[SPOILERS] Joao "can't think of a fancy thread name" of Persia. yuris125 & Commodore

[yuris125]

T81

Sailing done two turns ago. Settler for the island city is also done. Will finish a Galley in 4 turns, and off he goes

Just two islands in NE, between me and HitAnyKey



HitAnyKey's city has gems and is undefended. And relatively close to me. Mmm tempting....

[yuris125]

T88

Founded the island city



Will discover Maths in 3 turns. Too scared to check how long Currency is going to take But actually my economy is in ok shape, so I'm thinking of founding another city or two after getting Maths and improved chops. With vertical growth limited so much, I need to expand to keep up with others

I'm more and more inclined to attack HitAnyKey some time soon, before he gets Longbows, and try to liberate those gems. Attacking Meiz is easier, but I didn't see any happiness resources in his land yet, and don't think he will let me scout

Demos at 100% research look surprisingly decent



At 0% research GNP drops to 47, that's less than half of the best GNP and 10th place overall

[yuris125]

T100

Here's an overview

North



South



There's a small force Meiz has in the forests around Youshallnot Pass (Axe + Spearman + Charior). I'm not scared of that, but I am scared of what might come next. He went for Construction after Maths, ignoring Currency. So he won't have an economy to speak of, but, assuming he has ivory, he will be able to start building an Elepult army shortly (he's 6 turns away from Construction). I hope that army is going Elkad's way rather than mine, he saw my land and knows it isn't great, and he knows I have a formidable army, but who knows. I'm building Walls in all cities which he can attack, but if he attacks while my army is busy attacking HitAnyKey, I might lose a lot

Speaking of my attack of HitAnyKey, it is still being prepared. I'm going to send 5 Galleys with 5 Axes, 2 Spears and 3 Immortals. There's a nice jungle tile for me to land, and I think he won't be able to see my Galleys when they're on the marked tile



Of course, it would've been better to land circumnav, and attack right from Galleys, so that he doesn't have time to prepare, but I don't think I have a chance of doing so

There's still one spot I might found on my continent, the GP farm location in the tundra we found in the early game (the sign on the screenshot, where the Scout is fogbusting). But I don't think it will be useful with happiness cap of just 4



Last turn I got a Great Scientist, and was seriously considering bulbing Alphabet rather than building an Academy. Most of my cities have all required buildings, I'm paying a considerable amount of unit maintenance, so I have nothing to build. I thought the ability to build Research would've been nice. But after checking the situation, it seemed like an Academy was going to speed up Currency by a turn, and Wealth is a better economic build than Research, and the extra trade route is also nice. So decided that an Academy was better, and built it this turn

Currency is going to be done in 6 turns, if everything goes well. Once it's finished, my fleet will set sail towards HitAnyKey's land (not before, to avoid paying unit supply cost until Currency is in)

After Currency, I'm going to go for Monarchy asap, I desperately need to raise the happy cap if I want to stay relevant in the game. I'm already far behind the leaders, and it's not going to get better - the only way out of this hole is getting gems and a few cities from HitAnyKey and utilising Hereditary Rule to the fullest

[waterbat]

As annoyed as I am at you right now, I wanted to say that this is a great report! Good luck in the forray against HAK. You were going to have to fight your way off of your island at some point!

Ok, I'm really just annoyed at myself.

[yuris125]

T110

Attack on HitAnyKey is going to hit in 2 turns. Unfortunately he chopped the jungle I planned to use as a landing point, so my forces will be on flatland after landing. Still, my unit composition is good, so I think it's the best way to start this attack



Otherwise nothing interesting is happening, no new cities founded; I finally got Currency, then went through Meditation and Priesthood, and started Monarchy this turn. Meiz's units made tentative attempts to approach my territory, but turned around as soon as they saw I had a small stack waiting for them. Everything is quiet for now

[waterbat]

still planning on going 1N next turn and then landing the turn after?

[yuris125]

Yes, I think that's my best shot

[yuris125]

Unfortunately my attack ended up being a complete failure. HitAnyKey was ready



He killed 3 of my Axes after I landed, and the odds on attacking the city were around 3%. So attacking was no good; I moved one of the Immortals and found the nearby city empty. Then I moved my units as they are on the screenshot right now (3 Immortals on the forested tile, 2 Axes and 2 Spears in the other stack). He probably can clean up the rest of the attack next turn

Well, it was worth a try... and if he has no more units with movement, and I play the next turn before him, I can at least raze Mt.Whacke and get some gold out of it

[yuris125]

So, as expected, HitAnyKey cleaned up my taskforce. I'm going to send two of 5 Galleys to explore, at least they won't die as easily as Workboats did. The rest will come home and will be used for defensive purposes

Monarchy should be done in 6 turns or so, then I can finally live without massive unhappiness. I think I need to research Archery next (for cheap military police units), then Construction, then towards Guilds

[yuris125]

It's T130, a long while since my last update, but there's nothing happening in the kingdom of Gotland. I adopted Hereditary Rule, which allowed my cities to grow a bit. Found some iron. Founded a couple more cities. Cottaged every single tile because Workers had nothing else to do. That's about all I can tell about the last 20 turns or so

Some pretty(ish) pictures

The island of Fårö (Faroy is the spelling for non-Unicode applications )



Mainland - the north



Mainland - the south



The Settler is being built for the spot which has been marked "Cyan dot" since the dawn of times. Now that iron was discovered nearby, it's finally worth founding. This will be the last self-founded city of Gotland

I'm researching Metal Casting, because someone is trying to overtake me in MFG, the only demo where I'm in the running for the lead. So I need Forges to fight back

The plan is to get to Knights, kill Meiz, and see what happens. I'm not amongst the game leaders, but not an outsider either. Obviously I won't be taking part in the Liberalism race and other fun activities game leaders like so much, but if I can launch a successful military campaign against my neighbours, I can still achieve something

At least I probably won't be attacked any time soon, thanks to HR garrisons inflating my power rating