[PB59] Charriu welcomes all the townfolk

[Charriu]

T122:

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Machinery is in giving me some nice 2/2/2 tiles. As you can see Archery will also be done next turn and with that Crossbowman will be produced. But the main reason for the screenshot above is that another forest grew this turn. This is my 3rd forest growth and while I can't say that I planned to grow it now, but I did plan to grow some forests across my territory and the spot 1SW of Amn was one of them. That forest will be chopped into the AP in Amn pretty soon. After Archery I only need 3 turns towards Theology, which so far nobody has discovered. I also can switch civics in 3 turns again, so I can start the AP with Organized Religion in place. I'm growing Amn as big as possible and prepare the forests for chopping. With nobody at Theology so far I doubt I have much competition. Still I want to build the AP sooner then later. I also have finished monasteries and temples in quiet a lot of cities already therefore benefitting from the wonder immediately.

Out in the far west I met Mr. Cairo and Amicalola. Unfortunately Joshy was eliminated so 1 less player for my full contact collection. Gonna contact them all. By the way I'm proud to say that my prediction about Amicalola, my other fellow IND player, was spot on:

Amicalola
Roosevelt (ORG/IND) of Ethiopia (Stele, Oromo Warrior, Hunting, Mining)

The only other IND leader in the game. Amicalola's capabilities grew with each game he played, but one can still see areas of improvement. Nonetheless they are getting better with each game thanks to good dedlurker support. Here they have no dedlurker as far as I know, but the civ/leader combo shows some interesting stuff.

The civ/combo doesn't really have a lot of early bonuses. The only being the Stele, which upon construction produces 1.25 culture therefore popping borders in 8 instead of 10 turns. ORG will be especially great on this large map and at the later turns. Now the big question is what wonders will they chase with IND. I see two very likely candidates:

Stonehenge: This has great synergy with the UB. With 6 CRE players and 3 CHA players there's also less competition for Stonehenge. I think this is a very important for them in this game.
Great Lighthouse: With the lighthouse bonus from ORG this is actually a great wonder to get for Amicalola.

I think it is less likely to go for Pyramid or early Metal Casting for Amicalola.

Yes, he built Stonehenge and the Great Lighthouse (also Great Library). At least 1 IND player got his plans all working for him, but I suspect that I may be more lucky with the monk wonders.


Up in the north things are looking very bad for Ramk, I only saw 2 units in his capitol one of them a warrior. I have everything setup to capture his island city soon, but like I said I need to make sure it grew. So far it is at 6/22.

[Charriu]

T123:

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Bad news and good news. As you can see somebody researched Theology, so I might have competition for the AP. I see that I get KTB for Theology, so it must be one of the players I've met. If it is only a player seeking a religion for their own then I don't fear somebody will take AP away. These are the players running a religion therefore making it more likely to go for AP, because you do need a state religion for it.

Cornflakes: Dangerous as he runs a different religion
Donovan: Dangerous as he runs a different religion, but then he has this big neighbor in civac, who might be a bigger problem for him
Lazteuq: As long as you stay Hinduism I have no problem with him building the AP
Ramk: No danger, because dying
Miguelito: Dangerous as he runs a different religion

I do hope I have some answers next turns as for who might researched it. Even then you can see that I will finish Theology in 3 turns myself and when it comes to building the wonder itself I have a lot of advantages:

- IND +50%
- OR +25%
- Forge +25%
- 6 forests for chopping

I should still be able to get it.

The other news this turn is that Ramk's island has grown and won't no longer be autorazed. He also finished the farm. Now I will finish 2 swordsmen this turn, which I will put on one of my galleys. I should be able to land those units together with 2 axemen in T126. This is a very delicate matter as I do not want Ramk to fall to quickly, but at the same time I don't want the island city to fall into GKC's hands. I also want to supply Ramk with furs as long as possible. So far GKC is holding out with his 10 cities. Should he lose more cities until T126 then I don't feel to bad to go for the island city.

[Charriu]

T124:

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Lazteuq finished a canal for himself. He might settle the wine island between us. Therefore I started a (second overall) missionary to spread Hinduism to Snowdin Town, just in case I need to pop borders there. Now his galley is in a position to threaten Fireburg with a landing or capture the worker, but I'm willing to trust him (finally).

Ramk lost another city, now down to 9. So he's definitly on his way out and therefore I don't feel to bad to capture the island. He whipped that city last turn and hopefully will transport any whipped unit away. My little army consists of 2 swordsmen, 1 axeman and 1 phalanx. I swapped the phalanx in because it has combat 1 and the same strength as an axeman. If I'm not running against an axeman from Ramk I should be fine. Even then I could still bring in the two axemen from Parcelyte as reinforcement.

[Coeurva]

Hello from the worst dedlurker! I haven't been able to follow this game for months. Good luck with the island snipe.

edit:

If you look closely you find a new town north of Amn: Old Camp. This is from a German Action-RPG called Gothic. [...]

Swamp Camp for life.

[Charriu]

Welcome back. Like I said back then to you: Nobody is required to follow my thread and leaving is absolutely fine.

Yes, Swamp Camp was also great, but I chose Old Camp, because it set the mood for the game so perfectly.

[Charriu]

I noticed this turn that the game was set up with Diplomatic Victory disabled, which prevents the Apostolic Palace from being constructed. I reviewed the game setup and didn’t see any discussion about Apostolic Palace being banned, or Diplomatic Victory being disabled. I suspect this is an oversight from when Lewwyn rolled the map.

I know that Ramk can adjust game settings, and I PM’ed him to see if that power also includes the victories.

I think I know who founded Christianity. 

I do hope that Ramk can enable it and Cornflakes and I can race for AP, even though I suspect I won't beat him. But who knows.

[Charriu]

T126:

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Well, well, well. Cornflakes landed the AP. This was either a very well played whip and chop build or a Great Engineer at work. I tend to say it was the Engineer, because Cornflakes noticed the missing AP wonder last turn. I have to say I grow more and more frustrated with the wonder aspect of IND. I seems more and more like the world wonder bonus is just a distraction and I should focus more on the non-race aspects of IND like forge and national wonders. The forge bonus is amazing and not only brought extra production to every city in my empire, but extra happiness too. I do have to look into national wonders some more. The biggest problem with the world wonder bonus is that you may be able to build a wonder fast, but you also have to get to the technology fast enough, which for the later parts of the game is the biggest problem. Add to that that people can just get a wonder with a Great Engineer and there is no way for IND to compete. Maybe PHI is the real mid-late-game wonder builder trait. Of course there's still fail gold. The world wonder bonus seems to be most relevant to get the really early wonders before people get Great Engineers and cheaper niche wonders that nobody wants. In this regard Amicalola played IND very well. Next time I play IND I will focus mainly on the non-world-wonder aspects.

The other big news this turn as you can see is that I declared war on Ramk to take that island city. Unfortunately he whipped an axeman a few turns ago. The fact that the axe is still there makes me believe that there is no galley either to transport that axe or bring in reinforcement. By taking the corn tile I should not have to worry about additional whips. There are also 2 more axeman from Parcelyte on the northern galley. I should be able to take that city, I think. Unfortunately due to the logistics and position of my ships I was not able to land on the copper tile and capture the worker. Otherwise my swordsmen would have been open to an attack by the axeman.

[Charriu]

T127:

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Ok, Cornflakes built the Statue of Zeus even though we play with no war weariness. He either forgot about that or is preparing for a culture victory. But to more urgent stuff. Ramk send me a cease fire and I saw that he gave up on Mekka as you can see. I have to say I did not expect that. I think he realized that I only want to take the island city, which is no big use for him in his situation. What is more useful for him is getting those units to the mainland and I think I know what he tries to do here:

1. Give up Mekka to me
2. Wait for Mekka to pop borders
3. This will teleport his units, which he will be able to use against GKC.

Of course I took the city and offered him peace afterwards. If he takes it I will renew the fur gift to him and other stuff he might need, but I won't open borders with him so that his units will be teleported in 3 turns.

Because I finish my first crossbowmen in some cities I switched into Theocracy to get some extra XP on them. Gotta have to say I love SPI so far. I should start a counter of how many anarchy turns I avoided so far I think as of now I avoided at least 5 turns of anarchy.

As you can see I will 1-turn Mathematics this turn, because apparently that's something you can do if you get KTB from 17 people for it. After that I will most likely get Currency too, just because it's so cheap. I think my position on our continent is getting better with every turn thanks to the holy city. I start thinking about attacking one of my neighbors and the best target is most likely Lazteuq. Attacking Mjmd would be very hurtful not only because he has a good economy and army, but also because I would loose all my trade routes to foreign players. War against Mjmd is only advisable with Astronomy and an ocean trade route to the other players.

[Charriu]

T128:

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Ramk and GKC signed peace. Great job, Ramk! Ramk also send me a cease fire again, which I accepted. I'm wondering about Lazteuq. As you may be aware he abandoned the game for a short period of 3 days and left it on automatic. But will it settle the city? More importantly for me I got another random spread of Hinduism in just about the right city, Snowdin Town. That should take care of that border. War with Lazteuq is anavoidable with all our border struggles. Plan for me is to research this underrated tech called Currency, which is also hilariously cheap with 18 KTB. After that I will go into Construction, Horseback Riding, Feudalism and Guilds with an add in of Divine Right if I get a Great Prophet to partly bulb it. Construction mainly because I suspect that I need some form of collateral. It's also very cheap thanks to KTB same with Horseback Riding. By the way I met a Superdeath workboat and with that I only need 4 more contacts for a full set of 23 contacted players. There should be a quest similar to circumnavigation for this.  




I also send this message to Ramk in hope of telling him, when the recently conquered Mekka is going out of revolt and his units teleported. I also renewed the fur gift to him as he's still in a war with Mjmd.

Oh and I started Hagia Sophia in Amn. I plan to build it without chopping there which will be in 9 turns. Reason is that the failgold will be useful and if I get the wonder it's also great for my culture victory attempt and my low worker economy.

[Charriu]

About Lazteuq. I think we need a lurker to log in just to make sure basic stuff like settling that city is being done.