[PB81] Dreylin vacations in the Isles

[klops]

oh dear... that's... pretty unlucky

[Dreylin]

T111 - Nelson!

The last few turns outside Lewis & Harris have been bloody ones, and it has taken its toll:



Gira didn't offer peace, so I guess we're locked in a forever war and it's a matter of when he comes back. It does mean I can take a brief pause from racking up whip anger to put in some XP buildings. Just researched Archery after HBR, so maybe Horse Archers will be mixed into the builds. Next research Metal casting for Triremes to protect the islands and, if I can afford it, Forges to expand the happy cap.

[Dreylin]

T115 -

Not much has happened over the past few turns; Gira's stack withdrew and has not been seen since. However, the Power graph shows a reduction last turn which I was not responsible for so maybe he's been confronting a Barb problem in his backlines? Maybe if he'd concentrated on settling them rather than vendetta'ing against me he wouldn't have that issue?

He also has a Settler out heading East from Lleida and south of Shetland. It has a decent escort, but I don't have an interest in interferring right now. Extending his side of our border seems sub-optimal while he continues the path of mutual hatred.

Not that I'm going to win this in the long run; my whip anger is constraining my growth potential and my Prod is hilariously behind everyone else's. I am tracking Gira in GNP & Food at least so all is not lost yet. (Until xist decides he has sufficient tech lead to eat us both).

Metal Casting in 4t; I need a couple of Trireme ASAP, then it will be extending whip anger to get Forges in place and build some Happy Cap space.

[Dreylin]

I don't understand this city plant from Gira:



I mean OK, it shares the Wheat with Lleida, but that's maybe the only thing it's got going for it. It's not on the coast (why!?), it's not on a hill (!?), it's directly on the border with someone he refuses to sign peace with even temporarily, it's not going to be able to challenge for the Iron tile short of an Artist bomb, and that would just be a colossal waste - and he has Iron in capital borders! To top it off there's no trade route and he apparently hasn't even sent a Worker over to fix that and improve tiles.

Oh, and the second unit with the Spear is a Catapult.

Maybe it's just supposed to confuse me into doing something stupid!?

[Dreylin]

Ah, I think the Barb city must be 3S from this spot so this kinda makes sense as a border filler.

[Commodore]

Just Greens Continent Things.

[Dreylin]

T141 -

Met TBS & he traded me his map.

I am even less happy about my start than I was before.

[superdeath]

No pic? No explanation? PLEASE DETAILS DREYLIN

[Dreylin]

Ugh fine, but only because you ask. I don't like complaining about maps in general because I don't want to seem ungrateful to the work that the mapmaker has put in - I really appreciate the effort that is put into what is often a thankless task. Please also bear in mind that I have not been in a particularly positive frame of mind over the last couple of days so this could come out harsher than I  would generally express it.


Here's what we were told up-front:

A Tale of Two Continents
The core concept is to have two more-or-less natural continents with about 4 players on each. The lurkers will try to split the players in two groups based on perceived skill, and have the best players on the same continent. Will one player manage to consolidate the resources of their continent under one rule?
Proposed start acceleration: Start with a worker and one additional first-tier tech.

My initial thoughts had them as mirrors of each others, but the more I think about it the less I like that idea. Current plan is to roll two different pangea maps and merge them into the same map as different continents, and add islands as necessary. Starts and resources will be balanced within their continent.

OK, so here's the other island:



That was a pangaea!? Looks more like 2 duel maps kinda stuck together, but I guess the script must throw up some odd ones occasionally. Looking at Ivory in the West, I'm going to guess that "Kittyman" was your capital and scribble accordingly:



Players over here mostly have only 1 land border and probably space for around ~10 cities on land. Distance between capitals is ~11 tiles. TBS seems to have more space than Nauf, but some of that is made up for with increased Desert and also the cultural domination of the border region. I'd say that MJMD could claim to have the worst start, but through whatever circumstances leveraged it to eliminate a rival and secure a whole duel continent for himself. TBS gained some from MJMD's distraction - I'd have expected him to grab the Celsus spot - and I see that Nauf managed to snipe MJMD's island city in a later war. Nauf is also catching up with sole access to the Astro lands, and I can see potential for them to collaborate to try to take on MJMD.


OK, so now my island:



What's your first thought looking at the pictures ... feels smaller, doesn't it? Some of that is undoubtedly due to the sea between the other two continents, but you'd be hard pushed to say that each of us have space for 10 cities on land. But we were only promised balanced starts within the continent and not between them, right?



Again the distance between capitals is ~11tiles, but unlike MJMD who has a sea and a 1tile chokepoint between him and 2 other players, I have full land borders against all 3 neighbours, where Gira has only 1 neighbour and the other 2 would have 2. I have 6 land-based cities in my triangle - maybe that should have been 7 and could have been one more if I'd pushed past the desert to settle no man's land, but there's no food there except a plains cow and grabbing for that spot at the tip of a triangle would have been foolish. Gira has comfortable space for 10+, greenline 9-10, and xist could probably get 8 solid land cities before spreading to his islands. Infact xist might have had the least absolute space available, but unlike me he didn't have to settle every single city towards an opponent.

I did not have a fast start; I chose to play a variation that slowed my expansion a step in exchange for mid-term boost in economy. I did not check how much space was on a Small pangaea and so didn't realise how close we would be starting to each other; would I have changes my picks as a result, my research path, or maybe just my expansion approach?

Should I have waited to attack Gira, or maybe gone after xist instead? What I did cost me a lot to ultimately no gain, but I don't know if I would actually be in a better spot now if I hadn't, because honestly I think I was hosed from the get-go by the map layout. Then once greenline was eliminated there isn't really any scenario where I wouldn't end up in a 2v1 so I had to try something before xist got too comfortable in their territory.

Starts and resources will be balanced within their continent.

[superdeath]

Hang in there bud. I believe in you.