[Spoilers] Gavagai, Bacchus and Elizabeth Form a Romantic Trio

[Gavagai]

Made this offer to Jowy previous turn as my capital really needs health (-1 now and it is going to grow and complete a forge soon). I expected him to make a counter-offer but he just refused. Don't really understand what to make of it.
And you what's annoying? BaII has two extra health resources I don't have and has no ivory. I could break a good deal with him but instead had to start a war because he started to supply Nakor with Iron again.

[Gavagai]

Golden age has ended and I decided to make a larger update.



My western territories. I feel a little bit nervous expanding here with only two archers but Sian is quite busy with Kurumi. If I read their power graphs correctly they both are preparing to a second round:



Also, I have a de-facto alliance with Sian, if only such a thing possible in no-diplo game.



I'm at last feel confident enough to spare a chariot for scouting. As you can see, Sian is putting my horse to use. I'm not sure though, if it is wise to invest hammers in Numidian Cavalry. I think Kurumi's main strike force consists mostly of Keshiks, and Numidians are extremely bad against them. Also, Sian has three swordsmen in Python. I wonder why would he want to build them.



South. I have only an axe and a spear near Karlye but I feel that I can afford this risk (another spear has been sent to the capital to serve as military police for one turn until a forge is built; it will be returned here after that). Can't see who can conceivably want to attack me from this direction.
Generally, I'm in a unique situation when my southern and south-western borders seem safe. I don't think it will last long. Most unpleasant scenario is Kurumi conquering Sian. This man is a kind of maniac, by the way. He is sitting on eight cities but has a crapload of power as you can see on his powergraph. This guy is clearly just roleplaying Mehmed of Mongols, even his leader/civ selection was a troll. Few turns ago he caught me in an in-game chat and promised to conquer Londra. I feel myself uneasy while he is around, he can attack me just for lulz.



Yet another island in the east. Ran into Jowy's workboat while exploring, so we will have competition for this land.



My core. I need another worker here as availability of chain irrigation creates new demand on worker labor. It will be either slow-built in Londra or whipped from Vitall.



All is quiet on the Northern front... Actually, I'm amassing a modest stack which I plan to send against Nakor's capital. It will have 10 axes, 5 catapults, 5 maces, 2 spears. Not much for this era but enough to take Redemption, I think, especially if I would be willing to sacrifice all catapults.



Demos after golden age at 0% science. Observe very high (in relation to crop yield) mfg. That's how land with few high-yield food tiles but lots of green works: for a while you will grow slower than your rivals but the pop you have can be used more efficiently as you won't run out of good tiles to work as quickly as other players. I have lots of green hills in my core, it was pretty difficult to grow on them but by now they all are worked.
GNP is bad even for 0% science, especially given that I'm financial and have a powerful shrine. Reasons for this:
1) I delayed my cottages due to the first war with Jester/Nakor.
2) I delayed markets/courthouses due to the second war with Jester/Nakor.
This is an important thing to note: for an outsider my wars with Egypt may seem like a completely one-sided slaughter (just look at the power graph) but in truth they caused me a significant harm.

OK, going to sleep now, tomorrow will show you my cities.

[Gavagai]

OK, my cities:



Capital. Still the best city in the world. Wants forge and market badly.



Yark. One of my future culture cities and also the weakest of them - can't run a lot of specialists who will be my main source of culture. It is going to build Sistine and The Spiral Minaret and also Hermitage.



Croyden. The second culture city. After catapult will build a settler to resettle Moria.



My Heroic Epic city which is pretty terrible for this job. During the golden age I worked plains hill mine in the NW corner and starved it down. I'm going to delay forge for a while here - it will increase hammer output from 28 to 31 hammers per turn, doesn't really worth it. At some point, however, I'm going to grow it.



God, this is just painful to watch. This city needs a courthouse today and a forge plus a market yesterday. Building units instead, damn you, Egypt. Also, it is the third of my culture cities.

[omg]https://googledrive.com/host/0B65XYyPYTsBCQmdWTkEwY3BaLWs/Civ4ScreenShot0011.JPG[/img]

I whipped a catapult after I took this picture. To get it in two turns I either had to do that or work plains hill instead of a village for a turn. And this is what I just can't do.



My third (after Londra and Parye) genuine commerce city.



This settler will go to pigs spot on the eastern island.



SW corner wants cottage but I have no workers to build it. Sigh.



And this city really needs missionary as it is running out of tiles to work. Don't now, what I should do here. Most probably, I will whip a forge after granary but only after the city gets a religion. Long term it will be mostly a production city, I think.



Future Moai spot, a very important city with excellent potential. A missionary from Vitall will go here.



This city doesn't even have a name yet. Will have a religion next turn and chop forge to increase efficiency of further chops.

[Gavagai]

While I was writing the previous post, turn rolled and I logged in to see this:



OK, Slowcheetah is making his move. I imagine he will spearhead towards Liberalism. Of course, I would prefer him to take it rather then Serdoa. Generally, the stronger Slowchhetah is, the less restricted are Serdoa's options to shut down my culture victory attempt. My movement for culture victory will actually be beneficial for Slowcheetah either - it will force Serdoa to invest resources in stopping me which would allow Slowcheetah to catch up. Of course, he doesn't want me to actually win, so he definitely would have a back up plan for the case if Serdoa would fail. But until then we are allies in this game.

Also, this:



I wonder where this settler is going. If he is going to take Rice/Banana spot, I will be really pissed. But I wouldn't be able to do much about it in near term because of this:



Yep, Sian has Feudalism. At least, I don't have to worry that Kurumi would take him out.

[Gavagai]

Interesting stuff... Looks like a pretty large piece of land. I think I should ferry a chariot here - I actually have one to spare. Quite possibly, I will have to wage a periphery war with Jowy for this island. I should be able to win it easily - I'm going to have a very narrow and easy to protect border after Egypt is eliminated. The question is if I would want to dedicate resources to this...



My chariot has run into a dead end and found Sian's Moai city.

[Gavagai]

I feel myself like an idiot now. Observe that a spear in the city has no movement points. I've been keeping it in a position to cover any of my workers if they are threatened but for some reason moved it away on this very turn (and yes, SC played before me). I don't think he would want to annoy me, I think he wants mostly to scout my land (I actually shouldn't allow this if I want to go for culture but I already let Yuri to map my territory, so I will need to assume that everyone has it anyway). Still, not the brightest of my moves...

[Gavagai]

This makes me reconsider the idea of going for CV once again. Jowy has five cows, three corns, two sheep connected while having less land than I do. This suggests a pretty rich land.



Also I suspect that he is quite isolated. This looks like a kind of isthmus, though a pretty broad one. Look at this:



He wasn't really building an army until recently. What if the isthmus we see is the only landbridge to his land? Pretty far-fetched hypothesis but the fact that he didn't want me to scout his land would fit into it nicely. Then if I conquer him, I won't have trouble in defending his land until Astronomy which Serdoa would want to delay. And with his land I would be strong enough to challenge Serdoa directly.
Will need to think about that. Jowy is technologically backward but he is catching up. I'm three techs away from Knights (Feudalism, HBR, Guilds), he is three techs away from Pikes (Machinery, Construction, Engineering). Most likely, we will need to fight at tech parity, except first turns of the war may be. It's also not helpful that I'm completely in the dark regarding his actual territory and I don't see how can fix that.

[Gavagai]

This game is a total disappointment in everything except wars with Egypt.
First, this happened:



Either someone got a low odds artist or Serdoa has discovered Music (WarriorKnight didn't have a sufficient score increase and I can see techs for others). Would he want to build Sistine? Why not, just to deny culture victory to others. Can I beat him? I can try by chopping the thing here:



but that will be highly suboptimal. Alternative is to give up the idea of culture win.

Also this:



Fuck you Sian. Just fuck you. Fuck you with a screwdriver. And this happened right after I wrote that this border is safe. I still can't see how my analysis is wrong. I mean, imagine that you have a maniac nearby who has the top power in the world and next to last everything else; imagine that you also have a friendly nation which has maces and crossbows while you haven't and which supplies you with horses. What would you do in this situation? Well, apparently you will piss on this friendly nation by settling right in their face. I mean, what can be a more stupid thing to do? Even attacking Slowcheetah would make more sense.
What I want to do? 1NE from those axes I have a combat2 shock axe and a worker, ready to finish a road. I can finish it move up my own settler which has just been completed in Karlye to a tile NW of my axe. Then I will DOW Sian to block his advance, leave an axe in place and move a spear from Karlye to cover it from potential Numidians in the fog. I will also queue up a crossbow in Karlye so that I'll be able to whip it next turn. Then I will need to shuffle my military police to compensate for the loss of Dye which I now receive from Sian.
What he will do if he is reasonable? Withdraw everything and offer peace. What he will do if he isn't? Well, he can move axes to pillage my gems and I won't be able to do anything about this.
Given his actions we have already witnessed - what do you think he will do?
Another problem is that I was initially going to delay this city for a reason. It doesn't have much worker labor immediately available and if I would want to chop Sistine in Jel, finding workers will be even more problematic.
Oh, well. Lots of things to think about...

[Gavagai]

By the way, Sian double-moved me to make this happen. It looks like he even doesn't realize that his actions are a declaration of a cold war and we should now observe a turn-order.

[Gavagai]

Call me a pussy, but basically I've decided to do nothing.
CV is off now, I think. It is becoming increasingly awkward. I planned to slow-build Sistine in Yark which isn't an option now. Yark is the weakest of my culture cities, it really doesn't have a lot of ways to accumulate cilture. Jel, the alternative Sistine spot, is really too vulnerable. Also, I still need to beat my competitors to Islam if I want to have any shot. To do Sistine/Islam quickly, I'll need to sacrifice going for guilds and banking early. I think this may absolutely destroy any chances to win normally.
And I think, I still have those chances. I still have a lot of space to expand into and have relatively quiet borders which doesn't require a lot of investments to protect. I will have stock exchanges and quick Oxford. Of course, I will still need something to happen to get Serdoa slowed down but this is a real possibility, I think.
And regarding Sian. Most rational thing to do is to allow him to settle that city, wait until he improves it and then take. It will be in a suboptimal location - I'm pretty sure he would want to give this city the fish. But I'm OK with any valid spot in this area.