Dreylin Blues 2000 is on (another) mission from Cod

[Dreylin]

Right, here's where the action currently is. The lynchpin of the South is Haddock:


Short-term this will continue to alternate whipping foodhammer units with regrowth on military. Not visible, the Fish ESE of the city; after IW & the Hunting detour, Fishing is next on the agenda to allow hand-off of the Cows and eventually the Wheat. Mid-term, I think this is where the Moai will go - 8 coastal & 3 ocean (incl. Fish) tiles to work.

Finally the runt of the litter, Anchovy:


As previously documented, the primary purpose of this city is to secure the greenline border and give access to the Southern valley - and with greenline's plant I think we have accomplished that. Windmills & Workshops & military are all that's in the future of this city.

Finally a bonus overview shot:


With all my signage. 

[Dreylin]

T075 -

Well this is just about the last thing I expected:


More thoughts when I can form coherent ones.

[Dreylin]

After the initial "WTF" died down, I think my residual reaction is something along the lines of "Hmmm. OK, sure".

Having talked so much about Anchovy as a tool for claiming territory and setting a preferred border, that is exactly what this city does - along with claiming the Stone, presumably for their Moai. It also more-or-less cuts me off from advancing down the coast, as I can't see any benefit to pushing a city East of the "very little food" marker and fighting over borders, nor chasing further to grab the Clam at the pink dot I was never going to prioritise reaching for.

Also on the "eh, whatever" scale is that this shitty doesn't pose an overland threat to to my own cities; it's not going to overcome Trout's 3rd-ring Holy City borders, and it'll be a step behind Perch to gain the shared diagonals (I may want to slot in a Monument there though just to be safe). There is a naval angle of attack enabled, but since Trout is off the coast it's can't be boated from the fog ... and I'll prioritise that NE Jungle for clearing. I imagine they will settle NE of the Gems to grab the Clams 2nd-ring, which will make for a happy long-term border.

I plan to send a renewed Corn-Corn message to them when I next login to show I have no issue. (It won't stop me chopping those 2 3rd-ring forests though.)

If/when I grab for the Silver, my plan is to send them an immediate offer of Gems - my second will be online by then, and theirs most likely will not - to be replaced by the second Silver once I have that online. I think we can keep this border friendly if we both want it to be, and since our respective far-side neighbours have more aggressive combos I think that's in both our interests.

If there's a turn tonight I might report on it, otherwise I'm unlikely to have chance for much until the weekend.

[Dreylin]

T076 -

Offered Corn-Corn to Gingac as planned. One caveat on everything is that they seem to have turned EP spend back on me and I've lost their graphs. I redirected some but not all of mine back.

I also met Ricketyclik:


They are only at 4 cities and tech says they went down the religious line, so I'm guessing they went after at least one of the wonders that Mjmd landed. From my contacts they've only met Superdeath and naufragar; Mjmd has scouted all the way to our corner so I'd be very surprised if he hadn't met his neighbour. I'm concluding that Gavagai is next round the circle to the SE and I'll find Mjmd between him and greenline. I asked for Open Borders to speed my way past.

[Dreylin]

Tested my resort connection through the old laptop and looks like it worked ... although it did crash out once before sticking.

Reassuring Corn-Corn from Gingac greeted me ... which only makes sense as I realise that I'm giving them one-way foreign trade routes!

[Dreylin]

T080 -

So I wasn't the first to Iron Working, someone made it a turn earlier. Anyway, I have some:



Or at least the potential to get some. I guess I'll probably grab the close filler first, but not right away as I still have the West to win. Settler is in place to found Sheepshead next turn and Worker will start to improve the Corn. I've also whipped the Settler at Cod, which will probably go West to 9tiles.

Actually, I've been playing with the dotmap out here:



I'm thinking of pushing 9tiles one tile West (10tiles then, I guess), which gives up the shared tiles, but gains access to the Oasis and stops greenline jamming a city in there. I'm also playing with the Silks dotmap; the lavender pair were the old plan, the yellow an option that pushes further to grab the Copper. I'm not really sold though; there's not mush else going for that far city.

In foreign news, Mjmd continues to BUILD ALL THE WONDERS, having added the Pyramids. My power level has caught back up to vaguely respectable, albeit mostly through researching IW and building Barracks.

[Dreylin]

Some vague thoughts / comments on the last few turns (in no particular order).

My economy is fairly tanked - currently ~30% breakeven and not spectacular when running at 100%. Getting the second Gems online at Stonefish has helped. Since finishing IW I've been parked on Hunting to show vaguely willing, but have just started to research Fishing before another pause on the way to Sailing. I have a Workboat timed to hook up my 1 (one, singular) seafood resource at Haddock. Sailing of course to get something back from the Trade Routes that have been funding Gingac for the past couple of dozen turns.

Having now seen a couple of other players' starts, I think the misfire on the original map load really had an impact on my expectations for the map; the other start I saw looked similar enough to my own that I assumed they would be mostly mirrored and there wouldn't be the variation that I have seen so far.

Case in point:


So much less green over here for Ljubljana; I guess it's understandable why he's gone so sparse with his dotmap. He has been much more effective at clear-cutting his land - I am definitely too soft on my trees.

Anyway, while Elwood is touring the North, Mighty Mack finally made it around the Water Feature to confirm Mjmd's location. They have also not researched Writing yet, so I can't even offer OB for a snoop. Farther West, Jake has bypassed Ricketyclik and is closing in on where I expect to find Gavagai to complete the full set of contacts. I also have a chariot rescouting out Gingac's area.

Speaking of which, Hinduism spread in Gingac's border city, so I've quickly jammed a monument into Perch so it doesn't lose the diagonals. It is then due to start the Settler for the Silver spot (if it's still available). Trout is steadily building Workers to clear the Jungle, while Stonefish is supplying the West; where I will found Lungfish in the coming turns.

Cod is finally off Settler duty and will concentrate on growth - with units & Workers for the foreseeable. Clownfish is pootling along waiting for the Cursed Rice to be online and the Granary to complete. Haddock will build the Settlers for the last greenline border spot and the 2 Iron infills, fueled by the power of Fish! Meanwhile the Southern enclave is slowly approaching usefulness through the application of Worker turns.

[Dreylin]

T084 -

Well whadda ya know? I guess Gavagai is like Beetlejuice, you say his name 3 times and he appears:


But I was also right about finding him:


Confirmed as Buddhism's founder, but without Writing so have had to war-dec their way around the South coast to meet me. Peace has been restored with greenline, but currently at war with Mjmd - I would say still, but the diplo modifier I /think/ implies multiple declarations from Gav. Mjmd's power graphs hasn't shown any sign of losses though so.

I am girding my loins and preparing for my first war! 

On an actual serious note though, this also showed up:


I can't guarantee that this is actually Gavagai though, so I will overflow from Fishing and complete Hunting the following turn. I guess it's time to finally get (semi-)serious about defense. I started a Warrior in Haddock to queue-upgrade to the first Spear, and will slot them in elsewhere as the opportunity arises.

Finally, I'd sent a chariot out past greenline's North to uncover a bit more past the little Water Feature. I now understand where Ljubljana has been putting their cities:


My plan was to loop back to the yellow dot location fairly quickly, but I might give myself a few turns to do a bit more recon. I might be able to justify putting a city on the Plain hill NE of the Wheat if it remains available, but the Water Feature and greenline's border city are significant barriers to grabbing for more.

I'm also strongly considering pushing the Silver city 1W; it loses access to the pigs, but grabs the second Floodplain and also covers those Silks which get orphaned by one of my dotmap variants. The other benefit is not fighting for second-ring with Gingac's Stone city. I have a few turns to think about that though.

Oh, and because it didn't fit into the flow earlier, I'll note that I am the second person to be in contact with everyone, with only Superdeath completing the collection first.

[Commodore]

Oh, and because it didn't fit into the flow earlier, I'll note that I am the second person to be in contact with everyone, with only Superdeath completing the collection first.

Nicely done. What do you think of the map now that you've explored it all/seen the player positions? Who do you devour to win?

[Dreylin]

Oh, and because it didn't fit into the flow earlier, I'll note that I am the second person to be in contact with everyone, with only Superdeath completing the collection first.

Nicely done. What do you think of the map now that you've explored it all/seen the player positions? Who do you devour to win?

Well there's still a lot more to see, but what's starting to sink in now is the degree of asymmetry of not just the overall map, but the starting positions. As I said that accidental reveal of an opponent's start really planted the assumption that there was more inherent similarity that there actually is. While that was unfortunate, I probably should have started recalibrating my assumptions earlier based on the intervening terrain.

I'm not someone who's likely to go on a massive rant against a map because 1) it really doesn't help, & 2) I can see that shit's hard even without trying; although that's not to say I won't (repeatedly) mention a minor gripe like lack of seafood. Would I trade Dye river for more seafood though, probably not!

Overall I like the concept, and discovering the multiple layers has been exciting. My latest surprise was to see Lubljana's city in the middle of the desert; when Jake had carved his path across it had seemed relatively featureless, but that was admittedly a small sample size. This is a big map with lots of space and I'd written of 30%+ as marginal / late-game. Lubljana has swaths of plains, next to which some floodplains and Oasis must seem an inviting contrast.

How do I win; I rely on Gavagai kneecapping Mjmd! 

How do I reach the mid-game without becoming an also-ran? I guess there are 2 and a half avenues for expansion; North into Gingac, Southwest into greenline and West into Ljubljana. Let's throw out the last for know as it's logistically difficult and strategically terrible*. So let's look at the other 2:

To the North, Gingac are literally cornered between myself and Ljubljana. They have a dearth of land, but I think are working a lot of coast and their GNP is flying as a result. Between us is a troublesomely wide range of hills which would slow any invasion. The naval route is there, but as a result of my lack of seafood, I haven't prioritised coastal settling and therefore cannot field a credible navy - particularly in the North. On the flip side, that means I'm also less vulnerable to boating from an opponent - again particularly from the North. So logistically difficult for either of us to attack each other - there's some degree of hope here that the feeling is mutual. (CHA Guerilla2 Janissaries are something to be aware of and prepare for)

To the SW, greenline & I are separated by the food desert and a ribbon of plains, but there's green along the coast. They have settled fairly sparsely in my direction so far, but their economy seems to be even further in the toilet than mine and I don't think they've made it to Priesthood yet to unlock their UB. As I recall it's very easy to crash your economy with Cathy and not have a path to recovery, though the Ziggurat may offer that. The Vulture is scary and will deter aggression for a while, but - with apologies to greenline - they are not as worrying an opponent as Gingac are.

So short to medium-term my goal remains the same, expand to my limits and then grow up. Stay on Gingac's good side with an attitude of "yes there's interesting stuff on my side of the border, but if I give it to you for free anyway, is it really worth the investment to come and take it by force?" So Silver, Dyes & Silks will be offered, as would support in a fight against Ljubljana if it comes to it. There's already been border tension, and Ljubljana's sparse settling means reinforcing a border is more complex, so hopefully if I smile enough they will take that opportunity.

Against greenline the short-term goal is to get a strong defensible border, which I think is being accomplished (*pending opening the turn to some sort of aggressive plant), particularly since the immediate land between us is pretty uninviting. Then sit patiently and wait for the right opportunity to strike.