Turn 34 – 2640 BC
I am reconsidering the plan for how to scout with Moncacht-Ape over the coming turns. As I stated in previous turn reports, I have been thinking that he should continue around To Be Decided to learn more about Superdeath. However, I am now not sure that we really need to find out more about Superdeath right now. We know where his capital is and we can see his copper to determine when it is connected (the “needs route” text should go away, even in the fog, once he links the resource, right?). We don’t know exactly where his second city is, but we know by process of elimination that it went in a direction away from us, so why does it matter to us right now where it is exactly? I am now thinking that Moncacht-Ape should move to the southeast next turn and continue on in a very large third semi-circle around Cuzco, with the intent of locating “third ring” cities and finding our neighbors to the south and the east. What do you think?
Back by our own civilization, the first unit besides Moncacht-Ape ventures forth beyond our culture into the realm of the barbarians. The unit in question is Quechua One, who can be seen two tiles west of Sidon. Next turn he will move to the copper forest, and then he will fortify there so that he can defend Settler Two and the workers that will head over there in a little while.
(July 18th, 2018, 17:13)Magic Science Wrote: Do you think it is better to scout with actual scouts or with quechuas and, later, chariots that are assigned to scout? Scouts are fast and non-threatening, but human barbarians eat them for breakfast, and human barbarians will be appearing soon.
Chariots are good scouts, but we don't have any Chariots
Scouts are cheaper than Quechas and faster. They are more fragile, but I think also more expendable. Quechas will die to barbs too eventually, I just think we'd get more actual scouting down with Scouts before they die than we would with Quechas.
I agree with you in regards to our current scout, seeing what's to our south should be a priority for him.
Turn 35 – 2600 BC
As I was logging into the game this turn, I noticed that RFS-81 and haphazard1 had renamed their civilization to the “Psychedelic Warlords.” That doesn’t sound friendly to me.
Quechua One moved another tile beyond our borders, to the copper forest that he needs to stay on for a while, and he encountered a lion! He has a very good chance of surviving (96.4% plus the chance that the lion walks away without fighting), but who knows what will happen. Best of luck, Quechua One.
Moncacht-Ape did move southeast, but I forgot to take a screenshot. He didn’t find anything interesting anyway, just jungle. Next turn he will just continue moving southeast.
All micro proceeded as planned. On the topic of micro, I still haven’t managed to set up a sim with accurate maintenance. However, I am pretty sure that we can get Pottery by Turn 44. Research rates at different slider settings should be accurate in the sim, it is just that the gold per turn gained or lost at each setting is wrong, so by keeping track of how much gold we should be gained or losing in the game at each point, I should be able to get an accurate idea of when we should get each tech. This is just a stop-gap measure, but for now it can work. Also, I have only done a few preliminary sims past the founding of red dot city, and the situation could still change, so it will be a while before I post Phase Four.
(July 18th, 2018, 23:44)Mr. Cairo Wrote: Chariots are good scouts, but we don't have any Chariots
Scouts are cheaper than Quechas and faster. They are more fragile, but I think also more expendable. Quechas will die to barbs too eventually, I just think we'd get more actual scouting down with Scouts before they die than we would with Quechas.
I agree with you in regards to our current scout, seeing what's to our south should be a priority for him.
Of course, you are correct that we will not have chariots for a while, so the choice of what to scout with is between scouts and quechuas (minor nitpick- they actually both cost 15 hammers). I’m not quite sure which one I like better, I will think about it some more. In any case, Cuzco and Sidon will be occupied with other things and won’t be able to build scouting units until about Turn 40, so there is time to decide.
Turn 36 – 2560 BC
This turn, it was Superdeath’s time to change his civilization’s name. Now it is named the “Justice League.” (His first city’s name is now Superman; his second city’s name is Batman) I guess that before now he really just didn't know what to name his cities.
In the game itself, I was pleased to see that Quechua One emerged victorious in his fight with the lion. He wasn’t even injured. Over to the west, Moncacht-Ape found more jungle, although this time he found some rice in the jungle too.
In regards to Cloak and Dagger, Charriu founded his second city last turn, leaving RFS-81 as the only one left out of the Two-City Club. Also, Coeurva got a technology this turn, but I am not sure what it is. In fact, my efforts to determine what technologies people are getting are pretty much completely ineffective at this point. There are just too many variables in play. However, I will continue to track score increases to determine when people get technologies, as well as when they found cities, complete wonders, and grow in population. Relatedly, we have Superdeath’s graphs now. Are there any that you would like to see? None of them are very shocking. The last Cloak and Dagger-related thing to mention this turn is that Superdeath’s copper no longer reads “needs route,” so he must have it hooked. I will be watching his power graph for any sign of an impi being completed.
Also, I have made up my mind about the scout vs. quechua debate. I would prefer to scout with quechuas. By the time we can get any scouting units out, human barbarians will be walking around. Quechuas can have good chances of survivability again warriors and archers (remember, they have a +100% bonus vs. archery units), while scouts will die no matter what the terrain to either one. I think that the greater survivability of the quechuas will mean we reveal more terrain with them than with the faster, weaker scouts, especially considering the prevalence of jungle on this map. Also, if/when a quechua is done scouting what we need him too, he can come back and garrison a city, while a scout would just be useless.
Turn 37 – 2520 BC
Ugh. This turn I made a dumb misclick and moved Moncacht-Ape one tile north instead of one tile south. This is definitely too small of an error to warrant the hassle of a reload, even if the other players were merciful enough to give it, so we will have to eat this mistake. If Moncacht-Ape doubles back and continues on the planned path, then it will cost him two turns compared to the schedule he would have been on without my error. However, I am considering moving him one tile northeast, then one tile northwest instead. It would get Moncacht-Ape moving along to the next region more quickly, but at the cost of not revealing the tiles south of the rice. I’m not sure what to do here.
At least things went well in domestic development. We did our first whip of the game (in Sidon, to finish Worker Three) and started Settler Two. However, Phase Three comes to an end in just a few turns, so the plan will need to be extended soon. On that note…
Today I tried to set up a sim with the correct maintenance costs, and it seems that I will have to edit the map dimensions of a sim from outside of the game to do so. I haven’t done that before, so there will be a bit more of a delay while I figure it out. Question for Commodore: Are the exact dimensions of the map information we are allowed to have? Can you give it to us if it is? I could try to figure out the dimensions by trial and error, but that would be a lot more tedious than being told them.
Even without an accurate sim, I have some ideas for what to do in Phase Four, and I have already done a few tries, so I should have a plan complete sometime in the near future.
Turn 38 – 2480 BC
Maybe that misclick was actually part of my diabolical master plan? We may not have met shallow_thought (as of this turn the leader of the Unlucky Orphans; everyone seems to be renaming their civilizations recently) without it. I reallocated all of our espionage points on him. He currently has 2 points against us, so I guess that he has met someone else already. I also used the trade screen to confirm that he has founded his second city. In any case, his warrior appearing convinced me to move Moncacht-Ape along the alternative path. shallow_thought would have a good chance to kill Moncacht-Ape if he wanted to, so I won’t give him that chance.
No resources, just barbarians. Moncacht-Ape spots a warrior stacked with a lion. He needs to avoid fights with human barbarians if at all possible, so next turn I will have to play it by ear and see where those barbarians go. He might stall by healing in place.
Fifth City: We have not founded cities three or four yet, but their positions are already decided, so it is actually fifth city that needs to be decided on next. I favor green city, located in the south directly between the wheat and silver, as our fifth city. It is already a decent spot in terms of food, hammers, and forests to help the snowball, but it also brings in a high-commerce luxury that we can already hook, which will be quite handy with several cities to benefit and when we are starting to have to deal with high maintenance. One of the main concerns that we both had with the spot when considering it for the third city was its indefensibility. However, by the time we would be able to settle it fifth we will have access to archers and axes to defend, which I think should be enough to back it up.
Near Future Technology Goals: The Wheel is about to finish, and Pottery is certain to come next, but then what comes after that? I think that the tech immediately after Pottery should be Archery. It is a cheap, short detour for a lot of extra security, especially considering that two of our first three expansions are going towards the guy playing Boudica of Zululand. After Archery, I am still not sure. We could go for Iron Working to be able to settle the jungle regions, but I think that we still have enough non-jungle spots that we don’t need it quite yet. I might be wrong on that, though. We could go for a religion (Buddhism and Hinduism are still open), but I think that my original reasons for not pursuing it still stand. Basically, we don’t need the culture, the shrine is hard to get and won’t be incredible, and going for the technology will be a significant slowdown of the snowball. We could go for the nice Classical Era economic techs through Animal Husbandry and Writing (We can think more about what Classical Era economic techs to get when we get past Writing). That research would take a long time, but the rewards would be great. I will have to think more about it.
Coeurva: Coeurva was talking about a potential double-move in the tech thread, which means he must have met someone else. Can we figure out who it is? Answer:
Nope
He played last the previous turn, so he could be in a potential double-move situation with anyone. “Thus, Magic Science’s attempt to glean a scrap of meta-information ended in failure.”
This is definitely too small of an error to warrant the hassle of a reload, even if the other players were merciful enough to give it, so we will have to eat this mistake. If Moncacht-Ape doubles back and continues on the planned path, then it will cost him two turns compared to the schedule he would have been on without my error. However, I am considering moving him one tile northeast, then one tile northwest instead. It would get Moncacht-Ape moving along to the next region more quickly, but at the cost of not revealing the tiles south of the rice. I’m not sure what to do here.