A long time ago on a planet far far away....

[Ellimist]

And, "Barbarian" founds Christianity two turns before I was going to. Meh... That's frustrating. So now the question is what to take with the Oracle(which still hasn't been built.)

Philosophy is a possibility(for Taoism), but it would require Code of Laws and meditation. Civil Service would take even longer(CoL and Math.) Feudalism is a possibility(just Monarchy), but is rather underwhelming. Meanwhile, if I'm researching those prereq techs, I'm not researching other stuff.

I could just grab one of the techs available to me right now, but I'd prefer to grab something decisive. Of course, if I delay, there's a chance I could lose the wonder entirely. Right now, I can finish it next turn if I want or delay it indefinitely. (I whipped the Library in Herbert this turn but haven't chopped yet.)

I'll work on setting up dropbox tonight and get some images up.

[Ellimist]

Hmmm, dropbox still won't work. I'm not sure why it isn't working, but I guess I'll just use imageshack for now.

I see four main contenders for Oracle-worthy techs right now:
Metal Casting - 540 beakers, immediately available
Feudalism - 840 beakers, needs Monarchy(7 turns)
Philosophy - 960 beakers, needs Code of Laws(9 turns) and Meditation(2 turns)
Civil Service - 960 beakers, needs Code of Laws(9 turns) and Mathematics(7 turns)

Metal Casting is significantly nerfed on this map. I won't be getting too many cities without a fight, so Colossus won't provide a very significant boost. Plus forges won't give me any happiness and Triremes will just get destroyed by Barb caravels. Overall, it's not nearly as good as it normally would be(esp with this much water.)

Feudalism isn't a bad option. It would give me Vassalage and Longbows, and that's about it. I'd also be able to research Monarchy next which is worth considering. Unfortunately, I don't really gain very much from Vassalage and Longbows. I mean, I guess they're decent if I'm about to get attacked, but I don't think I'd have a hard time holding people off with the units already available to me.

Philosophy is probably my last real shot at founding a religion, and even then I might fail to get it. Other than that, it's a prereq for Nationalism and Liberalism, but otherwise useless to me.

Civil Service would be the holy grail of techs to grab with the Oracle, but do I really expect that nobody else will build it for another 11-16 turns or so? And do I really want to delay Monarchy, Sailing, etc. by that much?

FWIW, I set tech to 0% for this turn and didn't chop the forest at Herbert.

[Ellimist]

In other T60 news...

Every player currently has 3 cities. My next settler finishes at the end of turn 63, but Serdoa just did a big whip and Pegasus just did 2 whips(one was a library at Edirne), so I suspect we'll all have 4 soon.

Pegasus has been spending all his EPs on me for quite awhile now, and I've responded by doing the same to him. I'm not sure why he is, but his power graph has been relatively flat so I'm not worried yet.

Nakor's graphs suggest that he's under a choke of some sort by Serdoa. At least, he's falling behind somewhat.

I'll post every remotely relevant screenshot once I get dropbox figured out. Imageshack is a pain on windows 7.

[Ceiliazul]

In other T60 news...

I'll post every remotely relevant screenshot once I get dropbox figured out. Imageshack is a pain on windows 7.

I've had a lot of success with dropbox on Win7. Just drag and drop the pics in the dropbox/public folder, then right click on a file and select 'dropbox' -> 'public link'

I look forward to seeing your reports!

[Ellimist]

Another turn came in early today. I went ahead and selected Monarchy and turned tech on. I should be able to finish it on T66(total of 6 turns with double prereq), and I'll time the Oracle to finish at the same time and grab Feudalism. Probably. Even a 6 turn delay might be too long.

Ultimately, I don't think it's worthwhile for me to spend the next 11 turns researching two techs I don't need(CoL and Meditation) in order to take another tech I don't need(Philosophy), with a good chance that Barbarian will beat me to the religion anyway. Aiming for Civil Service would delay the Oracle further than I'm comfortable with and I'd probably lose it entirely.

Vassalage combines well with Hereditary Rule and I wanted to get Monarchy next anyway. Plus Orwell and Verne share a wines resource so that'll be handy. Early longbows with 5 exp each ought to be able to deter any possible invasion.

I don't know whether I'll bother with the Pyramids. It's probably not worth it, but maybe it will be reasonably doable with chops and overflow.

[Ellimist]

I've had a lot of success with dropbox on Win7. Just drag and drop the pics in the dropbox/public folder, then right click on a file and select 'dropbox' -> 'public link'

I look forward to seeing your reports!

Yeah, I've used it plenty on XP, but it's having trouble getting set up on my new computer. Imageshack seems to require a few more steps than usual to use on 7, or I'd post more pictures with it. Or maybe it's just IE. I haven't installed firefox yet.

[Catwalk]

Do you know what any of your opponents are up to, and do you feel certain you'll land the Oracle on time? Pyramids looks attractive with Stone IMO, the failgold will be worthwhile if you don't get it.

[Ellimist]

I'm not sure whether they're building it, no. Serdoa is fighting Nakor so I don't think they're going for it. Pegasus could easily be going for it though. It's really quite cheap with Marble.

I might actually be able to shave a turn off Monarchy. Or maybe I'll just grab MC.

Even with stone, the Pyramids are 250 hammers. I'm not going to spend that much for them unless I can get away with delaying them significantly.

[Ellimist]

Sooo... I suppose I should post something. This may sound like I've basically checked out of this one.

Serdoa pretty much has this, I think. He built the Oracle and finished off Nakor, and he can expand as quickly as I can due to EXP. There isn't any contested land for me to try for unless I want to take on at least two barbarian caravels.

I had the Oracle ready to finish a long time before Serdoa finished it, but I discovered Monotheism barely too late to found Christianity. Barbarian (barely) beat me to it. So then I waited to finish it for a few more turns(4 or 5 I think) to research Monarchy and grab feudalism. Serdoa (barely, again) beat me to it and I haven't even tried to figure out what he grabbed with it.

Now both of them are spending all of their EPs on me and I think my lack of attention to diplo is going to hurt me again. After pbem21 I haven't had a lot of interest in diplo, which pretty much doomed me in FFH12 as well.

I don't really have a plan, tbh, beyond survival. I don't have any direction I can expand towards. I don't know how I can compete with Serdoa here, especially if he's somehow gotten Peg in his pocket as I suspect. I'm still considering chopping out the Pyramids, but I don't know how that's going to turn the tables.

Even more than the lack of religion, the lack of forge resources has really put pressure on the happiness caps. I'm just now researching Metal Casting, but forges will only help me with hammers.

[Ellimist]

I also want to mention the type of map I thought we would have.

Something large-ish, with expansion limited mostly by preplaced barbarian units or cities. Each player has access to a lot of land, but only if they can take/hold it from the natives. Each player can expand a lot, but farmers gambits are out. Resource distribution is normal. Players are more likely to fight barbarian units than other players for the first 100 or so turns.

Instead, we have a map where expansion is primarily limited by a lack of land to expand into and a lack of happiness(for whipping). The map itself reminds me of a "knife fight" setting on a RTS game. Each player is confined to a small island and there is tundra(wtf?) between them so nobody can really do a non-invasion land grab. So far I can count the number of barbarians I've killed on one hand and that's only because I've deliberately left them a place to spawn for unit exp purposes. Resource distribution could be worse, but I have yet to see several important luxuries(gold/silver/gems.)

Sorry if I'm not being charitable here. It's not a big deal, just somewhat frustrating.