SGOTM4 - Team Smackster

[Tarkeel]

There's no way I'll get to the game before saturday (At the earliest), so I'll need another swap

 

[Wotan]

There's no way I'll get to the game before saturday (At the earliest), so I'll need another swap

I see no reason why we need to do a swap, Smackster is away until sunday anyway and if you play on saturday or sunday it will still be "within the 72 hrs" after an "I got it" if we are to be really strict with the rules. And with the time difference Smackster will probably not be in a position to play his turns until Sunday night (our time) anyway.

 

[dmanakho]

Well played!!! Havn't looked at the save yet but taking the deal with Persia for gold seems to be a good deal. Then take a turn of peace to reduce WW (Are we still at war with Greece?) and attack India for some leader farming.

We don't have WW and we can have all the luxuries we can possibly get so WW won't be an issue for quite some time. Persia has 3rd iron, so we might raze the last Persian city with iron and then make peace few turns later, although in that case i think Xerxes will have less money to pay us in GPT.

MM it to produce 20 spt (now19) by moving a citizen from an irrigated Plains to the mined plains w. furs.

I think i moved it to irrigated plains to load granary a little, I kept Rusicade on starvation diet while building a bank.


EDIT: I agree on having a little break until saturday. I never started COTM5, so i can use that time for Conquests of the month

MORE EDITS: Although spoiler thread is opened i suggest we postpone posting anything in there... 20k victory pretty much depends on how teams play AA and i'd like to keep it to ourselves for some time or until all teams pass AA.

 

[Wotan]

We don't have WW and we can have all the luxuries we can possibly get so WW won't be an issue for quite some time. Persia has 3rd iron, so we might raze the last Persian city with iron and then make peace few turns later, although in that case i think Xerxes will have less money to pay us in GPT.

We might have a low WW right now but when the next "level" of WW hits we will probably feel it. Getting of back to zero WW by peace w. both Greece and Persia will allow us to stay at war longer after DoW on India. And since we do not know how long that war will be and what will happen later on I would like us to enter the war with India with a "clean slate"

I think i moved it to irrigated plains to load granary a little, I kept Rusicade on starvation diet while building a bank.

Moving it to the furs tile will still give us a food surplus just +1 instead of +2. And we will build a MDI every second turn wo any wasted shields.

MORE EDITS: Although spoiler thread is opened i suggest we postpone posting anything in there... 20k victory pretty much depends on how teams play AA and i'd like to keep it to ourselves for some time or until all teams pass AA.

And since our team scribe, Tarkeel, is busy at the moment it is just as well we postpone it until he has the time to put a report together.

 

[dmanakho]

Yep, that's actually what i had in my head - making peace before DoW with India...
the problem with India is they are very very weak and don't have much troops to put against us for leader hunting... Most of their cities are quite low on pop and production .

Greece was so stubborn during my turns and never had much money in exchange for peace and theology.

 

[dmanakho]

Well, It looks like it will be just Wotan and I for next couple of days.
I wonder where Scoutsout is... He never showed up since the last hurricane hit Florida... I certainly hope he is alright.

So after sheakspear's where do we go next????
I'd say we can research economics fast and build Smith's. It has 3cultures plus offsets maintenance costs on markets, banks etc...
I certainly hope we would get a leader or better two to rush Smith's and Leo...
Then we can start working full speed towards physics to get Newton's.

IMHO, first tech to research in IA -> Steam power followed by Industrialization (we've got to have a factory and railroads all around Utica ASAP) and then full ahead towards ToE (well, may be sanitation in and between to have a hospital in Utica) and then do nothing until modern ages.
(few small wonders, and hopefully Heroic Epic as well)

I am just putting ideas early so we have the general strategic plan to pursue and I am sure my ideas will be and ought to be corrected.


As of right now... well.... all we need is to generate some leaders,

 

[Wotan]

It is as you put it a question of if/when/how many leaders we can generate. If a leader appears within the next 10-15 turns we should switch to Shakespear and finish that manually. Then rush Leo's if still available or Smith's (if a leader appers pretty soon we should go for Economics), if not maybe have it on the back burner and swap to research it if we enter a period of Leaders Galore.

I concur with the rest of your ideas, Rail is vital to boost production in Utica and when we approach that discovery we should move a pile of the workers to our home island. Just keep your fingers crossed we have coal near. And Saltpeter when Gunpowder appears, which should become available through the assistance of our friendly neighbours (and Chivalry).

 

[dmanakho]

if we get leader in less than 8-10 turns, we can switch Utica to Bank -> rush it if needed (and it will be build with no wasted shields) and then rush wonder, preferably sheakspears.

 

[DeceasedHorse]

Looks like I have some 'splaining to do...

RE: The S.S. Passage blocker getting moved-honestly, I do not know how this happened. I remember making a stupid joke about it-I must have accidently un-fortified it at that point and then moved it.

RE: Silly worker actions-I suppose I should have found something more constructive to do with the workers remaining on our home continent, possibly tree farming or constructing fortresses while waiting for sufficent shipping to open up and move them over to Rusicade, but as it was, I just had some workers mining for no particular reason.

RE: Me not paying attention-partially true. Part of this is due to having to adapt to college life, but that does not mean I do not screw off in class sometimes and couldn't use my kick-ass wireless connection to check the forums. In some respects, any input I might have has generally proven redundent or not particularly helpful. I have no prior experiance with playing civ competetively, that is for a high score, nor am I as familiar with vanilla/play the world as I am with Conquests. Furthermore, some of my actions were motivated by a desire to not rock the boat, so to speak. If I was playing this game solo, I would never have launched the attack on Pasagradae during my turn set; I would have grabbed Chivalry (easy enough for us to do so at this point, but something that does not contribute directly to our victory condition) but felt compelled to do so. As an additonal example, I squandered an elite numidian because I felt pressured to generate more leaders for the cause. Micro-management has never been my strong points; staggering research in the method I did to coincide with production is about the best I can pull off, and even that technique is something I do not do normally. I will make more of an effort to visit more often, and will stop if I have question as we don't really have any time pressure at present.

 

[dmanakho]

Okay fellows, It's saturday afternoon here.
We have had a long pause and i hope today is the last day before everyone will be able to return to the game....
Hopefully Tarkeel plays sunday and Smacskter will be able to catch with the game tomorrow as well...
Otherwise it's been booooooooooring

 

[smackster]

I'm back, looks like I didn't miss too much. Hopefully Tarkeel can get to it tomorrow and then I can too, and we'll be back on track.

smackster

 

[smackster]

Looks like I have some 'splaining to do...

RE: The S.S. Passage blocker getting moved-honestly, I do not know how this happened. I remember making a stupid joke about it-I must have accidently un-fortified it at that point and then moved it.

RE: Silly worker actions-I suppose I should have found something more constructive to do with the workers remaining on our home continent, possibly tree farming or constructing fortresses while waiting for sufficent shipping to open up and move them over to Rusicade, but as it was, I just had some workers mining for no particular reason.

RE: Me not paying attention-partially true. Part of this is due to having to adapt to college life, but that does not mean I do not screw off in class sometimes and couldn't use my kick-ass wireless connection to check the forums. In some respects, any input I might have has generally proven redundent or not particularly helpful. I have no prior experiance with playing civ competetively, that is for a high score, nor am I as familiar with vanilla/play the world as I am with Conquests. Furthermore, some of my actions were motivated by a desire to not rock the boat, so to speak. If I was playing this game solo, I would never have launched the attack on Pasagradae during my turn set; I would have grabbed Chivalry (easy enough for us to do so at this point, but something that does not contribute directly to our victory condition) but felt compelled to do so. As an additonal example, I squandered an elite numidian because I felt pressured to generate more leaders for the cause. Micro-management has never been my strong points; staggering research in the method I did to coincide with production is about the best I can pull off, and even that technique is something I do not do normally. I will make more of an effort to visit more often, and will stop if I have question as we don't really have any time pressure at present.

Just for the record we do want you playing actively as it adds a lot to this game, and it is just a game, but you know the rest of us probably take it a little bit too seriously.

Mananaging real life and civ time is hard for all of us, but I for one would not want to suggest you put more time into this, rather than college time. I think what would really help is before each game that you play, you just put down a quick summary of how you are going to play it, based on our various posts, take your time over playing it, but just keep us informed whats going on.

smackster

 

[DeceasedHorse]

Sounds good. And I would like to retirate that it is not like I am partying/studing 24/7 or anything; I've also been playing Rome: Total War a whole lot as well.

 

[smackster]

Sounds good. And I would like to retirate that it is not like I am partying/studing 24/7 or anything; I've also been playing Rome: Total War a whole lot as well.

You are not, oh that's a shame

I had a look at Rome Total War, looks like a good game, but my laptop could not handle the graphics.

 

[Wotan]

while waiting for sufficent shipping to open up and move them over to Rusicade, but as it was.

I do not think moving them to Rusicade is in our best interest. We will soon (hopefully) be in industrial Age and wanting to rail our little empire so I would rather think we will move workers from Rusicade.

Part of this is due to having to adapt to college life, but that does not mean I do not screw off in class sometimes and couldn't use my kick-ass wireless connection to check the forums. In some respects, any input I might have has generally proven redundent or not particularly helpful. I have no prior experiance with playing civ competetively, that is for a high score, nor am I as familiar with vanilla/play the world as I am with Conquests. Furthermore, some of my actions were motivated by a desire to not rock the boat, so to speak. If I was playing this game solo, I would never have launched the attack on Pasagradae during my turn set; I would have grabbed Chivalry (easy enough for us to do so at this point, but something that does not contribute directly to our victory condition) but felt compelled to do so. As an additonal example, I squandered an elite numidian because I felt pressured to generate more leaders for the cause. Micro-management has never been my strong points; staggering research in the method I did to coincide with production is about the best I can pull off, and even that technique is something I do not do normally. I will make more of an effort to visit more often, and will stop if I have question as we don't really have any time pressure at present.

Micromanaging 5 (five) cities for 10 turns can't be regarded as a burden, I sincerely can't see how this would damage a players chances of a RL. In SGOTM3, MMing was less important at the same stage in the game since we had ample resourses but that is not the case in this game. What can MMing add to the current game? 20 minutes for the 10 turn stint? Probably not that long so...
In a game with so few cities you do have a real opportunity to learn how to MM too so I see no real defense in just simply stating it as "never been my strong points". We are 5 players in this game and not pulling your weight is to make the game less of a challenge/experience/pleasure for the team.

To sum it up: If you are not really capable/willing to participate in a team effort, develop you game skills and communicate with the rest of the team why play in a team game???

EDIT: Just a thought DH, you might have a defensive approach in Civ similar to my way of playing the game prior to my CivFanatics days. I too would pull back and wait for techs to "come in" before going to war. Often waiting for Rails and Tanks. Not anymore since it is not needed. You discussed pulling back and await Railroads in SGOTM3 and now you considered researching Chivalry before taking out Pasargadae. I can only advise you to try to be a bit cooler about the odds of going to war with less powerful units. It is not necessary to wait for better techs, check cotm5 for a lot of AA warfare.

 

[Tarkeel]

Smackster, go ahead and take it. Monday is the earliest I can take it atm

 

[smackster]

OK, I've got it and I'll play later today

 

[dmanakho]

I think we should start moving workers to the main island now.

We have tons of slaves in Rusicade and we will need tons of slaves to rail all those mountains around Utica and with the number of vessels we have it will take long time to move them across the sea, so we better start now. We don't need them in Rusicade anyway.

We are making peace with Persians for GPTs and starting war against India this set of turns, right????


@Smackster - Good luck on getting those much needed leaders...

 

[smackster]

Yes agreed with moving the slaves. I'm not going to get peace with Persia yet, although the gold is nice I'd like to make sure we have enough opponents to fight. I will play defence now with persia, and declare war on India when our troops are better positioned for them.

 

[smackster]

Don't know if anyone is online, but I'm looking to switch to Democracy, I don't see where we discussed that. I'm sure it makes sense, WW is nothing and the tech pace is too slow.