[spoilers] Commodore: Worse than Toku, it's Giggles of Siam!

[Commodore]

Well, nothing at all interesting happened to us this turn...built wealth a little more to finish Alphabet, started an HR archer for Lakeside, etc...but man, fireworks are popping in the north.


Objectively, this sucks for us, because remember what I said about Serdoa's land issue? That just went out the airlock. Still,

[Commodore]

Because I haven't showed it enough lately, we're well on our way to a score victory. Dangit.


What the victory screen can't show is how Plako and Slowcheetah are doing. Slow has trade routes to us now, so must be map buddies with someone. His Paya/SoZ play was very good...I wonder if it was him who founded Confucianism and Plako who built the MoM? We'll see soon enough I guess.


Score keeps on climbing as we grow. Now Lakeside Garden delayed a turn to get a garrison, but VA is donating an archer for Size 15. 19hpt will be awesome, as will owning all cottages...so yeah, forge is definitely in order. Here next. Baray will finish in 4t after the archer, so another nice +1f.


Elsewhere, the second tier of cities is growing up to maximum tile-improvement-size. Need workshops!


Meanwhile, settlers! Which one first?

[Thoth]

. Need workshops!

+1

Also CS chain farming.

Meanwhile, settlers! Which one first?

As much as I'd like the stone online asap for Moai goodness....we have the workers in place to support Sandhurst.....Poplar Point needs another worker or two in the area first.

So grab Sandhurst next and then PP with some workers in a few turns.

And stop fretting the demo/score lead.

Just get us some hammers and war toys going and be damnned with the other players envy.

[Commodore]

And stop fretting the demo/score lead.

Just get us some hammers and war toys going and be damnned with the other players envy.

Right on. I just hope this doesn't mean WFYABTA lock-outs with the other continent. OBs on this side are fairly worthless thanks to Callum's Villa and Hawke's Ridge. I OB'd Xenu at the price of some finally redundant metal, and we're now off to Arabia. And Azteca. And France.


Bit of sad news this turn, as choking gasses filled the oldest mine in Generica. Emissaries were sent to assist the bereaved, although the mines themselves were collapsed. Tragic, already nowhere near as bad for the empire as Azza's gold mine loss up north.


Still, shouldn't be too hard to rebuild. Plenty of workers wandering around, so we'll have the mine well before its needed. This is one bloody well-improved core, lacking only a pair of workshops to be at Final Configuration.


Stony Knob's copper is at last up, and that border pop let me cheaply move the defensive force north. Six free galleys would let this be a fine adventure, but as it is, I'm just glad to have a strong nodal defense at the vector where any Zulu or Mayan invasions will occur.


Next turn, 1 turning CoL. 8 turns left on the bulb.

[Thoth]

And stop fretting the demo/score lead.

Just get us some hammers and war toys going and be damnned with the other players envy.

Right on. I just hope this doesn't mean WFYABTA lock-outs with the other continent. OBs on this side are fairly worthless thanks to Callum's Villa and Hawke's Ridge. I OB'd Xenu at the price of some finally redundant metal, and we're now off to Arabia. And Azteca. And France.

We'll eventually get some value out of the foriegn TRs.....assuming people are willing to OB with us. F8 suggests we are about to run away with the game. 16+% of world pop and 10+% of total land in an 11 player game.



I'd like to swap Iron city from wealth over to Baracks/cat/cat/cat/Stables/*HA while working lighthoused coast to happy cap and then working the PH mine + workshops. Similar deal for the Ivory city once the settler completes.

We'll want to add a couple more dedicated land unit pumps (Stoney Knob for sure, PP eventually) plus some Naval production centres (VA, Moai city eventually, Sheep/Copper city eventually, Sandhurst eventually)

Hmmm. Lot of eventuallys there.

Still, shouldn't be too hard to rebuild. Plenty of workers wandering around, so we'll have the mine well before its needed. This is one bloody well-improved core, lacking only a pair of workshops to be at Final Configuration.

We are well supplied with workers and tile improvements atm. That being the case, I think we should dial up a settler in TM ahead of the Library. We can afford to settle a third city in addition to PP and Sandhurst both in terms of econ and worker labour.

Stony Knob's copper is at last up, and that border pop let me cheaply move the defensive force north. Six free galleys would let this be a fine adventure, but as it is, I'm just glad to have a strong nodal defense at the vector where any Zulu or Mayan invasions will occur.

SK will make a very good hammer city once it gets some food (lighthouse and two riverside grass farms). It's also well placed to act as a unit pump.

Next turn, 1 turning CoL. 8 turns left on the bulb.

I've been thinking about tech path/medium term goals:

Post CoL....MC/Civil Service for sure.

After that: Calendar would be very nice (Silks/Bananas). Aesthetic/Lit gets us access to the Epics and opens up Paper and Music. Paper opens up tech trading and clears the way for a GS bulb or two into Education.

It will take awhile to generate those GSs (VA keeps running Sages and Corn/Banana can run 2 Sages at size 9 once the lib completes, 4 with Caste and a Plantation) but a couple of 2k beaker bulbs towards the expensive key techs of Uni/PP will generate a heck of a lot of economic turn advantage.

After paper..... hit Feud/Machinery/either Compass/Optics/Guilds/Banking or Guilds/Banking/Compass/Optics.

[Commodore]

We are well supplied with workers and tile improvements atm. That being the case, I think we should dial up a settler in TM ahead of the Library. We can afford to settle a third city in addition to PP and Sandhurst both in terms of econ and worker labour.

Agreed, this is my current chief candidate. It doesn't look like much, but it has a staggering potential hammer output. Work the 5/0/1 sheep and a 3/0/1 farm, then 1/4 copper mine, 1/3 gh mine, and 0/4 ph mine, with a 0/3/1 tundra hill mine in there too. Can chop granary to grow grow grow, too, this is a good fast hammer city.


The Sandhurst settler, however, comes from The Greenways. Check out the overflow/chop we've been saving:

I've been thinking about tech path/medium term goals:

Post CoL....MC/Civil Service for sure.

After that: Calendar would be very nice (Silks/Bananas). Aesthetic/Lit gets us access to the Epics and opens up Paper and Music. Paper opens up tech trading and clears the way for a GS bulb or two into Education.

It will take awhile to generate those GSs (VA keeps running Sages and Corn/Banana can run 2 Sages at size 9 once the lib completes, 4 with Caste and a Plantation) but a couple of 2k beaker bulbs towards the expensive key techs of Uni/PP will generate a heck of a lot of economic turn advantage.

After paper..... hit Feud/Machinery/either Compass/Optics/Guilds/Banking or Guilds/Banking/Compass/Optics.

Worrisome news on the Civil Service front:


As is also spotted there, barbarians seem to have finally realized we exist. The most problematic barbarian has been this blasted galley. Fortunately, with my spotter here, we'll definitely be able to fight it on defense, so 2:1 odds on being able to take Angle shortly.


For what it's worth, we'll be able to build courthouses next turn. Burning money, but nice GNP anyway. Once we can get a Forbidden Palace up and running, we're going to be looking at a far more affordable ratio here; the EP boost will be nice too. Meanwhile, more CY/MFG please.


This is a NTT game, by the way, so Paper doesn't enable that. Still, Education unto Liberalism is precisely the post-Bureau path the good doctor ordered. Maybe with a Music on the way? Let's flex and see what this economy can do.

[Commodore]

Eventful turn! First off, met Plako off the east coast of war-torn Portugal. He's only a couple cities behind us, he *is* the one who got the MoM (and has a ton of plantation resources hooked), and he might take a 50/50 shot at our super-ship. Offered OB and map trades, though. Better the distant rival than the close enemy.


Close enemy? Why yes, that's how I'd characterize the fellow who's just gained two free cities. Let's wrestle for Angle at least. Assuming the barbs don't win the nervous-odds battle at sea.


In general, Maya's prospects are looking very very bright, with a fair amount of land to the south that I have to massively extended (more) to contest, and the borderlands in the northeast now entirely in their bailiwick. Ach, Brick, yer screwin' me.


Trained up a bit on the barb warrior. Not only did I net Mindy another XP for a promotion, but I was able to get some rare catapult XP as well, first. I'm safe from overland assaults, although I'm nervous about naval invasion. It's more a problem with my rivals' general prosperity, though.


Nothing for it but to keep expanding and building. I'm generally dismayed by the food-impoverished middle Long Salt Lake area's lack of progress. Still, coming along and boosting further as time goes on. Williwbrooke will knock off a 2-t work boat for Sandhurst when needed and then go stables->HA/BE.


Just noticed something...do we want to avoid Taoism founding in Hawk's Ridge? If so, we need to retard its growth badly. I'm kind of wondering if we'd really mind it, though...it's about as secure a place as we can get, already has a marketplace, and will be a decent hammer city once we can swing Moai in here. Just something to consider.


Bulb in 7 turns.

[Thoth]

If Taoism lands in HR....that's fine by me. Let the city grow!

[Thoth]

OFC, looking at the GS in the log.....the point may be moot if someone else bulbs Philo first.

[Commodore]

OFC, looking at the GS in the log.....the point may be moot if someone else bulbs Philo first.

Or, hand-researches it sometime in the next six turns of their twelve-turn golden age. Hi there Plako!


Yeah, that's an event log just loaded with good news. We need triremes stat to clear our way past the barbs and keep control of the inner sea. On the good news front, Xenu made peace with Brick and is still at war with Serdoa, so there is that. But make no mistake, the thing I'm most worried about right now is the hideous boost Plako just got:


Of mild interest, too, but very very real interest nonetheless:


Settling the western rice sooner rather than later, it's time to reclaim our ivory from the Dutch.