[SPOILERS] Will the Sun(rise) Ever Set on Washington, Mongolia?

[Whosit]

Finished the turn. I have CH poking around up north with a Warrior, and Zulu Impi to the south. Oh, and the barbarians to the north, as well. Just leave me alone guys!

So no one has Currency yet. That's neat. I guess. Once Currency is in, and assuming I haven't restored trade routes with Johns somehow, I'm planning to gift them 1 gpt until I can offer them a resource gift. I'm preeeetty sure 1 gpt isn't really going to harm me at all, but it should signal my good intentions once again.



Worker actions for my notes. I'm gonna work on condensing my notes and then post the proper plan. And hope I won't have to change it yet again. But, hey, in a week's time I might be the proud owner of the Hanging Gardens! (I also really hope I can land the SoZ, too.)

[Whosit]

OK, here's the finalized... Hanging Garden plan! I'm pretty sure I corrected all my screw-ups, too.

T92:
City Builds: Stanford (Library > Galley); Wendy (Lighthouse > Settler).
City Tasks: Robby work forest hill.
Worker Orders: Worker at (-1,-2) Cottage; Worker at (-2,10) Road (finish); Worker at (-2,8) Chop; Robbie Worker Chop (finish); Worker at (-2,-5) Mine; Worker at (2,9) Move to (2,10), Road; Workers at (-3,-2) and (-2,-2) Road; Worker at (4,-4) Chop (finish); 2 Workers at (0,6) Move to (-1,8).

T93:
City Builds: Soos (Archer > Axeman); Robbie (Monument > Granary).
City Tasks: Stanford works new Cottage.
Worker Orders: Worker at (-1,-2) Cottage (finish); Worker at (-2,-5) Mine; Worker at (-2,10) Move to (-3,11); Worker at (-2,8) Chop (Finish); Workers at (-3,-2) and (-2,-2) Road (Finish); Worker at (4,-4) Move to (5,-4); 2 Workers at (-1,8) Road (finish); Worker at (1,8) Chop (stop).

T94:
City Builds: Soos (Axeman > Chariot); Worker at (-3,11) Road.
City Tasks: 3-Pop Whip Mabel; 2-Pop Whip Dipper (?); 1-Pop Whip Gideon; Mabel Works Cottage; Gideon Works Gold.
Worker Orders: Worker at (-3,11) Road; Worker at (5,-4) Move to (6,-4); Worker at (-2,-5) Mine; Worker at (-1,-2) Move to (0,1) Cottage (stop); 2 Workers at (-1,8) Chop (stop); Worker at (1,8) Chop (stop); Worker at (-2,8) Move to (0,8) Chop (stop); Worker at (-2,-2) Move to (-1,0); Worker at (-3,-1) Move to (0,1).

T95:
Tech: Currency > Masonry (0%).
City Builds: Stanford (Galley > Worker); Dipper (Library > Chariot); Giddeon (Granary > Work Boat)
City Tasks: Dipper - Convert 2 Citizens to Scientists and give Wheat to Soos Worker Orders: 2 Workers at (0,1) Move to (1,3), Farm (finish); Worker at (-1,0) Move to (0,4); Worker at (6,-4) Mine; Worker at (-2,-5) Mine (finish); Worker at (-3,11) Road (Finish); Move Settler, Cover w/ Spear; Worker at (1,8) Move to (2,9); 1 Worker at (-1,8) Move to (1,11); Workers at (0,8) and (-1,8) Move to (-2,10) Chop (stop).

T96:
Tech: Masonry > Aesthetics
City Builds: Soos (Chariot > Chariot); Gideon (Work Boat > Lighthouse); Settle Toby Determined (Monument...)
Worker Orders: Worker at (-3,11) Move to (2,13) Road; Worker at (6,-4) Mine; Worker at (-2,-5) Move to (-2,-4); 2 Workers at (-2,10) Move to (-3,11) Chop (stop); Worker at (1,11) Move to (1,12); Worker at (2,9) Move to (2,10); 2 Workers at (1,3) Move to (1,5) Farm; Worker at (0,4) Mine.

T97:
City Builds: Dipper (Chariot > Wealth)
City Tasks: Pacifica 2-Pop Whip; 2-Pop Whip Wendy.
Worker Orders: Worker at (-2,13) Road; Net Giddeon Clams; Worker at (0,4) Mine; Worker (6,-4) Mine; Worker at (-2,-4) Move to (-3,-3); 1 Worker at (-3,10) Move to (-2,13) Quarry; 1 Worker at (-3,10) Move to (-2,8); Worker at (1,12) Chop; Worker at (2,10) Chop; 2 Workers at (1,5) Farm (finish).

T98:
City Builds: Stanford (Worker > Work Boat); Wendy (Settler > Worker); Soos (Chariot > Wealth); Pacifica (Lighthouse > Wealth)
City Tasks: 2-Pop Whip McGucket; Swap Mabel to Aqueduct
Worker Orders: Workers at (-2,13) Quary; Worker at (-2,9) Chop; Worker at (0,4) Move to (2,7); 2 Workers at (1,5) Move to (0,7); Worker at (0,0) Move to (0,4); Worker at (-3,-3) Road; Worker at (6,-4) Mine; Workers at (1,12) and (2,10) Chop.

T99:
Tech: Aesthetics (100%, 3T).
City Builds: Stanford (Work Boat > Market); McGucket (LH > Monument)
City Tasks: 2-Pop Whip Mabel; McGucket works Cottage.
Worker Orders: Workers at (-2,13) Quary; 2 Workers at (0,7) Road (finish); Worker at (2,7) Move to (1,8); Worker at (0,4) Mine; Worker at (-3,-3) Road (finish); Settle Lazy Susan (Monument); Worker at (6,-4) Mine; Worker at (-2,9) Chop; Workers at (1,12) and (2,10) Chop (finish).

T100:
City Builds: N/A
City Tasks: Swap Mabel to Hanging Gardens!! & Make sure that all forests are given to Mabel!
Worker Orders: 1 Worker at (-2,13) Quarry (finish; 1 Worker at (-2,13) Move to (-2,10) Chop (finish); Worker at (-2,9) Chop (finish); Workers at (0,7) Split to (0,8) and (-1,8) Chop (finish); Worker at (1,8) Chop (finish); Worker at (0,4) Mine (finish); Worker at (6,-4) Mine; Worker at (-3,-3) Move to (-5,-4); Workers at (1,12) and (2,10) Move to (1,11) Road (finish).

Units: 11 Workers, 6 Archers, 4 Chariots, 7 Warriors, 5 Axemen, 2 Spearmen, 3 Galleys
Demos: GNP 141 (100%), Prod 60, Food 142
11 Cities w/ 49 population points

T101:
Tech: Aesthetics > Iron Working (0%)
City Builds: Wendy (Worker > Market).
City Tasks: Swap Soos to SoZ; Swap Pacifica to Market; Gideon Work Gold; 1-Pop Whip Susan.
Worker Orders:

Start of term stats
Units: 12 Workers, 6 Archers, 4 Chariots, 7 Warriors, 5 Axemen, 2 Spearmen, 3 Galleys
Demos: GNP 165 (100%)/143 (pulled soos off wealth), Prod 71, Food 161
11 Cities w/ 61 population points

I didn't really figure out what to do on T101 yet besides celebrate if I pull this off. I'm lining up Markets in a few cities, mainly to boost the happy cap, but perhaps I should wait until Calendar? Stanford needs the market, though, because the HG pop puts it over the current cap. I'd like the Market in Wendy so I can grow it larger and work more cottages. Mabel is going to need one eventually to deal with its own happiness issues. However, I should probably queue up a Settler somewhere and start my grand expansion spree once again. I'm not too far behind my neighbors right now, but they're steadily adding cities.

[Whosit]

Turn 93 was played, and it was a tense one.

Judaism fell this turn. Everyone got a score increase this turn, so I'm not sure who got it.



The first thing I did was take this fight. I tightly held a good-luck charm as I gave the order.



After many tense moments (made longer because I think my internet connection cut out briefly) I was rewarded with a victory!



My Axeman earned 4 XP for the victory, and because I'm Charismatic, that means two available promotions! Better to be lucky than good, I suppose.



I've been keeping an eye on the trade screen so I spotted that Elum was the first to tech to Currency. So he's not the one who got Judaism at least. I'm not too far behind, either.



Decided to take a gander at the power screen again. CH and Johns are in an arms race, it seems. I'm lagging a little behind, but my power should go up a few ticks when Soos and Dipper finish their rounds of Chariots. Grimace is climbing in power, too, unfortunately, while Elum seems to be getting away with minimal military.



#1 city in the world!



I'm really glad I won that battle, because CH has warriors on either side of Mabel, poking around. I'll need all the units I can spare to defend my workers. Hopefully I don't become the victim of any more barbarian attacks for a few more turns. (I forgot to move my current chariot north, so I might log back in to do that.) I also have a warrior of my own hanging out near Carib just to keep an eye out and make sure CH doesn't try to steal the spot from me.

[Whosit]

Played Turn 94. My copy of CIV now seems to refuse to use any of the profiles I make. I'm just using "default_profile" with the settings I want and hoping it doesn't decide to forget those settings next time I load up. (And all of a sudden the site logged me out, too. WTF.) Anyway, feeling... better about things. CH moved the warrior North of Gideon away instead of hanging around to threaten my workers. Impi down south appears to back off. I also got vision on the Zulu city southwest of Wendy because I realized I could do that. It has a workboat just built, so I'm guessing the borders pop there next turn to get the clams.

Grimace just joined Elum in the "has currency club" and so I'll be third place. Scarily, Elum looks to be on full cash and is earning 54 gpt. If I switch to full cash I'm only pulling in like ~30 gpt. Ouch. He has one more city than me and is IND/IMP so it's not like he has some big econ advantage over me. Seems like he's built up a better economy for sure, though. Ah, but of course, he has Currency and has 11 more trade routes than me right now, so we'll see how things change next turn.

Zulu has got a real big power spike on the charts. Next turn I am definitely gifting them 1 gpt to signal my good and friendly intentions. I don't wanna tangle with them one bit. Whipped a total of 6 pop this turn, so my food dropped from 1st to 4th. I'm still only 10 units behind the leader, so it's interesting that there's such a close cluster near the top. MFG also dropped to #4, 14 points behind the leader. Population is still #1 because of my size 10 capital (though this turn the Persian Stonehenge city made it to the #1 city spot!).

I also noticed something interesting poking around the trade screen. I only have trade routes with CH, Elum, and Grimace. CH and Grimace each have Copper, Horses, and 2 grain resources (corn/rice in their case). Elum has only Copper, and no grains at all (he does have all sea food and meats, though so do I). Not much else to say I suppose. Just one turn closer to having the Hanging Gardens, hopefully.

[Whosit]

I'm re-reading Commodore's PB13 thread. Always something to take away from there. Now I realize why my economy is going to tank in the next few dozen turns: I think I only have 15 or so cottages empire-wide! Once Project: Hanging Gardens is complete, and I get markets in key towns, I need to crank out some more settlers and workers, and start laying down more cottages everywhere I can. Sadly, Stanford Pines is never going to be an Ottawa, but there's plenty of green in my empire that isn't cottaged yet. Perhaps later today I can update my sandbox and see what sort of goals I should be setting for myself after turn 100. Can I be working 30+ cottages by T120? That might be a good place to start.

[Whosit]

FUCK!!



Of course. There was no way this wasn't going to happen. The only upshot is that I can settle directly onto the Stone and maybe actually get the HG faster (will have trade route to Mabel across that lake, I think). However, this I will not stand for. I want to see this city burned. I don't know what kind of forces in the area, but a few turns ago I spotted 2 Axes in Carib. At the start of the turn, my warrior was stationed in the forest 1N of Florence and saw nothing, so a Worker pair must have been in Carib or on the sheep and the Settler not far behind.

I think on Turn 97, I could have 2 Chariots, 2 Axes, and 1 Spear in range to attack. They can rally 2W of Mabel, which should be out of sight range of Florence (unless CH posts a unit in Neutral territory). Alternatively, some units could station in the stone city. As long as CH lacks spears in the city, I think I can burn it. I'm tempted to divert Wendy's Settler up there to resettle 1E of Florence, but that may not be the best choice. However, I will have to rush a Settler out to claim the spot myself or CH can just resettle after peace.

It's possible I'll cool down in a couple turns (CH does have a much higher power than me), but maybe the Zulu will hop on if the see a city raze, and I have this sneaking suspicion that CH rushed this Settler out when he spotted my work group a few turns ago. I can probably live by letting this slide, but this is a blow to my pride.

[Whosit]

OK, so I can definitely get the HG on schedule barring any additional aggression from CH. The proximity of his city means I'm going to have to really cover all my workers, though, because if he does have Chariots in Florence, he could use those 2 workers to build a combat rode and snipe the workers in the western Mabel forests. I'll have to see how I can shuffle my units around.

As for war, I could attack on Turn 98, and bring 2 Axemen, 1 Spearman, and 3 Chariots to the fight. I'd really kill for a 4 XP chariot right now, though, because I'd really love to have Sentry to peek into the city. I do also need to remember that CH's Axes are all Shock by default, and will probably be C1/Shock from the Barracks. I don't think he has much in the city right now, but he has 4 turns to move units in. Would I be wiser to wait until turn 101? Would I be wiser to not attack at all? This is incredibly infuriating and frustrating.

[Whosit]

OK T95.

Fuck my life.

This is the north/south. Took this screeny so maybe I can figure out WTF to do with this land (assuming I get some of it).



I realized I can get vision on these cities by getting a unit back to the far hill. I have a Chariot and assuming I can spare it next couple turns, I'm gonna send it out there to spy on things. And it could still hit the city on T98 if I decided to attack.



"Let's be friends! Please don't kill me!"



Power graphs continue to be scary. What's sad is that my power isn't really bad, but it just looks bad compared to my scary neighbors.



Demos? I was at 166 GNP when I was at 100% this turn (I guess 'cuz I had both pre-reqs for Masonry). Hopefully these look better in half a dozen turns.



So Johns already played, but I doubt they'll turn down a free 1 gpt.

As for HRE... I am still incredibly furious. However, the rational side of me realizes that although CH's city sniping cost me the Marble (for now), it doesn't impact my immediate plans and doesn't really prevent me from accessing the unsettled areas (though it gives him better access and I get the feeling that with his IMP settlers he's going to try and fill it up very quickly....). So... assuming my Chariot makes it to that hill unmolested, I'll decide what to do based on what I see.

I also really, really hope that CH doesn't try to kill any of my Workers. I'm using up a lot more units defending my workers than I originally planned to.

....It'd really be nice to have some words of wisdom about now.

[novice]

It's hard to judge without delving into the game and studying the map, graphs, demos, tech situation etc. but it looks like you'll have to fight CH. Maybe tech HBR and whip all the HG population into HAs. But really, this is very uninformed advice.

[Whosit]

I guess that's... fair. I know I'm going to have to fight CH on a larger scale eventually, I just wonder if I should swallow my pride this time, grab whatever more land I can, maybe gnaw on Korea a little, and then attack him? Well, I get that you can only give me limited advice. I guess I also worry that whipping out a bunch of HAs will just ruin both our chances at the game (everyone else is steadily adding new cities). I don't really want to do a repeat of our performance in PB18.

I was thinking of getting IW after Masonry (I was originally planning Aesthetics for SoZ). I kind of want/need IW to chop out some jungles at new city spots, but I'm not sure when SoZ usually gets built in an RtR game. I have a hunch that it's ~T110-115, but I am not sure. I really want to land that wonder so I am not sure if it's better to gimp a couple of my newer cities for a little while in order to give myself a better shot at it.