Turn Tracking Thread

[Sullla]

Turn 56 - 1760BC

The biggest news for this turn was meeting a German quechua on our borders, and the founding of Buddhism this turn (more precisely end of T55) by CivPlayers. However, there were a couple of other things on our end of the turn as well.



Our spearman found another spice up in the northeast. This is going to make for a very nice city down the road, after we have Iron Working and Calendar techs. The bananas are worth 5 food, and then every one of those spices are on the river, granting us the Financial bonus. The grassland spices become 3/0/4 tiles, quite nice indeed! This is a good candidate for roughly the seventh or eighth city.

This was the turn for us to trple-whip the capital:



Sad to see that population sent off to the great pyramid in the sky... Nevertheless, it will grow back pretty quickly, and we'll have enough overflow production to 1t the (Expansive) granary. It's kind of funny that despite all these other teams working heavy amounts of mines, we're doing a very good job of keeping pace on city expansion. We look to be team #5 to get our fourth city, right in the middle, and with much better commerce and more improved tiles than our fast-expanding rivals. New city will be settled on T58 at the fish/corn spot.



Here's an overview of our cities. I've gone ahead and color-coded the map to indicate which cities are working which tiles. Adventure One takes its three best tiles, the corn and the two floodplains cottages. Mansa's Muse has the deer, its own corn, the gold tile, and the newly finished plains cottage. Focal Point has the pigs and copper, then borrows the unworked grassland cottage from the capital for its third pop point. In other words, despite the triple whip, we are working all but two of the cottages at the capital this turn. This is one of the reasons why close settlement can often work so well, as it allows for the swapping of tiles around between cities. SevenSpirits has us doing a lot more of this in the upcoming turns; I may keep indicating what tiles are being worked by which city for fun. There's a lot of micro juggling on each turn!



Here are the Demos after our triple whip. They're actually really, really good still. I was somewhat surprised. I guess it's a testament to working 10 improved tiles with our 10 pop points. We are still tied for GNP lead after our whip and while running 0% gold, heh. Much of that is culture, of course, but still. I'm very happy with how the numbers look. New city and whip regrowth due over the new few turns.

I did set our espionage points to the max on the new German team (all 4 EP/turn). That should be all for the moment. Let's see if they write back to us.

[Sullla]

Turn 57 - 1720BC

The guy who plays the turns for the German team must play them in the early morning his time, because he's always finishing his turns around midnight here on the east coast of North America. I always seem to be playing these turns right before I go to sleep, and of course I can't resist the temptation to check things out even when it's late at night. Anyway, on with this turn.



The spear in the northeast found absolutely nothing up there except more jungle tiles (no resources spotted). That river does continue further up into the north; in the distant future when all the jungle is chopped down, it's going to make for some amazing terrain. The warrior in the northwest found nothing over there either. I'm thinking to go one more tile northwest next turn (since it will reveal four tiles) and then head over to garrison our new city by the fish.

The German team moved their quechua away from our borders on their turn. I genuinely don't think we have anything to fear from them. They are obviously in the area to scout, not fight.

One of our workers finished a road two tiles northwest of the capital, two of them chopped, and the last one cottaged the grassland river tile NW of Focal Point. (I canceled all worker orders after taking the screenshot, of course. Looks better in the image when they're doing something rather than standing in place.) The settler has moved into position to settle fish city next turn.



Adventure One picks up the corn and deer this turn as it regrows from its triple-whipped settler, good for +11 food/turn. The overflow also allows us to 1t the cheap Expansive granary, as planned. This will be slightly painful to regrow from, since we didn't have a granary in place ahead of time. Nevertheless, we regrow to size 4 in three turns, then the granary is in place, and the capital's recovery is very quick after that. We probably won't ever have to whip a city again without a granary being in place ahead of time. (As long as there's a forest anywhere nearby for a convenient chop.)

This is pretty much the low point for our Demos numbers. We are only working nine tiles this turn, all improved of course, but three riverside cottages go unworked. Because Adventure One needs to borrow the deer for one tile, Mansa's Muse is forced to work a Priest specialist for one turn. All the tiles are indicated in the picture above.



Aside from our outstanding GNP, we're fairly average this turn. Not too much to say about that. It will all look much better in a couple of turns with the new city, Adventure One's regrowth, and more pop in Focal Point. We still lead CivFanatics on the bar graphs in every single category. I'm honestly not sure what their leadership is doing - they have been down near the bottom of the scoreboard for most of the game so far. They've had less Food, GNP, and Power for literally the entire game, only having a very slight lead in Production (which is stupid anyway, since we all know working lots of mines in Civ4 is generally a bad idea). CFC isn't even in Slavery civic! They have Bronze Working tech and it's a free revolt, so I have no idea what's going on there. Hard to believe that they wouldn't have wanted a worker double-whip at some point in the first 57 turns... right? Weird.

Kjn will have to sort through the score changes for this turn, as there were a good number of them. The Demos from the very start of the turn are right above.

[Sullla]

Turn 59 - 1640BC

The issues were definitely on my end, not on the hosting side. As a result, this turn report brought to you by the friendly folks at McDonalds and their free wireless Internet.



Our spear has reached the northern edge of the jungle belt, and we've spotted the borders of We Play Civ. Might be a bit hard to see, but the tiles north and east of that peak are both sporting the ugly brown color of their Native American civ. They aren't too far away, just as CivFanatics predicted. (On the plus side, WPC has expanded very, very poorly thus far. A good sign!) I plan to move the spear another tile northeast next turn to meet them; I know it's flat ground and all, but we'll be next to their borders (where barbs are less likely) and a spear should easily defeat a barb warrior if attacked. We have seen no sign of barb axes as yet. Let's meet this team and see what they have to say.

There's also a body of water to the north of that peak, or at least one lake tile anyway. This might be the German team's "eastern ocean". Seems more likely that there are medium-sized lakes scattered across this Toroidal map between teams. We'll be able to deduce more with more scouting. I still wonder if there's a tundra barrier region in the south, just like the jungle barrier region in the north.



Our warrior in the northwest also found something interesting, in the form of a dry rice up in the jungle. Might be tough to get irrigation up there, but at the least that's now another quality city location down the road. There are TONS of jungle tiles up there = grassland tiles for our Financial civ eventually. This map looks amazing for a rapid expansion strat.

I could move this warrior northeast again to reveal another four tiles, or move back to defend Horse Feathers. I'm probably inclined not to push further down there, but note that we are getting close to the point where HF could simply whip an emergency defender. Thoughts?

Three of the workers chopped forests at Horse Feathers, and two of them completed a granary there. (The last one will finish a work boat next turn.) We get the granary at almost exactly 50% of the food box, and HF is set to grow like a weed after it hits size two. Really nice management of the workers here by SevenSpirits.



Here's our tile micro for this turn. The last worker completed a grassland cottage in the east, allowing Mansa's Muse to fire one of its two Priest specialists from last turn. We have 11 tiles in play right now, and that will be increasing very quickly over the next few turns. The micro plan has us growing 5 pop over the next 4 turns, all of it going onto improved tiles (nearly all cottages). Our cities all have granaries, and they all have bonus food resources, so they all grow like weeds. This is a major advantage for our team; the German team is one of our few competitors who seems to be emphasizing early granaries. (But the tradeoff: their economy stinks, and they are one of the lowest researchers so far in the game. Not so much the case with us.)



Here are this turn's late Demos. Our GNP is still pretty fradulent while we research Writing tech; we'll get a better measure of that next turn at 0% research on Mathematics. We are 1 point off the Food lead (while working a Priest specialist), so that looks great to me. We'll resume that lead over the next few turns. Production is below average as usual - I do wonder who is running 27 shields/turn this early in the game though. That's a lot of mines! The axe build ticks us up to 4th in Power, right around the average mark there as well. Works for me.

Note that we are 7th in "Population" despite being essentially tied for the Food lead. Civ4 is a weird game sometimes.

CivFanatics saw another Power gain last turn. Their Food went up very slightly (by 1, I think) and their Production went up by a fair amount, 4 or 5 shields. That might be them working a copper tile, not entirely sure. I wish I could look more closely into this, but it's very difficult until my home situation gets sorted out. At the very least, hopefully someone can keep tracking those CFC power increases and try to figure out what units they have.

CivFanatics and German team both are not running any espionage points against us. CFC I understand, German team must be trying to get bar graphs on someone else. Looks like the gangup against the runaway has not begun so far. Ha! By the time they realize what's going on, hopefully it will be too late.

[Sullla]

Turn 60 - 1600BC

New turn, new civs to meet!



Our hardy spearman has braved the hazards of the jungle and come into contact with We Play Civ. Dyes also spotted, for what that's worth. Here's what we know about this team so far.

* Ragnar (Fin/Agr) of Native Americans (Dog Soldier, Totem Pole, Agriculture/Fishing)

* Two cities, size 7 capital and size 3 second city (T40). They do not have a third city.

* Almost exactly average in terms of beakers discovered. They have 9 techs to our 12 techs.

* Identified pre-game as one of the weakest teams by player skills. Events so far have not disproved this (started warrior first, only 2 cities on T60).

Send them a message and let's get the diplomacy started! Two predictions from me: 1) they will ask for an NAP within the first two messages 2) there will be future discussion about a "borders agreement".

I plan to send the spearman northwest next turn onto the plains tile, and then explore the northern jungle region heading west, hoping to find the borders of the German team eventually. Feels more useful than continuing to go east at this point.



There was no consensus on what to do with our northwest warrior, so I moved him another tile northeast. We found... lots of jungle. Geez, that is a LOT of jungle tiles up there. I could go one more tile northeast and reveal another 5 or 6 tiles, or head back down to Horse Feathers. If I turn around, we will be in the city on T65. Thoughts again? (Seems like we have this discussion every turn.)



Here is our tile micro for the turn. Adventure One has grown a pop point and picked up another grassland river tile. We also finished Writing tech, allowing the capital to stop building Oracle for failgold purposes and (slowly) start a library. Mansa is still working a Priest specialist for one more turn, and is about to complete our fifth worker at end of turn. Focal Point will grow next turn to size 5, currently working as many cottages as it can. Horse Feathers got a final forest chop to complete a work boat, which will allow it to start working the fish next turn (and give the corn back to the capital temporarily).

The micro plan has us growing 5 pop over the next 3 turns. Cheap granaries OP.



Here are the Demos after playing our turn. Note that our GNP at 0% science on Mathematics is still well clear of the field, although of course some of that is due to culture. We have reclaimed the Food lead, and that will only keep going up. Not too much change in the other numbers.

No one else is spending EP on us at the moment. We should have German team's graphs in four more turns. (I am still spending all points on them, to get bar graphs ASAP.) I'll try to do an overview post for Turn 60 sometime tomorrow.

[Sullla]

Turn 61 - 1560BC

After the excitement of finding gems at the start of the turn, there wasn't a whole lot else taking place.



Two workers cottaged by Horse Feathers. Two of them moved to mine the plains hill tile west of Mansa's Muse. (Unfortunately we need the extra production to get Oracle out in time.) The last worker is building a grassland cottage just south of Mansa. Research is at 40% to give us just enough gold to finish Mathematics eot 67 and also lines up correctly to give us bonus beakers on our current research without much waste. (21 base beakers * 1.2 bonus = 25.2 beakers = 25 beakers. Only very slight waste here.)

Two cities grow next turn, and we have 5 pop growths over the next 3 turns. This will only make our Demos look that much better. Here is the most recent micro plan, maybe but not for sure final: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?...IeGc#gid=3



We sit in the Food lead and just off the GNP lead. That number at the top is obviously a team researching Writing at 60% bonus, quite probably CivPlayers on their Code of Laws run to the Oracle. They grew their capital to size 6 this turn, which is actually a good sign - that means they were not running max shields there. Some kind of configuration with extra food. If they are just starting the Oracle this turn after a worker or settler or something, we should beat them. Nowhere near enough info to tell what they are doing.

We Play Civ founded their third city this turn... on Turn 60. They haven't given it a name yet beyond the default Cahokia. Judging by their naming pattern (WellPlacedCity, WeProvideCorn), maybe this one should be renamed "WeStinkAtExpansion". We don't know where it's located, but doesn't appear to be in our direction.

That's all for now, keep your fingers crossed on CivPlayers and that Oracle.

[Sullla]

Turn 62 - 1520BC

Six more turns until we find out if the Oracle run works out.



Here's some interesting news from our scouting units. The spearman has discovered a grassland cattle resource running along that river. I have no idea if we'll ever be in contention for a city in this area, but it's useful info nonetheless. Maybe if WPC is as slow as they've been so far, we could make an effort here in another 25-30 turns. We shall see.

The warrior in the northwest went a tile southeast. My gut feeling is still to move him back to Horse Feathers, if only because I hate having that city sit completely empty. I was able to unfog one tile this turn (the jungle hill to the northeast) while still moving a tile both towards HF and the gems area. We can move this warrior back down to the south, or keep him in the area around the bananas. Your call, tell me where to go.



The micro plan has us working the lake tile at the capital this turn, instead of the immature 2/0/1 grassland cottage that we just finished. I'm putting up this picture to ask for clarification here. Do we have enough beakers to work the cottage tile instead this turn?



Here is the tile micro for the turn. Horse Feathers grew to size 2 and can now work both the corn and the fish tiles for +9 food. It is growing very, very fast. The capital has regrown to size 5, working four cottages and either the lake tile or the new grassland cottage as described above. (Need clarification.) Mansa is about to regrow to size 3 after the whip we just did for Oracle overflow purposes. Focal Point works the unimproved grassland tile so that it can hit +5 food and grow in 2t to size 6. (There is another grassland cottage about to finish next turn there to fix this.)

Note that there is a barb warrior to the east, four tiles east of Focal Point. I don't think this will be a major issue because we have an axe in FP and another axe about to finish there. Let's wait and see if it moves into our borders.



Here are the early turn Demographics. We have a clear lead in Food and have retaken the GNP lead by turning on 100% science. The 67 GNP number is almost certainly CivPlayers running their own 100% science on Writing tech with max pre-requisite bonus. They are likely making about 42 base beakers/turn with 1.6 bonus = 67 GNP. Our science rate is 57 base beakers/turn, demonstrating our edge. Everything else the same as before, average in Power and one of the lowest in Production.

No one is spending any espionage points against us still. We'll have graphs on the German team in 2 more turns. And on that note, the German turn player (Blame Hoffman) was in-game when I was, at 3am / 0300 local time in Germany. He's either not located in Germany, or he's a serious night owl.

[Sullla]

Turn 63 - 1480BC

This turn showed again why it sucks to have barbarians turned on for these games.



Nothing too interesting in the north this turn. I moved the spear northwest along the coast, and will move it again southwest next turn to keep defogging the river. I'm moving the warrior to that jungle hill tile 3 north of Horse Feathers. We can decide whether to keep him there as a fogbuster or move back to the area around the gems site from there. I don't want to push further north in light of the barbs wandering around, and our spear will explore much of that area anyway.

Speaking of barbs:



Another barb showed up down by the clams location in addition to the one in the east. I'm not too worried about the one over here, since the axe coming out of Focal Point and going to protect the clams spot should be able to whack it pretty easily. I'm more concerned about the barb in the east messing up our Oracle micro plans. We can always move the axe out of Focal Point, but that will lead to unhappiness in the city.

Suggestions here are appreciated. I have left Workers B and D (the ones in the west) unmoved this turn in case we want to do something different with them. They are both supposed to road this turn towards the clams spot.



Here is the turn's tile micro. Adventure One has swapped temporarily to a settler for whipping purposes later, grabbing the deer tile to put 10 foodhammers into the settler. Mansa's Muse does the same thing with a worker, and uses the brand new plains hill mine for the Expansive bonus production. We will whip this worker and overflow into Oracle in a couple of turns. Focal Point works the two resources and three grassland cottages, the non-river one also completed this turn. It will grow and produce axeman next turn, growing into unhappiness so that we can triple-whip a settler. Horse Feather grows like a weed with its +9 food using the corn and fish tiles.



Here are the early turn Demos. German team whipped at the very end of last turn and did not regrow any pop this turn. (I'm still not sure they quite know when and how to whip effectively.) We are joined in top GNP by another team, almost certainly someone researching Writing at max pre-requisite discount. Still tops in Food by a hair, and our Production ticks above average thanks to working the 0/4 plains hill at Mansa's Muse. No sizable changes in the other stats, no one running espionage points against us still. We will have graphs on the German team next turn.

That's all for the initial turn report. Plenty of time now to figure out what (if anything) we change due to the incoming barbarian warriors. Makes me wonder what the teams who have no Bronze Working are doing right now.

[Sullla]

Turn 64 - 1440BC

The barbarians are still causing problems.



Nothing too noteworthy to report in the north. Our spearman could move southwest (to get that last patch or fog) or northwest next turn (following the river). Let me know which the team prefers. The warrior in the northwest is back on the jungle hill tile three north of Horse Feathers. We can decide where to move from there, back towards our territory or over to the gems region.



Here's where we have to figure something out. The barb in the east can be killed without issue by our axeman. That seems relatively straightforward. The barb in the west will take a little bit more creativity. I am concerned about the barb pillaging our floodplains cottage (now developed into a 3/0/5 village). Any thoughts or suggestions? Note that the warrior in Adventure One does have the Combat I promotion, since this is the same warrior who killed some animals earlier. My best initial reaction would be to leave things alone this turn, then move the warrior in the capital onto the forested plains hill next turn, and try to induce the barbarian to suicide on the next interturn. Or maybe the axe to be produced in Focal Point can clean this up for us. How does everyone else see this situation?

All workers have been left unmoved for now, and I haven't gone through and microed the cities as yet. Please let me know what, if anything, will be changing from this micro plan: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?...IeGc#gid=4



Here are the early turn Demos. We had some land points from other teams and four increases of population, one per team across four teams. CivPlayers still does not appear to have Writing tech for their Oracle play.

We have bar graphs now for the German team, and I'll try to type up something on them later. I've swapped our espionage spending over to We Play Civ, which has been revealed as the Rival Best in power rating (72k to our 42k). Since they have only a vague idea of where we are located and have not spent a single espionage point against us so far (they have no idea what our Power rating is), I would guess that they are not targeting us for an early war. Their city names also suggest that they only recently connected a copper resource. But it might be a good idea to sign them to a short (20-30 turns) NAP just to be on the safe side. I see no reason to take chances.

[Sullla]

Turn 65 - 1400BC

Things are still a little bit dicey, but the barb situation appears to be almost under control.



In the north, our spear has moved closer to the German city we spotted last turn. He'll move north onto the hill tile next turn so that we can gain city visibility. This is probably their third or fourth city; it definitely is not their capital, as the city would have popped third ring borders in that case. Our warrior is still on the jungle hill tile 3 North of Horse Feathers, and can be sent somewhere else if desired. Seems like a useful location for the moment to me.



Here is the barb situation in the south. The warrior that was threatening our floodplains cottage has moved there this turn. If it pillages the village, we will kill it with our axeman next turn. If it moves to the west, we can move the axe into Adventure One and send our Combat I warrior in the capital to do something. Hopefully it will be dead soon - best possible would be move another tile northeast, onto the plains cottage tile, but I'm not holding my breath on that.

There is another barb warrior incoming from the southeast, still a couple of turns out. Our axeman in the area should be able to clean that up if it keeps moving into our borders.



Here is the tile micro for the turn. It's almost the same as what I posted last turn, with some slight changes due to the inability to work the floodplains cottage where the barb is standing. Adventure One takes the corn and four cottages to grow to size 6 at the end of turn (the exact turn that the whipping penalty wears off). Mansa's Muse works double food tiles (corn + deer) so that it can grow to size 5 as well. It will be unhappy there due to its own whipping penalty, but we'll double-whip the worker and overflow into Oracle. We end up with exactly 151/150 shields into Oracle at the eot 67. (Note: this is another reason why Expansive is so nice. Double-whipping workers and then overflowing into something else is very powerful in the early game.)

Down to the south, Focal Point works its two resources and two grassland cottages to grow to size 5 at the end of turn. Unfortunately one of those cottages is non-river; this is essentially the cost of that barb warrior, forcing us to work the 2/0/1 new cottage instead of the 3/0/5 floodplains village. Total of 1 food and 4 commerce. That's not trivial but I think we'll survive. Note that Focal Point will also be unhappy at size 6, even with its returning military police axeman, but we'll be triple whipping the settler there shortly. (Delayed one turn because we don't have enough commerce to complete Mathematics on time otherwise.) Horse Feathers works the fish, the lake, a coastal tile, and our other new non-river grassland cottage in the area. It started a worker this turn, which will also be double-whipped next turn, and the overflow used to complete a work boat for our upcoming clams city. The work boat will also be a very useful scout until that city is in place.

In all, we are growing 3 population points next turn, but also whipping away 4 pop points in two double-whips. Should be a fun turn for anyone else trying to track our score changes via C&D.

As far as research goes, we are sitting at 251/450 beakers as highlighted. We run 80% science this turn, picking up 48 + 1 = 49 x 1.2 = 58 beakers this turn, while losing 1 gold in the process. (Note: it's really a shame we can't pull one more commerce somewhere on the map, which would get us two additional beakers from the pre-requisite multiplier. No way to do that though.) This leaves us at 309/450 beakers, or 141 beakers short of the tech. We go 100% tech rate the last two turns and pull 73 beakers and 68 beakers the last two turns, for exactly 450/450 at eot 67, with 2 gold left in the bank. Groovy. (If our numbers are wrong, we are going to look rather silly!)

Here is the current plan for the curious: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?...TQ3c#gid=5



Here are the Demographics, where we appear to be #2 in just about everything this turn. Like kjn, I was particularly surprised to find that we were second in Power, which indicates that We Play Civ is a real outlier in Power rating. No one else seems to have much of a military. Our numbers are going to be going down in the Demos over the next few turns, as we embark on another whip cycle. Of course, if everything goes to plan, we'll be Oracling Currency in just a few more turns, and we'll be up to 6 cities by Turn 70. Keep those fingers crossed.

CivPlayers has grown some pop in recent turns, but no new techs. We believe that they still need Writing tech if they are planning to go for the Oracle. Of course, it's also possible that they don't even have Priesthood tech and we are in no competition at all. Can't assume that, however... Still, I would say the lack of a new tech from them is probably a good sign for our chances. We'll know by the eot 67.

[Sullla]

Turn 66 - 1360BC

I'm not going to lie, I was pretty angry with the German team last night. As usual, everyone else had ended turn, and they were the last ones remaining to play. Someone logs in for their team ("Flunky"), and I figure that we're about to get a new turn. Their guy spends a full hour logged in, settles a new city... and then logs out without ending turn. The timer then ran out the last three hours without them logging in again.

Seriously, that's a total dick move. If the person in question just didn't know how the timer works, then they shouldn't be playing the turns. If it was done deliberately, then it's even worse. Making eight other teams wait for you every single turn, and then not having the decency to click the big "END TURN" button when you're done, that's about the worst manners possible in Civ etiquette. The result was the turn rolling at 1am my time, instead of 10pm my time, so I had to wait until this morning to type up a turn report. Screw that team. I want them dead before this game ends if at all possible.

Moving on...



Here's the German city of Wismar, which is their fourth city. No, I didn't enter their borders, as it's easily visible over the water. I did request Open Borders in-game with the German team; they haven't logged into the game since to accept or deny. The city is size 1, with a Terrace inside as expected. No visibile food resources that we can see.

That seemed like all for this part of the world, but when I logged in to play the rest of the turn today, I saw that We Play Civ had just founded their fourth city. Lo and behold, we can see where it's located:



Unless they dropped a Great Artist culture bomb mid-turn, that's their new city up there. Note that when this city expands its borders, they will be touching the borders of Wismar. A little borders tensions between these teams, perhaps? That would be nice...

Also, We Play Civ renamed all of their cities this turn. I swear, these teams are just trying to screw with us.



I mentioned before that the barbarian warrior on our floodplains stayed in place to pillage the village there down into a hamlet. This cost us about 25 turns worth of development on that tile. As irritating as that might be, it could have been a lot worse. I would say we definitely made the right call on how to play this. Losing a dice roll with one of our warriors would have been very, very bad. And losing some development on a single cottage was not worth sacrificing a worker. Our axeman cleaned up the barbarian without much trouble; he took one hit and is sitting at roughly 4/5 health. Both our axes have 1 XP from their victories so far.

There's another barb warrior coming in from the bottom of the screen; you can see it in a forest under the interface, right next to the pillage button. With two axes already in the south, I don't expect this to be an issue.

We grew three population points this turn, in Adventure One, Mansa's Muse, and Focal Point. The latter two cities both grew into unhappiness though. We need more happiness very, very badly right now. (Should be solved in the next dozen turns, with incoming gems + silks + spices planned.) After growing three pop, we then whipped away four pop in two double whips at Mansa's Muse and Horse Feathers. Mansa needed to whip its worker and overflow into Oracle as part of the micro plan. (Poor Mansa now has 17 turns of whip penalty; it's capped at size 3 for now, unhappy at size 4! Worth it if we Oracle Currency though.) Horse Feathers also double-whipped a worker and overflows into / completes a work boat at the end of next turn.

The awesome news is that these whips will leave us with 7 workers next turn. With only four cities, we're actually a bit in excess on worker supply. We need to expand further to make use of all that worker labor! Fortunately this is also part of the plan; we have planned triple settler whips incoming at Adventure One and Focal Point in the near future. We should be up to six cities in the next half-dozen turns (clams and gems) and our workers will be scrambling to cover everything once again.



Here is the turn's tile micro after the whips were carried out. Horse Feathers has the two food tiles (fish/corn) for maximum overflow from its worker whip. Adventure One takes the deer, the lake tile, and four riverside cottages. Mansa needs the plains hill tile for Oracle production purposes along with its two resource tiles. Focal Point picks up the leftover riverside cottages along with its own pigs/copper duo.

I hope this game has demonstrated the value of placing early cities close to one another for tile sharing. We've gotten maximum value out of these early riverside cottages; one of our cities is working each one every single turn. We've also show why Financial + riverside is so overpowered in the early game. We've gotten 3 commerce or more on every cottage every turn all through the opening turns. You'd better believe that that makes a difference.

Start of turn / pre-whip Demos:


Mid turn / post-whip Demos:


There isn't too much change here, despite losing those four population points. We lost a bit of Food and a bit of GNP, but not too bad. That's largely due to us whipping off our weakest tiles; we've made sure that all of our resources and developed cottages have been perma-worked every turn.

There were quite a few international score increases this turn, including the first Classical tech from Apolyton. Kjn has it marked down as Mathematics, although I think it's a bit more likely to be Iron Working (given the large global Power increase and the widespread amount of jungle on this map). We're just guessing though, since we have no contact with Apolyton. More importantly, CivPlayers again got no score increase this turn. We don't have them down for Writing tech or Bronze Working, so not quite sure what they are doing. It's possible that they aren't trying to build Oracle at all, and that's starting to look more likely. We lose nothing by assuming that we're racing them, and better to assume the worst in any case. We're on T66 right now, and we'll know eot67.

Better get those Open Borders treaties signed right now, BEFORE we potentially slingshot Currency. I don't think the other teams will be smart enough to realize that they should Close Borders with the early Currency civ, and by the time they figure out what's going on, it will hopefully be too late.