[SPOILERS] - GES & TT, Huayna Capac of the Zulu

[Twinkletoes89]

One question for you two: since I missed out on TGLH and probably won't build Colossus, how much should I worry about settling on the coast? If I don't, obviously I lose the opportunity to work some 2/0/3 tiles, but does that matter that much? I dont know the correct answer. But I am tempted to settle my 5th city on the stone tile hill, rather than on the coast. Thoughts?

My advice would be to simply settle your best sites, coastal or not. You don't need to focus on coastal ones for the use of wonders, so if there are better inland cities; settle them first!

While coastal tiles are nice, grassland cottages can be even better quite quickly!

[Gold Ergo Sum]

Two more turns played, but no time to post anything.

I will found another city next turn. I am building two workers. Trying to decide whether to chop into a forge or Settler at the capital. The forge will raise my happy cap up to 9 very soon.

More later.

[Gold Ergo Sum]

Founded the new city. It is in a site that will be great down the road, but needs a border pop badly, so I am going to chop out a library, since I think it is going to be a commerce city anyway. I founded where I did, which cost me having corn/gold immediately, because it brought in several extra flood plains and got rid of several junk desert tiles. Now I need to decide whether to farm the floodplains and cottage over them later, or just deal with it and cottage over them now.

I am building two more workers that are due next turn I believe, and then I will produce two settlers. The forge is due in the capital next turn just when it grows to size 6, and I should be able to 2 pop whip, instead of 3 pop whip a Settler, due to the forge, and use the extra happiness from the forge to grow up. I should be able to have a happy cap of 9 in the capital within 2-3 turns, and 11-12 in 10-15 turns.

I am currently researching Currency since I am going to be hooking up trade routes with Luddite, M7, and plako in the next 7-8 turns. The gold from missing on TGLH will help us get Currency several turns faster.

I also finished Animal Husbandry and we have horsies connected for chariots.

[Twinkletoes89]

any thoughts on getting everyone to close borders with Amelia to stop him getting benefit of TGLH?

[Gold Ergo Sum]

any thoughts on getting everyone to close borders with Amelia to stop him getting benefit of TGLH?

Does Luddite and plako asking me if I can get M7 to contribute troops to a four-way Amelia dogpile count?

Seems the goal is to speed up the turns and to make things less boring. All excellent reasons to go to war!

[Gold Ergo Sum]

Sorry for the lack of updates. I had villagers to fry.

I think I have gone four turns without any pics, which is a good thing because it would just show everyone how much my play includes.

It seems the coalition of the willing is falling apart because M7 says it wouldn't be fair to Amelia. As Clint Eastwood would say, "Deserves got nothing to do with it." Kind of sad I won't get to attack Amelia unprovoked two games in a row. Oh well. On that same front, there is some discussion about just ending the game because the pace of play is so slow.

I've had lots of chats here recently. Luddite and I get along quite well now. And I talked to Adlain extensively. Nice guy, but probably only slightly better than me, which is bad for him.

Adlain told me where the iron pops (on a plains hill at my new city) so I could rush IW if in danger and produce Impis at any time.

We have two new workers and a settler is in production. I will start on another settler and another worker next turn I think. I would like to hit 7 cities within 10 turns. I have finished two forges and the current happy cap in Bal'more is 9 I think. When gold gets hooked up at the new city, that will go up to 11.

Currency is due in very soon and I am building a road to connect to the rails right now. I am opening borders with Luddite, Adlain, plako, and M7.

Adlain is bringing me a Jewish missionary, which will help with happiness and border pops.



Demos:



Amelia still only has 3 cities and a crippled production base at the moment.

M7 I think is the monster GNP.

[Gold Ergo Sum]

Currency finishes EOT.

Forge done at The Towers along with a plains hill mine for a 0/4/1 tile. It now will make at 4-turn settler, so I will probably use it to pump settlers at size 5 for a while.

I have two more settlers due in the next 3 turns. I have to decide where I want to go next. Options include the pig/stone site, the sheep site that will share corn with the FP/gold city, or on the coast for a clams/FP GP farm that will eventually be my Globe city I think. When they finish, I will have six cities and six workers, and will start on 2-3 more workers, and then 2-3 more settlers I think. At that point, I will probably consolidate and build more granaries/forges/libraries.

Chariot finishes at Bal'more EOT and it grows to size 7. It will grow to size 8 in two turns, so I will put some hammers into an Ikhanda I think while growing and I am going to finish another river cottage there.

I am chopping two forests at Hamsterdam to get a library up for a border pop for corn and gold in my future cottage spam city. By my count, it should have corn, gold, 5 FP cottages, 7 river grass cottages, a PH-river iron mine, 3 river grass hills (financial windmills?), and 1 river plains hill.



Demos:



Not terrible. I am above average in GNP despite not researching ATM, above average in production now, decent in soldiers, decent in population, and only marginally below average in food.

[Gold Ergo Sum]

I had this exchange with Tatan:

Hey,

Regarding PBEM11: honestly, not much is happening for me. I've been trying to keep up with Luddite in expansion, but all that did was get me last place in GNP while he continues to soar ahead. :\

Following your directions from aaages ago, I finally found Amelia, who immediately proposed open borders. I accepted before I saw that she had built the Great Lighthouse, so now I feel like an idiot; at least we're not connected yet.

Speaking of which, I'm kinda surprised you haven't built a wonder yet, although presumably you'll land the HG if you're still going with that plan.

Uh anyway I don't really know what else to talk about; despite the early contact this map seems to leave everyone isolated. One last thing: not to push you to give away too much or anything, but are you going for Confucianism?

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Sorry if I'm not being very eloquent right now.

-Tatan

I am not going for Confucianism.

I also gave up on the HG plan because I just couldn't get enough cities down fast enough to make it worth my while. I expect M7 to pop it any time now.

I tried to get TGLH but Amelia really went all out for it. It seems she destroyed her demographics doing it. I tried to avoid the same fate and she beat me there.

I could probably have grabbed Colossus, but I know plako was planning on building it and I would prefer to stay on his good side.

I mainly got Industrious for the half-priced forges, and I already have two of those up, which on this map is good for 3 extra happy.

GES

[Gold Ergo Sum]

I teched Mysticism so I could get some border pops. And because I could set science at 0% and still get the tech in one turn due to overflow and bonuses. That leaves me with 113 gold.

I will build 3 more workers as soon as the two settlers finish and Bal'more grows to size 8 to work corn, grass mine, gems mine, and five cottages.

I need to decide on a tech path. I can do Code of Laws in three turns and Civil Service in 9-10 turns. Or I can do Aesthetics, Polytheism, and Literature in 7 turns combined, have marble hooked up right around that time, and chop TGL in the capital. With marble and Industrious, it would only cost about 78 total hammers. With a forge and Math, that could get done by chopping the last 3 forests at Bal'more. Tempting. I'd need to run numbers to see how quickly I could get everything done and how many worker turns I would be willing to divert. The only real problem is the marble city is pretty crappy until I get IW and Calendar. Although I could get Calendar for a Mausoleum run once I have marble. Any opinion lurkers?



Finally got around to doing a dotmap since WW3 ended. I know, what a joke. It only took me like five months

My tightly packed dot map that tries to take advantage of the maximum tiles and waste as little financial coast as possible. But the map is toroidal, so the maintenance could be rough.



This is a cleaner NE dotmap, but wastes several more tiles, especially some financial coast. I could adjust the SW similarly.



I have two settlers due soon. I have to decide which direction to go. The only city that I am definitely set on is the crab/FP city that I will use for a GP farm or perhaps a Globe City. It will have +18 food I think at size 7 if I farmed every available FP.

[Gold Ergo Sum]

Right now Luddite, M7, and Tatan have 7 cities.

Plako has six. Amelia five. Adlain three.

I finished a settler this turn moving to secure marble, and another will move up to the crabs/FP site I think.

I started on producing two more workers, with another one that should be due in 3 turns at The Towers.

Finished a chop into a library at Hamsterdam. I will whip it in 2 turns. I will cottage the flood plains, then be ready to farm the corn when the borders pop, and then I will mine the gold, and then grow onto cottages.

Aesthetics due in 2 turns, and then Literature in 2 turns. I decided to make a run at TGL. I haven't done a micro plan because I am lazy, but I think I can get marble in 5-6 turns, and maybe have it chopped 1-2 turns later. If I don't get it, I will get a stupid amount of wonderfail gold. If I do get it in the capital, I will probably run two scientists in the library and that should get me a Great Scientist in six turns from the completion of TGL.



My food has stagnated because I am building workers and settlers.



EDIT: I think I will use the second dotmap above. It is much cleaner and likely more effective. On that notion, I am going to pass on the crab site for now. It is just so far away from the capital. I am going to settle the pigs/stone/copper site next, with the marble city coming up around the same time. This means I wasted one turn with the settler. Such is life.