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

[ipecac]

Lurkers: I've been generally terrible at reporting but I'll do something for T150. Are there any screenshots you guys want?

[Krill]

Just do a huge dump of everything. Every city, F screen, plus pictures of every part of your empire. Don't have to say anything.

[Dreylin]

Krill: Why do some civs have ready access to ICTRs and others don't?

This is an important question that needs to be answered before I can rank the map on the Karmadore scale.

This. By my reckoning Whosit, Grimace and Johns have easy access to intercontinental routes; Elum's are a bit further, but clearly in "his sphere". Adrien has access to a crappy island (which I guess he'd have settled if not for researching Alphabet), but neither CH or we seem to have anything that could be considered "ours".

Also this large galley-accessible area appears to be unique on the map, so I'm wondering over the thought process behind that.

How you consider the starts balanced is something I'd like to hear more about ... for my money I'd take CH's start with double Hunting resources, AH Happy and that lovely riverside Gold for city #2 - is that why he didn't get an island? In which case why did we get a Desert Silver and a Furs there was no way we could settle early?

I also have to assume that Whosit popped one of those pair of Copper resources at Soos, though I guess that can't be confirmed until post-game. Although I probably prefer our pinch-point defenses to his stringy wrap-around empire of western exposure.

Meh, too much looking at the map.

ipecac; because you hadn't been in since the turn rolled I had to dial up research and some builds - plugged Wealth in when asked so it would be clearer what I had done. Also queued HBR, though no idea if that was next - WEs to tide us over until Pikes?

[ipecac]

ipecac; because you hadn't been in since the turn rolled I had to dial up research and some builds - plugged Wealth in when asked so it would be clearer what I had done. Also queued HBR, though no idea if that was next - WEs to tide us over until Pikes?

I'm waiting for Elum to play, he should have gotten his HA/knights in position to hit Grimace by this turn or next. I think we can save gold at 0% on HBR and react to what he does, because if he attacks Grimace I think it's worth the risk to go CoL-> CS instead during our GA (though we can go HBR->CoL->CS for more security).

[Krill]

Dreylin, I think a lot of the issues with the map that you have now are down to two points: You choose a SPI leader (and thus were going to have a slower early game) and then you went for religion and Oracle which slowed you down further. Since you made those decisions, you've been scrambling to hold at the choke points against your opponents. I can't really comment more along those lines without spoiler information.

What I can say about the ICTR, is that I did think you had an island; I'm wondering where the hell that thing disappeared to. I'd have to check previous copies of the map during the editing process but I imagine that it has been subsumed into part of a continent somewhere to increase the total amount of land you had. I believe I should apologize for that one, that is a mistake one my part.

I'll reserve comment on your preferred start except to say I don't know how much of hte map you don't know and I look forward to finding out (hint, hint).

[Krill]

Also, I'll state that I think you should have settled the second city 1 tile south; once you popped borders in that city you would have had no need to pop borders in any cities in this area, and that would have gotten you copper, silver, a pig and oasis, enough to grow to the happy cap and just churn out settlers and workers.

[ipecac]

You choose a SPI leader (and thus were going to have a slower early game) and then you went for religion and Oracle which slowed you down further.

That's fair. In hindsight Colossus was a bad strategic plan (my idea, I believe )because it needs high pop to pay off, but we had to whip a lot to not fall too far back compared to the other IMP or EXP civs

What I can say about the ICTR, is that I did think you had an island; I'm wondering where the hell that thing disappeared to. I'd have to check previous copies of the map during the editing process but I imagine that it has been subsumed into part of a continent somewhere to increase the total amount of land you had. I believe I should apologize for that one, that is a mistake one my part.

It's okay, we can use it as an excuse for dying horribly later on

I'll reserve comment on your preferred start except to say I don't know how much of hte map you don't know and I look forward to finding out (hint, hint).

We have maps of everything:

[Dreylin]

You choose a SPI leader (and thus were going to have a slower early game) and then you went for religion and Oracle which slowed you down further.

That's fair. In hindsight Colossus was a bad strategic plan (my idea, I believe )because it needs high pop to pay off, but we had to whip a lot to not fall too far back compared to the other IMP or EXP civs

I can't remember whether I made the case for Oracling Monarchy at the time, but I certainly thought a bit about it.

At least we've got foreign routes now, but I guess we'll have to wait until we get killed win before we get the wider thoughts on map balancing & Barbstralia.

[ipecac]

Dreylin: I opted for saving gold and going for HBR in 3T instead of turning science on this turn and running wealth builds next turn for 2T instead. Not sure which is best because Elum hasn't committed to attacking Grimace, feel free to change if you think necessary.

Also we get a GS next turn which we need to decide when to use for GA.

[Dreylin]

If we're not using him for the Academy, then IMO ASAP is probably the right time for the GA.

BTW, are we going to manage to get Barbstralia Wheat and the Marble city founded during this peaceful interlude? The Wheat we probably need to, since I wouldn't put it past Adrien to grab for it now.