October 19th, 2018, 10:40
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Well, I'm excited that my Red Sox managed clean out the Astros in five games. For the first time in over eight months the much maligned city of Boston finally has a team reach the championship game.
I kid, I kid.
All in all though, from my incredibly not objective viewpoint, a pretty good series. Game four was certainly an entertaining affair, and the others were all close until the late innings. I guess the major storylines here from the Red Sox side are David Price taking his best shot at his "can't pitch in the playoffs" label, and manager Alex Cora scraping together an effective bullpen performance from spit, bailing wire, and throw-day starters.
October 19th, 2018, 11:12
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Turn 98
No, Hattusa, what are you doing!? Why not leave your HC in the city? And where the hell are your walls - every other city-state I can see has built them!
Bah.
Anyway, we start the turn by finishing Theology:
Excellent! This opens up Madrasas and Temples, two great buildings for Arabia. Madrasas give me +5 science in each, once I have the campuses in place, PLUS faith equal to my campus's adjacency, which is going to be from 1-3 faith per campus. The temples and the Madrasa faith can then be used to purchase more madrasas! I need to get down some more holy sites, though - I only have one at the moment, and one more placed at Zobrist. As campuses come online I'll need a big boost in faith income for libraries and Madrasas.
Rowain finally acts and accepts my friendship on the same turn Archduke's expires:
I make no move to renew it. He has a higher military than me, yes, but I am prepared to resist, and he can't attack me and turn his back on Emperor. That friendship should expire in about 11 turns or so. I also have one builder in place next to Escobar's stone resource, and a ship ready to be chopped. So I do so:
After some waffling, I dump the production into the higher-yield Madrasa, since I can work on the temple myself later. Next faith goal will be to save up for an Apostle, Evangelize Wats, and start getting 10% cost Wats everywhere. I really need more holy sites now that I think about this! We have SO MUCH science to purchase with faith at the moment, and 30 fpt really isn't cutting it.
I also found Colon al Khaaliq ("Colon, the Creator"):
It's a nice enough city - two 5 yield tiles in the first ring (I use the free builder to charge a farm first, then I'll grab a single mine, and will save the final charges for the copper and somethin' else). To the south, you have mountains that will offer a high-yield Holy Site and Campus down the road, but I place a Harbor first. We'll follow up with the Holy Site, and then the Campus will go in the third ring with a +4 adjacency!
Al Khaaliq means the Creator, which seems appropriate. Colon had two post-season at bats for the Royals, in 2014 and in 2015. In 2014, he tied the Wild Card game in the 12th:
Colon would steal second (after the A's pitched out to Derrick Norris, who dropped the ball!) and then score the winning run on Perez's walk-off single. In 2015, of course, he knocked in the clinching run in the World Series, also in the 12th inning. As such, he is the first bench player honored with a city.
I dump my spare envoy into Mohenjo-Daro, putting me one envoy from suzerainity, which will really alleviate housing issues, then swap governments (with all the chopping done):
No military builds for the moment, so MT is out and Conscription is in. Colonization sets up the chop at Zobrist and helps Cain and Zobrist speed up their settlers. I have one more settler to queue up at some point for Rios. Monasticism stays, as the foundation of my science, and I want ot hurry along towards another envoy for M-D.
Rowain founded his religion:
Meeting Houses are a good take, but I'm not sure about Feed the World - I would have gone for Zen Meditation or Religious communities.
Scores and overview.
October 19th, 2018, 11:14
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(October 19th, 2018, 10:40)williams482 Wrote: Well, I'm excited that my Red Sox managed clean out the Astros in five games. For the first time in over eight months the much maligned city of Boston finally has a team reach the championship game.
I kid, I kid.
All in all though, from my incredibly not objective viewpoint, a pretty good series. Game four was certainly an entertaining affair, and the others were all close until the late innings. I guess the major storylines here from the Red Sox side are David Price taking his best shot at his "can't pitch in the playoffs" label, and manager Alex Cora scraping together an effective bullpen performance from spit, bailing wire, and throw-day starters.
It was a great series, especially Game 4, which I think was the back-breaker for the Astros. It makes me appreciate how difficult it is to win back-to-back pennants, since the Astros, like the Cubs, were unable to repeat. The baseball playoffs are a really tough gauntlet every year, and the Royals' window was in the perfect time - just after the super Tigers and Red Sox teams from earlier, just ahead of fantastic Red Sox, Astros, and Yankees teams. You saw the beginnings of it in 2015, when the 'Stros and Yanks met in the wild card.
It's also interesting that, after the Astros were caught cheating (sorry - "spying on the other team to make sure they weren't cheating"), they lost 4 straight and got knocked out of the playoffs.
October 25th, 2018, 06:43
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October 26th, 2018, 06:08
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A for effort!
All kidding aside, your reports are much appreciated, no matter how brief or late!
Keep it up.
October 26th, 2018, 18:50
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I'm glad you're having fun! I actually am enjoying myself now that I let myself off the pressure of winning. Archduke's conquest of Hatussa is depressing me, since I can't do the same to Mohenjo-Daro, but them's theb reaks, I guess.
Bonus: Spot the flaw in my plan to chop out a campus at Zobrist
October 27th, 2018, 05:18
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(October 26th, 2018, 18:50)Chevalier Mal Fet Wrote: Bonus: Spot the flaw in my plan to chop out a campus at Zobrist
The tile to chop is the one the campus needs to be on? Just guessing from quick look at screenshot.
It may have looked easy, but that is because it was done correctly - Brian Moore
October 28th, 2018, 21:13
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Joined: Aug 2017
a fine guess, shallow_thought, but incorrect, I'm afraid - you can chop, which completes the item in queue, and then the tile will be clear to place the district, which then receives all the "overflow" production.
no, the real issue is the district system: you get 1 district for free at size 1, and then every 3 population sizes after you unlock another slot, so 4, 7, 10, etc. I'm not actually certain that this is how it works past size 10, I basically never grow cities that large.
The problem, of course, is that Zobrist is stuck on size 6, because it has 6 housing, because I never got around to building more farms or a granary, which in turn means that my carefully orchestrated chop fell flat on its face because, between the Holy Site (which was obviously a mistake to plant in retrospect) and the government plaza I can't build any more districts. Oops.
Until I start paying attention to these details, I'll never be really competitive in these games, I'm afraid. But I do have fun playing and learning, and I hope people have fun watching me pratfall and learning alongside me.
Turn report up tomorrow morning, maybs?
October 29th, 2018, 00:44
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Quote: I'm not actually certain that this is how it works past size 10, I basically never grow cities that large.
It's just every 3 population (after pop 1), modulo a few great people who give +1 district slot. I believe getting cities past size 10 is one of the goals of the RBMod if that gets off the ground.
How much is the housing crunch going to delay pop growth? Enough to wander the worker over to another task and get another over, or just gonna have him camp out for a while?
October 29th, 2018, 06:55
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Joined: Aug 2017
Well, the baseball season is over, and forgive me, but the World Series was super disappointing for everyone except Boston fans. The Dodgers beat the Brewers in an exciting 7-game NLCS, including one extra-inning victory (before the series people compared the Brewers' pen to the 2014-2015 Royals' bullpen. No one makes that comparison now), but the Sox and Astros were both obviously in a class above any NL team - and it was pretty clear in the World Series.
In Game 1, the Sox immediately took a 2-run lead in the bottom of the first. The Dodgers occasionally tied it, but the Sox would immediately answer in their half of the frame to re-take the lead. By the 5th, it was 5-3. The Dodgers scored one more run in the 7th, but in the bottom Boston busted the ballgame wide open with a 3-run homer. 8-4, Boston.
In Game 2, Boston scored first again in the 2nd. LA took their first lead of the Series in the 4th, but the Red Sox retook it with a 3-run 5th. No runs scored after the 5th and Boston won 4-2.
In Game 3, the Dodgers took a single run lead, but blew it in the 8th when Boston tied the game. In the 13th, the dead offense from btoh sides flared briefly as a run scored on an error in the top - and in the bottom. In the 18th, the longest WS game ever, the Dodgers finally walked it off.
In Game 4, LA scored 4 runs in the 6th to open scoring, but gave up 3 runs in the 7th, 1 in the 8th, and an astonishing 5 in the 9th to give Boston a 9-4 lead. LA got 2 back on a home run in the bottom, but fell 9-6.
Finally, Game 5, the Red Sox took a 2-1 lead after the first and never looked back. They tacked on single runs in the 6th, 7th, and 8th, steadily digging the Dodgers' grave deeper, and LA never looked competitive.
Every run after Game 2 was scored either by an error or by a home run. With the exception of Games 3 and 4, no game was decided later than the 5th inning. The Dodgers led for only like 6 innings total in the 54 innings played, and never looked like they really belonged on the same field as the Red Sox.
By contrast, look at the previous four Series:
In 2014, the Series featured the Royals, who hadn't even made the playoffs in 3 decades, and went 7 games, including a wild game 7 that remained competitive even into the bottom of the 9th inning.
In 2015, the Series only went 5 games, but had the Mets in their first Series since 2000. The Mets led every single game, and led 4 games in the 8th inning or later. They lost 3 of those games.
In 2016, the Series featured the Cubs and Indians, each holders of the longest title drought in their respective leads. It went 7 games and featured a wild game 7 that went into extras.
In 2017, the Series featured the Astros, shooting for their first title ever, and the Dodgers, holders of a 29-year drought, and went 7 games and featured a wild extra-inning Game 5.
Just a bit of a bummer. Oh, well. Congratulations Red Sox - you were no doubt the best team in baseball this year, and have been the best organization overall by a mile for the last 15 years.
On to Civ!
Turn 101 I think, Possibly 102
So on turn 100 I chopped with Magnus for 97 production, x2 for my settler, for a whopping 194 production! I was going to drop all of that into a Campus, but as you can clearly see, we're at size 6 and stagnant (well, technically growing in ~200 turns). Much to my chagrin, I can't place a Campus. So, I go ahead and dump the production into the Holy Site - may as well get the Faith, right? I need Apostles for evangelizing, Missionaries to convert Archduke, and ONCE I GET CAMPUSES Libraries and Madrasas. There's plenty of overflow to 1-turn a granary, as well, and then I start on a settler. I'll pause it with 1-turn until size 7, then chop once more and get the Campus. Then settle Rios and start noodling a Petra plan.
Hattusa is doomed. It moved out the HC, unaccountably did NOT use it to attack Archduke's warrior, who thus placed the city under siege. The lowered combat strength and lack of healing let his navy overwhelm the city. He lost about 100 points of milstrength, but I'm not in a position to take advantage. My effort to bluff him away from the city until it got walls up failed. EVERY other city state - including Mohenjo-Daro, which *I* was planning on attacking, got walls, but not Hattusa, the one that Archduke can access and cut me off from? Christ, when is my GOOD luck going to come around this game? I'm overdue, I think!
Archduke sent a DoF, which I ignored for a few turns. I was debating launching an attack on Johnny, or waiting to pile in with Emperor. Ultimately I decided to accept. My reasoning is that I seem to have proven that I'm a better peacetime builder, at least - the last DoF saw me shoot from last place to first while I built in peace. And I have a lot of stuff on my plate, too - I need to get my infrastructure up and running, I want to spam two or three missionaries at Archduke (for later Crusading, for Arabian science, and for Church Property), and then I want to start a wave of Heavy Chariots. If my neighbors concentrate on navies and neglect their army, I think I can sneak a jihad over the waters.
Also I'm going to attack Mohenjo-Daro and take THAT island for myself. I need a battering ram, or a siege tower, but I should be able to pull it off with my whole navy.
Archduke actually passes me in score again, but we're basically tied in every category except Era score. Basically everyone is guaranteed a Golden or Heroic age next age.
The Duke also abandoned his sea-shanty theme and just went with Pirates of the Caribbean. That's fine.
Scores. Overview. Monuments are finishing, which will cut into my biggest area of weakness - poor culture. Science is next. Gotta work out a plan for districts. Right now I'm leaning towards Builder wave -> Limes -> Wall chops for campuses across the empire. Wish I had GOTH but Earth Goddess is proving a solid substitute.
Tech-wise, my goal is now Caravels, which will take about 10 turns after Apprenticeship. Civics-wise, REcorded History is delayed for a bit, but it's about time to start pushing for a Medieval government. Two temples, right? I can do that.
I really need to pause, sit down, and THINK about this game when I find time, instead of just puttering around aimlessly.
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