[PB74] Amicalola and Wills are Gluttons for Punishment

[Amicalola]

lol, indeed, thats some nice barb, maybe you can ally with his tribe

The barbs refused my diplo offer... so we ally them by force.


In other news, I finished my degree! So more reports to come soon. Maybe.

Can I kindly ask anyone who hasn't posted in the last few turns to grace us poor lurkers with a T75 overview pretty please.

No it's too embarrassing.

[Mjmd]

I mean 7 cities tied with Commodore and Pin looks like you can report and not be too embarrassed. You can always just not point out the embarrassing stuff and assume lurkers won't notice. It works most of the time.

[Qgqqqqq]

Congratulations on your degree!

[klops]

+1
gratz for personal archievements!

[Amicalola]

Amicalola and Wills Pop City Borders BEFORE Turn 90 Challenge (Difficulty: IMPOSSIBLE!!!) (they fail)
Our civ has grown dramatically over the past 25 turns.


We have prioritised expanding to the north and west. Partly because it's exciting that a neighbour died and we need to take advantage, partly because it's exciting that the killer seems to be dying in turn, and partly because the south has so much jungle it makes Papua New Guinea look like a temperate grassland. The next thing I will report is an overview of all our cities - I, um, sort of fell behind there.

Here are our demos:


They are absolutely fucking appalling, barring the food stat (and the power, I guess, but that's a very recent development). I suppose this is where I need to talk about the elephant in the room - our start sucks. Not just objectively, although that's also true, but compared to what (some) other players must have, based on the demographics. We have very few rivers, couldn't mine any hills before BW, had two 4-food seafoods and only one other improvable tile (making work boat first borderline unplayable, and worker first somehow even worse (unless we are China, I suppose)). Because of that, I have had to over-emphasise my already distinct playstyle to farcical extremes. By which I mean we have kept up with the relevant powers in Food, by virtue of sacrificing literally everything else. Thanks to that, we are semi-relevant, depending on which stats you cherry pick.

However, in contrast to the starting position, we were ludicrously lucky in neighbours - in the early game, at least. If Tarkeel doesn't kill Dreylin, then get whacked himself, I imagine we are pretty screwed here (unless Dreylin's capital also sucks, which is possible). Instead, we have claimed land that we almost certainly shouldn't have - Comben is pretty laughable - and were allowed to run a pretty disgusting farmer's gambit (until about T70, we were in the bottom three for power very consistently). This has allowed me to keep up in food and city count, even as my commerce collapses and my cities produce exclusively through human sacrifice. Tarkeel may get mad about the barb city that we captured, but has thus far indicated a desire to work together against our terrifying southern neighbours.

Speaking of which, the flipside to the above is that long-term, we seem to have truly found ourselves in the neighbourhood of death. By which I mean - one of our neighbours has already died to a rush, and the aggressor then lost two cities in turn. That's already pretty scary. Then, to the south, Pindicator and Commodore have consistently been above me in Food all game... and I've been consistently in the Top 5/17.  Not to mention the other demos. So despite initial luck creating an apparent path to relevance, I suspect we will still get swept up by one (or both) of them later on. But we shall see, and we shall try to be a highly indigestable snack.


Graphs in spoilers, for anyone who wants.

The objectively excellent thing about our neighbourhood is that everyone has renamed their civ.

RB didn't let me use emojis in my obnoxious title and I am upset.

[Qgqqqqq]

Thanks for the update!

[Amicalola]

Oh also, thanks for the kind words!! We are moving to a new city and starting a new job in a month, so it's really all happening.

[Dreylin]

I do appreciate that you chose to name the ex-barb city as "Goad", even if it seems that you & Tarkeel will be friends for now.

[El Grillo]

They are absolutely fucking appalling, barring the food stat (and the power, I guess, but that's a very recent development). I suppose this is where I need to talk about the elephant in the room - our start sucks. Not just objectively, although that's also true, but compared to what (some) other players must have, based on the demographics.

Does the North Melbourne AFL draft look promising, at least?

[Amicalola]

Eddie Ford
Our third city was a fairly solid-but-unremarkable one settled immediately to the south of our capital.


We settled here because it was fast, easy to set up, and unlocked ivory (allowing us to 3-whip settlers in the capital, or grow to 4 without a garrison in other cities). The city is likely to be a military pump that also helps grow (dry, sad) cottages for the surrounding cities. 

I do appreciate that you chose to name the ex-barb city as "Goad", even if it seems that you & Tarkeel will be friends for now.

It was named after one of our new draftees, but then I got worried it would be seen as communication and changed it. Goad will have to wait for our inevitable conquering of a neighbour to be placed back in the city list.

Does the North Melbourne AFL draft look promising, at least?

It looks excellent. I might have to do a whole writeup in the next week, we drafted pretty much exactly what I (and the wider community) wanted, across five first-round picks (the standard number of picks here is one, and five is approaching a new record).



Eddie Ford is my favourite player for NMFC, a pretty remarkable feat considering that he's played in a grand total of one win, and has the potential to be squeezed out next year. Notable for his excellent marking (catching) ability, Ford plays a 'high half-forward' role, expected to move up the ground and transition the ball from defence to attack, as well as kick goals himself. He was a fairly late draft pick, going at pick 48 (considered to be fringe players, or unlikely gambles) in 2020, and spent most of his first two years plugging away in the 'twos,' North Melbourne's state-level team, barring a few random games. This also applied to the first third of 2023, as Ford was unlucky to miss North Melbourne's upset wins in the first two games, and unluckier still to be present for most of the 20-game losing streak that came afterwards. He worked his way into the team by about Round 10, and by Round 24 this year, Ford had played in 21 games... and they'd all been losses - this was close to approaching an all-time record for the AFL.

Perhaps it was fitting then that Ford was a key part in delivering North Melbourne's other upset victory in the final round of the year, kicking three goals and assisting many more, in a performance that was so strong that it earned him the Round 24 'Rising Star' nomination (to be nominated, players must under 21, have played less than 10 games at the start of the year, and deemed to have the best performance of all eligible players across the league). Here is a 2-min highlights reel of his performance, for anyone interested. Ford is also notable for being a bit of a dick, in all the best ways. Here he is playing against the 28-year-old Hawthorn captain earlier this year, one of the best players in the league by all accounts and a known thug, counting their disposals on his fingers - "you're having a pretty quiet game, huh?" It must take a lot of balls to do that with a 0-16 record.

But really, I think the reason I like Eddie Ford so much is that his 2023 reflects my own. I started following AFL properly between about Rounds 4-6, for the first time in years, which meant I also missed the first two upset wins, and was treated to a near-20 game losing streak. The shock I felt when North Melbourne came back from nearly 30 points down in that final game, which he was a massive part of, was surprisingly intense. His must have been two - in the last two minutes he is openly crying, and it's hard to imagine how much the win must have meant. Eddie Ford has become a mainstay of the 2023 side, and we are a lot better off for it.

Unfortunately, North Melbourne have drafted impeccably this year, including a young 18-year-old who plays the exact same position as Ford, and is touted as a future star of the game. With this, North Melbourne has ~5 high half-forwards competing for two spots, so it will be very interesting to see who gets consistent games, and who doesn't. Ford to me is right on the fringe; an AFL team has 22 spots each week, and he is probably somewhere between our 15th and 25th best player. I really hope he makes it, though.