[Spoiler] First rodeo: Jalepeno takes the bull by the horns.

[Qgqqqqq]

I believe it would be 60 turns actually.

[jalepeno]

I believe it would be 60 turns actually.

hmmmm, actually, I think I might have screwed up the test by whipping once before a couple turns before taking those screenshots of the library... How does stacking whip anger work for the timer? If I whipped on Turn X, then whipping on turn X+2 gives a timer of 12 turns, what does that make the # of turns for the first whip?

[jalepeno]

Turn 47

We have a turn at last! I'd missed playing civ. Anyways, no time to do a proper update this morning or tonight, so you'll have to settle for text: TBS founded Fellowship of the Leaves, which was a bit of a surprise. I imagine Sian's not too happy about it either. I just hope the holy city isn't on my borders. It's a bit of an unusual choice for Kurios. Forced temples are the best way to make settlements productive and temples of kilmorph are by far the best for that: working a merchant >> bard or priest. I usually switch to Esus as my end religion, giving eight T4 units, plus an awesome hero at warhorses. FoL won't be terrible or anything: Kithra is a nice mounted hero, extra health from the temples will be nice, better forests, etc. The thing is, kurios usually want to chop all the forests and cottage everything beyond a few farms/mines. Not much call for ancient forest lumbermills as enclaves can take up the food slack end game.

My exploring warriors keep finding rich land; I'm really loving this map! I found wheat (3rd brewery resource) down south, but it'll be a long time before I can settle it. As it is, I'm hating the fact that I have to settle my border with Yell0w asap. The spot is rather food poor, but I need to get culture there yesterday or have my capital be on his border. Settler should be ready in 7 turns (including upcoming turn of anarchy).

Demos are not looking pretty. 4th in GNP, next to last in MFG, and even just 3rd in crop yield. I think my problem has been prioritizing vertical over horizontal growth. I waited until the happy cap before building my first settler, and my first city built warriors until it hit the cap. More, smaller cities would have given me more growth potential now that we're reaching the early midgame. As it is now, only one of my three cities is below its cap. I am trying to rectify this by building 2 settlers at once, and city 4 will be settled turn 51. COL comes EOT 48; aristocracy and governor's mansions should fix my GNP and production woes, my crop yield won't be so pretty anymore.

[Qgqqqqq]

I believe it would be 60 turns actually.

hmmmm, actually, I think I might have screwed up the test by whipping once before a couple turns before taking those screenshots of the library... How does stacking whip anger work for the timer? If I whipped on Turn X, then whipping on turn X+2 gives a timer of 12 turns, what does that make the # of turns for the first whip?

60 is for marathon.
Not sure what your question is...the popup shows the amount of turns for whip unhappy if you whipped that self-same turn.

[jalepeno]

Not sure what your question is...the popup shows the amount of turns for whip unhappy if you whipped that self-same turn.

Oh, I thought the counter increased if you whipped again before the anger wore off for the first whip (stacking I think it's called). So say I whip on Turn Y and get 10 turns of 1 unhappy. What happens if I whip 2 turns later (Y+2)? The whip unhappy rises to 2, but what happens to the time counter? Before whipping it would have been 8 (10 from the first whip, 2 turns of wearing off). After whipping on Y+2, does the time counter then become 10, 8 turns of which there are 2 unhappy faces? Or does it become 18?

totally unrelated question: do you think you could cover for me on Saturday, maybe Friday as well? I'll be taking a quick trip. often I get the save from Yell0w so late that I play as late as ~05:00 GMT (the next day, so sat-sun) and it still gets around.

[Ichabod]

Not sure what your question is...the popup shows the amount of turns for whip unhappy if you whipped that self-same turn.

Oh, I thought the counter increased if you whipped again before the anger wore off for the first whip (stacking I think it's called). So say I whip on Turn Y and get 10 turns of 1 unhappy. What happens if I whip 2 turns later (Y+2)? The whip unhappy rises to 2, but what happens to the time counter? Before whipping it would have been 8 (10 from the first whip, 2 turns of wearing off). After whipping on Y+2, does the time counter then become 10, 8 turns of which there are 2 unhappy faces? Or does it become 18?

It becomes 18, yes. It adds the turns, but you "recover" one happiness at each threshold (though each turn only counts to clear one of the whip unhapiness, they don't reduce concomitantly). So, if you whip at turn Y and Y + 2, you'll be at 1 unhappy in turn Y and Y + 1, 2 unhappy from Y + 2 to Y + 9 and again 1 unhappy from turns Y + 10 to Y + 19. The counter would show: unhappy for (first whip - 1 unhappy) 10, 9, (second whip - unhappy) 18, 17, 16, 15... 11, 10 (reduced from 2 to 1 unhappy), 9, 8... 3, 2, 1, no unhappy.

Hopefully you can understand this overcomplicated analysis. Maybe there are some mistakes, but I think it's possible to see the main logic behind the mechanic. Testing is advised, you'll catch how it works pretty quickly.

[jalepeno]

[excellent explanation]

Thanks for the help! That's actually really clear to me (=>engineer, so that's how I think).

[jalepeno]

Turn 49

Played my first save in nearly a week (thanks for covering Q!), and it was worth the wait as the splash screen for COL greeted me.

I immediately switched civics, which works nicely since I’ve got a settler traveling.

Aristograrianism is a must, apprenticeship will be handy for the XP, and I also grabbed nationhood since I don’t plan on teching a religion any time soon. That neatly cancels out apprenticeship’s unit production malus too. These switches had a very pleasing effect on my GNP.

Before:


After:

The lion’s share of that is the added commerce to farms, but the decrease in costs is noticeable as well.

Before:


After:

[jalepeno]

Diplo:

Nope no new contacts. As mentioned before... my explorers never returned.

On another subject, one that I expect you'll be discreet about, what are your plans with Sian? I mean you either will moroi rush or you won't, either way I'm gonna be able to see it via the power graph. If you are thinking about it, and if you are thinking about hitting Sian, I'd not be opposed, more that that I'd even help!
Hitting me shouldn't accomplish too much. Either I'm able to defend or you force my WS. Either way you ain't getting a lot out of it.

Forgive me to be so blunt but I like to get these things out of the way quick.

Hey Yell0w,

I appreciate your openness. tbh, I hadn't considered a Moroi rush at all. The map is so lush that I'm focused on expanding right now. Sian seems a bit far away right now, but if he's closer around the worldwrap, then I'd certainly be open to cooperation there in the not-to-distant future.

So, um, it seems that Yell0w is more than a little wary of me right now, trying to convince me attacking him is worthless and pointing me at Sian. He's right that I wouldn't get anything from him, but forcing a worldspell pop would be wondrous. I have no thoughts of attacking anytime soon, but maybe the strike team I put together to take the barb city can swing up there afterwards. So for right now I try to reassure him.

Maybe I could try to squeeze some concessions out of him (it'd have to be resources), but I'm not sure he realizes just how close our borders are and I don't want him to know until I've got my border city down.

[jalepeno]

Turn 50

Ok, turn 50, big deal and all, time to celebrate 50(1) turns of greatness. So, what have we got?

Not a very auspicious start.

Well, at least we've uncovered a lot of juicy land.

The Core:


The East:


The South:

And we've got three mighty fine cites, with more to come (all screenshots from after ending turn).

The jewel of the nation, Paradigm. Will knock out a 3-turn GM, followed by a 2-turn worker, and a 3-turn library (turns out going writing before sanitation only slows sanitation by 3-4 turns...if my micro is correct ).



2nd city Synergies just finished a warrior, will get the settler done in 3-turns with the aid of a chop, then go straight on to a GM. Gotta get that production up!



Collaboration is taking a break from monuments to build a manor a manor as well. Working a GL farm rather than a FP farm b/c the GL spot fit better with micro getting to the wine in time for the other cities to grow. I'm a bit worker light right now, so having to be efficient with movements.



C3 is ready to be settled next turn.



....and here's the ugly duckling, C4. No where near as strong as the rest, but I want a buffer between my capital and Yell0w, and a plains hill plant that can share farms will have to do. Should be settled turn 55; I'll give Yell0w warning, although he'll still probably think I'm gunning for him. Not all bad if it keeps him from gambiting too much. Monument first to get the bananas going asap.

Advisors:

I'm running a bit light on military with 2 bloodpets now out exploring and soon to have 5 cities. 5 workers for 5 cities won't be too awful tight since improvements for my first 2 cities are pretty much finished.


Costs are still manageable, although toroidal maintenance is a pain. I'm gonna be wishing GM's maintenance benefit wasn't reduced.

Demos:

Still middle of the pack. TBS' towering GNP is a big reason why I'm hoping to go writing next. I need to start teching faster, and my capital is just begging for a library + academy.

Victory screen:

Most interesting thing here is the culture numbers. TBS founded FoL, but only his capital has more than 300 culture after legends, so it must have been founded there. In other words, as I suspected it must have been a lair pop. Nice luck!

Graphs:

Just in case you're interesting in how I stack up with my nearest neighbors. They're both right on my doorstep, but I just had to get the two worst for rushing. Kurios start too fast (and have a ton of culture to wade through) and the Elohim have what's known as a hard counter to rushing.