[SPOILERS] Scooticator and Pindooter give a sporting try

[pindicator]

Turn 052

We have a new city!



And it turns out we weren't the first. Azza got his 3rd city down last turn, Lewwyn has had his 3rd city for a while. Commodore still has 2 cities. That concerns me; it means he's up to something.

Speaking of Commodore, he's slowed his EP spend against us. We should be able to have demos on him next turn, in fact! It will make up for the fact that we've lost demos on Lewwyn & Bigger -- they are spending against us for some reason. I think it would be wonderful if Lewwyn & Commodore met and spent against each other.



Here's the big overview. Sailing is next, due in 6. We'll almost be able to go Archer -> Axe -> Lighthouse in the capital.
I would plan on building the axe in Red Wings. It will complete the same turn the city grows to size 5. Then 2-pop whip that settler to be our Gems city. Or maybe horses & cows up north.

Demos are much improved now that we have 3 cities

[NobleHelium]

Uhhh that rival power number is really big. I would bet that Commodore is busy pink dotting you as we speak.

[pindicator]

Could be, but I think that's from the Bacchus - retep war. If not then we'll have a pair of axes within 5 turns, and the ability to chop/whip more out if need be. Remember, Commodore had to whip his capital for a unit not too long ago, and Rival Power was high then too (in the low 60k range). But the best part is we'll be able to see his power graph next turn.

[fluffyflyingpig]

Edit: I'm also torn about offering peace to Commodore. Peace at the right time can give us a 10 turn window.... and we are planning on building Stonehenge within the next 10 turns. But I think staying at war will be better for us mentally - it will a constant reminder that we cannot ever assume a peaceful northern border. We have to always assume the worst with him, because he doesn't believe in maintaining good relations. Put another way, there is no prisoner's dilemma with Commodore. He'd rat the other guy out in a hearbeat.

The flip side of maintaining war is that it may make him focus even more on war. Right now I think his thinking is he's expanding and commiting some to harassing us just because. I fear if we keep war going then he will go more 'pb8' mode, where he commits it all towards military. So if we can maintain a war footing with in-game peace, that would be my preference.

The art of diplo in the no diplo game part II

[pindicator]

The art of diplo in the no diplo game part II

I prefer to think of it as the art of psychology

[scooter]

On our city name:

scooter
orioles or ravens for our third city?
Cyneheard
Orioles
crash & burn b/c of having to face the same damn foes every time seems more apt

Anyway, I also figure that power number is retep/bacchus. Retep razed a city apparently. I also figure that if Commodore was sending units right now, he would continue dumping EPs into us rather than assign them elsewhere. Anyway, I'd be slightly more concerned if the land between us was good, but it's crap. But let's definitely check his graphs next turn.

[scooter]

Turn 053

Stonehenge plan is coming along nicely:



I'm still not getting my hopes up too much, because I genuinely expect it may fall any turn now. Would be pretty cool if we landed it though. Hooking the Wheat makes those demos pretty shiny.



Not bad considering we had to burn an early chop on an emergency archer to deter our insane asylum escapee of a neighbor. Speaking of that neighbor, we have his graphs:



Well that very decidedly does not look like a rush to me. Besides that axe that killed our warrior, he has nothing of note. We may consider pumping the breaks a tad on the military we're pushing right now in some way.



I dunno, I guess we do want those regardless, but after that we should be good to build nothing but granaries, workers, and settlers for awhile. Speaking of, we're about to produce a bunch of overflow in the capital:



I think we should dump that into one of our discount granaries. Pindicator - I decided not to end turn since we may want to consider whipping that axe in Red Wings and handing the mine over to TB.

[scooter]

Pindicator - if we do complete both of those units, we may consider offering the enforced peace to Commodore, then taking 1-2 of our units south and see if we can't find a vulnerable city/worker/etc. In particular I can't see us being friends with Nakorester's Rome, so a chance for some opportunism would be nice. If nothing presents itself, well we do need to scout out the land south of us, so there's still value there. I dunno, just something to think about.

[pindicator]

So we decided 1 axe is enough right now. It's coming out of Red Wings, and then we'll 2-pop whip out a settler for the Gems city. The capital is going to build most of a granary- we could even chop out the granary right as Sailing finishes ... I think. Then lighthouse -> galley, IMO; we can't delay that much longer if we want to try for it.

Also, I queued up a granary behind Stonehenge, just in case.

[pindicator]

2 Questions:


1. Trailblazers - 1 worker in area (Geoff), what does he do?

Chopping forest next - do we put it into a granary or an axe and a lighthouse?

Granary implies growing on cottages and whipping, lighthouse implies working hammers
So if Granary ahead of Lighthouse then our worker needs to start cottaging after the next chop; if Lighthouse before Granary then I want to move Geoff to the plains hill S-SE-S of current position.

My preference is towards axe and lighthouse.  The axe can stake out the horse/cow spot north of the capital for city #5.  Plus if we have any notion of trying for circumnav, we are fast running out of time, even with faster galleys.

Once Geoff finishes either cottaging or mining, his next task is to help get the gems city up and running.  (Farm floodplains, then mine gems.)


2. What's our Tech Path after Sailing?

I like Sailing -> Iron Working -> Writing for a tech path.  Initially I was going to say Writing before Iron Working, but then I simulated out to turn 70 to get a rough idea of where we were going, and Iron Working will come in approximately on turn 68, and the workers will be ready to chop the jungled gems on turn 71, and the stonehenge borders pop on turn 72, and then start to mine the 2nd gems turn 73.

Now, if we don't land Stonehenge then IW can wait until after Writing, as we won't have as fast a way to pop borders for the 2nd Gem.


ALSO:  Plan for Red Wings

Axe completes, timed with growth to size 5.  Settler at 15f+h/t for 4 turns, then whipping it to completion for 2 pop.  Moves turn 61, settles by flood plains & gems turn 62.


Questions/Comments/Smart Remarks are all welcome