The scratching post

[pindicator]

Who needs MS Paint when you have Excel?

[Catwalk]

Well, this process was kind of lengthy :P But I had a lot of fun doing it, and it should come in handy. I plan on sending Ad Hoc a copy, he should be able to fill out the blanks.

its good to get confirmation that the map is as i thought, it is also becoming apparent that the terrain is as i thought and is repeated for each person so what you find to the west of your capital is the same as west of my capital. the only difference seems to be happies and health which are in the same places but are different types.

i think it best if we tell no one that we have met just to keep people of guard, i should be approching another capital within the next two turns so will let you know who it is.

Ad Hoc

[haphazard1]

Very nice.

From the layout, your southern warrior can check that area of fog, then swing just a bit west and meet whoever has their capital at I-25. From there a quick journey SSW would meet the rival at C-7. And then you will have contact with everyone, which is good for diplo and also gets you some small bonuses when researching techs already learned by others.

[Catwalk]

Hello Cull!

My warrior has travelled long and far to reach your lands so we may pay our respects. You should see it SW of your capital, saying hi to your worker. Rest assured that it has no plans to try to steal your worker or cause other mischef, and I will be happy to sign a short NAP to that effect if you so desire. I hope all is well with your empire, it looks like your lands are as rich as mine. I plan on traversing NW from here, I hope I may do so without provoking you.

Best regards,
Catwalk, chief advisor to Peter of Rome (land of feline math nerds)

Should we try to buddy up with him as well? I want to align strongly with Ad Hoc, but we might be able to add a third party to that circle. I'll ask Ad Hoc what he thinks. Cull has a worker mining his pigs (same location as ours). I've sent my worker SW to start chopping the forest there. I've started on another worker, but I think I'll switch that to a settler for a turn or two and then switch back to the worker when the chop comes (taking full advantage of the 25%). Remind me to do this!

[Catwalk]

Sent Ad Hoc the following message:

I've made a spreadsheet for mapping out our lands, duplicating everything as we suspect it has been. It doesn't note forests, and I notice that those do seem to differ a little bit. If you're able to fill out some of the blanks, that'd be great. Do you think we should try to establish mutual positive relations with Cull? Ceiliazul also seems quite seasoned to me, and he has Commodore as a dedicated lurker. If the three of us buddy up a little and expand semi-aggressively towards Ad Hoc and Ceiliazul, I think we stand to benefit. With easy access to each other, an identical map and somewhat cramped surroundings, I think small diplomatic ploys become vital. If we move too slowly, the other 3 players might band up against us. Not suggesting we do anything underhand, just want to make sure we aren't taken advantage of.

Correspondence with Cull so far:

Hello Cull!

My warrior has travelled long and far to reach your lands so we may pay our respects. You should see it SW of your capital, saying hi to your worker. Rest assured that it has no plans to try to steal your worker or cause other mischef, and I will be happy to sign a short NAP to that effect if you so desire. I hope all is well with your empire, it looks like your lands are as rich as mine. I plan on traversing NW from here, I hope I may do so without provoking you.

Best regards,
Catwalk, chief advisor to Peter of Rome (land of feline math nerds)

Greetings!

Your warrior is welcome here, my friend. If we could sign a 5t NAP just to take away any chance of mischief, not that I would believe that you would do such a thing, I would be well obliged．
Also: At an interview, a mathematician and a physicist are asked: Suppose you see a burning house, a hydrant and a hose not connected to the hydrant. What would you do?
P: I would attach the hose to the hydrant, turn on the water, and put out the fire.
M: I would attach the hose to the hydrant, turn on the water, and put out the fire.
Then they are asked: Suppose you see a house and a hose attached to a hydrant. What would you do?
P: there is no problem so I wouldn't do anything.
M: I would disconnect the hose from the hydrant and set the house on fire, reducing the problem to a previously solved form.

Then it is agreed, we shall have no bloodshed between our great peoples for a little bit. Your anecdote does great justice to the brilliant logic of mathematicians, we furballs would solve the problem in the same manner. How is your empire progressing? As you may have suspected from the score, I went for a workboat first and just got my first worker online. Still not sure if that was the best move, but I just can't resist a workboat start when I see one.

[Catwalk]

Ad Hoc expanded some on my Excel map, and informed me that the horses are 1S of the planned orange site. Works well with our dotmap, we'll have horses and copper in the first rings of our first two settled cities. My worker will finish chopping in 3 turns, which will be enough to finish the next worker. I'm currently producing a settler, switching back to the worker for the chop then finihsing the settler. City screen:

I'm currently working the lake because it allows me to finish AH one turn earlier. Will pasture the pigs after the first chop, then mine the copper and have the other worker probably chop some more in Cheezburgers.

My warriors are noted with xxx. The northern warrior will travel W to meet Ceiliazul and the southern warrior will travel SW to meet Pegasus. The map is still perfectly duplicative except for forest/jungle and happiness resources.

And demographics. I think I'm doing quite nicely here.

[haphazard1]

So Ad Hoc has Animal Husbandry already, since he told you where horses are. (Or knows someone who does, and got the info from them.) Still, you are only a turn away so this is not a big deal.

Horses at the orange site...wow. That was already going to be a very nice city, now it is going to be a monster. Of course, everyone will have the same opportunity to put a city there.

Demographics look good indeed. Tied for the lead on GNP, and since that includes culture output you are actually doing slightly better on real commerce than your creative rivals. Land area is just the result of creative civs having already popped the capital's borders again -- 34 tiles fits exactly with a third ring which covers the 3 lake tiles. So no one has founded a second city yet. Other stats also looking good.

Nice planning with the chop, making the most of your expansive bonus for the extra hammers on the worker. I saw the thread about expansive, it is a very nice trait in many ways. Especially those cheap granaries! I am currently playing an archipelago game (GOTM 71 at Civ Fanatics), and having to wait for low-hammer island cities to grow all the way to size 4 before I can whip in the granary is just agonizingly slow. Sure wish I was expansive in that game.

[Catwalk]

Horses at the orange site...wow. That was already going to be a very nice city, now it is going to be a monster. Of course, everyone will have the same opportunity to put a city there.

I'm thinking about settling on the orange site first. I'll have 4 resources available prior to border popping, vs 2 at the red site. It'll take 2 more turns for my settler to get there, since I started chopping the forest blocking the red site. Any thoughts?

Also, I think that marble and stone will be found at the blank surrounded by peaks and desert. I want to make one of those sites a priority as well, maybe try to negotiate borders fairly soon with Cull in exchange for map information. After coordinating with Ad Hoc, I don't want to risk upsetting our good relationship.

[haphazard1]

Both sites are strong, with good resources in the inner ring. I don't think order will matter all that much, so pick whichever one you prefer or whichever resource you want to use first (chariots or axes/spears). Just plan to get another settler out for the other site soon.

[Catwalk]

There's definitely a teaser site in between those peaks, just uncovered more flood plains and river grassland with pigs on them. We will each have one of those sites, and they're placed in between rivals. Once one site has been settled, it'll start determining which site others have to go for.

I'm in doubt about when to start prioritizing defense, and how soon to get Mysticism. The plan right now is Wheel => Pottery => Mysticism, which leaves a lot of time for others to pick up Stonehenge. I'm strongly considering Mysticism => Polytheism => Wheel => Pottery instead, in order to get Stonehenge started sooner and get to Hinduism first. I'll reach Pegasus next turn, I think I want to try to find out if him and Cull have any designs for Hinduism.

Contacted Cull and Ad Hoc

Greetings Ad Hoc.

As I mentioned earlier, I'm interested in developing a good relationship with Cull. He seems to be one of the lesser threats in the game, and correspondence with him has been friendly so far. I place high value on friendly relations between your empire and my own as well, so I'm forwarding you the message I sent him so as to keep you informed of my plans. If my theory about stone and marble in between the peaks holds true, I think we should discussing some kind of settlement plan that doesn't screw over either one of us. There's one spot like that for each of us, and it'll probably cause major early strife if any player is blocked out of nearby sites. Let me know what you think.

Hello mighty Cull!

Being the smart felines that we are, we just figured out that it makes a lot more sense to have other animals doing the job for us, and we found these here animals who squirt milk whenever we squeeze some weird things hanging down. We're currently trying to decide where to focus our efforts next, and want to see if it's possible to avoid stepping on each other's toes. Specifically, do you have any plans to grab either Hinduism or Stonehenge? Being the only non-Creative empire in these lands, we need to find ways to cover our cultural weaknesses. So these two priorities are very high on our list, as we're somewhat concerned at the prospects of losing one cultural battle after another this game. While I don't expect you to reveal your plans, I'd greatly appreciate some minor cooperation on this point. Let me know if there is anything I can help you with.

Best regards,
Catwalk