[SPOILER] PB37 Dark Savant tries not to be a blatant MP n00b

[Dark Savant]

Also, I hadn't noticed before, but barracks are actually worth 3000 in base BtS.  They're worth 2000 here, though.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 55 (1800 BC) - Part 2

Coeurva's warrior is advancing through the seam in our territory.  I moved a couple warriors on zone defense to cover just in case.  (He'd know we don't have an axe yet.)  Castle Ironfist won't grow for 2 more turns, so it doesn't need a garrison until then.

That's just two tiles SE of Harmondale, but a garrison warrior with 3XP and a zone defense warrior are both available, so not a big deal.  I whipped Harmondale's granary.  I need to decide next turn whether to overflow into an axe or a spear; which do you think is more useful on this front?  Coeurva has not come up with a tech for 10 turns.

Castle Ironfist is now size 3; I can have it produce the axe without whipping in 3 turns if really necessary, though right now it's set to grow.

Castleview is still working max food and can whip either a granary or an axe next turn.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 55 (1800 BC) - Part 3

The minimap readjusts latitude.  We're about 15 tiles from the "top" of the map.

We're also not that far from Ventessel's mystery neighbor, by water:



Sandro is skirting by Anchorage's western borders, and will be heading northeast starting next turn.

[Dark Savant]

Also, it's now clear the map is narrower than a normal Large map.  That makes it likely this map has too much land for circumnavigation to be available.

Well, I'll continue to press onward, the scouting information is still useful.

[Dark Savant]

Okay, I checked the mod's XML directly; it looks like the map needs to be less than 45% land for you to be able to achieve circumnavigation:

Code:

<Define>
<DefineName>CIRCUMNAVIGATE_MIN_WATER_PERCENT</DefineName>
   <fDefineFloatVal>55</fDefineFloatVal>
</Define>

I think it's less than 1/3 in base BtS.

Except ... it's not in the mod changes list?  I can't tell if the modded game DLL actually uses this value.

Well, I suppose I'll count tiles and see how many total tiles on the map there are.

[Dark Savant]

Also, Krill and Ventessel were the only two rivals left to end turns after me.

Ventessel has already logged in (as the turn roll player), and Krill ended his turn.

They aren't at war ... yet.  

[ipecac]

General rule for defensive purposes is to build spear over axe; any threats that a axe can meet better will come with more time to respond.

[Dark Savant]

General rule for defensive purposes is to build spear over axe; any threats that a axe can meet better will come with more time to respond.

Okay, understood, that makes sense.

In the event I send a pressuring party towards Coeurva, I probably want an axe and spear instead of 2 axes, anyway.

[Dark Savant]

Okay, we've explored 56 tiles on the Y-axis, with 7 to go.

We actually aren't that far from circling the globe on the X axis, either:



We've explored 44 tiles on the X-axis and that's I believe 13 to go.  Maybe 14, I can't quite tell.

So the map has a total of (44+13) * (56+7) = 3591 tiles.  There are 1514 land tiles, so the map is 42.16% land (less if we have 14 tiles on the X-axis unexplored).

That's too much in BtS, but if RtR supports the higher land percentage, we CAN get circumnavigation, and we're not that far from it in either direction.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 56 just rolled, but first:

Turn 55 (1800 BC) - Part 4 (C&D)

Score tally:

• Coeurva: +2 points for +1 pop.
  
• dtay: +6 points for an unknown tech researched in 10 turns.  I'm not sure what this is; Animal Husbandry is my best guess.  Maybe Sailing.
  
• GermanJoey: +2 points for +1 pop; -2 points for a -1 pop whip.
  
• JR4: +6 points for an unknown tech researched in 5 turns.
  
• Ventessel: +6 points for an unknown tech researched in 5 turns.
  

I was thinking maybe both of those cheap techs were Archery, but that causes a 6000-soldier increase and only 10000 new soldier points appeared.  (In neither case can it be Meditation or Priesthood.)

The only other cheap tech available is Masonry, and I'm not sure why you'd want that without stone or marble available, without Polytheism to continue on to Monotheism, and without Sailing to build the Great Lighthouse.  (If you wanted the Great Lighthouse, it makes more sense to get Sailing first so you could prepare the regular lighthouse well in advance.)

(edit: +4000 land tiles also claimed this turn.  Not sure what, no clear cities were planted.  I suspect this is CML's Stonehenge city expanding borders.  If CML built Stonehenge in his capital, it should appear in the top 5 cities after another several turns.