[SPOILERS] enough is ENOUGH! scooter opens some windows and finishes first!

[Ceiliazul]

Forts replace forests, I do believe...

Incorrect...

Edit: ah scooter already did the sim. nevermind.

[scooter]

T43 ponders mystery snow forest

Wheeeee:



Can't believe I didn't notice that until now. Something tells me that's not natural. Anyways, Serdoa revolted as expected:



Philosphical, has a Grocer, land that suggests specialists... "Help us leader Commodore... you're our only hope."



Changed my mind here. I think I was stupid to think grow on cottage and then whip. Working the horse seems clearly much better. Oh well, that was only one lost turn not working the improved horse. A worker jumped onto that grass forest and will chop the following granary to completion. This city is a bit ahead on tile improvements, so I'll try to grow it out a bit. This might be fun:



It JUST now occurred to me that this may allow me to get Maths 1T quicker and speed up this whole gig by a turn. Hmmmmm. Galley time is still a bottle-neck though and I don't want to whip that. Whatever. Anyways, as you see Commodore's score took another enormous leap, so yep, Machinery and blah blah death save us all.

Fun (in a masochistic kinda way) fact: Commodore could rush a forge and run an engineer with a few other specialists... and if a GE pops, he could BULB GUILDS. Hooooly crap. Now, good news is running the engineer by itself would be far too slow so he'd have to dillute his great person pool. Still, if he does that, that's a ~30% chance he gets Guilds that much faster. Terrifying. I really think this setup boosted Byz WAY more than it nerfed it. Demos:



I got two borders pops so my land area jumped to a more sane level. Things continue to look pretty solid across the board. Cool thing is I'm researching at a slightly better clip than GNP gives me credit for, so most people will likely assume I'm well behind in tech by seeing the graphs. Actually it's really weird - I'm pulling 41bpt here at 100% science and yet my GNP is 39 ? Not sure how that's possible. I realize beakers != GNP, but I don't have any positive beaker multipliers so this confuses me slightly. Anyways, this looks promising:



This is mildly interesting:



Brian took a big bump there. Now that could be Iron Working, but I see Serdoa's Iron Working and it's not nearly that big so... Guessing Iron Working + units? I need to keep an eye out for that. Evidence of the whip:



Jag rush would be stupid for him, but painful for the target (I'd be most likely probably). He's sure whipping that capital hard. Taking full advantage of that UB from T0 I guess. Curious to see if it works out for him or not. Doesn't seem like it so far as he's roughly even with Serdoa despite Serdoa pounding out two wonders already.

[scooter]

T44 speeds things up a tad

So I got much more overflow than I expected:



I conservatively projected 6 and I got 15. Um ok. I need to go back and figure that out so I'll know what's coming next time. Anyways, that means I can get a galley 1T sooner. The galley was the bottleneck because:



Pretty sure that town should provide enough gold to continue at 100% for one more turn. By the way - surprised to see a Spear and a Warrior here. That seems like a bit of an excessive garrison for a city on a hill that can only be hit amphibiously and with 1T warning. Not sure the rationale there. My cities sure aren't sporting those kinds of defenses.

Anyways, so that means I need to speed the settler up by a turn:



So I wait on the Monument instead of finishing it first. Double-whip next turn, dump overflow into worker/settler, then swap back to Monument and finish it while re-growing to size 3. Finally, settler on the move:



That's a beautiful spot - grass cow, wet corn, several forests to chop, and a fish once the borders pop. Kinda ridiculous. I think I can actually get it there 1T sooner with some workers that will be helping out. I thought about settling on that peninsula north of the banana (settler will go there soon enough), but I decided this spot was stronger and will contribute quicker. Workers are doing their thing:



Another thing - I'm considering targeting this spot pretty soon too:



This spot is actually pretty crazy. TWO fish so obviously that's good. The deer will go to the elephant site and the 1 FP will probably stick with Sante Fe... But look at the north half of the BFC too:



We have two railroaded lumbermills, one of which is plains for a slick 1/4/1. If that's not good enough, it has 3 floodplains to itself and a RIVERSIDE FLATLAND gold. Yeeesh. Crazy, crazy city. So yeah, need to lock that silliness down. Anyways, back to Brian:



That was probably not a wise move. Granted, I'm safe unless he has a chariot in the fog (1-mover can't hit me from the fog), but given his power graph, I wouldn't rule it out. Demos:



Someone has a semi-crazy GNP there. That someone is Lewwyn:



Well then. Stupid Financial. Also, power graph still concerns me:



Brian jumped again. Now... it could just be that he's defending his cities way too heavily as evidenced by the shot we just looked at... But still, I need to keep an eye on this. A graph like this makes me think my scout might be dead - he's bound to have a chariot in the fog right? Guess I'll find out.

Still working on Commodore's graphs while trying not to lose the other 3. Making progress. I suspect him getting MC and Machinery in that short span caused him to shoot up to #2 military and inflate the average soldiers number.

[scooter]

T45 lives the pirate's life

Bam:



Gonna go pillage that fish next turn too while I wait for the warrior to finish plundering. That kind of gold will keep me running at 100% for quite some time! Pretty awesome. Brian must have really prioritized that site to get both seafood up and running so quickly. Too bad that's about to get wasted. Mental note: Don't let that happen to myself too . Also, Brian's building a LOT of military for defense:



That's two spears now and another random warrior. Is he fearing a Keshik rush of some sort? That would be understandable I suppose, but surely he could just watch my power graph and wait on Spears until he saw it spike? Hmm, not sure there. Farming the plains is also curious since I'm pretty sure you wouldn't be working a 2/1/0 tile at this point. I don't have all the info he does though so I probably shouldn't be too critical. Anyways, I'll get to get the elephant site 1T sooner so that's still going according to plan.



They'll all start the fort next turn. City indicators are lying there - galley will finish at end of next turn:



It pains me to get off a FP hamlet for a 1/2/1 tile, but it needs to be done. Settler was whipped (I almost forgot this!):



Monument was too:



Don't really like doing a 2->1 whip when best tile is 3F and no granary but... Getting the fish/copper in range 5T sooner makes it pay off. Do what needs to be done. Demos:



GNP is with no tech selected so usual disclaimers. BTW, that elephant city is going to cost me an arm and a leg in distance maintenance, yeeeesh. Oh well, worth it.

[scooter]

Now I'm mildly stumped on tech choices here. Here's my options. I'm including rough estimates at 100% science. Should be noted that I can probably afford about 4T @ 100% so a 3T tech I can get in 3T, but a 7T tech might take 9ish.

(Currency not being considered because of impending bulb in 3ish turns)

Construction: 7T
Reason: Need to be able to build elephants once I get the city founded.

Calendar: 7T
Reason: I have lots of Calendar sources. This would let me grow much higher vertically and allow me to avoid stuff like Monarchy (Hered Rule) for a little while longer. I'd get a quick +2 happy from spices and incense. I'd also be able to use the banana as a proper food source by placing a city by it. I also have silks to my west that would become more valuable.

Iron Working: 3T
Reason: Chop jungle for deer at King Park. Also clear jungle at Stone (but that implies going Masonry after this.

Masonry: 2T
Reason: Stone source, though no need to bother with this until after IW.


Consider IW/Masonry to be a package deal unless I blast through IW real fast and then get Masonry later. I'm thinking those can probably still wait - it hurts to have King Park working a 3/0/0 deer because of nasty jungle, but that'll use the fish soon enough. So I'm thinking the main decisions is what's more important - Calendar or Construction? Construction is solely to build the elephants sooner. Calendar is the better bonus economically. I'm pretty sure I can afford to delay the elephants just a bit, so I'm actually thinking Calendar is the better choice..? Although as soon as I settle Ivory that's a +1 happy everywhere which might make Calendar slightly less valuble. Maybe IW->Construction->Calendar->Masonry? As you can see I'm pretty torn here. Input welcome.

Also need to figure this out:



Great Lighthouse here, yay or nay? Alternatively I could do Hanging Gardens here. I obviously want one of those wonders and this has the forests for it. If I go TGL, that has no resource doublers (I could've sworn it was stone but apparently not), so I can wait longer for Masonry. If I want HG here rather soonish, then Masonry moves up the priority list. Thinking I can wait a tad longer for Hanging Gardens. I'm just feeling a bit stumped on the true value of TGL here given that it's AW. On the downside, no foreign routes ever. On the upside, most of my cities will be coastal (first two are inland, all the rest coastal and will stay that way for awhile) and I'll get IC trade routes so yeah. Still thinking it's awfully valuable here.

[scooter]

T46 begins construction of the great canal

Like so:



Fun stuff! Galley will be loaded next turn and moved 1NE. The following turn it'll be on it's way and the city will be founded 1T ahead of schedule. I'm also going to be founding the city north of Holocene very soon. I continued spying on Brian:



In this picture I see 2 axes, 1 spear, 1 warrior. That's 2 axes and 1 spear more than all my cities are defended with . I pillaged his fish, and I'll head over and take a dump on his crabs too before heading home. I wonder if he hasn't gotten sailing yet - surprised he hasn't popped out a quick galley to defend his nets especially since Googy has been there for quite awhile.

Anyways, in tech choices I forgot Construction requires Masonry. So does The Great Lighthouse actually, though I knew that much. So I've decided I'll go IW -> Masonry -> Construction. Painful to wait on Calendar that long, but the elephant city will give me +1 happy across the board so that'll help for awhile. Anyways, I dumped Simple Math overflow into a worker:



I'll finally finish the Monument next turn (and grow to size 3) before reverting back to the worker. The whipping and such has dropped me in the demos:



Curious who took that big leap of almost 8 food? Odd. I again forgot to fix EPs so I just have Serdoa's graphs this turn. Anyways yeah, pretty quiet turn overall. Though things should be more interesting pretty soon.

One thought: I was wondering where Iron might be, and I realized I may have it already. Remember, horse was pastured, copper was mined... So to re-use an old picture:



That fort up there is my bet.

Great Merchant and Currency due in 4T.

[scooter]

T47 tries to make Lighthouse plans

First though, pillaging continues:



Next turn I'll move onto the crab and pillage that too and pillage the final cottage. Gonna be sad not getting that free gold every turn. Then I'll probably pack up and head home - or at least send that warrior home. Galley is loaded and ready to go next turn:



Cool. Happy situation at Sante Fe is still annoying:



It'll wear off soon, but I'm also ready to grow to size 6 which I can't do quite yet. I think I might pause briefly and build a worker/settler or whatever to slow growth, and then grow up a size as soon as the elephant gets settled. Actually a settler might be good to lock down that crazy city just east of here that I mentioned earlier. Great Merchant coming in 3T:



Can't wait. City about to be founded next turn:



Notice the chop about to complete . With Maths now in hand, I'll have a Granary in the first turn of existence and the cows hooked rather quickly. Pretty cool! Another settler finished at EOT:



I'm trying to remember why I have a second galley in the queue here..? Guess I wanted a second for the Brian front? Not sure. Either way I could chain fort into the north elephant ocean now if I want so it might still be useful. Might be able to steal Brian's elephant city and get bonus IC routes . Not a realistic goal yet though. Speaking of islands and trade routes:



I'd really like to get TGL here, though it's super late for it so it's only if I can somehow get there. First, I need the granary finished, a galley, a lighthouse, a work boat, and then TGL. Now, a chop is finishing at end of next turn which will complete the granary. Another chop coming the turn after that which will go into a galley. Thing is, I still have FOUR forests to chop for 20h apiece. Unfortunately TGL has no resource doublers, but that's still a lot of the battle. So we'll see. It would really help if I could skip the work boat or galley, but I just can't afford to do either to chase a wonder that I may likely miss. We'll see. Need to think a little more about this. I could use a settler to found that sheep/crabs site and use THAT site for my work boat which would let me skip a good bit of this. I don't want to wait much longer on a galley though for fear or losing that town to Lewwyn (that's 80g if I lose that town!). Hmm. When KP borders pop that opens up copper. I could build on the jungle hill NW of crabs and use copper to max hammer out two workboats. Galley NEEDS to come before those though for protection. Anyways, War Paint planning is going wonderfully:



WB finished and immediately netted the fish. A chop also came in which got me a 1T Granary. Unfortunately the granary is coming as I'm growing which is less than ideal, but I'll take what I can get here. This city has 3 nice improved tiles so I'll try to grow it out a bit while building a Lighthouse next. Then do the usual double whip 4->2 and regrow to 3 routine I've done a few times. I'd consider this for TGL as it's closer to being ready, but it's only got 2 forest so not so sure about that. It's certainly a safer city for it as this river is much more defensible. Hmmm. Any thoughts? That stone tile would be improved by the time I started, so that'd be another nice tile to work while building TGL. Whip Lighthouse in such a way as to overflow as best as I can into TGL, then chop the grass and plains forests to speed it along.

So those are two rough plans and cities to build it in. Any opinions? Demos:



What in the world Brian, your soldier count spiked again?? Soldier high was 79 last turn, it's now 91. This concerns me a tad.

[Ceiliazul]

I'd really like to get TGL here, though it's super late for it so it's only if I can somehow get there.

mechanics question: how many cities are coastal? Is every city that is lighthouse elegible also able to get a GLH boost?

[T-hawk]

Is every city that is lighthouse elegible also able to get a GLH boost?

Yes.

[scooter]

T-Hawk already answered the mechanics question, but currently I'm at:

2 inland cities (first 2)
4 coastal cities

Also, out of my next 8 or so cities I'd expect a minimum of 6 of them to be coastal.