:

[sunrise089]

Thanks for the advice Swiss!

[sunrise089]

Turn 14:

Land overview:



I theorize that I'm bordering 2 islands to my east, each with one civ. The seafood touching the far coast is probably intended for the other civ, but if I found the Jewish holy city I can probably snag one resource of my choice.

My city:



Nothing too interesting, but lots of green tiles

Tech tree:



Obviously this certainly isn't set. Archery is earlier than it would normally be with no barbs, but that is because I'm fearful of a single Immortal, Praetorian, or especially Impi. Likewise The Wheel also isn't really necessary, and will depend on my pop growth - I think I need the wheel to hook up my ivory, since the capital doesn't count as being on the river. Finally, I may want to bump Monotheism up to grab a second religion and holy city. I don't know how much civs will beeline it now that Poly and Med are taken.

Finally, some demographics:

[sunrise089]

Ok, some BIG NEWS:



So much for my islands theory, and willingness to run a paper military. Dreylin can kill me if he wants right now...I can't get a warrior built until one turn after he could capture my city. That said, I'm still building a 3-turn warrior so I can continue to scout while keeping a unit at home. It will serve as an MP unit eventually.



PS - I was last to play, and my warrior killed the wolf at the start of the next turn.

[sunrise089]

Ok, some diplomacy.

Greetings Sunrise,

Our exploring Warrior has just reached your borders and our two civilisations are now met. We hope that in the future we can work together for the betterment of both.

Dreylin of the League

Greetings Dreylin. I'm glad our fine civilizations could meet.

I'll give you some free info: From what I can tell my capital is on a peninsula. Possibly we share an island, but I've only discovered water to my north, south, and east. Also, regoarrarr is somewhere across the channel to the east. I'll arrange a meeting once I can figure out where to direct you - rego spotted my borders but we've not officially met...I'm not even sure his email was allowed.

Finally, can I assume this email exchange means you don't intend to declare war on me? I have a unit I can build in time, but I'd prefer to let a worker finish first if I don't have to worry about any attacks.

-sunrise

The "I have a unit in time" is a total bald faced lie, but I think it's slightly better to plant the idea of attacking in his head if it also suggests I may have a unit built.

[sunrise089]

More diplomacy:

Hello there!

I hope that this email is within the spirit of the rules as we have not *quite* met yet. But, consider this "knocking on your door". I believe that you have a clam and some coast to the NE of your capital. I am directly NE of you, on a separate landmass (as far as I can tell). So if you put a unit up on the forested hill south of the clam, he and my warrior Bob can engage in a rock skipping contest!

I have a few more thoughts and comments to say, but I will wait until hearing back from you to make sure our conversations are "legit"

Or, if I am just getting somewhat color blind in my old age and those borders are someone elses, feel free to let me know and disregard the gigantic spoiler of knowing that someone else has clams to the NE of their capital!!!! :-D

dan.

Dan,

Pleased to meet you! I'm not sure about whether we're within the spirit of the rules or not either. However the genie is out of the bottle, so lets meet in game and then we can chat. I'll station my warrior on the hill by the clam tile in 2 turns.

-sunrise

[Sullla]

A bald lie in the first-ever diplo communication! I like your style. The post-game readthrough of these threads by all of the players involved is going to be a hoot.

Back to watching the action. :wink2: