[SPOILERS] Ramesses of India

[Qgqqqqq]

Ok I missed the point where you deleted a worker

[Gazglum]

Hey Q, here's the situation.



Thirs city is hooked, and sheep are being worked. Commodore is expanding towards you east of Sheepstacks (he was there first, to be fair), and Oxy has placed another city to the south. I think you need to try and claim taht sheep/gold/marble spot if possible.

Sheepstacks says worker there, but i switched it to granary.

Commodore built stonehenge super early, so now the issue is what to build with our excess production. Capital just finished a granary and grew into unhappiness, but now there is nothing to whip. I thought I'd put it on anotehr worker, then workboat, and perhaps tech writing to get libraries up? OR we could build 5 chariots or something.

Your are at breakeven at 40% with the new city, but cottages are going up now so a fourth city shouldn't be that hard to finance in the future.

[Qgqqqqq]

Pictures!

A barb. Will be whacked next turn, wherever it moves.


I am training this axemen, instead of the superior Fast Worker because Commodore is poking around to the east:


While this is probably a settling party, I want to be able to defend my workers on the ivory if he threatens them. He will probably settle on the plains tile on his side of the river.
I start a settler next turn:


Yes I've just finished a spear (I need way more military then I have...) and the settler will go where? Observe where I have placed my fourth city and think how original I am. Yes, its going on the mirrored plains tile on my side of the river (to my north and Oxy's south), while my other mirrors commodores other on the banana. However, while founding on the banana occurred to me because of Commodores site - I am rather behind on expansion - I have had the gold city marked out for a long long time.
Anyway, moving away from the defensive frame of mind, my current situation. I was able to get the pyramids just a couple of turns after taking over (thanks again Gazglum!), but it came at a significant cost to my expansion and military. Presuming that Commodore will settle next turn, that puts me 5-6 turns behind in settler expansion, but my banana site is significantly smaller, hasn't popped its borders and has less infrastructure. So I'm behind the ball there, and I'm just barely scraping by in military. However I have scouts on Commodores other border and a sentry chariot in the Gold area, so my only endangered fronts are east and south (where I have left the CG3 archer, so I don't think there's any danger there, and they have to crawl over rough terrain to get there.
My cities are all working the capitals cottages at a good clip, while the rest of them will probably mainly use rep scientists (I have no libraries currently, however). While the happy from rep is all I'm using atm, that is itself a absolute godsend, and is what is allowing my size 9 capital this early in the game. I've just teched hunting-archery for military, and am deciding where to go next, either up through math or go for OR. I hope to be able to dominate the wonders from the top of the tree eventually, although that is a longer term goal. I really want to expand into the river central region, for the lovely food resources and river tiles, but I'm struggling to figure out how to settle it, as most sites are very exposed, and I need the culture on my other flanks.

[Ceiliazul]

My that's a nice stack of rocks there under the capital's nameplate... how are you going to leverage that?

[Qgqqqqq]

All the mines? I haven't been working them lately as I try to focus on capital cottages (that screenshot is after two cities grew), but I will work more in the next few turns while I build the settler (switching secondcity - I still haven't renamed - back to a floodplain for growth to allow the capital to take two mines for IIRC a 4 turn settler) and while the Bananananacity works one to finish its granary, but in general the capital is a place where I want to get all the cottages up and grown ASAP.



You meant the Pyramids didn't you? I felt more like talking about micro, because that's more fun and because I have a clue how to leverage it.
However, as for the Mids, it really isn't something I have any skill in. I have never built them in a MP game before, and never really utilized them well in SP either. As I may have mentioned in the traits analysis, I didn't choose PHI because specialists are my weakness and I don't really know how to use them with regard to targetted bulbing and settling and so on. So that's the disclaimer for whatever weedish things I end up doing.
My basic intention is to a) make full use of the happy cap for a vertical advantage (as Gazglum remarked to me, CHA is genuinely strong here partly because, unlike previous small games, we have significantly less happy in easy reach, with none at the capital and none in reasonable second city distance, so the +3 happy really is a godsend, and it applies to more cities because we put the size as small ) and b) to use rep scientists to power my tech rate. Those to goals are slightly contradictory, but basically I will use rep as a license to REX more aggressively, with the knowledge that I can continue to tech independent of the slider, especially into the fertile and food rich centre. This will hopefully allow me to secure a decent tech and land advantage.
(I don't expect to win, what I expect to happen is that I will secure a decent lead but that Commodore's longer term focus will allow him to fly under the radar and only take the lead later.)

[Qgqqqqq]

So Gazglum played a turn for me, big thank you there!

Looking up I see I've not reported in a good long while, so quick update. I settled the gold/wheat city where marked earlier, but curiously enough I chose to settle for the deer/corn/clam area first. This is because I saw a Oxy chariot poking around up there and his culture peaking through, and got a bit worried that he might be going to try and settle up on me, so I threatened his chariot and diverted to that area. This means I got the gold up later then pretty much everyone (expcept Ruff. I get the feeling Ruff is quite out of the game - at the very least he hasn't been playing too well), but I now have quite the sway over the centre region. I'm tempted to send another settler out there, grueling though the costs are, and try and claim the deer between Commodore and I...but I'll wait to see what my economy is like post-currency.
Having planted those cities I've spent a long time limping towards currency, setting up failbuilds on TGW, building libraries and generally just trying to grow my cities vertically (I was negative gold at 10% briefly), but now that currency is in I think I will push out another city or two, to shore up my borders.
Oxy is cleaning up, with Commodore not far behind. My early investment in Pyrimads has cost me in other wonders, losing both Oracle and Stonehenge quite late, and meant I've lagged in pretty much every area. I'm catching up however, through farmer gambit and rep specs, but Oxy's been a power jumping, so I'm going to have to go back on military for a bit...good thing this happened in time for a growth on the gold happy. I'm tempted to keep ignoring the religious line, counter-intuitive though that may be, and try and use this as a chance to take the marble wonders at the top of the tree. Not that I have marble

Pictures posted in a day or so.

[Qgqqqqq]

So this turn I decided to check up on that big spike, and comparing GNPs makes me pretty sure someone has HBR. The only logical person to have it is Oxy, who's power has been spiking greatly (Commodore is in a GA and Ruffs power is stagnant). I couldn't find any stables, but I've still queued up a lot of spears - HA are scary and can threaten up to 4 of my cities at minimal cost (not from the same point obviously...), so I'm trying to get an effective defence in place. I hope to have about 5 spears in the gold area as zone defence, and 2-3 in the centre, with the option to whip more if Oxy starts clearly moving units up - he may be threatening Ruff or Commodore instead (I hope he goes for Commodore).

Commodore built the Great Wall, which gave me a nice gold infusion at end of turn. This means I can start tech up again in just 2 turns (waiting on the academy). I'm trying to work out whether I want to go by Code of Laws or Monotheism first. I set research tentatively at CoL, with the aim to use it to make another city in the grassy centre economically viable, which would leave me at another two decent cities before I run out of room (unless I settle the jungle centre, as Commodore seems about to do, but I'm worried about how exposed those cities would be). I intend to build Moai relatively soon, probably in several cities for the failgold.

And with pictures!

What made me worried:



The north:


These are two cities he could fork with annoying ease. Fortunately I have at least one turns notice (unless the culture changes) as all of his potential setups are visible to me, both before and after engineering. He can hit the gold city in one turn, but that is also visible pre-engineering, and requires his attacking across a river, so I'm not worried. The stack on the floodplain is two workers plus a C1 spear, and I'm finishing a third in Gaz Waz Ere (who's name I hadn't really noticed BTW). I also have a C3 chariot who can reinforce Goldcity in one turn, which gives me a decent defence in this area, so I'm not worried too much. Gaz Waz Here will finish another 1-2 spears and then work on wealth or a worker. Gold city is working those tiles to grow in one turn, and will whip the library next turn, followed by dumping a few hammers in a spear (to be able to whip). I have no idea why Ruffs gold is unclaimed at this point - its not like he's moved into the centre instead.

Onto the Centre:


Bombay just two-popped whipped a granary. I hope that deer is never unworked again Anyway, you can see a lot of troop movements in this area. That spear to the south is moving up to Bombay from the Sheepstack (which is building its own post whip-overflow) as I'm feeling quite confident on that border. My road network really is atrocious, but that tile will be roaded next turn. The chariot is staying behind sheepstacks to try to signal friendship to Commodore, but the axe has to stay in case he moves a spear onto the ivory this turn. Those two workers are chopping into what will hopefully be a library for Bombay, but may have to regrettably be military. This gives me a spear and a axe in Bombay currently, a spear due in two turns and the option to chop in a third soon. (I will cottage some of this area, as I view it as largely culturally secure, but not all). You can see also my hope of another city to the east claiming Commodores clam/deer, but I'm not sure quite when that will be militarily viable - I intend to wait until at least two spears/one axe.

The east:


Okay, I'd forgotten I had this one, most of its content is covered above. Still, you can see Nappy's golden age yields here, and an almost identical situation to my north (except I control all Sheepstacks second ring tiles, and thus cannot be hit by two movers). Way too many forests uncut here, I may try to turn those into a wonder someday.

The South:


In this one and the last you can see my city sign for the plains sheep site, which I hope to go for soon. Anyway, Delhi (yeah lame city name) is putting hammers into a spear for a potential whip - I'm not worried much as I have a C2, CG3 archer here and a spear, but better safe then sorry. It will likely swap to wealth next turn, taking back the fish from the capital (which is also just growing on that spear, although that one will probably be finished and sent north (or used to garrison the sheep site). You can also see the culture percentages for the hill, which I hope to take back some day.

[Qgqqqqq]

Two events happen over the past two turns: Firstly, I let Oxy take two workers. Really bad play here, I defended with a spear only because I was concerned about chariots/HA, I had completely missed that 3 workers on a forest may be intended to chop, but can road as well.
Secondly, I spot a Commodore settler two tiles from where I planned a city in two turns. I diverted him to the plains sheep spot, which founds next turn, but that is pretty brutal and basically means I have no sway of that region (the river centre is actually really, really defensible).
Otherwise just whipping courthouses and trying to grow the economy.

[Qgqqqqq]

I've been rather checked out of the game for a week or so now, largely because I've had a lot of other work and haven't been that interested in this. Firstly, as has been the case for rather a while, Commodore and Oxy are ahead, but I think Commodore has now definitely taken the lead, largely due to Oxy investing significant resources into military and then doing...nothing with it. (This theory is confirmed because Catwalk basically showed me Oxy's entire army which removed any latent surprise from the mix. Now, granted he'd probably decided not to attack me at this point, but there's no reason to show the relatively backwards and underarmed nation your army, especially as I'm his best avenue for expansion.) The two are eating all the wonders (really making me wish I'd gone the PHI route and just eaten the penalty) and roaring up the tech tree.

My lack of focus has meant I picked up a tech I didn't really need (Sailing) and am now struggling with priorities. The basic setup being that I will pop a GS in 2-3 turns, around the turn I get CS. The basic plan is to fire a GA and use it to a) generate a couple of GP, including a artist (this is a strategic desicion because I need culture in Gold Lakes ASAP and this is a good opportunity to get it) and b) tech some combination of the following: Iron Working (I want to stake a claim for the centre. This will come early provided I can get the settling party ready on time), Construction (military), Monarchy-Feudalism (possibly. These are rather dead-end techs, but longbows would make me a lot more secure, especially if I move on the jungle centre), Metal Casting (OMG need ASAP), Aesthetics->Literature (for GL and other fun wonders). I also hope to follow this path to Music whilst the others are battling over Liberalism.

However, an alternative I've been considering is to hold onto the GS briefly with the aim of bulbing Philosophy. This is good because it means I can avoid using a GA too early, pick up a bunch of free beakers and allow an even faster 5th GP. Unfortunately, it requires alphabet to do so, and I think I value the tech advantage the GA plan gives greater benefits.

In general, I doubt I can win from here, but I don't intend to go on tilt or anything, but just try to city-build whilst maintaining enough defense to prevent any profitable devouring.

[Qgqqqqq]

So I popped an engineer out of the capital. Well that changes things, big time. Oxy and Commodore are presumably fighting over liberalism, but I hope to be able to take Taj. This is my tech route:


Why go calender first? While this might seem stupid in the context of a race, the main factors in my being behind at the moment are my vertical growth, with Commodore having gone the forges route and Oxy the Calender route, I've been behind in city sizes for a long time now, and the happy will be invaluable. So I will save gold on Calender for two turns, bringing it to the point of completion, and then burn all the way through it with overflow. I will also be finishing a couple of failgold builds which should let me mostly research at full burn. I can also build wealth if necessary, and will be triggering a GA T94:


...all of which should let me rush Taj around about T100, which will hopefully be enough to beat the others too Taj. I am massively rooting for Commodore to win liberalism here, as only Oxy has been able to secure marble, and I'm pretty sure I can beat Commodore if he doesn't get his hands on it. Also Oxy has the MoM. Still, worst case scenario, I'm pretty sure that Commodore will try to pillage the marble - if Oxy gets Taj and Lib he'll have a pretty massive advantage over the whole field.
My GP after that is cooking in Goldlakes:


I'd been working mostly artists till know, to get a cultural advantage on this border, and I may do so again:


Which raises an interesting point about culture (which I mention here because Ceilzul seems to be the only lurker, and he has close experience in this, having taken over from Catwalk) and its worth in a close game like this. While I'm not one to promote CRE Inca, I definitely think that working the artists I did here has been invaluable. Artists are improved by having Pyrimads, making them a 4b/4cult tile, compared to the 6b scientist. So is 2b for 4cult worthwhile? IMO it has been imminently valuable here, taking me from a situation of extreme vulnerability, with no sight into Oxy's land and several avenues for attack and into one of strength. The other side of this lies, of course, in this prompting neighborly aggression, which here comes from Commodore, as I have taken a bunch of tiles off him which make him feel vulnerable, and could cause an attack. However, due to the map setup, Oxy is pretty well the only player that stands to benefit from me losing a city, not just here but almost everywhere - despite appearances this is actually a very defensible map, with the only particularly vulnerable region being to my north (or in the jungle centre, but even there there is no way to gain from the aggression, as culture from the capital is too established and other neighbors too close). The mountains to my west secure that region, while the rivers and lakes to my east make that particularly defensible. Thus, a cultural buffer is very valuable to my north, but much less so in any other area, and Commodore wants to (or at least should want to) keep me strong so that I can defend against Sumerian attacks.
Anyway, each artist turn is roughly 3% in my second ring tiles, so easily worthwhile - so much so that I intend to rush Taj here.
Industrius Failgold at work:


The real cost of going after Taj:


No forges at T100 == fail

I teach Oxy not to poke around:


The spear moves south to cover the city.

I settle the jungle next turn:


This may end up burning quickly, but I'm hoping people will be too busy rushing their tech and give me time to get this established. And get longbows in it (longbows needed yesterday, ignored 'till next week).

Also started TGL in the capital, due in 7-8 turns (wish I had marble ), and Sheepstacks started the Parthenon. Y'know, instead of the units I need yesterday...

Oh and I took like 15 minutes to name every unit after not-so-tasty morsels