[SPOILERS] Stonehenge First: scooter's thread

[scooter]

Not sure the odds favored you (although I suppose you could now just check the combat log), even with the river bonus. It's 4 vs. 5 + 10% + 25% +25% -100% = 4 vs. 5 /(1+.40) = 4 vs. 3.57...

Yep, you're right. I didn't feel like doing the math. Checked the combat log and it was 70%.

[scooter]

T64-65 draws first major blood

First off, Commodore is being annoying still. (scientist has got to me Mr Mids I'd think)



Picked off an axe . Should not have put them there. I moved them 1S and added an extra axe. I want 2 axes in my stack before I move onto the fur and try to reconnect it. THen I may just chop the dang thing and be done with it. Also, before I get to the exciting stuff... Houston, we have a problem:



Um, that was supposed to be Code of Laws. That's what I get for consulting the tech list late at night. Well, this is a setback in that Monarchy is just so important to me and this nixes the artist bulb plan. However, I can adapt a bit. Theology is more expensive, gives me a third religion (culture win anyone?), which means 3 SPI temples to spread around for 3 happy. It also means I've got first dibs on the Apostolic Palace which I think I'm interested in. I realize it doesn't pay back quite as easily on a tight map where I have fewer cities, but given what I'm likely to be building, I think it's worth it for me. Anyways, I'll explain what I'm going to do great people-wise next, but let's get to the fun stuff. First, I came SO close to actually getting this last turn and not this turn:



Explanation time. First, ignore the movement path and focus on the signs. I put the chariots on that tile the turn before. It looks more like a reaction to the spears than anything, so he didn't seem too concerned. He probably thought I was noodling about going at the 2-for-1 on the Spear trying to get the workers, but that was not the plan at all. On this turn I was able to get the road under the chariots and 1/2 a road on the tile 1E of the ivory, but I could not get a worker to the 2nd road. So sad. So I decided that, just in case he leaves it with just one Vulture again, I'd set myself up (see the hidden workeres up above). 35% odds on the first attack means I'd surely get it on the 2nd attack. Open the save and nothing has changed! First attack loses as expected, second:



Jackpot. Again, I fully believe the value of fast workers for me will be bigger on the military side than the economic side. The tactical options are just unreal on such a tight map.



There's no way I can actually keep this city, but the 16 raze gold is glorious as is the ability to totally lock down this area culturally. Seriously, look at this:



That's a lot of time Britta is pouring double-digit culture into those tiles. Also, I've left AT with a decision here. Unless he has chariots in the fog (very possible), the only unit he can hit with here is a spear. That means either my chariot or my workers should survive. If he goes for the workers, he can only delete them because my axe will clean up. If he goes for my chariot (as expected), that means I don't have to lose any workers for my trouble. One thing I really failed to do was to scout with my guerilla archer (1S then back 1N onto the forest hill). That was just a total brain fart. Not that it matters that much, but it would have been nice.

So that's that. Pindicator getting frisky:



I don't think he knows I can see that chariot. I back my worker up and move the Spear into Jeff. I can use the Spear to cover the workers and get rid of that terrifying forest. Also, I seriously cannot believe his settler is so wide open like that. He's pretty safe because the river would break up any chariot moves, but it's still kind of risky. Anyways, bulbed Theo as well:



Ok, so new plan:



Swap over to a Priest and build a temple to run another priest. That should give me fairly good Priest odds. Then I'm going to try to get Judaism into here and build a third temple so I can run a bunch of priests. Should also raise my happy cap. Yay Spiritual? I'll either bulb Monarchy or CoL with the prophet should I get it. If I get a scientist I'll just be upset.

The one problem I'm facing is I can actually tech if I want to because I have Libraries and thus scientists everywhere. However, I don't really want great scientists right now. The academy is nearly pointless (for now) given that I don't know how to turn the slider above 0. The bulb list is uninspiring - Maths and Alphabet at the moment. I may want one eventually for a Philosophy bulb, but that's a little ways down the road. So yeah, weird spot.

[scooter]

Ah I see. So you're saying I need to raze a city in order for the lurker thread to light up. Message received.

[Merovech]

Ah I see. So you're saying I need to raze a city in order for the lurker thread to light up. Message received.

[NobleHelium]

Not sure the odds favored you (although I suppose you could now just check the combat log), even with the river bonus. It's 4 vs. 5 + 10% + 25% +25% -100% = 4 vs. 5 /(1+.40) = 4 vs. 3.57...

Shock does not work on Chariots.

By the way I've always said that I want to play India eventually because of combat workers more than anything else.

[Merovech]

Shock does not work on Chariots.

River + Hill

[NobleHelium]

Yeah I keep thinking river is 20%. I blame FFH having it as 40%.

[scooter]

So I just realized something. My attack was sneakier than I originally thought .



I was actually assuming he could see my chariots here, but on further review, I don't know why. He clearly cannot see them because he has no hills on his border. I was so surprised that this worked (AT has been paying pretty good attention so I didn't expect him to just miss it), so I was looking it over again this morning and it clicked that he could not see those chariots. My side of the border has a hill so I have extra visibility on him, but it just completely slipped my mind that he does not have a hill on his border, so there's no way he could see those chariots. Sorry AT , had to go for that one. Losing the city itself is a minor setback - it's just a new sz3 and he's got improvements there already. The main problem is this is extra turns my stonehenge city is pumping culture onto those tiles. That's really painful for him, as those are "his" tiles pretty clearly. My one fear is that I could make an enemy here and he could go for revenge. We'll see though, surely this won't be the last city lost in this game. LOS rules are so critical for this kind of game. I'd really like to see some of the MP guys like sunrise play in a game like this, I think this is really suited to his strengths.

One interesting note here - the lack of the 3 city rule and the ban on culture bombs is really increasing skirmish options. 34V broke down a little after the opening skirmishes because cultural borders became established and all cities were spaced apart due to the limit on cities, meaning it was virtually impossible to 1-move somebody. We don't have that problem here. I can easily reach Pindicator if I commit to it, I could even 1-move Commodore in theory, though his defenses are far too strong for that at the moment. I also have the "Cheat Workers" as Commodore put it which increases my options even further. It's fun. Now I need to make sure nobody does this to me. I'm mostly safe due to spamming culture in all my cities, but Jeff is a little exposed. Fixing that is a priority.

One particularly fun thing right now is that Pindicator did not play late last night, and Pindicator comes after me in the order, which means everyone is nervously awaiting the save to see if it was them that lost it. Commodore anxiously poked me on chat a few minutes ago to ask if it was him. He said he was pretty sure it wasn't him, but he wanted confirmation. Pindicator seems to think it's him in the banter thread (and holding the turn probably makes everyone think this is true), and AT surely knows he left a city on the lake with just 1 vulture in it, so yeah, everyone is on pins and needles right now.

[scooter]

T66-67 gets concerned about GNP

Getting visibility on AT's capital:



My surviving workers!



Why in the world did he bother attacking with the chariot first? This makes no sense to me. The spear on wounded chariot attack is > 90% odds IIRC, whereas he "lost" the chariot but was bailed out by a withdraw. This is so bizarre to me. Rationale here is what exactly? Literally the only thing I can figure is he was going for a Heroic Epic unit or something (I don't remember if it was promo'd or not), but surely you'd want to get there in a way MUCH less risky than this one. I dk. Anyways, on T67 I saw this and decided to back away from AT:



Now, I could have just fortified. A Hills2 archer on a forest hill would take all 3 units to kill it probably. But honestly, I just razed AT's city so I don't want to press my luck and make a permanent enemy or anything. I mean, like he said it's AW so what do you expect, but still. Trying to be careful. New plan in Troy going into effect:



Hopefully a prophet? Demos:



Hooking up the fur was big this turn btw. Also, I'm pretty proud of being tied for 1st in land area as the only non-CRE civ. At least that part of my plan was worked properly. Hopefully I can keep it that way. GNP is starting to concern me. Quick look at Commodore:



I'm impressed that AT appears to be right with him here. I should note about my GNP that I've been at 0% for like 20 turns so I'm not actually sure what's causing my spiking . And yes that Commodore spike is horrifying. We are all screwed. Also, Mids lets him do this:



Size 12 city. Dogpile anyone?

[scooter]

Oh, and on the banter thread thing, if ANY of you even THINK about telling the other players that my Theology bulb was a screwup in planning and not step 1 of some evil plan then I will kill you. Let them find out after I've won anyways.