[SPOILERS] Mardoc gets back on the horse

[Mardoc]

Not much newsworthy in the last three turns. Grew all the way to size 5, for the moment the biggest city in the world. We're a little tight on improved tiles, Lavoisier is working a plains forest, so I took the turn to revolt to Slavery. Going to whip out a worker, regrow, and then spit out a settler too.

Meanwhile Boyle stole the corn again, still size 2 but with corn/deer/granary, should grow up pretty quickly. It'll go on mixed worker/settler duty as well, although I'm not sure which I'll need first.

Techwise, Mysticism is a turn away, still no religions have fallen. Still thinking Meditation -> Priesthood -> Fishing -> Sailing as the path for now. After that, not sure. Maybe go for Monotheism/Monarchy for another pair of civics, maybe Writing and toward Currency. Can't think anything else is more urgent. On the one hand, getting the HR and wines and easy religion spreads would be pretty big - bump us up by 3 happiness. On the other, cash is always handy. I think, though, that if Oracle/Colossus works as planned, we'll benefit more from the happiness. An extra trade route is worth less than an extra citizen working coast. And it's not like we need libraries instantly. I would consider all of these more urgent: workboats, settlers, workers, garrisons, scouts, missionaries, granaries. Similar importance to libraries includes lighthouse, forge, ziggurat. Not likely to have any shortage of useful places to put hammers, anytime soon.

On that note: mostly probably changed my mind on Stonehenge. Turns out I misremembered the price - 20h for a monument, 80h for henge. I guess my 40h estimate was with-stone. Which means Industrious still probably doesn't make it economical when we're picking up religion which we want to spread anyway. If it's still there in a while, or if we find stone, or if the religions all fall, we might give it a try. Or else I'll build it when I'm equally happy with the wonder and with failgold . More efficient than building Wealth, at any rate.

[Mardoc]

Whipped the worker, have more overflow than expected - 30ish hammers overflow. Not sure where to dump it; I'm tempted to apply it to a settler, but I also want to grow. No good third options available - the only hammer-only places I can put that many are barracks and henge.

Maybe I'll just make a fourth worker. Going to want extras in about eight turns when Priesthood comes in.

[flugauto]

30ish hammers is like a half the henge's price.

[Mardoc]

Yeah, I might grab it just for lack of better things to do with the hammers . Can't deny that it would be useful to have faux-Creative, and the GPP aren't bad either.

It's just kinda silly to pick up a wonder for that reason, so I doubt myself.

[Mardoc]

Ah, what the heck.




Silly, indulgent, the result of bad planning. But the culture will be awfully handy. It's due in two - and Buddhism next turn, presuming no one steals it last second.

We'll try to make up for the henge diversion by putting less effort into religion than otherwise planned. Skip Monotheism for a while, hope to get free spreads instead, and be that much closer to Currency.

Meanwhile the workers are getting ahead again, just in time for Boyle to make our third settler. Maybe I can even get ahead enough for them to all be on pre-chopped forests the turn Priesthood comes in...

[flugauto]

Has anyone else high hammers? What are the demos?

[Mardoc]

Buddhism is mine!

I think I'm going to make a slight diversion, over to Fishing before Priesthood. Looks like only 2 turns, and it'd be good to be able to get clams and fish worked ASAP. And, um, have a useful place to put hammers besides wonders I hadn't planned to go for...likely henge is mine next turn, where it will...make our already popped borders a little stronger . Ok, realistically its value is in the later cities anyway. It'll be handy to have fish almost immediately for cities 3 and 4. Not a total waste.

Since no religions have fallen for anyone else, I think we have the time to learn to fish. Plus, it lines up better with the workers that way - they can finish their current tasks then start chopping.



Demos are...inconclusive. We're middling, but this is the stage of the game where whips and chops outweigh MFG anyway. We're pretty low on GDP: This is EOT with the Holy City inflating it. I assume because we don't have Fishing yet, mostly, but it's always possible that we're simply behind. Next turn we'll be tops GNP when Stonehenge adds another 9 cpt, but that won't help us tech any faster.

Ah well. Culture *is* handy, and so is religion happiness and civics and whatnot. Not going to revolt to Buddhism just yet; probably right after the Oracle comes in will be a good time. Wait and see how things develop, though.

[flugauto]

Congratulations! With the Oracle's free tech you get a lot of free research, so GNP is not bad. Hammers and food are good.

[Mardoc]

Yeah, and as Sumeria, especially if we land Colossus, we can make up GNP later. Still assuming a little bit here, but it appears picking the cliché has spooked the competition.

Well, either that, or delaying Sailing is a straight-up mistake and we'll lose because of it At least we get some shiny firsts-to's to enjoy before the loss.

[Mardoc]

That's one less thing to worry about when founding new cities. Now we just need to...hurry up and found some new cities Should be able to whip the settler at Boyle next turn, apply the overflow to a workboat or two.