[SPOILERS] The Rise and Fall of Whositania (all glory to Whositania!)

[Whosit]

Oh, wait, I was dumb. The hut spot is an illegal place to settle because it's too close to the capital. Which is a shame, because....

I only got gold, but that coast is looking much more attractive. Marble will be nice, but I won't get distracted by World Wonders. It will be nice to have for the handful of National Wonders that use Marble, though.

It's kind of tempting to swing north now, but I think I should still backtrack. Could be some nice spots north, but it's looking snaky, and I don't want to get stuck in a dead-end. Too bad I can't settle a city that can grab both the fish and crabs.

And, as you can see, teching into Agri now. Full steam ahead with the plan.

[Whosit]

OK, I'm not entirely following the conversation in the tech thread, but I think the gist is: We need to kill the lurker civ.

[Whosit]

I swear, I keep thinking I hit "end turn" but I don't. Hopefully this doesn't become a problem, but I fixed it.

Anyway.

More and more unique civ names. Generally a good thing, but:

Sorry, Barry, but if you're my neighbor, I'm going to try to destroy you. Personal bias. Maybe there are some OK bronies out there, but every one that I've met has been an insufferable prick.

In other news, a little more scouting:

More crabs. Will have to see what's further south, but where the scout is standing could be a good city location. Probably a specialist town? Hammer potential to get important buildings in, and with crab + CS irrigation, could have pretty good food potential. One problem is that it would orphan a grassland to the north, but since that's desert marble up north, could just settle on the Marble depending on what else is up there. Might be the best use of that tile, honestly. That would still produce a 2H city tile, yeah?

[Commodore]

Nope, desert marble is only 1h, so it's a 1h plant.

...not that I think you're getting better yield than 2/1/1 out of that thing.

[Whosit]

Yeah, quick WB checks confirms the city would be 2/1/1. The quarry would make it 0/2/2, so not really worth it, either, unless there are no other sources of hammers in that area.

I'm not a terribly good judge of land quality, except that one looks for more green than brown, and food resources. I hope to find more land food resources, but at least the coast is plentiful so far. Too bad I'm not FIN. I guess? Still pretty happy with my leader.

[Whosit]

Moved scout. Saw nothing new. Next turn should bring some yields.

Freaked out a bit when the diplo screen said I met Commodore until I remembered he's one of the people running the lurker civ and probably isn't about to rush me.

[Whosit]

So a few pieces of news for turn 5.

Willow Lake's borders popped, revealing a hut:

Moved scout in direction of said hut:

Grass cows: Like a mine that feeds another citizen. Desert Incense, not so great, but it's +1 happy come Calendar. The cows aren't quite what I was looking for in land food. Might be able to pick that up as a secondary for a coastal site, but later exploration will have to see if there's anything else nice hiding in the fog. At the moment, however, the southwest is looking a little dry and barren. The south east is looking nicer, mainly because of that river.

Border pop also revealed a bit north:

More crabs (wouldn't mind a clam), more cows, this times in plains flavor. Note that it's freshwater, though, so that tile to the left is probably a 1 tile lake.

Some of that foliage is forest, not jungle, so there may be opportunities for pre-Iron Working settlements up north.

Will hope I get a nice pop out of the hut next turn, and will continue to circle to the east. I'm pretty sure city 2 is still going to grab the corn/ivory spot, and city 3 could be coastal to the west, though I hope to get a bit more scouting done before then. We shall see. Hopefully I can find a few of my neighbors in the next dozen turns or so which will let me know what direction to prioritize settling.

[Whosit]

The hut gave a lame 21 gold (less than half what the first one handed out) and nothing of interest was defogged. Scout will continue in a generally easterly direction before swinging northish, and then he'll be let out into the wide world. Citizens are still hard at work producing our workboat. It would have been done by now if James wouldn't keep hammering his own fingers.

He still lacks a name. Any suggestions? I've an idea if he gets to Turn 13 without a name.

[Whosit]

So, while I wait for the turn to roll, I think I'll talk about the things that I want, but can't have: Wonders!

If I had to pick an early Wonder to get, I'd probably go for the Great Lighthouse. It looks like there's the opportunity for a lot of coastal cities. Additionally, I have a very slight advantage in that I can build a Lighthouse/Trading Post at double speed. The Great Lighthouse itself is 200 hammers, and the Trading Post is 30 for me (half of 60). So 230 hammers total. That's about 8 forests post Maths. If I ever build it, it won't be in the Capital, because I plan to chop all of those forests into Workers and Settlers. In truth, I doubt I will pursue this, but if it's still available after maths and I feel I am stable, I might take a shot.

The following are some comments that could be spoilers for PBEM 55, even though I think everyone in that game is playing in this.

I think one of the many carnival of problems with my play was that I went for the Pyramids too soon. My empire hadn't been weaned off of the capital. If I go for any wonder in this game, I won't do so until at least one other city can reliably produce workers and settlers to keep my expansion going.

Also, I just noticed that the resource multiplier for wonders seems to have been reduced from 100% to 50%. So, say I wanted the Great Library with that Marble. That's 350 hammers base. With marble that's 234 (instead of 175 like it would have been in base BtS or previous versions of the mod). I must have missed that change; I wonder why it was made? Makes Industrious stronger? Anyway, this new modifier means post-maths forests are worth 45 hammers instead of 60. I'd need 5 to complete the GL. Which is doable. Except I don't expect to travel the upper branches of the tech tree at all. I'm still planning to do a Maths > Currency > CoL path, more or less.

[Whosit]

Oh, my! Scout uncovered something nice this turn!

Gems!

This is going to make the decision about whether to get early barracks tougher. I don't think I want to change the spot of settlement (I also wonder if that blank tile hides a resource, too). My early game should be about getting as many Settlers, Workers, and Warriors produced that I can, but a Gem mine at my second city would give my early teching a very nice boost. I think it's about time I update my Sandbox and do a little work. I don't want the Barracks earlier than I need it, but I want to make sure borders pop when I have a Worker available to start mining. It's also on a direct river connection, unlike the Ivory, so I don't have to build a road to get the happy benefits.

If Copper turns up nearby, I may delay AH until after Pottery (but before Writing).

Also here's an overview of what I've uncovered so far.

Next turn I'll probably move the scout SE-SE (3-3) onto that hill, at which point I'll start the northeast trajectory. City 2 is going to be a commerce town for sure.