[SPOILERS] Bismarck of Mali (NobleHelium and Lewwyn)

[NobleHelium]

Played turn 67. We definitely made some mistakes.

Maintenance went up a lot so tech is going to take a while longer. We definitely should have revolted to Judaism last turn, since we don't actually get a turn of two settlers active next turn (Boron will be founded). Oh well. Next turn we revolt to Judaism. Turn off tech.

I put a turn into a lighthouse in Helium since I really want to grow it to 6, maybe 7 if possible. Next turn (well the turn after due to the anarchy) it can finish the work boat and overflow back into the lighthouse. There wasn't any need to finish the work boat this turn since borders will not pop soon enough even with a Judaism spread, and units are costing maintenance now. We're actually paying 2 away cost as well, so founding Boron should alleviate that.

In Hydrogen we want to dump the overflow into the library before finishing the warrior. I think we can ship the Hydrogen garrison warrior with the settler as well, but I'm not sure. After dumping the library we can finish the warrior, which will actually take a few turns...we are losing one whip unhappiness in 2 turns, which should be able to tide us over until the warrior finishes. Or we could work the mine for one turn to finish it sooner, I don't know. I probably should have pulled the Lithium warrior over, who can arrive in 3 turns (2 real turns). I've currently moved the middle mainland warrior towards the Carbon location, if we're shipping the Hydrogen warrior then he can go back to exploring the west.



Nice horse city location over here. We want this warrior to explore all the way down to Jkioan until we get trade routes I think. So make sure to defog the entire coast.



For the pair of workers on the island, I think next turn we want to road with both of them. Then turn after that they move to the tile 1W of Lithium and put two turns into a cottage. Turn after that one worker moves over and puts another turn into that cottage tile. Other worker stays put and finishes the cottage. Then the moving worker goes to the forest and chops something, and slowly builds cottages for Beryllium. Other worker (after finishing the cottage) builds a road to provide a link, and then can cottage the last tile or whatever.



Demos took a hit mostly due to slaving, but also due to mistakes (some micro, and the macro part with not taking into account unit maintenance). We're still doing decently, not a huge deal. Not doing the C&D for now.

[NobleHelium]

Actually I'm not sure if we want to finish the work boat yet at all. Unless we want to give the rice back to Helium, which isn't a terrible idea...

[Lewwyn]

Yes we want to finish the WB and have Bery switch off the rice later.

Why do we need to switch to Judaism? We aren't in OR yet, we don't need the happy and we only have judaism in one city.

I've got you on chat now so we'll talk there.

[NobleHelium]

C&D, let's see. Turn 66, EMC grew their capital back to 6, third city to 2, and planted fourth (6-6-2-1). That's three pop growths, which should account for all 20 points. Kuro grew one to 3 (4-3-2-1). Jkioan finally grew a city to 2, at 5-2-1. Turn 67, EMC got a no-power ancient tech. Aren't people out of ancient techs by now? Jkioan double whipped their capital, and renamed their third city to Austin Powers. Kuro grew two cities, up to 4-3-3-2.

[NobleHelium]

Kuro
Agriculture (0), Wheel (0), Mining (6), Bronze Working (18), Fishing (23), Hunting (29), Pottery (36), Sailing? (41), Animal Husbandry? (45), Writing (50), Mysticism? (56), Masonry? (58)
Cities: 4, 3, 3, 2

EMC
Fishing (0), Mining (0), Agriculture (7), Bronze Working (20), Mysticism (25), Polytheism (33), Priesthood (38), Wheel (42), Pottery (44), Sailing (48), Hunting (51), Animal Husbandry (54), Writing (57), No-Power Tech (63), No-Power Tech (67)
Cities: Sirius(6), Canopus(6), Pollux(2), Regulus(1)

Jkioan
Hunting (0), Mysticism (0), Fishing (4), Meditation (13), Agriculture (20), Mining (25), Bronze Working (35), Priesthood (39), Wheel (45), Pottery (49), Sailing (54), No-Power Tech (60), Some Tech [coincided with a 2k power increase] (65)
Cities: James Bond(3), 2, 1

NobleLewwyn
Wheel (0), Mining (0), Agriculture (7), Bronze Working (20), Mysticism (27), Fishing (32), Pottery (35), Polytheism (42), Priesthood (45), Sailing (52), Hunting (53), Masonry (55), Monotheism (59), Animal Husbandry (63), Writing (67)
Cities: Hydrogen(3), Helium(5), Lithium(3), Beryllium(1)

[NobleHelium]

Played the turn, quick summary. We should be at -16 gpt at 100% with Boron founded, 34 gpt at 0%. So that means breakeven is slightly under 70%. So we need 1 turn of gold for every 2 turns of research. We need about 8 turns of 100% for MC, and we have ~1.3 turns of gold in the bank. So we need to do 2-3 turns of gold. 2 might be enough since the ETA might very well have gone down due to new trade routes and whatnot, but maintenance will also go up most likely so it's hard to say.

Found another fish near the double horse location, it's totally awesome now. Hydrogen has been vacated, and Lithium's warrior has started to head over. It will definitely get to Hydrogen before happiness becomes a problem (grows next turn, then turn after that the warrior arrives). We can send a warrior back to Lithium after Hydrogen completes one. Remember to switch back to the warrior after dumping the overflow into a library.

Boron pasture will take 4 turns (3 real turns). Boron will grow in 6 turns and finish the granary in 8 turns (working a forest at size 2). Probably won't want to whip the granary but not 100% sure yet. Completing the work boat next turn in Helium is okay, will cost us 1 gpt though. No further natural spreads so far.

Edit: apparently anarchy still decreases the whip counter! So we might not need the warrior in Hydrogen at all. But we won't be able to complete that warrior before regrowth to 5 unless we work a mine next turn. Not sure if we're going to need the warrior in Lithium or not.

[NobleHelium]

So yeah, as I said, I found even more fish near the horses on turn 68:



And the cities screen is now drastically different.



EMC whipped their capital from 6 to 3, probably another settler? Maybe our double city founding rattled them a bit. Their third city (Pollux) grew to 3, resulting in a net 2-pop loss (3-6-3-1). Kuro's second city (Feferi) grew to 5 (5-3-3-2).

Now let's see an overview shot for turn 69.



The sign annotations are rather complicated. First I figured out how to make up for my micro error (a bit ) in not landing the second mainland worker on the pigs. Instead of going to improve Carbon as previously planned, it will go pasture the pigs instead . Next turn it moves NW and puts one turn into a road. Then it moves west onto the pigs and helps complete the pasture the turn after that. That speeds up the pasture by one turn. Then the workers can mine the hill and road the pigs, then chop forests for a library or build cottages or whatever. We could probably save the forests until Mathematics, it's too small to benefit much from the library anyway.

You can see the two island workers highlighted. They built that road this turn. Next turn they can move into Hydrogen with all their movement, and the galley will correspondingly move one tile into the city. Then the workers will load into the galley and the galley will move back out. Turn after that the galley can move into Carbon, and then UNLOAD THE WORKERS. Make sure to unload the workers manually so that they keep all their movement. After unloading they can both move onto the flood plains and start cottaging. That should take 3 turns, 2 real turns. Then they can split up and start roading/chopping the hills or whatever.

I finished the work boat in Helium. I think it should just straight out build the lighthouse now, the library will take a while and not be that beneficial if the gold is worked by one of the other cities. When Lithium grows to 4 (taking the gold), we will put a turn into a worker and again whip it down to 2, overflowing back into the lighthouse.

As you can see, Hydrogen grew to 4 and is still not into unhappiness yet. It currently has 1 happy free. Growing to 5 may take 1 or 2 happy, not sure if the "no garrison" counter will increase. It definitely needs to swap back to the warrior next turn and finish it in 3 turns. Let's keep the warrior in between both cities for now, since it can move into either city in one turn should one of them become unhappy. Once Hydrogen finishes its warrior it can move back to Lithium.

Explorers didn't really find anything this turn. I forgot last turn that we haven't founded Carbon yet, so maintenance is definitely going to go up. We're still paying 2+1 gpt for unit maintenance, so that should go down with the new city and increased pop. MC is actually showing a 9 turn ETA at 100%, so we most likely need two more turns of gold before turning on tech.



Jkioan grew their capital back to 4, and whipped another city down to 1 (4-1-1). EMC gained 11 points. 6-7 are from growing Canopus to 7, and the rest should be from third ring land points from Canopus. I went back to turn 49 and noticed the average land value went up by 666, which is 2 tiles, which is ~5 points. Kuro has a fifth city, and is now at 5-4-3-2-1 city sizes (I think). He has something for descending order population size, I swear.

[NobleHelium]

Played turn 70. Founded Carbon. I must say the mainland has been remarkably easy to dotmap now that I figured out the area across from Hydrogen. It's like Krill created a dotmap and then filled in the resources accordingly. I was going to make a composite map or something like that, but it seems flying camera can't be used with the game paused (after EOT), so that'll have to wait until the next turn.

I did find cows in the south.



The warrior will go south onto the hill and then 2SE to defog all the coast tiles.



Tracking population is starting to get very difficult. The main benefit of it is so that we can see when people are getting techs. Hopefully that means EMC isn't able to track our tech anymore, so they won't notice when we tech MC. They've defogged both Hydrogen and Helium though, so it might be a lot easier for them.

Hmm, well, a size 7 city should be 232k population based upon the difference between turn 68 and turn 69. That leaves 70 population left over. Their other cities were 3-3-1 previously. Size 3 is 21k. Size 4 is 48k. So their capital grew back to 4, and they are now at 4-7-3-1. That still leaves about 8 points left over. I'm going to say that the previous EMC land points was in fact their capital third ring, which they got later than us because we got a monument in Hydrogen from Stonehenge, and they presumably didn't get a religion spread. And then this turn's land points are the third ring from Canopus, presumably 3 tiles (total rival land also went up by 3 tiles on turn 50). Kuro was previously at 5-4-3-2-1. They gained 27k pop from previous, which is a 3->4 growth. So they are now at 5-4-4-2-1. Whew.

Also MC is showing 8 turns at 100%. We are losing 20 gpt at full research. And a ~67% breakeven means 1 turn of gold for 2 turns of research, no idea why I said 1:3 earlier . We'll be over 150 gold after next turn, so we'll probably need one more turn of gold after that. Unit maintenance is now down to 1 (damn Beryllium work boat - I finished it early just in case Judaism spreads which it hasn't done since the Lithium spread ). I don't think we'll finish the Hydrogen library until research is almost complete. That's pretty stupid but I can't think of a better way to do it. We could potentially whip Hydrogen again and overflow into it, we'll see.

Also, we've found no further luxuries or the wonder resources, so I'm really starting to think that Krill placed the remaining ones on the center island. Unfortunately that center island is looking very small right now, so that might be the flashpoint of the entire game.

[NobleHelium]

Played turn 71. Found a luxury in the jungle belt. A calendar resource of course.



I decided not to move onto the hill since I noticed via tile bleed that the tile east of the dyes is the apsis of the donut, and I didn't want to miss defogging a coast tile or whatever. Next turn we move SE onto the dyes.

We got a quite fortunate natural spread to...Beryllium! This means the borders pop in 3t rather than 6t. That's very good since we'll now be able to give the rice back to Helium after the pop. That's why I finished the work boat sooner than I had to. We can park the work boat south of the clams there to stay inside borders to avoid away costs, which we're close to the cap with.

Apparently my flying camera flag in the config file got reset for some reason, and that's why I couldn't use it last turn. So here's that overview shot:



1SE of the rice might be good for another city location. I am sorely tempted to found on that inner coast location next. It's not that much of a reach and it will let us see what is on that center island which I'm dying to find out.

Hydrogen did not grow into unhappiness and will be able to finish the warrior next turn, so we need to send the zone garrison back to Lithium. Next turn we whip the worker in Lithium so that we can resume improving the island. After the lighthouse finishes in Helium I'm probably going to put a few turns into the library until it grows before putting out a quick worker to put a cottage on that plains tile. Without the rice there won't be enough food to work it, but we can juggle the rice between the cities and go with a slight food deficit in Helium for most turns. That gives Helium another hammer tile. Or we can juggle the gold instead, which is actually a slightly better hammer:food ratio obviously. Either way I want more workers on the island and we'll want a cottage on that tile sooner or later.

I'm having trouble deciding on a military pump city. I think we definitely want one on the mainland simply because it's really annoying having to ship units across the channel, but many of the cities on the mainland are mostly for commerce. Carbon actually has a large number of hills, but I want it to work those nice flood plains also. Ideally if it's large enough it can use the flood plains to feed the mines and do both, but I don't think we want it to grow that large for a while. The double horse city gets an equivalent four mines plus a hilled pig, which is a good amount of hammers. But its location is rather bad and I don't think we'll need that much military on our southern border.

We'll need one more turn of gold I think. Better than running out of gas at the end after we've put a library up at any rate.



EMC planted a fifth city with that recently triple whipped settler. That accounts for 1k of the 33k pop increase. 27k is from another 3->4 growth. And 5k is from a 1->2 growth. So they're now at 4-7-4-2-1 size cities. That accounts for about 19 points of their 25 point increase, and I'm fairly sure there aren't any land points, which means they researched yet another ancient tech (corroborated by the top GNP drop). Their power went up by 5k, and 1k is from population. The other 4k are likely from units or whatever, the 2k techs are gone and the other 4k techs are not researchable yet. Jkioan built a fourth city, again named New City. One of their other cities grew to 2 (4-2-1-1). Kuro's third city was planted on turn 51, and it gained 3 new land tiles. That's 7-8 points. That leaves about 19 points left over. Kuro has 208k pop. Previously they were at 193k. 15k is exactly a 2->3 increase. So most likely he got one new pop to become 5-4-4-3-1 and got a classical tech. Total rival power went up by 9k, 5k is for EMC, 1k for Jkioan, leaving 3k. Not sure what Kuro's 3k power is, a barracks maybe. Anyway it's not tech. That's assuming I've guessed correctly and he only got one pop this turn of course. There might be some weird combination of whipping and growing that also results in a net 15k increase but I'm not going to try out all the possibilities, and it's quite unlikely because of how nonlinear the pop function is.

[NobleHelium]

Let's have a trade screen comparison.



So, nobody has hooked up copper yet. So no need to fear a maneuver like Lewwyn's double-axe-on-a-galley that he likes to consider/agitate for, right now anyway. In one of my earlier chats with Ellimist he kind of seemed to hint that he saw a mined copper in Kuro's lands even though it wasn't hooked up.

The resources overall aren't that interesting I guess. Kuro has a corn on his mainland, EMC has a pig. The other stuff is probably from the island, although maybe one of Kuro's clams is on the mainland. That either means they haven't been very fast at improving resources at their new cities (I hope so ), or more likely they haven't bothered to hook them up yet. We finished our pasture this turn but it's not hooked, and EMC and Kuro both built cities on the mainland before us.