[Spoilers] It's time to play the music

[ipecac]

Turn 138

Mack is either claiming the gems or invading OT4E... He's 4 turns from Optics and also just adopted Theocracy .

Nav II galleys incoming.

[ipecac]

I think we misread mack: he's not going to go for Liberalism just yet, he's going to spam his UUs and take down some poor neighbour. Since he wants Bureaucracy for his super-capital, he had to get Theology for 2 more XP to get CRII Berserkers with Nav I/II galleys.

[Old Harry]

Turn 139

This is nice, but entirely accidental . Waldorf is going to be a fine production city, especially if it gets the wheat back to grow a bit more. Although we might only spend the next golden age in Caste (possibly switching back to Serfdom at the end) so are plains workshops worth it?


This is crazy: +15 food means it grew from 4 last turn. I've been building the work boat instead of the forge because the raw 3 hammers get the 35% EXP bonus but not the 25% religion bonus. Not entirely sure that's sensible . Needs a library to unlock the National Epic.


Back to Fozzie - working the spy, not to speed up the GP but to try and spawn a great spy - a market in Big Bird is the cheapest way to get GP slots but we need a different GP to whatever we get here...


This turn's conundrum is whether to:
- move the Settler + 2 Longbows to the grass hill so they can settle next turn
- wait a turn for the roads to be complete (two workers will arrive on the grass hill forest next turn)
- or just settle in place on top of the forest now (losing a chop but gaining two turns of city, but losing shared horse and first-ring sugar)


I moved a sacrificial Vulture to get sight on the hill and decided that the odds were good enough to move. OT4E could still have a stack of HAs in the fog to hit with, but I feel pretty good about this move. The vulture is dead now, but at least he stopped OT4E using the pig for a turn...


Mack is building up power too quick for my liking. We could get Optics in 5 turns if we delay Literature (6-7 if we don't), but I think Compass might suffice for now. Then we save cash on Philo-Nat and tech Optics quick if there is a reason to panic.


Mack's galley moved away, settler due in 5, but the jungle road isn't going to be fully in place for him...


With 50 gpt of wealth builds cancelling out our 45 gpt of unit costs our GNP is second of the non-GA civs .

[ipecac]

Although we might only spend the next golden age in Caste (possibly switching back to Serfdom at the end) so are plains workshops worth it?

Currently food surplus is zero. We can replace 2 mines with windmills to get enough food to grow onto a plains workshop, with net gain in Caste (with windmill giving +1 f 0h 1c and workshop -1f +3 h) is 2 commerce per pop that grows onto workshop. Doesn't seem worthwhile in Caste.

[Old Harry]

Turn 140

Two new cities this turn.


Ernie will use the 5-hammer iron mine from next turn meaning 10.5 hpt. Each chop brings in 52.5 hammers so need to try and time it for odd numbers of chops on each turn. We don't have enough forests to 1-turn the wonder, so I'm not being too careful with the build, but it should be done eot148.


Mr Snuffleupagus revealed some sneaky horsies.


Luckily we have some Spears, Maces and Longbows to defend with. The forest hill gets roaded next turn, J and H get roads t143 and we'll save the forest chop in case walls look necessary. J could donate another spear to MS but I worry what is on the other side of Cutthroat. I'm not sure when it'll be safe to improve the Sugar.


Its been a while since the last big overview map and we uncovered a bunch of stuff recently. Click to embiggen.

[ipecac]

Comparing screenshots from T139 and T140, OT4E pillaged the road with his axe+spear ministack, and used the workers (with the HA) to chop the jungle.

Doesn't seem to make any sense at all.

[Old Harry]

Turn 141

Met 2metra! He has eleven cities and is still at war with Pindicator who has razed (I think) one city. Interestingly the Mids and The Great Library aren't on the wonders list any more. Were they in that city?




Located OT4E's cat stack, although I'm not sure where the HAs went.


REM suddenly started spending EPs on us. We're at 180/42 and I swear I could see his graphs last turn, so did he run the slider? Anyway, Longbows dialled up in TSC and Gonzo, just in case. Mack is building a lot of power since he got access to Berserkers. I'm sending a work boat his way to investigate, but I think OT4E is more likely to be the target. I should have offered him OBs.


Everyone else is out of their golden ages now.

[Old Harry]

Turn 142

Two turns in a day! TBS teched paper at some point recently (I haven't looked at this screen for a few turns). But he doesn't have Philosophy so I don't think he'll beat Mack to Liberalism (where Mack will take Astronomy) without some spectacular bulbing. TBS also lacks Calendar, HBR, Iron Working and Construction. I think that's good for us, right?


The techs available to us now are:
- Drama 0 people know
- Theology 2 - TBS, Mack
- Music 1 - I suspect Mack, although he's CRE so it was just for the Artist?
- Guilds 1 - Commodore, REM or Mack?
- phil 1 - Mack
- paper 1 - TBS
- HBR 4 - OT4E, 3 others
- Eng 0
- Optics 2 - Mack, ?
I'm now worried about REM building a big army of Knights and Galleying them over, Commodore doing the same and using Carracks to attack from the fog and Mack using Galleons to Zerk us. I'd like Optics to get a few Caravels out there to patrol the waves and Paper to know who has which techs, but I think we can only afford one of them, so I went for Optics, which will complete this turn.

In more immediate war paranoia news our workers are plantating our sugar. With no Axes in range our three Spears and a Sword should do the trick. I abandoned the forest hill next to MS in the hope OT4E moves his mini-stack there. I want to do something about unit costs, get us closer to the next GG and get one of our swords to 10XP. If he doesn't bite then we'll just wait for borders to pop and hit them where they are instead.

[ipecac]

Too bad mack isn't reporting. I would love to see his zerk attack plan.

[Old Harry]

Turn 143

At some point in the last three turns Mackoti acquired the barb city - it didn't show up in Civstats though, so I don't know when. Also note that the barbarians now have sailing . We'll 3-turn a Caravel from Waldorf to dispatch the barb Galley and then go spy on Mack.


Mack is up Music, Philosophy, Nationalism and Paper, down Feudalism and Construction, we both have Optics and neither of us have HBR.


Good news! Commodore is the one with Guilds, and seems to be pointing east towards TBS/Pindicator.


So I'm less worried about REM's motives, but getting a navy to keep an eye on him is still a priority.


Big Bird will hit size 11 in three more turns, at which point it'll go max hammers to get infrastructure up for producing great people. I had planned to chain irrigation inland to grow Oscar and Cookie Monster, but Wetbandit and ipecac (channelling T-hawk) think we need more cottages 30 turns ago to improve our economy...


Is this bodyguard strong enough to face down 2 Cats, 5 HA and an Axe? I moved most of the reserves into MS just in case we need a counter-strike. MS now contains 6 Cats, 5 Vultures, 5 Swords, 2 Chariots and a Longbow. OT4E didn't take the forest-hill bait so we'll just have to wait a couple of turns for the border pop to hit his jungle squad.


Not far off on population, CRE and the artist bomb probably help on land area.


Mack is about to hit someone. Perhaps a someone with a shrine and a pre-occupation with a neighbour?


Thanks to Big Bird we finally took back the #1 food stat last turn and extended our lead this turn.