[PB37 SPOILER] Coeurva, Bacchus -- Cyrus of Carthage

[Coeurva]

T68. No issues with performance tonight. No screenshots because nothing is happening.

CML is adding two more axes (long since produced, trickling in -- he's still #1 at 71,000 soldiers, we're #2 at 69,000). War seems to be taking its toll on other players; we're #1 in CY again, hooray.

I've had to empty Ignis because, yes, CML is marching two axes + two warriors through the jungle, without roads, without supply, straight ahead towards X7, a city that hasn't been founded yet and whose settler he has never seen. Maybe he's gunning for Rhapsody, but that's essentially the same. They don't arrive before T73, at which point we'll have produced chariots anyway. We should be fine here.

I've sent Ignis' axe towards the X7 site just to be safe; Ignis can always emergency-whip and Savant doesn't seem to be adding power on his southern border. I've also moved one of the axes out of Vermin (8), where it's not visible to CML, hoping to induce him to move in, but he probably won't oblige.

Next turn: horseys online, some chariots will be enqueued, the cottage offensive will open. (Two at Lifeblood, two at Rhapsody to be added.)

[Bacchus]

Does CML even know where our cities are? If stay is to his west-south-west he might think we are to East-north-east. I'm not sure whether he's actually seen any of our borders yet, the original warrior left before our city got founded IIRC.

[Coeurva]

He can see inside Vermin from the hill, but he's known where it is for a while now (~T45?). We've been visited by his scout on T23 or thereabouts, so he knows where our capital is. He should know where Lifeblood is, and must have scouted the land, but he never had vision on the city, so he doesn't know its size or buildings.

We know exactly where his cities are, but we only have fog-vision on Cahokia.

Savant, on the other hand, still shouldn't know anything. Which is rather surprising.

[Coeurva]

T69. No screenshots today. Actually, there is one.

Sicil and Lifeblood grow next turn (Sicil immediately whips a half-built worker, though), Vermin and Whitehall in 2t, Rhapsody in 3, Ignis in 4. X7 takes the horses from Rhapsody next turn, then uses the rice farm. The capital will conveniently drop to 9hpt, still 3t-ing the chariot.

Ignis has finished a library and will grow to size4 before adding the second scientist. Investing 1h into a chariot, just in case we really need to whip a unit; next turn, we'll swap to a spear.

Vermin will probably not whip its chariot, unless CML adds substantial force on the next 2t; once it grows onto its grass riverside mine, the city can build 3t chariots anyway, and its food surplus isn't that high.

We actually finish a scout boat next turn. It won't find other players, I think, since I want to spend it on Whitehall's fish, limiting its life span, but we can at least explore possible X8 sites on the north-western islands. Shag Vermin has a spear 1t from production that I'll set to finish once CML actually runs up chariots via the Neutral Highway that he's still building, or if hammer decay would set in otherwise.

CML has named all his axes, but added no units on this turn (we have 70,000 soldiers (#3) to an unchanged Rival Best 71,000), and only one of them seems to be moving through the jungle. One of his western axes is shuffling onto the eastern approach via the ruins of Cincinnati. Still no fourth city.

I've managed to waste a worker turn by not putting a "1t road" sign onto the tile 3 of Cowish Rhapsody, and moving both workers onto it; we could have finished the rice farm on T71 had I not been negligent.

Our GNP is currently #2 in the world (44, Rival Best 49; Gavagai and CML must have turned off research again), while the other categories have dropped off to #4, but mostly due to Whitehall being whipped and Lifeblood working its fresh cottage instead of sheep.

Savant continues to grow: Harmondale size6 (he put a chariot inside), Ironfist size7 (top city in the world), and his food/production graphs look excellent, especially the latter. Rhapsody should be able to catch up with his capital once it finally builds its damn granary, but that's still some six turns away. Fortunately, we're CHM and he's not, so our eventual population cap should be higher for a while, if he doesn't tech a fast Monarchy or Calendar + IW.

EDIT: Also, empirical evidence strongly suggests that the recent performance issues are due to Krill being logged in when I play. No joke, either my box or connection can't cope with Krill. No such issue with JR4. Scratch that, the problem persists.

[Bacchus]

I don't think I understand what CML's troops are doing. Especially looking at the minimap. There seem to be four different stacks, all for some reason circling Vermin, but none actually threatening anything? He is ruining his economy, and it's really not clear what for. Maybe it really is to prepare a chariot surprise, but wow, I hope that really comes to be.

No Granary in capital by T70 is pretty painful, but that's just the problem with early expansion -- the more settlers you build, the more likely one of them will create a border situation that requires build queue commitment. Still the damage CML is doing to himsef here should compensate over the medium-term by allowing us an easier expansion option.

[Coeurva]

Most of these dots on the mini-map are single units; the one 9 of sheep is a 2-axe stack with a worker. CML appears to be slowly gathering his seven scattered axes atop the hill 23 of Vermin, probably looking to move in and attack/pillage once his chariots arrive. There wouldn't be a point to roading against our borders if he didn't add chariots; Vermin can build chariots of its own in 3t as soon as it reaches size4 (T71).

Another possibility is that he wants to dislodge our 25% fortified axe on the forest tile, which effectively safeguards Lifeblood. Two axes get a 2/3 chance to win that battle (the first one has about 0% chances to win, but will land a few hits), although a chariot could immediately revenge-kill the other, so it's not hammer-efficient.

Given that he has decided to send only one axe along with those warriors on their mission through the jungle (he could have sent at least one more without incurring a delay), an attack at Vermin seems somewhat more likely.

Indeed, his unit upkeep right now must be encumbering: seven axes, two warriors, and one worker all outside of his borders for a dozen turns already, and probably more to come.

We could switch Rhapsody's queue back to a granary, as long as CML doesn't send more axes or doesn't move additional units towards Rhapsody / X7, but that would leave us vulnerable to pillaging, which is probably the greater cost (our axe would have to win the coin flip against CML's axe). -- I'm quite sure we can complete the granary soon enough (T75) with an optimal food bin and no whips (Rhapsody can't afford whipping right now).

Avoirdupois will provide MP happiness to Rhapsody starting next turn, so that it can grow to size7 unperturbed.

EDIT: What Archery really is in RtR is a trade of ~60 commerce (Large Monarch) vs. 10h saved on every unit for defense... along with losing the opportunity to break out of your cities. (Also a prereq for HA, of course, but at that point it should take 1t to research.)

If anyone wants to suggest a name for X7, feel free. Otherwise I'm going with "Westward Ho!", because it's on the east coast.

[Coeurva]

T70

We lay down another cottage at Lifeblood, reaching 2/28f with a food surplus of +4. Maintenance has become insane (-30 gpt at 100% science, only +18 at 0%), but Westward Ho! will become profitable once its commerce tiles are improved. Westward brings in another benefit: allowing Rhapsody to work additional cottages while not wasting the rice and horse tiles.

I dropped the slider to 80%, to finish Sailing on T72 as planned. Still need more cottages; a lot more. Scientists can somewhat ease the burden on turns of 0% science at least.

CML's warriors are moving towards Rhapsody (and he'll lose them if he keeps moving) while his axes are still trying to emulate Civ6 and occupy every tile vaguely outside Vermin's borders. He's also settling the plains hill formerly marked "a", 322 of Vermin. Target acquired?

The chariot inside Harmondale rushed off somewhere. It's possible that Savant is in a split with Gavagai. Sorpigal was whipped for something.

Our scout boat found plains horses and a banana on the north-western island. X8 could actually be settled on the banana with fish hooked up from the start, or on the plains hill for added security and better long-term food surplus -- coastal cities can become a liability later. In any case, X8 must go on an island for the trade routes; everything else just kills our economy.

We're still doing decently in demographics (the top seems closely packed -- we have 33 in MFG, and are ranked #4, with Rival Best 36; very similar for food), and graphs show us racing neck-and-neck with Savant in just about every category. CML hasn't added any soldiers in a while.

[Coeurva]

T71

CML sent his western axe onto flat ground to threaten our workers. Killed it with a shock axe at 80% odds, then used two workers to road the tile; this is the new situation:


Note the whip at Vermin, I saw that as a necessity due to CML's next move (he will probably amass axes on the plains cow). Chose to run the grass mine over silver mine to maximize hammer overflow, so that we can 1t another chariot right afterwards and break this siege once and for all, while also putting Atlantic City -- and its worker -- under grave threat.

We can kill another axe if he moves in (C1 chariot) and defend the city with at least four axes (one fortified 25%, one C1+Shock at 3.3 str), which should be enough to hold.

CML didn't send any axes northward; his northern corps consists of two warriors. We can probably direct Rhapsody's chariot southward at once; the axe should suffice against the warriors. Sicil's spear could also join the defense.

Savant is sending a 3-moving scout boat from Harmondale, which will unfortunately shoot right past Whitehall before it pops its borders. Our own boat didn't find anything of interest this turn.

There's lots of micro going on "under the hood" right now, especially with Sicil and Whitehall's time-shared plains cow, as well as our southern cities' plans for growth, and I've added the second scientist to Ignis (T87 GSci). We're also adding two grass mines to the Sicil/Whitehall area.

Demographics: we're in the middle of the pack, rated #2 to #4 everywhere. Rival Best CY is 80 -- quite impressive. (We're at 68; this should improve substantially over the next 5t, as Lifeblood goes full food again, Whitehall adds fish, and the rice farm completes, but our opponents might also have such potential.) -- We might gain research visibility on CML soon.

Alpha or Maths?

EDIT: Not that it matters much, but the picture was taken before I readjusted some tiles; we're actually making 43 bpt at -22 gpt here.

[Bacchus]

I'm now leaning to Alpha now because we can use build research to speed up Currency meaningfully, and with open borders each turn of currency should be worth >16 commerce to us.

[Coeurva]

T72

First of all, the good news: our C1 chariot has removed another CML axe from the picture at 91% odds, and gained 3XP in the process. I think we can reasonably aim to make Atlantic City our X9. There will be a brief window where we'll control its first-ring tiles due to our barracks before his monument kicks in -- which means that we can road 7 of Atlantic City and slam chariots into it on the turn we produce them. Furthermore, if we can control the tile 4 of Atlantic City with axes and a spear, as well as cut the road, the city will be blockaded by land and unable to reinforce with spears. I think we've taken control of the battlefield here, but we must watch out for chariots. In any case, he has apparently given up on Vermin and is retreating all his axes towards Atlantic City.

CML has founded another city, bringing him up to five. His research might have been Writing rather than AH. He shares our miserable state of lacking a granary in the capital. Ours completes eoT74, by the way, or eoT75 because CML's warriors, while mostly harmless, can block the plains cow pasture.

Some bad news: there's a Sentry chariot of Savant's on the grass forest hill 2 of copper, which has forced a chariot whip at Ignis (I think it can see inside the empty city) and our Rhapsodical chariot to be redirected there, because Sicil's spear -- of course -- takes too long to walk over, and we lack hammers to whip a spear at Ignis itself. Hey, the 1h invested into the chariot paid off! I rather wish it hadn't. Ignis regrows immediately to resume its normal work, at least, and frees up max hammers at Rhapsody by taking the hamlet for a turn, but the Academy suffers a 1t delay. Oh well -- I'd rather not lose Ignis on a coin flip, or show weakness to Savant for that matter. We're actually #1 in soldiers at 85,000, which will hopefully suffice to deter Savant for a while.

Alphabet takes us about 17 turns. I hope that our maturing cottages and added scientists (we have none on this turn) will ease this particular pain, because as you've rightly said, our MFG is high enough to carry us to Currency with research builds, but Alpha is our bottleneck in research capability.

I've also decided to build a library at Sicil after all. This will take a while, and we might have to suspend it in favour of a unit to cover X8, but there's nothing else we really need right now. Worker labour actually suffices right now, since Ignis needs none, the capital has four, and Sicil/Whitehall overlap so many tiles between themselves that two workers have both cities covered. The reason for the library is that Sicil has three potential grass river cottages.

The Oracle has fallen in a distant land (so it wasn't CML or Savant -- good news). JR4/RefSteel are a candidate due to having founded Buddhism, of course. Krill has gained a huge increase in score, though.

Some strange news: Savant has suddenly gained a colony of Buddhists inside Castle Ironfist, perhaps the least-appropriate city name for that religion. This can only mean that his coastal cities are somewhere near JR4/Ref's, so the toroidal donut might be correct after all. There's an argument for open borders later on, unless we can found Confucianism anyway. Or find JR4/Ref ourselves.

The trade route icon shows up next to Gavagai's name on the scoreboard... but we still lack contact with him. What? Somehow, the few tiles we can see in the north must suffice to build a coastal connection to him. I must have made the worst possible moves with our boat not to meet him.

We're #3 in Crop Yield at 75, but Rival Best is 77 -- the top is tightly packed there. Our 0% science GNP is horrible. Ventessel still appears to be dying.