[SPOILERS] Peter of the Ottomans carries a big stick

[Bigger]

yeah, I like the dumb mud mirror spot. If we get a library in there after granary we should be able to hold the sheep, and 4 FP spots (plus pigs, that will be a nice city).
After that, maybe 1 more to the south to grab stone. then war <g>.

[thestick]

Nothing really happened this turn that wasn't according to plan. We're up to 11 beakers per turn at about 35% research. I guess I'm pretty good at crashing the economy. Our GNP is 20 and 'Rival Worst' is listed as 40. I'm sure most of the other's GNP is buffed by culture, but that is still a really bad position to be in. I'm planning on coming off the hammer tiles in Krakatoa in favor of cottages after the Library completes EOT 58. Hopefully Scientists and those riverside cottages in Krakatoa, Katrina, and the fifth city will fix that. I'm still stockpiling gold to wait until the Libraries finish.

I don't think we should bulb Mathematics. We're only about ~150 beakers away, with ~80 already sunk. Thing is, the next tech on the list is Alphabet. Academy?

The Settler moved into place and the fifth city will be founded next turn. How badly will this affect the economy? I'm not sure. I hope that this 'expand now, pay later' approach will work. Great Depression, anyone?

yeah, I like the dumb mud mirror spot. If we get a library in there after granary we should be able to hold the sheep, and 4 FP spots (plus pigs, that will be a nice city).
After that, maybe 1 more to the south to grab stone. then war <g>.

Hm, Monument for Sheep or Granary for growth? Granary sounds good.

War? Doesn't sound too bad, but it will probably have to wait until we get more than 50%. I'm pretty sure someone will get Chariot rushed in the next several turns. Pretty much everyone has or is planning to settle their Horse city. Tankra's power is climbing up and Nicolae is wandering an Axe towards Sian in the North. Sian is planning to settle his own Horse city, but the 'escort' is one lone Warrior. I see blood being shed in the next few turns... hopefully it isn't ours.

Let's see, from Tankra's point of view, I think he'd want to head for Nicolae. First of all, thestick has been preparing militarily against me for a while. He has Axes everywhere (or so I hope he thinks). Second, Nicolae is clearly starting to run away with things. He's built the Pyramids and has had four cities for a while. He isn't expecting a strike, and Chariots give me the mobility I need for a quick attack. Plus, I improved my Horses over my Deer at Repel a Leper. Let's go!

Tankra might still attack me out of revenge, but I think he got most of the revenge out of his system when he sent those God Soldiers out. Plus, I haven't seen many Dog Soldiers lately, just one at Repel a Leper. Either he's good at keeping his units hidden, or he really isn't attacking.

Nicolae is probably headed for Sian, judging mostly from the Axe Nicolae's wandering there and his aggression towards him.

SAT's power is still climbing, up to 80k vs. our 69k. I don't read them as aggressive, but we should watch out for that.

[Bigger]

God soliders? Is that a slip, or did he rename his dogs? <G>

[thestick]

God soliders? Is that a slip, or did he rename his dogs? <G>

Slip. I think ~T55 is a bit later for Chariots. Ancient Era warfare is almost over, anyway. I'm still surprised Tankra didn't chop out a huge stack of Dog Soldiers and invade someone.

Anyway, given the lull here, there something less important but thematically significant to discuss: what to rename Tankra and SAT's cities when we conquer them! There are currently no medium-term plans to go to war with the window for Ancient Age warfare closing rapidly, but we need to get this done sometime. I'm thinking of renaming them to something similar to their 'original' names. All these are open to change.

SAT:
Algebra -> Mars Surveyor (Probe burnt up due to mixing up units)
Geometry -> Flight 19 (navigation/Geometric errors)
Arithmetic -> New Math (teaching kids Base 8 was a problem)
Vocabulary -> Newspeak (Fictional spelling reform. Any real spelling reforms that went horribly wrong would be better)
Analogy -> ??? (logical fallacies?)

Tankra:
Elite Tile -> Auschwitz (Elitism=Nazis. A bit stretched here.)
Seline Felines -> ??? (tigers? cats?)
Repel a Leper -> Influenza (Diseases)
Dumb Mud -> Dust Bowl (Huge duststorm. Other options are landslides)

SAT's cities kinda stretch 'disaster.' Since when was there an Analogy disaster?

At the new city, I'll probably work the plains hill forest to get some hammers into a Granary rather than growing. I'll send a Worker to chop a forest and one to cottage a floodplains. Farming doesn't seem too worthwhile here anymore since we don't have any tiles to grow into.

We're actually having a slight labor crunch here. Krakatoa will grow onto Size 5 with two cottages, two food resources, and an extra laborer. I'll probably put those extra citizens on Scientists until the cottages complete.

[thestick]

The great city of Yellow River was founded this turn:


The name was picked in honor of the frequent, devastating floods. It seemed right here, the city is actually near a river and will be an extremely fertile area. Plus, floodplains.

Founding Yellow River crashed the economy beyond belief. We really are making 6 gold. Base gold/research should rise to 14 next turn between Scientists and swapping off the hammer tiles, though. I really hope I can get this economy to start running again. Hopefully some trade income with SAT will help. Currency is definitely after Mathematics.

The upside of all this us is being the second to five cities, of course. We're going to be stuck there for quite some time. Then again, there aren't really any other spots worth taking besides filler at this point. The South is jungle and overseas colonies will cost a bundle.

The Libraries in Krakatoa and Aral Sea completed as planned. Katrina finished an Axe, and Tohoku finished a Work Boat. Krakatoa and Aral Sea will dump some hammers into military, while Tohoku will be building a Granary.

In foreign news, SAT accepted the Open Borders. SAT also settled the city of Addition. They have six cities! And their GNP is the highest in the world. Um, uh oh!

Demographics:


Still terrible. Crop Yield will improve once the Fish at Tohoku are connected next turn. I definitely could have done better in the earlygame as the Expansive Ottomans. Early Archery probably was a mistake, maybe I should've rushed Bronze Working, built two Workers, and got up a quick second city before getting Archers. I'll keep that in mind for next game.

We're back at rock bottom of the scoreboard. I think part of that is constant whipping and having no popped borders other than Krakatoa, though.

Tankra's Power rose above ours. And we're stopping unit production for a while. Uh oh! Time to slow build some Spears in Katrina.

[thestick]

I'll edit in some more details and pictures later. I need to catch my train.

Short version: the economy is finally getting better. We're at about 20 bpt at breakeven rate of 20%.

We're finally not last in GNP. There's still a long ways to go, but with Aral Sea and Krakatoa getting another population growth in two turns, I feel better about of chances here.

I really wish I had the micro savvy to build the Pyramids... Philosophical/Representation would be killer!

Katrina's borders popped at the end of this turn. Next turn, swap from the grassland cottage to the oasis tile. +3 food seems so slow... bumping that to +4 seems worthwhile.

There are two Workers near Katrina. Move one of them to build a grassland cottage 1E of the Deer. It will complete T61.

My current thinking is that we should use the Great Scientist for a Golden Age. Bulbing doesn't seems so good here because we already have beakers in Mathematics and Alphabet is practically useless here on no tech trading. The Great Scientist will pop in about 6 turns, which is about when Mathematics will roll in. I say we whip out a Settler in Aral Sea, build/whip out a Hammam in Krakatoa, settle the Stone City, then pop our Golden Age. It'll take a bit of micro to figure out the whole whipping vs. working Golden Age Mines thing, but what do you think of the basic idea?

[Bigger]

I think its very early for a golden age. Unless you think we won't be alive later if we don't use it now. why not stick with an academy?

[Commodore]

How far are you from CoL?

[thestick]

How far are you from CoL?

Still absurdly far away. Still stuck on Mathematics and haven't bothered to research anything on the Monk tree except for Mysticism. Yes, we'll need to grab Masonry before Hanging Gardens. Yes, you can laugh at our technological backwardness. Currency/Code of Laws is probably our next target unless we want to go for Aesthetics for wonders, Iron Working for that jungle, or Metal Casting for Forges. Let's see how bad the economy is first.

I was half-thinking about using that Golden Age to help push towards Currency and bang out the Hanging Gardens. I was thinking that pushing towards the economic flashpoint of Currency would be worth burning a Great Scientist. We'll have another pop out in another six-ish turns out of Aral Sea. (If two cities fill up their GP meter at the same time, which one gets the GP? I think it's Krakatoa because it's the first in the city list order, but I could be completely wrong) Academy sounds fine, though. Getting Academies in Krakatoa and Katrina would definitely be great. Still debating this.

[thestick]

First of all, Bigger, are you still around?

Second, I now think Academy is better than Golden Age. 50% (I think... memory seems really bad here) would be great for Krakatoa and Katrina (and later Yellow River). The main thing that won me over was that Tohoku and Yellow River are still immature. That, and we're probably going to be whipping Hammams as soon as Masonry rolls in, making a Golden Age less useful.

I think we're probably on the late side for Hanging Gardens...

A couple other small things:
-There are two Workers in Tohoku. One is on the Horse tile and the other is on the Deer. Road the Deer and Pasture the Horses.
-As soon as the cottage in Yellow River completes, swap to it.
-Check Sian's diplo screen to see if he really doesn't have the city of Toga. Check SAT's screen to see if they magically got a seventh city. If Sian really did settle an aggressive city with only a Warrior, that was a pretty bad descision. Didn't he get in trouble with Nicolae over that?

Should we keep stockpiling gold and wait for Academies or burn it now? I say we burn it if it gets us to Mathematics before the Great Scientist pops in Aral Sea.