[SPOILERS] Isabella of Carthage, starring Ellimist, SleepingMoogle, and Nicolae

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Pretty highly, shame we're not PHI to get a fast 1st GPerson. If we want a GEngineer first, then we'd need to immediately build a forge and work an engineer to beat the GPPs from the Oracle. Otherwise, if we work our engineer after our 3rd city, then we'll get a GProphet first. I now think it's not worth doing so, running too many specialists hurts our growth curve too badly, and the 'mids and Colossus don't synergise (in the former, you want to cap your growth with specialists, in the latter you want to grow onto coast tiles).

[Ellimist]

I agree we shouldn't work too many specialists, but the pyramids gives us higher happy caps as well thanks to hereditary rule and/or representation. And of course there are other wonders like the great library that an engineer could build.

[Ellimist]

Looks like we may see another turn tonight. Jkaen has the save and Ioan and Kuro are both logged in to the forum.

[Ellimist]

Based on the equator bump, we should make contact with another civ on T49, unless their WB also heads our direction. I'd like to obtain open borders, and circle the island if they'll allow it, before heading east to the southeastern player.

Also, I think I figured out how to squeeze out the Oracle a turn sooner without a whip. I would ask that I be the one to play the next turn(T45, 2200 BC), so that I can make it work.

Pottery and the WB in Sirius finished at EOT. Sirius is currently working an unimproved forest with one citizen, but I might swap to the whales. It's a trade off of 1 hammer or 2 commerce. I did forest for this turn for max overflow to granary.
Both cities will grow at EOT 47 unless we change something. A rivered-grassland-hill mine will finish for Canopus before it grows so it won't need to use one of the mines it shares with Sirius.

[SleepingMoogle]

We'll need Writing before we can request open borders. If we work on Sailing next, we'd need to rely on the other Civ being able to open them.

About the Pyramids. If we want them, we'd have to use the Forge method somewhere. But I'm not sure how wise it is.. REX'ing after we land the Oracle (and Colossus later on) seems like a better idea.

[Ellimist]

Yeah, let's forget about the pyramids. I still like the idea of getting an engineer when when we can, though.

We'll have sailing and writing not long after our workboat reaches our southern neighbor. If they are cooperative(and why wouldn't they be?), we should be able to get trade routes shortly.

[Ellimist]

Okay, the micro is sorted, the save is sent. We're on track for a T50 Oracle with 3 workers and no whip.

Canopus at T45, inside:

Canopus at T45, outside:

Another forest was chopped for Canopus this turn, with 2 left to go. The Oracle is at 89/150 at the end of this turn, and the city will work 2 more turns of 4 hammers per turn before it grows to size 4(97/150). Two forest chops will add 40 more hammers(137/150). A mine finishes next turn, so the city will be able to work it immediately after it grows. The city will work 2 turns of 7 hammers, bringing it to 151/150. Hopefully fast enough to beat NobleLewwyn.

The workboat finished in Sirius and was named Arctic Dawn before sailing to the east. I swapped Sirius from the 2F1H forest to the 2F2C whales tile. It delays the granary by one turn(4 turns instead of 3), but speeds up sailing by one turn(4 turns instead of 5). We're losing 2 gold a turn at 100% and have 8 gold in the bank, so we'll have sailing done before we have to run a turn of 100% gold.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Good job on Oracle, thanks for doing the micro.

Also, unlike Poly, I don't think we'll need to boost getting sailing by a turn, we want to start on the Galley after the Granary comes in. Once our workers are finished with the oracle, I think we should start farming Sirius.

Edit: Wait actually I misread that, yeah, go ahead and work the whales, so we can immediately start the Galley.

[Ellimist]

Good job on Oracle, thanks for doing the micro.

Also, unlike Poly, I don't think we'll need to boost getting sailing by a turn, we want to start on the Galley after the Granary comes in. Once our workers are finished with the oracle, I think we should start farming Sirius.

Well unless I boost sailing, the granary will finish 2-3 turns before it comes in. A 1 turn delay on the granary will allow us to overflow into the galley, but shouldn't cost us any food due to timing and game mechanics. Plus there is a chance that whoever we contact down south will have writing, and earlier sailing may mean earlier trade routes. Due to binary research and running out of gold in 4 turns, a 1 turn delay in sailing is actually a 2 turn delay. Of course we don't have to use binary, and it may not be gaining us much efficiency anyway. Getting to writing as soon as possible is definitely a priority.

After the chopping is finished, I'd like to put another mine(maybe 2) at Canopus since the workers are already in place. They can get it done quickly and then farm/chop Sirius. Right now all the resources are connected by the rivers, so roads aren't that important. They don't seem that helpful for movement until we have bridge building, either.

[SleepingMoogle]

Canopus looks destined to be a hammer city, but once Francisco finishes that mine, we are basically at the max amount of tiles the city can support by borrowing mines from Sirius (4 + 1 for gold, +1 for religion, -1 for having no MP unit). I suppose we can build one more mine to reduce the reliance on borrowing tiles from the capital, but until we can increase our happy cap further (by hooking up the Ivory, say), I would favor connecting the two cities by road so units can move quickly between them. This would also move the Workers back to Sirius so we can plan to free them up to improve tiles at city 3, or to place cottages at the capital. If we make Canopus a hammer city, there's no need to give Sirius a hammer focus too. It's not destined to be a high commerce city, but we can always consider moving the capital to a more suitable mainland location later on.

Do we want to build the Colossus in Sirius by the way? It has some forests covering river grassland that could be converted into Cottages, but these should be saved until we have Copper hooked up at least. The tile W of Sirius is probably the first cottage target if we're going for that. :-)

Quick edit: How about leaving one Worker at Canopus to place another Mine and be in place to build a Camp on the Ivory as soon as we research Hunting, and have the other two road back to Sirius? I doubt we'll have room to ship all three to the Copper city location anyhow, so depending on the situation we can either transfer two, or have one start chopping those forests at Sirius into the Colossus.