Ride to ruin and the world's ending! (TBS, Becko & Joao)

[Becko]

Great job! I'm still a bit behind the curve, but getting up to speed.

And so are you, apparently: very impressive graphs. I agree that there's no point in stopping now, just keep on planting cities as long as we can afford the military. It's a shame, I suppose, that the two wonder-builders who have yet to catch up are the ones who aren't bordering us. If I were in Gaspwyn's or Oxy's shoes, my natural inclination would be to settle towards and block off spreading-like-cholera Joao, and then catch up on the other side. Not saying that that's the correct way to play it, of course.

You think the site NW of Hondo (great name choices BTW) is too ambitious? Seems like a good place to shorten our lines, and it would block off the southern passages well. Up north, I'm not sure where the border should go. Is wheat/fish/canal defensible?

[The Black Sword]

Sorry Becko, looks like I'm going to leave you a complicated situation.



There's a settler, already been moved to the spot 1N of McLintock, I'm pushing to settle the choke point.



I think we need to declare war on gaspar here though. His chariot should be teleported back to the hill and we the spear can kill him. Otherwise, if we just put the spear on the hill, the chariot can move 1/2 into The Quiet Man, declare war and possibly be teleported to the hill to the south, where he can raze The Quiet Man. I think we have to assume they'd be as disruptive as possible to us settling that city and defending against this chariot, roaming around when he can declare war and teleport who knows where, is a pain in the ass.

We'd lose 1gpt in foreign trade, which isn't that important, more important is their reaction.

I'll probably come back and play the turn in a bit, if you have time to weigh in. I'll do a full update tonight.

[Ceiliazul]

teleportation explained: http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/showthrea...#pid198389

[The Black Sword]

Cool, didn't know about that.

I left Gaspar alone this turn, leaving the spear in The Quiet Man rather than moving him up. I hope I don't regret that.



The set of workers highlighted want to road 1SE to Hondo next turn and then start the pigs. Everyone else, 2 workers, settler, axe, 2 spears, warrior, 2 chariots, wants to land on the highlighted tile next turn. The turn after we road 1W and try settle on the city sign. Obviously we need to be flexible, depending on what Lewpar does. The plains hill 2N of the highlighted tile is probably my second choice of city spot



The Quiet Man: swap horse for farm next turn, whip in LH the turn after. Grow on military.

The Sea Chase: Grow on coast and the Moai, and that mine when we get it up. Probably whip a settler for south when we hit the happy cap. Or a worker for more Moai overflow if we get the settler elsewhere.

3 Texas Steers: Running out of improved tiles, because TQM is stealing some. Build Military as we grow. However this might be a good spot to slip in a barracks, if we feel we currently have enough military(and we're first in power by some margin).

The Conqueror: Similar thoughts re. the barracks and military. Probably want to slow build worker/settler on mines when it's at the happy cap next turn.



Lonely Trail: Has 1 turn into a worker to be whipped when it grows to the next size.

MoM: Grow on military, whip something foodhammery from the happy cap. Probably retake the clams until one of those cottages complete because we're out of improved tiles otherwise.

Haunted Gold: Growing on a Galley so that next settler from this area can go to the island. Grow on coast.

The Searchers: Again I've slotted a barracks into the queue as a reminder if we feel safe with military. Otherwise grow on LH and units.



Karakorum: Rename . Complete the gold with the workers net turn, at least 1 of them should then go help finish the rice in time. Work the gold and build the granary as we wait for borders to pop.

DR: Use Avoid Growth next turn, then turn it off. Grow to 4 and whip the LH probably.



I've been far to indecisive with what I'm doing down here. I'm thinking raze the city and replant 1S of the axe. Heal the axe if the odds aren't great, even if we want to keep the city, we're in no rush. Worker is roading in that direction, needs someone coming up behind to help finish.

I think expanding toward Gaspar is generally more important than towards Thoth. Turn on research whenever you think we can finish Mono and we probably want to immediately revolt and spread around the religion.

We have top food, pretty close to top in hammers and gnp.

[Becko]

Cool, thanks for the report and the instructions. I'm still feeling a bit rusty -- haven't even opened up Civ for a few weeks -- but I think I can manage. I will probably only be able to play once a day, and if I get into something really sticky I'll ask for a pause. I know I use "we" a lot, but realistically, I'm a cheerleader more than a teammate here. With my noobness in mind, some RFC's:

Obviously we need to be flexible, depending on what Lewpar does.

I agree, but what are the contingencies? By that I mean, what could they do that would make us settle the PH instead? Declaring war? Moving up more units? Blocking with a settler of their own?

That spear SE of the highlight is on his way to Hondo? Or is he a member of the settling party?

TQM, 3TS, TC, etc: Any specific type of military? Seems like we're pretty well-rounded ATM, even if I'm (overly) scared of Chariots.

Have you been playing before or after Lewpar the last couple of turns? I won't declare war unless you give me a specific trigger, even though I don't like that chariot buzzing around either. How do you think they're reasoning about us? On the one hand our graphs should tell them we're not running a farmer's gambit, OTOH our graphs could also be telling them that someone needs to mess with us before we get even stronger.

[The Black Sword]

Thanks Becko.

I need to head off now, I'm going to play this turn quickly. I'll try get some internet somewhere and answer your questions later.

[The Black Sword]

Alright, let's see.

I agree, but what are the contingencies? By that I mean, what could they do that would make us settle the PH instead? Declaring war? Moving up more units? Blocking with a settler of their own?

I moved the units as I described this turn. Next turn we probably want to move a chariot onto the hill location to check out their unit disposition before we move anything else. Ideally, we road the tile 1E, leaving 1 spear there to guard the workers and move everyone else on the hill. If we see they have enough military that our units couldn't hold, or we see a settler that's about to settle and invalidate the spot, then we go for the plains hill. If they declare war and put the spear on the south hill, we probably want to move and settle on the northern hill instead.

I've been playing after Gaspar for the recent turns. We had a bit of a screw up a few turns earlier, when I was playing ahead of them and then they doublemoved me, opening up a couple of possibilities for them that I could have kept safe as first in the turn order. Since then I've been making sure to keep a proper turnsplit since it's possible either one of us would want to declare war in this situation.

That spear SE of the highlight is on his way to Hondo? Or is he a member of the settling party?

A member of the settling party, unless Hondo looks like it's in danger, but both chariots should always be in range of Hondo in case of emergency.

TQM, 3TS, TC, etc: Any specific type of military? Seems like we're pretty well-rounded ATM, even if I'm (overly) scared of Chariots.

Chariots sort of make sense in TC and LT, since they're far from the front. Gaspar is a bit chariot heavy, so we might need 1 more spear, after that I'd go with axes. In the East by Oxy, I'd like 1 more spear, so we have 1 by Oxy and 1 by Thoth and then more axes.

How do you think they're reasoning about us? On the one hand our graphs should tell them we're not running a farmer's gambit, OTOH our graphs could also be telling them that someone needs to mess with us before we get even stronger.

I actually don't think Gaspar is the type to throw his own game away to pull back a leader. We're the only team they have OBs with, which might mean something(wish I hadn't accepted that deal actually, this chariot is very annoying). I expect they see this spot as theirs, but they'll be pretty practical about if our military is too difficult to dislodge, I think they have a fair amount of settling space left towards Oxy and dtay.

Thanks for taking over Becko, I'm sure you'll do fine. Don't worry about screwing up, just try enjoy it, if something goes wrong, well ... the game was getting a bit easy anyway.

[Becko]

Thanks for taking over Becko, I'm sure you'll do fine. Don't worry about screwing up, just try enjoy it, if something goes wrong, well ... the game was getting a bit easy anyway.

Thanks for the vote of confidence. Of course, I quickly lost my nerve when I realized that I hadn't swapped my Steam .exe yet like I'd planned to. Things worked out fine, fortunately: T85 played.

I'll try to do a bigger report tomorrow, but here's the meat of it:

• Checked out the hill, looked clear. Moved up the settling party. Lewpar's army seems set up for recon missions. If they were planning something I assume they'd be gathering somewhere first. Or is that my naïveté speaking?
  
• Things went according to your plan, mostly. No misclicks, at least.
  
• Renamed Karakorum. :P
  

[pindicator]

Loved the obituary! Thanks!

Also that's a pretty cool theme for recapping the games of players as the exit the game. You'll have to write more of them (as you conquer the world )

[Becko]

Christ, this micro thing is hard. Already wasted two worker turns, I think. Anyway, T86 was fairly uneventful. So far, I should say: Gaspar logged in but never finished turn, so we're playing before them for the moment -- they might of course flip it back since they're last to play. At any rate, their visible units aren't threatening ATM. We founded Westward Hon the south hill as planned -- I would have loved to name it How The West Was Won, but too many letters. It should be our westernmost city for the foreseeable future.

I'll add pictures later. Oh, and Brazil were very lucky: that was no penalty.