Dreylin Blues 2000 is on (another) mission from Cod

[Dreylin]

T145 -

Infrastructure week is pretty-much over:


Minnow & Salmon are unlikely to contribute anything, but the rest will be on Military for the foreseeable - though a few like Anglerfish, Perch & Trout will essentially be building defensive units for the North. Cod, Haddock & Stonefish already have their Stables up, so those 6 will produce the bulk of the Knights.

I spent some time looking at the Tech Tree in detail:


Of note that I will be second to Knights, meaning Ljubljana is going Engineering first (due in 2t). Makes a lot of sense as they & naufragar have already broken GT so the Knights are not immediately useful but the added movement certainly will be for their wide spread empire.

Ginger is clear tech leader with naufragar behind. Interestingly nauf is currently saving gold on Alphabet despite not having Paper yet. Ginger finished HBR last turn and hadn't selected a next tech yet. I know they both have Literature as each have built an Epic.

greenline's tech is interesting; while he did grab CS during his Golden Age to enable Bureaucracy, he is currently researching Metal Casting so I won't have to worry about Macemen or Crossbows. He does have Construction and (probably) Iron Working - he had it selected, but I'm not certain he finished it and he has still not started improving his Iron. Regardless he has Ivory so Elephants are inevitable. (not sure if he has HBR yet, but shouldn't be more than a couple of turns).

I also realised this turn that his key border cities are Hindu so with a little more EP investment I can have visibility.... 

[Dreylin]

Important note I'd missed; greenline has Feudalism. I can now see a single Longbow in his border city (thanks EP vision). Changes things a little, but not much I feel.

[Dreylin]

T149 - Downsides

It's unfortunate that greenline is prepping for a sub at the moment as it could mean more scrutiny on the neighbourhood situation.

On the other hand, maybe I need to put those plans on hold:


Not that I haven't been expecting the Taj GA for a while, but it's a bad time for it to line up with their completion of Guilds next turn. Not only that but they would then be due to land Gunpowder ~4t afterwards, come out of GA in Nationhood and draft Oromos down my throat. Not that there's any guarantee that's what they'd do, but if I'm galivanting off in the other direction I think it increases the likelihood significantly ... after all I'm about to have a tasty, tasty Shrine right near their border.

So maybe I'll have to put my greenline plans on hold for a while and see what happens. Not that it changes the immediate plan much, which is to continue to mobilise, get to Gunpowder myself (~4t after Eng completes) and get my own Musketeers out on the border.

I did send Ljubljana 2 messages this turn; first was mutual war with Ginger in 25t, which is approximately what we had originally agreed, then followed with reducing that to 15t. Let's see how they respond. 

[Dreylin]

Addendum. Demos are at once positive and scary...

[Dreylin]

Oh, I guess next turn is T150; any questions, anything you want to see?

[Dreylin]

draft Oromos down my throat.

Oops, Janissaries. 

[Dreylin]

T150 - Coming Storm

I built my first Wonder:


28gpt base; Grocer whip in 2t for another 7gpt. 

Ginger finished Guilds and logged in while I was playing to dial up a 2t Gunpowder which is faster and less comfortable than I had hoped. It will take me 4t after completing Engineering to get there myself. 

Ljubljana confirmed 15t until war so we're looking at t165 ... if Gingac wait that long. They have a couple of substantial Cat stacks pre-built so they only need the hitters, whereas I am trying to build both at once.

I also had Mjmd show up proposing a mutual cancelling of deals with Gingac. I cancelled out, thought about it and then re-proposed. I guess it signals intentions somewhat, but I think we may be past pretending? Though you can see that I will still have good visibility on some of his key cities from Hindu EP. :nods:

Since no-one asked for anything for t150, here's a look at the (temporarily slightly smaller) largest city in the World, Cod:



I whipped the end off the Knight to overflow into another and may do that again here soon as it's going to start being health-cramped once I lose Gingac's Clam. I hope to swing a trade for one from elsewhere, but they are part of a general worldwide shortage of seafood so I might not be able to find another. 

[Dreylin]

T151 -

Mjmd & I have cancelled deals with Ginger. No diplo from him which I guess confirms his intentions. Meanwhile Superdeath turns up again asking me to cancel with Gavagai ... I offer to do that if he cancels with Ginger. We'll see how serious he is. Unfortunately we have similar Resource groupings so we can't replace what the other is currently getting from trades.

[Dreylin]

T152 -

Diplo from Ljubljana:


I /think/ this means a 20t NAP? I'd have returned it, but he was logged in at the same time so I'll try to remember to go back in later to send it.

Started gunpowder research, due in 3t. I expect I'll see Gingac's first Janissaries next turn; there are already a couple of knights about.

[Dreylin]

T153 - Next Level Tech

Of course Gingac is going MilTrad next for Currassiers. Ouch.

But I also finally figured out naufragar's tech path; he needed Alphabet to open up a Chemistry bulb allowing him to head for MilSci and Grenadiers. Which might be a decent path for me to also follow if I can accelerate it a bit and live long enough. Sheepshead has my next Great Person due in 10t; it was pure Scientist until a few turns ago when I added some Engineer. I'll have to check the numbers and work out how much pollution the pool can take and still retain a high GSci probability - and how much I'm willing to risk it.

Question for the lurkers: where can I find a guide that will tell me how many Beakers I would get from a bulb?