[SPOILERS - PBEM16] Dazedroyalty - Gilgamesh of Babylon

[Ichabod]

Well, losing the gold is worth not going to war with one of your neighbors. And is not like you'll be without land to settle soon.

The Krill situation is more worrisome. If he already gave up on the game, there's nothing to stop him from doing a suicide agressive praetorian attack on someone... Let's hope he goes after Serdoa if that's the case. Or maybe he's map comments are based on the fact that he doesn't have any iron. But I guess that's hoping for too much .

[Lewwyn]

I can't see the pictures because of the great China firewall, but it sounds like Scooter is browbeating you into a fair deal while he steals from Serdoa effectively getting free land all around. Can you still out settle him if you accept this agreement?

[dazedroyalty]

Lewwyn, I believe I can outsettle Scooter without a problem. I didn't promise him all of Serdoa's land, just one city. Plus, we don't even know if Serdoa is going to settle that soon or not. I have two strong and two mediocre backline cities to found still plus I'm scouting the islands which will probably be significant and have good settling sites. I think the benefit of a relatively safe border with scooter is worth giving up gold/banana, especially since I have another banana already. With Bowmen, I'm not worried about scooter in a war, but i'd prefer not to go to war at all!

Ichabod is right I think. Scooter and settling is not a problem. If Krill decides to send his praets at me and has only been staying at war with Serdoa to mask his intentions, then I'm gonna be in trouble.

[dazedroyalty]

So here's an interesting situation...

Krill and I have an implied NAP but nothing set in stone. I'm not really interested in war, but it is intriguing to note that I could probably wipe out his iron city next turn. Part of me thinks this is a great way to finally hurt Krill like the original plan. On the other hand, it would make Krill a long term enemy. Admittedly, I know where his Iron is and if I put my best efforts on it, I could keep him from ever hooking it up... but that's not something I'm really wanting to invest in. So instead, I'm going to send Krill an email and tell him I'm not planning to attack. He'll still probably interpret it as a hostile move -- which, honestly, is legitimate. My motivation for moving there was simply to see what I could see.

Speaking of emails...

Dazed,

how is it going for you? In my part of the world, things evolving slowly but they do evolve. I got my fourth city now and will settle my 5th soon as well. Need to get more workers and some forces first though, just to be save.

You will notice that I have 45 EP on you as of this turn. I will now stop spending them on you and would like to request you to do the same as soon as you have my graphs. Please let me know if we can agree on that.

Also I know that we are some ways away from each other, but I still would like to ask if you are interested in a NAP. To be honest I would like to sign one, just to show that we do not intend to attack nor to help others attack. I guess that is probably even more in your interest then in mine as you are clearly in front right now

Kind regards,
Serdoa

I haven't responded yet.

[dazedroyalty]

Time for the T50 state of the empire report. I'm mostly gonna let pictures do the talking:

Overview:

Demos:

Score graph:

MFG:

Crop:

Power:

Culture:

EP:

F1:

Every Breath:

Billie Jean:

Flashdance:

Down Under:

A couple of quick thoughts/questions.

Despite having serdoa's graphs for a long time, I no longer have access to them as of last turn because he focused on me. Now i'm trying to get them back. I also have mh's graphs finally!

I've been trying to figure out how Krill got a one turn jump in EPs. There's no way he has courthouses already. He hasn't built the Great Wall to work a spy specialist. I need to think about this more. I'm sure it's easy/obvious but I can't come up with it right now.

At 0 research, I'm gaining 13 gold (and 7 science from the specialists). At 100 science, I'm gaining 43 beakers but -16 gold.

Things I think I'm doing well:
-only working improved tiles.
-Worker:city ratio (currently 7:4 in two turns it will be 8:5)
-Trying to swing an early academy
-Scouting islands

Things I'm not doing well:
-using chops strategically
-understanding when double whipping is best
-Lack a long term research goal

Please feel free to let me know if you have other additions to the Well or Not Well list!

[mackoti]

well i think in this mod double whip is never best.

[dazedroyalty]

mackoti, I think that's probably true unless there is a desperate and immediate need--so that's actually helping me in this game since that isn't my strong suit. I think i could have used forest chops to be even further ahead than I am. The good thing is that I think I can make it to math before having to chop down all my forests now.

[dazedroyalty]

I settled city #5 and I'm the first to do it! Woot! Beat it was chosen because I wanted the happy resource so my other cities could expand:

As you can see, I had the cows pastured and ready to be worked the turn it was founded. I also have a WB ready to go when the borders pop next turn. To borrow from Hannibal: "I love it when a plan comes together!"

My island exploring has lead to the disappointing fact that I probably can't get circumnavigation. My guess is that this is a Pangaea map with a few islands. I could be wrong but it's my guess.

I've scouted pretty much all of mh's southern border:

I had a deal with Krill to trade me his world exploration (with the idea of saving me time exploring myself) but it's pretty much a waste now because I have scouted it all myself--probably even more than he has. To be fair, I anticipated that was possible. The deal was mostly meant to warm Krill up to me and it didn't "cost" me anything. So i'm okay with his scouting being a waste when it comes in. I bet he thinks it is swell that he got a world map but didn't have to pay his half till 30 turns or more later and that I'm a bit of a sucker.

Anyways, an overview of the homelands:

I'm pretty excited that I am going to be getting those Gems on line in 3 turns, which means all my cities can pretty much keep growing without fear of unhappiness for a while!

Billie Jean just finished another worker. Every Breath will finish a new settler next turn. My first Axe is coming down from Down Under (hehe)--he's currently on the bronze. Once Down Under finishes it's library, I'll have them in every town except the newest one!

I have a NAP with Scooter till T80 so I only need to worry about Krill. He's articulated that he isn't coming after me and I've chatted with him to confirm. His response "unless you piss me off." So that's pretty vague but I feel good for now. I would be tempted to say that I am running a farmers gambit except I'm still #1 in power! Two chariots, an axe and 5 (?) warriors.

I'm debating city site 6 now. I am leaning towards settling the wet rice site in teh NW corner of the overview map next. I want to have a good foot in the ground there. Then I'd probably settle adjusted "pink dot." After that I'll have to re-evaluate but I'd either settle the GP sea farm straight east of Every Breath or I'd try to get onto the islands. The islands are basically back line cities because neither Scooter or Krill can get to the two I see without passing my coastal cities. I really hope that there is one more seafood in the fog south of the "middle" island! At first pass, I think two cities is all the more I could fit on that island. 3 woudl only be possible if i settled three corners.

[dazedroyalty]

Sorry it's been a while since I updated. There is not much going on in this game... at least in my neck of the woods. The fun news is that Krill declared war on mh as well as Serdoa. From what I can gather, it was over settling location but according to mh, they had already made an agreement and krill was going back on it. I don't know if that's true but it's possible since he may have realized he had less land than he thought he did.

Also, Serdoa JUST finished the Oracle last turn. I need to send him a congratulatory email and find out what he's going to get with it.

I, on the other hand, just popped my first great scientist who ran over to my capital and built an academy. At 100% science it was a jump of about 12 beakers per turn. However, I'm not running 100% to keep the demos in check and because I want to keep research on for a little while.

Demos:

I just finished teching masonry and I'm trying to make a run for Monotheism. I'm not sure if it is gonna happen because I think Krill may also be going that way, but I'd really like a religion to boost my happy cap and hopefully get into Organized Religion for production!

Also, you will note when you look at my overview that I am building stonehenge. Couple of reasons: 1) border city so extra culture will be good, 2) want to get a great prophet IF i found a religion and 3) if not, I wouldn't mind the cash if someone else builds it. Serdoa's Oracle was the first wonder built in this game though so I'm thinking no one is going for it. If I don't get monotheism I'm definitely going for Code of Laws!

Overview:

I will be founding the city right east of my capital next turn and finally getting to Pink Dot that I negotiated with Scooter in 3 turns. I need more workers so that is my next goal. I'm also trying to keep my power up high enough to deter attacks. Hoepfully since Krill is already going against 2 people I'm safe from him. I have a NAP with Scooter till T80.

So the immediate plan is workers, a military build or two, then if all goes well, missionaries!

[dazedroyalty]

I thought this was funny. Scooter just said to me in a chat:

Yeah... you having bowmen has turned out to be huge... only krill could do something to you, but he's been busy not getting along with everyone else too

Funny thing is that I haven't researched Archery yet! HAH!

I can get Polytheism and Monotheism each in 1 turn so hopefully it will go well. But apparently there is a growing desire from other players to call this one a game. I still don't think it's in the bag but the NAP with Scooter till T80 and Krill getting himself into two other wars helps!