Another double turn day. Please explain to me why we averaged 5.5 turns/week back when we all had 4 cities, and now we're picking up double turns now that the turns are the most complex they've been all game. This one came late enough that it does seem quite unlikely that we'll get one tomorrow, but it's also possible I'm just saying this in a reverse jinx effort.
It's not all disinterest either I don't think. Opponent thread activity is at an all-time high right now. SD was playing absent turns, but that has ended. I mentioned he whipped 22 pop a few turns ago. Last turn he only whipped two pop, but tonight he whipped 15 more pop.
Definitely some units. However, this likely would be bigger if it was ALL units. If 39 pop in 3 turns were all units, I would expect a bigger spike than this. Of course, the population loss may be offsetting it. But I think some of it was buildings too. But whip rounds are happening everywhere right now. Yuris whipped 11 pop tonight while Bing whipped 8 last night. So this combined with all the thread activity has my spidey senses tingling. The thing is, the power spikes are just not there yet. So we'll see. However, my ongoing mission of covering all the angles I can find is proceeding. Going from east to west.
Threat level is low here. Only 2 Galleons visible in the area. Importantly, he would need to move the Galleons in the column 1W of Casa Grande in order to actually reach S Island. So I think I just need to watch for that, and if he moves them up, sink them.
Worth noting he did not echo Fish-Fish, but he did accept my Incense gift. I don't think he's planning to come at me, but I'll bet he's simply keeping his options open. Really, there's no incentive for him to try anything against me unless Yuris moves first.
I missed a shot of the Icy Islands front, but it looks a lot like this where I'm doing my best to maximize vision. I'm shuffling a few more defenders into this area as I can. Worth noting that all of these cities have defenders that could upgrade to Gren in a pinch. I did have a real chunk of my naval stack and defenders set up on S Island, but with SD seemingly standing down in the region, I can reallocate a little bit.
Playing a blended defense here. I've got a few units in each city to dissuade boating. But also my Galleon can shuffle units between cities pretty easily. The Gren/Musket pair in Hovenweep for example could be picked up and unloaded in one city or the other in the same turn. So defending like this should prevent the boating route, and it should stop an unload too. In any case, if he did try something it would be extremely costly to him for very little gain as these cities are all quite weak, so I think he'll leave them alone too. But I don't know for sure. I need another Caravel or Privateer in this area ASAP. I also have another Galleon full of Grens being picked up from the mainland now. I haven't figured out exactly how to allocate them among my various cities, but more defenders are coming to my various outposts.
Completed Scientific Method, and boy we did not get shortchanged on Oil. In fact, it's giving us +2h (Oil + GA) on a lot of random tiles.
These spots are my favorite. Those are 3/2/3 tiles during the Golden Age!
So, two things.
First, this is not visible in the picture, but uh, we can 2T Communism now. Break-even tech went up another ~100b end of turn, so it appears we can complete Communism on the last turn of the GA after all. As a result, I have a new plan for the revolt. We aren't going to now, and instead we're going to immediately fire the next GA and get into SP right away. As for Slavery, we're going to play that by ear. Right now our borders are safe enough that we can take a 5T revolt window in Caste I think, though it's a tad risky. So I'll make the decision in 2T. But basically, I'm getting so much production out of Caste GA that I think I can just stay in it. But if big military spikes happen, I'll swap to Slavery, even in the GA, just to be safe. So we'll see. But I'm willing to forgo some of these infra whips smaller cities "need" because really, the oomph I'm getting elsewhere seems to simply be bigger right now. I'll do the math before then to be sure, though. Basically I sort of think why not try to just stick in Caste until Kremlin is actually online. Worst-case scenario, a large number of my units can be upgraded to Grens, and I have the commerce output to pay for it.
Second, this screenshot shows the rough timings to Combustion at current GA breakeven. So, roughly 20T. I can definitely speed that up a bit, but it doesn't count a possible diversion like Physics, which is a worthy diversion. A true beeline could probably be 15T or less.
The other thing is the Nationalism question. I think I should go for it. I think Cairo like the rest will be going towards Chemistry, so I actually do not think he's racing me. If I land Taj, another 8T of GA will easily be worth it. If I don't, I get two consolation prizes - 1) Wealth with 85% production modifier, and 2) the ability to use Nationhood if necessary. I'm not too hyped on mass-drafting Muskets or anything, however it occurs to me that I might be able to mitigate my fears of the 5T Slavery lockout by simply being in Nationhood. Not to draft proactively, but to have another safety lever. It's not the main draw of teching Nationalism or anything, but this is a long-winded way of saying losing Taj would not be super disastrous I don't think.
