[SPOILERS] Donovan Zoi takes a wrong turn at Waterloo and ends up in Valhalla

[Donovan Zoi]

Hello all, Donovan Zoi here, taking over for slowcheetah

Leader/Civ: Napoleon of the Vikings

225 BC

I was pretty excited to check out the latest turn, as it has been awhile since I have played a Pitboss game. The mod loaded up easily and I was ready to inherit this new land.

Demographics

First order of business was to check out the Powergraph and Demographics screens:





OK so we were 9th and 10th in many categories. I think we can rebound from this a bit. I am a bit concerned that Gawdzak has been scaling the military powergraph, especially after just learning that my predecessor had attacked him recently.

I think this is the city all the fuss was about, and it is certainly heavily guarded now.


Cities

Next I wanted to see how competitive we had been in building cities. Of the 5 civs I knew, most of them were at 9 cities (just like us) give or take a few. But Gawdzak had already built an impressive 17 cities by this point! I was starting to see a pattern here.

slowcheetah had two Settlers en route and another two being completed in the two largest cities, Surf n' Turf and Nidaros. And even with that sense of vigilance, there were still about 10 possible city locations still available on the mainland!



Civics

Civics were right on the money, with HR, Slavery and OR in place. Caste System was now available, but I was nowhere ready to adopt that yet, if at all. Of my 9 cities, many were quite small and needed infrastructure.

Religion

I was delighted to see that we had founded Judaism back in 1600 BC, and that a Priest was slowly adding GP points toward our upcoming shrine. However, I also learned that only 3 of our 9 cities had yet to adopt our religion, and that we had not even converted yet!

Big Picture

It was pretty apparent that slowcheetah managed to capture as much real estate as possible to keep it from getting poached by anyone else. I am also sure that the recent war with our powerful neighbors to the east may have also pushed back other priorities temporarily.

After reviewing the entire save and the state of our nation, these were the actions I took in my first turn:

1. Replaced both Settler builds with a Library and a Jewish Missionary.
2. Replaced all Granary builds with Trading Posts as I intend to whip both for each smaller city.
3. Replaced Wealth with a barracks build in Haithabu, in anticipation of a possible attack from HitAnyKey once I build a city (from one of my en route Settlers) in their back yard that captures both Stone and Marble.
4. Set research to IW, which I should get in 5 turns at 50% research (-4gpt).
5. Though it may be premature by a turn or two, converted to Judaism as a symbolic gesture recognizing the change of guard.

My top priorities now are:
1. Getting religion to all cities, smaller ones first.
2. Preparing for possible threats from the NW and East.
3. Whipping TPs and Granaries in smaller cities.
4. Building a few more workers. We have 9 workers for 9 cities currently.
5. Building Galleys for exploration. There is a "new world" to our west with barbarian warriors visibly wandering around.
6. Investigating possible resource trades.

That's all for now! Let's see what the next turn brings.......

[Donovan Zoi]

Turn 107 - 200BC

Nothing much to report this turn, as I just finished my revolt into Judaism. Here is a look at my build queues:



I’ll be getting two Trading Posts and a Barracks next turn without whipping. Made my move on the Marble/Stone site, but more about that in a moment.

Turn 108 – 175 BC

1. Whipped a TP in Jelling.
2. Double whipped a Jewish Missionary in Nidaros, which should allow me to get the next one two turns after. I’ll be sending this one to Surf n Turf to hasten the process.
3. Building an Archer in Haithabu after the Barracks.

Not sure what is going to happen with this Archer, as things just got interesting in the northwest. It appears that HitAnyKey is making a play for the Marble/Stone site as well. He’s got a Settler guarded by a *Shock Axeman (guarded by a Spearman, guarded by a Forest) which could easily take my 3 units on open land, along with my settler/city and two essential workers.



The settler was not visible to me last turn because HAK was able to move twice during his wraparound turn. I don’t really have a problem with this because I unintentionally made the previous two moves (many hours apart) to get me into position. But here we are, the site is mine for the taking. All I have to do is move NE to secure a supercity that will yield two seafoods, some corn (if HAK culture allows) and two super valuable minerals.

And here I am, postponing the turn for now while I determine my next move. For some perspective, let me zoom out a bit:



As you can see, this site is on the far reaches of my undeveloped northwest with little hope of reinforcements, even with the new Barrack city of Haithabu 8 tiles away. Add to that my precarious relationship with Gawdzak and my unknown relations with wetbandit of India.

I guess now would be a great time to say how cool this experience has been so far. After all, I am already being seriously tested in my second turn playing. And with no diplo, this silver tongued devil is rendered completely useless. I am left only with my Civ instincts and some really friggin crafty AI. I LOVE IT!!

Guess it’s time to see who my friends are



Stay tuned….

[suttree]

Great reporting Mr. Zoi - I look forward to reading how things play out!

[Donovan Zoi]

Thanks, suttree! And thanks for checking this out.

A few additional pros and cons I am considering as I wait for wetbandit to play his turn:

For settling

1. I really hate to give up port access to a sea that I share (or would soon share in this case).
2. I noticed that HAK is recovering from a recent run in with Seven, and may not be in a position to build on an initial attack.
3. HAK is protecting a settler of his own and may find that the risk of attacking is not worth it.

Against Settling

1. Instead of attacking my new city, HAK could resolve to use the Choke strategy to keep my workers from making any improvements.
2. It would be awhile before I'd be able to get a Missionary to this remote land to build culture. Until then, all but Marble would be out of reach (I am going for the spot just north of my flag).
3. The three forests flanking my west will make the early stages here a defensive nightmare.
4. Ugh, the maintenance! I was really hoping I'd be able to just hang out and guard this site until the time was right. Oh well.

Yowza, I will be just as surprised as my lurkers when all is said and done here. 'Cause right now I am completely torn.

[Commodore]

I'll echo Suttree; good reports!

[Donovan Zoi]

Thanks Commodore!

[Donovan Zoi]

Turn 108 – 175 BC (Conclusion)

So, you’re probably wondering what happened.

Before I get to that, I’ll tell you that wetbandit did not go for my offer. So I did not get any tasty sheep, nor extra trade income, nor peace of mind of my standing in the world.

In looking at the Relations screen now, it should not have come as a surprise had I bothered to check, as India is in full isolationist mode at this point – no Open Borders with anyone.




Even if he had accepted, I don’t think it would have swayed my eventual decision anyway. In the end, I chose to forgo the supercity and settle in the grassland just east of where we were camped out. The new city of Sigtuna locks me in for Stone in the small radius, as well as some eventual fish. I am giving up the other Fish, the contested Corn and most likely the Marble though it will be in my radius.

Crazy thing, before settling I had to bump up to 60% research (-19gpt) to get IW in 3 turns. But there was enough trade income to allow me to bring it back down to 50%. (-9gpt)





I chose this option in the hopes that HAK won't covet this lesser location and will be satisfied with getting a nice city just north of the Marble. Which is fine because I’ll eventually have a Marble of my own not far from here. I’m won’t be happy about having another port city in the bay, but am really not in a position to throw my weight around.

Not yet anyways.

Turn 109 – 150 BC

I’ll post more details later about builds etc., as I ended up playing out most of my turn. I left the turn open to wait for HAK’s response in the contested region. At the outset, I robotically fortified my Melee defenders in Sigtuna, and the woke them up again once I realized that it could be misconstrued as a double move.

[Old Harry]

I'll echo the compliments on your reporting, although resource bubbles can make things a lot easier to follow.

Are you playing before or after HAK here?

[Donovan Zoi]

Hi Old Harry, thanks for the tip! I edited my most recent post, so let me know what you think. Not familiar with resource bubbles as a term, reporting noob that I am, so hope I aced it

Re: turn order, HAK closed 200 BC and opened 175 BC (cool by me as I explained above). I closed out 175 BC and played out other moves beyond the contested area in 150 BC. Also whipped a few peacetime builds in 150 BC. If this thing escalates, I presume I should leave the new turn immediately and give HAK the first 12 hours? Or can I complete non-essential actions like worker builds, and take care not to whip at the outset and give the wrong impression?

[Old Harry]

They pop up when you press ctrl+R (or perhaps alt+R?) that way we'll know where the fish are...

For a settling race just moving the units in order is normally good enough, but it can be hard for your opponent to know that's what you're doing with multiple logins. If it looks like war then you shouldn't be whipping out of order, again mostly for the look of the thing, but better to be safe than sorry.