[spoilers] pindicator goes off the deep end

[pindicator]

It looks like Commodore found me on the latest turn. He sends his greetings.

[COLOR="DarkOrange"]Hey Pindicator,

Hail and well met, our fearsome work boat has wandered near your soon-to-be borders from what I can only assume is your E/SE. Do not worry, we come in peace seeking contacts. I assume you've met Rego to your northeast? If you haven't, you will when you settle this turn. How's it going on this side of the world? How's Plako's Revenge been treating you? We've been whining nonstop about settling on floodplains and seafoodless fishing starts, but at least we're not alone. Let us know what contacts you need and we'll try to help you fill them.

Until later,
-Commodore [/COLOR]

And my verbose reply:

[COLOR="Plum"]Greetings Commodore,
Well met indeed! Your work boat certain did inspire the fear of the Viking people. The wailed and gnashed their teeth and hid like children at the sight of such a fearsome fighting beast. Frank -- FDR, that is -- had to gather them around his campfire and try to tell them that there was nothing to fear but fear itself. I don't know if the message took quite like he meant it, because now they've taken to calling your workboat "Fear Incarnate". I tell yeh, I was doubled over in stitches laughing at the whole incident; when Frank gets together with those Vikings just about anything can happen!

So you must have come from my SE? Yuris had sent me to his SW to find you, and I believe rego told me you were to his NE. Either everybody's sense of cardinal direction is off or we must be on one of those toroids I keep hearing about. I have met everybody but Sian. Have you met him? If you could get me directions on how best to meet him that would be much appreciated. Also, if you are in need of any directions I can do my best to help but my knowledge is sadly limited.

Yes, with such a vindictive map as this we most certainly must all work together if we are to survive. Who knows what other surprises this plako has in store for us? But as long as his revenge is not like Montezuma's I think I'll be able to stomach it.

Let me know if the Viking people can be of any assistance,
pindicator[/COLOR]

I tried a bit of fishing with the map layout. Hopefully his response will let me know if my earlier guess is accurate.

[pindicator]

Turn 41

Our third city came online, CAA (FAA):



Again, from wikipedia:

In 1938, the Civil Aeronautics Act transferred federal responsibilities for non-military aviation from the Bureau of Air Commerce to a new, independent agency, the Civil Aeronautics Authority. The legislation also gave the authority the power to regulate airline fares and to determine the routes that air carriers would serve.

I have FAA bracketed because it would later be turned into the Federal Aviation Administration. Maybe I should just ditch the brackets and use FAA as a later agency, even if that wasn't one FDR created.

Here's the link for more

Anyway, founding caused expenses to rise 4gpt. But the city automatically gave us 5gpt (3 for itself, and 2 more because New Deal and AAA get their trade routes boosted from 1cpt to 2), so its a net win for now. Honestly, it's not that great of a city site with rego's So Dumb right next door.

I fired rego another email today, asking about his wonder plans. Well, I tried to play innocent and say I was starting to think about wonders now that he mentioned them, but didn't want to step on any toes if we're going to work together. So basically I'm asking him where he's going while acting like the noob who doesn't have a plan. I doubt it will work, but might as well try. I'm largely an unknown since I haven't played here much so let's work that.

Here's the situation after settling:



You can see where Gaspadore showed up in the SE. You can also see how So Dumb is going to be So Painful culturally. And you may also be wondering why I'm sending my galley north after all that talk of sending it east. Well, look at that mini-map. It's not expanding anymore when I send my work boat west. So we're getting close to uncovering all the E-W tiles, but the N-S are going to slow us. Particularly if I have to get around rego's island going east before traveling north. Hense sending the galley north.

Kind of wish I had a warrior on that galley instead of a scout...

Cross your fingers for me. This would be the worst possible turn for Stonehenge to fall.



AAA whipped the galley for 2 pop putting itself at 51/33. Working the grass hill and the cow will give us 25 overflow into Stonehenge. If it does fall, I'm putting that overflow into a settler and crying.

[Ceiliazul]

Turn 41

Our third city came online, CAA (FAA):

I vote FAA, more clear... of course you could attempt to intentionally confuse people by changing the acronyms throughout the game, like the Gov't does in the USA.

[pindicator]

Turn 42

Otherwise known as the "Stonehenge Celebration Post"





:2dance:

No response yet from Rego on wonders. He'll definitely see through my guise now, but oh well. I didn't actually lie to him in my emails. I just told him I was starting Stonehenge soon.

I also came across yuris' work boat to my south east. So I sent him another note telling him that the only route I knew of to rego was to go south and around. I told him there may be a way to go north but I haven't unfogged it yet; I kind of hope he goes north so I know if there's access that way.

Want to know the other cool benefit of Stonehenge here?
Just look at that mini-map:



And now at that great, big world we have:



Flying camera has the world askew, but on the bottom-left is my galley in the north, and on the bottom-right is my work boat in the far west. The Stonehenge city of AAA is celebrated by being on camera twice. I did some more screenshots in a high rez of Civ and tried to calculate out the amount of tiles in the fog based on the number of pixels of fog. I got 21 or 22 tiles left to uncover N-S, and about 27 tiles to uncover E-W. Guess how big that would make the world? 65 x 40

If there's a straight line, I could circumnvaigate in 6 turns. But we already know it won't go perfectly now, don't we?

[pindicator]

In other T42 news...

[SIZE="3"]Research & Wonders[/SIZE]

I'm researching Wheel & Pottery next. I'm going to reassess strategy depending on what happens in that timeframe, but even with the higher-than-anticipated expenses I expect to land both techs in 5 turns. Considering Rego's tech path, I seriously doubt Oracle will last that long - but I didn't think Stonehenge would last this long. Well, if it is then I have an opening to do the traditional Oracle -> Metal Casting.

Today I was thinking about just going straight for Oracle and grabbing Monarchy with it. I have wine, and HR will be a big boon as I'm not seeing much pre-Calendar happiness resources. But that would mean delaying Pottery even longer, and I need to start cottaging those flood plains. So we will go Wheel -> Pottery and after that the tech path depends on what is available.

And now we have a Great Prophet coming in 34 turns. Considering expenses are going to be higher for a torroid map, maybe Theology will still be around on T77 for a Great Prophet bulb? Else we can shop him around.


[SIZE="3"]Workers, Settlers, and Galleys[/SIZE]

Micro is a pain when you have to add galleys into the mix!

New Deal started on the next settler; at size 4 it will take only 5 turns to get a settler out. I'm looking to settle high-food, close-by locations next, so the next city will be on the isle west of the capital. The plan is to settle on T49. It can steal the capital's wheat farm and then work the clams as well to grow quickly. After that I'm probably going to settle the southern copper... except all the food is second ring. So maybe the west copper... except maintenance will be a killer that far out. We'll decide.

But how do I move all these workers & galleys around? I took advantage of there being no turn yesterday and whipped up a possible micro plan:



This is only through T47 - in the next few turns I'll have to assess and update again.


[SIZE="3"]C&D and Demographics[/SIZE]

I haven't posted demos in a while

Keep in mind, that GNP is post-stonehenge. Now you know why I haven't posted demos in a while. I have a hole to climb out of already.

This last turn we had a few developments abroad:

Rego grew two more population points. So Fat is size 5, So Ugly is size 3, and So Dumb is size 2. That's right, he named his cities after Yo Mamma jokes. Genius.
Gaspadore also grew a population point, their capital now at size 5. Their naming convention is a little more obscure. Lots of Zs in the names. I meant to google it but didn't.
Sian got a tech without Soldier Points. Um... Pottery?
Yuris got a tech without Soldier Points. Um... Writing?

Diplomatically I have a few emails out but no responses. That could be worrying if it wasn't so early. Or maybe that's why it's worrying.

[pindicator]

Turn 43

More chatting with rego. He was acting like he wanted Oracle, but I think he's just trying to get something from me in order for him to say he won't go for it. I offered to not compete for map info of circumnavigating, but he wouldn't even bite for that even though he said he wasn't interested in circumnvaigation. So either he's lying about not wanting to circumnavigate or he's just trying to feint interest in the Oracle.

The thing is, I'm not sure I want to go for Oracle either. I definitely don't want it right away, and I don't want him to get it later when he can snag something really good with it. So I told him that it looked like it was a race; he asked us to revisit this in a few turns.

We also compared C&D notes. I think he wasn't giving me exactly what he thought, just to trip me up or test me -- I dunno. As an example, he said he thought Sian researched Ag (T5), AH (12), Fishing (15), Wheel (23), Mining (27), BW (34), Sailing (38). Which is what I had except for Wheel & Sailing swapped, because I have no idea why Wheel would take 8 turns to research when you have 1 city. But that wasn't the first time I thought he was trying to trip me up into revealing info, so I just agreed there.

I also signed OB with Yuris125. I asked for a non-compete on Oracle for 20 turns because I didn't think i would get trade routes since I don't have any of his cities uncovered. He agreed, and I accepted his OB proposal and then I got the trade routes. So I don't know if I should tell him I was wrong and if he wants to go for Oracle he can, or if I should just keep silent on the matter. It didn't sound like he was aiming for it in the next few turns anyway, which was all the information I was hoping to get out of him.

And yes, I still do not know if I want to go for the Oracle. My gut tells me Rego doesn't want to rush for it, so I tried to steer the negotiations towards an impasse. Because frankly if he goes straight for it he can beat me. But then he doesn't get anything good for it. Metal Casting is what he'd probably grab. But I am thinking about skipping it because I'm behind in the early game. Considering my starting techs & traits it shouldn't be a surprise, but I didn't do myself any favors with CAA.

I plan on going Wheel -> Pottery for certain, even if I bluff to Rego that I'm going for it.

Rego just plopped down his 4th city this turn: LikeaPotatoChip. I'm sure his thread tells you why yo mama is like a potato chip. He's the clear leader again with 12 pop. I have 7. This concerns me, enough that I may swap CAA over to a settler next turn. AAA is either going to grow to size 4 and build a settler or grow into unhappiness at size 5 then whip out a settler. And I may just do 2 settlers in a row from my capital. Hmmm... maybe CAA can be worker duty then. It gets 7 f+h/t at size 1

I mis-calculated before. Because I have that scout on board my galley, best-case circumnav time is actually 4 turns from now. 5 or 6 turns seems likely.

[T-hawk]

I also signed OB with Yuris125. I asked for a non-compete on Oracle for 20 turns because I didn't think i would get trade routes since I don't have any of his cities uncovered.

You don't have to defog a city to get trade routes to it. You have to defog a trade path up to the other civ's border. IOW, a fogged tile counts for your trade routes if it is within another civ's border.

Congratulations on Stonehenge, your enthusiasm really comes through in the report.

[oledavy]

Congratulations on Stonehenge, your enthusiasm really comes through in the report.

Echoing T-Hawk's sentiment, your updates are a great read

[pindicator]

Thanks for the wonderful input!

I'm glad the reports are coming through well. I've always been a writer at heart, so the posts are almost as much fun as the game. Let me know if you have any questions about why I'm doing what I'm doing, or if anything else doesn't come through. This gets more fun if it's not just a monologue.

[pindicator]

If I go for Oracle after Pottery...

...30 hammers overflow
+ 2 chops (26 hammers)
+ 11 hammers production

= 1 turn Oracle.

Just a thought.