[SPOILERS] WillPlunder as Mehmed of Arabia: Noobs meet world

[Qgqqqqq]

Watermills receive +2c at electricity.

[WilliamLP]

This game is turning pretty passive.




Note that the land mass west of HamburgerHelper (actually a pork and wheat based patty) and Easy Mac is divided by peaks. And Retep is already on the other side. The site labeled "nice" would be nice but it's not connected by land and would be really easy for Retep to attack.

I think I've mentally conceded to Retep the island that Canterbury is on.

Retep is spamming cities and only now has slipped into the default British city names. He whipped a metric craptonne last turn (27 whips!) but I'm fairly sure it was organized factories, being two turns after he got Assembly Line. It theoretically could be a ton of infantry coming our way but I'd be really surprised.

If there ever was a window for attack, it would be right now (or before) toward Retep's cities in the southwest of that shot, before he has infrastructure to defend very well. I think he's claiming that land with essentially zero military. I don't think I have the heart or mental energy for it right now though. If this were a two-way power struggle, instead of a 3-way one, it would be different.

I'm going Railroad before Assembly Line, because I don't want too much of a window where Retep could upgrade navy with Combustion and strike, and it's also good to start the rail network earlier. It also allows machine guns.

The boring plan for this game is just to try and use superior land to optimize for a tech race to the space age. And take out Kuro once we have a happiness buffer from draft anger wearing off, but engage no other military conflict if possible. Retep has a head start in tech, but we're getting close to his rate and sheer land area is a great equalizer in the later game I think.

[WilliamLP]

Honestly I'd just love to hand this position to Mackoti or Krill and just watch and learn.

[WilliamLP]

Sorry for the lack of reporting. I'm just running a delightfully boring gameplan.

Railroad is in next turn, the same time as Retep gets it. A bunch of workers have been built, and they're building a bunch of workshops since they're great post SP and with Caste. I'm running enough wealth to keep 100% science going. I'm #1 GNP at the moment, but Retep has a tech lead, notably being up Physics, Democracy, and Assembly Line.

Bandit went for Military Tradition. I'm not sure what he's planning on using Cavalry for, but it's they're not that scary at this point.

Retep is probably thrilled that I'm not calling him on all his island plants.

After Railroad, well if Retep is going Combustion I'll need to as well I think. Otherwise, it's Assembly Line probably. If we all just keep doing what we're doing this game could actually go to a space race.

I wonder if the players who aren't me, Retep, and Bandit are annoyed to still have to be playing in this game every day.

[WilliamLP]

Railroad is in. Choo. Choo. Workers are working. Boldly has at least two workers in our lands (Backpack and Boots) actually making useful road improvements!

Retep got Divine Right and the Minaret will boost his science even more. He's showing Combustion and I can't afford to be too far behind him on that, even if it means delaying Assembly Line.

Molach has Assembly Line, but I don't see any infantry yet. Bandit will have it next turn. So, a priority needs to be getting some machine guns to that border.

Other than this, the game is very passive. I have the land lead and the GNP lead at the moment, but Retep has a lot of advantages. Ironworks is up next turn, and Wall Street the turn after.

[WilliamLP]

I'm trying to win the most passive civ player ever award.




Retep is going for Combustion so I've been following him, delaying Assembly Line to do so. I don't want to risk leaving him several turns where I'd be helpless against boats.

Rails for a transport network and improved mines are basically done.

Bandit doesn't have much that looks threatening. I'm starting to get machine guns to this area to clog it up even more.

Molach and I have been culturally fighting for the hill 2S of Alfredo for most of this game. Alfredo is a culture pump, with a Cathedral, Hermitage, and the usual round of culture buildings. Sistine is still up, so I'm going to try to get it there as a troll build.

Note Alfredo recently grabbed the town 2E1N of Belvedere, which must really piss Wetbandit off.

It's nearly time to make the final (man I hope) push on Kuro. I've just been waiting for happy cap room with draft anger wearing off, since we'll eat about +5 unhappiness immediately on declaring.

After that... If going for military, Oxy is surely the best target. Molach has a ton of military, and he has infantry. Oxy is extremely, extremely backward. Though, I agree with Molach about his naming scheme. So, so meta.

The thing is... I think I have a pretty good chance just being passive! I comfortably lead in land and GNP and have some headroom with the last bit of Kuro's land, and also getting Factories and power up everywhere. And Oxy has been a good neighbour. I'm not sure if he wouldn't enjoy being attacked or being out of the game though!

This game seems to be actually set to reach the toys that are seldom seen, such as tanks and flight. And these are things that, frankly, I have no idea what to do with. I can't see this game being conceded anywhere near soon, unless Retep is just sick of it or something.

[WilliamLP]

WW and draft unhappiness has worn off enough that I can declare on Kuro without happy problems or the culture slider:




This is not an impressive army but it should be enough to make the final push and take him out. Kuro actually built 5 knights. Presumably it's for fun because they're pretty worthless against rifles, and so much nicer to see than the same hammers into fully fortified CG2 longbows on a hill. I've also got a galleon with 3 units to see what's in his arctic iceball city to the northwest of this.

I don't fear Retep as much anymore because I can easily get a few machine guns up here now.

Retep finished Statue of Liberty (finally) and Spiral Minaret. Those are pretty big tricks for increasing commerce but I think I'm still ahead of him in research power for now, and I don't have factories yet either.

I got a great artist. I think it's pretty useless except as a culture bomb. I could use it either on the border between us and Retep, or maybe troll the south some more:




Alfredo would get the fifth ring culture, and Molach would be annoyed. But we did settle Alfredo first, before he got there, for what that's worth.

[Commodore]

So from civstats, looks like the artist made a damp "pththththbpp" sound? And you're eating Kuro?

[WilliamLP]

Yup. The a bit of smug satisfaction and bronx cheer to my southern neighbours is the only reason for the artist bomb. It's a waste but settling or bulbing to Divine Right would be even more useless. I suppose it's conceivable that there is a way for me to get 4 different GP and a golden age into the space race could be a winning play. (And I could have, and probably should have in retrospect, saved a Prophet for just this purpose a long time ago.)

It also could have been an ace in the hole for some kind of sneak attack eventually, but even lurkers can probably tell my heart isn't really in that.

I was also just curious just what the GA pop would do. Why does it change score, anyway? It must recalculate the score piece for land tiles, ignoring the usual rule that you need to have controlled the tile for 20 turns to get the points for it? To a naive CivStats observer it kind of looks like I declared on him.

Boldly beat me to Sistine, which is more than fine, since it was a troll build anyway.




The tile 2N1W of Typhoon (which I still think was a poor city placement) I captured naturally anyway. So the artist gave me a total of 1 tile, the windmill. It also brings Alfredo to 80% cultural defense, for a minimal and insignificant additional disincentive to attacking.

Up north, Kuro's arctic fishing village was only guarded by an axe against my galleon invasion, and came with extremely nice infrastructure:




Ah, BtS whales, how worthless you are being obsolete as soon as I have them.




Frank Purdue also fell easily with the galleon from Carlos Slim. John and Horace Dodge are his last two cities. John won't fall next turn, but it shouldn't be much trouble. I'm happy to lose those catapults anyway, and then the city should just fall over after being redlined by cannon. I shouldn't need to sim this out, right?

This raises the question of what's next in this game.

High level options:

- Offer in thread to concede the space race to Retep. Get some of my life back, if Bandit is along with this.

- Keep playing passively, try and compete for the space race. I have no idea if I could win, but I'm starting to suspect not. The only advantage I have is land. Retep has a tech lead, a higher research rate currently, and advantages of the monk trio, spiritual, and Statue of Liberty. All these are pretty huge. I can see what relative research rates look like once I have new cities working all their tiles with factories and power plants, but my gut (from no experience) is I lose this way.

- Try to swallow Oxy. I'm in a unique geographical position to do this, unless Boldly or Sutt are going to take a stab at it. I think my micro would be up for this if I had tanks and bombers against longbows and maybe a scattering of rifles. But... to what end. I suspect by the time this land would pay for the investment Retep would have launched.

- Total war with Retep! But he also has more production than I do, spiritual for the ability to instantly start whipping and drafting, and a lead to all the key techs. (Flight, industrialism, etc.) I think the best I could do would be to hand Bandit a victory. Maybe I had a window long ago to hit him while he was still building up his navy, but that point is long gone.

- UN and a diplo victory?!

I really don't have a read on who in this game is still having fun, especially Bandit and Boldly. Oxy and Sutt, and maybe Molach, would probably be keen to move on. Honestly, if Bandit and co. really wanted this game to be over I would probably seriously consider calling it, as wimpy a move as that would be with a land and power lead.

[NobleHelium]

I was also just curious just what the GA pop would do. Why does it change score, anyway? It must recalculate the score piece for land tiles, ignoring the usual rule that you need to have controlled the tile for 20 turns to get the points for it?

Yes. The score rule is in place to avoid cheese score wins after turns run out by settling a bunch of cities on the last turn. Artists are not something you can spam for that purpose.