The game has picked up the pace somewhat, which is good. We got our first double-day in quite a while. The downside is that there is less time to plan, but really I haven't been doing all that much planning so it's not the end of the world for me. From a general perspective I've just finished teching Calendar and am saving money for Currency as I improve my calendar resources and translate those into more whips. I really need more cities. This is the phase of the game where I think I grow my capital as tall as I can to work cottages while I whip the other cities to produce more cities and units.
I am the first to Calendar judging by the trade screen. I'm not sure by how much. I am tempted to try and slow build the Mausoleum in the Capital while growing, since I appear to be out of forests . The Pyramids still have not fallen, so no-one has tried for them as their initial game-plan. That means someone is going to get them for "cheap" in that they'll pay a much lower opportunity cost for the hammers invested. I don't think that person will be me though, as I'm lagging by 2 cities on the leading expanders (Azza, Fintourist) and that's a much more pressing problem. Additionally, based on my trade routes with Viqsi I see that she has started to settle islands, so I want to get out there and grab my slice of the pie as well.
Short term, I want to get a few more cities on the mainland to secure my bit of the peninsula and the Calendar resources we see there (Dye & Bananas). I've whipped out a galley that is going to drop off a warrior and a settler to settle the clams location I can see. I did decide on the offshore location instead of the onshore location eventually. It lets the city grab more land.
Overall, my play has felt... slow and undirected this game. Let's see if I can improve on that as we go.
I entered T80 with 5 cities (7/5/3/4/2), 6 workers, with a total of 21 population points. I have Buddhism in Cayenne, Dill*, and Elderflower and have already revolted to Buddhism. I am running slavery.
100% Science on Currency w/ 1 Prereq generates 85 BPT with -18 GPT, #1 GNP as I finish a library in my size 8 capital.
Viqsi converts to Buddhism from a free spread. Brilliant. I do aim for a Buddhist shrine in this game. Probably after the Capital Academy if I can swing it.
I entered T84 with 5 cities (9/4/3/3/1), 6 workers, with a total of 20 population points, -1 from the last report; I've been whipping a bit. I have Buddhism in Cayenne, Dill*, Elderflower, and Ginger and both Viqsi and I have adopted Buddhism.
My overseas expansion has begun, as I land a settler/warrior pair on the island to my East. I find it to be bigger than expected, and may end up moving my planned city site 1 SE in order to have first ring sheep, not lose the forest, and put the clams in a position to share them later with a filler coastal city on the mainland. It will depend. I want to see if the island will support two cities - and will plot settlement accordingly. Having another high food city to whip out of would be really good, and 4 forests might be used into the Colossus for border expansion .
I entered T90 with 6 cities (9/5/5/4/3/1), 7 workers, with a total of 27 population points, +8 from the last report. I then promptly whip away 2 pop for another settler. I need more cities badly.
Confucianism was founded in the fog and Fintourist and Viqsi now have Calendar. Azza is going super-horizontal with his IMP trait and The Human Hydra is dramatically under-expanded. I'm trade Tops in GNP with Fintourist depending upon who is hoarding gold and who is 100% researching each turn. He's floating a lot of free culture from his Stonehenge, but on the flip side I have the extra culture from the Great Lighthouse so we'll call that a wash as far as the GNP numbers are concerned. My peak GNP is about +40 on him, 220 vs. 180 if I recall correctly (that and researching the double-prereq Monarchy! :P)
Both Fintourist and Viqsi are allowing open borders right now, and this is amazingly good for me as the foreign trade routes are probably worth the GNP difference between me and Fintourist right now.
My MFG is also very high, and I think that's primarily a function of my Capital working on the Mausolleum while everyone else that has hammers has forges.
I finished scouting the initial island and it looks like my initial gut feel was a good one. I didn't orphan any seafood by settling where I did, and I'll be able to improve the cows for another city in the south with access to wines and more clams.
In terms of wonder races, I think I may need to bit the bullet and grow the capital to size 10 when the spices come online and be prepared to whip into the Mausolleum. It'll be painful, but better the whip than to lose the wonder right! Speaking of, my Capital is actually going to pop my first great person - either a Prophet or an Engineer in about 5 turns, odds will be something like 85/15. If it's a prophet, I shrine Buddhism for the +5 and getting bigger GPT and hopefully more free spreads to my new cities and Viqsi/Fintourist for even more cash. If it's a Great Engineer, I pop the Pyramids and punish whoever is slowbuilding it - Azza would clearly benefit the most from it, as he has the most cities and the highest crop (a bunch of netted fish near as I can tell).
I'll be landing Monarchy in two turns of research and then I'll let the Great Person Pop before seeing what my civic swaps will be. If I land a prophet, then the switch is pretty obviously to Hereditary Rule & Organized Religion. Else if I'm stealing mids with a GE we'll run Rep instead of Hereditary Rule. Then hoard gold and push through CoL to Bureacracy while growing the cap and working a ton of cottages as the periphery works on settling islands and the peninsula pushes down the center.
Can accelerate the GPP by a turn by running a scientist. Shifts the Engineer off by a percent or so, since it's already 10% or so, whatever. One turn earlier is better than another couple of percent on an Engineer.
Whip out those settlers.
Galley is returning to pick up a settler.
If GEng, steal Mids. If GProphet shrine Buddhism. If GSci Academy Capital.
2nd GPP from Dill, which will have 66 GMerch points. Dont' care what kind of GPP, so run up to 3 specialists (Eng & 2 Sci perhaps?) to get the next GPP in 12 turns after the 1st one. Enough time to get to Bureacracy through CoL then for a GA Swap over to Burea after finishing MOM.
Revolt to Hereditary Rule & Organized Religion in preparation for having to rush the Mausolleum. Two more settlers in transit on galleys with escorts. Axeman for the one that's going near Fintourist, warrior for the one next to Viqsi. Fintourist and I are going to end up sharing an Island, I'll be adding a Praet to that garrison as well. Don't know if I mentioned it when it happened, but Fintourist grabbed Circumnavigation and is currently in GA, though even with his GA I'm only 17 GNP points short of his! Subtract out my Great Lighthouse, Oracle, and Mahobodhi (got a prophet, it's worth 6 GPT right now) to his Stonehenge (we both have holy cities) and I'd say that's probably a 25 pt deficit. Not Bad! Can do better! (He also landed Confucianism since he did a huge swap to HR, OR, Caste at the start of the GA and I'm assuming he's aiming to have Bureaucracy in hand before the end of it).
Chops finish Granary and Forges in Coriander and starts on Colossus, two more chops into that and that should time out a doublewhip into another boat or worker, haven't decided yet probably boat and overflow that and the two chops running at a 2.75 multipliers (copper, IND, Forge) turns the 60 forest hammers into 165H, leaving 30 H that need to be overflowed, which, hey, sounds a lot like a 2 pop whip.
Capital grows to size 10 with spices in hand before the HR revolt. Looking at a health cap now, so post a potential cap whip for the Mausolleum, transition to Aqueduct and a Hanging Gardens run because, IND.
I am building the Mausoleum in my capital with a +100% modifier (Forge, Org Religion, Industrious) and have 8 turns left on it, generating about 30 HPT. The way whipping works, this means that the # of turns left is also the amount of population to whip the thing to completion. I probably have something like a 2 turn head start on anyone else who is prioritizing it, but if one of those people is Fintourist they are in the middle of a GA right now! I have a population of 10 in the capital, so I can speed the Mausoleum up by 5 or fewer turns.
Do I whip it? If so, when? Fun question.
More data points -> I'm the only IND obv. but also Pyramids have not yet fallen so anyone who has a ton of Production sitting around must be at least a little bit tempted no? Could easily see a world where Fintourist is trying to finish Mids and Bureacracy to swap before the end of his GA. I've got another GPP coming out inside 12 turns from Dill, and so building MOM and starting a 12 turn GA sounds pretty good to me ya'know?
I'm tempted to whip MOM as soon as available (5 pop), set the capital to max food while building an aqueduct (up against my health cap with 10 pop) which I probably double-whip again, and then overflow that into the Hanging Gardens. Which has *also* not fallen yet and would be really solid.
I made myself a template for "comprehensive" updates, can you tell?
EDIT: I didn't count at start of turn, but I'll enter T98 with 9 cities, 10/5/4/4/4/3/1/1/1 for a total of 33 pop points. No wonder I'm last in food here. Still puzzled how everyone seems to have more food than me, even though I'm doing my best to work all my high food tiles...
Work continues on both the Colossus and the Mausoleum, angling to land both and then start work on the Hanging Gardens. Because IND. Dill is slow building a forum while growing off 3 food resources (Dry Corn, Pigs, and Lighthoused Fish) and working the extra pop as specialists (Engineers and Priests). Second verse, same as the first here. If I pop a GEng, Great! Use him to one-turn a good wonder. If I pop the priests/merchant, Fantastic, 1-pop GA with Mausoleum and 9+ cities down, I'll take that too .
Internationally I've got OB with everyone. Azza traded me Gems for Gold as part of the OB. More useful for him than me, but I'll use the extra buffer to support more whips TBH. Capital is going tall, everyone else keeps finding 2-pop whips to do... . Probably a bit too wanton with my whip this game, but oh well, trying something a bit different.
Domestically I need more galleys, more workers, and more settlers. Also defensive units. I think now is about the time I start inflating the power rating to convince others to back off while we boom.
Rates:
@ 100% Research: +165 BPT, -41 GPT (+179/-59 at EoT)
. The Pyramids still have not fallen, so no-one has tried for them as their initial game-plan. That means someone is going to get them for "cheap" in that they'll pay a much lower opportunity cost for the hammers invested. I don't think that person will be me though, as I'm lagging by 2 cities on the leading expanders (Azza, Fintourist) and that's a much more pressing problem. Additionally, based on my trade routes with Viqsi I see that she has started to settle islands, so I want to get out there and grab my slice of the pie as well.
. Probably a bit too wanton with my whip this game, but oh well, trying something a bit different.
