PBEM #1 - Saladin [Spoilers]

[athlete4life10]

Well we're off and running...well crawling. It is a PBEM of course. This is meant to be a log for my thoughts and notes so I can remember what I plan on doing 6 months from now but maybe just maybe others can draw some enjoyment from reading this. If anybody wants to post replies to anything that is mentioned here by all means do so however please respect the other players privacy and try not to mention anything they might be planning/thinking/doing within their game.

So my initial thoughts to joining up for the PBEM was that yes finally I get to play an MP game with players who I don't expect will quit at some point; even if it takes 2 years to complete. I'm stoked about being part of this. Next was to size up my competition and I'm pretty sure I'm way out of my league but I expect I'll have plenty of fun trying to keep up. I set a couple preliminary goals and they were:

1) To survive to the end.
2) To win by any means.
2b) if winning is not possible to not be last in ingame scoring.
3) Don't piss anybody off too much.

I don't have any serious MP experience and my track record in sp isn't quite as stellar as everybody else's which is why I would rate myself as an underdog. I officially have 2 victory's under my belt. A sp game on noble that was a backdoor Diplo victory (non-rb event) and a cultural victory on monarch in ADV 34. Keeping this in mind I figured I'd try for something I've done and I doubt I can get any human to vote for me so cultural victory it is with a secondary victory type of space.

Now remembering my last (and only) cultural victory it seems like all I did was build temples so Spiritual seemed like a good trait to have and keeping in line with my first goal (military has always been a weakness) I took protective, thus I'm the arabian known as Saladin. After seeing the notes from Sulla stating everybody has an early metal and 2 of my 4 opponents also starting with Mysticism I was disappointed with my selection but I'll keep my same gameplan. I decide I'll aim for meditation for budhism and hopefully beat anybody else to it and start on worker techs after. Ideally I'm looking for an oracle slingshot to Feudalism for my Protective Longbows early on and get the religions I need after that.

That's my early plan so working it out I essentially need a bare minimum of 7 techs I think is what I counted to pull it off. I would think that's doable in MP but I expect I'll have to take a couple more before the Oracle completes. I have no idea just how quickly somebody else might be able to grab it. There's not really anything else I'm aiming for in particular though early writing for my Madrassa and landing Monotheism first would be nice as well. I've never played with no tech brokering before either so I expect being able to oracle an expensive tech like Feudalism early on will open some doors in that area. After that I have no clear intentions so I will be constantly reevaluating and pondering my chances of survival.

So I decided to settle in place. I moved my warrior SE prior to it and contemplated moving but on a small map, quick speed and in an MP environment I didn't want to waste any turns so I put my trust in Sulla. I would guess one of those plains hills pops a metal so the starting spot looks pretty decent.

*** As soon as I figure how to load an image to RB I'll post the screenshot. ***

If anybody can help me with the following let me know please. I've also posted this under the General-->General Forum-->Upload server now working Thread.

When clicking on the link to http://www.realmsbeyond.net/userfiles/index.php I get a new web page opening up saying:
Access denied for user 'rb'@'localhost' (using password: YES)

How do I get this fixed so I can upload my images for reporting to RB?

In the mean time I'll use imageshack.

[Sullla]

I have no idea about the RB upload server, since I've never used it. I would recommend uploading images to a free web hosting site, like Imageshack, and then linking to whatever images you want to use here. Griselda could tell you more, but I think she's away this week on vacation.

[athlete4life10]

Well I suppose it's time for an update. I've played 5 turns so far and am on the verge of landing meditation. I'll update that after I've played it. Now with turns two and three I've simply moved my warrior SE and came across a hut which very fortunately landed me Masonry. Perhaps setting the stage for an earlier then expected Monotheism. Regardless that's a secondary plan at the moment. As well my border's popped and show another hut just south of Arabia so my warrior will head over there to grab that. Now I also noticed in my screen shot that everybody except myself & Pericles (prior to popping Masonry) are at 40 points and we're at 34. Either they have already researched/popped a tech or gone to size 2 maybe? Does more pop get more points? Anybody know the answer to that one?

Here's the screenshot:

[Fenton Denton Smith]

Yes - i think population does count towards score although i'm not sure of the amounts - likely to be map size based i would guess.

[Sullla]

Score is based on four things:

- Population
- Territory
- Technology
- Wonders

The points are disproportionately weighted towards Population and Territory; I believe it's 50% pop, 30% territory, 20% technology, and 10% wonders, if I remember correctly. The one catch is that you don't receive points for territory until land has been within your borders for 20 turns (this was done to prevent some MP abuses with the scoring). So you will receive land points for your capital on T20, instead of having them right now. Everything else works as you would expect. You do NOT receive points for units, religions, corporations, or anything else.

[athlete4life10]

Well I suppose it had to happen to one of us. I did not land meditation/buddhism. Does anybody know how that is decided? Is it just the first player in the sequence of turns or is it actually random? If something like this happened in a SP game I was playing I'd probably just restart but I guess I can't exactly do that here. With an attitude like that no wonder I've only ever won 2 games...lol .

Well what the hell should I do now. I don't want to start on polytheism as if somebody took that to start it's a lost cause. I'm' also building a worker so I need something for him to do other than build roads so I started on agriculture. I'll then be able to unlock animal husbandry for my next tech.



I'll get a screenshot of my land next turn.

Having lost meditation has given me pause for thought. To really try and consider what others are doing. Really I have no clue but maybe just maybe others would like a more peaceful game than not. Who knows. But I plan on farming most of my land to start atleast and an early masonry might lead to an early pyramids??? Could this lead to a military advantage. It's really annoying not knowing the mind of an opponent. It's so much easier to face somebody on a field/rink/court than attempting to assume another's strategy with little to no insight. I suppose it's still early but maybe I wasn't the only one going to try for a cultural victory. I'm most certainly not the only one trying for the oracle.

Which pops another thought in my mind. How do the other players have so many responses? I wonder what the hell they could be discussing. Sure I don't post updates after every turn but man...I tell ya' paranoia at it's worst. Or is it best?

[TheArchduke]

Well, you got to bite the bullet in this case. The worst you can do in my opinion is going for Polytheism. Get economic techs and try to hit Code of Laws or Theology.

The surest way for a religion is Polytheism first and then if things fail, Monotheism and accepting an economy which is a bit behind.

[Sullla]

Another player actually did complete research into Meditation a turn sooner than you did; it wasn't a case of being victimized by the turn order. Keep in mind that several of the other civs also started with Mysticism tech. I don't know if that makes you feel better or not.

My advice at this stage of the game (i.e. very early) is not to worry so much about what the other players are doing, and concentrate on your own approach. What are your plans for the game? Where do you want to be 10, 20, 50 turns from now? Those are the questions I'd be asking myself in this position, and only worrying about what the other guys were doing after that.

[athlete4life10]

Well look at that. I didn't even notice but yeah Sulla's right it was a turn before me. I should pay closer attention to my own screenshots... LOL. Well the plan at this point is to get Agriculture, Mining & then Animal Husbandry. That should give my worker plenty to do and give my capital a solid strong start once the tiles are improved. I keep thinking of aiming for the pyramids rather then the oracle which might be a better idea. In the meantime when my worker completes I'll start building some warriors as I suspect military should be prioritized slightly higher than normal in this game.

[athlete4life10]

Well 9 turns played and this is what I've been able to discover so far.



The red arrows is the path I've taken and the green is what I plan to take. After I pop that hut I'll look around north & north east of my borders. Glad to see I've found the South end and apparantly I'd assume in the SW corner.