[PB56] Lazteuq's Cool Facts about Space

[Lazteuq]

Space Fact #3: At very large distances from the sun, the solar wind density is so low that the atoms basically don't collide with eachother at all. This means the solar wind plasma can't condense to form a gas, even if the temperature is very low.

It's now Turn 12. Haven't reported much because I don't have much to say. Still haven't made contact with anyone.

The worker will probably spend time building roads before the second city is done. That's not a great use of workerturns, but at least it isn't a total waste. Unless I choose a very distant site, city #2 can be connected by road immediately. No barbs makes me comfortable roading into the fog.

I'm not going to bother gazing at the Demographics tea leaves yet.
I'm curious to see how many neighbors I have to the north or south. Based on how the coastline curves, I think there probably isn't anyone else to the south, so I expect to have only 2 land neighbors. That would imply the northwest area with banana and sugar is contested by three players. I'll try to bring the scout back up north to check it out.

[Lazteuq]

Turn 14: International Relations!
But First... Space Fact #4: Unlike most moons, Jupiter's moon Ganymede has its own magnetic field which interacts with Jupiter's field. This is sort of like the interaction between Earth and the Sun, but at a smaller scale.

NobleHelium's (Willem of China) scout approached from the northwest. Nothing else in the southwest, so I really do think I only have 2 neighbors.
Also, the civ to the west is NOT Mjmd's Rome. It is Gira's Catherine of Mongolia. I got the border color wrong while attempting to fog-gaze. Probably because I'm using f.lux and it distorts colors when you run it on extreme settings. Attention, all pro gamers: Don't use flux if you want maximum competitive advantage.
I'm really glad that neighbor is Gira and not Mjmd. Partly because Gira is a more passive player, and partly because I won't be dealing with aggressive praetorians. Although I will feel kinda bad for Gira if this ends up like a repeat of our PB51 relationship.

[superdeath]

Partly because Gira is a more passive player, and partly because I won't be dealing with aggressive praetorians. Although I will feel kinda bad for Gira if this ends up like a repeat of our PB51 relationship.

Did you not have fun vs AGG praets?

[Lazteuq]

Did you not have fun vs AGG praets?

It was fun tactically, but not strategically. Sort of like getting into a rock throwing fight with a large pack of 4th graders.

Anyways, its Turn 19. There is ocean beyond Gira. Or is it a large inland sea?? Maybe this map is a donut!

I'm aiming for founding City 2 north of the capital on Turn 30. I'll have a road built all the way, so it should get the +2c PRO trade route right away. Then get BW and quickly whip+chop another settler to grab copper if I haven't already got it. Not sure about tech, but probably AH next. No barbs is really nice for being able to put hammers into work boats instead of fogbusting units.

Space Fact #5: Radiation on Jupiter's moons Io and Europa is strong enough to kill an unprotected astronaut in less than a day. To avoid this, NASA's HOPE colonization study targeted the outer moons like Callisto, where radiation is minimal.

[Lazteuq]

Turn 22: Just met El Grillo approaching from the north, and also found that Noble's capitol is roughly to the northwest. That makes me think this map is a standard donut, and players alternate between inner and outer edge. So I'm expecting Grillo's capitol to be on the outer coast, like mine is.
I'm putting espionage into Noble and Gira at +2 each. I'm not sure what is considered normal. For example, if I put all four points into Noble, would he consider that a threatening move?

Here's a couple PB51 thoughts:
I didn't build many wonders that game. No world wonders and only a couple national ones. That's not necessarily bad, but I didn't do anything exceptional in the place of wonders, either.
Also, I didn't specialize cities very well. Almost all my cities had a decent amount of commerce, which caused me to put libraries and markets all over the place. Especially for a PHI leader, I spammed too many cottages on grasslands. I probably should have made some production-only cities with practically no commerce. I think the cities of Carne Asada and Fajita were the worst offenders here. CtH lumbermills should help with that.

Space Fact #6: The plasma surrounding Earth resonates at different radio frequencies depending on its electron density. This is why some radio communications are very dependent on space weather.

[shallow_thought]

I think that planning and building wonders can be a nice psychological boost, quite aside from the actual value in game. Even "weak" ones like ToA (IMO) can be useful in generating culture in borderish cities. You'll have to compete hard for the good ones - although resource-boosted failgold is always nice.

Settlers first does seem right though!

[Lazteuq]

Agreed about the culture value: Especially as I'm bordering 2 CRE leaders this game. For the shorter term, the goal is to establish defensible borders that claim enough land. And it looks like the neighbors aren't friendly:

Gira declared war and moved that scout to 2N 1W of the capitol. I have to assume the worst: This is probably an attempt to block me from settling the city, and/or choke my capitol by sitting on the farms. If Gira's scout moves to the rice tile, that would be really bad, so I decided to move the worker to block his path. Next, I worry the scout could fork the corn and rice.
I guess I'll need to build a warrior, to prevent him from running freely on my unforested tiles. Maybe I should wait to settle until I know where copper is. I really don't want to get caught off guard by axes in 15 turns or so. The fact that Mackoti is dedlurking Gira probably means I should be extra concerned. This might be a race to axes/chariots. If Gira manages to bring in a real unit early enough, they could pillage my farms and basically end my game. It's also possible that Gira already has BW, so they would be able to see where my copper is, and camp the tile.

Also I met Amicalola/Tarkeel up north.

Space Fact #7: The NASA Magnetospheric Multiscale is a group of four satellites that fly in pyramid-shaped formation. They maintain a spacing of only a few kilometers so they can take multiple measurements of the same region of space only a few milliseconds apart. Bonus fact: One of my grad school advisors worked on the plasma spectrometers for these satellites.

[Lazteuq]

He moved the scout 2 south toward the corn (1 W of capitol). I moved the worker to the grassland (1NW) to build a road and block him. If he wants to, he can just sit on the corn. That will cost me 3 foodhammers per turn as I'll be forced to work the dye instead. Not great, not terrible. Makes the settler take 1 more turn. I could switch to building a warrior now, but I don't think getting a warrior earlier is worth delaying the second city by 3 turns.
The real mistake was that I put hammers into a second workboat as the city was growing, instead of putting them into a warrior. I couldhad a warrior at 11/15h last turn

Edit, Space Fact #8: The planet Venus has a molten metal core very much like Earth's. However, unlike the Earth, Venus doesn't have an internal magnetic field. This is because Venus rotates about 200 times slower than Earth, so the molten metal is not moving enough to generate a strong field.

[superdeath]

i am liking these random space facts. Gives me an idea for future PB's.

[shallow_thought]

Gira declared war and moved that scout to 2N 1W of the capitol.

The fact that Mackoti is dedlurking Gira probably means I should be extra concerned.

Urgh. Yeah, the damage from a scout choke on it's own could be nasty, but if Mackoti is involved and Gira is listening to him this could be very bad. At the very least, Mackoti wouldn't be suggesting causing a "small injury" unless he felt there was no way for you ever to hit back - so (if this was his idea) I think he feels they can cripple you. Which given your starting techs and the resulting delay to BW (let alone AH) is a possibility.

How many turns to BW? I doubt it's worth delaying a second city to try to get copper with it - surely that would put you too far behind? But I'm not clear how quickly you can get a second settler out, along with an escort capable of dislodging a scout (let alone a warrior).

Tense times .

Oh, and if the copper location works for it, I wonder if settling on the copper would be an idea ...