[SPOILERS] Dtay in PBEM53

[Ceiliazul]

no. cylindrical requires East-West. Toroid requires E-W AND N-S. flat maps have no cnav bonus.

[Commodore]

And tilted axis needs North-South!

[dtay]

Allright, so depends on map type... I've kind of been assuming this map is Toroidal for balance purposes cause of the obvious loop shape + maintenance costs seem high. Calendar will reveal all soon enough. (Unless this info was given to us earlier and I forgot, but I think it wasn't).

[dtay]

The long delayed update. My short term goals right now are 1) Land the MoM (looking good on that front), 2) Circumnavigate (idk how well I'm doing, no real way to tell how much other people have done), and 3) Settle up to ideal borders.

Also islands, colonize lots of islands.

Here's the core shot:



Notice lots of mature-ish cottages, I think I did pretty well getting lots of them out quickly. Shanghai has outgrown its improved tiles, so I'll be whipping a settler or worker out there soon.

The Western half, has a similar "triangle around lots of cottages" set up, just not as developed.



In progress MoM:



The roaded forests are pre-chopped. Should finish soon.

The islands:



The southern Island is obviously a pretty sucky city, I just placed it cause I wanted the marble NOW, to ensure MoM. It'll be ok once borders pop I guess.

The Chinese Magellan:



The diagonal path the galley is on should manage to hit both E-W and N-S circles in the not-to-far future. I'm sending another galley out west to try and speed it up a bit though.

Border with BaII



His 2 axes in the border city are a joke, I could kill them (and had a chance earlier) with 99%+ odds. But I just don't think it gains me anything concrete and could drag me into a war. My longer term plans are to eat up BaII once I have some sort of tech advantage (construction at the earliest, maybe later).

Planning a city North of the southern corn here:



Azza has 2 chariots wandering the area though, so I needed to chop out that spear first to guard the settler. (Spear is under the warrior in Hangzhou).

Demos:



Last in GNP despite cottage-cheese. Explanations: Lack of culture and currency. The former is of no concern, the latter will fix itself soon.

[dtay]

Landed the MoM.




Founded a city:



Demos:



That I'm last in GNP is really weird to me. A lot of it must be culture, (like vis a vis TBS and creative it certainly is), I guess a lot of peopel are running max at the moment?

TBS is doing really well, its a 2 person race now. I think everyone else is (already) terminally behind. I honestly think its basically a zero-sum game between TBS and myself now. I'm considering trying to put together a naval strike, we'll see if I come up with a good specific plan.

[dtay]

This has been going on for a the last few turns - apparently not just an off strike:




I also like how those trade routes are arranged... just a few turns ago everyone inexplicably only had open borders with TBS. Despite him being The Great Lighthouse builder. It was weird, but at least everyone noticed.

Pretty cottage cheese:



I may have mentioned this before, but god its so nice having all this grassland to put cottages on (pb13... so many plains)

Broader shot:




Azza's chariots retreating. Probably going off to fight TBS. Good... good...




These shots are all a turn old (sorry, I forgot on the latest turn). I'm now 1 column from circumnav. I also forgot to check last turn if anyone else grabbed it (was playing it in a hurry).



But hopefully I should be about to get it. TBS had a galley pass by around the NS worldwrap, but idk if he's completed EW (or how far south he scouted).

Islands:

[dtay]

So big update here.

I think I have the most well developed empire in the world, lots of size 7-9 cities (at happy cap), teching equal to or slightly greater than TBS's great Light House civ, top in food, and 2nd in MFG.

I also have a breakeven percent of less than 30. Maintenence on this map is hell.

So I have a solution.

A drastic solution.



I am about to whip a ungodly large amount of population away over the next few turns to build courthouses in all my most "out there" cities. I've looked through the cities and I can manage it without whipping away more than a few cottages. I can do it mostly whipping away either now-unneeded specialists (I just birthed a GS), unimproved tiles in 2 cases, and mines.

But lets get to the pictures:
Empire overview:



The far West by Azza



The near west:



The center:



The east:



See all those size 7/8 cities? They're mostly about to turn into size 4. Then regrow in about 3-4 turns each, then I'll declare a golden age.

What will all this target? I'm not sure. I'm about to make either a taj or liberalism run, but I need to decide which. Both run through civil service however, so I have until then to decide.

I can't really expand much more right now until I get courthouses up, the maintenance is just too much. Forbidden palace will help there as well.

[dtay]

Forgot the pictures of the island cities. There are 3 of them. Oops. Next turn I suppose.

[Ceiliazul]

whipping courthouses is more competitive on toroid (which this is?) looking good.

how much is maintenance in your "out there" cities?

who got cnav?

[dtay]

TBS got circumnav

The outermost are about 11, and this is when they're size 1-2.

There will be a specific account of whether each courthouse is actually worth it in terms of saved-commerce versus commerce of tiles whipped off when I go through, but I expect at least 5 to be economic to triple or quadruple! whip (one city is way outgrowing its improvements, and one is working 2 scientists that it won't need to after this next turn).

The other calculation I'm making is how fast I can regrow for the golden age, since I want to be at max-ish pop for teh golden age, but also want to use the golden age as soon as possible.

Basically I need to do some math next turn.