The Quarterdeck - Turn Discussion Thread

[Cornflakes]

Yeah, I just popped in game to check M3 status. They have been steadily building up power for the last 20 turns, while our power has been mostly flat except for a few catapults added. We need to move EVERYTHING from the east over the Havana. We also want a Mace/Pike pair in Port Royal if that can be managed in case a pair of galleys come (M3 is scouting that coast right now). Our NAP with TEAM means these units are not required on the front, plus all his units are tied up with Trolls now.

A TEAM city was razed, which leaves an opening for a decent filler city SW of San Juan. It'll only ever be about size 8 max, but we can emphasize production here with farms and mines/WS and get something from it for unit production.

We do not have Calendar or Optics. Each of those will be 1-turn and overflowing into Astronomy. If we go 100% on meditation this turn it'll stack additional overflow towards either the Astronomy line or Military Science without slowing down either tech when we choose next turn (it only costs 140 beakers and we have more that that left over as overflow on either tech). This will give us one more turn to hear back from M3 regarding the NAP. I didn't realize it's T167 already!!!

Since it's been 24 hours and we didn't get a reply to your message yet I sent a brief PM to HitAnyKey as the primary turn player, simply mentioning that T170 is almost here and we are ok extending the NAP for 20 turns to T190. There will be time enough to draw out talks of rolling NAP after we get the T190 signed. No point in giving them extra stuff to talk about and stall for 3 turns

[Cornflakes]

Also, I checked and I'm pretty sure that nobody has Astronomy yet. Certainly not M3, Trolls, or TEAM. Gillette is a possibility. The others I remember for sure NO, I can't remember yes/no for Gillette. Check the tech advisor next time you're in game. No need to scout first. Astronomy will only be 3 turns behind Optics (our tech pace is great right now!) so that probably won't be enough time to get out a Caravel.

The next question is whether to set off from the east of west coast?

Here's a rough stitch of what we know of the island (in spoilers and screenshot tags ... click to make bigger). My guess is that it's somewhat mirrored, and about equidistant from all teams. The path we can see heads east past TEAM to get to the island, but I bet there is a closer connection off our west coast. This would be better both from quicker travel time and lower maintenance. Also that territory is more likely to be disputed by M3. We need to settle quick, because once other teams see us hit Astronomy I bet they'll follow soon to get their "fair share". Port Royal is also our best hammer port, and makes sense for getting out a quick galleon. We need to get 49/50 hammers into a galley in the next few turns, so that on the turn Astronomy comes in we can max hammers and take advantage of the auto upgrade.

I think we should send worker + worker + settler. There are no barbs, so each of the workers can scout a turn inland before we settle. We already have a WB that circled our continent from scouting. That should stay in/near Port Royal, ready to set out across the sea as soon as we discover Astronomy.

[thestick]

Or we could wash up onto the Silver/Deer island we see? Looks like tundra junk, but it has Silver which we don't have. Or maybe settle that junk one-tile Iron city to the west first?

Forgot it was 'no barbs'...

[Cornflakes]

I would be greatly surprised it there wasn't a similar silver island between us and M3 for us to claim off our west coast. We can see 2 such islands in the stitched screenshot ... one between TEAM/Trolls, and one between Trolls/Gillette.

The junk iron city is just that. Junk. We need to claim real territory with our next settlers. Maybe while waiting for the first 2 colonies to mature somewhat we can slip a settler to the junk island, but we need to claim as much territory as possible as soon as possible so that we can get it productive and pumping out Frigates ASAP to control the seas.

Which just gave me a thought ... if we're planning to play defensive on the mainland and aggressive on the high seas Steel might actually be a better first tech than Military Science (after Astronomy, of course). The Cannon will make cleanup with maces easy, while Steel also unlocks Drydocks for +50% ship construction and +4XP.

[thestick]

Haven't received a response from M3 yet (unless you have?), so scrambled the defences as suggested. Put 100% into Meditation, if we don't receive a response by next turn I think we should go Philosophy/Nationalism.

Old Harry/Gillette has Astronomy already. (Have Compass, Calendar, but Astronomy isn't on the 'Can Research' list)

[Cornflakes]

No response yet.

[Cornflakes]

Another day passes and still no response from M3

[thestick]

No response from M3, suspicious Worker roading from M3. Threw our stack into Havana. Will start whipping Muskets next turn. Nationalism in two turns, thanks to Spiritual we can revolt to Nationhood/Theocracy then.

M3's power hasn't been spiking, but better safe than sorry, no?

Quick rough draft of message to Q:
We do not wish to sign a game-long NAP.
We would prefer that you communicate with us at our team email, dg1teampirates@gmail.com

[Cornflakes]

Q's gmail is hawk2370 if you want to send a message. I think that we're best off just maintaining the silence with Q, kinda like M3 did with us. Maybe he won't realize until 2-3 turns before the NAP expires like we just did He doesn't have anything to offer us except land, which will require war to take. I already told him that we're not interested in game-long NAP.

[thestick]

Also, thanks for sticking with me.