[SPOILERS] I had first pick and all I got was this stupid combo

[Bobchillingworth]

Did I say T40? I meant T41


Ah, and now the several-day wait begins until Mardoc can play his turn and I learn if I win the wonder or not...

[Bobchillingworth]

Hooray! And it only took me a couple setter's worth of hammers to complete


Still, I'm pretty happy about landing the Oracle- getting forges online soon will be great, being able to run an engineer specialist is nice, having a near-lock on the Colossus is fantastic given what I've seen of the map, and ensuring that someone like stick doesn't get free Metal Casting (or whatever) is wonderful.


My main concern now is catching back up in expansion and getting some Holkans out, since right now my empire could be toppled by a chariot. Finally revolting to slavery next turn. Future plans are vague and based on fleeting whims; sending a galley with an axe / holkan pair into stick territory might be fun. Of course stick hasn't really done anything to justify antagonizing him, but keeping my one confirmed neighbor on his back foot sounds like a good idea, if Nic's games and my FFH experience are any indication.


Pyramids, while surely a terrific wonder for this map, are on indefinite hold; I simply can't afford to spend the hammers on anything but civil units, at least a basic military and essential infrastructure (libraries, granaries, forges).

[Bobchillingworth]

Now I'm curious. Late Oracle celebration?

This has to have been intentional misdirection on Jowy's part in the banter thread; no way he's so unobservant that he hasn't realized my score increases must indicate that I built the Oracle and landed MC. Plus he has to know that I founded Buddhism (as my third tech), since nobody else started with Myst and the idea that someone would have picked Myst as their first or second tech beggars belief. Stick's score hasn't been increasing enough to represent the Oracle, and he's the only other person with a religion.


So what can I extrapolate from the above? Jowy is very likely fishing for information. He is well aware that I built the Oracle, and wants me to post confirmation in the banter thread to draw some heat from the other players and/or has contact with stick but is trying to sow confusion among the remaining players by implying he hasn't met him (since if he had contact, he'd see Stick's capital doesn't have the Oracle).


Well, either that or Jowy isn't paying much attention to the game and lacks contact with stick. And probably is my other neighbor, which now that I think about it would explain why I haven't encountered any scouts from the west- he's probably way behind in development like me from investing in super-early Stonehenge. So really it could mean anything!

[Bobchillingworth]

Finally expanding. I'll found another city next turn as well, in a location I'm rather proud of (but nervous about holding). I need more of everything- my cities need granaries, I need at least a couple chariots and holkans, infra, cities, workers, etc. Such is the cost of early Oracle. Aeyrn will go granary -> forge -> probably 2X chariots. Capital is slated for Granary -> some investment in a forge -> worker -> finish forge. John will finish the holkan, grow to size 3 on a granary, build / whip a worker, finish granary, then forge. Next wonder in the pipe is Colossus, to be built by city 6 or 7, which will be a coastal spot near my copper.


Man, this map looks a lot like what I'm playing for FFH PBEM XXXII. It's not a spoiler if the starts are mirrored and I expect to get eliminated very soon in that game, right?

[Bobchillingworth]

New city:






An absolute beauty, which secures a lot of land for me- if I can hold it. I'm pretty nervous about this- Stick has more power than I do, and almost all of mine is techs. Defending warrior might be able to kill one chariot, but that's it. Just hoping I can hold it long enough for my Holkan to arrive- now that I think about it, I should have had my worker chopping the dye forest so I'd have a second Holkan ready. Dang.

Well, if he burns it I'll just have to secure the area and resettle I guess. I'm actually not sure he even knows what the land looks like to his north, since I've had vision on it for ages (for fog-busting) and haven't seen any scouting units.


I'm sure most of the lurker thread posts are some combination of "holy shit, it's almost turn 50 and Bob has a single cottage and like 6 pop points in his entire empire" and "stick is going to murder him, with cause". Well, go big or go home, right? If I can just be left the fuck alone for the next half-dozen turns, I can fortify that area and see my other cities finally get up to speed from essential infrastructure. I am convinced my eventually insane happy cap and huge pile of discounted buildings can give me a major advantage over my starting-tech obsessed opponents, but I'm going to need time.

[Bobchillingworth]

Relevant chat snippets:

Bobchillingworth:

I guess I'm playing this game under a completely different set of assumptions than everyone else
they all chose civs based on worker techs
what could get the most cities and cottages up the quickest
I picked for... discounted buildings.
and a giant happy cap.

Bobchillingworth:

the sad thing is, I think I have a better gameplan in general, but my inexperience with BTS and massive freaking blindspots are going to make a mess of it and just convince people further to play these stupid identical openings based around 50 beaker starting techs

[Note- by "in general" I really mean "in the most general sense"- obviously my gameplan is a complete failure by any reasonable metric, and I'm just hoping the cheap awesome stuff I've unlocked can save me.]


Q: Have you forgotten the SNOWBALL?

A: I'm currently wondering what its chance in Hell is, for comparative purposes

Q: Picking for reasons other than starting techs doesn't excuse having only a single cottage this late in the game- what happened?

A: I invested everything in the Oracle, and probably built it too early because I got spooked by IND Jowy and everyone having good reason to land it quickly, on this Colossus-friendly map. I put off Pottery for far too long, didn't revolt to Slavery until like T45, and my workers have been mostly busy chopping and putting up mines.

[Bobchillingworth]

T50 update-


The Empire:










Momentarily the largest in the world (thanks to Creative culture), but also probably the least developed save maybe Sian and/or Jowy's. I'm working on that now. Workers are finally being directed to connect my Gold tile, since my intended whipping is going to have a nasty impact on my happy cap.






I've mostly closed the power gap with stick- at least on paper. Most of my power is still tech, but I researched Archery out of an abundance of caution and can build chariots and holkan (and can connect copper whenever I feel like it), so I'm feeling reasonably secure defensively. I do need to get a couple chariots out soon for scouting purposes, as I prepare for the next wave of expansion.



Demographics are middling:






The real issue here is that I'm basically relying on a single gold tile for half my economy; obviously this state of affairs cannot stand for long. More cottages are planned of course, it's just a matter of growing cities and building more workers. I think I'm going to be forced to build the Colossus within the next 20 turns, since that will be the quickest way to start making cash.




So, my empire is weak, underpopulated and underdeveloped- but I am in an okay position to do some significant growth.

[Bobchillingworth]

I think stick might be fighting someone? And Sian and Jowy are going at it? Maybe? I get the impression that this game is starting to deflate a bit after the initial whoosh.


Biggest event of the last few turns was discovering Stone:





Unexpected, but I'll take it! Gotta try to settle this one sooner than later, since probably everyone has it close by and I want super-cheap Pyramids if at all possible.


Stick is hanging around my borders with a chariot, which is annoying but otherwise meaningless, except necessitating I build a second holkan to cover my workers.

[Bobchillingworth]

Gah, Sian and Jowy keep sitting on their turns and ensuring we don't get in one a day, but they don't hold them for quite long enough that I can yell at them about it. This is not a good sign with only 5 players and we aren't even near turn 100 yet

[Bobchillingworth]

I didn't get an Great Engineer at my capital, which blows, but at least the Buddhist Shrine is an okay consolation prize.


Settle another city next turn, and another a few turns after that, followed not long after by two more. I'm going to claim the stone soon, see if I can build the Pyramids in my capital.