[PB22-SPOILERS] HAKFlakes...the cereal that will choke you until we win

[HitAnyKey]

Wow, this really is one crazy map. I just traded with mackoti this past turn, so know his land now (and basically gave him Gavagai's land layout). Hopefully going that direction entices mackoti such that he doesn't come after me.
I also offered a trade to GJ this turn. I'm currently least worried about him, since wherever he came from with his scout, it's gotta be far away. Since he came from somewhere E-SE of me and the only land really that direction is past Gavagai. So I want to know where he is and what his land looks like, and don't care about giving him what Gavagai's & mackoti's land looks like.










And as you can see, mackoti has some really nice land up there. Look at all that Gold, and he's also about to hook up Silver too. He also has Stone right nearby, similar to Gavagai. Looks like mackoti had a scout some into my norther area a bit, since I previously couldn't see that Marble and stuff around it to my north and now I can. With any luck, any scout he had over there died, and there might be a hut or two available to me. If my warrior finds a hut, I may just end up having to take it with the warrior, due to the loss of my scout I sent that way. Either way or wait for my southern scout to make his way north, which he's starting to do now that he's discovered most everything except that far eastern part of the southern continent. But I know GJ, Gavagai, & mackoti all had scouts heading that direction, so any huts in the fog there are most assuredly gone. I'll uncover that fog in due time later on when I start chopping through that jungle in the distant future.

[HitAnyKey]

So I saw GJ logged in, so I went back to see if he accepted my map trade...and as I kinda expected, he did....










So above you can see his lands, and some of REM's lands...which as you can see lies directly south of the land below me. So at some point before I can colonize it REM is likely be settling the area south of those jungles. Especially depending on what the land is like to his west, since he's boxed in by GJ to the east. And GJ is south of Gavagai.
This whole thing really is friggin weird.

[HitAnyKey]

GRRRRR. So annoyed. If only I hadn't lost my scout earlier. mackoti just took a hut this turn that I would have had. He either got a scout from it, or he already had two scouts coming down this way. I'm guessing he got a scout from the hut....
EDIT: Actually, since the scout is sitting on the tile the hut was at, he woudn't have gotten a scout from it this turn. He must have gotten a scout from a previous hut further north. If he had just gotten the scout, it would have moved somewhere. And since I don't see a score increase, he likely got gold from it. Which probably means he stole two huts from me in the north. So that likely means no more huts for me. Sad.
Even if I send the warrior SW into that fog, his scout will beat me to any huts down there if there are any. So not sure which direction I'm going to want to send the warrior. Thoughts?



Well, no reason to send my scout that way anymore. Guess now I need to decide whether to send him up north towards mackoti or east towards gavagai.
And as much as I want to kill mackoti's scout this turn with my warrior, I probably shouldn't. Don't want to make an enemy of him right now. If I kill his scout he'll definitely come at me. If I leave it be, hopefully he'll direct his attention towards Gavagai. The land to his SE looks like a better expansion path anyway. Hopefully.

I'm not going to more the warrior or end my turn yet, just in case you log in and see some of this. Haven't heard from you in awhile, so not sure if you've been reading my reports.

The other annoying thing that I just noticed...is that he essentially doublemoved me for that Hut. He couldn't have known, but that's what happened. Since he was last to play the prior turn, and then immediately played this turn. If I had been able to play first, my warrior would have been able to take the hut.

[Cornflakes]

It's been a few days since I read your report. I had a busy weekend. I think that that all the map trades were good. I would advise against stirring up trouble, but I don't think that killing a scout will make a long-term enemy of mackoti. All the same, I would advise against killing the scout.

[HitAnyKey]

It's been a few days since I read your report. I had a busy weekend. I think that that all the map trades were good. I would advise against stirring up trouble, but I don't think that killing a scout will make a long-term enemy of mackoti. All the same, I would advise against killing the scout.

Feel free to log in at any point to take a look around. The known map and other things going on around me are now too much for me to explain in all screenshots.

But lemme sum up:
I didn't attack his scout, so he still has two scouts wandering around to my north. My warrior is heading north to uncover that fog, then he'll return back towards our Copper location which I'm planning as our City #5.
Our scout is heading NW through our lands right now, to uncover the fogged area directly west of our cities. He'll then continue NE to wander around wherever he can by mackoti, and then stand guard at the weird cross-hairs type land (the whole section that is only 1 tile wide in most places). From that area, he can spot any army mackoti might ever try to send at us, giving us plenty of notice. That is, if he ever lives that long.
Cheerios is currently at 7 Pop, the last unhappy wearing off in 2 turns, and I'm putting a couple more turns into a Library since I'll grow in 2 turns. Then back to the settler (which has already had a turn put into it...but requires 4 pop to whip it out still). At that point would could theoretically slowbuild the settler while at Pop 8, since we would have no unhappy. But I'll likely 3-pop whip it when that option is available. Then regrow on the Library, then either do another worker or settler.
Fruit Loops (pop 4, with 7 turns before whip unhappy allows it to grow again) will complete a Work Boat this turn, and then finish it's worker which would take 2 turns. That worker will then go to the horse city, which should be founded by then, or close to it, to help improve tiles. Since both the Cows & Horses will need improvement.
I plan to churn out the next settler as quickly as I can (basically, whichever city looks like it might be the best option) and settle that on that Sugar SE of the Cows as you had mentioned previously. That'll be City #4. And will only need one additional road tile to connect it, since the Cows will already have its road.
After that will be the plan to expand north to grab our Copper with City #5. But by then we should already have a couple War Chariots out for patrolling and protection. Nobody's power seems to have jumped high enough that someone might crazily consider sending a few axes my way just to eliminate me. No one would want to actually capture my cities, since at this stage of the game the distance would just be suicide to keep them.

Oh, and after having just finished Sailing last turn, I decided Mathematics was what we need to go for. With so many forests around right now (as we only chopped that one so far), I want that bonus ASAP so we can start chopping things. After whipping the settler for City #3, we can probably chop out the City #4 settler pretty quick.

[HitAnyKey]

Barbarians are going to slow our expansion a little. We have one coming at us from the north, and two coming at us from the east. I had to divert my warrior/worker road building crew to the SE (so will make the road towards City #4 first) to have the southeastern barb attack and hopefully lose to my Shock Warrior. And I'm having to build another warrior out of Cheerios, hence delaying the settler a bit.
After Fruit Loops finishes it's worker this turn, I may also have it build another warrior too.

On the foreign affairs front, Gawdzak just built TGL. And with all these barbs, I'm more inclined to go Masonry after Math and build the great wall, if possible.

[HitAnyKey]

Kinda funny that I have the most population by more than double my highest rival, with only 2 cities. When I know at least mackoti, GJ, & Gavagai (and probably others) already have 4 cities.
We should be at 4 cities ourselves soon too. Cheerios will build it's settler in about 2 turns, after this incoming barb hopefully attacks the city and dies. And then as soon as Math comes in, I'll chop the two forest hills next to FL into a Settler there. The road to city #4 is now in place, and next turn the warrior/worker will move 1N to finish the road to city#3 spot.

[HitAnyKey]

Logged in today to mackoti asking for another map trade. Since I hadn't really explored much of anything else, I figured why not. I'd have to go back an see the order I did the trades before, but I believe I did just give him visibility of GJ's lands, but I don't care about that. I did get to see that he settled his most recent city right on the Stone to the west of his lands. Kinda hoping that's as far west as he goes for now, and builds his next couple cities south towards Gavagai.
This turn I'm letting Cheerios grow to size 9, then will 3-pop whip the settler. The road to city#3 is now finished, so it'll move right onto the spot and then settle the turn after. The worker will head straight to the horses and get that hooked up.
FL finishes it's worker in 4 turns, Math comes in 5 turns. When that happens, I'll chop another settler out of FL. By that time another whip unhappy will have worn off at FL and I'll let it grow to size 5.
I'll then probably make another warrior out of FL while Cheerios finishes it's Library while regrowing, and then build another settler for up north to get my copper. This will be my period of quick expansion. Still have incoming barbs. My scout in the north just passed another one, so there are two incoming from the north, so need to keep close eye on what I do up there. The closest one will attack Cheerios in 2-3 turns. But I'll have 2 warriors in there when it attacks, since the warrior that was in my borders lost to my warrior that I put in it's path, and it will be healing in the capital when the other barb dies against the current warrior in there.

[HitAnyKey]

Real quick post since I don't have time for much else right now. REM apparently met us this past turn. Not sure where or with what, since they must have moved back out of view before I could see them. They played after us last turn, and before us this turn, so they had enough time to disappear. So I'm putting a couple EPs into them, while also continuing to put 1EP into mackoti & Gavagai each. I think I'll wait to trade maps with them. Don't want to show them the whole continent without making them explore it. I'm sure they'll get cities settled down there before we can do anything about it. So they will surely eventually get a foothold on our continent.
This turn I also settled Crispix, our horse city.

[HitAnyKey]

Finally posting an update. I'll do a quick one now and probably post some more details later.
The main news is that I finished Math, chopped out the settler for city#3, and recently finished the settler for city#4. As soon as I settled that city this turn, it showed me 3 barbs warriors closing in. So I quickly dry whipped a War Chariot from Cheerios so that one of my WCs can rush down to Lucky Charms next turn while the other one remains for helping clear the 2 barbs that have come from the north. And the other barb coming from he east caused me to move the worker I had there making a cottage. I also had a worker chopping the forest 1S of Cheerios, but because of the barb I had to stop that and decided to send him to the forest by LC.



And annoyingly (though kinda expected) mackoti is expanding towards me....he's going to be settling the area of weird land


So I'm going to keep my scout up there to keep an eye on him.
As soon as I can clear these barbs, I'll make another settler to get my Copper. Just in case I need any axemen if I see anyone sending any swordsmen towards me. I'm also planning on trying to build the Great Wall in Cheerios. With this massive amount of barbarians, I'd like to get myself protected from them entering my lands before they start changing to barb axes and spears.