SGOTM 17 - The Shawshank Redemption

[Dhoomstriker]

T17, 1320 BC
We switch from working the dry G Rice to a G For, to follow Scenario D] instead of Scenario B], as per the PPP

The Worker heads SW + SW toward the Forest in the west that we'll Chop

No change in World Population values

No change in TOP 5 CITIES

Rival Best GNP fell from 27 to 26

No other changes (note that I don't record the difference for our own changes) appeared on the F9 -> DEMOGRAPHICS screen

 

[Dhoomstriker]

T18, 1280 BC
Well, I had moved eastward one turn too early, but that fact worked out fine as we just got attacked by a Barb Panther and then immediately thereafter healed, so our Archer is at 2.9/3 Health again, yay

Spoiler :

You will note that Judaism was also founded

 

[Dhoomstriker]

We can see that we have 0.6 the Power of Mansa. He hasn't been Pleased toward us for a while, probably because our Score is low relative to the Score of other AIs.

World Population numbers for another AI changed again...
We see these values on the F8 -> VICTORIES screen:
We fell from 12.00% to 11.54% of World Population
Mansa fell from 12.00% to 11.00% of World Population

Someone else's City grew to Size 3, booting Timbuktu down to 3rd place and us down to (likely) 6th place... no Size 4 Cities exist yet (we'll have one next turn, muahahaha!)

The Rival Best GNP grew from 26 to 27 (is someone just toggling back and forth between two different squares on us?)
Rival Worst GNP fell from 19 to 17

Rival Best Food rose from 15 to 16

Average Soldiers rose from 41333 to 41833

Rival Average Population rose from 16000 to 18500
Rival Best and Worst values remain unchanged at 21000 and 6000

Rival Best LAND AREA rose from 21000 to 33000... so, an AI has settled City #2
Rival Average Land Area rose from 20666 to 22166
Rival Worst Land Area remained unchanged at 19000

Rival Average Approval Rating dropped from 67% to 65%

Rival Best Life Expectancy dropped from 81 to 75
Rival Average Life Expectancy dropped from 65 to 64
Rival Worst Life Expectancy remained unchanged at 50

 

[Dhoomstriker]

T19, 1240 BC
We spot a Panther to the south-east of Aachen, on the peninsula

Spoiler :

Our Warrior heads 1W from Aachen

Our Archer moves to the G Riv For that we'll Chop and settle on

I used our Worker to go 1W G, 1S G Riv For instead of directly 1SW G Riv For... all that we revealed was a barren G Jungle square NW + N of the planned City 2 location

No Barb units are visible near our Scout and we're up to 0.5/2 Health

I still haven't seen Mansa's eastern Scout again... perhaps it died, maybe there's a path heading south to the south of the "settle in place" area, maybe he managed to sneak past us (it's possible, but there's only a small area in which him to do so), or perhaps it won a fight and is healing.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

Mansa's City grew to Size 4

TOP 5 CITIES:
3
4 (Timbuktu)
3
4 (Aachen)
3

We see these values on the F8 -> VICTORIES screen:
We rose from 11.54% (at Size 3) to 13.79% (at Size 4) of World Population
Mansa rose from 11.00% (at Size 3) to 13.00% (at Size 4) of World Population

GNP changes:
Best 27 -> 29
Avg 23 -> 24
Worst 17 -> 19

Food
Avg 11 -> 12
No change Best = 16, Worst = 17

Soldiers
Best 47000 -> 48000
Avg 41833 -> 42000
Worst 39000 (no change)

Population
Best 21000 -> 48000
Avg 18500 -> 23000
Worst 6000 (no change)

Worst Approval Rating dropped 62% -> 55%

Avg Life Expectancy fell 64 -> 63

 

[Dhoomstriker]

T20, 1200 BC

Before whipping:
Top 5 Cities
4 Timbuktu
3
3
4 Aachen
3

We see these values on the F8 -> VICTORIES screen:
We fell from 13.79% (at Size 4) to 13.33% (at Size 4) of World Population
Mansa stayed at 13.00% of World Population


After 2-pop-whipping:
4 Timbuktu
3
3
3
3

We're at 7.14% of World Population
Mansa is at 14% of World Population


I'm just going to state relatively important changes from the F9 -> DEMOGRAPHICS now...
Rival Best Food is up to 19
Rival Best Land Area is up to 39000

 

[Dhoomstriker]

Turn 21, 1160 BC

Mansa founded City #2 (Djenne)

Fortunately, we are not blocked from settling where we want to put City #2... but we CAN see his Cultural Borders!

Of course, I didn't check earlier to see if those Cultural Borders were from his capital or his City #2... I'll have to load an old manual saved game later just to check.

Spoiler :

On the plus side, he'll be spawn-busting the area to our west for us. On the downside, he's already cramming us tightly for settling space.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

Top 5 Cities:
4
5 Timbuktu (Mansa must have a Food-rich capital to have grown this much AND have expanded)
3
3
3

Mansa is Pleased with us again

World Population changes:
Us 7.14% -> 6.45%
Mansa 14% -> 19%

Hammers:
Rival Best rose to 7, Average rose to 5

Food:
Rival Best rose to 21, Average rose to 13

Population:
Rival Best rose from 48000 to 91000
Average rose from 34833 to 23166

 

[Dhoomstriker]

Turn 22, 1120 BC

We Chop the G Riv For for 8 Hammers going into Aachen

Our Scout is at 0.8/1 Health

The Cultural Borders of Mansa's clearly indicate that it's his second City:

Spoiler :

We have 0.7 of Mansa's Power

He's back to being Cautious toward us

We move our Warrior to the G Cow since Mansa's Cultural Borders are so close and doing so would "cut off" any Barb attacks, leaving the Settler perfectly safe. That way, next turn, the Warrior can move to guard the G Riv Pig while the Archer can head off exploring, say, to the south west.

We'll need to do some testing to see if improving the G Cow next is better than improving the G Riv Pig next... the extra Hammers plus a Forest Chop might let us whip City 2's Granary a bit sooner, which would be nice.

We see these values on the F8 -> VICTORIES screen:
We rose from 6.45% (at Size 2) to 9.09% (at Size 3) of World Population
Mansa fell from 19% to 18% of World Population

TOP 5 CITIES shows
5
5 Timbuktu
3
3
3

The Rival Best GNP rose from 30 to 32 (we're at 18).

The Average Rival Population rose from 34833 to 41833.

I guess that's it for this turnset.

Other Demographic changes were minor.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

Here is your Session Turn Log from 1680 BC to 1120 BC:
(You will need to mentally subtract "50" from each Turn number. The dates of the years are correct.)

Spoiler :

Turn 59, 1640 BC: Hinduism has been founded in a distant land!

Turn 62, 1520 BC: You have constructed a Granary in Aachen. Work has now begun on a Settler.

Turn 64, 1440 BC: Barbarian's Lion (2.00) vs Quartermaster's Scout (2.30)
Turn 64, 1440 BC: Combat Odds: 29.7%
Turn 64, 1440 BC: (Animal Combat: +5%)
Turn 64, 1440 BC: (Plot Defense: +25%)
Turn 64, 1440 BC: (Class Animal Combat: +100%)
Turn 64, 1440 BC: Quartermaster's Scout is hit for 18 (82/100HP)
Turn 64, 1440 BC: Quartermaster's Scout is hit for 18 (64/100HP)
Turn 64, 1440 BC: Barbarian's Lion is hit for 21 (79/100HP)
Turn 64, 1440 BC: Barbarian's Lion is hit for 21 (58/100HP)
Turn 64, 1440 BC: Barbarian's Lion is hit for 21 (37/100HP)
Turn 64, 1440 BC: Quartermaster's Scout is hit for 18 (46/100HP)
Turn 64, 1440 BC: Barbarian's Lion is hit for 21 (16/100HP)
Turn 64, 1440 BC: Quartermaster's Scout is hit for 18 (28/100HP)
Turn 64, 1440 BC: Quartermaster's Scout is hit for 18 (10/100HP)
Turn 64, 1440 BC: Barbarian's Lion is hit for 21 (0/100HP)
Turn 64, 1440 BC: Quartermaster's Scout has defeated Barbarian's Lion!

Turn 67, 1320 BC: Judaism has been founded in a distant land!
Turn 67, 1320 BC: Barbarian's Panther (2.00) vs Quartermaster's Archer (5.40)
Turn 67, 1320 BC: Combat Odds: 0.0%
Turn 67, 1320 BC: (Animal Combat: +5%)
Turn 67, 1320 BC: (Plot Defense: +50%)
Turn 67, 1320 BC: (River Attack: +25%)
Turn 67, 1320 BC: Barbarian's Panther is hit for 31 (69/100HP)
Turn 67, 1320 BC: Barbarian's Panther is hit for 31 (38/100HP)
Turn 67, 1320 BC: Quartermaster's Archer is hit for 12 (88/100HP)
Turn 67, 1320 BC: Barbarian's Panther is hit for 31 (7/100HP)
Turn 67, 1320 BC: Barbarian's Panther is hit for 31 (0/100HP)
Turn 67, 1320 BC: Quartermaster's Archer has defeated Barbarian's Panther!

Turn 68, 1280 BC: You have trained a Warrior in Aachen. Work has now begun on a Settler.

Turn 70, 1200 BC: Aachen has become unhappy.
Turn 70, 1200 BC: Aachen can hurry Settler for 2⇴ with 14ℤ overflow and +1⇤ for 12 turns.
Turn 70, 1200 BC: Mansa Musa has founded Djenne in a distant land.

Turn 71, 1160 BC: Aachen has become healthy.
Turn 71, 1160 BC: Aachen has become happy.
Turn 71, 1160 BC: Aachen will grow to size 3 on the next turn.

Turn 72, 1120 BC: Aachen has grown to size 3.
Turn 72, 1120 BC: Aachen can hurry Archer for 1⇴ with 25ℤ overflow, 6ℴ added to the treasury, and +1⇤ for 20 turns.
Turn 72, 1120 BC: Clearing a Forest has created 8 ℤ for Aachen.

I forgot to pause the game initially but noticed before I uploaded the game, so I reopened Civ 4, paused the game, and then uploaded a paused game.

Link to the Paused REAL SAVED GAME.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

I updated the test game. We're short by 1 Flask in the test game, but I think that everything else is pretty accurate.

According to our roster, Jastrow is up next. Are you able to pick up the game from here, Jastrow?

 

[Dhoomstriker]

With Mansa being so close to us, it should be possible for us to build a Road connection to his second City at some point. I placed Monte's City in such a location in the test game, although he won't have a Worker around, and his 2nd City is not connected to his capital, so we'd probably have to Road +1 square in the test game and wouldn't earn multiple Trade Routes or Resource Trades by doing so, so it's something to consider.


We also need to test:
i. Pasture Pig -> Chop For -> Whip Granary -> Pasture Cow
versus
ii. Pasture Cow -> Chop For -> Whip Granary -> Pasture Pig

I suspect that scenario ii. will be stronger, but I have yet to test it.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

With Mansa being this close to us, do we consider using a stack of 2 Archers to steal a Worker (or two, if we are lucky?) and then use the stolen Worker to build a Road back to our City, so that after we take a Cease Fire, we'll have Trade Routes with Mansa?

 

[babybluepants]

Mansa hasn't met anyone else. Looks like we really might be semi-isolated.

 

[Jastrow]

I updated the test game. We're short by 1 Flask in the test game, but I think that everything else is pretty accurate.

According to our roster, Jastrow is up next. Are you able to pick up the game from here, Jastrow?

No... I will need to be skip...

I have a series of work related and other events which will keep my VERY busy for until April 19th (Assuming that is the Friday; anyway, Friday of that week.)

 

[Jastrow]

With Gems and elephants, we have two happys... I would target those for cities 3 and 4 (or one city on the western most elephant to get both, but then we would need a plan to pop its borders in time.)

 

[Jastrow]

On the worker steal... I still would not invest TOO much into it, but if we get the opertunity to do it at a fairly low price, then given that it is MM, sure, lets go for it.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

Do we also want to consider the idea of aggressively settling close to Mansa, to block off more land for ourselves? Or, is he more likely to just beat us to said City location?

 

[Dhoomstriker]

Okay, with most of the team being too busy, the roster seems rather meaningless at the present time. Can we get a volunteer for who would like to play next?

 

[Mitchum]

Nice work, Dhoom!

Regarding worker stealing, keep in mind that Mansa is building skirmishers and he's really close, so we need to be very careful if we do it.

One thing with Math first that I mentioned earlier is that we're almost forcing ourselves to settle city #3 near a happiness resouce. So, I think picking up gems, ivory or both is the way to go here. Maybe our fourth city can pick up the copper.

With Mansa so close, I'm not as worried about barbs anymore. Sure, we'll face our fair share, but they won't be coming from every direction like they did in the test game.

I'm going to be camping this weekend and won't be able to play until next week at the soonest.