[SPOILERS] yuris125 on a Pitboss77 boat

[yuris125]

Settler for city 4 is on the galley. Probably settling E of the gold and stealing Kyoto's crabs to start with, unless I see a reason to settle SE of the gold

Switched research to Meditation, because someone (Scooter?) founded Hinduism this turn

Warrior build in Osaka because I started running into unhappiness problem (whips anger, lack of military anger, no happiness resources or monuments yet). This warrior will sit between two cities and go into whichever once needs rioters to calm down

Scooter seems to be well ahead of the field currently, he was the first to settle the 2nd city, first to 3 and 4 as well, and the gap doesn't seem to be closing

[yuris125]

A big score bump this turn as I get pop growth in 3 of the 4 cities and finish Meditation




I was hoping for Buddhism to drop in Osaka, the biggest non-capital city, but it ended up in Satsuma, the newest one. Not amazing, but at least means it can easily pick up the crab resource and not steal food from the capital

Now I need a few workers and then another set of settlers. Also a Monument in Osaka, it really needs a border pop, and both my attempts to do it without a Monument (Stonehenge and holy city) fell through

[yuris125]

I think it's time to settle the eastern city on the starting island, now that the wheat at Tokyo is improved and can be taken over by that city. Tokyo has 3 food sources and can easily give up one

I'm considering keeping the forests for that city, on a low production map 1/2 forests aren't the worst tiles to work, and they can be lumbermilled later (actually if I do get Oracle / Metal Casting, they might be lumbermillable right away? don't remember if CtH moved lumbermills to MC or if the're still at Machinery)

After that I have 4 more island cities I want to settle, plus the western end of the starting island. And of course I'm still scouting for more

Still no contact with anyone

[Fenn]

I'm spoiled on the other threads so I can't offer much more, but I wanted to say thanks for the detailed and regular reporting. It's been good reading.

[yuris125]

Thank you for the kind words, and sorry for not updating after you posted but nothing really happened the last few turns, just moving units around

This turn I settled the 5th city




And work on Oracle in Tokyo started in earnest, I just double-whipped the granary with a good chunk of overflow, and also completed a chop. Won't be surprised if I lose it, the Hindu founder had a 3-turn headstart if they're going for it, and I couldn't start the wonder immediately after finishing Priesthood. But gotta try!

Satsuma had its gold connected, but otherwise has no good tiles - I think it will end up being the Moai city, and will save the chop for that. For now I'm just going to road the hill while waiting for the galley to pick up the worker




If I knew Satsuma was going to become my holy city, I would've settled it on that hill - would've been much better for food. But alas, no way to predict that

Next city locations




The spot on the horse island moved north. With 3 food resources, it's planned to be the birthplace of my great scientists. Horse is now out of range, but it will be worked by Kagoshima. Ignore the 3-tile island for now, it does have a city spot marked to use that fish I decided to miss out on with the second city, but it's a low priority fishing village




The island west of Satsuma has a very tempting spot - two strong food resources even before it can use the sugar (which is jungled, so I would need IW and Calendar)

Unfortunately the same cannot be said about the spices island east of Satsuma, which only has dry rice. This is the main reason I wish Satsuma was 1S of its current location and could use the fish and give the crab to the city on that island. But too late now. That city is probably worth settling post-Calendar, but not before




This area still needs scouting to figure out the best city spots, but I consider it the prime direction of expansion - I want that stone and the green islands further east

Plus of course there's one more city on the starting island to settle

Research-wise, I'm picking up cheap Archery to feel a little safer, and then I think it's time to learn to write

[yuris125]

Oracle still available and should finish next turn (eot 70) - fingers crossed, would be sad to lose it due to being last in turn order

[yuris125]

Got it

Now I need to somehow grow cities while building settlers and also fitting forges in queues

[yuris125]

Finally contact - Superdeath's galley arrives from the east




He probably doesn't have a real unit onboard, and he probably won't declare right away, but I built a warrior in Tokyo nevertheless just in case (also Tokyo is likely to have enough good tiles to grow, and therefore needs a unit inside anyway for happiness)

[yuris125]

My problem right now is that my score is good, but then I look at demos, and they're trash




I suspect the reason is that I fell behind in expansion. But I do have 2 settlers in production, and Osaka will start another one next turn, after finishing the tatara. I was worried about crashing the economy, but with Maths finishing shortly and Currency not far, it should work out fine




I did decide to go for lumbermills rather than chops at Kagoshima, chopping those forests would make the tiles unusable for a very long time, and lumbermills are pretty decent tiles, equivalent to riverside grassland mines

I do need to start worrying about military, now that tataras are getting ready. Finally connected the copper this turn

The southwestern island turned out to be larger than I thought




But I think I'm sticking with the planned city spot, terrain on the west side of the island isn't productive, and I do want to take advantage of the fish, which is now in my borders and can be used immediately, thanks to holy city culture

I will probably drop off the scout on the larger island further west, it's been doing nothing for good 50 turns by now, and I can't spare galley turns for exploring at present. Ideally I would build a couple more galleys, but so far I've been unable to find the hammers

[yuris125]

The three planned cities ended up being settled all in the same turn




Settling Nagoya brought me in contact with Scooter. I did catch up to him in city count with this turn's settles, although his were settled earlier

Nara is building a monument before granary, as I really need it to get the fish in the second ring - it's borrowing the corn for the initial growth, but I want it given back to the two starting cities as soon as possible. Maybe I get a lucky religion spread, but really, you never get one when you need it. I didn't have any so far




And Izumo in the northeast

I am building a couple archers for these new cities. Archers aren't the optimal unit as they don't benefit from tataras, but they're the cheapest option at a time when I don't want to invest into military too much yet

Next, I really need to get back to scouting to find more city spots - I settled every good spot I knew about, and don't want to resort to 2-3-tile islands yet