Dare you enter the Whizzard's Realm? Magic and Mysteries abide.

[Fluffball]

Is it a compliment for global lurkers to tell you you have the most erotic thread? Or spoilerish?

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

In keeping with the eroticism, the Ottomans might be about to seriously poke around in our ass!

(note it is 2 turns since I posted pictures, and I have air raid sirens going off in my head)

Very important image, cannot be missed. Decided to poke around with the workboat before leaving it ready to net the fish the turn we tentatively settle that silver island. We are on course to whip SM for a settler next turn, have him in the galley the turn after, land the turn after, and then settle in 1 further turn.

Now, currently this doesn't *really* cause us a substantive threat. Apart from Hogwarts, all our other whizzards are a long way from this region. And from graphs I doubt if he has build more than a handful of longbows units wise. However, he can cause us headaches with the nets and everything, and pinch our worker.

Currently in the region we have 2 longbows and a pike in Hogwarts. Whatever he has even on a full galleon he cannot take it. However spreading that out between 2 settles would be optomistic. From the positioning, he last moved 4. He clearly has been 'having a look'. Sadly I don't think that he has been able to see into our city. I kinda wish he had, as seeing that quantity of units hopefully would have put him off. 

I have sent the eastern longbow over here, currently it is in SM. It will arrive at Hogwarts in 2 more turns.

I think he likely built it to stake a claim to gold island shortly, as he could have settled for that coastal clam like we did getting the gold in borders and already have workers over there. The lack of troop increase doesn't suggest raiding potential. Our biggest risk is a worker snipe (nothing we can do about that) or the nets.

I propose that we save the galley by moving it into Hogwarts, and consider drywhipping an additional longbow. Not ideal, but we have 7 pop in that city now and only 4 great tiles, rest coast. The drywhip only costs 2 pop, and we would get a longbow next turn, so we can stake a claim on the silver island with one quicker. That way then we can also transport 1 longbow with the settler in a couple of turns. We leave the worker and workboat to his mercy...

Other maps. East is looking lovely. A huge amount of seafood to grow and whip on. Galley has a longbow/missonary pair. Longbow not sure whether to send to Salem or Durm. Salem has no defender, but durm the boat will sail into to convert it next turn, and we can get that longbow from Isen to Salem quicker than to durm.

Workers will mine the hills south of SM over the next few turns. Also another missonary out of Baradur. He should go NW, but I am not sure where. SM? Hogwarts? New silver city? SM will have the least pressure to need to build anything else (Hogwarts might need units etc)

Temple whipped in TOR, and new city in the middle of the plain got its wheat up first turn. I'll irrigate it farming the tile 2 next turn and given the cities another tile to work.

Demos. We have a stonking food and CY lead. Some I think because Scooter must be in a specialist frenzy perhaps? The third GNP (I played with the slider) is hovering around 120-130. We need to be careful there as we are roughly at that level taking away our much larger culture share than most. Mack got PP (his only tech) and has an empty bank. Would have expected him to hit more tech than that actually... Someone, perhaps him is adding soliders to their counts. 

[GermanJoey]

Nice updates!

How much are your religious buildings bringing in?

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Nice updates!

How much are your religious buildings bringing in?

We have 3 pairs of temple/mons, and 2 further temples currently. No cash multiplier buildings up yet. So that's 16gpt and 16 raw hpt, but of course every city has the free forges. 

I think one thing is that in this setup the monk economy is stronger than usual. Not only are the buildings cheaper, but there isn't the plethora of nice improved tiles, usually mature cottages to gain from. So whipping out some cheap buildings fast is a strong way of getting a nice early economy going. 

I was rather skeptical of an AP play before starting, but I hadn't really used it much. Now I think it is really strong. Definitely would do again

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Update - they played in the meantime. Galleon gone from sight. That explorer coming back to scout UU. Cannot see it at the moment.

However they have whipped 2 3 pop 1 2 pop and 2 1 pop. Thats a lot of whipping. Wonder whether we should also dry whip a longbow from UU and premake one in MB?

[El Grillo]

The 3 pop whips have to be settlers or infrastructure, right? Maybe they've just realized that they're falling farther behind in city count and are whipping to catch up? The power graph next turn should help to gauge the level of risk here. I'm not sure I see the need for a dry-whip at UU, there's no way for his ships to threaten it yet, right? The vision from MB means that he doesn't have a city on that coast, and even if he forted the isthmus, you'd still get a turn or more of warning. Premaking longbows in both cities seems conservative enough.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

The 3 pop whips have to be settlers or infrastructure, right? Maybe they've just realized that they're falling farther behind in city count and are whipping to catch up? The power graph next turn should help to gauge the level of risk here. I'm not sure I see the need for a dry-whip at UU, there's no way for his ships to threaten it yet, right? The vision from MB means that he doesn't have a city on that coast, and even if he forted the isthmus, you'd still get a turn or more of warning. Premaking longbows in both cities seems conservative enough.

Yeah I suppose I am being over cautious. 3 pop is unlikely to be units. It could be knights, but it is unlikely you're right. I think stay the course and dry whip Hogwarts, neither of the others. I'll do it now.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Done. I miscounted, you're right with the MB culture we get at least a turn warning to hit UU. Stay the plan. Longbows on a hill are unlikely to be shifted anytime soon, especially from a surprise naval assault. 2 longbows would mean a full galleon would need to kill 1 full health one, which is a big ask.

Dry whipped Hogwarts for a longbow, and whipped isen too. That way it can 1t overflow a monastery with OR next turn. Lets hope we were right and we aren't gonna get hit.

One thing to note is following those plays the top GNP has dropped a lot. Either Mist whipped it away or scooter changed things a lot to reduce that top GNP.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Laptop died, pics when I can. But ottomans went to paci/caste. So unless they really want to annoy us I doubt they are thinking of coming for us, and more a last opportunity to whip. Moved workboat to scout a little further but didn't take any chances. They settled their version of isengard 1S it seems. If we are suicidal we could perhaps make a play for that gold island, but I think they will settle it in due course. Makes the galleon build a little odd though, if they don't need to hook the gold. Perhaps they got distracted and changed settle plans? Or those whips could be a settler coming.

Lots of cheap religious buildings coming online now. Really need to get the UoS up soon, it will be a killer combo. Hope no one bites the bullet for everyone to deny us it, lots of GEs floating around. I don't think they will as it will put them at a comparable disadvantage basically wasting a GP or production to help everyone, but can't be too sure.

Our break even is 140bpt, the rep swap was worth around 40 beakers. Very nice. Like a 50% boost.

We got Christianity in SM last turn. It is now also Hindu. Annoying as it will cheapen the city vis cost on that city. Good as we can get an extra min in Tower should we wish. Gut says not worth it yet as tower has a lot of choice builds atm, but can always reassess soon. Needs to be in OR for the no monastery boost though.

Also worrying is that ottomans are clearly going for more GP. They also have 750 gold in the bank and are 2 techs off Communism. 2400 and 2800 beakers, and communism is an artist not scientist bulb but still scary. With SP and rep parts (he has PP), that makes water mills super powerful. Can also be combined with Kremlin and cheap whips. I wouldn't write them off yet.

In fact most people seem to be stockpiling gold. It's like no one wants to risk going for eco techs and are hedging bets. I set edu, now we are in rep that's important as we still have 40 odd beakers/turn.

Long term, I think our next settler will either be from baradur or tower, and should definitely claim the stone. We can whip a galley out of that site quickly and then explore for possibly nabbing the other copper island.

[BRickAstley]

FYI The tags do work, they just aren't in the editor. You can use them manually if you wish.

Another FYI: in the new editor, the 3rd button from the end, you can click that and it has a dropdown to select "screenshot" or "spoiler" tags.