[SPOILERS] Suboptimal's Arabian Adventure

[Mardoc]

Question for the lurkers: I noticed while placing pins that they could be set to be visible to others.  I don't know if this functionality was present in MP games of earlier versions but, if it was, is there an established RB etiquette or unwritten rules for using/not using them in PBEM games?

Depends on the rules you agreed to for diplomacy. If AI-only, then pins are communication just as much as e-mails, and forbidden.

If free diplomacy, then no problem, you could just as easily exchange screenshots in your e-mails.

[suboptimal]

Question for the lurkers: I noticed while placing pins that they could be set to be visible to others.  I don't know if this functionality was present in MP games of earlier versions but, if it was, is there an established RB etiquette or unwritten rules for using/not using them in PBEM games?

Depends on the rules you agreed to for diplomacy.  If AI-only, then pins are communication just as much as e-mails, and forbidden.

If free diplomacy, then no problem, you could just as easily exchange screenshots in your e-mails.

Considering diplomacy was never discussed I will assume AI-only and proceed accordingly.

[suboptimal]

Turn 13
Open the save, not much has changed.  Slinger completes, start a builder.  Warrior moves one tile east, finds desert to the N/NE of the mountains.  Scout moves 1 tile SW, also finds the start of desert.  Slinger moves out of Tomatin to the dye tile, reveals more grassland and a grassland hill tile off in the distance.  The only debate is how far away do I want to wander.  With the builder due in 7 turns and Rowain’s warrior in the neighborhood I’ve got three more turns to scout, which isn’t going to get the slinger very far,  On the other hand, if the desert is flat the scout will be able to cover a lot of ground to the southeast.  In the settler lens nothing shows up in terms of other cities, but the scout has found water.  With the alpha-shading over the desert tile I can’t tell if that’s coastal desert or lake/river desert.  Going to take a closer look there next turn.



Hit the end turn button and get the “met a city-state” sound effect.

Update: It's occurred to me that if those were river tiles the desert would be floodplains and show a non-zero yield.  Those are either by an oasis or lake (coast is doubtful but would make things very interesting).

[suboptimal]

Turn 14
Start the turn by moving the warrior one tile east.  Reveals more desert to the east and tobacco and sheep to the north & northeast.  This region is turning into a luxury resource bazaar – looks like my earlier suspicions about resource distribution are correct (or I got really lucky).  Amenities should not be a problem this game.  The settler lens reveals that the sheep tile is within 3 hexes of a city:



With the sheep at a 9 hex distance from Tomatin it’s possible that the city is Washington.  IIRC the minimum start distance on these maps is 11 hexes.  That might make Cragganmore the more important site to settle first as it’s a choke point and would seal off that entire coastline.  Of course, I still need to defog the area just north of Tomatin.  Down in the southeast the scout finds an oasis.  Going to turn west from here and cover the southern end of Tsingy.  



The slinger moves onto the cattle, keeping the river between it and Rowain’s warrior.  A rice tile to the south is revealed, but that’s it.

[suboptimal]

Turn 15
Code of Laws completes and I select Urban Planning and Discipline as my policies.  Builder due in 5 turns, start Craftsmanship.  The builder will have improved 3 tiles just as that civic finishes, but I’ll stop one turn short just in case.  Rowain is moving west and has met Jerusalem.  Wonder what his reaction will be if/when he finds La Venta right next door...  

Up in the northwest the warrior moves SE of the sheep.  I find an injured barbarian scout, more red tiles on the settler lens but no city center.  However, I see yellow borders sticking out in the fog, so it’s a commercial city state.  The question now is this the one that Rowain has met?  I haven’t revealed enough of a tile to get the tooltip to trigger, so no luck with the UI bug.    If the scout is still within range next turn I’ll probably attack it in order to start working on the Bronze Working eureka.  Otherwise I’ll try to meet the city-state then turn south to reveal what’s just north of Tomatin.



The scout moves onto a hill and finds a barb camp to the direct west (it’s in the fog 2W of the scout’s final position below).  I move the scout back off the hill and will move SW next turn.  The slinger crosses the river at Tomatin to the SE, revealing a line of forest tiles to the south.  



The scout and slinger have found the rainforest belt I’ve seen in many other pangea maps.  The double line of rainforest is visible in the fog over by the barb camp and the top line of forest is visible by the slinger and continuing over to the barb camp. This has a few implications:

1) If I can get two cities down here that would make for some strong locations for Holy Sites with the Sacred Path pantheon.   Looking at the area with the settler lens shows that there is fresh water near the two forests between the rice south of the slinger and near the barb camp and the tile 1SE of that.  No red tiles, so no cities in close proximity to prevent settling.  The fresh water means I'd be able to get all of Tsingy's tiles in the 2nd or 3rd rings of three different cities.
2) There’s a geographical obstacle to anyone in the south that wants to approach my territory from that direction this early in the game.
3) Based upon prior map analysis the barb camp is 19 tiles up from the southern map edge.  That puts Tomatin 25 tiles up, which is a little north of the map’s equator (which is tile row #21 as the map is 66 wide x 42 high). Judging by the coast to my northwest I can say with 90% certainty that I am at the western end of the pangea.  Provided there’s no one due south of my position that means that I can establish a single (but potentially wide) front against all of my opponents, with caveats about being wary of sea-based assaults later on in the game.

The scout is going to go around the camp to the south and proceed along the southern edge of the belt.  I’m content to leave the southern portion of Tsingy unexplored for the time being, though I’ve got one or two turns to get the slinger over there to check things out before going back to provide cover for the builder.

[suboptimal]

Turn 16
I’ve lost sight of both Rowain’s warrior and the barbarian scout for the time being.  Internationally Kaiser and Ichabod have finished another tech with Kaiser also growing his capital to 3 population.  One topic of curiosity is that Bacchus and Ichabod both remain low in military power.  I have to wonder if one or both of them have built a settler or builder as their second unit.  

In the northwest the warrior moves onto the oasis and reveals Zanzibar.  Their quest is to get the eureka for Bronze Working.  Rowain has the first-in envoy here, so that’s where his cash is coming from.  Looks like he headed west from Washington then south along the Zanzibar River.  The warrior finishes its move to the SE of the oasis, revealing a cotton resource on a 3F/3G floodplain tile.  America is most likely east of there by a short distance.  However, I want to finish fogbusting north of Tomatin before the warrior heads further east.

In the south the slinger moves to the rice tile in the direction of Tsingy.  Nothing noteworthy there, though the two forest tiles that have freshwater are the only two in the area.

Over east the Scout moves atop the hill two hexes from the barbarian camp.  The camp is defended by a spearman and has spawned a warrior.  The scout does find two silver resources in the desert as well as a river that heads south.  Nothing on the settler lens,  so the scout will turn west.  The slinger will start to return to Tomatin 



The Zanzibar city center is 3 tiles directly NE of the warrior’s position at the top left corner.  Mining and a 3rd citizen in Tomatin due next turn.

[suboptimal]

Turn 17
Mining finishes, start Pottery.  Up in the north the scout re-appeared right next to the warrior.  I take the opportunity to try to rack up some kills (and XP) and the warrior attacks, killing the scout.  In the southeast the scout moves 3 tiles directly west, revealing two oases and another silver resource.  One of the oases is providing fresh water for the tiles near the barb camp, the other is in the middle of the desert.  The tile providing fresh water to the forests by the slinger is still in the fog but appears to be another oasis based on the distribution of fresh water tiles around it.  There’s also a river that starts two more tiles to the west.  Unit movement finishes with the slinger moving one more tile east, revealing a plains/woods/deer tile that’s 1F/3P/1C/1S.  That tile would be second ring for a city that settles on the barbarian oasis.  Markers go down for the potential sites for Glenfarclas and Strathyla.



Tomatin grows to 3 population and starts working the dye tile.  When figuring out my growth & production I had forgotten that at 3 population the amenity bonus for the palace is “used” by the city.  Ah well, that’ll slow things down by a couple of turns.  The tile chooser continues to flip-flop between the rice and the cattle.  

Internationally Kaiser pulls ahead in score, completing another civic.  Everyone is now at three population except for Ichabod, who is still at 2 pop.  Rowain has completed a warrior as he’s jumped ahead of me in military power (55 to my 45).

[suboptimal]

Turn 18
Open the save, find out I’ve met Kaiser.  Of course, when I click the icon to center on the event it goes straight to Tomatin.  I don’t see his unit anywhere.  Based upon his culture, science and faith rates (4.9, 6.1, 2) he’s got envoys in a cultural and a scientific city-state, is working one or more resources providing a total of +2 faith and +1 culture.  His gold rate is 5 per turn, which is only the palace, so he’s not running God King.  He’s also met Rowain and someone else.  His military power is 30, so he’s built a scout and is either building one or both of a settler and builder before other military.  In other news, Rowain's warrior has reappeared west of Tomatin.

Back to domestic affairs, the warrior up north moves 2 tiles directly south.  He climb the hill next turn and hopefully uncover the remaining hidden hexes north of Tomatin.  The slinger starts its return journey to Tomatin for escort duty though will get there after the builder is finished.  I may stop the builder and switch to a settler next turn until the slinger gets back or Rowain’s warrior clears out.  Don’t want him getting any ideas….

The scout crosses the oasis, finds two more silver resources and then turns southeast across the river.  After the hexes are revealed it looks like I’ve found Kyoto.  This is a problem, as now I’ve got two opposite fronts to contend with, just like Archduke in PBEM 2.  I do have a bit of a geographical boundary between myself and Japan, however.  The other issue is that if Japan has met another civ there’s a good chance that I might not be in the west, but in the east and I’m on some sort of saddle on the northern coast.  This will take more scouting, so the scout will get eyes on Kyoto and then continue west.  Given this situation settling Glenfarclas becomes a priority after Glenkinchie – the latter is just too strong of a site to not settle first.  Jerusalem also becomes a bit of a potential weak point in the Japan/Arabia front, but I’ll worry about that later.



Upon hitting next turn I hear the sound indicating a barbarian camp spawned.  Hopefully it’s not by me.

[suboptimal]

Turn 19
Don’t see any barb camps when I open the save (other than the two I already know about) so they must have spawned elsewhere.  Rowain’s warrior has disappeared into the fog, I assume northwest of Tomatin.  

Warrior up north moves onto the hill.  Reveals a number of plains tiles including one sheep, no American warrior.  One tile remains hidden so the warrior will move one more tile SW to reveal it.  Slinger moves NW to continue its return to escort the city while Rowain lurks about.  I move the scout three tiles to the southwest along the river and spot….Kikyo, whose center is two west of the scout in the screenshot below.  Kaiser appears to have gone scout-settler.  Edit: No, he didn't, or rather, if he did this is his capital.  His empire score still shows 8.  There are also wisps of tundra along the edge of the fog, so we’re near the southern edge of the continent.



The PBEM 2 players gave an occasional strategic update, some based on turn, others based on predicament.  It seems like a good idea, if only to help organize my own thoughts on the game.  After I get the next turn out of the way I’ll get something put together as a summary and plan for turns 21-40.

[suboptimal]

Turn 20

Open the save and….I’ve got warriors from Rowain and Kaiser in my territory...This is a bit of a problem, seeing that I wanted to run the builder up to the sheep tile first.  Without the escort slinger all the way back yet, an not wanting to provide a juicy target for either warrior I move the slinger towards the eastern rice tile.  I also move the builder out and farm that rice tile now.  I was going to farm a rice at some point for the Irrigation eureka, so I’ll do that now. Neither warrior can beat my slinger to the rice tile and the builder can retreat back to the city center if need be.   Tomatin starts a settler, due in 8 turns.  



I bring the warrior onto the hill to its SW – that reveals the one remaining fogged tile, revealing a 1F/1P/3G cotton (!).  Down by my scout a Japanese slinger has shown up.  A warning, perhaps, or just be trying to keep me from getting direct eyes on his capital?  With a warrior right next to my capital that rings a little hollow if it’s a warning.  I cross the river into Japanese territory to the NW en route to the area south of Jerusalem.  We’ll see what happens.  Interestingly that reveals a marble resource two tiles NW of the scout’s new position.



No other developments.  Later on this evening I’ll have a bit of a strategic update (short- and intermediate-term).

Edit: Question for the lurkers -- how are ranged units accounted for in the Military Power rating shown on the scoring screen?  My power was at 45 until the warrior got wounded (warrior [20] + scout [10] + slinger [15]) but Kaiser's is only showing a rating of 30 but he's got 35 showing (warrior + slinger).  This would make sense if the melee rating was counted, but in that case I should have a max rating of 35, not 45.