[SPOILERS] Bismarck of Mali (NobleHelium and Lewwyn)

[Lewwyn]

Well yes, the Stone will be in second ring. That's the point. Yes, they got slightly more land, but we're definitely going to take a lot of the land between us and Jkaen. I don't see what the big deal is. We're expanding faster than them, the only issue is that they'll have access to the inner sea earlier.

Please help with the city build micro, that's my weakest point. I'm confident that we can outsettle EMC and end up with the best position in midgame with the best developed empire. Then we'll need to focus on defending ourselves.

Okey dokey

[NobleHelium]

Here's how we're doing on turn 79.




I think we might be able to hold the Stone tile some of the time actually. They're likely to get more culture in their city in the long term since they're probably going to spam cheap temples, but I realized that with the "no settling next to the meridian" clause, they can't get a second city whose second ring catches that tile (unless they settle on their wines which they aren't going to do). So the cities are competing on relatively even footing culturewise for that tile.

Really not sure what we should be building in Beryllium and Boron next. Ideas? And when do we want to get out our next settler? Could whip at size 6 in Hydrogen again.

Also, there's not much hurry to hook up the Copper now that Colossus is gone. Let's finish the farm with those two workers before mining the Copper. Not sure about the worker in the south, we could have him cottage on those flood plains and then road afterwards to the city sites in the south or something.

Next turn we found Nitrogen. After the skirmisher arrives we should move one of the warriors out and defog the western half of the area between Jkaen and us.

[NobleHelium]

So on turn 80 we founded Nitrogen.



Workers are unfortunately lagging a bit behind, so it'll be a few turns before we get the rice up and running. And maintenance went up quite a lot, so we're now at 50% breakeven. We will probably research Monarchy next in order to not delay the switch to OR any further, then go for Currency. You can laugh at me if our economy crashes before Currency due to our Monarchy detour.

We finished research on MC. We'll start dumping hammers into mints in Boron and Carbon next turn while waiting for them to grow large enough to whip stuff. Helium will straight up build the mint after the library finishes next turn, which should only take 3 turns, then we can build some filler stuff like workers or maybe a second galley while waiting for the Stone to become available. Our Prophet is due in 5 turns; there are only four cities with Judaism right now but the Shrine should definitely be the way to go.



GNP looks pretty bad right now since we just finished a tech and increased our maintenance a lot. But we should be doing fine overall.

[NobleHelium]

Played turn 81.



I started dumping hammers into mints basically everywhere.



I think after one more turn of gold gathering we can turn tech on for 2 turns until the mint in Helium completes. Then we turn it off again. Slightly more efficient this way.

[NobleHelium]

Going to sleep. Not sure if I can play the turn tomorrow morning. I left some micro signs but for the workers around Carbon, I'm not sure if we need two workers to mine the Copper. One might be sufficient. Just have to make sure either the cottage or the Copper will be done by the time the city grows to 4 (remember that it can be done one turn later since worker turns are before production obviously). If we don't need both workers on the Copper then we should send one down to help with the cottage, putting a turn into a mine on the roaded grass hill on the way. We definitely want at least two workers down there ASAP. It might be better to road the cow tile before pasturing it to activate the trade route instantly.

After Hydrogen whips its settler the neighboring cities need to take its cottages. I'm not sure whether we want to whip the mint in Lithium or grow to 5 first. Probably want to grow to 5 (or at least hold off on a turn) so that we can work the cottage while Hydrogen grows back.

Finish roading the forest north of Nitrogen and then send the other worker past it to start farming the rice, etc. I'm sure this is all obvious to you anyway, just being meticulous about it.

[NobleHelium]

Played turn 82. I did in fact only use one worker for the copper mine.



I think next turn we can finish the cottage immediately with both workers, so that'll be good to go. The copper will also finish the turn that growth happens, so both tiles are available. We'll need to give the cottage to Oxygen once we found it, so we'll definitely need both tiles. Oxygen will be founded on turn 86. We'll want to move the warrior ahead for garrison next turn, while the settler has to wait a turn since it will just have been loaded onto the galley. I think we have enough worker turns available among those two guys to chop the forest as well as road the cows without delaying the pasture significantly, so we'll probably do that. The granary will complete shortly after growth to 2 if not before (the cow gives 2 hammers), so we'll get a full granary by the time it grows to 3. That should definitely be better than pasturing slightly earlier and then whipping the granary. We want to road the cows so that the workers can move onto the rice immediately after that and start farming the same turn.

That's Kuro's scout you see there on the far left. And yes, I do like having redundant reminders for important things.



Jkioan asked for a NAP. I think they're concerned with our power spike. I'm not crazy enough to attack them until we're at least closer to them, even if Lewwyn is. I said no to the NAP, since there's no reason to sign one. They aren't going to attack us. Also I dumped a few EP on them recently since I think they're the best target to dump them on right now, and maybe they noticed that. I'll lower it to 2 EP/turn as soon as I remember.

I was originally going to show the graphs after we got them on Kuro, but then the Stone happened and I got swept up in the events and forgot about it. So here's the current graphs, since we were just talking about power.



You can see EMC's GNP went up a lot after Colossus. That's probably also because they turned tech on though. I wonder if they're working any cottages at all. They built a normal farm near their capital instead of a cottage...





EMC definitely built at least one axe the turn after we researched Archery. I haven't seen it though. Most of our power is from our final warriors and MC, with only one skirmisher. It looks like a big spike though.

[NobleHelium]

Let's have a discussion on our border with EMC.



As you can see, there are a number of peak tiles (the brown triangles), as well as a few hills in the area. Our city sites are clearly marked. We should be able to hold the peak tiles with ease (Arcturus may briefly steal one peak for a couple of turns after their border pop; I am not sure of how tile culture works on the turn of the border pop). The peaks will allow us to see two tiles away, and basically give us visibility on every tile in the center three meridians. That's very good. However the two hills on the center meridian, marked with a yellow triangle, are very key. I expect they will plant their other two border cities on the orange triangles. They would plant them one forward (at least the middle one) if not for the agreement to not plant next to the center meridian. So assuming they hold to the agreement, those tiles are the most likely positions. Unless they choose to plant them even further back, which would be fine with me.

Anyway, the hills in the center will give us visibility into both their cities, and stop them from gaining it in ours. If you notice, the key hill tiles are also second ring from their city locations as well as ours. We've already planted Nitrogen and so will obviously get control over the southern hill first. So, we're likely to have control over this one. The northern one will likely depend on who plants their cit(ies) first. Unfortunately our city site there is rather weak so we're definitely not planting it right now. Still, it's definitely a consideration with regards to how soon we want to plant it.

There's a third hill marked in green which is definitely too far to control. But it's important to note. It'll let them see every tile in the center except the very far flanks. And I guess if they put a Sentry there then they'll be able to see both our cities. Hmm.

[NobleHelium]

Apparently Jkioan is going to hold the turn to repeatedly ask us for a NAP.

In slightly more interesting news, Kuro teched Currency after Math since we can now trade gold with him. Monarchy dropped to 4t, so EMC probably teched it (unless the library in Helium matters that much). They also claim their GNP spike is from artist culture popping borders. Not sure if I really believe that.

[Lewwyn]

BTW Noble hasn't been posting the diplo, but I find it pretty hilarious:

Jkioan:

Hi Lewyn, NobleHelium,

What would you think about a NAP ? Not a very long one - let's say 20 turns for begining ...
For me it sounds like a normal extension of our current OB treaty.

Best regards,

Ioan

NH:

Sorry, but we don't really like NAPs. We're willing to sign them if there's a good reason to, but our cities are very far from each other, so I really don't see any need for one.

Please don't be alarmed by the warrior, it's just scouting and defogging a route for trade.

Jkioan:

Well ... is right that our cities are with ( still ) far distances between them - but you now ... into a "fisherman-gambit" like this even a lone warrior could be frightening for our poor workers ...
And anyway ... a short NAP could harm nobody - I'm right ?

Best regards,

Ioan

Noble:

Sorry, but we're really not interested in a NAP at this time. We don't see any reason to sign one.

I want to stress I didn't have a hand in these dialogues. I love the bit where Ioan's telling us, "But we're running a farmers gambit! You have to let us not build military!" Right even more reason NOT to sign a NAP.

[SevenSpirits]

I love the bit where Ioan's telling us, "But we're running a farmers gambit! You have to let us not build military!" Right even more reason NOT to sign a NAP.