I logged back in to change research to Sailing. It`s going to be a very good tech for us. Once we get our first island settlement built, our trade routes would look a whole lot better. The whales are going to come in handy as well. A galley would be a solid investment that`ll pay for itself quickly. A galley built in Muqa would need something like 10 turns to get close to Joey`s city, as the geography is a bit difficult. It`s definitely an idea to keep in mind, though.
As long as that top power is not neighboring us we`ll be fine for now. Joey can`t seriously consider settling another city straight at us. If he does, then I agree that we`ll have to prepare to go to war. I took a screenshot of the area S of Toregene. I think we need to build on that jungled hill down there, as it has a hill for protection and is quite safe from a surprise attack for the time being. It has a grass cow and ivory in its first ring. Unfortunately the jungle makes it a long journey down there.
Also, I checked out the time it would take for us to research key techs: Writing and Sailing: 4 turns. HBR: 10 turns. IW: 8 turns. Mathematics: 12 turns. Currency: 20 turns. We should be able to cut down a few turns on those techs as we`re soon building two more cities.
The new cities won't pay for themselves in commerce at first, I think - although they'll probably come close - because they'll increase maintenance costs so we have to save gold for longer, while at first only adding 2 commerce per turn apiece. Both will soon graduate to 3 commerce per turn though, and Oghul Qaimish will eventually go significantly higher with (at a minimum) a border pop, netted fish, a horse pasture, and lighthouse lake(s) - and Chubei will have a first-ring silver it can work before too long. So you're definitely right that they'll help our commerce in the long term. Our existing cities will help out some more too, with the whales to be hooked at Muqa, a river cottage already making its way toward Hamletdom, another that'll get started soonish barring an emergency, and hopefully more on the way!
Also, a couple of those techs (Writing if we can get any libraries on the board, IW though it won't pay for itself in a very timely fashion, and obviously Currency if it's not the last in that group) will help speed up the others on the list. I should note RtR tries to make Alphabet viable in a No Tech Trading environment by making it (I think) a bit cheaper, and moving Open Borders to it instead of tech trading, but I seriously doubt it'll be worth much here unless there are way more and better islands out there than I expect (such that everybody will build a billion island cities.) That isn't Mardoc's fault of course; "everyone on the same continent, with some islands" was part of Krill's set-up for the game.
...and apparently we're waiting for a ruling on another possible double-move: This time, one that does involve Coeurva, as a/the possible agrieved party. (In which case I guess he's concerned about something Ventessel or maybe even Gavagai did?) Obviously, I know none of the details, except that Ventessel has been playing at (or nearly at) the end of the last few turns without then playing the beginning of the next turn afterward ... until this turn. And Gav logged in toward the end of last turn (after already ending turn long before - I had assumed just to pause the game in case Ventessel needed it) and planted a city this turn ... and then didn't end turn, which is certainly weird. Gavagai's an MP vet here, but it's possible he didn't realize he might be in a turn-split situation until it was too late, and then left the turn where it stood, not ended, just in case? Dunno....
We might be looking at yet another reload. I think you`re right in assuming that either Ventessel or Gavagai is involved in this. If we, for some reason, were to reload to turn 57 it would be very problematic for us, as we founded a religion on turn 58. Maybe I should state in the tech thread that I prefer NOT to reload to turn 57.
Another day in the slow life of Pitboss 37. Fortunately, it looks like we`re avoiding a reload at least. If the turn doesn`t roll before bedtime, dtay might play before us. It would give him an extra turn to found a city N of Borte somewhere. At worst we have a holy city, which generates a lot of culture and we could redirect our settler to the corn/pig site.
The maintenance costs will indeed increase as we build more cities. Still, our gnp is very good, and it`ll steadily improve over the coming turns. Working that second silver would be very good news for us. And the first island city will pay for itself instantly, I think. Getting those early cottages up and running is key for our economy later in the game.
I agree that Alphabet still seems weaker than Currency, even though it`s still a fairly viable tech path. Getting Currency would immediately repair our economy, as we have to REX hard in order to back fill the rest of the territory. The option of building wealth is , of course, very important as well.
Plus our cheap Expansive markets show up at Currency, and it's en route to CoL for Spiritual Caste/Slavery swaps! Absolutely a terrific tech, though still a little ways out. Alphabet's competitor is Mathematics (they're the two alternate prereqs for Currency) and between the chop bonus and the techs for which Math is also required (e.g. Calendar) I do think it's clearly the right choice for the path to Currency on this map. (We'll need Alpha eventually for Printing Press, but that can wait.)
If we're waiting for Ventessel to respond and either make his case to Mardoc or confirm he'll leave his [whatever unit] in place, it could be a while, unfortunately. Hopefully he gets the message soonish!
Code of Laws is a very good tech for us. I`d like to have a few civics to play around with, so that our SPI trait really gets to shine. At some point we`d like to research Monotheism as well for Organized Religion.
How are we going to build a shrine for Muqa? Stonehenge went early, and building temples in one of our cities is going to take a while. We also need a second religion spread I think. Going for Angkor Wat would make it more feasible, but it`s a far way off. I guess we could head for Music to build a Stupa if we feel like going for the bonuses on the top of the tech tree..
Well, Priesthood is pretty cheap, and gives us another prereq bonus for CoL, and Spi means our temples only cost 40h for a happy face, another point of culture, and a priest slot. And if everybody ignores the Oracle the way they ignored Buddhism, we could pursue that afte we plant a city on that marble tile. I wouldn't want to count on it, but it's something to bear in mind ... until somebody else builds it at least!
It`s been nearly 24 hours now without any sign of response from the player accused of double moving Couerva. Based on the long response time (and civstats) I`m pretty sure Ventessel is involved in this. It doesn`t seem like he pays much attention the tech thread, to put it mildly. Let`s hope he responds at last tonight (my time) so that turn 59 can be played tomorrow sometime.
Yes, I do agree that a play for the Oracle could be worth a shot here. At worst we get some fail gold, which is still useful. We do need to build that island city first for the marble. Another option could be going for the other island, which has a wet grass wheat and either crabs or clams in its first ring. (I can`t remember which one, and the tile yields are the same). It`s a little bit harder to defend and might be contested by one of our neighbors.
Finally the turn rolled. According to civstats, there seems to have been a lot of action on the Couerva/Ventessel front. Couerva razed a size 1 Chinese border city! This is very bad news for Ventessel, of course. I have to say that he`s the strong favorite to be eliminated first now.
The city of Oghul Qaimish was founded this turn. That brings us up to 4 cities, along with the pack. Our fifth city is right around the corner as well, it`ll be built on turn 61. No Buddhism spreads so far, I`m really hoping for a bit of luck here in the coming turns. Our warrior had about 91 % odds to hold against the barb warrior. The barb got in one single hit. Our warrior is now at 1.7 strength, with 2XP. We`re not allowed to promote it this turn, strangely enough. I sent him to the forested hill for more vision. No incoming threats were discovered.
It was no fun to whip away that silver mine in Muqa, but it`s all for the greater good of the Empire! The axe in Muqa was moved to the desert hill 2N of Muqa, in anticipation of the arrival of the settler next turn. The new-built chariot is now N-NE of Borte, where it has maximum flexibility if a crisis occurs. The The SW and SE warriors were moved inside Oghul Qaimish and Toregene respectively.
Here is the NW. Our warrior is in a very good position. It could even go a tile further NW to see if something interesting shows up. The barbarians can`t do us much harm at the moment. I also grabbed a screenshot of the islands. It`s so tempting to settle out there, but there are a lot of other considerations to make as well..
