One of "those" starts: what to do?

[spoooq]

I would have put your second city two squares south of where you did, but thats splitting hairs at this point, well done. Dont worry too much if you get a GSpy, they keep well if stored in a cool dry place.

 

[futurehermit]

This game is in the bag. Wonderspam + REX the rest of your land ftw. Good job.

 

[ese-aSH]

OTAKU, which mod are you using to get that HUD ?

 

[Killroyan]

What an incredible cities you have already!!!! Can't find a bad one to be honest. Carthage is almost like a wet dream. All 3 strategic resources, stone and marble and industrious, woot. Nice game. I was a bit suprised about the black dot. I expected the yellow dot since it would also have the rice and a seafood. But hey, it worked out ok. Keep it coming.

 

[Hereditary Rule]

Quick OT Question: What graphics mod are you running? That black interface looks awesome! I also like seeing the nations rather than leadernames in the lower right corner/score area.

 

[OTAKUjbski]

OTAKU, which mod are you using to get that HUD ?

Quick OT Question: What graphics mod are you running? That black interface looks awesome! I also like seeing the nations rather than leadernames in the lower right corner/score area.

I have three things running (only one a real 'MOD'):

1. Blue Marble Terrain. Not only does it make the terrain look 100 times better, but it also adds the "sunlight" background to most of the windows.
   
   
2. Blue Marble Graphics Scaling Tool. My interface color is "Steel", and the opacity is 64 (25%).
   
   
3. The BUG MOD. It shows most 'need-to-know' information on the main screen instead of all over in menus. Particularly handy is the GP lightbulbs displayed at the bottom of the tech screen and the much cleaner score chart.

This game is in the bag. Wonderspam + REX the rest of your land ftw. Good job.

I'm rather embarrassed now I toiled over the start so much to the point I posted it online.

I would have put your second city two squares south of where you did, but thats splitting hairs at this point, well done. Dont worry too much if you get a GSpy, they keep well if stored in a cool dry place.

What an incredible cities you have already!!!! Can't find a bad one to be honest. Carthage is almost like a wet dream. All 3 strategic resources, stone and marble and industrious, woot. Nice game. I was a bit suprised about the black dot. I expected the yellow dot since it would also have the rice and a seafood. But hey, it worked out ok.

It took me a while to finally decide where to place New York, because I really like coastal cities. These were the major factors:

• Distance. Settling the black dot meant settling 1 turn sooner (not much, but ever turn counts, I guess).
• Flood Plains. I knew I needed to whip New York if I expected to rush both Caesar and Hannibal, and two Farmed Flood Plains are a great way to do just that.
• Overlap. The Clams were predestined to be in one city with the Fish and Pigs to run a lot of early scientist specialists. The riverside tiles of Washington, on the other hand were within perfect range for chopping and would (and did) make for temporary cottages to keep an economy going and bridge the gap between war and peace.
• Moai Statues. I'm about 92.16% certain I'm settling that one-tile island and building Moai there, which needs the Rice. Not only is that a hilarious place to build Moai (IMHO), but it will definitely make for some very good, early & cheap "intercontinental" trade routes with Washington and other coastal cities.
• No wasted space. Considering the proximity of Utica to the north and the desert to the east, I wasn't certain how else to slice the Flood Plains and the Ivory into a good city.
  
  (This, I may definitely come to regret, because depending on what's east of the Gold, I might've screwed up my Gold city. As it stands now, 1S of the lake on the Desert Hill seems to be about the best way to have one city work all the Wine and 2 Gold while still maintaining growth.

Keep it coming.

I'll probably play a short round tonight, for those of you interested in this game. I'll primarily focus on scouting the Jungle and getting a few Settlers prepped.

Any ideas yet on where to settle the GG and what to do with these incredible cities?

• Washington is a Wonderspam city and will likely do nothing else the whole game.
  
• Rome has great production tiles, but with low supporting food and isn't riverside . That spells "Heroic Epic" in my dictionary.
  
• Antium is a scientist specialist GP Farm.
  
• Carthage is clearly a cottage spam monster (maybe even worthy of moving the Palace for the Bureaucracy bonus, hmm?).
  
• Utica, I think, is the future home of Ironworks. Food neutral @ pop 20 & riverside w/ 11 'levee' tiles. The only thing I have against it is the lack of non-riverside Forest tiles. It'll need SP (possibly even CS) to really shine.

Also is the question of whether to switch to Representation or Hereditary Rule. Carthage's potential makes me want to adopt HR, but I've been running CE's so much lately that I want to try something different this time around. I wouldn't mind changing gears to an early Rep-boosted SE.

Any ideas?

 

[futurehermit]

I don't mean "in the bag" as a put-down, or to say you are wasting your time, but instead as a compliment. You have an extremely strong start here and it will be interesting to see you play it out. I just feel that your position is so strong that it would be hard to lose this one

 

[OTAKUjbski]

I don't mean "in the bag" as a put-down, or to say you are wasting your time, but instead as a compliment. You have an extremely strong start here and it will be interesting to see you play it out. I just feel that your position is so strong that it would be hard to lose this one

I didn't take it as such ... sorry if my response insinuated that. {post edited to reflect this (that did sound bad now that I read it again)}

And don't count my chickens just yet ... I'm pretty good at losing, too!

 

[futurehermit]

Haha! No worries. Looking forward to how this one plays out Great start so far

 

[OTAKUjbski]

Round 4 (1100 BC - 600 BC):

A very short round tonight. I didn't intend to play long tonight, but I got tired and couldn't focus anyway.

1100 BC: Isoroku Yamamoto (Great General) settled in Rome -- intended future home of the Heroic Epic.

2 Chariots started for scouting -- Washington (3) and New York (6).

Research started on Hunting (4).

1075 BC: The Oracle has been built in a far away land!

975 BC: Research begins on Sailing (7). I'm particularly fond of settling my future Moai spot off the coast of Washington, but my main reason for researching Sailing is in hopes of a few more from trade with Mongolia, to start a cheap Lighthouse in Antium and because I'll need it for Calendar anyway.

950 BC: The Barbarian city of Aryan turns out to be on a hill in a bad spot (I'd rather it be 1E or where my Axeman is). Stupid Barbarians. Do they build cities in the worst spots by design?



900 BC: My only Flanking I/Sentry Chariot dies to a Barbarian Archer attack. I forgot to heal him before moving on.

875 BC: Mongol Axeman sighted snooping around Carthage.

675 BC: Settler completed in Antium. Moves to Utica for possible Northward expansion.

650 BC: Genghis Khan (Cautious @ 0) demands Ivory. Not wanting to start a conflict yet, America give is. (What's Ivory really going to do for him yet, anyway?)



600 BC: The Pyramids completed in Washington.



A gathering of Mongol forces spotted along Carthage's border.



City views:

I'm fairly certain I'm about to switch almost all of these to military builds -- especially in Washington and Rome.

Carthage is about to finish a few chops, so I'll probably rush a few Axes there with those hammers.

Antium is prepping a 2-pop whip to overflow enough hammers to complete the Library and Lighthouse (+100% production bonus) in one crack.

Spoiler :

Lay of the land:

Spoiler my dotmap :

Yellow cities are more-or-less immediate. The Horse/Cow/Rice city outside Mongolia probably won't be there in 12 turns when I arrive, and it'll be hella expensive if it is, but denying Mongolia his UU will make the upcoming war a little simpler, I think.

Green cities can be settled at will, but most will require a lot of Jungle chopping and/or contain many Calendar resources.

Black cities can only be settled after razing the Barbarian cities.

Red cities can only be settled after razing Mongolia's cities. (Karakorum in Brown is the only well-placed Mongolian city, imo.)

Purple cities are low priority and will probably only be settled when I need Crabs/Spices.

It's worth noting there are a lot of Mining, Inc. and Cereal Mills resources on the island.

Questions:

• Where to settle? I'd love to see somebody else's dotmap instead of my own. I have a Settler hanging out in Utica and one on the way (3 turns) in Rome.
  
  
• How to handle Mongolia? I've only ever gotten along well with Genghis when I'm playing as him. He's already come with his demands ... I'm afraid if I try to REX too much peacefully he'll come in and thank me for doing the work for him. However, I'm not really in any great economic position to keep his cities (not that I would want most of them). Nor am I in any great position to take his lands in the first place -- what with his Copper and Iron mines up and running.
  
  
• What tech path to take? I'm finishing Mathematics primarily for the chopping bonus, but I might want to move onto Construction to deal with Mongolia. If I take Mongolia out, I'll want to beeline Astronomy and Chemistry for Privateers (how I love those), but I'm open to other options.
  
  
• Which civic to choose: Hereditary Rule or Representation? Rep is more 'mindless' and would let me focus more units on Mongolia than garrisoning them back home (if I go that route). However, HR is probably the better choice to maximize Carthage in preparation for a Palace switch under Bureaucracy.
  
  
• Whatever else I forgot, since it's late.

 

[Johan^^]

settle 1 vest of the south gold. This gets the fresh water from the lake. 3 food plains to farm to support the mining of the 3 gold. Later you can work the elephants and wine. Nice early boost to the economy, though a bit sucky later in the game.

Settle 1 south east of the barb city to claime horses, cow, spices and corn.

the second barb city could both be kept and razed.... tough if razed i´ll settle 1 north of the rice, but i all depends on the situation.

Enough about the settling and on to the fun and more important part

Kill genghis asap. Make sure you keep him from obtaining the horse resource in the north or pillage at once you are at war. Post a small stack close by for this. Those UU horse archers are deadly.

Reason to kill of genghis asap: He is thinking the same about you

 

[Hereditary Rule]

I second the notion of priority 1 being the attack on GK. Keshiks have rocked my world the last time GK attacked me.

BTW thanks for the detailed post on the mods you're using.

 

[CliftonBazaar]

I'm going to agree with those who say that is a good start - I would have loved it.

This is a bad start -

 

[OTAKUjbski]

I'm going to agree with those who say that is a good start - I would have loved it.

Well, I never really said it was a 'bad' start ... just not one I typically enjoy playing or ever feel like I do correctly. My map generator is usually pretty kind to me and gives me resources I'm at least close to being able to improve as well as a lot more food than that.

I'm just spoiled on starts that play themselves they're so obvious. Having not seen a not-so-clearcut start like this in a while, I was getting confused thinking about it and wanted to hear some other opinions.

After playing it, I'm a little embarassed I even asked.

Round 5: 600 BC - 310 AD (57 Turns)

This round was long ... too long. Longstoryshort: I allowed the war against GK to drag on for considerably too long.

600 BC: Hearing the early beating of the drums of war, I changed all non-essential builds to military builds -- primarily Swordsmen and Axemen.

I also switched to Representation. Antium would be running two Scientists in a few turns, I'd be settling a GP soon (in addition to my already-settled GG), and HR would've required too many expensive attack units to stay behind.

525 BC: Ishikawa Goemon (Great Spy) has been born in Washington! Grrr. I really wanted a Great Prophet, but I won't scoff at a GSpy. I settled him in Antium in preparation for the Academy I knew I'd be building soon.



485 BC: I again apply a whip to make full use of overflow and my +100% bonus to a Lighthouse. This is one of my favourite uses of production bonuses from traits to cheap (< 90 on Epic) Ancient Era buildings. Because a Lighthouse costs me 45 raw hammers, it's only a 1-pop whip, which I dislike executing. By ensuring 45 hammers overflow from a 2-pop chop (in this case, the Library), I ensure the Lighthouse/Granary/whatever is still built in one turn but not at the extra expense of unhappiness.

Spoiler :

Before:

After:

455 BC: Mathematics finished researching; Construction (12) begun.

440 BC: Genghis Khan has declared war on you! No surprise there.



Also, GK founds Samarqand. For some reason, though, he completely bypasses the Horse. Luckily (and amazingly), it's in a spot half worthwhile. I don't need the Horse in the BFC, and I like coastal cities, so I'll probably keep this one.



425 BC: +78 towards Construction (yay non-barbarian horde random events!)

365 BC: GK suicides 1 Swordsman, 2 Axemen and 1 Spearman against Carthage then runs away with 3 Spearmen and a wounded Axeman. Not sure what that was all about, but w/e.

By this time, I had already lost 2 Axemen and 2 Chariots deep behind Mongolian lines. The units I had sent to defend what was going to be my Horse/Cow/Rice city turned Westward in hopes of safely crossing enemy terranig and plundering the Iron mine outside Old Sarai. But against a nation of Shock Axemen in the field, they were no match.

350 BC: The Temple of Artemis has been built in a far away land! I really like that one, too. Damn you, GK.

335 BC: Herodotus has completed his greatest work, The Most Powerful Civilizations of the World! GK #1 ... me a very close #2. I can live with that.



290 BC: Construction completes. Research begun on Currency (14). I know I get cheap Courthouses, but that's significantly further away (I would need Mysticism and Priesthood) and costs production. I'd rather take CoL through Currency, since Currency gives me 'free' commerce without any production commitment on my part ... something I value highly during a war.

This is the tech I had been waiting on all along. After GK declared war, I mostly turtled in Carthage from across my river, pre-chopping as many forests as was possible in preparation to rush a sufficient number of Catapults to get the war started against GK for real.

260 BC: First blood. New Sarai is razed. I wasn't thrilled with the placement of the city, but I wasn't in any position to keep it. Though it was a hilltop city, I believe the city only cost me 1 Axeman, thanks to several of my CR2 and CR3 Axemen.

Also, Cao Cao (Great General) born in Antium. I settled him in Rome with Yamamoto ... which was stupid.

Cao Cao should've been settled in Washington. That would've meant nearly all troops (roughly 80%) came off the lines at lvl3. Instead, I had them coming out of Washington at 3/5 (lvl 2) and Rome at 7/5 (lvl 3). Granted, all of my units were 1 battle from a promotion (and subsequent healing), but given the situation that GK was fielding Shock Axemen against me, I should've adapted and changed my usual tactic to compensate with better stack defense.​

200 BC: Not thinking straight, I suicided an Axeman and two Swordsmen to raze GK's Copper outside Karkorum. Sure, it may've slowed down production a small bit, but it otherwise did absolutely nothing, since I failed to raze the Iron earlier. Stupid.

140 BC: The Mahabodhi has been built in a far away land! I have a strong feeling the other island is a bunch of Buddhist peaceloving hippies. They have 3 of the world's 4 religions amongst the 3 of them, but I've heard no word of a Great General being born in a far away land. Wonderful.

Also, Ning-hsai razed. Again, not an altogether horribly-placed city, but I was in no mood or position to keep it.

110 BC: OTAKUjbski has completed The Great Lighthouse [in Antium]. I didn't actually expect to complete it, so I was surprised when it finished. Hey -- I'm not complaining; it's one of my favourite Wonders.

Also, Currency completes. Research begins on Calendar (8). By this time, I'm starting to feel the War Weariness. An extra happiness from the Dyes and the nearly-instant boost in Carthage was just what I needed during this war.

35 BC: Beshbalik captured -- and kept! After revealing Pigs 1N of Beshbalik, I realized there was no good way to fit a city in there to work them except right where Beshbalik was placed. It was hillside, so keeping it wouldn't be a serious challenge, and it was coastal, so the GLH would offset some of its initial maintenance. Besides, I was starting to get tired of razing cities ... I gotta keep something out of all this.



After the fall of Beshbalik, I had sufficient reinforcements prepared to march on Karakorum. My initial stack moved north towards Old Sarai to finally take care of the Iron mine -- which had so far been allowing GK to wreak havoc on my stacks with his suicidal C2/Shock Axes.

10 AD: Philadelphia founded off the coast of Washington. Because of the GLH and its 'intercontinental' status, its founding netted me an extra 9 commerce nationwide -- taking my GPT from -1 to +5!

Also, Calendar finishes; research begun on Code of Laws (finally).

85 AD: Old Sarai razed. Worst city placement ever. These Mongolians are as bad as the Barbarians.

130 AD: Siege & assault begins on Karakorum. I say "begins", because it's not until the next turn (145 AD) I'm actually able to clear out the last of the defenders -- partially due to my own poorly-moved units and partially due to the fact there were so many.



Also, Confucianism has been founded in Carthage! In Warlords, I used to use CoL as a measurement of how well I was doing in the tech race. It seems in BtS, though, the AI values it considerably less (and Currency much more), so it's often no surprise when I am the first to discover it.

Research promptly began on Civil Service. The new Palace is already being built in Carthage by now, and two chops are prepared to complete it about the same time as CS for a smooth transition to Bureaucracy and Civil Service. I'm also hoping its more centralized location on the island will help lower nationwide maintenance.

190 AD: Rosalind Franklin (Great Scientist) has been born in Antium. She then promptly founds an Academy there.



220 AD: Tabriz razed. This was a city GK built at the last minute next to Horses. Not that he would've placed it any differently in peacetime, but it still amazes me he would build a city with no food resources amidst hills and plains. Yet another city I had to raze.

Also, Turfan razed. Yet another ridiculously-placed city one tile from the coast. I can't wait until Bhruic completes his work on a better city-placement algorithm for the AI.

250 AD: Lysander (Great General) joins his friends Yamamoto and Cao Coa in Rome as a Great Military Instructor. In hindsight, he should've settled in Washington -- so far my only good coastal production city. /doh

295 AD: The war is finally over with the fall of Samarqand. It's not the greatest city, but at least it can work all of its tiles -- which is something most of GK's other cities could not boast.



You can see by this point I'm losing -51 GPT due to War Weariness (4 ) and unit costs. I promptly convert to Confucianism to save myself a few coin. I'm not quite ready to adopt Caste System, and I need to begin spreading a religion to make good on OR during the upcoming building phase I see myself in.

310 AD: The Info Screen Statistics reveal why this war was so long and costly.

Spoiler the lay of the land :

Closing observations and such:

I lacked pre-planning. I knew I'd be going to war with GK, but I didn't realize it would be exactly 10 turns after his initial demands. His empire was filled with melee-hunting Axemen, and it only got worse as he settled his GG's in Karakorum and started pumping out C2 and C3 Shock Axemen.

My inital plan was to leave a small stack outside Old Sarai's cultural borders to move in and pillage the Iron at the beginning of the war. But since he declared before I could mobilize those troops, they had to trudge through hostile terrain and ultimately failed before even arriving at the Mine.

Somehow, I didn't get the hint and still didn't put enough of my own Shock Axeman to soften the damage he inflicted on me in the field. Even though I stuck to high ground and forests, he was still able to pick off a few would be City Raiders every now and then. This would probably have not been the case had I settled Cao Cao (2nd GG) in Washington, because then two cities would've been pumping out lvl3 units.

All-in-all, I guess I was lucky he didn't have Keshiks sooner than he did (I think I fought 3). They're nothing Spears can't handle, but they make great raiders, and GK loves to send stacks of them behind the front lines to distract what would be assault troops with homeland security.

I also didn't pay close enough attention to my 'West Point' unit. He finished the war at lvl 5 with 21 XP -- just a few battles away from giving me the level unit I needed to build West Point. This means as much as I hate to attach Great Generals to units, my next GG will very likely be attached to that Axeman. Stupid!, stupid!, stupid! me!


So that's that. I really want to hear some feedback as well as some ideas. I see a lot of thread views but few responses. I wonder if I'm just not that interesting or not a good enough writer (I guess we can't all be Sisiutil or madscientist). So, if you have some constructive criticism on how I might better write a more interesting post, I'm all ears to that too.

In the end, I'm enjoying this, so it's worth it regardless. Thanks for reading ...

 

[Killroyan]

The whole continent for yourself right now in 295 AD is impressive. And you have some great land. Compass/Optics after civil service wouldn't be a bad choice to get the harbors online and find the others. Then every coastal city will pay for itself with overseas trade routes (or does that only open with astronomy? If that is so then beeline to liberalism and take astronomy as free tech).

Maybe run in some city some additional priest so you can build the shrine if you are starting to spread confuciaism. Now the expansion fase will start and with enough courthouses the forbidden palace in karakorum?

Overall nice game and it should be a breeze from now on.

 

[OTAKUjbski]

Last Round: 295 AD to 1830 AD

To all of you who said this game was in the bag, you were so very incredibly right. I felt like I was playing on Settler after the last round.

I'm not going to give the play-by-play like I did the previous rounds. I'm jumping straight to the gist of the story:



Score: 102,754.

Culture Victory? Yeah! I went with a strategy I don't use often but have the most fun executing when I do ... it's the "Corporate Culture Strategy".

Basically, you beeline to found Aluminum Co., Civilized Jewelers, Inc., Creative Construction, and Sid's Sushi Co. All 4 of those Corporations can be built in the same city, and all 4 provide massive :

(Before looking at the screenshots, note that I don't have Priesthood (you can tell by the fact I'm researching it now). All of the in my legendary 3 is being generated by Sistine Chapel-boosted Artists, Corporations and the late-game Wonders. Imagine if I had played optimally and built Temples/Cathedrals!!! )





Sure, I could've gone for a Domination or Conquest victory, but that would've been far too easy ... check out Rome. (You can't see them in this screenshot, but there are 40 CR3 Macemen waiting to be upgraded ... I just need 13,000 is all. )



The only other city worth mentioning is Miami -- the HQ of all my Corporations. The only thing bad about the 'Fantastic Four' Corporations is that the only Corporations worth spreading en masse are Sid's Sushi and Civ Jewelers. CC is hella expensive compared to its bonus, so you typically still want to found Mining Inc. when you do this.




If you don't mind burning a few GP, it's actually pretty easy to found all the Corporations. Artists are easy to come by (you could feasibly save the one from Music if you wanted to). The GM from Economics can found Sid's Sushi. The Great Scientist from Physics can found Aluminum Co. And, you'll just have to be lucky and save a GE (or two) to found Creative Constructions and Mining, Inc.

It's kinda funny .. at one point I had 7 Great People just sitting around waiting to pop a Great Work or found their Corporation.

In the end, this game got way too easy after I conquered my island. As it turns out, Charlemagne and Napoleon were at war the whole game over whether Buddhism was better than Hinduism (this is why I never found my own early religions) and stagnated their economy while mine thrived.

For reference, I took Railroad with Liberalism. And as of end-of-game, Joao is the only civ with Liberalism (I could've taken it as late as Rocketry, lol). This should give you a better idea of just how lopsided the rest of this game became (12173 GNP vs Charlemagne's 822):



I controlled 53% of the total landmass, while my closest competitor only controlled 23% ... so I effectively had 130% more land to work with and a massive tech lead to make it work.

The most fun portion of the game for me was leveling this guy up. I paired up two Privateers with some protection and sailed around their island for a thousand years picking off everything in sight. Between the Waverunner and his Medicraft, they spawned me 2 Great Generals!



So yeah ... that's that.

If there's anything educational to take away from this game, it's these 3 facts:

1. Land is Power.
2. Land is Power.
3. Land is Power.

 

[Rameau's Nephew]

Well played, and a fun read. Judging by your mastery of whipping overflow and other game-mechanics issues, I can't help but think that Monarch (where I usually play with reasonably success and considerably less mastery) is a tad on the easy side for you.

But still, worker-stealing and axe-rushing two neighbors (which I've never had the nerve to try), while building several of the more powerful ancient wonders is a feat on any difficulty.

 

[kazapp]

Anyone else noticed how the map generator tried its best to lock you in, by placing you in a corner with both Rome and Cartage extremely close by, and then nothing all the way up to Ghengis...

Of course, forgot to account for the good ol' Axe Rush!

My response to the "bad luck" thing is that if you had not felt so bad about the start, we would have missed out on a great game!

 

[huerfanista]

Otaku, can you post a save of your start (I only saw the AD310 save)? I learn more from playing out some of these games myself.

Thanks for the writeup. I appreciate your particular style, where you go into some of the inner mechanics of the game (ie, whip overflow) in a bit of detail. That's often lacking in many of the other online games where such knowledge is presumed. I'm a relative noob (still struggling on monarch), so I really appreciate it. Also, I like the way you post your rounds quickly, avoiding 3 pages of discussions between turns without eliminating discussion completely. Post more games like these, please!

 

[OTAKUjbski]

Anyone else noticed how the map generator tried its best to lock you in, by placing you in a corner with both Rome and Cartage extremely close by, and then nothing all the way up to Ghengis...

Nothing surprising about that. My Map Generator does that to me all the time. It's also worth noting Rome, Carthage and Karakorum ALL had a strategic resource in their BFC -- not to mention the Financial Hannibal had Riverside Gems (surprise, surprise).

I'm sure it's just coincidence, but I find myself wondering in every game if the Map Generator is somehow against the human.

Or maybe it really did consider the Axe rush and put Rome and Carthage on top of me so I could exploit them ... who knows?

Otaku, can you post a save of your start (I only saw the AD310 save)? I learn more from playing out some of these games myself.

Unfortunately, I don't have the 4000 BC save anymore.

This is my first online writeup, so I wasn't thinking about saving the rounds and stuff (I was having enough trouble trying to remember to take screenshots). It wasn't until after somebody else mentioned it that I put the AD310 save up.

Thanks for the writeup. I appreciate your particular style, where you go into some of the inner mechanics of the game (ie, whip overflow) in a bit of detail. That's often lacking in many of the other online games where such knowledge is presumed.

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it!

That's how I learned (by somebody else showing the application), so I tried to repeat that in my own writeup.

Post more games like these, please!

I think I just might. This was a lot of fun, though I must admit the added stress of 'getting it right' for the posting pushed me to make better decisions than I usually do!