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

[ipecac]

looks like a map using Joey's tool. which allows regular 'tiling' of the map.

I'd head to our equivalent of city #2 to find Krill.

[Dark Savant]

looks like a map using Joey's tool. which allows regular 'tiling' of the map.

I'd head to our equivalent of city #2 to find Krill.

Okay, I'll keep that in mind.  I'm not going to hover around there, I'm going to take off to continue to get an idea of the shape of the map.  (We do want to know if Krill moved towards or away from Gavagai.)

Though I don't think this can continue for all nine players -- it wouldn't fit gracefully on a toroidal rectangle.  Well, it could, but the players at the ends would have only one neighbor.

We might be on a rough equilateral triangle, with 3 players at each vertex and 2 players in between each pair of vertices.  In that case, our "side" would be the four players we've met, Krill is at a vertex, and I'd have to turn either NW or SE.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 42 (2320 BC)

In Might and Magic, the guys that deploy lots of weak troops are the Necromancers; a fitting scheme for the scout and warriors.  The scout gets the most well-known name, Sandro, who is better known from the Heroes of Might and Magic games, but actually first showed up in Might and Magic V:



He is not to be confused with Sandor Clegane.

Warriors get necromancer names from the Heroes of M&M strategy games.

Sandro moves in on Krill's original location, finding:



Krill apparently wants to plant on the original location, which suggests that he's not in the middle of foodland.  That fortified quechua is named "Quechua 0".  That's not a numbering scheme that avoids the German tank problem, like Seal Team Six does.

That's already close enough that I can tell Krill isn't at exactly at his equivalent of red dot, though he could be one tile west.

The current homeland:



I'm not sure where Coeurva is going (he got two moves with his warrior).  I was expecting him to get vision on our capital, which I wouldn't have objected to as long as he promptly left.  If his warrior investigates the jungle peninsula, it may take long enough that his warrior will almost be trapped by expanding borders and blue dot.  And he'd have to step on roads I'm planning to build to get out.

I'm moving Harmondale's warrior to cover any potential problems, since it'll be building at least two more and there's no trouble there.  Another warrior moved to the roaded hill to play zone defense for this turn, in case Gavagai tries something funny once our peace treaty expires (in 2 turns).

Frodo is building the pasture at Castleview first, since improving the corn will take significantly longer.

In longer-term strategy, I don't think we have to build that many early axes and spears to make use of Aggressive.  We have the easy border expansion, the cheap maintenance, and also I think we can play a low-military early game, with other players knowing that if they try to attack I can whip double-promoted axes/spears.

Copper will be online at Castle Ironfist and Castleview next turn.

C&D: Gavagai completed a technology.  That was in only 3 turns, so it either has to be RtR's cheap Archery, or completion of Pottery I hypothesized he was researching before he switched to Mining.  Anything else is too expensive (unless he interrupted and resumed Mysticism ).  I'll know next turn by the power graph (which currently doesn't show anything interesting).

We will get graphs on Krill next turn.  I'll probably put a turn or two more espionage into him before swapping back to someone else.

JR4 whipped his capital last turn and promptly regrew it to size 4 this turn.  edit: Actually, it might have been his second city, I can't tell for 100% sure, except there's nothing that makes sense to whip there that would also have let him regrow next turn.

[Dark Savant]

Krill just moved a settler to the original location, so he's going to plant his second city on t43.

His capital is named "Animal Farm", incidentally (from top 5 cities).  I don't know if that means it has tons of Agriculture and Hunting food, is named after George Orwell's book, both, or neither.

Krill still hasn't revolted to Slavery (neither has Gavagai, incidentally).  I'm not sure why he didn't revolt while moving the settler.  It's possible he swapped research and doesn't actually have Bronze Working, but then a whole lot of warriors would have had to be completed on t34 to explain the soldier leap that happened then (and we know neither Coeurva nor Gavagai completed one on that turn).  Straight-up research of Animal Husbandry would have taken him at most 12 turns, not the 15 he actually took.

I wonder if he's going for an early religion and is planning a double-swap to Slavery and Organized Religion.  If he's researching Polytheism now, he'd be doing it without either Fishing or The Wheel (ouch).

[ipecac]

Some point i didn't address earlier :

AH or no: depends on what you value more, earlier AH for horses abd happy or bettee shot at glh. How many ind or org players are there?

Not sure if he'l pillage roads.

[Dark Savant]

Some point i didn't address earlier :

AH or no: depends on what you value more, earlier AH for horses abd happy or bettee shot at glh. How many ind or org players are there?

Not sure if he'l pillage roads.

If it's unclear, I'll continue into Animal Husbandry after Pottery.

There are no Organized players at all in this game, and only CML is Industrious.  My current read on CML is that he's more likely to chase a religion and Stonehenge/Oracle instead of the Great Lighthouse; he's the only player other than Krill who even might have Mysticism.  Coeurva is the other major threat to build the Great Lighthouse.  Pushing a few axes his way may get him to spend production on his own axes and to research Animal Husbandry himself, so he's less competition.

I can probably arrange to have a couple warriors watching Coeurva's, enough to guarantee a kill if he pillages a road.  I don't read him as willing to antagonize us openly when he has a fairly clear building game defined ahead of him.

[Dark Savant]

My current read on CML is that he's more likely to chase a religion and Stonehenge/Oracle instead of the Great Lighthouse; he's the only player other than Krill who even might have Mysticism.

Actually, GermanJoey also might.

I can re-check C&D if I have the time after getting graphs on Krill; that might make things clearer.

[Dark Savant]

Actually, CML must have Mysticism.  Coeurva got too many soldier points that turn (t37) for CML to have researched any technology worth more than 2000 soldier points.  The only low-soldier tech cheap enough that he could have researched it in 7 turns, with one probably lost to anarchy (though I have no record of CML whipping anything), is Mysticism.

So I figure he's more likely to use Industrious on Stonehenge/Oracle and get a religion for the Great Prophet he will likely spawn.  If he does that, it means he's likely not going to take the time to get Sailing and Masonry and build the Great Lighthouse.

[ipecac]

What I meant was diagonal tiling a la PB29

[Dark Savant]

Turn 43 (2280 BC)

Sandro heads west and discovers this:



There are still no borders visible, and his scout notably returned there after contacting Gavagai.  That suggests Animal Farm probably isn't that way, and it's somewhere to the north.

The graphs I just got on Krill tell me he only has two quechuas, produced on t28 and t35.  Those must be the visible one about to guard his new city, and the one that is probably garrisoned in Animal Farm to keep it happy at size 5.  It's thus likely safe to thread through whatever borders are to the scout's north.  (edit: Wait, no, he's Charismatic, he doesn't actually need to do that, though I don't think he'd kill my scout, would he?)

Castle Ironfist completed a worker, and with no action on the power graphs, it starts a settler.  (I was planning growing to size 4 on barracks or an axeman if there were any sign of trouble.)  Harmondale now has its plains cow pasture done, and our other workers hooked up copper and started a road to blue dot.  Banazîr is now going to head over and finally construct our belated rice farm.

C&D: dtay's capital grew to size 4; CML's capital grew to size 5; Gavagai's city #2 Edirne is now size 3; JR4's city #2 is also now size 3.

Gavagai and JR4 look like they are founding third cities soon; contrast this with CML, who is very likely building Stonehenge right now.  Coeurva's cities are size 3 and size 2 and conspicuously failing to grow, so he's on workers or more likely settlers.

In other things that are conspicuously failing to happen, it's been a while since Krill has showed up with a new tech.  I doubt it would pay to swap around now just to baffle C&D, and his failure to show up with Fishing or The Wheel, when we know he'll want Fishing for his second city, means he's either researching Animal Husbandry for deer camps at Animal Farm, or chasing a religion (he'll beat CML if they chase the same one).

GermanJoey has also failed to show up with a new technology for a while; he very likely researched Mining instead of Mysticism to help him build his granary faster, as he built it in 3 turns without a whip.  (RtR-Protective double speed plus overflow from a settler means it's possible even without a mine -- though his worker wouldn't have had much to do other than build random roads without Mining.)  He's probably researching Bronze Working now.