[spoilers] The what goes where?

[Ruff_Hi]

My neighbour to the east is Commodore. ... I will have to deliver my best to stay competitive with him.

Er. I'm the mapmaker, and playing for Q this weekend.

Oops Phew. In that case I can go back to playing usual mediocre style.

My scout is currently on the red circle tile. I am planning on moving him to the red dot tile. That will 'met' commodore. Hopefully it will also make him think that I am in the north west (instead of the south west).

I guess there is little chance of Commodore falling for this ruse. Please just mention my scout and let Q draw conclusions .

[Ruff_Hi]

Next turn I met Qqqqggg ... he is Zara Yaqob of Byzantium. That means Creative, Organized with Myst and The Wheel as starting techs. His score is currently 35 so he has added 1 tech to that. It must be fishing. And it wasn't from popping a hut.

Commodore is playing the turns this weekend for Q but hasn't changed his log-in name ... so it is a little difficult to track Qs changes.

Qs score increased at the beginning of T10 ... so he must have finished it at the end of T9. Fishing is a 69 beaker tech and would take 7 turns to research. So ... he has beakers invested in some other tech too.

Also - we see a completed fishing boat at Qs capital ... if he finished fishing at the end of T9 and my map shows his capital at T12 ... he finished building the boat in 3 turns. That is impressive.

Edit: Scatch that about the fishing research stuff. In this mod, Zara Yaqob starts with fishing and Myst. So a 10 turn, 3 hammer per turn workboat is easy. Guess I should read the change log (again).

[Ruff_Hi]

Thoughts on my ability to land the Stonehenge ...

9 players start with Myst. So they could start building it straight out of the gate.
1 is the lurker so that counts him out
1 is industrious (Hashoosh, Stalin of Spain) who has culture from barracks and granaries - not a high risk candidate
2 are creative already ... so why bother?

13 people start with mining ...
2 of them don't have food techs
11 of them are probably teching BW at the moment (hmm - maybe not ... most players scores show a new tech ... only 5 are still at 29)

To be honest, I think I have about a 10% chance of landing Stonehenge. It is a prime target for the free culture and there are lots of people who will / should be gunning for it. Forest chops into Stonehenge come on T31 and T33 ... very late in the plan. If the wonder is gone by then, the chops will go into worker(s).

[Ruff_Hi]

Change in plans from that indicated above. Peter should move 1S (onto the forest) .

[Ruff_Hi]

Turn 13 - 3480BC:
Moved Peter as mentioned above and met Q. I sent him this message ...



Now ... what can I learn from the game about Q? He has 16 EPs against the lurker. I have 52 EPs. I didn't know anyone for 13 turns. Q didn't know anyone for 4 turns.



If I task my worker over to Q's capital, it will take him 7 turns to get there ...



So ... what? He sent his scout exactly to the right set of tiles to met his neighbour ... and so did his neighbour? Is that too lucky to be true?

In other news ... we seem to have Spain on a lake ...



Everything else is as per plan above. Peter's next move is to the forest hill 1E of the (6) icon (above).

[Ruff_Hi]

And I forgot to rename my worker ... as expected.

[Ruff_Hi]

Now ... what can I learn from the game about Q? He has 16 EPs against the lurker. I have 52 EPs. I didn't know anyone for 13 turns. Q didn't know anyone for 4 turns.

If I task my worker over to Q's capital, it will take him 7 turns to get there ...

So ... what? He sent his scout exactly to the right set of tiles to met his neighbour ... and so did his neighbour? Is that too lucky to be true?

Here is another option ... Q is cultural so his capital would have expanded at the end of T2. That would have given him vision onto some land on the other side of that water to his North. In that case ... he could see borders (either blue or green lines).



Why don't I see them? I think that information from maps don't show borders in the fog (see enlarged tile above). This isn't perfect because the other tile in the fog (1 to the left) does show that the fogged tile is Byz.

So ... what does this tell us (assuming it is right)? Commodore crammed the 33 civs in by separating some capitals by water canals. If so ...

Er. I'm the mapmaker.

... well done Commodore. And ...

Paul moves to the wheat ...

... his next moves will be forest (1SW) and then either 1NE and then back again or pop the hut, return to capital to heal up. Any input on that option?

... Paul will move 1NE to look over the water.

[mostly_harmless]

Ruff, try zooming out into word view and switch on culture. That way you can see borders pretty clearly. There is also the alternative that Q saw a scout on the other side of that canal and not a border.

Also, we are under AI diplo rules. That message does not do any harm, but be careful not to get chatty.

mh

[Ruff_Hi]

Ruff, try zooming out into word view and switch on culture. That way you can see borders pretty clearly. There is also the alternative that Q saw a scout on the other side of that canal and not a border.

I did that (zoom out for culture look) ... nothing. Close capital theory only works if my theory about not seeing culture in the fog from hut map info holds.

Your scout theory also works ... moves the other capital out to about 10 tiles away from Q.

Also, we are under AI diplo rules. That message does not do any harm, but be careful not to get chatty.

Oops. Is there a solid definition of AI Diplo rules somewhere?

[Ruff_Hi]

Turn 14 - 3440BC:

Firstly, this world is invested with sheep. Bloody sheep everywhere. Secondly, mh ... can you please play the next turn? I think a round of special hut popping abilities is called for.





Worker renamed to 'Worker B'. All other aspects of the plan on track.

Finally, some people are funny ... some strange ... here are a sample of the nations that I am playing against ...

• Nakor of Borg
  
• dtay of the Patriots (this will clash with my Boston theme)
  
• Jowy of Cloud Kingdom
  
• BGN of National Parks Service
  
• Cyneheard of Atriedes (he must be in a very dry location)
  

I culture gazed into the fog after Paul went 1NW, 1SE ... no culture visible. No support for my theory of capitals separated by water canals there.