[Spoilers] Alhazard goes back to BTS

[Alhazard]

T48




Surprised how close horse is by. Honestly I don't like it because it does encourage chariot rushes when horse is closer than copper. Yeah you have impi's but copper close by means you can build axes to defend at least. Not a huge priority to hook it up because I want this city working a 7 food surplus as much as possible to enable 6->3 settler whips. Probably will have the worker who will cottage the tile N of silver claim it. Discount card is now working the 2/1 because right now 2/1 is > 1/2 given that 1f = 2h at this stage of the game. Working the 2/1 will get the granary to exactly 30h next turn, when it is 1 whippable. Also the warrior that was south is now guarding the capital, and the capital's warrior is now going to scout 1 turn early.
Global 6 tile increase. Probably because of Discord team's religion but still can't account for the 1 tile gain last turn.
SD and DZ grew their 2nd cities by 1 size, 3 and 2 respectively. Gavagai settled his 3rd city after I played. Global power increase of 5k.

T49












Warrior will step into the forest tile NW of the sheep next turn. Will there be food? if not, probably will settle on the PH and farm the SW tile of the sheep to get extra food to the city. When civil service comes, the tile S of sheep can be farmed and spread irrigation but that is a long time off. Bambi finished worker (at exactly 60/60) and will chop the forest S with the worker that was roading copper for the granary. Whipped granary at Discount card and it will grow to size 2 just in time to pickup the cow. Funny how the micro works out sometimes.
Global increase of 17 tiles. I know Gav planted his city but where is the other gain coming from? Did DZ chop his granary in the 2nd city?
Gav grew his 2nd city to size 3. DZ grew his cap to 5. Commodore teched. No gloabal gain in power aside from pop so probably pottery.
Got graphs from RM, who is probably spending all his EP on DZ. GNP is about even minus extra culture. MFG even. I am crushing him in CY (wonder why his 2nd city is stagnating at size 1 so long). From the power graph I can tell that he actually teched AH not Archery on T40. He did build 5 warriors (T17, T19, T23, T39, T40) but lost 1 (T44), but replaced already (T47).

[Alhazard]

T50






Already sending a warrior south since due to lack of food, the 4th city will probably be the stone city. Hooking up the stone means that I can have some cities get failgold as well.
Land points credited means Commodore got 6 tiles in his cap. Nothing for chumchu since he lost his city.
Globally, Commodore grew his cap to 4, the Discord team grew their 2nd and 3rd cities by 1 turn and tech priesthood, DZ teched something probably AH. 8k drop in global power also. Not sure who got the GG but if SD got it, he could triple promote an axe and get good odds on the archer defenses.

T51






Confirmed lack of food, which really hurts the sheep city. It will be ok with 5 food and 3-4 cottages but meh.
SD grew his cap and 2nd city and teched writing? but whipped both of them. Confirmed that the Discord team only got 4 land tiles with their 2nd city. Gav grew his cap to 4 and DZ grew his cap to 6! Global power increase of 3k, likely Aztec archer.

T52




Not shown, fish to the north and coast. So the only way to expand is likely through DZ. I switched tech to writing. Honestly, didnt have time to sim throughly until today and found that I need writing first to get a library in capital to help research Math, which is the real bottleneck in the mid build. While Bambi is stagnating from the granary whip, the capital took the deer tile to finish the spear and grow to size 6 same turn.
Found out that SD gained 4 tiles with his 2nd city, DZ 6 tiles, RM 9 tiles. Seems like everyone is coastal, which does make Galleon play stronger than you would think. Commodore's 2nd city grew to 3, Discord team built the Oracle with 0 competition (where pottery still?), chumchu grew back to 2, Gav's 2nd city grew to 4 and he double whipped one of the cities,
EDIT: Global power decrease of 2k, which doesnt mean much.

[Alhazard]

ok by prioritizing silver before horses, I was ablet to get mids down to EOT77

[Alhazard]

T53






Until the Mids are done or failed, the builds are going to be very tight. Not only do i want to finish the mids, I also plan on getting 270+ failgold to plow through Currency by T90, which is fast. Fog busting began for the stone city. Now you might be puzzled by the spear first build but I am following the law of Ceilazul who said spears 1st in MP because you might not have time to whip 1, while you do against 1 moving axes.
The Discord team presumably took MC with the oracle tech. They could have taken Monarchy but I doubt it. Please no great engineer if they decide to go for a coinflip of great prophet/engineer in capital to get MOM, which will be a prize for whoever conquers them. Why am I so pessimistic? They still dont have pottery so their expansion will be slowed significantly. They need workers, settlers, granaries, and units to defend their cities right now. If they are whipping forges, their neighbors will outexpand them and eventually conquer them.
Gav got credit for 5 tiles with his 2nd city. DZ grew his 3rd city to size 1. chumchu gained a tech, AH maybe due to the global power increase of 2k aside from population and MC? SD whipped 1 pop after I played and RM settled his 3rd city after I played.

T54






Have to admit this was unexpected. I thought he would be retreating with his warrior. Bambi is in great threat since RM still has not played. I could gamble on defending with 1 warrior but if I lose, its game over. So here is a lesson in risk management. Don't take those odds that would cripple you irreparably if RNG goes bad then blame RNG. Instead try to find ways to minimize the risk as much as possible. In this case, I could defend also with the warrior from the capital, except the capital would be really unhappy. The solution is to actually whip the settler now, not 1 turn later when the whip unhappiness wears off, so the military presence is not needed in the capital right now. Once the spear is complete in Bambi, both warriors can go back to pacifying the cities.
SD grew back whatever pop he whipped off (back to cities with size 4,2,1). DZ grew his 2nd city to size (cities now size 6,3,2) and RM's 2nd city grew 1 pop (cities now size 5,2,1). No global power increase aside from population.
The lowest land value did increase by 1, which puzzles me to no end. How did chumchu get more tiles with just his capital?

[Alhazard]

I will have a detailed report later but I met DZ and he is very close by. The only question now is HBR before or after currency.

[Alhazard]

Sorry for the late reports but some of the population math was really frustrating to figure out and I was about to give up. Instead, I organized my calculations and work better and figured it out.

T55






RM's warrior is retreating so I guess he is just scouting.
Because there is no more turn split, I am assuming that SD peaced with chumchu because even WCs can't crack archers likely on a hill city. chumchu shouldnt have given peace through because SD can just build up again. SD grew his cap to 5 (5,2,1) and teched something. Probably fishing since chumchu also teched that. Commodore grew his cap and 3rd city (5,3,2), Discord team grew their cap to 6 (6,4,2) and whipped their 2nd city down to 2 and 3rd city once after I played (6,2,1). Gav grew his cap again (3,4,1). I got 16 land points for Bambi's 2nd ring. DZ whipped his cap by 2 after I played (now 4,3,2). Global increase of power by 12K.

T56




Met DZ. The most important thing is how much trying to figure out pop gave me troubles. It's not easy especailly when 6 pts could be a population change or a tech. Anyways I figured out that Commodore grew his 2nd city to 4 (now 5,4,2) and it has to be this way because he has the top population after the Discord team whips their cap. The discord team regrew their last city to 2 (6,2,2) but 2 whipped their cap after I played (4,2,2). Chumchu regrew his cap to 3. Gav grew his 3rd city (3,4,2). DZ grew his 3rd city also (4,3,3). No change in global power although I think SD has the top power based on 1k changes in top power. It could be the discord team except not likely after their 2 whip still kept the top power odd thousands.

[Alhazard]

T57






Farm just done in time for Bambi to work it. Only RM gained points beginning of turn and he got writing from the ability to get OB. I would have been faster except for the masonry diversion. Global power 12k gain again. Warmongers I tell you.
After I played, Commodore double whipped a city and DZ settled his 4th city. Let's see where he settled.

[Alhazard]

T58






The most OP city state in the game. During PBEM14, I was seriously wondering how Cornflake's team got ahead so fast but I know because of Nan Madol.

Mission:
Goto https://www.twitch.tv/tombraider174 and type "nan madol!" in chat (or was it !nan madol?)

Bonus mission:
Then type "anthem!" (or was it !anthem?)

My northern warrior ran from barbs and found DZ's second city. I am honestly shocked that he already built a barrax so early, because you really can't afford to build infrastructure while expanding but it looks like my expansion will hit a dead end soon. Now I am certain I will go HBR before currency. Let me read how mackoti warred against mostly harmless in pitboss 13 with HBR before currency. Also doesnt look like there is food near silk unless it is forested deer. (Or rush him with chariots!?)
DZ grew his cap to 5 (now 5,3,3,1), and his 4th city claimed 7 tiles. He likely has the top land since it also increased by 7 from 51k to 58k. The discord team teched, probably pottery. Global increase of 1k in power but huge increase in top power means that there are a lot of warring going on.

[Alhazard]

Correction to T58.
Forgot to mention that Commodore 2 whipped second city (now 5,2,2) so there was 0 increase in global power

T59






SD grew his 2nd city to 2 (now 5,2,1). Commodore also regrew his 2nd back to 3 (now 5,3,2). DZ grew his 3rd city from 3 to 4 (now 5,3,4,1). Lastly Gavagai teched iron working for this unique unit, and settled his 4th city. How do I know this? He got 12 points beginning of the turn so it could be that he got an ancient tech and population but the next population increase gives 7 points. He doesnt have writing or archery so the only classical tech left is IW. His neighbors(s) better get masonry for walls and put their front cities on hills. Global power increase of 14k makes IW very likely.

T60




Commodore teched an ancient tech (AH?). The discord team grew their 2nd and 3rd cities to 3 and settled 4th city (5,3,3,1). Chumchu grew cap to 4. Gavagai grew his cap to 5 (now 5,3,2,1). Global increase of 6k power.

T61






SD grew his 2nd city to size 3 (now 5,3,1 and he must have double food at 2nd city) and tech Masonry (not sure what other ancient tech he could go for?!) The Discord team grew their cap to 6 (now 6,3,3,1). RM also grew his 2nd city to size 3 (now 5,3,1). Global increase of 8k power.

Domestically, thinking really hard if I should forward settle for the rice+cow city considering that all the good city spots are on flatland not defensible... Still can't believe that DZ build a rax in his capital as well. Because of the raxes he built, I am having 2nd thoughts on the frontier city. However, you can see the cost he paid, likely didnt build enough workers to start cottaging. He has the gold for now, but should start to fall behind. Moved warrior up north to finish scouting the coast even with the barb attack. Should win. Funny enough that just building basic defenders for the front cities, an axe and a spear in each, now put me at top power.

[Alhazard]

Now I have mids down to T76 at the expense of 60 failgold. Wonder if some kind soul is willing to complete the GW on T78 for the currency push.