[spoilers]Commodore is Darius II of the HRE, now with less excuse.

[Ceiliazul]

Polytheism is nice, if an awesome dedlurker of mine would be able to C&D for old time's sake and I could be confident of landing it..

And, I'm not sure you'll get any boost for 1 known civ. It's only 6%, so you need at least ~15 base commerce for it to have an impact... I think.

Also, yay foody copper!

[Commodore]

Welcome to the new dotmap; same great taste as the old dotmap, now with 50% less fat.



Obviously, Green Copper location is what the settler goes for. Probably the next one goes to the purple Fishy McFisherplace, unless I move towards grabbing the rust dot SE.

[Ceiliazul]

Probably the next one goes to the purple Fishy McFisherplace, unless I move towards grabbing the rust dot SE.

Yellow should move 1E to hit the hill and claim copper. And it should be city #3 unless it's right on someone's doorstep.

If you can settle and defend yellow hill (which has to be approaching the center of the map) you're in good shape to get the rest. Rust, on the other hand, is almost as isolated and gets less benefits.

Fish purple dot needs more scouting before you settle it. The Catwalk maneuver leads to disaster.

[Commodore]

Yellow should move 1E to hit the hill and claim copper. And it should be city #3 unless it's right on someone's doorstep.

If you can settle and defend yellow hill (which has to be approaching the center of the map) you're in good shape to get the rest. Rust, on the other hand, is almost as isolated and gets less benefits.

Rust's (which is pinkish, I now see two rusty-looking things...I was talking about the spot 3SE of the capital) main benefit is that eventually it'll be an amazing cottage capital, and a lumberjack operation will leave us with insane hammer totals. I do want those gems online post-haste though. What is odd to me is that east of those grassland cows there is the suggestion of coast, which is weird. I need more eyes on that sector before deciding everything, the scout is heading back down there.

Fish purple dot needs more scouting before you settle it. The Catwalk maneuver leads to disaster.

No worries! I'm not going to be planting anything blind. The good news is the same capital border pop that gets purple's fish in-borders also lets us use the plains hill to scout westward.

[Ceiliazul]

I was talking about the spot 3SE of the capital) main benefit is that eventually it'll be an amazing cottage capital, and a lumberjack operation will leave us with insane hammer totals.

Good news on the scouting. We were talking about the same rust spot (3SE) and I still recommend yellow first. I didn't realize there was a hint o' coast by the cow though, that is an important detail.

I'd like to suggest an overall motto for this outing: be defensively offensive. Instead of aggressive warfare, settle aggressively and make them come for you. For this crowd, especially Yuri and Gaspar, I feel they are slow to react to long term threats... pink dotting may be rewarded against them. Less so against MistItch and OleDavy.

[Commodore]

Lunch turn, awesome Yuri is awesome. First bit of news; someone as been whippy, killing off a lot of people. It will surprise no veteran of Civilization 1 that the prime suspect is Gandhi. GNP shows nobody teching on any commerce tiles yet, so looks like Plako put the kibosh on capital gems or gold.



Those demo numbers for us are a lie, I swapped painfully off of the deer. Worth it for the turn-early settler, and no I didn't feel secure enough to just blythely make the settler without polishing off the warrior.

Good news on the scouting. We were talking about the same rust spot (3SE) and I still recommend yellow first. I didn't realize there was a hint o' coast by the cow though, that is an important detail.

I'd like to suggest an overall motto for this outing: be defensively offensive. Instead of aggressive warfare, settle aggressively and make them come for you. For this crowd, especially Yuri and Gaspar, I feel they are slow to react to long term threats... pink dotting may be rewarded against them. Less so against MistItch and OleDavy.

I agree, and so it shall be. I turned back to avoid contact with Gaspar, but alas, 'twas not to be. Hi there, friend!



First contact! Several very interesting things to note:

1. The warrior came from that desert hill, so he knows about the great waste...does he also, however, know about the marble hill about halfway in between our capitals?

2. Ouch, that's sad copper, but it's close...I wouldn't be shocked if the fundamentally cautious Gaspar settled for it soon, particularly given my...reputation.

3. I am mousing over the grass hill just east of Gaspar's warrior. It's a shoreline, but note the lack of freshwater. This might be one of those weirder pangaeas.

4. Gaspar, no doubt with Noble's influence, is going for a Diablo theme. Only Blizzard IP I've never really gotten into.

[Commodore]

Well darn. The coast isn't sea but apparently the Great Salt Lake. At least I think so...but if so it's an even weirder shape than I thought. This many lakes does mean the script isn't "solid", either pressed or natural shoreline nets this...probably pressed given no islands. I'll be shadowing Gaspar's warrior, as that would be rather unpleasant to find next door just as I settled the copper city.



Someone else finally has more food online...maybe size-3 Yuri. Gaspar is oddly not doing massively better at the moment, I believe he went worker, worker, so that's to be expected. The GNP is going to be a depressing stat for a while, given Yuri went Fishing first, I expect he's getting a boost from hooked seafood.



Stupid Financial. Someone should nerf it!

[Commodore]

I love it when a plan comes together. Next turn, swap to BW, then it's time to churn out another worker, barring unfriendly warriors.



And on that note, why not test to see if we do have unfriendly pinkos? Call it an olive branch; if they chose to kill the scout on flatland, they are a tile further from the critical copper settlement, and we know they are hostile. If they don't, well, there is at least the possibility of working together.



In a no-island game like this, those foreign trade routes are more important than ever. That's the only way to get +2 trade routes this side of a huge city. Which is apparently Yuri's answer, by the way. Good grief man, are you going for the earliest Stonehenge ever?



We need to axe rush him, obviously.

[Commodore]

Well we're rapidly reaching the point where my efforts at gleaning anything from demos are completely pointless. Davy whipped a settler and founded a city, and its Gaspar/Noble that are sitting at size 1 alone now. I suspect they also whipped a settler, one or two turns ought to show us.



I know about Dave's city from the diplo screen. Hai ther, Davy! My warrior didn't have to go very far to find the southern neighbor. Kaidan, for reals though? I thought about naming our warrior "Ashley Williams" or, more menacingly, "Virmire", but I'll keep to my convention. I sat on Davy's warrior, so a DoW ought to bump him back one. I doubt he'll declare war, though.



I dare not go much further south, because Gaspar is beelining my home. If I follow Ceil's crazy gems-grab plan, I'll need some escorts. Fishing would be nice, Pottery would be lovely, but if we're going for Mr. Azul's madness, AH is what we have to do. Just go away, Gaspar.



A prickly reputation helps less than you'd think.

[Commodore]

I more or less just assume Gaspar is going to beline my core, so I veer Pete southward. Might as well complete the contact set and get really behind on the EP curve for my sins. The scout sure is finding a lot of nice territory.



Thus far the pack is pretty darned packy, with nobody really showing an insane snowball yet. Gaspar is sitting on two cities now with Old Ruins joining New Tristam in his menagerie.



We're sitting pretty on two cities now ourselves, with Oasis claiming rice and copper. The chop will go into a worker, while obviously The Bun is making a worker too. Need to run this crap hard to make up for the slow slow Darius start. Also note Dave's warrior under my warrior, sadly I'll need to divert north to wrangle the incoming Gaspar mob.



So! Meet Oasis. Gymnastic assassin, immortal, shares wet wheat with The Bun. Chopping/whipping a worker, then growing on a warrior, then a work boat, then at size three or four pushing out a settler. I am so very pleased to have this city. Might work on the Great Wall after the settler if I get my timing right.



Next time on HRE: [strike]Yukon[/strike]Southward Ho!