[SPOILERS] Will: Thread title to be decided

[WilliamLP]

Elkad settled his city. And he is moving one spear visible as a reinforcement. Shock axe vs shock spear, I won, and with 0 damage taken. This is awfully unlucky for him.

Cheju Elkad chopped into Cheju this turn but without math I don't think he can even get an archer out this turn. Needless to say, I'm sure he wishes he still had his axe defender that I sniped after the reload fiasco. Defending an axe pair with spears doesn't really work out so well in this game.

I settled Dolor as a mediocre city because it can get off the ground fairly quickly sharing sheep. I debated trying to settle more forward (even re-settling the Cheju site), but it just feels like too much of an overextension with two hostile borders.

International news:
- Rusten is spamming wonders I guess.
- Xenu seems to have gotten Pyramids.
- Harry's resources show up in his diplo screen, which presumably means he researched Sailing.
- OT4E took a city from German Joey! I still haven't contacted him but this is one bloody region.

[WilliamLP]

Elkad simply abandoned his new city, so it was razed.

I might be able to settle the spot myself in several turns but I'm a little wary of overextending vs Harry. Though I still suspect offense vs an Aggressive civ isn't something he wants to tie himself up with quite yet.

Elkad is very much on the back foot now. I don't see anything but spears in Pusan and he'll need to get something in there that can defend 2 axes in the next two turns. I'd be surprised if he can't though, unless he's severely tied up to the south.

[WilliamLP]

No surprise, Elkad is bringing defenders, a pretty decent stack with 4 axes actually. It won't be enough for an offensive threat though. I offered 10 turns of peace if he wants it. I'm not sure if he will.

Shot of my mediocre empire:

As you can see I've invested pretty heavily in a long diagonal road for reinforcement and potential combat manoeuvres someday.

I'm not sure where to go after Math. Either straight for Construction or perhaps to grab Sailing and / or Masonry first. Probably sailing to get an island city or two up and overseas trade routes. Though if I'm going to have one more shot at an attack on Harry, a sudden timing move with catapults on Dragon Age would be it.

I'm not sure where my next settler goes. Getting the forward base vs Elkad would be nice (if possible) but I also badly need the additional happy cap from gems.

[WilliamLP]

I'm not reporting much because my empire is pretty boring now. I'm filling in my land, basically. I'll settle the island by Elkad next turn. And... it looks like I'm in a settle race with Harry for the other island to the north that might come down to one turn!

I suspect you can follow the situation better in Harry and Fintourist's thread, but I see a galley of his, and a settler on land. I'd be one turn behind him settling the island if I assume he has no settler on the boat right now.

I won't bother with the tactical run-down because I'm not all that invested in this game. But this is another situation where if I lose the site, it's simply because I was out-played. I certainly could have shuffled micro around to get it earlier.

[WilliamLP]

I don't know that I have anything to report that wouldn't be better reported in Harry's thread at this point...

I got the island site to the north, my archer and 2 spears on the island were enough to make it impossible for Harry to settle, in time for my own settler.

I'm at the point in this game where my economy is crashed, breakeven is between 20-30% beakers. I am getting some mileage out of Agg's reduced maintenance though!

Harry has Alphabet, Metal Casting up on me (at least). I asked him for open borders but there's zero chance he'd give it to me for less than a very steep price, and he doesn't have currency to trade gold yet. He now gets his power spike as Ind with the cheap forges. I think I can still fight for the seas though, since I have a good network of coastal cities now and galleys can still fight triremes with numbers and tactics.

Elkad has Currency, which is a shame.

I'm just starting to work on getting a great scientist for the academy but it will be quite a ways away. I'm in some danger of being backward soon.

I haven't started Moai yet, but I probably should, even without stone.

I was hoping a scouting workboat would find someone with Alphabet on the coast, that hasn't happened yet. I don't remember if a trade route can connect along coast to another player through Elkad, when he is neutral but has closed borders. If it can, there's a chance I could still scout someone.

My west work boat scout ran into a block from Harry's culture, so I just deleted it. (I don't think there's any actual chance to get open borders from him.)

I think my only long term game plan is to survive, then tech to Samurai and hope that Elkad isn't equipped enough to defend. But it's not a good sign that he's ahead of me on tech right now.

What I'm wondering right now is, can I afford to tech currency or alphabet without better military tech first. Harry has a ton of production now, and they're spending a lot of considered time on each turn, certainly more than I am. So whatever he'd come with it would be tactically prepared and maybe brilliant. The only thing going for me is that I still might be harder to conquer than OT4E would be for Harry, similar to the joke about putting on running shoes not to outrun the bear but to outrun the other guy.

So many techs I need like, right now.

Alphabet: Harry is just not going to give me open borders when it's such an asymmetrical gain for me vs him. He already has foreign overseas trade routes, surely. I'm not even sure Elkad would give me open borders, since he already has them with Harry.

Currency: This is probably my next tech, unless I convince myself I need a military tech first to defend against what Harry could throw at me.

Iron: It would be really nice to uncover the resource at least.

HBR: This is one option to defend against an army that includes catapults.

Construction: This is the other defensive option. I don't think there's much I can do with them on offense right now though. Except maybe to throw a blitz at Elkad and hope he isn't prepared.

Monarchy: Happy cap is a big problem. And I don't even have extra happy resources to trade. Hereditary Rule would be nice here and I do have wines.

Calendar: I have two calendar resources available, silk and incense. No extras to trade though, sadly. Equally sad that Harry grabbed the contested dyes.

So... I don't know, I guess I have a few more turns to decide what to do since my econ is so bad.

I've met a few more contacts including Xenu, German Joey, and someone else I forgot, haha. I don't know much about what's going on in the world, but from CivStats it looks like the third green player (B4ndit) is about to be eliminated. Joining this game as a green would be some shark infested waters for sure.

[Mardoc]

I don't know that I have anything to report that wouldn't be better reported in Harry's thread at this point...

Obviously I can't speak to anything specific, but I do appreciate what you've given us lurkers!  There is information that Harry hasn't provided us.

[WilliamLP]

Here is a turn 100 overview. My corner of the world:

I've been spamming cottages lately to try to dig out of my economic hole. I had to pull out a few stops to settle Hi My Name Is on the north island, which has delayed my development to the north, but it was clearly worth it.

There are a couple positives in my position. I have an extremely defensible border. And I have 8 strong coastal cities, which is a lot compared to Elkad and Harry. I don't really fear triremes very much. Hi My Name Is will be a very tough nut to crack, if Harry has these ambitions. Right now I have 2 axes, 2 spears, and an archer in it, and I'm working on a navy. It's not clear that it will be worthwhile for Harry to invest much in the seas at all here.

My big problem is still Harry having settled Dragon Age, winning stone and dyes. Elkad's plant of Hyangsan will eventually win marble, but man, it's a very poor city otherwise. Annoyingly, I'm now sealed off from trade contact with OT4E to the southwest.

I feel like I'm going to be in a defender's role for the rest of this game, most probably. Elkad popped a great scientist a couple turn ago, and he's ahead of me in science, though not in number of cities. Still, this is a defender's game and you need more than a small advantage to conquer land. It's feeling unlikely that I can make much noise with Samurai here.

I'm probably going Currency next. Since I have two island cities, the second trade route will be worth 2 commerce in every city. Though, I have a serious long term problem with being cut off from the world. Harry isn't going to give me open borders. I'm not sure if Elkad would give me them or sell me them. He might, since it would be to his advantage to acquire foreign intercontinental trade routes. But still, I think that's too much of a risk to go Alphabet first.

Here are my military stats:

I just scouted one of Donovan Zoi's cities to the south. But, now I know I'm not going to get a trade connection with him without open borders with Elkad.

Demos:

I'm best described at being in the lower middle of the pack by most measures.

In a large game like this, the eventual leaders have already conquered a neighbor. Obviously, I'll have no ability to do that soon. Elkad has proven to be far more solid than I was hoping. I guess there aren't really too many true Civ 4 noobs who still play the game in 2018.

Brightest spot of my graphs:

My production is lagging behind though, compared to Harry with IND forges.

[WilliamLP]

Death, taxes, and turn timer drama. Up to me we'd just play on if someone doesn't ask for a pause. It's just not that hard to post a request in the IT thread. Is it fair? Nope! But the idea that these are perfectly fair symmetrical contests of pure skill is silly in the first place. Do you think it's fair to start between Mackoti and TBS vs starting next to a green who doesn't know to build worker first?

As with PB18, I think it's inevitable that we'll move to a 2-day timer eventually. A person with any sort of life just can't expect to play a complex and tense turn in the civ middlegame within any arbitrary moving 12 hour window.

Anyway, I'm trying to think of some game plan that will make this game more interesting for myself than just trying not to be too backward and surviving, but coming up with nothing. I have half a mind to go for HBR next and just whip a ton of HAs, but Elkad and certainly Harry are astute enough to watch the power graph and flood their border cities with spears.

I turned on science for Currency. I should have had my scientist out by now, but I started far too late, sloppy play. I'm starting to work on Moai without stone, but it will be a while.

Confucianism fell, I'm surprised it took this long! I'm wishing I would have gone for this through the Priesthood path instead of Math. Another nutty plan for me would be to try and spawn a prophet to bulb Theology but I think it's too late to have a chance at this.

I just met 2metraninja, last place in score, but he has 12 cities. He must just be extremely backward in tech. I don't think there are any low hanging fruit left in this game, as far as greener players who can be picked off for their land.

[WilliamLP]

It's the turn to re-offer 10 turns of peace with Elkad. Things are a little tense:

I see a Hwacha and 6 axes. Conveniently I have much better vision into his territory than he into mine. I don't have that much ready to meet this, but I don't think he'd be able to take a city yet (need more siege). So I'm pretty sure this is a defensive army and he doesn't intend to attack. If he were intending to he'd surely have a road 1NE of Hyangsan or two combat workers ready at least? I dry whipped walls in Ipsum just in case (so that I could dry whip an axe with 3 pop next turn if I really have to) but I wonder if I needed to at all.

Anyway if he doesn't attack (most likely) I'm going to have to be pretty careful next cycle.

I think OT4E may have taken a city off of Joey unless I was mis-remembering CivStats. This is quite possible, I'm not really paying such close attention to this game right now.

[WilliamLP]

I'm not sure I'm delighted to be playing in two PB games at once right now.

I felt forced to research Construction while seeing Elkad and Harry grow power. I'll finish it next turn though I'd rather have Monarchy or Calendar to help me keep in the race a little bit. I've seen Hwachas and elephants from Elkad, and I'm prepared to throw a lot of junk in his way if he makes a move from the south. I'm less prepared for an orchestrated assault on my north side from Harry but I think it's unlikely, it's just too much culture to wade into for him without very good vision.

It looks like OT4E is being dogpiled! Harry captured a city and Elkad razed one within the last two turns. And his Civstats looks like he's whipping for total war. So from the point of view of just wanting to stick around a while, hopefully this buys me enough time to build some cats and get to longbows.

My scouting work boat has had interesting adventures to the south. I've run into the mighty empire of Mackoti (who let my work boat live! Even though I declared and moved next to a galley in his borders. Such a nice fellow. ) And I also see Mr. Cairo down there. Mack has basically twice the cities vs the players in my side of the world and so is probably the favorite to win this game. (Being arguably the Civ GOAT doesn't hurt.)

I finally spawned my scientist, right as soon as I've finished Construction and need to save cash again. Great timing... Yes I've done a lot of sloppy stuff in this game.

Provided I can avoid getting killed, happy cap is currently my big problem and I'm thinking toward Monarchy after Construction.