[SPOILER]Ruff plays PBEM - who knew?

[Ruff_Hi]

Ruff, you have enough espionage already for everybody's graphs? That seems unusual, did you ever run EP slider?

Yes - 1 turn. I think I would have all 4 graphs by now even if I hadn't.

I was hording gold while my library in TBB (Capital) was being built and trying to get graphs on the 4th player (I think it was Pindo) ... Scooter and Stupendous were dribbling EPs against me, slowing my Pindo graphs down (I was flipping 1 or 2 on the Scooter / Stupendous to keep the graphs) so I said 'stuff it' and ran one turn of 100% EPs (24ish) and then balanced out the spread to bring everyone to about the same value.

I am now trying to keep that balanced against what I need.

[Ruff_Hi]

Game has started up again following its Christmas break. I've played my turn but I am yet to complete my review of the various screenshots that I took. One thing that I did notice is that Rego and Scooter are not at war ... and it looks like Rego lost a city.

I remember the first pbem we played here - it was a very gentle affair compared to this game. I have left my scout exposed to a Scooter' warrior - I wonder if it will be there next turn.

[Ruff_Hi]

Here is the second bonus report from Ruff. Here is my best map with people's locations filled in (BTW - I have included the world map that I knocked up back on T23 (below) and it is surprising to see how accurate it is (well - if you ignore that I got Pindo and Stupendous / Ichabod in the wrong location).



Now, here is what we know ...

• Rego jumped out to an early lead in cities and tiles
  
• Pindo has largely matched Rego with cities and tiles
  
• Stupendous has trailed in cities but is ripping up a storm with wonders (all 3 to fall so far)
  
• Scooter has played a mixed game so far but has matched Rego / Pindo with cities
  
• Scooter doesn't have anyway to culturally expand the majority of his cities
  
• Pindo razed one of Stupendous' cities
  
• Scooter razed one of Rego's cities
  
• Rego has been 'declare war' happy
  

How would I categorize my play so far ... trailing. I was last to two cities, last to three and have been generally trailing in tech. That said, I think that I am catching up fairly well. Or maybe it is just that some of the leaders (Rego) have been knocked down a peg or two.

Now, based on this and providing some fill / projections on my part, I expect / think that ...

• Rego and Scooter will continue to trade barbs back and forth - they will NOT have a friendly relationship
  
• Stupendous will not forget Pindo's city razing and they will NOT have a friendly relationship
  
• The two stronger players are to my South (Rego / Pindo) over the map-wrap and separated by the islands
  
• The two weaker players are on arms that are next to mine (scooter / Stupendous)
  

I think this set up puts me in a pretty good position. So - down the track, I can see me using the islands as a buffer between me and the two stronger players (I have extra ship movement over them which will help a lot) while I could grab some wheel land from the two weaker players with little difficulty. Further, the weaker players have an 'enemy' directly North of them (Rego against Scooter and Pindo against Stupendous) ... this will keep them focused to their North.

Now, Pindo and I have a (sort of) understanding and I have some plans to push that forward. Rego is a nut job (and has copper!) and I am very wary of him. He has a warrior parked under my chariot (1 tile East of my copper) and I believe that he is watching what I do with the copper. I would not be surprised if he is building a galley / 2xAxe combo with plans to come visit Banana-Land. You will notice that I am building extra warriors (not much use against Axes) as well as ensuring that all of my cities have at least 1 defender. I will also be settling my copper city within the next 3-4 turns.

[T-hawk]

I went to see what traits you have, to see if they're later game traits that might help you catch up... and discovered that nowhere in this thread do you even say what leader you're playing. Spanish civ, but no leader.

How exactly would you grab land from your neighbors? Walk overland? Naval ambush?

[Qgqqqqq]

Mansa musa right?

[Ruff_Hi]

Here are the selected leaders, in turn playing order.

• Pindicator - Victoria (FIN/IMP) of Sumeria (Agriculture / The Wheel)
  
• Ichabod - De Gaulle (CHA/IND) of India (Mysticism / Mining)
  
• Regoarrarr - Isabella (EXP/SPI) of Mali (Mining / The Wheel)
  
• Ruff - Sury (EXP/CRE) of England (Fishing / Mining)
  
• scooter - Lizzie (PHI/FIN) of Carthage (Fishing / Mining)
  

I was hoping to be able to play with the graph picture of Mansa Musa / Spanish Colors / Viking Flag as it fits my Banana theme better. Unfortunately, the Mansa picture would have required a mod and the other players weren't keen on that. I could get the Spanish Colors and Viking flag.

So, I guess, with my traits, I should have been on the quick side of starting instead of the sluggard that I have been.

Re taking land from Northern players - Naval invasion mainly. Walking overland would be too long and hard.

[Ruff_Hi]

woohoo - first Civ to 6 cities.

Edit: Ok, second but I am now the only civ with 6 cities as Rego lost one and is the process of resettling it (see full report).

[Qgqqqqq]

I'm not visiting that site.
Sorry ruff

[Ruff_Hi]

I'm not visiting that site.
Sorry ruff

Because ...?

It did have reports of viruses on my site, including a block by google. I also noticed that someone had hacked my site and uploaded versions of my html with virus code included. However, I have cleaned all of that out now, changed my ftp passwords and haven't had an issue since then. I also went through the 'my site is now clean' process with google and they gave it a thumbs up.

[CFCJesterFool]

Care to post the link Ruff? I had it on my favorites bar (obviously I deleted it) and I am too lazy to try and figure it out again.