[PB72 SPOILERS] Aetryn learns humility

[Tarkeel]

I've finally gotten around to reading this thread, and there are some things I'd like to comment on:

I'm... very unsure what has provoked this aggression. Sure, I settled somewhat close to him, but Prudence is closer to my capital than his. There's tons of decent land around to settle and no other players for miles and miles.

1) Does he know where your capital is, and thus where the midpoint is?
2) Are you sure his surrounding lands are as good as yours?
3) Is the midpoint always the default border location?

These are the common fallacies when evaluating borders in the early and mid game. The fact is that you rarely have enough knowledge of the other players' lands to make assumptions. There's also the issue that some players are more aggressive than others, and some combos lend themselves more to early aggression than others.

Thanks for the feedback on the reporting. Sometimes it feels like player threads are a bit less interactive these days, partly because we are ever more conscious of not spoiling games, and partly because a lot of the discussion has been had in previous games. It's good to get a bit of encouragement to keep at it now and again.

Finding a good line in reporting is hard, and as others said micro can be a bit boring if too detailed. My personal preference is to focus on which decisions are made, which I feel makes my play better as well as you take more notice of which decisions you actually make.

a) There's iron somewhere here. Very well could be either on the city center or one south. You know, assuming he actually has IW, which I still need to go back and look at demo screenshots to check. Or maybe I'll just get surprised when he builds a stack of Praetorians and rolls over me.

You can actually tell from that screenshot that the city didn't claim inner-ring iron (that was visible to Xist); you will see the yield effect of resources that the tile owner can see.

But despite having a connection that lets us see and trade resources, neither of us is getting trade routes. I think this is because the route isn't fully unfogged, or maybe it hasn't updated or something.

You do have trade routes, they just don't get the foreign bonus which is based on number of turns at peace.

Yeah, I'm sure I'm just too used to playing the AI, which doesn't refuse engagements and is very subject to attrition warfare if you have the production edge. I assumed war would be more tactical here, but I don't think I thought it would be fundamentally more about positioning stacks that don't engage vs. trading losses.

I understand slowing down for important turns, but I'm also trying to contain the amount of time and energy I spend on the game to keep my life in balance, and sometimes that means making a quicker decision than I'd ideally like to. If that means I make the occasional blunder, I might just have to live with that.

This whole war was a mess of another order. I think our war against Alhazard in PB66 is a good case-study. That was a very well-planned and execute war, albeit slightly late. It still took eight turns and I believe 6 captured cities before the first unit died, in a massive fight. If there are three lessons I'd like to impart, it would be:
1) Don't stop whipping until the objective is met.
2) Spending EP for city vision is like turning the battle on easy-mode.
3) Do take the time to make tactical battle-maps, for your own sake. Just the act of making it makes you process army compositions, and you have a record of where his forces are.

I theorized at the time that creative construction might at least as good for Aetryn as Mining Inc, but even so I've been pleasantly surprised.

Mind you racing for mining inc was still key because Greenline blew merchant. Not sure if that merchant was destined for 3rd GA or Cereal mills, but glad either way.

It was indeed destined for Cereals, and a very calculated gamble blowing it on MinInc.

Note on recon mode. Its god mode. You literally can't intercept it. I actually made a suggestion to change this in mod thread, but it never gained traction / unsure if it would have been too hard to implement. One of the reasons I was fine with you building 5-6 of the things. They literally don't go bad.

The main cost is the later opportunity cost of not having an actual combat unit stationed there. Still, vision advantage is king.

[Tarkeel]

Apologies, but I can't resist butting in on this one.

Rome was the only good choice from my civs, I think.
And to quote SD:

If going for Rome, having AGG for the cheaper unit expenses + the big boost in having access to shock praets ect make it a much more enticing choice imo. Id go Boudica, and dont rush anyone with praets, but keep them as a "dont screw with me" and just out expand others.

I didn't plan to rush someone. And I remain at my thinking, praets aren't that good to rush someone (or in an early, offensive war).
Praets aren't that bad as UU, their shelflife is amazing - It was viable to attack infantry (with catapults), but against axemen in cities without catapults ?

My prediction for your picks was (without knowing your exact start, obviously):

Xist w/Superdeath:
Rome or China seems the obvious civ choices here.
Leaders are more of a mixed bag; Cyrus or Joao are passable IMP leaders if you can handle the economic downsides. Qin (PRO/IND) would be a sign they are coastal and are targeting The Good Lighthouse. Shaka of Rome is also an option; I doubt they will backslide into Boudica.

Rome was probably the correct pick. For leader you could have picked IMP and then used the praets to defend your extra territory; personally I'd gone with Shaka. CtH AGG is an acceptable late-game eco trait, but you really need something to get there, and EXP is usually better than CHA for that. There's also the signal effect in picking the "pure-warfare" leader to consider.

Yes, capital distance is the normal point - even then 10 to 11 is not peaceful. It's not overly aggressive, but this means no "even" border.
The uneven starting positions are another problem.
And yes, I forgot the not.

Exactly. While the midpoint isn't necessarily the correct border, you don't have the data to calculate the centre-of-gravity "weighted" border, so it's the best you can do. If the border is against someone I believe is capable of forming a good border back, I'll try to move my city slightly back for a friendlier border. Having a border you don't need to defend is worth quite a bit.