[Spoilers] Pericles of the Graeco-Mayans

[Sylon]

Sure enough, it's coast.



I suppose it's not a peninsula anymore.

At this point, I'm wondering if picking Philosophical was the right idea. Coastal capitals, snaky islands, high sea level, Noble difficulty- All terrain conducive to the Financial trait, while hurting the Philosophical trait for want of grassland farms.

Of course, Creative is a pretty decent expansion trait in itself, keeping in line with Noble-difficulty city spam. And those half price libraries will come in handy. And Philosophical is a solid trait in itself, though once again Noble difficulty has taken its teeth out.



Dotmap. Green dot looks to be a solid production city, with 2 grassland hills, 3 plains hills, and a fish. Stick the Heroic Epic (Keeping with the Greek theme, that would make it the Iliad) in it and it doubles as a solid naval production city. It can be irrigated, but will have to wait until Civil Service to get any extra food out of those flatlands.

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[SIZE="2"]Speculations from the Acropolis[/SIZE]

-The Oracle will determine the course of the game.

[Sylon]

Nothing of note happened this turn.

The lack of score increases this turn makes me a little curious as to what happened to whoever was working that 3 food tile- Then I realised that they might have been going worker first. A little bit of a waste to go worker first while working a food tile while Expansive. I suppose either Mackoti or Pegasus lack a three-hammer-tile.



The above stats are slightly noteworthy in that there are now two people at 21 GNP each. Three-food has also swapped to another tile.

The rest of the stats are merely for my own comparison purposes- Though, I only started my C&D at turn 3, so there's a blank there.

I'm simultaneously hoping for and dreading meeting another player. It would certainly make things more interesting, but with the land narrow as it is due to the high sea level it would mean I would have to expand quickly. On the bright side, I can win any culture wars!

[Sylon]

Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to announce the discovery of-



-[SIZE="3"]stone[/SIZE].

This pushes my secondary plan of building the pyramids forward. With stone and a handful of forests, I should be able to build the Pyramids easily.

Also, it is worth noting that Mackoti had a score increase this turn- but C&D will have to wait until real life chooses to cooperate with me.



And this turn's demographics. At this point, I'm sure no one is actually paying attention to this segment- Which is understandable. It's more or less a stat record for my own benefit (Though it does also serve as nice filler). If anyone finds my needlessly posting it annoying (After all, I have the screenshots saved in my laptop), please say so and I shall stop posting them unless something interesting pops up.

Turn 10 wrapup to follow.

[Sylon]

[SIZE="3"]Reflections[/SIZE]

The land has been lush so far, and food relatively plentiful (Though it is rather scarce further South, I'll admit). The problem with this map is not the food- it is the annoyingly large amount of water.

As mentioned before, this map is on a high sea level. The landmasses- or what I've seen of it, seem to be quite snaky, favoring coastal cities- Or rather, there isn't enough space to found a non-coastal city.

What's wrong with this? Well, the coastal tiles, that's what. Any map with lots of ocean favor Financial leaders (And to a lesser extent Organised leaders) greatly. Furthermore, coastal tiles are stuck at producing break-even food, while a farmed grassland tile can produce 3, and later 4 food.

In addition, as I mentioned in passing previously, Noble difficulty favours Financial while punishing Philosophical. But why?

Financial works as long as there is a tile with 2 or more commerce. Basically, you could plop as many cities down as you want and each of them will make use of the Financial trait equally.

Philosophical, on the other hand, gains much of its attraction from build academies and spawning Great People. Unfortunately, both of these have diminishing returns. With each Great Person spawned, the cost of the next GP increases. And Academies can only be built in one city per GS.

In other words, Financial benefits from low maintenance costs and a large number of cities, while Philosophical shines brighter from high maintenance costs and a smaller number of cities.

A-hem. But enough of my whining.



[SIZE="3"]Strategy[/SIZE]

The discovery of Stone has brightened my prospects greatly. If I can land the Pyramids, I should be able to keep up in the race despite the above disadvantages.

Another important wonder worth noting is The Great Lighthouse. On a map like this, where virtually every city is coastal, it would be a great boon. Of course, everyone else would also be thinking that.

Finally, the Oracle is an important wonder. Using is personally is certainly attractive, but more important is denial. As I mentioned before, Kodii is most likely going for a Religion. This puts the Priesthood path within hand's reach. If he builds the Oracle, he will get both the Colossus and Mints. Combined with his traits (Which I consider the best in this game) and UU, this will propel him far into the lead.

Of course, if any of the other Financial civs get the Oracle, they, too will get access to four-commerce tiles and forges. This is just about as bad as Kodii getting it- but their traits are thankfully weaker. Then again, it would be bad if it fell into Ruff's hands.

Ideally, either Mackoti or Pegasus will get it. Mackoti, of course, would be the best option, since that won't push him ahead but merely allow him to catch up with the other Financial civs, but Pegasus is also a good option.

Unless, of course, Pegasus happens to be really, really good. But I'm just hoping he's not.

As for myself? I'll be chasing an academy and possibly the Great Lighthouse. Obviously, the Pyramids factor in there too. Teching to Priesthood would cause me to lose about 15 turns or so worth of tech, delaying key techs such as Pottery or Writing. Delaying the latter is basically forfeiting one of my largest advantages. Therefore, at this moment, building the Oracle is not feasible.



[SIZE="3"]Diplomacy[/SIZE]

As I mentioned in Post 8, the path the game takes hinges on who gets the Oracle. The chap who gets the Oracle will be boosted ahead of everyone else- Unless it happens to be Mackoti who gets the Oracle. But this seems unlikely, since, as a Philosophical civ, he is constrained by the same tech path I am.

As the two underdogs in this game (As we were when we made our choice of leaders, but far moreso now, with the discovery of the map being as it is) it makes perfect sense for Mackoti and myself to ally with each other. After all, neither of us will be a legitimate threat to victory to the other- There will be the three Financial civs to focus our aggression on.

In order to maintain a balance of power, the alliances would have to be split 3/2, with Mackoti, myself, and one more Financial Civ on the larger side, and whoever gets the Oracle and the third Financial civ on the smaller side. This does, of course, rest ultimately on persuading said Financial civ to work with us, as opposed to joining with the other two Financial civs and shredding us Philosophers.

Of course, the ideal alliance would be a 4/1 alliance against Oracle-getter, but such an alliance would be lulled into complacency by the ease of destroying Oracle-getter and focus instead on the gains they would make and preventing other alliance members from growing too strong. Needless to say, I have doubts above the effectiveness of such an alliance.



[SIZE="3"]Summary[/SIZE]

-Make nice with Mackoti
-Build Pyramids
-Tech to Writing early
-Build Great Lighthouse

[Sylon]

A view of the Lowlands. Much as I would like to begin dotmapping, I will have to defog the Western Lowlands before I make any decisions.

Speaking of the Lowlands...



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It kind of looks like a creature, doesn't it?

(Please please please let it be a dragon...)

[pocketbeetle]

(Please please please let it be a dragon...)

Last edited by Sylon; August 30th, 2010 at 01:07. Reason: (Though a dinosaur is fine too)

[Sylon]

A double update this time, for lack of anything worth updating. Maybe I should work on my standup routine to pass the turns?



Exploration goes solidly, with Pytheas revealing a nice river/lake (?) side corn tile. There also appears to be some jungle poking out from the edges of the fog, and some desert. Interesting...

The jungle could serve, in a sense, as a sort of natural border for expansion. It also allows me to fill in cities at my own pace, as no one would settle in dense jungle when there are better sites available.

This also confirms, or at least strongly affirms the fact that I am in the Northern hemisphere.



Turn 12 saw Athenai finish a work boat. While waiting for the fishes to be hooked up, I swapped its build to a worker to stick the two overflow hammers and five base hammers into it.

Agriculture comes in at the start of Turn 13, the fishes are... boated, and the build swaps over to a spare workboat. Athenai grows in 3 turns, upon which it will resume building the worker.

The shape of the land seems to be coming out pretty nicely, too. I should have enough revealed by turn 15 for a dotmap. With any luck, it will turn out to have a nice creature-like shape, which would make for quite the impressive heraldry.

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Finally, to pocketbeetle, T-Hawk and Ilios, and to all the lurkers who have been following this thread- thank you for reading and commenting! It might get a little corny in here, and Athenai might stink of fish and sheep, but I hope that you will continue watching this little space.

Now, about that standup routine...

[Sylon]

Exploration continues.



The hill that Pytheas currently stands on is a great site for a city. It has coast, three food resources, three lake tiles, stands on a plains hill and seals off the Northeast. It makes for quite a nice defensive position, but unfortunately the hill on which the sheep tile sits on and the river makes it hard to attack out of the city. (Barring two-movers flanking the lakes, or using the ol' multiple-move-avoids-river-penalty bug).



Demographics. It doesn't seem like anyone beat me to getting a workboat or worker out. Needless to say, I'm not regretting that settler move.

It is also worth noting that someone has built two warriors- perhaps even three, though that seems unlikely. I'll have to get back to C&D to investigate this- Though I honestly wonder what benefits it would yield. After all, I'm not exactly running a farmer's gambit here.

Dotmap will be up next turn, which will hopefully come quickly.

[pocketbeetle]

and the river makes it hard to attack out of the city. (Barring two-movers flanking the lakes, or using the ol' multiple-move-avoids-river-penalty bug).

Does it actually avoid/get around the penalty?

I always assumed that it just displayed the combat odds incorrectly when setting up the attack, but included the penalty in the actual combat.
Never really checked by using the log, just stuck to move units one tile at a time in those situations.

[Serdoa]

I think it does only display it wrong.