[Spoilers] The Network assimilates ipecac, Ruff_Hi & Dreylin (Monty of Vikings)

[Dreylin]

Well the Internet was magically sorted this morning, so I am now capable of connecting ... just a case of whether the turn schedules around the kids (and whether the Internet stays un-broken).

[Dreylin]

Adrien's new city:



Oh, and don't forget we are turning on research next turn.

[Ruff_Hi]

Did you check if I added a Priest Specialist to one of our cities? I have some sort of recollection of doing it.

[Dreylin]

Nope, I didn't have time. Turns out I might now...

[Dreylin]

Everything looks good. Priest Specialist is next turn at The Hub.

Left a couple of comments about the Worker plan; nothing for next turn though.

[Dreylin]

Played the turn. Made a slight tweak to the Worker plan that will let us keep an extra unit within borders next turn. Also made several suggestions in the Worker Plan for optimisation.

Here's our foreign shot for the turn:


borders popped to time with the WB arrival. We can probably write off access to the Clams, and may not be able to get a city past our initial plant. Need to have military support on this one again.

[ipecac]

Got Steam Civ IV to work on Wine and managed to log in the game

Changes: I'm delaying the Settler from Smurf Tube to avoid whipping, the one that's supposed to ship over- the axe and chariot need to explore the South first anyway. Worker 11 and 111 are building roads to the North, joining 3N of The Hub so that units can get north without having to cross the river. Have cancelled the Spear in Access Point, replaced with Chariot followed by Settler.

As for Science: I know we've put 1T of research into Math, but I've been thinking and imo it's the wrong choice for now. If we take Math->Currency we're following along the same (symmetric) strategy as everyone else, which only means we'll fall further behind. Currency is only 1 gold/city for now and we have only 7 cities now; we should rather leverage the asymmetry: AGG (-city maintenance so we can delay CoL), SPI, religion (with shrine) and MC so we should go poly-> mono to get forges up, spread religion for shrine gold etc, and follow the general path of Mono (OR)-> Monarchy (HR, wines)->Feudalism (LB to deter rushes, Vassalage, Serfdom)-> [Code of Laws? (Caste, Courthouses, optional prereq for CS) ->CS (Bureaucracy) -> Machinery (UU!) (on the way picking up Archery, Agri, IW). Then we use our 2 UUs (Navigation I/II Galleys + Amphibious Maceman) and hit one of our neighbours.

On another note: we lost graphs of CH and Adrien. I think we should just focus on our two neighbours.

[Dreylin]

Got Steam Civ IV to work on Wine and managed to log in the game

Cool beans! Do you want to take the reins, or stick with the current arrangement (+ added logins!)

Changes: I'm delaying the Settler from Smurf Tube to avoid whipping, the one that's supposed to ship over- the axe and chariot need to explore the South first anyway. Worker 11 and 111 are building roads to the North, joining 3N of The Hub so that units can get north without having to cross the river. Have cancelled the Spear in Access Point, replaced with Chariot followed by Settler.

Delaying whipping is good, but we can use the Settler somewhere even if it's not the right time to ship it over - we can always place into one of the filler spots or Moai, etc. Oh, forgot to mention before; the hammers in the Spear in Smurf have expired, and the one in Twisted Pair is almost gone too - 1h left. Probably not worth enough to try to keep at this stage.

As for Science: I know we've put 1T of research into Math, but I've been thinking and imo it's the wrong choice for now. If we take Math->Currency we're following along the same (symmetric) strategy as everyone else, which only means we'll fall further behind. Currency is only 1 gold/city for now and we have only 7 cities now; we should rather leverage the asymmetry: AGG (-city maintenance so we can delay CoL), SPI, religion (with shrine) and MC so we should go poly-> mono to get forges up, spread religion for shrine gold etc, and follow the general path of Mono (OR)-> Monarchy (HR, wines)->Feudalism (LB to deter rushes, Vassalage, Serfdom)-> [Code of Laws? (Caste, Courthouses, optional prereq for CS) ->CS (Bureaucracy) -> Machinery (UU!) (on the way picking up Archery, Agri, IW). Then we use our 2 UUs (Navigation I/II Galleys + Amphibious Maceman) and hit one of our neighbours.

I like that plan, and delaying Maths will build up additional Known Tech bonus, but how will it affect the timing for Colossus? Maybe we finish Maths and then skip Currency in favour of the OrgRel-Monarchy route? I checked the plan and if we do decide to switch, we can get through to Mono from now if the Expenses don't go up too much when we found Keystone Jack.

We would also have a decent chance at grabbing Judaism - though I'm not sure if that would be a good or a bad thing.

On another note: we lost graphs of CH and Adrien. I think we should just focus on our two neighbours.

We haven't had Adrien's graphs yet, still building up, but we did lose CH - he started sending EPs against us a few turns ago. Probably he will limp to 43 and stop at parity. My EP order of priority has been:

1) Elum tech visibility
2) maintain CH graphs (1EP/t)
3) grab Adrien's graphs

Could switch 2 & 3 around?

I played t85; I left the research at Maths for now, but I figured you can change it with your new login superpowers....

[ipecac]

Cool beans! Do you want to take the reins, or stick with the current arrangement (+ added logins!)

Let's stick with the current arrangement for now. Wine is still slightly crashy.

Delaying whipping is good, but we can use the Settler somewhere even if it's not the right time to ship it over - we can always place into one of the filler spots or Moai, etc. Oh, forgot to mention before; the hammers in the Spear in Smurf have expired, and the one in Twisted Pair is almost gone too - 1h left. Probably not worth enough to try to keep at this stage.

Mm.

I like that plan, and delaying Maths will build up additional Known Tech bonus, but how will it affect the timing for Colossus? Maybe we finish Maths and then skip Currency in favour of the OrgRel-Monarchy route? I checked the plan and if we do decide to switch, we can get through to Mono from now if the Expenses don't go up too much when we found Keystone Jack.

We may want to go for Math after Feudalism which allows us to go Currency or Construction if needed - known tech boni appaers to be 3 or 4 civs equivalent.

Colossus timing isn't affected. We get Monotheism eot91, next turn we swap to OR. Will need to confirm costs after KT is founded; we can always still go Math->Poly->Mono if we can't make Mono by eot91.

We would also have a decent chance at grabbing Judaism - though I'm not sure if that would be a good or a bad thing.

Denying others of an early religion should be more good than bad..?

We haven't had Adrien's graphs yet, still building up, but we did lose CH - he started sending EPs against us a few turns ago. Probably he will limp to 43 and stop at parity. My EP order of priority has been:

1) Elum tech visibility
2) maintain CH graphs (1EP/t)
3) grab Adrien's graphs

Could switch 2 & 3 around?

We just got CH's graphs again. I'm still not sure how EP spending works exactly...we can both stop at 43 and then maintain graphs on each other?

I played t85; I left the research at Maths for now, but I figured you can change it with your new login superpowers....

Changed to Polytheism.

[Dreylin]

OK, that all sounds good to me.

EP thresholds are calculated from a base level with 2 multipliers; first is the spend ratio between the 2 civs - e.g. our spend against CH vs his spend against us; second is the overall EP spend ratio - i.e. his total spend against all civs vs our total spend vs all civs.

This second factor doesn't play in the early game since we're each just generating the 4EPs from the palace, but it starts to kick in once Courthouses are in the mix. So now it's just the inter-civ spend.

For the example of graphs, we gained CH's with a spend of 29EPs because he had not spent any against us - so that's the base level. Now that he's started spending, our cost has gone up (I think we're roughly 6/31 right now), but the cost goes up less than the spend he is making - roughly 2:1. Now based on experience, I know that the minimum spend for both sides to maintain graphs on each other is 43/43 - so at this point if both sides stop spending we know they can see ours & we can see theirs. So in a situation like CH & us where we're separated by other civs, there's little need to push for additional visibility, so it's likely we both start sending EPs against a neighbour.

(There is a similar threshold for Tech visibility, but it's a) much higher and b) I don't know it by heart)