[SPOILERS] PB7: Winning The Hard Way - Mao Plays Craps

[spacetyrantxenu]

I played T2 last night and couldn't post the update, such as it is. Two units explore, revealing some desert and a fair number of peaks:

I wonder if those peaks will somewhat constrain our expansion zone. If so, maybe it would be a good idea to REX and fill it out a bit. But that would also be unsafe.

Speaking of unsafe, I'm turning around the NW warrior to bring him closer to the capital. I just realized I could get double moved and have someone's warrior one turn from sacking my beautiful casino and the garrison warrior won't be ready for some time. NW exploration can wait in the name of survival.

Mackoti/Seven's travelling settler show is interesting. Is their quest for the pyramids starting similar to Rego/Sunrise's Great Lighthouse quest? Or are they out looking for a head to crush with their opening warrior and have to bring the settler with it for protection? That would be funny...either they would eliminate someone with their warrior or very likely they could lose their own settler if their warrior attacked and lost somehow (barring a walkthrough into an empty city, that is). It will be interesting to see it play out.

[spacetyrantxenu]

T3 update:

A bit more exploring, moved the warrior NE so he's NW,NW of the capital. I'll feel safer when the borders pop in a few turns.

Scout moved out of the desert some, that's some bad land over there. Maybe we'll get lucky and find a blackjack table down there somewhere.

We did have some good fortune, finding two dice resources in close proximity to the casino:



Also, since I forgot to post it earlier here are the game settings:

Monarch indeed, so no free barb wins. Pay attention before you roll, son! Also, I'm glad vassal states are off. Playing as the Native Americans you can see how that would be a sensitive issue. Fortunately, there is no American civ in this game to make vassals of us.

I'm also just noticing the rocky climate setting. That would explain these damn peaks everywhere. Low sea level to maximize the tile count for 18 civ use, and to minimize the playground for any rogue barbarian attack subs. :neenernee

Good day today, I got to play two turns here and one in PBEM29.

[spacetyrantxenu]

Warrior moved closer to home, scout a bit further afield.

I swapped tiles in the capital so the warrior being built would finish the same turn the city grows. Then I'll start building a worker. The extra commerce gets AH a turn faster, IIRC.

I'd call for a dogpile on ASM for being last to play two straight turns, except I've played second to last or close to it myself for two turns. But who needs a good reason to dogpile? PYFT!

[Krill]

You just killed a little bit of my soul.

[novice]

Don't be mean, Krill.

Xenu, what do you gain by growing to size two before you start a worker?

[spacetyrantxenu]

You just killed a little bit of my soul.

I assume this is in response to my suboptimal play where I could be using the PHF to get the EXP bonus on the worker at size 1? If not then I'm too dense to interpret your brevity. The more interesting point you raise is the implication that you have a soul. That...saddens me! I had previously thought you invincible. Now I know you have a weakness and someone will one day exploit it.

Don't be mean, Krill.

Xenu, what do you gain by growing to size two before you start a worker?

Not much, really, except I felt safer with a second warrior on hand. I'm still new to MP Civ and don't want to be the second coming of Mortius in a PB game. I still want to send out a warrior scouting early on before the map gets too dangerous for a lone unit to make it very far, since map knowledge is going to be tough to come by later, nevermind making contact with more people. In terms of my short game planning, though, a worker would have made more sense but I'm a noob and I tend to build Too Much Military.

The plan is to build the worker at size 2 starting T11 working the unimproved wheat and ivory to get up to 4 hammers for the EXP bonus. The net result is a worker T23, which seems horribly late. The tradeoff is 11 lost worker turns by growing first, but gaining (short term) 24 commerce from those two unimproved tiles while building the worker and a bit (6 or 7?) more from working the river tiles while growing to 2. Long term I'm sure I lose a good deal more than that due to slower growth. I never said I was good at this game, but hopefully I won't die early on.

[spacetyrantxenu]

T5 - Scout found a hut, maybe we'll get lucky with a tech next turn.

Swapped tiles in the capital. Warrior due in 3, growth in 6 on my poorly reasoned plan to grow to 2 before building the worker. So much for throwing dice, huh?

Midturn demographics, tied for the lead in GNP although it's worthless at this stage. Just pointing it out since my slow growth may cause this to be close to the last time I'm at the top here.

Haters: Hate!

[Krill]

Actually it was due to working the river grassland and not the forest grassland. Growing or not isn't a bad question.

[spacetyrantxenu]

Point taken, hammers > commerce at this point since they're in shorter supply (w/ palace commerce driving research now). My rationale was that I wasn't in a rush to get the warrior done, except to get him out exploring a bit sooner, maybe save a turn on the research. In any case it was a short term play since there's a better tile available that I'm working now (unimproved river wheat).

Btw, I appreciate lurker input since I know I still suck at this game compared to some long time RBers. And no need to be nice about it when I do something stupid; I can cry on the inside

[spacetyrantxenu]

T6 - Warrior moves out north now that the capital can finish the second warrior without being double-moved first. He finds a nice flood plain area north of the capital and another hut.

The scout in the south grabbed 50 gold from his hut, so we're up to 76 now. Not as nice as a tech but I'll take it. Also, the scout found gold on the SE most visible tile.