[Mjmd #54 no players] Flying Solo

[Mjmd]

Anyone have a good way to do pictures of tall empires? Here is my best attempt with flying camera mode. 6th (7th with raze) city of Medieval Total War was founded this turn. Last stepping stone to the western x. Ties me with El Grillo for 6 (and he just settled 6th recently, but he built GLH and probably has these things called workers). I have 2 cities growing to size 4 next turn. Debating between two workers and a worker and a settler. I'm probably going with 2 workers as I'm low on them and I won't have Iron working for a sec for the border city anyways. Need IW both for jungle and some swords for that barb city (has 3 archers and give it time to grow at least). Capital can then 2 pop whip a settler when it grows to 4. Those two workers will be 5&6. I'll probably stop building workers there honestly with the lack of happy and ability to share tiles 1 of the new workers will be working on sharable cottages for capital. The other will be chopping the forest at Sim Ant for a library. I want to do a scientist for an academy at my capital.



Demos aren't great. 6th in food, but 10th in pop. Something about a low happy cap and lots of new cities that require border pops. Spore grows next turn and I was able to get a 2nd work boat out to be in position. 1st work boat is taking an educated guess at circumnavigation and going NE. Why NE? Well I haven't met anyone yet and if they came via a southern route I would have met them. All players know circumnav is possible (El Grillo did it), so I would assume SOMEONE would have come by in the south otherwise. Plus if El Grillo did it there has to be a route north somewhere which is a better sure bet. Plus why wouldn't the map be imbalanced for circumnavigation and gaining KTB. Gira is also putting a lot of EPs into me for some reason which is annoying. I'm assuming just forgot to change, but that makes me think they haven't met many people either and they already have graphs on relevant neighbors. SD (also southern) has a lot of EPs into me, although it stopped increasing so he has met some other people recently.

[Mjmd]

Hm general idiocy level, what am I feeling. Well I forgot to turn on tech the turn I should have, so pretty high. Next question. Where to settle. Settler was whipped this turn and need to figure out to where in the world it is going.


My current spot leaves open a gem city for El Grillo. Give me more time to recover ect. The incredibly far way from my supply line but safer eventually (way down the line) would be to settle 1NE of gem. I then have flatland to hit on if he invades. Problem is of course that spot is begging to be invaded pronto so probably not. I could also go 1S of the rice just to deny him the gem and keep my supply lines the same. I think I either go with current spot or 1SW. There is so little happy on this map, ceding a happy is kind of meh. It is a duplicate of a happy I can pick up. BTW 1 person has currency. Which seems early. I have exactly 1 GLH fueled bet on who. Meaning either way I probably have to go construction next myself, so maybe I should go 1S of rice. I still think I'm too far behind and these spots are too far away for that kind of blatant aggression.

Also, do I continue scouting with the axe and potentially have it picked off, probably not. Do I risk going on the hill to see a bit more? Do I risk him tracking me down on that peninsula. I probably don't keep going. I would love to know if his neighbor is north or west. I have my own chariot coming up and I could at least keep an eye on the wheat clam spot. I would love to settle a city on that little peninsula.

[Mjmd]

I'm a coward! Choose the furthest back spot. There are reasons. SD built colossus. Elkad is still on 3 cities got his shrine and still has multiple islands to expand to that I can hopefully get later. Debating about northern spot if I can get. On one hand the lower X gets 1 more hill, but its exposed to army marching on hills. However, current X is also exposed to army marching on hills, sooooo. I like my border cities to be production cities, and with low happy cap can't really work all that coast anyways. Plus easier to support each other. Something to mull over. Anyways, with worker pre roading get to settle next turn.






The other reason is of course that I've been only building settlers, workers, and granaries, leading to this.




2nd last in power. Oh ya. Looks like someone has 1 city left, so that isn't saying much. My food is looking very respectable for someone who lost a 2nd city. Someone is crushing CY though..... I'm betting I'm not that far into 4th with that 1 pop person dragging down average.



Looks like Elkad moved their capital and then got squeezed? Still doesn't seem to be a lot of room over there. They have some nice looking islands to fight over though.



I think tech path wise I'm going to dial tech back next turn so I barely get IW. Save up gold for when I have a couple of libraries (whipped in at Red Alert and Sim Ant, prob just those 2 for now). Then I think I have to go constructions, because Khmer . Then currency, then calendar for happy and bananas.

[Mjmd]

Asking again. Any good way to do pictures of tall empires?

Anyways, Iron is in awkward spots. One second ring of my 9th city (settler in queue in advanced wars). Other is on the filler city spot, which while ok, I won't be settling soon. I'll probably just two pop whip some barracks to bump my power numbers instead of swords in the short term and build some archers atm for MP. Take the barb city at elephants. Whipping the two libraries mentioned prior soon. Am I playing a farmers gambit atm. You bet I am. I'm super far behind due to the 2nd city being razed so taking some risks. I don't think El Grillo will attack before construction. SD is harder to predict, but at 4 cities surely he should just be trying to expand to whatever is over there. Elkad did finally settle his 4th city on that island, but pretty sure I can grab that later so leaving settling pattern as is.


I'm still waffling pretty hard on the norther clam horse spot. I already have 1 city with hills leading up to it, not sure why not double down. Settling the grassland river gets me 1 forest to chop for a fishing boat as well the additional hill in bfc. Looks like El Grillo will settle on the gems (has 2 archers there at least), so regretting not moving my city 1SW as if he settlers there it 100% guarantees a war. I assumed he would settle, but I didn't think it would be on the gems!

Any questions. Once picks are done for PB56 I'll be mired in micro on and off. I also have all the PB52 threads to read.

[Amicalola]

You could try going for a very high FoV for the pictures if you haven't. Not sure if you're too tall.

I'm very impressed with your comeback here. How optimistic/pessimistic are you about this game long-term?

[Charriu]

Best screenshot technics that I know of.

- Using the FoV slider
- Zooming out
- Using free flying camera mode to fly far away
- Use satellite view and stitch screenshots together. That's how I did in PB52, but it's more work

[Mjmd]

Due to height mainly been u sing flying camera.. I'm way too lazy to stitch stuff together.

I mean a lot is going to depend on El Grillo and SD obviously. Was SD offer to war with El Grillo real? Doesn't really matter, I need cities to have a shot. I'm having to research construction ahead of currency, which is always meh. I have a super stretched out empire. I have to try to time a military build up without being able to see whips. All the fun. I'm recklessly expanding like I do atm so right now I'm living the dream. Next comes the hard part. Holding it.

[Mjmd]

    AutomatedTeller

    Well, mainly because you were running an extreme farmer's gambit next to me.  You had cities near me that had NO military.    I thought that I could take some cities.    Jowy, Charriu and MrCairo were vastly more dangerous.

Reading PB52 comments where I was in an early war putting me behind. Glances back at my 10th ranked military in this game. Hm where have I seen this before.

[civac2]

Your rotated Empire is pretty good. You can also jsut make 2 or 3 screenshots and post all of them.

[Mjmd]

Logged back in this turn to check the tiles between the clam and wheat. Unless El Grillo double moves me I should get my lower X next turn. However there is a El Grillo galley in the inland sea and an archer on the island hill. Is he going to settle  or reload and attack? If he takes the first half the turn timer I can only get a chariot in Medieval total war.



Anyways my WB scout is evidently on a detour. Encountered a barb city which I thought was an island so I went south of it. Turns out I think its just Scooters back lines and Naufragar is our player with 3 cy. There is some interesting culture marks and burned out cities down there. Cairo sniped an island city. I'm sure you all know the story better than me, but it looks weird on the culture map atm. Now I had realized my error but kept going to meet Naufragar, which I now realized probably wasn't worth it. I did meet Mig and Vanrober though. So now do I keep going south and try to find a way around or go back north. . I'll probably keep heading south. I hate back tracking.