[PB59] Charriu welcomes all the townfolk

[Charriu]

T248:

---

It's still eerily quiet on the eastern front. Just destroyed one of Amicalola's destroyers and one transport last turn. I'm not sure but I would bet he still has to conquer a bit of land for the domination victory. The question though is will an astronomy island be enough or does he need a whole continent. If it is the latter which one will be the next target, ours or the Dulland/Ichabod/Miguelito continent? And what is civac actually doing? He could certainly stop any space attempt by Miguelito I guess.
Back home I'm preparing everything to conquer Mjmd's last city (and by that also securing myself the first kill in my MP history.

In anticipation for my tracking tool analysis I also looked back at when the first corp popped up which was somewhere in the 190s. That's great as with the T250 report we will see the full effect off corporations. While doing that I also noticed that Amicalola began his world bombin tour only some 30 turns ago with the invasion of Tarkeel. It's just crazy how short of a time he needed for this.

[superdeath]

Who do you believe will win this PB? %chance wise?

[Charriu]

Either Miguelito or Amicalola. Everybody else has no chance. If Miguelito fails with space, Amicalola has won. I'm very much worried with Miguelito's space race as he hasn't finished any space parts yet and might still need to research stuff. Amicalola on the other end only has to get enough land, which should be doable. Population is no problem with his corporation. My guess is

Amicalola 74%
Miguelito 25%
Me (diplomatic victory) 1%

[Charriu]

Woohoo. The game ended and I survived with my empire fully intact. Achievment unlocked.

[civac2]

Hey Charriu, congrats fellow survivor. Was this the first time you lived to the end? Was a real bloodbath too.

[Charriu]

Well technically I did survive in PB52, but only because I planted a joke-iceball city up in the north that nobody bothered to take. So this is my first true survival to the end.

[Charriu]

Before I do the reports with my tracking tool and spoiler myself to much I wanted to do a post mortem. I feel that the past approach of mine from PB52 and earlier was a good one for these post-portems, so I will split my post-game analysis into multiple post again:

1. Civ and Trait usage
   
2. City placements
   
3. Tech-Route
   
4. Problems and obstacles I ran into and their cause
   
5. Summary
   
   

So first of all Civ and Trait usage. I played Ramses of Greece this game which gave me the following:

SPIritual: No anarchy and +100% temple production
INDustrious: +50% wonder production and +100% forge production
UU: Phalanx - replaces spearman, strength 5, +25% hill defense
UB: Odeon - replaces colosseum, +3 culture, +1 happiness, +1 happiness from hit single, +2 artist slots
Starting techs: Fishing and Hunting
Starting screenshot:


Both civ and leader were my first roll together with Huayna Capac (IND/FIN). In terms of starting techs Greece was certainly playable, but maybe not optimal. Then again I had 24 other players competing for the good civs so I could not be certain to get a better civ in terms of starting techs, so Greece was good enough in that regard. The UU was very useful for my defensive playstyle. It may not have seen a lot of action, but I'm sure it was a deterrence towards any mounted attacks against me and even against melee it performed well enough on a hill. At least I know that I had one or two situations against Lazteuq in the early turns in which the Phalanx was very useful.
I looked back and if I didn't miscount I built 10 Odeons. It's not the best UB, but it got good use. Mostly I used it as another culture building against Lazteuq's borders and later Miguelito and that was very useful. I even built it one time for the happiness bonus in Matango. Other then that though the happiness was never a big problem.
Overall I think Greece was a good civ to play here, not great but good and which is always good with a random decision.

Now as for the leaders I first had the decision between FIN and SPI. In hindsight FIN would have been strong on this map with all those rivers available. But then again the game would have developed totally different for me. I would most likely not have gone for a religion. Getting that religion was very worthwhile on this big map. First of all for the pure gold. In the end the holy city made 80 base gold + bank + grocer + market + wall street = 240 gold. Secondly it took care of any early border pops as thanks to the size of the map I hinduism spread to 18 cities of mine randomly (yes I counted the conquered cities too) and I think I only built 3 missionaries over the whole game. Could be wrong by 1 or 2, but still the majority of spreads happened randomly. Lastly with the holy city already established it was a no-brainer were to settle Creative Construction for even more gold. I think in terms of pure gold the incentive of going religion thanks to SPI was equal compared to what FIN provided. But in addition I also got to play a lot with civics. I think I played SPI rather well this game finding little optimizations like switching back to the lower maintenance civics and switching as often as possible. I will count my civic swaps later with my tracking tool, but I know it were a lot. Most importantly though SPI was very fun to play I would play it again. So in the end the decision for SPI vs FIN was the right one.

As for IND I think I misplayed that partly. I was tempted too much by the world wonder aspect in this game. The problem is that one should always but an "early" in the trait description like "+50% early wonder production". As soon as great engineers arrive all your production bonuses are irrelevant. What good is your bonus if just don't get to the relevant tech fast enough compared to somebody else, who just snipes a wonder from you. In the end the world wonder bonus is only great to get stonehenge, oracle, great lighthouse, temple of artemsis, colossus, pyramids or great wall and even then you need to be early to those techs. I made an attempt for oracle and colossus and failed with both, because I was too slow in tech. In the end though this was an advantage because on the way to those I took up the holy city of hinduism and metal casting, which is also important for IND. As for the early wonders I only managed to get Temple of Artemis. It wasn't the best wonder, but I think it payed it's due over the course of the game by providing extra hammers, commerce and GPP to the capitol. Most importantly though it provide me the first Great Prophet for the shrine. Later I also finished Hagia Sophia (ok) and Spiral Minaret. The last one was worthwhile again as thanks to SPI I already was invested into religion and thanks to a prophet bulb I was able to get to Divine Right and the wonder rather uncontested. It may have been possible that I could have finished Spiral Minaret without IND though.
Now if the wonder bonus is a distraction on IND, what good is the trait and the answer is forges and national wonders. The forge bonus is actually the best part of this trait I think turning the forge from a 4 pop into a manageable 2 pop whip early on. You know I often thought giving IND a "+25% production towards building" bonus was a good addition, but in fact it already has that bonus thanks to the forge. Of course it is important to get to forges as early as possible. You want to have forges up some 20-50 turns earlier then the competition giving you a huge advantage in hammers. Oh and the forge also provides a bit of happiness which is great. Loved the forge aspect and I think in that regard I played the trait very well.
Lastly the national wonder bonus. I have to admit I focused that to late. Next time I would plan out those national wonders at an earlier time and would aim for those techs, which is I think the right way to continue playing IND from classical onward. Specialize your cities early and give yourself even better specialization thanks to the national wonders.

Summary: I feel very good with the way I handled civ and trait. The way I played Greece was fine, SPI worked surprisingly well and IND was misplayed sometimes, but at least I learned a lot about the trait.

[Charriu]

So next up is my city placements. Luckily I did a report on those cities not long ago T237 I can therefore reuse these quite brazenly.

For a better overview, here is a map of my empire at the end of the game

T0 Clock Town - Capital:

As you may remember we had a choice of settling on the plains hill like I did or on the sugar. I still think that both positions were playable. My option provided a bit more hammers thanks to an additional hill and lost a bit on commerce, which was fine for me since I focused hammers more early on. I think the additional defense from the hill was useful, when Lazteuq poked me with an axeman in the early days. I think in the end sugar might have been slightly better, but that doesn't mean that my position was totally trash.

City Rating:






T32 Crysta - Holy city of gold

As for second cities I think it was fine, but not great. In the beginning it was an important stepping stone towards my third city, which actually was the better second city. Nonetheless Crysta wasn't total trash with two food in the first ring and another in the third and by providing access to the ever important copper. It also helped the capitol growing cottages. Of course the most important thing happening to Crysta was the founding of Hinduism, which turned the city into the backbone of my economy. Still that was by random chance and was totally independent of any tiles available to the city. I was very happy that the city had enough hammers for the important buildings. But if you discount the holy city, this city would have remained a fishing village. A very good fishing village, but still a fishing village. I still give it a thumbsup though.

City Rating:  






T44 Amn - the true second city

Amn could be considered the better second city. Like Crysta it also picked up three food resources, but all in the second ring. In terms of hammers it was destined to be better then Crysta longterm as it was on a river, had marble, 1 hill, 1 gold and cows available. Also like Crysta it helped to grow cottages for the capitol. Of course the most important addition in the beginning was the gold, which provided enough early commerce boost. Thanks to enough forests and lumbermills the early hammer output was also on the good site, which helped turn up some wonders in the city namely the Hagia Sophia and the ever important Spiral Minaret. By not settling a city to its west the city remained a great city.

City Rating:






T55 New Nobilia - City of happy draftees

The city had quiet a history. Poor Nobilia was founded first in T55, but later razed by Lazteuq (one of only two cities lost in the whole game). The city served as an important stepping stone towards the eastern defensive position. The spot itself was good with 2 food resources for its own in the beginning and a lot of tiles shared with the capitol.
The biggest problem for New Nobilia was that a lot of more important cities popped up around it, namely Township to the north, Figaro to the south and Freeja on the east, which also soon took tiles away from New Nobilia. Luckily this was plannable and the was a great path for the city, thanks to the river and the addition of globe theatre the city good a lot of food and therefore whip hammers and drafts. In the end this city provided a lot of military as can also be seen by the unhappiness turns ticking away.
Late in the game the city also got a bit of a hammer boost thanks to levee and the discovery of coal to its north. It also connected a second copper resource early on, which is not to be underestimated.

City Rating:






T63 Township - City of floodplains

Those 4 floodplains determined the early game for Township as a secondary commerce city and in that regard it did pretty well especially with the addition of gems. While its neighboring cities borrowed a lot of tiles in the early game, Township itself remained totally focused on those little coins, which slowed down all of it's building production in the beginning. All of that changed with the addition of a levee. With that I refocused the city using up the neighboring tiles and making the city into another production center. I think the city was great for exactly that and because it established an early stable northern border against barbs.

City Rating:






T88 - Freeja - Fortress in the east.

I think that Freeja went down as a production city was the absolutely right decision. It had enough food and hills (3 and 1 stone) to do just that. The fact that it also was the border city at first also made it a good spot for production as nobody likes to get cottages pillaged in a border city and producing military units directly on the border is also great. Another later plus was that it also was a coastal city and therefore could focus it's production on the water too. Therefore it made sense to settle West Point here (don't forget Figaro could not built that because of national wonder limitations).

City Rating:






T88 Old Camp

This is the first city, which I am not totally happy about. The plan in the beginning was to specialize the city towards production and as long as we were only dealing with triremes and galleys that was fine. The first thing that changed Old Camp's standing was the discovery of iron near Matango. With that resource Matango turned out to be the better coastal production spot on the inner sea. Then when ship costs increased and Township and Amn demanded more tiles with their new levee Old Camp was doomed to a sad fishing village status.
Maybe if we speak about long term value it would have been better to settle on the river 2W. There it could have used Amn's rice, 3 watermills with a levee and use 2 hills. It would have denied Mjmd the spot he settled there and may even have brought me into conflict with Mjmd. Maybe it still was a good spot after all with that in mind.
In the end we should also not forget that it served a defensive purpose here with providing culture defense against Mjmd's wine island.

City Rating:






T95 Figaro

I made a few mistakes with this city. At first it was settled as a simple filler city for making use of a lighthouse-lake and the horse resource on the island without settling that same island. Then some 40 turns later I finished Moai here. Now I didn't initially plan to built Moai here. There was a plan for a city west of Amn, which I never settled. When that was clear I did Moai here. Now I think this was a good spot for Moai, but I should have built it sooner. Now the second mistake here was to built the Heroic Epic. Of course this turned the city into a great military production center. But crucially it denied me to built West Point here. I should have built Heroic Epic in Freeja. But those were my mistakes in using the city and not the city itself.
Still Figaro was a great military production center thanks to copper, 2 hills, horses and 2 food resources. Keeping the forests with lumbermills here was very important for the focus on production on the coast. I think even without Moai this would have been a good filler spot.

City Rating: 






T105 Fireburg

I think this was the right spot to settle on this island. It was clear that a city here was needed to secure fur. Now I could have settled for the more defensive spot on the hill, but that would have brought into more culture trouble with Lazteuq and it would not have connected the fur in first ring. Therefore this was the right spot. The city never was able to be amazing. I could have built Moai here, but that would have been harder with the lower production base and on a more dangerous position. It was good the way it was.

City Rating: 






T108 Matango

Matango was initially settled as another filler fishing village on the inner sea. What changed this city though was the discovery of iron. Unfortunately I did not make the right conclusions at the time. With the corn and two lighthouse-lakes I should have focused more on hammers for the inner sea production at the time. It certainly had enough going for that route with iron and 3 hills available. But I missed that opportunity. Still it served its purpose for the time being, but as soon as the levee was finished in Township it was doomed to its initial fate as a fishing village.
Still the city spot was decent for the time it was settled.

City Rating: 






T112 Parcelyte

When I settled this I already knew about the iron resource. Therefore the plan to focus production on the land tiles was there from the get go and it turned out into a good island city. Should have focused more on naval production, but other then that the best spot to settle on this island.

City Rating:






T119 Snowdin Town

At the time I settled this city it was already clear that I needed good production here to get up enough culture buildings as a strong culture fortress in the north and the city provided just that. After that the city remained not great but good on production. It served its purpose and I am glad I settled the city.

City rating:






T130 Zeal

From now on most cities were already in place as was the case with Zeal. It was settled on just the right defensive position. What else can I say.

City Rating:






T153 Esther City

This was the former border city of Lazteuq. I think this was a bad spot to settle as it had no food of its own. I was lucky that it had one on my side at least. After conquest I desperately tried to gain tiles via culture, which also served the cities status as a fortress towards Lazteuq.

City Rating:






T163 Hateno

This was a rather bad filler spot. It enabled me to work the two land tiles on my continent, which no city claimed. In the end though I questioning if it was worthwhile to settle the city. Well at least thanks to trade income it wasn't a total failure.

City Rating:






T177 PaddyDoyleBoots

Already in place by Mjmd. The spot is the best spot it could be settled on. I was contemplating if it would have been better to raze the city and replace it with a fort for the wine resource access. RisingOfTheMoon and Old Camp could have picked up some of it's tiles. Still in the end I am glad I didn't as it turned out to be one of the better fishing villages.

City Rating:






T178 DirtyOldTown

Mjmd's former border city turned out to be an amazing production city once it could use all the tiles. I'm glad I kept and developed it in that way.

City Rating:






T180 RiseOfTheMoon

Another former Mjmd city. Good at commerce and hammers and provided just enough culture to stay relevant. Good that I kept it. Would have gotten even better with Mjmd's last city captured.

City Rating:






T183 Wendel

I settled this city on the former Mjmd part of our continent. This spot was the better production spot compared to 1S. Thanks to the culture pressure I was also able to secure the stone for my corporation and by being inland it was more secure from naval attacks by Miguelito.

City Rating:






T187 Quelb

This was an amazing spot to settle late in the game. It not only claimed the important spice resource, it also was great on food and production. Loved the way the city turned out.

City Rating:






T194 Ding Dong Dell

It's good that I settled the spot late as it was clear that the city never would have been great. Just disappointing filler stuff. At least it was coastal for trade.

City Rating:

So in the end I settled/conquered 21 cities:

17 had a ranking of  

2 had a ranking of  

2 had a ranking of  

I'm very happy with the way I settled my cities. The disappointing cities were late settlements or conquest with the exception of Old Camp and even that wasn't total trash. Still I made a few mistakes in the development of the cities.

[Charriu]

So next up would be my tech route. Prepare for a rather weird tech path. The first time is always the beginning of the research the second the time of finishing it:

Mining T0 T10: Prereq for BW. And hey I could place a river mine while waiting for Agriculture later

Bronze Working T10 T25: Mainly for the copper position and to switch to slavery. The plan was to whip the first settler thanks to SPI and no anarchy into slavery.

Agriculture T25 T30: With wheat in the capitol and corn visible, this was required for the second city.

Animal Husbandry T30 T41: Required for the pig in the third city

Mysticism T41 T48: Prereq for religion path and oracle. And hey I needed some monuments still.

Polytheism T48 T54: Founding Hindusim (so important) and hey there was the Temple of Artemis. During research Oracle was already finished by Ramk, so I abandoned the plan to Oracle myself to Metal Casting. Still I kept pushing for Hinduism, which was a good thing in the end.

The Wheel T54 T59: Unfortunately I needed this to connect the copper resource and of course for Pottery into Metal Casting. If possible I would have avoided this for longer as the rivers provided trade connections.

Pottery T59 T64: Needed for Metal Casting. And hey you need cottages and granaries at some time.

Metal Casting T64 T81: I think it was a mistake to go for Metal Casting for the colossus. After the failed Oracle there was not moment in time, when I could reach Metal Casting for this wonder. But I think it was good that I still kept onward with Metal Casting. Forges were a very important early building for me and I made good use of lumbermills during the whole game.

Masonry T81 T84: I had plans to built Temple of Artemis and extra hammers were always needed for that.

Sailing T84 T88: It was clear that I needed it at some point for the islands. But the main reason here was so that I could start intercontinental trades with all the other players. This was very important as I was partly running a trade economy.

Monotheism T88 T93: Mainly to be able to swap into Organized Religion as SPI player.

Meditation T93 T97: More prereq bonus for Priesthood and I already had plans for a monk economy which wants monasteries.

Priesthood T97 T99: More prereq bonus for Monarchy and Writing

Writing T99 T101: Mainly for open borders to all the foreign players and international trade routes. Since those were so lucrative I maybe should have swapped Writing in early directly after Sailing.

Monarchy T102 T108: Mainly for serfdom. I was running low on workers. It was also clear by now that my economy would be setup slightly more towards farms and windmills. Oh and Heredetary Rule was also there.

Iron Working T108 T112: Wanted to know were iron is and use it. Also bring the gems into play for more commerce and happiness. Iron was also required for the future military line-up.

Machinery T112 T122: I wanted crossbows for my military adventures towards Lazteuq also better lumbermills. Also windmills and serfdom were a no brainer.

Archery T122 T123: Crossbows

Theology T123 T126: I was expecting a great prophet to bulb Divine Right. For that I need this as a prereq and hey more civics to play with.

Mathematics T126 T128: Prereq for Currency and some chops

Currency T128 T131: This one of the weirdest elements in my tech path I researched Currency after Machinery, Theology, Iron Working and Monarchy. This was an obvious mistake to research so late in a game were trade routes are so important. Most likely the biggest mistake. But I was aware of this mistake. I mainly delayed it just for shits and giggles and if I could get away with it. Thanks to the shrine I was able to that. Now remember that I wanted to play this game more casual and just try stuff. It was fun for the moment, but researching this way early would have provided me a stronger late game.

Horseback Riding T131 T142: I mainly dropped overflow research here from time to time, which explains the long research time. Prereq for knights.

Divine Right T135 T138: Got the prophet and partly bulbed this. Main goal was building the Spiral Minaret, which was an important wonder for me. I already head lots of religious buildings in place before I even started this.

Feudalism T138 T141: Mainly for Vassalage and some defense in longbows. Could have probably delayed for after Guids.

Construction T142 T144: Better movement and catapults for the upcoming conquest of Lazteuq

Guilds T144 T148: Knights to send against Lazteuq. With earlier Currency and some better focus, could have done it earlier and therefore better on the conquest itself.

Compass T148 T150: Prereq for Optics to get the circumnavigation extra trade route.

Optics T148 T152: Circumnavigation trade routes and some ocean exploration.

Civil Service T152 T155: Irrigate more farms and bureaucracy. Was it that important now? Maybe could have been delayed.

Aesthetics T155 T158: Prereq literacy

Literacy T156 T157: National wonders

Drama T157 T158: Globe theatre

Gunpowder T158 T162: Privateers for when I eventually get astronomy, but mainly so that I have some better defends to draft in anticipation of Nationhood. Oh and of course cuirassiers 

Engineering T162 T164: I discovered Lazteuq galleons and wanted better movement for defense. Also pikeman but those were less important thanks to phalanx.

Nationalism T164 T170: Nationhood. Draft the globe theatre. Prereq for Military Tradition

Alphabet T170 T177: Needed for something as a prereq

Music Quickly sometime before Military Tradition: prereq

Military Tradition T171 T176: Cuirassiers to attack Lazteuq, which never happened. In the end I think focusing this now was a mistake as there was no way to gain on Lazteuq for now. Should have focused more economic trades.

Paper T177 T178: Prereq for Printing Press

Printing Press T178 T180: Money money money.

Astronomy T180 T185: Since my initial naval attack on conquest, Lazteuq gained the upper hand on the water against me. This was a mistake and instead of going for cuirassiers I maybe should have gone for astronomy to challenge him on the water.

Banking T185 T187: In preparation for banks into wall street in the holy city. And an important prereq for more economic techs.

Replacable Parts T187 T189: Serfdome economy

Rifling T189 T194: As a defense against Miguelito

Constitution T194 T196: Representation since I was running more specialist by now.

Education T196 T198: Universities into Oxford for the capitol

Economics T198 T201: More trade routes

Corporation T201 T203: MORE TRADE ROUTES!!! In the end I maybe

Steam Power T201 T208: Levees were a huge shift for my cities, but importantly a prereq for better units via draft from...

Assembly Line T208 T212: Draft infantry in fear of Miguelito. Also industrialization

Philosophy T212 T213: Prereq

Steel T213 T215: Avoiding scientific method as long as possible, while getting better on the water

Railroad T215 T218: Mobility

Combustion T218 T221: Avoiding scientific method as long as possible, while getting better on the water. Oh and hey nobody took Creative Construction yet, that could be nice.

Liberalism T221 T222: Prereq but also Free Religion for after Scientific Method

Scientific Method T222 T224: Needed at some point even though it crashed my monk economy

Physics T224 T226: Prereq

Electricity T226 T230: Repair some of the monk economy after scientific method

Artillery T230 T233: At this point conflict with Amicalola was on the horizon. Everything went into better military against him.

Flight T234 T237: At this point conflict with Amicalola was on the horizon. Everything went into better military against him.

Democracy T237 T245: Took longer because I sacrificed my huge gold income to modernize my army. Since I never could compete in production against Miguelito promoting the old stuff was a good way to get better military

Rocketry T245 T248: The plan was for Advanced Flight to modernize my 2 mover stack

Radio T248: The plan was for Advanced Flight to modernize my 2 mover stack

[Charriu]

Problems, Obstacles and their causes:

In this section I want to talk about the big problems I encountered and what I think led to them. There are some smaller issues which I will tackle in the last section.

I will start this section with some smaller problems and work my way up to the big issues:

Problem: Early misplay of Industrious

And when I talk about misplay I'm specifically talking about those two attempts at Oracle and Colossus. With 24 competitors it is very hard to get any early wonder even if you are IND. Now my Oracle attempt could have been worse, because at least I wasn't invested at Priesthood and I gained the holy city, which was most likely better in the long term then both wonders. I think the main problem was that I underestimated my competition. Ramk must have gone more or less straight towards Oracle and don't forget he already started with Mysticism. Similar Miguelito must have gone straight towards Metal Casting after the initial worker techs. I may have beaten Miguelito to Colossus if I would have ignored the religion, which of course also had its downside. The biggest down side of all of this was that I slowed down expansion a bit to get to Metal Casting.

Solution: Even though I lost those wonder races I at least got a religion and one of the early wonders. I think what I should have done was give up on Oracle from the get go as every Mysticism civ was at an advantage with such a cheap wonder. As for Colossus I should have given up on the wonder and instead focus more on expansion and/or the less wanted wonders.



Problem: Being raided by Lazteuq in the early game

I first discovered Lazteuq's axe in T68. The good thing is that my already established fogbuster net caught his axe early. I did a tiny bit of panic errors that may have contributed to me loosing Nobilia. That mistake was not investing 5 hammers to 1 pop whip the axe in Nobilia. Then in T75 I lost the city mainly because I just got track of the actual turn order.

Solution: I think without the early 5 hammer in axe mistake I may have been able to whip the axe in Nobilia in time, but of course the biggest mistake was the slipup with turn order. I don't know what to do here. Maybe write myself another reminder sign about the turn order in those critical moments.



Problem: Failing to conquer Lazteuq

My attack on Lazteuq started on T149 and was quiet promosing at the start. I was able to raze 3 of his cities. The big problem is that after the initial attack my campaign lost steam. I was at least able to secure the border city of his.

Solution: I think to things went wrong here. First because of some earlier mistakes (late Currency) I was late to the attack. Lazteuq also got knights which made things harder. Being a bit earlier with the techs would have enabled me to build more units. Now as for the second reason I think I signed peace to fast. At the moment I signed peace I was in a good, stable and defensible position in his border city. From there I could have attempt more naval landings on his coastal cities. Maybe even GKC would have joined the war. I think I was too much afraid of any war of attrition, when I had the high ground.



Problem: Failing at long term planning

I think this is one of the biggest if not the biggest mistake. It's best shown in not planning out national wonders early enough. I was prepared to do more here, but I struggled to find a good framework to plan this out. I think I already have a very good tool for my micro planning with my spreadsheet, but the macro planning is lacking.

Solution: I one thing that was useful and I noticed later was doing more written reports about the other players or when important events happened. This stepping back and looking through someone elses perspective helped me refocus some stuff. In that same regard making more city overviews helped me with the long term planning and reevaluating there. I also made myself a small spreadsheet to extrapolate the future maintenance of my empire to judge how my economy has to develop. I think with those things I will be better equipped next time.