[SPOILERS] Magic Science and Nobody Else in Pitboss 66

[Magic Science]

Turn 69 to Turn 73 – 1240 BC to 1080 BC
Part 2
Now this belated report belatedly turns to address… every matter other than my warmongering.


   
The Diplomatic Advisor is no longer so lonely, in fact it is crowded. My scouting is the best in the world. I see the web like this:

• Me and Plemadilly are a duo of land neighbors. Simple. Amicalola makes us a strange trio because he is Plemadilly’s amphibian neighbor, and he met my scouting Warrior with his scouting Work Boat by happenstance.
• Me, Mjmd (Cornflakes for just this turn), and Civeel are a trio. Mjmd is my land neighbor, and Civeel is an amphibian neighbor to us both. The odd shape of the land makes him an unusually uninfluential amphibian neighbor for Mjmd, and an unusually influential amphibian neighbor for me. The isthmus strikes again! PSEUDO-EDIT: Civeel is also kind of a land neighbor to us both, though. The geography is strange. My taxonomy breaks down.
• GKC (ZooperPooper) is an amphibian neighbor of Civeel, and they recently met thanks to Civeel’s scouting Work Boat. Cassandra saw that same Work Boat by the outskirts of Roman territory last turn. . Contact imminent.
• Amicalola and GKC are something (?) to each other, and they met somehow (?)? Neighbors?
• Lastly, superdeath and Alhazard are distant players that I have contacted early because my scouting is incredible. We have little to do with each other, but many things are possible on a Toroid.
The key thing I want to know but do not know yet is: who are the land neighbors of my land neighbors? For Civeel’s, I want an ally against them. For Plemadilly’s, I want someone else to be a potential target for their AGG Praetorians (Torusworld has no natural tendency for jungles to clump or to cover Gems, so they must be the ones with Iron Working already). Though with the narrow channels of Torusworld, maybe an amphibian neighbor of theirs could do the trick as well. Praetorians invading by Galley is not an absurd thing. Hmm.


   
This screenshot is for better perspective.

Cassandra has travelled so far north that she is approaching home from the south. Only 2 rows of black fog stand between me and north-south circumnavigation, but that is not important now.
You can also see why I think that Alhazard might be a land neighbor of Civeel.
Zeus and Hera are actually on the same body of water. Wacky.


   
This screenshot is for even better perspective.

You can see why I have not mentioned the land across the water from Zeus, now called “Daggerland”, as much as I used to. It turns out that there is no one to contest it by land. Daggerland is still important, but not nearly so urgent.
Also, I want to take this moment to mention that the many lakes of Animalia will make for some incredible canals someday. I hope to remain in control of the region when that happy day comes.

   
   
This is a domestic overview of the Greek Pantheon. It has been a while.
…
The Pantheon is a mess, as you can surely tell.
There is so much to say about it, but it is very late at night where I am, and I just need to post this already. For now it can speak for itself.
But I can't just help myself: my troubles are I need garrisons and I need culture, but I rushed to Metal Casting and skipped Archery and Mysticism. Also just basic bad Worker and queue management. I feel the game is lost, but I always feel that.
Ask whatever, I will wake up someday.

[Magic Science]

Lastly for now, I want to address two other pieces of Unfinished Business.


ONE:
SPECIAL MESSAGE TO civac2 AND Tarkeel FOR AFTER THE GAME (I think they will survive to the end): Sorry? If you are complaining in your thread about how stupid Magic Science was to train a Galley just to make a surprise attack against you, then you are correct. I agree. The Galley that enabled the attack was a mistake, so the attack itself was a mistake (but maybe not after the Galley was finished and was a sunk cost). The eternal RBer cry of “attacking me was such a bad move, you noob ” is actually true in this case. Sorry? The conflict between us will probably end with you occupying my capital, not the other way around.
P.S. Thank you for naming the replacement city “New Crushbone”. I like “New”. It enhances the character of the game, which is why I do it too.


AND TWO:
[PITBOSS 64 SPOILERS]

I did declare war on Amicalola during the Greek Dark Age, like I said I would. It seems to have achieved literally nothing, but at least it was funny. .

[Magic Science]

P.P.S. In the diplomacy screen with Amicalola, my new city of Artemis has the dreaded "(Liberate)", so maybe Amicalola and me are closer than I think. I wonder if he has noticed the "(Liberate)" too?

[Magic Science]

I have been at war for so long that for about an hour I forgot about how normal, peaceful players are allowed to play a double move at the turn roll... .

Playing now.

[Magic Science]

I should try to burn New York. It could happen on Turn 78.

[Magic Science]

Turn 74 to Turn 77 – 1040 BC to 950 BC
Part 1
   
On Turn 77, Civeel proposed Open Borders. Surprising. Should I accept?

The foreign trade routes between us are useless because of the recent Second Greco-Spanish War, so that component is irrelevant. The freedom of movement between us is small but still something, so that component is relevant. Civeel has a Work Boat near my culture that seems to be moving towards the strait south of Hermes. My culture does not completely block the strait, but they must know I still have a Galley nearby, so this Open Borders proposal could be about asking me for permission to move through. Or it could be about a different unit, a land unit, but I think they still lack Sailing. I mean, I have not seen a Spanish Galley yet, and they just researched Writing just last turn. I sure hope they still lack Sailing.

Whatever, I accepted. I don’t think Open Borders can do any harm, especially since I can declare war again to cancel it at any time (Cease Fires > Peace Treaties ), and it could help the scouting unit I want to send across the water to scout the Civeel-Alhazard borderland soon.

This is only a small matter, even if it is a confusing one. Civeel, are we archenemies or what? . Maybe they are not so vengeful, or maybe city #7 on Turn 68 is not so bad of an insult for them as I thought (it’s no city #3 on Turn 44), or maybe this is a bluff to get me to lower my guard.


   
Two quick updates about the web of lies:

ONE: Civeel has met Plemadilly, so now they can conspire together from afar if they want. They can see if I am busy fighting the other one and react accordingly. NOTE TO SELF: if the other players ever finally fight a war, then use the War Weariness trick to check if it is real.

TWO: Civeel has met Alhazard. Cassandra has confirmed that they are not separated by water, so I don’t know what took so long. If it is treacherous terrain, then bad for me, if it is merely mutual bad scouting, then good for me. I must find out.

Now for the overview of the domestic(-ish) development situation of the Greek Pantheon, at long last…


   
This is THE CORE. Here we have Zeus (0), Hera (32), Poseidon (44), and baby Hephaestus (77).

The Core is a mess, but so is everywhere. What is special and interesting here? Hmm.

Zeus and Poseidon are preparing to work on special projects for the good of the Pantheon when Metal Casting is finished EOT 78. Zeus will construct a Forge and then birth a Great Engineer, and Poseidon will construct a Forge and then construct the Colossus. The Great Engineer should be born EOT 97, and the Colossus should be constructed about EOT 85, I think. Planning for these projects without simulations and spreadsheets is difficult! But I think I have a good chance to construct the Colossus. Turn 86 seems like a competitive time, and none of the 7 players I have contacted know Metal Casting yet.

Hera is stunted by that Gold mine, which it has worked every turn for the past 30 turns. It has earned me Sailing and Metal Casting (almost), but at what cost? SIDE NOTE: I think Krill may have given everyone a nearby luxury metal.

Hephaestus is, appropriately enough, an embarrassment. . Just look at the Worker situation! Only one, road not even done, Cow not too be improved for 5 turns, no chops for forever, ugh. And even that one Worker had to waste 3 TURNS running back across the Pantheon from Demeter to get here thanks to my abysmal management, ugh. More on the topic, the farm by Zeus is a waste too. Someday Zeus will be a huge Great Person breeding center (what else can it be with so many loaves of food yet so few land tiles?), but not anytime soon. The still-unworked cottages by Hera and Poseidon are questionable as well. Ugh again.

But hey, at least I was dead right about Mjmd’s vision for our border. Mjmd settled Away Rio on Turn 50 as his 5th city, and he has since settled 4 more cities, but he still left Hephaestus for me. . Thanks, buddy.


   
This is ANIMALIA. Here we have Demeter (56), soon to be joined by Ares (?), probably.

The uncertainty is because of the Barbarian culture under the “lost city?” sign in the northwest, which I learned of just this turn. Aren’t we playing without Barbarian cities? Yes, we are, so Plemadilly must have lost a city to the Barbarian State. This is confirmed by PBSBY and the Turn 76 vs. Turn 77 in-game city count. Bad luck for them! The question for me is, what tile is that city on, exactly? Does it make my spot for Ares illegal? From culture gazing in the dim fog I think it is on the tile I marked “lost city?”, which would stop me from settling Ares were I want, but I’m not sure. It seems like a very strange and bad place for a city, and I could be misunderstanding something about culture gazing in the dim fog or Barbarian city-capturing behavior in CtH. For now, the settling party continues forward. I hope that my chokepoint strategy has not failed AGAIN, I thought this was the region where it actually succeeded.

Quick note about Demeter: for a little while I thought I would make it into a production city because it is the border fortress, but then I decided that the grassland river tiles simply must be improved with cottages, so it must be a commerce city anyway. There are surprisingly few grassland river tiles on Torusworld. They are valuable.


   
This is THE BLOB. Here we have Apollo (66), Artemis (66), and Hermes (75). Hestia displeased Zeus by losing the race against New York, and therefore she will not be appearing anywhere as a city in this game.

All the cities here are still busy constructing their Granaries and have contributed nothing to the Pantheon yet. I think Apollo and Artemis could be done with their Granaries already if I had managed my Workers better. Until last turn I only had 5 Workers, and look at all those wilderness roads I built! Were those necessary? So, I was slow to improve the resource tiles at both cities and did not chop the wilderness forest to the east of Apollo.

Short-term, these will be nice foodhammer cities because they have 2 resources in the first ring. Long-term, I think they must specialize for commerce. Most of their tiles are either coasts or dry flat barren plains, so there is no alternative. I can boost the coasts with Colossus and cottage the miserable plains.

There is one more city to settle on the Blob by the Wheat, 1 tile west of Hestia’s rightful place, but it will wait a while longer. As long as I claim it before New York pops third ring borders, it is basically a safe backlines spot. This city will claim the Marble, but the Stone will have to wait for Artemis to pop third ring borders.

Unless…

[Magic Science]

Turn 74 to Turn 77 – 1040 BC to 950 BC
Part 2
   
Unless GeneralKilCavalry has been careless with the defense of New York and left me an opening to raze it. If he has, then I will quickly bring in one last Settler from somewhere else, either Apollo or Ares, to settle on the jungle hill between the Wheat and the Fish like I wanted to so long ago. We will find out next turn.

Please keep quiet about the fact that these bloodthirsty Galley raids are only made possible by leaving my cities ungarrisoned and therefore vulnerable to exactly the same type of bloodthirsty Galley raid. .

Now for two last quick and small matters.


   
ONE: Yes, Plemadilly did accept the Peace Treaty that I foolishly offered them in a moment of weakness. . Now their Scout can safely scout southern Animalia and The Blob, and I can do nothing to stop it. It’s even using MY OWN WILDERNESS ROADS to do so! .

I just realized, Plemadilly will meet GKC this way. BAD. Now Mjmd is the only one of my neighbors left in the dark.


   
TWO: I am still a sucker for culture overview screenshots. . They are pretty, but not in this game so far. With the founding of New Crushbone, a new era of colorful multiculturalism has begun!


   
THREE: I lied. Behold this flying camera overview screenshot too.

…

Soon I will make another big picture strategy post. It will be titled “Ignoring the Issue of My Lack of Skill, Can I Still Win This Game Without A Miracle?, Issue #1”

[Magic Science]

Somehow, I forgot to mention this thing in the main report, maybe I need a better method for writing them.

The thing is: Plemadilly has Iron on the diplomacy screen, so they are 100% the player with Iron Working. Also, one of their cities has constructed a Barracks.

[Magic Science]

Finally a foreign war!

Mjmd logged out at the turn roll, and now he took a city from JackRB, but I have not met JackRB, so this is all I can tell you about the situation, which is why I am telling you now before I have even logged in myself this turn, but it is all useless anyway because Mjmd has already posted in his own thread, but at least I had an excuse to write this absurd sentence.

[RefSteel]

Hurray for absurd sentences!  Also, I'm glad that an axe-wielding city-burning maniac named after a pacifistic technologist isn't the only one wreaking warlike havoc in this game.  ("RefSteel I" certainly seems to be leading an interesting life!)