[spoilers] - pindicator is excited for the next Realms Beyond league mechanics

[pindicator]

2p-whipped the settler as planned in Onslaught.

Unfortunately the worker on the pigs was supposed to move south this turn and that is clearly not going to happen. I didn't plan out the military coverage there. But with the northern barbarian warrior now threatening to pillage the wheat I decided to move that worker on the pigs north, into the Onslaught. Not sure if this changes where the settler from Onslaught goes now - maybe I send that settler north instead since that's where the worker power is? Although that is the weaker of the spots i want to settle, it would also be a nice sign to Old Harry that there's nowhere further south for him to go here.

[darrelljs]

It may work out that its such a "natural" border as well, not a long line to defend.

Darrell

[pindicator]

True. I'll need to defend Nemesis by water and then can put a bunch of defenders in the soon-to-be-settled sheep/flood plains city to defend against land.

071

More barbarians. And an event!




10 beakers is less than half a turn of research into Masonry (although I wonder if those beakers are then adjusted; I didn't really check). Still, better than nothing.

Unfortunately the wheat farm is now pillaged. I killed the offending barbarian with my spear, and in the south my axe killed the barbarian on the pig. But with another barbarian coming from the south I decided to send the settler north. Reason being is that there may be more barbarians still incoming from the south, and I'm still not ready to take them all on. The north city is not a great location, but it will show OH that he really can't push south on the mainland. I suspect he wasn't planning to right away - at least not until he felt like his grip over the northern isthmus was secured.

The settler that is coming out of the capital will still go south to the Wheat/Cow because I still want to open up avenues for getting the Stone. But this will delay the horses and gems city.

So now that I don't plan on sharing the Pig with another city soon does this mean I can grow to 6 at Onslaught and whip the next settler there? Or do I keep with the plan to whip out from Nemesis, even though that settler will have to move farther now?

If I can push through to these cities I will be far better to set up a defensive line against barbarians in the east, and then I can start focusing expansion west where the barbs should not be as plentiful.

While I figure that out, I found Mouseferatu's borders




He looks to be quite some distance away.

[pindicator]

072

Ugh, i hate being sick. Just a head cold and sore throat, but the dang thing sure likes to stick around.




Changing the plan on the fly here, so made a lot of decisions. Perhaps I could have just sat the settler back in Onslaught instead of sending it north - but I wasn't sure how many barbarians were coming up from the south. Even now if I had I think the settler would have to be away from the axe, so this was probably the right change. Worker turns are going to be a little sparse, so I'm pausing Nemesis to pump out a worker here. The worker up by Nemesis is going straight to the sheep tile to set up a pasture, but with one worker it's going to be slow getting this city online. Meanwhile the spear is heading forward to this new city and effectively swapping places with the warrior: our warrior is going to garrison Nemesis now, which is going to need an MP. Eventually we're going to need more than a warrior since Nemesis could be vulnerable to a galley strike from OH. Actually an archer finishes out of Domination this turn, so we will probably juggle defenders again and send that archer up to Nemesis, then bring the warrior down to Onslaught.

I wonder if that fog-busting warrior to the north was helping OH more than me - keeping any spawning barbs to the south and making them all come my way, letting him expand harassment free in this area...

I decided against sending the two southern workers north to help with the wheat. That river north of Onslaught is kind of a hard dividing line in the empire when it comes to worker movement (at least, pre-Construction it is). It's hard to send stuff across that river without wasting worker turns. And since I'm likely going to start another settler in Onslaught when it gets back to size 4, the Wheat is only saving a few hammers. Meanwhile we have our next settler coming out of the capital at end of this turn, and we need to send those workers south right now in order to get the road in place. Hopefully we get a bit of a break from barbarians: our axe is badly injured right now, and while the promotion + rest next turn will help it's not going to be at full strength.

Originally I had Onslaught with a worker and Nemesis whipping out a settler here, but with the change in city settling the Nemesis settler would have to run south several turns, and the worker turns are now needed in the north. So swapping the builds just makes sense in getting the units to where they need to go. It also makes more sense because Nemesis has better tiles than Onslaught so better to whip off the tiles at Onslaught and let Nemesis stay at a large size.

All those micro considerations done, we get to have some fun down south




I seriously doubt I get the investment back from this. 85 hammers this early in the game is a big commitment. But maybe we'll get to surprise someone!

Note to self: Ambush needs to have No Growth checked next turn, since we just whipped the granary this turn.

[pindicator]

074

Dammit, I forgot to check No Growth at Ambush. That loses me 6 food for 3 hammers - not exactly a good trade off. Entirely blaming that one on being sick. (And this one sure is lingering; it's crawled up into my sinuses like a squatter in the attic.)

I was given a shot across the bow from Old Harry.




You may think this is a trade offer, but it is really a request for submission. "See my tech rate?" it says. "I've got Alphabet on 9 cities. What hope do you have?"

I declined. The only benefit for me is if he has an island, and I'm not sure he does. (He probably does, but I also don't want to speed him up any more.)

His 9th city is trying to claim more land along our border:




Is it too soon to declare the game for Old Harry? Yeah, it probably is. But I hate that I'm his neighbor and get to be despondent by seeing just how crazy he is expanding and keeping his GNP up. He just teched Alphabet while I'm just starting on Math - he just settled his 9th city while I'm dodging barbarians to get my 7th down. I'm 3rd in crop yield and he's 20 above me. He leads all demographics as best I can tell. I would much rather have the blissful oblivion of being able to pretend I can still have fun playing my civ.

Still, this is a long game and there will hopefully be opportunities. But again, the map is going to rear its ugly head here: with larger spaces there is going to be less of an opportunity for neighbors to influence Old Harry's gains.

I think the terrace is too strong with the hammer discount, especially with a leader like Vicky and tons of land to expand into. (Actually, a lot of this is on the map. I don't know how many of us realized just how wide open this would be.) . I'd much rather see the power diffused by putting the terrace back at 60h and then giving a buff to the Inca UU. You might even have to keep the "cannot be boosted by PRO" on the terrace. Really what is allowing OH to just expand, expand, expand (besides having the nearest neighbor be 30 tiles away) is that the terrace at 45h is close enough to being a 1p whip that he doesn't care that. I could have done that with Babylon, but then as Babylon I don't get the free border pops.

Is this going to be on me to stop him? I don't want that responsibility; I want to bulb with Madrassas and play in my sandbox. But maybe i need to swap to HBR now. I dunno, he still doesn't have a lot of great land to claim if he keeps trying to go south from the city he just planted. As long as I beat him to the clam/wheat/gem spot, and I feel pretty good about that.




The barbarians continue to be uncooperative. I have both workers and the settler on that newly roaded horse tile, and have the axe and warrior on that tile just to make sure I don't get unlucky. If the barbarian goes to the pig then I'll have to attack with my axe. But I think this slows down the wheat/cow city by a turn.

[Hollybombay]

[pindicator]

076

At second glance, maybe it isn't all so much doom and gloom. I'm actually ahead of OH in the production department, so he is probably working a lot of coast tiles and whipping, which would also explain his GNP. Maybe that's what I should be doing more of?




I wonder if Old Harry is going to declare just to scout through with his work boat. That would explain why he was asking for open borders. I've started moving a galley north, but I'm going to want a galley or ten on the border here eventually anyway.

My spear is at 5xp and I'm probably going to double promote to Woodsman 2, move onto the forest hill, and if i see an empty city then I'll declare. I probably find an archer, but you never know. There aren't a lot of forests on our border, but if I find this city is not empty then perhaps I just send him down into the forests to the south and see if I ever get to snipe an unsuspecting settler.




I haven't shown any of the west, so here's a stitch of what I've scouted so far. So far I'm not seeing any reason why all of this should not be mine. I should land some cities on Mouseferatu's land, at least as far north as the double fish spot by the isthmus, and then everything to the south needs to be claimed and settled ASAP. I see about half a dozen spots that are easily mine, and probably with more scouting there will be more. I think I try to get a city on Mouseferatu's landmass after I get the essential spots out east.

I was all excited to get 8 cities down with only 4 workers, to show that off as some kind of perverse opening. But as it is with the barbarian delays I'm looking at workers 5 & 6 finishing at end of turn, and city 7 founding next turn. 8 & 9 shouldn't be too far behind, but I'm not quite set on where 9 goes. 8 is absolutely going for the gems. For 9, I want to get to the stone/pig spot but I'm a little bit worried about expenses, so I might grab somewhere closer: like maybe getting the double fish spot on Mouseferatu's mainland. I need a better name than that landmass: Mouseland. No wait, I got better: we'll call it Disney.


City #7 gets planted next turn. I was all excited to say I was going to be at 8 cities withi 4 workers, but then the barbarians came. 8 & 9 will get planted soon enough, but I'm not exactly sure where 9 goes still. 8 is taking the gems.

[naufragar]

At second glance, maybe it isn't all so much doom and gloom.

You're third in Crop Yield in a field of sixteen. Can't be all doom and gloom just yet.

[Hollybombay]

I have high hopes for you.

[pindicator]

At second glance, maybe it isn't all so much doom and gloom.

You're third in Crop Yield in a field of sixteen. Can't be all doom and gloom just yet.

4th or 5th when I've checked, but I get your point