To celebrate the monumental achievement of researching two techs in 3 turns, demonstrating our tech rate is merely poor instead of abject failure, we found a new city:
Not the greatest food, but it does have two of them, some juicy river grasslands to cottage, and long term we'll enjoy the silk. No particular reason this city was named Charity except it's the only of the three Theological Virtues I hadn't used yet, so it was inevitable at some point. Contra St. Paul, I don't think the greatest of the three cities will be Charity - it probably can't beat Hope, but it's a pretty solid if not amazing commerce city.
Charity is another virtue whose meaning the modern world has altered. It is now virtually synonymous with giving of money or goods to those in need, but its original meaning was far broader. Greek as the "home language" of philosophers had four different types of love, and charity is the English version of one of them. Charity is selfless love, given not out of need, as a child loves its parent, nor out of familiarity, as we love our friends, nor even out of the desire for partnership and completion as married/romantic love does. Charity is pure gift. Of course, the modern world misunderstands love too, usually defining it as something you feel, rather than something you do. This is particularly true with Charity, which is rarely felt - if we got a feeling out of giving charitable love, it wouldn't really be pure gift would it? Charity is possibly the hardest of the virtues to practice. It's easy to wish and work for the good of our friends, our family, the people that think the same way we do, the "good" people. It's a lot harder to wish and work for the good of those who hate us, who criticize us, who are on the other side of the political divide (in the USA at least, but I suspect this holds for most countries with polarized politics), who have the wrong opinions, and so on.
From a game state perspective, I'm a lot happier with the game now that we've had some turns of peace. I think it has worked out well, allowing me to get the economy fixed instead of whipping cities for more troops. I'm under no illusion that I won't be attacked by Xist in the future. But he is next to Bing now, and has fallen to third in military. He does have a nice gold city that is just getting off the ground, that will let him get back into it if left alone to develop:
But this is right on the eastern border with Bing, and might not be left alone. The city he founded west of Prudence is a problem from a strategic perspective if we ever do go to war, but from a "land grab" perspective, I still have plenty of places to settle, so while I hate to lose a 2-food site, I think it was an okay trade for now. We'll revisit this question if/when I found a city at the mouth of the wine valley, which might provoke him again (he's at least keeping an eye on that site with a scout, suggesting some interest). Frankly I don't know why he'd be that interested in this location when his maintenance is already causing him issues (join the club, right?). Hopefully we can continue to have a guarded but working relationship going forward, as inconclusive war just hurts both of us. Meanwhile Bing is just crushing in all demos, already has Currency and 40% more cities than the next most, and routinely tops the GNP board. At this point it's his game to lose outside a dogpile. Meanwhile Greenline was strong early but seems to have faded a bit and has the worst military. But he does have the looming threat of Cataphracts in the future, so there is that. Probably Bing goes into Greenline at some point to cut off the Cataphract threat, and then probably snowballs to kill the rest of us. But we'll see!
City roundup:
Humility diverts one turn to finish a lighthouse that will give us extra commerce now, then probably 2 pop-whips a library, or maybe just slow-builds it, it depends on when I decide to turn tech on again. New population probably goes on a coastal tile, adding 4.4 gold. Long term I'll hopefully turn these forests into something interesting post-Math, and then cottage the last two river tiles. Humility is slowly turning into the commerce producer I envision when I got the starting screenshot.
Patience will "slow"-build the Mint (taking less time than some cities will to be whipped!), and probably not bother with a library for a long time, as this is a military production city, and (as we'll see later) I've kind of stripped several Skirmishers from the northern part of the core and assigned them to settler escort. So we'll need a few more of those, if only to keep Xist from feeling like an attack would be a good idea.
Diligence isn't exciting, since it's a commerce city lacking a river or any other commerce features, but it does have good food and controls a key pass through the eastern mountains. That eastern cottage is like 3-4 turns from finally growing to the point where the Financial bonus kicks in, and as more of the cottages mature, it will eventually be pretty okay. Because it has tons of food and its cottages aren't as developed, and also because of its position near the frontier, it's been used as a whipping target for emergency units a lot, and probably will be again, so I don't ever expect this city to be the star of the empire, but it should contribute pretty well given time. And I guess providing emergency troops from whipping is ALSO a form of contribution! Diligence will regrow from the Mint whip and then inevitably whip a Library at some point or other.
Prudence isn't as well developed as I'd like, particularly because I had to whip it a lot early. It was very slow to get its granary up, and still doesn't have great population (and hasn't yet been whipped for its Mint). The food situation is only good rather than amazing as the last few cities were, so I'm unsure exactly how to go forward with this city, as it clearly wants Mint/Library immediately for the commerce, but its cottages, especially south of the city, are extremely vulnerable and I can't really count on them to stay upright. My intention is to chop a few of those border forests with Rome and then maybe do a double whip for the Mint, and probably a similar tactic for the Library, but I haven't worked out the details yet (other than that it's past time to get those Roman border forests chopped down). I've almost certainly mismanaged the worker labor near here - apologies to my dedlurker who will probably go apoplectic at the random pre-chopped forests and roads I've build here.
Faith, the site of the future Colossus if all goes well. I'm already working 9 water tiles and expect I will pick up more long term as the happy cap expands and these coastal cities can work 2/4 coast tiles. I've prechopped a lot of the forests but kind of messed up the worker micro ending up the forest I want to leave for last, so it's a bit awkward. But as of T97 nobody else had Metal Casting, and nobody has 4-pop whipped Forges, so I'm pretty sure a "decently efficient" wonder plan will land it. Estimated completion on Turn 105, blowing up 5 forests. The 6th will probably get chopped to make a library and then we'll work the amazing lake tiles, some cottages, and some coast as happiness permits.
Hope has decent, but not exactly amazing hammer production, and it produces so much commerce I want the Mint and Library sooner than slow-building will allow. So I'll put 6 turns in, limiting the population cost to 2, then work more lakes to regrow (which should be boosted by Colossus by then!), and do something similar with the Library. Longer term we just keep adding lake tiles to the configuration as happiness grows, and possibly a Scientist or two eventually. This city is doing exactly what it was designed to do, propping up my economy and letting the rest of the empire mature.
Fortitude is a weird city. It has some river cottages and decent food (at least while it's poaching a wheat from the capital), but also has a lot of hills and the copper for production advantage. I haven't decided whether to mine or cottage the grassland hills yet, though I'm leaning mine since few of my other cities have much potential for production at all. Mint is already whipped and the library will speed up when we pick up the copper tile again when it regrows. The library probably gets mostly slow-built with maybe a whip if I need to turn commerce on before it would finish naturally.
Justice is still in its early stages. I forgot what MJMD had told me and 2-pop whipped its Granary into lighthouse overflow (instead of saving the whip for lighthouse->Mint). I need to see what it looks like in 2 turns when it grows, but will probably slow-build the Lighthouse to near completion and them max whip overflow it into the Mint. Long-term this is mostly a fishing village that works a single river cottage, but hey, that works for Financial with Colossus.
Demos aren't too bad. I'm down to third in a few categories, but that's partly because I'm still recovering from mass whipping on T99. Before that I was more consistently in second place. I think that's fairly accurate with a very narrow gap between me and Greenline.
GNP shows just how far Bing is ahead, and he just keeps churning out cities somehow without crashing his economy. I'm... not entirely sure how he's doing this. It's not working lots of luxury tiles, as he had only one gem hooked last time I looked. He does have Currency but only Open Borders with Xist, so he's not getting that much out of the second trade route. His only economic trait is Aggressive, but had been running skeleton military for a long time (though he's building up some now). I'd say I'd love to check out his thread after the game to see how he's done this, but unfortunately I expect very little detail so I don't know whether I'll learn anything out of this. Regardless, if he wins this off his start, well done.
If anything, Crop Yield is even more dismal. I've gotten close to challenging some of Bing's GNP peaks in my last few turns. He's solidly like 60 food ahead though (and has 5 more cities!) and I don't see how we possibly catch him at this point, as food is the growth predictor. Greenline and I continue to trade second place back and forth, though he's ahead on city count so I'm really surprised he's not clearly ahead of me. Nothing much to say here except I am very sad about Bing having this much more food and cities than Imperialistic at this point in the game.
Here's the strength of Greenline - he's got a ton of production. What he's using that production for, I couldn't tell you - it's not units. Maybe he's building a lot of missionaries to prop up his economy via Shrine? (he is in Organized Religion, and just built his Shrine, maybe even THIS turn). Bing is also unexpectedly weak here - possibly just the choice of tiles he's working, but it could be a long-term liability if he ever wanted to switch out of Slavery. This is also the category Xist is most competitive in, though I think he's still clearly in fourth.
Hey, something I lead in! Roman power has largely been flat since we decided to be peaceful, so I don't think an invasion is imminent. Most of my power increase in that time has been incidental Barracks I built just to avoid building more units when my economy couldn't support it (and having no other building to work on) plus a few Skirmishers, so it's not like I've been gearing up for war, but apparently that's still enough for top power. I really have too many units for my economy, but I dare not de-militarize with a very tenuous southern border. Meanwhile, Bing has slowly passed Xist in power while Greenline looks dangerously underdefended.
That was all a very long-winded way to say Bing is leading by a mile, Greenline and I are competitive for second, and Xist is struggling.
World roundup:
The Roman border:
It's clear why MJMD advised me to take out Mediolanum, as it projects vision and offers 2 flanks, one over the mountains to Prudence, the other a direct attack on Patience. Fortunately my best military production city is right here, so it's easy to get reinforcements to these areas. I'm also wholly blocked from points further west. Probably we end up fighting at some point and I have to deal with this, but I'd like to put that off for a while (and Xist really needs to get his empire competitive or he'll just get eaten by Bing).
The Roman core:
I think Xist probably got the most constrained start. I'm assuming by the extremely late date of settling the gold city that he probably had to cross a sea to get to that site, otherwise it makes no sense to settle this so late. It would also make sense of his early aggression - the Valley of Prudence isn't necessarily better than the valley west of his capital, but a lot of his other land is very hilly. Note that he borders Bing on both sides and both cities are pretty weak and isolated. I HOPE this means he plays defensively with me, since it would be really easy for Bing to pluck these frontier cities if he's committed against me in the center.
Bingland, mostly unknown:
This is about all I know of Bingland, though he's probably settled beyond this frontier since I scouted him. Basically assume he owns the entire south that isn't Xist. I'd love to scout this land eventually to understand how his start has been so explosive.
Readerium, even more unknown:
I can tell where he must be (here, and further NW and NE), but I've hit so many barriers trying to get to him and now my scouts are out of position for the only place we can possibly connect (far east of Hope and Faith). We may well have no possible border at all. While this map script is very interesting and this has been a very unusual game as far as the map goes, I don't think a script that can put SO many barriers between neighbors and practically force two other neighbors into immediate conflict is probably a good one for most games.
The Eastern Wastes:
Some of this is probably already owned by Bing. Notice the cute 3x1 lake blocking the space between mountain ranges, making this a big ol' dead end for my scout. Not a lot of food in most of this area, which makes it less valuable. I'm going to stake a claim to the rice/spices spot in about 2 turns, and maybe build some fillers northeast later to connect up to the tenuous land bridge near Hope. I need to get a scout up there to check out the northeast pretty soon.
The Western Valley:
So far, seems to be entirely enclosed by mountains except near the wines on the border of Rome, so again, no way to get west to Greenline. Of course, I've already settled some of it by sea, and would like to put two more cities in this area. The one south of Charity is very slow, and really needs Charity to be able to donate its sheep for a while until it pops borders, so I'm going to skip over that one for now and try settling next to the pigs. This is an area Xist is clearly interested in, hence the fortified scout, so I'm going to settle it from the north where he won't see it until it's ready to be settled. It's also going to have at least 2 and possibly 3 Skirmishers for an escort, and a road needs to be built down here from the north. You can see the settler and one of the skirmishers landed next to Justice this turn, and another Skirmisher awaiting its ferry trip. I probably go in with 2 Skirmishers and trickle the third one in after, as the third skirmisher is about 2-3 turns behind. That will probably have to be good enough. Assuming, you know, Xist doesn't take it first. Or march in with a stack of Praetorians and take it over. Exact timing remains to be worked out.
I do find the random roads and random prechops disturbing.....
Diligence should work 1 of those hill cottages for 4h to get forge boost. Needs more cottages in general.
Patience needs another mine. Could also do plains farm 2N
Hope won't work scientists or other specialists until T175 (when he has run out of tiles to work). Tile yields are too good to waste on that.
We are going to run into the awkward problem of water tiles really good and cottages slow of financial here soon at Faith and Humility specifically. Getting to currency I like full steam, but after will have to determine. Just in case I forget later growing random plains cottages is good during a GA as the extra hammer helps offset that other tiles get more commerce (and usually I LOVE being in org religion for GA, but will see if you get to at beg or end of yours).
I don't think Bing is THAT far ahead in GNP. He is ahead in cities and he is creative so have to subtract some for that. Also, he has currency so a lot of that differential will go away as your cities grow / Colossus comes online, let alone when you get currency.
I am VERY disappointed in crop yield.
I did want to mention imperialistic as it may look like a wasted trait, but I want to stress to some and maybe even Aetryn himself. HOWEVER, the fast start it provided helped us not only hold off a agg push but also raze a xist city with relative ease / little pain. People don't fully understand that imp is an early game war trait as your cities can do more sooner and you save tons of worker turns to use toward development. Imp will continue saving pop and hammers as game goes on, so still like it.
I like staying at number 1 power. Its expensive, but its best not to appear weak next to agg Rome. Ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure.
South of Prudence, is that two workers on the border exposed to a chariot from the fog without having a unit for vision over there? I'm not saying he will, but its a good habit to keep vision on border if you have open borders. Especially if you are doing things on said border. I see your chariot going in now, but just note for future / others. Also, why are there two workers there?
And ya I still hate Mediolanum. Hate how it was settled turn after peace treaty, hate its location, hate its vision, and hate how juicy it is.
Hate that Xist got triple gold.
Aetryn and I have wondered A LOT about Xist's western city and that was BEFORE we saw he had unsettled gold. It doesn't really block settling land and while its connected via river I doubt Xist has a worker over there actually improving it. In general even if I was agg Rome I do question settling cities against your neighbors borders / far flung blocking cities toward them. I would have been REALLY tempted to just go settle triple gold vs anything else. Aetryn essentially did this decision. Its not like he couldn't have beaten Xist to Mediolanum, but it would have meant delaying Hope and maybe Faith which are two of the more key cities in the empire. Edit: and certainly would have meant delaying tech both due to distance and also delaying said better commerce cities.
Quote:While this map script is very interesting and this has been a very unusual game as far as the map goes, I don't think a script that can put SO many barriers between neighbors and practically force two other neighbors into immediate conflict is probably a good one for most games.
It looks like dense peaks was used, which was a mistake. Not only added to barriers but also as previously mentioned is making settling patterns and areas available to settle, which again as mentioned increases distance maintenance. I suspect it was used as map was already much bigger than requested so wanted to reduce effective area. Probably also should have moved capitals so was like PB65 diagonal neighbor pattern, which would also have balanced out things like distance maintenance and reduced the two 'dual' player situation, but we know moving capitals wasn't in the cards.
Overall I think Aetryn is in a better position than my seem indicated. Have a lot of land left to settle even if its non river low food. But those cities will be good with monk wonders. While fin recently ticked over being better than protective it hasn't really gotten its chance to truly shine yet. IE don't have a lot of modifier buildings up yet.
In my wave of post-economy-fixing settlers, another city is ready to found turn 102:
Generosity is the virtue that is opposed to Greed. It is the habit of being detached from possessions and material things that you are willing to give of them, and of your time also, when it would be right to do so. I have recently tried to be more generous with my time when talking with my mother. She has a habit of going off onto stores that are not really all that interesting to me, and in the past I would get impatient and irritated and often end up hurting her feelings. But really, a few minutes of my time are worth less than the relationship, so it's more generous to patiently listen and respond, rather than being so attached to my time that I'm not willing to part with it.
This city has a generous amount of spices, which are kind of disappointingly weak in Civ 4, compared to how important they were in history. So we may not even end up building plantations on all these resources anyway. This city is a little isolated, and while I will put a decent garrison here, I don't want to get too attached to this city as it'd likely be on the front lines of a Bing invasion, and it's still on the frontier with Xist as well. So probably no wonder investments unless the geopolitical situation changes or I settle more buffer around this city, which isn't going to happen immediately. The goal was just to stake a claim out east and make sure I get some of this luxury for later.
Here's the plan in the west:
It's clear that Xist is interested in this area, as he has had that scout fortified in position for about 10 turns. However, I'm watching his nearest cities with a chariot-scout, and he hasn't built a settler nor seems immediately about to move on it. But given his reaction to my previous settles, I want to be sure I can hold this spot and he won't decide to try to snipe it. This calls for two things:
1) Garrison ready at founding or as soon after as possible.
2) Settling from the north to shorten his possible response time.
So I'm going to take 4 workers and get this road built in time for a settlement on Turn 108. Note the sign is actually wrong, and I can have two Skirmishers in the city on that turn. The third does come in on Turn 110. But hopefully two is enough to make him think twice about attacking a city on a hill when I've got a significantly bigger military overall. Unfortunately this delays some of the needed improvements around Charity (and a cottage for Justice), but it's more important to avert a strike on the Western Valley and cement control of it by blocking off the head and doing it in a way that shows it's not a target of opportunity. Scouting shows he has a couple city sites left but may be feeling cramped for land, and he's shown an appetite for aggression in the past when I've claimed land that he was interested in. Hopefully he'll just be faced with a city popping up entirely out of vision on T108 and just concede that he's lost this spot...
Sigh. After leaving that scout in one place for that long, he decides to move it so he can see the incoming settler and road builders just at exactly the time he gets the maximum number of turns to react. He also technically has enough time to whip a settler in his closest city and get it here first if he happens to have it ready to go and wants to contest. I can technically settle the city on T107 and get one skirmisher in, since the workers will finish the road and the city square itself will get a road for free when I found the city, as long as I do everything in the correct order.
Meanwhile, general economic improvement continues as I build more cottages and they mature and I regrow from the massive amount of whipping I did for mints (and whip a couple more Mints). Libraries are about 5 more turns out in most places though.
---
In the 101th cycle in the Malian Reckoning, the metalsmiths of Faith worried about their status. "Why do the people prefer the works of the Humble Smithery, or the Jewelsmiths of Fortitude? Are we not closer to the silver lodes in the north and get the choicest and purest metal to do our work? Are we not as skilled at our craft as they are? We must take action so that everyone knows we are the greatest smiths of the empire!". So they conceived a massive project - a giant metal statue astride a bend in the bay near the shores of Faith, just behind the lighthouse - to show their skill and gain glory for their guild. The first problem they ran into was that it would be far too expensive to make such a statue out of silver, which was in high demand. "Never mind silver", said Ouate Aya, the head of the Giuld of Smiths in Faith, "ever since the Roman Wars ended in the south, copper has been cheap and widely available. We shall make the statue from bronze!" The second problem was finding enough fuel for the forges for such an enormous project. The idle citizens of Faith, always desperate for work to survive another day in the underclasses of the large Malian cities, were sent out to retrieve lumber from the nearby woods. The work took four entire cycles, and the result was the complete destruction of all the beautiful pine forests that cloaked the cold prairie between Humility Bay and Coldwater Lake. But the other result was a glorious statue that inspired the sea and lake fishermen of Mali for generations to come:
All the lakes of the north: Cross Lake and Coldwater Lake and Spirit Lake were especially productive, but Round Lake was just too far out to see any difference:
I actually think Spices are a pretty valuable resource...I know the +commerce isn't all that impressive, but anything that gives +food is worthwhile in my book.
If only you and me and dead people know hex, then only deaf people know hex.
I was talking to Aetryn about maybe cottaging 2 of them although I guess I can see only cottaging 1 at least until its full grown.
I missed in the discord that you settled before worker was there though
I do think can probably get another city east of that as a collapse zone sometime post currency (like 4 cities from now). Can't see EXACTLY where Greenline is over there but it looks like there is some very mediocre room? Will make it a bit safer to grow fat and wealthy.
(August 1st, 2023, 15:02)Commodore Wrote: Good update.
I actually think Spices are a pretty valuable resource...I know the +commerce isn't all that impressive, but anything that gives +food is worthwhile in my book.
1f =2h = 2.5c, IIRC?
Although Aetryn is not wrong about the insane amount of money involved in spices during the early modern period, I believe.
It may have looked easy, but that is because it was done correctly - Brian Moore
Conversation overheard near the docks of Justice between two fishermen:
"Have you heard the news from the south, friend?"
"I've seen the engineers pass through building roads through the Western Valley"
"No, this is much worse. I've heard that the Malian Despot is planning to build a new city at the end of the valley, near the Vinum Pass."
"What's wrong with that?"
"Don't you know your history!? Haven't you heard of the founding of Prudence and what followed from that?"
"I haven't seen any books about it."
"No, this was before we wrote things down in books. It was all carried in the mind of the lorekeeper. But the story is part of the history of this city!"
"Wasn't that something to do with the Roman War?"
"What do you think the Roman War was about? Hundreds of years of threats from Roman forces, never quite materializing into war, parried only by forced conscription from the cities of the south. Then when we finally got tired of Roman impudence and struck at one of their border posts, a mass invasion! All of it caused by the settling of Prudence in disputed territory."
"Do you think it could happen again?"
"I don't see why it wouldn't. We've always squabbled with the Romans over that land. Why wouldn't they react the same way? When my grandparents settled here they were promised a life free of war, and now it might engulf us again!"
"Well, we're pretty far from the front here. Seems like it ought to be pretty safe."
"You think your son is safe from being conscripted and sent off to die? I bet that's why that new battalion of skirmishers arrived in town just the other day, to begin conscription! We've always been free of any military presence in Justice, why should they show up now?"
"Naw, they're just here to keep the peace. I'm glad they're here. We need a bit of order in this city - those darn hooligans keep burning my fishing nets. I think you're overreacting. Why would the Romans attack us now? We have a strong military, and their empire is weaker than it was. Surely they should be focused on keeping their army home to protect against the Bingtecs and Green Readers."
"Just you wait, you'll see that I'm right when all our children are taken!"
---
Following the plan, we settle the new city in the west at the mouth of the valley:
The city is named Temperance, because it has pigs and wine and what else was I going to name that? This isn't the preferred spot for this city (I'd rather have it one south), but it's more defensible here and can work the marble on the other side of the mountains, which is a plus I guess. The plan here is to work pigs, wine, marble, and a few grasslands for cottages. This is mostly a strategic city, aimed at defending access to the Western Valley, finalizing this border, and claiming wine, but we'll get some okay yields here.
Temperance is yet another virtue whose meaning has changed in the modern world - I wonder if there's a reason why their meaning has been narrowed, sometimes in ridiculous ways, so much by moderns. Temperance now practically means abstinence from alcohol, but the original meaning was the moral virtue that moderates the attraction of pleasures and provides balance in the use of any created goods. That means it applies to more than just alcohol. At times I have struggled with temperance in my playing of computer games. It also means that it's not abstinence that is aimed for, but moderate and proper use. Playing video games when I have a free moment to relax in the evening? Totally fine, especially if I am too tired or otherwise unable to do something more productive. Staying up too late playing and impacting my work performance the next day? Not okay, and temperance is the ability to self-monitor that and stop when I should stop. Just like generosity, this usually means detachment and holding pleasures lightly. The tighter we cling to something, be it money or pleasure, the more we show ourselves to be its servant, not its master.
Oh, and the city was actually founded on Turn 107, but I forgot to take a picture because I was distracted by this:
Xist, are you from Missouri? Because you sure seem to want me to show you I can defend my frontier cities. (For those not from the USA, Missouri is nicknamed the "Show Me State"). It's just possible these Praetorians are going to defend his isolated western city in case Bing or Greenline gets any ideas. He's seen at least two of the Skirmishers I have on the way to the city and really ought to have seen all 3. Surely he doesn't think he can take a city on a hill defended by 3 skirmishers with 2 Praetorians? I suppose he could take a few axes from Mediolanum to make the odds a little less dreadful, but it's still a pretty tall ask. I'm probably just being paranoid, but I turn on research to get Masonry so I can get some Walls started next turn. But I imagine those will just move off to the west...
No, they're heading north. (they're under the chariot, in case that isn't clear). And he didn't bring any axes. I... really don't understand this move. There's virtually no chance he can take out 3 skirmishers, and he's definitely seen all 3 now. The pressure game made some sense early when I hadn't shown I could defend my frontier cities and had a smaller military than he did. But here he's not even really causing me to do anything I didn't want to do anyway - I have max Known Tech Bonus on Math anyway, so "forcing" me to research Masonry and Math now to set up a possible Walls chop for extra-extra-sure-defense isn't a problem at all. I already had 3 Skirmishers heading here. Why send 2 Praetorians and nothing else? If taking that spot means all out war because that spot was "his" and how dare I take it... maybe take more troops than that!? His empire is last in pretty much all metrics (he's only got the third smallest army), so you'd think he'd want to be doing things as efficiently as possible to try to get back into the game - either going big on military if that's his play, or going "acceptable defense" level of military and not trying to make waves with a neighbor with a bigger army.
I also sent him a gold for silver trade, which he turned down (granted it helps me quite a bit and him not at all right this moment, but it does help him long term and you'd think he want to lock up that silver in case I decided to trade it to Bing instead).
Well, I suppose we shall see, though at the moment I feel okay about how this is going. Famous last words, I suppose.
When we last left off, a couple of rogue Praetorians had left Xist's main stack and headed north toward my newly founded city of Temperance. I opened the save on Turn 109 with some trepidation and found:
Something's odd here. If he moved these two units north as worker guards, why move them to the wine tile first and then east to cover the worker? Why even 2, surely one would have been enough to prevent me from sniping it? Is this an attempt to play off the move north as just a "Aw shucks, these were just worker guards I misclicked" after he noticed that I did in fact have sufficient guards and decided to turn around? I imagine I will never find out why these moved how they did, but at least yet another possible invasion has been defused. It turns out he left those units on that square for a couple turns, then moved them south and fortified them on the pig farm before the worker was even done chopping the forest, so I'm completely perplexed as to what this whole dance was about. Maybe it's a positional threat in case I decide to road from Patience to Temperance (I probably want to do this at some point)? Or a potential defense if I bring an army down from Temperance?
Beyond that, these turns were all about gathering gold in preparation for getting Currency, which should unlock enough extra economy to allow me to settle at least a couple more cities. Here's a shot of Justice before I Mint-whipped it, as my third best commerce city:
Financial-Colossus-coast tiles, eh? Whip anger from the earlier Mint and Library whips is slowly wearing off with some tiles coming back into production (alas, they are soon to be whipped again for Markets!). Hope is slow-building a library since its so important to keep most of these tiles working:
I've produced a Settler in Humility (sent by ferry to the west to found a city there) and Fortitude (sent to the northern coast for a fishing village), and those settlers will be in position right after Currency finishes. On turn 114 I turned research on full blast and:
Not too bad. Xist is definitely teching, but I think Greenline and Bing might be on break-even research as they have no gold saved and are also producing no/very little gpt. If I'm misreading this, someone please let me know otherwise what 0 gold in the bank + near 0 gpt means. I expect I am still in that 2nd place fight with Greenline, with probably Greenline having the advantage currently due to already having Currency and Monarchy and a well-spread religion w/Shrine. I'm hoping that my Financial + Colossus advantage will let me stay close while I catch up on some of those things. Currency will be soon. After that, there are two paths I see.
1) Proceed directly to Construction. I don't actually WANT to do this. The only reason to do this is to match Xist if Xist researches Construction. Based on his past behavior, I think it's a good idea to not given any obvious openings, so if he goes to Construction and begins to build catapults, I want to follow. Xist is probably on something post-Math, as he finished Math about 2 turns before me. He COULD be on Construction right now. I'm not going to divert from Currency because I think I have enough advantage from more cities and overall higher food/production numbers to catch up even if it's 5-6 turns. NOT researching Currency is a terrible idea here, since Greenline and Bing both already have it and are continuing to pull ahead economically. So even if Xist chooses to, since I think I can survive getting Currency and then Construction I am not going to torpedo my position by avoiding Currency. But I may need to immediately follow up with Construction if Xist goes there.
2) Cash in my Prophet by researching Polytheism->Monotheism (and then probably follow up with Monarchy). This also preps my civics for Golden Age swap in 17 turns when Faith produces a Great Person. This is the path I want to follow to start closing the gap with Greenline. It lets me start spreading a religion, lets me hook wines, lets me maybe start Apostolic Palace in Humility, etc.
I may also follow a hybrid path by squirreling away the cash for Construction but not actually researching it until I see Xist do so (or part of the cash, or something similar). He should finish Construction or Currency in the next couple turns (he was 2 turns ahead to Math, and I will be <2 turns behind on whatever he does post-Math, which is a good sign!), so I should have a pretty good idea soon. Alas, Calendar is almost certainly too far away to contest MoM from Bing, who has both Marble and Stone. It will be nice when I get there though.
Here's what I've scouted from Greenline.
The southern Green River:
The northern Green River:
He has more off to the southwest that I still need to uncover, but I will probably confirm first that all this border between us is impassible.
And here's Xist's lands, almost completely unfogged:
Western Rome:
Eastern Rome:
Showing at least 3 city sites he should... really already have settled? Double fish with dye and copper? Double pigs + sheep (yes, the sign is in the wrong place)? Fish and gold?
This leads me to believe he might be holding off settling these until after Currency to avoid crashing his economy. Because otherwise failing to settle these makes no sense. Even for a military push you surely want the triple food site to whip troops, and the double fish with copper for production? He hasn't settled a new city for about 20 turns, leading me to believe he's trying to get to Currency first, but really who knows.
