[SPOILERS] scooter, pindicator, and Huayna Capac try some fast Zulu cuisine

[scooter]

Alright, another sad turn where we kill precious citizens. Serdoa doing smart things:



Oracle, Colossus, Buddhism holy city, keeping up in expansion just fine, stone locked down... Pretty obviously one of the favorites in this game. Anyways, whippity whip whip:



No choice really since I needed to move the chariot towards the front. McDonalds was particularly painful:



It regrows next turn so this is 2T without working the gold. Brutal. But with axes closing in and this axe due to get a promo, I see little choice. Overview:



You should actually be able to see everything here. Anyways, the two units we'll load onto the galley need to be ready this turn. I'm starting to think I may go with Impi + Chariot instead of Impi + Axe just because we sort of need all axes on deck to defend McDonalds. We'll see what he does next turn.

[scooter]

ALright, turn roll, immediate play by Commodore. Logged in to see - here's how it looks:



At minimum, I think the new axe needs to promote and stick around. I'm thinking I'll just send that Impi + Chariot in McDonalds onto the galley (or more accurately, move 1N this turn and probably get onto the galley next turn). Actually, wait! Since they are 2-movers, we could put them on the gold and still ditch the gold hill next turn if they survive. I think we do that. Plus we have an Impi completing EoT anyways. The archer is on his way, but will likely not figure into next turn's battle.

Uh, what's your guy's best estimate on how much damage he'll do? I don't feel like cooking up a sim for this. Now that I think about it, let's NOT put the fresh chariot on the gold. I'd do it if it was shock like the other chariot is, but it's going to be better as a cleanup unit than a defense unit I think.

[NobleHelium]

After glancing around, I 100% agree with Powers That Be that this is a super interesting map. It's too bad those same powers rigged the game to put Commodore + elephants next to us. :P

What's up with the culture south of Lakamba in this picture? Huh.

[scooter]

So, we're trying to figure out that screenshot. The more we think about it, the more confused we get. Or put simply:

Noble: this is the most impossible screenshot i've seen in civ4

[NobleHelium]

EUREKA! (credit to scooter)

[scooter]

HAHAHA. Solved it, it's great. Any lurkers want to take a stab at this one before I give away the answer?

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Borders can't extend >2 tiles over water. However, once "fake" culture extends far enough, it can extend from land tiles on the other side of water (but from the opposite direction).

That's what I understand, it's kinda hard to explain or comprehend. I've seen this in SP in the past.

Edit: I'm wrong! My explanation is insufficient!

[scooter]

Solution, spoilered in case you want to solve The Impossible Screenshot yourself.

Ok. So, I took that shot immediately after a map trade in which we were both online (and we were the only ones online). So - why don't we see the city that culture goes with? That is exactly how it looked for him at the time of the trade because that was pretty much a live view of his map. So, what gives? He didn't settle the 1-tile island because jungle is still there. The only thing that makes sense is he settled on the horse, but the obvious issue is, uh, where's the city? Further, there's no city ruins, so it wasn't razed. And if it was captured, he would be able to see the city under its new ownership. So, the only possibility we could figure if it was razed (and some joker then razed the ruins). I've never seen Serdoa lose a city on Civstats, but I suppose it's possible I didn't see it. The whole thing seemed pretty improbable. Thing is, he can keep the culture because Lakamha is out to 4 rings of culture thanks to its wonder + holy city thing going on.

However, it doesn't explain why it has those two random tiles. That led to this Eureka moment:

scooter: um, could it have just gotten there naturally?
Noble: no
WAIT
you're right
it's natural culture
scooter: hahaha
Noble: because those water tiles are within range of the horse which is the same continent
lol
scooter: amazing

So there you go.

[scooter]

FYI - I just put the C1 axe onto the hill and left the unpromoted chariot/Impi in reserve. We'll see if he bites. It'll be a horrendous exchange for him if he actually goes for this.

[Qgqqqqq]

That's amazing!