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

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Demos

Scooter got education, not constitution like I was predicting. Most odd. Can't see it being better for him short term personally, unless he has already settled the stone perhaps?

However down south I messed up. Forgot to load the Salem longbow before moving. Argh... So now what are the options? Settler whipped this turn, loaded to galley next, landed turn after is still possible. I can get that longbow on the ivory into the city the turn it is founded, just not covering the settler. I can also have the missonary 111 of the banana site move onto the tile before the settler lands to check it is safe. I think that will be enough safety. Not ideal, and we might have to wait a little for a second longbow (1 whipped next turn for it) but unless RMOG is imminently going there or happens to have a loaded galley nearby we should be ok. When the borders appear which is a big warning light we will already have a longbow in there.

Baradur settler is 57/237 this turn, 87/237 next, whipped for 150 hammers to 237/237 the turn after then runs down the roads into the galley from the north. It should take a longbow with it, which we will be able to source from somewhere.

Sorry rush to work, will flesh out more later.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Demos

Graphs

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

So where are we? I think we are good on the settling front. RMOG settled a new city this turn called peaks. They are not near the banana site. We can scout with the missonary first, then land the settler next turn. We will have a road to it and 2 longbows inside the turn it is settled. Peaks could be a name for a copper island city as it does have a peak, but we shall see. If it is not, we can whip baradur for the settler next turn and get a longbow from Waverly Place to go the the copper island. 

Out west, the longbow from UU and I think actually the warrior will board the galley. They can land the other side site in 2 turns, although to be fair the settler from Hogwarts can't be whipped until then, and won't be ready to land for 4 turns (we can get a second longbow from UU perhaps, and send it so we will land 3 longbows at that site total the turn we want to settle, in 4 turns.

Seems good? It perhaps is. We are slipping in solider count, but it seems all the northern civs are building soliders, not our immediate neighbours. See the demos. I don't feel like we are too weak, we don't really have a weak area that we can be attacked through.

Things I am unsure of - tower building a courthouse? Unsure. I'm not sure what else to build. A grocer tickled me a little, or a bank. With the OR bonus and beuro bonuses I think a building is the best build. UU - I have it working 2 scientists, an engineer and 3 food tiles. I think getting GPP is useful, especially with the library. Missionary in SM over courthouse? As we will be getting building buildings in Hogwarts shortly I went for this.

I think soon we need units. Perhaps a theo switch and a round of building them? Maybe after some Barracks. Don't want to whip up an arms race (which with our higher MFG/CY might help us more than them admittedly) Also trying to work out where a settler for the stone will come from. No easy choice, perhaps I should let waverly grow and chop the forest into it. A forest chop and 6-3 whip could get one quite quickly.

Resource wise, Scooter and RMOG have a sugar/dyes deal. There is now peace between Scooter and Mack. 

Scooter also picked up a GM, really nice. He can bulb it for econ and with less than a turns tech basically get a free 1100ish beakers without wasting the GM. 

Not ended the turn because a few builds I am so so on.

[El Grillo]

Scooter's GM would explain him teching Education. If he knew he had a GM coming, he could bulb Economics and then Constitution, which is a pretty slick move due to how the GM bulb list is set up. Really strong play from them in my opinion, they can now GA-swap into Representation and Free Market (though I don't think it makes sense for them to adopt the latter just yet in a world full of Mercantilists). If they get another GS to bulb most of Printing Press, they could be onto Democracy in short order. On the bright side though, I'm almost certain that they had to use their first GE to start their GA, so rush-building shouldn't be an option.

I think courthouses are good builds in general here. Sure the Aztecs were the first to spring out to an EP lead, but it's still worth getting eyes on the rest of the field, and with ORG and the most cities, I expect them to pay back quite quickly, as well. As for settling the stone, I guess it depends on where and how you're planning to build Sankore. 4 chops into The Other Realm at +150% needs ~80 base hammers to finish, which beats Barad-dur working mines. That would require a few more workers in the area to chop and mine, so I think there's time for Waverly to grow and whip a settler.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Scooter's GM would explain him teching Education. If he knew he had a GM coming, he could bulb Economics and then Constitution, which is a pretty slick move due to how the GM bulb list is set up. Really strong play from them in my opinion, they can now GA-swap into Representation and Free Market (though I don't think it makes sense for them to adopt the latter just yet in a world full of Mercantilists). If they get another GS to bulb most of Printing Press, they could be onto Democracy in short order. On the bright side though, I'm almost certain that they had to use their first GE to start their GA, so rush-building shouldn't be an option.

I think courthouses are good builds in general here. Sure the Aztecs were the first to spring out to an EP lead, but it's still worth getting eyes on the rest of the field, and with ORG and the most cities, I expect them to pay back quite quickly, as well. As for settling the stone, I guess it depends on where and how you're planning to build Sankore. 4 chops into The Other Realm at +150% needs ~80 base hammers to finish, which beats Barad-dur working mines. That would require a few more workers in the area to chop and mine, so I think there's time for Waverly to grow and whip a settler.

He bulbed both econ and constitution, and swapped into rep/slav/OR. Very nice there. Very good play in general. He is also up to 11 cities this turn compared to our 13. We do also need a choice on where to go after education. We should be able to get it in 3-4 turns. No one has much in the way of military tech yet. Can we push further eco techs? PP is probably the next most useful eco tech as when we get it we would have a few villages/towns. It is also en route to rifling. 

Mackoti has astro, I missed that. Still not sold on needing it despite our large amount of islands and island plans. I think we would be better beefing up the ones we have and getting muskets personally. So I'll probably save on PP next so we can plan our next move?

[Nicolae Carpathia]

I say push eco as hard as we can get away with. So yeah, PP. Also, can we feed a workboat to the bananas city from an already-developed city?

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

I say push eco as hard as we can get away with. So yeah, PP. Also, can we feed a workboat to the bananas city from an already-developed city?

Yeah 1 each from Salem and Durmstrang both building next turn. Will let it go for a temple first to get some hammers there.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

http://imgur.com/a/t0C2b

Rushing this morning. Definitely will get banana spot. For some reason couldn't whip BD, although with worker roading it won't delay our earliest chance to settle for copper.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Oh note that Mack has Astro now, and scooter PP. Scooter did get a GS just before his GA ended. El Grillo you're pretty good on bulbs - would the GS go to PP or Astro? I assume PP as otherwise that's like 3 techs in 3 turns.

One thing I am concerned about here is we are clearly the demo leaders. Perhaps not the GNP leaders in tech terms with our decent culture/EP rate. However for others it paints a target on us. We are big and a threat later on, but many have bulked to a relative tech advantage... do we need to consilidate? I'd be happier if there were wars going on between others truth be told...

Looking at Sccoter alone, let's assume he has no tech invested with all the tech gains. He has edu/PP/econ on us. We have half of edu teched. About the same gold in the bank. So half of edu is 900 beakers, PP 1600 and con 1400. About 4000 beakers ahead now. Admittedly short term econ beakers are less useful but still a concern.

[El Grillo]

A GS bulbs Printing Press before Astronomy. From the looks of it, Mack researched Education and PP in order to bulb Astronomy, which is also what I'm assuming the Dutch team is going to try to do (bulbing a prereq-less tech and unlocking their UU).

I'm not sure what you mean by consolidating (prioritize Gunpowder -> Astro/Rifling?), but at least the Aztec tech lead is in non-military techs, and they can't really hit you any time soon. Admittedly there's not too much more land available, so it might not hurt to look a bit more threatening, but that could have the opposite effect of putting everyone on a war footing