Intersite Game - Turn Discussion Thread

[Ceiliazul]

That weren't no thunderstorm. That was team Realms!



Note: wasn't me!

[NobleHelium]

So...this guy doesn't have a surge protector for his computer?

[Dantski]

That weren't no thunderstorm. That was team Realms!



Note: wasn't me!

If only scooter has logged in first...

[kjn]

So...this guy doesn't have a surge protector for his computer?

A surge protector protecting against a direct or nearby lightning strike? Or a loss of power from the grid? Those don't exist, simple as that.

[Cyneheard]

Or a loss of power from the grid? Those don't exist, simple as that.

An Uninterruptible Power Supply (basicslly a surge protector with a battery) usually gives you a few minutes - they're modestly priced ($50-100) and have software to shut things down calmly when power goes out. It's a good idea for anyone who has frequent power loss.

[Gold Ergo Sum]

Yup, anyone hosting should have a UPS.

[Sullla]

Turn 140 - 600AD

Suddenly it's marble, marble everywhere on the map. Wish we had found some of this back when we were building the Mausoleum. (But in all honesty, it would have been too far away to be practical.)



Not too much up here in Apolyton territory, just wanted to let everyone know that our scout here is alive and well. I was amused to see the barb warrior wandering into Apolyton's borders as we passed by. We're going to finish defogging their northern coast and then head south to reveal the remaining 2-3 Apolyton cities further to the south.



Here's what I meant in terms of marble. We spotted a source of marble in amongst all of that silver, along with a whales resource on the island to the west. I think that the hill tile where our chariot is standing might be the best place for a city down here; it has the whales for a 3 food tile with a lighthouse, and the freshwater lake also becomes 3 food as well. We could mine the iron tile for minimal production as needed; 0/3/0 ain't much, but it's better than a lot of the other pickings here. Any alternate suggestions? I'm guessing we will only put a single city in this polar region, so it might be a good idea to claim both silver and whales here. Give me your thoughts.

I'm going to load the war chariots back onto the galley and start pulling them back home next turn. They can get back in time to serve as either military police or invasion units for our upcoming war, and that will be more useful than exploring these islands further. I think we've found about everything down here.



And here is marble source #2, one that's more practical for our purposes. I am thinking that this pretty much locks us into the red and yellow dots for our planned cities down here, and maybe another spot further north in the tundra to make use of that extra deer. The Sentry war chariot is going to move onto the ice hill to the west next turn, and then return home as well. I've counted out the turns, and there's just enough time to make it back and join the invasion force come Turn 150.

I believe that we should use the settler currently in transit down from The Covenant on the red dot spot indicated above. We don't have the roads in place to settle the deer/crabs spot over to the east right now, and a city planted in that spot will be wasting a lot of time getting up to speed. This location can be roaded to quite easily, and have the deer connected almost instantly, and of course can borrow the crabs tile from Let It Snow as needed. We'll get the eastern deer/crabs spot with the next settler.



Here's our core of cities once again. Note that Horse Feathers and Brick will both complete their stables next turn and then can go onto churning out more units. I think we'll do elephants from HF because it can 1t them (at size 14, which it will hit in two turns) and catapults from BBB. Then we swap them both over to knights once we have Guilds in hand. I've been chopping all of the third-ring forests near Brick to clear out defensive cover from a possible CivPlayers invasion, and then bonus production has been a nice extra. Outside of a few hill tiles, there will be no cover anywhere for a CivPlayers attack force.

Other cities are pretty much growing and recovering from their draft penalties. Here's one location where we may or may not want to whip:



Gourmet Menu is about to grow, and is therefore primed for a 3 pop forge whip. We'd be whipping off of 3 coastal lake tiles, and will overflow into the 2/3 completed market, which we very badly need here to help us with our massive empire costs. We're also very much up against the happiness cap, with Gourmet Menu only remaining in the green zone thanks to some drafted maces military police, which we won't have once we go to war. +2 happiness from the forge and +3 happiness from the market are both very much wanting. So this one does seem pretty straightforward for a whip here. However, our economic situation is not exactly ideal at the moment with the recent whips/drafts that we've been carrying out, and yes, it will hurt temporarily to lose that extra commerce. I wanted to check with the team before doing anything.

Basically, I say yes, whip away, but give me your quick thoughts before I do anything here.



Here's the eastern half of our territory. The Covenant grew to size 6 and as such is due to be drafted this turn. I haven't done so just in case someone has an objection, not that I really expect one. It will regrow in 2t after losing the pop point. Workers continue to clear out the jungle and build roads connecting our cities. Eastern Dealers is another place where we can use some feedback, so here it is:



We'll finish National Epic and grow at the end of this turn. However, we have a problem on our hands here: not enough happiness in the city. We'll only manage to stay happy with the extra drafted mace for military police next turn, and we need to grow this city up to size 12 or so to run the full specialists that we want. So we need more happiness inside the city in some form. There are two ways that I see to do this.

Short term solution: we build a barracks next, using the overflow from National Epic and 2t of working the grassland hill mines. That will add +2 happiness from Nationhood civic, enough to get by for the moment with no further changes. Then we go full specialists and start working towards the next Great Person.

Longer term solution: we use the overflow from National Epic to start a forge, then 3 pop whip the forge the following turn. This delays our working of specialists until further down the road, since we have to run max food for a bit and recover from the whip. However, it also provides +2 happiness and puts us in better shape for the future, partly because it grants bonus production to all future whips, but especially because we can then run an Engineer specialist in the city. At present, we'll be running 2 Scientists, 2 Artists, and 2 Priests as the city's specialists, because we're not going into Caste System any time soon. It would be really nice to get a forge in here for an Engineer specialist, and a market in here after that for the +3 happiness and 2 Merchant specialists.

I think I lean slightly towards the forge idea, but you could certainly talk me into building a cheap barracks instead. I don't think we need a Great Person all that soon (we really just need one by the time we research Communism so that we can pop the 2 person Golden Age and revolt into State Property for free). Again, give me some feedback here on these plans, or another, different way you would manage this city.



Here's Starfall getting its overflow from the forge whip into the Globe. We'll be at 128/300 after this turn, almost halfway done. The plan is to whip 3 catapults in succession next; each one will grant 75/50 production, and allow us to overflow roughly 75 total shields into the Globe. At that point, we'll be at about 210/300 production, and we can grow Starfall to size 8 and 4 pop whip the wonder to completion. I think we'll finish Globe slightly after Turn 150, and then we can draft endlessly to our heart's content. Everything on schedule here.

Overview:

Our economy is a bit stagnant from having carried out so many whips and drafts in short order. It's rather brutal for the moment, but things will improve quickly now that many of our core cities are finishing forges and regrowing population. The next big round of whips will be pure economy: markets and courthouses as appropriate in core cities. We've also raced out to a massive military lead, and the other teams are not reciprocating that buildup as yet.

Break-even research rate is about 45% science right now. Not great, but not in the danger area either. I'm still suggesting that we build up gold until we can race through Feudalism and Guilds together at 100% science rate, and that will take some turns longer. I think we'll finish Guilds around roughly Turn 148.



The GNP number is absolutely awful for this one particular turn; nearly every other team is running 100% science, and of course CFC/CivFr are also in Golden Age mode. It still did not make me happy to see that #6 number up on the screen though. I felt better when I looked at the Food and Power numbers. We're honestly not doing badly here, it's more of an unfortunate coincidence of other teams going max rate right when we were on minimum science. And of course our massive size means massive costs as well, which has not been helped by accumulating such a large military. As I said before, we'll get the forges up first and then deal with the costs next.

The German team ended their Golden Age, CFC and CivFr still have a few more turns. CFC finished Taj at the start of T134, which means next turn is the last one for their Golden Age. CFC also popped a Great Scientist this turn, one turn after their Great Engineer. That was a massaged Caste System/Pacifism Scientist for sure, and they can use it for another lightbulb (Printing Press?) or save for a second Golden Age. CFC has not used the one-person Golden Age so far, just the free one from Taj Mahal. CFC also discovered Machinery tech, which appears to be the only one discovered amongst our major rivals. Apolyton will probably get something expensive soon themselves. Still no teams with Feudalism yet.

I have our espionage points going against CivFr, since it became hopeless keeping graphs on UniversCiv. We should have CivFr graphs in a turn or two. I will draw up a post today or tomorrow outlining a tactical plan of attack against the Germans. Been thinking about that a lot and I think I have it worked out. As always, fire away with questions and comments.

[Merovech]

I agree with the forge whips in Eastern Dealers (maybe slow-build forge) and Gourmet Menu, especially in Gourmet Menu.

[kjn]

Agree on the proposed whips. (I think it's a pity we decided on going NE-forge in Eastern Dealers, precisely because of the trouble you mentioned about having to whip away future specialists.)

I think we should send the galley and the WCs on the islands back via the western channel (ie west of iron island). There are some fogged water tiles that just might contain seafood, and it'd be a shame to miss out on that.

Forge in Eastern Dealers. That engineer specialist slot is very valuable. Then a market and a courthouse (both for the slots and for the cost reduction in a large far-away city).

[SevenSpirits]

IMO, national epic city is for running max specialists in. Do that first, and if we have spare food/production, then use that to add more slots/happiness so we can run more specs. But prioritize running specs, otherwise we are just spiting ourselves.