(SPOILERS) Amicalola and Irismono Try Their Best

[Irismono]

I'm against it, the cons outweigh the pros in this case.

[Amicalola]

Yeah, as am I, having thought about it some more. Still considering a detour to archery depending on the location of copper, or a detour to hunting after The Wheel, for archers/spears respectively, before terraces.

[Amicalola]

Planning to do a big update on Thursday morning, about 40 hours from now in theory. Apologies again for having been pretty bad with it, it's that time of semester in Aussie Uni where all the mid-semester assignments are due. 50% of my history subject mark + 40% of my other history mark + 50% of my psychology subject mark goes in between now (Tuesday evening) and Thursday morning and then I am free! ..for two weeks.

Have revealed copper on a river to the northwest, going to settle on top of it and will have trade routes along river to capital in 17 turns. Except, I'm doing something pretty weird, and chopping a monument in the cap to shave 5 turns off that. it's about as short term an investment as i could possibly make considering we'll have terraces in 20 turns, but I'm very spooked about mr war chariots over there. Revolted into slavery this turn, and researching hunting. Planning to double whip a spear followed by another spear most likely once Hunting is finished and trade routes established with copper city (~12 Turns?). Have explored pretty far west, and still not met other neighbour. Do I even have other neighbour? Must be far away, altho EG is so much closer so maybe I'm about to run into them. Thinking about sending west-quechua home for zone defense or keep exploring out. Not sure yet. Feel like i should at least work out who is near and how far i can expect to expand that way, since north is out and south/east are both ocean. This will be with pictures and much more explanation (and grammar!) Thursday. Just wanted to let you know I am still alive and thinking about the game. Ultimate irony is if after all my WC paranoia El Grillo plays 4D chess and comes with axeman against my spears and warriors. Don't *think* he could realistically come before the first spear, if he can it will be VERY close. Hopefully not.

[Amicalola]

Still can do that post this morning, though won't have quite as much time as I thought. Urgently requesting a sub for a small period of time, likely until Tuesday (Monday night for you Yanks). Will have access to the forums, but not access to the game, starting in about 12 hours. Will try to leave 10 turns worth of instructions in that post, though it is likely EG may or may not much those plans up anyway. Irismono, let me know if you're available. Otherwise, should i post to the general thread? Not sure how this works, I'm sorry.

[Amicalola]

OK, so!

   

We have chopped a monument in the capital just in time to save the most turns off border expansion. It happens in 11 turns from now. From that point, we can build spears in both capital and second city, Second city is currently working on a quechua, but as soon as Hunting is finished I'm hoping to dump enough hammers into a spear there to make it a one-pop whip if necessary. Plan for the workers is to chop/mine the riverside plains hill, then farm a floodplains at the second city, since Food/hammers is definitely what we need most right now, rather than commerce. The chop and hammer overflow will either go into a third worker, or a series of quechuas, haven't decided yet. Probably the worker, at a certain point paranoia will lose me the game. Am thinking of most forests as free real estate right now, since with our comp it's all about winning early/mid anyway, right? 

The second city, Gooch Mtn., was founded on top of the copper to save the turns mining it and also make it unpillageable. Once borders from the capital expand, we have a permanent connection as long as both cities are owned by us. Spear will probably be double whipped ASAP because once they're out and about I'm not at all scared of EG anymore. Well, only a little...  

Because of that plan I want 4 improved tiles at the capital (river plains mine seemed the best candidate for no. 4), and after that will be working on roads and second city farms/cottages/mines. As well as prep for a third city, I'm thinking the plains hill 2-east, 1-south of the corn at the bottom of the screenshot (was just cut out), for a city with clams/corn/silver/lighthouse freshwater tiles once borders expand. Will be a very strong city. I am thinking about waiting until terraces to build it so we can expand borders super quick, maybe even chop the grasshill forest to grab a terrace there basically the turn we found it. Plan for techs is to go Wheel/Pottery after Hunting, which means that was the only unplanned tech! Hooray for river copper!

We also met Vanrober! Or rather, he zoomed past our western quechua (I think). Can't guarantee it, but he is likely our western neighbour. I don't know anything about him as a player, but maybe you do? He's further away than El Grillo without a doubt, so I'm less immediately concerned.

Let me know what you think of all the above! Also let me know if you are able to sub for me, won't be for very long, and I will be in constant communication the entire time, I just won't have access to a desktop computer and won't be able to run civ ( Sorry about the short notice. El Grillo likely has improved his horses by now (if he didn't outright settle on them) if he is planning a rush, so the key turns are basically the next 10-15. Can he trample us with horses before we poke him with spears? I'm... not sure. I'll be pretty sad if he can though, because I've taken about as defensive a course as possible, especially with that chopped monument. Other than, ironically, founding a religion straight away, there isn't a whole lot I could have done differently re: defense (my micro is likely a different story). 


[fairly irrelevant backstory starts here]
What the hell are my city names, anyway? If anyone is curious, I walked the Appalachian Trail in 2019, and these are the names of shelters I  remember distinctly, generally because something happened there. Springer Mtn. Shelter is the start point of the trail, whereas Gooch Mtn. Shelter was where I met my (soon to be) companions, 'PB' and 'Giggles.' It was my second day on the trail, and I'd stupidly decided to do 16 miles (far too much for an inexperienced walker). I arrived at camp at 6:30 when it was getting dark, rolled out a sleeping bag without my air mattress, ate 3 packets of raw ramen noodles (too tired to cook), lay down for a minute, and... fell asleep. At 7pm. With other hikers being noisy all around me. On a hardwood floor. Waking up the next morning, the two chatted with me for a while having noticed just how 'out of it' I was, we set off from camp the next day and walked together, and the rest was history. 
We just kinda... stuck. I doubt I'd have made it further than about 100 miles without these guys (I was embarrassingly under-prepared in both skills and equipment), so meeting them is probably the single most important piece of the trail for me. Anyway, nostalgic ramble over. Hopefully these stories will become more interesting as they transition from "met a buddy" to "the night of the bear attack," or "the night we all got food poisoning."

[Amicalola]

Password for my civ is: Springer

[Amicalola]

I should also say, I think I want the overflow from the chopped monument to go into some quexhuas, maybe 3? 4 total is probably enough to hold a city on a hill(?), and they can guard future cities without building defenders most likely. Will then whip either a settler or worker depending on how confident I’m (and the sub if I can get one) feeling re: defense

[Irismono]

Looking good, not really much to criticize from my end, I can sub in for the turn if absolutely necessary, but it will be tight. RL is hectic ATM.

I have not encountered Vanrober before, but given the distance I don't think we need to worry about him.

[Miguelito]

I should be able to take the turns, but I'm spoiled, so in order to keep it kosher I would like to get very specific instructions (where to move units, what to do with workers, build queues, whips, assigned tiles ideally, tech, gold saving, espionage...). Or Irismono if you prefer to play I'll step aside of course

Is there a turn prefer Id have to consider?

I'd post overview shots every turn so you know what's going on and can give instructions.

[Amicalola]

Hi Miguelito,
that'd be amazing! If Irismono can't. No turn prefer to consider right now, and I doubt I'll be attacked before I'm back (famous last words). As far as instruction for this specific turn, I'd like both workers to mine that forested riverplains hill in the capital BFC (or this turn move to it, mine next turn), and the capital overflow production to go into a couple of quechuas for the next couple of turns, I think it'll be one produced a turn fora few unless I've forgotten ow overflow works in vanilla. Western quechua I've forgotten the exact position of, either feel free to move it generally this turn and I'll give instructions starting next, or if you're worried about being spoiled, just leave it for this turn and I'll eat a turn of no movement.
Thankyou! To either of you. whoever plays out the turns.