Zalson Plays One Turn At A Time (DEITY: Loss)

[shallow_thought]

Thanks, Ref and haphazard1. Things are going ok now; flames have stopped with the wind but everyone's still evacuated.

Good to hear that things are, at least, getting no worse. The pictures on the BBC have been ... well, one of the problems with modern English is that we have devalued all our adjectives (awesome just doesn't mean what it used to). I knew Ref was in CA, so glad he's OK too.

[haphazard1]

Best of luck with the situation, Zalson! (And any other RB folks who are in the region.) Images on the news look pretty scary.

[Zalson]

Thanks, guys, for your sympathy. It was pretty scary but that's mostly because it was coming for my house. But my in-laws, parents, and sister-in-law + kids all went home on Friday and Saturday, and their homes all escaped damage. One of my friend's family didn't fare so well (my friend's parents and both of her grandparents lost their homes) but everyone made it out okay.

Wildfires are a fairly normal occurrence in Southern California and they're just as bad as reported. But we've learned from previous firestorms: I think just 2 people have died in the firefighting in SoCal so far?

That the Lilac fire didn't kill anyone is incredible: it grew to 150 acres in 15 minutes and then to 2500 acres an hour and a half later? It is a credit to our government's ability to respond in a crisis and the people's willingness to take this seriously that more people weren't killed. The rapid evacuations meant that firefighters were able to focus on fighting the fire and not rescuing people. So, when the wind died down, they were able to contain it and put it out. Thank God!

Civ content will resume shortly.

[Zalson]

T50 - Here's to an order of magnitude more turns. Wait...



The barbarians continue to torment me. Yes, that is the CG 2 archer outside the city at Hun for some inexplicable reason. The worker moved away from me, unfortunately. But I have a phalanx in place, threatening Avar.



Writing comes in next turn. After that, I'll start accumulating gold for the run toward Math -- although math will probably come via bulb? Or should I invest the beakers into something else? It'll probably be like 20-30 beakers (answer: iron working; I'll want that. Goodbye, fair beaker in hinduism.)

T50 demos.



Build Orders (so I have them presently)

Athens Worker > Library > Pyramids
Sparta Settler > grow to 4 > 2x whip settler into workboat for city 5? Or Barracks/phalanx?
Corinth Barracks (fill up the box) > Worker > overflow into barracks/phalanxes
Thebes Granary (until size 4 and whip into barracks).

Writing > Iron Working

Workers
Cottage N of Corinth
Stone

[haphazard1]

Glad to hear you and your familty are OK, Zalson. Good luck to your friends -- recovering from losing a home is a tough process.

Looking at the demos, food is very good -- tied for first, really, even though it says third. Land area is a bit worrying, but I guess a lot of that is the extra deity settler and those cities getting started sooner on growing and spreading culture. Most of the rest reflect the same thing, I think.

[Zalson]

Demos:
Food is good but yeah, just about everything else is putrescence.

T51
Writing comes in. Start iron working and start banking gold.

The Barbarian shuffle continues. I managed to chase the worker into Avar, though.



Got open borders from Gilgamesh. No point in extending it to Pacal or Isabella yet; don't know where Izzy is and can't reach Pacal because of Avar.

Sparta switches to a worker. Barracks is 36/50 and phalanx is 4/35. 8 shields a turn (soon to get to 13 once I switch Athens to max food).

T52
Trade routes don't come in because I don't have a path to Gilgamesh's cities. Wonderful.

Quarry completes next turn at Thebes. The extra worker from Athens arrives just in time to increase expenses. And Athens switches to max growth and starts a Library. I'll grow to size 6 and 3x whip the Library.

Visibility on Spain. EP goes to Pacal since he'll be my first enemy.

I get 20% unpromoted at Hun and 59% at Avar; adding cover will double the odds in both cases (right)? 

[T-hawk]

It's usually good to sign Open Borders with everyone as soon as you can, since it accumulates over time into a boost to diplomatic relations.

Cover won't double your odds against the archers. Hun is on a hill which is why you're so much worse off there. Cover won't be enough to make up that difference, since the 25% really ends up applied against the archer's 3 strength rather than on your 5.

[Zalson]

You're 100% right on both counts, T-hawk. I was thinking I wouldn't want to make enemies -- but I can cancel deals upon request if I need to. Shouldn't pick my friends yet.

I misspoke about the combat odds at Hun and Avar. I think that the cover promotion means that my chances of winning would double (ish). Right? Instead of being 5.5 vs 6.75 at Hun, it'll be 6.75 vs 6.75, just under 50% with the first strike chance added. Right? Or is it 5.5 vs 6, which would be like 40ish% odds? I know that the relative strength value between units matters but I don't know what the calc is and would have to feel out the answer.

At Avar, it'll be 6.75 vs 5.25 -- or 5.5 vs 4.5 (not sure which calc it is). But , again, not sure what odds of victory those would give.

[haphazard1]

Cover will improve your odds, but it is relative to the strength of the units so it will not be a double. Well, it might be close at Hun since your odds there are so poor -- the relative strength boost will help that 20% a fair bit. I would have to sim in world builder to know the exact figure.

Note that Avar is size 1; unless it has been larger in the past it will auto-raze if you take it right now.

On open borders, I agree with T-hawk that it is usually best to go ahead and sign them. It takes time for the positive diplo bonus to accumulate (50 turns?) and that often comes in useful. If the AIs have worst enemies (usually due to religion at this stage) then you might get a request to cancel deals and be forced to choose who to offend. So Isabella and Pacal may be hard to both please, but Gilgamesh should be ok. And with OB, you mght get a missionary sent your way.

[T-hawk]

At Hun, it'll be 5.5 vs 6. The axeman with Combat is 5 + 10% = 5.5. The archer is 3 + (25% + 25% + 50% + 25% - 25%) = 6. Cover is that last -25%, but it's applied by netting out against the archer's side, not positively on yours. Because you'll still be behind on strength, the odds will be drastically below 50%, around 30% before accounting for the first strike.