[SPOILERS] Ceiliazul's First Dance: Louis of the Ottomen

[Ceiliazul]

-Bronze Working done, pushing me to #2 Soldier count (20k)
-Copper revealed in exactly the location Cat said it would
-I'm still the only one with 2 cities... but expect 2 or 3 other teams will settle in the next 2 turns.
-For the first time ever, I have the highest score! Sure it's tied... but 10 turns ago I was Beiber's punching bag!

See why I said Copper was perfect? Those are preplanned cities, but will now be able to swap a 5H tile to maximum effect!

[Ceiliazul]

I've filled in the appropriate colors based on Catwalk's description. I've also colored in the likely first 3 cities for myself and Cat. Just a reminder, (if anyone needed it) this map is cramped!

This also illustrates just how quickly those centers are going to be settled. Catwalk and I separately selected the same square for horse city, and surely everyone will be settling somewhat NW for the horse and lux... so I suspect each player will get first opportunity to settle the "X" to their north.

All the more reason to make sure I settle my 2nd gold early.

Also note on the map that city 4 may go east. With copper in range of my original middle dot, city 4 may go for the wheat/clams site. It is a strong site compared to lower dot, and saves ~2gpt compared due to reduced distance maint. Commerce drives EVERYTHING in Ancient Ottomania.

After city 4, we cannot expand until Biohazard grows into some cottages, and we cannot grow until we find some lux. Interesting challenges, and stuff I've never dealt with in SP.

[Ceiliazul]

we cannot grow until we find some lux.

Well, that or stack a bunch of rocks to get representation...

[Commodore]

Well, that or stack a bunch of rocks to get representation...

Seen stone yet? Or is Catwalk 100% sure there's none?

Or are you just going to chop the bloody things...seriously, Louis is a great fit for the 'mids, able to cheaply build libraries and forges everywhere for 6b scientists and 3b, 2h engineers.

[Ceiliazul]

Or is Catwalk 100% sure there's none?

No stone, but Catwalk's map had 4 tiles unexplored... we'll def check that out.

As for 'mids, it doesn't really matter if those 4 tiles have stone because it'll cost 13gpt to put a city there! I don't know about chopping them out, certainly not until after Math/Forges.

Edit: I'm definitely planning to settle the centers, just not in the ancient (or maybe even classical) age. Anyone who does is killing themselves.

[Ceiliazul]

By the way, welcome back! You were missed over at PBEM26.

Is 24 rolling again?

[Commodore]

By the way, welcome back! You were missed over at PBEM26.

Is 24 rolling again?

Hah, thanks, but it's just hotel wireless actually working this morning, 24's been rolling, just been a little bandwidth constrained to post pictures. I've been checking out the thread from time to time, great work on the nuts-fast second city, your Louis is moving at Bismark/Augustus speeds!

[Ceiliazul]

Well, Cull has had the save for 17 hours, and missed his preferred window. on a weekend. Guess no turn tonight.

Instead, how about a C&D update:

Pegasus hit the whip on t23**, but also learned a tech. His total power was -3k, so that's Wheel, Which makes perfect sense. The whip was almost certainly a settler, who spent t24 walking and will most likely settle on t25. Know what sucks for Peg? No wheel means a long walk through the forests to get to the rich West. Bummer for him. He certainly has 2 workers done by now, so he'll fix that in short order.

Catwalk has been troubling me. beaker counts just don't make sense. He had the league leading GNP for most of the game, but his techs researched don't reflect that. Either he's got some uncompleted techs (bad for him) or... I'm missing something (bad for me.) He teched AH on t19. t21 he got something without power... this is almost definitely mysticism.

Ad-hoc got Polytheism on t21. Why he didn't save 20 beakers and go for Meditation is beyond me. Again, Ad-hoc is dangerously short on worker techs, and will likely be in a hole for a long time. Good news is he got a powerless tech on t24... fishing! Last one into the water, welcome to the club!

Cull is another one whose beakers don't really line up. The big mystery is that he spent 9 turns researching something without power. Either he's swapping around, or that's pottery. Could be mysticism, in which case someone's going to get left out of the religion race. Either way, he doesn't have bronze working yet, and doesn't seem particularly interested in growing. He could have 3 workers and a settler moving by now, so he may shoot up like a rocket real soon... but there's no evidence of that yet.

Aristotle's most advance civs:

Pegasus the rocket
Ceiliazul the optimistic
Catwalk the solid
Cull the inscrutible
Adhoc the wanderer



**Actually he did it on t22, but I saw it on t23. All future analysis will indicate the turn I saw it. This means all updates are 1 turn late, except Cull.

[pindicator]

Aristotle's most advance civs:

Pegasus the rocket
Ceiliazul the optimistic
Catwalk the solid
Cull the inscrutible
Adhoc the wanderer

Ha! I love this

[Ceiliazul]

Turn played, and hopefully a blitz is brewing later today! Assuming a true blitz is still possible at t25...)

Still no other cities founded, though Catwalk finally got 3rd ring borders on his capital. Cows are improved, leading to this fun (and temporary!) bit of boasting:

MFG + Crop yield:
Ceiliazul = 28
Catwalk = 22 (and he has AH confirmed)
Adhoc = 16
Peg = 16 (due to whip)
Cull = 11

Using Catwalk's map, I filled in some worldbuilder tiles. Here's what each "X" likely looks like. Ignore the AI starts, I created this sim before I knew the alignment. I haven't convinced myself to replay the sim from t0 to fix it. Note that the 2 LUX shown there can't be tapped with a single city. Makes them just a little less tasty, but still very productive spots. (Ice is the unexplored tiles, rivers are guess based on the 3 corners I have seen.)