RB PBEM #10 [SPOILERS] - Meatbalz

[meatbalz]

T14 came and went and there's nothing much to report. Here's things as they currently stand:



I gave Euler the Woodsman I promotion, he's got plenty of forest to move around in and with 2 more barb encounters he'll be a 2-move scout who will spearhead my exploration of the island to my West. Oh Euler, you're so smart handsome and brave



Well, 2 out of 3 ain't bad I guess.

[pocketbeetle]

Oh dear

Oh dear

Oh dear

[meatbalz]

i re-read my thread and something struck me:

when i moved my settler, i'd noticed that 2 people going before me had also not founded that turn. at the time i'd assumed they also moved in order to found on the coast, but that's clearly not the case.

rival worst land area is 18k/21k, meaning someone moved towards the "hypotenuse" part of the triangle and founded one tile from the coastline. why anyone would do this is beyond me, since i've revealed those tiles and seen nothing special.

i've also now realized why i wanted to work that ivory tile and grow to size 2 with no food overflow - because going max food doesn't grow to size 4 any quicker, but that 1 extra hammer from working the ivory makes all the difference.

my plan was to start the settler working pig, corn, fish, ivory (unimproved), and city tile as soon as i hit size 4, which would put 15/turn into a settler. 2 turns in, the pasture on the sheep would complete, getting me 17/turn. 15/turn x 2 + 17/turn x 2 = 64... a settler costs 65. so by not having that 1 hammer of overflow, i delay the settler by one turn

so i have 2 options now:
option 1) grow to size 3, start settler (finishes T23)
option 2) grow to size 5, start settler (finishes T26)

i would lean heavily towards option 2) if it weren't for the fact i want to get that second city up and running asap. i haven't put up an updated recap pic but AH revealed horses under the initial settling site... 3W of Chaos picks up horse, dry wheat, fish, wet corn, and pigs + ivory overlapping with Chaos. there's also the question of popping its borders to work the fish and wheat tiles asap.

[meatbalz]

i know i haven't updated much, mainly because it's too early to tell in which direction i'll be going in the first 50 turns.

what i do know - serdoa completed a 4T tech on T16 which can pretty much only be mysticism. that or fishing, but i'm the only one who started with a coastal capital, so i'm ruling that out. i fully expect him to found a religion shortly.

ad hoc is either going mining->BW or myst->religion. he got a 5T tech on T16, that fits well with either since they both cost 46 beakers.

basically, i think claiming medi/poly may not be worth it - i would have to rush to whichever serdoa doesn't get, and even that wouldn't be enough if ad hoc turns out to have gone myst->religion. although i think that's less likely given he's the only CRE civ out there (i don't have the T15-16 demos in front of me, just the score changes, so can't tell for sure). so my stance may change if ad hoc turns out to have gone mining->BW, but i'm already wary of how much i'm delaying that path myself, especially with so much food on the map. even beelining to it when hunting comes in, that would still take ~10 turns.

i kind of feel i want the religion to pop city 2's borders since that's going to contribute the bulk of my workers, but i could easily live with putting 20H into a monument instead.

i'm also thinking, given where my civ strengths lie and the amount of food on the map, of taking a highly alternative tech path through the first 50 turns and delaying BW for quite some time. issue is, it would put TGL at risk. i'm sure everyone has their beady eyes on it. i'm not sure i have the production to build it @ chaos before someone else chops it out in their 2nd city without the help of some chops of my own if they really set their mind to it.

[meatbalz]

updates will be light for the next few days since I'm away for the weekend + then traveling for the next 2 weeks but I'll have Civ access so there shouldn't be any delays.

i bit the bullet and set research to sailing this turn - i think early religion is a bad move in most games, and might be a pipe dream in this one with serdoa about to get one & ad hoc possibly pursuing one too (less sure about him). so right now i think i'll go sailing->mining->either BW or masonry.

settler is due in a couple of turns, chaos will then build a warrior while growing to size 5 then a worker, city 2 will start off work boat->worker.

i really didn't have time to look at demographics this turn but the two guys who founded on T0 both settled their second cities. forgot to look to see if they're coastal or not but i'm pretty confident they will be. cyneheard starts with fishing, has BW and a second city - my guess is he'll be rushing to TGL.

[meatbalz]

small MM errors are creeping in... first working the sheep instead of the ivory tile. then last turn i moved the worker to road the plain N of chaos instead of starting to pasture the sheep, which will lose me 1 turn of working the camped ivory.

the frustrating thing is i'd planned all my moves out, just whenmy turn comes around i don't have my plan handy and mis-execute not smart.

last thought. certainly mining->BW after sailing. i'm seriously stressing about the lack of access to slavery. i just get the sneaky feeling this will be one of those games where i'm JUST late to everything (thinking about the GL now)

[meatbalz]

T24 overview (I probably won't have time to do a big T25 one)

My second city's been founded (forgot to rename it):



Right now it's working the pigs. Next turn I'll switch the pigs back to Chaos, enabling it to grow to Size 5 in 1T.

My stupidity is costing me big time with regards to the sheep. I lose 1T working the sheep (2 extra gold versus dry wheat), which is not a problem. But it also loses me 1T moving, which means 1 less turn working a camped ivory (1H, 1C), 1 less turn working the corn (3F), etc So just over the next 10T that one mistake costs me 3F, 1H, 3C

Demographics now



Not bad although it changes from turn to turn. Also skewed by the fact Cyneheard kept his capital small to start (worker->worker->settler start i think, although again I have been lazy when it comes to reading demogs). A better way to think about it is taking out those "rival worst" readings, meaning the average is ~21 F+H... hmmm, 31 still beats that by quite a bit so not doing too badly for now. Next turn that will grow to 34 so decent progress.

The bigger news is that although I haven't studied it in-depth the land area stat has only changed once since capitals popped borders pre-3000BC ( that was CRE Gilgamesh going to 3rd ring), and this turn Serdoa also went out to 3rd ring thanks to buddhism/hinduism (i think buddhism as it was a quick tech).

So those massive score increases from a few turns ago that I thought were cities being founded - well, it was something else

Which also means I'm first out to 2 cities despite losing 1T moving. So decent progress. That's tempered by the knowledge (ok, feeling) that I will probably lose TGL. No slavery is a big hinderance (and will hurt when others start whipping/chopping and I can't), but on the + side, at least I'm doing ok on the expansion front early on. Now to figure out a way to pay for those cities I'm planning on founding

Last detail: if you look up at the above picture, you'll see my new warrior, Galois, patrolling the E shore. That is wonderful land which I must explore further.

Galois is one of history's greatest tragic figures. A bona-fide genius, he was doing mathematical work of the highest calibre in his teens, died in a duel at the age of 20, and was buried in a mass grave. He was so sure he was going to die he stayed up the whole night before the duel writing down all his thoughts in a journal, many of which form the basis for an entire major branch of maths

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galois

[meatbalz]

Right, time for an update. I was away at a wedding this weekend with no internet so I held up the game. I was actually considering playing my turn + not posting an explanation/apology to keep with the xeno role-play but figured that would be stretching things a bit - the others deserved at least an apology from me for holding up the game (+ it's not like i did it purposely...)

Anyway, here are things as they stand on T27:



Chaos finishes the worker next turn and what it builds after that is still kind of up in the air - most likely right now is a lighthouse. City2 which i keep forgetting to rename will grow to S3 and complete a work boat in 4T, at which point it will pump out a worker & settler.

Demographics:



Food + hammers continue to be very favourable, 38 beats the combined rival best even if it's the same civ in each individual category. GNP: good. Soldiers: awful. I think I'm pretty close to no.1 in terms of actual military strength rather than contributions from tech (min+BW = 10k soldier points and I have neither), but that won't last long if I build workers+galleys (2k points) instead of chariots and axemen (4k, 6k respectively). fortunately horses will be online pretty shortly so chariots aren't far off.

Overall, I'm still struggling to decide between slow measured expansion w/ profitable economy (i.e. chase the GL) or settle first/worry about ecbnomy later (send next settler offshore).

Any thoughts from the lurkers? I know you're out there...

[meatbalz]

you wait ages for one update...

T28 status:

The world



I've just discovered mining. My options are
Poly 4 Turns
BW 5 Turns
errr... that's it.

A look inside Chaos



A few things to note.
- I have a healthy overflow from the worker build. A galley only takes 3T, a lighthouse 4T, a worker 3T & a settler 4T. All tempting options.
- The ivory is connected so in theory I can now grow to size 7
- The trade route bonus from sailing is kicking in already. I'm getting +1 here and +1 at Superstring which sounds like nothing but is actually boosting my research rate by 10%

Here's Superstring



Not much to add here. The corn will be farmed in 3T by both workers, who then go to the horse. Superstring will go worker->settler after the work boat.

Demographics



Looks good for now, we'll see what happens when 3rd cities start getting planted.

[Rowain]

Given your namings you have to beeline mathematik and Physik