[SPOILERS] Rusten and Hitru laugh off any and all mistakes as bad RNG

[Rusten]

Eastern wb actually ran into one of BGN's work boats, so circumnavigation is not far off. If he only has the 1 wb we might still beat him to it.
This is one of those things that show how small events can impact the game in a very different way later. If our scout had not died unluckily to the lion on T12 then we'd have scouted the tip of the island early on. That would mean that our early wb would not have had to traverse the southern path along our island to check for seafood which then ended in the blind alley island to the east. If our first wb had been able to go north instead we might've circumnavigated by now, or at least be very close.

Demos still looking good, and this is just before many of our cities really take off too (granary+LH completed in the fishing villages):




3 turns for CoL and religion (hopefully). But if we don't make it there first Taoism with philosophy is the backup plan. SummerOfGeorge (stone+copper) will have the required production to make missionaries even in caste, and founding one of these later religions come with a free missionary to spread faith there too.

[Rusten]

100 culture in MarineBiologist is now looking all the more reasonable. Tried to manipulate holy city spawn and luck was on our side this time around. Also got insta-spread to capital. Not needed, but the less missionaries we need in the long run the better.




We'll have a wb ready to scout that western passage when it's available. Think it's about 11 turns from now.
Also ran into a DZ trireme in the east, so we expect to find the rival green territory soon. Very good news as there's some rich land between us that he might've contested if he was more on the REX train than the OCC path.
Also worthy of note that he was seemingly in a turn split last turn and his capital size 3 on the top cities list.

F4 screen also reveals that BGN is at war with Gavagai.

[Rusten]

The coinflip turned out to be a GS (54% vs 46% I believe in the end). We had warmed up to the idea of a GE and sorta preferred it, but it's very close and I'm fine with either result. On the bright side this makes our decisions much easier. We no longer have to weigh the pros and cons of early literature vs early MC/currency or academy vs lightbulb. In the event of a GE we were favouring not getting an academy at all and using the 2nd GP on philosophy, but as it stands there's a big dead period, so academy it is. We won't have bureaucracy until astronomy, but it's still a 50+ commerce (and some scientists) capital. Even if our science slider will be low for some time there are gains to be had.

[Rusten]

There's no stopping this game, huh? I might have to be the one asking for a pause as it could be tricky to play from the 24th until the evening 26th. Remainder of the Christmas period should not be a problem.
Lost circumnavigation to BGN by 2 turns -- can't have it all I suppose. And RIP superdeath. I feel for him -- protective skrimishers are no fun. We were close to making contact as we had resource network established (also with Commodore) last turn, but not met either civ officially.

Shrinkage, which will never see size 2, was settled to prepare settling eastwards.  Coastal culture bridge enabled in a couple of turns. In particular there's a fish+sugar spot we want to get to.




But that's not the only cultural bridge I was looking at. Ran an artist in HappyFestivus to check out the SE landmass and it's definitely worth a city or two -- forests and seafood is already enough to merit at least 1 city.




After spending most of the early game behind on GNP we are now ahead on break even slider. Rival best is naufragar I believe, who is not getting +gpt anymore this turn and has 167 saved up. This will improve further when we get currency, which is a minumum of +22 gpt. Maybe it's +24, I've forgotten how many cities we have. 




In terms of builds the most notable are units being produced in SummerOfGeorge to support settling east and 2 settlers due in ~3 and ~6 turns.

[Krill]

Got a world map?

[Rusten]

Sure. Don't have the time to make proper edits right now, so forgive the UI mess -- it was done in a rush. Can upload something more...... "professional" at a later point.

Zoomed out:




Screenshot merges (warning: big resolution):

[Krill]

Thanks for the world maps.

FWIW, and if you like making world maps, flying camera (ALT+F), needs to be enabled in the .ini and removing the screen interface (Ctrl+i) allows you to take screenshots that are extremely easy to match up (especially if you also have grid lines on).

[superdeath]

tech path? Any blood on the horizon?

[Rusten]

No blood until astronomy if things go according to plan. Good land available to settle and if we're not 1st to astronomy then we'd have no way to defend captured land anyway. In fact much of the scouted available land is better than our starting area.

Currency was deemed the most important so that's next, followed by monotheism (OR) --> MC (triremes, OR forges) --> philosophy (pacifism). The days of cottaging are long past. The ones that were put down early are still being worked, but it's all workshops and farms from this point on -- goes well with caste which is a required civic for fishing villages. Need to have a way to turn our food/pop lead* into production come astronomy so cottages at this point would be a mistake in cities other than the capital. Reaching astronomy super early and then not having a way to amass an army is questionable. Production could quickly become bottleneck with a representation+caste setup, and drafting is not available during this time. Therefore I'm looking to get guilds for the +1 workshop hammer (and knights) and putting 2 scientists into astronomy at about the same time. Then it's go time -- there should be somebody weak to gobble up. After that drafting muskets as the bulk of our forces seems the way to go for this map, and heading further down the bottom part of the tech tree.

*We actually have 21+% of the world population right now, and that number has been growing steadily. Many people think of pyramids for the science bonus, but for the early game the happiness bonus is even more important. It shows here, and we made the right decision pursuing it as hard as we did.

[Rusten]

Approaching global trade embargo time....

Naufragar cancelled OB even though he was gaining more from the routes than us. Maybe he was close to filled up by now, or they got replaced by other civs after cancelling, but it's annoying/worrying to see all those green lines in the F4 screen between everyone except us. My dream of getting routes from both Commodore and naufragar when currency is in (3 turns from now) was short-lived. I'll appreciate every turn of Commodore trade routes I can get, but I fear those are also coming to an end. Mercantilism can't come soon enough.

I may try to ask for OB in exchange for OB+gpt, but I fear even that will get declined.
Perhaps BGN will agree to OB now that he's located our borders and he also can benefit. Worth a try.