[SPOILERS] MNG as Hattie of France

[Mr. Nice Guy]

So.. the morning turn was not terribly exciting, already established. And there won't be an evening turn most likely. Not really any exciting pictures to share. So how about a couple of e-mails. First from Commodore:

[COLOR="SandyBrown"]Salut MNG,

Comment allez vous?

And with that, my French expires. Anyway, just a couple things:
1. Barbarian warriors have started to spawn.
2. Ahem, in related news, my poor scout is no more, so do you mind if I send a recon up through you to hail Yuri? I heard a rumor some sort of ancient oracle told him the secrets of making casings of metal, and I would love to talk to the Radiolanders about it. Naturally, as with you through my borders, I'll follow any path you prefer to send me on.

Adieu.
-Commodore [/COLOR]

[COLOR="RoyalBlue"]Hello Commodore,

Funny timing about barbs appearing. I noticed in my morning turn that there is actually a barb city in my view. So, that's definitely a happening thing. Hopefully a similar thing doesn't happen in an inconvenient place for you. But I notice with your chariots you should have no trouble against them any time soon.

And Yuri got MC out of the Oracle? I didn't have confirmation on which tech he chose. Was in a hurry so didn't have time this morning to congratulate him or warn you about the barb city popping up. Sorry to hear that your scout died, but I'd be fine with you sending a recon to meet Yuri. I'll have to look, though... it may be quicker to use the spokes. You both have cities right off the spokes. I'll count tiles when the turn comes around and get back to you on that, as well as with specific directions.
Until later,
MNG, Hattie of France[/COLOR]

[Mr. Nice Guy]

And then from Yuris:

[COLOR="SeaGreen"]Hi MNG,

Radio waves are going smoothly, thanks! The news-hunters reported
about you founding the third city a couple of turns ago, so
congratulations! We're a few turns away from that, unfortunately. Our
creative people have come up with an idea of a magnificent project,
and our resources are directed that way at the moment, just to check
if the project is as magnificent as its creators promised

Thanks for sharing your thoughts about the map script. I'm afraid you
currently have better map knowledge, our scouting didn't regain its
momentum yet, so I'm not sure if we can help. I can confirm that so
far we didn't see anything that contradicts the Wheel script theory,
and I actually like it a lot. But unfortunately we cannot provide any
firm info

As for the barbs - no, we didn't see any yet, apart from animals

Best regards
yuris125, Music Director of Radioland[/COLOR]

[COLOR="RoyalBlue"]Hey guys,

Just wanted to send out a congratulations on completing the Oracle! Word on the street is that you took Metal Casting with it. Is that right? Any plans for your early jump on that part of the tree?

In other news, I thought I'd give you the heads up that a barb city spawned in my vision this turn, so you will want to keep your heads up for barbs wandering. Don't want to be caught with your pants down against them!

Until later,
MNG, Hattie of France[/COLOR]

[Mr. Nice Guy]

Not much new to say, just updating for the sake of updating. Paris has moved on to another settler in today's turn (just one turn today). The other cities are on granaries. They will soon need to put out a couple of MP units, as whip anger is going to be an issue soon. In the south, Commodore is about to settle city #3, and Yuri in the west shows no immediate signs of doing the same. Meanwhile, I'm looking at 5ish turns to city #4 Just hope my paper thin defences can hold out for another 15 turns....

[Mr. Nice Guy]

Looks like we're going to get a few more turns in today. So far: city #4 settler is en route, and Commodore has settled city #3 as well as founded Judaism. Diplo, pictures, and an updated dotmap to come in a few hours, and hopefully after a couple more turns...

[Mr. Nice Guy]

First off, I got this in an e-mail from Commodore today:

Speaking of trade routes, with no Ind I've more or less forgone GLH (although please keep that to yourself, might as well let the Ind Civs worry), but foreign TRs would be nice to combat the maintenance load I'm feeling. You have three cities as well, this feeling toroidal much to you?

Maybe I should be dropping the idea of the GLH as well? Nah, I suspect the Pyramids are more likely to go with Stone out there. And it's apparent that Yuri has marble (oracle build), but I suspect that if he goes for another wonder soon it'll be Colossus (MC Oracle choice). Maybe I'm wrong, and then I get some extra gold and hopefully can still hit HG in city #5. But at least I know that it's no worse than a 4 team race for TGL.

And yes, I am starting to feel the crunch of maintenance. City #4 settled on the most recent turn, and I went from -5 gpt at 100% to -10 gpt. I'll have to take a brief pause after settling city #5. But if I get GLH, I can afford settling #6, 7, and 8 before finishing the HG. Just a thought...

And in other news from this turn, while I settled #4, Yuri settled #3. I can't wait to see how the other teams are doing expansion-wise. From looking at the numbers, I figure I've used the whip more than anyone else --- all game long I've been near the bottom of food. But now with 4 cities, even with the whip still in effect, I'm in 3rd for food. Imagine when I start growing in to all of those high-yield tiles

Next up... I have 7 pictures to give a good overview of what I know of the world.

[Mr. Nice Guy]

So -- picture time. First up, the southern half of my core. The next city is obvious - the horse city, also will pick up stone 3T after founding. Cities 6, 7, and 8 are the three others in this shot most likely, as they all have some kind of commerce and production potential:



Next is the northern half of my core. I will enjoy squeezing 3 more cities in here. From left, Orleans is now done with its library and is growing to size for 2 scientist specialists. Paris is going to grow back up to 4 while building an axe, and then will build another worker/settler to send south. After that it will work on putting out a couple of axes/chariots to try and back up my farmer's gambit with some muscle. And Lyons will start contributing in about 4T when the gold is finished. After that it will need a road to contribute happiness to the empire. At size 3, I will likely pause and use it to contribute workers as needed, and then settlers to be ready for cities 6, 7, and 8. :



Next we have what little I know about Yuri's land. I still don't have open borders with him, but that is okay as I won't be able to send any scouts back his way for at least 10 turns. :



And here's the center of the world, and how Yuri's land connects to it. I probably have 5-6 more turns until my warrior reaches the "wheel" part of the world from here:



And the rest of the center of the world. I'd like to make that city #9, or possibly #8 if maintenance isn't too bad. I believe having a foothold here will be important in the long-run, though I don't yet know enough to grasp how and why:



Commodore's land, and a good shot to see how it connects to the center of the world and to my land. I wonder about why he would have placed Ophir there, one tile off the coast. He seems to be geographically further away from me than Yuris. Also we've been getting along well. If I were to guess now, I'd say he's the neighbor I wind up making friends with and not attacking down the road, and the flank I want to keep safe. Here it is:

[Rowain]

An interesting map for sure

[Mr. Nice Guy]

A lot of diplomacy today. First, we met RL7 this turn, and had this message in the inbox:

Hey there!

We met last turn, in fact, but I (who played it) was too tired to compose a greeting message. How's it going?

Your warrior will probably want to continue directly southeast to meet Gold Ergo Sum. We are in the northeast.

SevenSpirits for team RL7

And I responded...

Bonjour!

It was sure exciting to see your warrior this morning. Unfortunately my morning turns are always a rush, so I didn't have the time to acknowledge our meeting either. But, it's great to have finally met you. I'm impressed with your opening, and hope that things are going well for you over there.

So far, we've met Yuri to our NE, and Commodore to our SE. It looks pretty obvious that we're set up in a fairly clear wheel map script. About how far is our traveling warrior from GES?

It seems we all have some kind unique trait to our land. What is unique about your area?

Hope this note finds you well --- until later,
MNG, Hattie of France

[Mr. Nice Guy]

Then Commodore:

Hey MNG,

Figured I'd drop a line here, just a quick update from your neighbors down south.

First off, as you can see, my chariot is cheerfully bumbling up towards a rendezvous with Yuri. Directions would be very much appreciated, and if you need a barb warrior whacked on the way, just let me know where.

I've managed to get my own barb city spring up, which is playing a merry hell with worker micro and dotmapping. Not too sure if it affects you that much, but it will probably delay extra silks from getting online...do you need silk? Silk and sugar are the extras on my little blob.

Met GES, finally, and he's a loooong way away, as is apparently Ranamar. The landbridge between us is a dozen jungle tiles long. It makes me wonder if you two are actually quite close post-astronomy. Eh, we'll see.

Anyway, hope things are going well,
-Commodore

Thank goodness I had those screenshots above. They helped me reply:

Hi Commodore,

Good to hear from you guys. I'll address your note point by point.

*When I get the turn from you tonight I'll take a peek and give you directions. There isn't a great way to go, but you'll basically head north through my land and then east at the spoke. Yuri's borders are practically touching mine there. So once you enter my land it should only be 6-7 turns to meet them. That's based on the screenshots in my lurker thread, so I'll give you better advice in a few hours.

*Sorry to hear about your barb city. Mine also messes with where I'd like to settle, but that site is fairly low priority. As for silks, we already have them, so we won't need any from you. Our excessive resources are ivory and spices. Maybe we could set up some kind of spice road in the future?

*I'm amazed you and GES are that far apart. Yuri and I have a land bridge of just 4 tiles to separate us, so you certainly have a lot more room.

*Do you have a read on GES or RL7? I just met RL7 this turn. At least I have a bit of a read on you and Yuri, but I'm trying to figure out the geopolitical relationships. The nice thing is everyone seems to be playing a pretty casual diplomatic game thus far?

Oh well, I've gone on long enough I'm sure. Until later....

MNG, Hattie of France

[Mr. Nice Guy]

Turn update, then the Yuris diplo update:

*Lyons grew into unhappiness this turn. Fortunately, the ivory came online also. Love it when a plan comes together. The gold also came online this turn, although it still needs roaded. That gold will make a big difference for the economy. With it in play, we are suddenly breakeven at 70%. Quite an improvement! We can now afford 1-2 more cities easily. After finishing its granary, it will contribute an axe, and then start workers --- by my count, just shy of the happy cap. Not sure yet if I want to let it grow into unhappiness and do a double whip, but that's 10-11 turns away.

*At EOT, Orleans grew to size 4. That means that next turn, I start working 2 scientists there, and start counting down to a Great Scientist and an Academy. Question: if I plan on focusing the capital on production, should I build the Academy in Orleans? Elsewhere? Should I rethink my Parisian plans entirely?

*Maths came in at EOT. That should help out some, as I plan to do a lot of chopping in the next 15 turns in my push to (hopefully) get the Great Lighthouse and Hanging Gardens complete. I don't plan on building many wonders, but I believe those two are pretty important in this game plan.

That's it for this turn.