[spoilers] Pindicator Steals the Mapmakers Naming Theme

[pindicator]

038

The big news happened after I played my turn, as Scooter somehow didn't see the obvious coming and managed to get boated by Thoth - so I presume.  I know he was tangling with Commodore a bit, and then lost a city to Commodore.  Then Thoth actually boatmurdered (yes, it's a real term) scooter's capital.  So no turn tonight as scooter collects his thoughts.

We've all been there before.

As for what I played this morning, squeezed inbetween shower and work, was a giant sign not to fuck up the civic swap again:




And I still had to catch myself! 

I did that last though.  First, I used my two newest workers in the north to connect the furs and make my capital happy again.  My other worker at Alhambra finished chopping out the forest as I really want to put a crossbow in Wolfpack.  After that Alhambra will whip out a settler for the silver.

The big change came in the south where we will not be cottaging the capital for it's upcoming Bureaucracy.  This scooter-Commodore dust-up had me thinking that I really need to capitalize and settle the south, and so instead we are going to keep La Fontaine on military and the capital will whip out a settler - 2pop whip after it gets into Bureau.  I can depart from La Fontaine with 4 swords, 2 horse archers, and 1 elephant in 5 turns. The settler from the capital will follow and put a city down between the barbarian keep and my own lands, to add support. Thought about a settler out of La Fontaine but I think I want to build a forge there and just continue to pump only military from that city.

Then the civic swap happened, pulled off correctly somehow, and I hired specialists in Matsumoto-Jo and the capital like so:







Next turn the Deer gets switched back to Matsu and the capital goes up to 7 merchants.

[pindicator]

040

Got my first event of the game. It's not much, but ... no, it's not much:




Wolfpack Tower came out of anarchy this turn, and we chopped a forest into the granary there. Yuri had popped his borders so I decided to hire 3 artists. Getting all 12cpt at once means I dump 12 culture into the second ring straight away rather than only getting 4 for hiring 1 artist over 3 turns. I might keep some more going for a while, we'll see how much Yuri contests me culturally for that cow.

Borders popped at Matsumoto-Jo and we hooked up the clam. The stone quarry finishes next turn as well. Then we'll whip out triremes and galleys from this city.

Decided that I want to spend my next 5-turn civic stint in slavery. Which means another settler out of Alhambra.

Since every city is doing something impactful, I decided to show them all:

















After seeing Yuri and Commodore with island cities, I decided it was time to open borders with everyone.

Also, Thoth just ran the slider on me to dump EP? Or he's running spies? Seems odd either way.

[pindicator]

Technology thoughts:

Civil Service comes in t43, thanks to the Great Merchant.
Engineering should finish end of t47, if my math is right.
What comes next?
- Music lets me use hammers to pop initial city borders, and is on the path to Mil Trad & my UU.
- Philosophy > Nationalism is also on the path to my UU. Drafting is a medium-term goal but 1) Do I want to draft maces? 2) Should I get more developed cities before I plan on using it?
- Optics to get an early edge on the sea

Let's be honest, it's probably Feudalism > Guilds

[pindicator]

043

Great Merchant was born last turn, and ready to bulb:




Only 3 turns later than originally planned.

With Civil Service in our bag I switched civics to Bureaucracy and Slavery - and then promptly whipped a 2nd galley out of Matsumoto-Jo. The overflow will finish a trireme, and then a chop from the worker will finish a 2nd trireme. Yes, Thoth has me a little spooked. But also ... perhaps he has inspired me?

Commodore has built the game's first wonder:




Honestly not on my radar, and honestly a very solid play. I was just thinking about teching Theology in order to pick up Theocracy, but this was such a better solution by Commodore. Paya should have been high on my wonder-list, but I honestly forgot it existed.

We are headed south to capture a barb city:




4 swords, 1 elephant, and 2 horse archers should do it. These are the last swords I'll be able to make.

Next turn I whip settlers out of the capital and Alhambra.

Demos looking good:




Also, a little cross promotion: I'm planning another Crusader Kings 3 game report playing on the latest DLC (plagues!), but I need your help picking which leader I start as.

[pindicator]

Quick update from work, but I captured the southern barbarian city this turn. 6 turns of anarchy, bleh. But worse, I had bad luck on my rolls, with my CR2 sword dying without landing a hit and then only capturing the city on my last attack. I lost all 4 Swords and 1 horse archer.

I've gamble a bit to push expansion now: settled another city and in 2t when I switch to caste I'll settle my 8th (it needs borders to pop before its useful). Thanks to the heavy losses at the barb city I'm below Commodore in power, so it needs to be nothing but units and workers for a while now.

[pindicator]

076

I should have burned the city. Well, it was a gamble. Now Commodore will probably declare and take it. Or maybe it was too much to also build a forge in La Fontaine at the same time. Two more units right now would certainly make me feel better about things:




Anyway, if he declares and takes it I should remember it isn't the end of all things. This was a gamble timed because everyone else was fighting - unfortunate that scooter and comm peaced out just in time here. If he does declare and takes it then I think we just let him have it and consolidate in my area.

Edit: Civstats showed he captured it. Tarkeel, get ready for another map rant.

[pindicator]

I'm sitting here in the middle of my turn and all I can think of is how much I hate this map.

[pindicator]

048

Right, so:




1. No more food! Isn't that awesome. less than 50 turns in and I have 1 crab left to settle in "my" area. Wait, are you telling me that "my" area goes south? Well then why did you put a barbarian city there? I have the worst food of anyone I've scouted so far (half of Thoth and scooter to go), and the only reason I have as much as I got was because I rushed the barbarian cities.
2. The barbarian cities. You don't put giant pinatas in the middle of players. You don't. Same reason you don't put treasure islands on an Astronomy map. Players already have the incentive to grab the land: it's called more land. You just exacerbate the winning and the losing to one thing when you do this. I honestly thought this was a settled lesson in RB Map Making by now. Also, one barbarian city has more food than my entire outer coast. How fucked up is that?
3. This map was heavily biased against any civilization with immediate benefits. I could have picked Egypt and faired better with a War Chariot rush. Or Zulu and Impi rushed. There was no indication we would be put on a map where any civilization without immediate benefits was fucked.
4. Look at all the angles you have to defend! Boats can come along through the middle, by the edges, by the outer edge, or land units down the middle. You cannot defend everything in such a close capacity - and so once again the rushers and aggressive civ choices win out. 3 of us lost the game in the picking phase and didn't even realize it.
Honorable Mention: WHY AM I THE ONLY PERSON WHOSE GOLD IS ON THE OUTSIDE OF THEIR AREA?
Everybody else has defendable gold! EVERYBODY!

[greenline]

3. This map was heavily biased against any civilization with immediate benefits. I could have picked Egypt and faired better with a War Chariot rush. Or Zulu and Impi rushed. There was no indication we would be put on a map where any civilization without immediate benefits was fucked.

These days, it seems like this is the default assumption for any map being made for modern RB civ games. It's probably best for players who don't want to play a rush heavy map to openly request a larger one at the start rather than leaving it unsaid.

[pindicator]

Is that so? The last 3 games I played were not. Perhaps I got lucky.