Speaker's super top secret thread for the purposes of world domination; Neener Neener

[Sullla]

Going to make this pretty short because we're already back up again after playing the turn yesterday. The free Great Scientist could mean a great deal for us; Speaker has roughly 50/50 odds to get another Great Scientist in a couple of turns. It's like 53% Scientist, 47% Artist or Engineer. If we get lucky on the virtual coinflip and get a non-Scientist, we can pop out a Great Merchant from sunrise very quickly and launch a final Golden Age for my India civ, which would be amazingly useful. Our team could use it to grab Communism/Democracy techs and them get a free civics swap into Universal Suffrage/Free Speech/Caste System/State Propety/Theology. Yeah, our team can run the workshop lategame economy too! If not, we'll have to be more creative with forcing extra Great People from sunrise, likely with a combination of Caste System and Pacifism. Waiting on that next Great Person from Speaker first.



Western sea. We felt that we had to see what was in the deep south, and so I sent one destroyer there, after verifying that Dave had not upgraded his Combat III frigates to destroyer status. Looks like there's not much there, unless Dave is doing a great job of hiding back behind his cities. I'm blockading down there for this turn, of course.

Speaker suggested we use this turn to pillage the fish resource at Dave's city of Trafalgar, so that's what we did. Pillage and then blockade on the tile indicated. Dave did not challenge this move on his turn, and his city starved down one pop point (or was whipped) on his turn. Dave has 4 frigates in Trafalgar as of this turn, which isn't enough to come out and challenge my own destroyers as yet. I may be able to strip the rest of his seafood resources on this turn, we shall see. Going well over here so far.

Thoth is doing something with a couple of rifles and cavs right in the same place where he tried to invade earlier. If they come down off the hill on the border, they will all die to infantry. This is not particularly scary.



Demographics for my India civ. This looks great and all, unfortunately Speaker isn't quite as strong, and sunrise's civ is very weak. Speaker will get much, much stronger if we can continue to punch through Lewwyn territory.

More info later, hopefully after we play tonight's turn.

[Kylearan]

Heh, until now I had hated ship combat in Civ IV. However, for me this is the first game where reading about your maritime skirmishes with Dave, the blockades on both sides and the attempts to break them sounds really interesting and fun!

[Speaker]

Heh, until now I had hated ship combat in Civ IV. However, for me this is the first game where reading about your maritime skirmishes with Dave, the blockades on both sides and the attempts to break them sounds really interesting and fun!

I would say it's been about 5% interesting and fun, 95% annoying and awful. Ship combat simply sucks in Civ4. It's the one place lacking true balance, without the Rock-Paper-Scissors of Melee-Mounted-Spear. Sheer numbers and promos are just too important, and coastal blockade is just broken.

I may be speaking with bias, seeing as I am being blockaded at the moment (was trying to avoid hooking up oil for a bit because my cities are still unhealthy)....

[Speaker]

Extreme close up!

I've never seen the animation of the Public Transportation, so I zoomed way in and took this shot. It looks pretty cool. The city is still starving, unfortunately. I will probably have to turn a mine or two into a windmill.

[Commodore]

Wow. So when is the Biology diversion? Medicine worth it?

[Speaker]

Wow. So when is the Biology diversion? Medicine worth it?

Not any time soon, unfortunately. We are just going to make do. I have finished grocers everywhere, and should have any necessary Public Transportation built in the next couple turns, then it's all units (all of them triple promoted).

[Sullla]

Yeah, as much as extra food/health would be nice, we don't really have the resources to devote into non-essential techs right now. We'll just slog on through as best we can and deal with the health issues as they come up. Biology is an attractive option, but we don't really need to grow too many cities right now. Medicine is really unappealing - why build hospitals when we could build cheaper grocers instead for +4 health? Not worth it. Refrigeration would actually be better, not because of supermarkets but because of +1 movement to all naval units. Strange world, Multiplayer Civ4.



Here we are in the western sea again. Dave has gotten some more destroyers, but he still never upgraded the two Combat III frigates. I really wonder about that... those units would have had odds on any unit in the water. Oh well, lucky us.

I've concentrated 5 destroyers on the tile I mentioned previously, where they blockade and deny just about every water tile possible to Dave. The one destroyer by itself is in what should be a safe position, only able to be attacked by Dave's own solitary destroyer, and I should have odds to win if he tried that. It will likely rejoin the main stack next turn, having pillaged the crabs resource down there at Verdun. The blockade knocks out every tile that Dave can work, except the two little white dots indicated. I'm sure that's scant consolation to them.

You might think that I enjoy this, but I really don't. Coastal blockade is a really dumb mechanic. It's what the League of Legends designers would call anti-fun: the fun factor of the mechanic is profoundly disproportionate. If I'm on the offensive, it's not particularly interesting or fun to blockade. But if I'm on the receiving end, it's enormously painful and cheezy. Naval combat simply doesn't work very well in Civ4, and it's pretty stupid that you're forced to attack at a disadvantage to remove the blockade. Honestly, if we were allowed to talk to the other teams, I would just ask Team 3 if we could have a gentleman's agreement not to coastal blockade on either side. But it's Always War, so no discussing that sort of thing. If we had known there was going to be this much naval combat, we'd have disallowed coastal blockading. It's much more fun to read about than it is to play.

I finished destroyer #7 in Crescendo at end of turn, and destroyer #8 will follow next turn. Absolute Zero and Sandstorm Fury are both about to finish their own coal plants, and they can both do 3t destroyers. Dazzle should also be able to manage 3t destroyers once it sorts out its own health issues. If I can maintain the blockade, I should be able to outbuild Dave here without too much trouble. He lost a pop point in Trafalgar last turn from starvation (or whipping/drafting, possibly). If my size 13 cities with factory, coal plant, and drydocks struggle to build destroyers, it should be pretty tough for Dave's smaller, blockaded, factory-less cities. And if the worst should happen, we're beelining for Industrialism and battleships. Since Team 3 still lacks Assembly Line, and its prerequisites, we should get battleships long before them. In other words, looking pretty good over here, at least for the moment.

Thoth is doing.... something?



Rifles and cavs in my northeast. More of them in my northwest:



He pillaged the hill mine near Headbutt Pulv, which is not really a big deal. I almost hope that Thoth will try to move off of those defensive terrain tiles, so that I can kill his units with infantry. I only need 15 more points for a Great General. Not sure what I'd do with it, but I'm sure I could find some use.

My cities are finally just about done with infrastructure now. Solar Flare, in the picture above, is a really good city, able to crank out about 80 production/turn. I just finished a barracks and will use the overflow to do a bunch of 1t infantry for a while. I'm really looking forward to Speaker finishing Pentagon in 4 turns, so that all my units come out double-promoted. My power has totally sucked all game. That will be changing, starting right now.

I'm really curious as to what Team 3 researches next. They can finally go for Assembly Line (needing Economics/Corporation first), or they could go for Biology, or they could go for Artillery, or they could go for Flight. Or they could even be on the same path as us, towards Electricity, since it would help their State Property watermills. Lots of potentially useful paths out there, let's see what they choose to prioritize.

Next turn is really crucial for us. Will Speaker get that non-Scientist Great Person at 48% odds? It would be huge for us if he did. We really, really, REALLY would benefit from a final Golden Age to research Communism/Democracy and swap into State Property/Universal Suffrage. My civ will be totally insane if I can get into Uni Suffrage + Free Speech. Floodplains towns with 3/1/9 yields? Levee towns with 2/2/9 yields? Uh, yes please! My capital will add 11 base production from Uni Suffrage, modified with +100% for forge/factory/plant and another +100% for Ironworks. Let's make that happen eventually, please!

If not, we'll force the Great People we need out of sunrise's civ somehow.

[Tyrmith]

Poor Sunrise- Sullla's land seems to be the verdant, green prosperous country, Speaker's the industrious, proud militant countryman, and then Sunrise's- a burnt and broken country, with all the inhabitants serfs with sunken eyes, fed a quarter of a husk for food every day, and squeezed for every last possible cent they own.

[Speaker]

Poor Sunrise- Sullla's land seems to be the verdant, green prosperous country, Speaker's the industrious, proud militant countryman, and then Sunrise's- a burnt and broken country, with all the inhabitants serfs with sunken eyes, fed a quarter of a husk for food every day, and squeezed for every last possible cent they own.

I like to think of it as Sullla is the carry (who is just about to finish his Phantom Dancer on top of his I-Edge. I am the bruiser, who is just finishing Atma's, after already getting Wit's End + Warmog's, and Sunrise is the 0CS support bitch. I think he has a philo stone or something.

In other news, Lewwyn did not attack my Guerrilla II infantry this turn, so I'm safe to move all my units next to his city next turn. He still has that huge stack of old units behind the city. It will be interesting to see what he does.

[Speaker]

I played my turn before work this morning because I won't be home until late.

*I got an Engineer in Permaban Shen. Sunrise has a great person coming out of insta-lock in 2 or 3 turns, which has a very high chance to be a Merchant. If we get unlucky, we can force one soon in another city, but you should be getting a golden age very soon, Sullla.

*I have moved my units next to LOLOLOLOL, and my second stack (of laggards and brigands) is in range to hit from afar. I will be interested to see what Lewwyn does. He has enough physical units to defend the city and cause me to have to attack, then heal, but if he piles everything in, it will be a slaughter. Perhaps he is thinking to let me take the city, then try to counter attack it, using his 19 catapults on the offensive? I should be able to move several Machine Guns into the city after capturing it, which would pretty much forestall any counter attack, since he lacks Cavalry. Catapults are useless against Machine Guns.

*Thoth moved his "invasion" force towards Wish (and did nothing near Solar Flare). You should be able to clean it up easily this turn. It would be nice if you removed the forests near your border. :P

*We seem to have lost the charts against Team 3. They have 2110 EP against us, while we have 1945 against them, and need 1968 to see their charts. Hmm, Sunrise and I may need to bang out a round of Courthouses I guess. I'm only making 4 EP per turn.