[59] Miguelito and Rusten move stacks to berimbau rythms

[Rusten]

I like IW next for the gems and happiness, but also for the jungled islands. Happy cap is a big priority because the land is so rich in food.
Our crop will take a big leap this turn from founding 3 cities, and we've built granaries early everywhere which makes our yield look worse than it actually is compared to most players. It's not great, but we're not that far behind.

I'd prioritize (jungled) island settlers/garrison over infrastructure (forges).

[Rusten]

But I should add that if we're having food resources in 2nd circle (like the one by Elkad IIRC), then mysticism before IW should be best.

[Miguelito]

Elkad offered cow for cow and pig, which I think meant that he wanted us to found in the south so he could fit another city in.
No, I'm not going to found on flatland, 3 tiles away from a Cre city, just to allow him to found on our side of the isthmus. Founded blue dot as planned.
I see 2 axes, a spear and a chariot of his. We have the same in the area, plus an additional axe. Not sure if I should trigger the 2pop axe whip in Lavandeira yet, or wait and see if he declares next turn. It would be a pain to dislodge those units from the forested hills, even if they can't do a lot really.
I also wonder what we could do to gain his friendship... for now I offer gold for gold.

[Rusten]

He has himself to blame for his city spacing, that's clearly our side of the mountain pass.

[Miguelito]

Absolutely, but if he tilts and moves in with his units (who also have blue glow ) that can still cause us a lot of headaches. I hope he stays reasonable. He can't have much more than those units, as we still have 1.35 times his power as per the scoreboard.

[Rusten]

Yeah him tilting would be terrible, but hopefully the combination of our power being higher and the city being well within our sphere of influence is enough to deter. At most I hope he will be a bit miffed and perhaps want to teach us a lesson long term, but it shouldn't be an all-in hostile situation.

On a general note development note I'd say a settler has higher priority than a forge. Grow on forges and whip the settlers.

[Miguelito]

Yeah him tilting would be terrible, but hopefully the combination of our power being higher and the city being well within our sphere of influence is enough to deter. At most I hope he will be a bit miffed and perhaps want to teach us a lesson long term, but it shouldn't be an all-in hostile situation.

On a general note development note I'd say a settler has higher priority than a forge. Grow on forges and whip the settlers.

Elkad retreated,  but he's building a road 2N1E of the new city Camunjerê*, with the worker that he already had there.  why would he do that?

1. He figured that he might as well build it while he's there. But it loses him a worker turn,  and the tile is ours once borders pop because it's only 4th ring for his cities. 
   
2. He wants to ambush us from the fog before borders pop. Nasty. we need a scout on that tile. We should also offer OB to him, maybe he takes it and we can relax that situation a bit?
   

* I'll do an overview with the new cities in the next proper report


On the forges in general you surely are right. We'll get new settlers from:

• Marinheiro, just grown to size 6. I think it should go to orange, the island E of the cap. That means we'd have to speed up the workboats at the cap with a whip (together with an axe I suppose), and maybe get the one in the south from the city itself :/. I don't think it needs a garrison immediately.
  
• Viola, growing this turn. I think pale blue (SE copper). Alternatives are a Dono border city for which we have to figure out the placement yet, but in any case it requires workers and military that I don't quite see right now. Or the deer in the far west,  which is a bit much of travel but good otherwise (only one with new food). Yeah I think the deer is likely
  

Otoh there are two forges that I want to whip for 2 pop:

• Bonfim (gold city) because I don't really want to whip it down that much because of the good tiles (soon adding gems), and it can use the happy very well.
  
• Lavandeira (horse), which I envision as a hammer city, and is a bit slow to grow,  and whipping off 3 pop hurts. I want to get going with the barracks and units there rather soon, in particular if Elkad isn't friendly.
  

We're second in GNP while researching IW, with no culture but the palace and Colossus. But somebody is making 138 to our 88, which seems crazy even if they had Stonehenge and GLH.
Upper(?) middle class in CY, Mjmd is significantly ahead of us.
Among the last in hammers as usual, which is ok as long as we
Of course demo reading is not that relevant in the end.  We just continue to develop to the best of our abilities.

[Miguelito]

Saw your signs in game. I'll send the Viola settler to the deer. I suppose we still settle the capital island before the junglecoppercorn, despite the priority sign ? (we don't have the workers, nor the boats, nor a garrison for that right now)

I promised an overview:



And here are the new cities:


Elkad border city. We have three workers there which is probably overkill. Forest W has the first chop in, so that granary will come in time. After that start on an archer while we bite the bullet and research mysticism. Monument here is a necessary evil, even if a library should come on top later. The deer city also wants a monument, as does the Dono border plant, so it should be worth it.
The forests SW get lumbermilled (save the chops for Taj, and Charriu has made LMs decent). Looking at the fat cross I think it's a decent city to lay some cottages, or would you rather go farms/mines? I don't think it wants a lighthouse early, we will only have 3 coast tiles while Elkad's city stands there most likely (or at least until 3rd ring).



Here we invested some worker turns and got three chops out in the first 2 turns of the city, yielding the WB and granary right away. It's first mission is that of a cottage helper to Bonfim while whipping workers, after the lighthouse that is. Otoh we also want ships from here. Long term I think the off river tiles can become workshops? (well as many as can be supported)



This is the worst supported one of the lot. Currently 2 workers are chopping and building the shared PH mine. Annoyingly/embarassingly the WB is not even built yet. Will likely get it from the city itself after all (see below). I still think it's an excellent Moai spot. We are not getting the stones that soon anway, so Marinheiro's advantage is shrinking.




I had been talking of whipping an axe into WB at the capital, but had forgotten about the forge, so that isn't happening. Instead I think the galley makes sense (more than a trireme, or a 1pop whip, or no whip and working 2 mines). The galley can be used for the fur island close to Dono so Maré doesn't have to build it. The follow up WB is going for the planned new island city in the east though. Objections?

We've made quite a few contacts:


Interestingly AT, whose scout came from the south past Donovan, also knows Elkad. Maybe we are on some sort of donut, with an inner sea to the west?
Also civac, whose WB came from the NW, knows everybody but Lazteuq in the far east. This makes it unlikely that he met Mjmd and Charriu to his west. Instead I think it's likely that Charriu's and Mjmd's WBs somehow met him. Charriu sailed towards Donovan last time we saw him, while Mjmd took the northern route through Elkad.

More contacts also means that KTB is becoming at least a bit interesting.


With our eccentric tech choices we let others prepare the way for mysticism and writing (and most probably maths after that). KTB from 5 players is still only worth 6% if i am correct.

This was the demo last turn, with that pretty crazy rival best GNP


This turn it looks more sensible, and also shows steady improvement in terms of CY/MfG.



While we're at stats, have a graph dump. I don't know what to read into them other than Mjmd's doing very well, while Donovan isn't. So if we want that eastern jungle paradise we have to back it up (and he's Portugal!), and Dono as a target seems quite likely. In fact we have to pay attention so that no one else takes a bite first.

I hope to see Elkad's spike flatten soon....


Don seems to have run the espionage slider? (at low percentage)

Forgot the culture graph, apparently. We're barbarians with a capital basically. 

[Miguelito]

Second turn of the night. Since you had not violently objected, I went and whipped both forges. We're growing back right away. Whippy turn overall, also the Marinheiro settler and the capital galley; 9 pop overall. 4 more to follow next turn.
Elkad signed open borders, I'm sending a chariot. He's welcome to send a scout of his. I don't know if we'll get even one trade route from it; I've seen a galley of his but don't know if one of his 7 cities is on an island. In PB54 he liked islands, and I remember also in PB46 he went for some early overseas colonization, with mixed returns.
I also offered OB to Lazteuq last turn, if he accepts then that should be worth something.

[Rusten]

x-post

Capital island first is alright.
I think I would've liked to 3-pop a settler in the capital rather than 2-pop a galley, but if you feel it's good then go ahead. A settler would also create a lot of overflow thanks to the forge.
How are you getting culture for the Elkad border? Seems it's the only place we need it so I'd be tempted to squeeze out a library and skip myst+monument for now. It has a lot of natural production. If yes, then we need to have writing completed by the time the granary finishes. Maybe we could give it a foest too?

If we get a GE, do we save it for Taj?