[Spoilers] rho21 follows the works of Homer... D'OH!

[Garath]

Man, I had forgotten that the lake above Euclid was known to be fresh water - there's so much land over there! Now I'm starting to get surprised that you haven't met anyone over there competing for it yet.

That collection of boosts is great. Nicely done, even if some of it was just the barbarians finally deciding to show up!

You're going to have four warriors and four slingers after these builds complete, two of each in each theatre, and CQUI already has you top on power without them? I think you're almost forced to go capture a city state, really - you certainly aren't going to need all that just to defend against barbarians.

[rho21]

Yeah, there's loads of land to the east. There's another freshwater lake in the fog NE of the marble over in the far east, so at least a bit more land that way. I am definitely aware of the possibility that there may be a connection to someone that way, I'd rate it at maybe 20% chance. If it's all backlines, I'm going to want a lot of settlers!

The big thing that isn't looking like lining up is the foreign trade boost. Some hope yet though. I could really use both a trader and a commercial hub soon.

I'd definitely rate Aztec as in the practical military lead still, as they have more unit damage than me right now.

Attacking a city state is certainly possible. Yerevan has always been in my plans, probably once I have a new city in the east. Must check up to see what they've built so far.
Valletta would be great strategically, but needs to be done soon. I think I'd need at least one more unit to cover everything, plus a couple of archer upgrades. That would delay the settling plans in the west by a few turns and eat into my budget.

[rho21]

Turn 37 finally, and no more turns expected until Saturday. Still, can't really complain at the average of about 1.5 turns a day so far.

Score tracking
Aztec grew a population and took another whack to military score. Definitely something going on there.
Egypt gained 2 empire score, which is probably two population. Could be a district and a settler though, will know next turn.
Kongo finished a third civic and also took a bit of damage to military score. They have gained a second envoy in Valletta.

Eastern Theatre
The barbarian scout continues to run away, chased by my promoted slinger. The warriors uncover loads more land, including what looks like coast in the east. Lots of ice up here, going to produce barbarians for a long time to come, I imagine. No sign of the camp yet.
Euclid has finished its slinger and starts on a builder. I'm expecting that to be done on turn 45.

Western Theatre
The Vallettan warrior escaped over the river and the barbarian chose to attack my warrior, doing 17 damage. I moved the warrior over the river to the west (to do a tiny bit of scouting before it is needed elsewhere), then killed the barbarian with the slinger. Hey, free XP.
Mentioning barbarians, the new camp sound on the last interturn was for a camp near the C6 site (marked on the screenshot). I'll get some troops down that way shortly and deal with it.

Housekeeping
Military Tradition and Bronze Working are complete. Do I have iron?

I most certainly do, that's a relief. There are 2 near Euclid and 2 near C3 (one in the first ring). There's also one down in the far SE, near the C9 spot.

Researching Archery and Foreign Trade; policies changed to Agoge, Ilkum and Strategos.
Hopefully Strategos will pay off compared to Urban Planning. I'm not fully convinced, but it's an interesting play.

[rho21]

So while we're waiting, I guess the big question right now is what to build next in Pythagoras.

Let's take a closer look at the western theatre.
There are five current objectives, in no particular order:

• Defend the campus
  
• Clear the new barbarian camp near C6
  
• Settle C5 / C6
  
• Explore to the west a bit
  
• Attack Valletta.
  

My plan is to send the existing warrior off to the west to explore a short distance. There's another barbarian camp to find somewhere over there, plus hopefully a new continent and another player. At the same time, I want to form a small strike force to kill the barbarian camp near C6, which can then swing west to attack Valletta, supported by the exploring warrior returning from the west.
If I can secure Valletta, C5 is pretty safe from poaching so C6 would become a great location to settle first to secure the river valley region. I would need a fair force to be able to defend at both these locations, though.

So, how much more military is required for these plans?
By next turn I will have two warriors and two slingers in the theatre. With those slingers converted to archers, that should be about the right force to attack Valletta. (If it puts up walls, the attack will have to be abandoned.) I need a melee unit to defend the campus as this is going on.
Afterwards, I will need an escort for the settler, and enough defence for both Valletta and C6. I think I'll end up needing about 6 units total in the theatre.

I don't really want to produce two more units from Pythagoras though, I want to get it working on a settler sooner rather than later. One option is to transfer the promoted slinger from the eastern theatre, as it happens to be very close to Pythagoras right now. This seems like a good plan; the East isn't scary right now (cue barbarian archers).

So next up from Pythagoras, either a warrior or a hoplite. The hoplite is 65 (compared to 40 ) and costs 1 per turn to maintain. On the plus side, it's got a base strength of 25 (which would boost all my cities by 5 strength) and its unique +10 strength boost (still need to check whether the bug remains on this).

I think it should be another warrior. The archer upgrades are going to eat seriously into my gold income, which is pretty concerning. Conscription isn't far away (State Workforce), but it's a diversion from the intended path right now and would mean dropping Agoge.

[Emperor K]

Thank you for reporting, It is cool watching this map unfold.

[rho21]

You're most welcome. I'm just glad I have an audience beyond my ded-lurker.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

I read every report! I just don't always have something to say. <_<

[rho21]

Turn 38

Score tracking
No GPP from Egypt, so I guess that was 2 population. Phew. Nothing to see in the tea leaves this turn.

Eastern Theatre
The biggest news this turn is that the land connects to the map edge in the north, for just one square. I suspect that's a map edit. Still no sign of the barb camp, but a land bridge up this way is looking less likely.

Western Theatre
I was greeted at the start of the turn by the boost for Mercenaries. Nothing like boosting a late medieval tech in the ancient age. Perhaps I do have too much military. Anyway, just one more warrior to build before I start the settler.
I upgraded a slinger to an archer to get the envoy in Valletta. Well worth the 1 /turn for the 2 extra in the capital. The final warrior is due in 2 turns; the settler should take about 8 turns after that.

Housekeeping
Archery done; Irrigation will be completed next turn.

[rho21]

Turn 39

Score tracking
Aztec finished a third civic and grew a population. They also lost 18 CQUI military strength, which suggests the city state offensive continues.
Egypt also finished a third civic.
Kongo upgraded a slinger to an archer.

Eastern Theatre
The barbarian scout that was up by Geneva has reappeared north of Euclid. I moved the slinger near there home, just in case it gets the chance to attack. One of the two exploring warriors is heading home now, the other has a few more turns to go. Still no barbarian camp up this way. Perhaps it's down near the city states.

Western Theatre
A new barbarian scout appeared near Pythagoras' campus; presumably it belongs to the new camp. I moved the nearby slinger to menace it and guard the campus. Other forces are moving into position to march to the south west.

Housekeeping
Foreign Trade is just shy of the halfway mark, so I switched to State Workforce (due in 10).
Irrigation is done, horseback riding is now underway (due in 5). Starting to run out of boosts; will need to see what the timing is on getting some more.

[Garath]

Wow, your science and culture nubers are really skewed. That's the ridiculously good campus location for you I guess! I don't think I've had 12 science this early in any of my own games - let's hope you can get some good value from it. It's definitely going to be part of the reason you're already running out of boosts, though. How does your tech rate compare to others, now your Campus is rolling? Do you think you have a jump on other people's district builds?

I think I like stealing the one slinger from the eastern theatre more than building even more in the west at this point as well - I too want to get the capital working on more cities. If you do that reasonably actively, that would mean aiming at an attack on Valletta around what, turn 50? That should probably be OK - I imagine the Aztecs won't *quite* have finished killing all the city states by then, right?!

You have an amazingly generous iron supply. It's just a shame they are on irrelevant tiles - though I guess you have enough science right now that losing that one doesn't hurt too much.