September 29th, 2018, 10:58
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(September 29th, 2018, 10:46)Grotsnot Wrote: I'm actually a little surprised by G&R over gunning for Recorded History. Any particular reason? Planning a play for the Colosseum? Could use the discount for an Entertainment Complex. Or perhaps to push for Defensive Tactics for Limes chops? I would think Jesuit Madrassas would outweigh that, though.
...because I'm stupid. Allow me to quote:
(September 28th, 2018, 16:44)Cheval ier Mal Fet Wrote: Finished the Wheel, but I'm not really sure where to go from here - symptomatic of my general lackadaisical attitude towards this game. I really don't have a research strategy - stop wincing, Cornflakes! I'm doing my best - so let's talk through it.
Anyway, my general plan had been to push for Limes, because I want to start throwing up walls soon (leaving them at 1-turn, to be either chopped or finished in an emergency), before the DoF with Archduke runs out. However, my biggest problem at the moment is science, and Natural Philosophy is the, er, natural choice, to make up for that.
However, note that I still need to finish a second campus to boost it (that's planned at Zobrist), and without that second campus, it wouldn't benefit me all that much anyway - just +1 science from my one, weak, campus.
Quote:I do like the desert SW-SW of Escobar for the Encampment, assuming it's worth getting one at all. Another option would be to have a northern watchtower somewhere but I kinda doubt that has a good enough payoff for a district slot. Planting next to the Plaza is definitely out - is there a spot 2-tiles from the Plaza that would help bump up the adjacency bonuses?
Actually, yes - just NW of Lake Designated Hitter there's a good plains tile available, would bump up adjacencies for a planned theater square and Morales' planned campus. The campus would then be adjacent to FOUR districts - the Holy Site, the Plaza, the Theater Square, and the Encampment. The Theater Square would (eventually) be adjacent to the Campus, Plaza, Encampment, and a Harbor just off shore. The Holy Site, sadly, only borders the Plaza and the Campus, but I'll live with a little bit less faith. Morales is thus the key to building a Japanese-style megacity on my island. Hojo, eat your heart out.
September 29th, 2018, 16:03
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Turn 81
It's amazing how much less stressful turns are since I gave up on properly winning and am just focused on doing my own best performance. I'm playing looser and having more fun, for sure. Today is more fun!
Well, the hell with district discounts. Hard to manage that stuff in R&F anyway, and it'll take us forever only to get discounts on districts we don't even want to build at the moment. I go ahead and finish Games & Rec, so I can focus on the bottom half of the tree now. Like Grotsnot pointed out, Natural Philosophy will be a good fit for us once we get Zobrist's campus up. Zobrist needs to hit size 7 first, but that's not THAT far away.
However, Zobrist's pop does mean that the Megacity Encampment probably needs to wait, or needs to be relocated to Morales:
Zobrist has two districts placed, the Plaza and the Holy Site. The +3 Campus is next, as soon as I have the pop - I've already got a builder ready to chop both districts. So, Zobrist needs to hit size 10 for its next district - but that probably needs to be a Harbor, not an encampment. More Great Admiral points, more gold, more trade, and the ability to build ships all far outweigh the benefits of a cheap encampment and some GG points.
I do only have one copy of iron, though, so any swordsmen will ahve to be upgraded warriors. That's not an issue, since we'd be building Mamluks anyway, and those don't need iron (or horses).
Eagle-eyed readers will notice that my science rate went up between screenshots. That's because I don't always present these in order, and I've got a few major announcements to make. Well, one. But it is a good one.
Our Prayer project finished last turn and jumped our GP points up, so this turn I get to do this:
All right! 80 turns into the game, about halfway through the life of most PBEMs here, and we're finally finally starting to bring our Arabian strengths to bear. It's a slow-starting civ, for sure, especially in R&F which has a much longer early game than the vanilla, with slowed down tech. Here's what I go with:
No surprises, I think. Jesuit Education is a natural pairing with Arabia, since the Madrasas I buy will feed into faith to get me more Madrasas. Church Property is my second choice after DotF, which Japper took. It would have been nice to be mostly unconquerable (as long as I maintain my navy - land units are still helpless against Frigates, DotF or no DotF), but Church Property is a good second choice. I always struggle with money-making, and I'm trying to be better about that. My gold income will be 2 coins per converted city, and I'll have 8 on my home island pretty soon, for 16. I also want to send a missionary to the Archduke while our DoF is signed, which lasts until ~turn 100. That'll be my next faith purchase, and he might spread it for me since he can use Jesuit Education as well.
Our mascot is a lion, because the Royals' masacot is Sluggerrr, a lion himself:
He's supposed to be wearing a crown, but it's actually some sort of weird growth on his head. That or the designers of his costume have never seen a real lion in their life. The name, Esky Magic, comes from the Royals' inexplicable faith in Alcides Escobar swinging at the first pitch, as you guys know all about by now.
Anyway, I use my saved up faith to immediately start fixing my science situation, purchasing a library at Escobar. This is why I was willing to run Prayers - because not only do I get the prophet points, but the spent production I get back as faith, which I can use to salvage some of the production I used on the project itself. I'm pretty SURE it's inefficient and not a potential arbitrage opportunity (ie run projects in a high-production city, use the faith to purchase buildings and units in a low production city), but it did make the one case of guaranteeing second pick worthwhile to me. Our science rate is now 18, 6 behind the Archduke. The campus at Zobrist, +a library purchase, +natural philosophy, will put me about even with him, and then Madrasas will accelerate me ahead. Meanwhile, on the culture front, we trail him by only 2 points - 17 cpt versus 15, and that's with him having a theater square placed and me still needing monuments. With 3 more settlers in production, and at least one more planned, we'll be okay on culture.
Here's the civics plan.
7 turns to Drama and Poetry, 2 to grab Mysticism, and then finally 5 to grab Theology. We're 14 turns away from Madrasas, which, haha, I can faith-purchase! Which means we'll soon explode in science. This means that I can safely concentrate on building defenses against the 'Duke, and maybe angle for another DoF (well, probably not). He's got the highest military score, at 280. My own 180 is middle of the pack, and Emperor has fallen to 170, last place. Archduke also founded a city, it looks like, since his score went up 9 Empire points. Or he reconquered his city but it takes a turn to show up? I dunno. Bottom line: new Dutch city as they decisively win their war. Too bad about my DoF, I could ahve done some real damage and maybe taken control of the game! Oh, well. C'est la vie.
Something to think about in the medium term: Monasticism.
This will slash our culture rate by 25%, from ~16 to ~12. BUT, it will boost science in our Holy Site cities by 100%! Here's escobar, for reference:
That's 10 science right there. Zobrist is much the same, once it gets its Holy Site and Campus up. I'm thinking it's worth foregoing Conscription or another policy and pulling the trigger on this. Culture is doing okay, but science is lagging badly, and this could speed up my catching up. I could pause Drama & Poetry, grab Mysticism, and make the swap. If I'd been using my brain, I would have grabbed it this turn. Oops. I'm a lunkhead. The fact that I'm not being thoroughly beaten at all is a goddamned miracle. Guess everyone else is making just as many mistakes.
Scores:
Now tied for #3, having gained 15 points (Banzai, this is by no means a request, since you're quite busy, but I'd really enjoy seeing one of your graphs at the moment!), and we're gonna keep shooting up quick.
Plans: Finish 3 settlers, settle Hosmer, Rios, & Morales.
Grab Mysticism, swap to Oligarchy, take Monasticism and Maritime Industries and Colonization.
Finish settlers, begin shipbuilding program. Goal is to match the Archduke's navy by turn 100.
Research towards Theology and grab Madrasas.
Alternate faith purchases of missionaries with Libraries/Madrasas as available.
Figure out what the hell I'm doing science-wise.
I feel optimistic.
September 29th, 2018, 19:07
(This post was last modified: September 29th, 2018, 19:16 by Chevalier Mal Fet.)
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You know what I haven't done that I finally have the time and motivation to do?
A score report! :D Only 4 months and 80 turns in.
An overall look at how everyone's doing.
Archduke obviously leads, with the highest research rates, the most techs completed, highest pop, most gold, and highest military score. BUT his lead is not as great as I thought, and it's possible we'll be able to close the gap. The war with Emperor, while the Archduke has won, has really slowed him down, and as long as he doesn't absorb Emperor's core, it should give Rowain and I our chance.
Rowain is doing really well - he's ranked second in all categories, just about, and has a holy site and campus build going. As America, he can basically try for anything, and count on his combat bonus to defend his homeland. I expect to find his research rates nearly as high as the Archduke's. What's holding him back is the tiniest of lags in Empire score.
Emperor has taken his best shot, I think. His research rates have stagnated while he's built frantically for war, but he's only managed to maintain his military score, while Archduke GAINED 100 points since the war broke out. I worry that he won't have enough left in him to do that again - but he should be able to defend himself until Frigates appear. At that point, maybe the RND/GA advantage will work for him? I dunno. He needs peace and a serious infrastructure build up. This war has been great for Rowain and I, but terrible for him. Expansion stalled on 3 cities, and his military is trashed. I think Emperor K is on his way out and can be considered in 4th place.
Japper, though...Japper's Empire score is low, 48 points. That's about 3-4 cities, and almost no districts. He's off to his usual slow start, and is SERIOUSLY behind in civics and tech research at this point. He could be sandbagging, or going for expensive ones, but I doubt that. His research is abysmal and he has the lowest culture score despite having Choral Music for nearly 30 turns. What's going on over there?
Arabia is in a solid middle of the pack position, and as I said we have a lot of good growth opportunity ahead. Military score makes me nervous, but I'll fix that before our DoF expires. Research is ahead of Emperor and Japper, and it's about to skyrocket. Culture is good already, right behind the leader. We'll take a hit there and boost our science. Gold generation is tops, as far as I can tell, and that's BEFORE Church Property. We still need to expand trade routes and get our religion spread, but we're in a good spot.
One thing I wish I could tell - what Government Plaza buildings the others have built, or IF they've build them yet at all.
September 30th, 2018, 21:14
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Emperor K held the save for 24 hours, so sadly no turn today. Maybe it'll have one ready for me in the morning.
So in lieu of that, baseball update. Quick summary of things:
CHAOS REIGNS
So as I noted the other day, going into the final game of the season, the Cubs and Brewers were tied for the NL Central, AND the Dodgers/Rockies were tied for the NL West. Then, today, all four teams won, and remain tied with each other with the season over!
What does this mean for you, dear reader, and why should you care?
Basically, playoff seeding is still up in the air. As a quick refresher, in baseball's league format, there are two main leagues: The National, and the American. Together, these form the Major Leagues. There a bunch of minor leagues with prospective players, but the best work their way up and join the 30 big league teams. The two leagues are split into three divisions of five teams each: East, West, and Central, based roughly on geographic location. The team with the best record in the division advances to the division round, a best-of-5 series to continue on to the 7 game Championship and World Series rounds. The best two non-division winners are wild cards - they play each other in a single winner-take-all game, and the winner of that moves on to face the #1 seed in the division round.
So two teams tying means that we don't know who the division winners are, and who the wild card teams are! As a result, we've got TWO tie-breaker games going tomorrow - something unprecedented in North American sports, let alone baseball! Here's how it'll work:
The Brewers will travel to the Cubs tomorrow, because the Cubs won the season series against the Brewers. The winner of that game will advance to the division round and get a few days of rest. The loser will host the wild card game the very next day, and if they win that then they advance to the division round - where they will play either the Cubs or Brewers again!
The Rockies will travel to the Dodgers and repeat the process. Whoever wins that game will face the Braves in the division series, with a bit of rest. The loser will be forced to fly out to Chicago or Milwaukee, where if they win they'll get a day of rest or so before facing the other NL Central team.
So, the twin game 163's will see two desperate teams, because a loss puts them in danger of elimination in a single game. But if they go all in for this game, and lose anyway then they're screwed for the wild card. It's going to be two days of desperate, scrappy baseball! What a way to start the playoffs!
For those following along at home, the Brewers are home to Mike Moustakas and Lorenzo Cain, while the Cubs have Ben Zobrist and Terrance Gore on their rosters, plus both teams have a bunch of non-championship former Royals. I'll be pulling for the Brewers first, but if they're eliminated then I'm hopping on the Cub bandwagon.
September 30th, 2018, 22:49
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Turn 82
Sure enough, there was a turn for me this morning, but I had to go to work and didn't have time to write an update for y'all. Let's do that now, eh?
First, we suzerain Hattusa for a boost to science and map knowlegde:
A waste of an envoy? I don't think so. It improves my library, gives me a good idea of that part of the world, and I'll get some more envoys from research soon. In the meantime, Hattusa will benefit me until it's time to eat them in ~20 turns. They also give me would give me a copy of horse and iron, which is useless since I have one copy of both already. So yeah. No qualms about eating them.
It was nice that I had the 2-for-1 envoy policy in place when I met them, enabling me to so easily suzerain them. With basically no envoys in place already, this is a no-brainer of a policy to have in place.
In the north, the archer attacked my slinger and i waver for a long while on what to do:
Retreating is out of the question - the archer can still shoot, since he's on a hill himself. This is the worst possible terrain to face an archer with low-tech units in - basically impossible to maneuver, and he gets tons of free shots on you. It'd be nice if i had archery myself, but I keep stupidly losing slingers and I stubbornly refuse to finish the tech until I have 3 slingers or no other choice.
Fortifying and healing - maybe. The archer did 60 damage, so healing alone wouldn't save me. I'd be at 50, take another 60, and die. I need the archer to be more injured than that.
In the end, then, I decide to go ahead and get my licks in, and hope the archer either retreats or is too crippled to kill the slinger. Maybe the stupid robot will be merciful?
Jeez. Never sign up to be a slinger in Chevalier's army.
Scores and overview:
Notes from the overview:
1)Zobrist is about to pause its settler for a turn, long enough to get the builder in place for a +100% chop. However, I'm rethinking chopping the Holy Site, because there's anotehr opportunity in place: The Pyramids.
The Pyramids are a short 14-turn build at the moment for Zobrist, which is about as much as a settler. I get a free builder, and +1 builder charge for the rest of the game. With the Ancestrall Hall giving me lots of cheap builders, 4-charge builders seems like an no-brainer. The only trouble is the tile location: Floodplains.
The Pyramids' only eligible tile is on Zobrist's lone farm, with 5 food. Shorn of that, it'll take Zobrist AGES to grow to size 7 for a campus. I'd harvest teh wheat first, but I don't have the builder in place...well, actually, I could have the builder in place. It means saving the settler even longer, but I could do it and it'd only delay things 2 turns. Worth it for the MagnusFood? Probably.
Anyway, absent that food, Zobrist will grow very slowly, and will need to rely on seafood. Maybe not so bad. There will also be only one choppable for the Campus/Holy Site, so I might have ot hand-build those. On the whole, I think the tradeoff is worth it. There's no rush to either district, and 4-charge builder will be very handy down the road. I'm surprised no one else has built the Pyramids or Stonehenge yet.
2)Gordon is back to a builder now that Liang is in place. 2-turn delay in return for 1 extra builder charge, equivalent to a 6-turn builder - very handy! Next builds include a monument and either a campus or a harbor. Campus site is best on the wheat, though, so we may wait a bit on that.
3)Cain and Escobar will finish ssettlers around turn 90, which will give me ten turns to crank out ~100 power worth of units. That's about 4 galleys or quads, which should be doable in the time I have. Davis will help once the slinger is done, of course.
The score is looking good - too good. If you adjust out era-score inflation, since era score only matters to meet a certain threshold at a specific moment, we're actually tops right now. Archduke leads me by 16 era points but only 13 total points of score. I don't like looking relevant - better when everyone was safely discounting me at the bottom, the way I am Japper. Of course, if you factor out religion and GP score inflation, and look just at the fundamental categories of Tech, Civic, and Empire, Archduke still has a decent lead, which I think reflects the true state of the game.
Final notes: uh, let's see, we're wrapping up Celestial Navigation in two turns, and Mysticism is slotted in for a belated policy change. We'll miss out on about 20 beakers by not taking Monasticism earlier, which stings but isn't fatal. Again, I'm a sloppy player. I'm paying more attention now and hope that will make the difference.
Baseball update to come tonight after both games finish.
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(September 30th, 2018, 22:49)Alhazard Wrote: Go Dodgers
I'm rooting for a Cubs/Dodgers wild card game. That'd be crazy fun. Except for Cubs or Dodgers fans.
October 1st, 2018, 16:24
(This post was last modified: October 1st, 2018, 16:25 by Grotsnot.)
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Quote:Fortifying and healing - maybe. The archer did 60 damage, so healing alone wouldn't save me. I'd be at 50, take another 60, and die. I need the archer to be more injured than that.
Also, if I'm not mistaken, healing doesn't happen until the start of your next turn anyway.
Re: Pyramids: if you're willing to shell out a little  I think I see a desert tile 3 west of Zobrist? Might even be cheaper to have Davis buy it and transfer it over to Zobrist. Not cheap but might be worth it to keep a 5  tile around - especially since the farm is still gone if someone ninjas the Pyramids.
Quote:Baseball update to come tonight after both games finish.
Ninja Edit:
Quote:Except for Cubs or Dodgers fans.
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Okay, did some quick math:
1)The tile will cost 80 gold for Davis to purchase, which is 4 turns' income at this point - a fine investment to save 5 food and keep Zobrist growing. Good innovation, I knew there was a reason I kept you around (please stay I'm so lonely ._.)
2)Chops at this point yield 72 cogs with Magnus. Settler is at 151/200 right now, Zobrist gets 17.4 a turn. +50% +50% = +100%, Zobrist wll put in 34.8 next turn and leave the Settler at 185.8.
3)Chop with settler will be 72 x 2 = 144 cogs, -15 to finish the settler. 131 goes towards the Pyramids, +17 from the end of turn = 148 cogs in 1 turn.
4)Pyramids cost 220. I will be able to invest 17 cogs in them before the chop, so after the chop Pyramids will be sitting at 165 cogs, need 55 to finish = 4 turn build time, unless I can come up with 4 spare cogs somewhere in there (totally possible, I think). Don't need to worry about Pop loss from the settler thanks to Magnus. 
5)Chop ETA is turn 85, so Pyramids would be due turn 89 in this timeline (maybe turn 88, I think I've made a minor error at some point - do I spend TWO turns buffing the Pyramids, or ONE, before the chop?). That's a pretty decent effort. If I lose the Pyramids, no harm done - FailProduction goes to the Holy Site as planned, and I place Davis's campus on the empty site.
This seems sound. Let's go for it.
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