[spoilers] Commodore and Dtay are Sitting Bull of Inca, somehow.

[Commodore]

As the sharp-eyed Zed noted, we have indeed now settled our fifth city. In the end, the barbarian warrior was just a very minor inconvenience, delaying the settler for that one single turn before kindly stepping forward to be utterly annihilated by the new axe.

Every barb we see might be the very last.

The delayed settle doesn't even actually delay things too badly, plan-wise. For two turns while Blackcollar recovers from this chariot whip Heir will work the cows, working out perfectly to swap to corn when the cows are needed again in the west. I'd like to push us to the Warhorse location, because clearly going 4/6 on the ancient luxuries is too little, we need whales! That said, claiming the sugar/dye/incense for the long term with Spinneret will come first, that settler is finishing next turn. Nice progress overall.

Also, hey! Free forest growth back on that little plains hill tile between Cascade Point/Blackcollar/Triplet.

I see Heir to Empire has been settled, so I guess Spinneret should be planted very shortly. What are the near-term plans after that?
How are demos looking?

I really appreciate the setup, Z-man. I wanted to preen about our demos as it is! We're far out in front on crop yield right now and doing well in hammers, plus decent in commerce. It's a good thing, too, given our intensely cramped position here...

Power ain't great, but we've got whipable stuff all over the place and the biggest power ratings are on the other continent.

We have a lot to grapple with regarding this new map knowledge. Dtay and I already chatted a bit about it; the first and most essential upshot is that Gavagai is going to be a right proper monster and Joey not much better. Our own position is very tricky, but we're off to a great start.

[Ceiliazul]

Donovan should keep joey honest, at least. With a good land grab and indian workers, he should be no pushover. gavagai on the other hand, well at least he's as far away as possible! Perhaps he would interested in slicing up retep with you in the future...

[dtay]

Over/Under on what turn we actually feel the need to research calendar...

[Commodore]

Over/Under on what turn we actually feel the need to research calendar...

We are Philosophical. We just claimed marble. I suspect the argument for Calendar won't be about the luxuries.

That being said, if you think Spinneret will save long enough I am open to arguments for Warhorse with the Cobra settler.

[dtay]

Also, what's the settler timing for island city looking like? Because if we're delaying that until after warhorse, could we go priesthood->masonry->sailing for oracle? Or priesthood->sailing, do it without marble. Or delay until we bulb math and try to oracle currency? Though not sure if that's really a delay, bulb can come in at best around ~10 turns from now, not horrendously off my ad hoc guess at priesthood + masonry tech time.

I'll peak around later today and see how feasible I think this is (pset due in a few hours, then sleep after all-nighter).

(note for lurkers, there was a bit of oracle discussion in chat we had earlier)

[Commodore]

Yeah, been dwelling on it a bit...still not exactly sure. Bulbing Math->chopping three forests+1t natural production*marble->Oracle Currency would be metal as hell. Although we *really* will be wanting those IC-TRs too. Not sure what the long pole is but I think we're looking at it being efficient completion of the capital's library. Cascade Point and Cobra need to be *tall* that's for sure and certain in any case.

[Commodore]

Things are progressing rapidly, now. Our demos show that we’re probably the best-off civilization here, although a case for Joey, Genghis of the Zulu with six cities, could certainly be made. Not only that, but we’ve only been really using half our traitset, at that. But we’re about to fix that! Cascade Point is getting our first library, and once it is complete we’re looking at a seven turn Great Scientist. Yikes. He’ll be used either to bulb Mathematics or to build an academy, which gets us Guilds faster.

Happy cap of infinity not actually shown.

I think we have a general plan for the next little while. Cascade Point and Cobra are set to growth to their grossly distended happy caps, gotta keep working them cottages. If the Oracle doesn’t fall, Cobra will knock it out in a turn with a couple chops post-Masonry, but I really expect it to fall any turn now. Spinneret gets settled next turn and with corn and riverside who honestly needs the Calendar resources?

Up on the north half, Blackcollar makes a workboat for Warhorse and then whips a galley; we’re going to keep this city small and angry. More massive deforestation continues around Triplet to get the Warhorse settler in good time, while Heir to the Empire (liberate showing to Retep) gets to send another axe up for defense. We could use those whales, neon as the pink dot is. Protective walls ought to help secure it. Poor Triplet probably goes straight from one settler to the next, the islands won’t wait for long.

Many moving parts, all of them interesting in their own special ways.

Islands are looking very nice, actually. I’m pretty sure we can happily keep settling cities through to Guilds, particularly with a nice fast Metal Casing for triremes. Elkad’s peninsula will get two-three cities before we start getting really offensive; the Battle Island has two excellent sites in easy reach and then the rest is easy, just reach. Couple that with the couple cities on the “Angelmass” private island north of us and we’ve definitely got options. Just ignore how vulnerable those overseas holdings really are and we’re golden.

Fun, we get to contest with HAK, Elk, and Joey.

All those words might be just wind if our green buddies to the east keep on playing this checked out, though. Don’t tempt us like this, man!


Retep, this is frankly just irresponsible.

[von Adlercreutz]

Why knight rush if you can chariot rush?

[spacetyrantxenu]

Can you really call it a chariot rush on T64 though?

[Mardoc]

Chariot mosey?