[PB59 Amicalola] The Vespertine Hour(s)

[Amicalola]

[Lewwyn]

[Amicalola]

Whew.

[Amicalola]

Here are the demos, to give you an idea of what I'm working with.



GNP is a functionally worthless stat for me now (as it was for Serdoa in 58), but the rest are still normal (and bad).

I imagine I'm significantly behind in city count, and that will be for some time.  Our third city will be settled just before T50, and the fourth at some point in the 50s (then we'll have a granary push). On a map this lush, that has to be very slow. Cocoon will be amazing in 20 turns, but won't do much before then.

A barbarian warrior has popped up at Hidden Place, very unfortunately as it was the only area I was not equipped to deal with. I had to choose between building another warrior for a guaranteed kill, or probably having my ivory pillaged; I decided I have to risk the latter. Can't slow down another 4 turns just for an unconnected ivory tile.

Tech path from here looks like: AH->Fishing->Pottery->Sailing->Masonry. I'd definitely like to get GLH, and have 4 forests to chop for it. We'll see if we can scrounge 80 hammers in time.

So, the hole is pretty big. But I don't think it's inescapable, and we can definitely still be relevant if we play our cards right from here. The shape of the map lends itself to defined 'starting areas,' which means I won't lose as much land from being behind as a more natural map; got lucky there. We'll probably only lose out on the jungle zones. If we can land GLH, we might be able to develop a small but high-tech empire, and leverage it into a knight conquest? That's the optimistic version.

[Amicalola]

University+Life are back in full-swing in Australia, which means I may have less time to report (though I will try at minimum whenever something interesting happens). In case my reporting falls off though, here is The Plan:



Step 1: Land GLH at the 3rd city, ~T65

Step 2: Settle 2 islands ASAP

Step 3: Settle the core ASAP

Step 4: Grow cities on cottages, whip off coast

Step 5: Build+Whip a Granary, Lighthouse, Forge and Courthouse in every city. Otherwise, skeleton military and workers/settlers.

Step 6: GA into Guilds

Step 7: Whip an army of knights, with catapult/WE support

Step 8: Attack Cairo

Step 9: Stagnate   Profit

Step 10: Wake up


Optional Unlikely Steps 
1: Build the Colossus
2: Build the Hanging Gardens
3: Bulb CoL with the Oracle for religion/courthouses.
4: Have my bluff called and die (well this one isn't so unlikely).

Edit: You know what? I might just go back to reporting once a week. It means I'll always have something interesting to share, and is probably the best way to avoid the inevitable Amicalola waffling.

[Amicalola]

This is the last post in this week's spam-athon, but it turns out 12 names is nowhere near enough. This game has rejuvenated my interest in Björk's music generally, so I think I'll change the naming scheme to be her songs, instead of a specific album. Cocoon is great, that one can stay. But Hidden Place is henceforth renamed to 'Unison,' the absolute banger of a closer to Vespertine. It's been very nostalgic re-listening to her stuff over the past month; I think city 3 will be 'Joga.'

Just don't go renaming your cities after 60 odd turns so your ded lurkers have to relearn everything! ( hi Amica )

How about 40 turns?

[Amicalola]

Hi, PB mechanics question. If there is a barb warrior 1 tile away from my city, and I have a defender finishing EoT, does that warrior walk into my empty city, or into my defender? i.e. do barbarians move before or after builds are completed?

[Thoth]

Barbarians move at the start of turn so your production will complete at the end of this turn before they move.

[Amicalola]

Thanks Thoth, appreciate the info.

It's turn 50, so here's an overview shot:


(Yes, the roads look super weird, particularly the solo one. They were the result of my inefficiency earlier, and I Hate Them). Horses popped up by Cocoon, which dis-incentivizes Pottery and heavy whipping a little bit.


I've settled:
- Joga: a production city that will grow cottages for Unison and build units. And also try to build+chop the Great Lighthouse. 




My errors are starting to show, but this isn't even close to the nadir; that will be between T70-90, during the mad scramble to settle our land. I'm not sure why my recent games seem to lead to this scramble (56, 58), but in both of those games it actually worked out very well, so maybe it will here too...  


In Foreign news:
- Someone built the Oracle. I'm guessing it's Charriu taking Metal Casting, which makes me feel good about not trying for Colossus myself. It could plausibly be anyone other than Cairo/Naufragar, though. 
- I met Naufragar (Joao of India): I don't know anything about Naufragar as a player, other than that I enjoy reading his threads. I love this pick though, on a map this lush, and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Naufragar do very well.

[Amicalola]

It wasn't important enough to stop the reload, but I had a combat with barbs last turn. On the first version of T57, I had a woodyII scout that survived a 70% battle, and on this version it died. 

I suppose if I hadn't checked, I could have just assumed it dies either way. But I did check, so now it's what could have been. Pour one out for Beauregard the Scout.