[SPOILERS] Magic Science and Mr. Cairo in Pitboss 40

[Magic Science]

It might be worth considering getting alphabet before maths, an OB agreement could do wonders for our economy, and it'll let us build research inc ities without anything better to work on.

You are right, Alphabet is a strong option that is worth considering. The most compelling aspect of the technology to me is the ability to build research. Even if we go to war soon, and especially if we don’t, then there is going to be a time period (which is already starting about now) in which many of our cities don’t have anything very good to build. Research building could give them something helpful to do, and it would also accelerate us towards Currency so that they could spend hammers on markers (+2 happiness for us). On the other hand, Mathematic is pretty much a blank tech for now, seeing as we have almost no forests left (almost all were sacrificed to catch up). However, it does lead towards Calendar and Construction, which I imagine we will be wanting fairly soon. It’s also a faster research because I have put several turns of research with scientist specialists being hired into Mathematics already.

It’s hard to say. However, I think that I am going to take your suggestion and go for Alphabet. It feels bad to have put all those beakers into Mathematics instead of Alphabet now, but it would feel worse to put hundreds of hammers into bad stuff I don’t really want that much.

Also, if I were in your position, I would have re-offered the copper-copper deal to superdeath, then stabbed him in the back when he attacks Couer. But that's just me (and maybe I shouldn't be saying this considering I just signed up for a diplo game :D)
But really, after superdeath killed Hong Kong, I don't see how he could possibly trust us, or expect anything from us other than emnity, I don't what he's thinking here, asking for an alliance from the civ who's chance of winning he ended.

I didn’t think of that…but I like that idea. The Flash and Green Lantern are very vulnerable to us, more so than any of CoT4E’s cities. I think that we have a better chance of capturing and holding them than we do any Traumhaft cities. It would also be handy to capture them to remove cultural pressure on Almaty and New Hong Kong. Turn-by-turn, Green Lantern is stealing away one of the tiles I wanted to cottage at New Hong Kong, and The Flash has a corn that Almaty could make use of (at least for borrowing). I will send back copper-for-copper to put the plan in motion next turn.

What kind of unit composition do we want for an attack? How many chariots vs. how many axeman, and so on? And how many units would we need? I guess that a lot of that depends on what units remain in The Flash and Green Lantern when we attack.

Also, note that if Superdeath doesn't attack CoT4E and get distracted, then we could easily call of the plan at any time. Our cities don't have much else to be building yet, so we would probably be build these units anyway.

[Magic Science]

Ack. No time for a turn report now, but I somehow failed to notice previously that Superdeath had a brief war with CoT4E a few turns ago and is locked into peace with them now. There is now war weariness showing between CoT4E and Charson, so the war is real. Quechua Two's path is blocked by a border expansion.

This game is demanding more and more thought from me, and I have less and less time to spend on it. I'm not sure how to play the current situation.

[Mr. Cairo]

Hmm, idk what superdeath is thinking with that copper copper deal if he's locked into peace with coeurva.
Also, I would suggest still getting maths after alphabet for the pre-req bonus into currency, especially consider the beakers already in maths.

[Magic Science]

Instead of a normal turn report, I am going to ramble on and on and on about explain some of my thinking about the strategy for the coming turns.

   
To start, the Dreamlike-Interdimensional war is almost certainly real. The war weariness that the above screenshot shows indicates that there must have been combat between their units. Also, the lurker thread has exploded with activity recently, and, despite my joke about Martian politics earlier, that must be in response to something interesting happening in the game. Furthermore, Coeurva and OT4E have both logged in and out without ending turn, and have now posted in their thread quite a bit. It seems as if they are discussing something. Perhaps it is how to defend themselves against Charson?

Despite that, I don’t think that I will go to war soon. If I go to war soon, I am not going to have an advantage in unit quality or much of one, if one at all, in unit quantity (remember, I am last in power currently). I would need a good opportunity for it to work well, and there is not a guarantee that I will get one. It could be that the Dreamlike-Interdimensional War ends before Superdeath piles on, and I never get a shot at The Flash and Green Lantern while they are vulnerable. It could be that he leaves behind enough of a rear guard to stop me, or something else that I haven’t thought of might stop me. Basically, war is more expensive and less likely to pay off than staying at peace and building up, so I think that I am going to be peaceful.

   
With peace in mind, how am I going to manage the Incan League? I won’t bore you with the exact micromanagement plan, but the idea is to time build completions so that I can start building research as soon as I finish Alphabet (done by Turn 97) without any inefficiencies. Some cities will do other things, but quite a few cities will be building research to head for Currency (I’m not sure if I will go through Mathematics first or not). I think that I can get it by Turn 110.

As for what my cities will be building before Alphabet, there are a few different things. Almaty, Quebec City, and Sofia will build lighthouses, Sidon will whip a library to completion, and the other cities will build various combos of barracks and units (Cuzco will also complete a workboat).

Another important domestic development that is coming up is Quebec City’s border expansion, which will let me hook whales. I will try to time it so that my cities that are currently constrained in growth by the happiness cap (Cuzco, Sidon, New Hong Kong, Geneva) all grow as I hook the whales on the turn of the border expansion, so they can make use of the extra citizens immediately.

[WilliamLP]

Yes, "Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win." But what about the lurkers' demand for blood?

[Commodore]

Very solid play, love the recovery. Stress out! You can win this!

[Magic Science]

Yes, "Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win." But what about the lurkers' demand for blood?

Ha! As it turns out, I met the blood quota for this game back on Turn 43 (at my own expense, mind you), so from now on I am allowed to play logically and sensibly without regard to the lurkers’ crazy bloodlust.

Very solid play, love the recovery. Stress out! You can win this!

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Commodore. It’s nice to hear one of the forum veterans say that. Don’t count me out quite yet.

[Magic Science]

Turn 90 – 625 BC
   
On Turn 89, Quechua Two found himself in an interesting predicament. The borders of Malepartus had expanded, which left him no culture-free path forwards. I had to either declare war on one of RFS-81+haphazard1 and CoT4E or get open borders with CoT4E to keep going. In the end, I decided to do none of those things, so Quechua Two turned around. I would have liked to keep scouting with him, but all of the options that allowed him to go forward had some negative consequences that I didn’t think were worth taking.

Declaring war and going through Psychedelic Warlord territory to get through would have required stepping on their ivory tile. That is a more aggressive move than I want to make against them right now. Also, as the screenshot shows, there is an axeman in Utopia, and I think that chances were good that they would have simply killed Quechua Two so that he wouldn’t block their tile, making the declaration of war pointless anyway.

Declaring war and going through Traumhaft territory wouldn’t have had those problems, but there are other reasons why I didn’t want to do it. While the Dreamlike-Interdimensional War is raging, I want everyone to think that I might be planning to pile on against CoT4E. If that possibility is open, it could get Charson to have a little more hope and fight a little longer than they would otherwise, or it could get CoT4E to whip out more units than they would otherwise because they are worried about the possibility, or something. However, I don’t want to actually expend any effort on that. If I declared war on them to get through, they would assuredly ask for peace right away. If I gave it, then all of those possible benefits from the threat of me attacking would go away. Ten turns is an eternity. If I didn’t give it, then I would need to start worrying about them attacking me, and expending resources on defense in Geneva and Sofia. I would also need to worry about Superdeath attacking because he thinks that I am distracted. I don’t like either of those options, so I chose to not declare war. In general, I think that we are getting to the point in the game where war declarations are too meaningful to casually throw around like that anymore.

The last option was to offer open borders with CoT4E. However, that would send peaceful signals that, as I said, I don’t want to send. It also would let them scout me out and see that I have no units massing to attack them. Lastly, I don’t think that I would profit from the trade routes. I think that my routes with them should be worth two commerce, but I am already getting that from Quebec City, so they wouldn’t do anything. Once I get to Currency, that will change, but not yet, so I didn’t want to offer open borders either.

Whew. That turned out to be a rather long-winded explanation for what wasn’t really that important of a decision. I guess that I just found it intriguing, and it did touch on some broader strategic topics.

   
The demographics this turn were quite interesting; I dropped back down to fifth place in Crop Yield! This doesn’t actually indicate that I have slipped back to doing horribly in Crop Yield again, despite what it may seem. In fact, just two turns ago I briefly attained the number two spot in Crop Yield, but then I whipped and rearranged tiles and fell back down to third. What these demographics show is that me, shallow_ru, Charson, and Superdeath are all very close together in Crop Yield. Right now, I am probably no more than four or five food behind second place.

   
Here’s the Incan League on Turn 90. Well, most of it. It is now big enough that it doesn’t all fit in a ground-level screenshot. I exceeded my “ten cottages by Turn 90” goal and am working eleven cottages this turn. It could be one more, but Superdeath is somehow winning the culture war for the tile one north, one northwest of New Hong Kong, so I didn’t build a cottage there. If he wants an improved tile, then he can do it himself.

This seems like a good moment to discuss the idea Mr. Cairo proposed, that is, researching Mathematics, then Currency after Alphabet instead of heading straight for Currency. Doing so would save beakers but delay Currency by a few turns. I am leaning towards going Currency first, because I think that its benefits are strong enough that getting them a few turns earlier are worth sacrificing some beakers for, but I’m not sure. I need to try some rough sims to get an idea of how long it would take to get it with both plans, then decide. I have a few turns left to do so.

[Mr. Cairo]

Do you have graphs enough to know who that 80 GNP is? I don't remember you saying someone is in a GA, so I'm wondering who's got that much GNP and how? I had a quick look through your previous reports and saw that Couerva built Stonehenge, could the culture from that (and their religion) be boosting their GNP? If so, then we're doing really well on that front, and you're absolutely right to be focusing there instead of a potential backstab on Superdeath.

As I once remember hearing, "once you're ahead, get ahead-er" and attacking Superdeath is not going to get us ahead. But building cottages is going to get us ahead-er. With that in mind, remember that you can build cottages on hills and non-riverside tiles as well. I'd say go nuts and build as many cottages as it is possible to work. You can keep a city or two entirely focused on hammers to keep pumping out enough units to not be vulnerable.

Also, how has Hinduism not fallen yet?

[WilliamLP]

From Artosis of Starcraft 2 commentary fame, maybe?