My name is Ozymandias, King of China: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Did something dumb, should have moved warrior 3 (will reach the south at the same speed), but instead moved him 2.

No harm done, but it's sloppy. Moving 3 would help protect me from getting Mortius'd. No real chance of that happening, but whatevs.

Contacts from the diplo thread:
Stick-Tankra (contact via culture over the ice)
Sareln-Sian (western warrior seeing Sian's borders)
Stick-Sareln (western warrior seeing Sareln's borders)

Since everyone's capital and culture is on the east side of their landmass, that makes me think the wrap is:
Sian-Sareln-Stick-Tankra-Me

This worries me, being next to phracts.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

I like the idea of of settling on the plains hill, it offers a quick start due to the wheat in 1st ring, and the capital's 3rd ring borders bringing in the dry cow.

I also like it because it's technically coastal. However, I can build a fort 1 of that plains hill, meaning that the city can contribute ships, and it's also impossible to boat.

I also want to culturally control those peak tiles, to prevent anyone from gaining vision on my stuff.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

A quick peek at what I've revealed, as well as where I'd like to move my warrior next turn. I'm obviously scouting shallow instead of deep. I may change after this one move, as I want to get as much info on my surroundings to plan from.

I've marked tiles around my capital on where I presume my opponents settled on. The danger comes from my east: if Sian manages to land a galley or two worth of cataphracts on the hills next to my capital, I may very well lose my capital. I absolutely want to control the eastern sea, and I'd also like to gain control of that peak tile. The options are: settle on the plains hill for maximum early growth, 9 of the gold to gain a really strong 2nd city, or settle 1 of the crabs to land a holy city in, to maximise the chances of me controlling that crucial eastern peak tile and gaining vision of Sian's western components.

A T26 settler is fairly slow these days, so maybe if Sian settles first, I can make my decision from it.

Another thing to consider: circumnavigation. Everyone has a warrior start, meaning we all have the same likelyhood. I've been scouting shallow, can I still catch up? Maybe I should build a scout instead of a warrior next, so I could steal it?

[Nicolae Carpathia]

*Cracks knuckles*

I think we have enough information to really start planning out what to do with cities #2 and #3.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Without even trying very hard, I got the mids on end of turn 47. Wow, that was earlier than expected. This was without even getting Monotheism online.

But I'm tired, it's late, I'll put it off later.

Things to consider: settling on that plains hill locks the tundra forest 44 of the wet wheat to city #2. Settling on or south of the grass wines locks the forests to the city in that vicinity. While it uses the hammers more effectively, it means I can't chop them into the mids.

But the thing is, chopping sucks bad on quick speed. Pre-maths, on BFC forests, it's a one-off 3.25 yield per turn. Hence, the priority will be to get the hills mined first, and only then chop.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Ah fuck putting hammers into a scout was a mistake. Who the hell wants to scout the shitty north instead of the grassy south? Changing over to a warrior. It can be out in 3 turns if I work the plains hill forest on T13. If Tankra tries to choke, I won't be able to work that tile on T14. I'll probably be fine with just 1 warrior in my capital.

I've been getting way too greedy.

What do I know about Tankra? Settled 7 of where my capital is, and went Mining instead of hunting. He hasn't had a 2nd score increase, meaning he hasn't teched hunting, meaning I think he went Bronze Working. Thats... bad. Ugh, this is what happens when you get overconfident. The question is, should I go Archery next to guarantee protection against Dogs, or gamble on chariots?

If this gets really painful, I can pretty much kiss the 'mids goodbye. But that's okay, I see tons of rivers, so cottage spam is still viable.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

I owe everyone an update. Plus, apparently Luddite decided to ded-lurk me, so I may as well reward him.

Turns out I didn't need to bluster so hard, as the very act of growing to size 2 would let me pull 4hpt. Hence, I didn't need to work the 0/3/0 plains hill forest the turn before Tankra parks on it. Still worth keeping him off my back. Tank's had a nice good look at my empty capital, something tells me I'm basically egging him on to enter. His loss, I can 1-turn a warrior any time. Of course, if he steps onto the tile 77 of my capital, I'll need to finish the warrior else I'll be at risk of dying.

I love cutting these things close. Witness popping an axe out a few turns after Ioan invaded me.

But Tank's in a bad shape, someone's been at 2 food for a while, and he's still at size 1. I don't know how hard Stick is choking, but I suspect that Tank's food bar has been something like 3-quarters full for a while. Ouch, that's gotta hurt I don't think this is the map to go worker-worker.

Another thing I did: I'm sandbagging pottery, I switched to AH early. I know Tank's doing C&D, because I did it to him. That and I want to hide my score increases.

Tank's warrior screwed up my micro a bit, it slows down my granary and growing to size 6 (to whip out my 3rd city), but on the other hand, the ivory is much faster to improve and that sped up my 2nd worker. I'm going to complete pottery just as worker #2 finishes, and start roading to city #2. I love tight city spacing.

If Tank's warrior moves back home (and I'm sure he doesn't want 2 angry neighbours), I may actually let the hammers in my warrior decay. I don't really need yet, and I can 2-turn a warrior any time. I'm gambling, let's hope this doesn't bite me in the ass.

And if I'm doing that, maybe I should bring my starting warrior home. A scout can defog the south later. But it's so tempting to defog more land, and I want to know if it's worth settling on top of the stone.

3 more things: I don't need to worry about galleys, as I believe you can't build military ships on that saltwater sea . If I settle on the grass wines, the clams will always belong to me, because it'll be in my first ring. I doubt that Sian will try to steal them. It'll be my capital's 3rd ring + southeaster city's 2nd ring vs his 2nd ring (but I can always lose this if Sian lands a holy city). Otherwise I'll settle the clams in the first ring.

I'm also going to delay Monotheism, as Masonry-Myst-Poly-Mono takes far too many beakers on Emperor difficulty. So I'll be building the 'mids with just the +50%. I suspect the stone is too far away to really make a difference, but we'll see.

Finally, I really like the new dropbox functionality. Right click the file, mouse-over Dropbox, click Copy Public Link. There's probably a crippling security flaw in it, but what I don't know I won't know will hurt me.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

I was wrong! Sian settled on the coast, not Stick! A weird choice if you ask me. I guess he liked those clams, I'd have preferred the deer. Byzantium is a land civ, after all. Not to mention that the capital can't even build military ships!

There's an opportunity there. I have a scout. Sian can't see him. T20, I'm moving him a single square to 3 (still not visible to Sian). T21, I'm moving him 33 onto a tundra hill, giving me visibility of Sian's capital. Meaning I can subsequently track all of his wonder builds! This will be a huge advantage for moi

Also of interest, the top power dropped by 2k, meaning someone just lost a warrior. Did Stick make a bad call and waste him on Tankra's hilltop city warrior?

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Still working on the plan for the T47 mids. It'll be helped along by two 3-pop whips (just before it starts and just before it is planned to complete), a chop-mine and a chop-cottage (which will need to be done after I've whipped my capital, else the unhealth from losing the forests decreases the overflow), and a final little 5H chop (though this is optional, as I can switch around tiles, trading deer and ivory for grass mines to make up the difference). Probably not worth chopping that tile, now that I think about it, worker turns are precious.

Next turn, I find out where Horses are. If there are any BFC horses, that could potentially speed up the mids!

Plus, I'm planning on revealing most of Sian's BFC tiles. If I spot a change in tile yield, then that could tell me if I'll have copper.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

If I don't see a Sian warrior threatening me in the south next turn, this is what I'm going to post in the public diplo thread:

Wait, Tank. Someone choked you for a half-dozen turns, leaving you stuck at Size 1? And he wants a white peace? At least demand some reparations, man!

Give everyone else worse enemies!

Edit: actually, nevermind, I'm going to post it anyway else they'll just straight up take peace over the turn roll. I wish my save went through properly, that way there'd have been less time for them to negotiate