[Spoilers] Commodore as someone of something, or, an entertaining failure

[Commodore]

Turn two, we're truckin' along nicely. Check out what I found today!



What can we conclude from this?
-Plako is racists, giving Japan rice. All of which is dry.
-Where the warrior is would actually be okay for a city, if culture isn't an issue.
-I want to scout SE and N,NE at the same time. Which way.
-What's the under/over on thar being gold in them thar hills?
-AH is bumped up slightly in priority, the second city will most likely want to use those lovely sheep.
-There's not a lot to say on turn two.

[BRickAstley]

Hallo y'all. And by y'all I mean mainly Commodore, since he's the one that finally convinced me to start contributing to this kinda thing.

Okay, so let's take a look at what we have here...

- Enclave of the Bear? I know that's a faction in the new RISK Legacy game but that's about it.

- Well that'll be fun with Kyan next door. The good thing is that the pattern of water and peaks that I can see right there are keeping you from crossing units with him anytime soon. My guess would be that Plako has some dastardly setup in mind for you to know where the others are without being able to get to them easily.

- Actually, expanding on that thought, the tile to the N/NW of that NWernmost is water, which is nice and blocked off by ice and peaks. I would bet on Toku's legendary disdain for anyone else (glad you're not him this game) that Plako has been really nice and put another *friend* of ours up there. :dancing5:

- For that reason, I'd say send the warrior northerly-ish, just so we could start to get an idea on how far those peaks will go out or not. (And to make sure there actually is someone else up there.) Also, then we can start figuring out how long it'll take for everybody to get at each other.

-I also doubt on the gold being there, you already have silver, I doubt Plako's been that generous (Sorry Plako, nothing personal, I tend to take the benefit of the doubt and assume all mapmakers are evil until proven otherwise. Feel free to prove me wrong though. )

- Also, if you can spare the time, see if you can send that fishing boat a few tiles out there, see if you are connected by sea at all or not. It might be good just to know if you might get invaded by sea in the future so you aren't caught with your pants down and a ciggy in your mouth.

All and all, this looks to be shaping up to be an um.... interesting game with this kinda map for sure. It will be very interesting to see what comes up in the next 10 turns or so of exploring.

[Commodore]

Awesome, Brick. Point by point:

- Enclave of the Bear? I know that's a faction in the new RISK Legacy game but that's about it.

It's a territory in RISK: 2210, the best RISK. I think I'll be going with territory names from there, with thematic names for units (warrior is Ursa Warrior, etc).

- Well that'll be fun with Kyan next door. The good thing is that the pattern of water and peaks that I can see right there are keeping you from crossing units with him anytime soon. My guess would be that Plako has some dastardly setup in mind for you to know where the others are without being able to get to them easily.

Yeah, current operating theory is that we're in a five-pointed star arrangement, with our capitals close together but protected by peaks, and the areas of conflict fanned outward. I could be wrong, though.

- Actually, expanding on that thought, the tile to the N/NW of that NWernmost is water, which is nice and blocked off by ice and peaks. I would bet on Toku's legendary disdain for anyone else (glad you're not him this game) that Plako has been really nice and put another *friend* of ours up there.

See above. I'm actually going to just wait one more turn for the second-ring borders to pop to do that confirming for me. We could also be in a squiggly line running SW->NE, much like how Plako plopped us in PBEM 26.

- For that reason, I'd say send the warrior northerly-ish, just so we could start to get an idea on how far those peaks will go out or not. (And to make sure there actually is someone else up there.) Also, then we can start figuring out how long it'll take for everybody to get at each other.

I'd agree with this entirely, were it not for the fact that Aggressive Kyan is to the south. I'm not sure if there's anyone who would be worse in the north (okay, maybe IMP Dazed). I'm glad BW is the next tech, at least, this is Sun Tzu's dangerous ground, day one.

-I also doubt on the gold being there, you already have silver, I doubt Plako's been that generous (Sorry Plako, nothing personal, I tend to take the benefit of the doubt and assume all mapmakers are evil until proven otherwise. Feel free to prove me wrong though. )

Maybe, maybe not. If there is gold, you can bet your sweet bippy that the others have it too...which would be pretty miserable. We'll see.

- Also, if you can spare the time, see if you can send that fishing boat a few tiles out there, see if you are connected by sea at all or not. It might be good just to know if you might get invaded by sea in the future so you aren't caught with your pants down and a ciggy in your mouth.

That scarring mental image aside, I'll be really shocked if the ice doesn't at least block coastal access. Now it might not block ocean...which would make Astronomy, as ever, The One Right Beeline. Capital border pops will let us see what we have soon enough anyway.

All and all, this looks to be shaping up to be an um.... interesting game with this kinda map for sure. It will be very interesting to see what comes up in the next 10 turns or so of exploring.

No kidding. This is not going to be a builder game, alas. Which is a pity, because Rammer here is the best builder of the bunch.

[Gaspar]

No kidding. This is not going to be a builder game, alas. Which is a pity, because Rammer here is the best builder of the bunch.

At the end of the day, every game of Civ is a builder game.

[BRickAstley]

Hey, I got really close with the RISK reference, Success!

*Logical counterpoint to each one of my other points/my research is already known*

Well, one success is better than none. I forgot from my thread reading that Kyan is the scary aggressive one. With that in mind, I agree south would most likely be the best option.

Also I can see how coast connections are quite improbable. Still, once we can see that there's no coastal connections for sure (as long as you wouldn't have to go out of your plan to see so), that will help for the whole breathing easier part.

[Commodore]

So, a word on this game type.



Looking at PBEM 4 and PBEM 22, I'm struck by the fact that Always War (AW) games are the most cautious, conservative, while Always Peace (AP) games are the most aggressive.

The winner of PBEM 4, Krill, expanded well, put sentries on his borders, and then concentrated on building while his rivals fought. The end, with his masses of Modern Armor rolling their rifles, should be tattooed directly on the eyeballs of anyone wanting to play Total War in an AW game. Conflict is a lose-lose proposition for the fighters unless everyone fights.

AP games, on the other hand, are all about claiming land as aggressively as possible, because there are no negative consequences. They're all about aggression, being a winner-take all propositional as the game is 100% about the snowball.

In this case, we're in a five-man AW game. We have the best builder traits for the long game, and there is nothing I'd like better than to sit and build. Sadly, Kyan and to a lesser extent Ceil and probably Dazed are better at this whole Civilization game than I am, in Kyan's case incredibly so. Being next-door neighbor to Kyan, I have to harass him to a certain extent just to keep him off balance, hopefully accompanied on his other side(s) by other player(s) armies. Initiative is something I'd hate to surrender to him, which is why the second city goes to either copper or horses, all other considerations secondary.

Strong hill cities on the Kyan side are going to be at a premium, ideally with cultural pushers to keep him on edge. His steles are actually a mild annoyance there, 25% more efficient than my monuments. Let's hope someone with imperialistic trait and +4cpt libraries pushes Kyan's other border. If he abuts GE, we might as well call the game now (Ceil might be the best other neighbor, though, with his skill coupling with unfamiliarity for some early aggression). Obviously, my ideal N neighbor is Mr. Nobody, but that ain't going to happen.

So, the plan is pretty simple. We need to expand "enough", no point in being choked out, but despite the name always war in an ideal situation is about hunkering down and building. We've already discussed a little bit the plans for building in general, in a few more turns we'll know enough about the neighborhood to set those in stone. The good news is that thanks to the wooded plains hill I'm going to be pretty relaxed about home defense, able to build a warrior in 2 turns for emergencies. Ought to be an adventure at least.

[Commodore]

Hey, I got really close with the RISK reference, Success!

Well, one success is better than none. I forgot from my thread reading that Kyan is the scary aggressive one. With that in mind, I agree south would most likely be the best option.

Also I can see how coast connections are quite improbable. Still, once we can see that there's no coastal connections for sure (as long as you wouldn't have to go out of your plan to see so), that will help for the whole breathing easier part.

No sweat, dedlurkers exist to toss ideas, but also to add content. It's always more entertaining to read and edifying to play if a lurker is asking intelligent questions that force the primary turnplayer to think through his actions and plans. Speaking of plans, here's the tentative list of the first few city names:

-New Avalon
-Imperial Balkania
-Jotenheim
-Andorra
-Djibouti Ministry
-Sakha
-Nunavut
-Java Cartel

[Commodore]

Well, we found nothing via scouting.



But a lot via border pop.



Still on track.



Sleepy, g'night world.

[Mardoc]

It's a territory in RISK: 2210, the best RISK.

Off topic - but why? What makes it better than original risk?

[Commodore]

Off topic - but why? What makes it better than original risk?

Added complexity, more flexibility, and shorter play-time. Energy as well as armies is collected from territories and continents and is used to buy cards, commanders (rolling a D8 or D10), and bidding for turn order each round (enabling "double whammy" turns where you can actually collect from, for example, Asia). The addition of sea territories breaks some of the more annoying geographical quirks (Australia being massively overpowered) while also giving more room to expand, likewise the moon map and colonies. There is a five-turn limit, which means we can generally polish off things in under four hours.

Plus, well, cool themes, and it's spawned a ton of memes among my friends. Notably, in the Enclave of the Bear massive armies go to die.