[Spoilers] Grotsnot massively inflates his own View count

[Grotsnot]

 HALLELUJAH!!

~AI is dumb, AI is dumb, I'm the luckiest bastard around~

The Very Nearly Dead Slinger With a Temporary Reprieve withdraws into the city and promotes to Volley. We'll be swinging at 22 STR vs the barbs that linger around the city Not enough to instantly kill the slinger - if I understand correctly you need +25 STR to do 100 damage on a high roll and +38 to guarantee it from a low roll - but I'm feeling confident enough to keep on with the Builder -> Chop Slinger into Settler plan and have the Warrior continue western exploration. The barbs could still pillage the pasture if they play their cards right, but it would only delay the Settler by a turn. Which would be unfortunate but probably better than I should have expected to get away with with such a shoestring military

Speaking of Settlers, here's some screenshots with my increasingly-indecisive musings on city sites. Main decision point right now is whether to settle Saunders on the northern or southern site. But that influences and is influenced by where I plant Kuro, Pravda, and Anzio. Spotted some interesting clay across the bay from the original Prava site, so moving west is an option. Drawback is that it might start to stretch what I can reasonably claim in time - haven't met whoever is my western neighbor yet. I'm not sure if it'd be nice or a disaster for MP to have the "Would you care to sample our hospitality?" option?

With and without pins



And in strategic mode for those who prefer

I think the southern Saunders site is stronger for the city itself: has a 1st-ring wheat and being on a plains hill gives a 2 City Center. But as Hojo, how it fits into the broader puzzle needs to be taken into account. So have to explore a bit more along the western river to be sure. Unfortunately the western horses are disrupting the district carpet - perhaps preventing a triad - but it should be manageable. Can at least split into pairs.

Other decisions I'm mulling over but have a longer time horizon on:
1) Whether to have Ooarai get its Campus before the currently-planned Encampment. Campuses are super handy, especially if I land Jesuit. But the timeslot for the Encampment is before I know for sure what Religion I'm getting. The city is not going to have the population to get the 3rd district until turn 80ish, so depends on whether I'd rather have added protection from Rome (and Great General points) or somewhere in the neighborhood of 120   To an extent it's a Play To Win vs Play To Not Lose decision, but as my first game I'm not so sure the 2nd option is invalid Due to the mountains a city wall might be enough to disrupt a Roman attack from the frozen wastes itself? Obviously not indefinitely but perhaps keep from getting rolled by a gang of Legions. I know building a Swordsman increases the city's defensive strength but I forget if I need an Archer/Crossbow to bump up the ranged attack strength. Might need the 2nd attack if the latter.
2) Whether to have St Gloriana (City 3, due ~T42) use its starting Encampment build to chop out a Barracks. This would be largely to get a citizen slot since the city has mostly grassland around. The inherent + doesn't hurt either. The alternative would be to use the builder charge to build a Pasture on their Horses. We'll get this pasture eventually but it'd be in the neighborhood of an additional 20 turns away. Or could chop the Encampment into faster Walls.

I keep meaning to recap the scores from the past few turns but thus far I haven't gotten around to a proper analysis yet. For now, we've moved up to 4th place!

[Grotsnot]

Turn 22:

Trying out screenshot tags this time!



Well, gonna lose the pasture after all. Ah well. I still have my Slinger which is more than I expected a couple days ago.

Might be sealing the pasture's fate but I finish off the Warrior before it runs away or wanders over toward my farm. Getting to the point where Yerevan kill-stealing would be inconvenient since I need to get my BW boost.



Out west, Warrior finds EVEN MORE WHEAT



Settler is planned for turn 26, but probably turn 27 if the barbs do their thing. So I have ~5 turns to move down the river and see if the "?" pin is worth reshuffling my cities. Should have time to swing over the top of the mountain if the barbs do raze the pasture () but in magical happy dreamland we have to head straight south



Scorey scores. I swear I'll put together something soon...

[Grotsnot]

Hey folks! Been organizing my mess of screenshots and pulling together C&D stats. So fairly limited report for Turns 23-25.

Turn 23:
Pasture pillaged. Sad day, but only delays Saunders by a turn. We knock a big chunk out of the barb Slinger in response. With the settler delay, the warrior swings north over the mountain on his exploration.






Scores:





Turn 24:
Greece built a settler! At least I'm not horrifically far behind. They do have 2 civics already so may or may not have pulled out a chop for it. Their culture rate has been neck and neck with ours so must have pulled off some Gorgo magic to beat us by 5 whole turns.

Anyway, we finish off the slinger and get the Archery bonus. Builder stalls on the forest a turn waiting for Agoge. Warrior got punched by a barb and starts trying to shake loose.









Turn 25:
Oh for pete's sake, Rome settled already. And in my direction! I'm 5 turns behind and only 10 tiles away from the scary neighbor, though at least with them I know why they have culture out the wazoo. And I've been suspecting they have a Mil CS in their back pocket so getting bonus too. Good thing I'm having fun spreadsheeting out wayy too far in advance 'cause I've got a bad feeling about this border.

As for us, we swap over to Agoge and chop out the slinger with Settler due out in 2 turns. And HOT DAMN, warrior finds a 2nd continent! It burns our cultural overflow but luckily there was only about 1/3 of a lost. The new Slinger starts wandering south to go meet that Commercial CS while the injured one heals up.






















In maybe-the-Romans-won't-attack ambitious news, been plotting out if and how I could go for Colosseum. As I've discussed earlier this thing is crazy good. The earliest I can get it is around Turn 90, possibly a couple before if the winds all blow my way. Not sure if that's good enough.




I'm still hemming and hawing over which Saunders site. Probably the southern one. Also thinking stick with Encampment second at Ooarai since the discounts work out a lot nicer that way. Otherwise I'd have to pay full price for the Campus at St Gloriana. And because Rome seems headed my way...

[TheArchduke]

I like your reports a lot, keep them up. Sorry I can not comment more.

[Grotsnot]

Thanks, glad you like it! Maybe save up the comments for when my civ is a smoldering ruin the end of the game? There's already a few things I think I could have executed better, including a very close shave with my Slinger, so I'll be keen on second opinions on what to improve

[Grotsnot]

Gotta quit putting off turn reports, just makes it more work to do later

So! Turns 26-28:

26 was pretty quiet. Warrior continues fleeing exploring Anzio options, Slingers fan out north and south, and Settler is done next turn






Scores - something might have happened, I dunno, I've dug myself quite the backlog >_> Forgot to mention in the last post that Russia got their 2nd city already too, on turn 25. Probably gonna have to race some Lavras.





27 sees our Settler finish, and some mildly disheartening international news: Greece settled in my direction too! They aren't as close as Rome but does preclude claiming that southern river fork. I'd thought Greece was way to the south and hoping I could fort up against the west along the river, but no such luck. I shouldn't have expected to expand that far, though, as my predicted-influence range didn't quite cover it.










Previous guess...


Updated




Turn 28 also mostly quiet. Rome is getting 3 /turn now so I'm guessing they picked up Stone Circles. I have the warrior fort up across the river. Taking a small risk here since mine could die if the barb warrior rolls max damage. Probably foolish. But if I win I can kill the barb for BW boost and a promotion. We'll how well my luck holds up, we're falling behind so gotta take some risks here and there :/ Speaking of, I get a bit cocky with my Settler escort duty and head down toward the CS. Wanna get me a quest so I can get more money. I'm confident there isn't a barb just around the corner so the risk is of a camp spawning right on top of the poor Settler. Which would serve me right, I guess.















So I've got Legions and Hoplites settling towards me I'm starting to worry my Builders+Settlers -> Encampments push is woefully lacking in units. My current plan has slated:
Ooarai: Builder(T32) -> Holy Site(T34) -> Settler(T40) -> Trader (T45) -> Builder (interrupt) -> Encampment (T50) -> Builder (T53) -> Settler (T62)
Saunders: Holy Site(T32) -> Builder(T43) -> Warrior(T46) -> Monument(T51) -> Settler (T60)
St Gloriana: Encampment(T47) -> Barracks(T52) -> Ancient Walls(T60)

Which... yeah... not a lot of military. Definitely could use some revision. I'm already falling behind on the first Settlers though so I'm hesitant to delay the next waves. I suppose I ought to cut a Builder though that means fewer chops and less productive cities. Bleargh. I'm not even sure T60 is fast enough to get the walls up vs Rome. Gotta do some more PBEM reading. May want to swap those and the Barracks but then the 'rax will take forever without the chop. Or just not get a Barracks. If I'm lucky (I keep saying that) St Gloriana will have an iron it can work to be a bit less production starved.

Hopefully Greece will want to stay friends but I really can't count on that. Diplo screens seem to indicate I'm the only one they've met and Rome has met two others besides me.

[Grotsnot]

Well, I am officially the last one to City 2. By 2 turns





Amsterdam met us on the interturn and they have a dumb quest. Want a trade route. Bleh. The gold would be nice but I've been planning on to use my limited trade routes domestically to squeeze out some more pop and . We'll see I guess. Still disappointing, was really hoping for a "boost X" quest since the early ones are all pretty easy.



In other news, I don't think Greece is planning on staying friendly...


Interesting choice to divert to Military Tradition, but I suppose as Greece it makes sense to unlock a wildcard policy.

And the barb warrior ran off instead of suiciding into me. Units do a little bit of exploration. Note the Gypsum over by CATS, so looking less and less likely my extras will be worth anything.



So yeah, not a lucky turn. Hopefully gets better but not looking good right now. Maybe I shoulda gone with the bloody Aztecs...

[Grotsnot]

All right, let's take a quick look at what I have my builders slated to do and see if we can cut some chaff to make room for a military.

Builder 1, cost 50, done Turn 9: Farm, Quarry, Pasture in Ooarai. All completed, of course.
Builder 2 (54, T22): Chop +50% Ooarai Slinger -> Settler (done), Chop +100% Saunders Holy Site, Saunders Farm Wheat
Builder 3 (58, T32): Chop +100% Ooarai Holy Site -> Settler, Ooarai Farm Wheat, Chop +100% St Gloriana Encampment -> Barracks/Walls
Builder 4 (62, T43@Saunders): Pasture, Quarry, St Gloriana Whales
Builder 5 (66, T52@Ooarai): Pasture St Gloriana Horse+Cow, Iron Mine wherever it pops up

I don't think I'm doing anything truly superfluous. The tiles all get worked (including the Barracks) and I need all the I can get. I'm more inclined to cut those than the Farms though, since getting my pop up to speed is even more important.

The way the geography is shaking out I can probably drop the 2nd quarry. Went with GotH over Stone Circles and everyone and their dog already has Gypsum available.

I'll want one of the horses, probably, but perhaps don't need both. Don't even strictly need the one but having military resources might help with not projecting "come eat my cities"?

I suppose I could cut the 2nd farm at Ooarai? Would delay the Campus a bit but that assumes I survive long enough to build one. The Cow Pasture at StG? Could maybe save the Chop there for something later too. Skip the barracks and go straight into the Walls. Would take a while to put them up the long way. If I send a trader to Amsterdam instead of StG-Ooarai, it wouldn't be done until Turn 61. Also would result in another delayed Campus With the Trade Route but no chop or Barracks then the Walls would be done ~T58 and Campus could start right away.

So that would narrow it down to Chop HS, Chop Settler, Farm Wheat, Pasture Horse, Iron Mine, and the Whales. One too many to drop a 2nd Builder. Hmmm... I suppose could delay the Whales a bit. I want to keep my cities earning that Happy bonus and Saunders and Ooarai will need a 2nd amenity once they hit size 3. Alternatively could delay Saunders' farm. The lack of food would more or less forfeit my chance at the Colosseum, but again that assumes I survive long enough to try. Ho hum.

Maybe just drop the one builder then. Cut the 2nd quarry, cut the cow, cut the Barracks. With the 1.5 from Agoge that's almost 2 Warriors, though offset by some lost production from improvements. It's a start.

[Grotsnot]

(sauce)



I don't know what to do, folks. Got fucking Rome and Gorgo right on top of me. Unless I'm way off on Rome's, both have their capitals within approximately 15 tiles from mine. Can fit me and the two biggest warmonger Civs in this game on one lousy screenshot    I thought I could handle Rome with enough prep time but I don't see how I survive "Great General Rush" Gorgo on top of that.

We founded Saunders this turn. Finally. As if my neighbor draw wasn't bad enough I had to go and sabotage myself with Builder first and waiting for Agoge for a Settler. Criminey. Buying a pair of Forest tiles for chopping probably was a bad idea too.

Half a mind to switch the naming scheme over to Gauntlet food items, 'cause that's pretty much what we are. Get to choose between getting rapidly devoured as an (ineffective) farmer or letting my economy fall farther and farther into irrelevance. And then getting eaten anyway, only marginally more slowly.

The one small hope is that the rough terrain will have Rome turning elsewhere. But with Greece's crazy tech lead I doubt it'll make enough difference. Can maybe shift Kuromorimine up to City 3 and try and get some walls up there or something.

Not a cheering Turn 30 assessment but them's the breaks. Shoulda known Pangaea would be some sort of insane Thunderdome and picked the stupid Aztecs.

[Banzailizard]

Hey I have been buried under school work but I have been reading your thread on the bus on the way to my university. I have not commented too much though because I think you are ding fine. Its rough luck to be stuck next to Rome and Greece (though Rome is the bigger threat I would say).

Do you think you will have enough growth for the pop to get all the districts you want down?