[SPOILERS] PBEM 8 - Shoot the Moon's Thread

[Shoot the Moon]

I'm always intrested in seeing more screenshots.

You seem to be 1st in every important category. Well done .

Well, except land. But that changed this turn

Anyway, for this turn, all of my screenshots are from after the turn. There's not much to report empire wise, as all but one city was building cheap HR happiness units, and well that's not all that exciting (only really exciting thing was hooking up a wines to further improve my happiness situation -- I used three workers to get it done 1t after Monarchy came in, not too shabby if I may say so myself). Only real city micro was whipping an axe in my cap (to help, stop a dog soldier entering my land) and assigning a scientist at Vijay.... I am going to run two there as with the choke they are better than unimproved tiles, and it is a pretty good use even if there wasn't the choke. I haven't decided whether I will put the academy in my cap or in Bombay. Bombay has more long term potential (more riverside cottages), but my cap will have bureau. Tough choice.

Anyway, the most exciting thing was new map intel. I had both my cap and western cities' borders pop at the end of the turn, and an exploring workboat revealed quite a lot of the map.

Here is what my western border expansion and exploration have revealed:



Notice the lone Mayan settler (and just one worker). I can't believe he is settling two cities without any workers to start improving them. Such a drag on his civ, those cities are.

And just north of that:



Here is what my cap's borders popping has shown:



And finally, here are what the demogs look like after the border expansion. I remained #1 in every category even at zero percent science, so I just took a screenshot showing that I'm now #1 in land too:

[Shoot the Moon]

Pretty quiet turns (as such, no pictures). Killed a dog soldier near my cap (lost an axe doing it, but mopped up with an archer. Considering dog soldier has odds on an axe, it's not exactly terrible to be even hammers).

Still going ahead with my plan to galley attack. Galley will complete after ending turn next turn and be loaded with two axes. After that, the galley will be used to settle a city on the horses on the island that you can see in my most recent screenshot. It is time to get chariots (and maybe horse archers) into the field.

Techwise, I am possibly going to grab monotheism next turn (1t tech to get the religion and OR, somewhat surprised it has lasted this late, not even those with a religion wanting OR yet seems odd). After that I am beelining engineering: I have a Byz on my borders who Oracle'd Feud; I need pikes, and lots of them, asap. Thank god I only have a 1 city front with Byz, with a city on a hill, and am winning that culture war to boot. Tech path to Engineering will probably go Iron Working (want to make sure I have iron, although I wouldn't be surprised to see it on the islands, which would be good to know before I settle an island city) then construction (to get out some catapults, as that will be my most effective military build to deter byz while waiting for pikes) and then MC, machinery, and engineering. I am the #1 GNP even at 0% science, but it could still be close. I do have a GS coming out in 10t, although I may look at instead letting a GE spawn in capital and using it to bulb machinery. We shall see.

[Shoot the Moon]

Argh! Byz cleared my choke, winning at 36% and 31% odds What do I have to do to catch a break with combat odds?

How lovely. Time to get some swords out to protect against longbows.

[Shoot the Moon]

Oh, and galley attack is off as he'll have two archers in the city. Just using the boat now for a settler that is completing this turn to snag horses. Note to self, have workers load onto galley after it drops of axe and settler.

[Shoot the Moon]

I just got demogs on ad hoc, which makes it everyone I have graphs on now (sorry, forgot to take a screenshot). What the hell happened to him? He's last in almost every category, and by quite a fair bit. Looking at the demogs, right now there appear to be roughly three tiers: myself and warriorknight at the top, Byz and Maya in the middle, and ad hoc at the bottom. Of course, with cataphracts coming online, Byz could make a move.

[Shoot the Moon]

Sorry for no screenshots or updates recently, I am quite busy these next two weeks. Anyway, I founded a new island city on the horses, so I now have chariots. This turn, research finished on construction. At the same time, I timed four cities to complete builds this turn, so I could start catapult builds to either defend myself from byz if they decide to go to the gold tile, or to clear off Maya's choke. I'm still going to continue on my planned tech path towards engineering. That being said, I'm going to watch carefully how many beakers go into MC when I begin researching it in two turns after a turn of 0% research to try to see if I am getting the other civ knowing the tech bonus. If I don't get that bonus, that means Byz doesn't have it yet and I could possibly afford to research something like calendar, HBR, or maybe even go for Bureau before having to hit engineering. I doubt Byz doesn't have it already though. Thankfully, I am a good deal ahead of them in GNP, so even if they have it I should be able to make it up.

Also in good news, two great generals were born overseas last turn; one in Byz and one in an unkown city. That means Byz and at least one other civ (although possibly more if the GGs are unrelated to each other) are fighting, which is obviously good for me.

[Shoot the Moon]

A pretty awesome turn all around.

First off, I need to mention that I played a bit of a trick last turn on Byz. The two chariots you can see were visible to Byz last turn (although pic from this turn). 1E of the chariots was a galley. I knew Byz could see all three, so I decided to leave the two chariots in place and moved a third chariot that had just been produced in Pata into the galley instead. The galley moved SE-SE. In essence, I wanted Byz to think the galley was empty.



Anyway, this turn I moved it next to Byz's city, and well:





Needless to say:



Needless to say I am probably first in line for cataphracts

If I a chariot remains all that is in that Maya city, I am going to move to the South of it out of their view next turn and then the turn after land the chariot. The turn after I would be more than happy to take 50% odds to raze their city.

I am also going to see if I can't arrange a similar amphibious assault on Maya's city in the west. At some point I might try something similar on Warriorknight, as he seems to be my biggest competition in the game based of the demogs.

This turn I put 100% research into MC. My base research was 127, and I produced 153 beakers into it. 127*1.2=152.4, so it seems that another civ does not yet have MC. That means Byz isn't all that close to cataphracts yet (I also know they have currency, which obviously isn't in the guilds line, so that somewhat confirms that), which gives me time to research something else. That gives me time to switch my research elsewhere, so I will probably go to HBR next in order to have some good units to clear the chokes on me.

Finally, I got a GS this turn. The next two turns will be in revolt for Judaism and OR, which is fine as it allows for that GS to move. I really just wanted to get cats out before my revolt so that if Byz comes back to the gold stack (or even stays on the tile their on potentially) I could possibly choose to hit them (would have to sim it first).

[Shoot the Moon]

Well, I totally missed Byz getting currency, as they got it 8 turns ago (decided to go back and check old saves). Then again, I haven't had much of a reason to check diplomacy anyway, which is totally why I missed it.

Not that that changes much, as they still don't have MC. At this point I am planning to put all of my 0% research turns into MC to watch it, and will probably decide to research it anyway eventually. Other techs I would want to head for are HBR and Bureau (my capital with bureau and the coming academy would be awesome).

One question: does anyone know the city names list for Byz and Maya? It appears neither is changing their city names (speaking of which, I should) and considering I found what is most likely Maya's most recent city I'd like to see how many cities they are at. If the list isn't easy to find, I'll just worldbuilder something up, but I figured one of our modder or xml inclined members might just know what file to look in.

[Shoot the Moon]

One question: does anyone know the city names list for Byz and Maya? It appears neither is changing their city names (speaking of which, I should) and considering I found what is most likely Maya's most recent city I'd like to see how many cities they are at. If the list isn't easy to find, I'll just worldbuilder something up, but I figured one of our modder or xml inclined members might just know what file to look in.

Ok, so I did some digging around in xml and found the file myself. It appears that Maya is using a mix of standard and changed names, so it's hard to tell what city number that is. When I get in game I'll check Byz; I just don't have any screenshot of his land on hand, although Nicea is 4th and Thessolonica second, which is I believe accurate (thess I specifically remember being his second city.)

[Ilios]

Wow, I kinda missed the Byz city razing, grats!