[spoilers] Gaspar and Commodore welcome you to the islands, mon!

[Commodore]

Not a whole lot to report this turn, mostly boring peace thingys going on. Unless Yuri has a loaded up settler within two spaces of the treasure island, we're going to win the settling race. Check out the refrigeration transport speed!



It's not a great spot, but I dotted the map for a potential redivert settle if for some sneaky reason Yuri has the settler ahead of us. These weird little places seem so marginal, but thanks to the SE and our traits, even these spots can turn a healthy profit quickly.



The SE is still growing all over the land. A lot of our cities are trying to balance growth with running scientists. In this example, I opted to keep working the coast to get growth down to 1-turn, after which the city can slow-grow running two scientists and using the plains cottage to get up the observatory.



We have eight more turns until we get our third Great Person, probably slated for a Golden Age. We're getting OR opened this turn, and Theocracy the next...if we want Pacifism, Philosophy will be a good option for the third tech on our list, but as long as it's in before the GA, we're fine.



Pacifism might be a we bit costly, though. Here's the military adviser. What is not shown is that along with our two dozen cities we have an amazing eight workers! Yeah...



Those caravels are stationed along the turkish borders in a few places, but should probably be recalled to be cheaply mothballed inside our own territory, awaiting upgrades to frigates or destroyers.



The Great General was settled, after much waffling, in Zandalar herself. Confucianism will be spread here next turn, so with Theocracy this is another Nav1 ship spot, Nav2 once drydocks come online.



I really feel like the empire is recovering and flourishing at an amazing rate, we're just quite far behind and have several big holes in our coverage. For one thing our worker teams need to work harder, there are some amazing sites that need love, not to mention we're only a dozen turns at most to chemistry and workshops. Next turn, have the peon help "American Civ" there.



I'm missing stuff by playing fast, need to just pace myself a little better. With only four players, all pretty faithful, we're going to get in a turn a day without too much effort. I ought to have whipped here this turn, for instance, just caught it after ending turn. Broken Isle (former Hagar) needs a granary whip, etc, etc.



Insane as we've been playing Mehmed was, bar none, the single best leader of this bunch by a long shot. Whipping granaries, lighthouses, courthouses, and cothons is amazing.

[Commodore]

I begin to feel a little insane, babbling away to myself like a brook full of myself babbling away to myself like a brook full of myself babbling away to myself like a brook full of myself babbling away to myself like...

Anyway, turn report. So lest ye be worried about the fate of "single clam okay spot", yes, it did get settled, happily on flatland. Rego ain't getting Zul'Mashar for cheap, I'll tell you that.



Although...would it perhaps be worth a shrine, Gaspar? I'm thinking probably not worth bothering, but a Great Pro would make spreading religion a bit easier and give us a non-zero amount of dough, always nice.



I certainly see why Rego is unhappy with our control of the territory. Still, the much bigger-deal Zabra'Jin can still host a fleet that can boat half a dozen cities on turn one of the inevitable war. We, um, want to be on the offensive by the way.



I moved a bunch of the picket caravels back into our territory, no real point in deep scouting at this juncture. It's a 1gpt difference for each one of these guys. We should probably pick some slow galleys to delete, honestly, unless we want to play bone wall in the next scrap.



The economy as a whole is recovering from "hole in the ground we pour money into" into "decent but ~10 turns behind the leaders". The MFG and crop yields should be flashing danger signs, although we have the most territory available if we could increase the NAP to, you know, sixty more turns.



We've been one-turning the religion line quite nicely, capping off this turn with Theology. Next up is either Philo, Gunpowder, or Paper I think. We'll need to turn on tech a bit to get them in before the GA, but that's no great shakes. Not like we need to be saving gold.



Nope, gold is taken care of in four more turns with the trade mission to the excellent if obscene city of FAP. This area feels richer than our SW analogue, but that's probably grass is greener effect.



We're overall just growing and spreading upwards. With finally a three-worker team on the Aztecian homeland, we're getting Gurubashi up and running, at last growing at a great clip. With the Academy once the library and observatory come in our three running scientists will be pushing out 36bpt, and with the furs online, working the riversides, teching 100% this place is almost worth being called a capital, pulling ~56bpt. Pitiful, but that's unheard of for us.



Not sure if you noticed, viewers at home, but we now have dyes online. This means once Bambala gets its courthouse online (looong, slow process with +2 food) the city at least won't actively be loosing us money.



This scientist focus in general is a very nice thing, but it just occurs to me that it's going to result in some rather specialized pools. I think Sen'Jin might want to swap over to merchants to spice things up for the eventual second GA heterogeneous cost.



Something else occurred...oh yeah.



Love those fast ships. I think the settler heads 1S next turn and settles us this silver. There is a workboat inbound to grab the first-ring crabs in the bay south, and the galleon can head over to Malaka'Jin to grab the workers for mining/pasteurization.



We need culture there soon, so a handy-dandy missionary is in order I think. Probably need to get stuff up to Zeb'Halek and Amani Pass (the northern Rego cities), as particularly Amani Pass needs a border pop like nobody's business. Might want to consider another monestary or two before we obsolete them, don't want to be trapped into OR alone.



And that's all she wrote, folks. Tune in next time for land claims and tech decisions.

[Commodore]

Bit of a short-form report tonight, despite there being two turns played. This whole not fighting a war thing seems so...weird. At least Rego is filling in our dotmap for us. Remember, not fighting now lets us fight later!



Pin's golden age ended with the birth of his next one. As well as the reminder that we now have another twenty turns remaining on the Rego-NAP. Meh, we'll try to manage MGs at least before the stuff hits the fan.



As the event log shows, we're dumping overflow into the Forbidden Palace, it should be online for a good half a dozen turns before State Property.



I'm not sure how to spin our demos. We have the hardest-working population in the world! Sadly, it's also the smallest. We have the most growth potential! We're behind and runty. Keep on cranking this optimism, boss, but it's hard to start up...



Any time you want to try soloing, you're welcome to by the way. I've been signposting as I go. Shimmer Ridge goes down next turn, winery starts!



We won, by the way.



I suggest we celebrate next turn with a cash bomb!

[Commodore]

Well, apparently we're playing a play by email game of Civilization 4, as Mehmed of Carthage on a tiny islands script. I flailed around a bit and sent the save to you...no idea what's going on anymore.

[Ceiliazul]

Well, apparently we're playing a play by email game of Civilization 4, as Mehmed of Carthage on a tiny islands script. I flailed around a bit and sent the save to you...no idea what's going on anymore.

Did the turn pace die, or what?

[Commodore]

Did the turn pace die, or what?

Rego was out of town for the week, nothing major.

[Gaspar]

Finishing up the turn. Long day, sorry.

What do you think the odds of a Sistine run being profitable/plausible are? With our rep economy, the culture would be very nice. Probably not feasible to beg off the beeline, eh?

I queued a couple settlers, I think we should aim to fill up our lands. There's a few seafood spots still unsettled.

I queued quite a few suggested builds, actually. They're all up for debate. I think we should prioritize markets over observatories in places that don't have them, since they give 2 spec slots not 1.

[Gaspar]

Nevermind. I just looked at the tech trading screen. Holy hell we are f'd.

[Commodore]

Yeah, my tech thread reply might make Rego mad but I don't think there's really any chance of that relationship working out in any case. Putting it nicely, Rego is a diplomatic sleazeball that literally sets my stomach on edge, and Gaspar if anything feels more strongly on the matter. Rego is also making airships and will be flying bombers at us within a half a dozen turns of our NAP expiration at minimum.

And also, for what it's worth, I also really do consider diplomatic victories legitimate in a talk or negotiate game. If they were banned beforehand, sure, but I'm not going to undermine, for instance, Pindicator's AP plan if he does have one. Not that I think we're planning on voting for anyone but ourselves. :neenernee

[Commodore]

Okay, for reference, here's why we're all depressed. Rego is up to Physics, now making way to Communism...which is going to be incredibly broken on this map.



Rego would have no problem at all with us agreeing to not scout with ships, eh? His airships would love that. The Janissary corps is growing and he's got galleons pushing at us all over the place. His aggression is going to get someone killed one of these days (probably us).



He's making moves towards the randomest little filler spots...really, buddy?



I turned on tile yields and spent ten minutes looking carefully around Regoarria. I have found no sign of the bonus yields of either uranium or oil, so I suspect that his desert settlements are resource claims.




Our research is still booking along at a nice clip, but probably not ever going to be enough. The grim Combustion beeline is going to be our only hope here. I think it'll be GS -> Fire Golden age -> get two more GP (Sen'Jin and Yojamba most likely) -> another GA -> bulb boyz.



Yojamba is really starting to shine. The observatories we're pumping mean that research labs will help us later in the game if we last that long. Multiplier building are our friends...cottages, less so.



And so, we continue pumping libraries and observatories in every city we can. Sandsorrow can support three scientists, for instance. Observatory next will be good. Actually, you know, this is another nice city...oil might be over the peak there?



We're spreading as many missionaries as we can, too. Once the GA gets fired, we will definitely be able to convert to Confucianism. Spread isn't ideal, but it's certainly nice enough to make Pacifism and then Theocracy really pop.



Even the places that can't support scientists can contribute thanks to Carthage. Our starting techs were miserable, but these cothons are giving us an amazing yield out of these places. It's going to hurt if we ever do go to war with Pin, guys.



Captured Rego cities are growing amazingly well. We really did steal his prime new real estate. Zeb'Nowa can whip the courthouse next turn, and the other worker can help mine...these places need to get up and running fast.



Should have make it a 45-turner.