Objection! [SPOILERS]

[El Grillo]

You're right, I had meant that I expected Khan to tech Monotheism in the process of getting to Monarchy. I know he already had Meditation and Priesthood, and I'm not sure what else he teched during his GA, but I expect that he should have had enough time and beakers. Perhaps Iron Working or Metal Casting?

[El Grillo]

T75:

After thinking a bit on the game state (which has been tricky, 2017 began with me catching the flu; I was going to post this last night, but I couldn't resist taking Nyquil and passing out), and getting some updated information, here's where we stand:

I forgot to report this last turn, but my capital popped borders, which normally wouldn't be newsworthy at all, except...


Yeah... I'll admit I'm a bit embarrassed that I hadn't checked that tile until now. I blame the rough terrain and my priorities settling elsewhere. However, this does let me redraw the border in a slightly more productive way, and I can chop two forests into a lighthouse for a filler city to work that lake and the inner sea coasts. It'll take a few turns to get roads and workers in position, and I think I'll want longbows as well.



In the west, greenline did indeed claim the corn/fish location, so I decided to move my Sheep city closer and on a hill. It can also build a lighthouse from the highlighted inner sea, and work the lake and most of its coast tiles. The Forgotten will emphasize production and eventually turn those flat grasslands into workshops, and Memories has those three lake tiles to its north to work.



In the northeast, I want to settle a city to take the Cow, Clams, and mines to build Moai - Big Top has plenty of food but no source of hammers, and Samurai can pump units at a smaller size for a bit before I set its workshops up. I'm also considering a third border city against Khan to work the Cow and 3 unused lake tiles, but it'll admittedly make the border much harder to defend. I'll be leaning on these PRO longbows quite a bit, but that's one of the few ways I can see getting any use out of the trait at all, so I'll accept the risks. In all that puts me at 14 cities, a bit cramped, with a dozen real cottages as post-Colossus future-proofing and the rest of the flat land turned to workshops.

On the tech front, there's good news and bad news. The good news is that I had underestimated my research, and it turns out I had enough overflow to finish both Monarchy and Code of Laws without building any wealth. The bad news is that KTB scrying indicates that someone finished Aesthetics last turn, and based on spending, it has to be Khan. He has about 200g in the bank (from MoM failgold, presumably) and can almost certainly beat me to Music if I detour through Feudalism first. I was tempted, but I'll be disciplined and stick to the safer plan. I've already improved my position significantly with MoM/Colossus, there's no reason to overextend and get humiliated by a stack of axes or something

Instead, I'm going to cut out the middleman and tech for Nationalism and the Taj instead. Civil Service after Feudalism (double prereqs, yay), then Philosophy and Nationalism by hand. I'm assuming that with MoM, I'd much rather save Great People for GAs rather than for bulbs, even appealing ones like Philosophy. That could be wrong, I'll double-check the numbers.

I've been leaving Machinery so I can keep an eye on if Ruff is close to Guilds. It doesn't seem like it so far, and I have to imagine his economy is fairly crashed at this point - 11 cities with no economic trait or wonder. If I'm only facing Knights from Khan, I think longbows should do just fine while I tech to pikes. Anyways, I've rambled long enough. Here are the cities:

City overviews:

Demos:



Power:



In summary, I feel like I've repeatedly misplayed up to this point, but I'll still be in a strong position if I don't fall prey to any surprise attacks in the next couple of turns. Khan has a more fundamentally solid civ, with larger cities and higher yields, Ruff will get more land than he should and that's without considering cataphracts, and greenline, though weaker, could throw a spanner in the works in any number of ways. It's definitely been a fun game so far.

[El Grillo]

T77:

Things are set up to finish whipping two Lighthouses, then start the GA and swap to HR/Caste/OR/Hinduism. The new cities can then pop their borders with Caste artists, and we'll be able to upgrade some archers to longbows in an emergency. The borders all seem quiet so far.

[El Grillo]

T83:

I definitely owe any readers out there a more detailed update, perhaps in a couple of turns on T85. Khan indeed beat me to Music and claimed the Great Artist, which he used with a newborn Great Prophet to launch his 2-man GA a few turns ago. He's also built the Statue of Zeus in a city I don't have visibility on.

I still have 2t of GA left, and have been beelining Nationalism, having finished Philosophy this turn. My plan is to use an Engineer to rush Taj, while using protective longbows as deterrents to delay Engineering/Guilds. This seems to be working for now, as both Ruff and Khan have spiking power, but not many troops on the border.

Ruff and greenline have both seen their tech rates stumble lately, and greenline looks to be falling pretty far behind on growth and city development as well. I think it'll be 10-15 turns before a knight/phract attack is in the cards, though I imagine Khan could get there very soon if he cedes Nationalism. I imagine he'll try to exert some pressure once he sees what I'm doing (fairly certain he has research visibility due to his ORG courthouses), but I don't think he can generate an Engineer so soon after his most recent GP. Of course, I could always get a minority Great Merchant instead, but my capital has grown onto its mines now, and a trade mission to Ruff would be a very reasonable consolation prize.

[El Grillo]

T85:

Forgot to take screenshots, but I rolled a GE and should be able to 2t Nationalism with city growth and maybe some wealth. Coming out of the GA hurt pretty badly, but I'm starting to develop a lead in crop yield and remain competitive in GNP despite Khan's GA and Ruff completing the Hanging Gardens last turn. Most core cities have completed their infrastructure and can start powering out military, and I have only one filler city left to plant.

I'm no longer exactly sure what the tech situation looks like, but via KTB checks I know everyone else has Iron Working, one person has Machinery, one person has HBR, no one has Construction, and no one has Nationalism. I have visibility on a workshop in Khan's territory, which has a 1/2/1 yield... which means that he has Guilds. The good news is that that means that Ruff doesn't have Machinery yet and is at least two techs from Guilds with an unimpressive tech rate, but Khan could be whipping knights as soon as he pleases. I'm not terribly afraid of losing more than one city to pure knights by virtue of the ease of whipping PRO walls and CG2 longbows, but he has a much larger window of opportunity to take land from greenline, which puts us all on a bit of a timer. I don't relish fighting at tech parity on quick speed, so I hope greenline puts up a fight. He has Civil Service and Bureaucracy, but I have no way of knowing if he has Feudalism.

Exciting times ahead, certainly.

[El Grillo]

T86:

I'm going to run some wealth next turn to finish Nationalism so that my Engineer can 1t Taj on T88 in my size 15 capital. Hinduism is slowly being spread, but I don't see a shrine anywhere in the near future.



Longbow builds are helping to close the gap in soldiers, though I'm concerned that Khan is spiking hard while greenline's power rating has been flat. Khan's production lead remains troubling, as well.



The good news is that Ruff appears happy to leave our land borders unroaded and garrisoned with 1-movers. I'd hope that he's reading the game well and is also waiting to pounce on greenline, and that attacking me might allow Khan to either conquer greenline uncontested, or do serious damage to me, either of which would catapult his lead even further. Unfortunately, Ruff and I are both eyeing the same parts of greenline's land, and any gains either of us make would lengthen the border considerably.

[El Grillo]

T88:

Finished Taj and Iron Working. I don't think those two events coincide too often :D I have one source, in a slightly awkward location:



Right now, riverside villages are only slightly better than coast tiles, so it won't be too painful to pave it over. The extra production will be nice to funnel through Bureaucracy, too.

Demos look solid, except for the soldier rating, which indicates that Khan is whipping knights. For that reason, I've decided to get Engineering before Guilds (hence IW), just in case he's seriously contemplating attacking me.



Diplo screen map trading indicates that Khan has Paper, so he's targeting Liberalism next. Assuming he has a Scientist lined up to bulb Education, I don't think it's worth trying to race him at the cost of relying solely on longbows. I think I have a decent enough economic lead now to shift towards strategic flexibility.

[El Grillo]

T89:

Ruff and greenline both accepted luxury trades (I have a third Dyes yet to be hooked up, but this still nets me happiness), and swapped to Caste System for the bonus workshop hammers and to start making GP for my 2-man GA. I'll run 5 scientists out of Big Top for sure, but I'm not entirely sure about where to get another. Ideally I would've liked to swap into 5 turns of Serfdom to get 1t roads and workshops out everywhere, then swap into Caste, but that doesn't quite fit the GP timing, and also prevents me from ending the GA back in Slavery (though I would be tempted to stay in Caste and generally dislike whipping, the extra flexibility from slavery is too good to pass up).




Khan is definitely gearing up for an invasion, and he should see that I've longbowed up the border, so my guess is he'll hit both of greenline's border cities in a few turns from now. The best defenders I see from him are spears, so hopefully he's just a couple of turns away from Feudalism. I 1-turned Construction with decent overflow, so mature cities will start building some catapults and a mix of maces and crossbows once Machinery comes in.

[El Grillo]

T90:




Greenline accepted Open Borders, bumping all but one of my cities to 2c and 3c trade routes. I've already climbed to 2nd in Power, which just shows how dramatic Khan's buildup has been. Khan and Ruff are both deficit spending heavily, enough to have higher GNPs as I haven't selected a tech.

One thing I've noticed is that Khan has kept OB with Ruff this entire time, and Ruff has been pretty methodical in scouting my territory, so Ruff presumably has seen Khan's knights (and knows they can't reach him by land). The question is, is greenline aware of them? There's still no sign of longbows in his border city...

[El Grillo]

T91:




Things are starting to come into focus. I've drawn up a plan to chop 5 forests into a late Pyramids build in one of my secondary production cities. The second GP I need will be coming out of Samurai to make use of its accumulated Artist points from the MoM). Ideally I'd get Big Top to finish its GP first, because it has less pop for starvation specialists, but the timings just don't work out, especially because it was founded later and thus loses ties. Instead,  The trick is getting Big Top (which is smaller and so can't run one turn of all specialists as effectively) to birth its GP first, without slowing down the one from Samurai too much, made trickier because Big Top was founded later and thus loses ties in turn order.

Instead, Samurai will work 7 specialists for 2 turns and then 6 specialists for 1 turn (201gpp needed, 73+46+46+40=205), starving to 2 food in storage.
Big Top will work 5 specialists for 7 turns (268gpp needed, 60+30+30+30+30+30+30+30=270), starving to 0 food in storage, but without losing any pop.

I believe that will be the best way to go about it, I wonder if I should've swapped into Pacifism last cycle, but I think I still had enough infrastructure to build that it was worth it.

I 1-turned HBR to get started on Stables. The next techs to reach will be Engineering, Guilds, Theology, and Gunpowder. I can swap into Police State, Nationalism (gotta get value out of drafted PRO muskets, right?), and Theology (stuck in Caste temporarily for GP generation, Mercantilism would be questionable even if I could fit in Banking) and go into full military production. Then we're head to Military Tradition for conquistadors, and we'll have a grand old fight with hopefully a stronger production base and promotion advantage (at least one city is going to get a Citadel for dedicated 3-promo trebuchet production).




On an interesting but likely irrelevant note, I have confirmation of offshore islands: I suspected some tile bleed, and Ocean tiles only display yields when they could be within a city's BFC. Unfortunately, culture won't spread into unworkable ocean tiles, and I have no desire to obsolete the Colossus just yet.