[SPOILERS - PBEM17] darrelljs - Elizabeth of Egypt

[Krill]

HG at 10 cities, T58: Fine.
HG at 9 cities, T57, with 10th city T58: Fine.
HG at 6 cities T54, with 10th city T58: Fine.

So long as the cities go down, I don't really care. We want that central area and we want to be in a position to defend it. Wonders are not part of the core strategy, we don't need them. We do need the land though, we do need the resources, and we do need to start getting a move on. If you hadn't noticed, the top score is 289 and the bottom 255, 261 if you take into account our tech that we have mostly researched and are leaving for the moment.

I'd also point out our crop yield isn't that bad. Yes, we need granaries, yes our pop is a little down, but that is to be expected against 3 EXP opponents and another that is CRE. Right now we are down 57 to 71 after settling the city, next turn we have a corn and clams online. We are getting a prophet real soon...our game plan basically revolves around getting more GP than the other civs, so all we are supposed to be doing in crop yield, number of cities, land area is "keeping up".

[darrelljs]

Okay, both of my dedicated lurkers favor a focus on cities, so that's what I'm doing . As usual, let's start with scouting, and this time its the northern Warrior:



Finally a glimpse nospace's mainland, next turn I should defog that city tile and we'll see if Krill knows what he's talking about vis-a-vis trade routes. This is a nice site obviously, with Fish and Corn already visible. Southwest scouting:



This is, apparently, where regoarrarr lives. I want to at least get that Gold and really I want more of course. Finally, our eastern Warrior:



Sugar AND Bananas. The Bananas are a bit awkward, but they can be picked up from a different tentacle. nospace have added Gold and Stone:



The latter is of course another warning sign on The Hanging Gardens, however they could also be going for the Pyramids. Demographics:



We suck. For now.

Turn 50 State of the Empire

Here's an overview of the wonderous Egyptian land:



Here's an overview of our cities:



Now let's run through the cities, starting with Brazil:



It would be nice to get a Library and Academy in Brazil, grow it to size 15, and work a bunch of cottages. Very nice, but the whip can be addictive . USA:



Oh look, we finally have a second city with a Granary. Man we need more of those. Anyway, we have here another powerful commerce city. In the future. After we stop whipping. The distant future. India:



We've worked on that Granary for half the game, but somehow it never gets finished . I really need more Granaries. India is a marginal commerce city, settled for the Stone. USSR:



I think better planning would have gotten me the shrine much sooner, but cest la vie. This city has great commerce potential, AND enough forests for the Mausoleum. Japan:



Commerce city. Thailand:



Commerce city. The Clams are netted next turn.

Economy:



Eh. Could be worse.

Darrell

[NobleHelium]

With nospace picking up Stone, I'd definitely move the HG timing up to turn 54 if possible. Most likely every island has Stone, and you don't have contact/trade routes with anyone else.

[Gold Ergo Sum]

Is HG even worth it with only six cities? I would think going for 9 and if you miss, getting more workers and settlers is fine too.

Where is my corn at the copper city? Daddy needs his high fructose corn syrup immediately.

[NobleHelium]

The HG is worth engineer points too, which you can use for say, GLib.

[Krill]

We're not going anywhere near Lit for a while...

[darrelljs]

I'm actually with NobleHelium on this one, I think HG (with Stone) is worth it at six cities, and I think the GE points are either going to get me a faster Academy or save a ton of pop/forests that would be going to the MoM otherwise. But, both dedicated lurkers already talked me out of it so we are on the eot57 path; forever will it dominate our future. Or at least the next six turns. Speaking of turns, this was an eventful one . First, scouting:



Too bad Seaside isn't the city with The Great Lighthouse . Now let's see if those foreign, intercontinental trade routes start popping up next turn like Krill promised me. Someone else's scouting for once:



Shoot sent me an e-mail, I'll get to diplo in the next post though. I saw no reason to offer open borders at this time. I would not be surprised if he's angling for Magellan's. I haven't exactly given up on it, but we haven't started by t57, so it seems unlikely. Eastern warrior finds Spices:



Oh, and another neighbor . Kyan is thinking of quitting the game so I don't want to load him down with diplo, but a short greeting at least is in order. To complete the quadfecta, our southwestern warrior finds:



Jack. Oh well. Now for some info on the micro plan. I'm building 4 Settlers, an Aqueduct, and the Hanging Gardens in the next four turns with my five slow Workers. Oh, and the Kashi Vishwanath. One simple settler for red dot is a 4->2 whip from USA. Nothing really to that one, I overflowed from the workboat into the Settler, then swapped to a Lighthouse this turn as I grow back to size 4, then put one turn into the Settler and whip it. The fun part with that city is how fast it can get to red dot, but that's for a later turn report. India is also building a Settler, for purple dot:



Since India lacks whip overflow, I am going to chop a forest and then 4->2 whip the city. If the Hanging Gardens falls, Guile stays with the new city to get a road for faster founding, then the Corn. Japan builds the third Settler for white dot:



Japan has Corn and Copper and two forests to chop. Not much science there, no whip necessary. Brazil builds the last Settler:



I decided in my Hanging Gardens hedging that slow building the Settler was the right plan. I want to delay putting hammers into (and whipping) the Aqueduct until the turn before The Hanging Gardens is built. So this Settler is slow built. This plan also avoids triple stacking whip anger . Demographics:



Average GNP, average crop yield, terrible MFG. I'm so stoked .

Darrell

[Krill]

Going clockwise from us the team order is us/NoSpace/StM/rego/Kyan.

Just need rego to get a boat out now to find us...

[darrelljs]

Okay, so now a diplomatic focused note. First, a quick IM with nospace:

Darrell: Hey
Met Kyan officially and Shoo this turn
I turned all EPs off you
I am at 40, so you likely need to get to 40 to see my charts

Indeed, I moved all EPs onto Kyan this turn:



Shoot is currently putting 2/turn on me. That to me indicates he has met regoarrarr, because I believe he has enough EPs to see nopace's charts already. Or not. In any case, I'll be curious to see what Kyan does. Here is Kyan's trade screen BTW:



I find it funny that the non-EXP civs are the first to six cities . Kyan, according to Krill, has Mathematics. Fast expansion, Mathematics, access to Stone? I expect we'll see that popping up on his trade screen soon, and the HG falling the following turn . Unless of course Shoot beats him to it:



Krill also believes another player has Mathematics, which would be Shoot the Moon (as great as nospace's GNP is, they just got Writing last turn). Wheat and Deer are things we lack. I want to trade Corn for Wheat before someone else beats us to it.

Darrell

[Krill]

Yeah, trading for wheat would be nice...