SGOTM 17 - The Shawshank Redemption

[Dhoomstriker]

Turn 10, 1600 BC
Hinduism was founded (Buddhism had been founded in the last turnset)

Mansa's Scout appears in the G Jungle 1SW of the G Riv Pig with full health.

Aachen switches to building Settler 2.

Change in the F8 -> VICTORIES screen:
T8:
Us = 11.11% of World Population
Mansa = 16.00% of World Population

T10:
Us = 10.53% of World Population
Mansa = 15.00% of World Population

Mansa's Score went from 111 to 117, but it wasn't from his City growing, as that's still at Size 3.

The Rival Worst value for Soldiers went up from 38000 to 39000
The Rival Best remained the same at 47000
The Rival Average went up from 40166 to 40833

The Rival Best value for GNP went up from 23 to 26
The Rival Worst value for GNP went down from 20 to 18 (is someone whipping already?)

The Rival Average for Food climbed from 8 to 9

The Rival Best value for Approval Rating fell from 85% to 75%

The Rival Best value for Life Expectancy fell from 83% to 81%

The Rival Worst for Population climbed from 1000 to 6000

We spotted a Gems Resource (under the Jungle):

Spoiler :

 

[Dhoomstriker]

Turn 11, 1560 BC
We switch from building Settler 2 back to building a Granary

We Chop the Forest into the Granary

Mansa's Scout is heading our way and is 1E of the G Riv Pig (it has Combat I and full health)

Mansa has another Scout in the north on the G Gem Jungle (it has full health)

Not much change in the Demographics this turn...
The Rival Worst for Food climbs from 5 to 8, with the Best remaining at 14 and the Average remaining at 9
The Average number of Soliders climbs from 40833 to 41333
The Average Approval Rating climbs from 70% to 71%
Our Life Expectancy drops from 66 to 60 and we fall from 5th place to 6th place

The only change on the F9 TOP 5 CITIES screen is that the Forest disappeared from our capital's picture, heh heh.

We spot another Ivory Resource (almost fully-surrounded by Jungle squares, not Forest squares):

Spoiler :

 

[Dhoomstriker]

Turn 12, 1520 BC
We whip our Granary and work the G Pig Pasture

Unfortunately, a Bear has been spotted by our Scout. Fortunately, it appeared before we moved. So, I'm afraid that we might not find out what Food Resources may exist to the north of the Ivory Resources just yet.

Spoiler :

I plan to send the Scout 1SE G Ivory, 1E G Jungle, then from there avoid walking next to any square in the north where the Bear could have moved to. I'm sorry that we can't explore more to the north now, but the Bear will eventually disappear and later an Archer can go check out the area.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

On the plus side, Mansa's Scout is also on the same square as us, so it's possible that he'll clear out the Bear for us. It's hard to say, since his Scout will move before the Bear will get to move.

Not surprisingly, after whipping, our World Population percentage dropped from 10.53% to 5.00%, while Mansa's remained constant at 15.00%.

Two AIs' Cities grew to Size 3 and we got booted off of the Top 5 CITIES list, with them being:
3 (Timbuktu), 3, 3, 2, and 2

The Rival Average for Food climbed from 9 to 10
The Rival Average for Population climbed from 8500 to 13500
The Average Approval Rating dropped from 71% to 68%
The Rival Worst Life Expectance fell from 54 to 50, while the Average dropped from 67 to 65

 

[Mitchum]

Looks good so far. It's good to see the game moving again...

 

[Dhoomstriker]

LOOKING FOR FEEDBACK

Okay, I don't know what I was smoking, or maybe it was because I used the mouse to auto-move for two squares or else I was just spooked by the Bear, but it looks like I failed to explore the square that was 1E of the Bear.

Spoiler :

I have "Show Friendly moves" and "Show Enemy moves" turned on and I DID see Mansa's western Scout move back toward our capital, but I did not see any movement by the northern Mansa Scout + Bear, so I don't know what happened up there.

I'm going to propose that I move 1NW G Ivory. If I see a wounded Scout of Mansa's, we should be able to explore more to the north.

If I see no such evidence, I'll return 1SE G Jungle to the current square.

From there, I could move 1E G Jungle
OR
I could move 1SE GH

Both squares would reveal the same info, but moving to the GH would give us less of a defensive bonus if there was another Bear to the south or something. Moving to the GH would also speed up our southern exploration a bit.


So, two decisions, where I'd like at least one person to confirm what to do:
i. Do I explore back toward the Bear area for half of a turn (then further north if Mansa's Scout is visible and is wounded)?

ii. Do we move to the GH and gain a turn of exploration at the risk of losing the Scout more easily by not being on a square with at least a 50% Defensive Bonus?
EDIT: I should also be able to move 1S G Ivory, 1E GH, instead of directly 1SE GH, which would leave only 1 square where a Barb unit could appear, so it wouldn't be too risky to move that way

 

[Dhoomstriker]

Other details from Turn 13, 1480 BC
Aachen starts building a Warrior

We begin Mining the GH Banana

On the F8 -> VICTORIES screen, we see that someone else increased their population
From Turn 12 to 13
We dropped from 5.00% to 4.76%
Mansa dropped from 15.00% to 14.00%

No change to the F9 -> TOP 5 CITIES screen

Rival Average GNP climbed from 21 to 22 (no change to Best of 26 and Worst of 18)
Rival Average Hammers climbed from 1 to 3 (no change to Best of 5 and Worst of 1)
No other numbers changed

 

[Mitchum]

I'd ignore the NE for now. We're not likely to settle at the corner of the map for some time (city 10ish?). Plus, it looks like all jungle/peaks with some forests... It would be a bummer if we missed out on a double gold tile up there, but we should be able to find out soon enough once we have a few archers scouting/spawn busting.

EDIT: If Mansa faced the bear, his scout likely died anyway leaving a wounded bear, right? At least that bear is spawn-busting for us.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

I'd ignore the NE for now. We're not likely to settle at the corner of the map for some time (city 10ish?). Plus, it looks like all jungle/peaks with some forests... It would be a bummer if we missed out on a double gold tile up there, but we should be able to find out soon enough once we have a few archers scouting/spawn busting.

EDIT: If Mansa faced the bear, his scout likely died anyway leaving a wounded bear, right? At least that bear is spawn-busting for us.

Okay, but that doesn't really answer the question of whether I look to see the square that I missed (the G Jungle 1NE of the northernmost G Ivory), which I can do without risk. The point is spending the turn now or later to see if there's a Food Resource there to pair-up with the Ivory.

The far north-east is not so important, but knowing if there's Food to go with the Ivory could influence our settling order.

 

[Mitchum]

Fine. Go ahead and check that one tile. I thought the 1NW move would lead to exploring further NE should the bear not be there... it's the far NE that I'm not so worried about, but I guess you'd explore it should you find no bear... My concern is that we'd lose our scout if we did this (EDIT: continue NE if no bear) before we could check out around the original SIP location.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

Okay, I checked out that square and there is no Food Resource up there:

Spoiler :

 

[Dhoomstriker]

From here, we'll go SE G Jungle -> S G Ivory, E GH -> SW G, SW G For -> SE G, E G For

That is, assuming that we won't have to dodge any other Barb units along the way.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

T14, 1440 BC
Mansa's Scout didn't want to enter our Cultural Borders and headed back a bit west of our capital

Mansa's northern Scout seems to have headed south to our "settle in place" area.

Unfortunately, a Lion appeared on the one square where I couldn't see him next to the GH:

Spoiler :

 

[Dhoomstriker]

With our growth back to Size 2, we see these values on the F8 -> VICTORIES screen:
We rose from 4.76% to 8.70% of World Population
Mansa fell from 14.00% to 13.00% of World Population

There are now 4 Cities in the world that are at Size 3

The Rival Worst GNP rose from 18 to 19

The Rival Best Food rose from 14 to 15
The Rival Worst Food fell from 8 to 7

The Average Population increased from 13500 to 16000

The Average Approval Rating fell from 68% to 67%


Aachen works the G Pig Pasture and the dry G Rice at Size 2

 

[Dhoomstriker]

T15, 1400 BC
Luck is with us today as we fend the Lion off by the skin of our teeth (we're at 0.1/1 Health, haha).

Spoiler :

Given that Mansa's Scout was SW + SW of us last turn, do we feel safe moving to there, then back into our Cultural Borders?

Or, would you prefer that I stay in place on the GH and Skip our Turn healing? On the plus side, we can spot any 2-movement-point animals that are approaching and, if necessary, we can then move 1E G Jungle to hide there while healing further.

I think that I much prefer to stay in place rather than risking instant death, especially since we'll get advance warning of any potential threats.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

More population in the world that isn't ours or Mansa's, as we see these values on the F8 -> VICTORIES screen:
We fell from 8.70% to 8.33% of World Population
Mansa fell from 13.00% to 12.00% of World Population

Someone bumped Mansa's City of Timbuktu down to the #2 spot on the TOP 5 CITIES' list, with there still just being four Size 3 Cities in the world

The Rival Best GNP rose from 26 to 27

The Average Food rose from 10 to 11

There were no other changes on the F9 -> DEMOGRAPHICS screen

 

[Dhoomstriker]

So, I guess that the next few turns are going to get less boring to watch, what with our Scout camping out in one location. Even if we were to move him to our Cultural Borders, he'd still be boringly sitting around doing nothing. Oh well, better that he sits around relaxing in the Hills for 9 turns than not having a Scout at all!

 

[Mitchum]

I'd heal in place as well.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

Okay, thanks. That was the confirmation that I was waiting for before ending the turn.

Note that I will Skip the Turn of the Scout instead of pressing the Heal button every turn, just so that I'm forced to "look" at the area every turn.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

T16, 1360 BC
Mansa's western Scout has returned from the south and is 1E of the G Riv Pig. Our Archer joins him there in preparation for escorting the Worker

Our Scout does not spot any Barb units nearby

We've grown Aachen to Size 3 and are now also working the freshly-Mined GH Banana Mine

We see these values on the F8 -> VICTORIES screen:
We rose from 8.33% (at Size 2) to 12.00% (at Size 3) of World Population
Mansa remains at 12.00% of World Population

We're at 5th place on the TOP 5 CITIES screen, with Timbuktu being 2nd and all 5 Cities being at Size 3

The Rival Best GNP fell from 27 to 26

The Rival Average Food rose from 10 to 11

There were no further chances on the F9 -> DEMOGRAPHICS screen