[spoilers] AT makes a funny thread title

[Rusten]

How can I trade with GeneralKilCavalry when I don't have open borders with Mr Cairo or Krill? I don't see how that's possible.

OB makes no difference for resource trading (or normal trade routes) when trading through a civ. As long as they don't actively block you (for instance by declaring war) you can trade with people on the other side.

[AutomatedTeller]

How can I trade with GeneralKilCavalry when I don't have open borders with Mr Cairo or Krill?  I don't see how that's possible.

OB makes no difference for resource trading (or normal trade routes) when trading through a civ. As long as they don't actively block you (for instance by declaring war) you can trade with people on the other side.

I feel like I should have known that!!    Thanks.

[AutomatedTeller]

Long-term strategic thinking

I've been thinking about long term goals.  Obviously, my long term plan is to win.    SPI/IMP is not a great long-term economic civ, but it's a good civ to grow and then use that growth to fuel an army and kill things.    My plan is as such.   Steps 1, 2 and 3 might end up happening together.  

1)  finish peaceful expansion to 12-14 cities
2)  get Construction, Currency, Calendar, Iron Working, Theology
3)  Build an army with 5-10 catapults.
4)  Take Ruffs capital (probably owned by Superdeath).  Make this my Heroic Epic.
5)  conquer Superdeath
6)  conquer Mr Cairo

At this point, I'm guessing I'll get a concession.  Might get it if I get Ruff's and superdeath's lands.

There are, I think, only 6 weakpoints to this plan, which doesn't sound like too many, so it seems pretty foolproof.

[Hollybombay]

What would those weakpoints be?

[AutomatedTeller]

well, technically, it's one weakpoint, which is that my opponents do something I don't want them to do. But there are 6 steps, so 6 points of weakness.

Most likely thing to happen is that Superdeath throws a stack of 10 keshiks at me or mr cairo makes a couple of triremes and a couple of galleys and raids my cities

[AutomatedTeller]

Turn 79, where AT wins the game!!

Well, no, but the Great Lighthouse helps

In the grand scheme of things, several good things have happened to me this game:

I had good land
I wasn't rushed
I was able, with Merovech's help, to identify a way to get a lot of settlers out fast and without needing worker support.
I have gotten the Great Lighthouse.
A neighbor was rushed, so I got more land uncontested.

This turn may mark the end of the easy times.

A bunch of things are happening.   I keep losing people's graphs, probably because I'm the leader and people keep putting espionage on me.

1)  Superdeath and Krill both have scouts scouting my borders.



That's Superdeath's down south, near OnlyAGame, and Krill's, which is hard to see in the shot, up on the rice.    Superdeath will see the archer but will be popped out by culture before he sees the walls I chop in. 

Keshik vs archer in city with walls is closer than I'd like, but then, that's why I'm chopping.   I might put 5 hammers into a spear.   I also need a scout to watch the approaches, I think.  

2)  Mr Cairo settled his 5th city.  It's border are not visible on the map, so hopefully, he's either on an island or going into the center of the map, and didn't cut me off.

3)  I'm 4th in power now and Superdeath is up to 133K



Except that he's not the power leader!!!



Krill is.  

I dunno what it's made of - I'm guessing swords and he's going to kill GKC, but I really don't know.  Krill is not particularly a danger to me yet.   His power rise could be a reaction to Superdeath, too.    The big thing is that military is becoming important.  I'm ok with that - I'll whip a rax into CarTalk and build some more units there, and AllThings will get a rax and make some units, too.

This is annoying:



I had set the governor to emphazie production, hoping it would select the hill on growth and let me whip the terrace his turn.   It did not.  I have to wait another turn.

btw - I love math infused chops. DeliciousDish (for another worker), OnlyAGame (archer and overflow into lighthouse or maybe walls) and AllThings (Pyramids), giving me 90 hammers when only 60 was available just a turn ago

[AutomatedTeller]

Turn 80


2 popwhipped a barracks in CarTalk, moved the settler, worker, axe and spear into place for purple, which settles on the ivory next in 2 turns.

Whipped terrace in FreshAir.   That will grow to size 4 and then whip a lighthouse.


Pyramids says 8 now, but it's faster than that.    I have a chop/mine finishing soon.

Construction will be in in about 10-12 turns. I think it's break even at 12 right now

Not a terrifically interesting turn





Picture Dumps

Civ Overview

Overview with resource bubbles.




World culture overview





I dunno if these last two are at all interesting.

Cities

High level look at my cities


CarTalk will get the missionary next turn, then will grow on a temple.   Then probably an axe



WaitWait will continue to grow and pop out missionaries.  Needs a spear at some point


Finish the worker, move to lighthouse.



OnPoint will get the next missionary and between that and ivory, will get to grow some.   Will get to grow on a temple then whip that and overflow into moai.   Will have to build a workboat for the clam for silver at some point, too.



Won't take 8 turns - I have a 30 hammer chop coming, which will cut it to 6, I think.  Very excited for Pyramids.   I think I get it, unless Mr Cairo pops a low odds engineer and uses it for that.



OnlyAGame has been working that stone for a long time.  It would STILL autoraze if taken, but it will start growing better soon.  Eventually, I think it will work stone, gold, clam, a farm and cottages
while WaitWait runs a bunch of priest specialists for the Theo bulb.




Only thing FreshAir will do is A) provide pop to cut down on unit expenses B) give me ICTR and C) work a lot of coast tiles.  I guess eventually it will get a temple and a priest, which will be nice with representation.  It says workboat, but I'm definitely going to switch that to a lighthouse.

[AutomatedTeller]

Turn 81

Not a very interesting turn - Superdeath is back to tops in power.   His scout is still hanging around OnlyAGame, so I'm changing up my build and starting up a spear there.  Archer on flatland, even behind walls, is not a very good matchup for a keshik. I am not normally this worried about someone who is not a neighbor, but Superdeath is volatile enough that I could see him trying to snipe while he builds up to take Ruff.

I don't think I'm likely to actually build the spear for quite some time, but this gives the ability to whip it in an emergency. The scout should give me warning.

Eventually, of course, I need the brown city to be my front line

My power is 3rd now.

5 or 6 turns to Pyramids. 

Purple settles next turn. 

Moving my scout south to ensure I can see a keshik coming.

Thought I'd give a high-level pic of what I mean by being worried about OnlyAGame;



Red circle is OnlyAGame. Superdeath has his scout back there - it moved away a little last turn, but came back.

That is vulnerable, of course. If I get a spear in it, a keshik will just bounce - 2 keshiks might kill the spear, but the archer should take care of the other one. A 3 keshik attack there will take the city, but I don't think he has 3 keshiks. By the time he can get three there, I'll have walls and a road, so I can get reinforcements in.

Do I think Superdeath will bring a keshik over? no, I do not not. Might he? yes.

The blue square is where I'm founding next turn. Superdeath won't see that for awhile, but mr cairo certianly knows.

[AutomatedTeller]

Turn 82

Countdowns:

This is something new I'm going to do - keep a countdown until I get things that I'm aiming for.  
4 (maybe 3) turns to Pyramids.
16 turns to the Buddhist shrine
9 turns or so to construction

This turn:

Settled Purple (now known as MorningEdition).   Morning Edition is another news talk show on NPR.  There's also Weekend Edition - dunno if that will get settled or not. 

Finished the road so ivory is hooked up everywhere.
Plan is to move the workers to the 2 forests and chop in a terrace and walls.   Building terrace first since it will handle the overflow.   This now puts my borders and Mr Cairo's in contact - Krill's scout is trapped there.    Mr Cairo might react violently to this, which is why it has axe, spear and chariot and will get the next archer created.   It makes for a strong staging point for action into the center of the map.  My only problem is that it's not on a hill.
Once the forests are chopped, one of the workers moves on, the other puts down a cottage, then will improve the cow.  I need IronWorking soon.  Also a lot of other stuff.

Expenses are ok

I do need currency, but a 2nd island and the shrine will help out a lot in keeping the economy strong.  Eventually, currency and calendar, as well.

AllThings got a mine chop and moved the fish to the new mined hill, cutting time to Pyramids to 4 turns.   I might get another chop in  that brings it to 3, I don't know.
OnlyAGame expands borders next turn, so I get my clam, which means I should be safe from a single keshik, or even 2 - I can whip in a spear and spear and archer, particularly if I get walls, is not very appetizing prey for keshiks.
DeliciousDish made a new worker, SteveInskeep, who was supposed to go build a cottage for CarTalk but went to road the cow instead.   That wasn't smart...

The world:
Both Krill and Superdeaths power continue to grow - I think Superdeath is cranking out Keshiks to go kill Ruff.  I'm thinking of Dow'ing Ruff just so I can see what's going on in there.   I assume Krill is going to kill GKC or attack Superdeath when he goes to finish off Ruff.  



SUperdeath has 2 or 3 7 xp Keshiks right now, which is not intimidating at all.  He's gonna lose some of them in the ruff attack, but I need cats pretty soon.  

Plans:

When and if I get pyramids, switch to Rep - that gives me happy in my biggest cities, plus the 3 research for the priest is likely a 5% overall boost. 
AllThings will switch to a temple->barracks.
OnlyAGame will build lighthouse and walls if it doens't need to emergency whip a spear.  It won't whip the lighthouse until it would be able to whip the spear the next turn, of course.

[AutomatedTeller]

Hmm.

I am now wondering if I can DOW Ruff, but not worry about a turn split with him if I A) don't move anything but a scout into his land and B) never put the scout on a tile that he can work.

All I really want is to see what Superdeath is doing without holding up the game.

Any thoughts from the lurkers?