The Pen vs The Sword (Gandhi of NA)

[Commodore]

Kesorak says "need more workers".

[The Black Sword]

True that. I've been saving food there for a while for the GM though, so the only improvements I could use would be some grass farms.

I am barely keeping up in worker turns in general though. I had hoped to try out some serfdom after the Incan war but Dazed's culture bomb meant I needed access to artists. With mass specialists coming up for the next 5t and drafting the 5t after that, I hope that my current workers can stay ahead of my needs.

[The Black Sword]

More workers was one thing I wanted to improve this game. That failed. Another? Scouting. That's been pretty bad too!

I finally ran into Joey's capital:


That FP grass is a pretty ridiculous capital tile. At least it didn't multiply with his EXP bonus. Here's all the land he's gotten from me:



With no second direction to expand, I suppose that was inevitable. I wish I'd been able to swipe that Haymaze spot though. Also of note; his cities are a lot bigger than mine.

I revolted to Pacifism this turn, here's the GP action:





My expenses are crazy low right now, without any wealth-building.

Here's Sulla's Ruins, popping 3rd ring borders:

Next turn I have another WS up and it can focus on the gran.

[Commodore]

He moved his capital. I might have missed that one, but I gave a little more care than that to the capitals themselves.

[The Black Sword]

Hah, that explanation certainly makes more sense. Sorry Comm!

[Ceiliazul]

He moved his capital. I might have missed that one, but I gave a little more care than that to the capitals themselves.

I was debating whether that was spoiler info, but I think 'Zoo' is a top 5 city and therefore it's founding date is visible. But Commodore beat me to it :-)

[The Black Sword]

Yeah, that not being his capital makes a lot of other things make much more sense, I think I would have thought of it eventually. I doubt it does me of any benefit either.

Random evil thought:
I still have my GG sticking around... could attach him to a musket, sail over there in a galley. Declare war from Oxy land, drop the musket on the hill. Promote to Morale and G2...

[The Black Sword]

Basilisk Caves is looking quite awesome these days. Might steal some of Joey's first ring tiles when it pops borders again if he's not careful.



We also have a new city incoming:



We'll see how much this costs and use that to decide if it's worth settling the inland fillers yet. I probably shouldn't have delayed this one so long.

[The Black Sword]

Wonder what way the first GP roll will go ...


And here's one of the cities with excessive Theocracy preparation:



I landed Nationalism last turn and it looks like I'll just be able to squeeze out Gunpowder next turn on schedule. There's 4 other people with Gunpowder now IIRC, which is a nice 24% known tech bonus. I have to pick up Engineering too, which has the full 60% bonus by now. Dazed landed a GE last turn, so a MoM golden age could be coming up. He also picked up Paper recently. That indicates either PP or Education coming up, which would be great news. Pin picked up Divine Right so it looks like we'll have to split the monk wonders. Plako's musketeers are doing a number on Xenu it seems, Xenu's food is taking a slavery induced nosedive though. I still need to find a source of gems and incense somewhere, furs and silver to trade back. Oh, and I don't think I congratulated BGN on his Taj time a few turns back. He did it in only 1 or 2 turns, so I'm pretty sure I would have missed out by about that much even if I had played correctly for it. That makes me feel a little bit better.

[The Black Sword]

Dazed indeed threw a Golden age and revolted into some useful civics: HR/Bureau/Caste. He'll have a free revolt into slavery anyway if I attack.

I'm having some issues with that attack at the moment. I just about hit my Gunpowder target and we're now about 6t from Engineering and Mil Tradition:


I'm tempted to delay my drafting period, so I can still match up with my Cuirs and get a few extra GA tile turns. I can't get Sulla's Ruins and Howling Badlands up to size 7 in the next 5 turns also and they'd obviously be prime drafting candidates. But I also want to get the draft counters running ASAP. Well, I'll probably make an evaluation each turn, based on how much I need Theocracy and how close the Cuir D-day is. Ideally, every city completes a Cuir as Mil Trad comes in, and I have everything in place for an attack as those Cuirs hit the front. I have a plan laid out for 30 drafts in the next 5t at least, not losing too important tiles. I'm double drafting most places, triple drafting where possible. I got the Incense and Gems from Plako and HAK, and I still have HR, so I have the happy for this and I hope as WW ticks up the draft anger will tick down.

Ruphus here managed to break even:


Guess I really never should have stopped settling on this map. I'm throwing out two more settlers for my fillers.

Now that Weldyn has a Grocer, it's looking like the 3rd best city in the world:


This turn's GP does have some chance involved:


And, final turn of GA demos:


My food is still a bit suppressed by specialists, still, even add 50 food to that and it doesn't look good. GNP now looks ok after Krovice and dtay's golden ages ended. Production has been consistently 3rd.