[PB69] Naufragar turns over a new leaf. Randomly.

[Charriu]

Woah doesn't this land look bleak....

Be happy that it is land. 

[naufragar]

Woah doesn't this land look bleak....

Be happy that it is land. 

Yeah.... I was spoiled by Fin/Org last game. I could ignore terrain to just work coast. Now I have to think. 

As wills points out, we're steadily uncovering food resources, so we aren't quite doomed to settle plains hovels:


Tundra deer is fine. Furs are nice, but between you and me, I plan to have Hereditary Rule long before I need to settle for them. That grassland tile going off to the western fog is intriguing. Perhaps we've found our land bridge?



Hmm. Wonder what we'll find.

I know Dave isn't a big fan of the flying camera, but I think the barrier to entry is low enough and the skill ceiling high enough that it's a legitimate game mechanic to use. My two cents.

[naufragar]

I know Dave isn't a big fan of the flying camera, but I think the barrier to entry is low enough and the skill ceiling high enough that it's a legitimate game mechanic to use. My two cents.

Especially when it can be so hilariously misread:


No land bridge, but there is land a short galley's ride away. Island? New continent? Same old continent snaking down? Who knows?

We're actually going max hammers into the work boat, then worker->warrior->*something* to size 3->settler.

Turns out the "something" is Stonehenge.


You can tell from my provisional dotmap that I'm counting on winning this. We're fast, but not faster than someone dedicating themselves to racing. We throw some hammers into it, swap to a settler, then get back to the wonder when our settler is born. We'll see.

[naufragar]

This turn pace is so damn good. I got to play 2 turns in 8 hours.

Interesting development:



Bing is the closest anyone in this game gets to "food" tier. But Civac, who's one smooth operator, is ded-lurking intently and logging in himself. Bing's got Victoria of Carthage, which was Superdeath's combo in PB64. I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's the hands down best combo for this game set up.

Ginger has some interesting choices in his future. The distance between him and me is longer (~15 tiles) but the land in between is worse, whereas the distance between him and Bing is shorter, filled with greener land, but awkward due to the coast and jungle. Wonder how this'll shape up.

[Mjmd]

Ginger has some interesting choices in his future. The distance between him and me is longer (~15 tiles) but the land in between is worse, whereas the distance between him and Bing is shorter, filled with greener land, but awkward due to the coast and jungle. Wonder how this'll shape up.

[naufragar]

Forgot to take a pic, but moved up to Bing's borders. He's also got a coastal start. Both he and Ginger have stone 3 or 4 tiles away from their borders. I wonder if I'll get to neighbor the Pyramids builder!  Fun!

Also, there's a hut on Bing's borders that it looks like I'll be able to snag. Here's hoping.

The only picture I have is this one:


The foreign situation is odd. Ginger has met someone but it isn't Bing, his very close neighbor. Superdeath has met Bing, but has spent the majority of his EP on another player (I think). I must've missed someone to Ginger's North (or less likely South).

[naufragar]

Bronze Working came in. I'm happy with our copper location:




We'll get it in our 3rd ring borders. (Faster if we land Stonehenge. )

A couple turns until our first settler is born. Even if we don't land 'henge, the cap's borders will let our second city work the sheep and the copper pretty quickly. Should be a quick city to get up and running.

You can see our worker mining a plains hill. Partly this is for efficiency: after that mine, the worker can start pasturing the sheep the moment city #2 is founded. But we're actually going to be putting in quite a few plains hill mine turns with this start. This is weird because plains mines are generally bad tiles and we'll want to pave over these mines with windmills eventually. But in the meanwhile, we want to avoid whipping the capital and this is the best way to do it.

[naufragar]

Yuck. Neighboring Commodore. It's rough being next to all these aggressive players. 



Ginger is putting himself on my List of Players I'm Piqued At. I still don't know who else he's met, but I do know he's putting all his EP into me rather than splitting them. So I've had to keep my EP spending on him in return. This makes meeting Commodore a little frightening. Won't be able to get his graphs. -1 diplo points for Ginger. 

[naufragar]

Commodore met me last turn, and Gingerlito continue their relentless douchebaggery with EP spending.  Comm for his part didn't start spending espionage on me.

Here's the meeting:


(That warrior is going to guard Comm's settler. Good money says he settles 1S of the horses. Would he chariot-rush poor naufragar? No, he read PB54.)

And because I have an excellent monitor, here's the horizontal world wrap:


Looks like, a la PB64, we've got one long continent girding the world.

Here are the players I've met and whom they've met. Still unaccounted for are Gavagai, Magic Science, and Pindicator.


Ginger still hasn't met Bing/civac who's his closest neighbor. Still, not very neighborly to spy on me so obtrusively.

While I'm in a reporting mood, here's some more stuff:
Superdeath on the other end of a narrow neck down which he must presumably expand directly into Bing:



A pic from last turn showing Bing's vanguard warrior making his second city spot safe (and what an amazing second city spot!)



And lastly, is Civ4 the most robust computer game every programmed?


The Top Cities screen supports a scroll bar!  Soren Johnson is a genius.  I gotta spend more time with Old World.

P.S. Because I can't find anywhere to fit this organically: last turn (I think) somebody researched Sailing. That's super early. Maybe I'll do C&D to figure out who got it. Somebody must've read Amica's thread from PB64. We'll see what happens.

[naufragar]

(That warrior is going to guard Comm's settler. Good money says he settles 1S of the horses. Would he chariot-rush poor naufragar? No, he read PB54.)

Well, I've read PB54 too, and if memory serves, poor, benighted naufragar went for an early Stonehenge with his heart set on peace only to be swarmed with marauding chariots from a neighbor with easy access to horses. I'm getting deja vu, so I logged back in to move my EP spending off of Ginger to Commodore so I can track when he gets Animal Husbandry. I'm sure I won't like the answer. Damn me.

Meanwhile, Ginger will get early tech visibility on me. EP spending is a minor thing to get him added to my shit list, but since nobody else is there, he gets pride of place.