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Cheater Hater, Ruler of the Modbreakers
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As I've mentioned before, I think the target date for my declaration is ~10 turns after getting Construction, which would be T117-118. I'm going to be primarily building Cats/Elephants in five cities (Rav/Theros/Kami/Zen/Lorwyn), and other cities could easily 2-pop whip a cat as well (notably Rath, though possibly Shandalar as well). I feel like the much easier city to take is Plano--Angle Bay would require me to cross water on multiple sides of it, and Plano's a better city to take regardless, since it gives me stone and an outlet to the east. I'm also wondering if I should resettle it on the hill or not--we'll see if it's realistic to hold it (which means I need to remember to bring at least one or two archers with the invasion force).
Of course, the big factor is what Whosit does with that military--I feel like he has to be planning on attacking an eastern neighbor. I'm just not sure who that would be--Krill/novice, dtay, or the mysterious civ in the fog I feel exists. I'm keeping a close eye on everything, both the event log/foreign screen, as well as Whosit's power ranking. Other than the Whosit situation, the big undecided thing is what tech I'm headed to next--I feel like the two major contenders right now are Metal Casting and Code of Laws, with techs like Calendar, Alphabet, Iron Working, and the religious backfill to Monarchy taking a backseat. Notably, Calendar's gone down in priority a lot with my cheap Markets providing 2 (soon to be 3) extra happiness--of course, war weariness could change that. Of course, I'm going down to 0% research for a while, but I still should get one more tech before I declare.
T108 Report:
Another busy turn! Let's start with scouting--and you can guess what that means...   Yes, I met yet another new player. Let's see what past self said about WilliamLP: (March 9th, 2014, 00:47)Cheater Hater Wrote: WLP: FDR/Mongol (Ind/Org)Apparently not much   So he has 10 cities, Calendar resources, and Alphabet--of course he's near the top of the scoreboard. No top city screen stuff though (cities or wonders). Seriously, the group of people I know now includes two of the top three and five of the top eleven--and that's out of only nine (non-lurker) civs!  Wow--I can't imagine that screen with five more civs, much less 20. Of course, my researchers appreciate the known tech bonuses  (I wonder how close someone is to Medieval era at this point? Philosophy isn't a Medieval tech, right? (since I know someone founded Taoism)) Now to domestic stuff:   Question: Who was going to remind me I needed Horseback Riding to build War Elephants? I mean, it doesn't change things (since going Construction first means I can actually build Catapults, and Elephants are just a bonus), but it does mean I potentially have fewer Elephants and more Catapults in my army, and I have the option for Horse Archers as well. Hopefully Horseback Riding shows up in a reasonable time (right now it's 4 turns, but I can't afford it right now--I'm getting another couple Markets and some growths soon, but I also have a bunch of Catapults finishing), and I can at least have a couple Elephants to counter all those C2 Shock Axes Whosit's packing. And speaking of Catapults, look at all those Catapults! That's five being built right now, and Lorwyn's going to start one (with a bunch of overflow from a chop) next turn after finishing the Market. In addition, Theros and Kamigawa are getting 2-pop whipped for sure next turn, and the overflow is heading into more Catapults. I'm not sure if I want to whip Ravnica, but I might need to as well. Zendikar also could be whipped, but I think I want to wait on that until HR finishes, then redirect the overflow into a Horse Archer that can get to the western front in a reasonable time. Rath also should finish something before the war starts--the plan is to 3-pop whip the Market, then 2-pop whip something depending on the amount of overflow I get (maybe an Elephant, though at least a Catapult). Demo time! (I forgot the actual demo screen, but it wasn't that spectacular--something like 22 GNP, 17 Production/Food, 21 Soldiers--and this post has enough pictures anyway ) Whosit's still exploding, but I should start exploding soon--each Catapult is 5k, and HR is another 10k on top of that. Of course, Whosit still should declare on someone else in the near-future--he's still moving units away from the front lines, and I don't know if he has HR yet.   And now Whosit's GNP has jumped--seriously, what's causing the jump, and why haven't I seen it? Is it Courthouses? Libraries/Markets? Bureaucracy? All his cities switching to Wealth? What am I missing? At least my production's doing well--or at least it was while I was building Markets
(July 25th, 2014, 16:37)Cheater Hater Wrote: Question: Who was going to remind me I needed Horseback Riding to build War Elephants?  Most of those spikes are 100% tech coupled with researching something that others already know. Don't worry too much about it, it's the midline of those spikey graphs you gotta watch. Like watching the hips of a basketball player instead of their head.
July 26th, 2014, 16:09
(This post was last modified: July 26th, 2014, 16:10 by Cheater Hater.)
T109 Recap:
Not much new here--I did my whips and rearranged a bunch of tiles--so I wouldn't normally do a report (though the pictures are still in the Dropbox if anyone's interested). However, since Ceiliazul just said I should be paying more attention to my demos, let's do some demo analysis for the turn:  As expected, my production has tanked after my Markets have mostly completed and I've whipped my production cities of Theros and Kamigawa. Of course, that means I'm doing a round of heavy whipping which makes up for my low production  I'm also surprised at how my soldier ranking keeps dropping, yet I'm still hovering around the average. My GNP is also recovering (as much as 23rd is "recovering"--though I'm researching a tech I doubt many people have).  My power ranking is approaching FinHarry! Unfortunately I couldn't support a naval invasion even if that's what I wanted to do--and if I moved all my troops across the water I would die to Whosit regardless. Speaking of Whosit, he continues his power increase--hopefully I'll get a huge jump in the next couple turns (even next turn, with two Catapults completing), which will make me more competitive.  I'll be honest, looking at the midpoint doesn't improve my mood any--heck, dtay's low point still leads everyone except a couple of FinHarry's spikes. At least FinHarry seems to be stabilizing a bit (though still as number 2).  And my production is already starting to tank 
July 27th, 2014, 21:30
(This post was last modified: July 28th, 2014, 17:52 by Cheater Hater.)
T110 Report:
Let's start in a new place, the mess that is the relations screen:  It's still crowded, but it's a bit more crowded than usual--oh no, I've encountered a Parkin-drone!  Well, I certainly understood why Barry quit--what would Parkin even do with a one-city civ--just build military endlessly to make it expensive to conquer that last city? If we assume Barry's been like this since he quit, that means it's taken a surprisingly long time for him to fall below the lurker civ (it only happened recently, in the last couple turns). Then again, what does that mean for Jowy (who's even lower!  ), though he's still playing despite his trouncing by OxyBaii (one of the few top civs I haven't met yet, along with BGN--who likely built Statue of Zeus this turn based on score analysis).You'll notice I didn't post Barry's stats--that's because I don't need to worry about a one-city Parkin-drone. Right now I only have one question: where is he?   I don't see Barry's culture or units anywhere--the only thing of his I can see is that he has ~80% culture in Strand, does that count for contact? You can also see how close I am to picking up my scout and exploring more of pindicator's territory. Now to the catapults:   The first Catapults have rolled off the line, and I'm hiding them on the square between Theros and Kamigawa--I'd rather Whosit not know about my Catapults and especially my Elephants. In two turns Ravnica and Kamigawa will finish their Catapults, which means they can start on Elephants right away. Theros will finish its next Catapult in 4 turns, which means it should be able to build an Elephant in time. Lorwyn is the one city I'm not sure of--it finishes its Catapult this turn, so it can't start an Elephant yet. Right now I have three ideas of what I want to do with it:
Demo time!  My stats actually look okay now! I still need more land to leverage, but we'll be solving that soon  This is where the graphs not updating is annoying--that means the two cats will show up in next turn's graphs, but will HR show up in the graph 2 turns from now? (along with Lorwyn's cat) If the full 20k shows up 3 turns from now, that could be a sign to Whosit that something's up.  Oh boy, another round of GNP spikes There has to be a way to disincentivize the practice of GNP spikes without removing the ability to run 0% research--maybe some sort of (small) bonus if you keep the slider in the same place for a long period of time, maybe +2% every 10 turns (on normal speed), and +1% if you only move it +/- 10%? Obviously those numbers are rough, and maybe even too big? Maybe culture from buildings could be removed while we're at it?  At least the production screen is more stable--at least I'm doing better in it (or my area's doing worse as a whole )Edit: More score analysis says WilliamLP is at war (and taking cities from) MYKI--I'm assuming they're on the western side of pindicator, which means I'll see them soon (my Galley will get blocked by dtay, and I'll be exploring the inland), and I'll even be able to get WLP's open borders (I haven't yet, since I don't need it for trade routes, and I don't know where his borders are). Edit2: And in non-relevant news, Furungy is taking cities from dazedroyalty--lots of war this turn
July 29th, 2014, 21:24
(This post was last modified: July 29th, 2014, 22:22 by Cheater Hater.)
T111 Report:
I'm a little late on this report, but I had too many pictures to skip it   Lots of stuff completing this turn, and we're starting a round of near-constant whips with the Granaries in Mercadia and Pyrulea. Next turn I'll 3-pop whip the Market in Rath, and the turn after that I'm whipping the Lighthouse in Muraganda and Shandalar's Catapult, and that's not even counting possible whips of the Elephants I'm starting next turn in Ravnica and Kamigawa. The two major changes from my last outline are the work boat in Lorwyn (I almost forgot I need to connect the Whales when the borders expand in 2 turns--I'll only miss one possible turn of happiness, and none of my cities are currently on the border) and that Thero's Catapult will finish one turn ahead of schedule when I grow onto a plains hill next turn.   I'm really worried that Whosit knows exactly what I'm doing--there's been a lot of thread activity recently, his power continues to increase, and I still haven't seen the the war declaration I'm waiting for from him. The problem is that I feel like I might be committed at this point--I mean, I don't have any shot of remaining competitive unless I take a sizable chunk out of Whosit, but the question is when? I haven't seen his army recently (though I've lost visibility on Angle Bay and Plano), but we know he's been building Catapults and shipping them east. Seriously, the best case by far for me is Whosit declaring on dtay in the next turn or two, but I'm not sure it'll happen   More "boring" scouting; nothing new in either shot. I did manage to get Barry's culture in the shot--again, can that culture cause contact? There's also some weirdness in the relations screen I noticed in pindicator and Barry's war--I'll put that in spoiler tags since it's not related to my report at all:  Various dips, and my power isn't recovering as fast as I want it to--I'll be up 20k with the new turn, so that should help somewhat. There's not much new with the graphs either--hopefully things will be better after I finish HR. Edit: xenu is taking cities from wetbandit--this statkeeping is part of the reason why wars need to be public.
July 30th, 2014, 20:08
(This post was last modified: July 30th, 2014, 22:53 by Cheater Hater.)
T112 Report:
Five turns remain until my target date for the Whosit invasion--that means I have to start going into the nitty-gritty to make sure everything happens   Two more Catapults complete at end of turn, and I'm starting to build some Horse Archers and War Elephants--they were cheaper than I realized, so this should be easier to work--I'll detail my plans to T117 in a sec. Other than the military, I did the 3-pop whip of the Market in Rath, and started Lighthouses in Mercadia and Pyrulea--should I build military in those cities instead? I don't know if they'll finish in time, even with whips (or chops, in Pyrulea's case--that honestly should be a Horse Archer, and I should go back in to fix it if I get a chance.  This is what I'm very worried about--Whosit's power keeps increasing at a steady rate, and I'm not sure I can match it, even with all the whips and such. I mean, my power's certainly improving, even if the graph is lagging by a ton:  If we guess that Whosit is the top power (which is plausible, given the gap in the graph), he's gaining ~10k power a turn, just like me (if you ignore HR and the population fluctuations). I'll be gaining more power per unit with the new units from HR, but we need to see Whosit declare now--and when he sees my 20k power jump on the graph next turn I doubt he will This is where I want some input--am I committed at this point? What do I do if I declare on T117, see 5 axes and 3 cats come out of Angle Bay, then see 4 Archers, 3 Axes, and 2 Spears in Plano on T118? Do I just have to hope I can take Plano, even if I could lose Zendikar and Pyrulea in the process? Or is the only chance I have that Whosit has no clue how to handle this war and/or diverts his troops somewhere else? Anyway, here's the plan for all the cities producing military--I think all these whips work, but I'm not sure: Ravnica: T113 2-pop whip HA, T114 overflow to HA (maybe WE, depending on whip math), T115 2-pop whip, T116 overflow into Cat/HA (or Library?) Theros: T113 start WE, T114 2-pop whip WE, T115 overflow into WE, T116 2-pop whip WE Kamigawa: T113 2-pop whip WE, T114 overflow into WE, T115 2-pop whip WE, T116 overflow into Cat (maybe WE) Zendikar: T113 overflow into HA, T114 2-pop whip HA, T115 overflow into Axe (or Archer?) Lorwyn: T113 start HA (or WE?), T114 2-pop whip HA, T115 overflow into HA (or Impi?), T116 2-pop whip HA Rath: T113 overflow into WE, T114 2-pop whip WE, T115 overflow into Cat (or Axe) Shandalar: T113 2-pop whip Cat, T114 overflow into Cat, 2-pop whip at size 4 Wow, that's a lot of military (and doesn't even count the HA I want to get out of Pyrulea, or the chops around Theros/Kamigawa/Shandalar)--maybe I do stand a chance? Or maybe I'm just ruining my GNP with maintenance costs The other question is which troops will be in range for each declaration date--I could conceivably declare a turn early or a turn late, depending on what I see. Anyway, onto other things  Hopefully I'll remember to actually move my scouting units during the war I can see another settler as well--bunch of new cities this turn (Krill/novice, Azza, and FinHarry all have a new city I noticed)   Not much new here--I'm not doing that well still, but hopefully once I start research again my GNP will be better. Obviously my raw production isn't that important right now either (10 whips in the above plan). I also got a "We Love the Despot" day in Ravnica--I don't think I've seen that in Despotism before. It's certainly appreciated, even if it's only a couple gold. FinHarry got a Great Scientist as well--they need to catch up to dtay Edit: I got in and made the change--the HA actually completes this turn by working the ivory, so that's another 6k power I'm getting this turn. Ruff also passed through my northern border and offered a ceasefire, which I accepted
Minority culture does not count for contact.
No, you're not committed. Even if you declare and advance, you can still pull a 'Duke of York' and march back. But you gotta commit to something sometime so the question is more of, "will I have a better chance if I wait, or pick another target?" If not, then go gettum! We love the despot day happens in the real world too. See North Korea.
Technically it wasn't minority culture--it was majority culture, just in a city pindicator captured--it's not a big deal, just a curiosity
That's the one thing I hate about my position: I don't really have any options other than hoping I can plow my way through Whosit's troops that are relegating him to back of the pack. The only other option I have is to try to take some of FinHarry's coastal cities, but that requires many more Galleys, and they have the production/research to come back quickly. |
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Is that character a variant? (I just love getting asked that in channel.) - Charis |
