Settled my 7th city, Nautilus, a turn ago. #8 is T74 I believe. I wasn't able to road all the way ahead of time due to barbarian interference, missing a few commerce in the process.
Turns out 2metra has a lot of room north of the pass so it's becoming extremely tempting to pick up the lake with a plant. The greed could end up hurting me, but oh man... THat's a 7F2C fish tile, and it comes with a swath of other good tiles too. It shouldn't be allowed to tempt a player this much. ... must... resist... settling...
Here are some Borsche graphs for your entertainment with minor comments.
Food: Reaping the benefits of my early micro now.
GNP: Uninteresting.
Production: Borsche is doing better here. He's forced to work more mines than me I guess because of the happy cap.
Power: Borsche is #1 and I've been 2-3 regularly despite being very low on military. It's a peaceful world out there. That said, I've added a few techs that add power that most other civs likely haven't (archery and masonry being the main culprits). I finished an axe this turn and finishing another when the turn rolls. Need them to clear out western barbs. Would be nice to unlock the HE somehow.
(November 22nd, 2019, 22:28)Juri Wrote: why resist? treat yourself to some nice fish
You can always count on the lurkers wanting bloodshed.
I might, and I need to make up my mind fairly soon. In the end it comes down to which path maximizes my chance of winning the game. I have other options, so making sure I don't get sucked into a conflict before I'm ready might yield better results on average than settling the more productive spot. It's very difficult to decide, but that's what makes these games fun to play -- having to weigh such options against each other. I'll have 2metra graphs soon, that will help inform my decision.
Oh and about that silk, yeah I'll be trading for that.
Dark Savant to my east. Pretty happy about that neighbour as well, but that's not because I don't respect his game. Unlike the other 2 people I met, who apparently can't even be bothered to micromanage the espionage points , DS will put time and effort into the game. Thankfully he doesn't strike me as overly aggressive and we're likely to get along. We'd both benefit greatly from +3 trade routes if he plays nice.
Fun fact: My first 4 cities currently have 10 whip unhappiness between them.
I'll go option A, Chris, play it safe. Final answer.
[Classic WWTBAM was great, I miss those early years. Best game show format.]
Current mindset: Why rock the boat?
I'm leading the graphs by a fair margin and have lots of space to grow. Going to leave 2metra some space to breathe to avoid a dumb conflict. Settling far west and pursuing courthouses+FP for long term growth. If I can just continue harmonious growth I will win this game. This could change in ~15-20 turns if 2metra still hasn't made a move for the area and I scout even more available land to the north, but the current plan is to send the axes and settlers west/SW rather than NW.
Later on I should be enough ahead to the point where I almost welcome 2metra expanding into me as I should be able to capture the area with ease, before he has time to reap the benefits. If my civ was more middle of the pack I'd happily settle more aggressively and take my chances, but there's no reason to here. The spots are about as good and there's only so much room you can justify leaving for backfill. By the time I've run out of space I will have engineering and/or guilds.
(November 25th, 2019, 05:08)Juri Wrote: lol @ all those silks
when it rains it pours
Yeah, it's a map script feature I believe. I have the same thing except it's a large cluster of spices (see Nautilus). And in PB41 there were clusters of sugar, ivory, etc. At least it encourages interaction and trading, but it will inevitably be annoying later on if everyone decides to embargo you. No way to trade away your 6 sources of spices then. Thankfully I have many other ways to acquire happiness this time around, one of the main ones being an early and well spread religion. But there are also more of them available in general.
I think the map might be a little too big again. I was going to count out how many cities I was expecting to settle peacefully, but I never got around to it. Either way, I'm pretty sure it's around 20, with some of the later ones being more filler with just 1 food resource and mainly coast. Maps with a lot of sea and snaky continents require less land tiles per player in general -- they will never feel as crowded. If I take out 2metra and Borsche (latter player being 1st in land area since T1) I might hit 50 or more cities. I appreciate the late game, but I may regret signing up without a teammate this time around for those turns. Maybe I should start planning for an easier to execute culture victory now already. If I can land Confucianism and/or Taoism that would help a lot, but I think I'm too slow for the former. There is Islam though, that one should be easy to get if prioritized. Then again, space makes more sense with a huge (50 cities+) empire.
Back to the current state of the game. OH settled another city this turn and put the crop within 1. Immediately answered by settling Seahorse. The settler was accompanied by an axeman who will head west and clear barbarians. The galley heads back for a 2nd axe and a worker.
I can spread religion with a missionary T78 IIRC, but a free spread before then would be excellent. My luck with this has been on/off. I got a fairly early one in Anchovy and Nautilus had one this turn which saved a turn + missionary, but somehow my capital is still without faith. That's the one city I didn't think I'd have to spend 40 hammers on. Doing it manually next turn.
Speaking of the capital I am setting up some overflow whip to reduce the time it takes to build Hanging Gardens. One axe will be sitting at 31/35 and of the remaining 4-5 turns before mathematics a few will be put into a settler. I think the timing I found is 2-pop whip at 69/100, although I might 3-pop it at 49/100. Need to look into it a little closer.
I've also started a pet project for the Pyramids in Sea Cucumber. If Gavagai doesn't get a GE I won't be surprised if I'm successful at it, because it's extremely expensive with no stone bonus, but I have the hammers to make failgold a reasonable alternative. It's also more effective than building wealth with currency thanks to the OR bonus (and building wealth is not even an alternative right now).
Demos. Worth noting that I have 6 (!) cities growing end of turn.
Reached the magical 100 food barrier and enjoying the peace and quiet.
F1 screen. It's not a very accurate representation yet, because the settlers and workers are only in the queue for 2-3 turns.
Probably inserting meditation before currency for temples. Could use the intermediate happiness. Also need to settle the filler city near Leviathan (capital) for whale very soon if I'm not going for the "aggressive" whale plant.
3 natural if you count the original holy city (I usually don't). The remaining 4 are with missionaries, yes. I imagine there will be almost no natural spread beyond this point as every city being settled (that I can remember) has something important in 2nd ring. The missionary should ideally be there on the very first turn. Even disregarding the culture I'll want it spread early for the OR bonus.
Another reason to go meditation next is to get a head start on the prophet GP. I think Diatom (holy city) makes the most sense. It has enough food to run the priest(s), but not so much that I'll want to also run scientists. It's been whipped heavily so it works as population control. It also has very little natural commerce until the cottages mature so I can elect to skip the library for now. Plankton will take the sheep for a 3rd food resource and run scientists.
Plan is still to bulb philosophy with the 1st GS for another priest slot (2nd religion) and some turns of pacifism.
pbspy Wrote:28.11.2019 20:23:55 77 Borsche score decreased to 149 (-1)
28.11.2019 20:23:15 77 Elkad logged in
28.11.2019 18:20:03 77 Borsche logged out
Yes... yeeees! Give in to the hate. Make bigger and meaner armies. Raze everything in sight.
Just need 2metra to join in now, and it's now confirmed that he's already bordering Borsche.
It's currently T77. Mathematics should finish end of turn 79 (will be close, but worst case I can rearrange some tiles). T78 I will whip the axemen for 1 resulting in 69/70 hammers. The 34 overflow will then be brought over to the 49/100 settler which will be whipped T79. T80 I will start on the aqueduct with total overflow of 34+19+whatever I get while producing the settler. I think 13 hammers. Capital will get 4 whip anger, but this is the time I settle the filler whale which can take the clam in the capital's stead.
Would've been much easier to chop forests in a secondary cities, but I have no good candidates. This is the best way to get the wonder done quickly. For a moment I was worried about exceeding the hammer limit for the aqueduct, but it shouldn't be a problem, I'll be below 80 base hammers (+25% from OR and +100% from EXP).
... must... resist... settling...
, DS will put time and effort into the game. Thankfully he doesn't strike me as overly aggressive and we're likely to get along. We'd both benefit greatly from +3 trade routes if he plays nice.
