[Spoilers] Bacchus debuts on RB showing unmatched vision and slick dice-rolling

[Cheater Hater]

More violence not directed towards us! Hooray!

[Bacchus]

It looks like Ichabod traded maps with pretty much everyone, before trading with us, so we have the view of the whole continent now, more or less. Will have the entirety after trading with America. Here's as much of it as fits into the screen on full zoom-out:



You can sort of tell who's where by the colour of the resource bubbles. The thing to note is how much land Greece has, much of it floodplains, and how ambitiously they were settling. Clearly leveraging the phalanxes they have thrown out satellites way to the borders of both Inca and Mongolia. They have 6 cities in total, and I'm sure a better strategic grasp over land than any other empire in the game at this stage. This also explains the Inca action against them. Here's a close up:



This is so worker-intensive and maintenance heavy, that one has to admire the boldness. Basically, everyone should be making Ichabod pay for everextension, but the situation is such that neither Inca nor Mongolia really can do that. So, bravo. Note the axe stack incoming from the west, that's retep.

It's also pretty clear now where our game is going to go — we'll be pressed between Greece and Maya, eventually one will attack and the other likely will join in. There is pretty much nothing we can do about it too.

[Bacchus]

Inca's capital has two cows, wet corn and copper. It is also on a plains hill. Mongolia, by contrast, has tundra in the BFC. With a deer

There are very few cottages. Greece has 1(!). Mongolia has a hamlet. Had we not fucked up with defending our second city, we would have been comfortably ahead on tech.

[Bacchus]

Oh yeah, more news: Retep built his third city (not seen on the map). He built it to the north, not towards us, not on the floodplains. Which means that we can re-settle the pigs/gems spot, and that's exactly what the settler from the capital will do. In 2 more turns we grow to 6, then with a yield of 17 we work for two turns getting 34+5(OF) hammers and whip for 70. The resulting 22 overflow will probably go into an archer. The rebuilt city will have a garrison of two archers and two chariots immediately on settling, so should stand.

The settler for the copper leaves next turn too, so soon enough we'll have four cities. Cringe.

[Cheater Hater]

Hello information overload--I guess we'd rather be the ones behind than the target everyone gangs up on :/

[Bacchus]

I thinking ganging up is pretty difficult in AI Diplo, so I wouldn't mind being the leader, especially with our geographic position -- there isn't even anyone who could gang up on us at this stage.

[Bacchus]

On t70 we founded our third city. #noobfest #howitsdone #nostoppingusnow Here's an overview:


The Big Time will be a nice production city with workshops, it might actually be worth putting the Moai into it, if we don't find a better spot.

Some of our best spots are still available for settlement, and I am going to push for expansion. The capital whips a settler next turn for three, regrows to 4 in 1, and to 5 in 2, at which point it will give the wheat over to Double Star. The micro there is a bit tricky — DS grows to 3 the same turn the settler comes out, so we have to work a forest for 3 turns. If we start building a settler straight after growing, at 12hpt we will have 36 before receiving the wheat, and will then complete the settler at 15hpt in 5 turns with 11 overflow, so that the next can complete in 6 turns with minimal overflow. So two settlers and three pop at the end of 14 turns. I think this is better than if we grow to four (4 turns), and then work 16hpt for 4 turns (64 total) and whip on the fifth (125 total). Re-growing without the granary just takes too long. That way before t90 we should have 6 cities. In the meantime the capital will produce military and workers, and the Big Time will produce a worker once it's grown to 3 (9+3 hammers, 5 turns). The re-settled ruins will probably begin by growing to 2, and then whipping a worker, this should get us the worker force we need to keep up with expansion.

Here are the demos:


We are in the bottom of the pack, as expected, but not the last! High GNP is a Creative/lack of cities artifact. High (read "not disastrous") mfg is irrelevant at this point, we will be losing positions in it. The crucial demographic is CY and that shows our real prospects. Note, however, that the leader (oh, the leader) is adding 3 food to rival average all by himself, and without that we are sorta- kinda- ok.

The military is the shit state it's in largely because we now exactly where retep's stack is, and we have no other neighbours to worry about. The crazy clusterfuck in the north is due to retreating an archer back into borders for supply reasons, another archer coming up from the capital this turn (both will garrison the re-settled ruins), and the chariot killing a stray warrior. Another chariot is in Double Star.

PS. For those interested, there was a worker management fuck up. Of the two going to Big Time, one will of course chop a work boat, the other should have started on the quarry whilst culture grows, but I'll have Masonry a couple of turns too late. Minor, as the second pop in Big Time will work the clam to grow quicker in any case.

[flugauto]

So what are you researching, IW or Math?

[Bacchus]

I researched a couple of turns of IW before switching to Masonry. The reason to pick IW was to have it ready for jungle clearance — I didn't expect to have the northern spots still available for settlement. However, with retep settling in the north, and his axe stack committed to attacking Willem, I won't actually have to settle a jungle city for a while. So, basically, as soon as I was confident that we can double-settle north, I switched to Masonry to better improve The Big Time's tiles. And build The Temple of Artemis.

[Bacchus]

For people who are not watching civstats: William razed Ichabod's advance plant, and retep razed William's Carmen. These neighbours I can live with.