[Spoilers] PBEM 63 - Ichabod's Thread, feat. a big crew

[Ichabod]

Exhibit B must surely have been swallowed by the forum, else it would have appeared by now.

The game started treating me a bit better after I complained about him, so we made peace.

A Financial civ hates lakes??

When they are positioned in such a way to mess up all the worker movements, yes.

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This was really infuriating:




I masterfully dribbled the damned bear, only to find out that there's a real Cordilheira dos Andes getting on the way of my poor scout. Just look at that, no way to go through! Of course, the bear wanted his revenge:




And he got it...




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Anyway, my demos are on the bottom right now, but I think that's the lowest they'll get. I finished the granary while doing the avoid growth trick, taking advantage of the order of the improvement of tiles:




Thought long and hard about where to settle my 3rd city. On the plains hill would be one turn faster (pigs already improved, by the way) and have silver on first ring instead of copper (I only revealed copper on the map recently, which was one of the other gripes I had with the map).




In the end, I decided to go 1NW, to get a coastal city, with copper on the first ring and fish on the second. I can work this really nice fish tile for a while and it'll already be improved when I settle a city there. Sounds good... Not an easy choice, though.




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My naming scheme is portuguese words that I think english speakers will find difficult to pronounce. Third city will be named "Calhambeque".

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[Ichabod]

AHEM!




All would be fine if the damned jungle wasn't taking away all my frassland...




Not to sound very pessimistic, but this really hinders any slim chance I had of winning this. It delays cottages and my fifth city...

[Ichabod]

I own everyone a decent update, but here's some pictures while we wait.

I'm actually in quite a decent situation, much to my surprise.










GNP is with no tech selected.

2 more cities coming next turn and on the following (for a total of 7). I already have a library up and I'm generating a GSci, likely for a GA to switch civics/religion and boost the teching during the bad parts. I have copper and horses hooked up. I have a decent amount of cottages and river. I have a religion, so that base is covered for the future...

I'm trying to value commerce above all else, since I won't get Mids or TGLh and I need to have an economy. It's AW, so I think commerce is more important, since you lose on valuable extra commerce from TRs and resource deals to boost happy/health.

Happiness will own me, unfortunately. I could have swaped to Buddhism, but I only have one city with it (which is currently unhappy due to whipping) and 1t of anarchy hurts. I think going for an early GA might be the way to go, and get in HR and OR too with it... But that might end up being a mistake, because I really need happy now and the only resource avaiable is silver... TBSeven must be having a field day with their CHA trait. Only other resource in sight is silk, way down south... CIV GODS, YOU GAVE ME BILLIONS OF JUNGLE GROWTHS, GIVE ME A RESOUCE POP, FFS! (incoming silver pop ).

Tentative research path goes towards Civil Service. I'd love to get into Bureau at the end of the same GA that I go into HR and OR, but I don't think I can live so long without the HR happiness.

We'll see.

[Ichabod]

Oh, by the way, I'm sandwiched between Mack and Seven! I love it!

[Ichabod]

My cities:




Remember, my theme is words in portuguese that are hard to pronounce by english speakers. Perhaps I should have chosen this theme in a game where other players could see my city names on the trade screen...

Interesting fact, cities A, B and D are connect to each other, but not to cities C, E and F, which are connected to each other. More interestingly, both of them have silver connected, but from different sources. ABD have horses, CEF have copper.




Random pic. I won't contest the yellow square crabs (don't want to antagonize TBSeven), so I'm thinking of a city to use the sheep on the black circle. The incense is a shame... I can't really take it safely from TBSeven and I didn't settle the city there for it. I could try to fort it...




Damned barbs showed up in the worst place at the worst time (yeah, not really true). I just finished a chariot to go exploring my NE, but I'll have to send it down here. So, the chariot will explore the south and I'll get another one for NE.

My next city will share the sheep. I need a farm to run 2 scientists, farm, cottage, cow. If I hadn't had so many jungle growths, that'd be easy. Well, I'll just farm the tile 1E of sheep.

Silk is the only other happy resource around...




New city is 1W of the crab lake. I'll chop the forest first, to speed up B's worker by 2 turns and I'll give the sheep to new city. Than, I'll chop a WB for new city. I need to make a little math to see if whipping granary at size 2 is better than whipping from 3 to 2.

Notice the barb city, I'll reveal it next turn by moving the quechua 1E.




Another barb city: please civ gods, make it be on an island. City C will get a galley, so I can potentially capture it. Hopefully it's an all warrior defense.

I'll whip a terrace in F and chop a monument, I think, for the rice... Not sure... Now that I think of it, perhaps I should have settle it 1W...




THAT GNP!

Likely Joey, since he has Oracle, Stonehenge and Judaism! All the culture.

[Ichabod]

You know what, I could aim for MoM... GJ went for wonders, and by score reading, it seems my opponents are having a hard time teching. I'll try and see if GJ oracled Calendar, by C&Ding prereq bonuses.

Is it worth it, though? Or should I go with the plan of a GA to change into HR + OR + Caste -> finishing it to get into Bureau. I have the tech for it, in a way...

Could I go for both? Perhaps... I'm not racing anyone for option number 2, other than my own needs. A MoM boosted GA would give me a boost there too. And I'm actually planning a city near the silk to be settled soon. City C could perhaps get a decent time on MoM...

If I find 2 more calendar resources while exploring for the next 10 turns or so, I'll go for MoM. I'll be accumulating money until then + just realized I should finish a library in my Capital.

That means I need another chariot from D, not a lighthouse. Exploring beats +1 food there. I'm thinking about how could I do it in a profitable way... Worker 2-pop whip, I think. Gets a chariot in 3 turns...

Interesting.

[Ichabod]

I'm trying to improve my macro play in this game, while being more laxed about micro. After this game, I want to join another one and play like a real pro!

[retep]

Sup Ichabod I didn't know you were playing here. Are you winning? If not I could kill this game

[Ichabod]

This game is pretty much over. SevenSwords has more food than the other players combined (yeah, that's an exhageration, but not by as much as I'd think). I'm playing unbearably bad and that's a shame. I really want this game to end as soon as possible and, frankly, I don't see it lasting that much more.

But for now, we wait...

[retap]

You want this game to end ASAP? If only there was someone with magic powers that make games to end