I'm not sure I see what Math has to do with it? I do have just a single library, which was completed two turns ago. So I don't have much economic infrastructure beyond granaries (and lighthouses). I did whip my first rathaus in Grenada this turn, before switching out of slavery. I will also complete a rathaus next turn in Fiji.
I settled Kiribati in the north, popping its borders instantly with a caste system artist. Brunei also hired three artists after the revolt and will push out my next GP in four turns.
Novice has whipped his border city down to size 2, most likely completing an Odeon. If he has any sense he will overflow into a spear. I'm just hoping he doesn't add two spears over the next two turns.
Dazed resettled his gems city, so I only set him back a settler and two city turns. I'm hoping he'll be passive on this front, though, after I flashed some of my shock horse archers at him.
Boldly has a trireme in the inner sea, which doesn't bother me since I have no seafood there. Novice switched research from iron working to metal casting, though. I'll take that as a good sign.
After I founded Kiribati, my archer in the area became a bit superfluous as a sentry and I decided to go and have a look at Novice's island city. Turns out it's undefended.
Sort of.
That's a five-move galley north of the city, two galleys in the city, and two galleys 2S of the city. TBH I have no clue what he's up to here. It looks a bit like a defensive deployment, being able to ferry 6 units from the island to his isthmus city on demand. But why are the galleys 2S of the city hugging the coast like that, and not further east? Is he preparing an invasion on Dazed? On me? I really don't get it...
In any case, with a hostile navy like that in the inner sea, I'm glad I just stayed on the west coast. Whatever those galleys are up to, I can't really see that they're posing a threat to me, currently. (Although Jordan will need to watch out for that five-move galley in the future.)
I continue to bide my time. If he unloads a bunch of units in Pita next turn, I'll be a sad panda. But I wasn't ready to strike this turn so it's a moot point.
My power is pretty respectable. There's not a bunch of land left to claim, so I imagine there will be more bloodshed soon enough, one way or the other.
My first rathaus is online, saving me 6 gpt. That's like a second shrine, just to put things into perspective. Pretty cool.
Boldly kept me waiting a long time for this turn, which was a bit nerve wracking. He also advanced his trireme towards my undefended city of Jordan. It will have two archers for defense at the end of next turn, though. (And it's not like the trireme is carrying any troops.)
Dazed moved a vulture within sight of Kiribati in the north. The situation should be well under control there. It has an archer, I could chop walls or another unit, and I could of course send some horse archers or chariots to reinforce. But I don't think I can spare any of them right now.
The reason being that 13 of my two-movers are positioned here, in range to hit Pita. And as you can see, none of Novice's galleys unloaded anything into Pita. They are apparently headed back through his fort. My best guess as to what they've been up to is landing some troops in the north to Harass Boldly? Taking a detour around the west side of the island to surprise him. Frankly, that sounds like a strange maneuver, but I can't think of anything else that sounds more plausible.
So anyway, this means that Pita's garrison is unchanged, and looks like this:
6 units on defense against 13 attackers, with 40% defense, on a hill, and a combat I spear as the top defender. Intuitively, that sounds pretty tough, but two of those units (the scout and the catapult) are worthless on defense. So in fact, my sims showed me that I'd win 9/10 times (or 18/20), although frequently just with a single attacker to spare. The fact that 8 of my horse archers can take the shock promotion surely helps.
So, without further ado, let's take back what is rightly mine.
My first horse archer dies, but takes the spear down to 1.0 health. That's a pretty good result! The next attack only takes the combat I Phalanx down to 4.2, though. The third attack takes another Phalanx down to 2.5, and the fourth attack does the same to his last Phalanx, while withdrawing. Ok, so far so good, I think? I'm a little worried about that 4.2 Phalanx, though. And it's unnerving to see that he still has 6 defenders, while I'm down to just 9 attackers remaining.
I take the time to update my sim at this point, though, and it looks like I'm on track for victory. 10/10 wins in my sim now, and several times with one attacker to spare.
And indeed, the rest turns out to be largely cleanup. Two more horse archers fail to take out the top Phalanx, although the second withdraws. That leaves me with just 7 attackers against 6 defenders, which is certainly tense. But the rest of the combats are all very high odds, and there are no glitches in the matrix. So I finish with one attacker to spare, which is a fairly average result based on my original sims. I only lost four horse archers though, since I got two withdrawals.
General ibn al-Walid bravely spearheads the final assault on the city, putting his own life on the line. In hindsight, maybe I should have used the chariot and continued to keep Novice in the dark about what happened to my great general. I probably would want to use him as a defender, though, so no big deal.
(What kind of name is that for a great general, anyway?! Novice gets General Sauron, and I get General Invalid the not-so-bold...)
79 gold from the capture. That's a nice boost. I've also got an axeman and three archers fortified on the hill, who would have had a three-digit fortification bonus by now if it wasn't capped at 25%. They didn't take part in the attack, but can now finally move up to garrison Pita Comoros.
So here is the state of the empire, now that it has been restored to its rightful expanse.
Obviously I'm feeling a lot better about my chances now, even though this is hardly enough to undo my previous setbacks. But my economy is strong, and my traits are really starting to shine at this point.
I only have two Rathauses so far, but they're saving me 12 gpt already. Without those, I would only make 29 gpt, and it would take me 2.79 turns to finance a turn of research. Instead, I'm making 41 gpt, and it only takes me 1.68 turns to finance a turn of research. In addition, there's the EP bonus, which is a very tangible benefit. Conclusion: organized rathauses are crazy good.
I'm also starting to utilize more civics, making spiritual shine, and organized is also saving me non-trivial amounts of civic upkeep. I'm using caste system right now to push out a great person:
That picture was taken after the end of the turn, so it will pop at the end of my next turn. A great artist would be sweet, but a great merchant is pretty nice too, since he can immediately bulb currency. Meanwhile, I can research monarchy in two turns, and adopt hereditary rule as I switch back into slavery. After that, feudalism for vassalage, perhaps? I haven't decided yet.
Final curiosity. The event log claims the borders of Pita/Comoros have expanded. And it does in fact have 17 culture. So I guess its borders will be expanded the instant it comes out of revolt. Anyway... that's a pretty event log.
Dazed retreated his vulture back out of sight, which makes sense, as the alternative was to move next to a roaded tile of mine. He did move a galley closer. I knew that was coming, as I spotted it last turn, but forgot to mention it among the other, more momentous, events.
Not much action anywhere else this turn, just moving some units around to better cover my territory. I was a bit exposed last turn, with almost all of my units gathered to attack Novice.
GNP is looking ok, with me going 100% on Monarchy and Novice going 100% on Metal Casting. I think Boldly is also doing 100% at the moment, but I don't know what he's researching. I'm sure they both have a lot more science multipliers than me, as I only have a single library, so I am happy to match their GNP at 100% research. My crop yield is still bad, but it will get a bit better once Comoros comes out of revolt and I fire these artists in Brunei:
Which I will do next turn, as the GP popped at the end of the turn.
As a great merchant. I'll get currency next turn, then.
With currency coming in, I'm going to prioritize two more cities "overseas" to maximize my trade route income. One will be a junkish city on the same island as Fiji. Gonna pull a Brick there and settle on the deer. The other will be 3E-1S of Jordan. That's a single galley move away from Jordan, on a hill, and also in a suitable spot for a future culture bomb to claim that island. It also "secures" the pigs tile. Hopefully it will still be a valid spot in a couple of turns from now.
I guess I could also try to settle the marble island down the line but right now I think it would take too many turns to get ready for that.
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.
(May 16th, 2013, 09:51)Merovech Wrote: Do you have Iron Working?
I do. There is a connected iron in Iceland's fat cross. Its counterpart is 2NE of Kiribati, so I may also be able to deny it to Dazed. I still don't have copper connected.
(May 16th, 2013, 11:22)Bigger Wrote: if you're truly going to pull a Brick, you have to play the turn drunk as well.
I don't actually know that story, I just picked up somewhere that Brick once settled on a deer. So feel free to fill in the details.
