[SPOILERS - PBEM17] novice and spaceman - Suryavarman of India

[novice]

Chat with Darrell yesterday (edited for spoilers and off topic stuff):

22:38 me: don't you have enough gold soon?
22:39 darrelljs: are you mocking me?
me: waiting for StM's scientist to arrive?
darrelljs: I swear
he took the scenic tour I guess
22:40 me: no, what do you mean?
darrelljs: I delivered the GP five turns ago
its laugable that I've been unable to tech for so long
its more laughable that I will have enough gold to tech 6t only when the spigot is back on
you'll have astronomy by then probably
me: not on our beeline
22:41 darrelljs: I meant from liberalism
me: oh
well then

darrelljs: I assume that's what you are taking, unless its stell
steel
or assembly line
me: Why didn't StM just send the scientist through our lands?
22:42
darrelljs: rego tried to extort cash from me
I just ignored him
me: ahahahaha
darrelljs: I think that works quite well
22:43 me: so you're not planning a massive upgrade rush or something?
darrelljs: no, I am not
with what tech?
we are barely classical
me: your gpt is respectable
22:44 darrelljs: my expenses are 200+
200
stupid toroidal
I shoud probably whip courthouses everywhere
that should help
me: that's what you get for stealing more city spots than you can pay for
darrelljs: you caught me in city count too, dirty dog
stealing shoot's city
me: are you done landgrabbing now, then?
22:45 it's not like we had any choice re iron
darrelljs: there is one spot that's a filler inside my cultural borders, and I think i can cram another
I wouldn't bother but I can't let you beat me
I could have sold you an iron source
me: we're still settling five more cities
darrelljs: damn liar
or damn bastard
one of the two, take your pick
22:46 me: somehow being reliant on your iron didn't seem like the best idea
can I pick both
darrelljs: lol
for both statements
me:
22:47 so would a tri-lateral nap between us, you and StM be an option?
darrelljs: yes
if you can get shoot to agree
I think it woul dneed to include david
me: world peace, huh?
darrelljs: well...almost
22:48 I guess we can inlcue rego as well
would hate to be mean
not
before we sign anything, you aren't planning on breaking deals this game are you? That would be very rude
me: lol
22:49 just brainstorming at the moment
but seeing as we still have five cities to settle and steel to slingshot, war seems counter-productive right now
darrelljs: sure, why not pull a krill from pbem4
so you can attack with a two era tech edge
22:50 me: one of these days I must research Alphabet to see how much you're exaggerating
should be done in one turn, luckily

darrelljs: bastard!
me: you have feudalism at least
darrelljs: acutally its probabhly a 1t for rego even by this point
that's the last tech ig ot?
22:51 no I got IW as well
me: just based on your civics
darrelljs: fear vassalge!
fear it!
okay, civil service i sbetter
me: where did you send your triremes?
darrelljs: they will be back next turn
22:52 me: don't they have somewhere less threatening to be?
darrelljs: who says they moved
I teched cloaking when you weren't looking
A NAP would allow redeployment I guess
you are the one with magellan's
22:53 me: but why is StM's power still climbing rapidly?
darrelljs: maybe he's mad at someone?
me: surely you don't think we'll come knocking with longbows
22:54 darrelljs: I would hope not
me: due to the iron? we haven't heard a peep
is he angry?
darrelljs: I must preface this with the statement that he has told me nothing
Are infrquent chats are all about where the fuck is my GS
But, that said, were you angry?
22:55 me: lol
with what?
darrelljs: with me, when I settled thailand
me: annoyed
darrelljs: now, angry and stupid are too different things I think
so you have to ask yourself...do you feel lucky?

22:56 me: Well on the bright side his two closest allies both have spare irons
22:57 did you send your prophet the same way that StM sent his scientist?
darrelljs: I don't have any iron yet
no I took the direct route
sailed right by you
waved high, you missed it?
high = hi
me: no, I saw a galley
22:58 so south of HostileTakeover?
I guess we had a Trireme around when StM sent his scientist, and the forced peace treaty was over
darrelljs: yeah i guess
that's what he said
22:59 me: of course we had no way of knowing there was a great scientist on that galley
well apart from the fact that you told us
23:00 (sort of)
darrelljs: lol
yes
that is true
me: you would have had your scientist a long time ago if you had traded the prophet with us instead
[degenerate into off topic discussions]

Summary:

• Darrell seems open to a trilateral NAP between us, him and StM.
  
• He claims he is done landgrabbing, just one filler city remaining. We have five filler cities remaining, he didn't believe that claim.
  
• He is saving gold because he is waiting for a great scientist from StM (for an Academy).
  

[spacemanmf]

Got it.

EDIT: And played. Not sure if I have time to post pictures. We'll see.

We discovered Banking in 1 turn anyway, helped by overflow from HBR.

[novice]

I took a look at the save. I don't know what Spaceman did, but here are some things I would have done if I played the turn:

• Research Banking in 1 turn at 50%.
  
• Start a stable in Investment, tiles unchanged
  
• Start a barracks in Pyramid Scheme, fire a scientist to grow in 1
  
• Moved the settler to 1E of Investment (no reason to let StM know we're founding Cornered Market until next turn)
  
• Chop a forest on tundra island
  
• Move our trireme in Ottoman lands east
  
• Road the FP 1NW of Flooded Market
  
• Moved the Gold Rush workers 2SE and road
  
• Moved the Galley into Flooded Market
  
• Moved crossbow and longbow out of Cash Cow, to be ferried to Cornered Market
  
• Moved two triremes to the tile 1W of StM's trireme north of HostileTakeover, to make a statement
  
• Whipped a Library in HostileTakeover
  
• Farm and work the plains 1S of Horsetrading
  
• Work scientist instead of stone in Trading Post
  
• Hire two scientist and an engineer in Flooded Market, work max food.
  

Let's see how that compares to what Spaceman did...

Next turn we revolt to Mercantilism and found our sixteenth city, to bring us even in city count with Dave. I suggest Calendar as our next tech. We have two calendar resources to hook up, and if we get lucky we can pop an engineer at 50% odds and steal the Mausoleum of Mausollos.

Demographics after ending turn:


Back in third in crop yield! And Rego's MFG soared after finishing the AP. Also, our once daunting GNP is now nothing special, thanks to the embargo. Mercantilism should be worth 16 free specialists though, or 120 beakers per turn (admittedly assuming 16 scientists that would otherwise not be worked). The perfect civic for us, what with the embargo and representation.

[spacemanmf]

Some screenshots of T87 then. The north:



Cash Cow and Investment build defence, while Gold Rush takes up missionary duty (along with Pyramid Scheme). I moved a longbow and a crossbow from Cash Cow ready to get picked up by the galley, to be shipped to the to-be-founded city, Cornered Market.

In the south, I whipped a library in Hostile Takeover as Trading Post is about to complete a workboat for Cornered Market. I use our "spare" workers to improve the road network. A trireme of Shoot's comes to scout around, so I cover our defence-laden galley with our two spare triremes.



I whipped a forge in Tipping Point and upped research to get Banking in 1 turn, ready to revolt next turn.



Our power graph looks set to overtake Shoot's, which is reassuring.



Finally, the demographics, researching Banking at 50%.

[spacemanmf]

• Research Banking in 1 turn at 50%. Yep
  
• Start a stable in Investment, tiles unchanged Nope, went for a longbow.
  
• Start a barracks in Pyramid Scheme, fire a scientist to grow in 1 Kept on missionary
  
• Moved the settler to 1E of Investment (no reason to let StM know we're founding Cornered Market until next turn) I committed... oops
  
• Chop a forest on tundra island Worker was already doing that, right?
  
• Move our trireme in Ottoman lands east Yep, nowhere else to go
  
• Road the FP 1NW of Flooded Market I went the other way, roading towards the Moai city
  
• Moved the Gold Rush workers 2SE and road Did that
  
• Moved the Galley into Flooded Market I kept it outside the city, covered by two triremes
  
• Moved crossbow and longbow out of Cash Cow, to be ferried to Cornered Market Yup
  
• Moved two triremes to the tile 1W of StM's trireme north of HostileTakeover, to make a statement See above
  
• Whipped a Library in HostileTakeover Yup
  
• Farm and work the plains 1S of Horsetrading Farmed but I didn't check tiles
  
• Work scientist instead of stone in Trading Post Nope
  
• Hire two scientist and an engineer in Flooded Market, work max food. I left it as was.
  

[spacemanmf]

I'm playing the turn. Will revolt to Mercantilism. It will give you chance to override the tile selections before they actually get used... =)

[spacemanmf]

"Top":



"Middle":



"Bottom":



Our trireme is sadly stuck, although it does catch a glimpse of a horse archer.



I revolt to Mercantilism at the end of the turn, boosting our research by 40 beakers/turn. It might have been more but for scientist slots already used up.



Turn sent on.

[novice]

Idly studying the map, gotta do something on an anarchy turn.

Our islands plus our home continent, including the jungle arm that Darrell poached, counts 167 tiles. Multiply by 5 to get 835, which is slightly more than the total land tile count of 817. So if we had gotten our jungle arm we would have had our fair share of the world's lands. As it is, we have HostileTakeover on Shoot's arm to compensate.

This screenshot shows how small the world really is:



Yes, those are our cities to the west and east. Shoot the Moon definitely got the least out of the land grab. In fact, the rarely studied Land area demographic tells the whole story.



We're second with 149 land tiles currently in our culture. The leader (my guess is Dave) has 158 tiles, Shoot has 126 tiles, and Darrell and Rego have an average of 146.5 tiles (so both of them are close to that number, since we're second with 149).

[spacemanmf]

Nice analysis. Now we have Mercantilism, there is no issue with people signing Open Borders, right? If, for example, we wanted to rescue a trireme from Shoot's land...

[spacemanmf]

Got it. And played it mostly. Haven't sent it on just yet.

A Great Scientist is born somewhere.



With Mercantilism, it was time to review each city carefully. First up, here is an overview. Top:



Middle:



Bottom: