[SPOILERS-PBEM14] scooter's thread - Mansa Musa

[scooter]

Never heard of that one... Had to google it. I'd say that's our current leader, though I'm trying to think of something a little more obvious.

[dazedroyalty]

Too bad you didn't go for the Hydra and name is "Monopoly"!!!

[pling]

Senet is an Ancient Egyptian board game that had some significance in their religion (the path of the piece round the board mimicked the path of a person through the afterlife, I think). I don't think that particularly fits "more obvious" tho

(And not-so-coincidentally this post moves us back off the bottom of the forum )

[Krill]

Trivial Pursuit.

[novice]

For your holy city:

Fake edit: Gotta love Krill's suggestion though.

[scooter]

Alright, T24 was played this morning, so let's take a look. First, here's my warrior backtracking, looking to find Africa:



Up in the NW corner of that screenshot you see coast - just above the cow. That's the Mediterranean there, and it curves a bit there, so I think I'm close to Africa.




My settler and worker are all into place, so next turn my city will be founded and the corn will immediately start farming. I'm debating what to build first there - I'm actually considering going straight into yet another worker, but it may be wiser to build a warrior and grow to size 2. Still though, I can use my one warrior to "defend" both cities since there are no barbs and no land bridge to my west, so all I need to defend is my front... So I may just go straight for another worker. Any opinions? I checked the demos again:



Still no second cities founded... So unless someone founds one on T24 (I go first), then I'll be the first to city #2. Speaking of which, here's an oddity:



Lewwyn is still at size 1, and he's never moved off of that. Considering he founded in 4000BC, the only thing I can figure is that he went worker-worker-settler? Or perhaps worker-settler would do it. Either way, I wonder if I could have just walked into his capital a couple turns ago? I'm kind of disappointed that I passed up the opportunity to try now... I know I talked about doing this awhile back, but by the time I got to his capital I figured my window had closed, but now that he's still at size 1, I think I probably could have taken it. Good job by him by playing it cool, pretending like it wasn't even a threat. I mean I suppose his starting warrior was in range (or maybe he could have built one on time) so who knows if it was actually killable, but regardless - if it was empty, serious credit to him for not even mentioning it or acting abnormal. Usually people give it away, but he definitely did not. Also, if someone founds a city before me, Lewwyn is the most likely bet.

Gaspar is at size 3 and Sandover is at size 2. I'm guessing Sandover went worker-worker. Actually he also went for Bronze Working first, so he likely went with the worker chop 2nd worker opening, which is usually a strong opening. Serdoa's score is quite high at the moment, so I'm not sure what he's been researching exactly. Kind of odd.



So in recap, the plan at the moment is:

1. Found corn/horse city next turn
2. Start on Polytheism on T26 to land Hinduism. Neither Serdoa or Lewwyn will compete, and since Sandover started Bronze Working and does NOT start with Mysticism, I only have to worry about Gaspar stealing it.
3. Either worker or warrior first in my new city... and I have not decided yet.

[pling]

Still though, I can use my one warrior to "defend" both cities since there are no barbs and no land bridge to my west, so all I need to defend is my front... So I may just go straight for another worker. Any opinions?

Well, that's providing you're definitely right about the map, and providing the new world (and possible byz-phobic Gaspar) hasn't been joined onto the western end of "europe" ... I'm prone to caution so would do the warrior, but probably bold wins more games

[zakalwe]

Gotta love your naming theme.

Personally I think "Chutes and Ladders" and "Ticket to Ride" would be good names for a holy city. But if you want something more mysterious, maybe "Tantrix"?

At some point you may also want a science city named "Master Mind".

[scooter]

Gotta love your naming theme.

Personally I think "Chutes and Ladders" and "Ticket to Ride" would be good names for a holy city. But if you want something more mysterious, maybe "Tantrix"?

At some point you may also want a science city named "Master Mind".

I actually was thinking about Chutes and Ladders as well. I actually liked that game a lot as a little kid... Although it was always frustrating to get the giant chute at the top. Krill's suggestion made me laugh, and Dazed's Monopoly suggestion was something I was considering as well. Only problem with Chutes and Ladders is that it's 18 characters, and 15 is the limit. Although using "Chutes/Ladders" would probably solve it.

I played the next turn today, and founded the city. I'll give a full report in a little bit.

Well, that's providing you're definitely right about the map, and providing the new world (and possible byz-phobic Gaspar) hasn't been joined onto the western end of "europe" ... I'm prone to caution so would do the warrior, but probably bold wins more games

That's a really interesting possibility - new world attached to Europe/Africa. I think that actually makes more sense than attaching it to Asia now that I think about it. That said, Serdoa's scout headed west along southern Europe, and he already came back and is now just NW of my capital. I don't think he would loop back already if he hadn't hit a dead end, because he said he was going to head that way to make contact. So I'm guessing Europe is indeed now a dead end, but yeah, it's mildly risky... However my capital just completed a worker as well and can easily pop out a warrior or two. I'm going to think things through and figure out how quickly I want to push for settler 3... It's probably going be pretty quickly.

[scooter]

So I went ahead and founded city number two, immediately starting on corn farming and a worker build:



I checked the demos real quick, and:



Looks like someone else got to a city first. I was pretty sure this belonged to Lewwyn, and after doing some looking at score comparisons, yes, it was Lewwyn. I guess this means he went worker-settler to start. So after 25 turns, I have the same amount of cities as he does, but I also have 2 workers to his 1 (I'm pretty sure he just has 1) and 2 warriors to his 1 and 4 pop to his 2 (I checked and his cap is still size 1). In short, I like my start much better than his, so I feel good so far.

What I can't figure out is who in the world has a GNP of 30?? The high last turn was 22... So short of building Stonehenge, I can't figure what would give that much culture/GNP... Now that I say that, did Stonehenge fall? I need to double check the save - I don't remember at all. <runs off to check>

Ok no, no wonders have been built... What could cause a GNP spike of 8? Any ideas?

Anyways, I pressed enter, and:



Copper! It's to my west though, so this means I'll be plopping down a backfill city sooner than expected. In that case, my next capital build will be a warrior, and he will scout the land west of my capital. Actually, on second thought, I'll email Serdoa and ask for a screenshot of the land west of my capital.