[SPOILER] Kyan + thestick. Is that the best you can do?

[thestick]

ad hoc's power is still increasing, but I'm third in Power. ad hoc moved his Macemen out of his city near Charon, and is amassing a stack on the border with Nakor:



Next turn I'll get visibility into ad hoc's city near Hi'iaka to see if his stack is still there.

I got my Great Engineer:



I'm actually considering whacking down Sankore instead, as I'd take two beakers over two hammers. Then again, I'm not sure if anyone else has Paper to contest me.

Anyway, the cities:

[thestick]

ad hoc withdrew most of his troops from the north, meaning he's gunning for Nakor instead of me. He has a HUGE army. Not only does he have this stack:




But he has ANOTHER one just like it in Eridu!

I decided not to spend the Great Engineer on the AP or Sankore. I'll probably save him for the Taj Mahal, assuming I get to Nationalism in time. Shoot the Moon doesn't even have a state religion! ad hoc has Theology, but he's gearing up for a war with Nakor. As for Sankore, ad hoc doesn't have Paper.







In domestic news, I'm having trouble deciding which building would be the best to whip. Namaka is near the happy cap, so I'm whipping a Market there. Charon I'm whipping a Cothon, while in Haumea and Eris I'm whipping Temples.

As for the Liberalism race, it's obviously between Shoot, ad hoc, and me. Shoot and I have Paper, while ad hoc bulbed Philosophy. Not sure who'll win this.

In tech news, I picked up Meditation for Monasteries while storing up cash for Education.

[thestick]

Shoot the Moon offered a map trade, and I saw no reason to turn him down. He owns the northern half of the middle island. I noticed TheMusicMan has an extra source of Furs, so I offered to buy it from him for 10 GPT.

[thestick]

ad hoc declared war on Nakor and razed Nakor's border city of Ironpass. He looks like he's marching on Highgarden. (Whoops, forgot pic).

In domestic news, Haumea is capped out and productive:



Makemake is fully sized, I'm even going to cottage the other floodplains:



Charon is finally growing, but still has a long way to go:



In foreign news, TheMusicMan researched Alphabet. I got research visibility on TheMusicMan. He doesn't have Paper and is researching Construction, so he's not racing for Liberalism.

[thestick]

Education comes in next turn, because 50% research didn't give me enough beakers and I didn't have enough cash for 60%. The AP completes in 2 turns, so if no one gets it on the interturn, it's mine.

[thestick]

The main news of the turn was that the Apostolic Palace completed as scheduled:



The Monk economy is coming along nicely. University of Sankore completes in 5 turns, but none of the religious civs have Paper. (Well, maybe Nakor or Sian has it, but I doubt it). Pluto and Haumea I'm whipping out Universities, everywhere else I'm building Temples and Monasteries.

I hope Nakor likes the free shrine income and hammers.

TheMusicMan is researching Philosophy, comes in two turns. Next turn I'll swap EPs to Nakor to get research visibility on him.

EDIT: Just realized that the 'Minor Planetary Council' would make a good name for the AP.

[thestick]

I one-turned Philosophy. Shoot the Moon doesn't even have Education, so Liberalism is essentially mine. The only question is what to slingshot?

ad hoc picked up Nationalism, so that's not a very good slingshot target. Not sure I can beat ad hoc's Industrious Marble Taj Mahal even with a Great Engineer.

[Commodore]

Well, using a Great Engineer means essentially zero risk, not like you're sinking costs. What's the time on Nationalism? Sling MilTrad!

[regoarrarr]

My first Cothon came online, and it's better than I ever imagined:

From two 3 commerce routes to 3 five commerce routes. Still considering Temple of Artemis to power up my trade routes even more.

Kind of a initra-thread-necro but I just saw this and thought I'd point out it's not quite as good as you made it out to be. As I understand it, when you got your Cothon in that city, it became the "best" city for your civ due to the Harbor bonus, so that city got the "best" foreign trade routes (explaining the fact that they went from 3 to 5 coin). The problem is that it took the TRs to those foreign cities away from one of your other cities (likely your capital and/or biggest city), so now those other cities only have 3 coin TRs (or maybe some went from 5 to 4 and 4 to 3, etc).

Still, you did get an extra trade route, which likely has a net value of your smallest trade route (so either 2 or 3 coins). Not bad, especially if you're EXP

[BRickAstley]

also, you said you got maps from the other continent. Mind sharing some world overview pictures, so we can see the wide geopolitical situation?