[SPOILERS] yuris125 on a Pitboss77 boat

[yuris125]

We are starting to run into territorial disputes

In the west, I lost a nice island to Scooter




Don't think I will contest this island, not yet at least, but I do intend to claim the wheat/fish island. It's not going to be an amazing city, but it is a lot of food, and better if I have it than Scooter

In the east




looks like I will lose the banana island to Superdeath, but should still be able to claim the silk island

I don't want to push expansion too hard until Currency comes in (should be in 6 turns), then I really need to start claiming everything in sight

I'm eyeing Superdeath to be the Samurai target, he is keeping up in city count but is well behind in score, which suggests his cities aren't well-developed, and he could fall further behind by the time I get Civil Service and Machinery

Speaking of Machinery, I can hire an engineer in Tokyo and try to make the first great person an engineer rather than a prophet. Don't mind a prophet too much, I'm about to start spreading religion (hence the monastery build in Satsuma), so nothing wrong with a shrine. But bulbing Machinery would be jackpot

[yuris125]

Scooter beat me to the wheat/fish city by a couple turns (a turn + turn order)




Unfortunate, I was going to settle it despite Ubaryd already using the fish, it was such a good position for a defensive outpost in this direction. Now I will have to sail in the opposite direction for eternity - there's no other available land I know of in the west

Scooter seems to be doing what I said I would be doing post-Currency, putting down cities in every spot he can find. I am once again last in city count (still no contact with Cairo, don't know how many he has), but have two settlers out and more in production. So I'd say I remaing within touching distance, but Scooter has a decent lead

I need to decide what I'm doing post-Currency. There's merit in going straight for Machinery and Civil Service, aiming to continue my expansion via Superdeath. There's also merit in picking up Aesthetics and trying to build Parthenon, possibly Literature for Epics (can't build Heroic Epic yet, will need to go to war to unlock it). I'm also still unsure how I'm acquiring Theocracy - researching Theology or building Shwedagon Paya, normally Paya would be the play to keep the Astro bulb open, but if I have to research Civil Service before Astro anyway, a cheap tech may be preferable to a wonder. I would also like to pick up Calendar sooner rather than later, I do have a few Calendar resources, and about to acquire more from the silk island

Suspect I will end up researching Iron Working after Currency, which is required for most routes and should be cheap at this point. I also need to backfill Masonry, connect a stone, and finally build Moai in Satsuma. Will give me a few extra turns to pick the path

[yuris125]

Quite a busy day for T100. Cliffnotes: I am on 10 cities with 1 more settler out and a few more in production. This is fewer than Scooter and Superdeath, who both have 14, although SD's must be quite small, as he's still lagging in score despite building Hanging Gardens on 14 cities. The main concern at the moment is that the power started to grow for both Scooter and SD, while I'm still heavily investing in expansion. But all in all, I think Scooter is in the lead, but I'm at least even with the rest of the field (of course, I can only judge what Cairo is doing from the score and demos, we still don't have contact)

Proper update tomorrow

[yuris125]

T102

Empire overview - centre and north



South and west



Yokohama was settled earlier than I wanted, it was supposed to be a post-Calendar city, but that was the best place to divert the settler after losing the Kartool spot to Scooter

East



City 11 is to be settled next turn on the eastern island. City 12 I would like to be on the island SE of Tokyo, it's a bit close to SD, but makes sense for me to have it with a crab it can work already in my borders. Tokyo is building an axe and an archer for it in case SD disagrees with my opinion on the matter

After that I have a spot N of Kagoshima on a 3-tile island, where iron was discovered. There is an island east of Izumo with space for two cities, and a tundra island further north which likely can take a city. So I should be able to get to 16 peacefully

I don't really want to invest in building a big fleet / military at the moment, so tentatively I'm thinking of going for Astro before Civil Service. But first I do need Calendar (for tile yields as much as for happiness), and probably Aesthetics/Literature for epics and perhaps Parthenon (going for it would've been a no brainer with marble, a bit of a harder sell without. Potential issue with the Astro path - since I had to research Meditation, I cannot research CoL (to block Philosophy from being a bulb option). Will the economy be able to take it?

Looks inside the cities

Main commerce contributors
Kyoto



Tokyo



Production cities
Osaka



Kagoshima



Graphs and demos - not the most impressive, but it's reasonably close, apart from Scooter's CY lead

[Commodore]

Thanks for the overview.

Have exploration plans for new areas?

[yuris125]

Nothing specific, just general feel that I need to send a scouting workboat, for circumnav and to find Cairo if nothing else. But there's always not enough hammers to spare, every scouting workboat I build ends being needed for nets in one of the new cities

[yuris125]

Not much happening over the last 10 turns, everyone seems to be happy with peaceful development, no massive power spikes anywhere. When I settled cities next to Superdeath, he sent a fish for fish deal which also included me going to war with Scooter. I wasn't willing to commit to a war with Scooter, in fact I think Superdeath is the more likely target when I'm ready to go on offensive, but even that is a while away - at this point I don't expect fireworks to start until after Astro. So sent back just a crab for crab deal, which he signalled back

Presently I'm working to research Calendar, so that I can raise the happy cap to the point where I can run specialists while still working all the good tiles, and generate 3 great scientists for Optics and Astro. In the meantime I will have to hard-tech Alphabet, Compass, and Machinery. I lost the 27% roll for great engineer over prophet, so no Machinery bulb, and the other priority is spreading Buddhism for shrine income. Still thinking (and probably need to calculate) if I want to detour to Aesthetics and Literature for Parthenon and National Epic (and perhaps Great Lib if I can find the hammers)

I have 4 more cities planned in the north, none of them amazing, but all serviceable




The eastern island initially had plans for 2 cities, but think it can fit 3

[yuris125]

I located marble




This probably cements going for Aesthetics / Literature

Scooter offered open borders, the first reaction was to question if I was really willing to sign it with the game leader, but there's too much benefit in me having international trade routes, which Scooter as protective leader doesn't benefit from nearly as much (if at all?)

[yuris125]

Took me too long to find that marble, now Bing is about to steal it




Or perhaps not. If he settles where the settler is (which seems to be the optimal location for food), I can still settle on the marble. Seriously thinking about doing it

Finally made contact with Cairo




He sent an OB offer, which I decided to accept, OB with Scooter didn't fill me up on international trade routes, and I likely will need OB either with Cairo or with SD if I were to complete circumnavigation - would rather have it with him and not have SD scouting my territory

[yuris125]

I think I will settle W of the marble




Firstly, this spot is on a hill, and secondly, it's less offensive to Bing, as it doesn't compete for the sheep in his city. It does mean I will get marble a few turns later, but I can live with it

My galley has a settler and an axe onboard, there will be another galley with 2 archers following 4 turns behind, and I might wait on settling until it gets there - depends if I see Bing's galley on the way to the marble

Then the plan is - Parthenon in Kagoshima, Great Library in Kyoto. Not yet sure where National Epic goes, probably in Kyoto as well, not too happy about polluting the GP pool, but it can't be helped, wherever the National Epic goes it will pollute the scientist pool

Need more galleys and more workers. Archipelago maps limit how much workers have to do and how many are needed, now I realised I only have 6 workers, and that really isn't enough to improve Calendar resources and get all the cities I planned up and running