[PB56] Lazteuq's Cool Facts about Space

[Lazteuq]

Tense times indeed. There's a decent chance I'll settle on copper to save time (6 workerturns might be the difference between life and death). I'm really regretting not building an early warrior. I felt comfortable because of no barbs, but that was an illusion. I guess the question now is: how to survive without falling more than a few turns behind? That's why I'm still working on the settler.
As expected, Gira's scout is just sitting there on the corn. I've brought my scout back, now he's with the worker 1NW of the capitol.
It's currently T28. The settler can be done in 3 turns, and BW is done in 4. Maybe delaying the settler by one turn wouldn't be so bad after all. Worst case scenario is copper to the southwest. I want to get the scout positioned on those hills to the west so I can see a potential warrior approaching.

I'm glad you like the space facts.
Here's #9: Sometimes, surges in the solar wind called Coronal Mass Ejections can temporarily tear off a comet's tail. Here's an example: https://youtu.be/pUzCaN3nlVQ

[Lazteuq]

Turn 31: Despite not having BW quite yet, I jumped in and settled city #2 to the north. This might be a mistake, but I really didn't want to leave the settler waiting. Maybe I'll get lucky and have copper at that site! Combined 2pop whip and chop I'll be able to have another settler in only 4 turns I think, so it's not too big of a deal if copper is somewhere else. Hopefully the upcoming warrior can kill his scout next turn. I'll be pretty salty if the scout wins.

So far, Gira's scout choke has caused:
-15 foodhammers lost, -2 commerce lost.
-A few wasted workerturns, but the worker wasn't very busy anyways.
-Lost exploration opportunities for my scout.
When I look at it this way, the setback isn't too bad. Certainly survivable. The big question is: What does Gira do next? Is there a horde of warriors making their way across the continent right now? Find out next time on Cool Space Facts!

Space Fact #10: Radar can be used to measure the rotation of other planets. This is especially useful on Venus, because thick clouds prevent telescopes from seeing the rotation directly. Radar can measure rotation based on the doppler effect.

[shallow_thought]

Turn 31: Despite not having BW quite yet, I jumped in and settled city #2 to the north. This might be a mistake, but I really didn't want to leave the settler waiting.

When I look at it this way, the setback isn't too bad. Certainly survivable. The big question is: What does Gira do next? Is there a horde of warriors making their way across the continent right now? Find out next time on Cool Space Facts!

Planting the city and hoping rather than already retreating into your shell seems sensible to me; you've either got a chance or not, and little to lose by gambling slighty. Those unforested plains tiles are candidates for copper IIRC. You might be in an interesting position if it's second ring - but hey, you have Myst; occasionaly monuments are useful. And I do like the way that the scout choke has revealed a silver lining to Byz's start techs: think about how badly it could have hurt if it had stopped you improving good tiles  .

I'm very, very far from being a good source of real knowledge on this, but IMO it's probably best to assume that the scout is going to be followed up - anything less is just poking you and encouraging you to hurt Gira later.

[Lazteuq]

Turn 32: Good news! Gira's scout fled the scene and offered a peace treaty. Gira and Mackoti probably assumed I was working on a warrior because I'm sure they noticed from PBspy that I had just founded a city.
I got lucky with the copper location: It is one tile north of my new city! I couldn't have asked for a better spot.

I'm in anarchy right now switching to slavery. Not sure if I want Pottery or AH next.
Since I'm Protective, I'm thinking about making an aggressive landgrab somewhere between Gira and Noble, on a hill. But I'll need Archery first. That might be City 4 or even 5.

Space Fact #11: Comets emit X-rays. This is strange, because X-rays are normally produced by very hot objects, but comets are cold lumps of ice and dust. Scientists think these X-rays are probably caused by the comet interacting with the solar wind, a process called Charge Exchange.

[Lazteuq]

ST, we were typing at the same time. Your thought about those unforested plains tiles turned out correct. Fortunately, that city won't even need a monument!

And I do like the way that the scout choke has revealed a silver lining to Byz's start techs: think about how badly it could have hurt if it had stopped you improving good tiles  .

Yeah it's pretty funny, I would have lost almost 40 hammers of chops otherwise, but now I don't even care.

Despite this peace treaty, I still agree that there is probably more trouble on the way. 
I wish I wasn't sitting on top of the scoreboard. I certainly don't feel like I should be there, and it makes the target on my back even more apparent.

[Lazteuq]

Turn 37:
I changed my mind and researched Hunting first. That might have been a mistake, now that I realize improving the ivory isn't that important. Archery sure is important though. I intend to put Protective to good use here.

If I don't manage to claim a decent chunk of land, I'll get bullied by a couple highly skilled CRE neighbors before Cataphracts show up. It's better to burn out than it is to rust...
City 4 is going to be aggressively placed. I want to claim a bunch of land in this middle area between me, Gira(Mackoti), and Noble. To make it defensible, I want to plant on a hill, with archers. The plains hill by the cow is the obvious spot, but thats only 5 tiles from Gira's capitol (6 from mine). My biggest worry is that Gira settles nearby first.

Next turn, I'll found City 3, on the forested plains hill 4S1W of the capitol. I've got a workboat ready, so it can work clams immediately. From PBspy, it looks like I'll be the second person to 3 cities, after Civac, who got it on T35! He is IMP, so I guess that's not too surprising. Actually, that makes me realize that 5/11 of the players in this game are IMP!
Constantinople is re-growing after that settler whip, then will get a Granary.
The worker is mining copper right now of course. In 5 turns, he will be done, and then I'm not sure what to do. He could camp the Ivory, but it's not that great of a tile, and I don't need the happiness quite yet. Maybe chopping for the capitol's granary is more important, not sure. Also I want to get a road to City 3 soon.

I got graphs on Gira, it doesn't look like they're doing much military buildup, so I feel more comfortable expanding.
It will be quite a while before I get libraries with scientists running. Probably will too late to bulb Mathematics, although buffed PHI does help. There's always the classic academy option.
Space Fact 12: There is a "weak spot" in the Earth's magnetic field called the South Atlantic Anomaly. This allows more radiation than normal to reach low altitudes, which causes electronics failures on satellites flying over it.

[Lazteuq]

Gira did take that hill by the cow.
I am now realizing it would have been better to stay at war instead of accepting the 10turn peace treaty! Then I could have used my scout to block the hill and force them to settle somewhere else. I shouldn't have been so cautious, now Gira's CRE borders will be a huge problem.
I'm not sure anymore where city #4 should go. Probably to the southwest, by the silk and rice. Hopefully my borders can "wrap around" this new city of Gira's, making it hard for them to defend.
Currently, Gira's settler is undefended. If defenders don't show up for about 6 turns, I might be able to capture it with warriors, or at least threaten it. Not likely though, I bet Gira has a warrior on the way already.

Space Fact 13: Tin is dangerous to use in spacecraft, because it can grow "tin whiskers". These are basically long, narrow metal crystals that can short electronics. Normally it's not much of a problem on Earth, but the lack of vibration or air currents in space means the whiskers can easily grow dangerously long. To avoid this, soldering is done with lead.

[Cornflakes]

Space Fact 13: Tin is dangerous to use in spacecraft, because it can grow "tin whiskers". These are basically long, narrow metal crystals that can short electronics. Normally it's not much of a problem on Earth, but the lack of vibration or air currents in space means the whiskers can easily grow dangerously long. To avoid this, soldering is done with lead.

I googled some tin whisker pictures Wow

[Lazteuq]

Yeah, its pretty insidious. You can't actually stop the whiskers, only reduce the damage. As far as I know, the best solution is coating everything in a thick layer of plastic. Even that's not guaranteed though, because the whiskers are disturbingly powerful and can puncture the plastic as they grow.



BUG QUESTION: Is it a bug that my warrior hammer progress in Thessalonica didn't turn into a spearman or axeman now that I have copper connected? I have 8/15 hammers on a warrior there. Or is that a CtH change?



Turn 41:

Since I accepted the peace treaty on Turn 32, I think I'll be able to declare on Gira and potentially take Turfan!: Gira hasn't played yet when the picture was taken, so that warrior WILL make it into the city in time. However, I've got a second warrior on the way. I think I'll take the gamble of a warrior 2v1. According to VODKA, the odds are about 72%.



On a similar theme...Space Fact #14: Another threat to space electronics is low-voltage arcing because of the Paschen Curve. At relatively low pressures (but not quite vacuum), it is very easy for electricity to arc. This can happen right after a spacecraft launches, when there are still trapped air pockets leaking out. The obvious solution for this is simply waiting a few hours or days before turning on any high-voltage electronics. This can cause trouble high-altitude aircraft also.

[Lazteuq]

Here's some other thoughts because I'm feeling motivated.

From lurking other games, I'm really interested in playing SPI next time. I've only done one game with SPI recently (Asoka), but it was definitely fun. I like the idea of flexibly changing my economy, especially with Serfdom improved. Also I like the idea of freely switching between OR, Pacifism, and Theocracy with a strong state religion. I don't usually manage to squeeze much value out of religions.

About PB51: The big-picture decision I regret most was playing for second place. For the last 30 turns or so, I had essentially given up on directly attacking Plemo, and I just accepted that he would probably win. I did manage to be second in score when the game ended, but that was a disappointing, hollow achievement. All I really did was manage to piss everyone off (I'm especially sorry for El Grillo, after reading his thread) by not dogpiling the leader. I now realize it would have been more fun for me and everyone else (especially Superdeath) if I had tried to go against Plemo. Even if the odds of success were very low, it would have been more fun and interesting. That's what matters most. This is a video game after all.