41 Vice: Commodicator/Pindore

[Commodore]

The Battle of Bactrican

Pretty ho-hum, actually. First two HA won, third lost, cleanup a cinch. Only gave us 13 gold.

Naufragar reacted to our teeny little army with...alarm? He sent a pane offering fish for our city of King. Speculation:

Pin
no idea what that means

Commodore Sven
Well, clearly he's the Fisher King.

Pin
lol
fish for fish is usually peace
so maybe that is him saying he is not aggressive towards King?

Commodore Sven
Sure, why not?

I love AI diplo.

We have found...elephants. Lots and lots and lots of elephants. I hate this troll island so very much.

Honestly a spiteful part of my brain just hopes to find no other resources, so I can revel in the crappiness of the four cities already marked.

[superdeath]

be funnier to see a barb spear pop..

[Commodore]

Good thing is, I believe that island is too small for spawning. It's miserable, but it'll eventually be four cities churning out 5t destroyers, so...gotta invest.

I don't mind myself, but for future reference, "no city trading" means "no cities in trade screen" too, right? Naufragar's message was nice an inscrutable, no harm, no foul.

[Krill]

You are correct. No cities in the trade screen.

[Commodore]

You are correct. No cities in the trade screen.

Cool. Might want to let him know, but I think Fisher King was nice and ambiguous. 

In Arthurian legend, the Fisher King, also known as the Wounded King or Maimed King, is the last in a long line charged with keeping the Holy Grail. Versions of the original story vary widely, but he is always wounded in the legs or groin and incapable of standing. All he is able to do is fish in a small boat on the river near his castle, Corbenic, and wait for some noble who might be able to heal him by asking a certain question. In later versions knights travel from many lands to try to heal the Fisher King, but only the chosen can accomplish the feat. This is Percival alone in the earlier stories; in later versions, he is joined by Galahad and Bors.Many later works have two wounded "Grail Kings" who live in the same castle, a father and son (or grandfather and grandson). The more seriously wounded father stays in the castle, sustained by the Grail alone, while the more active son can meet with guests and go fishing. For the purposes of clarity in the remainder of this article, where both appear, the father will be called the Wounded King, the son named the Fisher King.
[font=sans-serif]In the Fisher King legends, it is implied that he becomes unable to father or support a next generation to carry on after his death (a "thigh" wound has been interpreted by many scholars in Arthurian literature as a genital wound). There are slight hints in the early versions that his kingdom and lands suffers as he does, and 20th-century scholars have suggested his impotence affecting the fertility of the land and reducing it to a barren wasteland

So did he call me impotent? Or...the peninsula that Receiving and Shipping are on does look suggestive...

[Commodore]

In those brief, shining moments when we burn through gold and have over half the cities on research into a tech that the rest of the world knows, our demos look...not too embarrassing. Setting a lot of hammers on fire catch up, though. Rusten has this game well in hand if he wants it.

At least Naufragar built the Great Library, so Rusten won't be adding a free great scientist to his mix. We have a great scientist due soon, it's...awkwardly timed. Math seems wasteful, dunno about Academy.

Commodore
Here is a random thought. Would it be worth it to go forward an early Golden Age rather than Academy or bulb?

Pindicator
Golden age into caste is where I'm leaning right now. Use the GA to get #2 and #3 great scientists for the Astro bulb. Maybe an Academy if we can also get #4 in

Commodore
Hum
Given timescales, might even look at an Optics bulb.

Pindicator
We may even want to hold off on the GA until we get to Monarchy? Or can at least get that HR civic switch on the back end.

Commodore
Yeah
Caste/HR/OR/Fuedalism by the end, if possible.
I don't see Bureau as worth it, but can be convinced.

Pindicator
No, I'm not sure it is either. Maybe if we end up with a shrine and can run a high %

Commodore
Hah
Well, got a great Divine Right plan?

Meanwhile, on Silver Island, I have a dotmap proposed...and a quandary. Kassite: Kill or keep?

Foodless and generally low quality, the basic reason the city tempts me is Bubble Boy; I'd love to put down our claim to the island in a clearly seen location. It's nothing great as a city, but silver lets it break evenish, and there are enough chops there available to get some tiny snowball going. It's fine land out here; I'd hate for Rusten to take it.

[pindicator]

I really want to burn the city, find out whomever the barbarian city planner is, and burn them too. But if you can get the worker we saw there with the city then I think I could see us keeping and chopping out a settler straight away over there to grab the other silver

[Zed-F]

In those brief, shining moments when we burn through gold and have over half the cities on research into a tech that the rest of the world knows, our demos look...not too embarrassing. Setting a lot of hammers on fire catch up, though. Rusten has this game well in hand if he wants it.

Do you think he'll be a runaway victor or could others catch up / bring him down a peg?

[Commodore]

In those brief, shining moments when we burn through gold and have over half the cities on research into a tech that the rest of the world knows, our demos look...not too embarrassing. Setting a lot of hammers on fire catch up, though. Rusten has this game well in hand if he wants it.

Do you think he'll be a runaway victor or could others catch up / bring him down a peg?

Hard to say. I'll venture that assuming he doesn't screw up, he's got this...he has a commanding tech lead and Spiritual is only just coming in to its own. He's got a well-spread religion that he can shrine, an apparently very wide swath of territory between Naufragar and Silver Island, and he's smart enough that I'm sure he's going to be well ahead on the Dominate Condition of this map: First to Astronomy, knight someone, then gren someone, then on to modern ships with a tech lead. Snowballs snowball, and I don't see how we can bring him down a peg in the pre-Astronomy era.

That said, mistakes do happen. If one of us, BGNu, or Gavagai can locate and open the lootbox conquer Donovan Zoi, that victor can probably draft along in tech near enough to dissuade Rusten from attacking, and then it becomes a much tighter game of "who can convert tech to land best". Curious to scout north, might even be able to find DZ beyond the peaks.

No cities have changed hands in 107 turns, beyond Superdeath. No long turn splits have been observed. Rusten is paying Naufragar for OB, so they must be on separate continents...folks, this sure as hell looks like Krill put...
 EVERY SINGLE PLAYER ON THEIR OWN CONTINENT EXCEPT FOR US.

[Krill]

1) Roll a few medium / low sea level Big and Small cylindrical maps.
2) Choose the most reasonable of them.
3) If even in the most reasonable one someone is totally screwed by a start, connect him to a nearby large island or something like that.
4) Make sure that everyone has key strategic resources somewhere close.
5) THE END.

I can do this, with the proviso that I would normalise the starts so they are all similar in output (but not in resource type). eg they would all be double food starts with a river, or all single food starts with a production tile for similar outputs. None of this triple fish for one and single plains cow and a billion forests for another. Just remember that this was what was played on PB8 when Serdoa got landed in the middle of a fuck off huge jungle and couldn't interact with anyone for 120 turns (actually, I deleted a bit of jungle to make it more playable, the original map was even worse).

Does that say anything about how many people to a continent?