The Way of the Civ Player - Ichabod and Wetbandit's PB13 Spoiler Thread

[Ichabod]

Hey Ichabod, great post. It's not that often someone is so clear-headed about looking at their game, and its a real help to noobier players to read that kind of analysis.

I think some of the reason that you're not making it into the top 5 is because you're not devoting the kind of mental energy to calculating everything that some of the other players are. And there's no shame in that, its only a game and nobody should feel they have to put in more effort than they want to. And you're still comfortably beating 2/3 of the board.

Probably a lot of players (including me) struggle in the mid-game due to a lack of experience with handling an empire that developed. If this game makes it to the modern era it will be interesting to see how everyone handles that, because as far as I know that level of development is unprecedented in RB pitboss games.

Thanks, Gazglum. I agree with your points. One of these days I want to try and play a very well managed game, but I don't think that's possible yet. I see the planning other people do, with spreadsheets and stuff, and I can't see myself managing that right now. And I mean it in a sense of what I'm capable of, not what I want to do - right now, I still need to learn how to do that. In this sense, I think Civ can really help me in terms of learning how to plan and organize things more carefully, which is something I can use in the rest of my life. Right now, I'm easily overwhelmed by the game once things leave the territory of what I can just keep on my mind.

Of course, there's always a lot of other priorities to tackle in life, so it's not easy to have time and will to do it all the time. But I think I can still be a bit more efficient with the time I spend playing Civ, if only I can organize myself a bit better. And that would probably also help with the times where I get a bit distant from the game - at least I'd have some basic guidelines already set that I could follow, I wouldn't be compeltely on auto-pilot like I am when it happens now.

[Ichabod]

Question for the lurkers: while reading the other threads, do you get the feel that people would want to play another game similar to this when it's over? I think I'd be up for that. The settings are very interesting and I think I can handle another PB if I keep things limited to one game at a time only.

In related news, I'm very eager to read the other players threads. Hopefully WLP isn't too annoyed with the way I'm playing the game. I leave it here that I only attacked him due to my reasoning that it was the only way I could win the game, but it wasn't an easy thing to do. And, oh, well, he completely devastated my attack, so I guess there isn't that much trouble.

Though it seems the game will keep going for quite some time. I really need to be able to take a look at WLP's research, It'll make it easier for me to evaluate if I can beat him in an eventual new war. I'm actually thinking of doing a turn of espionage slider against WLP, because being able to see his cities would be a major boon. It's not that costly.

[Ceiliazul]

i think players and lurkers alike are very much enjoying this game. if certain players had not rolled over dead, imagine how close the game would be among the top 6 or so. great setup!

[Ichabod]

I have a feeling WLP is really annoyed at me in his thread. I'll update tomorrow to explain why I decided to attack him again. I think the least I can do is explain my thought process behind this, if only to show him when the game is done that nothing was done with ill will in mind. It is just the way I think will still give me a chance to win the game, even if may be based on very faulty reasoning.

And I'd also like to say that I think WLP played a better game than me and things would be very different if he had my start and I had his. Hopefully I'm not ruining his game experience more than the expected amount of emotion that comes with war declarations and stuff.

[Ichabod]

I see that WLP's dedlurker retired from the position. That's probably not related to lack of reports (because WLP's reports seems to be very good and he posts a lot), so I guess that WLP decided he'll focus the rest of his game in bringing me down. Well, I had it coming, I guess.

So, let's try to win this war and this game!

[wetbandit]

Good luck! Rooting from beyond the ded-lurking grave.

[Ichabod]

Sorry for no pictures, but I'll try to explain my plan.

I decided to go for cannons to win the war against WLP, I figured they are the best counter to a lot of catapults, because they don't take collateral damage and they can act as decent stack defenders (and they also take collateral hits to diminish the damage against real troops).

So, I'm finishing Nationalism now. I was thinking about revolting to Nationhood + Slavery, but I can't go to slavery if I want to do the phase 2 of my plan. So, I'll probably just revolt to Nationhood, maybe theocracy. Nationhood will be a big boost, considering I'm swimming in happiness and cities.

After that, I'll do ~10 turns of 100% gold. In this interim, I'll get 2 scientists to bulb chemistry (so I need Caste System to work a lot of scientists in Shower in Red, my NE city) and I'll finish the Oxford University in DP.

Finally, I'll turn 100% science on Steel research, opening cannons (~7 turns).

So, in less than 20 turns, I'll have cannons (I'll probably upgrade cats to cannons after that). Meanwhile, I'm producing knights, cats, pikes and muskets. I also can see WLP's cities (I have city investigation through EPs) and a lot of his land, so I know what I'm facing.

I just need to time the revolt to nationhood. I think i need to wait in Bureau until the OU is ready, which is probably pretty close to when the second GSci is getting ready. So, I can revolt to Nationhood + Slavery when I'm getting ready to research steel. I'll have ~10 turns to whip and draft my way to a huge stack.

Hopefully I won't be attacked by sea before this is over. I don't think I will, since I have a huge power number and I can't really win the game. Attacking me is just asking for trouble with no gains.

---

That's basically it...

[Ichabod]

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

[BRickAstley]

Plans for now?

[Ichabod]

Well, when central authority gets dissolved during a total war scenario, the legion of warriors that don't have for whom to fight anymore tend to go rogue...

It's a pity, my plan was about to come to life and I think I'd be able to conquer WLP. Now there's no more point in doing that, because I really can't win the game anymore. I'm not sure if I want to give mysekf the trouble and give WLP the stress. Regarding FinHarry, it'll be hard to defend against them, because I don't have any naval power.

Guess I'll have to go for Astronomy rather than steel...