[Spoiler] Fintourist loses his multiplayer virginity

[Fintourist]

Turns 101-102

On T101 I settled my 10th and 11th city as described in the massive T100 report. This turn the expected news arrived:


Yeah, as forecasted Sareln finished MoM in his capital. Good for him! My response was whipping a settler, a trireme and a missionary... Not quite as spectacular, but now I'm close to founding my 12th city and have a back-up trireme in both of my fronts. At least no one can accuse me of performing a farmer's gambit I definitely have the most comprehensive sentry net in the game. That's of course great in the sense that I'm not leaving anything out there for a chance, but of course if I had gambled and ignored those units I would have now more infra...

Sareln will finish Civil Service soon and until then I will be more or less simply collecting cash. I plan to utilize the research visibility to its full extent and hopefully trail him to some techs and avoid giving him known-tech bonuses if possible. Currently I don't have any cheap techs that I would really need so I'm not really sacrificing anything by accumulating cash. Correct me if I'm wrong!

I did again the calculations whether I should close borders with Sareln (who has that damn GLH). As stated earlier this is a game-theoretic problem. These are the pros and cons currently If I close my borders...:
+ Sareln loses 4 commerce per turn
+ I might start a chain reaction where others close borders with him too (this is of course the real point here)
- I lose 3 commerce per turn (that's an immediate loss compered to Azza, Hydra & Viqsi)
- I lose diplo points
- I lose the ability to keep a sentry galley within his borders (I consider this quite valuable)

I'm currently leaning towards closing those borders and maybe re-offering them for 5gpt or something, but it seems that I'm constantly delaying this decision..

EDIT: And yeah, you can see that Hydra adopted OR, but has not taken Judaism as a state religion. It is either or something that I just don't understand. Maybe he's not building any infra...

[Old Harry]

Are the others keeping an eye on Sareln's open border status? Do they realise he has the GLH? Do they care?

Classic prisoners dilemma. I think the only reason for you to close borders is if he loses more from it than you do (which you seem to think he does) - but won't he make up the losses from other players cities, meaning you've only hurt yourself? I don't really understand how trade routes work

Even then, unless you've got a really good handle on how many soldiers he's got I'd think the sentry is helpful.

[Fintourist]

Are the others keeping an eye on Sareln's open border status? Do they realise he has the GLH? Do they care?

I don't know! Of course they know that Sareln has GLH so perharps they are struggling in the same way as I am. Or perhaps they don't care..

won't he make up the losses from other players cities, meaning you've only hurt yourself?

As you said, we both have enough trade routes with other civs and domestic island routes to fill the trade routes. We simply lose the routes from our core to each others island cities. Sareln has 3 island cities, I have 4...

Currently I have nothing to fear considering Sareln's military, but if his power starts to spike then the sentry will be valuable..

[Old Harry]

Close borders!

[Fintourist]

Yes!

Or maybe..

[Fintourist]

Turn 103

Azza.. Why do you have 3 units in Fast Fuse? I hope you don't plan to use them?

Oh well, I will keep an eye on those units and other border cities. I have now a trireme and 3 galleys in the area so attacking my islands is not the easiest task ever.

I decided to spend one turn research and put some beakers into Paper. I guess I will still keep accumulating cash for a while. I wan't to know what route Sareln will choose after finishing Civil Service:

If you look close enough you can spot a settler, a missionary and a work boat traveling south. The other missionary, will spread religion into Chip 'n' Charge.

C&D-news, Sareln settled his 10th city. It was probably some sort of a filler as he did not clame any new tiles and it's not on a island - kind of like my "Continent. Grip". I'm still in food/pop-lead but the gap has been shrinking a bit since I've whipped quite actively. My eonomy will remain kind of stagnant stille for couple of turns and then start growing again with an acceptable speed. It is interesting to see how mine and Sareln's economies match after he adopts Bureaucracy. Azza, Viqsi & Hydra also are improving their tech rates, but my GNP at 0% is still higher than their break-even GNPs. And yeah, Hydra finally converted into Judaism!

[AutomatedTeller]

for what it's worth - he doens't know you don't have units on your galley. 3 units are completely safe from 2 units on a galley. So, it might just be that.

[Fintourist]

for what it's worth - he doens't know you don't have units on your galley. 3 units are completely safe from 2 units on a galley. So, it might just be that.

I've been traveling around with that galley past cities that have absolutely no defenders or just one warrior or chariot so I don't believe that they are some kind of emergency whips. Either these units are defenders for his other cities, back-up force that is supposed to intimidate me from attacking or Azza is up to something cheeky.

[Fintourist]

Turn 104
Azza.. I hope that galley has only peaceful intentions..

Yeah, I guess my first MP game makes me extra paranoid. Nevertheless, I have an axe and a spear in "Tipsy Time" and if I want I can add an archer and another axe from "Soft Hands" any time I want.

In other news. I believe both Azza and Viqsi finished a tech this turn. Based on soldier points and GNP analysis I believe that Viqsi finished the Compass. It would be interesting if Viqsi would perform an Astronomy beeline, but that's still a long way.. Nevertheless, getting cheap EXP-harbors in play is surely a valid move on this map. Sareln finished Civil Service, but does not yet have a great person to launch a Golden Age. We'll see if one is born soon or whether he revolts despite the Anarchy.

Domestically I finished couple of work boats for my new cities and grew 6 pop points! I'll wait still a turn or two before I make my tech choice.

[Fintourist]

Turns 105-106

I have three problems!

1. Problem: Azza
Azza has now passed me as the No. 1 power in the game. (163k vs 146k)


Azza has a brand new trireme in GGG... So I brought my own nearby, but still out of his sight... We'll see what he plans to do with his updated navy..


I settled my 12th city, "Bollittieri's" this turn. I'm sure Azza is not delighted by that. Unfortunately Inshalla popped borders last turn, which means that I won't get the control of crabs until in ~2 turns. Azza just finished a work boat in Inshalla. I wonder what he ment to do with it.

Azza has 2 Chariots an Axe and a Spear in the area. One additional Axe is also approaching our Eastern border area. I have to keep following the situation as I have only an Axe and a Spear in my new cities. Azza does not however have any Gallyes that could be used for attacking. Yet..

I guess this map pretty much forces me into some kind of conflict with Azza. It will be interesting to see later whether the players in the Vets game have similar tensions here.

2. Problem: Sareln

Thanks to GLH, Colossus and me settling high maintenance cities, our economies are pretty much equally strong at this point despite my pop lead. As Sareln's horizontal expansion will be profitable (thanks to GLH), he still has not revolted into Bureaucracy and/or launched his first MoM-powered Golden Age, he will be a strong competitor techwise. I'm pretty sure I have everything I need to counter his push in the mid-term, but if Azza keeps building up his military and forces me to use my scarce hammers into defenders, he will possibly win this game for Sareln. Sareln's other neighbor, Viqsi, is not expanding that fast meaning Sareln can probably grab a nice piece of land at leisure to his E/SE. Interesting times anyways..

3.Problem: Myself

Damned university is actually causing me a lot of work currently, which means that I haven't done C&D for the last couple of turns. I could really use the knowledge regarding the tech situation and pop points of my neighbors. However, my schedule will only become worse in coming weeks/months and doing C&D becomes more time consuming so this might be the point where I simply have to drop it.. Maybe I can keep doing it roughly, but that does not give much additional info over standard demos and graphs I'm afraid.

Oh, and finally, here's the overview of my core. Still mainly in a peaceful builder mode. I would hate to whip these cities down because of Azza:

One more turn accumulating cash and I believe I can almost research through Paper and Education in the following 6 turns. That's at least what I would like to do.. Sareln has only 40 beakers in Construction, I guess I will see what he is really up to in a turn or two. Final concern: Azza and Hydra are currently putting all their EPs on me while Sareln and Viqsi also put some. That's not very nice guys! I wish I could afford a courthouse or two, but I want forges first..