Gaspar & Noble make their triumphant? return; mostly just get asked about "The List"

[Gaspar]

Man, Brian is right.

It is dark in here again, isn't it?

Must be the lack of lurker chatter.

Well.

Let see if I can do anything about that.

<fumbles around in dark>



Wait, what?




Oh.



It goes without saying that we were going to finish that this turn with a chop.





Ok, so yes.  Lewwyn beat us to Colossus by turn order.  We actually had a long conversation a week or so ago about what the fastest completion time for Lewwyn could be and decided to try and accelerate the build, but never thought he would actually beat us given our advantage on completing both the forge and the wonder.  This actually has several negative knock-on effects for us given how island-y our empire is turning out to be.  Nevertheless, we persist.

Lewwyn also completed Hanging Gardens this turn.  So, yeah.  Serdoa and Rusten going all let's slam ancient trash into each other seemed initially positive, as it distracted our main threatening neighbor, but it has the knock on effect of giving Lewwyn a free pass to Lewwyn it up over there, given that Bob is basically a teal Superdeath at the moment.  We were feeling so good about our situation that I was contemplating top of the tree distractions and Noble was wondering if it would seem we won the game too easily.  Hardy, har, har.  For what its worth, I still like our chances, but its going to be a knock-down, drag-em-out with Lewwyn to get there.

Let's see if I can catch up on everything else.  Rusten and Superdeath completed circumnavigation the last few turns.  We completed Calendar this turn.  Solaris Temple popped third ring and we're definitely going to take the long neglected pig from Serdoa.  Some additional exploration has shown that the islands in the south are as crappy as the islands in the north.  WHERE IS OUR STONE AND SHEEP ISLAND, PINDICATOR?  We made a cheeky offer of some gpt for stone with Rusten, with the hopes of getting the multiplier to finish Moai quicker.  It also led to this exchange in our chat:

NobleHelium:
ok we have 7 gpt
that rusten can ask for
i'm pretty sure we take that deal
9 gpt i wasn't sure

Gaspar:
we definitely take 7 gpt
if he asks for a lump sum of gold

NobleHelium:
if he asks for a lump sum of gold i test whether we would get a treaty or not
if yes then we'll give him up to like 70g or something
if no treaty then he can fuck off

Gaspar:
we decline and offer back with some lesser number but a higher than we want plus stop trading with lewwyn

NobleHelium:
maybe we should have thrown in a stop trading with lewwyn

Gaspar:
im just gonna throw stop trading with lewwyn into every conversation i have from now on

NobleHelium:
haha

Gaspar:
"hey what's going on, stop trading with Lewwyn?"

NobleHelium:
"do we build this monument gaspar"

STOP TRADING WITH LEWWYN

Gaspar:
lolol

That's all I really have to add at the moment, so here's a couple overview shots and demos...

[Brian Shanahan]

[mackoti]

Why colosus took you so long? Man your empire is so watery that was a must have.No workers? noble forgot how is done? 1 turn forge, 1 turn colosus....

[Gaspar]

Honestly a combination of it being a wonder we felt we wanted vs a wonder we felt we needed and also it was a wonder we thought we could land at a more leisurely pace. Its a miss for sure, but I'm confident we will still catch and pass Lewwyn.

[Tarkeel]

So, Noble tried to lure me over here from the dark side, and I guess it worked. I also promised him some thought-provoking stupid questions:

1: With Currency done, what's the next tech priority?
2: If you could swap to another civ right now, what would it be?

[pindicator]

Gaspar, are you playing any of the 1-week leagues?

[NobleHelium]

2: If you could swap to another civ right now, what would it be?

Per our discussion, this is not a good question. A different civ would have given us different starting techs. We are way past that point of the game, so switching civs now would be pretty much universally a downgrade.

Not sure if I said this before, but if I was picking and starting over again from our starting position for this map I would have picked Victoria of Rome. Or possibly Victoria of England.

Information on the other question will be available in the next report, when we get the turn later today.

[Gaspar]

Gaspar, are you playing any of the 1-week leagues?

I haven't made up my mind yet. The problem with 1-week leagues is you really need freetime to take advantage of them. I think I would enjoy them, particularly mayhem, but I'm not sure I can give it the go needed to make it worth it.

Re: Tarkheel's questions (multiquote appears to be borked)...

As Noble said, the question of tech path is best left for the next report, not least because its a question Noble and I haven't entirely answered for ourselves yet.

In terms of what Civ is best - its all about when we start asking the question.

If we're starting from t0, as Noble suggests, probably Rome, Carthage, Portugal or England. Or maybe Khmer.

If we starting from right now, Byzantium is a pretty good choice. But I think given our situation, there's one even better...

The Netherlands. Every city except one is coastal. There are boating opportunities galore. EI and Dikes would be fantastic here.

[Cornflakes]

2: If you could swap to another civ right now, what would it be?

Per our discussion, this is not a good question.  A different civ would have given us different starting techs.  We are way past that point of the game, so switching civs now would be pretty much universally a downgrade.

I took the question more as "if you as a player/team could swap and take over the civ from another player in this game, which one would you choose" ... Or said another way: Based on your current knowledge, which civ in this game has the best fun factor and/or winning chances?

[Tarkeel]

2: If you could swap to another civ right now, what would it be?

Per our discussion, this is not a good question.  A different civ would have given us different starting techs.  We are way past that point of the game, so switching civs now would be pretty much universally a downgrade.

Not sure if I said this before, but if I was picking and starting over again from our starting position for this map I would have picked Victoria of Rome.  Or possibly Victoria of England.

I totally agree that your current situation is heavily influenced by your starting techs, but just because you've paid the price (in poor starting techs) for Cataphracts doesn't mean all other civs are a straight downgrade. Hence the 'right now' and not 'at the start' in my question.

In terms of what Civ is best - its all about when we start asking the question.

If we're starting from t0, as Noble suggests, probably Rome, Carthage, Portugal or England.  Or maybe Khmer.

If we starting from right now, Byzantium is a pretty good choice.  But I think given our situation, there's one even better...

The Netherlands.  Every city except one is coastal.  There are boating opportunities galore.  EI and Dikes would be fantastic here.

When asking the question (which is a silly question, as it regards something that can't be done) the ones on my mind were Carthage and Netherlands, or possibly even Vikings. It's too late for Numidians to change much, but Cothons could be very powerful here. I was thinking more of East Indiamen allowing you to really challenge Lewwyn, but Dikes are also very potent here, if a but on the late side.

Looking forward to the tech-reveal! My guess is, "not Calendar".