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

[SleepingMoogle]

Even more reason for us not to delay it any longer, no?

[Ellimist]

Okay, we shouldn't delay it. Should we at least try to discourage him competing for it? I don't think we can possibly encourage him to go faster than he would already be going, but perhaps we can prevent him from going at all.

Something like:
"We've noticed some disturbing signs that you may be attempting to build the Colossus. As a courtesy, we'd like to inform you that we've significantly accelerated our timeframe for completion of the wonder.
Some of your recent statements in chat led us to this conclusion, so it is possible we are just being paranoid."

I don't think such a message would signal weakness as our relations so far have been friendly(the chat log I posted above was 2-3 times longer before I removed stuff irrelevant to this game.) If we avoid "you have no chance so give up" types of statements, I think we have a decent chance of preventing him from chasing the wonder.

[Ellimist]

Playing T65 now. Gonna check out some micro so it might take awhile.

[Ellimist]

Ok I put up signs explaining the micro. Basically the plan is to get copper hooked up ASAP. We should get copper when Canopus finishes the forge.
I had to run a turn of 0% science. I also set us to researching Masonry(2T)-Monotheism(3T) instead of Code of Laws(3T). At this point I think the slavery+OR benefits will be more important until the colossus actually finishes.

I didn't plan out far enough to give a completion date yet, but I'm pretty sure I have things optimized over the next 6-8 turns. I'm not sure whether to whip Canopus at all, but if we do, I think it should only be to actually finish the wonder.

[Ellimist]

Played another turn and founded Regulus in the yellow position on the dotmap. Found a nice potential city spot southeast of Regulus, but not what I'm looking for on the inner ring right now. I'd like a inner-coastal site that can build a decent navy. Other than whipping, this spot is pretty weak for production.

I realized after I ended turn that total expenses is now 11 gpt, but we're paying 2 gpt for unit upkeep. (Part of it will decrease when we move a warrior and galley back inside our borders soon.)

So we have several options here if we want to easily reduce our costs...

1) We can change course with Aleutian ballad and send the boat west. The boat will reach Kuro quickly and I can gift it to him in exchange for his boat that NobleLewwyn will give us, which we can use to net the fish at copper city.
2) We can delete either exploring work boat. Both are equidistant from Jkioan's land right now and the exploration they can do is nearly complete.
3) We can gift the boats to jkioan, perhaps in exchange for permission to circle his island.
4) We can deal with it and pay increased costs, but eventually(soon) we won't need either boat anyway.

I'm leaning toward #1 right now. If you want details of the "deal," it's in our email or probably Noble's thread. It's actually kinda silly, we're doing an elaborate unit-swap maneuver so that NobleLewwyn won't have to spend 30 hammers to get trade routes with us.
We don't really get anything out of it but maybe it will improve relations.

When I initially proposed it, our WB was adjacent to his capital, and I said we'd lend him our WB after it went to Jkioan and back. This wouldn't have given him trade routes with us for at least 20-30 turns, and I figured he wouldn't bother with it before then if he was expecting our WB to do the job. Unfortunately I didn't figure on Kuro's WB arriving to him so soon, but it's no big deal either way.


EDIT: This post seems a little unfocused... but it's 3 AM so it's the best I can do right now. I need to quit trying to squeeze extra turns in each day.

[SleepingMoogle]

After investing so many turns in CoL, switching focus (yet again) three turns before we finish it seems rather silly. We stand a good chance of claiming Confucianism, and I'd hate to lose out on it now because of this.

I'm also concerned about the rate with which we seem to be changing plans and adopting new ones. I'm all for adapting to new circumstances, but we're doing it so much that it's getting hard to grasp just what we're supposed to be doing, and all the investments into quickly abandoned plans will start adding up and hurting us if we keep this up.

[Ellimist]

I expect to get CoL soon. But getting OR quickly now seems more important if we may be in a wonder race.

We're the only team with an incentive to go for CoL so quickly. Kuro's already said that he's going math next(and he knows we're going CoL), so he's not likely to compete for Confucianism. NobleLewwyn has Judaism and would clearly get more benefit out of other techs, such as metal casting for cheap forges. I'm not sure what Jkioan are up to but they seem to be falling behind the rest of us, so I'm not particularly worried about them.

The only city that would need a quick border expansion is the copper city. If we were to get CoL in 3 turns and revolt into caste system, we wouldn't have access to slavery for a few turns, and I'd like to whip a granary in Regulus once it hits size 2 anyway.

I agree that changing focus too much isn't good, but it's just reprioritizing. No plans are being abandoned. The progress toward CoL will pay off soon when we complete the tech, and we can proceed as previously planned at that point.

[Ellimist]

Sirius started a settler, next turn we'll be able to whip it for 3 pop and overflow to the forge. This 6-3 whipping cycle seems pretty efficient for settler production.

The horses were pastured at Pollux last turn, but they aren't roaded yet. The city is growing quickly, so I started a cottage this turn. I'm thinking we can let the city grow to size 4 and 2-pop whip a worker next. Most of our cities will need some serious worker attention soon, especially Regulus with those floodplains.

A mine finishes at Canopus next turn and the city grows to work it soon after. That will bring the city's production to 16 hpt, which is great for all the +25% multipliers we can get.

Masonry finished EoT with enough overflow to take monotheism in 2 turns. We'll have to run another turn of gold though, founding Regulus increased our maintenance costs but also our TR income. It won't be long until we get another gold and some cottages up, though.

[Ellimist]

Settler is on its way, on schedule for T71. Copper is roaded and 2 workers are ready to have it hooked up on T72. One of them will start a gold mine afterwards while the other completes a (nearly done) road to Regulus and continues to improve that city. We'll be getting a work boat there soon for the fish, along with a border pop once we have access to caste artists. After that, the city will probably be most useful as a size 3-4 worker pump.

Pollux is growing quite rapidly due to the pig. The first riverside cottage is nearly done, after which I'd like to send that worker to Regulus. The worker on the home island is in place to start building another cottage at Sirius. Alternatively, it could start chopping Sirius's last forest, but the city needs more improved tiles.

Assuming the Colossus finishes before our first great person, it will introduce the possibility of getting a great merchant instead of a prophet. The odds will still be greatest for a prophet, but it won't be guaranteed. If we get a merchant, I think we should use it to lightbulb currency. The alternatives(trade mission, settling) will take a long time to pay off. If we want to prepare for this possibility, we should probably tech mathematics after CoL. Even if we get the prophet, math-currency should help us expand faster.

[SleepingMoogle]

I had a look at the save, and we kind of have a dire Worker shortage for now (and I hope those half-built roads were put down because the Workers had nothing else to do ). Once Pollux has finished that workboat, we should definitely 2-pop whip a Worker to replace the one you want to send to Regulus. We should strongly consider putting Sirius on a worker as well after it has regrown, otherwise we have cities working unimproved tiles and costing us maintenance. Regulus looks especially in need of some Worker attention.

Regarding the GP.. I don't really expect it to be a merchant, but Currency is a cheap enough tech that using a Merchant to bulb it is rather silly. We should settle it him in Regulus instead. +6 gpt is strong already, and will become even better under Bureaucracy. Speaking of which, if Regulus ends up as the Confucianism holy city, we should convert to it and build the shrine over the hindu one. Again because of Bureaucracy potential.