Cheater Hater, Ruler of the Modbreakers

[Cheater Hater]

I meant Ravnica (the capital)--as always the way to get lurker comments is to make a mistake

As for settling over water, the main reason is that I just think it would be more expensive (even though vassals aren't on), and it has a lot more unknowns. I'm not opposed to settling over the water--in fact you'll notice I'm finally completing the galley in Ravnica this turn, and I moved an Impi from Theros over to Ravnica so I can load it next turn and unload it the turn after across the canal. I was thinking I would do that mainly so I could meet FinHarry's neighbors (don't forget that open borders is useful for more than just trade routes ), but I could also scout potential city sites. If we assume FinHarry's going to settle a city by my crab, I think I would want a city across from Lorwyn (1S of the deer is a good spot, since it shares the crab with Lorwyn and has a lot of possibly good tiles).

The other problem is I don't know if I can balance settling cities across the canal with starting my military buildup for the second assault against Whosit. I think I can start the deer settler in Ravnica right away and 2-pop whip it in 4/5 turns, which will give me a couple turns to build something before I have to start building only cats/war elephants/other military to attack Whosit. I don't know how much else I could dedicate to across the canal stuff (and I don't know how much I would want to, considering I don't know how much land is left/is inhabitable).

The other water I could possibly go across is the stuff in the SE by Kamigawa and Plano--I need to scout down there as well, which is going to happen more slowly if I have to keep my Galley around Ravnica/Lorwyn to ferry units across the canal--I probably need another Galley for the south, but I'm not sure I can afford to build one

[Cheater Hater]

T99 Report:
Interesting turn today--we'll at least start with the domestic overview:




We had a couple of interesting whip decisions today--I decided not to whip the settler in Zendikar (at least not yet--I'm still undecided at this point) since it needs to recover from its tons of whip unhappiness and I'd be whipping away a cottage, but did decide to 2-pop whip the Ikhanda in Kamigawa since it's near the happy cap, out of improved tiles to work, and I only whipped away two grassland mines. The Ikhanda also had exactly 31 hammers left, so I got maximum overflow that I can put into actual military, though I'm not sure what yet (an archer or an axe I think). Nothing else was exciting as far as builds go, other than that I started a settler in Ravnica. I was able to reduce the slider on Currency yet again and still have it on pace to finish next turn--hooray for flexibility!

I also found FinHarry's settler--it's with the axe. I don't know if it's going to settle on that current spot, since I don't see any food in its first ring--it does have 2 food in the second ring I can see, but I doubt he's getting my crabs any time soon, and the deer isn't that good by itself--and as such I hope it isn't moving southward. However, that isn't the only foreign unit across water I can see in that picture--can you spot it?


So there is another person on my continent

14. Ruff_Hi
I know of Ruff_Hi from his single player reports, but he doesn't seem to be as proficient (or as prolific) at multiplayer--still, I'd watch out.

Ruff: Augustus Caesar/America (Ind/Imp)
Another boring trait combo, but America's a lot more interesting--both the uniques were brought forward, but they don't seem that overpowered compared to, say, Russia or Germany. The Minuteman doesn't have that much of a change, but then the new Mall seems good, if a bit situational (needing resources to get any unique benefits).

So the stats aren't that interesting, but we can get some more information on him:


The Imperialistic civ's only up to 8 cities? That's fewer cities than I have, and that's after I lost two. Also notice he has Currency already, so he can certainly afford to have more cities.


At least he's using his Industrious trait--part of his slow growth could be attributed to getting Stonehenge at an extremely early date. (also, a size 12 city by T100? )


This is interesting--Ruff knows Krill/novice and Whosit, but not dtay? Where could he be? Is he in that large patch of fog between Whosit and Krill/novice? Is he east of Krill/novice? I really want to get a scout east of Whosit, but I'm pretty sure I can't afford to do so--maybe when my scout finally gets bumped out of its little corner, or I can get open borders with dtay?

Now to demo analysis:








I mean, the demo dump, since there isn't much analysis to do this turn

[Cheater Hater]

Again, I'd like to repeat my request that all turn splits are public information--it doesn't look like this turn will roll especially late, but the fact that people are delaying the game based on "this is a turn split" is setting a dangerous precedent.
T100 Report:
Well, Currency is finally in, how well did it improve my economy?


Wait, what? Oh boy--AI Diplo diplomacy
I'll admit, I don't really know that much about this form of "communication"--I accepted based on the idea that "resource for resource" trades generally mean peace, but from what I saw in PB13 that's generally fish for fish and the like, but does doing anything different with strategic resources change the meaning? In fact, does this have any in-game effect? I think this means if his horse is disconnected, then mine disappears--is that right? Can I trade the horse I received from FinHarry to anyone else? I don't think I could this turn, but that could just be because I just received the horses. I mean, the actions I did later this turn should signal peace more than any trade would, so hopefully FinHarry doesn't decide to declare for a random reason :/

Anyway, as I was saying, how does my economy look now that I have Currency?




So the answer is "okay, but not quite the miracle I figured it would be". If you compare the diplo picture to last turn, you can see that at 80% I'm getting 10 more BPT, and the deficit is 2 GPT less, so it's definitely an improvement. I decided to move the slider back to break-even (which is a respectable 50%) for the short-term, and that 10 turns is really close to 9, so you can treat it like 9--unfortunately the peace treaty with Whosit expires in 6 turns
However, the extra trade route isn't the only thing that Currency gives--I completely forgot that Expansive gives me cheap Markets as well! I decided to start one in Ravnica (and that will get helped along by a chop, and possibly a whip shortly), and I might start one in Zendikar as well if I think I can afford it. As you can see I also decided to whip the settler in Zendikar this turn--the ivory settler will be the last one I get for a while I think, and I think I can afford the one last whip--if Whosit's troops start to move I still have enough for some emergency whips.

Speaking of Whosit, I got vision on Prairie Garden for the first time in a while--I really don't like that he's keeping his stack there, almost certainly assuring he'll be back for round 2 when the treaty expires. Still, I don't think he's added that much to the stack, while I'm continuing to pump out Archers and other units while waiting for Construction to show up.

As for our horse-obsessed neighbor, I finally landed a unit across the canal:


You'll also notice I only dropped off the Impi--you can see in the previous shot that FinHarry is moving their settler more to the south, so there's no point in leaving an archer to guard the spot I'm not going to be able to settle. I haven't seen much yet--more sheep being the most exciting discovery--but assuming FinHarry doesn't kill my Impi out of spite/desire to guard information, I'll get much more information in the coming turns.

Now to demos--it's not quite a dump this time, but there still isn't that much to cover:


Apparently that ~12 CPT was enough to push me up five spots, and this is at only 50% on a tech I presume few people know. I should check what my ranking is if I switch to Mediation at 100% or something
Unfortunately, my power ranking still not great, though I'm getting better at local power:


I've clearly passed Krill/novice now--though they're the ones I should be least worried about right now




My other stats are okay at least--remember the GNP graph doesn't include Currency yet.


Here's something different--I don't know how much each person's gold reserve tells us, but it's interesting at least once, right?

A final set of quick hits: Krill/novice and Ruff both settled another city this turn, and Krill/novice finished Pyramids and revolted to Representation--no fail gold chance on that one

[Cheater Hater]

Crap, I forgot to play my turn tonight--don't let it roll without me playing please

[Cheater Hater]

You can tell the turns are boring since I skipped reporting last turn
T101-102 Report:




As you could guess, not much is happening--Mercadia finally grew so I could whip the Monument (and add yet another work boat to Lorwyn's queue--I don't like Lorwyn building all of these (since I want to get a Market in there soon), but Ravnica is busy and all the southern cities can't afford the production (since they need Granaries and Lighthouses)), and I'm getting more Markets built.

I also have some more military coming out at end of turn--I think both Theros and Kamigawa are full-military for a while now (at least until the end of the second Whosit war) since I'm still behind on power and they don't have much else to build.

The weirdest part is that I'm still not sure how trade routes work--Lorwyn, Rath, and Muraganda aren't getting trade routes from FinHarry, even though we both have Currency and he has many more cities than I do. The trade route algorithm chooses the best trade routes, right? Unless FinHarry have met someone else across the water (and I checked, they still don't have contact with anyone else I have contact with yet, much less open borders), my trade routes should be best. Of course, if they've met someone else, I'll probably meet them soon:


Really, their capital was that close? Granted, they didn't get open borders until recently, so it's not that big of a deal. He also has barely any units guarding these cities, though I can't afford to attack them while Whosit lurks on my border.

One more interesting thing before moving to demos, though this actually comes from last turn:


Interesting--Whosit moved his troops back
My guess is that he's just trying to hide them from me, but maybe he will attack someone else


I still have middling stats--even Currency didn't help as much as I wanted, likely since I didn't get all the FinHarry trade routes I expected


Krill/novice and I continue jousting--at least I have some more power coming next turn, and the next batch will probably have at least one axe (probably either Axe/Impi or Axe/Archer).




I have such an advantage in GNP/Production over Whosit; it's just that I'm trying to keep that advantage instead of only building military--is that a good thing? I mean, Krill/novice have disappeared off the top of the leaderboard along with dtay and FinHarry, so I have a large standard to live up to--we'll see how I'm doing compared to Ruff soon, and then I'll have to start spending espionage points on whomever I meet to my west.

Some more quick hits:

• Ruff founded another city last turn, and FinHarry obviously founded Opheilia--no clue on this turn's cities since I played my turn early.
  
• FinHarry and dtay both had a Calendar resource available for trade--I'm assuming that means they have Calendar, and got it a couple turns ago. That's worrisome, but at least I'll get known tech bonus
  
• Temple of Artemis fell somewhere--no clue, and I'm sure it wasn't worth going for.
  

[Cheater Hater]

Yes I skipped another report--hopefully something important/meaningful starts to happen soon
T103-104 Report:
A decent amount of interesting stuff today--but it has to wait because we have WAR!!!




And by WAR I mean SCOUTING! Yeah, Ruff declared to move his Galley though my southern border--I'm assuming my cities are still safe, considering he specifically dodged blocking my crabs. I am taking my workboat through the canals just to be safe since it doesn't delay me a turn, but that's the only change I'm making. Still, this is one of the reasons I don't like moving open borders up the tree--how hard would it be to make two kinds of open borders: one for passage and one for trade routes?

Other than the war, not much new is going on--there's a bit of Whosit action with him founding South Plano across the river (and taking yet another potential city from me ), and I founded Pyrulea (the ivory city) last turn, which were the most important pieces of news. Other than that, my cities are continuing to grow, I finished my fort, I'm building a bunch of Markets, and another round of military will finish soon.

In addition, my peace treaty with Whosit expires in two turns, but I don't think I have that much to worry about at this point:


He doesn't even have an archer there? I'm going to check Plano next turn, but I don't think I have much to worry about--he still has a ton of troops in Angle Bay, but that appears to be mainly for defense, and being ahead in military tech once I get Construction should help me punch through. Of course, I'm still worried since I don't know how much military I should build, how much I should whip to get it out, when I should attack, and what should be my first target. Of all of those, I think Plano is the obvious first target, maybe moving to his gems city depending on how difficult taking Plano is and how many units show up at Zendikar's doorstep. I also am setting a tentative attack date of ~10 turns after Construction comes in--if 4 cities are building units (Rav/Theros/Kami/Zen) and I use whips to get ~3 units out of each city, that would be about 8 Cats and 4 War Elephants--I still need to get all of them to Plano, but even if I only have ~12 units on the initial attack (including my axes/impis/chariots), that should be more than enough.

Now to less important stuff--my western scouting!


Nothing looks different at first, but what's that separate shade of green? It's Arabia, which leads to...Azza?

Azza: Washington/Arabia (Exp/Cha)
Exp/Chm means big cities, at least in the early game. Arabia is unspectacular, even with the buffs of a cheaper library and better techs, mainly since the Camel Archer being resourceless doesn't mean much in these games where you're basically guaranteed all the strategic resources.

Only 7 cities? He could be focusing on growth like my initial analysis hypothesized, or maybe he's just not playing the best--the fact that his score is below me signifies the latter. He also has almost no happiness resources, but CHA makes up for that a bit.


Oh boy, that screen's starting to get messy
The two new pieces of info here are that Azza only has contact with FinHarry (of the civs we know), and that FinHarry did sign Open Borders with Whosit--that's annoying, but I haven't seen any changes to my trade routes yet.

Demo time!


Hooray, my production is respectable again--thank you Markets
My food's also falling behind, but that should improve soonish--I'll be connecting three seafood in the upcoming turns, and I'm not working Zendikar's pigs due to happiness concerns (which should go away once I chop out the Market and connect the whales). My power will also improve as I finish this round of military and continue growing.


I'm starting to break away from Krill/novice, but there's a long way to go until I catch up with Whosit and the leaders.




How are the leaders so far ahead? I guess they've gotten the opportunity to actually build libraries and markets, and they haven't been constrained in their expansion attempts. In addition, they both have their own special bonuses: FinHarry has international trade routes, and dtay has the Colossus.

Quick hits!

• Krill/Novice founded yet another city last turn--they're up to 15 now.
  
• Krill/Novice have also broken away from the pack on the Espionage graph:
  
  
  I originally assumed they had to have gotten Courthouses running (and thus Code of Laws), but if you look at it closely, the overall slope hasn't changed, so it's a one-time boost from an event? I think I remember them getting an event recently--no, that was FinHarry. I'll check again next turn to see if I can source the points.
  
• No, Azza doesn't show up at all on the top cities screen, either with Wonders or big cities.
  

[Cheater Hater]

I'm not in the mood for a report right this moment, but there's an important development--Whosit has a Catapult in Angle Bay!
As a reminder, he can't declare this turn, but he can next turn. I don't think the force currently in Angle Bay can take Zendikar, but if the forces he moved from Prairie Village show up there, it might. He also has Ivory, which means he has Elephants as well, though that shouldn't be that big of a deal since I have a ton of Impis. If I can get to Construction before he declares, I think I'll be fine, but it'll be a nervous 3 turns.

And again, I still don't see why Whosit would be doing this--even if we assume that he's been blocked off in the east (which doesn't seem possible unless there's an entire civ in the fog that I missed--and that likely isn't Ruff, since I saw he has a peace treaty with Krill/novice--but there's little other reason for Whosit to settle South Plano over other sites in the east), that means he has a possible target in the east! He knows my land is crap (or at least Zendikar, the only city he can reasonably take, is), and the land in the east is better. Heck, if we say Krill/novice has expanded to the east enough, I have nearly the same amount of power as they do, and more of their power is stuck in population (and you could even get Pyramids possibly). Hopefully Whosit realizes that, and lets me finish my buildup, and the forces in Angle Bay are mainly for defense.

[Cheater Hater]

This is weird--I've liked the pacing of the previous turns with doing reports only every other turn, but now that things seem to be going well (as you'll see in the report), I want to report now--of course, we'll see if I'm getting more burned out since I'm apparently receiving a PBEM 58 turn for the first time in a week today
T105-106 Report:
Today was a fun turn, but the most important thing wasn't exactly good news--more like the disappearance of bad news:




Yes, the Catapult has disappeared from Angle Bay! And in case you're thinking I was delusional yesterday, here's the proof it was there before:

Again, I'm not completely going shields-down based on this piece of news--I'm still expecting a war declaration from Whosit in the next couple turns, and won't let my guard down until I see a war declaration from Whosit on someone else. Of course, even then I'll be building military almost everywhere when I get Construction in two turns.

Wait, two turns? Yes, even at this late stage bumping the slider up 10% lets me shave the turn off Construction. Importantly, I can actually afford it this turn with a bunch of microing tile assignments--the important ones are working the fur in Muraganda (which doesn't even cost me the growth this turn) and working some more hammers in Ravnica to finish the Market this turn. Between those two micro decisions, I'm certain to be able to afford 60% next turn, and I'm hoping I'll be able to afford it with a couple whips--Muraganda and Shandalar need to whip their Granaries, and I'm thinking about Lorwyn whipping its Market as well. Of course, I always have the emergency valve of building gold for a turn if necessary--Kamigawa might do that anyway since it's going to start a War Elephant in two turns anyway. Other than those bits of microing, not much is happening domestically.

Now to my western scouting--and we have two pictures this time!




The scout has reached a dead end, but I'm not sure where it's going next--I think it's going south, maybe seeing if there's any spots I could take from under FinHarry. The galley, on the other hand, is going as far as it can, though I'm wondering what I can see if I go to where the fur is--it's probably too far to settle in the near-future though

Demo time, and things are finally starting to look up:


Things are getting better, even my GNP!


I'm still surprised that my constant military builds aren't showing that much on the graph--at least as much as Whosit's are. Then again, Whosit is mortgaging his future to do so--notice how his score has dropped to the lowest of anyone who hasn't been crippled by war (or isn't actually playing ).




Now Krill/novice have joined the higher tier--I don't get what's causing such a big jump, since clearly Currency wasn't entirely the cause (since I haven't seen it yet)--binary research can't make that much of a difference, can it? I think I'm going to switch to 0% for some time after Construction finishes--maybe that will help my GNP rating, and then I'll switch to something once I have a clear tech path of what I want next.

Quick hits: Ruff has a new city this turn and Krill/novice had a new city last turn. No other changes in contacts or foreign relations I could see--hopefully Ruff will offer peace after his next move, and he'll get open borders from FinHarry right away.

[Cheater Hater]

T107 Report:
Holy crap, a lot of things happened on this turn--let's start with scouting:






Another new civ? I need more espionage points! Let's see my old pindicator analysis:

15. pindicator
Most of pindicator I've seen comes from PB8/PB13 where he teamed up with scooter; I haven't seen much of his solo play. From the two PB's it seems like pindicator was the more military-focused member of the team, so don't get in a fight with him.

pindicator: Qin Shi Huang/China (Ind/Pro)
Vanilla! This doesn't seem that good either--sure it got the natural Industrious and Protective buffs, but the Cho-Ku-Nu lost Drill I, and I think the Pavilion needed a buff.

Yet another person near the top of the scoreboard--I feel really unlucky




Another person with Alphabet! Hopefully I can get Open Borders, both for the trade routes and to continue exploring northward--heck, I could even possibly rescue my scout now! (also, FinHarry have contact with dtay now, though not open borders yet)

Now to domestic stuff!




Not much new here--Whosit produced another Catapult, my first Markets are finishing, I whipped a couple Granaries, Construction finishes next turn (and actually would have finished at 50%), Ruff hasn't moved yet (hopefully I'm not breaking any rules by not observing a turn split in this "war"), nothing that new.

There's a ton of demo stuff--I got Ruff's graphs this turn, and two wonders fell as well--and I have a ton of Pindicator pictures in this post, so I'll do that later in a separate post.

[Cheater Hater]

T107 Report Part 2:
Demo analysis time!


Hooray for Top 20 GNP! Is the gold I'm building in Kamigawa counted towards that?


So Ruff's power isn't that great--maybe he can get taken out by someone




His other stats are average too--but wow, look at my production!


So pindicator was the one who built Temple of Artemis, dtay built the Judaism shrine, and Mausoleum fell somewhere (thankfully not by anyone in my neighborhood).

Also, dtay got yet another city--if you check my scout shot, it appears it's the one he founded across the water, by pindicator's chariot. He also has wine now, so that's Monarchy as well to add to his tech lead.