La Plaisanterie, C'est Moi - Ichabod's Spoiler Thread

[Ichabod]

Remember to pillage your city too.

By the way, I'm considering renaming RebelProphecy to NoblePillage.

[NobleHelium]

The 'pedia has the average pillage gold for each improvement, by the way.

[Ichabod]

WarlockStalkers is building a settler at size 3, working the hill that was mined this turn and receiving the chop hammers. There's another chop incoming, which will make the settler take 1t less. Serdoa will probably have 8 cities by the time I settle my third, but what can I do? My previous micro plan was to start a worker after the settler, since city 3 would steal the corn for some turns. Now I think I'll grow it to size 4 (building a immortal while I do it), probably looking for a whip. Need to sim with the 3rd city by the copper.




RebelProphecy is finishing a worker. I think I'll build Oracle here, if Seven doesn't beat me to it (which seems to be likely...). I guess he wants CoL for his cheap courthouses... I wonder if I should let go of the Oracle plan... Well, I'll try to get Buddhism at least. I'll try telling myself that, if Seven wanted Oracle, he would have gone for Buddhism and the route with less beakers.




Speaking of Seven, I just met him, and this is crazy,




But here's my warrior, approach it maybe. I think there's a chance he goes into that hill on my border to spy a bit. Not that likely, but maybe.




Yeah, I want to be able to say that I killed at least one unit from Seven before this game ends.

There's only Krill left for me to meet. I need to take a look at the diplo screen to see who knows each other. For some completely unknown reason to me, my opponents are pumping EPs on me. What the heck? Go place EPs on Seven, Serdoa, Kyan or Krill. Leave me alone in my corner of the map. Someone ought to tell them that Novice isn't doing the micro for me.

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Speaking of unwanted scouts, Serdoa's scout didn't fall for my trap. I'll get back at Serdoa eventually, to avenge my fallen scout.




Meanwhile, my other warrior approaches the lumbermill (it's not a workshop) to pillage it. 5 gold on average. Well, that's a turn of full research, so I can't complain, really.




As you can see, I'm saving gold for this turn. I'm doing 100% research/100% gold turns to avoid rounding taking away beakers. There's probably a mistake somewhere, especially since I'm on a race for religion and the Oracle, but I don't think I can figure it out.




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Finally, here's two proposed sites to get a city south of my copper one. The "city" is closer to Serdoa and not on a hill, so much more vulnerable. But its resources are on the first ring, which won't allow Serdoa to steal them with a city settle to the south of it. The "city1" is more defensive, but there's the risk of losing the resources to a city settled by Serdoa. Both cities can be pretty good with a lighthouse + Colossus combo. Almost as good as the Moai city.




Just realized the "city1" isn't on the coast... So, yeah, I'll have to settle the "city". Maybe I'll try to do it with the next settler taht comes from the capital, after the one for the copper city. The workers will be near and copper will allow me to build reasonable defenses. Luckily, I don't see Serdoa expanding in this direction so soon, because the cow and fish are the only food resources in the area, if I remember correcly (and I don't think he'd outstretch his borders that much).

[NobleHelium]

I actually spent about ten seconds looking for a workshop in the previous screenshot with the lumbermill by the way.

"City?" isn't actually in the screenshot either.

[Ichabod]

I actually spent about ten seconds looking for a workshop in the previous screenshot with the lumbermill by the way.

"City?" isn't actually in the screenshot either.

What are you talking about? I was referring to "City1" this whole time.

[Ichabod]

I received the save just I was heading to work, so couldn't play it (and I still need to sim things a bit, since I changed the place of the 3rd city). I only moved one warrior, that had a pre-planned move to do. And I have another think i'd like Novice to chime in about.

First, the warrior move:




A city where the warrior is standing could be pretty good. I may settle it further east too, but I need to know more about where are each of my opponents before commiting to anything. Though I don't think anyone can contest a city placed on that hill.

I don't think the newly revealed resources change something about where to place the third city. The ability to make the third city work the sheep tile on the same turn it's found will greatly speed things. If I settled further east, the city would take quite a while to get rolling, which is never good. What do you think Novice?

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Here's the other think I'm wondering:




I'm probably going to pillage the lumbermill this turn. But what to do next? Should I explore through the southern hills? Go back to the city? Or try to delay Kyan's chop? I lurked Kyan on quite some games and I know he's fond of doing farmers gambits. I wouldn't doubt that he has no protection in that city, especially since he's competing with Seven and Krill. But is it worth it?

[novice]

I think settling aggressively and bothering your opponents are decent ideas, and entirely at odds with the initial strategy we discussed.

But yeah, go end Kyan's farmer's gambit. You have good visibility there so you'll see him coming if he wants payback.

In the east, I think the only city locations worth considering for your next city are NW of copper and NW-N of copper. Since you can work the sheep immediately NW-N is probably the best spot, waiting for the border expansion won't slow the city down.

[Ichabod]

I think settling aggressively and bothering your opponents are decent ideas, and entirely at odds with the initial strategy we discussed.

But yeah, go end Kyan's farmer's gambit. You have good visibility there so you'll see him coming if he wants payback.

I know.

Thing is, I didn't exactly plan for this; it's more a thing of taking an opportunity that presented itself.

Regarding settling against my opponents, I think the proposed fish/cow city near Serdoa is a pretty fair land split (for me, at least ). I think we have a pretty natural border with Kyan on the Moai city and a city 2 south of the horses (to get the ivory for us) - even if Kyan thinks differently, those cities are very defensive for us and very risky for him.

And cities further north and west seem to be pretty far from our opposition. I don't think that even Seven can settle the gold city before us (considering we place it near the crabs).

I'm fairly happy with our position. I'm just worried about losing the Oracle to Seven. My thinking is, I'll try to get Buddhism. After Meditation is teched, I do a minor C&D to see if someone already has Priesthood (through already researched bonus). If someone already has it, I give up, because it's likely that Seven is about to one-turn the Oracle to get Civil Service or the like.

In the east, I think the only city locations worth considering for your next city are NW of copper and NW-N of copper. Since you can work the sheep immediately NW-N is probably the best spot, waiting for the border expansion won't slow the city down.

The thing I disliked about the N-NW city is that it wasted a lot of good lake-lighthouse tiles. But if we get that southern city, we'll work all lakes anyway. And that makes the N-NW clearly better, due to the cows. That's probably just a OCD thing, but I'm happy that I won't have to be bother by it, even settling N-NW.

Of course, now my OCD says I wasted worker turns by preparing a city on the jungle tile.

Luckily I'm not very good at this game, 'less all my mistakes would be making me crazy (what I don't notice can't hurt me, that's my logic).

[Ichabod]

I made a micro plan that can get the Oracle at eot 42 or 43, can't remember correctly. It'll be in the second city. After the worker it's building, it'll grow to size 4, until finishing a granary (at half food box). Then I'll work 1t in a worker, to 16/40 hammers. After that I 2 pop whip the worker + a chop. Overflow into Oracle (first turn priesthood is researched) + another chop -> city grows to size 3 on the first turn working the Oracle. Then, at size 3, I need to work a mine over a sheep tile, to finish the Oracle in that turn.

So, Oracle will be a two turn build. Not that bad. If someone gets it before us, the most we'll lose is one turn of investment into it.

After ending turn, Buddhism in 3 turns, by the way. Cross your fingers.

[Ichabod]

Oracle would be eot 43. By turn 50, I could have 5 cities (maybe more with optimization). The plan I thought was to get a quick forge in the copper city and work a engineer specialist (at size 4, building workers/settler), so I could get one of those in front of the GP from the Oracle. It's very possible to do it that quick. What do you think, Novice?

I could also get the Colossus on that city pretty quick. I could mix the GP pool, getting some merchant points. Not sure if it's worth it. Speeding it up could give me the chance to rush the Pyramids with the Engineer (albeit that's not very likely), but I could end up with a GM. Not speeding it up could get me a wonder like the Great Library or the MoM, considering I reach the techs fast enough.

If I don't get the Oracle, then everything goes down the drain, though.

And, well, I think Seven got the religion and, if that's true, it's likely he's going for the Oracle. Or do you think Seven is likely to get a religion even with a creative civ, Novice?