[PB58] Tarkeel and Amicalola's rule through fear

[pindicator]

"Jungle horse" ... that has a nice ring to it

[Tarkeel]

Turn 32 (2720 BC)
Serdoa grew, probably his capital back to size 2, and researched Mysticism. I did not like that development, as he's one of the people likely to compete with us for Stonehenge. I think we'll still give it a try, but I have another turn to think it over before we turn on research for Mysticism ourself.

Demographics

[Tarkeel]

Turn 33 (2680 BC)
There was some action after we completed T32, with AT, Jowy and Superdeath all founding their second city. Ruff and Serdoa grew on T33, and Ruff finally settled his second city. Given that he both grew and settled on the same time, I think Ruff settled a similar city to Kessel.

I decided to go on with the Stonehenge plans. If Serdoa wants to build it, he'll have to commit to it early in one of his first two cities, knowing that there's and IND civ out there that might compete as well. Given that Serdoa is IMP, the opportunity cost for him building it is about two settlers, while it's much less for us. I did sim out building it in the second city, and it hampered our growth curve enough that we're going for it in the third. T55-58 is a pretty late completion date; it fell on t45 in PB56. If Serdoa gets it, he's slowed his growth and we get failgold to secure Sailing/Masonry and GLH, and I can live with that.


Edit: We've had graphs on Superdeath for a few turns, so I've made a stab at determining his opening. His Deer got improved at the same time as ours, but the growth to size 2 was delayed by 8 turns, which leads me to believe he started with a double worker opening. Judging by foodhammers and assuming one chop, his settler was probably completed on T32 using roads to settle the same turn. (This could turn out to be hilariously wrong)

Demographics

[Lewwyn]

So you think Horse might be SE?

[Tarkeel]

Most likely SE. It could be SW, but then horse and copper would be very close, and I don't expect that.

Any thoughts on Stonehenge and Serdoa?

[Tarkeel]

Turn 34 (2640 BC)
All is quiet... Both of our pastures completed this turn, giving us a considerable boost but our demographics are starting to trail off. That's most likely the cost of building the next settler before growing (and no Fishing)

Demographics

[Lewwyn]

I think just go forward with the plan as is. If Serdoa beats us it will be because he chopped it out, which if we're building in red maybe we should throw a chop or 2 into it. We could speed up henge without hurting expansion too badly I think? In fact, it might speed up the settler out of red.

[Amicalola]

Logged in to take a look - hope you don't mind - looks good!

Agreed that we should still go for Stonehenge. Like you said, the worst case is Serdoa gets it crazy early, and we get guaranteed TGL.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 35 (2600 BC)
Kessel grew to size two and will be starting it's settler next turn. AT also grew, and Superdeath whipped (most likely a settler). With his road network he's likely first to 3 cities. Meanwhile, our scout finaly found something in the far east that's worth reporting:


Horsies! That looks like a very mighty city. The scout is actually getting close to pink dot from the other side, unless water intervenes we should be there in about 10 turns.

Demographics

Stonehenge is due on 55 with one chop, but before Serdoa got Mysticism I was thinking of saving that forest, completing on T58 instead.

PB56 spoilers:

While Stonehenge got built on T45 in PB56, that was from a mysticism civ with IND and stone in BFC, chopping it out in city#2 to the detriment of everything else, including their lives.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 36-38 (2480 BC)
Nothing much happened on T36, so I skipped that one. T37 was livelier though, with Jowy and AT researching something, Serdoa growing, AT doing a 2-pop whip and Jowy being the first to settle city #3. In a good-news-bad-news situation, we finally found the homeland of someone else:


It turned out to be Serdoa, whom we've already met. That city looks might tasty though!


Looking at a zoomed-out map of what we know, it looks like the map might be a band that wraps twice around, with a similar shaped area for each, and land bridges in other directions. We've almost explored horizontally, and about halfway vertically. (The astute observer might have noticed that we've defogged more NW of Kessel, that's the warrior taking a mapping tour towards pink-dot)

Demographics

T36:


T37:


T38: