[SPOILERS] naufragar is not a number; he is a free man

[naufragar]

One of my axes kills a barb warrior. The second refrains from killing the barb spear.


I moved my warrior to the forested hill so that the spear couldn't beat me to my coastal city. If the spear attacks the warrior, I should have great odds with the axe to clean up. If the spear moves 1SE, I have to make decisions. There's so many annoying little moves he could make.

I'm sure my week-long barb bitch-fest has been tiring. Let me show you why I've been focused on it:


The top rival crop yield is higher than mine by like 50%, and all I've got is early game advantages. Instead of being able to expand, I've built the 7th strongest military. (The graphs haven't updated, but next turn I'll show you just how many more soldiers I have than Pind or Mack.) So it's not like I've been playing a reckless farmer's gambit. It's that everyone has, and I'm the one getting caught out by barbs. Remember, I'm Expansive. An axe for me could have been a granary instead. Oh well. Whatcha gonna do? If I can kill the spear, maybe I can relax, although I seem to be getting a barb every two turns, so I'm due another one next turn.

[Lewwyn]

Have you got units fogbusting further out from your borders to stop more barbs from spawning now?

[naufragar]

Have you got units fogbusting further out from your borders to stop more barbs from spawning now?

In all seriousness, no. For a while I was at 3 warriors for 6 cities, so they had to play zone defense instead of leaving my borders. Then a warrior died to a barb. Over two turns, I built two axes and a spear, so I might have a little bit more fog-busting potential. (Reckless farmer's gambit? Me?    )


It says 1 warrior because I sacrificed one last turn to guarantee our victory over the barb spear. ("Notoriously indecisive and cautious.")

Because I promised it, here's the power graph.


It seems ridiculous, but I can put it in perspective. 2 axes + 1 spear = 16k soldier points. Last turn, I showed you the power demographic in which I had 44k and the rival lowest was 31k, so before those three units, I was dead last in power. I mean, it still sucks to have to one-pop whip the units, but I was due for some military.

I have a theory, or better, a suspicion. Do we think Mackoti is a Pindicator smurf? Evidence below.


So, it's pretty easy for Pind to grow to size 8 as Charismatic. Mack's capital could be unhappy, or he could have found another luxury, or anything. Who knows. I know that Mack doesn't like Infinite City Sprawl kinds of openings. In PB38, he built his cap up to a similar size and threw in an Academy. I suspect he and Pind will do this. (One player I know has researched Writing already.) I'm interested (terrified) in whether they could turn a quick burst of research in the Classical Era into a dangerous threat. We shall see.

[naufragar]

I had mentioned that I like the design of the map that I've seen so far:


As far as I can tell, I and the four other players I've met are arranged in a pentagon around an inner city that uses islands so that all the water tiles are coastal. Since there are 25 players in the game, I'm tentatively assuming everyone is divvied up into pentads. Perhaps we can reach other groups before Astro; perhaps not. Control of our own inner sea will be important, but on the other hand, it will be fraught, since it's essentially an area with 5 fronts. Mackoti's Aggressive leader can get Amphibious units easily. Pindicator can get ocean-going vessels long before us. I don't know how that inner sea will develop, but I suspect it will be a crucial element of the mid- to late-game.

Demos for fun.

[naufragar]

Empire: Overexpanded.
Economy: Crashed.



I've been busy lately, so less time for civ and less for reports. We settled our eighth city, and boy are they expensive. We'll just try to limp along to cottages and see where we are. I wish I could be happy about the #2 Crop Yield but my neighbors are right there with me.


I'm second in Crop Yield with 87 food. Who in the world is rocking 99 food?

[naufragar]

Opened the turn (70) up to some diplo from Mackoti.


I'm in this awkward spot with Mackoti. I don't want him to feel too comfortable with his border with me, but I don't want him to feel so uncomfortable he makes scary plans. I turned this down. I'll probably not open borders with him or Pind.

I'm not going to antagonize Mack every chance I get though.


He had a warrior snooping around that lucked out. It was perfectly positioned to spot the borders of my two most recently founded cities. I'm not gonna try to kill him. The spot where the axe is currently on would make a great fog busting spot. (Hat tip to Lewwyn. ) We need to expand borders, get scouts and garrisons, etc. This map is going to be tricky once people get navies.

[naufragar]

Amicalola and I were logged in at the same time, and I got to congratulate him on landing the Great Lighthouse.


Obviously we didn't talk about wonder strategy, so I'm gonna say what I would've said here. "Congrats! The Great Lighthouse is going to be ridiculously strong on this map. You mid-game economy is essentially already solved. It's a little sketchy to have gone for two early wonders (it's a lot of hammers not going into settlers and workers), and Stonehenge doesn't seem necessary on this very lush map. You don't need border pops to solve dot-mapping issues. Just throw cities down anywhere. On the other hand, because of the Great Lighthouse, you're now incentivized to settle billions of small island and coastal cities, which tend to struggle for hammers. If they did need border pops, Stonehenge is probably the easiest way to do it. You may know this, but you've painted a target on your back. Before we chatted and I was convinced of your friendly ways, I wondered if there was a way I could stretch my empire across the inner sea to grab your Lighthouse. Probably a ridiculous quest, but your southern neighbor Pindicator might be thinking similar thoughts and he's got an easier avenue, and Pindicator is very, very good. Cairo, your other neighbor, is also good, and (but you don't know this) on the other side of Cairo is Mackoti. I would be very surprised if Cairo was easily conquered by Mack, but if Mack sweeps through or goes around, your Lighthouse will be tempting. Those caveats aside, though, congrats!" (I get Amica's graphs in two turns, and then I'll see what his development's like.)

Speaking of Mack, while his warrior continued to run from my axe, it was joined by a settler.


Every aggressive instinct in me screamed to declare war and move forward. (I would have declared war so that founding the city wouldn't bump my axe back.) I know in my last picture I had the joke about the warrior leading my axe into a trap. He's not. Mack's power graph is not scary. On the other hand, Mack is a very cautious player. You can think I'm careful, Mack usually guards against every possibility. I very much doubt that he would move that settler into that spot without some sort of backup, either an axe garrison or a chariot somewhere. Maybe I'm being too careful (after all, the power graph shows he only has like 1 real unit right now). But I don't think I should try to snipe that settler.

So I sent him a fish for fish.


I know people have many different opinions about Mack. Probably, those opinions are valid and proven from past games. Me, I think he's a funny guy and an interesting civ player, but I sure as hell do not trust him. He is utterly ruthless, and if he returns this fish for fish trade, I don't think that will mean anything. I'm not going to suddenly relax with my cities only a galley ride away from his.  I'm sending the fish for fish so that he hopefully, even if only a little, sees me as less of a problem to solve. "Hey man, don't you want to go after Cairo instead of me?" I admit there's a psychological component to this. Pindicator is probably as much of a threat to my empire, but Mack's taking up space in my head as a boogeyman.

[naufragar]

Interesting. On back to back turns, my neighbors planted cities two tiles away from my axes. In both cases, I think I could have pushed.


I worry that I'm not living up to my Montezuma avatar. I accepted open borders from Pind because I want to scout his land for weaknesses. I refused open borders with Mack before, because I don't want him scouting my land for weaknesses. It's a paradox.

This turn (72) I settled two more cities, bringing us up to 10.


I don't like giving these big overview shots. It makes it more difficult for me to craft a narrative.  One of the newly settled cities was overseas, which is a great help to our economy. I went back to my PB38 report, and by turn 72 in that game, I had 7 cities. I was also Julius Caesar (Imp/Org), so my economy wasn't such a disgrace.

Here's before I settled my two newest:



Here's after:


Each city increases empire-wide costs by 7 gold! Maybe I should slow down the city-vomiting.

Now you'd think with ten cities I'd be doing ok in the Crop and Mfg yields, and I am, sort of.


How does the top rival have 27 more food than me? Seriously. Joao of India with 10 cities is behind number 1 by like 22%.

[naufragar]

I have no turn report, but it looks like the drama of other games might affect mine. Mack posted in Civ General asking for a replacement. No reason given, but it's likely due to EitB 54 ending. To put it as briefly as possible, Mack won; other players believe he cheated. I have no opinion. I haven't played in those PBEMs, so I'm not as intimate with the accusations and evidence, and cheating accusations are a huge deal. If someone cheats, they shouldn't be playing. If someone's accused of cheating when they haven't, it feels terrible because your gaming partners think you shouldn't be playing.


All that said... this could be very good news for my civ. I know, I know, it's a bastard thing to say, but the truth of the matter is that anybody who replaces Mack will likely be a step down in skill, and that will make my north much more manageable. That is, if Mack can find a replacement. Pretty much everybody who wants to play civ4 here is already signed up for this game.

[naufragar]

Huh. It's turn 76, which means I missed doing a decently sized turn 75 update. Well, hadn't planned anything, so have this completely ambiguous picture of my axe doubling back because he left his phone charger in Pind's city. 


Edit: I did the math. Pind grows to 2 next turn, and he can put five turns into an axe next turn, so he can whip before I can invade.