SGOTM 16 - U'nu'sual S'us'pec'ts

Turns 90 - 95 (clicked end turn, so now turn 96)

Game Log



Buffy Log



The turnset in key Screenies



State of the Empire



State of the World



And that's your lot. I'm done playing for a while. It's mentally exhausting don't ya know. I made a few micro mistakes I think in the last few turns. But hopefully nothing super game altering, .

What to research next is the main reason I stopped playing. So let's discuss.

Oh, and I forgot to take a screenie, but Buddhism has spread to commerce!

Benginal said:

Oh, and I forgot to take a screenie, but Buddhism has spread to commerce!

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Sweet!

Revolt to Buddhism now, research Aesthetics.

Disappointed that neither Brennus or Ramesses has IW yet.

Can I suggest we make this trade:

Ramesses seems closer now. Turn the WB around and have it head back SW.

Yay, chariots to take barb cities.

edit: the extra clams we see are great, settle the desert island or the island above

1) I agree on Aesthetics. But we'll keep the slider at 0% for a while I think to accumulate some gold.

2) I'm not sure how I feel about the trade. It's certainly one-sided and not in our favor. But we could certainly use both of those techs. I suppose it might be worth it.

3) What's the good word on starting to build spies? Is that something that should happen right away?

4) We have six chariots at the moment. One is going to defend at the northern island. We'll have another 2 coming very shortly from Paris and Production and a third from clams if we want it.

5) I opted not to build the Barracks. But we can 2-pop whip it in soon.

6) There are tons of little islands all around that we should start settling.

7) At the south end of the continent there are islands that could lead to other continents. We really need to check those out asap.

8) I'm comfortable to keep playing. But I've definitely had my fair share of turns. So I'd be more than happy to pass the game along.

neilmeister said:

Ramesses seems closer now. Turn the WB around and have it head back SW.

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Agree. We need to see if we can reach the other continent.

neilmeister said:

edit: the extra clams we see are great, settle the desert island or the island above

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Do you mean coming up? Or instead of the main island (surely not?). Also, we're going to want another galley to help ferry chariots and start settling those islands.

I think after the worker, GP farm should build a settler or two. We need to get settling pronto. We've been much too long without a new city.

Great job Benginal!

neilmeister said:

Sweet!

Revolt to Buddhism now, research Aesthetics.

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Agreed.

Disappointed that neither Brennus or Ramesses has IW yet.

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Yes. Hopefully there is enough jungle that Brennus will research it soon.

Can I suggest we make this trade:

Spoiler :

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I agree with this also. We need Hunting for the deer and Poly for Literature.

I've updated the roster, yet again:

• ChrisShaffer - (t0-31)
• neilmeister - (t32-57)
• Trystero - (t58-72)
• Revent - (t73-81)
• Benginal - (t82-95) - just played
• SteelHorse - skipped
• vra379971 - currently MIA
• Deckhand - UP!
• Brian Shanahan

Deckhand you are up! Brian, I think I remember you saying you couldn't play until the end of the month. If this is the case, Chris will be on deck.

I PMed vra a couple of days ago, but haven't heard anything.

Edit: x-post with Benginal and Neil. Sorry, Ben I didn't mean imply your turnset was over, but this seems like a natural stopping point. Let me know if you do want to continue.

2) The tech trade isn't in our favour, but thats just how it is.
Both techs are fairly basic, Writing & Sailing.

3) We could build the spy nowish, but without Brennus having IW, we won't use it for a while. Then again we might find we build it, move it to his closest city and within the 5 turns to reduce the cost, he researches IW. Probably favour infra for now.

4) Awesome, lets smash some AI, the northern one will no doubt help with barb city 2.

5) No probs.

6) Yes, and yes.

7) Agreed, turn the WB around

Looks good. Deckhand, if you have any questions, let me know, and I'll do my best to let you know what I was thinking.

I think it's all pretty straightforward. The only slightly unusual thing is the worker northwest of Production. He's building a 7-turn mine on the forested hill. So make sure not to switch him to chopping, let him build the mine. None of your units have moved yet this turn, so you'll have free reign with them!

I like our power graph on the progress and results page!

Benginal said:

I like our power graph on the progress and results page!

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Yes, I don't think the other teams will find it hard to guess whats happening

That barb city on the island is only 1 pop. We'll need to wait for it to grow or send another settler and put it where we wanted it.

Hopefuly there are more seafood resources around all those little islands in the north.

I think we should turn the exploring WB to the south and check out the islands at the SW end of the continent.

Edit: x-post again.

Trystero said:

That barb city on the island is only 1 pop. We'll need to wait for it to grow or send another settler and put it where we wanted it.

Hopefuly there are more seafood resources around all those little islands in the north.

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Agreed. I am happy enough with the barb city location, especially since we are going to plant one a little to the west.

We need several settlers

Ramesses' city Elephantine is in the middle of jungle. Surely he will tech IW soon. Brennus has a few resource tiles that are blocked by jungle, but no city that is in as great need for jungle chopping as Elephantine.

Edit: Also, we will get either a GM or GS (25%) in 4 turns. If it's a GM, do use it for bulbing Currency or send it on a trade mission to Egypt's ToA city?

Brennus has a pig stuck in jungle, and his UU is enable by IW, so I am surprised he hasn't prioritised it.

Barb city looks yummy, includes 2 workers and 2 farmed FP's

OK, got it.
My plans changed and I didn't go out of town this weekend. I do have stuff to do, but will make some time for civ.

Here are some comments/questions (in no particular order).

a.I seem to be the only one, but I'm scared that turning the wb around will just get it killed by a barb galley. Those SW islands are far away and we won't be settling them for a long time. I would be in favor of settling the copper island in the future (probably not my turnset). Is it very likely that there is another continent that we can reach? Can that discovery wait for a trireme?

b.We should let Zhou grow to 2. If we settle the spot that can use the fish (2N, 1E), then moving Zhou to where we wanted wouldn't get us any additional useful tiles. [unless there is oil on that desert tile]

c.When are we going to explore the north? (Our borders have revealed a lot of it, doesn't seem very useful).

d.Where should woody go?

e. Do we care that Brennus is going to beat us to the sugar/gems site? Do we want all our cities coastal and will take the inland ones from him later?

f. Brennus and Ramses don't seem to share borders currently. If they go to war, it probably will be ineffective.

g. Should I have worker 3 build roads on the pigs and gems or is there something else he should be doing?

h. Are we still doing test maps and detailed micro?

I will submit a PPP DRAFT based on your comments above (and below) sometime Saturday (Sunday for neil).

Deckhand said:

OK, got it.
My plans changed and I didn't go out of town this weekend. I do have stuff to do, but will make some time for civ.

Here are some comments/questions (in no particular order).

a.I seem to be the only one, but I'm scared that turning the wb around will just get it killed by a barb galley. Those SW islands are far away and we won't be settling them for a long time. I would be in favor of settling the copper island in the future (probably not my turnset). Is it very likely that there is another continent that we can reach? Can that discovery wait for a trireme?

b.We should let Zhou grow to 2. If we settle the spot that can use the fish (2N, 1E), then moving Zhou to where we wanted wouldn't get us any additional useful tiles. [unless there is oil on that desert tile]

c.When are we going to explore the north? (Our borders have revealed a lot of it, doesn't seem very useful).

d.Where should woody go?

e. Do we care that Brennus is going to beat us to the sugar/gems site? Do we want all our cities coastal and will take the inland ones from him later?

f. Brennus and Ramses don't seem to share borders currently. If they go to war, it probably will be ineffective.

g. Should I have worker 3 build roads on the pigs and gems or is there something else he should be doing?

h. Are we still doing test maps and detailed micro?

I will submit a PPP DRAFT based on your comments above (and below) sometime Saturday (Sunday for neil).

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a. I admit that I normally see exploring WB's as expendable. I don't want them to die, but as long as they die exploring, such is life. WB 2 can hang around for the sheep island. edit: Having said that, it is very close to Sheep island. I'm easy either way.
edit 2: Looking at the save again, I recant. Most important exploration right now are the northen islands, not the SW. We need to settle some/many islands, and we want to do it with full knowledge of the map.

b. Yes. Agreed

c. Good question, it doesn't seem very nice. Finding Copper up there now would kind of be annoying IMO.

d. Any unfogged tiles still left.

e. Sugar/Gems is all his. We should be happy if he settles it to hopefully chop out the jungle (eventually).

g. Roading the Pigs/Gems seems sensible at this point.

h. Depends on how confident you are. I say we no longer need detailed micro for workers and things like whips. Macro is more important now, city build orders, settling locations, overall worker directions (ie, road Gems & Pigs, cottage Paris...)

I will submit a PPP DRAFT based on your comments above (and below) sometime Saturday (Sunday for neil).

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I am from the future.

Deckhand said:

Here are some comments/questions (in no particular order).

a.I seem to be the only one, but I'm scared that turning the wb around will just get it killed by a barb galley. Those SW islands are far away and we won't be settling them for a long time. I would be in favor of settling the copper island in the future (probably not my turnset). Is it very likely that there is another continent that we can reach? Can that discovery wait for a trireme?

Click to expand...

Exploring those islands is more for possible AI contacts, than settling targets. I think I keep pushing the exploration angle because that hurt us in the last SGOTM. It is reasonable to assume that we might have seen another AI come from that way by this point if there was anyone out there. But I still think we should try to uncover as much of the map as we can ASAP (including going back and exploring around the copper island in the south). We built that WB for exploration. If it dies, it dies, but it did it's job. If it doesn't, all the better.

Having said that, I think we should explore the little bit of fogged coast N of Ramesses with either that WB or a chariot. I think the channel Benginal discovered prevents Ramesses from settling in that direction, and it might be a good location for another coastal city (although it looks rather resource poor at the moment).

b.We should let Zhou grow to 2. If we settle the spot that can use the fish (2N, 1E), then moving Zhou to where we wanted wouldn't get us any additional useful tiles. [unless there is oil on that desert tile]

Click to expand...

Yeah, I agree that we should wait for it to reach 2 pop.

c.When are we going to explore the north? (Our borders have revealed a lot of it, doesn't seem very useful).

Click to expand...

We certainly need to explore around those small islands prior to (or simultaneous with) settling them. We are going to need another galley as Ben suggested.

d.Where should woody go?

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Maybe explore as much of Ramesses territory as we can before we are asked to close borders?

e. Do we care that Brennus is going to beat us to the sugar/gems site? Do we want all our cities coastal and will take the inland ones from him later?

Click to expand...

Yeah, I think that is the general plan: Take as many coastal sites as we can and take interior cities from the AI.

f. Brennus and Ramses don't seem to share borders currently. If they go to war, it probably will be ineffective.

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It looks to me like that channel was purposely created to separate them.

g. Should I have worker 3 build roads on the pigs and gems or is there something else he should be doing?

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I'll defer to Benginal's worker plans

h. Are we still doing test maps and detailed micro?

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I think we are at the border of where they are essential. It would depend on what makes you comfortable at this point. We would need at least general worker micro for the PPP, however.

Edit: We also need to agree on what we are going to do with the Great Person from GP Farm in 4 turns.

Did anyone else see this? A city hidden behind ice. Ice that should not be that far south

Is this a barb, or someone dark like the Mongols. I can't tell. Humbaba anyone?



edit: What we do with the GP really depends on what it is. GM should bulb Currency. GS could build an Academy (in Paris, love that gold) or bulb something (nearly everything we need for Astro is GS bulbable)

Interesting, we have 356 EP's on Brennus, and the tech steal cost is 107 (no doubt for Hunting), before any discounts.



Question: Assuming we trade for Poly/Hunting, and Brennus already has Mono and running OR, should we build a spy right now and steal Mono, and flip to OR immediately for some extra loving.

How would this affect stealing IW?

edit: assuming revolting to Buddhism, making a favourable tech trade, trading resources, open borders and being in OR.
We are going to be loved by Brennus sooner rather than later, but only if he doesn't DoW us. Mind you, at least we can bribe him out of a war now.
We should have enough beg points already to be able to beg Archery from Brennus.

Great work
Looks like the US west coast and the land down under have more play time overlap than one would have guessed. You folks have been busy. I turned in after the baseball game (definitely one of the biggest comebacks ever in BB playoff history). I work in DC these days and feel bad for the Nats fans. They looked stunned on TV.
Will come back with some thoughts in a bit, but the game is shaping up nicely!