[Spoilers] Pindicator accepts his fate

[pindicator]

In chess, like in duels, there is a hard rule: never give up the initiative...

Well said! We've done a good job with that so far, and the decision to pull the archer back is a strategic one, banking on my next move to keep the initiative. Hopefully I'm not letting a poor strategic decision give Nyles the room to take some of that initiative back.

Turn 037

Nyles moved his worker onto the copper tile this turn. Since he's already played he has 9 worker-turns to go until that copper is hooked up to his second city. It's unclear if he has a second worker -- I would guess that if he does he has just built it. From the power graph I can tell that he finished a 3rd warrior the turn after we built our archer -- perhaps he had one pre-built and finished it only after we moved our archer towards his city. Anyway, that's 3 warriors total for him. Considering he hasn't had any population growth in either of his cities since he planted his 2nd city (capital is size 2, city #2 is size 1), I'm guessing he's building a pair of workers right now.

What this means: 9 worker-turns to chop, mine, and road the copper. 7 more worker-turns to road to the capital (at least). So we're likely looking at copper being hooked up in 8-9 turns, depending on how fast those workers come out, how many come out, and what he uses them for. That's exactly the same time frame as when our chariots should be finishing. Should be fun.

Graphs are in on StarDoor, so I'm going to post them all here below:










C&D

• gsorel: +1 pop and a tech. It's a cheap one: Fishing or Archery.
  
• dcodea: whipped a pop away.
  
• Elkad: got a tech, and like gsorel only took 6 turns to tech it. So Fishing or Archery most likely.
  

[oledavy]

In chess, like in duels, there is a hard rule: never give up the initiative...

Since this has been a theme so far this thread, may I suggest changing your theme to a chess one? You could name cities after famous chess players? Rename all your units of a given type to a chess piece (Axemen = Rooks, etc.). It could be educational! You could open every post with a chess puzzle (lurkers love chess puzzles, 9 out of 10 dentists agree).

I'm totally not saying this just because I don't know what your theme is.....

....

What is your theme btw?

[pindicator]

What is your theme btw?

I'm paying tribute to one of Portland's most famous authors ever:



I was also a big fan of her book, The Left Hand of Darkness, too. That one really does a good job of taking on gender roles, and the concept of The Other. (I may just be a fan of this book because I found it halfway through my ill-fated move to Fairbanks.)

I really like the idea of a chess theme. I'll be sure to use it in the next game

[pindicator]

Holy crap, gsorel just took a city off Borsche. I thought I saw the Rival Worst in soldiers go down last turn, but this confirms it.

[oledavy]

Holy crap, gsorel just took a city off Borsche. I thought I saw the Rival Worst in soldiers go down last turn, but this confirms it.

wat

[pindicator]

Analyzing the score changes, gsorel took Borsche's 2nd city. The city was a size 2, now size 1. This is gsorel's 3rd city. If strategic resources aren't held in the capital then look for Borsche to be eliminated shortly.

[pindicator]

Sorry, I've only gotten time for the last couple of turns right before bed and not reported.

Everything is on track for chariots. Nyles grew both his cities so he is possibly doing some kind of grow and chop into workers/settlers. The copper hill has been chopped and covered with a warrior.

OT4E settled his 3rd city, so we seem to be a little behind after getting our 2nd out fastest. We are 3-4t away, off the top of my head.

[pindicator]

Turn 040

Still on plan, but I'm starting to regret the choice of plan. Maybe sending that archer to his copper was the best move after all... Regardless, here's the current situation:



Settler out in 2; worker out in 3. With the extra worker turns I had I decided it would make sense to road the forested hill north of the cows; adding a little bit of maneuverability in case Nyles were to send any units that way to attack my capital.

Since I skipped a few turns instead of the incremental C&D, I'll just give a recap of where everyone is at this point:

Total Population (# of cities)
9 - gsorel (4)
7 - DTG & picklepikkl (2), StarDoor (3)
6 - OT4E (3), Nicolae Carpathia (2)
5 - dcodea (2), NylesStandish (2)
4 - Pindicator (2), Gawdzak (2), wetbandit (2)
3 - Elkad (1)
0 - GG Borsche

Poor Borsche, but that's what you get for starting next to Zulu. (I've been there way too many times before; nothing you can do but hope he doesn't want to attack you.) Elkad should settle soon; he whipped 2 turns earlier.

Not happy with where I stack up right now. Poor strategy will do that...

[pindicator]

Turn 041

With PB33 done I can put some more time into thinking about this game -- although I really wasn't giving much time to 33 in the first place, heh.

Seriously thinking that I should just leave the border with Nyles as is for now and just develop peacefully. That 3rd city is going to be insane, hooking up both furs and ivory. I can then go south and get that great border city established with StarDoor and then head east for the gems.

But that won't happen if I have workers chopping out chariots --- and with how tense Nyles has been acting, chariots are more likely to run into spears than they are succeed. I'm expecting a full Commodore revolt on this. But the only way if the chariot plan works is if we are sure it succeeds in taking him out. Otherwise it fails miserably. And I don't think the odds of it's success are worth the opportunity cost of connecting those furs, connecting that ivory, getting the pigs online and the 3rd city growing. Of getting the 2nd city growing instead of using those worker turns to chop out chariots and road staging tiles.

Nyles will die. Even after his capital pops to 3rd ring we will still be able to threaten his capital with mounted units. And his copper is in a very vulnerable position. Back to chess parlance, Karego-At is the equivalent of a form pawn on the 6th rank. It's a long-term weakness in his position that we don't need to rush to convert. Let him squirm in cramped quarters, trying to defend multiple weak points.

Plus he's so damn jumpy that we aren't going to pull one over on him.


C&D

• Gawdzak (although more and more it's chumchu playing): +1 tech (???) and +1 pop (city #3)
  
• OT4E: +1 tech (???)
  
• gsorel: +1 pop
  
• dcodea: +1 pop
  
• NylesStandish: +1 tech. I want to peg this as Agriculture; nothing indicates he has gotten any commerce tiles going and it took 9 turns for him to tech. It's also possible he teched Agriculture last and this is The Wheel coming in -- which would explain the lack of roads seen so far. Although Power Graph really suggests Wheel before.
  
• Elkad: +1 pop (2nd city.... wow)
  

[pindicator]

Turn 042

I forgot to mention our scout last turn. He got himself in a bit of a pickel:



It didn't go so well...



RIP scouting. He lasted a pretty good long while, at least compared to my previous games.

Settler finished end of turn, he's moved into position:



I think I swapped that warrior in Gont to an archer, but I went back and forth on that a bit and may be wrong. Thinking is that I'll swap back to a worker at size 4, and do I really want another warrior at this point? Warriors are just good for backline city MP duty. Also thought about settling this turn directly on the horse, but that only lets me start a chariot a turn faster in the capital, so not worth losing the horse tile.

C&D

gsorel whipped away a couple pop. That is all.