[SPOILER] Dark Savant graduates from blatant n00b to plain n00b

[Dark Savant]

That means rights are inversely tied to the advance of technology, which I don't think is a good way of going about things.  In the short term, things work as most people expect -- the decision supports abortion rights.

That's one way to look at it.  Another is that technology would let us have our cake and eat it too.  In the present example, neither the mother would have to be pregnant, nor the baby would have to die.  Since the right to abortion is generally regarded as the right to not-be-pregnant, rather than the right to kill, it wouldn't be removed.  It would instead cease to be a controversy.

Or, as Ref points out, it's more likely to become a new controversy once the tradeoffs are shifted but not to an obvious both-win scenario.  Any time the transplant to artificial womb procedure is more dangerous than an abortion, while not as safe for the baby as waiting for natural birth, it would be merely introducing a less absolute option for trade-off of mother's rights vs. child's rights.

And that even assumes that advancing medical technology doesn't obviate the problem in some other way.  The invention of better contraception with fewer side effects, especially if we also got a reliable male contraceptive...if it were easy and possible to shift the societal default to eliminate accidental pregnancy entirely, then RvW might remain but become irrelevant.

It very might work out well, but I generally don't like to wave my hands and hope things go that way, especially because RvW has explicit language to restrict abortion rights even if the technology is completely impractical.  I'd rather prepare things correctly in the first place.  (Of course, that's not something you can expect most people to care for even with their personal lives, or maybe especially with their personal lives ...)

Artificial wombs are very likely to be awkward and danger-fraught technology at first.  People might instead develop a sudden interest in cryogenics if science and law shift in the right (or perhaps wrong) way.

Reliable passive male contraception is one of those things that we always seem to be not very far away from.  It's kind of like nuclear fusion as a source of energy; it always seems to be just a few decades out of reach.  And people sometimes say that silphium was one, except we're not sure what the plant even was, or whether it worked.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 32 (2720 BC) - Part 1

I'm going to have Wandering Aengus cut a bit south to see if there's actually good food hiding in the middle of that jungle.



That's apparently GermanJoey's stone, but it's not really that far out of my reach, either.

And hey, GermanJoey apparently decided now was a good time to start a real naming scheme.  I'll have to check what other players are doing on that front, just for kicks.

Over to the southeast, Hermione goes to make contact with 2metraninja.



She happens to step right next to a worker of his.  And that's interesting; it's building a camp on that ivory.  That's a normal move in standard Civ 4, but not in this mod, because he'd have to research Animal Husbandry early.  And that means he doesn't have Bronze Working!

Some of my rivals do in fact have mutual contact.



Elkad and 2metraninja do have contact, somehow.

That means Elkad is probably somewhere to the northeast of the eastern sea.  That also suggests the seas on this map are fairly small.  I'm guessing Dreylin won't be happy when he finds that out.

Oh, and in actual important gameplay, that bear did not in fact get in my way, and I can plant a city as in my backup plan.



I'm going to want to expand to that sheep ASAP, so a monument is first.

Sorry, no dragon pictures just yet. 

That worker is going to be delayed by couple turns partly because my micro plan didn't account for either planting here, or for that jungle getting in my way, which will delay improving that pig by a turn.

Oh, and that bear is still there, but since Tiamat produces magical force fields that keep bears at bay, that means Antigonus can approach the city and hide behind the magical force fields. 

I also cut research to 0% this turn, to avoid research rounding issues now that I have a second city.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 32 (2720 BC) - Part 2 (C&D)

I'm not sure how long C&D will be practical with 24 rivals, and there's no guarantee I'll even get anything truly useful out of it, but I'm going to keep plugging at it as long as I can. 

18000 soldiers appeared this turn.

Score gains at interturn:

• 2metraninja - +6 points for a 10-turn technology.  That's probably too fast to be Bronze Working, and slow for Agriculture or The Wheel.  
  
• Mr. Cairo - +1 point for city #2 growing to size 2.
  
• pindicator - +6 points for a 9-turn technology (probably The Wheel)
  
• Rusten - +6 points for a 12-turn technology.  That's about the right speed for Animal Husbandry.
  
• spacetyrantxenu - +1 point for his capital growing to size 3.
  

Score changes during the turn:

• Donovan Zoi - -1 point for a whip, taking his capital from 2 to 1 pop.  That's just two turns after a whip from size 3 to size 2.  
  
• naufragar - -2 points for what looks like 2 1-pop whips, in each of his two cities.
  
• OT4E - +1 point for planting city #2.
  
• spacetyrantxenu - +1 point for planting city #2.
  
• superdeath - +1 point for planting city #2
  

I'm a little short on time now (and I need to play turn 33 now), I'll check for other score changes and go back to revise things this weekend when I have more time.  

[Dark Savant]

Turn 33 played this morning; I'll report once I get the chance, which should be in a few hours.

Going back, I missed AdrienIer planting city #2 during turn 31.

I'm not going to re-edit old posts; I'm keeping a single master intelligence file here and I'd rather not have to synchronize them.

I'm rather behind on development compared to the stronger rivals, which is not a surprise because I chose to pursue a religion.  I hope to use Exp/Imp to catch up some.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 33 (2680 BC) - Part 1

I raise research back to 100%.

Donovan Zoi's scout (he has two of them, actually) makes contact with GermanJoey.



Wandering Aengus heads southeast to see what food resource the magical blue circle implied.



That's it?  A solitary plains sheep?  Doesn't the blue circle want more than that to appear?  Ah well.

2metraninja moved away his worker.



I don't actually plan to try to seriously disrupt a camp on ivory.  Let's take a look at his capital.



He does have that covered well enough.  It's not going to be worth declaring war with just one warrior.

Also, booooring default city names.  

[Dark Savant]

Turn 33 (2680 BC) - Part 2 (C&D)

2metraninja put 1 point of EP into me, which suggests he isn't paying attention to that part of the game.

8000 soldiers appeared this turn.

Points at turn roll:

• Commodore - +6 points for a 9-turn technology (probably The Wheel).
  
• Dreylin - +1 point for pop (5 total).  Not sure which city; I won't try to work this out from the demographics population numbers unless it's important, that's going to be rough with 24 rivals.
  
• mackoti - +1 point for pop (4 total).
  

Points during turn:

• Dreylin - -1 point for a 1-pop whip.
  
• dtay - -1 point for a 1-pop whip (that drops to 2 1-pop cities).
  
• Elkad - -1 point for a 1-pop whip in his capital, dropping it to size 2.
  
• Shallow Old Human Tourist - +1 point for planting city #3.    They're Imperialistic, but still.
  
• superdeath - -1 point for a 1-pop whip in his capital, dropping it to size 2.
  

superdeath is new but there's nothing to indicate he doesn't know what he's doing.  Less than me, really.  

[Dark Savant]

I was intending to let 2metraninja play this turn first, but I have to leave soon and I had no intention of taking advantage of the split, so I played (and sent him a PM just in case).  I'll report (and probably play turn 35) once I'm back later this evening.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 34 (2640 BC) - Part 1

Not a whole lot to report this turn, now that I've actually decided on a place for a second city.

Wandering Aengus busts northeast, and finds ...



another bear.  Or maybe it's one I already saw, but by this time animals should be vanishing in favor of barbarian warriors.

Where are all the wolves and panthers this game?  Wandering Aengus is less than 9% likely to be killed (he's got five combat bonuses against the bear), but eesh.

I pull away from 2metraninja, not finding much.



You know, that area where I was going to plant a city is also a good place for him.  I wonder why I haven't seen him at all in the area.  Maybe I should push through there myself -- a third city in that area wouldn't be the serious reach that a second city would.

There isn't such a lush area of contention between me and any other rival I know about.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 34 (2640 BC) - Part 2 (C&D)

I have to put one EP point into Elkad to maintain graphs on him.  I wonder when he'll stop putting points into me; that may be a sign he may be closer than I think he currently is.  Though it doesn't really accomplish anything, so maybe he just didn't notice.

11000 soldiers appeared this turn.

Points at interturn:

• The Black Sword - +1 point for +1 pop (4 pop total in 2 cities)
  
• Boldly Going Nowhere - +1 point for +1 pop (5 pop total).  He does not have a second city; he's Charismatic so he's not at the happy cap yet, but I'm wondering what he's up to.
  
• Donovan Zoi - +1 point for +1 pop (2 pop total).  He doesn't have a second city yet, either.
  
• Dreylin - +1 point for +1 pop (5 pop total in 2 cities).
  
• Elkad - +6 points for a 10-turn technology.  My best guess is Hunting.
  
• GermanJoey - +1 point for +1 pop in his capital (5 pop total).
  
• naufragar - +6 points for an 8-turn technology.  (Probably the other one of Agriculture or The Wheel that he didn't yet have.)
  

Points during turn:

• The Black Sword - -1 point for a 1 pop whip (3 pop total in 2 cities).
  
• naufragar - +1 point for planting city #3  (3 pop total).  Chop-happy Imperialistic, not a surprise but I need to get into that game pronto.
  
• Rusten - +1 point for planting city #2 (5 pop total).
  

[Dark Savant]

Turn 35 (2600 BC) - Part 1

I was busy yesterday, and while I do have time today, I need to give micro a deep think so I can plan the fastest way out to 4 cities.

I tried to do this while logged in, and realized I was in danger of holding up the turn , so I'll do that while not logged in.  

Glaurung produces my second worker.  I thought it would be amusing to have knights as my peons, so I'm giving my workers a knight (maybe samurai too) naming theme.  First two peons are Galahad and Lancelot.  I'm going to need a large worker force to chop out settlers quickly, so I start a third worker immediately.

I was logged in to figure out whether it was better to grow to size 4 first, but I'm quite sure now that's suboptimal, since I already produce workers in 4 turns from scratch with no whips or chops.  If I produce a worker now rather than growing, I end up short of 3-turn Bronze Working by 2 flasks, but I can deal with that.

That's also halfway-decent revolt-to-Slavery timing, since I can revolt on the turn I complete Bronze Working just as my worker does.  That way Tiamat can also whip its monument on schedule.

Wandering Aengus did not get attacked by the bear, so he pressed onward.



That bear is still there.  Wandering Aengus still has odds on defense, just not as good as last turn.

Hermione starts moving back towards my territory -- I can't spare warriors for further exploring duty now.  She's done a good enough job finding 2metraninja's capital.