[SPOILER] PB37 Dark Savant tries not to be a blatant MP n00b

[Dark Savant]

Ooh, Gavagai actually updated his spoiler thread -- first time he's actually done that.

I wonder what he's thinking?  Any idea?

[Dark Savant]

Turn 64 (1440 BC) - Part 3

I plant city #5 on yellow dot; I name it Garrote Gorge after the area in Might & Magic VIII where there is conflict between the dragons and dragon hunters.  Plenty of opportunity for arming up and training is there -- an appropriate name for a military factory, I think.  Like all our other cities other than the capital, it will immediately whip a barracks once it reaches size 2.

Here is our north:



Note that Gavagai moved a worker/archer pair to one of the forests next to Ankara.  I could move in a chariot about to complete, and attack on the turn the forest is cleared if Gavagai doesn't also move a spear to cover it, but it would only have about 75% odds, and I'd much rather point Gavagai in the direction of Krill if at all possible, so I don't think that's a good idea.

We absolutely need to set up the full overflow chain in order to build the Great Lighthouse quickly in Castleview, as it does not have much natural production.  The rate-limiting step turns out to be putting several turns of production into the settler.  Research is not limiting -- we can easily research Mysticism in advance as well to get the discount on Masonry and still have about 3 turns to spare.  That's enough that we can afford to swap around research over to Writing for a bit just to confuse other players doing C&D.  Worker labor is not limiting either; the 2 workers there are more than enough to get everything prepared in time, and the 3rd worker I plan to 2-pop-whip next turn is overkill if kept at Castleview.

We do need to get a scouting unit to bust the fog northwest of Garrote Gorge, so I have a better idea of where to plant a city there -- that is now a prime area for settling now that Garrote Gorge has been planted.

Here is our southern core:



Castle Ironfist is going to produce a spear next while it grows -- I'd like to get that into Castleview, because that would allay my concern that Gavagai may flash a chariot there.

A barbarian warrior just appeared out of the jungle, but either the chariot about to complete in Harmondale or the spear in Sorpigal should be able to handle it.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 64 (1440 BC) - Part 4 (C&D)

Gem does have the option of spending a bit of time to check out the islands to her east, but those aren't really close enough to us settle any time soon; we can send another scout later.  I'm going to have her approach JR4 as fast as she can by way of GermanJoey's coast not far east of his capital; among other things, getting vision on as many coastal cities of theirs as possible may give us extra advance warning if we have competition for the Great Lighthouse, since they're two of the bigger threats.

Score tally:

• CML: -2 points for a -1 pop whip (10 pop total).
  
• Coeurva: +3 points for +1 pop (14 pop total), +10 points for 7 land tiles held by Shag Vermin (city #3) for 20 turns.
  
• dtay: +6 points for a technology researched in 9 turns (9 techs total); I suspect Writing.
  
• Gavagai: +3 points for +1 pop in one of his two unseen cities (16 pop total).
  
• JR4: +3 points for +1 pop (14 pop total).
  
• Krill: -5 points for -2 pop points whipped this turn, at least 1 in Room 101 (11 pop total).  All these whips are going to sting without terraces.
  
• Ventessel: -2 points for a -1 pop whip (6 pop total).  Yeah, he's still at those whips.
  

There were no power changes caused by Ventessel's turn.

edit: 12 new land tiles were claimed this turn.  This is likely entirely from Room 101's holy city culture claiming its third ring.

I'm going to split EP between Krill and GermanJoey for now; we will lose graphs on Krill soon if we don't start putting points into him again, and GermanJoey is putting the full 4 EP/turn into us anyway.  It'll be a while before we lose graphs on Gavagai, and it might not matter by the time we lose graphs on Ventessel.

Krill started putting the full 4 EP into us the turn we got circumnavigation.  I wonder if that is a coincidence?

[Dark Savant]

I'm projecting completing the Great Lighthouse around t83.

That strikes me as rather late normally, though as previously discussed I still think we have good odds.  We'll be able to abort safely even in 10 turns in the event Gem turns up strong evidence that GermanJoey or JR4 is going to beat us.

[Dark Savant]

Correction: when I said we would have Masonry 3 turns early, that's before we start to whip.  We don't actually need it until after 3 turns of whipping, so that's actually 6 turns early.

We can abort reasonably safely all the way up to t79, which is the projected time to start whipping.  That's 15 turns, not 10 turns!  That's enough for Gem to maybe get as far as one of CML's coastal cities, if I really wanted to do that (probably not).

And t83 is probably optimistic; t84 is probably a better estimate.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 65 (1400 BC) - Part 1

Sandro continues to bust fog right in GermanJoey's core:



We have vision on his 4th city now, not that it does us much good at the moment.

And GermanJoey actually has Archery, when I thought he had Mysticism.  He's also been researching a tech for quite a while now, which is probably going to be Writing.

I can continue to move Sandro without declaring a scouting war.  I feel that is not a good idea at this point, anyway.

GermanJoey has yet to move this turn, so he can blast Sandro off the hill if he feels like it.  However, if he does declare war, I won't accept a peace treaty immediately, because:



Gem can then check out GermanJoey's east coast more closely if he declares war.  I'll go around the island to the east otherwise.

Also, that's yet another marble resource.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 65 (1400 BC) - Part 2

Coeurva moved a warrior here:



At this point I think he's just making sure we're not about to shove a surprise army down his throat.  If he instead intends to plant in that rather terrible location ... well, if he's garrisoning it with one warrior, we can go after it.

Harmondale just finished its chariot, but I moved it to Castle Ironfist, to play zone defense.  The barb warrior in the jungle moved towards Sorpigal, and with nothing else for it to do I have the spear in Sorpigal move to intercept it.  If it veers towards Castle Ironfist as barb warriors sometimes do, I can have the chariot intercept it instead.

Gavagai did not move any additional units into view; his 2 visible workers both started chopping forests, of course.  I 2-pop-whipped the worker in Castleview.  I think I'll make sure the worker is visible to him next turn, to avoid alarming him.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 65 (1400 BC) - Part 3 (C&D)

Score tally:

• CML: +2 points for +1 pop; -2 points for a -1 pop whip (10 pop total).
  
• Coeurva: +2 points for +1 pop; -2 points for a -1 pop whip (14 pop total); +6 points for a technology researched in 7 turns.  We can check out the power next turn to see what it might be.
  
• Gavagai: -5 points for a -2 pop whip in Edirne (14 pop total).  He still does not have a granary in either of his first two cities; let's see if a granary pops up there next turn.
  
• JR4: +2 points for +1 pop (15 pop total; that's currently the highest)
  
• Krill: +3 points for +1 pop in Animal Farm (12 pop total); +15 points for 12 tiles held in Room 101's second ring for 20 turns.
  

No units were lost during Krill's turn; Ventessel has yet to play this turn.  Somehow, the soldier average went up slightly during the turn, even though no one appeared to plant a city (average land area remained the same through the turn too).  Shouldn't it have gone down slightly from the whips?

I mean, the ways soldier average can go up during a turn: drafting a unit; lightbulbing a tech that gives soldier points; getting a free tech or unit from a hut; planting a new city; capturing a barbarian city.

No sign of any real soldier increase from either of our neighbors.  The graph shows Krill's power still increasing, but the effects of the war should become visible next turn to us and Gavagai.

Krill is probably not worried about his war, because he just built a terrace in Room 101 with that whip:



Also, I should pay more attention to top 5 cities:



That's a non-capital city in top 5, belonging to a rival we haven't contacted, and that doesn't have Stonehenge.  CML and JR4 both planted their second cities that turn.  I really doubt that is CML's city, because it doesn't show Stonehenge and he only has 10 pop total.  So that must be JR4's second city that is size 6, and it's probably the Buddhist holy city too.

Castle Ironfist is visible there too.  I think anyone with contact with us who is paying attention might guess it has a barracks.  It'll grow to larger sizes, so it's not leaving top 5 any time soon.

Looking at top-5 city records, Coeurva's capital Cowish Rhapsody was size 6 on t61.  He whipped it for 1 pop that turn, and then again for 2 pop on t63, then regrew back to size 4 on t64.  That might be: whip granary at near completion, overflow into library, double-whip library.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 66 (1360 BC) - Part 1

The turn just rolled, and Sailing just came in.

And that turns on the capacity to trade resources, so now is the time to consider cow-for-cow trades to show peaceful intentions.  Should we do this with everyone we have contact with?

People are going to see this and know we just finished Sailing.  Well, they know we have circumnavigation already.  We just want to leverage our bonus!  It may or may not have anything to do with a desire to build the Great Lighthouse.

Here is what people have to trade (note that we have a bunch of stuff improved but not connected):

• Us: 1 copper, 1 horse, 1 clam, 3 cow, 1 fur, 1 silver
  
• Coeurva: 1 copper, 1 clam, 1 corn, 4 cow, 1 rice, 1 silver
  
• Gavagai: 2 copper, 1 horse, 2 clam, 1 corn, 1 cow, 1 fish, 1 pig, 1 silver
  
• GermanJoey: 2 copper, 1 clam, 2 corn, 1 cow, 1 pig, 1 sheep, 1 silver
  
• Krill: 1 horse, 1 clam, 1 corn, 2 cow, 1 pig, 2 silver.  No copper!  Ventessel must have pillaged it.
  
• Ventessel: 1 copper, 1 horse, 1 clam, 1 cow, 1 rice, 1 fur
  

So we learned that Krill has Animal Husbandry, which I didn't know.  We learned that he no longer has copper.  We learned that Gavagai definitely has Animal Husbandry, though I was 95% sure of that already.

And anyone who has contact with us now knows we have not just Sailing (we do not have a road connection to anyone else), but also Animal Husbandry.  GermanJoey definitely looked at our resources already; he played and finished his turn while I started the turn.

[Dark Savant]

Also, is it okay to propose like-for-like trades for strategic or luxury resources?  I'm not sure there is a reason why not, but I'm not familiar with the metagame of AI-diplo here.