[PB73 SPOILERS] scooter's Oracle

[Tarkeel]

I've honestly forgotten what your naming theme is, but may I suggest Jack, Johnny, or Sally?

Edit, all of these should be island names if you end up using them.

Naming theme is Succession characters. Here's a list to choose from:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7660850/ful..._=tt_cl_sm


I'm not trying to go exactly top to bottom, but there is a bias towards more prominent characters. Frank or Karl is my lean for that city if I had to choose now.

My friend that's a big fan of the show suggested Marcia, that might be a better candidate for another contintent or something of the like.

[Zed-F]

As it turns out, we probably could have oracled Currency, but we didn’t know the Nicaea gamble was going to be a thing, so picking Currency would only have been better in hindsight. Construction was the right call at the time.

What’s next after Currency / HBR, any thoughts there yet? I think we might wind up needing to pick something before we get enough info on Oxy to inform speculation on what he might be doing. I have to guess that going toward Currency would be attractive for him, since it’s the most flexible way to improve his income and isn’t a non-bo with Mids or State Property. That might imply that if MoM is the biggest priority (even if we don’t GA soon) we should be thinking Iron + Calendar -> Metal Casting, if we think Oxy isn’t too likely to prioritize Colossus.

[Qgqqqqq]

Nice demos. Are you going to try for a shrine?

[Zed-F]

We have Oracle making prophet points in Connor so it seems plausible we could.

[scooter]

My friend that's a big fan of the show suggested Marcia, that might be a better candidate for another contintent or something of the like.

Definitely will find a place for Marcia.

As it turns out, we probably could have oracled Currency, but we didn’t know the Nicaea gamble was going to be a thing, so picking Currency would only have been better in hindsight. Construction was the right call at the time.

Passing on a few dozen Commerce for better security was totally fine, yeah. I didn’t think I was actually going to be able to burn Nicaea. Had it failed and I lost the units, I probably would have queued Elephants immediately.

What’s next after Currency / HBR, any thoughts there yet? I think we might wind up needing to pick something before we get enough info on Oxy to inform speculation on what he might be doing. I have to guess that going toward Currency would be attractive for him, since it’s the most flexible way to improve his income and isn’t a non-bo with Mids or State Property. That might imply that if MoM is the biggest priority (even if we don’t GA soon) we should be thinking Iron + Calendar -> Metal Casting, if we think Oxy isn’t too likely to prioritize Colossus.

Yeah I’m not sure yet. I’m definitely a bit tempted to head down the MC -> Machinery line. The capital would benefit from a Forge obviously, and Zerkers would be a good way to circle back and finish off Yuris. That also sort of implies getting Iron Working, which would open up the jungle belt. That said, Calendar gets us instant +1 happy and secures MoM, and I also think Great Library (and the possibility of it spawning me a Scientist for an Academy) is a really good fit for me. My general inclination is that the top of the tree fits better, and I’m not super clear I actually need the Zerks. Thinking about it still, but I’m happy to get Currency and save gold for a few before making a run at something.

Nice demos. Are you going to try for a shrine?

I’m toying with it, yeah. There’s an opening for Connor to get a Temple and run a Priest alongside Oracle GPP and get a guaranteed shrine. It’s a bit fresh on my mind after my horrendous prophet luck in PB70. If Yuris wasn’t there, I absolutely would, but it feels a bit tough to have a front-line city with good tiles next to a hostile neighbor running a Priest for awhile.

[Zed-F]

What’s next after Currency / HBR, any thoughts there yet? I think we might wind up needing to pick something before we get enough info on Oxy to inform speculation on what he might be doing. I have to guess that going toward Currency would be attractive for him, since it’s the most flexible way to improve his income and isn’t a non-bo with Mids or State Property. That might imply that if MoM is the biggest priority (even if we don’t GA soon) we should be thinking Iron + Calendar -> Metal Casting, if we think Oxy isn’t too likely to prioritize Colossus.

Yeah I’m not sure yet. I’m definitely a bit tempted to head down the MC -> Machinery line. The capital would benefit from a Forge obviously, and Zerkers would be a good way to circle back and finish off Yuris. That also sort of implies getting Iron Working, which would open up the jungle belt. That said, Calendar gets us instant +1 happy and secures MoM, and I also think Great Library (and the possibility of it spawning me a Scientist for an Academy) is a really good fit for me. My general inclination is that the top of the tree fits better, and I’m not super clear I actually need the Zerks. Thinking about it still, but I’m happy to get Currency and save gold for a few before making a run at something.

Nice demos. Are you going to try for a shrine?

I’m toying with it, yeah. There’s an opening for Connor to get a Temple and run a Priest alongside Oracle GPP and get a guaranteed shrine. It’s a bit fresh on my mind after my horrendous prophet luck in PB70. If Yuris wasn’t there, I absolutely would, but it feels a bit tough to have a front-line city with good tiles next to a hostile neighbor running a Priest for awhile.

Re: Prophet -- we don't actually need to put a priority on this to get good value from the opportunity; it seems pretty valid to wait 10-20 turns before we look at a prophet plan out of Connor so we are confident about security before doing so; we won't get a ton of compensation for doing so until we have the luxury of spreading our religion more anyway, so there is no rush.

Re: Great Library vs. trying for Colossus after MoM -- How likely do we think it is that Oxy would quickly go for Polytheism and Aesthetics to unlock Literature, though? He's not warring so no chance to get Heroic Epic. He can't get a religion that way. Parthenon is ok for him since he has Rep, and same for Great Library, but is that really where he'll go ASAP?

I'd tend to think we can probably slip MC in between Calendar and Aesthetics / Literature to unlock forges and potentially make a play for Colossus, if it's still there, before we go for the top of the tree. Possibly we don't need Zerks soon, but being a bit closer to them should we discover an opportunity arising to use them might be handy, on top of the benefits of forge and potential Colossus. I imagine that if we're going to fall behind Oxy it'll be on account of hammers, not tech, so this seems further to argue for slipping MC in, and that seems like a convenient spot to do so.

I guess by then at least we should have a better idea of what Oxy is in fact doing, so what happens 2-3 techs after Currency + HBR isn’t a decision we have to make soon, we just need to focus on whether Iron + Calendar are in the near future or whether we’re going in a different direction.

[Qgqqqqq]

Well the priority for a Prophet is that the Merchant will come out of the GLH first eventually.

[Zed-F]

Right now a shrine is + 4gpt and a merchant is worth several hundred gold. It’ll take a long time before our religion gets spread sufficiently far and wide for the shrine to be worthwhile in comparison to a trade mission.

[scooter]

Worth considering the inherent challenges of running a trade mission in a no-diplo game, especially when your only land neighbor is trying to kill you, and other players will be loathe to sign OB due to GLH. Plus there's travel lag time for Trade Missions and the spreading power of a shrine. That said, yes we're still talking about a Great Person that's 30+ turns away at the moment, though that could change if/when Moai goes in. I could just chop Stonehenge in Connor like right now. It's super cheap at this point and would result in a prophet first. Hmm.


Averaging 5-6 turns per week with 5 players is a bit of a bummer. At least today's missed turn sounds like a legitimate fluke as Oxy has otherwise been pretty consistent, but it was just 4 days ago the last time we missed a turn, and double turns haven't happened once since going to sequential. The problem is the only player I could feasibly kill would absolutely have 0 impact on turn pace.

[Cyneheard]

Isn’t it a little early to be planning a PYFT War?