[SPOILERS - PBEM 17] Shoot the Moon - Pacal II of the Ottomans

[Shoot the Moon]

As my take up space first post, I'll just post the rules for the game so I don't have to go to the email thread to find them:

Map settings:
5 players
Quick speed
Custom Continents, one continent per player
All continents are galley reachable by every other player, without having to go through a 3rd continent
Intermediate islands between continents
No coastal capitals
Continents are not exactly the same but are balanced
"Lush" settings, with extra resources (maybe each continent has at least one of every resource?)
Monarch difficulty, or toroidal Prince
Huts off

Other game settings:
No Tech trading
Events off
No permanent alliances
No vassal states
Default Starting Units
No barbs

Rules
No active Espionage (great spies must be settled / GA)
No nukes
The Heroic Epic and West Point can only be built once you have a qualifying unit that has always been yours, and if joined to a GG, the GG was one you spawned yourself
No restrictions on settling only on "your" continent
No corporations
Diplo and screenshot trading allowed after having met in-game
No coastal blockades

Turn Order:
Darrell: Elizabeth of Egypt (12/16/21)
Novice: Sury of India (Before Kyan)
Kyan: Willem of Dutch (18-24)
regoarrarr: Bismarck of Inca (22-24)
Shoot the Moon: Pacal of ? (19-07)

[Shoot the Moon]

I'll get to analyzing everyone else and their picks later, but for now I'll just explain my own. I was actually rather annoyed at getting the first pick. With unrestricted leaders/civs, my honest feeling is that India is usually the correct first pick. However, I am currently playing as India in PBEM 8, so I don't really fancy playing them in two games at once. It is also rather silly not to pair India with an expansive leader, but on a map where I expect to have a lot of coastal cities, I certainly want to be a financial leader and could not at all expect Pacal to get left to me. Furthermore, on a continents map, the fast worker's military strength in ninja roading hills, forests, and jungles is greatly reduced from a land based game. Although India may not have been as strong on this map, I still think it would have been the strongest pick, I just didn't want to play as India again.

So why Pacal? With India out, there wasn't a civ that stood out as worthy of the first pick to me. I knew I wanted financial due to no tech trading and it being a continents map (with thus a lot of water), so it came down to Willelm (spelling?) and Pacal. Because this is a continents map, I value cultural a bit less than I normally would.

The Ottoman pick was a bit harder. I pretty quickly ruled out any civ whose strength is based off an early UU. In a game like this, any early attack will just set you back even more so than in a normal game, as not only do you have to build an army, but you also have to build galleys. Even if you build a big enough stack and a lot of galleys, you would still have to pay maintenance on another continent and have a lot of supply chain problems keeping it. I doubt any major attacks (perhaps just on the side islands) will be possible until astro at the earliest. I briefly considered Byz, but that puts a target on my head and still has the problem of needing galleys. Considering that, my options pretty quickly narrowed down to England and the Ottomans. Both have good UUs around the time frame I wanted. I think the Redcoat would be a slightly better UU for this game, but the Otto's UU and starting techs are both better than England's. As such, I decided to go with the Ottos.

[Square Leg]

As my take up space first post, I'll just post the rules for the game so I don't have to go to the email thread to find them:

Boooooo - I want a picture of a goose eating a falcon or similar!

[plako]

Your start:

[Shoot the Moon]

So here's my capital and initial exploration:



I'm not all that happy with the fact that my capital doesn't have any hills, but as a means of early expansion it should be alright between chops and whips. Long term though, not the best bureau capital, so I'll either avoid it or move my palace.

[Shoot the Moon]

So I had a forest grow after ending turn:



Interesting that it is a snow-covered tree. I would say that I am in the extremes of one of the hemispheres (although considering it is toroidal, that is more an interesting observation than anything functional at this point).

[Shoot the Moon]

Guess who the dumbass who forgot to revolt to slavery while his first settler was moving was? That's what I get for barely paying attention to this game and not doing any simulations I guess.

Anyway, second city settled:



For the record (since I've not been updating much) I have three workers and three warriors and am going to try to get a religion for my second city's border pops as none has been founded yet. That granary build was more just to let the city grow as it was 1t from growth, I am actually going to build another worker (chopped/whipped) before that granary.

And here are demogs after ending turn (everyone else already has as I play last, so that is the most valid comparison):

[Shoot the Moon]

Ok, so I am completely and utterly confused right now. I just had my capital grow a pop while building a settler. I thought wasn't supposed to be possible? I don't have time right now, but I'll post screenshots sometime soon.

[Square Leg]

Ok, so I am completely and utterly confused right now. I just had my capital grow a pop while building a settler. I thought wasn't supposed to be possible? I don't have time right now, but I'll post screenshots sometime soon.

I have only ever seen this happen once.

It occurs when there is enough food overflow to fill the food box - Jobe does it in one of his movies at the fastclicks website. Perhaps someone like T-HAwk can explain it better than I can.

Edit - and looking at your capital it is very possible - were you working the 3 food specials at size 3 and grew to size 4 while building the worker?

[Shoot the Moon]

I have only ever seen this happen once.

It occurs when there is enough food overflow to fill the food box - Jobe does it in one of his movies at the fastclicks website. Perhaps someone like T-HAwk can explain it better than I can.

Edit - and looking at your capital it is very possible - were you working the 3 food specials at size 3 and grew to size 4 while building the worker?

Four to five while building a settler (working a grassland cottage as the fourth pop). It was just odd, as I've never seen it happen before (I guess it is more likely on quick speed though).

In other news, I founded Buddhism in my second city and just got out my settler for my third city (to be founded in 3t time).