[Spoilers] Gavagai, Bacchus and Elizabeth Form a Romantic Trio

[Gavagai]

...shit, how exactly far this peak can see?

[Bacchus]

The peak can see across three flat tiles in a straight line and I'm not sure about diagonals.

We will be able to get CoL from natural research soon enough after monarchy, and culture warring shouldn't be too difficult — we can even found a religion to assist and perhaps switch into it for a short while, if necessary. But even without a switch, we will be able to spam a whole bunch of monasteries.

EDIT: Also, consider that without cottaging the floods city he will have pretty much no source of commerce. Does he even have Fishing yet? So, as long as we can slow down his improvements through harassment, we should maintain our serious advantage in research for a good long while.

[Gavagai]

Graphs:

[Gavagai]

Forgot about Power:

[Krill]

The peak can see across three flat tiles in a straight line and I'm not sure about diagonals.

2 tiles in all directions over forests and hills.

[Bacchus]

Ah! Well, then it doesn't really make a difference as there aren't any elevated tiles there to block the view. I erroneously thought sight distance scaled with elevation, rather than being a +1 bonus regardless of the size in the height difference.

[Bacchus]

So, if we think that he will found on the desert hill, which would actually make sense -- I didn't even realize Gav considered a more southron position, we have an excellent protected approach for the attack, one he is incredibly unlikely to scout:



Yellow is his visibility. I'm now thinking I should have picked a dfifferent colour.

[Gavagai]

New turn and important news. I will give you a close up shot:



This is a new land Dusty has discovered in the Western Ocean and you may see there something which looks like Slowcheetah's borders. And we may even have a land bridge to him, look:



Also, my thoughts have made a full circle and I have returned to my idea of attacking Egypt with chariots and axes soon after T70. I don't want to do it as this attack will be really hard to pull of and we will need to rely on their mistakes. But I don't think we have any other options. The problem is that they will attack us inevitably. I mean, what else they can do? We will need to wait for their attack, to research horseback riding and construction and shit like that, to stay in slavery (which means for us playing basically without a trait). Then there attack will come, we will fight them off, then we will be surely attacked by Mongols... Can we win the game after that? I don't see how.
Another option I considered was to schedule attack for a later time. For example, to attack with HAs at T100. I don't think that it would be a good shot: too obvious, too easy to defend and, actually, more expansive than what I want to do now. Attacking with maces/cats at about T130 or with knights at about T150 would give us excellent chances but I don't believe that this is ever going to happen. I'm pretty sure that they have scheduled their own attack soon after T100. After all, they do know that we always will be ahead of them in techs and winning in ancient era war is their only chance. And if we doomed to fighting an ancient era war, we'd better fight it on our own terms.
This is very possibly the most important of our choices in this game; I would really appreciate some lurker feedback about it - not here, of course, but in lurker's thread.
You might be surprised but in spite of a decision to attack we are still going to build the Oracle. Sounds crazy, I know; but we are not going to straight up outproduce Egypt. They have more food, more hammers, they will win an arms race. Our only advantage is surprise and building the Oracle does contribute to it. I mean - they would hardly expect our attack after they see us building this thing. On the other hand, the Oracle is going to be built in the capital which isn't going to produce much troops anyway: it is too far from the frontlines and our only hope is to attack quickly after our power will spike so that they won't be able to react in time.
We will take Mathematics from the Oracle; it is on the way to construction and additional hammers from chops would actually contribute significantly to our war effort.

[Bacchus]

Actually, I think any attack for them after T100 and with us having monarchy will be suicidal — we have something like 11 grass hills to work between Londra, Yark and Croyden, and food enough to support them with all the resources, greenery and fresh water. Early monarchy and religion with these lands will give us a very significant advantage, all we have to do is protect it. They lack food, they lack rivers, they even really lack land, if you account for all the tundra, desert and peaks. So what exactly is this Egyptian war effort around and after T100 going to be supported with? Their window for attack is actually now, if at any time at all.

And what might they realistically wish to achieve in a big all-out war? They aren't holding onto any cities usefully without taking ALL of them, and they are not going to manage that. Moreover, this time is crucial for them to set up the philosophical engine, even more so than for us — they want to go into caste perhaps even more than we do, as they have higher food surplus in-capital, and they are so stuffed on natural commerce.

I just can't see sense in forcing a war when demos disfavour us, rather than waiting for them to improve as they are bound to.

Shouldn't Croyden start on a Granary, regardless of the plan? Granary will make slavery much sweeter, useful for military as for anything else.

[Gavagai]

The question is what might they realistically wish to achieve in not-attacking? They need to try to take our land or die in process. Just what ELSE can they do?
And yes, I'm pretty sure that we would be able to hold off their attack. But it will be at least as costly as attacking them right now but without potential for reward.

Granary is a difficult choice; I'm not sure we will be able to make it pay for itself in time but I will think about it more. It should be whipped from size 4 anyway, so it doesn't really matter what we are building in this city right now.