Dreylin Blues 2000 is on (another) mission from Cod

[Dreylin]

T109 -

More or less back into a reporting frame of mind.

This is a foolish risk though:


I guess we'll see whether I'm back to reporting with a recap or a war plan...

[Dreylin]

T110 -

I sent Corn-Corn to Ljubljana last turn and they sent back Wheat-Wheat and started to retreat the Impis, so I was good to Settler Flounder this turn:


The Settler had been intended for the orange dot Silks location, but seeing Ljubljana moving troops up I decided to push to set the border. It was probably a mistake to do that, but I don't think I've been making great decisions over the last couple of weeks generally. Maybe that will improve now I'm past the event that's been consuming my time and piling on the stress.

Anyway, you can also see I settled Betta a few turns ago here to grab the Cows and share a bunch of tiles. Moving to the NE, there's not been a whole lot of change here:


Cottages are spreading and the Jungle is in retreat. These 3 cities & Stonefish have all completed their Libraries; Perch is on the way, but I wanted a turn into an Axe incase things got tense in the NW. Anglerfish had also delayed their Library to push out an Axe to reinforce.

South is my production core:


Anchovy is about to stagnate at size4 working the Cows & 3 Mines; can't do much else here until chained irrigation or windmills, so the Iron filler is likely to be late since it can't take the Cows to grow. Sheepshead will probably add a Library and work some specialists with its food surplus. Haddock meanwhile is using Settler-whip overflow to push Moai.

Finally the SW:


Herring is another filler along the greenline border, with no food resource it's currently working the floodplains and grass farms and clearcutting into infrastructure. Lungfish in the production centre in the West. I might slip in a Settler next to grab the Southern Cows filler, but not wholly committed to it yet.

Tech pace is miserable; I recently scrapped my way to Mathematics, which didn't quite sync with the chops, hence the extra "1t roads" dotted about here. Much as I want Calendar next, I think I have to get Currency for the extra trade route. With everyone's borders wide open, that's +2c/city the turn it's finished which is faster and more than I'll see from Dyes & Silks. It'll be a few turns before I'll have enough saved to push for that though so I will probably be able to finish the Libraries at Perch & Anglerfish before then.

I have a couple more pic to post, but those will come a bit later today. I'm also ~4t from having everyone's graphs, so will show those then.

[Dreylin]

I also took shots of the cities screen and total builds:



Also some slightly aged shots. First, from the demise of Ricketyclik:
Superdeath got the bulk of the spoils, but Gavagai kept him honest.

I also managed to finally confirm that Gav is the owner of HBR:

[Dreylin]

T112 -

The thing I've not had a chance to do recently is much planning. Now I have a bit more bandwidth, I need to plan how to make the most of this:

[Dreylin]

T115 -

Graphs:

[Dreylin]

T117 & 118 -

Important events afoot:


The arrival of a second religion gives me the option of a second Temple & Priest specialist to generate a Prophet for my Shrine. Biggest question is whether to grow that specialist in Haddock, which just finished Moai and thus an extra Prophet point, or in Anchovy which has a lower opportunity cost from running the specialists.

Currency completes for +30cpt, and I will then 1turn Priesthood so I can put up a temple. Then Monotheism so I have Org Rel available to start the Golden Age. Will need to crunch some numbers to see if I can also have Monarchy completed in time for the double-revolt, or if that is an end-GA switch.

I am feeling behind in Tech and need the GA to start catching up. There's this:


Which could be some "fun" on the horizon in the North, but I also just spotted a Gingac Worker building a Windmill!

I settled Salmon, the last of my half-decent spots:


Probably underselling it a bit as it has good potential with the Silks - and eventual Levee! 

There's the Iron site in the SE, and maybe a filler 2N of that Wheat, but neither are particularly enticing. I have been meandering a Settler build for the Cows South of Lungfish, but it looks like greenline finally has one of their own on the way to that spot and no way I can beat them. I guess I'll just have to take it from them later...

[Dreylin]

T119 -

Here's that border I was talking about:


I can still technically plant on the desert NE of the Cows, but really what's the point.

Priesthood in and Temple started in Haddock. I'll accelerate with a chop of the remaining forest and should be ready before the GA to get max output from the Priest.

[Dreylin]

T120 -

Had a good stare at the tech tree this morning to plan out priorities. I can definitely make it through Monotheism and Monarchy prior to kicking off the Golden Age, but as I thought about it I was not especially certain that's the right path. I get 1 Happy immediately from adopting Hinduism, and if I grab Calendar instead I can get another 2 Happy within a couple of turns from Dyes & Silks, so I don't need the bonus from Hereditary Rule in the short term. I had plotted out Monotheism->Calendar->Metal Casting->Monarchy before remembering Serfdom.

Even then it took me a while to get past "but most of my Workers have run out of stuff to do and so I need Calendar or Metal Casting to get them working again" and then realise that the Farms bonus added by CtH might be worthwhile. I'll need to take another proper look tonight, but yeah maybe it is Mono->Monarchy->Calendar->MC after all.

[Dreylin]

T122 -

Hmmm:


Not that Ginger has a reputation, but I don't think I will bother even feigning surprise if he lands the Apostolic Palace in the next few turns.

2t before I can kick off my own Golden Age; I'm getting rather worried by being their neighbour, so I'm going to have to set up some sort of defense. OTOH, I don't think I'd like to be Mjmd right now:


FWIW, I guess Gav could be countering Superdeath - I lost his graphs a few turns ago when he decided to get mine and I couldn't keep up with his Courthouse EP - but even so I think Mjmd is running quite a risk not seeing to his soldier count a bit more.

[Dreylin]

T123 -



Well I guess I called Gavagai wrong; graphs back this turn show he's on par with Superdeath in Power. I'll see if I can get a War reporter over there to watch.

Speaking of:


Not clear what's going on here; don't see any sign of an attacking stack, just that pile of defending Cats. I wonder if GT was trying to War-Peace, but naufragar had other ideas?

I think I need to send Ginger a "War with Ljubljana / War with greenline" soonish to gauge his intent, but I'm not ready to commit to that war yet. Even so, I should probably do it in the next few turns.

I also it'd be a good idea to take a shot of the Tech situation before I start hoovering up some techs:


I'm definitely a tech or two behind the pack (& 3-4 behind Gingac), but I think that is positioned to improve. I've also started to wonder about my planned tech path during the Golden Age and whether instead of grabbing a bunch of (needed) development techs I have the abilility to grab for CS and have Bureaucracy ready for the end of the Golden Age. Vassalage might be an acceptable back-up which would give me 2-promo units, but would put a stop to my plans for using cheap Bowmen as HR MP Units. I think I'll need to take a detailed look next turn once the GA and civics switches are active.