Gaspar, Lewwyn, et al go full Sartre

[NobleHelium]

It's even better than you know because dtay just settled next to the clam.

[Gaspar]

Alright, so its t115 and I owe you guys a report.

Since we last spoke, we made peace with Yuri after settling Elysian Fields. I think that's probably the end of any situations over there, at least for the short term.




You can say dtay settled Timbuktu (good job sticking with the naming scheme there buddy) which means the hill plant would have been strictly better, since we're not going to be able to keep that clam. There's one more city to plant between Camelot and Nysa but otherwise that's probably the extent of our peaceful western expansion. There's an argument for trying to snipe something south of Elysian Fields for the rice, but I don't realistically think we could defend anything down there.

In the southeast, we added Avalon and Agartha recently. You can see dtay pushed north over there as well. There's 2 more spots we'd like to settle over there but I think its actually quite likely TBS snipes the northern spot and dtay the southern before we can get enough "stuff" in the area to settle it.




In the northeast, the former Hyperborea has come out of revolt. TBS has kept a keen eye on our dealings in the area and so while we had a settler ready to go for the fish tundra city there, we decided it wasn't really worth the effort right now. We rerouted that settler and are debating whether or not to push for that area later.




I can hear Noble getting ready to question the courthouse builds, so here's a quick peek inside Jotunheim to show why they're there. As it turns out, spamming cities far and wide is expensive.




Here's the rest of the empire. You can see we settled Scholomance in between Tartarus and Ys to grab the orphaned wheat. That city is terrible, but importantly it made sure that Oxy couldn't claim our former Moai spot.




We're tech Philosophy because we're going to need to run Pacifism during the upcoming Golden Age to be able to generate GPs for the next one. Unfortunately, staggering them properly will require some math that I'm not really all that interested in doing, but I have specifically not ended turn in the hopes that I'll be motivated to do so later.

Eden got its market and the next GP is due in 9t, which is roughly when we'll complete Philo, maybe a turn off one way or the other. Probably what we'll need to do is generate about 1/3 of the next GP in Atlantis before we fire the GA, then rush the remaining 2/3 in the front half while burning all the food in Eden for the 2nd. We wouldn't be able to manage this with a normal GA, but the elongated MoM GA should make it feasible. After Philo we'll aim to get Civil Service and Monotheism teched before the GA is out so we can swap to them. Its unlikely we'll be able to tech Monarchy as well, but HR really isn't that important to us. We are already able to grow most of our cities to pretty close to their reasonable potential.




Other than that, mostly we're just trucking along. There are about 4 more cities we'll definitely be able to settle peacefully and then its about getting into a position where we can take advantage of an opportunity to claim more land from a neighbor. That plan mostly likely involves keeping several tons of units on the TBS border while trying to take an opportunity against either Oxy or dtay, but there's enough time between now and then that we don't precisely need a firm plan.

The demographics are more depressing every turn.





If there's anything else you guys want to see, just yell.

[NobleHelium]

Not sure why you think I'd disagree with the courthouse builds, particularly a 5-turn one. Do I look like Sulla to you? I like courthouses.

However, I did tell you to plant on the hill before hindsight happened!

You know you need a religion in Atlantis to use Pacifism there right? And Eden too for that matter...and don't forget it has to be the same religion.

[Lewwyn]

You know you need a religion in Atlantis to use Pacifism there right? And Eden too for that matter...and don't forget it has to be the same religion.

Dunno if you can see what Q is building.

[NobleHelium]

Yeah I see it now.

[Gaspar]

I played t116 since Lewwyn was away and I didn't want to chance it rolling and causing headaches if he wasn't able to get to it. Nothing really going on that I didn't describe in the last turn. At some point you owe me 2 in a row now, though.

Philosophy and the next GP are both due on t116. I think we're going to need to whip the CH, overflow to Lib and then run spy/2 scis in Atlantis sometime in the near future. I haven't run the math but we're definitely going to need a head start there if we want it to beat Eden to the GP. I'll keep trying to motivate myself to do that, but don't get your hopes up.

I've diverted some of the recent units from Cockaigne/El Dorado south towards the Avalon and Agartha areas. I think we're well enough stocked near Jotunheim. A second galley would make it a lot easier to transfer units between Jotunheim and Quivira, however and is probably something we should invest in soon. If either of those 2 cities fell, we'd be screwed.

Anyway, here's pictures of those two fronts and demos.










As an aside, I'm 100% convinced that there's a bloody war between Commodore and dtay before too long. Commodore's power is climbing but not spiking, and its still slightly less than dtay's, which is significantly less than ours, which is significantly less than Thoth and TBS. I actually think there's an excellent chance of at least 2 more eliminations within the next 50-60t. I'd guess Oxy and Us are the best bets, but could be anyone really. With the sheer size advantage TBS and Thoth have on the field, I think they can eventually eat anyone they want to that's not each other.

[Lewwyn]

Played turn, basically just did worker movements not much else to do.

TBS got his GP and shrined. He's also got SoZ, GLib (I know we talked about it, just for peanut gallery). Commodore has HG.

TBS still doesn't have HBR, but has MC.

[Gaspar]

So, its a good thing for Oxy that I've got bigger issues going on, because...




Our treaty is up as of last turn as well.

This whole world is going to burn soon, though. We're all pretty close to out of room to expand - and we're all most certainly out of good land in which to expand. Commodore just made 7 whips this turn, including several 1-pop, so either dtay is getting ready to hit him or Thoth has realized he needs more land to compete with TBS. Given their respective power, my money is on Thoth getting frisky, but we'll see. Commodore does have HBR, which both makes him more formidable and also makes you realize his power number is inflated.

TBS could come for us anytime he wants as well and I suspect that isn't too far away.

Anyway, Philo is in at end of turn and Taoism will be founded in Atlantis, El Dorado or Cockaigne. I suppose I prefer Atlantis because it makes logistics easier. But we're going to have detour for HBR before Civil Service because all of our neighbors are frisky to varying degrees and this map demands mobile defense.

[Azarius]

So assuming you are correct as far as war kicking off far and wide, what would be your ideal scenario as far as who goes after who, and if it actually happened, what could you do to exploit it?

[NobleHelium]

The Three Steps to Exploiting Opportunities and Winning the Game

1) Actually spend time thinking about the game.
2) ???
3) Profit!