[SPOILERS] - social distancing with pindicator

[pindicator]

Oh, and FIN continues to pull ahead:

PRO: 9 (257)
FIN: 12 (173)

But PRO still has a good lead

[Miguelito]

I usually get tired from long micro posts, but this one was interesting. Thanks for putting it together after the time you spent to come up with the plan .
Out of interest, Why are 2 cities getting stables but Yamhill not, even when it also produces 3 Numids?
I think when you want to work other tiles over your food that can make sense if you're scratching the happy cap anyways, but might that be a sign that the cities are not sharing their tiles enough (ie the dotmap should have been tighter)? If it only happens in this particular situation then it's fine of course.

[pindicator]

I think when you want to work other tiles over your food that can make sense if you're scratching the happy cap anyways, but might that be a sign that the cities are not sharing their tiles enough (ie the dotmap should have been tighter)? If it only happens in this particular situation then it's fine of course.

It's just a gut feel, which I get isn't that helpful. I guess it's that if I had put in a Stables then I'd only be getting 2 Numids out of there, and there's a bit of a balance between quantity and quality. And I can't even get the chariot + 2 Numids compromise that I did at Clatsop. Quality is nice, but quantity really, really can win out when you don't think it can. So as much as I would like to get more promotions, I also want to make sure I'm going to have enough numbers.

I'm also a little wary of over-building Stables, because they only can help the mounted units where barracks can help all your land units. And as much as I love Numids a smart player will punish you for only building 1 type exclusively. (With Numids it isn't spears that counter them though; it's horseback archers.)

Another city I really considered putting a Stables at was Malheur. I have another forest in the area I'm not chopping (the one on the spices), and I thought about putting that into a Stables for the 2 Numids on that city. But long-term Malheur isn't going to be a great production city - it's actually where I'm thinking of putting out some great people in the middle of the game. So a Stables didn't make sense in a spot where I wasn't going to continue to pump out 2-movers.

It's possible you'll see me put down Stables at places like Coos that don't have a barracks. They'll be like cheap stop-gap stables for places where I don't want to put the hammers in for Barracks but I also want to get some Numids out.

I mean, ideally you get Barracks and Stables down everywhere and then pump 20 units out and conquer someone. But then we're not attacking until past turn 100 and Superdeath gets all kinds of time to prepare.

[pindicator]

088

We're being invaded




This has turned from inconvenience to full on red-alert. Before I ended last turn I settled on putting Clackamas on an axe, thinking that if anything it would be building a second-wave, slow-moving stack. Now it's going to end up whipping out emergency barb defense. So no library - again.

My axe scored a kill against the archer nearest it, and finished healthy enough that it will be able to promote to be in good shape for another fight. My archer went back into Lake, but i need to deal with the axe too - which means I'll 2-pop whip the axe and overflow into a chariot. This also means the chop is getting held off.

I do have some other units that could clean this up...




But if I bring them all the way east then I either don't get that unit in the first wave or I delay the invasion. So Clackamas has to deal with this on its own.

Meanwhile, we came so freakin' close to getting Sailing but couldn't quite do it. If I did a bunch of suboptimal tile arrangements - stuff like trading the rice at Clackamas for a riverside hamlet, or working a 1f2c coast tile at Lincoln - then I could get it on the nose. But I would run the risk of inflation or increased costs ruining the whole thing. And I was getting it on the nose, as in exact number of beakers to finish Sailing and -35gpt when I have 35g in the bank. Any additional cost from additional units being produced or civic cost increase from the 3 population growths I'm getting at end of turn would mean me working suboptimal tiles and then getting no Sailing. So I decided to turn off research and just accept defeat on that one; we'll get Sailing end of next.

Internationally some flair: AT took a city off Jowy, and either Jowy or Mjmd built The Colossus. I'm going to bet Mjmd.

And we have graphs of all our neighbors now!

Superdeath has spears in every city. I find this a little hilarious.


PRO: 9 (266)
FIN: 10 (183)

[pindicator]

089

Every time I make a detailed plan like this there are usually 2 main mistakes. The first is the mistake in the planning where I mess up the math in city growth or hammers or something. The second is the mistake of execution, or failing to execute. In this game, I have made little math errors but nothing that has impacted a unit build. But I made the second kind of mistake at Coos:




I forgot why I was supposed to not work the iron. I didn't need to move off the iron because it was too many hammers for a Numid. I needed to move off the iron because that was the only way to get to size 4 in time to join the main stack. So we will have 1 less Numid in our main stack now.

Maybe this is better in the long run - an unpromoted Numid playing catch-up from behind but I'll have better tiles worked overall.

We got Sailing this turn, and I realized I don't want to plant an island city just for the purpose of having an island city. Why not? Because it will not help my cities; I'm already getting 3c trade routes from foreign trade. All putting an island city down will do is help my neighbors get an additional commerce in one of their routes. Like my capital now has a 4c trade route because of Superdeath's island city. Though to Superdeath's credit, his island city looks fairly decent.

I'm about 15 turns away from Currency, and I'm banking on some capture gold in the upcoming war to help me get along faster. I would love to build Great Lighthouse but I can't imagine I'm the only one, and I feel like I'm behind in that. Plus I don't have any more forests to chop. But maybe it's worth fail gold?

In any case, I hit enter and cursed out loud.




That's the SECOND TIME (edit: 3rd; the panther was near Clackamas too) i've lost a 10% battle to barbarians around here. With my axe dead I might actually have to chop out a chariot from Clackamas now just to make sure I kill that barb axe and my axe can move back. This is ridiculous though; that's my third 90% battle lost to barbarians this game and I'm pretty sure I haven't even fought 10 battles yet.

In any case, that archer better suicide and not pillage. He owes me that.

PRO: 9 (275)
FIN: 11 (194) 10 (193) Edit: I counted tiles after turn rolled, and mistakenly counted a tile after city growth

[pindicator]

Logged in after I saw Superdeath do a ton of whips. I wonder if he got HBR and is whipping stables himself? Or maybe it's something else.

Also realized that all is not completely dire (yet) in the east. The archer at Lake has 98% odds at killing the wounded barb archer on my stone. Though I may still chop out a chariot to deal with that barb axe.

This will all have to wait for tomorrow morning, after Gira plays tonight.

[pindicator]

090

We managed to defeat the barbarian invaders this turn, and our Numidian stack is coming together nicely.



With 98% chance to win I figured the real chance was a 50/50, but a coin flip we thankfully won. Thinking about what i would do to defeat the barb axe, I moved my axe from Clackamas onto the marble hill, and very reluctantly and painfully chopped the forest into a chariot for Clackamas. Hopefully the axe would suicide into my axe at end of turn, and if instead it went northeast towards Lake or if I lost another battle in my favor, the chariot would be able to clean up. But poor Clackamas - how many times have its plans to be developed been ruined by invading barbarians? We really need to get a sentry net or some kind of defense farther south. Preferably one that doesn't lose 90% battles.

At end of turn the barbarian axe did attack mine, and my axe won - though with only 15hp remaining.

And out west, my Numidians are gathering.




Note Superdeath's scout on the hill. Now all the whips last turn make sense - he has seen my power spiking and sees my units gathering and knows if he does not react then he is a juicy target. This is good for me even if I don't attack him. At worst he is not able to just tech away in peace and must put hammers into military builds. It would be great if these were spears, and less so if they were horse archers. Horse archers sadly are a counter to Numidians, and I will need spears and walls to defend against.

Because I was playing last, I took a turn to linger around his capital and see what came out.



Horse archers it is.

I can only think that Superdeath is at about the same tech level that I am now. Perhaps he has not grabbed Iron Working, but I know he has Horseback Riding now. That is rather frustrating to see - I think any other neighbor would have hoped to go to Currency first. But Superdeath is all about confrontation and war. Or who knows - maybe my military buildup made him switch gears and burn through his gold that was intended for Currency?

Here are demos to show the food gap narrowing and an overview of the empire that I took after the turn rolled.







I'm seeing multiple people with size 7, size 8 cities and wondering where the hell my happiness is. Guess I just have to go conquer it.


PRO: 9 (284)
FIN: 11 (204)

Last turn I counted one extra tile for FIN, so I corrected that here.

[pindicator]

091

Think anybody notices what's up?





Gira moved up some units to our border.  I think now's a good time to look at Gira's land, as next turn things start to heat up.  The city counter that BUG gives (which tbh i'm on the fence on if this is extra information or not, as while it's simple enough to tell when someone gains a city by Civ Stats, it's not always easy to tell when they lose a city) says that Gira has 4 cities and we've gotten vision on the 4th city this last turn; you can see my work boat's vision in the very bottom of the screen.




I'm hoping that the units are just covering the worker as it chops out the tree on our border.  I think that is the same Axe/Spear stack I spotted a few turns back with my work boat.  I know there's also an axe in Kyoto, and possibly other untis.  Though Gira's power remains very low so I'm not sure what else more.  I'm not sure if that axe is new or if he upgraded the warrior that was around there.

The biggest thing is that I don't know where his copper is, but I think it has to be somewhere in the fogged area between Kyoto and Kagoshima.  I'm guessing I won't be able to easily disconnect copper though and am going to have to rely on just taking all his cities.  So with that in mind I'm going to be adding a few more axe builds in cities that don't have stables.

Next is I'm starting to think I'm the only person who wasn't given happiness that needed a tech.  Maybe you could argue the elephant to my west is "mine" and I just got unlucky with the bears preventing me from scouting that out early in the game.  But Gira has Gold, Gems, Furs, and Whales (though I have to remember Whales are moved back to Optics here).  If I can conquer his land then my happiness problems are over and I just need to keep a strong border against Superdeath.

Third is I think this solves a bit of the mystery as to why Gira moved his opening settler like he did.  I think this is Gira's only horse source and he's been screwed by horses much like I've been screwed by early luxuries.  But his mistake was over-stretching to claim the horse, trying to plant way up by Yamhill.  He could have planted west of the Clam and still had a very good city.  Heck, even after I declared on him with my warrior and he retreated, he still could have put the settler between the Cows-Horse-Gems and had a decent border city that controlled all the important resources.

Gira, I hope if you read this after you take this all as constructive criticism.  I think the biggest thing to help improve your play for next time is to put as many resources as possible within the first 9 tiles of your city (unless you're playing a Creative ruler).  Being Charismatic has helped you pop borders with cheap monuments, but you're still waiting 10 turns to work those resources.  Better to work them right away!  

Finally, I thought about building a galley out of Clackamas on the inland sea, but at this point it's probably too late to matter.  Kagoshima is the only city on that body of water, and any galley coming from Clackamas wouldn't be arriving for at least 6 turns.


And a little bit of domestic news:  I chopped into a lighthouse at Multnomah



It's taken forever for this city to get up to speed, but I think we're finally there.  Not sure yet if I whip the lighthouse in or let it finish naturally, but I'll look into it.  I also have a lighthouse started up north at Lincoln and that one will be built with a chop & natural production.  After that I think I'm going to try for Great Lighthouse in one of these two spots.  Probably won't get it, but the fail gold will be just as useful.


PRO: 9 (293)
FIN: 12 (216)

[GeneralKilCavalry]

Maybe you could argue the elephant to my west is "mine" and I just got unlucky with the bears preventing me from scouting that out early in the game. 

That was my thinking.

[pindicator]

Maybe you could argue the elephant to my west is "mine" and I just got unlucky with the bears preventing me from scouting that out early in the game. 

That was my thinking.

Did you make the map GKC? I have to be honest, I've just been randomly venting in here. I can't remember at all what was agreed on for map parameters or who even made it. I hope whomever did make the map doesn't take any of this personal. I've done it once before and was chickened out and made the thing symmetrical. Making stuff more natural like this is far nicer to play on, but also so much harder to balance.