[SPOILER] Kyan + thestick. Is that the best you can do?

[thestick]

I'm starting to drift back towards Calendar over Monarchy, since I already have Silks, Spices, and Incense in my territory.

[thestick]

T52 went according to plan, Settler and Worker whipped. Library in Makemake will be whipped next turn, and the Worker in Eris will be whipped in two turns. The road to Charon is starting to be built.

Nakor is pretty close to the south, only one city length away. Mackoti rejected Open Borders for some reason.

[Brian Shanahan]

Re Mackoti: I see he's Egypt, a few Spearmen would not go amiss on the nearest border to him. A known warmonger with an early offensive UU needs to be guarded against.

Re the open borders: If you've sailing then defog a coastal path to the both civs to get the trade routes. Foreign ones are twice as valuable as homegrown ones.

Re pop/crop yield: I wouldn't mind a disconnection between them two this early if you're whipping. You're just converting food to production, which is good. When you've cottages up and running is when you need to grow (some) cities.

[thestick]

Currently I have only 1 Spearman, and it's going towards Mackoti. Thanks, more will be needed.

I'm mostly worried that I might be leaning too hard on the food end of the Food vs. GNP scale. I farmed both of Makemake's floodplains!

Trade routes work even without Open Borders? Don't have Sailing, it'll probably come after Calendar to get some island trade routes. I should probably put out a Work Boat sometime to meet Shoot the Moon, Sian, and TheMusicMan.

[thestick]

T53, still growing. I'm going to skim a Spearman off of Haumea, 2 Spears and an Axe should be fine for early defence.

Nakor settled the jungle city of Qeeg on top of Marble. Interesting.

[thestick]

This turn is more growing, but those types of reports are boring. My cities are starting to crash against the happy cap.

Anyway, the Library in Makemake completed EOT, and next turn I'll start researching Mathematics, due in four turns. Yes, I know that Industrious = Forges, but happiness seems more important now.

I still can't decide between the two spots of Charon. The northern one is flat out better, with Wheat and a river. But it's a stretch...

I do hope to build the Hanging Gardens in Makemake:



No, I don't have any elaborate micro plans yet. Engineer points will be huge, the only source of them pre-Forges. With six cities, this thing will be 13 hammers short of paying for itself, and will yield a net hammer gain if I decide to settle Nix.

I plan on whipping/chopping a Settler from Eris:



Slow-building that Library probably wasn't the best idea... of course, if Charon crashes the economy too much, I'll probably wait on Nix.

Nix will probably go in that Clams/Cows spot up north.

Pluto and Haumea have as many cottages as their current happy cap allows:



Need Calendar here.

In foreign news, Mackoti has a ridiculous Size 9 capital. Industrious Oracled Forges, I guess. Nakor settled the city of Queg a while ago:



Demographics:

[thestick]

This turn was a turn for laying down plans.

I turned research back on, Mathematics comes in T59, meaning the Hanging Gardens will be started T61. I plan on straight three-pop whipping the Aqueduct, then chopping like nuts and hope I get it.

At breakeven, I'm 5th in GNP with a 50% rate. Mathematics should leave me with about 80 gold left for Calendar, I don't know if it's enough. I wonder if Mausoleum will be better than Hanging Gardens. I think Nakor's going to make a bid for Mausoleum, judging by his Marble plant.

I decided to go with the far plant of Charon, so it'll be settled T57. I decided to just whip a Worker in Eris, as I need more of them. The Chop at Eris will go into a Work Boat for Nix's Clams (I think it's Clams). Pluto will be whipped for Nix's Settler T58, and Nix itself will be settled T60. Haumea will whip its Library then. I'll definitely need to start sending Workers north after this round of improvements is done.

Library was whipped in Ceres. Makemake's borders popped, revealing Grassland Sheep to the west of the Wheat. Most of my overflow right now is going into units.

[thestick]

The major news of this turn was that Charon was settled as scheduled:


Unfortunately, Worker labor is still catching up to this city, and the Wheat won't be farmed until T61. Sigh.

Eris:



At Eris/Nix, I think I've set it up so that the Cows get Pastured T61, one turn after the city is settled. Nix won't claim the Clams until T63, so there doesn't seem to be too much of a rush to get the Work Boat out. I'll delay the chop for one turn to wait for Mathematics.

Random shot of Pluto:



In foreign news, Shoot the Moon's Work Boat sailed out of the fog. He's just a jump across the islands. So apparently the other continent is reachable by Galley. Nakor already has seven cities, a cause for some alarm. Mackoti's still stuck at four cities for some reason.

Overview of the north:



Overview of the south:



GNP:



MFG:



Crop Yield:



Power:



Demographics:



Although that GNP number is cheesed at 100%, the actual breakeven number is about 65-ish, and is third on the rankings. Sweet, though I'm not quite sure how much of that is cheap Creative culture. Crop Yield is still ahead of everyone else and I've ascended to first in Population and Soldiers, though some of that Population is unhappiness. Nakor's spike in Crop Yield is a sign for concern, though. This whole Fishing start is working out better than expected. And I'm not too worried about MFG being low, it's all about that whip.

I wish there was a better way to gauge research than GNP.

[thestick]

...what about settling Nix 1NE of the posted sign? Grabs Clams first ring at the cost of a grassland and one turn off the Settling date (unless I go for some more Roads).

[thestick]

In domestic news, I whipped the Settler and Library in Pluto and Haumea as planned. This dropped research down to about 35% breakeven. Mathematics came in during the turn roll, leaving me with about 70 gold. Next tech is Sailing to unlock Calendar and foreign trade routes.

Ceres has developed quite nicely:



Work Boat is there to scout the islands and find the TheMusicMan.

In foreign news, Sian sailed out of the north through the islands by Charon:



He has six cities. Also, weird how I've claimed two of the four island chain ports on this continent. How exactly do trade routes work? I haven't defogged a path to any of Shoot's or Sian's cities.

For the general overarching plan, I'm not sure whether to head for the Jungles or head for the Islands.

Demographics: