[PB59 Amicalola] The Vespertine Hour(s)

[Amicalola]

T103
A turn where a lot of little things happened. I never know how much of that to record. I personally tend to get quite bored lurking micro, but I know other people enjoy it, for example. It's a dilemma.  



Settled Cosmogony, on Cairo's jungle-horse island. I'm really surprised he let me get this. The clams will be netted in a few turns; I'm behind there, because I wasn't expecting to get the fish either. This whole area has basically gone better than my wildest dreams.



This island presents an interesting puzzle. Pindicator is probably working his horse to get a work boat out, which will finish pre-T107. This means he isn't building a monument. I can settle the island on that turn (whipped settler from Hyperballad), and I am guaranteed short-term control over the fish even if he whips a monument, because I get a stele instead (Ethiopia is actually useful!). Finally, I already have ships on this sea and he doesn't so defending wouldn't be too hard. So functionality isn't a problem, but diplomacy is. Pindicator would obviously be furious if I settled here and stole his fish; however, he's probably already furious. The question is whether this would be enough for him to slam what he has left into me, and I really don't know the answer. But I'm inclined the gamble and settle the spot, because I have control over the seas with my triremes - Pindicator would have to vent his fury upon my land-bridge city, which will have walls. The alternative is a crappy filler-city on the mainland north, which is very unappealing. I have 2 turns to change my mind. 



More island news: I confirmed my suspicion that SD was also on the other side of this island. I wasn't sure whether I'd be greedy and send an unescorted worker/settler before military here, but with this knowledge I feel safe to do that. I don't think(?) he can even see the city-site from his borders, though I may be mistaken.  



Exploring the TBS coast, I can see that his and Commodore's war is really hot. Note TBS' combat 4(!) galley and Geronimo the axeman; he's not kidding around. I'm not sure who I want to win that war, because no-score mod means I don't know how they're doing. Probably Commodore, given TBS' general amazingness. Also of note, TBS settled Pagan Poetry (Shanghai) in the exact same spot as me, so maybe I'm doing something right.  

Met Frozen, but I'm not sure where. I've also met AT, Miguelito and Lazteuq in recent turns, which means we know more than half the players. Jowy might be in trouble; he no longer holds the Jewish Holy City. 


This is the first turn someone cracked 100 production in the demographics. To my great surprise. that person is...


Me!

[Amicalola]

We all might be nameless faceless internet strangers, but playing all these games together and reading each other’s reports does lend itself to an odd sense of familiarity

No kidding. Even down to the avatars (I should get one of those). I can imagine if you stopped being a koala, for example, it would feel 'wrong' for a while. A bit like when someone gets a haircut.

Although, it does add something to the games. Probably more so this year, as meeting with people IRL is much harder. It's a lot more fun playing with people you 'know,' even if it's really a pseudo-knowledge.

[Amicalola]

T103 Addendum



Poor Superdeath is cottaging his iron. Unlucky him; I wonder how mature it'll get before he has to bulldoze the thing. No one tell him.

[Amicalola]

T104
Spent my hour today mostly thinking about the Great Library build. We will finish Literature on T108, and I wanted to whip 2 things into it for overflow. One of those things will be a library (from 88/90 hammers), and the best 2nd thing was a worker. The nice thing with that is that the food from the city also becomes hammers into the Great Library, which are more valuable if I'm worried about someone stealing it.

I am hoping IND gives me a bigger advantage with Great Library than many wonders. This is because unlike many wonders which have global effects (e.g. Stonehenge and Great Lighthouse) which can be chopped wherever, Great Library wants to be built in an already-established city (very likely capital), which has few forests. Thus, hammers are harder to come by, and more valuable to multiply. That's the theory, anyway; let's see if it pans out that way...

I might not do the worker whip. It makes it hard for me to work all of my hammer tiles (total of 16 x 225% = 36 hammers). If I only whip the library, that will be roughly 45 hammers overflow, or ~2.5 turns. I could probably get the build down to 7 turns with that; that's probably quick enough unless anyone else has REALLY beelined it. No one else has Aesthetics yet, so I'm increasingly inclined while typing this to go that route.

[Amicalola]

T105


Settled Heirloom. The nice thing about this spot is a galley can't attack it from anywhere without being visible a turn earlier. Superdeath offered OB this turn if I paid him 8 gold - I don't think he realises that he benefits from OB more than I do. We had this exact same problem with him in PB58.

It doesn't look like Pindicator is building up for a fight, and if he is it's with Naufragar right now. So I think I'm not going to push him too far, and I will settle the shitty filler city instead of his island. No sense in ruining my game just for a fish tile.


That said, this galley is really freaking me out. I thought about sinking it, but if I'm wrong then any goodwill vanishes. So instead, I'm not going to settle either spot for now. If he razes some coastal city of mine, he loses his fish, and we hunker down for eternal war.

[Amicalola]

T106


The new twin-cities of An Echo, A Stain. The latter was founded this turn, and we have now eclipsed Naufragar (Joao of India) in cities!  

Temporarily. Next turn we'll found that filler spot by Pindicator, which will be our last peaceful city. We got a neat total of 20, which I think(?) is more than average, but it's hard to tell with no score. I'm pleased with it though! Now we have to actually grow the darn things.

[Amicalola]

T107

Overview shot, because I've founded all my peaceful cities. Final filler spot was Undo, founded in the South-east. The city was basically founded for a) trade routes, and b) to get control over Pindicator's wine island. 


Moai finishes next turn; Unravel will be really strong long-term, though growing it will be a slow process. Getting Moai out faster is another reason I like IND. The basic plan is to have it build infrastructure when available (e.g. library next), and ships otherwise. That also means I can skimp on a barracks there.

Current demos are looking pretty good, certainly much better than I would have expected. 



The goal for the next 20 turns is to grow my cities up, and get a stronger economy. I want to have a courthouse-push, followed by a library-push, across the empire before I launch any Golden Ages. Then I can push for a unit that lets me break the stalemate. I'm thinking either knights or cuirassiers, but galleons might be smarter. 

Superdeath finally realised OB is as good for him as me, and offered it without any expected bribes. I accepted; I want to see how his defenses are looking. 

I am sending Cairo furs for 30 gold. It's a terrible deal for me on paper, but it (hopefully) keeps him off my back, and costs me nothing. I'd also like to have him thinking of me as an ally, if possible. I hate the 'everyone is an enemy' mentality; why not work together against our common foes of Mackoti and Naufragar? Securing an ally, even if temporary, feels like the best way to use my extra furs.

[Amicalola]

Going to stop doing daily turn-reports now that the expansion phase is over. The next 15 turns will ideally just be building an economy that isn't solely GLH trade routes. It's my favourite part of the game, but isn't very interesting to lurk, so I'll start updating for only major events (probably a better way to report anyway).

Brief list of plans, for the upcoming turns.

Technology
- Research Calendar, for bananas and happiness
- Research Code of Laws, for cheap courthouses
- Research Construction, for defense
- Research Civil Service and Monarchy, for civic swaps
- Research Optics, and upgrade a caravel for ASAP circumnavigation. (Important!)
- (maybe) Research Music, for the artist.

General
- Build granaries/lighthouses in outer islands, and forges/barracks in the core
- Build courthouses everywhere
- Build libraries in commerce cities, barracks/units/ships in production cities
- Build an academy in Unison, pre-GA.

I'm not sure how realistic it is, but ultimately I'd like to launch two consecutive GAs starting T120-130, completing Taj Mahal at the end of the second (for 3 total GAs). In the third GA, I'd research Gunpowder and Military Tradition, and whip/draft out a horde of cuirs and muskets to run over someone. Basically, the same thing Tarkeel and I did in PB58, but against more (and stiffer) competition. I've never actually fought a long war before (closest thing is probably vs. Jowy in PB55), so I'll have no idea what I'm doing...

If I land the Great Library, I might be able to assist that with bulbs. It all depends on whether or not I can fix my economy in the turns beforehand, though. The biggest weakness of a trade route economy I can think of (besides scalability) is that it doesn't benefit from a GA, so growing population will be hugely important. I'll have to try to limit my zealous whipping.

Here's an question; at what point of the game is it no longer worth it to build an academy in your capital? Obviously it depends on the city's quality, but I'm thinking on a general level.

[Amicalola]

T108-109

I'm saving up gold for Code of Laws. This is the first time I've used wealth in a game, as I realised Cocoon could either produce an axeman or 50(!) gold to help start my burn a turn earlier. Actually a pretty easy choice. I should definitely use Wealth more often, especially in production cities; I had forgotten itbenefited from hammer modifiers like forges. No reason to build any more axes than the 12 I already have, for example.

[Amicalola]

Due to some accidental spoiler info, I'm 99% sure Superdeath is at war with Joshy (who seems really nice, but also prone to spoiling things). I had been hoping the war would stagnate and I'd be able to steal SD's islands, so I've had galleys ready at my own jungle islands. But instead it looks like Superdeath is winning hard; he's at 20 cities!  

The reason I think a lot of those are Joshy's is that SD's food and production are average at best, and he's losing power (from a high peak), so they must have been acquired recently. His GNP is worse, possibly the worst in the game. I'm really surprised he hasn't built the Buddhist shrine yet, it must be worth at least 20 gold already. Without it (or maybe even with it, if it's too late), I doubt SD has the long-term staying power to compete against TBS/Tarkeel. So rather than steal his islands in the next 15 turns, instead we'll try in 20-60 turns.