[SPOILERS] Rusten enters uncharted waters

[Zalson]

How soon are you going to settle that double sheep + gold spot?

[Rusten]

How soon are you going to settle that double sheep + gold spot?

It's my last city with lowest priority. Settling the far east first so that settler isn't out yet. Maybe in 10 turns.
Part of the reason is that I'm claiming the better sheep with a city next turn.




The last peaceful city (#21 IIRC) will be placed 2N of the grassland gold in the area you describe. It won't have any good food tiles which is why it's low priority, but it does have multiple 3F tiles that also give other yields (sheep, spice). Decent enough long term, but slow to start with. It also requires calendar, which is ~10 turns away too, depending on when I slot it in.

[Rusten]

Interestingly DS and superdeath both declined open borders, whereas my punt offer to TBW went through.

I did not send to 2metra because I wanted to see if he'd take the initiative to:
a) see how much he's paying attention to the game (that's a yes, because he immediately offered upon next login)
b) get a read on his attitude towards me.

Now open borders can also be used to get vision into enemy territory, but he already knows the lay of the land so I'm chalking it up to peaceful intentions (for now). I've scouted multiple available city spots for him (as of ~10 turns ago) so there's no reason for him to get ideas of war until those are settled. He should also have more beef with Borsche than me.

And a more surprising result was logging in to Elkad offering open borders and an ivory for gold trade. I accepted simply because I wanted the ivory. I thought I wouldn't get routes as I have not scouted his location, but it turns out the routes came in immediately! So that's another +10 (or more) commerce per turn. Alphabet is paying off, thankfully. Going through my cities I think I'm currently getting 30 extra commerce per turn from trade routes.

edit: I think Elkad is on the other side of 2metra (N-NE), so he'd also make a good long term ally for both trade and war. Keep it coming Elkad.

[Rusten]

Second powerspike of expansive making itself known. Already up to +128 gold at 0% science this turn and that's only going to increase. This is without building wealth mind you (no time for that this game, hammers are too precious). Cities are still growing onto good tiles and I've not even made a single courthouse yet!
At this rate I'll be teching too fast to 100% lightbulb engineering, but at least I can give myself good odds at getting the GE. I'm going to have to win one of these at some point, right?!

Teching to guilds while preparing an engineering lightbulb seems like the best timing to make something happen. The benefit of growing on coastal tiles, which will happen more and more every turn, is that they won't feel bad to whip away for war purposes. If I simultaneously whip ~20 cities two or three times that's a lot of knights/trebs/urukku pikes.

[darrelljs]

At what point does using GPs for a golden age surpass bulbing?

Darrell

[Rusten]

At this rate we're reaching that point earlier than usual. I'd be surprised if the next non-prophet non-engineer GP isn't used for a golden age. It would have to be something very specific, like guaranteeing liberalism. Next GP is a 100% prophet (shrine). Next after that is a GE with some shared pool to speed up the turn date (hopefully bulb engineering). Everything after that is likely golden age fodder. I'll probably make a point to add rare GPP types into the pool for my GE. If I get something that isn't a scientist or merchant I'll have an easy time setting up later golden ages.

But the extra beakers put into engineering should still be worth it if I can get it in time. At least for me, as one of the main motivations of a GA is to swap civics without anarchy. I can do that all game with spiritual.
Maybe I'll add prophet points to the GE pool to set up a Divine Right bulb if I miss the GE. An early Spiral Minaret will help a lot.

[Rusten]

DS declined my whale for silk offer. Granted he still only has 1 source hooked up, but he has 8 available ones waiting, he should be happy to trade it away. Now it's possible that he's already getting whales from someone I haven't encountered, but if he also declines a spice for silk trade when I have that available (in addition to refusing OB already) I'm going to abandon any plans of having him as a long term trading partner.

Elkad offered wheat for whales. Sorry mate, but I have no need for the health. Too many health resources to go around and I'm expansive for the +2 as well. I may give him spice for it later as I'll have more of that resource than I know what to do with. The whale is more valuable.

1-turning IW this turn (80% slider) to find out how much iron I have. Hoping for 2-3 sources -- stay tuned. My power graph could also use a bump.

[Rusten]

I have 2 sources of iron, but I've already settled on top of both of them.
Here's what I mean about 2metra still having excellent land to settle:




IDK what infrastructure you're building 2metra, but whatever it is it's not worth delaying settling that area. He looks to be in a turnsplit now though, so maybe it will be delayed further.
Also tracked down Elkad, so he's not the player N/NE of 2metra (a work boat will find out soon).




I've managed to carve out the most land so far. Still jumping between 1st and 2nd in food with OH. Last time I checked #3 was quite far behind.

[Rusten]

Old Hitru and I are sitting at 324 and 315 food respectively. The 3rd placed civ only has 230. That's a significant lead.
Plenty of game left, but so far things are looking pretty good and I'm optimistic. I'm not exactly sure which neighbours OH has got, but at least I'm happy with mine.

Happy to report that I successfully spread Taoism to my shrine city. So the game isn't completely out to get me. I'm taking nothing for granted at this point.

[Rusten]

OH completed the Confu shrine. Seems like they got lucky on that prophet. 
Could've checked to provide a real number, but I imagine I'm still 10 turns away from mine.

Superdeath showed up with a galley and now he wants open borders. Not just that, he wants me to give him gold as well! 
I don't actually care about the gold, but is he under the impression that he'd be doing me a favour? He's the one with The Great Lighthouse! There's a reason why only Borsche (of the people I know) have open borders with him. I'd be feeding him waaaaaay more than he'd be giving me. Considering others have opened their borders I don't need him anymore.

Bad offer. Declined.