[PB26 Spoilers] Joey and Donovan play around in the muck

[GermanJoey]

T59.

What to heck.

[GermanJoey]

I'm having trouble figuring out who did that, I was really surprised to see that in the log. T59 GS! My first thought was plako, as he's Cre for cheap libraries (Willem of HRE, an Org civ) and that period where he wasn't gaining score, when I thought he was going for a religion, could have been writing instead. The only other candidate Cre candidate is Brick, who's playing Boudica of Mali, a Cre civ. However, wouldn't you really only want to do a gambit like this as a Phi civ, for the settled Great Scientist + Academy? Phi is only +67% here, so that's still a 13 turn job with PhiThere's no Phi/Cre civ, but there's 4 Phi civs: me, Krill (Elizabeth of Inca, Pro civ), Pindicator (Joao of Ethiopia, a Phi civ in this mod), and Cheater Hater (Peter of Mali, an Ind civ). Phi is only +67% GPP here, so that's still a 13 turn job with Phi, and thus Pindicator is probably out as he already has 5 cities and he'd likely be behind if he went for something like this. Krill, I can't imagine Krill sacrificing expansion with two economic traits for a gambit like this. CH, on the other hand, has just 3 cities, despite being expansive. So, him then? He must have started on the scientist T46 at the latest... did he settle his first city late? Maybe he grew up to 4 and then whipped for maximal OF into a library, and then chopped out the rest? I wonder how it will turn out? I'm not sure how to judge. Ordinarily you want to emphasize foodhammers over economy above all else in the early game, but this move will gain a ridiculous economy advantage so maybe it's worth it?

Game is going well, the pace lately has been awesome. The two unhappy faces you see in that screenshot were gone instantly because we hooked up the whale that turn, very nice. The dry map is still annoying me, but I'll admit I was overly freaking out last page because some of my other games have been really, really painful lately. As long as the map is this dry for everyone, its fine, and we'll manage. The one thing I'm sad about is so far there's no stone to be seen anywhere. We see an eventual Marble, which is nice, but I was hoping to get early Moai(s!) and the Mids. Our tech plan is going to be Priesthood -> Writing -> Poly -> Mono -> HR, I think. Writing wasn't originally part of the plan, but I think it'll end up paying for itself by the time we get to HR between the extra routes and some early libraries, and I think we'll need to wait to revolt to OR+HR instead of just revolting to OR immediately. Gotta estimate what our tech rate will be like first, I guess, as I'm not sure yet how fast to expand considering that there's not really any good nearby spots. I'm thinking.... settle on the pig island next, using the work boat to deliver the settler, expand borders onto the horse that way? Get some ICTRs? Seems like a good idea. I need to get some map trades set up...

[GermanJoey]

T64-T72.

T64, map trade in from Thoth, oh boy!

The GS wasn't CH, his GNP is terrible and so is his city placement. Yeesh.




It's thus most likely Krill. He just popped a second one, by the way, making his GNP truly fucking insane. Three settled GS and an academy, yowza. My first double prophets won't show up until T75ish.




Thoth is doing ok. He doesn't have much food around his capital but seems nicely positioned to race to feitoras and then spam them to infinity.




Brick is over here, pretty close to me, although I haven't made contact yet.




Plako is the only one I can't see, but he must be in here somewhere I guess.




T68, Oracle finished! I take MC as planned and get started on a bunch of lumbermills and assembly plants right away. My tech plan is to get Mono next, immediately revolt, and then start on HR. HR will be good for me, but only after I have some good tiles to work.




I was feeling pretty good about the oracle, but then of course this had to happen. It's gotta happen at least once per game I guess. I cleaned it up with a warrior, but I had to eat two unhappy citizens for a turn in Banana Bread.




I put down city 5 near pindicator, on a hill and protected by a nice Pro archer. It's got a dry wheat in its BFC but its primary purpose is just to defensively define our southern border. I thought that it would be a fine plant, as it doesn't encroach on his borders at all, is very defensive (preventing a fork), and still gives him room for a fishy filler. However, I saw Commodore posting in his thread this morning and now I'm freaked out! Hmmm, we should have a good border though, at least I'd think so... maybe my low power is making him feel offended by what he see could see as an aggressive plant by a weak civ that's trying to bluff him? Pro archers are very strong but they don't add much to one's power rating, I guess. Pindicator is Imp, has good land, and is expanding like a weed (he has a pretty significant #1 CY now), so I really don't want to fight him if I can help it.

My settler for city 6 is also out, and it'll go up north to claim a gold (+2 happy with an AP) and a pigs in a couple turns. (I'll need a galley to improve the pigs, unfortunately) City 7 will settle on the pig island for some overdue ICTRs - its settler will be done in a few turns, out of the capital. The capital has a temple and Banana Bread has a monastery and AP already, so I'm all geared up to go crazy with OR once it comes in!

[GermanJoey]

There's no stone at all on this map? Why?

[GermanJoey]

T79.

We've got four lumbermills rolling now, and are about to switch into HR+OR in 2 turns. Our MFG will start going through the roof very soon, oh yes, prepare to freak out world. We've also got our 6th city down now, and our 7th will also be settled in a few turns. We met plako 5 turns ago and then on this turn Brick. Mostly things have been good. However, pindicator is being very annoying with his chariot and won't let me hook up this gold, weaving in and out of the fog to chase my worker off the gold every time he steps on it. Damnit, go away! I wish I sent my other archer over here instead out spawn-busting in the east. Pind's CY is exploding... he has 8 cities and the GLH, and I'm sure appreciates the chance to stretch his arms after so many nightmare PBEMs in a row.

[Borsche]

can it compare with PIG ISLAND??!?? You want pig, you want island, well, hell, we got all that and more here at Pig Island. So come on down!

I don't want Pig Island.

[GermanJoey]

can it compare with PIG ISLAND??!?? You want pig, you want island, well, hell, we got all that and more here at Pig Island. So come on down!

I don't want Pig Island.

Pig Island ain't got nothin' on Pig Mountain.

[spacetyrantxenu]

Pig Island ain't got nothin' on Pig Mountain.

This Pig Mountain?

Full disclosure, the post quote links go into my PB18 thread and since you're one of the happy survivors you probably shouldn't click the links or the Internet will asplode.

All hail Pig Mountain!

Or is there another Pig Mountain I missed in one of these games? Like, hopefully not an egregious mapmaker error where someone put a pig resource on a mountain to taunt you?

[GermanJoey]

Pig Mountain is from the I made for our currently running badgame.net pitboss, that Borsche has complained about for dozens of pages in his thread

[GermanJoey]

I guess I'll write an update.

T82-T88. or something.

Pindicator has been driving me....... BANANAS. :banana: He's been harassing me with this stupid chariot for reasons I can't fathom. Like, he's being clearly aggressive, and even made a post in the tech thread about "double move conundrum" that I think was about me. This was a few turns ago... I had played last/first on a turn roll, and since his chariot was out of range of my worker, I built a road instead of moving the worker out of range completely. So then he thought he'd be allowed to double-move and take the worker ??? Ridiculous. What's really silly is that he then razed the road I just built, but left the Torusland village sitting next to it completely unscathed. What? I don't get it. Whatever man! I just don't get you! Has it really been so long since you played a game where you didn't neighbor Commodore? Have you forgotten that this kinda shit isn't usually defacto and also doesn't pay off, like, fucking ever? It just raises tensions pointlessly and reveals your aggressive inclinations far before you have a real army to field. It's as if he'd been stranded on a desert island for 5 years, got rescued, and now doesn't remember how to use a fork and knife to eat his food anymore. Or hmmm, maybe... maybe an alternate theory: in his PBEM64 thread, he said he was seeing Commodore in his nightmares... maybe we have some kinda Freddy Krueger scenerio here, and Commodore now possesses Pind's soul when he sleeps? Y'know, he *has* been playing his turns rather late at night, now that I think about it...




But seriously, he better back the fuck off. Or, at least, start looking at other graphs besides the CY one and think about what else he's buying himself here besides delaying my gold mine. He could only bully me around like this because a.) my horses were really unfortunately placed and b.) I revealed copper really late cause I went Buddhism -> AH-> Archery (allows whipping in this mod) -> BW. So, all I had were archers for awhile. But, like, I have horses and copper now, will be in Vassalage in 10T, and if he keeps this shit up I'll just grab HBR before then and come back at him. Oh, and by the way, I'll be able to straight-up one-turn 10XP Horse Archers out of two different cities. Surprise?










I'm now working 7 lumbermills in total, two of which are already second-level, with 4 more currently in production. They are very expensive builds in terms of worker labor, 8T a piece plus a turn to move onto the forest, but the earlier you start working them the better. By the time I get Paper my production will be completely fucking retarded, especially with double Moais and double HEs.

My two prize cities are great, but the next ring are kinda junk. My current plan is to let Banana Bread be a workhorse for a while while Banana Pudding spams wonders (next on the agenda is Moai then ToA) and my second ring gets OR and then Vassalage infrastructure up - my cities will get something like 11hpt at that point just from buildings. I also want a lot of settlers... I have one more important site left, a silver to my north for my Assembly Plants, and then a bunch of fillers to place. I also did just settle a really great city to my south though, near pindicator, that picks up 4 food in its BFC! That'll grow up into a monster! It's a bit reachy though, so I'm counting on Pro Archers to keep me safe.

Thoth also beelined Vassalage/OR, FWIW. I think the two of us were the ones who playtested this mod the most, and we both recommended to Krill that he nerfed those two civics... which he did, and yet we're both still going for them anyways.