[SPOILERS] scooter's thread: how to finish second

[scooter]

Oh, and Ruff got circumnav. I chose to not even bother trying because I figured with this group, you'd have to pay heavily to get it. I was right - he got it early enough that any effort I would have put into it would've just slowed me down even more than my sloppy opening has already done (seriously, this is a mess). I'm having a really hard time getting into this game, and it's resulting in meh effort and me doing dumb things like building granaries too early and overbuilding workers.

[Bigger]

GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME MAN!!!!

If I start post more to mock you will that help?

[Merovech]

Oh, and Ruff got circumnav. I chose to not even bother trying because I figured with this group, you'd have to pay heavily to get it. I was right - he got it early enough that any effort I would have put into it would've just slowed me down even more than my sloppy opening has already done (seriously, this is a mess). I'm having a really hard time getting into this game, and it's resulting in meh effort and me doing dumb things like building granaries too early and overbuilding workers.

Those actually sound like really easy mistakes to make.

[scooter]

GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME MAN!!!!

In my defense, my last half 7-10 turns have been pretty solid. I think.

If I start post more to mock you will that help?

YES. Do not feed the animals, but mocking them is highly encouraged.

Oh, and Ruff got circumnav. I chose to not even bother trying because I figured with this group, you'd have to pay heavily to get it. I was right - he got it early enough that any effort I would have put into it would've just slowed me down even more than my sloppy opening has already done (seriously, this is a mess). I'm having a really hard time getting into this game, and it's resulting in meh effort and me doing dumb things like building granaries too early and overbuilding workers.

Those actually sound like really easy mistakes to make.

Yeah they are and a few games ago I may have done it and not even noticed, but if I had done any advanced planning after the first 15T, I would have caught those. The granary builds made perfect sense for an expansive leader - too bad I'm Lizzie. The worker overbuilding is more puzzling. It's not like there was many forests to chop, so why exactly was I bothering to build so many? I was also running a couple whip cycles due to my early granaries, which meant a few tile improvements that I got due to extra workers went unworked. Just really inefficient all over the place... So I'm at a point now where I'm building only vaguely useful roads while waiting for a settler to come out instead of settling my 6th city. Funny thing is I have 5 workers for 5 cities which doesn't sound overbuilt, but I also had 5 with 3 cities IIRC which was just horrible. At least, on this setup it was. Specifically, there was a point where a worker was built that clearly should have been a settler.

I am probably overstating my poor start, but it's hard to tell for sure. I've compensated for my lack of island cities by getting 2 foreign trade route partners and being a stone's throw away from Currency right now (in a point in the game where it will be more valuable than it normally is this early). I also just whipped in the Library (on today's turn - T67) at 8 Mile and I'll use it to get my Academy out of there in the near future so I can make the most of Lizzie. And hey, I have a FIN riverside village now (I bet I'm the first to mature to a village), so... that's cool right?

So it's possible I'm being harsh, but I can't help but see missed opportunities here because I played a long stretch of these turn-by-turn with no advanced thought - similar to how I opened PBEM39 (just couldn't get into that game early on either). I don't think I'm hopelessly behind though, so there's something to be made of this.

[scooter]

Continued to scout out Rego from his south.



Yay for open borders. Let's see how long that lasts. Shot of the south:



But hey, I'm sure glad I built that extra worker instead of a settler. Regoarrarr settled a 6th city, first to do so.



Ruff proving the world is round:



Demos on this turn:



More interesting is the food graph.



Shows my relative struggles pretty well - I'm not getting blown away, but I'm not exactly the scariest person here. That's not as bad as it could be though. Anyways, next turn. Would Regoarrarr just me go peacefully or..?



Bzzt, wrong answer. He offered peace, I of course rejected it. If he's going to declare and ruin our trade routes, he better be prepared to handle it.



If he has 2 galleys on that fogged tile 1W of the worker ready to smash me, very well played. If not, I can probably make him squirm a bit. Good thing he burned that diplomatic good will killing my scout right? Galley is just taking a peek while waiting for the settler.



Gonna suck if somebody pops out of the fog - I'm realizing these island chains connect a lot more than I initially assumed. Getting a warrior down here will be a priority. So glad Vikings got nerfed badly here - they would have been a terror.

[scooter]

OK, so 2 more turns have happened, and they're fun for a change. Ok, so I open T70 to a peace offer:



Sorry dude, shouldn't have declared war on me 3 times. Hellooooooo:



Since you declared war on me no longer giving me routes to this city, it would be awesome if I could remove it. Oh, one interesting thing. Count the unimproved tiles being worked. NOW I see how he managed to get out to 6 cities so fast. I count 4 of them in this screenshot alone (there are 0 in my land currently). So ok, I guess Regoarrarr has the opposite problem of me. Not so terrible if you whip it away though, so his opening is probably still stronger. Anyways, enough of that boring ECONOMIC nonsense. So I figured he'd have a real unit in there next turn as my boat has been coming for quite some time and a simple whipped warrior would do the trick. I open T71 to another peace deal:



I chuckle and eagerly close the window and... ARE WE FEELIN LUCKY?



Guess he had not put 1h into a warrior and was unable to whip it from scratch..? Anyways, 72% odds, heck yes I'm taking those.



Jackpot. Whaddya know, that's enough gold to finish Currency this turn.

On the domestic front, let's get that Academy:



Woodward has not yet finished the library (sort of working on it now - dumping overflow hammers in anyways), so that's why I'm giving 8 Mile the village rather than the capital. The settler is also en route, so that'll be a nice boost. Anyways, I offered peace:



He's currently in a position to take a 30-some percent shot at my galley which is not worth going for as he does not have a second galley in range. He does not have a unit on the galley either because otherwise it would have gone into Kosar... So my warrior is probably safe and he'll probably have to run away with his worker. So I'm offering a bit of goodwill by offering a sealed peace treaty here so that his worker can be safe and he can go about resettling this spot in peace. We'll see if he takes it. I would consider this more than enough to make up for his past transgressions if he'll sign peace and OB again. We'll see if he does so.

If he doesn't, I can't get past his borders and he'll know that. If he chooses to take the treaty but trap my galley, I'll just go and do something else and I'll make another hostile return trip sometime. Seems like a pretty fair deal to me.

And with that, Merry Christmas.

[Bigger]

excellent... punish irrational erratic behavior

[mackoti]

Excelent.

[scooter]

Thanks guys. So I just realized Regoarrarr won't get to find out if I took the city or not until after Ichabod gets back which is over a week away. That would drive me crazy.

[mackoti]

ha ha