[SPOILERS]PBEM5m: I've always been very Charismatic.

[Gaspar]

The likelihood of me actually updating this thread regularly:

Not so much.

[Gaspar]

Here's the start. I would have moved to the tile the warriors on but it would have taken 2 additional turns.

[novice]

For two seconds I was wondering how you could start by building the Heroic Epic.

[Gaspar]

For two seconds I was wondering how you could start by building the Heroic Epic.

I'm going to name cities off things that Commodore did in PBEM24 that annoyed me. Should I run out (unlikely) I'll move onto things he's annoyed me with as a teammate in 26.

[Mardoc]

I'm going to name cities off things that Commodore did in PBEM24 that annoyed me. Should I run out (unlikely) I'll move onto things he's annoyed me with as a teammate in 26.

[Gaspar]

Alright, let's talk about this game. Let me start off by saying I take these duels a lot less seriously than I take normal games. I truly don't care if I lose this where as longtime readers will know each and everyone of my losses impacts me deeply. Someone, might have been Commodore actually recently postulated that the nature of the loss in FFH7 hit me harder than most and is the cause of my recent reduced updating frequency and general enthusiasm for games around here. Probably there's some truth to that - when you include the thread we had built something pretty fun to be a part of it and then it just got murdered in like 7t.

As far as Duels are concerned, Lewwyn and I played quite a few more than we reported. I don't remember the exact number, but they're fun little diversions. Nonetheless, because ours were random they basically came down to who had the better leader/civ combo in most cases and we abandoned them long before resolution. They generally turned out to be a rush of some sort, and I think that's what duels usually are. Unfortunately, I don't find that particularly interesting so I haven't done any others since then.

Anyway, Commodore and I were both around tonight and banged out a bunch of turns - we played up to T26. I don't do any sims for games like this, so its truly just the result of my "feel" for the game. I went vertical in this game, which I don't think I've done in any of my solo games other than PBEM14, which is odd in its own way. It was less the result of good tiles and more the result of safety first. I intentionally retreated both my scout and warrior to indicate to Commodore that I did not want to get into an early pissing match. Of course, he beelined his scout and warrior right for me, so I killed them both, losing a warrior in the process. Ironically, I've unlocked the HE already.



The unnamed warrior is currently sitting on the site of my first city, which will claim horses (technically the capital claims them at 3rd ring already, but that's neither here nor there.) I decided horses were a greater priority than copper given Commodore's Agg trait. I'd like to get out a few chariots as sentries and hopefully use them to builder for a while. No interest in getting in a classical era war with an Agg player.

Anyway, I just grabbed The Wheel so there's unfortunately no road connection between the new city and the capital, though the absurdly long river means only one road is necessary. The settler is built @EOT and will head over and found on T29, I'll revolt slavery T28.

This is Heroic Epic at the moment. It will go Worker > Warrior > Settler. Production is quite nice, though shortly I'll get some cottages down to hybridize it. I do believe this game will last until at least medieval, Commodore just doesn't strike me as the slave a bunch of axes type. You can see I grew on a barracks for two reasons - one, promotions are absolutely critical in early wars like this and two it struck me as more useful than a pile of warriors.



Here's a shot of the world as I know it along with potential dotmap:



Red Circle is City 2, as previously discussed. City 3 will claim copper and will settle at one of the two green circles. I like the easternmost green circle, as otherwise I'll have to build another city somewhere south of the lake to get a WB for the clams. Unfortunately, that version requires culture for both the copper and the rice. I might just go ahead and build a monument since as Charismatic I'll want them eventually anyway. I don't see myself building Stonehenge until stone is hooked, and that won't be an early priority. I think building wonders before you have 3-4 cities in this kind of game is suicide - the other guy can just build a bunch of axes with the hammers you're wasting and kill you.

City 4 will be Purple and will claim the gold and the southern sheep that you maybe can't see well in the SS. City 5 will be Blue and then I'll settle a filler in between there somewhere to grab Ivory and Cows. The black and white "X" represent future forward sites I'd like to claim for resources and/or choke points. I will probably settle black "X" sooner than later, perhaps even above the backfill sites just so I have a crumplezone to the capital.

As far as tech path, this is what I've researched so far:



Writing will inevitably be next after Pottery so I can get a Library down and start working some specialists for my first GP. Haven't really given any thought after that. Could make a case for HBR, but probably the usual Math > Currency advance. Like I said, really not trying to play this like a wargame.

Commodore already has his second city down, fairly certain he whipped the settler. Assume he settled for Copper. Time will tell. Best to assume he has Axes. I'll probably have the new city grow on a Chariot just to be safe.

[dazedroyalty]

Scooter and I are currently playing our 5th (or is it 6th?) duel game and I have to say the one thing I've learned is that aggressive claiming of land is basically the One Right Way. I'd say, get horses and then push forward. You just need to get far enough to have more than 50% of the map once everything is filled in at which point superior land results in a win.

[Gaspar]

So I guess I'll update this semi-regularly after all..

We played up to T36 tonight - couple interesting things. The biggest is that after scouting the majority of my side of the mirror, I went ahead and scouted for where Commodore put his second city. He planted here:





In chat I mentioned that it was an aggressive plant for a second city. He responded by saying "You have researched BW, right?" This leads me to believe that in pushing scouts towards me, he neglected to scout his backlines and see the closer and much more defensible copper. Well, that city is killing him. Its 5 tiles NW of his capital, waay too far for a 2nd city. Of course this means its taken him longer to get it up and running - when I was there he had just moved a worker there to start improving the copper. It also means he still doesn't have Horses. You can see this in the demographics, where I have a fairly decent sized lead in all the major categories. He settled that city several turns before I planted mine as well, but mine has grown faster because its been easier for me to get its tiles improved.



Back home, I've just completed a settler that will be heading to found the backlines copper site. Due to lousy micro I'll not have TR until the turn after it founds, unfortunately. My micro hasn't been exactly precise this game, but I'm doing okay. Worker labor is now headed towards getting the same city Commodore founded ready as a chariot guard for the workers completes this turn. I'll bang out a Monument and then start a settler.



Techwise, I'm now working on Math, due in 6. The improved chops should make a big difference in getting everything going. Maybe I'll be cute and tech Masonry and make a play for Oracle with the marble and then use Phi to try and land the Pyramids with a Forge engineer, but that's all noise right now. I still need to keep building units because if I start to creep further ahead its a stronger inclination for him to push forward aggressively to catch up. I do think marching 1-movers across the map at this stage is a pretty bad play, though. Note to self: Grab hunting after Math, actually. He doesn't have horses yet but it can't be that far off and I don't want to get hoisted by my own petard here.

Anyway, that's where we're at. I feel pretty good about my position right now but its still poised delicately enough that Commodore can definitely pull out a win, especially with appropriately aggressive tactics.

[NobleHelium]

GOING TO SLEEP, NIGHT.

[NobleHelium]

Okay more seriously, how about some extensive comments about the map? I do think I should have made the copper visible when the capital popped third ring. I realized that after I sent the map off.