Nothing like the Prodigal Sons: The Odd Couple actually play as themselves.

[Gaspar]

t19 & t20 - Lions on Parade

I apologize in advance for the brevity and lack of concision in this turn report. Expect less rather than more for the next 3 weeks from me. So it goes.

Basically the stories of the last two turns have been lion dodging and debating the finer points of the micro. Here's where we are at end of turn 20:



Got beef over there - lot of AH food all around. Not going to be the map for Cereal Mills (is there a map for Cereal Mills?) Yes I know corps are banned because noobs don't understand how they work and everyone just listens to Krill, whom I disagree with vehemently about corps.

You can also see in that shot that the worker has started camping the ivory. If we're going for the t37 or the t38 city has to be decided when that camp is finished. At the moment, the instinct is the increased commerce from the t38 settle is probably worth the increased food of the t37 settle. But we have 4t to make that decision. Initial decision with scout is pointless, since how the lions move will determine that, but essentially its a matter of the PHF 1SE and the PF that the southern lion is on currently.

Here's the current demographics as well as the current power graph so we don't forget to keep keeping an eye on Gavagai:

[Gaspar]

t21 - Want

So the lions encroached and we decided to head to the PHF for safety sake, probably spending next turn healing before doubling back. Dear Serdoa in heaven, look at what we found:





The challenge of course, is how to proceed. Noble mooted possibly moving to settle the first city east of Pigs so we can get over to that Gold sooner - luxuries are king and getting there sooner is important. We know Gavagai has seen this area and probably is aiming to settle it. Instinctively it feels wrong to change horses mid-stream to that extent, especially because the area between our capitals is so important defensively. But wow. So the challenge, team, is to take a look at this and tell me:



(click to enlarge)

1. Where you'd settle?
2. In what order?

Noble and I have a tentative plan, but I'd like to hear some other answers without ours coming first. I'll lay out our super tentative dotmap in the next day or two.

Gavagai had another power growth this turn, probably a warrior build. Nothing else noteworthy. Here's the details:

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Updated sandbox.

First glance impression is that we should still set a border vs. Gavagai. I really can't spell his name, so can we just refer to him as Warren G from now on? Anyway, I like the hill plant up there and the "want" city is terribly far away and could very easily be close to our eastern neighbor. "Want" is eight tiles away. For reference, Hydrogen, Warren G's capital, is 12 tiles north of our geographically inferior [we need someone to help us keep track of mapmaking complaint statistics] capital. So, based on all I know about this balanced map, if capital distances are similar, this could very easily be closer to an eastern neighbor. But...



...tile bleed and tile yields on the water may make this our "safe backfill" area. We can certainly cut off Mr. G, and it is worth noting that SE of the fish appears to be water as well, and perhaps the tile south of that too. So, we may not have immediate competition for this area. Last thought about this city before I try to do a run through the sandbox, there is no first ring food, so this city is going to be slow getting started. Maybe it can help us get to Math by working first ring gold and putting some hammers into a library, and then we chop both forests into a library (I'm really going out of my way to avoid building a monument here because I don't want to have to research Mysticism and a library here would get an academy GS with all of that food after borders pop). We would only need 6t working the mined gold, so realistically around 10t to finish the library, assuming we have two workers to send over here, which we should do if we're having to leapfrog/drag a road over anyway. Then we grow to size 2, whip a granary, build WB, and we're off and running. This thing can pump settlers for us with all of that extra food once we get it going. But that's way ahead for now. I'll see what I can come up with playing in the dirt for a while.

[NobleHelium]

I'm pretty sure we're going to research Mysticism before that city gets founded, so I wouldn't worry about that.

You bring up a good point though. We could theoretically settle eastward from the northern hill city to block off Gavagai that way. Hmmmm.

[Gaspar]

t22 - All you skirts know what's up with 213

Yeah, this one's pretty dull. The lion moved north allowing us to to move W-SW and unfog some of the area closer to home. Barring something coming out of the fog, we'll go SW-S next turn.



RE: Boldly's comments, I don't think we have an Eastern neighbor. I think we have 2 western neighbors we haven't met yet, positioned roughly around the "lake" in the middle as Warren G and we are.

(BTW, fully on board with this nickname)



REGULATORS, MOUNT UP!

[NobleHelium]

And here I thought Warren G referred to Harding...

[Gaspar]

t23 - Sad Banana

Again, not much to say this turn, so you get 1 screenshot, 1 demographics shot and a chat. Enjoy.

Gaspar: lion is now 1n of the scout
going to move SW
NobleHelium: ok
Gaspar: well
not quite gems - banana
no additional threats, going to move S
NobleHelium: k
Gaspar: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1832.../scout.jpg
probably you should just bookmark that and then load it when its ready
NobleHelium: i would except i don't use bookmarks
i'm not sure there are any developers that use bookmarks
only the laymen use them
Gaspar: i almost never use bookmarks either honestly
laymen lol
NobleHelium: YEAH LAYMEN LIKE YOU BUDDY!
Gaspar: ha
NobleHelium: you could have been one of us but nooo you had to take finance
Gaspar: it was indeed the plan
probably 2S next turn, just to make sure we don't orphan any seafood
nothing else interesting
camp done, working it, wheat and a FP
pottery done @eot
another power jump from gavagai
still lower than ours however
NobleHelium: ok
i think s-sw next turn
Gaspar: yeah, i suppose thats better
was debating it-ish
NobleHelium: well
s-sw uncovers an additional tile that we could uncover from the tile NE of the rice
Gaspar: yeah, but there isn't going to be a unit there anytime soon
and borders dont pop for 28t
UNLESS WE BUILD A MONUMENT
NobleHelium: true, but we won't orphan any seafood on that tile by planting 1E of the pig
Gaspar: fair
NobleHelium: so i think we're fine to go 2S and then explore that later, since we're going to have to anyway prior to planting next to the rice
Gaspar: yeah, whatevers down there, its not going to be a priority settle
NobleHelium: on the other hand
we actually lose nothing by going s-sw
because the moves going back east
will end up on the meridian with the grass hill either way
s-sw, e-ne, then 2e in some fashion
vs 2s, ne-e, then 1e in some fashion
so yeah let's go s-sw
OVERANALYSIS OF MINOR SCOUTING DETAIL FOR THE WIN
Gaspar: otherwise known as, everyday
you - find perfect scouting path
seven - find perfect deep tech beeline
clearly we need to recalibrate your programming
NobleHelium: no more like
us - find perfect scouting path
in 5t - seven lands circumnav and we drop deeper into depression
Gaspar: lol
yeah, pretty much
<pours one out for losing circumnav>

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

I'm pretty sure T23 is the turn to work the grass forest to get the warrior out a turn sooner. This helps get the settler out a turn sooner IIRC, and doesn't delay growth to size four. I don't know if you decided on the T36 or T37 settler though, so it may not matter.

[NobleHelium]

We're doing the slower settler because we need the road anyway.

[Gaspar]

t24 - Pottery, just in time.

Pottery came in on the IT, allowing us to start cottaging the floodplain. Warrior will finish at EOT, and we'll do another warrior next. In the grand scheme of things, pretty dull.




Exploration revealed another clam/whale combo in the south. Next turn won't reveal much of anything as we go a bit further east. I would love to make it west and meet another neighbor, but that's not on the agenda anytime soon. A lot will depend on the location of horses - if we can get them without too heavily disrupting the settling plan, we'll try and squeeze a chariot or two out for scouting purposes. If not, so it goes.



Carry on.