[spoiler] Q Returns to Quest Once More

[Qgqqqqq]

Rippeth, apologies. Closed so no pictures tonight.

Nothing is happening really. I'm working towards bulbing priesthood in 6t, with some starvation involved. I could promote two Priests the second I do, not sure if I will or not though. I won't aim for immediate conquest at least, but wait for a stack of 8-10. Honestly, he forms a useful buffer state between Auro, even if it's terrible how exposed my border is. I can't imagine him attacking into Gilden, based on his performance in '69, so it's not so bad. Quite frankly Bing is almost the more useful expansion target, given his well-developed, small empire, which (see below) will soon totally match my North.

I'm settling out east, with a fifth city coming next turn, and a sixth fiveish turns after. Shaw was founded, as discussed, as a filler-type city in the west, but I've decided it's not worth settling further that direction. Long borders be damned, ultimately the risk from Bing seems limited as he still hasn't finished the PoW so I can have priests (and more) as fast as him, and there's a fertile eastern valley that I can stretch to with just one filler. This may come back to bite me, but oh well.

I have four cities, Auro five, Mig and Bing three. Mig settled up on Auro, cementing his buffer-state nature. Bing settled towards Brian's old land, which gives me more confidence that he'll prevent Auro from getting all of that uber-rich land. I'm still waiting with interest for someone to capture Brian's old cities. Auro won't trade with me so I still don't know where two of his cities are, and they haven't had any Ancient Forest growths for me to track from the fog.

I've stopped harassing Mig with OB trades, but Bing remains receptive. We're trading some replica resources back and forth for relationship-building, but I don't have a spare anything for him.

What else...Norman has 5% revolt chance, and is about to pop third borders. At which point hopefully it'll start regaining it's first ring (up to 20% on all but one tile), which would give me a lot more comfort. Economy continues apace, though my clumsy micro is undoubtedly showing. Mig is ahead of me on GNP (possibly because he's saving, maybe because my costs are starting to mount), Auro pipping me on hammers, but I maintain a healthy Food lead. I'm prioritising foodhammers generally for now, though lots of cottages are sprouting up. As mentioned, I may have to leave Godking for City States soon.

Victory likely involves expanding, building a stack of high-promo Priests, and then eating Mig or Bing and surviving an alpha-strike from Auro / dogpile from the third. The difficulty is how we get there, how we don't die to RAI Fawns / Chariots / Summons / Kithra and how we keep up in expansion whilst protecting a stretched empire.

CRE is a early game trait, and we're next to two ARC leaders, and a CHA, RAI and ADA leader. SPI is nice, between saving on anarchy and building strong priests, but it lacks the oomph of ARC/RAI/ADA in the truly late game. So if we can't build and maintain a lead then we may be in trouble.

[Qgqqqqq]

Turn pace is slooooow And looking forward to another week with no turns :rollseye:

Anyway, to the game! As promised, foreign progress. Former Brian lands and Bings third city:

You can see the other reason not to hit Bing there - ice is poor conquest territory!

Mig and Auro's borders:


Shaw and the border region:

There's a nice couple of cities here, truth be told. But I'm neglecting these for the East and to avoid a closer border with Auro.

The East:

Yeah, this is miserable. And I'll need construction to irrigate. Still, once I stretch past the filler deer city, the two river ones aren't bad. The barb city spawned on a good spot which I definitely want. (Note to self: it will grow t 69/70.)

Though maybe that pushes me west first? Part of the issue is while I have two settlers in the queue, after this I'll be pushing priests out and growing. So the next two might be the last for a while.

Norman:

I'm really not sure about this stable. It can't grow anymore, I feel fine on worker labour, two settlers feels enough in the queue, and I feel a little awash in warriors. Really, I want this building a Temple of Leaves and Priests, so perhaps Donald should just spread the religion here while this builds a last 2-3 warriors. But three-four movers aren't bad, and it gives me something to tide over? Still, feels like a mistake. Gah, maybe it will end up like my first 8t into the hunting lodge in Fitzsimmons!

Foreign relations:

There's two pretty clear blocs rn, even though they're almost the opposite of border tensions (besides me and Mig).

Demos:

Trailing a little too much in soldiers, slightly ahead in food and equal in production. GNP is Mig's, which is genuine given my absurd culture - though undersold by my researching.

Graphs:

Any questions?

[Kaiser]

Thank you for the update

What about the Clam Banana spot between you and Bing? Is the jungle the issue or do you want to avoid border tension with Bing?

[Qgqqqqq]

Yeah, exactly. Bronze working is a lot of beakers for two tiles and no unit strength. Without the banana it's a city with no good tiles until it can slow-build a workboat. The only advantage is denial/as a buffer state, but FFH2 settlers are too expensive for that atm.

[Qgqqqqq]

Heh, I'm in danger:


This is the turn Auro went from contender to leader. Should be undisputed, but won't be until he can consolidate and others work through the implication.

He also flashed a poisoned-blade Fawn and scout at me. He captured a bloody scorpion...this means my military is irrelevant. It also means that barb city is about to be his, allowing him a even more sprawling empire. If he gets that, I can fit in at most four cities, whereas he has all of Brian's incredibly lush area to expand to, as well as claiming the one river valley that's decent to my east.

I moved Gilden away from Norman to try to signal cooperation with Mig, and sent diplomacy to others too try to convince them of this. If he holds Mt Erebus we don't have a chance. I worry that Mig will be too tilted to want to cooperate...but I don't want to abandon Norman to him for the chance of cooperation. Hmm.

[Qgqqqqq]

Auro declared war, killing my scouting fawn. He has HBR. He then invaded with a poisoned-blade scout and Fawn. Thankfully cleared them easily with two warrior pults lost. Still, this stretched me, and RAI 3-movers are scary. I expect his earlier Fawn could become a Satyr (thankfully the upgrade is expensive).

Settled Turei to the west. Hopefully he doesn't notice it as it's poorly defended. Speaking of which, Arendal is cycling east, which is dangerous. Mig remains a threat - he built Bambur recently. I've been trying to send friendly noises. Including offering a city trade which Mig msged to ask if it was real - I definitely hadn't meant it as such! I can't think why I would want the city of his that is next to Auro.

I realise my foodhammers are impressive, but I can't understand how you could look at my position alongside Auro's and conclude I'm the favourite. Oh well. At least Bing is settling new cities.

Bulbed Priesthood, finishing the rest off for 37g. I have one disciple that can upgrade next turn, another a turn after. I think we need the security more than we need the commerce, so may keep building and upgrading instead of building directly. There's only 1 plant that isn't in the war theatre with Auro (the fishing city). Speaking of which, I finished a settler this turn, which had been intended to stretch east. Not sure what I do with it now. Either hold for a while or the clams city I guess.

[fireblaze]

Reporting for duty! Gimme a bit to catch up on the thread tho

[fireblaze]

caught up, lmao and rip to the dead barb player. the tree rush had me on the edge of my seat, I thought it'd work out way better but it ended up better than i'd thought after the start of it. Awkward position now though, gonna be real hard to get miguelito to flip for you after taking his cap i'd think. Any chance of the PoWs coming on soon on your side? I'd imagine he wouldn't want to just give over the elohim land uncontested

[Qgqqqqq]

Unfortunately, despite Bing being closely aligned with me, he's really underperformed this game. He doesn't even have PoW yet.

I agree that Migs unfortunately likely to he pretty hard to get on side. He also took more of my culture recently, though I'll get it back soon. He's also not expanding, which simultaneously means he's more likely to target me to regain his land, and means hes not competing with Auro for land. Which just strengthens Auros position more. Man, I just wish Brian hadn't died - we'd be in such a stronger position if so.

Apologies for the lack of updates. Busy work and a long delay (which turned out to be my fault) has kept me from it

[Qgqqqqq]

In lieu of a proper update:

Mig gave OB. I was surprised, and now am less. He clearly decided as much as he might dislike me, he wasn't willing to see my cities burned from the fog. And that is a big wake up call, as I'm pretty certain Kithra was forking two of my cities. I think this setup is necessary to stop him burning them this turn, but I need a stronger garrison. There's also a chance, albeit slim, that we might be able to trap and kill Kithra. I think it's more likely that he runs away, and returns with some stronger buddies in 2-3t time.

Interesting times.

I need to send Mig Horse to signal my intentions.

Bing also settled to the West for the valley. I'm at 90is% of the cities I'll ever get. With Auro's cities out of revolt, he's shot up to meet me in all demos.