[SPOILER] The Steak, Beer, and Cigar Saloon

[haphazard1]

Quick test with warrior + axeman on open land vs barbarian axeman shows that 7 out of 16 axes live. That's a horrible loss rate, as I lose the warrior regardless. If I sit on a hill tile, I run a 23% risk of losing my axe. This really isn't great. I can't whip chariots atm as the horses aren't connected, partly due to a misclick

Yes, barb axes are a pain. Axe vs axe just does not give very good odds. I suppose you could spend cash to upgrade the warrior -- 2 axes would probably give excellent odds of defeating the barb. Expensive to do, but if the city is at risk it could be worth it.

[Catwalk]

I had a chop coming in at Groceries, I decided to sacrifice it on an axe. This is not the time to run any risks, and I can use another axe to send west.

[Catwalk]

Turn 86
Lazy reporting again, first demos:

Still nothing new, except it seems I'm the only one who's interested in hammers.


Power graphs:

Nakor has been building military lately, probably realizing he's fallen too far behind for comfort. Jowy is still in crazy military buildup, seems he's in a vendetta with yuris. I have no plans to take advantage of this for the time being, other than securing the jungle location.


Border with Nakor:

I want the location named 10 in a timely manner. The filler location by the deer isn't as critical, as I can easily claim the deer with other locations. The wheat at 10 is at risk of being poached by a PH plant on Pink Dot, so I may even want to settle this location as my next city. Nakor is also a major competitor, he's keeping pace with me in the demos and is only one city behind me. He also has 2 luxuries already. I'm up to 6 workers and finishing another 3 soonish.

In other news, I took out the axe safely with a 65% roll and didn't need the backup axe. I'm paying 2 gold per turn for unit upkeep now, I'll try to keep the upkeep low until I've completed Currency in about 8-9 turns. I'm also debating whether to settle the marble or the stone island first. Marble would be for a shot at MoM, stone would be for failgold on Moai and chopping it in Always Wrong + cheap walls if needed.

haphazard1, do you think I should take a shot at Colossus and/or Mausoleum of Mausollos? I'll need to make up my mind on that before too long. I have plenty forests and production in Vacuuming to get one of them in a hurry. Colossus is probably the less desired wonder, but I'll also be getting it later as I plan on getting Calendar first. And by the time I hit Calendar I may be seeing a lot of competition for MoM already. If I finish Currency on t95, I'll be getting Calendar around t105 and Metal Casting around t115. Those are not impressive times for either MoM or Colossus based on previous games.

[haphazard1]

Good to hear the barb axe was eliminated without losses.

I like the possibility of building MoM. As a PHI civ it will be easy for you to generate enough great people to trigger multiple golden ages, so the wonder is likely to provide significant benefits. Grabbing Calendar also lets you improve plantation resources which will be very handy. The Colossus would also be nice to have, but seems to me to be a lesser priority than MoM. I don't know about the timing -- with the IND civs in this game I would have expected MC, forges, and then the Colossus to be early targets. But as seen with the Oracle, the IND civs seems to be acting very oddly so who knows what they are up to?

[Catwalk]

Turn 87

Bit more island discovery to the south:

What, Jowy gets easy furs too? I'm not going to give you the pleasure of whining about the map Xenu, but it seems I've been sleeping with the wrong mapmakers lately


Speaking of Jowy, here's a peek at his sad empire:

Tons of roads and two unworked plains hill mines? I think Negan was a bad first plant. He doesn't get first ring copper, he doesn't get the PH hammer and he fails to get second ring elephants. Given that he started with Hunting, I think those elephants are worth prioritizing. I'd have settled NW of the cows first, and either on the copper or west of the copper afterwards. A later city can go between the furs and the silver for an awesome +2 happiness for a total of 3 early luxuries. I feel I'd be in a stronger position if I'd had this start, although my mining/fishing combo would be less than ideal. Still, he's got two grains for an easy agricultural start no matter the techs. And those 3 luxuries still make my mouth water.


On my other side, I've still got Nakor:

And he decided to remind me of his presence with an Immortal. He'd be in a position to bother Punching Bag, so I'm putting one turn into a spear just in case. I definitely need to focus here now, Jowy is already dead in this game and very unlikely to challenge my eastern expansion. Nakor has played a strong start and seems to be roughly even with my development and expansion, and he has Stonehenge on top of that to aid him in our ensuing cultural battles. If I fail to found a city on location 10 I will have a hard time denying him more than his fair share of the lands between us. I'm going to start shifting my military around a bit and put some on my western border instead, I don't think it's needed to the east.

I'm planning on whipping a settler in Vacuuming and one in Dishes shortly in order to capitalize on Currency landing imminently. Vacuuming settler goes to an island and Dishes settler goes to location 10. Not sure which island I want, depends on whether or not I decide to make a play for MoM. I'll be needing at the very least an axe, a spear and a missionary to settle 10 somewhat safely. Next turn I'll try to see how much stuff I can gather, it looks like I can spare 2 axes and a spear easily. I'm worried Nakor is going to settle on the PH named Pink Dot shortly, though. If he does, all I can do is pull my the deer city E and the wheat city somewhere north. I'd be very unlikely to dislodge a hill city with limited military available, especially given that he can bring reinforcements much faster than I can.

[haphazard1]

I wonder if there is something in the fog east or south of Negan? If so it could explain the city's location. I do find it odd that Jowy did not grab the ivory tile, especially with Hunting tech from the start. Early happiness is so useful, plus grassland ivory is a pretty nice tile as well. Hard to say without more information.

In your west, I think it is important just to get a couple cities down and stake your claim. Maybe you get your planned locations, maybe you don't. But get something in place. There is food, fresh water, green tiles, and lots of forest -- the locations will be worthwhile and should pay off fairly quickly. And locking down the land should hopefully keep Nakor from feeling "adventurous." Immortals can be a bit of a pain, though. Spears definitely a necessity.

[Catwalk]

Turn 88

I decided to go ahead and make the push as fast as possible, losing that site by a turn or two would suck

Also, in the unlikely event that he tries to settle without a garrison in place I may be able to either burn it or discourage him from settling. All white boxes are my non-warrior units, 5 axes and 1 spear total of which 3 axes and the spear are advancing on the position. The eastern spear will board the galley to the top right in order to get it there a little faster. Workers will build extra roads to speed the settler's journey from Vacuuming south and west to the city location. I'm going to go with the deer site instead, as that negates both of Nakor's PH plants: The one named Pink Dot and the one named Equi-distant point. If I settled 10 first, he could poach my deer by settling on the southern PH. If he starts fortifying his immortal next turn I know I'm in a major hurry I'll whip a settler for location 10 shortly, Dishes is finishing a missionary next turn so I can start pushing Nakor's culture back from turn 1. I'm still ahead of Nakor in power, and I have 2 spears finishing soon (Vacuuming and Punching Bag). Groceries is also getting ready to 1-whip a spear if needed for a show of strength.


Jowy:

My axe just ran into a settler going west, standing on top of it now. That's somewhat puzzling, and possibly concerning. He might be tempted to settle east of the bananas or even east of the bananas, screwing my expansion plans. Should I send my axe west to check on him? I'd prefer additional scouting instead, but I suppose the axe was meant for border patrol duty in the first place.

[haphazard1]

Should I send my axe west to check on him? I'd prefer additional scouting instead, but I suppose the axe was meant for border patrol duty in the first place.

Well, the axe can't keep up with a settler, realistically. So all it could do is find out after the fact. And you will likely be able to see culture borders, so you will know what he did with the settler.

Of course, shadowing the settler forces Jowy to commit a garrison/escort, which he might or might not have available. Might delay him for a turn or two, at the cost of seriously irritating him.

[MaxPower]

Jowy seems to be far away from both IW and calendar so he shouldn't be interested in settling in that jungle area. The only location I think he could settle is 1S of the horses, to benefit from horse tile yield and shared cows, then on second ring he has ivory and some day the bananas. Other option could 2S of the horses to put the ivory in play faster. Anyway he shouldn't go for bananas/gems location as long as he has some better places to settle.
IMO you already won the "race" for the gems location.

In the subject of island settling, I would prioritize the marble over the stone. The two major early stone wonders (mids and stonehenge) have already fallen, and as a PHI you have several marble wonders you would want: MoM, Great Library, National Epic and Taj. All of them very useful and very contested. Stone would be nice for both Moais and Oxford but I think marble is stronger overall.

[Catwalk]

I'm still a little worried he'll settle NE of the pigs. He steals first ring pigs from me, gets to work already improved horses and can claim second ring ivory. Jungle health penalties shouldn't matter all that much, he'll have extra health by now.

As for wonders, I think I'm too far from Great Library to make a play for it. I'm already a bit behind on research, and I'm planning on getting either Calendar or Metal Casting afterwards. Would you prioritize going for Polytheism => Aesthetics => Literature immediately after Currency? My biggest concern is not getting anything. I'd rate my chances of getting Colossus highest, but only if I go for it right after Currency which is going to make my happiness hurt. Currency will finish on t105, letting me finish Calendar around t115 and maybe build MoM on t120. Think it'll still be around by that time?