The Quarterdeck - Turn Discussion Thread

[Cornflakes]

Other than the fact that we are slowed by about 20 turns because of the rush in the beginning I think our position looks ok. If this was T70 instead of almost T90 I'd say we had a fairly good opening. Just think if we'd gone for Havana in the first place instead of reaching for Tortuga ... Oh well, what's done is done. Let's see what we can make of this in the long run.

I've been thinking about that site 2E of San Juan's corn that you suggested. It looks a bit reachy, but really it is only a single tile outside of San Juan's borders, running parallel to our TEAM front. It would make a great border city because:

1. it's on a hill
2. it's surrounded by flatland (no defensive bonus for an attacker)
3. it's not coastal (no getting 1-moved out of the fog)
4. it's close enough to TEAM that they really cannot fit another city in between except for 3N of compy or 1E of horses, which are a squeeze ... but far enough away that we'll be able to see an attack coming.
5. protects our entire NE for safe back-filling after we build up our economy again.
6. it hardly expands our front with TEAM short-term, and units can be placed to reinforce either San Juan or this new site.
7. It connects both furs and ivory.

Fortune favors the bold ... I know it's a stretch, but we're so behind anyway that if we don't take risks we're already lost. We have 2 axes coming online in the next turn or two (Havana & PR) and we'll have those out east for support. I scribbled notes on a paper while I was out today, I can get it founded T101 stealing the corn immediately to grow a pop ASAP. We'll have Hinduism arriving with the last missionary from Havana after 3 turns, and with a single worker I can get the terrace chop/whiped as soon as we grow after 4-turns (one of the three now at San Juan -- two workers will be enough to finish getting San Juan off the ground). We can start sinking hammers into walls while we grow and chop/whip them if needed as soon as she grows if we see TEAM power spiking.

One of the two green-dots would also make a great city, and should be one of the first of our next phase of settling.

[thestick]

"Fortune favors the bold." That's what we said when we settled Tortuga, and 'the bold' turned out to be M3.

This looks like a good plan, picking up Furs and Ivory. Only misgiving is Furs and Ivory don't get connected until T110-ish. I was going to object on it being so far away, but it does net two happy resources.

[Cornflakes]

thestick ... since it's just you and me around now, is it ok with you if I keep posting diplo-related stuff in this thread rather than splitting it off into the other thread? ... without waiting for permission I'll go ahead and bring this up here

We should contact M3 soon about renewing the NAP. We are in awful shape for warring in the near future, but if necessary we could whip out a considerable army in short order if we wanted to. Santiago and Havana are both schedule to whip around T97-99, and if we start negotiations now we'll know by then whether peace will prevail or if we need to be prepared (watch the demos and graphs for power). Here's a draft for M3 ...

SUBJECT: Discuss NAP renewal

Dear Menagerie Trios

Turn 100 approaches, and along with it the end of our current NAP agreement. Further war at this point in the game will only benefit the other teams. What's past is past, so let's move on in peace; you remain competitive and we continue our uphill climb.

We are ready to agree to a non-aggression pact until T130, also extending the prior border/settling agreement as-is. If you'd like to include an auto-renewal clause we're fine with that as well ... perhaps something along the lines of

> "Beginning T120 the NAP automatically extends 15-turns from the current turn (i.e to T135), repeating extension T130, T135, T140 etc unless renegotiated/canceled."

Feel free to accept the NAP to T130 immediately without auto-renewal if this does not suit you, as we can always discuss this further in the coming turns.

We hold no lasting grudge against you from your early aggression, and as long as you treat us fairly going forward we are content to grow in peace. But be warned that we are willing and prepared to fight to the bitter end should you undertake an offensive war against us.

Sincerely
The Pirates

[thestick]

I doubt we want to propose a T130 renewal before an auto-renewal. I think it makes us seem desperate.

How about...

Dear Menagerie Trios

Turn 100 approaches, and along with it the end of our current NAP agreement. Further war at this point in the game will only benefit the other teams. What's past is past, so let's move on in peace; you remain competitive and we continue our uphill climb. We propose to extend the non-aggression pact until T130. We also propose extending the prior border/settling agreement as-is.

Sincerely
The Pirates

As a joke, this would be funny to add.

Besides, we both know the right way to conquer a backwards civ is to attack with Ballistaphants and Catapults instead of getting stuck in an Ancient age Axe war. It's in both of our interests to remain at peace.

[Cornflakes]

Right! There will be plenty of time later to discuss the auto-renewal. Let's just go for the short & simple message that you have. You are free to send it off whenever you get a chance.

"Fortune favors the bold." That's what we said when we settled Tortuga, and 'the bold' turned out to be M3.

We are in last place by far now, so we have literally nothing to loose with boldness at this point.

This looks like a good plan, picking up Furs and Ivory. Only misgiving is Furs and Ivory don't get connected until T110-ish. I was going to object on it being so far away, but it does net two happy resources.

We don't put growth into high gear until about T100 anyway, and we couldn't get ivory online any sooner if we went for the norther ivory. We'll want one or two more workers anyway to finish improving the core, so if we hit the happy-cap anywhere we'll just pump out another worker while waiting for happy.

[thestick]

Message sent.

The rational part of me knows that gambling just because one's losing is a bad idea, but then I remember that this is a game. Let's go for it. At the risk of screwing up our dotmap, what about 1N? Picks up an extra Cows.

[Cornflakes]

Oh, and I don't think your joke is very funny either ... ... We're not doing any C&D so I have no idea what they've been up to, but it's within the realm of possibility that they have construction. Let's not put help them get the idea into their heads

Then again, they did found two relitigions. My guess is that they've just got maths in and are starting construction (if they want to go on the warpath) or calendar if they want peace, because I'm assuming that they also have an abundance of calendar resources ... we have at least 3 near us.

[Cornflakes]

At the risk of screwing up our dotmap, what about 1N? Picks up an extra Cows.

That's also a possibility, and could also be founded on T102. That takes us off the hill and looses sugar, but give access to cows (which we'd pick up anyway with either green dot) and dry plains wheat (nothing too special, and could be picked up by a filler/first-warning-of-sea-invation city NE of the wheat). I'm going to bed now but I'll think on it. We have time

Another possibility is founding directly on furs. That would be a powerful city, but without access to corn would be a tad slower getting started ... initial feeling is not on furs. Let me know if you have any further ideas on these three sites.

[Cornflakes]

Played turn. Founding San Juan did not cost us a single extra gold per turn than we were already spending The reason is because of lowered unit maintenance (each unit over 3 outside our territory costs us a gpt, and all those workers are inside the borders of San Juan now). We'll be able to work a cottage here after two turns, but for now I put the citizen on the 1/1/3 wines ... after ending turn I put San Juan on a walls build. We can change this later, I was just in a hurry and we didn't have anything planned here yet.

Worker micro again so we don't have to dig as far for it.




Overview shot of the empire.

[Cornflakes]

Now that we’ve decided the settler from Havana is heading east I’ll start calling red-dot Maracaibo. I still cannot decided which location is better … the hill 2E of corn or one more tile N?

Ideally the corn would go back to San Juan after we get Maracaibo off the ground so that we can continuously work both the gold and copper mines. Settling on the hill fits better with the full northern dotmap because if green cannot move further NW without messing up the rest of the northern dotmap. If we now settle red 1S of furs we have 4 very-good tiles overlapping.

With cows, green can pump out 19 hammers per turn base with +3 food surplus at size 8. Cows are the main reason for moving Maracaibo north, but we’ll want green working cows. The north location also picks up wheat, but loses sugar (each +4 food with sugar farmed until calendar) so let’s settle on the hill. With 5 river and 4 non-river grassland tiles this will be another cottage-everything-in-sight location, but 4 surplus with a terrace is enough to grow onto the cottages and eventually add furs and ivory.

What is your opinion of the current dotmap I made? It does waste 4 tiles in the center, but none of them are worth crying over, and I can’t see an easy/beneficial way to pick them up. Yellow is obviously low priority, but if settled soon cuts off access to the island NE, which looks rather big … I’ll talk about this more in a strategy post later.

Close up of Maracaibo’s potential sites




Full northern dotmap