[PB59] Ichabod realizes Civ 4 PB is for closers only

[Cyneheard]

Thanks for the help, Cyneheard. I'll need someone to cover for me next week. I'll give you some basic pointers in an update, but there probably won't be too many decisions, as my position in the game is pretty stable. And going by the current game pace, you will only play something like 2 turns while I'm away.

I think there's some discussion to be had about this turn extensions that are happening so frequently. I'm all for giving players more time to play and I've abused the patience of others before. But if we are currently holding the turns so some players can get time to play 3/4 hour long turns in a span of multiple days, that's a bit too much. I'm not giving much thought about what player is attacking what other player, so I'm not aware of all the turn splits, other than the most obvious ones (poor Commodore). But there are players and team of players that log in multiple times and don't end turn. It's reaching that point where I no longer check civstats, because the turn never ends.

No wonder you're barely posting this game, there's just nothing going on - 2t a week is way too slow if you're not in a winning position and this is a big enough game that most players aren't in a winning position.

[Ichabod]

Thanks for the help, Cyneheard. I'll need someone to cover for me next week. I'll give you some basic pointers in an update, but there probably won't be too many decisions, as my position in the game is pretty stable. And going by the current game pace, you will only play something like 2 turns while I'm away.

I think there's some discussion to be had about this turn extensions that are happening so frequently. I'm all for giving players more time to play and I've abused the patience of others before. But if we are currently holding the turns so some players can get time to play 3/4 hour long turns in a span of multiple days, that's a bit too much. I'm not giving much thought about what player is attacking what other player, so I'm not aware of all the turn splits, other than the most obvious ones (poor Commodore). But there are players and team of players that log in multiple times and don't end turn. It's reaching that point where I no longer check civstats, because the turn never ends.

No wonder you're barely posting this game, there's just nothing going on - 2t a week is way too slow if you're not in a winning position and this is a big enough game that most players aren't in a winning position.

Yeah, engagement is difficult with all the delays. Here's some info about the game:

The game situation is pretty calm right now, I don’t expect aggression from any of the neighbors. I have some cats and units in a central position, if it ends up being needed.

The main plan is as follows: colonize the big Astro island to our east. The western one will probably go to Mackoti, who reached Astro some 5 turns before us. It’s Mackoti, so I don’t think is worth the hassle of trying to compete there. He has more cities, more production, has an edge on Astro and spends hours each turn. But I think we can improve our position by going to that island further from him, there’s room for quite a lot of cities there.

I have Astro in a few turns and some settlers in production. There’s 2 galleys that can be upgraded once Astro comes in (and a 3rd one that will be produced soon after), so feel free to use gold for that. My idea is to send the 3 settlers and 3 military units there (macemen from the stack). I’ll try to setup some WB builds as well, since the Astro island has seafood. I’ll leave signs on places to settle, but feel free to move around if something different is revealed. Try to settle the cities coastal, as that gives us +1 TR from optics. My current settling plan will give room to hopefully 7 cities, 6 coastal and one inland, but there are some fogged tiles that could perhaps change something.

Tech will be Astro → Printing Press → Economics. My plan is to use the Great Spy for a Golden Age, once it’s clear that I can reach Economics before the end of it. I don’t think we’ll get the GM, I just want the extra TR from the civic. Feel free to move the Gspy around and explore. On that note, try to use the espionage points to get graphs on the players we don’t have yet. After that, you can use them against Mack, so we can reach his research.

The third galleon should send some workers to the eastern Astro island. Just improve the resources. Feel free to get some more galleons and whip them if needed.

I’ll leave most builds queued, but feel free to choose what to build if needed. If the city has a stable, go for HAs or WEs. If the city has only barracks, go for cats or maces.

I'll be here until sunday (but I just got my first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, so perhaps I'll be a bit under the wheater tomorrow). Do you want to login and take a look? My password is ger and we are the germans. The turns will likely be pretty simple and you don't need to worry much about your decisions, I'm fine with whatever.

If people offer gold for our maps, feel free to accept it. I've already traded our maps to Lazteuq (finished circumnav) and Miguelito (for 50g + their map). So, info is already floating around, better to cash on it a bit.

[Ichabod]

I’m leaving now. Back next Sunday. You can take the next turn, Cyneheard. Thank you.

[Cyneheard]

I’m leaving now. Back next Sunday. You can take the next turn, Cyneheard. Thank you.

Got it, finishing Astro this turn and hopefully setting up the micro to quickly get those cities off to the east.

TBS offered a map swap, I reoffered with a 75g charge because why not? Started Pele on a Harbor, since that seemed like a decent ROI.

Mackoti is being swapped for Mr. Cairo it seems, but the civ is still strong.

[Ichabod]

Hey, Cyneheard. I’ll have access to civ starting tomorrow, so I can get the next turn. Thanks for the help.

[Cyneheard]

Hey, Cyneheard. I’ll have access to civ starting tomorrow, so I can get the next turn. Thanks for the help.

Works for me. Glad I didn't rush to play T143 then. 

You've got 2 fully loaded Galleons and a 3rd ready to get a settler/worker/maceman combo. Not much else to note. I think the eastern loaded galleon should go to City 2, and the western one should go to City 1, but double-check the turn count.

I did burn a worker turn or two on a road since I didn't realize lumbermills were how you were using the last few forests (CTH making them viable is useful, base BtS instincts kicked in there).

I started Feudalism as a 2t tech at ~break-even, so it should come in at EOT143.

[Ichabod]

I just landed the final blow to Cornflakes. I think he was closer to winning than most players realize. I double-teamed him with Piccadilly, attacking with cannons and Riesengarde against WE and longbows. Still managed to lose cities and bleed a lot. Piccadilly got most of the prizes, as I didn't exactly plan things very well.

The move I should go for now is probably to ally Frozen against Piccadilly, though there's a chance Mali could take us both (especially considering Frozen is pretty checked out, he could have hurt me a lot this past few turns). I have cannons, riesengarde and airships, but not that many of them. My factory UB is online now, for whatever that's worth.

I'm at 29 cities. Top dogs have 40+.

[Cornflakes]

I just landed the final blow to Cornflakes. I think he was closer to winning than most players realize.

T220 easy with no starvation AND accounting for losing a 75% dice roll. Landing that dice roll and starving I probably could drop that close to 210. And 8 GArtists born in the last 10-12 turns such that it would be too late if people only reacted after seeing the first couple start being born in quick succession. I would have had 100-200 units completed by then including cheap scouts towards the end as extra folder to buy a turn or two at the finish. It was a long shot, but worth the try.

Question: if I had decided not to push culture on our border to steal the banana (and then inadvertently the fish in your core) would you have left me alone? If I had just ignored trying to get a GArtist out of that border city?

I double-teamed him with Piccadilly, attacking with cannons and Riesengarde against WE and longbows. Still managed to lose cities and bleed a lot. Piccadilly got most of the prizes, as I didn't exactly plan things very well.

There were a couple things about your attack that baffled me:
- where was your navy? I know you had around 10 galleons at least, yet they played no role in your attack
- why did your frigates not interfere with Piccadilly’s galleons? My army was powerless against even just you with your cannon stack, so you could have claimed much more of my territory by sniping Piccadilly’s transport capability.

[Ichabod]

I need a sub between feb 12th and feb 23rd. 

Right now, I'm at war with Piccadilly (because his spaceship is about to reach Alpha Centauri) and civac (bacause he took some cities in our continent and left them lightly defended and he conquered my island cities previously).

I think I can take 2 more Piccadilly cities that I can keep. I can also try to raze some of his cities, to help the campaign against him. Miguelito took a lot of his cities and I don't think I can make too much gains against Miguelito (he has a very modern army).

Well, my strategy is the following: try to finish the game as high as possible in the leaderboard. There are 10 players left. If Piccadilly doesn't win, there's 9 (because then he's a goner). Mjmd is also finished, so 8. After that, I'll try and see if a world war breaks loose between the other contestants, which perhaps can help me climb further. 

Any takers? Superdeath? Perhaps it's easier if we chat quickly about the game. Feel free to log in, the password is "ger" (just wait to play after Piccadilly). You can feel free to do whatever you find best while playing, my objective, as stated, is just to try and finish at a high position.

Charriu, about your PM. The main advantage that I felt when playing germany is that you get a big package of goodies with just a few techs. I had the UU and UB very close together in the tech tree. That being said, I was ORG, so building factories was easier. On the other hand, I felt the uniques were available when "the game was already decided", but that's probably something to do with the map more than anything. Would the UB bonus be enough for an advantage in another game, where the germany player was closer to the leaders? I can't say. But the advantages being clumped together in the tree is relevant, I guess. 

I can't attest to the Riesengarde effectiveness, since I only used them to attack cornflakes, that was fielding a medieval army. They had enoug base strength to pose a threat, and they are available together with frigates, which is pretty nice for a double attack. A better player would probably have used this more effectively (as you can see from CF comment above, I mismanaged my powerful - at the time - navy).

I think you don't need to change germany right now. Probably best to test them some more, in other scenarios.

[superdeath]

Im not too terribly spoiled, if your only objective is to be as high on the survivor list as possible, i could see what i can do.