This is a Spoiler thread - Dreylin, PB28

[The Black Sword]

I think what Whosit did was fine. He deliberately did not play when he first logged in T57 because to do so would be to double move you. That's from his thread. I get the impression that he just logged in when was convenient for him to play his turn and then didn't complete it when he saw there would be turn order issues. I'm not sure whether he realised on T56 that there was going to be a turnsplit.

I don't think there's a consensus that people shouldn't log in at all when it's not their part of the turn split. Personally, I think logging in whenever you want is fine, but try to move all my units during the session in which I end turn. I don't think you can assume that there's no turnsplit just because he's logged in already.

[Dreylin]

Thanks TBS, that makes a lot of sense.

Rightly or wrongly, I had the impression from PB23 that Whosit was a bit of a stickler for turn order even in peace time, so I think that coloured my thinking. Regardless I'm frustrated at myself for letting something like this happen for the second time this week (EitB44) when I could easily have diffused the situation.

I'm fairly certain that I could have moved the Warrior into Breccia last turn, but had it playing zone defense for no good reason. I also moved the Warrior out of Granite to cover the Worker when there was no need to do so. Breccia could even have whipped the Axe a turn earlier, but I wanted to wait until the Barracks was online first. <sigh> I could also have tracked his units movements a little more closely, but clearly I have been taking the "casual" acpect of the game a little too far.

Well, if I've got out of this with no losses then I take this as a warning and keep it in my mind not to get complacent as the rest of the game unfolds.

[Dreylin]

t59 -

Fresh from last turn's debacle, let's see going on here.

Whosit did not accept either of my offers, but he did withdraw both of his Warriors and return the Peace offer. I had already decided that 10t enforced Peace really wasn't in my interest, and that I'd much prefer a Cease Fire so I rejected.

Here's the situation after playing the turn:


In the West his Warrior is all but trapped now and I hve a good warning of anything incoming, while in the East my Scout can dodge around his Warrior no problem.

Time to engage in some extended AI-diplo, I think


Also trying to build a relationship with my other neighbour:


My Power rating is improving:


Well actually, more than I thought:


Whosit is probably #2 based on the graphs. Overall demos not looking too bad for me, I think.

[Dreylin]

Idle speculation between turns:


I know that Jowy has to wait for either wetbandit or Adrien/Mardoc, so how does that fit with my previous island theory:


Hmmm, well that might fit and if it does then I think I might have the "softest" island. Recent idiocies notwithstanding, I feel like I have a decent chance.

[GermanJoey]

No comment on your speculations, but yeah typically Cre and Cre-likes will have a high score in the early game because a large % of one's score at this point will be from land points, and Cre will have more land earlier than others. Go figure!

[Dreylin]

Well, I intend to find out soon enough; Serpentinite is building a WB to go do a bit of exploring then report back for Fishing duty somewhere.

As for my Island, it seems that I am out-expanding the opponent with IMP, while the third resident appears to have lost a city to the Barbs, and judging by lack of re-take it was razed. My plan is to continue to focus on inward expansion to secure a little bit more than average of the contested land area (I don't want to grab for too much and piss off both neighbours!) and leave the coast relatively unsettled for now. I will probably make an exception for the Western Island - provided that a food source can be secured or I don't feel it too risky to do. The SE Island is better in a vacuum, but I don't have the existing infrastructure in that direction, so would be unsupportable in the short term.

Research from Sailing will be Maths-Currency, though I may slip Masonry in there if I decide to make an early play for Hanging Gardens. Wonder-wise, that's the only one I can see going for in the short term.

Medium term will be dependent on how things develop with neighbours, but longer term I can see a relatively early Astronomy being a strong option for this map.

[Dreylin]

t63 -

I spy a Whosit Archer:

Arkose is a raw, coarse-grained sandstone, deposited very near its source, that consists of quartz and a significant proportion of feldspar.

[Dreylin]

t64 -

And there's his Settler:


Planting on the spot he's on is OK (& phenomenal defensively for him), pushing further would be ... inconvenient.

[Dreylin]

Civstats has now confirmed Jowy at war with Adrien/Mardoc with a city changing hands, so my theory is at least 78% correct.

Unless they're at war over an island but that's probably not as likely this early.

Whosit planted last turn, so it's almost certainly at the spot his party was visible at. That's a fair border location, and nothing I intend to get upset about. I may however move that marked spot 1W to block the spot 1NW of the Deer. It secures my SW, and so I'd probably better get it planted soon.

I've not seen any sign of approaching borders from Grimace, though my sentry net has been much more present in the West for obvious reasons. I do need to push that way as well, which probably means island hopping is going on hold for a while.

Arkose switched from Barracks build to Monument because I do need the border pop much more than I need "optimum investment". I'll chop/whip it in and overflow into the Granary. I'll probably lose the 1h invested into the Barracks ... causal, right?

Serpentinite, having overflowed into a Settler will finish the Axe build while emphasising Growth. Gneiss is slow-building a Library while regrowing, but will put that on hold for the next Settler. Breccia will probably be pushing Workers for a while until Arkose gets its own food online. NEED more Workers, but right now we're prioritising land grab and using the whip to make sure only improved tiles are being worked....

Sailing completed EoT, so the piggy bank is out again until we make a run to Maths.

[Dreylin]

Aha, there's Grimace's 5th going down now (2-3t after mine). I guess he got delayed building his AGG Ikhandas or something? We're about on par powerwise though, so I'm not expecting to see a flood of Impis striding across the hills, but a couple of Axes out East might be prudent.

I'll probably offer him another map trade if I can't get an idea of where it went down.

Still trying to catch up on PB23, but I'm certainly bearing PBEM68 in mind....