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

[SleepingMoogle]

I'll have to take a look at the save again tonight. SoZ doesn't sound like a very good plan though.. there's more useful techs to research than Aesthetics, and we would have to build monuments to meet its requirements (which serve no useful function for us anymore).

What is the current tech plan after Currency finishes? Monarchy for HR happiness and/or Compass for our UB look like our best bets.

[Ellimist]

Well it would only require 2 monuments. I figure we can put one in Arcturus to help hold the line there, and the other in whatever city builds the statue(Canopus/Regulus.)

For techs, I'm planning on Iron Working(or Calendar) next. We're ready for a strong landgrab on the center island, and those techs will be important for those cities. (There's incense visible on the center island, but also jungle.) after Iron Working, compass is a definite possibility.

I don't think we really need Monarchy just yet, we're doing okay on happiness for now. Canopus is at its happy cap but is food-poor, other cities can manage for now. We have jungle gems at the city site south of Regulus, for instance, and most of our cities have forges. We can also spread Hinduism further or build cheap temples in the cities that have it.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Not sure if SoZ is a good idea in this game. I know I built it for the culture in my PBEM18 game, but that was an act of desperation because little else had a good hammer-to-culture ratio (I lacked stone and marble). Plus, it may be interpreted as a hostile cultural act by Lewwyn if built on the border (I'd prefer a more final and decisive way to screw them over).

If we want a wonder for the culture, then we'd want the Paya (saves us theology and philosophy).

I too think Monarchy can wait a little while, we have quite a few happy resources, and we already have hunting and copper so no more cheap military police.

[Ellimist]

I was looking at it more for Canopus. It would take slightly more than 6 turns(120 base hammers) to build there, and is the hammer equivalent of 1.5 settlers. It's a decent wonder and not that expensive with Ivory on hand. Still, it's true we don't really need any more wonders.

If we want, we can always pillage the copper to build warriors again. Or we could just build archers.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Awesome, let's build 1.5 settlers, it's not like we have a glut of those things anyway.

[Ellimist]

T88 played. The missionary in Sirius was whipped this turn. He'll be sent to Sirius as part of an earlier agreement I made with Kuro to get him a missionary before T100. The missionary will arrive at T98, and in exchange we get 33 gold(and shrine income.)

Apparently I miscalculated overflow math again, and we ended up with more than anticipated in Sirius. Our production next turn will be 59 hammers(50 plus 9 food) into a settler I whipped earlier to 132/100. That puts it to 191/100, and that should be enough overflow(plus a chop!) to build Moai in one turn with the stone.

Somehow the forest at Arcturus only required 3 worker turns to chop. I have no idea how that happened but I used the minor bonus to complete the horse pasture this turn. The city grew onto it this turn and the granary was completed with the chop. It will grow to size 3 at eot92.

Canopus finished a settler last turn and the next is due at eot91. It will be loaded onto the galley next turn and unloaded into Pollux with the missionary.

I whipped the settler in Regulus for 3 pop(127/100), then switched production so the city grew back to size 4 at end of turn. I also swapped Pollux off of its settler(91/100) to let the city grow back a bit sooner as well(next turn). I didn't want NH to see these cities produce settlers that headed east with their warrior, and there will be a short delay while Arcturus builds a galley, so we can hold off on actually completing them for a couple turns. Plus this will save us a bit on unit upkeep.

With all the whipping, it's looking like currency will definitely be T91.

[Ellimist]

I played T89 this morning. Due to a another miscalculation regarding worker turns, the stone won't be quarried until T91. I swapped Sirius to an archer to preserve most of the overflow, and I think we'll still have enough for a 1 turn Moai. If we don't, it will still be 99% done which is really just as good.

I've been working with the beaker math, and we can get currency next turn if we run 100%. However, we're 13 gold short of being able to afford that. I think we ought to swap to caste system next turn and run some merchants for a single turn to get that extra TR commerce a turn earlier. Our cities have been heavily whipped recently anyway, so 5 turns without slavery shouldn't have much impact.

I chopped a Regulus forest this turn and was able to build a 1 turn worker with it. We have another chop completing next turn and I'm considering using it for a temple. The workers are in place to get a riverside mine and some other improvements soon, but Regulus is really our only city in need of more happiness.

Diplomacy has gotten a little weird lately. I don't think Kuro actually wants the hanging gardens, but my ploy seems to have at least produced some results. He keeps bringing up the subject, and it's gotten sort of awkward for me to be believable while I keep contradicting myself. I've been saying that you guys keep changing my mind on the issue, which I think he believes due to my earlier patterns of negotiation. Either way, we're both basically refusing to build them and it's almost comical.

I've deliberately avoided mentioning the center island at all, and so has Kuro. I get the impression that he's prioritizing it in the same way that we are, so I'm considering settling our first center cities right in his face, right after we give him the NAP he's been wanting all along. I could be completely wrong on that, I just get the impression that his intentions for Karkat mirror ours for Arcturus and as a result he doesn't really want to chop a wonder there. I've started building some(and completed a few) archers so that our settler push won't be completely reckless.

NH is less of a threat for settlement competition. They don't have a city on the inner coast yet and I haven't seen signs that one is imminent. I think the "we'll settle west side first" clause in our agreement with them was great, it doesn't really hinder us at all and it gives them less urgency for westward/coreward expansion. Unfortunately, they have visibility into Arcturus, so they'll see when we produce our galley and any workboats, but we can load the settlers out of their view and hopefully they won't realize too soon.

NH revolted to hereditary rule and organized religion(finally!) so they apparently just researched Monarchy. Soon they'll be the only team without currency, which seems rather silly to me. They founded Judaism a LONG time ago, so they must have delayed OR to avoid the anarchy; I'm liking spiritual more and more as the game develops. We've gotten a ton of use out of OR in the past 30 or so turns, and they haven't, despite having access to it sooner and more cities with religion.

[Ellimist]

T90 played. I had to use caste system and hire 6 specialists(1 priest, 4 merchants, 1 scientist,) but we got currency at eot. Trade route income increased by 17 to 35.

Sirius completed the settler with 60 overflow. We need 100 base hammers to complete Moai next turn, and we can get that exactly if we hire an engineer and chop the last forest. After Moai, the city will grow and reach its happy cap, so I'm thinking we can slow build(4-6 turns) a settler. Monarchy is actually more attractive now that I'm noticing how much whip anger some of our food-rich cities have accumulated; at a minimum it would add +1 happy to all our cities.


Now that we have currency, I'll try to keep track of our opponents' progress a bit better.
T90:
Carthage: 0 gold on hand, losing 34 per turn.
Mali: 58 gold on hand, gaining 52 per turn.
HRE: 1 gold on hand, gaining 0 per turn.
Ottoman: 3 gold on hand, gaining 0 per turn.

[SleepingMoogle]

Monarchy sounds like the way to go then. We can get some (relatively) cheap Archers to further extend HR happiness if needed, and it will also allow us to hook up that Wine resource once it is within our borders. Probably best to run 0% science for a turn or two at least anyhow; if something better pops up we can always switch techs. Monarchy -> Compass would have my preference for now though.

Speaking of which, it might be a good idea at this point to nominate one of the high-hammer cities for military production and build a Barracks there. I'd probably rest easier with a few units to defend our border cities from potential aggression, plus it will help us stake a claim on the inner island. Canopus looks like an obvious candidate for this but it's remote location means it will take a lot of time to transfer units to the front. Sirius suffers from the same problem, so these cities probably are more effective as Worker/Settler/Missionary pumps for now. That basically leaves Regulus and Denebola, right? How are these two cities doing infrastructure-wise?

[Ellimist]

Both Regulus and Denebola have a granary. Regulus also has religion, a forge, and whip anger.

I think it's important that we get IW before Monarchy, but neither should take long. Knowing where Iron is and being able to clear jungle will be important for the cities we're about to plant. We can even divert a settler to the gems spot if unhappiness starts to slow us down. Calendar will allow us to claim incense and probably other central luxuries.

How long of a NAP should we get with Kuro before we settle "his" section of the island? I'm thinking we should take those locations first or we won't get them at all. If we can "block" him off from the rest of the island with our culture, we can forcibly prevent him from settling any of it by closing borders.

I'll post some long-overdue pictures next turn(T91). I would have on T90 but our cities are a little skewed due to all the temporary specialists.