Third time's the charm - Mardoc plays the Pirates [SPOILER]

[Mardoc]

And here's our fledgling empire!


I think that I do want to try for the Human Genome Project. We need health regardless, and a Great Person or two would be quite handy, as well. Looking at the demos, we're in pretty good shape, so it's fairly likely we can win a race.

[Mardoc]

Just some exploration this turn. We did at least find a number of good resources, either available now or within one tech.

I'm going to swing the northern and southern boats around east, to explore the land to our east. Hopefully we find a good food source near the silver/monolith!


Two sources of DNA: unfortunately we need a tech to hook up the Rare Ocean DNA. But I'm pretty sure it's only one.


Nothing in particular, just the discovery of a spawning spot we should destroy.



Jackpot! Coral Reef, +1 health, unlocked at Algaculture (the yellow spiky). Methane Ice, +1 health, unlocked at Doctrine Initiative (the pink thing); D:I is the tech that unlocks Mining Platforms and submarines, so it won't be long delayed. And a nutrient and an energy bonus, and a mineral bonus on a trench!

The main debate in my mind is: do we jump straight for one of these sites with the first Sea Pod? Probably the southern one, if we did. Lots of good tiles to work, useful resources (we really need the health boosts). But at the same time, lots of distance from our core, so it would need its own garrison rather than sharing. Not much fungus, so we'd be pushing on the limits of Planet happiness *already*.

The alternative is to grow more organically, grab a site with a lot of fungus primarily for planet happiness and contiguous borders, and settle the nicer site next.

In any case, I think I'm changing my mind again on the subject of the Human Genome Project. Much better to spend those 200 hammers on a pair of colony pods and a former, now that we've found some sites worth grabbing.

[Mardoc]

All right! Two turns today, and the day's still young, at that.
More scouting:


So far, pretty standard - decent, but nothing really standout. But then I moved the southern ship a little bit further, and discovered this area's a veritable treasure-house!


I think it's clear that this is the direction our first set of Sea pods needs to go, perhaps something like this:

It's a little bit of a stretch, with the 3rd city borders needing 3rd ring from either the capital or itself before they touch, but it's not unreasonable. And although maintenance will be expensive, these extra Energy bonuses ought to more than pay for the cities

Finally, the demos so far. You can see that we're doing pretty darn well. It appears we're the only ones emphasizing energy at the moment - which, well, makes sense given that our options for improvements are +Energy or +Energy. I suspect that we'll be able to stay ahead, though, once we start planting Biodomed Kelp. It appears that Sian has already managed to grow: pretty good for the fourth turn we've played! I think that's possible if he had two Formers out of his supply pods and immediately improved something like rainy DNA for 4 food. And if he doesn't have so much Fungus that he's unhealthy at size 1 like Dreadnought is

[Merovech]

Why not the third city where the rover is? Too far of a reach? Not going to be able to work all of its good tiles?

[Mardoc]

Why not the third city where the rover is? Too far of a reach? Not going to be able to work all of its good tiles?

A little from column A, a lot from column B. It is a reach, especially for the early game where I want to be sharing Formers between cities and defending with a central force. But that could be dealt with, just need to build more foils and formers. And, granted, saving a colony pod could help pay for the extra units.

It's the tiles question that's dominant, though. If I put a city there, it'd have six tiles I want to work ASAP, maybe more if there's anything good in the fogged BFC tiles. My current happiness cap is 4, and my health cap is - well, for that site, about 2, given the amount of fungus. And the Planet cap is ~3. All of those will be improving, of course, but not super quickly. Plus, only two of those tiles have any food surplus attached, so to grow to work them all I'd need either a lot of time, or to spend turns working Kelp instead of the good tiles. Neither idea is particularly attractive.

So I'd prefer to split it up into two sites, and if I'm already splitting it, we can address the reach question simultaneously by putting the first city at the far northern edge of the awesomeness.

[Mardoc]

Dang it, Thoth, what are you guys discussing over there?

The awesome music Pirates get?

How to talk like a Pirate?

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfYoymsfTpA"]
Both?[/url]

Or one of those other factions?

[Mardoc]

Another day, another turn. I could get used to a group as clockwork as this

Anyway, more scouting is all I really have to report.

To the east, we've found some food for the inland spot; I definitely think it'll be worth knocking out some land units to grab the silver + monolith. I don't have a date in mind yet, though. That said - given that Dreadnought is already at its health cap, so it's not really worth growing yet, perhaps we simply start on our land former now? And plan to follow it up with a colony pod immediately?



To the west we've got no new resources found, just a large expanse of Shelf. Boohoo, tiles that will be 3/1/2 or 2/3/0 with a smidgen of work... . Starting to think that with the Piratey bonuses, there's basically no ocean tile not worth working - we can get any and every non-trench tile to 2+ food, and they all have something extra on top - a hammer, some energy, more food. And Kelp makes it easy to get a food surplus, so the trenches are worth working too. Given our city size limits, that means - Bigger, I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed. I'm thinking we need to pack them in tight! Well - with the possible exception of grabbing the resources to the south early - but we can leave spots in the dotmap empty and fill them in later, I suppose.

And to the south we've got...company. Our first targets! [SIZE="4"]I mean, uh, contacts[/SIZE]. I certainly intend to test out just how much the Pirate pillaging bonus is, but of course we can't at the moment, not until we either colonize down here or research some transports.


In the process - oh, man, the south is ridiculously awesome. I'm thinking we may need to revise the dotmap again, to pack it in even tighter.



So...yeah. Looking at this map so far I'm getting reminded of FFH PBEMXVI - we want a million settlers, with adequate worker support and garrisons, and we want them yesterday Why? Well, because ocean tiles for us are grassland+, really. And we've got boosted Build Energy, too. And free specialists.

[Mardoc]

Man, at the rate these turns are coming in, I'm tempted to slow up my reporting to every other turn or something.

More scouting, including the discovery, finally, of resources that we can actually hook up with our current tech level (the Algae and the Thorium) .




And...I'm already to a point where I'm uncertain on the best path. I've got a tentative dotmap for the southern ocean, including order we should probably settle these dots. What I'm debating on is twofold: where do the other dots fit into this order, and what's the fastest way to actually get these all built?

Other dots: well, there's the land colony we want, the Algae/Thorium would be excellent for boosting health,

Although I'm tempted to simply have Dreadnought start directly on a Sea Colony Pod, spending the 16 turns it takes, I think it needs to grow first. It's only at net 5 hpt; if we grow to size four and work the Brilliance + 3 Trenches, we'd be at net 11 hpt, and a lot of Energy produced as well. Which means we need a Bio Lab, and probably a Hydro Plant afterward.

It's frustrating - I'd much rather boost the health by simply connecting up new resources. But I think there are too many techs we need for that to really work well. Not least - enough of the Planet line to be confident in defending against Isles. But also the unlocks for the majority of the resources we've already got, and Doctrine: Initiative to build some Mining Platforms.

And for quick teching - REX won't help there. We need to grow onto our energy tiles for that.

[Merovech]

It's pretty awesome that you're only a few turns it and you already have 7(?) new city spots picked out!

[Mardoc]

It's pretty awesome that you're only a few turns it and you already have 7(?) new city spots picked out!

I'm just worried my reach might exceed my grasp!

I'll admit, Deep Radar Foils can scout an awful lot of territory, awfully quickly. The real trick is going to be coming up with the colony pods and formers and garrisons.