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

[ipecac]

Welcome to MP. You did meet a lot of players early, which makes it more difficult.

Speaking of "welcome to MP", I do have the constant feeling ever since about t40 that catastrophe is lurking just around the corner, but without me being able to rationally identify an actual credible threat of catastrophe.

I suppose that's normal for MP.  

How to tell that an MP Civ IV game is played by experts: they all think they're losing at the exact same time.

[Dark Savant]

Welcome to MP. You did meet a lot of players early, which makes it more difficult.

Speaking of "welcome to MP", I do have the constant feeling ever since about t40 that catastrophe is lurking just around the corner, but without me being able to rationally identify an actual credible threat of catastrophe.

I suppose that's normal for MP.  

How to tell that an MP Civ IV game is played by experts: they all think they're losing at the exact same time.

Well, to be fair, a large majority of them are right.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 76 - 975 BC (Part 1)

Sandro heads back south, to one day bust some more fog, and also incidentally check out Seven Mysteries:



GermanJoey ended his turn before this shot.  He already finished chopping one third-ring forest.  The other two third-ring forests are both due to finish chopping on t78.  (Desert forest takes 4 worker-turns to chop, and he's got two ready to start next turn in that screenshot.)

That means the hammers will "solidify" on t79, and GermanJoey can then whip Seven Mysteries, which just grew to size 6, for 3 pop.

That means GermanJoey is almost certainly finishing the Great Lighthouse exactly on t80.  That's the turn we are due to finish too.

My understanding of wonder races in Pitboss is that this is going to be a coin flip, isn't it.

We still have to go through with this, of course, but still ...

[OT4E]

Welcome to MP. You did meet a lot of players early, which makes it more difficult.

Speaking of "welcome to MP", I do have the constant feeling ever since about t40 that catastrophe is lurking just around the corner, but without me being able to rationally identify an actual credible threat of catastrophe.

I suppose that's normal for MP.  

There is an alternative for just sitting and waiting for catastrophe. Just go and kill somebody! You are Shaka!

[Dark Savant]

Speaking of "welcome to MP", I do have the constant feeling ever since about t40 that catastrophe is lurking just around the corner, but without me being able to rationally identify an actual credible threat of catastrophe.

I suppose that's normal for MP.  

There is an alternative for just sitting and waiting for catastrophe. Just go and kill somebody! You are Shaka!

That would be more entertaining for the lurkers, for sure, but I'm sticking to the plan of only building an attack force in the early-to-mid Classical era.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 76 (975 BC) - Part 2

Gem runs into the jungle peninsula between JR4 and probable neighbor dtay; that will take a couple turns to get around.  No new contact this turn -- that might take another couple turns.

One of our other work boats plowed into the coast forest, and that's enough to delay the planting of the work boat at orange dot by one turn.    I'd specifically made a note about that before and forgot about it -- I should mark things like that on the map, shouldn't I.

Domestic update:

Castle Ironfist returns to size 7.  I'm having it work high hammers for one turn to squeeze out an axe next turn.

Harmondale produced another spear; it's going to build a worker and a galley in the next several turns.

Castleview whipped a spear as part of the Great Lighthouse plan, and I moved two workers into place to start chopping the two unroaded forests next turn.  I have the existing spear cover the worker on the border with Gavagai.  (That might not have been the greatest move, Castleview will only be guarded by an axe for this one turn.  Oh well, too late.  )  Castleview will grow back to size 5 next turn.

Sorpigal is now size 3, and the work boat that took a tour around the nearby island now is fishing crabs.

Vertigo, city #6, is settled on red dot.  It actually goes granary-first instead of barracks-first!  The two nearby workers start pasturing the rivered grassland cow.

It's the first town in Might and Magic IV.



That's what you're greeted by when you first start a new game.  It's one of those games with slimes as the first low-level enemy; there's one right there to greet the party.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 76 (975 BC) - Part 3 (C&D)

Score tally:

• Us: +5 points for +1 pop in each of Castle Ironfist and Sorpigal; +3 points for planting Vertigo, city #6; -3 points for a -1 pop whip in Castleview (22 pop total).
  
• CML: +5 points for +2 pop (t77 edit: 15 pop total).  I don't think he will actually climb out of 8th place in pop soon; 7th place Krill has 4 terraces.
  
• Coeurva: +10 points for +4 pop (+1 in each of Dragonish Sicil and Whitehall) (25 pop total).  That's a lot of pop, maybe we should plan on doing something about it.  
  
• Gavagai: +5 points for +1 pop in each of Bursa and Samsun; -5 points for a -2 pop whip in Edirne (19 pop total); +6 points for an Ancient era technology researched in 3 turns; +9 points for 7 land tiles claimed by the second ring of Ankara for 20 turns.
  
• GermanJoey: +5 points for +1 pop in each of Seven Mysteries and State of Zijin; -3 points for a -1 pop whip in State of Zijin (22 pop total); +8 points for 6 land tiles claimed by the first ring of State of Zijin for 20 turns.
  
• JR4: +5 points for +2 pop (24 pop total).
  

Gavagai has to have Sailing (that whip in Edirne may be a galley -- no, it isn't anywhere close to where he could reach us), and he has one other Ancient era technology that pretty much has to be Mysticism (Masonry is the only other possibility).  He's Creative and already has Hinduism spreading from Krill's next-door holy city.  Why did he get that?

GermanJoey has now whipped State of Zijin 3 times in 5 turns.  What is going on there?

Ventessel's score hasn't changed at all for 5 turns.

Krill put 4 EP into us, total 47.  I'm not sure why, but I'm going to match that this turn and put 3 EP into GJ.

[Dark Savant]

We need to plan for our next serious research.  (Picking up Archery on the cheap doesn't count as that, and I still reserve the right to not research it at all.)

It's going to depend on whether we land the Great Lighthouse or not.

There are four possibilities:

• Writing: The normal developmental choice.
  
• Meditation: This may actually pay off better since we can build a monastery in Castle Ironfist, then research Priesthood for the discount on Writing.
  
• Iron Working: Swords!
  
• Metal Casting: Building forges and workshops so we can make even more swords!
  

I don't think going for one of the latter two quickly is a good play without the Great Lighthouse -- we need some form of economy.  Without the GLH, we also need to get some more culture in Castleview so Ankara doesn't swamp it.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 77 (950 BC) - Part 1

Gem moves north, and this turn, she finds what she's looking for:



My theorizing was correct; dtay is indeed JR4's neighbor.  Gem has one last contact to make.

dtay was the turn roll player; no one else has yet moved (including me; I've mostly spent time just gathering information and making a few obvious moves).

Angle is a barbarian city that dtay apparently hasn't bothered renaming.  dtay does have a theme, though, in his 7 cities (number as expected):

1. Gobwin Knob
   
2. SpaceRock
   
3. CharlesComm
   
4. FAQ
   
5. Carpool
   
6. Angle (barb city)
   
7. Haffaton
   

That's clearly an Erfworld theme ... which means that while the Incest Empire has dragons, dtay has dwagons.  

(... has anyone ever used an Order of the Stick theme?  Lurkers?)

I clearly need dragons of my own for this arms race.  Fortunately, Garrote Gorge already satisfies that requirement!  

Speaking of arms race, I checked KTB both before and after meeting dtay, because I was expecting contact to happen at any moment.  dtay doesn't have Writing (can't trade World Maps anyway), Archery, Meditation, Polytheism, Horseback Riding, or Metal Casting.

But do you know what? He does have Iron Working.  

The case for Iron Working just grew that much stronger.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 77 (950 BC) - Part 2

The diplomacy screen shows that someone has actually made contact with a nonneighbor other than us!



GermanJoey and dtay have contact with each other, somehow.

dtay's threat level, once "mysteriously anemic-looking", then "okay", then "good", is now "scary".  Not that this is a surprise; we both know how good he is.

We'll get a chance to see dtay's resources next turn, so I'll have a better idea what his techs are then, but I can't see how he could have both Sailing and Masonry if he researched Iron Working.  So I don't think he's a threat for the Great Lighthouse, even though he's in much better shape than I thought he was even 10 turns ago -- he's gained 4 cities in 8 turns!

This also means CML must have been warring with at least one of his neighbors (Coeurva and dtay), and he's looking even more like a tasty snack for one or both.  

There are still no records of wars other than the ones we already know about (the scouting wars we declared on both Gavagai and Krill, and Ventessel's attack on Krill).