SGOTM7 - Team tao

[Tone]

When I think back about that lousy roll of the dice getting a 6 turn anarchy, it's only fair that we get some luck from the RNG.

It's often tough to take bad RNG in battles but I do try to keep a level head and appreciate that things do even out. However it is very hard to convince yourself of this argument for revolutions though-particularly in GOTM type games where you are competing against others who may get better luck. Then again there may be other teams out there that still haven't got a GL and rolled 8 turns of anarchy The random element of Civ is a key factor but certain events can be game-breakers. It's such a great game but it doesn't stop me moaning from time to time

 

[Furiey]

250 AD(Turn 0): Lots to do as we’re switching to Chivalry so…
give Bangalore’s BG to New Calcutta (now Aqueduct in 10), Bangalore has a Harbour and Market so it’s unaffected growth wise and makes 2 more Commerce;
Swap Swords between Hlobane and the Catapult stack;
move a Settler from Konya to the Spear to found next turn; Konya Spear joins it – don’t want to lose that stack;
move Vet Warrior from Cow N to Cow S for upgrade next turn; Swords S of Jumgle Port and from South Beach move towards Aydin ready for upgrade;
leave Bombay Scientist alone (just in case, and it’s content and would grow next turn and everything goes to corruption…)
Workers and Cats in Hlobane woken and moved out;
Rush Barracks in Konya;
Uskadur set to grow in 2, Settler in 2, South Beach growth slowed as a result but it will not grow before it’s settler anyway;
Jungle Port mm for WLTKD and 2 Shields shuffling with Epulu;
Hurry Library in Edrine;
Change Madras and Bangalore to Settlers to be rushed once resistance ends;
Changes specialists in Zimbabwe to Entertainers – I do not want it to riot if we quell the resistors;
Shuffle tiles around new Calcutta to free some for Lahore
Shuffle Incense Hill to get Library in 9.
Still sure there’s something I’ve missed I finally press the button.

IBT: Zulu Archer comes from Bapedi and attacks the Horse N of Zimbabwe which retreats to Zimbabwe (Archer 2/4); Elite Zulu Archer S of Bapedi attacks our 3/4 Sword NNE of Bapedi promoting Sword to 3/5 (1-0); GL gives Fuedalism; 3 resisters quelled in Zimbabwe; Persians start Sun Tzu;

260 AD(Turn 1): Sogut: Horse>Horse; Edirne: Library>Settler; Great Library: Horse>Axeman: WLTKD in Jungle Port; Konya: Barracks>Harbour; found Adana; Elite Horse kills 2/4 Archer (2-0); change to Chivalry – 100% giving Chivalry in 6 at –90gpt; move Horses and Elite Sword out of Zimbabwe to Konya; move stack of troops to join new Elite Sword NNE of Bapedi; upgrade Warrior and Sword in Cow S; join a Worker to Izmit, another goes for Aydin (join next turn); move Settler in Konya to Adana; change Istanbul to Settler – we have enough Cats..

IBT: Persia drops 2 immortals by AI Bait, Zulu Archer comes from Ulundi; Zimbabwe and Madras starve; 1 resister quelled in Hlobane

270 AD (Turn 2): Uskadur: Settler>Settler; Izmit: Horse>Horse; Antalaya: Horse>Horse; Cow N: Library>Settler; Cats redline both Immortals by AI bait; Immortals killed by Vet Sword with Cats and Reg Sword in Desert Beach promoting to Vet (4-0); remaining 2 Cats hit Persian Galley, sink it with Galley from Desert Beach (5-0); SOD moves next to Bapedi (Vet Impi).

IBT: Viking Galley appears S of Jumgle Port – soon will be time to reinforce AI Bait; Zulu Archer moves in to Zimbabwe, Zulu drop a Warrior by Zimbabwe; Zimbabwe starves; resistance ends in Madras and Bangalore;

280 AD (Turn 3): Sogut: Horse>Horse; Great Library: Axe>Horse; Aydin: Horse>Horse; South Beach: Settler>Settler; Epulu: Horse>Horse;
Bapedi: Cat hits Impi to 3/4, miss, kill citizens, 5 misses, hit Impi now 3/4, 1 miss, hit Impi now 3/4, 1 miss, hit Impi now 3/4, 4/4 Impi on top.
Try to save the Elite Swords but lose a Horse promoting the Impi to 5/5 (5-1)
Elite Sword kills Elite Impi (6-1)
Elite Sword kills Vet Impi (7-1) and Orhan appears!
Vet Horse dies, Impi 2/4 (7-2)
Vet Horse kills 3/4 Impi (8-2)
Vet Horse dies, Impi 2/4 (8-3)
Vet Sword dies on 2/4 Impi (Impi now 2/5) (8-4)
4/5 Elite Sword dies on 2/5 Impi (8-5)
no more troops

Vet Horse kills Archer by Zimbabwe (9-5)
Vet Horse kills Warrior by Zimbabwe and Elites (10-5)
Orhan moves to Mountain protected by Horses; take a Galley to Konya with a couple of Horses ready to bring Orhan home; unload the Elite Sword from Indian soil onto the Zulu island; 8 Horses (the 2 new + the healed ones from Konya) move to SSE of Bapedi; stop for the night.

Next day: Put a Spear from Adana on the Mountain with Orhan – I’d rather lose Adana than Orhan!; swap Sword by AI Bait with an Axeman in Cow S; change Desert Beach to Library;

IBT: Persians land 2 Immortals by AI Bait; Zimbabwe starves, Zulu Galley leaves Bapedi; Zulu Galley appears from the S near S Beach; no Zulu counterattack.

290 AD (Turn 4): Madras: Settler>Library; Bangalore: Settler>Library; Izmit: Horse>Horse; Bursa: Horse>Horse; Cow S: Horse>Horse; Cats go 6 for 6 against the Immortals and 2 for 3 redlining them all; 4/4 Axe kills 1/4 Immortal; 4/4 Sword kills 1/4 Immortal (12-5) 3/3 Galley defeats 4/4 Galley and promotes (13-5); move Orhan back to Aydin which is halfway through a Horse, change Bursa to Sun Tzu (no shields in the box) and hurry with Orhan; change Zimbabwe to Settler;

Bapedi:
5/5 Impi Cat hits to 4/5
5/5 Impi Cats miss x 3 then hit to 4/5
4/4 Impi Cats miss x 4 then hit to 3/4
4/5 Impi: Cats hit Barracks then miss x 2; Vet Horse dies, Impi 2/5
4/5 Impi: killed by Vet Horse (13-5)
3/4 Impi: Vet Horse dies, Impi 2/4 (13-6)
2/4 Impi: Vet Horse kills (14-6)
2/5 Impi: Vet Horse kills (15-6) and we capture Bapedi and the Great Lighthouse (9 resistors)

pile in troops to quell as many as possible on the first turn when it won’t flip; change Konya to Horse (now connected by roads to Hlobane’s Harbour); move Settler towards Bapedi to Settle round there, move Indian Settlers towards N Zululand; move Settler on mainland to Zulu continent; can drop science and still get Chiv in 3, but leave it high in case the GA knocks off a turn; Zulu Galley has stopped on a Sea tile – interesting to see if it sinks now we have captured the GLH; move another Sword from Cow S to AI Bait as we could have to deal with Zulu and Vikings invading together; upgrade the other Sword in Cow S.

IBT: Zulu and Viking Galleys head for AI Bait, and American Galley appears near Jungle Port – maybe we won’t be able to shut down operations quite so soon here; Zulu Galley goes N past Bapedi – Settler? They may get there before our Settlers do; resistor quelled in Zimbabwe (1 to go)

300 AD (Turn 5): Sogut: Horse>Horse; Great Library: Horse>Horse; Antalaya: Horse>Horse; Lahore: Horse>Horse; we build Sun Tzu in Bursa and start Our Golden Age; Bursa>Pike, we’ll need a couple; Palace expands and gets a roof; glad I left Science high – Chivalry in 1 and can drop Science to 90% (-63gpt)! Upgrade the redlined Sword in Desert Beach; Swap the Sword with the Cats with the Axe upgraded in Cow S; Great Library is at 30spt after corruption! Move some horses for upgrade, move healed troops towards Ulundi, shuffle tiles for Golden Age – quite a lot are at 20spt now, GL and Sogut at 30. Knights here we come!

IBT: Vikings drop a Spear and a Sword by AI Bait, 2 more Viking ships appear by Jungle Port; Zulu drop 2 Warriors by AI bait, Zulu Galley drops an Archer by Bapedi; Zulu Archer approaches Zimbabwe from Ulundi; Arab Galley approaches Bapedi; American Galley heads between us and Arabia; Americans Start Sistine Chapel

310 AD (Turn 6): We learn Chivalry start Engineering (due in – giving 222 gpt for upgrades!); Uskudar: Settler>Settler; Jungle Port: Galley>Pike; Vet Horse kills Zulu Archer by Bapedi (16-6); Cats go 3 for 5 against Archer by Zimbabwe; Elite Sword kills it (17-6); Cats go 6 for 10 against Viking Spear and Archer at AI Bait; Axes kill them both (18-6); Aze kills 4/4 Zulu Warrior at AI Bait (19-6); lose 1 Horse and promote 2nd killing 3/3 Zulu Warrior at AI Bait (20-7); change Istanbul to Library; upgrade 4 Horses in Bursa, short rush 10 shields on a Knight in GL (now in 1) – possibly worth doing this for Sogut and GL at 30spt to do a Knight in 2 rather than 3.

IBT: Arabs drop Spear and Horse by Bapedi; Americans and Viking head for AI Bait;

320 AD (Turn 7): GL Knight>Knight; Cow N: Settler>Pike; AI Bait: Library>Axe; Desert Beach: Library>Pike; Incense Hill: Library>Pike; Elite Sword kills Arab Spear; Horse kills Arab Horse (22-7); Cats go 2 for 2 v Viking Galley, our Galley sink it (23-7); SOD (Cats, Swords and Horses) moves towards Ulundi; found Davidiople near Hlobane; upgrade 3 more Knights (now 8 in Bursa)

IBT: Americans turn round again; Vikings proceed to AI Bait.

330 AD (Turn 8): Sogut: Knight>Knight; Izmit: Knight>Knight; New Culcutta: Aqueduct>Barracks; Aydin: Knight>Knight; Bursa: Pike>Knight; invade Arabia; move SOD next to Ulundi; it’s probably a good idea to start playing games with Iron again – nothing left to pillage with this turn though; rush settlers in Zimbabwe and Erdine.

IBT: Vikings drop a Sword from each Galley; Americans turn round again; Zulu and Arab Galley by Bapedi go home; no attack on either SOD

340 AD (Turn 9): Zimbabwe: Settler>Settler; erdine: Settler>Settler; Antalaya: Knight>Knight; Cow S: Knight>Knight; Cats go 6 for 6 at AI Bait; Axe picks off first; Elite Horse second (25-7);
Ulundi: Cats – Impi 4/4 to 3/4, 4 misses; Impi 4/4 to 3/4, Impi 4/4 to 3/4, 6 misses, Impi 3/3 to 2/3, 4 misses;
Elite Sword kills 3/4 Impi (26-7)
Elite Sword kills 3/4 Impi (27-7)
Vet Sword kills 3/4 Impi (28-7)
Elite Horse kills 2/3 Impi (29-7)
Elite Horse kills 4/4 Archer and sinks Galley (31-7)
We raze the city;

Found Alexmanica, another city will be built next turn.

Damascas: 4/4 Knight kills 3/3 Spear (32-7);
4/4 Knight kills 3/3 Spear (33-7);
4/4 Knight kills 3/3 Spear, Redlining but Eliting (34-7); and we capture the city.
1 resistor but we keep both the Barracks and Harbour;

Madinah: 4/4 Knight kills 3/3 Spear (35-7);
4/4 Knight kills 3/3 Spear (36-7);
4/4 Knight kills 3/3 Spear razing the city (37-7);

found Emanopidu on landing site; ship across 5 more Knights; notice Persia, Vikings and Americans have Chivalry… Short rush Knight in Sogut; am tempted to move (I could get 5) Knights in to Makkah to attack next turn – but being the capitol there will probably be more than 3 Spears so force myself to wait for the reinforcements.

IBT: Empty Viking Galleys continue past AI Bait; Arab and Zulu Galleys continue S; American Galley continues to AI Bait; Empty Persian and Zulu Galleys go home; Bapedi continues to Starve, resistance ends in Damascas; Vikings start Sistine; no Arab counterattack.

350 AD (Turn 10): Sogut: Knight>Knight; Great Library: Knight>Knight; Uskudur: Settler>Settler; South Beach: Settler>Settler; Epulu: Knight>Knight; Istanbul: Library>Pike; move a few Knights next to Makkah

Treasury: 33gold + 238gpt, Engineering due in -. We have 23 Knights and 11 Horses.

Post-turn: There are 1 or 2 Knights ready to attack Makkah next turn; there are some Knights and Horses ready to cross from Konya next turn; there will be more Knights ready to cross to Arabia next turn; both Sogut and GL will do a Knight in 2 with a short rush of 10 shields to an axeman after the first turn. I haven’t closed down the AI Bait operations as there has been a steady stream of Galleys going there. Uskudur will need the Settler slowing slightly so it builds in 4 when the city grows to 9, I was removing it from the mined Desert after the 1st turn. I did not worry what I set the corrupt cities to build as there’s plenty of time to decide and set to what we need. I have got a few Pikes building to free up a few Horses we have on MP duty. MM still needs doing (Edrine needs putting back on growth) and there are some Workers to move. Have fun Tone, you’ll probably get to enter the Killboard at the top!

Killboard update:
Furiey – 45
Sabre - 31
Keath - 28
tao - 20
Renata - 18

Tone (up next)
Keath
Renata
tao
Sabre
Furiey (just played)

The Save

 

[Renata]

Woohoo, can we finish in less than 40 more turns? Logistics are going to be really really important starting about now. Fun for the warmonger in everybody. Anyone else think we can afford to keep all the Arabian and Persian cities? We'll be hitting them hard and fast, and IIRC neither civ has a town other than on that island. So flips won't be much of an issue. And if we could assemble a stack of units we don't need at the front, we could kill resistance fairly rapidly once each civ is dead and start turning the excess population into settlers. We're going to need a ton of those.

Much much more tomorrow morning once I've had time to look at the save. Furiey!

Renata

 

[tao]

They didn't know what hit them....

And she hit them hard.

Excellent progress and our Golden Age just started. I tentatively agree with Renata: we should be able to finish in less than 40 turns. And we should keep Arabian and Persian cities - despite them having one small settlement each in the west. If a city flips, our knights can re-capture it.

PS: Do we still need all those slow catapults or can we disband some of them and only move the others into position to bombard galleys?

 

[Sabre]

I would think with knights vs spears and pikes we wouldn't really need the catapults, they'd only slow us down.

Great turns Furiey!

 

[Tone]

Great turn set, Furiey and thanks for your notes to help me into the game. You guys have put in some superb turns-I'll try not to let the side down!

I've taken a look at the save and I have a few comments/questions on which I'd appreciate some guidance so in no particular order...

Thanks for the short rush advice on Sogut and GL; we can also short rush knights in 3 turns rather than 4 in Aydin, Izmit and Antalya using pikes after turn 1 to get the extra 10 sheilds required. There is not as much wastage here than in the ones you mention but I think that it is still worth doing in a GA as I'd rather lose 40gp than ten shields and speed up those knights. I'll get the cash I need to do this in Antalya this turn by selling the rax in Antalya and Cowtown South if that's OK with everyone.

Uskadar-instead of a settler in 4 with a specialist once every four turns, is it better to go wealth for one turn and then settler for the other three (or doesn't it matter?!)

Bursa-switching clown to taxman still gives WLTKD. Do we want the cash or the happy face? (or again do we not really care?!)

Davidiople- forest chop will go there this turn so switch production to a settler?

I can mm New Calcutta to keep net sheilds @16/turn but allow Lahore to exceed 10/turn with pop growth next turn.

My early thoughts beyond taking out the remaining Arabian cities in sight is to see if I can get two settlers with slow military protection into the gaps between Mekkah and Susa plus by the lake NE of Persepolis to help speed up the attacks into Persia and enable our knights to strike straight at the towns from these outposts rather than risk too many losses. I guess it depends upon how much healing needs to take place after the attack on Mekkah. Cats will give some useful protection in these settler outposts so I don't intend to disband them yet. Views?

Last thing: can I just confirm that I've read your post correctly, Furiey (all four pages of A4 when printed out ). The only galley that is currently in view and is incoming is the Am one SE of South Beech.

BTW my mouse is not reponding very smoothly with this game now. Is anyone else having this problem?

 

[tao]

I think small details don't matter a lot, but remember sgotm6! One or 2 turns may make a difference. And wouldn't it be great (I know it is ambitious) to not only win the Classic competition, but also beat team Wacken, which finished (probably) somewhere between 550AD and 640AD?

Unsorted thoughts:

With the settler in the NE of Arabia, we will have dyes next turn: fewer MP needed, Jungle Port can work another tile (mine it!), etc.

And remember that coastal tiles also count towards domination. Build another city in the very NE of Zululand, switch Kafa to library.

And each town pays upkeep for 2 units: switch Davidiople to settler, more settlers from our core cities probably have to wait until the Golden Age is over.

Corrupt cities (e.g. Iznik, Edirne) should be on pop growth to reach pop 6 and wltkd.

Irrigate the desert between Al Bait and desert beach (in GA it gives 2 shields more than coast).

Good grieve: I start doubting that I will have to play another 10 turns. Makkah will fall next turn, Diriyah the turn after. The question is "How strong is Persia?" but their 4 cities don't look really threatening. And the Vikings have no horses, thus no knights. I'm reminded of sgotm2, when in the end we steamroled over the AIs.

 

[Furiey]

Tone,

Uskadur, Wealth for one turn Settler in 3 - hadn't thought of that - if it works do it, we can always use the gold.

Short rushes: yes the 20spt can do it as well, but with upgrading the Knights there wasn't so much cash available so I only really had enough for Sogut and GL

Bursa: Watch it, yes it could be a taxman now, but when you transport all those troops that have just gone in there you'll need to remember to change it back or find another unit we can spare for MP. We will get Dyes next turn which may allow us to free a few MP (there are some Horses that can be upgraded) and spread them about a bit more.

Barracks: Oops - thought I'd sold them all.

Galleys: Yes, the American one hasn't unloaded yet, but has not been direct in it's approach - maybe the open land in Zulu has distracted them (note Settler in Hlobane), the Persian one has just come into view as I approached Makkah, it could be the last one going home, it may not be though - treat it as hostile.

Davidiople: feel free to change anything, in slow building cities I tend to chop and change builds so what is finally built is what is needed at the end of the time, rather than set them in stone at the beginning. I had a couple of ike builds up there to cover the empty cities - it would be annoying to have to deal with too many landings there or we'll have to set up an AI Bait operation, maybe use those Cats there. we also have more coast to claim - Libraries in Hlobane (if it ever stops resisting and we rush the Settler) and Kafa (rather than a pike) (and down the east coast) would claim more. so once we've finished upgrading we're not going to run out of things to do with cash.

Arabia: I agree we need to keep the remaining cities for speed now, we are still producing Settlers quickly so will have several we can use as combat Settlers. I was going to suggest we needed to move another force in further down South to speed up the conquest of Persia, maybe land a force down between Makkah and Susa - there's an uniproved plains tile NW of a forest that may make a good landing/city site that will then be able to hit Susa with Knights the turn after landing after founding the city. I don not yet know what resistance we will get from the Persians - Immortals certainly, the question is how many and they have Fuedalism so we'll be facing Pikes. The Cats will slow the Knights up too much - I didn't take them to Arabia in the end, but they were useful with the Horses against the Impis, and may be useful on landing sites if we have enough ships to carry both them and the Knights we need.

Mouse: no problems for me.

edit after reading tao's post: The problem we're going to have to do it quickly is the space between the cities - the AI has built them too far apart! Settlers can help. I think we need to start moving the Galleys further S to ready for onward transportation. This game would be simple to finish if we weren't trying to beat the other teams and do it ASAP. I would be nice to not be pipped to the post by 2 turns and to beat Wacken as well would be excellent, but to do that I don't think we can play safe in this conquest, we need to keep pushing all the time. Don't think I going to be playing again though....

 

[Tone]

And wouldn't it be great (I know it is ambitious) to not only win the Classic competition, but also beat team Wacken, which finished (probably) somewhere between 550AD and 640AD?

I'm aware that you must set your sights high to achieve the maximum but well, this is stratospheric. I'll push it to the limit and see what we can do. I'll play either this evening or tomorrow am so this should give people a chance to comment further before I start.

 

[Renata]

I won't be able to comment until this afternoon my time, but I'll have plenty to say then if you want to wait that long to hear it.

Renata

 

[Furiey]

Iznik is due to build a Galley in one, I never changed that build, it's also gone off growth for some reason, don't know as if we need the Galley now, although 1 Galley to go off to the West now we have the GLighthouse isn't much to spare just in case there is another island out there, otherwise a Library would build in 11.

Persia's Iron is under Arbela.

It's just going to be a case of logistics - getting those troops to push forward the front all the time, rather than following up the rear. I'm beginning to think a town right at the the tip S of Jungle Port may be a good idea to reduce the distance the Galleys have to go, it would along with a town on the landing site give a quick route across. Talking of Settlers, I would select them before you press the button, just in case I left them on the way to Bursa - I think I stopped everything (I certainly remember stopping the Knights - hope I got them all) but can't remember about the Settlers.

As tao said, the details will have to be as circumstances dictate. If I'd known there would be no counterattack from the Arabs at all, I would have pushed the Knights forward to Makkah one turn earlier.

edit: don't think I've ever been so reluctant to stop playing and turn it over to the next person, or maybe I'm not the peaceful builder I originally thought I was

edit 2: both Arabs and Persia have a town right on the tip of the island chain so we won't eliminate them completely.

 

[Renata]

Give in to the dark side, Furiey, you know you want to.

It would be sort of entertaining if we didn't eliminate anyone on our way to domination, wouldn't it? I think it'll be faster to go after the lightly-defended islands at the end of the chain, though. One of the things I want to do this afternoon is try to count up tiles, get some estimate of how much of the land we need to grab.

Renata

 

[Tone]

I won't be able to comment until this afternoon my time, but I'll have plenty to say then if you want to wait that long to hear it.

I'd be stupid not to wait After probably one of my longest no-civ periods since I first bought the game, I've finally made some time to play again. Too late to finish the Deity GOTM but I'm playing your COTM map. A tough start with some interesting decisions to be made but I'm now in the IA and I'm happy to play on with this today. I'll wait for everyone to comment and play my turn set here tomorrow morning. (Back to work tomorrow afternoon which is why I'm not hanging around too long-all good things must come to an end!)

edit: don't think I've ever been so reluctant to stop playing and turn it over to the next person, or maybe I'm not the peaceful builder I originally thought I was

You are making me feel guilty. Well, almost

One of the things I want to do this afternoon is try to count up tiles, get some estimate of how much of the land we need to grab.

Is that after we allow for expansions and city overlaps? It's a fair number of cities still. Once we have upgraded all our horses a few strategically placed libraries could make a real difference I feel.

 

[Furiey]

Ah the call of the dark side....

looking at the tiles across the main continents, we need 304 to win. I very crudely (so crudely I cringe to look at it) plonked down some more cities and started shading in and counting tiles. It can probably be done much more efficiently but it does show the scale of the problem (challenge). I only included 4 Library rushes/builds, but it does include 20 new cities! If we have the population it is cheaper to rush a Settler than a Library although not by much, so we can change the balance a bit.

 

[Renata]

The only really limiting thing about using settlers to fill in most of the gaps is the transport time. It may still be the best way to go.

Can I ask, when you say 304 tiles to win, what exactly are you referring to?

Renata

 

[Furiey]

CivAssist: 303 tiles to Domination Limit
MapStat: 304 tiles to Win

So I'm counting Land and Coast - 304 tiles for Domination.

Assuming of course there are no vast tracts of land that we are unaware of....

 

[Renata]

Nevermind, I figured it out. That's tiles left to domination. I did a rough count, and it looks like we can get very close to domination (within about 10 tiles) if we just capture up to the nearer Viking island and fill in every possible land tile between here and there and as many coastal tiles as we can grab. Given that our settler movement and library builds will probably be lagging a smidge behind our troop movements, we'll probably have to invade the second Viking island as well and take a couple of cities. OR, we could send a flotilla of settlers and pikes to the far west. I see at least two spots where we could land and immediately have nine more tiles, and there are several more where we could get 6 or 7. If we time it right, we'd only have to hold out on defense for two turns, and the AIs won't have many units there. It could gain us a quick couple of dozen tiles, where maybe we wouldn't have to make that last invasion. (The galleys could hang out in sea tiles that AIs can't attack us in, so the units would be perfectly safe, and we can move seven tiles a turn away from land, so we'd get there pretty quickly.)

Renata

 

[Tone]

I finally got around to rading the first spoiler thread and my jaw dropped when I got to this:

When I said I've always got techs, I should add that this is my first ever Deity game so I just assumed that it was no different, just slightly worse odds.

You're kidding us, right? (or maybe your first Deity game under certain conditions perhaps?)

 

[Furiey]

Nope - no kidding

The highest I've ever played solo is Monarch. I have been meaning to try Emperor sometime, but just do not have the time to start a solo game....

I noticed that mad-bax wouldn't let me claim Monarch though when he did the team listing this time.

 

[Tone]

The highest I've ever played solo is Monarch.

I feel my jaw giving way again!

I noticed that mad-bax wouldn't let me claim Monarch though when he did the team listing this time.

Hmm...I wonder why?