[SPOILERS]PB46: (In Search of) Fine Foreign Dining, by Hannibal of England

[Krill]

Turn 091

So it turns out cities 10 and 11 are not actually that expensive if you accept the gold saved from fogbusting. And Warrior3 beat the barb warrior flawlessly, yet I managed to fuck up the unit moves so that it costs me either 1 gold, 1 worker turn (into a cottage tile I will want improving in 70 turns), or the axe at Scarrow to remain in borders but off a road network so can not respond to a northern barb.







Before settling Timble.




And after: as I lose a unit and 3 re-enter borders, total costs only go up 4 but city maintenance up 5. The city provides 6 commerce now though, and 8 after Currency, so that's still a plus.





I mismoved the dyes warrior. Should have moved 1S. There were no new seafood tiles discovered this turn, so the dotmap posted back on Turn 87 is broadly correct.





I will not be able to run 100% science for the next two turns. Next turn will have to be 90%, and I will probably be 70 beakers short of Currency.

I'll have to see what happens regarding beakers next turn, but I reckon Currency eot94 due to scientists.





Even Owlthorpe is working a scientist.








Yay?

[Krill]

Another reason to rush Feudalism: On a huge map, can't you revolt 2 civics in a single turn if you have 16 cities or fewer? Lurker confirmation appreciated.

*Bump*

Any lurkers care to just double check my mechanics understanding? I don't trust myself with this.

[darrelljs]

Krill, I have no idea if you can or can't do that...what do you think of my civ skills?

Darrell

[Krill]

I...will take my time to consider an appropriate answer to that, as I would not wish to be misleading or defamatory.

[Krill]

Turn 092

Two turn reports me today. Yesterday had a brief turn, but nothing happened so didn't have to document to remember for thee turn played today.







The main points of note: couple of players are fluctuating around 107 crop yield, but as I'm not whipping and growing into happy this is not a concern, it's the difference from first place that seems more important for the immediate future. I'm down 53 foos, but even if I hooked every food resource in the BFS of all current cities, and had the pop to work them, and in the new front city I would have a CY of 146 with 12 cities. First place is well ahead not just in food resources, but also in basic tiles worked so I expect that player to be near the top in all relevant output demographics (GNP, MFG).

Who am I kidding, it's either Rusten or OH. And I know it's Rusten who founded Judiasm now because Judaism is in 9% of world pop.



Turn 093

Played this turn, and then took screenshots after TBW played his turn: he accepted a speculative offer of ivory for gold and fish for fish. I'm not bothered he accepted that second offer: I don't know anyone, and frankly, I just don't want to have to deal with AGG Rome even if he is behind in teh demographics. Best case scenario I'd be joining him at the back of the pack.





This means that BeardBeard founded Hinduism. This fits with Rusten heading for Monotheism afterwards, revolting into OR with SPI and spamming the religion everywhere to pop borders and drop his Granary UB to below a double chop. NO wonder he'd be doing great. (That, he is a solid player, and he probably lucked out into a better start than most and is ramming teh resultant position down someones throat).

The other GP is DS with Henge and nothing to use it on.

The wheat helps to understand where I can puit a front city. 1NW or 1N2W would be the first choice locations but I want to find TBW's borders. I can see 1S2W and double chopping the two inner ring forests for a library being the easy compromise location. Also looking for irrigation, and I think I need to stake a claim to that island, actually, is that even an island? Shit. Need to check that.





Pre-Astro access is confirmed. So now I'm planning on leaving one worker on the current island, and retreat the other worker to help improve Wetheral (hook the second ivory T98). Problem: I need to send a galley north and another south. Building a chariot in Wetheral, and I have a few archers that don't have any roles allocated...where do I send the galley? The answer is based in where I blieve I will meet more players, for the Known Tech bonus. I have only 4 cities I can found before I revolt into Serfdom/Vassalage, and I can't see settling any of them over here so a new galley can wait.

That means the archer near WT and the new chariot can go onto the galley, and I can swap the archer and Gilbert around T100 or so and send that galley off exploring.





Ignorance is bliss: I'm not running the chariot into the fog, not until Sneatonthorpe is settled on T96. I've chickened out and I'm using Cavendish to fogbust this turn (next turn just moving 1NE will still keep everything barb-busted.

I will make this observation (and it is not a comment on TBS, this is just how random maps form): 1NE of the grass cow is an awesome front city for the player to the west of the isthmus, pop borders and take the peak and you have great vision over a massive foodless area. Definitely want to invalidate that spot. 1N of hte horse looks safe in terms of a minimum distance plant, yet I'm still drawn to the plains hill myself. 1N of horse feels right though, for vision with border pop, canal, and has 4 excellent tiles and easy granary/library.





I'm not sure, but when I messed around with all my cities I think I found a way to get Currency this turn with zero spare gold. The problem is that I think my costs are about to increase and I'd have teh slider drop on me and screw over a bunch of cities. I know I can get it next turn though, as I work a bunch of different tiles after growth.

I now feel that I'm pretty close to OK with workers. I'll probably get another 3 or so and try to stay ahead of the worker improvements, rather than being stuck behind. I'm considering a worker whip in WT, and Aldeburgh and then I'll see what makes sense. I will do nothing but growth Wetheral, Scarrow and Owlthorpe onto cottages though, no workers from them. I might even cottage the horse at SCarrow (it picks up the horse pasture output after 30 turns).





I'm low on the soldier count, but I'm higher than TBW. I think I would not want to build too many units in response to his soon to be hordes or preats, as I don't think he would renege on a fish/fish deal, and the ivory for gold trade benefits him through cheaper markets (he knows I have a second ivory, I do not know if he has a second gold ).

The civics costs are all pop and city based, the city maintenance though...I wonder if I will be able to ignore court houses temporarily if I am not settling more cities in the pursuit of Feudalism, and just manage costs through slightly cheaper markets (FIN market is roughly the same cost as a none-ORG court house, but lacks EP, gives +1 happy, and the breakeven is hard to calculate for me if there is a window of expansion between completing one city improvement and then the other.)





Hallelujah. I have no more trade bait until wines at Monarchy, but trading wines for 1 more happy gives me more than enough happy room IMO.





One player should have slightly over 6% of world pop to be average for the player number. So I'm not in a good position pop wise, 31 pop when I should have maybe 34 or so.





#1 in land area. #4 in CY. #3 in approval and life expectancy. Not even close to claiming half of the terrain I could do behind claimed front cities. Farmers gambit ahoy (OK, that's just wrong, unless I was on a massive watery peninsula, but you get what I mean).

Will other players get a quick and cheap war in the next 40 turns? That is the question. They will have to overcome massive distances, so maybe they will have to wait until Engineering and Astro, in which case I'm in a decent spot if I can leverage a lost turn of a double revolt into a late GA and "quick" Astro bulb (running 4 scientists in WT and Westminster with free spec slots, and up to 5 specialists in Aldeburgh).

[Krill]

Krill, I have no idea if you can or can't do that...what do you think of my civ skills?

Darrell

Your civ skills are a example to everyone, and we would all benefit from you graciously taking the time to play in another game to show them off.

2 down, 73 to go.

[Krill]

So here is a reasonable complaint.

Gav asked for a short pause, and 2MN didn't. OH then goes and adds 7 hours to the timer, and Gav still manages to fit in his turn within the standard 24 hours.

Gav did exactly the right thing in communicating a potential difficulty, but I think OH shouldn't have added more than 2 hours, 3 at a push to the clock because now we are stuck waiting for 2MN. The turn is not scheduled to roll until 1700 my time.

I'm annoyed because if I can't play the turn this morning I have to play it after work, and I have limited time between shifts whilst also sick (don't ask, nothing serious, on antibiotics). I can do it, but I'd rather we stick to the general turn pace.

[Krill]

Turn 094

Relatively big turn this as I needed to set up for Currency, but two other important pieces of information turned up. We found my western neighbour:




GKC: Darius of Arabia

Well, I'm assuming it's him, that could be a scouting warrior that has travelled a great distance, but GKC has a lot of EP on TBW so...it's probably him to the west.

Just from this picture I'm able to stop worrying about possibly losing the front city. I settle on T96. There is no way for him to invalidate my plant unless he has a spear/settler 1SW of the warrior, and if he did I'd just declare and start screwing him up.





No trade route, but I'm going to use Cavendish to scout a northern naval passage to his cities and the chariot can just poke around then return, make sure GKC isn't just expanding under a cloud of warriors that will evaporate in a moments notice.





I can't be sure if GKC has Monotheism and his Sacrifical Alters up yet, but the reality is he should do. How many is an interesting question, and I can see myself being forced to prioritise CoL just to manage the EP imbalance.





This is a problem. I don't care that much about the gems for me, although more happy is good. Incense, dye, silver, ivory is a good amount even if I only have a single spare ivory to trade. The problem is any forward city I could want to plant invalidates pretty much any forward city from TBW and could be viewed as aggressive, even if I don't plant for the gems. OR it makes TBW settle minimum distance and causes way too much friction for me to be happy with.

I think I might have to prioritise settling on the grass hill, 1W of wheat. Maybe even rush it, chop the library, then granary, then walls. That gives me maximum space between cities, and also stops a potential mounted attack or naval attack, but I would need siege, lots of siege and hitters to secure the front. Then once I got gems in third ring I'd possibly gift them to TBW? I doubt I'd gift them because it would take so long to hook them up, that by the time I had, I would no longer be worried about TBW and preats.

No easy solution here. I'm also a little worried about the MC research, but that could be a placeholder (TBW and I were playing the turn at the same time). I need to figure out those 4 Pre-Vassalage/Serfdom revolt city locations ASAP and get the front city nailed down.

In scouting matters, I will have an archer on the galley, and a chariot dumped on that island T97, and swap the archer and Gilbert on T99 and start searching out new contacts.

It's also worth pointing out that I now going to be unable to get a HE unit until I build a chariot with Barracks+Stables+Vassalage+Colosseum.











Nothing to say, really, wait and see what happens with Currency finished. The Percentage of world pop suggests that I have two relatively weak neighbours...who just so happen to have ORG/Aztecs who could whip the largest army every, and Rome. Both civs need handling in completely different manners.

[darrelljs]

It would almost be worth playing a game just to watch you desperately searching for compliments .

Darrell

[Krill]

It would almost be worth playing a game just to watch you desperately searching for compliments .

Darrell

You have 73 compliments remaining.

Make them last.