[SPOILERS] TT and Victoria hope to have Sumeria to expand into...

[Twinkletoes89]

I got the city back without losing any more units, killed his galley with mine - took a shot at 30 odd % as I had the Trireme on the way plus a 2nd Galley and it would give me undeniable control over the lake.

And this turn I got peace - costing me 7 gold instead of the 50 I offered previously & eastway would still have had an Axe, Spear & Galley to play with. I call that a good result.

I'm heading up to Literature right now, hoping to snag The Great Library for my academy-fuelled capital and picking up the Music great artist for a golden age in the near future.

My cities are growing like weeds at the moment which makes me very happy, lots of cottages are developing and I'm going to put Maoi in Casterly Rock asap to make that city even more beastly.

Looks like the AT-Eastway war is pretty hot and costly which makes me extra happy while I just grow and develop whilst packing my border cities with longbows and trying to put off the point where I fuck it all up and lose the game

[Twinkletoes89]

Game is on a bit of a slow down but I'll give you guys a decent report after the next turn.

I got the Great Artist from Music and I will be popping a Golden Age next turn to swap into Bureaucracy and possibly Org Rel (while converting to Confu) for extra hammers in the capital.

If I managed to land the Great Library in the capital in the next few turns, my capital could be by far the best city I've ever managed to develop in my MP adventures. Though the golden age is going to do some beautiful things for my Maoi city too...

[Twinkletoes89]

As promised, I shall do a report now I have played this turn and used the Music artist to go into a golden age.

I have taken pictures of everything I think could possibly be relevant and if you want to see them then just click on this drppbox link below

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I have included pictures of inside all my cities so you lurkers can discuss if I am managing them right or if there are some errors I should be correcting at some point. If there is any advice you can give here, I'm always happy to learn as I hope you can see that my gameplay has improved to a decent amount from my first few games here.

I'm building up a big gold reserve over the first few turns of my GA ready to burn research at 100% once my Bureaucracy & Academy powered capital (hopefully) completes The Great Library. I imagine that for the last few turns of my Golden Age, my GNP may get pretty awesome.

Now Casterly Rock has finished Maoi, it really is going to benefit from this Golden Age with a large chunk of hammers being available for likely a 1 turn Barracks and then a steady stream of units as I need to get my defenses up just in case AT or eastway come a-knocking soon.

I'm building the Great Wall simply because its cheap and will add to my IMP Great General bonus if I do get attacked. Its cheap enough that its not a huge diversion and will add extra culture to keep AT's island city away from stealing my tiles. That is another great production city that will be on unit duty after it is completed, even if I am considering a run at the Statue of Zeus too just to really make me painful to attack.

I was considering moving the Great Wall to Casterly Rock and farming fail-gold (its only a 3 turn build from scratch) but that feels a little morally sketchy and 'gamey' so I think I'll pass on it. I know others do it but it just feels wrong to me. Though I do start wavering when I think about the cost:benefit ratio of 2 units and a barracks versus a decent amount of gold... Thoughts?

I've included the espionage graph simply because I think it shows why I'm quite happy with my choice of Sumeria so far. I clearly had courthouses up way sooner than anyone else has and this does give me a decent espionage bonus as (as you can see) I can easily maintain graphs on everyone and I have had research visibility on AT & B4ndit for a while. It may not be the best bonus in the world, but its helped and I think that is how I'm keeping a pretty solid economy going.

I like to think that I've invested pretty well in infrastructure so far, with the one glaring omission so far of no Forge in the capital. I was afraid of wasting turns building it before the Great Library and I thought that the number of cottages precipitated building a Market first. Needless to say, a forge will be next for the capital which will also boost its happy cap and allow it to just keep growing while I add more cottages for it to work.

As I have full graph visibility, if anyone wants any more screenshots taking I am happy to provide them.

Also, feel free to ask questions / praise / criticise as I like to know people are actually following the game and hopefully not generating as much criticism as I am used to getting.

I still don't think I'll win this game, but I reckon I'm doing a damn solid job and somehow staying under the radar to a certain extent.

[mackoti]

Nice report TT.
About failing gold is always nice to have and for me is an ok practic because is costing you turn and maybe even loosing the wonder,but as you said you might need some units so finnish and build those.
About city management is good i think i seen a city without a wb and was size 5 or something like thta.
Why do you need gold for the time when finish GLib?

How to you intend to get more land?

[Twinkletoes89]

Thanks mackoti.

I think I'll play it safe and just finish the wonder as I don't want to keep postponing building up my units as at some point it will be too late. Plus it gives me aggressive options for later if I want.

All resources that I can work boat have been improved at this point except for the multiple whale resources which will have to wait for Optics. Unfortunately the second crab at Sunspear cannot be improved unless I plant a new city right on AT's border which is asking for trouble.

In terms of more land, I'm looking to settle the island between me and CH asap and then consolidate for now. I will likely focus my espionage on B4ndit or CH and try and get visibility on them to see if there is room for an attack on them down the road.

For the short term, I want to keep developing the land I have, growing my cities as big as possible with useful infrastructure and mature cottages (may look at a beeline towards Printing Press) and ensuring I have appropriate defenses with the possibility for surgical strikes if a great opportunity presents itself. I've done best so far by focusing on this and so I don't want to risk all my hard work on a risky attack yet. I should be able to steam past CH and B4ndit on tech and attack them later with a unit tech advantage. That seems like the best way to get land later.

That said, I must keep an eye on eastway's war with CH. If CH starts to crumble then eastway cannot be allowed to gain all of CH's land

[NobleHelium]

You can net the lake crab by building a fort.

[Twinkletoes89]

Forting the two unused grassland? Or would I have to fort the silver?

[NobleHelium]

Fort one of the tiles between the city and the lake. You can also fort one of the tiles between the lake and the Qarth lake.

[Twinkletoes89]

Ah I see it now, that makes sense.

Thanks for helping me make Sunspear even more of an awesome city!

[Twinkletoes89]

Oh and I forgot to answer Mack's other question

I'm saving gold because I've been running breakeven science for a while and had no reserves. I'd like to hit 100% during this golden age and waiting til The Great Library is built means I can build up reserves then turn up to 100% when the capital will have the extra boost for beakers (hopefully).