[spoilers]Commodore is Darius II of the HRE, now with less excuse.

[Commodore]

We've thus far been engaged in the usual narrow-focused stuff for the start of the game, namely getting rocks and food from the ground, not dying, and clear-cutting the environment. But we do need a basic idea of where we're going next, and that will require some good thinking.



Generally we have reached the point where we can now improve all the resources we need for pumping out more workers and settlers, and with copper online soon ancient era defense is more or less assured. Now it's a question of where we go next, both in tech path and in settling.

Fishing is a high-utility tech for us. For one thing, cheaply (worker-labor-wise) getting a new city up and running with an instantly-formed fishing net is great and there are two good locations that can be founded this way. Secondly, if we're going to be researching Pottery soon Fishing makes it that much cheaper. But the real appeal for several of these plans is that thanks to both Oasis and the capital owning lakes, a 2/0/3 tile is a nice ghetto commerce source. And we are going to be commerce-limited in these plans.

Okay, the bog standard path would be Pottery/AH -> Writing -> Mathematics -> Currency -> Code of Laws. This is a very profitable path that ignores almost all of the "goodies" on the bottom of the tree and ignores wonders for solid bonuses of granaries, libraries (and with Sailing, practically, Open Borders), 20-hammer chops, wealth builds/extra TRs, and finally rathausai and possibly Confucianism. Gaspar is in this game, so by definition we'll have competition on the path, but for a good reason; it's a wise move.

Esoterically, we can move towards Masonry and the Great Wall. I want a Great Spy for our first GP. Given the courthouse spam and early Engineering access that the HRE encourages, the EP-economy is definitely something that could be used well. The cheapest way to get those points is the Great Wall. However, another consideration is that making a quick rathaus and running a spy would also net a GS in good time. The trouble, on the other hand, is that I certainly do not want someone else to land a GS via the GW to cause us pain. One plus side of Masonry, though, is that it's a prereq for Monotheism...

The path of Goodies, now is Polytheism -> Priesthood -> Writing -> Code of Laws/Monotheism. Oracle is an optional booster in there; Writing is realistically boosted by the bonuses of AH and probably Pottery, not too expensive. Timing here is the issue, as I'm sure that Yuri, and probably Mist, want the Oracle like a bad fix.

So, which of the manifold paths seems most enlightened?

[Commodore]

Dave retreated Kaidan a bit more, so our warrior is now en route to intercept annoying Gasponian probes out east. Too many incoming troops, too few incoming hammers. 'tis life in Civ.



Bit of a sticky wicket in The Bun. I need more workers ASAP, but I'm not sure that netting a worker only one turn earlier is worth whipping off the excellent riverside grass hill mine. Hrm. Next after the worker is probably grow to size 3 then settler for the gems/cows city.



Scout is forging on ahead to the alien southeast. Yuri, Mist, where are you guys?



This image amused me. RB is darned nerdy.



The demos are reflecting the miserable score, alas. Need...AH next, methinks.



Only cure for the demo woes is more farmers!

[Ceiliazul]

Bit of a sticky wicket in The Bun. I need more workers ASAP, but I'm not sure that netting a worker only one turn earlier is worth whipping off the excellent riverside grass hill mine.

Without a granary, I'm going to say 'no'. Worth figuring out which way yields a faster settler, but that's my gut feeling.

I generally value a religion less highly in a 5player game... but I know you like your many-armed ladies. I'd say take the cliche road, it's popular for a reason.

Quick note on the espionage economy: it takes a willing donor. Also, the cost of replacing spies is non-zero. However, I like the great wall... maybe after AH/Pottery?

[Commodore]

Without a granary, I'm going to say 'no'. Worth figuring out which way yields a faster settler, but that's my gut feeling.

I generally value a religion less highly in a 5player game... but I know you like your many-armed ladies. I'd say take the cliche road, it's popular for a reason.

Quick note on the espionage economy: it takes a willing donor. Also, the cost of replacing spies is non-zero. However, I like the great wall... maybe after AH/Pottery?

The whip micro kind of devolves to intangibles, or at least hard-to-forecast values...whipping does, however, delay seeing where horses are by a turn, which would be non-ideal. So I'll stick to slow-building.

I love the concept of hitting Oracle...it's cheap, short-circuits Yuri getting the Colossus cheaply through a MC slightshot, and CoL is a very high-value tech for us. Going via Meditation even opens up the possibility of an absurdly early Philo bulb if that's attractive. Still, tried and true is a good idea, particularly given that in terms of raw skill, Gaspar and Dave are probably the two best in here. With neighbors like these, getting cute can be fatal.

[Commodore]

Welp, thanks Ichabod! Looks like that draw isn't there anymore. Normal path: Engaged.



On the plus side, I'm about at the place where I can start gaining really appreciable beakers from pre-known bonus. Hey there, Yuri. He's still on one big city, possibly working on a wonder, possibly with some sort of settler/worker plan that's a bit too complex.



Our own capital borders just popped too, giving us a view to the west...yeah, that Gwen site just got a lot more attractive. Furs/two seafood/hills, a good solid place indeed.



Bog standard techpath, ho!

[Ceiliazul]

Welp, thanks Ichabod! Looks like that draw isn't there anymore. Normal path: Engaged.

...

Bog standard techpath, ho!

...but you know, Meditation is actually cheaper than Poly, and still leads to the Oracle.

[Commodore]

...but you know, Meditation is actually cheaper than Poly, and still leads to the Oracle.

Well, actually the attractiveness of Poly is that not only does it open Oracle, but it also opens Monotheism and OR, which are very very nice, particularly with Org's civic encheapenation. Ah well, it'll be largely units for the nonce anyhow.



Here's how the demos are stacking, by the way. What the heck is with that GNP? I mean I know Holy City culture, but what else?



Also, found a good Yuri spot whilst going south. I think we'll be fighting Gaspar for spots first though.

[Commodore]

Holy crap on a cracker, Oasis is a nice second city. The satisfying news of the turn this turn was getting the rice farm online, which came just in time to give the wheat farm back to The Bun. Growth to size 2 -> 4 turn worker.



The Bun grew to size 3 at the end of turn, and will be putting a couple turns into an axe while growing to size 4. Then it's one turn of production + chop, and two-pop whip of a settler. I do love it when a plan comes together.



Here's the region we're rather insanely pushing towards. The "c" sign, as Ceil mentioned, might get pushed 1E. The next city, making the logistics tail even nuttier, will be either 1N or 1SE of those grass cows, netting a most excellent grass cows/copper/clam/lighthouse lake spot.



I admit, it makes me nervous. The gems are pretty clearly ours, although a bit far for a third city, but the grass cows are closer to both Gaspar and Yuri than to us. Definitely need to have that spear and axe in the area soon.



Of course, that's not even close to mentioning the two fish spots, and Riffington the capital, that need to be grabbed...hrm, CoL via Priesthood might still be a thing.

[Commodore]

Scout is swinging down and around to find Dave, assuming we're on the "wide blob" model pangaea then Mistabod is east of both Yuri and Gaspar and not going to be easy to reach. Dave's warrior took a while to reach us, so he might be a ways south.



Yuri's score jumped a tech-amount, so I checked the event log...Ceil, have you been encouraging these guys to discourage windmill hunts?



So, Ottoman Oracle in roughly eight-nine turns, I'd say. Ugh.

[Commodore]

Playing with an essential conservatism here. I would love to be able to make cheap MPs by leaving the copper unhooked, but that can spell disaster, as Gaspar's first Isabella/Spain outing showed us. So here's to axes and spears! We're going to claim that Yuri/Gaspar wedge with pointy sharp things.



End of turn, looked for horse, and...Ceil, you're a beautiful man. Yeah, the gems site makes a great third city.



Make that dry corn, plains cows, grass gems, and grass horses...need to settle those furs quickly just to give us a higher happy cap, because whipping off those tiles would hurt.