[SPOILER] The Steak, Beer, and Cigar Saloon

[Catwalk]

Forgot: Someone built Colossus (probably zanth), and a great scientist (unknown) + a great prophet (Nakor) was born.

[Catwalk]

While on the topic of zanth, he seems to be an absolute monster. I hope this is in part due to a strong starting position (from what I've seen so far, there seems to be significant differences), but it also looks like he has played a strong opening. He may also have lucked into a weak neighbour, but I don't think we have any bantams class players. I lucked into having a weak neighbour in Jowy myself, but that was mostly because of his war with Yuris. I can't do anything other than what I'm doing already, doing as much of a farmer's gambit as possible while keeping my rivals at bay. It's starting to look like that won't be enough, though. I'll have to pin my hopes on his neighbours amassing military against him, I'm guessing he has 2 land neighbours and 2 sea neighbours like myself. I'm still enjoying the game, but my hopes of winning are sadly dropping with each turn now. I'm still holding out a hope for someone waging a destructive war against zanth, but it'd also be kind of boring to win that way. And zanth aside, I feel like I'm a few steps behind some of the other players too.

[Catwalk]

Turn 95

First, the situation with Nakor:

Nakor agreed to peace, and his settler won't make it up to the wheat spot in time unless he settles it next turn. Deprivation negates the only sites he'd be able to reach, so I consider it a lock. I'll settle 3N of Deprivation in 2 turns, giving me a very nice border with Nakor. They're not hill cities, but the lakes help nicely in blocking off any advances he may make. I don't think my land grab is super greedy, but I do get a little more out of it than he does. Lucky bastard is sitting on gold over there, though. If I'd been really bold, I could have settled on top of the PH 1N2W of Deprivation and stolen his gold. That would have antagonized him massively, though. I think we can maintain peaceful relations with this, I don't think I've screwed him over.


Over by Jowy, things are still contested:

Can someone remind me why I placed a city named Always Wrong in such a ridiculous location? 1E would have given me pigs, denied Jowy the location I'm fighting to keep from him and freed up another filler site. Worst part is, I vaguely recall preferring to use up plains rather than grassland for the city tile... I don't see anything redeeming about the location I chose.

I have 1 axe and 1 spear below his chariot, 1 spear in Always Wrong, 2 axes and 1 spear in Mother In Law. He has 2 axes in Cray and 2 visible chariots. Always Wrong pops borders next turn, letting me start improving pigs. Vacuuming will triple whip a settler for the backup location in 2 turns, I hope that is soon enough. Jowy is probably getting a settler ready as we speak, I'm praying I can delay it with military force. He'll likely be pissed off about me taking the jungle site, but he still has several good options for settling the elephants that he should have taken long ago.


More island touring:

Lot of unclaimed lands up north, I wonder what's up with that. Maybe it's an area similar to the lands NW of me and NE of Nakor.


Lastly, a city tour with a few comments:

Working on building a library here, I want it up and running when I build an academy shortly. Anyone want to sell me on settling the GS instead? I need the missionary for my new Nakor border city, so that's highest priority for that chop that just came in.

Growing it into unhappiness next turn, will switch to a settler and whip it the following turn. That means 15 turns of whip anger, but I'll have Calendar luxuries before then to deal with it.

Getting ready to triple whip a settler here, sending it to the southern PH location with seafood by Nakor so I can lock that site down before he gets too adventurous.

Rice isn't available this turn in order for Vacuuming to grow, so I sacked a scientist for a turn to ensure growth here. I'll still get the great scientist in 2 turns. This is a very nice GS farm, I'm thinking about triple whipping a settler next for the sugar site. It'll regrow fast enough, then resume working a pair of scientists. I actually think I want both a settled GS and a scientist in the capital, anyone want to talk me out of it? In case you don't, which one should I get first?

Going to turn this into a cottage city soonish, but for now it's still a work horse. I need the support for my ambitious expansion plans, this one will likely backfill a spot west of the capital to help work cottages.

And Always Wrong... Sigh, stupid location. It's turning out alright, though.
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This one is also developing at snailpace, but it's finally becoming somewhat productive. I'll whip the granary when I'm halfway to size 3, still planning on reserving the 3 forests for Moai here.
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And my newest addition. I just completed a road to it this turn, will get busy on the deer next. It's nice to have a 3/1 tile to start it out with, and lake tiles when it grows to size 2. Also lots of forests here, and I'm making liberal use of those to boost my expansion now.

[MaxPower]

If I recall right, you settled Always Wrong in kind of a hurry due to Jowy's units wandering around the place. That settler was intended to hook up the ivory. Anyway it's not a bad spot at all, even if it loses the pigs it will have bananas and will have 6 riverside cottages to work along with the cows and the lake, and it is a highly defensive spot.
By the way, it has enough forests to completely chop the MoM. With the wonder culture it will secure the pigs tile no matter where Jowy plants his city.

[MaxPower]

About GS plans, the first one obviously builds the academy and I would use the second guy to bulb Education.
My reasons are:
- You are PHI, you will have cheap universities and stone in reach for cheap Oxford. You have a green fertile cottage-able land to profit from the 6 required universities. In a few turns span you will see your beaker count explode.
- With Colossus off the table, MC is not such a priority so you should go the bureaucracy line after calendar (I would recommend a detour to Monarchy at some point), which is on the Education route.
- It will put you closer to win the lib race. That specially true if can spawn a another GS to bulb Philosophy. That's a good way to leverage your PHI trait.

About GS bulbing preferences:
- Education is a high preference, once you have paper you con bulb Education.
- Philosophy is more tricky, you need Alphabet and you can't have both Machinery and Paper or else it will bulb Printing Press.

If you have to research Machinery at some point, ie you need maces for defense, you have to bulb Philosophy before. Working 2 scientists you need 17 turns to generate the second GS, and 25 turns to get the third. This time frame may suit the bulbing plan.

[Catwalk]

It's a recurring theme that you push me to go for gold and I lean towards playing chicken Hopefully we can balance each other out nicely that way. I'm halfway motivated to make an attempt at MoM. Calendar finishes in about 8 turns, I can have a settler on the island by then and have several forests pre-chopped. With 6 forests I will need to provide 45 base hammers on top of that. I can do that with 3 workers (currently have 2 in the area) if I'm willing to waste extra turns pre-chopping and moving on to forests. Or I could chop and spend a few turns on wealth while working lake tiles anyway. I'd actually be able to start doing that right away. Are there any kinds of limitations to storing chop hammers while building wealth? I haven't really given it much thought before, but it seems a little too easy to pre-build wonders that way. Or is that just what everybody does already and I haven't really been paying attention?

As for Liberalism, I'm still leaning towards pessimism. I'm dealing with Azza who's probably slightly ahead of me and also busy generating GPs, BaII who got Currency before me and is ahead of me in city count, and Nakor + slowcheetah + flugauto who seem to be keeping pace with me. And then there's zanth, the farmer's gambit whore from Babylon To be fair I don't know if he actually did do a farmer's gambit, I just know I'm jealous of his lead!

There's a lot to be said for a GS bulb even without a push for Liberalism, though. I tend to be a little too fond of long-lasting benefits when compared with instant benefits. I'll be getting 13 beakers from a GS (20 with Oxford) when adding the 20% pre-req bonus, maybe closer to 14 and 21 if I also add the known-tech bonus and occasional double pre-req. Add 1.5 hammers (from Bureaucracy) which I'm going to count as the equivalent of 2 beakers and I'm up to 16 / 23 beakers per turn from a settled GS. Should I later feel like getting Constitution and revolting to Representation, they max out at 33 beakers per turn later on. How many beakers do I get from a GS bulb?

Somewhat related, I still like my earlier plan of running merchant specialists in one city and scientist specialists in the capital. I max out at +9 food in the capital with a lighthouse and no mines worked, would be enough to fill all 5 scientist slots from library and Oxford with a single farm. That's enough work for 15 citizens, can add another 3 scientists with Biology if I find the slots somewhere which is enough work for 20 citizens. The jungle city will have +14 food if I get both bananas and work the pigs, plenty to work 4 merchant specialists (market + grocer) while growing.

[Catwalk]

Before I forget (again), I need Masonry to hook up marble Add 2t to MoM completion time for that reason, lets me finish Calendar around t105. That also gives me more time to chop forests, though. Can anyone verify that I can stock up as many chop hammers I want on wealth? I suppose I could also check for myself

[MaxPower]

I don't know the mechanics for that. I think you can but they start to wear off after some time. I will try to find some article explaining that mechanic.

[Edit] I didn't find any article, but I tested, and there seems to be not limit about the max amount of hammers you can store (I chopped 14 forests for 420 base hammers) and no time limit to use them, I entered "next turn" for more than 60 turns and the hammers never wore off. It seems to be a valid strategy to chop and store using wealth for pre-building a wonder.

[Catwalk]

Thanks! That does boost my confidence about MoM considerably, since I can pre-chop the hammers and then get the doubler later.

[Catwalk]

Reporting properly next turn. I'm going to make a play for MoM, got 3 workers ready to start chopping out forests in Always Wrong and the timing should work out nicely. The galley is returning to pick up my new settler which I foolishly whipped ahead of time. I thought I was going to settle the jungle spot by Jowy, then decided against doing that just yet.

I changed my mind again about the site for my second city by Nakor, I'm going even further north west. That lets me block off all potential expansions in that direction and still lets me secure the wheat. I lose wheat entirely for that city, but I get an oasis, 2x flood plains and several river plains tiles. I also get to sit on a pretty plains hill.

Jowy's capital just turned buddhist, which means that with another 6 EP I gain visibility on it! That's too good to pass up, so I'm spying on him for the next two turns and hope he won't notice much. I have 2 spears and 2 axes sitting on the tile I don't want him to settle on, I hope that doesn't provoke him too much but deters him from settling