Someone else's shoes [spoilers]

[Dreylin]

t22 -

Looks like Adrien found me:


4fh short of popping the Settler this turn ... probably could have improved that with basic mircoplanning. Workers paving the way East (well not literally yet) to the previously discussed spot. I eventually held off the Revolt to Slavery as the timing didn't feel worthwhile to whip off any of the improved tiles. I'll switch after having put the Settler overflow into a 1t Warrior.

Demographics are not looking bad at all:


From Top5 cities I can see that no-one has planted a second city yet; also that Adrien grew to Size4 while Picklepikkl & Gingereagle stayed at size2. I expect someone will beat me to a second city, but clearly not by more than a few turns.

[Dreylin]

t26 -

Overview shot:


Cuban Heels was Settled this turn; a turn later than Adrien's second city (revealed via Diplo check) and 4t after Pickle's was founded (5th city on Top5). Started a Workbost with the Copper, but will switch to the Sheep when it's improved in 2t and slowly finish the WB.

Loafers:


I added the "?" to the sign between shots, because I realised that instead of switching builds next turn I can grow to size5 and finish the Warrior for MP. Plan is to 2pop whip the Settler ASAP for the Silver site and put overflow into the Granary; regrow to size 4 and build / whip foodhammer units for the near term.

Demos still looking good:


Questions?

[Dreylin]

t30 -

Sorry for the quiet, not much going on; Cuban Heels is growing on the Sheep and about to hit size 2. I did grow Loafers to Size 5 and put out the Warrior so ready for the 2-Pop whip:


That's get most of the Granary built and then once that's done we'll build another Worker or maybe Settler. I've also connected up the Copper, and Cuban Heels will build units.

Meanwhile I've confirmed that Gingereagle is on his own peninsula (albeit diagonally across the water from Adrien):


I wonder if I've got some safe backlines ... maybe in the West?

[Dreylin]

t33 -

Might have been the 3rd to a second city, but I'm first to plant a 3rd:


Rather than head straight to the Silver, the Worker is taking a few turns to connect the cities while the border pops and then farms the Corn. Meanwhile we'll steal the Capital's Corn and stop it growing back into unhappiness. Worker there next, and then another whipped Settler.

Planting revealed picklepikkl's Scout and we finally met, but I'd have met him soon anyway since he'd been revealed IBT by the border pop over here:


Got 6g from the Farm BTW. 

[Dreylin]

t41 -

Next Settler is on the way:


Going to plant on the marked "x" rather than the blue circle so I can share food with Cuban Heels & Havaianas.

Note Pickle's Warrior in the SE, which means I don't have any uncontested backlines...

Running light on military, but so is everyone else. Cuban is going to pump military for a while while the others push foodhammer units & cheap Libraries.

[taotao]

I hear it's turn 50. 
Do you have a "shoe-in"  for victory yet?

Otherwise, would you perhaps care to give us an overview of your empire?

[Dreylin]

<groan>

I'll try to do an update tonight. Being on holiday has impacted my reporting, but I've taken some odd screenshots and can add some overviews & plans.

[Dreylin]

t51 -

Well I didn't quite get this up last night as it got very late, and I also missed a few shots for planning, so I'll update t52 to get those down. Anyway, here's a shot from t47 when I one-turned a Settler after another Settler:


Loafers has basically been 2-pop whipping Settlers, then recovering on infra. The first Settler went East to found High Tops for the Fish & Pigs, while the second founded Stiletto to the West:


The latter is an awkward city. I was going to push the Settler on further to the "x" next to the Ivory, but I didn't have the Workers in place to get that hooked up in a timely manner so I decided to plant the filler spot now instead. The primary purpose of Stiletto is to grow cottages for the capital - which hasn't really been able to do so for itself due to the low happy cap and whipping down for Settlers.

The Lighthouse build was a mistake (EDIT: pending check on whether GLh is banned or not); it should have been units or a Barracks, but the whip overflow will power the next Settler for the West. The Settler from Cuban Heels will not be whipped, and will head South to grab the Moai spot on the land bridge towards Gingereagle. That should flatline my finances sufficiently that I'll need Currency going as soon as I finish the current run to Monotheism - scoring Judaism (hopefully) and OrgRel. I do have OB with Ginger & Pickle to give some added funds, though not with Adrien due to proximity:


You can probably see some of Byzantium's famed invisible borders.   Anyway, he got the Silver city down before I planted Havaianas, but my Library build got me the border pop before him. He has founded Hinduism and built the Oracle.

Gingereagle is my next-closest neighbour:


Double Gold and no land neighbour to the South!  He built Stonehenge while the rest of us were building Settlers for city #3 so is a bit behind in expansion, but will get the first Prophet for ... whatever. I don't /think/ he is the Buddhism founder.

Pickle is the one I know least about:



But as you can see I have a couple of units on approach ... and am keeping my options open whether to make a cheap raze of that visible Southern city. Power levels are relatively even, and relatively low - mine is where it is because I have 3 Chariots and a bunch of Warriors (not researching Hunting yet has been useful to allow me to keep pushing them out) and I have a lower Pop than my opponents...   Pickle landed Circumnav, which may be relevant later.

I've got everyone's graphs (but will only take the shots and post if requested) and am building EPs on Adrien (I think) since he's the closest neighbour. Demos have been running pretty close; I've been whipping pretty aggressively to maintain the expansion pace, so I have smaller cities in general than the others, but have been sharing tiles and probably running with fewer Workers as a result. I do have 3 Libraries up and running - though I'm yet to commit to pushing for a Scientist.

When next turn gets to me, I'll take some expansion-planning shots and discuss city specialisation. Any questions posted between now and then can also be addressed.

[Dreylin]

t61 - an update!

So what's been happening in the world of Shoes? Well Pickle sidestepped my lurking Chariot:


Cost him some upgrade money though, which might be just as good a result.

Then this:


Held off from any revolts as I have other plans in the works.

I also planted two additional cities:



Which has thoroughly crashed my economy - break even a bit below 20% right now - but still need to expand. I decided not to go for Ginger's Settler here; he's far enough behind that I don't feel the need to set him back, and I also don't want to precipitate anything before I'm ready.

Here are the borders, starting with the NE:


I'd like to grab the marked spot, but the border is pretty secure as-is or even with a city behind the Cows, so it's not high on the priority list.

The Northwest:


Getting the Wheat city is quite important, and would form a nice wide border with Adrien if he plants on the highlighted spot - the Axe has been there a couple of turns, so I think that's likely. It would also be nice to get the spot beyond the Sheep in the bottom left of the screenshot as it would seal of the intervening land bridge and make reinforcing both sides of that front much easier, but I'm not sure I can get there in time.

SW:


I'd been intending the marked X and a second city North of the Corn, but pickle's city nixed that. Now I'm wondering whether I should push the city West and start a fight over the Corn. Low priority though compared with others (& fixing up the economy a bit).

Finally the Southeast:


So here's the city that Ginger just planted, which brings him up to approx. half my total, which is why I've decided that I am going to make a play for the Pink Dot x on the plainshill. Have a couple of Chariots in the area and will work on bringing in an Axe as well. Settler due from High Tops in 5t.

So that's step 1 of the plan; Step2 is Currency (due in ~5t with quite a few Scientists). The Pyramids build you saw in Cuban Heels will have a pair of Forests added to speed it a couple of turns, and then the Scientist will come out of Havaianas to kick off the Golden Age. Tentative plan is to run Rep during the Golden Age and push out HBR (along with whatever else I can get in the Metal Casting/Calendar vein) and build Stables, and then switch to Police State and whip out a horde of HA to take out Ginger and secure his peninsula - one thing about his not having back lines, is that it's relatively secure to take them for myself...

Well we'll see how things turn out, in the meantime some demos to mull over:

[Dreylin]

I fear that I may have just lost the Pyramids. Adrien (presumably) has just spawned a Great Engineer, so unless he's planning to save it for The Apostolic Palace (which I think would work well for him) or the MoM, I expect he'll rush the Pyramids within the next few turns. If not next turn, then I'll probably have to hold my chops at Cuban Heels until they finish the build.

Bright side will be a bunch of failgold - maybe enough for Calendar - but it would mean an adjustment of my plans.