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

[Gavagai]

Also, Jowy is definitely up to something. He whipped three times this turn and he takes longer than usual to play. It would make absolutely no sense for him to attack me but that suddenly doesn't seem like a strong argument.

[Gavagai]

I just don't know what to say at that point. Will anything except wars with Egypt go my way in this game? I was expecting to compete with Jowy for this peace of land...



Of course, they never had to research construction...

[Gavagai]

Seventeen cities and economy thrice as good as mine...

[Gavagai]

Wow, Sian has just settled his city in basicaally the worst spot possible (from my perspective, at least): 1S of Rice.

[Gavagai]

Ok, let's talk about interesting stuff:



I'm moving troops towards Nakor's capital. His forces are unimpressive - I expected him to have more. Of course, he still has time to whip his capital to the ground, but still... My stack isn't intimidating either but I try to be efficient. Observe a settler - it looks like he is going to establish a secret pirate base somewhere in the islands.



Wanted to show you this and this is not good. 40% of my gold income come from my capital, 64% come from top 3 gold-producing citiies. Once again, my first war with Egypt is the root of this situation. My cities #5 and #6 were war trophies and they couldn't develope normally under the pressure of Moria's culture. Koln suffered especially badly. Also, my #4 city (Deau-Vere) has been placed suboptimally with military considerations taking priority and was crippled by the war effort. That's why I'm lagging behind now - cities #4-7 are contributing now seriously to nationwide income of other civs and I have a kind of a gap in this respect.

Started doing this:



Markets in top three commerce cities will increase my net gold income by something like factor 1.5. In capital alone market will bring 27 gold per turn, so capital is the next in line.



Found Sian's capital. This is a rather... odd place to start. And, of course, Sian has chosen to make it even more odd by keeping these forests. May be I'll build National Park there at some point...
I think, I'm curious enough to move a chariot 1SE next turn to check for extra seafood.



Didn't make a picture of that but Serdoa brought a galley, so I had to retreat my workboat. I will whip a trireme next turn - may be I would be able to ambush his ship.

[Gavagai]

Some longer-term thoughts. I'm going to try to win Economics race but for this to happpen I really need Noble/Serdoa to get distracted by something. Also, I checked bulb preferences for scientists and it looks like we can bulb along Scimethod -> Biology if we refrain from researching Compass and research Philosophy. I think I may try to go for it - early Biology will be very powerful with my land. Not researching Compass will be a pain, however...

[Gavagai]

Sorry, forgot to take screenshots but I logged in to whip a capital this turn instead of after growth (figured out that waiting doesn't worth it) and found that Jowy is offering me sheep for free. Nice! I will try to pay him back with a favor when an opportunity to do so presents itself.

[Gavagai]

Nakor has three more catapults in The Rock. I feel myself really stupid for giving second GG mace CR3 and combat2. Can't really explain what I was thinking, pure weed on my part. I should a) have saved promotions, b) give it morale now. My mini-stack of two-movers would be just incredibly more useful if it had two maces.
Nakor added one chariot in Redemption and whipped it for three pop. I think it can reasonably be only another catapult. Don't think that it's the right thing to do for him, he can cause a lot of collateral damage but just don't have enough "hitters" to really make use of it.
Also, settler has disappeared, and I spotted a galley in the city at the start of a turn. So, "secret pirate base plan" it is. Pretty annoying as I would need to bring at least two ships to deal with it and I don't have naval bases anywhere close.

[Gavagai]

Isn't that lovely? So many people are feeding the leader with trade routes...

Also, this:



Wow, seven fish! Sea people are there!

[Gavagai]

Wow, that's interesting. It looks like that Serdoa has moved his capital.