Turnplayer Thread #3

[Zeviz]

Should we start moving northern chariot south in case we lose the battle against the axe?

So PAL is guaranteed to win the game. (As the single competent team on a continent designed for 4, they would be nearly unstoppable unless the 3 teams on our continent made a military alliance against them. It was only a matter of time until they took out the Rabbits, and Bananas are even less of a threat to them than Templars are to us.)

The best we can do is work together with them for a joint victory, or a second place finish.

[Sullla]

Originally posted by sooooo
I think we shouldn't attack at Saxon - wait until we see if Betty Hur dies. If she does, then Lady Godiva can come south to intercept the axeman.

That's an excellent idea, sooooo. Now I'm really glad I didn't attack with Lady Godiva! Hopefully we'll win the 70% odds (or get lucky and have the barb axe not attack at all), but if the worst happens, we won't be totally screwed.

Zeviz, I pretty much agree. To be honest, we were probably screwed as soon as the map came out and proved to be ridiculously unbalanced. Still, we'll keep on fighting until the game ends. PAL's still going to have to earn a victory. If they become too much of a runaway, we try to form a tech alliance with Imperio (i.e. no one trades with PAL) and start pursuing a cultural victory.

Remember your Sirian-isms: "Where there is life, there is hope" and "Fortune favors the bold!"

[ruff_hi]

Originally posted by Sullla
we have 69% odds to win

[tongue in cheek mode on]
Brilliant play. This way we have a 70% chance of getting those 2 XPs to open up the Heroic Epic.
[tongue in cheek mode off]

Hey - don't sweat it - you've played pretty much perfectly so far .

[Sullla]

Uh yeah - that was the plan all along!

[T-hawk]

[tongue in cheek mode on]
Brilliant play. This way we have a 70% chance of getting those 2 XPs to open up the Heroic Epic.
[tongue in cheek mode off]

Nope - units only ever get 1 XP for winning a battle on defense.

If Betty Hur survives, she should probably heal and join the attack on the barb city to get her last XP to open up Heroic Epic.

[sooooo]

T-Hawk's point is a good one, and that means that we may as well follow Zeviz's advice of moving the chariot down this turn. Reasoning is: if Betty dies we need Lady godiva to kill the barb. If Betty lives we need to wait to heal her so there is no rush for Lady Godiva to kill the warriors in the city.

[mostly-harmless]

The "War with Rabbits" for PAL in the relations screen only pops up if Imperio is selected and not when RB or Templars are selected. Does this mean Rabbits and IMperio have met?
If so, then there is either a Rabbits boat in The Channel or they spotted each other from coast to coast.

EDIT: we need a plan for the Discovery mission. The Sharon the scout will board the ship next turn. The ship can sail 1S and then either 1SE or continuing 1S. We also have Jennifer the warrior on board. Where do we want to disembark her?
We do have a no scouting clause with PAL, but only their capital has popped borders so far and we might be able to slip through their cities to map out their land. That would mean sending Sharon on a southern route, as she will be save from barbs close to PAL's cities.

mh

[ruff_hi]

My preference would be to ...

send boat West alone top of land
send scout South towards PAL
send warrior South West into the dark

[Sullla]

Moved Lady Godiva SE-SE and ended our turn. Now we hope and pray for good luck on the interturn...

I'll post a screenshot next turn of the eastern continent crossing, so we can discuss how to move Jennifer (warrior) and Sharon (scout) over there in more detail.

[Sullla]

BETTY HUR LIVES!

I was actually wrong on the combat odds; we had a 52% chance to win, and came out victorious. 1.4 health left out of 4, 9XP, and 5 turns needed to heal. We'll wait the extra time for healing, get that 10th experience point against the barbs at Saxon, and get Heroic Epic going!

Turn report to come in about an hour, as I play and get the data updated.

[Sullla]

Here were some of the highlights from T94:

- I have to start with Betty Hur's heroic victory, winning a coinflip battle to preserve our hopes of an early Heroic Epic!



Betty's swift sword has managed to avoid an egregious blunder on my part. After healing (5t), we'll be able to attack the barb city of Saxon and grab that last experience point, to open up Heroic Epic just as we research Literature - perfect!

- The other monumental news from this turn was the successful passage across the seas to the eastern continent!



Sharon successfully completed the Grand Tour (picking up tons of useful info along the way!) and is safely on board the RBS Discovery. Because Jennifer had movement points left, I went ahead and landed her to pick up extra map info. We seem to be on a little peninsula with silver; I put my planned moves for next turn highlighted with arrows.

Overall, I'd like to keep Jennifer on the ship, and keep landing her every other turn on hills to reveal more of the map as we scout along the coast. Sharon will head inland as soon as I find a suitable place to do so, probably in 2-3 turns. How does that sound?

- China Beach grew to size 4 and completed a work boat for the new city at green dot. I have it set to a high shield configuration (working the cows, floodplains cottage, plains forest, and grassland hill forest tiles) to complete a second work boat for green in just 4 more turns. After the second work boat, China Beach will run two Scientist specialists, to squeeze out an extra Great Scientist before we (hopefully!) land the Great Library in the capital. This will also increase our research by about 10 beakers/turn, as we race towards Literature tech.

- Workers at Something Fishy moved N onto the forested grassland hill, to chop + mine the tile there. With a road there, we'll only be one tile away from linking Something Fishy to Pink Dot.

- Worker at Cape Town moved back to the plains hill, to mine it (and cap the city at 16 shields/turn when it grows to size 4!)

- Lady Godiva moved back towards Saxony (barb city), not planning to attack until Betty Hur is healed. But we do want to keep a line of sight there to watch for any unexpected developments.

- New city founded next turn!

- From C&D, PAL's military rating continues to scale up at a really fast rate. They are at 143k now, and we are the #2 civ with 96k. Half again the number of anyone else! Although the numbers can sometimes be deceiving, that's not the case here. Unless Rabbits come up with some kind of miracle, they're probably doomed. Hopefully they'll put up a mighty struggle in the process...

- Since it was a quiet turn overall, I wanted to pass on this little tidbit I noticed on the Demographics screen. We are:

#2 in GNP (Imperio)
#2 in Food (PAL)
#2 in Production (PAL, I think)
#2 in Power (PAL)
#1 in Land Area (Imperio #2)

So we're not really the leaders in much of anything, but we're trailing close behind in virtually every category of importance. Given our starting position - only one food bonus, no strategic resources, no happy resources before Monarchy/Calendar - we have played an incredible game to reach this point. You guys are the best!

Data post to follow, once I finish tallying up all the numbers.

[ruff_hi]

Originally posted by Sullla
Betty's swift sword has managed to avoid an egregious blunder on my part. After healing (5t), we'll be able to attack the barb city of Saxon and grab that last experience point, to open up Heroic Epic just as we research Literature - perfect!

Nice idea on the timing (5 turns of healing and research) but you might need to allow for some travel time. Is that 5 turns of healing in the open? What about in a city? I'll WB it in our war-room game and see which is the best option. How do you injure a unit in WB?

Originally posted by Sullla
Overall, I'd like to keep Jennifer on the ship, and keep landing her every other turn on hills to reveal more of the map as we scout along the coast. Sharon will head inland as soon as I find a suitable place to do so, probably in 2-3 turns. How does that sound?

That sounds like an interesting idea. But is there any downside? Jennifer (or Jen for short) could be out scouting inland instead of on / off boat. That inland scouting might get her killed but also might help us meet Rabbits / Bananas.

Does R&D know if Rabbits / Bananas have any coastal cities? If they do, then I would vote for the on/off again option.

We have plenty of time to map out the other continent - it is not as if we can settle a city over there.

[Sullla]

Here was the data from T94:

General

Active Turn Player:
Sullla

Status:
Played

Tech:
Aesthetics (2t)
100% research (52 [63] beakers/turn) @ -17gpt
318/429 beakers overall

Gold
57g in treasury

Cities

Airstrip One [guarded by Xena]:
Worker (5t)
Emphasizing commerce and research

Pink Dot [guarded by Britney's Spears]:
Settler (6t)
Intended for protected "yellow" spot

China Beach [guarded by Ms Piggy]:
Work Boat (4t) for to-be-founded green city

Cape Town [guarded by Diana and Billy Jean Tell]:
Axeman (2t)

Something Fishy [guarded by Svava]:
Granary (50t)
Growing like a weed working the fish tile

Non-Combat Units

Scout [Sharon]:
Scouting out the eastern continent

Worker [Winston]:
Prechopping forest tiles at Airstrip One
Current tile (3t)

Worker [O'Brien]:
Building road connection to future Twin Peaks
Moving to mine plains hill N of Cape Town

Worker [Parsons]:
Moving to chop/mine grassland hill N of Something Fishy

Worker [Syme]:
Moving to chop/mine grassland hill N of Something Fishy

Worker [Bernard]:
Prechopping forest tiles at Airstrip One
Current tile (3t)

Settler:
Moving to western marble tile (done!)

Military Units

Galley [RBS Discovery]:
Exploring the eastern continent

Axeman [Adria]:
Moving to Pink Dot region

Spearman [Britney's Spears]:
Guard Pink Dot

Chariot [Betty Hur]:
Healing up after epic victory over barb axe (5t)
9XP - need 1 more!

Chariot [Lady Godiva]:
Waiting to attack barb city of Saxon

Archer [Ms Piggy]:
Guard China Beach

Archer [Diana]:
Guard Cape Town

Archer [Billy Jean Tell]:
Guard Cape Town

Archer [Robyn Hood]:
Moving to guard new marble city

Archer [Svava]:
Guard Something Fishy

Warrior [Xena]:
Guard Airstrip One

Warrior [Jennifer]:
Exploring the eastern continent with the RBS Discovery

Foreign Builds from C&D

Templars
Jerusalem = N/A, zero shields invested.
Jericho = (79 * (148 + 100)) / (3 * 550) = 12 shields (+2)

Given that Jerusalem was at 48 shields last turn, and getting 16/turn, I'd wager that Templars just finished a worker for Jericho.

Imperio
Mutal = N/A, zero shields invested.
Lakamha = (307 * (116 + 100)) / (3 * 514) = 43 shields (+13)
Chichen Itza = (366 * (116 + 100)) / (3 * 488) = 54 shields (+6)
Uxmal = (14 * (116 + 100)) / (3 * 527) = 2 shields (+1)

Mutal had 42 shields last turn, and got 9/turn at last caluculation. Any guesses on what they just finished there? Still think that Chichen Itza is building a worker.

[mostly-harmless]

Originally posted by ruff_hi
Does C&D know if Rabbits / Bananas have any coastal cities? If they do, then I would vote for the on/off again option.

Banana has written the book on coastal cities with their capital.
Rabbits also have water tiles (inland sea???) at their capital and thei second city.

EDIT: Re foreign production. Mutal already had a Granary I believe, and no additional building can be seen. So it must be a unit. How is the 25% bonus they get on workers accounted for in our production numbers?

mh

[Zeviz]

Good news about our heroic chariot.

The exploration plan sounds good, although we have to be careful not to lose the scout to barbarians. It might be better to drop her off later, because chances are that other civilizations started on the opposite side of the continent from us, so if we drop her off right away, she is likely to die before reaching Rabbit/Banana territory.

I can't comment on city builds and worker actions until next state of empire renews the overall game situation.