[SPOILERS] Magic Science and Mr. Cairo in Pitboss 40

[Magic Science]

Lurker memory is short, and all will be forgiven with a bloody T100 overview!

Your wish is my command …unless I don’t like your wish, in which case it isn’t.

And now, for what you’ve all been waiting for…

Magic Science’s Great Turn 100 Overview Report
   
To start, let’s go over the normal events of the turn. Then I can give an overview and discuss some of the bigger picture strategic stuff.

As you can see from the score board icon in the corner, I now have open borders with the Psychedelic Warlords. They offered them this turn, and I accepted their offer. I decided that the small chance that having open borders makes them less suspicious of my chariots such that they move their units in a way that is better for me was worth taking, and I couldn’t think of any downsides to accepting, so I did. Well, that’s not strictly true. I could think of one very embarrassing potential downside, but I put down a bunch of signs to make sure that I don’t fall prey to it.

I also have open borders with the Unlucky Orphans now. They turned me down and then sent my offer back, and, because I was the one who offered it in the first place, accepting it was a no-brainer.

Other important foreign information from this turn includes two new developments in the War on Music: Charson made peace and shallow_ru declared war. I guess that RFS-81+haphazard1 managed to bloody Charson’s nose enough in the Battle of Lighthouse and the Battle of Utopia that they decided further prosecution of the war was unlikely to be successful and/or profitable. If only they had waited a turn, they would have seen that the Unlucky Orphans were joining them. In shallow_ru’s case, I think that they are doing the same thing I am trying to do: scavenging the remains of a dying civilization. Unlike me, I suspect that they have the power and the will for a full war on conquest, rather than a quick, limited attack. Swordsmen, such as the one seen by Duncan Q in the above screenshot, may give them the ability to finish the job. In any case, if they succeed or if they fail, they will be welcome as my war friend to distract RFS-81+haphazard1.

   
Opening borders with the Psychedelic Warlords meant that I obtained my first foreign trade route yet, so that’s nice. It was also nice to learn that I was correct in my belief that foreign trade routes are no better than internal routes with Quebec City; none of my other cities switched over to trading with Psychedelic cities, they all kept trading with Quebec City. However, I am still trying to set up open borders now in anticipation of Currency. The second route in all of my mainland cities will only be worth one commerce as an internal route, but it should be worth two commerce with a foreign city that has a high enough sustained peace modifier.

Also, yes, I am working a citizen specialist. It’s so that I can get the lighthouse within whipping range faster.

Okay, that’s it for the immediate matters of this turn, let’s move on to…

Magic Science’s Turn 100 Tear List
Tier Three – The Dying
In this tier we find RFS-81+haphazard1, the Psychedelic Warlords.

   
Back when I did my Turn 51 overview, I placed myself in the same tier as these guys. That is definitely no longer true. Even before the War on Music began, they weren’t doing very well, and I had surpassed them by enough to advance to a different tier if I had drawn up a tear list during that time period. Their peak city count for this game was six cities, their low score indicated that they had a low population as well (although I’m not sure exactly what it was, as I totally lost track of Cloak and Dagger a while back and then stopped), and they have been seriously behind in all three major demographic categories for ages. Of course, now that the War on Music has begun, they are doing even worse than that. They are down to four cities, have even less population than before, and are plummeting in Crop Yield and MFG.

The disorganized, sporadic dogpile of opportunity that I’m calling the War on Music is killing them. There’s not much more to it. I expect CoT4E to join the War on Music and capture Space Love any turn now; they have been in the second half of a turn split with someone (that isn’t me, as they played before me on Turn 99) for a little while, and I think that it must be RFS-81+haphazard1. I think that I have a very good chance of burning Black Corridors next turn, and then it is up to shallow_ru to take down their two other strongholds, Golden Void and Rocky Paths. The Psychedelic Warlords may manage to hold on in one of those cities for a while, but they are still doomed. Next!

Tier Two – The Hopeful
This tier contains Charson (the Interdimensional Rift), Superdeath (the Injustice League), and us (the Incan League).

   
The story of the Interdimensional Rift in this game has been an interesting one, although I have not had a very good view of it. Their two recent wars have been large, important events that have taken the center stage of the game, at least from my perspective. However, I’m not sure how well their wars have worked out for them.

As of now, and for some distance into the past, they have been running neck-and-neck with me and Superdeath. Their Crop Yield and MFG are right alongside us, their city count is only one behind, their technology is on par and they even birthed a Great Person in good time. However, I’m not sure that this situation is going to last. Building an army as large as they did is not cheap, and they did not profit very much from their expense. The Dreamlike-Interdimensional War against CoT4E was a failure that resulted in no city captures, and their part in the War on Music against RFS-81+haphazard1 resulted in a gain of only one city for them. Was that really worth so many units?

I think that me and Superdeath may pull ahead of Charson as our turns of (relatively) peaceful development and growth start pay off while their turns of building a huge army for one city start to sting more and more. I know that the Incan League, at least, is poised to increase greatly in Crop Yield, MFG, and GNP over the next few turns as whales, markets, and villages come online. I may be wrong, but I am currently thinking that Charson could take the spot of the weakest player in the near future when RFS-81+haphazard1 die.

   
Superdeath, as I mentioned above, is running level with me and Charson in terms of the vital statistics such as city count and demographics. Notably, he finished Currency two turns ago (I think, I don’t quite remember when it was), but I don’t consider that to be enough faster to promote him to a higher tier. All in all, he’s doing fine. I guess that he managed to develop the other parts of his empire more efficiently than the cities that I border and can see.

However, he does have the problem that he has no chance at all to take part and profit from the War on Music like the rest of us do, as he is the only player to not border RFS-81+haphazard1. That isn’t too big of a problem, though. It doesn’t seem that any one civilization is going to be able to profit greatly; rather, all four of us are taking smaller prizes that are closer to us. The biggest prize that anyone seems likely to claim is Golden Void plus Rocky Paths, going to shallow_ru. As a result, I don’t think that his inability to participate in the War on Music will be enough to drop him back a tier or anything like that.

As for myself, I will talk more about my own situation at the end of this tier list.

(I seem to have run into the attachment limit again, so this is going to be a two-part report)

[Magic Science]

Tier One – The Leaders of the Pack
shallow_ru (the Unlucky Orphans) and CoT4E (the Reich de Traume) inhabit this elite tier.

   
I had thought at some points between Turn 51 and now that these guys might manage to be elevated to their own top tier spot, even better than shallow_ru, but now that we are here, I don’t think so. In fact, it’s probably closer to the other way around at this point.

They were lagging behind in city count for a time, but they have now caught up to a solid nine cities. Their MFG and GNP are excellent (and I don’t think that they are doing as much research/wealth building as me and Superdeath are), and they have a well-established and spread religion, which is unique in this game so far. However, their Crop Yield is not top tier like those other characteristics. It was the best in the game for a time, but now it has fallen back down to roughly match the Crop Yield of those of us in Tier Two. That can probably be blamed on the Dreamlike-Interdimensional War and the massive power spike they were forced to make at the cost of other things. The Unlucky Orphans now have a solid lead in Crop Yield over everyone else, including CoT4E.

The Great Person situation among the two leaders is unclear. Someone got a Great Scientist a turn ago, and I don’t know who it is, but it must be one of them (Superdeath and Charson obtained Great People too recently, and RFS-81… nope ). It’s possible that CoT4E is slowly working towards a Great Prophet for a shrine in their Oracle city.

   
Now, for our last tier list analysis: the Unlucky Orphans. They haven’t been living up to their name, as far as I can tell. They seem to be doing well.

They have ten cities, the most in the game (beating me, CoT4E, and Superdeath at nine), and are the proud owners of Hinduism (although it hasn’t spread beyond the Holy City of Carnivore Carny yet). As I mentioned before, their Crop Yield is the best out of all civilizations by a significant margin, and their other demographics aren’t bad either. These guys undoubtedly deserve their place in the top tier. They also look poised to continue their strong showing, as it seems likely that they will gain Golden Void and Rocky Paths as prizes of their participation of the War on Music.

Notably, they don’t have Currency yet, despite the fact that Superdeath, a player who isn’t doing as well as them, does. They have gone for Iron Working already and I don’t think he has, so that could explain it.

   
To round off this mega-report, let’s talk about the Incan League.

I am doing fine in the vital statistics, with nine cities, 95 Crop Yield, 56 MFG, and 116 GNP (the number one GNP for now). I’m not even that far behind in technology. I have recovered far better from the Great Injustice of Turn 43 than I thought I would back on Turn 51, and if I were to end the game in my current position of somewhere between 3rd and 5th, I would be pleased…but that doesn’t mean that I don’t want to try to do better than that. I have been thinking of how to raise myself from Tier Two to Tier One.

One thing I have been thinking about is wonders. There are a few powerful wonders available now or soon that could propel us forwards nicely. However, the trouble with wonder building for us right now is that we haven’t yet developed any extremely strong production cities that can pump out wonders in good time, but we also don’t have many forests left to accelerate wonder production. The highest concentration of forests in one city that we have left is four, in Lhasa. On the other hand, the overview screenshots of other lands show that some players still have thick forest blankets left in some places. I will still be considering going for wonders, but that problem will always be looming over me when I do so.

Taking more land is also a way to improve my position. I’m sure the lurkers would love to see this as well. The trouble is a lack of targets. RFS-81+haphazard1 is weak, but, as I have discussed, I am not in a position to take land from them now, and they are going to be dead soon. After that, Superdeath, shallow_ru, and CoT4E are my potential targets, and none of them look palatable as things stand now. I think that a war of conquest will likely be on the back burner for quite some time unless something crazy happens.

Settling more land could happen too. There are some marginal spots left around that I might be able to claim. The jungle-covered rice by Lhasa and Geneva could support a city, and the jungle-covered sugar by New Hong Kong could too. Of course, letting those cities keep those resources for themselves is also a decent option.

Lastly, my response to Mr. Cairo:

Looking good Magic Science. All those lovely commerce symbols are nice to look at. Too bad we're still only making 12/13 gold/turn at 0% science, but what can you do? We're still making good time towards Currency.
Burning that city of RFS's will add some cash as well, perhaps enough to run 100% science for a turn to finish off Currency? How much are we losing at 100% science?

I too love commerce. At 100% science, we are losing 77 gold per turn. As for our progress towards Currency, it is going well. We will be done with Currency on Turn 104 for sure. Capture and pillage gold may be able to speed that up to Turn 103, I’m not sure yet.

About RFS burning his own city, I think it's possible if it never got any culture in it? The game remembers culture put into a tile, and I guess that includes the city tile, so if it never got any RFS culture in it, it wouldn't be "his" when he took it back. I'm not entirely sure though, culture mechanics are strange in Civ 4.

Hmm…Utopia never expanded borders, so that could be it. I agree that Civ IV culture mechanics are weird.

Are there any Calendar resources other than the incense available? If we're really straining against the happy cap, it might be worthwhile to go there after Currency? Or go we can down the religious route hoping for Judaism, but mainly going for Monarchy and Hereditary Rule to sort out the happiness issue.

We have both incense and sugar available as non-jungle-covered Calendar resources. Going for Calendar after Currency is a valid choice that I have been thinking about, as well as going down the religious line and towards Monarchy. I haven’t made up my mind yet.

Those arctic islands look tasty, I think the deer on the western one is already camped as well. Too bad we're going to need Astro to get there. But it gives us a target. Astro is a pretty difficult tech to get, the usual route is via Liberalism or Great Scientist bulbs. I doubt the latter is viable, we're not PHI, and I don't think we're going to be going into Caste System any time soon. So that just leaves Liberalism. Maybe it's a bit over-ambitious to be thinking that far ahead, but I still think it's something we should try and figure out a path towards sooner rather than later.

It may be ambitious, but I approve of thinking out so far ahead. The Astronomy islands do seem very valuable, and if we managed to get Astronomy even ten turns or so ahead of CoT4E and Superdeath, that could be enough to claim all of the Astronomy islands in the northern ocean due to how small this map is. There are probably six in our ocean, assuming that every player has one off to each side of their whale island. I will set Astronomy as our long-term goal for now.

To anyone who read that behemoth overview: thank you for your time, I hope I was able to provide some measure of entertainment.

[Magic Science]

   
Gah! Wrong again! It seems that every time I write up a long strategy post about something, it is rendered either wrong or otherwise irrelevant immediately. The Unlucky Orphans made peace after only one turn. I could burn Black Corridors if I wanted, but now I’m not sure that I want to. I would be the only remaining target for RFS-81+haphazard1’s revenge then. Also, what exactly is the large Orphan army for if not joining the War on Music? Could it be for taking a piece out of the Incan League, maybe? Sure, they did accept my open borders offer...but I accepted the Warlords' open borders offer too. Being distracted by the Warlords could be disastrous, and those two chariots may be needed for defense.

[Mr. Cairo]

Yeah, that army is going somewhere, and if it's not towards RFS... I'd say time to queue up some Spearmen.

Edit: I'd keep those chariot in position to burn Black Corridors anyway, maybe move them to the jungle 2N of the city? If ST keeps coming with that stack you can retreat. If he pulls back, then you can still burn that city.

[Mardoc]

To anyone who read that behemoth overview: thank you for your time, I hope I was able to provide some measure of entertainment.

That sort of post is catnip to me! Thank you!

[Magic Science]

Turns 101 and 102 – 350 and 325 BC
   
This is what I did on Turn 101 after considering Mr. Cairo’s suggestion. It was not easy to decide what to do, that’s for sure. This game is truly picking up the pace now and getting a lot more interesting. You may remember back to the early days, when some of my reports would consist of something along the lines of “Moncacht-Ape moved and found nothing interesting. Everyone else kept doing what they were doing. Yawn.” Or maybe you don’t remember them, as they weren’t exciting enough to pay close attention to. None of the turns are like that now, something is always going on. Every time I think I have it figured out, something happens to remind me that I am a noob that doesn’t really have a clue.

Okay, back to what happened on Turn 101. I chose not to burn Black Corridors, despite the fact that I could have done so, as there were still no units in the city to stop me. A few reasons came together to convince me to make that decision. One of them was that RFS-81+haphazard1 are now at peace with everyone else, so by burning Black Corridors I run the risk of attracting their full efforts to try to get revenge on me. I was also worried about the potential of an attack from the Unlucky Orphans, who had just made peace with the Psychedelic Warlords and had many units in view. I moved one of the chariots south into their lands to look around, and while he didn’t see any more units, that wasn’t enough to assuage my fears, as there were still numerous nearby spots where a stack could be hiding. Thirdly and lastly, it also bears consideration that the reward for burning Black Corridors wasn’t going to be that great. I have been fixating on it a lot recently because I have been having a hard time making up my mind, but burning the city is only worth twenty gold or something. It does set back RFS-81+haphazard1 too, but they aren’t contenders anymore anyway, so I’m not sure how much that matters. Despite that, I left a chariot in position to burn Black Corridors just in case.

   
Meanwhile, while he was running as fast as he could (one tile per turn) away from Psychedelic territory to avoid getting annihilated by an axeman or something in the eventuality of war, Quechua Two stumbled upon something very interesting. What the heck is that gigantic force of units doing right outside Interdimensional lands with a road about to complete? It looked like a revenge war in the making to me. I suppose that now is a good time to note that Jem, in his scouting efforts on the other side of the world, has seen some Praetorians walking around.

Then, on Turn 102…

   
To RFS-81 and haphazard1: Sorry guys. That one is going to hurt when you find out about it. Trust me, I know all about getting your cities razed by surprise. You can see that they had a spearman one tile short of Black Corridors (my chariot is dead for sure).

I changed my mind for a few reasons. One is that my chariot in Orphan land scouted farther and found no stack of units lurking (in fact, the stack of immortals started retreating) which dialed down my paranoia in that regard by a notch.  Another is that OT4E didn’t declare war on Charson like I expected. I’m not sure what those units were doing there if that wasn’t the plan, but okay. Maybe he changed his mind. Whatever happened, if those units aren’t attacking Charson then they are free to attack someone else…which could be me. I figured that burning down Black Corridors might help convince OT4E to attack the Warlords instead of me. To that end, I haven't offered peace to the Warlords yet (though I doubt that they would accept it right away anyway). Also, come on, did you see that army? Space Love’s ONE WARRIOR GARRISON is not going to stop that, and OT4E can see the garrison this turn thanks to Volker von Alzy, a Traumhaft scouting warrior.

Time will tell if I made the right call. I’m sure the lurkers are glad to see my endless crazy schemes actually produce some blood this time, at least.

   
To end this turn report, here’s the demographics. I should have included them in the Turn 100 report, but I forgot.

I find them to be surprisingly good. The extra happiness from whales is already making a big difference. I was actually second in MFG when I started the turn, at 70, but then I whipped and rearranged tiles and I fell down to third. My GNP isn’t as good as it seems, though. I am pretty sure that I am the only one with research turned on right now, and of course I am doing a lot of research builds as well. The truer test of how my GNP is doing will come in two turns, when I am done with Currency and stop building research.

The low power is concerning, though. The top power, which I think it OT4E, is dangerously far ahead of me now. Cape Town, Lhasa, and Sofia are going to be assigned military unit duty for a while, I think. Cuzco, Sidon, New Hong Kong, and Geneva are going to build markets and grow, while Almaty is working on my Great Lighthouse plan. I would be willing to sacrifice Quebec City’s development for some military security too, but its production isn’t good enough.

That sort of post is catnip to me!  Thank you!

You are very welcome. I do enjoy writing these just to get my thoughts together and tell Mr. Cairo what is going on, but having a lurker audience makes it even more fun.

[Magic Science]

Turn 103 – 300 BC
   
Plot twist! The Orphans and the Warlords only had a cease fire, not a peace treaty! Those two things appear identically in the event log, so I couldn’t tell the difference. Although, now that I think about it, I suppose I could have seen the difference by looking at the deals between RFS-81+haphazard1 and shallow_ru on the diplomacy screen. If there had been a peace treaty, then it should have been visible there, while a cease fire shouldn’t have shown anything.

I’m not sure what prompted the Unlucky Orphans to declare war and offer a cease fire right away in the first place, but it seems that they are back in the War on Music for real now. The stack I have highlighted looks strong and is in position to move into Psychedelic territory next turn. If Rocky Paths is where I think it is, then the one-movers could attack the city on Turn 106. The immortals could attack a turn earlier, on Turn 105. It’s been long enough since the Interdimensional front of the War on Music closed that RFS-81+haphazard1 probably have their troops back defending their core, though, so the Battle of Rocky Paths may be a true contest, not a walk-in victory like I had in the “Battle” of Black Corridors. I will be very interested to see how this goes.

With my part in the War on Music in mind, you can see that my heroic chariot was unfortunately killed before he could retreat. Nameless Chariot, you will be remembered. You can also see that an Orphan sentry immortal (named, in a true burst of creative genius, “Sentry” ) moved onto the ruins of Black Corridors. I’m not sure why they would have moved such a valuable unit into such a vulnerable position. Maybe there’s a tile over there that is very important for them to see for some reason? Who knows. Luckily, it seems that shallow_thought is reporting, so this and other questions can be answered after the game.

   
After taking that other screenshot, I sent my scouting chariot south to see if he could find any other stacks, and he did, as well as another Orphan city. This stack is smaller and less threatening than the first, although there may be some more units on that galley to make up the difference. It looks like this stack is positioned to attack Golden Void (the capital), while the northern one is ready to go after Rocky Paths. Maybe they are planning something else, though. I am torn between leaving my scouting chariot in this region to see how the war develops and having him scout the rest of Orphan territory. Right now, I am leaning towards having him stay over here to keep an eye on those stacks.

I’m also debating between offering a peace treaty to the Psychedelic Warlords now or waiting a little while. I’m not planning to continue the attack, but I also don’t think that they are in a position to launch a revenge attack anymore. The pros and cons are mostly diplomatic and political ones with other players. I think that shallow_ru can do a far better job of convincing OT4E to join the War on Music than I could, so that doesn’t seem like a good reason to stay at war. Maybe if I wait a little longer I could get RFS-81+haphazard1 worried enough to pay me gold to make peace? I’m not sure that getting money like that is very plausible, though. If I was offered deal like that, I would probably respond with something along the lines of "come take it from my cold, dead hands!" Since none of the reasons to stay at war seem too compelling, I might offer peace to get out of the turn split.

   
Oh, and as a sneak peek from Turn 104 from before I logged out, we aren’t getting the Great Lighthouse in Almaty. I was wondering why Superdeath has been chopping all those forests before building cottages, and this explains it. This means that Almaty will go for a market soon instead. It might need a barracks or monument afterwards, considering that the Great Lighthouse will be providing a giant pile of culture to The Flash.

Also, we finished Currency at the turn roll as predicted. The conquer gold from Black Corridors meant that I didn’t have to do any crazy micromanagement to get it done on time like I was going to do otherwise. The next tech target is Monarchy via Monotheism, I think. The plan would be to start a Golden Age as soon as I calculate/simulate that we are close enough to Monarchy, and then revolt into Judaism, Organized Religion, and Hereditary Rule by the end. If Judaism falls before we get there (about Turn 112, I think) then I may change course. Hereditary Rule would be still be very good without the religion part, but the route as whole would not be nearly as appealing.

[Mr. Cairo]

An alternative to the religion-monarchy plan is to get Iron Working next and build a clutch of Swords to go and take that Great Lighthouse. As long as he only keeps Axes and Impis to defend his cities, then CR1 Swords will be very effective.

[Magic Science]

Turn 104 – 275 BC
   
OT4E finally joined the War on Music this turn, which is very bad news for RFS-81+haphazard1. They were lucky that OT4E didn’t have a chariot in the right position, otherwise Space Love would have fallen immediately, but I will be shocked if it lasts another turn. I expect that a Traumhaft stack of one-movers is on the tile with the “Army?” sign, or maybe one tile south of that. The Warlords are likely also under attack at Urban Guerilla (a new city recently founded on the ruins of Utopia), and that could plausibly fall next turn as well.

Poor guys. At least their suffering isn’t likely to last much longer.

On the other hand, I am feeling quite happy about OT4E’s war declaration. It should keep him distracted long enough for Cape Town, Lhasa, and Sofia to produce some more defenders for the border cities.

The event log in the above screenshot also shows a bunch of forests being chopped down this turn. I had them timed to finish this turn so they can go into markets right away. I have been slacking on my micromanagement a bit recently, but I did make sure to develop a plan to get markets in the big cities completed as quickly as I reasonably could. Using chops, whips, and overflow trickery, I think that my five oldest, biggest cities should all have their markets by Turn 110. After that, it’s growth time.

   
I decided to leave my scouting chariot (who needs a name now that he is playing such an important role, I’ll have to think of one next turn) in the war zone to keep an eye on what is going on. I am going to err on the side of caution when it comes to moving him so that he doesn’t get sniped by a Psychedelic unit, but I think that he should still be able to give me a good view of events.

This turn, he discovered that I was wrong in my previous prediction about Orphan tactics. It turns out that both stacks are converging on Rocky Paths first. They might be able to capture it as soon as next turn (Civstats indicates that they did manage to). After that, I imagine that they will move south towards Golden Void.

My desire to scout means that I will need to stay at war with RFS-81+haphazard1 a little while longer. My scouting chariot needs to duck in and out of Psychedelic territory to get a good view, and I doubt that they will give me open borders if I make peace.

An alternative to the religion-monarchy plan is to get Iron Working next and build a clutch of Swords to go and take that Great Lighthouse. As long as he only keeps Axes and Impis to defend his cities, then CR1 Swords will be very effective.

That is an option worth considering, I agree. We still have another few turns of saving gold before we need to commit to a tech path, so there is some time left to decide.

We would only want to go for Iron Working now if we plan to attack Superdeath in the near future, so the question to answer in regards to Iron Working is “Is attacking Superdeath soon a good idea?” I have my doubts. Right now, he matches or exceeds us in just about every category, including power (he matches us there). We don’t have any advantages for a potential war. Maybe swordsmen could give us a unit quality advantage, but remember, Superdeath is ahead in technology. He might very well research military technology that keeps him on par or even gives him an advantage over us by the time we would be ready to attack.

Also, I think that our internal development could go well enough to close that gap if we wait a while before doing anything aggressive towards him. Markets, wine, Hereditary Rule, and (maybe) Judaism will give us enough happiness for our population and output to boom if we wait another 25 turns or so. I think that Superdeath will be hard pressed to match us in growth. Still, I’m not sure about that, and we may still end up going for Iron Working.

I have also been considering other options for technology paths. I thought about Calendar, but I think that our chances of getting the Mausoleum are low, and we can get more happiness by going down the religion/Monarchy line. I thought about the Aesthetic and Literature track, but none of the wonders appeal that much to me, and, of course, they would be hard to build anyway. Horseback Riding is also an option, but it falls into the same war-oriented category as Iron Working, and it doesn’t have the domestic benefits that Iron Working does.

[Magic Science]

Turn 105 – 250 BC
   
Well, well, well, what do we have here? There is a lot of stuff going on in this screenshot. Let’s tackle it piece by piece.

To start, Space Love was captured and burned down this turn, but it was shallow_ru, not OT4E, that did it. Perhaps that was what the Orphan sentry immortal was doing in the area? However they did it, it came as a shock to me. I thought that OT4E was going to capture Space Love for sure. Also, the Unlucky Orphans captured Rocky Paths and renamed it Jacques S (it doesn’t appear in the event log because I didn’t have vision on the city tile itself until I played this turn). However, they may not keep it.

I’m not sure if he changed his mind due to the razing of Space Love or if it was his original plan, but OT4E seems to be moving in to capture Jacques S from shallow_ru. I think that he can do it, too. Even if the units I can see are the only ones he is committing to the Battle of Jacques S (which seems unlikely based on the power levels; he definitely has more troops available than that, and you would think he would commit some more to such an important war), I think that he has enough. Praetorians are incredible city attackers, of course, and many of the units shallow_ru has in the area are swordsmen and immortals. That isn’t the best unit composition for city defense. I would not be surprised to see them abandon the city so that they don’t lose a bunch of troops in a hopeless battle.

Also, there are a few smaller details worth noting. Someone (probably shallow_ru) got a Great General this turn, the second in the game after Charson, who obtained one during the first phase of the War on Music. shallow_ru is also advancing an unguarded settler towards the area of the jungle belt where Black Corridors and Space Love formerly were. If the settler stays in place or advances farther without an escort unit appearing, then I may move my chariot over there to interfere. I wouldn’t let them try something like that unpunished. Oh, and my chariot is named Tank now. The idea is that his name should intimidate potential attackers to leave him alone. I hope that no one decided to kill him off during the Battle of Jacques S. I am also considering having him pillage some tiles, like the stone quarry to the east of Jacques S. It would gain a little gold, but it could tick OT4E and/or shallow_ru off. Then again, they both seem to have bigger fish to fry right now, so that might not matter.

   
Meanwhile, Quechua Two and Jem are exploring the interior of the Interdimensional Rift. Their improvement plan seems odd to me. I feel that they have way too many farms and not nearly enough cottages. Maybe the other parts of their empire look different in terms of improvements? If what I see is in fact representative, then I may turn out to be right in my guess that Charson will become the next low man on the totem pole after RFS-81+haphazard1 die.

   
In the fog on the other side of the world, I noticed that the Unlucky Orphans have their stone source hooked up now. It’s possible that it has been linked already, but I haven’t been paying very close attention over here, so I don’t know. Either way, they have Masonry now. This makes me more concerned that they may go for Monotheism to get Organized Religion, and in the process swipe Judaism away from us. However, if that is what they are going for, I would expect them to have reached it already, seeing as they got Polytheism nearly ten turns ago now.

Also visible is that one of shallow_ru’s cities is working a bare grassland tile. NOOB!!!1one!!

   
Lastly, let’s take a look at the Incan League (sans Quebec City, due to the fact that it doesn’t fit in an overview screenshot very well). As I have said, it’s either markets or units just about everywhere. Sofia is going for a barracks because, now that OT4E is fighting someone else, I’m not quite as worried and I feel that I can make that sort of near-future investment. Quebec City is the other exception. It’s done with its lighthouse and is going for a library because it needs to build something and I figure that it will need some specialist slots someday when it runs out of coastal tiles to work. The science multiplier might even be worth a decent amount from all of the coastal commerce.

Every city now has at least a 2-commerce route with Quebec City and a 2-commerce route with a foreign civilization (mostly the Interdimensional Rift). The exceptions to that rule are Quebec City itself, which has two 3-commerce foreign intercontinental routes, and Cuzco, which has a 3-commerce route with Charson’s island city. The economy is doing great, although most other players seem to have turned technology on, so it doesn’t look too good in the demographics right now.