[Spoilers] Commodore bakes a double entenada.

[Commodore]

This is thrilling.

Would be more thrilling if you didn't worry about accounting questions like affordability.  

I'm going to have to crank down the settlement a bit...I don't think I'll have the ability to afford that until I'm in Caste and Mercantilism and get the Forbidden Palace up.

It's like you think this is an endurance race, not a sprint.

It's endurance, aye. Mackoti and Naufragar are fighting now, so TBS is going to be looking at an angry and slowed Mackoti with Rusten and Naufragar's ports threatening. Plako retook a Gavagai capture and killed a great general, so that's a lovely slog. I think I can take enough to literally quadruple my empire's size if I'm careful. There are certainly plenty of very nice sites available.

As you can see, I tossed a settler down here but I chained the settler born this turn in such a way that Effingham still isn't delayed. Until I get courthouses up, however, all other new cities are going to wait on the commerce tiles being worked. I've got some good economy tiles for the colonies:
Felchville -> Gold, Furs
Butts -> Gold, Incense
Virgin -> Gold
Ballplay -> Furs (silk is forted for now)
Climax -> Gems
Beaver City -> Gold
I'm not making any more cottages, and Lubers and Sugar Tit aren't going to net much, but as you can see there are a lot of good economy-boosting tiles. Which is good, because I don't want to wealth build if I can help it, instead need to focus on the continued building of power. The Pinwyns have to be calculating the value of hitting me, although I suspect they will focus on the blood in the water in Egypt first. I won't feel truly safe until I reach Engineering to smash Chucklenaught stacks with cats before they can chuck me up bad.

[Mardoc]

Until I get courthouses up, however, all other new cities are going to wait on the commerce tiles being worked.

Huh, I guess I assumed you already had Code of Laws.  Or is the bottleneck hammers?

think I can take enough to literally quadruple my empire's size if I'm careful
...
I won't feel truly safe until I reach Engineering to smash Chucklenaught stacks with cats before they can chuck me up bad.

Why not let them occupy Eastern Rome, if it's going to be such a minor part of your empire ?  You could finally have Scootinator forgive you for the Zulu Exodus!  

[Thoth]

@Mardoc

[Commodore]

I have Code of Laws; you have to have CoL for Astronomy now. Hammers are hard to come by in a tiny size 1 colony, though.

Game is finally back up and running. Naufragar is being awesome, and razing Mackoti conquests. BGN is being unawesome, and conquering chunks of Rusten to speed Mack's victory.

[Mardoc]

I have Code of Laws; you have to have CoL for Astronomy now. Hammers are hard to come by in a tiny size 1 colony, though.

Well, sure...I guess I assumed that # of cities maintenance dominated rather than distance, which would make most courthouses approximately equivalent to each other. It's different if you have to build the courthouses in the new acquisitions for them to have a significant effect. That will be a while yet, I'm sure.

Do you have any New World tile improvements yet?

[Commodore]

Do you have any New World tile improvements yet?

But of course! Every city in the Americas has at least one food tile hooked up. It's going to be a net profit very fast. Still want to beeline Caste Mercantilism, though. I'm popping a turn of research this turn, which nets Priesthood/Monotheism/Monarchy, then one more turn makes Feudalism. 

I need to start manning the phone lines selling resources. Excess silks, silver, gold, and incense ought to all be solid sellers. Discounts for neighbors I want to befriend.

[Mardoc]

But of course! Every city in the Americas has at least one food tile hooked up. It's going to be a net profit very fast. Still want to beeline Caste Mercantilism, though. I'm popping a turn of research this turn, which nets Priesthood/Monotheism/Monarchy, then one more turn makes Feudalism. 

Man, this 'three techs in one turn' stuff is ridiculous and awesome.

I need to start manning the phone lines selling resources. Excess silks, silver, gold, and incense ought to all be solid sellers. Discounts for neighbors I want to befriend.

Might pay for a couple more cities , even if you can't build courthouses that fast.

I'm a little curious who falls in the 'want to befriend' category, as opposed to the 'want to eat' category? Is there a 'total indifference' category?

[Commodore]

I need to start manning the phone lines selling resources. Excess silks, silver, gold, and incense ought to all be solid sellers. Discounts for neighbors I want to befriend.

I'm a little curious who falls in the 'want to befriend' category, as opposed to the 'want to eat' category?  Is there a 'total indifference' category?

Befriends are plako and Pinwyn. I don't have any I want to eat. Although I'm a little sad about Gavagai killing this game. 

When we end here, I think wolf Mack should be counted as the winner. 

From left to right: Mackoti, Rusten, TBS, the lurkers.

[Commodore]

Ah, nothing like the start of a new campaign. Particularly when you love the setting...
   
You go that right, boys, we just launched Starcraftfinder. The players are saving Koprulu Sector from an awakening UED AI that threatens the entire galaxy. Meyer's Yahoos, a raider company, infiltrated the player's initial asteroid base and set the self destruct. The players took on the remaining raiders in the hanger with only seconds to spare, managing to save both ships from the lucking goliath. Although the civilians they protected were not so lucky...
   
Chasing the raiders back to their base in the dusty Hell's Sack nebula, the players in their Protoss shuttle and Terran valkyrie fought off a pair of wraiths and the missile-armed base, moving in to capture the holed space station after breaching it.
   
Now they have two small ships and a damaged space station, the only resources anywhere within a month. And from the captured computers in the Yahoos' base, it looks like Adjunant, the rogue AI, needs a mere 22 days more before what it is calling "The Ascension". Somewhere deeper within the nebula, it watches and grows.

[Commodore]

Australia is indeed huge. It's also fairly dry save for a pair of lakes. Barb city spotted too!