[Spoilers] RFS-81 and haphazard1 don't know RtR, but won't let that stop them

[RFS-81]

Shallow_thought can attack the barb city next turn. I've sent him and Hitru a PM asking for a turn split.

   

If he attacks with those two Immortals, I can swoop in and steal the kill. If he waits for reinforcements, I could wait for a third axeman to destroy the city in one turn. Depends on how close the reinforcements are. If they're too close, I could kill some barbs for XP. Better than nothing. My scout will provide more information next turn. Also: Seems like everyone has horses except for me

The thing with forests outside your borders is annoying. I'll need to chop 2nd ring forests at Space Love to complete the library in a timely manner. In the south, I decided to have my worker road the ivory already. My plan is road, then camp, then chop the jungle. You don't have to do the dance from Civ6 where you have to remove the improvement before chopping, right?

Regarding tech choices: Mathematics will take over 30 turns at the moment. I hope this gets somewhat better when I have larger cities and can work some more cottages. Right now, I'm considering Mysticism even if I don't want to go for the Monotheism beeline. I think Space Love could need a monument to not be swamped by Coeur's culture.

[haphazard1]

With the barb city at size 1, at least you do not need to worry about a rival suddenly having a city right there. Although they could bring up a settler, of course.

As long as shallow_thought does not have enough troops to raze the city in one turn, you could attempt to vulture the kill for some XP and a bit of cash. (Not likely to be all that much, but even 10 or 15 gold would be useful.)

You can chop the jungle either before or after building a camp; you just will not get the full yield of the tile as long as there is jungle present.

The horses thing is rather annoying.

More culture to avoid getting your borders crunched could be useful. Math is pretty expensive at this point; hopefully larger cities and some more cottages will help.

[RFS-81]

Civstats showed shallow_thought logging in, so I also asked him in-game. He killed 2/3 warriors with his immortals. Unless he's got a surprise unit somewhere, I can steal the kill.

[RFS-81]

I razed the city for 3 gold pieces. That's really worth requesting a turn split over. Happy news about iron:

   

Rocky Paths is out of whip-anger, so I'm thinking about producing another builder (lots of hammers works well with being Expansive!) and then whip a settler. Better grab Filler City before it's gone!

[haphazard1]

Multiple sources of iron in the region, and one already in your borders.

Hmmm, even less gold than I expected from the barb city. Still, some easy XP and a little gold is better than nothing.

[RFS-81]

New plan: Rocky Paths builds a settler. If I want to have a shot at getting another city near the razed barb city, there's no other option. If I fail, there's Filler City as a consolation prize. I'll be starved for workers, but oh well.

[haphazard1]

Being short of workers for a while will slow growth and development a bit. But it is not a permanent problem, as you can build more later and catch up. If you want to grab more land, it needs to be very soon before it is taken by a rival. Keep an eye on the military power situation -- humans are not like AIs, but I suspect there may be a similar transition to more war-like behavior as the available land runs out.

[RFS-81]

A new city is planted: Utopia. I'd post a screenshot but the file size is too large, and I'm too lazy to crop it. Anyway, it's on the silk tile, as I said. It's working the spices at the capital and builds a granary. I figured since a border pop isn't urgent that's the way to go. I got a road to the ivory and can start the camp next turn. I'll probably move one worker down from Space Love to help with the camp and chopping.

Rocky Paths starts a settler. With 10 hammers overflow from the axeman it built previously and 15 hammers per turn, I'll be able to whip in three turns.

At Space Love, the two forests are chopped, leaving the library at 50/90 hammers. Damn it, I remembered that there was some penalty for chopping outside your borders, but I didn't remember that it was this steep. The forests in the 2nd ring would yield 13 hammers each. Should I go ahead and chop them anyway? Using the production of the city center and my plains farm, it would take 20 turns to finish it naturally. I could also have a citizen work the plains tile south of the farm. I could put a cottage on it to also make some more money. Unfortunately, I already started to build a cottage on a grassland tile and I really don't want that to sit around unused. So I'd have to wait for the third citizen to work the plains cottage.

[haphazard1]

Tough choice on the forests. Losing the potential hammers is painful, but at 20 turns to finish the library otherwise it is probably best to go ahead and chop them. Other options to expand the borders are pretty minimal at this point; a monument would take almost as long to build anyway given the hammers already invested in the library.

Later in the game there are more options: building culture directly, running a forced artist specialist if you have caste system, sending a missionary from another city. But for now, not much else is possible.

[RFS-81]

Not much to say, I've been pretty much following my plans. I'll go ahead and chop more at Space Love later, for now, I'll finish the road to Rocky Paths. Power graphs are looking decent. I'm even ahead of Coeur, but not enough to actually pose a threat to him. Heh, I'm dead last, but at least it's going better than Civ6 PBEM10

   

The other graphs are too depressing. Since there's no particular area of the map I want to show, have a zoomed out overview:

   
(also: silly note to self because I'm doing binary science now)

Oh, and: I need to decide a location for the settler. Is Wheat stealing city a good place? I could chop out a monument and then a library in relatively short order. Once the borders pop, I'll get much more influence on the first-ring tiles, if I remember correctly. This will piss of shallow_thought if it's successful. I'll need a lot of defenders in that city, but I think we're too closely matched for an all-out war to go in his favor at the moment.

Alternatively: Resettle the barb city. The sugar tiles are worth 3 food each once the jungles are cleared. They can't support farms due to lack of fresh water, but I could build cottages until I have Calendar.

EDIT: Quick question, do I need a tech before work boats can enter ocean tiles? I've been building one for the fish at lighthouse.