Zhonghua Wenming Jinian - The Annals of the Chinese Civilization

[thestick]

Economy is veering towards recession, down to 40%. Entering the consolidation phase.

[thestick]

I settled my two new cities:


My Spear doesn't come into the city for 2 turns, so if Bob Chariot attacks in the next two turns I'm toast. Please let him not have the positioning and the Worker labor...



Come on...

Down to 35% breakeven. Need to push that expansion button harder. Running against my 6 happy cap - here's hoping that Pyramids and Ivory delay the need for Calendar.

Worker whipping in the new cities:






Meiyuan was definitely a mistake - it has too much food to effectively use. I should've settled it further north so it could steal the Gold when Ximen needed to grow.

In other news, it turns out that Bob founded Buddhism, not Mardoc. Bob built the Buddhist shrine.

Notes to self: swap Yuedao to a Galley. I need to see if there's space for an island city to the East to get the second trade route. Temples are 53 hammers on Quick speed, so with my 225% percent production bonus, they're ~23.6 hammers, and can be two-pop whipped up to 7/53 hammers.

Check the added maintenance from a new city by swapping to 0% and checking the GPT change - new cities add to Civics and per-city maintenance, too.

[thestick]

My core is ready for another round of whipping. What's the plan? Let me check my list...

-Build the Pyramids to increase my happy cap and science rate.



-Build more Workers.




Meiyuan's obscene food gifted me another Worker, so by T66 I'll have 9 of them. Good enough for the moment.

-Secure Ancheng from Mayan aggression.
Bob's power is pretty flat:


I obviously can't trust him. I wonder if I'm being too paranoid.

First order of business will be to chop down Ancheng's forests. One of those forests is going into Walls; the second, probably an Axe. The second-ring forests are probably going into an eventual Forge.



Second order of business is to bring in reinforcements. Qiming's ready for whipping, and with its 1 HPT base production, it's perfect for whipping Copper units. Overflow into a Missionary for the southern filler (it has Cows second ring).



-Build two Settlers for the filler cities.




Swap to Settler, two-pop whip T68. I don't want Ximen to go below Size 4 because then I can't work all the good tiles. I guess the island city's going to have to wait.

-Build Libraries in my food heavy cities and start running Scientists.



-Build a Galley and scout the eastern sea - Delayed.

-Scout the Jungles - Chariot put on defogging duty until Pyramids are complete.

-Farm EXP for Heroic Epic unit - Axe is heading to Barb city as I write.

-Build Lighthouses in Yuedao and Qiming to unlock the 3 food freshwater lake - Delayed.

-Build military police Archers and Chariots - Delayed.

-Build a Fort in Ximen to connect the inner and outer sea - Delayed.

Tech preferences:
1. Metal Casting - ...I can't articulate a very good reason for wanting Forges so badly. 'I have a lot of forests to chop' sounds awful - why not more Settlers? 'I want the extra production bonus for when I whip Courthouses' sounds weak, but that seems to be my honest response...?
2. Horseback Riding - With my large, flapping empire, the speed of Horse Archers will be much appreciated. Plus, everybody loves a good Horse Archer rush.
3. Code of Laws - Courthouses aren't so hot right now - my highest maintenance costs are only 4 GPT.
4. Calendar - I have at least three Calendar resources in my land without even trying. Problem is, my main issues right now are food and Worker labor - I don't think I'll need another 3 happy on top of the Ivory, Forge Gold, and hopefully Mids. MoM's nice, but I don't have Marble yet.



At least I can't be accused of running a farmer's gambit

[thestick]

Let's see, Settler for northern city completes T69, I'll need to have the tile roaded by T70 if I want to settle the city then. 4 turns to farm the Wheat, 2 turns to Road the grassland. I'll make it.

Note to self: make a new map stitch tomorrow. The current one is a thousand years out of date.

[thestick]

I made a new map stitch, added to the first post. Placed there so I don't have to keep looking for it.

Change in tactics, Qiming will steal the Copper mine to get enough overflow to complete the Spearman/Missionary. Therefore, Yuedao will grow to Size 6 and 3-pop whip the Settler. (I really need to get those Lighthouses up, these fillers are a bit food poor)






Yanggang's going max food to hit the Size 5 so I can one-pop whip the Temple and stagnate on two Scientists and one Priest. I'll hit Size 5 on T67. Although it says I'm running out of happiness, the whip unhappiness will wear off next turn.



In foreign news, Jowy declared on Mardoc.


Keep slowing down my opposition, okay?

I cracked 100 Crop Yield .

[Old Harry]

Why so angry Jowy?

[thestick]

Why so angry Jowy?

Jowy immediately made peace this turn, so I'm assuming it was another 'kill a scouting unit' war.

Since we're on the topic of foreign news, Jowy and Sian's powers are spiking:


As is Bob's MFG:



With its soon-to-be obscene +10 food surplus, Meiyuan will grow every single turn until it hits Size 6, at which point I hope to three-pop whip its Library.



Here's Xiubao, feeling the Worker Crunch.



Change of plans: whip Worker in Yuedao instead of Settler.

One oddity to report, I only have a +1 food surplus in Ximen, yet I'm getting +3 when building a Settler. Does that usually happen?

[Oxyphenbutazone]

When building a settler/worker in a city with unhappiness, the unhappy citizen is ignored when calculating food surplus.

[thestick]

I landed my Axe at the Barb city, which subscribes to the human wave style of warfare:


Bob must be raking in the EXP!

I was scouting up near Mardoc, when I unexpectedly found Bob's borders:



Current city status: Mardoc and Bob have 6, while Jowy and Sian have 5.

Fingers crossed the Pyramids don't fall this turn...

[thestick]

I got pretty scared when I opened up the turn because I thought I heard war horns and the sound of marching, but it turned out that no one declared on anyone else in the world. Odd.



...and with that, a couple thousand years ahead of schedule, I pronounce the creation of the Republic of China.

Next question is the Hanging Gardens. Assuming no Forges, Aqueducts are 53.6 hammers and the Gardens themselves are 89.3 hammers. The Gardens will pay for themselves immediately with my 10 cities.

I could two-pop whip the Aqueduct in Ancheng and chop the remaining four forests, but again, I want to chop those forests immediately into military so that the ground is clear in case of a Bob invasion. I could settle a city somewhere in the center (how about 2N2W of Yanggang?) and chop it straight up. Another possibility is Meiyuan - it has enough food to straight-up whip the Aqueduct and two-pop whip into the Gardens, and it has two forests left.

The north is pretty awkward to dotmap.


For the Fish city, I can either have a tenuous grasp on the Marble, or share Ancheng's Pigs. The Marble site will probably never be settled as long as Bob's city gums up the works. (How stupid aggressive do I want to be with Horse Archers? Probably not very.)

Picdump: