[SPOILERS] Charriu and Zalson are fighting the honorable post count war!

[Charriu]

Who is winning?

The 100 turn marker is a great point to talk about who is winning. This my current ranking:

1. Shallow: Had a great start and was leading the pack together with Coeurva for the main part. His neighbors are RFS, Magic, Superdeath and Me. Superdeath and Magic got into a war pretty early and RFS is lacking from the start, so that gave Shallow a lot of uncontested space to expand to and being Imperalistic didn't hurt him either. Right now his fighting RFS and will likely take some more cities making him a monster in this game. Next target is propably the gems from Superdeath. The only good thing is by taking out RFS he is then neighbor to Coeurva/OT4E.
   
2. Coeurva/OT4E: same as Shallow they had a great start. They have the same neighbors as Shallow and therefore also had room to expand. Snatching that Oracle and Buddhism was a great bonus. Superdeath also fears them, which is why the land between them is still unsettled. He also expanded peacefully into RFS territory. Their Stonehenge move was very aggressive, but the right thing to do. The only reason why I'm counting them second is because my first war with them hurt them a little bit and I intend to fight back hard in our second war. A lot will depend on how good they will use their upcoming praetorians.
   
3. Magic: We are leaving the Top 2 and are getting to the midfield. He fought well in the early "War of no gains" and although he lost a city he worked himself back in a great way. I must admit I don't know much about his land. He lost a settler race against Shallow for the silver, but kept on going. Without the "War of no gains" he would have gotten that silver. The way he's constantly coming back and not given up earned him the third spot in my opinion.
   
4. Superdeath: I still think that the early "War of no gains" was a mistake on his side, not because he may not got something out of it like a bit of pillaging gold and/or workers, but mainly because it helped Shallow and Coeurva/OT4E. Nonetheless he expanded fast thanks to the barb cities. He still has a lot of open space towards Coeurva/OT4E which he will have to settle sooner then later. The fight for the gems spot will lead into a war with Shallow sooner or later and I doubt that Superdeath can keep up with him. He could have easily been my 3rd pick, but I put him in 4th place because of one main flaw: He is not focused enough. He plays 2 sometimes 3 MP games at once and said himself that he does not focus so much on one game.
   
5. Me: Well how did I got here. It's mainly due to the following factors: My traits were not that good as an early boost: Pro is awesome and I will likely take it again, but I feel like I'm not the right guy for Agg. Main problem here is that 3 players had great early bonus traits and two of them are now in Top 2. The second reason is that I let myself being boxed in. RFS settled in my direction as did Shallow. Superdeath taking the barb city near gems stopped me there and Coeurva took the gold. This actually brings me to my third reason: Not expanding to the gold as quickly as possible. I think settling Magissa before the gold was a mistake in the end. If I had gone for the gold first, I could have gotten it before T70. With Coeurva/OT4E playing a great game at the border, I'm now stuck in stagnation and I will have to fight a defensive war in a few turns. Things are not looking great right now.
   
6. RFS: He made a lot of mistakes from the beginning, which is mainly because is new to Civ. I think growing to the happy cap in his capitol before building a settler was a big mistake and slowed him down in the beginning. After that he kept on growing his cities and forgot about expanding. That's mainly his biggest mistake, not expanding fast enough. Trying to settle the gold in T70 was also a big mistake. How would he have supported that city without any cities between his core and the gold. Right now he's feeling the MP heat and will likely go down against his neighbors. Oh I totally forgot to mention his absolute bonkers combination of Mongolia with Fin/Exp, which was very strange and bad in the end.
   

[Charriu]

T101:

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Coeurva/OT4E moved a worker to his stack to rebuild the road. Well at least I forced him to move a worker in. I pretty much did what I already described in my last report. I will likely pillage the road 2N of Lighthouse too. Oh and as you can see I deceided to rename Lighthouse now to Liquid Flame, how fitting. I intend to keep that city and therefore I should make my intentions clear enough.

In other international news somebody else also got a Great Scientist and RFS did decline my open border agreement. I decided to send him another open border, but I added an iron to sweeten the deal. Maybe the fight with Shallow is bad enough so that he may need it sooner then later.



Coeurva/OT4E did get some more units, but my unit production just started last turn. You've choosen the wrong target Coeurva/OT4E , athough I can understand the urge for revenge.

[Charriu]

T102:

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Sorry for being lazy and not merging those screenshots together. Very interesting moves happened. First Shallow and RFS already signed peace. That's very strange as no city have changed between them. I wonder what caused this. RFS also took the chance to send a settler back to his Utopia spot. Second OT4E retreated most of his units into the fog. At first I thought this could mean he is not attacking, but I think that this is a trick. He has a worker on the forest and can build a road soon; with that he can move quickly towards me. I left most of my unit production running. Only if he starts a war with somebody else (RFS) will I feel safe.



The first praetorian showed up at my doorstep. I hope that the Monument prevents the tile 1NW of Forza flipping to OT4E.



OT4E is pushing hard in power, but that is to be expected. It also looks like there were not many battles between RFS and Shallow. Speaking of Shallow he did send me 2 empty deals followed by another crab for crab deal. I think he was a bit afraid because of my defensive units for blue dot.




Speaking of blue dot; it is now called Iron Claw. I plan to chop once into a barracks followed by walls. That should give me a decent position against any invaders.

[Charriu]

Poor RFS, first I declare war on him. Then on the turn we signed peace, Shallow attacked him. And now the same turn that Shallow signed peace he got an attack by Magic. That's hard to take. Magic also accomplished what Shallow did not, taking a city. That's actually very good.

[Charriu]

T103:

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Mh could it really be that OT4E called of the attack? I take that gamble and put most of my cities on to research. As you can see RFS also settled the Utopia spot.



The monument in Forza also stopped OT4E's culture so far.



Still OT4E's power increases are scary,but staying 2nd in power may put him to a different target.



I was right in Magic declaring war against RFS, but not only that Shallow also joined the war again. I wonder what caused this brief peace. Nonetheless Shallow being in another war will give Iron Claw enough time to develop.

[Charriu]

T104:

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Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

I have a slight case of deja vu, but this time it was only 3 turns away. Who got it?



Superdeath. Curse you.




And to add to the tragedy: Forza is still loosing in the culture war. Now the tile is down to 52%. I have to find a way to prevent this tile from swapping.

The only good thing from the Great Lighthouse desaster is that I got enough fail gold to finish currency soon. I've put most of my cities on Research and will finish currency in T107. The fact that Magic also got currency will help get Currency with a bit more overflow.



To end the report on a good thing. Apparently another forest has grown some time around T95 - T100, which I didn't notice. In total that's been 4 forest grown inside of my territory this game and another one near the iron from Liquid Flame, while it was under rule from RFS. Maybe I'm going to a new record in this regard.

EDIT: Oh and as you may have noticed. The screenshot quality improved, because I finally finished my new PC.

[Charriu]

Right now I'm thinking about what to tech next. I see the following options:

Wartime (Metal Casting (448) -> Machinery (1046) = (1494))

Pro:

• More improvements for the workers (Workshop, Watermill, Windmill and Lumbermill)
  
• Forges for unit production
  
• CKNs, big advantage against other mainly melee civs.
  
• Maybe an option for Colossus
  
• Trebuchets
  
• Taking the most advantage of my Agg and Pro traits
  

Con:

• High beaker costs with no KTB and other multiplicators
  
• Cities remain and max size of 6 because of happiness cap (8 with market)
  
• Military advantage could be gone by the time I get to Machinery.
  

Luxuries (Mathematics (373) -> Calendar (522) = (895))

Pro:

• Lowest base beaker cost.
  
• Around 18 forest remaining for chopping with the chopping bonus
  
• 2 more happiness from Sugar and Spice, maybe another one from Silk if I can reach it.
  
• Option for going to construction (cats)
  

Con:

• Not much additional things to do for the workers except those two luxuries + the banana.
  
• Benefit from the tile improvements are neglectable
  
• Both wonders are to expensive right now.
  
• No clear plan for attack, which leaves path open for other players.
  

Religious Monarchy (Polytheism (149) -> Monotheism (179) -> Meditation (119) -> Priesthood (89) -> Monarchy (448) = (984))

Pro:

• Beaker cost is higher than in the Luxury plan, but with KTB and some multipliers it should be even.
  
• Maybe I'm able to get Judaism. (Possible in T109)
  
• Happiness and culture from state religion
  
• Temple and Monastery in Forza for it's culture battle.
  
• With Judaism I could run Organized Religion giving a nice hammer bonus around my cities.
  
• With Judaism some cities could start growing pretty soon.
  
• Temple of Artemis could be an option for Forza's culture battle (+8 culture, 350 hammers and marble as resource). Risk of somebody else building this is very low I suppose.
  
• +1 Happiness from Wine
  
• As much Happiness as I need from Monarchy
  
• Could go for Feudalism after that for defense or Code of Law
  

Con:

• Risk of loosing Judaism to anybody else.
  
• Anarchy turns (could be eliminated with an golden age, another Great Scientist is in the making in Karlabos)
  
• Absolutely nothing new to do for the workers.
  
• No clear plan for attack, which leaves path open for other players.
  

Right now I'm pending between Wartime and Religious Monarchy.

[Zalson]

Your happy cap is what, 6, still? I'd recommend a beeline to Monarchy to relieve that for you. What's the diff on meditation > priesthood > monarchy compared with the mono route? The mono route is more hammers, but the mulitplier structure means it's a lot lower.

ToA isn't a very good choice for an inland city; there aren't a lot of traderoute multipliers you can use. I'd recommend that you take the city instead; that was a really cheeky plant. With machinery, you should be able to take it down.

Happy will lead to more economy. So, perhaps the mono route is the best? If you focus your population into Forza, you can drop your holy city there which might help you resolve that cultural pressure.

[Charriu]

Your happy cap is what, 6, still? I'd recommend a beeline to Monarchy to relieve that for you. What's the diff on meditation > priesthood > monarchy compared with the mono route? The mono route is more hammers, but the mulitplier structure means it's a lot lower.

ToA isn't a very good choice for an inland city; there aren't a lot of traderoute multipliers you can use. I'd recommend that you take the city instead; that was a really cheeky plant. With machinery, you should be able to take it down.

Happy will lead to more economy. So, perhaps the mono route is the best? If you focus your population into Forza, you can drop your holy city there which might help you resolve that cultural pressure.

Meditation -> Priesthood-> Monarchy would be 656 in total and the diff would be 328 no multipliers considered.

About ToA I absolutely agree with you. The main reason why I brought it up for Forza is the +8 culture, but you are right that taking the city is better in the long run. I will also look into how I could drop the holy city in Forza.

[Zalson]

I think what you would want to do 2t before you finish Mono, 2x whip all other cities that aren't the capital to have a size lower than Forza.

That should almost ensure that Forza gets the holy city.