SGOTM 22 - Lurker thread

[BSPollux]

They are fortunate that this is only Monarch or losing the wonder would be quite likely. I honestly don't know if that's a real possibility here or not, but they are going to have a nice little barb headache to deal with until they finish it at the very least.

With all the options they got, the few AI that want to build a wonder don't care much about GW. Against all odds it's relatively save if you try to get it reasonably fast. Not sure if this will be fast enough but I think so.

 

[Pangaea]

Not following all threads, just loosely TSR, so how are we doing on screenshots and AI locations?

 

[Jastrow]

Well, it looks like FE's game is about to get really exciting....

 

[Izuul]

GW gone. That's such a huge blow. Everything in this scenario points to GW, not only for the barb defense, but also for the Great Spy and tech stealing.

time for the lurkers though.

 

[Izuul]

Not following all threads, just loosely TSR, so how are we doing on screenshots and AI locations?

TSR has located 5/6 AI, and 4 of them are on the same continent as the players. Sal is west, Hannibal north, Brennus and Gilgamesh east, and Zara appears to be on a different landmass north of Sal, but it's only separated by coast and not ocean. It's actually possible his land is attached via a land bridge too, TSR hasn't quite gotten all the way around with their WB.

Darius is the only unknown atm.

 

[Pangaea]

Oh my, GW lost for FE, that will be a kick in the teeth for them. Wooden spoon coming up?

With all but one AI discovered, I guess conquest might be possible without going horribly deep into the tech tree. Of course, Darius could be located on Mars

 

[BSPollux]

Oh my, GW lost for FE, that will be a kick in the teeth for them. Wooden spoon coming up?

With all but one AI discovered, I guess conquest might be possible without going horribly deep into the tech tree. Of course, Darius could be located on Mars

In the Anti-TSR thread there's talk about this scenario being overly hard. I think we might see a wide margin in finishing dates. And I am curious if Space will (against everyones first impression) be used by a team or two.

 

[Izuul]

I could see a snowball effect playing out in this one. The slower you are the more difficult everything will become. Missing out on early wonders and needing to chase later wonders down the tech tree will become increasingly difficult when you consider that the game restriction place a bit of a soft cap on the # of cities a team can acquire. That will limit research potential as will the need to set up Rome as a food + hammer city rather than a commerce city.

The easiest path here is GW early then try to get as many of the Aesthetics > Lit wonders as possible. There's potentially 4 there. Angkor Wat should also be very viable with a Philo bulb. A handful of others like The Colossus, HG, and MoM could be in play with some tech stealing, but these and the Aest/Lit wonders will all be available around the same time frame and only one can be built in Rome at a time...

On the military side, need to do as much damage as possible with Praets and stuff early.

 

[Pangaea]

Have noticed Seraiel is basically missing in action, and by recent posts in TSR they assume he will be missing for this game, plus a few other guys, leaving them three active players. Are other teams already in such binds?

After all the early negativity about this scenario, I imagine it must be pleasing to see teams praising it now

 

[BSPollux]

It was the same with the other two. But it's never unanimous. Some like it, some don't.

I am actually worried about the difficulty right now.

 

[Izuul]

Biggest concern regarding the difficulty might be the lack of access to marble for the players.

Edit: seems there's marble for trade so perhaps not a big deal.

 

[Sam_Yeager]

Although only having five teams is cutting it a bit fine for the long term viability of SGOTMs it does make it rather easier for lurkers such as myself to keep reasonably up to date with the success and/or failure of each team's strategies.

 

[Pangaea]

It was the same with the other two. But it's never unanimous. Some like it, some don't.

I am actually worried about the difficulty right now.

Now I'm thinking more than one team will lose this game. Gonna be tough. I wonder if BSP even finished it.

I also concluded a few weeks ago that several teams won't finish. Not necessarily lose, but just give up cus they don't want to play a fast speed total conquest. I'm not saying it's not a well designed conqueror's challenge...just saying it's not a desirable game. I would have liked to see 1 or 2 runaway trains...not 6.

Not following all teams closely, but might be interesting to see how this transpires. If there are indeed many runaway trains, not having the GW is going to suck (FE).

 

[FiveRings]

Initial instinct is that SIP is better than the coast, despite access to Colossus and GLH. The fish is definitely nice, but it also includes 4 sea tiles that can't become farms, so it's sort of even there, and there is the banana for later with SIP. Plus more hills.

It might seem roughly equal, but I believe - based on my low level of competence, of course - that having one 6-food+2-coin tile plus three 2-food+2-coin tiles is much better than having four 3-food tiles (even supplying 1 coin each).

 

[Izuul]

SIP is better bc of the hammer output. 9 grass hills (counting bananas) to mine vs 5, and hammers in the capitol for wonder production is critical to this scenario.

 

[Izuul]

Former Phoenixes may be in some trouble. Darius just showed up on their door step with a little stack. He could still be heading for Brennus who happens to be his worst enemy, but they have to prepare for the DoW either way which will hurt.

Yyeah has suggested possibly chopping archers in Rome which would be a double blow as those capitol forests are super important for chopping wonders in this scenario.

Seems like some tough luck if Darius declares on them as they are +2 with him - just a shade short of pleased - and he's annoyed and WE with Brennus.

 

[Izuul]

Darius has a Phalanx in their game?? Is that intentional?

 

[BSPollux]

Darius has a Phalanx in their game?? Is that intentional?

Actually no.

 

[BSPollux]

good job zhary! In a couple more days I'll be back for real. More discussion to read when I get back would be nice.

I also think its time for Agri. We should also discuss Oracle (if/when/what to get), It will go late in ragong barbs, but we could test the safe dates?

This might end in tears...

 

[BSPollux]

I'm confused my Insolita right now. KCD wrote me a msg in which he said I didn't give them iron anywhere near (among other things, it was a friendly msg) and in the thread he wrote "Sorry guys... the title says it all. No iron anywhere near.". And haphazard1 replied: "I am not totally surprised about the iron. Being Rome going iron and praets would be just too obvious. There probably is some somewhere -- in the polar ice, or on a tiny island that requires Astro to reach -- but it won't be available any time soon.".

But they already see the iron in the south, as shown in the screenshots in this post: HERE

Did KCD miss it and noone else had a look afterwards?