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

[thestick]

@rego I'm not EXP. Still, extra trade routes are nice since I'm currently losing on the Exports-Imports.

@Commodore Nationalism is 4 turns breakeven, while Liberalism is 3. Shoot the Moon is hot on my heels, he has about 500 gold banked and is almost definitely going to spend it on Education. Military Tradition requires Music, and that'd take another two turns minimum. I think I'll just go Liberalism into Nationalism, whack down the Taj (the Engineer is powerful enough to do that, right?), swap to Nationhood/Free Speech with the Golden age, then head to Economics for the Great Merchant and free swap to Free Market. After that, head for Rifling and conquer what's left of Nakor.

By the way, I wonder if ad hoc's economy is ruined from his whipping and warfare. I vaguely remember him dropping out of first in GNP...

@BRick Here's my domestic screen:



Obviously going heavy on the Monk buildings. Almost crazy enough to try for Spiral Minaret. Sistine Chapel might be good so that Hi'iaka can gain its second ring Corn...

Overview shots of the empires
thestick:




(Please note that I reentered the turn for this shot, so the builds are wrong. The builds in the Domestic Screen are correct)

TheMusicMan:




Shoot the Moon:







Nakor:




ad hoc:




Sian:

[thestick]

Quickly, Liberalism comes in 3 turns, I stored cash this turn and will spend the next two burning it. Shoot the Moon has a Great Engineer.

[thestick]

In foreign news, lots of stuff happened:



Shoot kicked off a Golden Age, but I can't find a recent Great Person for him besides his Engineer. Did he burn his Engineer on a Golden Age?

Sian took a couple of cities off of TheMusicMan, making it difficult to judge who's in fourth and fifth place.

ad hoc took Nakor's jungle border city of Queg:



Time to start building defences in Makemake.

In domestic news, Liberalism comes in 2 turns, and Shoot still doesn't have Philosophy. In addition, since I go first in turn order, if the Taj doesn't fall by T113, it's mine. Sankore completes in two turns.

I'd like to show off Namaka again, which is an amazing fishing village:



(Yes, the shot is EOT)

Finally, I find it strange that my best commerce city after Pluto is Eris:

[thestick]

In domestic news, Liberalism and the University of Sankore came in EOT:



Just checking, Sankore's beakers are not multiplied by Libraries and stuff, right?

TheMusicMan kicked off a Golden Age and revolted to Theocracy. I would've just whipped, if I were him.

[NobleHelium]

Sankore's beakers are multiplied by everything just like beakers from scientists.

[thestick]

As a placeholder:
Liberalism into Nationalism came in. ad hoc hasn't completed the Taj yet, so I rushed it with Heron. During the Golden Age I'll swap to Free Speech/Caste/Pacifism to push out a Great Scientist out of Namaka to keep the Golden Age running, and at the rate GPs are accumulating in Makemake, I'll get another Great Engineer at the end of the Golden Age. Plan during the Golden Age is to build infrastructure and some Barracks. Tech path is Gunpowder->Rifling. End of age I'll swap to Nationalism/Slavery/Theocracy and slave out Catapults and draft C1 Rifles.

Shoot the Moon got the Economics Great Merchant. Aw, I was hoping to use that to keep the Golden Age running. ad hoc is sitting outside of Sethanon, where his Maces are staring at Nakor's Longbows.

[thestick]

As previously stated, I whacked down the Taj:



I'm getting 38 beakers off of Sankore, and that should increase after this round of whipping. I whipped some basic infrastructure in my cities during the last turn before the Golden Age:









As a sidenote, Torodial maintanence is crazy. 7 GPT in a city with a Courthouse? And it's only about two city lengths from Pluto...

The only reason I didn't whip at Dysnomia is because I didn't want to eat the dry whip penalty:



Nix is lacking in infrastructure due to its build path of Moai/units/Sankore. I hope to fix that quickly.



At Makemake, I've resolved to hold off on whipping.



Haumea is grown and is actually doing well hammerwise:



Ceres and Charon are finally grown due to farms, though I've still been holding off on whipping to wait for them to pick up some more cottages.





Eris, my secondary science city:



In foreign news, ad hoc has this stack assembled outside of Sethanon:


He apparently spent last turn stripping Sethanon's defences.

Nakor has this stack to defend Sethanon:


Great, now ad hoc will get all of the shrine income.

Demographics:



Somewhere in third place. Shoot and ad hoc have bigger empires than me, and Shoot's about even techwise with me. EOT GNP spiked to 1st, but that's probably because Shoot doesn't have a tech selected. Low land area and city counts stink. I plan to settle the two northern islands during the Golden Age, but after that it looks like I'll have to turn to conquest.

Speaking of conquest, I'm wondering whether picking up Galleons to speed up the conquest of Nakor would be worth obsoleting the Colossus. That's probably too far into the future to think about, though.

[thestick]

Again, swapped to Caste and Pacifism to push a Great Merchant out of Hydra:




Before the Engineer in Makemake pops:



I built a Settler in Nix:



To settle the islands in the North:



In foreign news, TheMusicMan lost another city, old deutoronomy. Nakor lost Sethanon.

[thestick]

A whole lot of nothing is going on domestically. Printing Press came in, and Golden Age research is now 75% breakeven at about 700 bpt. I picked up Gunpowder to build Muskets since I'm paranoid at 5th in power. Yes, my only neighbors are bashing each other's brains out and I'm worried about being invaded. Next turn I'll pick up Banking on the way to Replaceable Parts. At the current rate things are going, Rifling comes in 5-7 turns. Hey, that might leave time for Military Tradition.

In foreign news, TheMusicMan lost another city to Sian. TheMusicMan built Spiral Minaret and Chichen Itza . Shoot's Golden Age ended, but he birthed a Great Scientist. Sian kicked off a Golden Age of his own, picking up Heredity Rule and Caste System. SevenSpirits is marching on Nakor's capital, but I think Nakor has enough Longbows and Muskets that it won't fall easily to Seven's Maces, Knights, and Trebs.

[thestick]

...and TheMusicMan switched to Free Religion, making the Spiral Minaret worthless. SevenSpirits closed borders with me, somewhat worrying. Sian got a Great General.

Domestically, I'm still working as many food and commerce tiles as I can and working up a happy cap for the drafting. I burnt my cash into Banking to get enough overflow to one-turn Replaceable Parts next turn. Zheng He was born in Hydra, time to switch Hydra back to coast tiles. I'm half-considering just saving the Golden Age for later and picking up Rifling through regular research.

Nakor is researching Chemistry, comes in in four turns. Grenadiers will make this difficult...

Techs:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?...lJuRTBEbXc

In short, I've somehow pulled into a tech lead. The only techs others have that I don't are Engineering, Literature, Music, and Economics.