The Hills Send Back The Cry [SPOILERS]

[El Grillo]

T29:

Our Scout poked around Ginger's outer coastline, while domestically our Workers finished the northern copper mine and the 2 roads needed to hook them up. We started Mysticism with the intent of continuing to Polytheism - I checked and we should have enough gold to finish both, even with the 3rd city being founded on t34. I'll be curious to see how that stacks up against Adrien. Khan with early chops and EXP is undoubtedly going to edge ahead, but that was to be expected. Ginger, on the other hand, continues to mystify.

T30:

My Screenshots folder overwrote some of my files again, but not before I transcribed the demos to Excel. I'll have to keep in mind to separate each turn's screenshots in the future. Back home, our Workers finished the turn-saving road segment on the Wheat and began improving the Pigs.

T31:

The Scout found Ginger's FP Deer, but unfortunately is now at a dead end. I'll have it return to monitor the contested zone between us. Meanwhile, we 2-pop whipped the Settler from Initial 64 and finished the Pigs' pasture for Onramp. Unfortunately, this leaves one FP Hamlet unworked, but we'll pick it right up next turn. The Workers will take 3 turns to road towards the next city site, then improve the Pigs, the Corn, and then the 2 FPs. If we land Hinduism, it will be on t34, the same turn the 3rd city is founded. If it becomes the Holy City, so much the better - getting the southern Copper and Cows would jumpstart the Gems city, and while Onramp would appreciate getting its second Copper, it's not quite as exciting. I'll try to time a 2-pop whip to put the odds in favor, but we'll see how that all unfolds.

Graphs from Ginger:

[El Grillo]

Trying something new: gameplay screenshots posted directly, with demos and graphs in spoilers.

T32:



I decided I'd try to defog the rest of the outer coastline in case it enabled trade routes down the road. I'm kind of surprised that Ginger's scout is down here in the corner of his land at this date, unless of course he built another Scout.




I messed up and didn't update my sandbox, and now I realized that the Workers will be 1 turn late roading towards City 3. As a result, Onramp will also be unhappy for 1t until the route to the Ivory under the third city is complete. It may have been more efficient to swap to a Worker, 2-pop whip that, and then let the overflow finish the Granary, but I didn't test it and what's done is done. I'm now contemplating letting Onramp grow to size 6 (happy cap with religion, or 1 unhappy without) and 3-pop whipping a Settler for City 4, but I'm concerned that that might stretch my Workers and finances too far too soon. I'm also not sure why the capital doesn't have a unit in production in the screenshot, it should be putting the last bit of hammers to the Ikhanda to get it 1t from completion.

After posting this report, I'll get my sandbox set up properly and update it, and then it's time to look at an Oracle plan.

Demos and Graphs:

Ginger's score increased by 36 between turns, but from his Culture graphs, which I didn't screenshot, it looks like his second city was founded 3-4 turns ago. We know from the in-game notifications that he didn't finish any Wonders (and if he had, something would be seriously screwy), so I'm guessing it's a combination of his capital's 3rd-ring tiles and a tech since t26. Adrien and Khan have both been growing their 2 cities, doesn't look like either have whipped or founded a 3rd yet.

EDIT: Ugh, tried to rework my sandbox, the numbers just aren't adding up. Do the number of land tiles affect tech/maintenance? I seem to be falling 1GNP short of my in-game demos.

[El Grillo]

T33:




Initial 64 swapped to an Impi, which might end up sitting in the queue for a bit when the city grows again. I ended up deciding to swap to a Worker in Onramp, which will be 2-pop whipped to finish the Granary with overflow, and then most of an Impi with residual overflow. This is partially because I'd run out of improved tiles between the two cities, and also so that I can try to get Hinduism in my third city next turn. The new Worker will start pre-chopping/mining around Initial 64 to commence with building the Oracle. I did some tests in the not-quite-accurate sandbox, and my third city will add 3g more in expenses, so I won't be able to sustain my expansion without some extra economy. This is where I hope whipping in ORG Courthouses and hiring specialists while in Caste System will lend a helping hand. The bad news is that it would take longer overall to divert to Masonry+Monotheism, not to mention building a missionary if I don't get a free spread, so we'll have to go for it without modifiers and hope that the Ikhanda overflow and a couple of chops will be enough. I know Khan has already chopped some of his capital's forests, and he seems to have smaller cities at the moment, so I think Adrien will be my primary competition.

T34:




Down south, my Scout is almost finished mapping the coastline. There's a chance that Ginger settles this corner for the luxuries before the contested zone. I'd be expecting his 3rd city by now, wonder if I'll see it or a Settler with my Scout on its way back.




The newly founded 3rd city of Silent Walk revealed a Clam for the Stone island. Out of view, Onramp whipped its Worker, and I figured I'd let Initial 64 continue to grow to pick up some of its tiles. I'll get 1 more happy with the Ivory next turn, and next turn I'll swap to a Settler. I'm currently unsure of whether or not it makes sense to go for a Ikhanda->Settler->Oracle overflow chain or just Ikhanda->Oracle, but I'll have to save gold for a couple of turns to get to Priesthood and Writing, so I'll get a rough estimate tomorrow.



Silent Walk occurs after the new recruits have performed their first halftime show. It's a black tie event combining a walk through campus, a history lesson, a debriefing on the first show, and the recruits' formal initiation into the Band, complete with membership cards and portrait photographs. For me, our first show was The Killers in September 2010, embedded above. Looking back, the charting is pretty simple, the execution isn't quite there yet, and the musicality definitely suffered at points, but I fondly remember rehearsing this show from scratch in the first week of classes.




After EOT, Hinduism is founded in Silent Walk, instantly popping 2nd-ring borders and bringing 2 more 6-yield tiles into play, including the Cow tile that will bootstrap the Gems city. That's a stroke of good fortune for sure, and I'm pretty happy with how this game is going so far. Anybody reading have any questions?

Demos and Graphs:
T33:

T34:

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

T33:




Initial 64 swapped to an Impi, which might end up sitting in the queue for a bit when the city grows again. I ended up deciding to swap to a Worker in Onramp, which will be 2-pop whipped to finish the Granary with overflow, and then most of an Impi with residual overflow. This is partially because I'd run out of improved tiles between the two cities, and also so that I can try to get Hinduism in my third city next turn. The new Worker will start pre-chopping/mining around Initial 64 to commence with building the Oracle. I did some tests in the not-quite-accurate sandbox, and my third city will add 3g more in expenses, so I won't be able to sustain my expansion without some extra economy. This is where I hope whipping in ORG Courthouses and hiring specialists while in Caste System will lend a helping hand. The bad news is that it would take longer overall to divert to Masonry+Monotheism, not to mention building a missionary if I don't get a free spread, so we'll have to go for it without modifiers and hope that the Ikhanda overflow and a couple of chops will be enough. I know Khan has already chopped some of his capital's forests, and he seems to have smaller cities at the moment, so I think Adrien will be my primary competition.

T34:




Down south, my Scout is almost finished mapping the coastline. There's a chance that Ginger settles this corner for the luxuries before the contested zone. I'd be expecting his 3rd city by now, wonder if I'll see it or a Settler with my Scout on its way back.




The newly founded 3rd city of Silent Walk revealed a Clam for the Stone island. Out of view, Onramp whipped its Worker, and I figured I'd let Initial 64 continue to grow to pick up some of its tiles. I'll get 1 more happy with the Ivory next turn, and next turn I'll swap to a Settler. I'm currently unsure of whether or not it makes sense to go for a Ikhanda->Settler->Oracle overflow chain or just Ikhanda->Oracle, but I'll have to save gold for a couple of turns to get to Priesthood and Writing, so I'll get a rough estimate tomorrow.



Silent Walk occurs after the new recruits have performed their first halftime show. It's a black tie event combining a walk through campus, a history lesson, a debriefing on the first show, and the recruits' formal initiation into the Band, complete with membership cards and portrait photographs. For me, our first show was The Killers in September 2010, embedded above. Looking back, the charting is pretty simple, the execution isn't quite there yet, and the musicality definitely suffered at points, but I fondly remember rehearsing this show from scratch in the first week of classes.




After EOT, Hinduism is founded in Silent Walk, instantly popping 2nd-ring borders and bringing 2 more 6-yield tiles into play, including the Cow tile that will bootstrap the Gems city. That's a stroke of good fortune for sure, and I'm pretty happy with how this game is going so far. Anybody reading have any questions?

Demos and Graphs:
T33:

T34:

Lucky on hindu going there, that's probably about a 30ish% chance

[El Grillo]

Lucky on hindu going there, that's probably about a 30ish% chance

Better to be lucky than good . I wouldn't have minded access to the second Copper mine earlier either, but I figured I'd boost my odds by ~13% with the whip. Speaking of which, it's trickier to track whips in PBEM vs PB, but so far it doesn't look like anyone else has been whipping except maybe Adrien on t31?

T35:




Our Scout's mapped out the last bit of coastline. I'm guessing there's some tile effect 2E that's blocking visibility, but I'm also taking note of all the non-coastal seafood. We also had a bit of a silly moment when we realized that we could check Ginger's city founding dates via the diplomacy screen. Ginger founded his 3rd city on his t33 and his 2nd city on his t28. That seems like a very late date for IMP, even with the Bowmen he's built. Regardless, I'd expect him to beat me to a 4th city in the near future.




Domestically, it turns out that I'll need 8t total to tech Priesthood and Writing (enabling Code of Laws with the Oracle). I've sent the new Worker to chop+mine (5t total) the forested grass hill at the capital, which means I'll have to road it as well to get the timings lined up. Afterward, I'd like a Cottage on the grassland Sugar, but I may have more pressing need of the Worker to the south. Onramp will have a bunch of overflow after finishing its Granary, but will be short improved tiles until the capital whips through its overflow chain.




Graphs:

[El Grillo]

T36:




We saved gold for another turn, expecting to spend 30g over the next 6 turns (2t for Priesthood, 4t for Writing, and I don't think gaining a prereq changes that). Adrien gained a tech this turn with no power increase, which could be Mysticism. Still no sign of Buddhism though. Our Workers put 2t into the Pig pasture at Silent Walk and 1t into the chop+mine at Initial 64. We're working one unimproved tile (the 3/0/1 grass river Sugar) for the next 3 turns, and then Onramp will 2-pop whip another Worker.




Demos and score seem to indicate no 3rd city yet from Adrien/Khan. It appears that Ginger is swapping onto Mines, not whipping, though he did adopt Slavery.

Graphs:

T37:




Our first Impi is headed towards the middle of the map, both to find contacts (I've been overspending EP on Ginger for the past half-dozen turns now) and check out what prizes there are. We've already revealed a Horse, which would be more of an incentive if our planned 4th City didn't have it 2nd-ring. Given Ginger's moves so far, I feel pretty confident about getting to that site before he can, and if he wants to fight over it, well, it's a long walk for Bowmen, and Impi fortified on the city hill will have fine odds against them. I must've taken that screenshot before turning research on, but we're headed to Priesthood in 2t at 100%. Workers at Silent Walk finished the Pig pasture and will next cottage a FP, farm the Corn, mine the Copper, cottage the other FP, then pasture the Cows. It's less strictly efficient than getting the 6-yield tiles improved first, but this way I save Worker turns in transit, and they end up at the Cows in time to road towards City #4. Remember, I'd like to build as few roads as strictly necessary for the time being, because my intended tech path if I land CoL is Mono->Monarchy->Feudalism to bring 3 more civic columns into play, including Serfdom, which turns roads into 1t Worker actions. That would leave me flexibility between Math -> Civil Service/Currency or a beeline to Guilds via Metal Casting and Machinery.




We have confirmation that Khan whipped, and I think he 2-pop whipped his capital while his 2nd city grew on the same turn (to explain the net -7 in score). The proof is that there are only 3 cities founded on 4000BC in the Top 5 screen on this turn, while there were 4 cities founded on 4000BC last turn. Adrien grew both of his cities again, and Ginger discovered a tech with no military value, which again could be Mysticism (or Fishing? Not sure if he'd need it yet). Tentative Oracle date is T43, the turn Writing finishes, with 2 chops and overflow, and all I can do is hope that that's fast enough.

Graphs:

[El Grillo]

T38:




We immediately met Khan coming out of the middle of the map, and we had the choice of declaring war and removing his Scout at 99.5% odds, or letting it be. I'm not sure what the precedents are in these games, but I don't see that Scout seeing much without Open Borders or him declaring war on me, at which point he's fair game for my second Impi. Maybe this is foolish, and maybe he'll take it as a sign of goodwill. It seems inauspicious to open hostilities this early in any FFA setup, but I could easily be wrong. In any case, I redirected my EP spending towards Khan and noted that he actually does have 3 cities. I suppose on the founding turn, all you see is +7 from converting the Settler into 1 population, which can be confounded with another city growing. Not having the real-time Pitboss-style data is unfortunate.




I ultimately decided to peacefully move onto the hill occupied by Khan, spotting highly coveted resources. If each of us get Stone on a 1-tile island, then I'd bet this is the only Marble on the map, daring us to fight over it. I'll move onto the Marble to confirm, but it stands to reason that the land to its southwest is just as good as what I'm seeing to its northeast. It seems like planting on the Marble and using a Great Artist bomb would be a strong, if highly provocative move.

I did some tests this morning upon realizing that Writing would actually finish in 3t before whips, and if I had thought to commit to a 3rd chop, then I could've 1t the Oracle to line up with Writing EOT. As it is, my Workers aren't quite in position, and I'm double-checking the charts and not seeing any sign of Meditation, Polytheism, or Priesthood from anyone else. On the other hand, my previous C&D has clearly failed on multiple occasions, because Khan indeed has 3 cities, and I should conservatively assume that Adrien does too. What else am I getting wrong? It'd be a huge setback getting stuck with failgold from 84h into the Oracle... maybe I delay the whips by 2t and line them all up properly, so that when I do go for the Oracle, I'll have at least a coin-flip or the opportunity to spend the overflow on another Settler or Stonehenge instead?




Graphs:

I'm quite pleased with the Crop lead I've opened up over Ginger, his growth curve has certainly not matched my expectations, while one of Adrien/Khan (I think Adrien, since his cities have been larger) is keeping up just fine in CY+MFG.

[El Grillo]

Quick turnaround. Also, I rechecked my spreadsheet and it turns out I mis-logged several turns because I was misreading the row index as the turn number I'll go back and edit out the most egregious errors - land points? Hahahaha no. In reality, Adrien got techs on t35 and t39, Khan got techs on t34 and t38(20pt increase is presumably 2 pop and a tech), and Ginger got techs on t33, t37, and t39.

T39:




I decided to set the Oracle overflow whips in motion without changing my other Worker assignments. I won't get a cool screenshot putting 100h into the Oracle, but this gets my 4th Settler out the door without delay and only poses a risk if I've completely misjudged the other players' teching - i.e., one of the IND players followed me through Polytheism and Priesthood and has also prepared chops/overflow to finish it in 4t. I'm just not seeing it, but at this point, anything is possible :3

Khan's Scout retreated to the northwest, and I moved onto the Marble to reveal that it is indeed a mother lode of commerce. I could definitely foresee making a bold claim with a Caste-generated Great Artist and Longbows, but it might not be worth much beyond Marble access if marauding armies could bottle me up inside the city and prevent me from improving the other tiles. Strategically, I think it'd be best to avoid making the first move in this area, wait for a war to break out somewhere else, and then sweep in with a sufficient deterrent. On the other hand, my plan is to spam ORG buildings, which means I'd benefit from getting my expenses as high as possible, and there's nothing like a good hot war to crash everyone's economy! I'd much prefer to crash just my own economy with a whole bunch of Settlers backed by whipped Courthouses and Lighthouses, which I think would itself be difficult for the other players to keep up with.




Top MFG climbed yet again. Is someone slow-building Stonehenge? That would be just fine by me.

Graphs:

[El Grillo]

Yikes, lost a lot of screenshots again to overwriting. I finished the Oracle and planted my 4th city in the gems region between me and Ginger on the most recent turn, t44. Adrien built Stonehenge and was first to 5 cities. I have 3 Impi out scouting and have defogged everything but the connection between me and Khan in the north. The plan now is to grow and really crank up my expenses (currently 2.75g-3.25g per city) to get more value out of Courthouses, alternating between 2-pop whips for infrastructure and Caste System to work Merchant specialists to prop up the economy. Ideally, I'll generate a Great Merchant before I get a Prophet from the Oracle, bulbing Currency when I'm at 9-10 cities and have the Stone island settled for a 2c route.

[El Grillo]

T46:

Last turn, I forgot to mention that Khan declared war on me for no visible reason, then offered 10t peace. I saw no reason to accept and advanced my 2 Impi forward. This turn, he offered peace again, but I had to check what was in his cities first:




Both are empty . Via Espionage, Digby in the north has 3EP worth of hammers invested, and Fylingdales has 14EP worth. Khan is in Slavery, but I don't have trade routes and can't determine if he has Copper/Horses hooked. I'm going to assume Copper is hooked, based on his early BW tech and settling, but I'm not sure about Horses. I'm actually currently last in Power, so he presumably has units, maybe just out of view. However, he can't hit those Impi on his upcoming turn, and I think it's fairly likely that he was expecting me to effectively grant him a 10t NAP, and that my refusal to do so has caught him off guard. Worst case, units appear, his Workers run, and I back off after maybe pillaging an improvement or two. Best case, I get to raze some cities and use the capture gold, meager as it may be, to fund research (which I've turned back on to 3t Monotheism). My Confucian Missionary is headed to Initial 64 now, so I'll be getting OR benefits there and in Tellefsen Hall, both helpful spots that will work enough hammer tiles to get the bonus hammer.




I've worked 2t of an Artist specialist in Onramp, which will pop borders this EoT and bring the 2nd Copper tile into play. My other Worker is going to chop+mine the riverside grass hill, giving Onramp a solid collection of productive tiles. If Khan wants to commit to a large standing army, I'm happy to oblige him - the marginal maintenance will hurt him more than it will me, I want Ikhandas eventually anyways, and my Impi will age slightly more gracefully.




In the south, still no sign of any Ginger units. It's pretty clear that his early (late?) second city went westward to contest the zone between him and Adrien, and his 3rd city was in that direction as well.




The rival Crop numbers indicate that Ginger has fallen significantly behind. If his attention is focused westward, so much the better for me.

Next turn should be fairly exciting. How will Khan react to my military presence? Will Adrien continue to afford new cities? Will Ginger appear with a handful of Bowmen to threaten Tellefsen Hall?

Graphs: