[SPOILERS] The Peaceful Centaur: a Study in Possibility

[Irgy]

Yep back now, but not our turn yet. Feel free to grab whichever turns you like. I'm home now, but after tonight I expect I'll basically only be on for a stretch at about midday GMT each day.

[Mardoc]

Well, ok, I decided to grab this one as well. Next turn, when we're not in Anarchy, you can have . Mysticism came in, unlocking God King, Eldar Councils, and Pagan Temples, all things we might well want one of these days. I revolt to God King and Nationalism; we should be in good shape to pump out whatever we want shortly. If Kurio's naturally have a problem with lots of production, but only three things/turn, this will amplify that

Veeson apparently killed an unseen wolf last turn, and I'm tempted to stay and continue healing, but Mitecha caught up to him, so he heads off north. I think he may need to duck into our borders for a bit to finish healing at some point and lose his friendly Giant. Our other scout reveals a lot of ice and tundra, and an ocean! So far, no milk and honey. And if this is the sort of terrain Selrahc's putting up with, I suspect he'll want to buy our Sun mana sooner or later.

[Irgy]

The net here is so bad I'm not going to post an update next time unless something unexpected happens. Sorry

This turn, borders popped, I queued Elder Council, which will be done in 1 turn with the warrior overflow, after which we should switch out the plains forest for a scientist. I'd leave the warrior at home for now. Veeson rested a turn because he could, won't be likely to next turn though. The scout in the north is blocked from going east easily by peaks and the water, so he'll have to go around. No point exploring more of the ice I expect.

[Mardoc]

The net here is so bad I'm not going to post an update next time unless something unexpected happens. Sorry

I should be fine with that. It's only a couple turns, and it's the turns that are most boring anyway.

[Irgy]

At a net cafe, so able to do a proper update.

This is the problem with waiting to save cash. If we had huts, we'd be bound to have enough to cover this (needed 25 to get the graveyard instead), but as it is we're stuck with -1 health. Bah.


The scout in the south is surrounded by giants, but safe for now.


In the north, no new tiles. That wolf will probably attack us. I didn't see him until after I moved, probably would have moved the same way anyway though.

[Mardoc]

The Elder Council finishes, and I'm really not sure what we should work on next. We could go for a Pagan Temple to get our potential Kilmorph strategy going (have we ever heard back from Ichabod about this?). We could start on a worker and/or settler, just because it feels about that time in the game, although we have more growth potential left, of course. In the end, I decide to kick the can down the road, and start on another scout; we can reevaluate in 2 turns, after Podagros grows again. We're definitely #1 in GNP, and I expect to stay there for some time!

I do immediately hire a sage; if we're going to push Mysticism first, by golly we're going to wring every last advantage from it. 12 turns until GSage; turn 40 ought to be a nice number there :-). Faster if we build a Pagan Temple and contaminate the pool. Between the sage and the council, note the dramatic fall in time to Education!

Our northern scout takes a scratch from the wolf, promotes Guerilla, and catches his breath. Meanwhile, Mitecha's caught up to Veeson again, so he's forced to move, and reveals some new stuff:



Yeah...I don't think it makes any sense to build our next city south, that's for sure!

So, goals for the near future:

• Decide on city 2 location and get it founded
  
• Diplo catch-up work with Ichabod and Dantski
  
• Find the rest of our foes
  
• Decide on great person strategies and execute
  
• Don't die
  

[Irgy]

My thoughts (I'm back by the way):

Decide on city 2 location and get it founded

I thought three oasises wasn't too bad down south, but there's not much else. It looks like that gold spot is still the best then?

Diplo catch-up work with Ichabod and Dantski

So, maybe we can kill two birds with one stone by emailing them about our potential settling location, thereby prompting them to reply.

Find the rest of our foes

Which at this point means moving both our existing scouts east I think. Not sure where we want to send the one that's building now.

Decide on great person strategies and execute

I'm leaning towards basically just working one scientist until we change traits. Maybe two when we have writing, if we get a library in time.

Don't die

Which is part of why I think we should build some warriors. I haven't checked demographics lately but I'd be surprised if we weren't significantly behind the others in warrior count (not that that's a problem particularly). I was thinking to build basically as many as we can pay for without additional upkeep. Pagan Temple is more expensive than it's worth I think - both the production to build it and the subsequent "lost production" working a measly 1 hammer 1 gold "tile". Worker is pointless until we're about to get Education, we'll have too many farms with the one we've got already and we can't build anything else yet. Settler isn't worthwhile until we've actually got a spot to put it.

Which means we need warriors, to mark the spot we plan to settle aside from anything else. Wherever that turns out to be.

[Mardoc]

My thoughts (I'm back by the way):

Excellent! Next turn is yours.

I thought three oasises wasn't too bad down south, but there's not much else. It looks like that gold spot is still the best then?

Yes, that's sadly what I'm thinking too. I just don't really want to stretch that far right away, and possibly make two un-friends. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the scouts find something palatable to the east. But if they don't, then we probably do need to head for that site, friends or no friends.

So, maybe we can kill two birds with one stone by emailing them about our potential settling location, thereby prompting them to reply.

That could work. We might consider offering Ichabod Kilmorph at the same time as partial compensation.

Which at this point means moving both our existing scouts east I think. Not sure where we want to send the one that's building now.

At this point, I think the most urgent thing is finding either a third city site, or a replacement second site. I would probably send them all eastward, to try to do that.

I'm leaning towards basically just working one scientist until we change traits. Maybe two when we have writing, if we get a library in time.

I agree, all in all. The Priest could be handy if we still want to go for Kilmorph or get a shrine for Order/Empy up fast, but not otherwise. And I do want to turn #1 GNP into extremely #1 GNP, which an Academy in a size 8 capital ought to be able to manage . A religion, not so much.

Which is part of why I think we should build some warriors. I haven't checked demographics lately but I'd be surprised if we weren't significantly behind the others in warrior count (not that that's a problem particularly). I was thinking to build basically as many as we can pay for without additional upkeep. Pagan Temple is more expensive than it's worth I think - both the production to build it and the subsequent "lost production" working a measly 1 hammer 1 gold "tile". Worker is pointless until we're about to get Education, we'll have too many farms with the one we've got already and we can't build anything else yet. Settler isn't worthwhile until we've actually got a spot to put it.

Which means we need warriors, to mark the spot we plan to settle aside from anything else. Wherever that turns out to be.

We are currently 4th in Power (but only behind by 2000 soldiers, which is 2 warriors instead of 2 scouts). Definitely could use a boost, so yes, I can agree on a few Warriors before we head for a worker/settler type goal. We do want to take advantage of the fact we can grow to size 8 and no one else can, after all.

[Irgy]

A convergence of giants.

He moved SW-W, didn't see much of interest.

I didn't get a screenshot, but before I forget: The scout in the north can see a plains* hill which is, I think, 2SW. There is currently a scorpion on that hill. If you take the next turn, don't move onto that hill, as there is guaranteed to be a scorpion next to it.

I built a warrior, and it finished in 1 turn. We should move some warriors towards the potential second city site. I think we should actually wait until we can move a group of three. The plan is to keep building warriors until the next one would cause us to pay upkeep. I tried to check how many that was:


What the heck does all that mean? I thought there were just two per-unit upkeeps:
1. Total units.
2. Units outside borders (this is the unit supply below).

However, this seems to say we have two separate upkeeps to pay, one for "units", and the other for "military units". Does that mean that at some point every new warrior will cost us 2 gold? Or do we get 2 military units and 8 non-military units free? Or is it effectively 10 free units, as long as at least 2 are military? That's my best guess, as we're paying nothing for the 3 extra military units, so maybe they've overflowed into the free normal units. We appear to have 0 just plain "units", but I figure that means we're paying for 0 and could get up to 8 for free, and if we want to know how many we actually have we need to count them ourselves.

So on the whole, I think we either have 8 free units, or 10 free units. Currently we have 7 (3 scouts, worker, 2 warriors, and the warrior built later when I clicked "end turn"). Maybe I need to get the test game back out and see.

Demographics are looking good:


Although someone has more GNP. Not sure how. Everyone else has at most 4 pop, and the creative civ has 3. We're working a scientist, and only one non-commerce tile, and we're researching a tech with a pre-requisite. We should be ahead of everyone except maybe Dantski who should only be on the same GNP at best (2 extra culture, but 2 less commerce). What am I missing?


* I don't think I'm going to specify "plains" on anything from now on. If it's desert/tundra/ice I'll say so, otherwise it's plains

[Irgy]

Although someone has more GNP. Not sure how. Everyone else has at most 4 pop, and the creative civ has 3. We're working a scientist, and only one non-commerce tile, and we're researching a tech with a pre-requisite. We should be ahead of everyone except maybe Dantski who should only be on the same GNP at best (2 extra culture, but 2 less commerce). What am I missing?

Ahh, I think I know. The minimum production of 2 is the clue. The Lanun are working 3 coast tiles, for 9 commerce total, 2 more than our 7 from a scientist and 4 river tiles.

Interesting to see how they go. Although they lost 5 turns at the start, they've at least now got the sort of land they're designed to work with, whereas everyone else is working with inferior tiles. Pirate Coves are good, but normally Aristograrian farms can easily keep up. That 5 turn head start might turn out to be only fair, or even not enough. Not that I'm worried particularly, we'll be doing ok.