[SPOILERS] I had first pick and all I got was this stupid combo

[NobleHelium]

Circumnavigation is awarded at full end turn, yes.

[Bobchillingworth]

Thanks, Noble.

Landed the Parthenon, which was nice. Mardoc also accepted the 8 GPT for OB trade + a friendship trade, so things are looking pretty well for just building sandcastles for the foreseeable future. I also just realized that Sian is currently at war with both Jowy and stick... I wonder why they haven't just killed him off already? He can't possibly have much of an empire. I'm actually finding that I'm enjoying the game quite a bit at the moment- I'm doing better than I should be, and the turns of peaceful building are relaxing.

[Bobchillingworth]

Popped a low-odds Engineer. I'm not sure what to rush with him! None of the currently available wonders are worth burning a great person. I could research Theology for the Apocalyptic Palace or whatever, but it's actually only like a 6-turn build and the tech is otherwise mostly useless. Stick already has the Music Artist, and researched the tech a while back, but I'd really like to rush the Sistine Chapel, since my best shot at winning is probably going to be via culture. That's a lot of turns of research to invest in getting an otherwise useless tech though. I seriously doubt I could beat stick to Nationalism for the Taj. I could bulb Machinery, but that sort of seems like a waste. Hmm. I think I'll hold on to him for the moment, research Bureaucracy and then see if going for Music makes sense after that. Being able to bulb Machinery in a pinch and start whipping Maces would be useful.

[Bobchillingworth]

Turn 100! Everyone, prepare your empire summaries & game state analysis! Make sure you write lots of stuff about me, so that my massive, horrible ego might be briefly satiated! Sian is excused wink

Wait fuck that makes it sound like I'm currently reading their threads opps



ANYWAY brace yourselves(?) for a


GIANT-ASS TURN 100 REPORT (Part One)

(seriously, can someone please fix the blank font type & size menus, this is ridiculous)



I'll start with a completely redundant opponent analysis, since my original one was apparently popular and, having rediscovered my interest in this game about 10 turns ago, I now find myself trolling for moar lurker posts. Said analysis will incorporate semicontextual gifs ripped from the comment threads for recent Red Letter Media videos, because I have a bunch squatting in my desktop & everyone loves dumb memetic moving images.


Turn 100 Ranking of Players In Order of Position


#1. Thestick




No point in being anything other than blunt about it, this game isn't even close. Stick has over 100 points on me in score, and I've got over 100 points on the next runner-up. In a PBEM with Leeroy Jenkins, a dude whose only win out of like two-dozen games was against Kuro and Catwalk, and two FFH guys, it's no surprise that the one mostly-competent vet is putting on a clinic. Not to imply that thestick shouldn't have joined this game; I'm sure that anyone who genuinely could be described as one of the top 10 BTS players on this site would have truly put the game to bed by now. But stick is leading in tech by thousands of beakers, has the most cities, the best demographics, more land, betters civics, etc. etc. He has played a good game, and "good" is really all anyone needs to dominate this field.



#2. Bobchillingworth




I'm doing much better than I have any right to. I'm in second place in demographics and score by a fair margin, despite a series of completely ridiculous missteps. I failed to build either the Pyramids or GL, despite surely having had a lock on at least the latter had I really tried for it. I probably built the Oracle too early (unless someone else was going for it) & then failed to build a forge for several turns afterward. I was very slow to build and work cottages, and at Turn 100 I'm still far from having even a single town. I teched AH far too late and Archery & Meditation much too early. I have done almost no scouting at all, at a point when most players have almost the entire map revealed. The list goes on and on, and yet it hasn't really mattered except in comparison with stick. I attribute my bizarre semi-success to a combination of good neighbors, being fairly smart about when and where I settled, very rarely having worked unimproved tiles, having a very nice civ / leader combo and landing the Colossus, which has ended up being a very powerful wonder. My biggest issues right now are a lack of focus, having the two other most dangerous players as neighbors and needing MORE INFRASTRUCTURE EVERYWHERE while trying to maintain something better than a damp cardboard military.



#3. Mardoc




Mardoc is in a somewhat surprisingly poor position. He's neck-and-neck with Jowy, switching spots with him on the scoreboard every few turns, and he doesn't have many cities. He does have the GL, but that's costing him GPT from me (and I intend to raise the cost of OB gradually), and no borders with stick. My best guess is that he's having Jowy Problems- I'm not entirely certain, since I haven't done like any scouting, but judging by who controls what resources I suspect Jowy did a better job securing their share of the wheel world. I'm trying to keep our border as demilitarized and friendly as possible, since what military I build really needs to be positioned to deter the much scarier stick. I think I've probably got a bit of a tech edge on him (although I haven't done any C&D and neither of us has Alphabet, so who knows), and I don't think he could currently crack LB if I started whipping them, but I would rather things stay very quiet all the same. I have no intention of attacking him (or anyone), but I have naval access to his core should the need / opportunity arise. I think he overestimated the value of Organized Sumeria on this map- this isn't a pitboss where 30-city empires are the norm, he'd be doing better with Carthage or someone with a UB that gives bonus happiness.



#4. Jowy




Ah, Jowy. So, I did some research before starting this write-up. In literally every game Jowy follows the Jowy Strategy: He blows a relatively promising early start in an opportunistic attack on a more-talented opponent. Because Jowy inevitably fails to seriously commit to his attack yet often does enough damage to enrage his foe, he winds up locked in a game-long death struggle which usually results in his elimination, with him all the while blaming everyone for his sad, predictable fate but himself. And, while I am not certain, it looks to me like he pulled the same stunt yet again in this game, except... it actually worked, for once? Jowy isn't doing poorly at all, at least not compared with his usual performance. He's doing pretty well for city count, has a lot of resources (so he claimed a decent amount of land), and is frequently in third place on the scoreboard. Likely he put those WC to good use vs. Sian- he's apparently declared on everyone in the game except me. He's certainly not going to win, but this might be the first game where he's a real factor all the way to the end. Putting my MJW hat on, you can tell that he's really into it, because he updates his thread constantly and named his PB18 game in honor of it. Taking my MJW hat off and thoroughly washing my hair, he's positioned to be my best ally in the game provided he doesn't do something stupid, since we're far removed from each other geographically.



#5. Sian




Sian's greatest contribution to this PBEM has been to hold the turn for 16+ hours every day.





Continued in Part Two!

[Commodore]

Might wanna just shave it all off. And why do you even own that hat?

[Bobchillingworth]

GIANT-ASS TURN 100 REPORT (Part Two)



Okay, empire overview time! I took a whole bucket of screencaps, so I'll stick the city pics in spoiler tags.



The Farscape Empire, in two pictures:







Clearly I got more than my fair share vs. stick, and a little less with Mardoc.


I've had the border with stick under scout observation for ages:




He has a lot of Spears in the area, even though I lack HBR (although I guess he hasn't been doing enough C&D to realize that- he knows now though, with Alphabet in). The walls in Jiuhu are kind of cute, no idea why he though I might attack there. A lot of his military in the area is a reaction to my researching Construction before him, and then building two barracks- he had almost nothing guarding his cities until that happened. I have been staring at my monitor until my eyeballs get UV burns trying to project Happy Thoughts in his direction, but I should probably supplement those with some LB, which I think do a decent job of communicating "Warning: Graveyard of Empires ahead! Please avoid aggression!". It's not like he would think I intended to attack him with LB, right?





Mardoc border (what the heck does "Mardoc" mean, anyway? A malpractice suit? I keep mentally referring to him as "Morlock" or "Moredick"). Cultural pressure is eventually going to become an issue in this area, as both of Mardoc's cities will be in a position to take some of my river cottages. I really need to get a scout on the tile where his worker is standing, 1E of his Silk. Controlling the tile 2E of that is nice, it means I can hit / flank his front cities easily with 2-movers. I'll have to build a fort there some day.


In the north I've got a WB finally exploring some weird-ass mountain island chain:




I guess that's a secret path to Jowy or Sian or something. Seems like an awfully long distance for a galley to travel. Perhaps it leads to an island with the missing fur, silver and deer resources. Gotta figure they're on some island somewhere.


I also finally got a unit to 10 exp:




He'll sack this stupid city after he heals up. I doubt I'll keep it, although I suppose a corn resource or something in its BFC might tempt me, since it has enough forests to chop a courthouse + granary.


Like I noted, stick now has Alphabet- he's "only" 6 techs ahead of me:




He also has Music. I guess he might also have other techs not visible because I lack the prereqs, idk. All I have over him are Monarchy and Feudalism.


My deals:




Friendship trades all around


My military kind of sucks:




There are just so many other things I need to build! Where FFH demands "MORE UNITS", BTS craves "MORE STRUCTURES". I'm currently building a trio of workers as well, since 13 isn't really cutting it right now.


Demographics:




Not bad, I guess, considering that stick is in a Golden Age currently. GNP is slightly lower in this picture than reality, I forgot to take it when I played the turn, so I reloaded the save and failed a Buddhism spread the second time around. I'm mildly surprised I'm third in military- Sian has been in the bottom for ages, and stick in the top since I met him, and Mardoc isn't much higher than mine going by graphs, so Jowy must be slacking. I used to have the worst Export/Import rating by a lot, after I reopened them with post-GL Mardoc, but now I'm doing much better for reasons I don't understand- my OB situation hasn't changed with anyone. Everything else here is spooky voodoo that I ritualistically shun.



Cities:

Capital. Will make a lot of gold someday, thanks to decent tiles and the shrine. Only just finished the final riverside cottage this turn, sigh Getting Bureaucracy to make it even better, and the Temple of Artemis since it'll equal out to a decent amount of extra cash-per-turn. Plus I don't want Mardoc to land it.

My second city. Poor thing is taking forever to grow back after I whipped in the Parthenon Needs a Market at some point and I guess a courthouse, otherwise will pump missionaries & military pretty much forever.

Low on production but okay commerce, like a lot of my cities. Needs grassland cottages and a couple farms.

Godlike city I founded to block stick off from most of our shared wheel segment. I would marry this city if the great state of Virginia allowed weddings between men and videogame cities. Everything about it is wonderful. I should probably stick some LB in it :P

Like half my cities, Moya has little by way of production and a decent amount of commerce. Apocalyptic Palace is looking better and better...

Filler which I had to found ahead of schedule when stick built the HG, before his culture consumed too many tiles to make viable. This city is obviously doomed if we come to blows; I intend to have it serve as an auxiliary LB / Catapult pump.

Archetypal fishing village 8/10, would found again.

Needs a courthouse and a market someday, otherwise it's a mediocre military pump and decent fishing city.

Yes I am chopping a settler out of a size 2 city, thank you very much One of my few cities with genuinely good production, this will become a military pump after I complete the standard granary + forge infrastructure.

Fish.

FOOD FOOD FOOD FOOD- future National Epic site. Okay production and reasonable commerce makes it a winner Mardoc was wise to leave the spot open for me, it's good enough that I'm not too cheesed that he got the lion's share of our hub.

This city exists for two reasons: I want naval access to Mardoc's core, and I didn't want him being able to reach mine. Objective complete! Minor military pump / fishing village (yeah, it has a lot of land tiles, but the vast majority of commerce is going to come from those +3 coast tiles).

This is a pretty good city, but it needs culture badly, so the next two builds will be monasteries after the worker is in. Barracks is there in case I need to emergency-whip some LB.

And a totally not-at-all creepy tribute to cities yet unborn:

Fishing village with a due-date of 3 turns.




Est. founding 4 turns. OMG production site.

In terms of plans going forward... I'm kind of adrift I'm thinking Culture is the most likely path to victory for me, with my capital, Moai and Colossus cities being the lucky three. I'll need to land Sistine for sure if I do decide to go down that route. I don't know much about winning by culture though, and I'd really like to goof around with corporations, assuming the game runs that long. In terms of development, I'll continue to grow most of my cities as large as I can- the current crop of workers is intended to finally starting getting some cottages on non-river tiles, now that my largest cities are using up all available coast. My happy cap is absolutely amazing thanks to my lucky silver pop + half-price forges + cheap ball courts + Buddhism. I'm pretty much locked into Sandcastle Mode at the moment, were someone to attack me my new-found interest in the game would either suffer immediate cardiac arrest or I'd demonstrate why messing with the guy who can whip turn after turn without feeling it is a bad idea. Maybe both







... Man, I hope someone reads all this

[Ilios]

Read, and approved.

[Fintourist]

[Bobchillingworth]

Might wanna just shave it all off. And why do you even own that hat?

You think that sounded bad, it's a good thing you weren't there when I tried to walk a mile in his shoes


Thanks for the comments, guys!

[Bobchillingworth]

Difficulty: Monarch
World size small

World size small

small

This. Is. Crap:






I don't even know what to say. That's enough land for at least four other civilizations. I guess it's a playground for Mardoc? Who the heck is supposed to settle this thing, cities are going to cost an absolute fortune. What purpose could this massive continent serve, save to further Civ's Rich get Richer Syndrome? Nobody could truly afford to colonize this thing unless they are already winning. I know Krill or whoever made a map with a sort of similar concept long ago, but I don't recall the players starting off with nearly as much mainland space as we have here. I mean, I'm not disturbed because I think I'm going to lose because of this, I'm going to lose because I've made a lot of mistakes and stick is doing way better, but to find that everyone picked combos for a map apparently delivered under false pretenses? I don't know, man. I'd go Louis of Maya again anyway, but this is not the map we were told to expect


Although I guess everyone who bothered to scout and compare with the total map tiles (everyone but me) has known about this for a while now.



Oh also Mardoc is probably going to attack me with Knights:




Sigh. Very annoying. I should have flashed some LB, which I'll now have to start emergency building. Bugger. I'm surprised he has the tech for them.


Besides the stupid continent, the map trade pretty much confirmed what I already suspected. Sian got rushed or whatever, Jowy is doing pretty well for expansion, stick is crushing everyone in every way. Mardoc is surprisingly cramped- Jowy does have lower power than me, so maybe Mardoc will attack him instead? Probably wishful thinking there. Oh and Sian actually has a tiny city on the baleful landmass that should not exist, thereby enabling him to continue to hold the turn for many weeks to come.