Gandhi of France II - Assuming Direct Control

[oledavy]

[SIZE="7"]Turn 31[/SIZE]

Alrighty, things have been rather quiet the last ten turns. The big news has been in the far east:



As you can see from the signs, we have three warriors of three nationalities galavanting around north of the Byzantine Border. My plan is to move southwest next turn, then head northwest towards the future city of Palaven. Now, Mistabod could declare war on me and take a potshot at my warrior. However, I doubt they'll do that. I've been moving parallel to their borders for two turns now, and could have laid a choke on them by now if I really wanted. Hopefully, they read this as the sign of my peaceful intent I intend it as.

Mistabod founded Hinduism in their second city, Pace, which is the city whose borders I found. It'll pop third ring borders in five more turns. I'm hoping I can get eyes on the city center before it does. Their capital is named First Touch, and I have no idea what their theme is, soccer terms maybe?



Back home, I've started work on the Stone Highway, and Thessia has switched over to worker pump mode. I currently have six warriors running around. Kaiden Alenko is serving as a sentry between us and Commodore, while Commander Shepard is exploring close to Mistabod. Ashley Williams and Garrus Vakarian are screening towards the future city of Palaven, Tali Zorah is trailing behind screening the road construction parties, and Liara T'Soni is playing zone defense between The Citadel and Thessia. Next warrior will be named Urdnot Wrex, then it's on to ME2 Party members

It feels really wrong to have this many warriors around this early, but I really have little else to build while growing my cities. However, I do really need the units to stand sentry and screen the approaches to Palaven. Once the city is founded, I'll have four warriors in it or standing guard around it. It should be enough to keep it safe until my spear reaches the city - unless someone comes at me with more than couple chariots. For right now, though, I have the most powerful military in the world, for whatever than counts for. Having six units outside my borders this last turn pushed my supply costs up to -1 gpt. Irritating, but necessary.

I got graphs on Commodore last turn, and it's gratifying to see the gap in our soldier counts:



He actually hasn't spend any EPs on me yet, indicating he's already met NobleGaspar and is trying to get graphs on them. Next priority is getting graphs on Mistabod.



I finished Masonry and started on Polytheism, currently headed for Monotheism and Judaism. OR will be extremely nice to have. As I stated in my last post, Yuri probably landed Buddhism. Neither him nor Mistabod have converted yet though.

Finally, just to give you an idea of the distances here:



My stone city will sit squarely between Mistabod's second city and Commodore's capital. It's going to be a risky play, but if I take it and hold it, we have the Pyramids practically guaranteed.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

How many turns between the Stone city and the 'mids?

[oledavy]

How many turns between the Stone city and the 'mids?

Six turns iirc? I don't have it written down....need to run the sim again.

Also:



Here's hoping Mistabod don't declare war on me by the time I next see the save.

[oledavy]

Oye, NH and Gaspar's prolonged holding of the turn has me very very paranoid. They had to have faced a potentially game-altering decision and discussed it for awhile. Best guess? They uncovered stone and are considering a run at the Pyramids. I dearly hope t50 is fast enough to beat them. I'm going to run the sim again and see if I can't squeeze it out a turn or two sooner.

[oledavy]

Alternatively, they might have found marble and are considering an oracle run for the GE gambit. However, I would consider that pretty unlikely. If their nearest stone and marble are placed anything like mine, they probably found marble awhile ago, and thus would not prompt an extensive discussion now. Furthermore, between Yuri's presence in this game, and my PHI, they're the least well-positioned of the three of us to make the Oracle -> GE play.

They may also be considering rushing someone, or responding to a pink dot from Yuri or Commodore. However, they're both still at two cities, so I doubt that.

Or, they could have both just forgotten to play the save and came up with an excuse :neenernee

Overall though, the lost likely explanation in my mind is the first.

[oledavy]

[SIZE="7"]Turn 35[/SIZE]

15 Turns Until The Pyramids Are Complete



At home, I've just finished my fourth worker. I'm already feeling behind on expansion. Last turn, I got NobleGas's build notifications (did we ever figure out what caused that glitch?), and saw that they just finished a pair of granaries and a worker (probably their 5th or 6th). Of course they're EXP China, but still..... Going to have to push expansion hard after the Pyramids (provided we actually do land them). I whip my settler next turn, which will settle Sur'Kesh in the south for copper on t38.

Here's the wild and gnarly east:



About a third of the Stone Highway is built, I have four warriors screening the area.

If Stonehenge is still up when I hook up the stone, I might make a run at it instead of the GW in Sur'Kesh. I'm not sure. On the one hand, I feel like building more than one wonder when I'm underexpanded and could be sinking those hammers into settlers/workers is a bad idea. On the other, with stone, they're just SOOOOO cheap (40 and 50 hammers respectively). Anyway, still time before I need to make a firm decision.



Probably not a good idea, but tempting.

End Turn.

[Mardoc]

(did we ever figure out what caused that glitch?),

Pretty sure it was saving the game while notifications are ongoing, on the part of the person/team whose notifications you see.

[oledavy]

Pretty sure it was saving the game while notifications are ongoing, on the part of the person/team whose notifications you see.

Thanks Mardoc

[SIZE="7"]Turn 38[/SIZE]

12 Turns Until The Pyramids Are Complete

Garrus Vakarian spotted something odd in the fog northeast of the stone:



Those yellow borders were most certainly not there last turn. I pulled up Commodore's diplo screen.



Evidently settled his third city last turn. First of the civs we know to settle their third city, though I'm sure Izzy is already there and looking to settle their 4th.

Moved northeast, and....



That city is a bit of a reach for Commodore, not at pink dotty as my planned city for stone, but still a stretch.



It's between him and Gaspar, rather than me and him though. Perhaps the three of them will get in a tiff over it and delay NobleGas's own probable Pyramids bid. That would be pretty awesome, not gonna lie

Found Yuri's warrior wandering around northwest of Byzantium:



But the real news of this turn was the founding of the second Council World, Sur'Kesh:



I started it on a warrior which will upgrade into a spear next turn when I finish mining the copper.



I had it all wrong with Mistabod btw. Looking into the fog again, we were north of their capital, not their second city as I originally thought. They settled Pace to the west of First Touch.

With Commodore busy worrying about defending his own pink dot from Gaspar, he probably will not be coming after the city of Palaven. That leaves just Mistabod to contend with as a threat. They probably will be settling a city towards those flood plains sooner rather than later. Here's hoping it's later.

End Turn.

[oledavy]

[SIZE="7"]Turn 39[/SIZE]

11 Turns Until The Pyramids Are Complete

The major news of this turn?



Say hello to Commodore's scout, presumably headed west to find my borders. This puts me in a bit of a bind. Now, if I was Commodore, and I had just planted a pink dot, I would back it up with an axe/spear pair - which I'm sure is currently en route to Sasha. I'm pretty sure he'll want to keep them in place to defend against any aggression from NobleGas. However, if he sees the opportunity to raze a pink dot of my own guarded only by warriors, I feel sure he'll take it.

With this in mind, I would rather his scout not press on west to see my roadbuilding efforts.

On the other hand, if I declare war and kill the scout (provided I even can), then he'll for sure do a reconnaissance in force against me, and continue building military.

It's a bit of a catch-22.

So, the plan? Well, there's not much for it honestly. Going to position one of my warriors between Sasha and the stone to monitor for any forces moving south. Here's hoping Commodore has better things to do than mess with my Pyramid Scheme. If he does come in force, I'm not sure I can hold. It will be close.

End Turn.

[fluffyflyingpig]

Why do you hate resource bubbles?

Interesting stuff.