[SPOILERS] scooter and Lewwyn troll lurkers

[Lewwyn]

Scooter is busy sleeping so here's an update:



We're doing well. Unfortunately this turn barbs appeared on both borders. If the warrior had been on the god I think we would have had a better...

OMG THE BABY SHIT EVERYWHERE

...

I moved the axe NE so that if one of the barbs does not advance it can go in the direction of the barb that does advance. If both advance we will need to retreat our worker and retreat the axe back into drunk.

We were going to build a barracks next in Drunk, but I'm setting the build to a chariot so we have a more mobile defense unit. It will take 3t then we can build the barracks. We don't really need culture there right away. We miss out on a promo for the chariot but I'm okay with that given the barbs.

After ivory I think we should plant south:



If we plant on the jungle we can 2nd ring the plains sheep there while not stealing Serdoa's silver and pissing him off. He then can't steal the sheep by settling next to it because of the lake. The other option would be closer to our core. but make the dotmap with serdoa's borders more difficult and strained.

[scooter]

I like 1S of the Wheat, perfect. That can be our south border with Serdoa. Uh, "south" being "our south" since map directions are pretty screwy on Toroidal, hah.

[scooter]

Okay, so the good news is both barbs ran away. Lucky us. I played T58-59 together. It's basically commonplace at this point to see me last to play with 20 hours left on the clock . Anyway, since the south was safe, I made this swap at Drunk:



We'll want the culture and barracks here eventually, and we get them cheap right now, so I figure if we can afford to finish it right before the chariot and get a promo, all the better. If we end up having to swap back to the chariot no problem. Anyway, onto T59:



One warrior down. Also, I want to pillage this:



No way we ever control it, so it's free money.



Any strong opinions on what to build next here? I'm kinda thinking worker. We're about to grow into unhappy anyway, and we could definitely use a couple more. Overview shots:





Pillage away on that hamlet we're about to settle on. By the way, we met Thoth at some point recently. I don't remember when that was exactly. He's tied with the rest of us (except Commodore) at 3 cities.

[Lewwyn]

Great. And pillage up!

[Lewwyn]

T60 and 61, very interesting.

The capital micro is really interesting:



We held off on the whip and let the chop slowbuild the settler. Next turn the settler will be done and we will have 14H overflow. We will also get 16H production on the next settler = 30H. I have one turn into another chop and a second worker on the forest. The chop will complete next turn giving another 20H. That brings us to 50H on the turn (t62). The next turn we 2 pop whip it. The granary finishes with the overflow from the settler the next turn and we also regrow to size 3 that turn immediately. I like it very much.

Pindi has settled a city near us:



I'm totally fine with that. The barb suicided into it.

I moved the worker to the ivory so it can road while we wait for the settler. We need that happy ASAP.

I grew Hack to 4 by putting a turn into an axe so that if need be we can whip it. Then I switched build to a 6t worker. The unhappy face doesn't cost us anything for now.

I had to switch Drunk back to the chariot this turn since the warrior came back. If the warrior leaves again we can switch back to the barracks, but we will need the chariot to escort the second settler to the site south of the wheat.

Speaking of cities:



Hooray! Scooter you didn't mention that this new city had furs! I guess I didn't see it myself in the photo earlier. We will need workers hooking this up asap. Drunk should build a worker once we get the barracks and the chariot built.

I pillaged two cottages so far and we got 24 gold total. The warrior will pillage once more. We also met novice's scout. He's on 4 cities like us (now that we have the barb city) as is pindi I think. We'll shoot up to 6 cities lickity split though!

[Lewwyn]

Right, have to finish that chariot. Settler settles our 5th city next turn. Pindi, novice and comm all have 4 cities, Serdoa and Thoth have 3, Krill we haven't met. Great. We will spam workers now.



Got more gold and what's this? A barb city? Spawned on the hamlet destroying that it looks like. It's near thoth but still between the two of us. I'd like to destroy it if we can so that he can't capture for a free settler. Its a nice spot with furs and pigs second ring and lots of rivergrass.

[Lewwyn]

Played 2 turns.



I 2 pop whipped the worker in Hack on t63 overflowed into the axe. We only have 1 whip unhappy in the city. This turn I gave the oasis to Splint while Hack uses the workshopped forest to quickly finish the axe. Pindi's warrior is poking around down there and I don't want him to pillage that hamlet. You were probably right Scooter that we should have pillaged more.

The other settler is moving and we're roading along with it. The chariot is at 3/4 health and will rest one turn and catch up with the settler next turn, but it won't be fully healed.



should we explore SW or move 10 tiles north to try and pillage a village?

[scooter]

I think I'd keep exploring with that warrior. If he dies before making contact with everyone, it could be awhile before we fill out our contacts.

[scooter]

Update time! As I've said, the raw pace of this game makes it difficult to report. By the time I finish writing a report, the turn rolls. Couple days ago I was last to play with over 20 hours left on the clock . Before the game, Commodore asked me how quickly we'd catch PB13 given the high PYFT rating of everyone in the game. I estimated end of October. Well today is October 1st, and we're about 11 turns behind PB13 so I'm thinking it's going to be a biiiit quicker than that. Picture time.



Went ahead and grabbed us visibility on this city. Also Lewwyn, I kinda misread what you said:



Didn't realize until now you said village. Yes we should definitely go pillage that while we get the chance. Map trading will be available very shortly anyway and we can get our visibility that way. Krill is the only person we're missing contact with anyways. So let's beeline that and hope we can get some gold to fund teching. Quick city count check:

ScooWyn: 5
novice: 4
Serdoa: 4
Thoth: 4
Commodore: 4

And we're about to plant #6:



That's nice, though we aren't necessarily demographically dominant:



Having overall fewer pop balances things. Anyway, I'm happy with what we've done thus far. With a group this ridiculously talented, keeping pace is a win. Also Krill has quite a few cities I know, but I don't know exactly how many. Overview shot of our empire:



Not too shabby. Food/MFG charts for the curious:

[Lewwyn]

Played turn, no pics things are fine. Thoth can trade world maps already, I didn't offer map trade yet though because I don't want him to see the barb city if he hasn't already seen it.