[SPOILERS] How do you make this thing work: Krill randomly mashes some buttons

[Krill]

Managed to play the turn this morning.

Turns out that yes I have a sword in the queue in VV. Kandy is also at the end of a lake, so it is approachable by units but it's actually a critical location to guard an attack from the NW, so it's pretty damned important to take the city.

And most importantly, I read up on the overflow mechanics. Turns out that City Patron pantheon is actually not as good as I'd have thought, and only makes sense it you need to rush out districts and can't harvest or chop. Turns out that if you overflow production only takes account of the modifiers of the item that you finish, and not what you place the hammers into. So because of the production modifiers available from settlers, and military units (50%), it's better to harvest production on the final turn of production and then you get more hammers into the district (or any other item) than if you straight harvested into the district.

Which brings me around to an observation of Jesters play: why, when you have China, would you not rush Mids, get 5 charge builders, and then more efficiently grow and harvest to get districts down, than go straight military on T0, not use them to camp your neighbour, rush City Patron with a free religious CS envoy, cram down an Encampment, rush out Horsemen and then slam them into warriors? Why not just screen my capital, and settle your first city where I planted VV? Run Iikum for a 4 charge builder to get Mids to 176/220 and complete that instead of the monument you seemed to build? Just why? I didn't see this before, but after looking through more forums I can't seem to understand why he played the way he did.

[Krill]

I am perhaps more concerned that we are stuck using third party software to play any form of MP than online MP. Unless this changes I don't see this game lasting perhaps more than a year. We don't have replay ability, we don't have the ability to play the games we want with the friends we make, we are at risk of what we have being taken away at a moment's notice by 2K. I'm not optimistic that we will get what we need, because I would expect to see a song and dance about it.

With you there, developer attitudes don't hint at strong support for this kind of MP, which makes sense, as it's not easily marketeable, but without that support, it's hard to see a scene develop.

I'm probably up for another PBEM, I like that lookk of that Inland sea map script for a little 4 player speed game. Only Turns out I'm going to Florida in February for a 1 week visit to family (got to use that annual leave before I leave for new job).

[suboptimal]

Which brings me around to an observation of Jesters play: why, when you have China, would you not rush Mids, get 5 charge builders, and then more efficiently grow and harvest to get districts down, than go straight military on T0, not use them to camp your neighbour, rush City Patron with a free religious CS envoy, cram down an Encampment, rush out Horsemen and then slam them into warriors? Why not just screen my capital, and settle your first city where I planted VV? Run Iikum for a 4 charge builder to get Mids to 176/220 and complete that instead of the monument you seemed to build? Just why? I didn't see this before, but after looking through more forums I can't seem to understand why he played the way he did.

Lack of available desert would be one reason.  You also don't know what or who is to his north or east.

[Krill]

Actually I've scouted his east and chunk of the north, it's empty save Carthage. He has space.

[Krill]

Question: If I end turn and I lose iron, would I still finish the sword in VV? When does production resolve in the turn order?

[suboptimal]

Question: If I end turn and I lose iron, would I still finish the sword in VV? When does production resolve in the turn order?

So long as you don't stop working on the swordsman production will continue (IIRC).  If you stop production to switch to something else you don't lose the production you've already put into it but you can't resume it until you reconnect iron.  Likewise, if you lose iron you'll be able to build warriors again.

[Krill]

OK, that's cool then. Jester is trying to cut iron. He'll probably do it, but will lose a horseman unless he gets exceptionally lucky.

[Krill]

So Jester has a horseman next to EF. The archer that is on the marsh can't be 1 hit KO'd but if it is attacked the horseman can't reach the iron, then I retreat the archer. The sword finishes, and the encampment can't be attacked (and vision from when the archer was in the encampment showed the archer can't be hit by a second unit). If Jester moves his horseman onto the iron, I can hit it with two archers and block the retreat except through CS. If he stays on the iron and pillages on T58 (as he moves there on Jesters portion of T57) I can hit him a second time with the archers and by moving the warrior onto the desert on T58 could finish off the horseman most likely on T59.

Meanwhile the builder improves the citrus T58, moves back on T59 to the city, and fixes the iron on T62. I'd take that trade for 18 culture TBH.

The more difficult problem to manage is if Jester runs past the iron and tries to annoy CS. I can't finish the campus, so would have to move onto the settler sooner, but the injured sword and the archer should be enough to finish off the horseman around T609 unless Jester runs it straight past CS and tries to harry the back lines.

A part of me thinks Jester might just retreat. If he has just a single extra horseman (so a third) and one more in production, would he want to risk losing his second horseman of a potential four? When he knows I have one sword, and have a further warrior to upgrade and can build more when he knows I have a builder in place to repair the iron?

He is just in such a rough spot at the moment. Look at his injured archer, it is at 47hp aftyer one attack from my archer. He needs to retreat that, or it dies to my archer. If he attacks my archer? He needs to have something to attack over the water to kill my archer, but due to the iron location, I'd see that next turn, and more likely doesn't have any archers there as they are all in a line between the copper and sheep. My sword and VV stop him moving anything up so his only option is to retreat.

[Bacchus]

I'm probably up for another PBEM, I like that lookk of that Inland sea map script for a little 4 player speed game. Only Turns out I'm going to Florida in February for a 1 week visit to family (got to use that annual leave before I leave for new job).

Given that my first PBEM here ended up in a clusterfuck, I'd be happy to join. Inland Sea is a bit of a weird one, it creates a lot of tundra in my experience, but probably not an awful thing (also makes things like feed the world more viable).

[Krill]

Picture of lands that Jester has ignored.





Picture of lands that Jester should ignore.

More to come later, off too work now.