[Spoilers] RFS-81 and haphazard1 don't know RtR, but won't let that stop them

[RFS-81]

Well, I certainly can't say it's getting boring. I encountered Magic Science near the silver site:

   

That axeman is escorting a worker. What's he doing outside his borders? Roading ahead for a settler? Interesting times!

Oh, and there's a barbarian near Rocky Paths. So I didn't send the worker to mine copper. Instead, he's joining the other two on the stone tile for now. I sent the warrior into the forest and gave him the woodsman promotion, hoping to bait the barbarian into a suicide attack. If he advances towards the city, I'll pull the warrior back and whip another warrior to be on the safe side - that's possible because Rocky Paths isn't connected yet. Quasi-EDIT: Wait, my timing might be off. If he advances next turn, he'll be next to the city. I pull back my warrior to the city and whip a second warrior. If there's only one warrior in the city and the barb gets lucky, he conquers it. So, would the second warrior appear before or after the barb moves? If not, I'd have to whip the warrior now. I think that's still possible even though I ended my turn already.

   

Lighthouse has grown back to 3 and is working cottages, lake and mine. A worker is chopping a forest.

Finally, looking around near the gold revealed Coeur's borders.

   

I marked four possible gold cities. Gold city 1 has floodplains in the first and second ring, and lots of useless desert. Gold city 2 has pigs but needs a border pop before getting them. Gold city 3 has the best yields, but is furthest away. Gold city 4 has an oasis, but not really enough food to use all those hills.

Also, shallow_thought keeps shooting up in power...

   

[haphazard1]

Lots going on.

Looks like the gold and silver are located between the various players -- points of potential conflict and aggression. I wonder if there is a gems tile somewhere, similarly located between multiple players?

For the gold, I was just offering possibilities for sites. With your warrior revealing mostly just more desert to the north, the rice option looks to be the strongest. It is a bit further away. But unless you want to use the pigs, it is probably the best bet. With the pigs, I was thinking 1N of the copper: it would have one flood plain and could share the pigs. But it would need a border pop, and would not have anything very useful in the first ring. If you could found it after luxury city it could work as the pigs would already have your culture, but that would probably be too late to get the gold.

On the barb, production in SP games occurs before barbs and AIs move. So you could whip next turn and the unit would still appear before the barb could attack. In MP games I am not sure; I believe your production would occur before the barbs move, but not sure I would want to risk a city on that. Whipping now would be the safer move, if you still can. (Note: hmmm, just saw the bit about a reload in the tech thread. Not sure what effect that might have.)

Edit: Power graph -- that is a significant jump for shallow_thought. Looking at your own graph and the stair steps for (I assume) axes/spears, that has to be at least two units and maybe three. Could be a combination of other things happening together: some pop growth, a tech, building a barracks, etc. But still probably at least one real unit and likely more than one.

[RFS-81]

The reload should give me some more time, I hope someone else can chime in about the order of production/barb moves.

[haphazard1]

The tech thread is hard to follow, as the basis of the reload is redacted so I have no idea what actually happened.

Maybe someone with MP experience can offer some input on the production/barb timing issue.

And looking at the thread counts, if Charriu and Zalson are fighting the honorable post count war, they appear to be winning in a big way.

[RFS-81]

I wonder how they have so much to talk about. They must be planning 200 turns in advance!

EDIT: I go ahead and whip a warrior, in case the reload doesn't go through.

[haphazard1]

I wonder how they have so much to talk about. They must be planning 200 turns in advance!

More planning in advance just means more stuff that can get messed up by events. Planning has its place, certainly, but trying to do detailed plans far in advance often ends up being mostly wasted effort. I usually aim for some general long term plans, a bit more detail for the medium term (maybe 25-35 turns or so), and then more detailed thinking for the next dozen turns or so. There are exceptions, like planning a specific wonder build or GP generation further in advance, but even that does not get too detailed until the event is a bit closer in time.

Of course, there are plenty of players who are better than I am, and maybe they plan further ahead in detail. I don't know.

For the posts in their thread, only the lurkers know for sure. Maybe they are telling knock-knock jokes.

[Dark Savant]

I wonder how they have so much to talk about. They must be planning 200 turns in advance!

I think Civ 4 is a good demonstration of Eisenhower's aphorism "plans are worthless, but planning is everything".  

[RFS-81]

The barb did not take the bait I retreat the warrior back to the city. The workers aren't threatened, so I finish hooking up Rocky Paths to the trade network.

   

Shallow_thought has planted a city. Not the spot I'd have picked, it doesn't have the wheat in the first ring. I suspect that the reload was somehow related to a settler race between him and Magic Science.

   

Golden Void has grown and finishes an axeman next turn. Then, a settler. It's not faster to wait for a 3-pop whip. The worker at Lighthouse finishes chopping next turn. I think I'll have him road ahead to the gold, a little boost for my settler could turn out to be decisive, after all. Writing finishes in two turns, and I'm not sure if I should go for IW or the Monotheism beeline. I'm leaning towards the former, better to spot the iron before all the land is taken already.

[haphazard1]

That does seem like an odd spot. You may be correct about a settler race being the issue. Or perhaps it just fits better with the rest of his dot map? Odd choice, but there is probably a reason.

Learning about possible iron sources could be useful. Maybe you will even have one already in your territory? Jungle chopping would also open up the ivory and sugar tiles for future development.

Good luck against the barb!

[Hollybombay]

Any chance for a player comparison between you, and the rest of the field/and or plans for war?