[SPOILERS] Xenu Succeeds, BGN Fails! - RB's First Pitboss Succession Game

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

T88

State of the game: We've built 9 work boats. We have netted 4 seafood resources. This map challenges us to waste hammers in every conceivable way.




Demos look good by sheer force of will (some sleight of hand too) but I'd much rather be Rusten with the commanding food lead (aside: what the fuck is everyone else doing if we're still #2 in food??) and ballooning city count. I'm not sure what his land looks like but we've hit a serious roadblock with expansion due to geography hemming us in, in every way imaginable. Our island is professional at hiding food unless you're willing to settle for one second ring ocean tile. We have two of those remaining to settle, one of which requires settling on a flood plain (the only one we have) and the other requires settling in the jungle with mostly coast/ocean tiles.

More complaining: I didn't uncover a handful of fogged coast tiles on our continent via work boat because that would have taken an extra 10t of scouting to get 1-2 tiles, but of course these are the tiles needed to find an expansion avenue to the east, which is also choked by jungle. If the map had better expansion opportunities I'd be at least at 10 cities by now but the last ~15-20 turns have been spent soft-pedaling expansion due to poor options. Cairo (7 cities and stone-built Hanging Gardens this turn...uh okkkayy) has a long stretch of a homeward island running east to west with several good food locations left to settle. Must be nice. 

We have uncovered probably no fewer than 250 tiles that are completely uninhabited but that are also closer to other civs. Meanwhile at home, our closest islands are either inhabited, lately found and jungle choked, or a two tile island (second ring fish, of course) that is still closer to Nauf's island than ours. Most of our coastal borders are ocean-facing. 

I hate this map.

[spacetyrantxenu]

Dear BGN and Xenu,

Just letting you know I've declared war this turn (88). I was pretty close to the turn timer wire this turn, and I may be in the future. Apologies in advance; I don't plan on running it close, but if you all see the sands running out, I'd be very grateful for a pause.

-naufragar

Let's see what this is.  If it's for real then we may have our goals set for the game.  

[spacetyrantxenu]

In response to a query from the lurker brigade about a double move complaint from...I don't even know how many turns ago the double move was, my best estimate is something like nine turns ago.  I played a double turn T86 to T87 even though we were at war with Gavagai at the time.  My reason for the double move was that it made no difference to the game so why not play two turns.  The circumstances were moving a work boat through his territory while avoiding blocking any of his seafood tiles.  He had a galley nearby that would be able to kill our work boat whether I double moved or only played one turn, so the only advantage we gained was two spaces further penetration into his territory for scouting purposes.  To my recollection, maybe BGN can confirm, he didn't even kill the work boat the next time he played, but instead did so on a subsequent turn after T87.  Maybe Gavagai has screen shots for that, I don't since I didn't play any further turns until today, T96.  The upshot as I understand it is that Gavagai eventually killed the work boat a few turns after we declared war to scout through, and at the time I thought that was irrelevant to us completing circumnavigation.  It turns out that it gave us a one turn advantage on circumnavigation, since we completed it last turn with a combination of the infringing Gavagai work boat (eastbound) and a westbound work boat elsewhere.  However, unless anyone else was about to complete circumnavigation last turn (T95) this is completely irrelevant as we have now had a second work boat cross the eastbound threshold, beyond the furthest point of advance that the work boat scouting Gavagai accomplished.  So unless anyone else was going to complete circumnavigation last turn, this is wholly irrelevant now.

In any event, if Gavagai had a problem with my double moving him he should have said so eight turns ago when it happened, no matter what events had transpired in game since then.  There's no way we'd be replaying all those turns for a double move that went unreported for so long.  Also, if he was concerned about the work boat he should have just killed it the first time he had an opportunity when it was in his territory.  Since he didn't, I assumed he didn't care if I kept exploring, so I did and didn't worry about the double move as he had given tacit approval by letting it live.  Yes, double moves in war are bad and should be avoided but if it is literally of no consequence...it's hard to get too worked up about it.

Krill, sorry if I was short with you this morning but as I said..you did wake me up with that IM.

This image shows the area where Gavagai killed the offending work boat (in the north), and where our two other work boats met this turn in the south, after both had only moved two spaces (so ignoring the circumnavigation bonus we earned a turn early we still would have earned it this turn if nobody else was going to get it last turn...which, I think from checking F4 seems very unlikely as we by far have the most complete set of contacts.  Actually, now that superdeath is dead we have the only set of complete contacts).  The line on the map is the longitude of the killed workboat.



Close up of the two meeting work boats, each had 1/3 movement points left so we didn't gain advantage to earn circumnavigation this turn.



No comment at all about the amount of food in that image, as far away from us as it is....

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

I have zero sympathy for anyone's sour grapes about an issue from so long ago. Either raise the issue at the time or suck it up and play on. FFS. What is it with this game?

[Zed-F]

How goes the game? What are your plans at the moment?

[spacetyrantxenu]

Well, the game goes kind of in coach speak, we take it one turn at a time, keep everything in front of us, wait for the other team to make a mistake, and need to be ready when the opportunity arises.

Translated to Civ, the succession game aspect is playing out about like you'd expect it to, given the participants. Despite a healthy dose of differing opinions and a not insignificant amount of random build changes depending on who is playing the turn, we're doing ok. Ultimately our problems in this game will be much more determined by map layout than anything else, that's the nature of being in the mid latitudes on a cylindrical map. We have neighbors both north and south with difficult paths to expansion. We don't have easily claimable nearby large landmasses, not that I think everyone does, but our exploration so far does show that some people have much easier access to expansion than others. So we'll be settling piddly low production island cities in a far flung empire until that doesn't work anymore. Then somebody is getting the sword. Whether it's us or someone else on the receiving end probably depends on who plays more of the turns, to be honest. I'm disgruntled enough with the game at this point that I'm highly prioritizing Iron Working and building big fleets for expeditionary fun purposes. BGN thinks growing and keeping pace is the better plan. I don't think either plan is going to be good enough to win the game with our disadvantages, but we'll see.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

How goes the game? 

Pretty much this.

[superdeath]

You are the unstoppable duo though! Wheres the blood? The carnage!

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

We're Atlantis. Our battle is with the sea.

[superdeath]

We're Atlantis. Our battle is with the sea.

 

The fight will be long, but i believe in you!