[spoilers] Pindicator and Regoarrarr - Bismark of Ethiopia

[pindicator]

National Epic rundown:

[strike]Moai Statues - OTOF
Heroic Epic - Hanukkah Song
National Epic - Church Lady[/strike]
Forbidden Palace - Superfans? Matt Foley?
Globe Theatre - Aiur?
Hermitage -
Oxford - Matt Foley
Wall Street - Celebrity Jeopardy
Ironworks -
West Point - Hanukkah Song? OTOF? Ironworks City?
Red Cross -


Don't think we'll build Hermitage or Red Cross. Ironworks is still a ways down the line as well. Let me know if there are other candidate cities I missed

[pindicator]

Also - what do you say to paving over a few of the workshops in More Cowbell? I'd like to get us some more cottages going - and that is more of a commerce city for us

[SevenSpirits]

Had you accepted the deal, it simply would not have gone through. So no worries about that.

[regoarrarr]

Also - what do you say to paving over a few of the workshops in More Cowbell? I'd like to get us some more cottages going - and that is more of a commerce city for us

I'd be okay with that - I'm still a little leery about the payback time of cottages - tech pace probably will be jumping now that we're getting into the "tech trading" part of things.

As for Hermitage, maybe if we make the border city near Azza / Krill, put it there?

[pindicator]

I'd be okay with that - I'm still a little leery about the payback time of cottages - tech pace probably will be jumping now that we're getting into the "tech trading" part of things.

Yeah, I don't think we want to go crazy with cottaging over workshops, because 1) a 1f4h tile is pretty sweet; 2) communism is probably our late-game civic; and 3) we don't exactly have a ton of extra workers. But in cities where we are looking to get a commerce focus it can make sense. MC is one of those commerce cities, or at least it was before the big push to war against Yuri.

[regoarrarr]

Thought I'd take a bit of time to give a few "mid-term" grades. I think we're a bit past the midway point, and obviously I don't have all the information to make truly objective grades (if I can possibly be objective since I'm playing in the game)

* Krill - A+. Really don't know what he could have done better. He's bullied his way into a huge swath of land, and while he's a bit behind Scooter tech-wise, I see him catching up

* Scooter - A-. Played a great game - landed several wonders and crippled his neighbor (Mist). Bad points are a) that he hasn't eliminated Mist yet, and b) that he hasn't expanded more / kept Krill in check in the age of 4 move galleys and zerks. Again, not being privy to exactly what is going on there means I may be missing valid reasons for this.

* Us - B. I think we have played a pretty solid game. We got in trouble by an unexpected early attack from Commodore, which really hamstrung our early growth. Remember had he not attacked, we would have a) landed Monotheism, b) and the Great Lighthouse, and c) been able to use our first GP on a shrine rather than bulbing Theology. Then we got bullied by Krill into giving him a good city and cutting off our eastern expansion, but we've been able to take advantage of knights to get a huge amount of land from Yuri which may be able to catapult us back into contention

* Nakor - B-. Had a solid early game, including taking out Plako and should have had double the land to play with. Landed the Hanging Gardens with I believe double digit cities, but got bullied by Krill (anyone noticing a theme? ) into losing 3 cities and access to the whole southeast of our continent. Since then, we haven't heard much out of them. They are muddling along in the upper-middle ranges. I expect us to pass them in score once we get all of Yuri-ville under control.

* Commodore - C+. He's played a decent game. Sure, he made an ill-advised attack on us, but his land, as we've discussed earlier, is REALLY REALLY bad. SO he may have felt like he had no choice. He was just unfortunate that he attacked a team that actually knows how to defend, not to mention across a landmass. I mean had he been able to attack say Yuri early, he may have knocked him out and been able to control much of his continent. Also gets good marks for waging a mostly successful war against Cyneheard

* Cyneheard - C-. Didn't have great land, but didn't seem to expand very well. I'm not sure why he didn't end up with a good chunk of Yuri-ville. I do know that he and Commodore have been warring for quite awhile, so that probably contributed to it. At this point, having lost 3 cities to Commodore, he's doomed to being a rump state in this game. Does get credit for a spirited defense against a larger and technologically superior foe, with the retake of "One Moved"

* Azza - C-. Played a decent start, including nabbing Monotheism (when we had to give up on it). Took a barb city near Krill, but then lost it and much more to an aggressive Krill. At this point, he doesn't have much of a chance.

* Yuri - D. Played a good start. He got a great amount of good land, and is keeping up technologically. His big problem is that he really should have prepared better when he saw our power spiking. Also does not seem to be putting a whole lot of thought / effort into the game at this point, and was about 2-3 turns too late with the massive whipping to try and save his empire. A decent defense could have saved most of his empire I think but as it stands, he's going to lose his entire mainland within 2-3 turns.

* BRickAstley / Mist - D-. I know BRick has said that he was fairly new and really misplayed his start and.... yeah, he really did. I''m not sure what if any kind of defense he's played preventing Scooter from eliminating him by now, so he may get credit for that if true but he's hopelessly backwards and with barely any land.

* Plako - F. Remember he was in this game? Actually this should probably be an Incomplete, but when you get eliminated in the first 20 turns, you know it's not going to be good.

[regoarrarr]

As expected / feared, Yuri did use his GG to make an uber-longbow



Unfortunately, Drill 1 (1 FS chance) doesn't do much when your opponent is attacking with knights (that ignore first strike chances)

Also, it looks like he had to move the GG out of the city with the longbow, as the fortification bonus of 25% reset. It only defends at 14.4, which is about what his other CG2 longbows were defending at. I mean CG3 only gives an extra 30% which was essentially nullified by the loss of the 25% fortification bonus.

I think I'd have spread it around to all 3 units and attached the GG to the axe to upgrade it to a mace.

[pindicator]

Rego took Aiur and Mar Sara this turn. We ended up keeping Mar Sara because we if Commodore is goign to take Monolyth this turn (and he should, I think) then trying to fit in two cities there would just extend a border and possibly ruffle Commodore's feathers. Plus it came with a lot of good infrastructure.

This is the 8th turn of the war; up to now we've captured Char (Nat X), Tarsonis (Matt Foley), Zharkul (Superfans), Shakuras (Sprockets), Xil (Weekend Update) Bel'shir (Roseannadanna), Aiur (Guido), and Mar Sara (Pat) as well as razed Ash'Arak. 9 cities in 8 turns.

Yuri only has Korhal and Monolyth left on the main island; he does have 7 or 8 cities on islands in the south and Inferno Island, so that is the next stop for our knights. They will heal up and now we are debating whether to hit Inferno Island or the Southern Island next. (I nominated it "Apathy Island" as an antonym to Inferno and a slight dig at the defense we've been seeing.)

[regoarrarr]

Should we offer anything for Printing Press. I was thinking 500-800 gold + spices and rice?

[regoarrarr]

What, no comments on my awesome mid-term grades?!?!?

I mean I realize it's only been a few hours and I've been busy regoarrarring up the thread but I thought that was some good action.

So how about a mechanics question.



It is our belief that a city founded on the blue circle, when it hits 100 culture, will take the blue triangle tile, correct?

My understanding of the mechanic is that a water tile will only get culture if a city on the same landmass could reach the tile in question. So since a hypothetical city on the cows could reach the triangle tile, we should be set, right?

This mechanic has also produced some amusing things up near Blues Brothers



The circled tiles are in our culture, even though it appears that cities on "our" landmass couldn't reach them. But because of the odd shape of our continent, Krill is actually on the same continent, so those tiles could be reached by cities up near Krill