Brick by Brick (Spoiler Alert!)

[TheHumanHydra]

I had a very satisfying turn this time. First of all, I regained LoS on Serdoa's army, about to take Crewe. Old Harry seems to have retreated his army, living to fight another day. While it's really not good how Serdoa's just crushing Old Harry (so far), this does put several more turns between that stack and me, and makes it more unlikely that Serdoa's actually thinking of turning around and hitting me - unless he has a second stack building, of course. Meanwhile, I whipped courthouses in three cities and finished one conventionally, bringing me to five, with a substantial effect on my economy:

Before:



After:



Look in the top-left, too - the slider will be up to 50% next turn, and still gaining gold, most likely.

All these courthouses have the additional benefit of vastly increasing my espionage pool, meaning I may well get that research visibility I've been chasing in a few turns after all. Serdoa will obviously realize I've just whipped courthouses, but this does have the possible side-benefit of convincing him I'm pursuing economic techs right now.

I noticed the Colossus still hasn't been built - strange, I may have to do something about that if it's still around when I finish my forges. I think it's a fairly good wonder, actually, and cheap too. I'm surprised no one's built it yet; I can't be the first to Metal Casting. Hmph.

Edit: Did you see that inflation went down two points? I didn't think that was possible; I thought it only ever went up. And it's clearly tied to player actions, too ... interesting.

[NobleHelium]

Inflation rate cannot go down except via random event. Inflation cost is just a percentage of your base expenses, so it would naturally go down if your expenses go down.

[TheHumanHydra]

Ahh, thank you.

[TheHumanHydra]

As expected, I was able to pump the science slider back up to 50% and was still gaining gold. Machinery showed as six turns to research at the start of the turn and four after I ended it, so it appears to be progressing faster than I estimated. I plan additional heavy whips next turn, with more to follow, to get forges out (I have the growth to handle it, and the forges themselves will make up for the unhappiness engendered by two rounds of whipping). Here is what my cities are building:



And here is the knowledge my civilization has accumulated (missing only Horseback Riding from the preceding techs):



After this, I think it'll be Construction -> Feudalism -> Guilds for catapults, then knights. In the meantime, I'm almost tempted to put out markets, but I need to build up my military so I can have a little security and maybe start to deal with Serdoa. I am undecided as to whether to attack him as soon as I get out crossbowmen or whether to use them to secure additional settlement sites while I tech up to knights. I need to ponder this and decide as soon as possible so I know whether to settle that one settler I've got already built yet or not. If I do go for settlement, I'm not sure if I should stick to my original, more conservative settlement plan or settle more distant sites further south claiming better land that used to be Old Harry's. Much to ponder ...

Oh, and I gained research visibility on Serdoa at the end of the turn: Code of Laws in 210 turns (obviously he's running the slider at 0%). Okay; interesting. Not sure what to make of that in terms of military implications. I kinda wish I knew whether he had Metal Casting or not, or Monarchy (because of the medieval defensive techs they lead to). If I had to guess I'd say he recently researched Horseback Riding, since I've started to see him deploy those, but his initial invasion force only had chariots.

Enough blabbering! I get less anxious every turn that passes, but realize I need to make weighty strategic decisions that will have an immense impact on the course of the game, for better or for worse. Cheers!

[TheHumanHydra]

Not much to say this turn - I whipped a couple cities, Serdoa's Code of Laws research went to four turns, my treaty with him expired without incident (yet). Notably, I crested 200 GNP, which is the highest anyone's been before - I should have taken a screenshot of the graph; I'll do that next time if I remember. Three turns to Machinery at present rates.

[TheHumanHydra]

Can it be? Old Harry has retaken Exeter! Caloo Calay!



Given how many units he has damaged, it seems he destroyed at least 13 of Serdoa's units. This doesn't show up in the power graph - is it not updated until the end of the round? Anyway, I didn't see this coming because Serdoa's border pops at Exeter forced my scouting quechua out of the area temporarily. I thought Serdoa was still marauding down near Crewe.

Machinery is on track to be discovered in two turns. I have sent out my settler again, timed to found his city immediately Machinery comes in.

Here is the GNP graph I promised:

[TheHumanHydra]

Oh, and I was pleased to note four horse archers built (presumably) with Incan horses at the top of the attacking stack. Hooray for war by proxy!

Old Harry's success does raise the question of whether or not I actually do need to go to war at this point or not: the purpose of that was to have been to prevent Serdoa from overrunning Old Harry completely, absorbing his civ, and taking over the game. It seems that may not be necessary anymore, in which case I should play to my strength and continue to tech up, while maintaining a healthy defence. I should also build some more settlers - I am last in natural city count (ie. ignoring Old Harry's recent misfortune) at eight.

However, Azza just made the aggravating move of opening borders with Serdoa, meaning the latter will be able to get the foreign trade route bonus on all his ten trillion massive-empire Great Lighthouse trade routes. Blagh! This may enable him to power forward in research; I'm not sure. And think of all the cottages he could work ... and that he'll be getting CoL in a a few turns to cut his (probably massive) city maintenance in half.

The military and economic situations bare careful watching over the next several turns to make sure I'm on the right track. I should sneak in a couple scout builds, and check out Azza's lands and Serdoa's borders ...

(Note to self: 2457. Was that cryptic?)

[thestick]

Power graph doesn't update until 2 turns after the fact (or something like that).

[TheHumanHydra]

Two turns? Wow. Are all the other graphs like that too? And why is that?

[TheHumanHydra]

Can it be? Old Harry has retaken Exeter! Caloo Calay!



It's deja vu all over again! I repeated my moves exactly, since there was no reason not to, but I did find a spy specialist lurking in Aquanauts who I hadn't noticed before. Apparently I had missed him the turn before, too, because I currently have three Great Spy points built up in that city. Oops. Coincidentally, barring any flawless victories, it seems Old Harry destroyed 13 units - again. I wonder what was so different about Serdoa's play? Well, I know half his unit moves didn't register, but it doesn't seem to have changed much - except his score is eight points lower. I wonder if Old Harry really will lose Altrincham this turn like Serdoa says.

I'll do another screenshot runthrough of all my cities turn 90, which is coincidentally when I plan to finish the Colossus. In the meantime, are there any other screenshots people would like to see?