[SPOILERS] Serdoa plays in PBEM46

[Serdoa]

Well, I guess I really need to get dedicated lurkers or teammates as I starts to get boring to talk with myself :P

Anyhow, we have played a few more turns, up to T36 by now. I have added another city last turn and will get my 4th on T39. Overview shot of my lands:



I need to get more workers, as I am really low on them right now. Unfortunately I do have several competing priorities here. Getting a galley, getting spears, getting another city, gettings spears, getting more workers, gettings spears, getting Granaries, gettings spears... did I mention getting spears? Azza most certainly is working on HBR, no other reason he hasn't gotten a tech since 8 turns. He should get it latest T38/T39 I guess. He did settle his second city really late and I expect for horses, so that will give me a little breathing room, as he needs to get at least another city setup before he starts building Keshiks in mass. He also really should get Barracks and Ger tbh. Or start with CHA and only get Gers... not sure what CRE does him good tbh with that tactic, FIN I can barely see. Though even FIN seems like a waste. Of course he has a little bit more research at the start, but only like 2-3 more commerce / turn. And only 1 from T15 - T20/T25. So, in total maybe 30 commerce more. Saves him 2 turns of research at best would be my guess. But of course, what else would be better? Probably nothing tbh. Maybe EXP if he goes for really fast Granaries to whip more troops. Not sure and won't use the time to actually sim it out.

However, him going down that route will certainly give this game an interesting drift. It is kinda similar to what Commodore did in PBEM32, gunning for very early Cataphracts. Of course those are much more of a threat than Keshiks, as we would have at best had LBs to defend against them, making it nearly impossible to attack them. Keshiks on the other hand can be attacked with Spears. You just need to get next to them. Sure they can ignore terrain, so you can annoy your opponent a great deal with them. But they still lose horribly against Spears.

Thats why my third city is on the spot it is on. 1S would probably have been better long term, but I could save a turn for settling, can save 1 or 2 turns to grow and will therefore overall have a stronger early city. I should reach size 5 on T49, which means overall 3 turns to grow for each pop point, having only the fish as food resource. Thats fine with me. At that point it will have a Granary, LH and produced a Galley for an overseas city (there seems to be a bigger island directly east of the city). Potentially I can whip it earlier for 4-5 spears instead of LH, Galley instead if necessary. My new city should have spear latest T43/T44 and I might get Archers as well.

Funnily enough, Azza is scouting me right now (I wonder why...) so I hope him seeing me getting Copper will make him re-evaluate who is his best target. Not sure where the other two settled, but OH got a third city as well last turn, so he probably got his copper as well. THH is behind in city count and that might actually open a window for an attack, depending on where he settled. And of course if they realize the threat Azza is.

Ok, enough about that. What will I do? As I wrote, I'll get my 4th city soon, with gems, cow, sheep, marble and able to take the already netted crabs. That will be a potentially unsafe city due to Azza, so I'll have to get several defenders in there. But that should be doable. The city itself shouldn't cost me much at all as soon as the gems are connected and worked as that will provide 8 commerce and I assume the costs to be around 5-6 gold. Next city after that will be the overseas city, again not costing me anything. Next tech-target has to be Currency of course, and latest with that I should be fine to go on another expansion. And as all that land is not as extremely cottage-friendly as PBEM43 was (quite honestly, without FIN you had lost that game already, as there was no way imo to keep up with the FIN-tech-rate) I am quite certain that others won't expand more than I do. Azza for sure not (I guess 3-4 cities for him before he starts attacking someone). OH might and crash his economy in the process and THH seems not to keen on expansion as he still has not gotten another city.

Back to my own civ... again. I'll also try to get a few more workers. I can actually produce 2 in just 3 turns with a 2-pop whip, just have to utilize it now that I get my Granaries up. Probably will get 4-6 more for now, maybe whipping all 3 cities for them if it seems feasible to do so.

Last, Demos, not really showing anything right now as we are still quite early in the game:



GNP is good as I research a tech with only 1 pre-req and no boni for other civs knowing it. MfG is fine as well. Food is great, last turn I was even more in front with the next best being at 21. I'll lose that soon though, when I double-whip my settler. I should go down to ~26-27. Highest pop is also nice, especially as in this case it also is most pop-points. Again, I'll lose 2 next turn, but that should still be fine and 3 turns later I should be clearly leading hopefully.

Soldiers is kinda funny, because no one has any. If my lists are correct we look at 1-2 warriors at most for everyone. Even a warrior-rush would have screwed over anyone of us. Of course the one doing it would lose as well, so you can be certain it won't happen. But 1-2 chariots could wreak havoc. I'll have my spears soon and won't go and make an enemy, but Azza might to that, just because he is going in the warring direction anyhow.

Questions?

[NobleHelium]

Well you're hard to lurk because you don't update often. It's much better to get a constant stream of updates rather than "there's nothing going on yet" and "okay here's what happened in the last 20 turns." Also, I'm more likely to read people who don't confuse east and west.

In addition, it would have been good be able to fully see your next city location instead of having it described and needing to deduce that it would be taking the marble to the north (in addition to checking the previous page for your bigger map).

[SevenSpirits]

My problem with your reporting is just the screenshot cropping. I can't tell what you are teching or what turn it is in the picture. Can't tell what your tech rate is, or how your score compares to other players. So what's left is hard to evaluate.

[Serdoa]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll try not to confuse east and west anymore NH :P As for the cropping, I did that so that lurkers could see the important bits (or what I thought those were)...

So, updates, should give:

a) overlook over my territory
b) overlook over newly scouted land
c) overview of all my cities
d) demo-screen for comparison-purposes

Did I get that right? I can do that (at least now with only 3 cities). Lets start:

a + b)



Borders popped in my third city and revealed Stone and Incense. That makes it 3 resources (Incense, Dye, Sugar) that need Calendar and give happy. And at least 2 of them will soon be in my borders. Well, I assume 10 turns till I settle that Stone/Incense/Pig-site. Not going to be much quicker as I need to get Workers from the capital first and also the Galley won't be finished earlier. I guess I'll still be the first to settle on an island. Of course, if I whip the Galley instead of a Granary in Umoja and the Settler instead of the Workers in Char I CAN be quicker to settle the Stone. But I don't think there is a good reason to do that. I don't need the Stone immediately as I don't intend to build SH and I don't see anyone going for Pyramids yet (nor be able to finish them without Stone anytime soon). I don't have Calendar either, so the Incense won't be that great (with Calendar though, it will be 2/0/7!). And Hanging Gardens are also nothing that happens in the immediate future.

Also to be seen is my next expansion site. It will have grassland sheep, grassland cow and potentially crabs and should therefore be able to grow reasonably fast. Gems for additional commerce. And Marble for... um, Marble. Also settling southwards is not that great, so I don't expect to run into border issues with Azza due to it. Of course if he spots it, he will still send Keshiks probably. Guess I'll have to be prepared.

And in the left side (west...) of the screenie, you can see Azzas scout next to the Horses. Depending on how he moves on with him, he will see my borders popping and taking the horses. Because having the Holy City of Buddhism in Mar Sara is really a boon, as it helps me getting the horses in my borders without having to build another city just yet for it. 2 turns and I have them. Might as well build a Chariot sometimes IF I can find the worker turns to connect the horses.

c)



Capital. I have worked the 1/2/0 tile to finish the Granary this turn. That costs me 5 commerce in exchange for one hammer, but it will make me grow much faster. I could use some more commerce of course, but I think that was the right decision. Next turn I will work Pig, Wheat, Sheep and grow to 4. The turn after I'll start a worker, whip it on the next turn and with the overflow finish another one the turn after. I am a 3 workers for 3 cities right now (soon 4 cities even) and that will get me to 5 workers on T40. Still not enough, but except for this turn, I am working all the time improved tiles (except for in my newly founded city but thats because it simply wasn't possible to have the tiles pre-improved before settling).




Mar Sara, my second city and the buddhist holy city. Settler will get two-pop-whipped next turn. That way I can overflow directly in a Granary, and only have to grow 2 more turns afterwards before I can do the same worker-whipping as in the capital. Well, I think I can. Depends a little bit. If I whip a worker, will the overflow first be calculated back without the Exp-bonus and then the Exp-bonus gets added on again? Because if so I'll lose a hammer and can't finish 2 workers in 3 turns. If it simply carries over (what I don't expect) I have to see if I can somehow borrow the sheep from the capital again. Then it would also work out to 3 turns.



My third city. Settled on T35 it has already produced at the EOT37 a workboat. That will net the fish next turn, making it grow EOT39. It will start a Granary now, whip that EOT41 and can be size 5 at EOT49 if I so desire. With the food I have I do need 2 turns per pop to grow, so thats the best I could get. I'll probably not whip this city at size 5 but instead work the PH, 2 GH, copper and fish for a total of 16 hammers. Thats 2 turn workers or every 3 turns 2 spears. Good enough for me, as that city is mainly to get copper and a port on the western (!) sea.

d)

Yeah, well. The 54 GNP is most certainly OH researching Writing. He has certainly Pottery and AH as pre-reqs and I am pretty sure also Priesthood (he researched a two-turn tech before and that could only be PH or Masonry with some overflow - more probable is PH imo). Also added are 7.5% bonus for one civ knowing the tech already. So in total up to a 67.5% bonus on his beakers. Also at least 7 culture (5 for holy city Hindu and 2 for palace). That means his actual beaker-count is 25 / turn, probably at max research. Mine is 20 without working the furs which would give 5 more. So nothing to worry about.

As for all the other numbers: Not much changed since last turn so I'll not rewrite that

And please tell me if one of those screenshots is too big for good viewing pleasure please.

[NobleHelium]

They're easily fine for me. You could enlarge them by 60% and I would still be okay.

So that was a good update. Yeah, the worker overflow will be converted to base overflow which will then be reconverted to adjusted hammers in the next worker.

[Serdoa]

Thanks NH.

For turn38, there has not really anything happened that I didn't post last turn that I would do (whip the settler, grow to 4 in the cap, start working the improved fish) so instead of making screenshots that do not show anything new in particular I'll show you my overview-map ... kinda.



Pretty, eh? But it shows pretty good where everyone settled, at least of those I know. I miss the second city of everyone, as I haven't scouted them. I assume that Azza settled for the Horses, THH settled the same Fish/Copper spot I did and OH I have no idea. Either Horse + Banana or down southeast for Cow, Corn. I hope Cow, Corn because as can be seen, THH settled his third city directly in OHs face. If OH has his second city 1SE of the pig, they would be just 2 tiles apart as soon as both their borders pop. It's not to far from Azza as well, but I doubt he'll go on a boat with his Keshiks, and the movement over land would take relatively long, despite the city only being 7 tiles away from his borders.

All in all, good for me I suppose as I can hope that, even if Azza attacks me, those two will fight on their own. Thats also my general approach to this map right now: Don't settle in anyones face if you can help it. At least not as the first to do so.

[NobleHelium]

Why'd you draw the boxes like that instead of centered on the capitals?

[Serdoa]

Why'd you draw the boxes like that instead of centered on the capitals?

The silver tile was the one that made me realize that it is simply 4x the same 16x16 map, just moved down 8 tiles. Well, nearly the same map, there are some differences (I've found a land-tile where someone else has water and I have a GH next to the gems, while others have a PH - which certainly was just made as a little bit of interesting twist but actually might have changed my dotmap if we all had PHs...). Anyhow, as I said, silver tile was my start, so I started there.

[NobleHelium]

Why'd you draw the boxes like that instead of centered on the capitals?

The silver tile was the one that made me realize that it is simply 4x the same 16x16 map, just moved down 8 tiles. Well, nearly the same map, there are some differences (I've found a land-tile where someone else has water and I have a GH next to the gems, while others have a PH - which certainly was just made as a little bit of interesting twist but actually might have changed my dotmap if we all had PHs...). Anyhow, as I said, silver tile was my start, so I started there.

I think that's a bug in the map script actually...they're supposed to be identical. Or maybe Brick accidentally changed a couple tiles?

[Serdoa]

Both possible, though I'll assume for now that it was intentional. If an island is 2 tiles big for me and only 1 tile for someone else, I don't think that happens by accident as there is no resource and nothing on it.

Well, anyhow, we played another uneventful turn (I'm sorry guys, but there really is nothing to see). I finished Sailing this turn. Next turn I'll settle city 4 and make some screenshots then. For now, I'll repost the map I posted yesterday but I have drawn in where I think the others settled. Some of those settlement-spots could theoretically be somewhere else, but I didn't found another spot that actually made sense from a gameplay-perspective in all cases, except 1. That 1 is the third city of OH which can theoretically also be 1N. Doesn't matter though.