[SPOILERS] Dazed and Whosit walk the line: Darius of Egypt

[Whosit]

Demos are the same, of course. And now we see how this map is mirrored. Seems to be diagonally, at least. Doesn't seem like we've hit any improvements yet, though. Anyway, that Marble may be too hard for us to get, but that means there's some closer to our West.

Also, the last micro Serdoa posted is definitely off even with AH. His plan says we should finish T10. Wait, how does that count, actually? We'll finish when we end T10. I usually count by the start of turns. I think. Ah, whatever. Anyway, knowing you'll be extra busy on weekends, if possible, that means we should get a good outline of a plan done before weekends.

Also, any reason not to move up and meet them? We could scout around their north and thus know what's around OUR north, too.

[dazedroyalty]

We're just far enough away that I think he can easily build a warrior before we get there. On normal speed, though, it would have been strongly possible we could walk into his capital undefended. In this case. let's just make contact and continue exploring such that we can find out what good settling options might be to our NW. I'd move NE this turn even though it delays contact 1 turn. I think we get better scouting info that way.

We still need to look more closely at the micro plan. I believe Serdoa's notation is for EoT not start. Therefore, AH finishes at EoT10. Because of the way the production/research phase works, it's often easier to track this way. Most importantly, we just need to all be on the same page and know how we're tracking things. I've got a list of things to do tonight that is pretty long, but I'm hoping to squeeze in a chance to play around with the micro sandbox.

[Whosit]

Played the turn. Nothing really to report on scouting, except that we are... 14-16 tiles apart from NC, depending on if you count the capital tiles themselves.

Commodore finished a tech last turn, which I'd say is AH (soldiers went up 2K, as did ours when I hit "end turn"). I don't think I can make judgements about what's next since no one can pick the next tech until they start the next turn. This does probably mean that AT did not go AH. Mining was possible, yes? We thought at least one guy was going Mining. I need to find a better way to keep track of the conclusions I'm drawing from these numbers. Nothing else changed, though.

If we move the Warrior 1N next turn he won't see much but a hill over the lake.

Oh. OH! How could I forget? No horses in sight. Of course.

I think dazed and I are gonna try to figure out what plan to pursue later tonight. That is, how farmer gambity are we gonna go? Do we finish this Warrior or not? Well, we do know that someone COULD come knocking on our door any turn now, but at least if the Warrior is left one turn from done, we can pop him out if need be, but how are we planning to defend our second city if we don't build him?

[dazedroyalty]

Played turn. Mining selected. We grew to size 2 at EoT.

[Whosit]

It came back to us already, huh? Well... are we going to finish the Warrior or go straight to Settler now? I think the fastest way to get the Settler out is to work the sheep while the Worker improves it. And remind me again where you want us to settle.

Also, did we make contact this turn?

[dazedroyalty]

I just don't see sending a settle out without any protection being a viable strategy. I know barbs are off for this game, but the odds of running into an opportunistic enemy warrior is too high. So let's finish the warrior first. What I don't know without further micro look is if we need to work the sheep or can work the cottage.

I think the settling location should still be the hill that Serdoa highlighted. We should confirm what turn borders will pop again since that will affect when we can work the crab.

We made contact but nothing "happened." We should get the known tech bonus now, though, I believe.

[Whosit]

I still can't recall which hill he suggested, though, is the thing.

Also, C&D: AT and Commodore grew to size 2 and have improved Deer. So, since they are a turn ahead of us on that.... They might be an actual turn ahead of us, even with the PBEM weirdness for collecting data. Also, NC settled 1NW of where we are, which I didn't pick up on until just now. I wonder if the Expansionist civs were able to find a way to squeeze out that extra hammer for their Worker, thus getting a turn ahead? Also, NC and MH each got a tech. Not sure if that's Animal Husbandry or Mining but pretty sure it was worth 2k soldiers.

If I get a little time, I may go back and use my opponent analysis post on the first page to centrally keep track of my tech guesses.

[dazedroyalty]

Naw, they aren't ahead of us. We grew at EoT just like they did. We have to compare our EoT info with their EoT info to get an accurate comparison.

[dazedroyalty]

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of trying to get Henge. MH is the biggest problem since he's IND. I'm gonna run some sims to see what's possible....

[Whosit]

Well... I'm still iffy, but if we do get it we should be able to make it pay off if we can settle as much as we intend to. I also think AT could be a possible threat since he starts with Mysticism, but so far there's no indication that he's going for it.

The good news is that some deomgraphics watching ought to give us warning if MH is attempting to build Stonehenge. A Tier 1 tech with no soldiers attached, plus increased production ought to show up. Best case scenario we get vision on his city but I know that won't happen.

My big worry is about all the forests we'll have to cut to make this happen. Almost all of the capital's if we're trying to make this happen in one shot, but we'd need a ton of workers for that, too. Maybe we'll get really lucky and find Stone, but then again, we'd need Masonry and the Worker turns to connect the stone, so that's probably not worth it.

On another note, we still wanna figure out what to build after the Settler. I can't remember if we discussed this, but if we have our Worker pasture the cows while we build another Worker, the capital ought to be safe. At two pop, with pastured Cows, we can build a Warrior from scratch in 2 turns by working the Cows plus any other tile that gives a hammer, and we'll have at least 2 turns warning if an enemy Warrior shows up in any direction. I'll sim that out later.

City 2, on the hill 2N of the crabs, I'm guessing that'll work the cottage and the crabs, and that it will build a Workboat? Perhaps whip said Workboat, but you get the idea.

Oh, what order techs do we got after BW? We want Fishing, Pottery, and Mysticism. I'm guessing Fishing before Pottery so City 2 ("There You Go," by the way) can work the Crabs. Pottery ought to come before Mysticism, in my opinion.