[SPOILERS] Pindicator as Qin Shi of China - Boring Ol' Vanilla

[pindicator]

Logged back in and the score increase is not from a new city. So I guess I just don't know how the tracker logs score increases.

Edit: Silly me, it isn't an increase. It's a decrease. He whipped

[pindicator]

So I guess I can talk a bit about my early game relations. For instance, why am I declaring on Cyneheard while keeping my warrior outside of Barry's lands? I guess it comes down to trying to be a good neighbor. Well, we're all enemies and competing, naturally, but that doesn't mean I have to be that neighbor. You know the one



Eventually I want to see them all under my heel, but circumstances can change and you never know what the later game will be. If things don't go to plan and I don't become a regional power then I'm going to need friends, or at least people to work with against a stronger neighbor. It's a lot easier to work together with someone if you haven't been letting your pets crap in their yard for 100 turns.

So we won't be invading Barry with our warrior. (If we choose to attack him later, it will be at a choosing where I think I can get more value out of the damaged relations.) And with Cyneheard, we're going to trust that he understands I just want to get through and don't have any ill will against him.

Another reason I want to sneak by is that if I find out that this is an island and Cyneheard is at hte end of it (first off, I'm gonna tell Commodore that was a horrible map decision) then I'm going to know I need to attack Cyneheard. Because I'm going to be his only reasonable avenue for early attack. And he just happens to have War Chariots.

Turn has rolled; let's see if we can continue by and get peace out of Cyneheard. Leave no messes behind.

[pindicator]

Turn 042

Well, it turns out I may want to be a bad neighbor to Cyneheard after all. (And possibly become very irritated at the mapmaker.) We'll know more next turn.



That looks like a dead end. Which means Cyneheard has one method of expansion: through me. And don't you dare say "he has the islands", because it takes a lot more investment to expand by galleys, it's a lot less secure due to boating, and gives less of a payoff than developed land. So if that is the deadend it appears to be, then I've just been put in the middle of a sandwich and my normal choice would be to rush a neighbor and take them out as quickly as possible. Probably Cyneheard so I'd have my backs to the sea.

Oh wait, he's Egypt. So forget rushing. And he's Cyneheard so he's not only a good Civ player, but also a more-than-competent strategian and will not miss the implications of this once he scouts well enough to see what's going on. FML.

I'm starting to wonder if Barry is also at another end. He still has yet to assign EP away from me. So he hasn't met anyone else or he's forgetten. But his scout did turn around after first finding me, and I haven't seen it since. Perhaps it was eaten.

And there's the landbridge to the south, which is just weird in this context. Maybe I'm the middle of a 3-pointed star with people on every side. Ugh, I need more info.

Back to things I have control over.

First off, go back to the picture above and in the lower right you can see that Cyneheard has whipped his second city. I'm guessing he whipped a monument there. Possibly a worker. Almost said granary until I realized this is RBMod and his EXP doesn't help with granaries like my PRO does. (Further confusing the issue for me is that I'm playing EXP in BtS PB19. Yay cheap granaries!)

I did offer peace to Cyneheard. I thought about what might happen if my scout is trapped, but if I can move my scout far to the north and west then it's possible I can teleport through his lands back to my side of things. Again, assuming all land ends immediately. And those borders will pop in 10 turns.

More things I can control, but have possibly screwed up:



I hadn't gone over my micro with a fine-touch comb enough to catch that I possibly could have combined the two workers onto the tile south of Scales and improved it to 3/4 this turn. I currently plan on cottaging both tiles, which I caught as a revision to an earlier plan that had me cottaging just the plains tile, but then forgot to see if I could only cottage the tile south of Scales and build a road or something. Anyway, I had been avoiding doing further revisions because if horses pop under my culture then I just need to redo the whole thing anyway.

We've also started a settler that I plan on whipping in 4 turns.

And next turn there will be micro magic. But I'm not giving it away yet! Stayed tuned, next time!


(Seriously, Cyneheard better have more than one neighbor.)

[Ceiliazul]

Turn 042

And next turn there will be micro magic. But I'm not giving it away yet! Stayed tuned, next time!


(Seriously, Cyneheard better have more than one neighbor.)

[pindicator]

Turn 043, Part 1



I need to work on my act.



Horses are indeed under one of my cottaged tiles, so bye-bye worker turn, and hello second guessing why I didn't just finish that grassland cottage sooner with two workers. Also, hello revised worker plan. Because that's a good spot for horses, even if I lost a turn to them.

Out west...



Okay, you can breathe easy mapmaker. For now.

Also, bonus, he hasn't settled his horse yet. Meaning he isn't going for AH early and isn't planning on an aggressive opening. Yay!

[pindicator]

First micro puzzle:

In order to waste the fewest worker turns, a single worker needs to move onto the forest NW of Scales next turn. But if we do that then we won't be able to work the horse next turn when Scales grows to size 3. We're roading through the forest because we're going to want to chop that same forest when our workers head back south. We also have to have a road on that tile because it allows us to road the wheat next, which will prevent wasted turns as we improve the cows->wheat->chop forest.

Possible answer: Have both workers pasture the horse, then both move onto the forest next turn. We'll make up the wasted worker turn by whipping out the next worker from Scales a turn earlier due to Corn+Horse giving 10food-hammers. But then we're left with a 3/4 built cottage south of Scales. Of course it's one turn shy

[pindicator]

All-in chariot rush? I could have 4 chariots in 5 turns. 6 in 6t. Probably a bit late but it does make one think about going Archery - HBR next

[pindicator]

Turn 045

Sorry, a little behind on my updates. But nothing crazy has happened.



Out west Cyneheard is going for the strong Horse/Clam/Gem location. And that really narrow isthmus means guess which way he'll be expanding folks? If you guessed towards me then you're correct. Nothing I can do but thumb my nose at the mapmaker's sense of balance and press on.



I did pasture the horses, as that move will gain me a lot of food and production in the turns ahead. Production is easy enough to see. But food is because the combination of Corn+Horse gives me 10 hammers into a worker in a single turn, meaning I could whip this turn for 2 and get worker number three out next turn.

Next turn we're going to whip the capital for 2 and get settler #3 out. City #3 due in 3 turns.

[pindicator]

Turn 047

I guess I missed turn 46 in all the server issues.



City #3 comes next turn! If there's a lucky panther on the cow tile then do I win the Commodore award? Or does it have to be losing my first settler to animals?

[Ceiliazul]

naw, panthers cant enter borders... if there was a horse archer there it wouldnt be weed, it'd be ISDG level barb luck!