[PB28 SPOILERS ] Fenn Presents: A Comedy of Errors

[Cheater Hater]

I'm assuming that ivory is the only source we've seen? Off-shore ivory is an interesting choice, and I would infer all the ivory is like that (and thus ivory implies Sailing)

How many turns is the work boat away from the western crabs, and how many turns is city 5 away from working (not just acquiring) the crabs? I really want to find another continent, but I have a feeling it will only be post-Astronomy. Is this map toroidal?

You can check if Jowy's top power if you're interested--you know your power score and the distance from the bottom (zero), so you can estimate Jowy's score from that.

I've gotten lots of scouts trapped, don't feel so bad

Don't forget about binary research!

[Fenn]

Yep, that's our only Ivory. It's pretty likely now that if Stone and Marble exist, they're also on offshore islands that require investment to reach.

The Work Boat, if it left now, would take nine turns to reach the Crabs. City #5 is about fifteen or sixteen turns from being able to work the Crabs (depends on if I road some tiles first), accounting for the time needed to pop borders, so we have six turns minimum to explore with the Work Boat.

Don't forget that we can see another landmass to our south; continents may be reachable by island chains too. And yeah this is a Toroid. The scout drama was just me trying to play to character, I'm not too fussed about him in reality.

After I took the screenshots, I turned science to 0%; the 60% was just for the demos.

[Fenn]

Turn 65
Next Settler is 1T away. I plan to chop another in Cholera right afterwards and send him northeast towards Jowy.



That sure does look like a big landmass down there..Not liking those jungles though. We may be founded about disease and pestilence but we actually take our hygiene very seriously!

I'll bet that this landmass is connected to the one we can see off of our southwest, so I'm going to try following this land west and see what we can see.



Trapped by Jowy's culture, our Warrior is now at his dubious mercy. I could declare war and try to cut southwest through the thinnest part of his borders, but Jowy has Spears now so it's not likely to succeed; the life of our poor scout is not worth antagonizing him, I don't think.



Leprosy put the whipping hammers into a worker; the Deer camp finished this turn, so we can grow back to Size 2 right away and resume training the Worker.



Their power keeps on climbing...I'm going to try and stay out of this if I can, I need to focus on expansion instead of warring.

[Cheater Hater]

Oh boy, a jungle island--is there any jungle on the main island? I'm expecting there to be a bunch of good resources there (stone/marble, late strategic resources, or even just missing luxuries), but we obviously aren't settling it for a while.

I'm not so sure about it connecting west--it might just be a glob of land connecting two triangle points (I'd try to draw a picture, but Toroids are hard to wrap your head around, especially when you should be sleeping).

[Fenn]

Nope, no jungles of any kind on our landmass that I can see. No desert or floodplains either

Turn 66

Let the mind games begin........



As we expected, Stone has been sighted on this other land:


Settling 1N of the Stone would pick up the Fish plus quite a few riverside tiles including two floodplains; of course 1N-1NE may be better if there are resources in the fog.



That said, this place is Pretty Damn Far from us, incurring significant maintenance and being difficult to defend. Maybe we can chop out The Great Lighthouse in Yaws.

Cholera's Settler was produced and is on its way; city #5 will be founded in 2T. I have a worker working on a forest chop, which will go into another Settler, while Cholera grows into Size 5 on a Library. I'll take a picture next turn (hopefully soon, only Jowy left to play), but Cholera could be set up pretty decently as a commerce city. It has ~5 riverside tiles (some are plains or hills though) plus a Clams resource, and has a Hamlet and Cottage to work already.

[Fenn]

Turn 68

Jowy captured a city from Adrien last turn!


"Diplodocus" is a former Adrien/Mardoc city.
You can see its location here:



I guess they settled too close to Jowy for his liking. That city did have Copper, and while I still think they'd have another source since Jowy and I had easy access to it, there is a possibility of no more Copper for this team. Jowy's Power rating still far exceeds Adrien's (and ours) too.

Will he stop here or try to push on further into yellow territory? I wouldn't, since Adrien should have Archery or be close to it now, and his four remaining cities could whip Archers and Spears, but I thought this war wouldn't go anywhere either.

My inclination is to this conflict and continue expanding. Adrien's city northwest of Yaws could be tempting, but my movable military consists of two Axes and a Spear right now and I'd rather continue to put hammers into Settlers and infrastructure than build up an offensive force. Any force we could assemble now would likely be stopped cold by Archers too.

[Fenn]

As for the home front:



Cholera borrows the capital's Wheat to shave two turns off of this Settler. I'm going to refrain from whipping for now, the unhappiness from the last Settler whip has like six turns left.



Our next city is going up next turn, and we can start pasturing the Pigs immediately. Also shown are the odds our Axeman gets against the Warriors of Thracian; pretty good, but I want to wait until the other Axe gets there in case an unlucky roll gets him badly injured. This is another reason why I want to avoid war for now, I want to focus on this barb city first.



I'll be glad to hook up City #5's Furs. Working an unimproved tile here since I gave the Wheat to Cholera. The current whip anger will persist for 3T, so I could possibly double-whip this Library right now if I really wanted. The Forest tile 1N is getting chopped which'll probably go into yet another Worker. After that Library finishes I can consider running Scientist specialists.

Our first Great Prophet is due in a couple dozen turns; I could make a run for cheap Monotheism or focus on Currency and try to be the first to reach Code of Laws. Not quite decided, but I can put this decision off until we turn on science again.

[Cheater Hater]

Yeah, we obviously don't want to get involved in the war; just make sure we aren't a tempting target to Jowy (get some Archers in the northern cities!).

Are we keeping the barb city? If so, don't forget it has to grow first.

Don't we just go Priesthood if we want to bulb COL? I don't have the bulb order memorized, but I don't think one bulb is worth researching all the religious techs (then seeing it go to Theology anyway ). Maybe just settling it is the way to go?

[Fenn]

I was thinking of getting a religion so we could have a shrine in Plague actually. But it may be better to just have Currency on us early and worry about religion later. I plan to raze the barb city.

Leprosy is going to switch to an Archer next turn, I was putting hammers from a chop into the Worker for an EXP bonus. Once Yaws grows I may whip an Archer there too, though it's worth noting I haven't seen any units of Jowy near my borders, not even scouting early on.

[Fenn]

Turn 69


Last turn I had Plague working an unimproved tile, but I realized this turn that there was a perfectly good Hamlet going unworked by Cholera.



Dropsy was finally founded this turn, and a Worker is pasturing the Pigs as we speak. Next will be the Furs, then the Crabs will probably be worked after that.





While Jowy's GNP lags behind, his Power far outstrips Adrien and us. I definitely can't afford to skimp on military at a time like this.