T62 - On The Plan, Or Formulating It
The game is at a point where the mid-game is nigh if it isn't already ringing the doorbell. Time to get a plan.
Currently, we are on six cities with two more decent near-term expansion sites: The Sheep/Clam site to the west near HAK and the AGRI-buffed dry rice island to the South. Despite being Demos-9th in population, we are #1 in CY and competitive in MFG. GNP is heavily diluted from culture (16 = palace 8, holy city 5, two spreads 2, monument 1). With six cities, maintenance is not insignificant.
Time to leverage the CY advantage into even more cities and infrastructure. Temples, libraries, and lighthouses will be part of aggressive whipping for more economic growth. I am considering an early monarchy to take advantage of the food surplus to grow taller earlier.
Capital, the current production powerhouse. 2-pop whipped this turn with a chop next turn to finish its granary. I am only loathe to whip this city because it has good tiles to work. This city is a candidate for the next settler build, but I'd like to get a galley here to go to the rice island.
The Hindu Holy City. It's 21 food accounts for 30% of my 69 CY. It will grow from 3 to 4 to 5 in two turns and to 6 after next turn if I've calculated right. This city will be whipped repeatedly. I had mentioned wanting to have a temple here, but this is probably the best place to generate another settler. With maintenance issues already, further expansion may just leave me in a hole.
DBM is a hybrid city which will grow onto its FP cottage. The granary will also have a chop into it next turn and will finish in a few turns. This city can also be a settler pump or specialist farm. A lighthouse and then a library for here.
Horse city. The hammer city for the time being in the west; 11 base hammers with the PH and the horse. Plenty of forests to chop. Axes/warriors with FWs intertwined. Could also be the home of the future settler for the Sheep/Clam spot or a galley. Once the borders expand, it will have some riverside tiles that will need to be chopped and cottaged.
Gold City. Working the gold is superior to growing on the FP. This city will take another 10 turns to get really up to speed working clam, farmed-FP, and the gold.
Newest city. A springboard to the north, lighthouse will be key to get some positive food and commerce tiles worked.
Oracle has yet to fall, probably a consequence of the increased early mysticism tech costs. I am not too interested in oracle as I don't have anything that would be so great to pursue, perhaps monarchy, but that seems like an awful lot of trouble just for that. HAK has stonehenge, which I didn't see last night.
There are also some huge cities here whose numbers are driving the high demo pop count. I have a total of 16 pop (4+4+2+2+1+1) with rapid growth in a few food heavy cities, and soon-to-be 3 granaries in my biggest cities.
Writing is the next tech to enable some library whips. I will save gold until I get some libraries down.
Short-term goal in the next 10 turns is to get a settler on that rice island. The city won't be great, but will be worth +8 (or +9 if the sheep/clam is also settled) in trade routes alone. The dry rice is 5 food, which is palatable compared to the non-AGRI version.
Longer term, I'd like to try and grab this marble spot to open up a shot at MoM.
There is also this ivory spot here (partially obscured by top overlay), but needs more explorin' for a proper evaluation. Barb also incoming. This little isthmus is frustrating. This is not the sheep/clams site I had mentioned before, but is a tertiary option. I already have a far flung spot in the gold to the east and an outcropping into the unknown in the newest fish city just north of the capital; I don't think settling a relatively distant city to the southeast would be prudent with the skeleton-crewed armed forces. The fish city would be on the PH.
This ignores the potential Moai site on the southern tip below the horse city. It needs culture to work either seafood resource.
In any case, short-term goal is to get a temple/library in HinduHolyLand, a settler for the western clams/sheep, and a galley + settler to the rice island. This should be able to be done within the next 10-15 turns.
Have only managed the two free spreads so far.
).
