Someone else's shoes [spoilers]

[Dreylin]

t71 & 72 -

Gingereagle took the offered 6g and we are at peace. I should probably offer him Open Borders as well, but I keep forgetting.

The NW is becoming fun:


At least I don't have to rush to settler that filler, but there are still 3 sites I want to grab ASAP to secure borders. 2/3 Settlers are already in production, while the 3rd will start next turn. My Economy should be fully in tatters then, but at least I've hooked up my Calendar resources and have therefore upped my happy cap ... just in time to grow and then whip in those Courthouses.

Next tech target is probably Metal Casting to get my cheap Forges in place during the Golden Age - due in 4t after I complete MoM in Loafers (GSci was born this turn).

[Dreylin]

t75 / 1AD -

Here's a nice start to a turn:


In fact, it's a Wonder-full turn all around:


(Colossus is Adrien as expected)

Seems a good time for a celebration:


No revolts this turn though, as I have a couple of whips to complete next turn.

Another city, why not?


Brigues brings me to 13 and seals the border with Gingereagle. Ghillies was planted a couple of turns ago to fix the NE with Picklepikkl, so it's just the West that needs finalising and them some fillers when I can afford them.

Golden Age demos are not fantastic, but will help:


Especially with Courthouses starting to complete:


(Walking Boots will be whipped next turn). I'll need to slot some more Military builds in so I'm not horribly exposed when I switch to Caste next turn - Cuban Heels will take care of that, while Havaianas & Loafers build the first round of Missionaries. Confucianism wins over Judaism due to lack of spreads and better location for the Shrine (if built).

Tech situation:


As you can see I've switched over to Civil Service. I can get it in 8t at -10gpt which should be manageable with some Gold builds on the later turns, so should be able to end the GA in Bureaucracy.

An overview:


 I intend to post a few city shots next turn once the Civics/Religion switch is made, but I also saved the game before ending turn, so if there's anything else of interest to Lurkers, I can probably go back and grab a shot.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Update?

What's your plan to win?

[Dreylin]

Oh man, that was a Party! I think I blacked out for a while there; let's see what we've got in the Camera:

I guess those new religious dudes wanted us to free the Slaves or something:


Well that way they can enjoy the Party more right! Not sure whether it'll last, but we did get some Artist guy to set up shop over here and keep the Cornfields farming for us:


Oh yeah, then this guy showed up:


He offered to go out and get snacks, but I said just chill dude, wait until the hangover passes and then we can start the party all over again:


I guess we had to come down sometime, but these dudes can really bring you down:


Relations with our neighbours seem to have settled down:


...

Of course we're going to get 'phracted soon from the other side

...

...

or maybe we'll get lucky:

[Dreylin]

Adrien finished Guilds at the end of last turn; I have a long way to go to get Pikes:




Guess I should probably do this rather than Academy for the long game:


And now we wait to see, but let's also do this:


Probably the last one until I'm sure I'm not going to die horribly.

[Dreylin]

It's a Medieval arms race!

Adrien has finished Construction and is now working on Engineering, Pickle is on the same, meanwhile Ginger is working on his own Guilds research. (Ginger & Pickles are building Courthouses now so I am maintaining research visibility on all after EoT only)

I've 1-turned IW and Construction and am 50% through Machinery in 3t of Golden Age. I'll finish Machinery next turn, but after that am considering a short detour before Engineering...

Iron showed up 2W of Loafers, which is unfortunately nearly a Town, but since there's no spare Iron on the map* it will have to be bulldozed.

*Actually there does seem to be one excess Iron in the unsettled NE region between Adrien, Pickle & myself, but there's no way I'm stretching for that. Pickle's own Iron is next to his Horses on his NE border with Adrien, which could be problematic for him in the long run - turns out that city is 1st ring for him while my adjacent city of Kitten Heels is 4th ring for me ... so much for IMP landgrab...

Adrien's power is rising, but maybe not as fast as I'd expected, and he hasn't taken a jump into Police State yet so maybe a full rush is not on the cards ... yeah right!

[Dreylin]

EoT 95:
   
Pickle just completed Engineering and started his first Golden Age. Ginger just completed Guilds - oops, Knights need Iron!   Adrien's Power is really spiking now (& he's been whipping quite a bit), but still no Police State. I'll see if I can 1-turn Monarchy to adopt HR before the end of the GA.

[Dreylin]

t96 -

I took some pics, but a) the hosting site I use is failing to upload them at the moment, and b) I forgot to e-mail to myself at work to find a work-around, so this will be text only.

<insert picture of Pickle's Revolts>
He adopted Bureaucracy as well as Hereditary Rule and Org Rel ... but he kind-of forgot to also adopt his religion. Oops.

Adrien did not finish Engineering as last turn's spying suggested he might, which means that the displayed 1t from Engineering was likely displayed after 1-turning another tech. Still no Police State.

I've got a few Pikes wandering around now and a bunch more queued up; also going to put a Castle in Kinky Boots as that is the city most vulnerable to attack and it doesn't have much production or its Barracks in place yet to build its own Pikes. I'm also reviewing the timetable for planting the filler in the gap with Kitten Heels - the additional Cultural pressure here would help a lot, and I could stage a force in the city to protect both fronts.

Monarchy in 1t at 30%; microed a little to ensure that next turn I will also have exactly 142g available = 2x Spear-Pike upgrades ... we'll see whether they get put to use next turn (probably should, since Adrien's Power continues to rise). Oh, and SoZ completed EoT to make me an even less appetising target.

General plan is to play defensively in the near-term and turn my land advantage into a tech advantage. Where to go tech-wise is an open question at the moment; I'll pick up Archery and HBR next on passive research while saving up, then there are a couple of options open:

* Feud-Guilds (Military) - L-Bow, Knights & enhanced Workshops (although probably still not good enough without also adopting Caste, which can't be done until things are a lot more secure).

* Top tree (Wonders) - getting the Artist would be a boost towards GA3, and pushing for Nat for Taj is of course on the agenda, but is now the time? I would also like to get the Nat Epic up in Walking Boots sooner rather than later.

* Theology (Monk) - I've built exactly 0 Monasteries and Temples, but I've pushed Confucianism into most of my cities now. There's also good denial value here, since Adrien's got the cheap Temples.

* Optics (Expansion) - it was a few turns ago that, while contemplating Cataphracts, I thought to myself "I wonder what my UU is". Turns out I had completely forgotten what Civ I was playing. True Story, as my 5yo likes to say. Well, exciting Boating opportunities on Adrien's North is one option, but I've been looking at that big fogged blob on the map and I've come to the conclusion that it's too big to be just Adrien's territory ... which means there's either a big pile of Empty Ocean, or there's an Astro Carrack Island out there. I've almost convinced myself that the border pop at Clogs has revealed 1tile of Coastal tile-bleed.
<insert close-up view of speculative bleed>

[Dreylin]

t97 (I think) -

Pickle remembered to adopt Buddhism!  He also finished Alphabet last turn; I can now see that he's up on me that and Compass, down Aesthetics. Like me, he doesn't have either Archery or HBR.

Ginger is still slowly improving his Iron, is showing Construction, and has the lowest Power.

The group noun for a collection of Pikes is, of course, a Pile.  There are now many Piles of Pikes on the Byzantine borders. A few more Pike builds to complete and then I think I need to diversify my defenders a bit - Adrien's rate of Power accumulation is exceeding mine; he's running Vassalage, but he might have finished CS and be prepping a Multitude of Maces. I think he finished CoL last turn and is now showing Calendar.

Post-GA I am break-even at 35% research, but am starting to convert a few cities onto Wealth builds now that their infrastructure is mostly complete. I popped a couple of Spear-Pike upgrades to start building Fortification and ran 10% to finish Archery at EoT. I'm strongly considering Drama next; the Culture fights in the SE & NW could use some juicing up, and a CRE Theatre would be significantly cheaper than a Monastery.

City Count:

Me - 15
Adrien - 12
Pickle - 10
Ginger - 8

I have 2-3 fillers to settle, and there's that foodless area to the NE in between myself, Pickle & Adrien... I've not looked closely at the the map to assess the others' opportunities for fillers, but city counts have been pretty stable recently - what with the arms race distracting us all.  

[Dreylin]

Not at war yet! (might be soon though if Adrien roads the border hill before I can flip it)

Decided that I won't contest Adrien for the AP; it's a big investment for denial, and even more expensive for me to get payback from it. Plus, I needed to prioritise finishing Music this turn in order to beat Pickle. 2t ago he was showing 1t to Aesthetics, so I knew I needed to 2t in myself. Was able to grab Lit on the way for the discount. Pickle's research has jumped since he grabbed Printing Press at the end of his GA.

Ginger spent some EPs to hide his research from me; I've concentrated on getting visibility on Adrien's nearby city and ran 10% EPs myself this turn to (hopefully) get a view. Seeing into that will make me feel either a lot more, or a lot less secure!

I started Chichen Itza in Loafers because defense is my business for now. NE will start in Walking Boots, and I'm going to put GLib into High Tops to separate out the GSci points. I have also started building a few Triremes in the South, incase Adrien is thinking of a naval sneak attack. Pretty much everything else is on unit mixture.