[SPOILERS] naufragar, Charriu, and Zalson's Threepenny Opera

[naufragar]

It's looking like I won't be able to get a turn in before I leave. I had planned on making notes and build queues during that turn, but since it never happened, I'll have to work from memory. Sorry I couldn't get everything squared away, Charriu.

The next turns should have us focused on Music, and we won't get it before I get back. So long as we are researching Music, this is the plan: every city working wealth keeps working wealth. Any city that completes a spearman should start another spearman or an axe, as the fancy strikes you. The first city that completes a granary should start a workboat. Any other completed granaries should be followed by lighthouses. If any granary or work boat can get whipped, please whip it.

Things are trickier if we lose the race to Music. We can tell if we see a Great Artist born in the event log. If the game has gone mad, it's possible someone gets a Great Artist without Music, in which case you could check by deselecting the Music tech and seeing if one of the benefits listed when you mouse over it again is the Artist. But if someone gets an Artist, it was Music with 99% certainty.

If we lose that race, we need to stop researching Music, it's a dead tech and I'll have to just take the lost beakers on the chin. Instead, we should switch to Iron Working and then Metal Casting.

If we aren't researching Music, the cities that were producing wealth should build stuff. Feel free to make the call in game. In the spoilers below I've put suggestions, but since I haven't been able to log in and check cities, you will be able to make a better informed decision, if you want.

The City: Resume  barracks. I believe I've already micro'd it to be working 4 specialists.
Bonehoard: Resume market. Whip when possible.
Cragscleft: Resume spearman.
Bafford's: Dump Great Library overflow into a market until it grows, then start worker. Whip when possible. It should take back clams from Cathedral if it doesn't already have them.
Shipping: Put a turn into a safety spear and then start barracks? I'm unsure about this one. Walls or units wouldn't be bad either.
Cathedral: Start a worker. Whip when possible. I forget what the infrastructure situation is like here. If there's infra close to completion, that can get finished.

Units can futz about however you like. There's a galley in BGN waters that needs to make its way back to the Moira+Maw island. Our other two galleys should take up positions near Shipping & Receiving and near Cragscleft. We have a chariot in the southern desert that should come home to Cathedral for a bit. We have a settler near Cragscleft that should head to the northern X and settle and start a granary.

Since I don't build workers, there isn't much micro here.  I had started typing up individual worker suggestions, but I feel like it would be a hassle for you to refer to them? Do whatever you want. There's a worker on a grassland near Bafford's that should farm. There's a worker up in the northern jungle that should road to the X and then chop a forest into Stonemarket's (?) granary. Other than that, there's no pressing worker dance. (Again, I can be more specific if you'd like.)

I realize I've written a lot, but I'm trying to err on the side of helpful. I trust you, and I'm happy with any calls you want to make.

Thanks very much for picking up my slack. I'm especially aware that I'm asking this of you when you're going through a rough civ patch. I'm very, very grateful.

[Charriu]

That's totally fine and the civ patch is not that rough.

[Charriu]

T108

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Civsitter reporting for duty.



The turn started with a new religion spread to us. Seeing as Mr. Cairo has the Taoism Holy City, we were actually lucky that this spread to us. As you can see somebody also got a Great Scientist and I bet it was Mr. Cairo, because of his golden age starting now.



The garrison in Receiving comes along nice. Next turn we have the 3 axemen and spearmen you were talking about. We also have a 4th axeman on the hill N of the fish. The worker there started a road for better defensive movements later. I'm also thinking about moving the axeman to the banana afterwards, just to see what Commodore is up to and ship it back with one of the galleys afterwards.



You were right in that you setup The City with 4 specialist. I looked a little closer and deceided to change it. Here are my reasons:

• With this setup we grow in 4 turns, which is nice as we lose our unhappiness from whipping in the same time.
  
• We make more beakers that way, although this does not change much for the ETA of Music.
  
• But we could need those beakers when the maintenance increases from the new city N of Auldale, which will be settled in 2 turns.
  
• With only the two merchants the propablity for a Great Merchant increases, which we will need at some point for a future golden age. I expect Bafford to produce all the Great Scientist we ever need.
  

As you can see I also marked two plain tiles that could get cottages as these are also river tiles, increasing our river cottages in The City to 6.

[superdeath]

Still rooting for you guys!

[naufragar]

Thanks Charriu! We have open borders with Commodore so feel free to push even more forward with a scouting axe. I dig the capitol micro. I wonder if those river plains would be better as workshops. We’re pretty late in the game to grow extra cottages to maturity. It’s very exciting to get a Taoism spread because now we don’t have to spread Buddhism (BGN) or Confucianism (Rusten).

Thanks for the support, superdeath. We’re in a bad position right now, but this game with its high water content and funky geography has plenty of room for big swings of fortune.

[Charriu]

T109:

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We found Gavagai up in the very NE behind Mr. Cairo.



He also build the Parthenon last turn.



I'm putting some hammers into Walls in Receiving, so that in a case of emergency we can quickly whip it.



We also need a name for our next city.

Other then those small things the turn was remarkeably quiet.

[naufragar]

We also need a name for our next city.

I’m afraid I must insist on “Charriu’s Point.”


I guess Donovan Zoi will end up in the northwest of Moira and Maw.

[naufragar]

We also need a name for our next city.

I’m afraid I must insist on “Charriu’s Point.”


I guess Donovan Zoi will end up in the northwest of Moira and Maw.

[Charriu]

Ok, you are the boss  

But don't complain if the city sucks at any point in time.

[Charriu]

T110:

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The turn started with this open border agreement from Gavagai, whom we just met last turn. I looked back at the situation - you can see our boat in the background - and decided we can still explore enough through Mr. Cairo, therefore I declined for now.



But further exploration may lead us back to the open border agreement with him.



I also looked at our trade situation and we only have trade with Mr. Cairo and Rusten, so it might be handy to explore more of Gavagai in a few turns and have him as a backup trading partner.



I continued scouting with our boat in the west, but did a rather silly move, because I thought the "world is round" bonus is still available. Stupid me I forgot that BGN already had this.



As you can see the workers near Baffors finished a river cottage there and continued working on another on the grassland between the marble and clam, which is sharable between Cathredal and Bafford. I also tasked one worker to finish a road N of the marble. This should increase mobility between these three cities as long as we don't have construction.




I moved our axeman near Commodore forward to get a look across the lake and I immediately regretted moving there. I'm really sorry for coming up with the idea of scouting with the axeman. As you can see I also brought one of the galleys up to move him back, if he's still alive after Commodore has moved next turn. Also as you can see somebody got a Great Scientist, but still no Great Artist in sight, which leads nicely into the big changeup I did this turn:

Operation Get Music Done Now



So I noticed that Music still needed 2 turns when I started this turn, but was close to 1 turning it. So my natural instict was, can I get this down to 1 turn and secure as the Great Artist. For this to work I had to do quite a few things, a few of those can be seen above. Here is a short list of things.

• Going through every city and adjusting tiles to get more wealth enabling me to run 100%, while also maximizing beakers.
  
• Cragsleft stopped the spearman it was working for 1 turn of Research.
  
• Moiras stopped the workboat and works 1 turn of Wealth
  
• Receiving is also on Wealth
  
• Cathredal is stagnating and working a scientist. It's at its happy cap so growing isn't that important there.
  
• Most importantly I did not settle this turn to avoid increased maintenance costs.
  

All of these things can be changed back next turn, when we've got Music. I think this is the right call. Doing otherwise would have meant to run 80% science or lower due to the increased maintenance. I think with 80% science we may have gotten Music on T113+. But I have to admit that this setup is very tight, if there are any big financial changes during the interturn are happening we don't get it. So far only Gavagai, Donovan Zoi and Rusten still have to play and only the later could really screw with this plan for Music.

EDIT: You can see how close we are to 1 turning Music on some of the screenshots.