[Spoilers] I have enough games already. Oh look, a PBEM !

[Miguelito]

New random idea: if I'm reading bulb order right, a GM should be able to bulb guilds
Youll better Check that I'm not mistaken, but we still could go that path with the first GP

[AdrienIer]

For a GM : CoL -> Alphabet -> CS -> Guilds. So no unfortunately. And even with CS and Alpha paper is next.

[Miguelito]

Oops, missed CoL., and I tend to ignore the existence of alphabet (not smart in rtr). BTW why does retep have alpha? Was there an early GS to bulb?
Still, a reminder that after MC+, IW it's just 3 techs to knights (although construction first is probably best, but then I think we should target it)

[AdrienIer]

Knights before CoL is ballsy but with Grimace on our back I like it. The objective would be to conquer all of Grimace's territory to become too big to be stopped. Then the knights could take down Sian of the indefensible cities. That should be sufficient for a concession. Well that's the plan anyway.

[Miguelito]

Could you post a shot of each city today please?

[AdrienIer]

Yes that was my plan

[AdrienIer]

I'm going to do a west-to-east review. First, Grimaceland.




It's pretty small, but he's now got horses. That will be a pain, especially if he gets to horse archers early.

This is the warzone :







I've made some calculations. If Grimace sends his stack 1NE to attack my two phalanxes and longbow he'll at least lose 5 vultures. All I have to do is send parts of the army in Thu behind to clean up the rest, and his stack will be trapped and destroyed. If he doesn't move forward then his stack won't be able to do anything. I'll have more phalanxes and longbows coming, he won't have anything strong enough to defeat me.

I've decided to send him another peace offer, I really hope he takes it.




Here's the core of the Empire. Thales and Phythagoras are good production cities, and decent in commerce, while Archimedes is going to be the main commerce center.













Here is the north I just discovered. This is a cylindrical map which apparently has crap islands at the poles, it's good to know and will be good to settle in the long run.




Now the deep south with Sian's settlements.







And the east, with the future city to be settled next turn.







Here are some graphs, I'm putting EP on Retep right now but I won't have his graphs for a while. Still, the demoes make it easy to know where he is.
















I'll send the save when I get to sleep, so you still have a few hours to tell me what I did wrong before it's too late to correct it.

[Miguelito]

- being at the happy cap anyway, couldn't pyth or Thales build another worker? Or is whip anger wearing off justjust in time? Also pyth could build the work boat for the new city but c of course c or defender must hold first.
-sure we want phalanxes and not rather longbows? Particularly considering the HA scenario you mentioned
- how about working scientists at pyth instead of the unimproved tiles?
- wow, Sian is reaching really far. I hope we get to punish that
- longbow at Euclid just till whippability, then resume the granary?
- what if Grimace moved onto the hill 1s of the peak, could we handle that?
-a also he must be paying supply like crazy for all those units. So maybe hbr not too imminent?

Of course these are all just suggestions and spontaneous ideas, in far from being able to tell you what's the wrong or right thing to do

[Miguelito]

Two more things:
-, while it's a blessing right now, I fear in the long run arch is too low on food to be a relevant commerce centre. Pyth IMO is still our best place for that, particularly considering our strong coast. We will want more cottages there when workers are available, at least on the remaining grassland
- whenever possible the island city will be very good for economy (we didn't get trade routes from retep right?) at little cost because no need for garrison. I like the southern spot better because mine and two food which we easily grab with cre. Don't know if the mine is better than a chop+workshop, but I suspect it is

[AdrienIer]

- being at the happy cap anyway, couldn't pyth or Thales build another worker? Or is whip anger wearing off justjust in time? Also pyth could build the work boat for the new city but c of course c or defender must hold first.
-sure we want phalanxes and not rather longbows? Particularly considering the HA scenario you mentioned
- how about working scientists at pyth instead of the unimproved tiles?
- wow, Sian is reaching really far. I hope we get to punish that
- longbow at Euclid just till whippability, then resume the granary?
- what if Grimace moved onto the hill 1s of the peak, could we handle that?
-a also he must be paying supply like crazy for all those units. So maybe hbr not too imminent?

Of course these are all just suggestions and spontaneous ideas, in far from being able to tell you what's the wrong or right thing to do

Two more things:
-, while it's a blessing right now, I fear in the long run arch is too low on food to be a relevant commerce centre. Pyth IMO is still our best place for that, particularly considering our strong coast. We will want more cottages there when workers are available, at least on the remaining grassland
- whenever possible the island city will be very good for economy (we didn't get trade routes from retep right?) at little cost because no need for garrison. I like the southern spot better because mine and two food which we easily grab with cre. Don't know if the mine is better than a chop+workshop, but I suspect it is

I wanted Pyth and Thales to build important stuff but if Grimace sends the stack towards Thales I'll really need those units. The whip anger in Pyth will wear off one turn late but that's ok.
We do want phalanxes, I want to wipe the stack so I need some guys good on offense. HAs will have a hard time going past Thu due to the land. They'll be moving one tile at a time. I'll be able to get spears out soon after they show up.
I thought about scientists but I need the hammers right now. Phalanxes will be very useful if the stack moves towards Thales.
I wasn't joking when I said he had indefensible cities. There's no way he can defend from an even mildly prepared attack.
I don't know for sure, it'll depend on Sian's actions and power graphs. I may want to get it out soon and be done with it. Also it could free a phalanxe to go fight on the western front.
I'd love him to move to the hill 1E of Thu, he'd be 5 tiles from Archimedes and 3 from Thales with a river stopping him from attacking Thu.
His GNP is abysmal as you can see, but HBR and archery are not so expensive, compared to currency for example. He could get them kind of soon.

I'm thinking about giving the FP from Thales to Arch, to push it to 4fpt. That would allow us to grow it into the lake jungle and grassland forest tiles, stay at +4fpt then grow into the ivory, a windmilled PH and a cottaged PH. It would bring it to 49 commerce per turn if my calculations are right. Not awesome but decent I say. But yeah once the workers are done preparing the Colossus spot they'll go put some more mines and cottages in Thales and Pythagoras. It's possible that I won't need all 5 of them for the prechopping, MC is a long way in.
Retep refused the OB+world map trade I proposed. It's annoying, and yes the island city would be +1 commerce per city. The problem is that the clam is site 5's only food (or should I call it Colossus site ?). Planting on the hill also gives us the possibility of chopping part of the Moai, if we indeed decide to put it there.