Luddite/Pindicator

[luddite]

This turn arrived with yet another offer of rice + open borders from NS7. And I think I figured out why they've been so insistent. Look at the edge of the fog here- see their culture? They must have settled on the big island directly north of us () and if we agreed to open borders right now, it would give overseas trade routes to them but nothing to us.


So, here's my counter offer (that was the first new city they founded)


Here's what we found in the south, and in the southeast I sighted one of Sian's cities, which gives us trade routes with him. I think we can confirm now that all the mountain peaks lead to a big island between civs. This also makes it imperative that we take that island north of Fierce, otherwise we'll be left without a big island.


And here's our demographics. At least we're number one in, uh, balance of trade:


In city micro, HappyAnniv was unhappy this turn (ironically?) so I shifted it to worker, to avoid the food loss. Next turn you should shift it back to the galley. Hercules can finish a granary this turn, and I'm not sure what to build after that. Maybe a worker?

[pindicator]

Took care of the turn, since it was mostly by-the-signs. I noticed that NoSpace did not reiterate their Open Borders request, so maybe we've gotten that settled. (And possibly pissed off the #1 power in the game...)

I did take out one of the barb warriors in the north, gaining 2XP on our impi.



The galley in Cactus Jack got whipped. We had a settler up north but no galley to put him on. Next turn a settler/axe combo can take the northern isle from mackoti. I'm sure he'll be thrilled.

I poked about the southern isle as well. It's awfully close to Sian, I think we need to hurry here too if we want it.



The settler out of LG is at 24/65 after ending the turn. We can whip it in 2 turns or let it build to completion in 4.

Whipping The Villian has led to a unique problem:



It's growing too fast! That was taken after the turn ended. I pulled a warrior out of Happy Anniv to act as military garison, but it will be 2 more turns before it can arrive. Then we can run a pair of scientists and work on our first GP.

I think it's time to hook up the gold down by LG; we can use some more happiness!

[luddite]

Yeah, we definitely need that gold (for HappyAnniv also). And maybe we should give the rice back to the capital, and start a scientist immediately. It should get back a happiness next turn, luckily.

[pindicator]

I forgot to ask about research rate. Next turn we can go to 50% and get Math in 5. At max science, Maths comes in at 3 turns, but we'd need 156 gold to do it, so it must be fairly close to 2 turns if our economy keeps improving. How would you rather go for it?

[luddite]

I forgot to ask about research rate. Next turn we can go to 50% and get Math in 5. At max science, Maths comes in at 3 turns, but we'd need 156 gold to do it, so it must be fairly close to 2 turns if our economy keeps improving. How would you rather go for it?

eh, whatever gets us math the quickest. The extra chop hammers will be really nice, since we still have a lot of forests.

[pindicator]

New save in this morning, but I decided to not play because I had some questions on builds and strategy that needed your input.

• I whipped a galley out of Cactus Jack last turn, but didn't think what goes in it this turn. Another galley? A library? Ikhanda? Right now it is costing us 5gpt in maintenance, so an ikhanda would help with costs. Galleys to have sufficient transport to the north seas. And then library because of...
  
• What do you think of libraries around the empire and saving gold for a few turns while we wait for them to complete? Like you said, the capital can take it's rice back and grow to size 7 -- I figure a library is a good build there. HappyAnniv can pop one out after its galley/worker combo finishes.
  
• Part B of slider - how many cities would we wait for a library in before turning up the slider? Right now we can do Math in 4 turns at -16 gpt (50% slider).
  
• Now that galleys are in play and people can sail to us, I think we need to station a garrison in all our coastal cities. So which city(ies) can produce? Hercules is a possible hammer town. So is LG. Neither have libraries yet either.
  
• Settler is done out of Raw Deal -- I guess it goes to the northern island off Fierce, right? Galley finishes next turn out of Happy Anniv; it can take an axe with it.
  
• Back to Cactus Jack - let's sneak that settler around the far side of the island so mackoti doesn't know a city is coming until its settled. The settler can't disembark until next turn anyway, so I'm thinking next turn they land south of the crabs and then settle on the marked spot the turn after.
  
• Next in The Villian - Lighthouse, I think, but Ikhanda could work.
  

That's about it!

Oh, and the barbs finally took care of that NoSpace scout. Want to offer open borders now? Kidding, but I'm sure they wouldn't appreciate that.

[luddite]

Alright, we decided to make a library in Cactus Jack, which will hopefully let us take over the incense tile and prevent Mackoti from founding a city on our border. We're also going to save up gold for a couple turns, until the capital finishes a library (while growing to size 8).

Since we're really low on happiness, I took the worker away from T3 and sent it to hook up the gold. Otherwise not much going on. Here's the demos:


and power, tightly correlated:

[luddite]

I've whipped a settler in Long goodbye, and a library in Cactus Jack. Next turn we'll be able to settle up north, and then soon after that we can settle 2 more cities.

Fierce has increased his power once again. He now has a total of 5 axes visible near our border, and I just sent off an axe from Happy to go with the settler. I'm feeling nervous about our defense down there...

[luddite]

One thing I'm realizing is that it's going to be basically impossible to defend all these islands. There's not much point putting a large static garrison in all cities, because it's so easy to overwhelm it with a determined attack. All we can do, I guess, is keep enough troops on hand to threaten a counterattack on anyone that attacks us.

We could also launch on attack on NS7, attacking their big island, and hope that other teams join in.

[pindicator]

I agree with this. The only thing a static garrison will do is tell your opponents how many soldiers to bring.

When are you thinking we would attack NS7? At HAs or Catapults or later?


I also grabbed the turn this morning. We settled our newest city, "Scavenger Hunt"



Cactus Jack had a sign for an ikhanda, but I went with work boat instead. We'll be able to whip in an ikhanda, and the work boat is needed to get Scavenger Hunt growing.

Our settler is done in the south.



Next turn it can board the galley and head for the southern island.

What do you think about inserting and whipping a library here?



It probably should just stay on military for the time being, the more I think of it.

The capital finished its library at end of turn. The capital has 2 turns to grow so it can squeeze a military unit out and then... another settler? The SE still needs a city.

Also, next turn we need to up the research rate to max. Math will come in 2. Then Calendar for more happiness.