[Spoilers] Is thirtythreesome safe?

[plako]

Minor update. There was a short fight between Xenu and Oxy. Might be good news knowing that Xenu is the type of going for vendetta and defending fiercly. On the other hand if they both start building military I probably had to do the same not to be too far behind in that respect. Both Xenu and especially Oxy are doing very well Demographics wise. I think that Oxy is among top 3 nations at the moment and Xenu is doing also better than me.

Here was a city candidate I was about to settle in couple of turns. I guess not.

I've very little land. Hashoosh seems only one looking a bit weakish from my neighbors. Hard to take advantage of that though.

I've given up Pyramids plan. Too many things can go wrong. Better focus on getting my economy rolling and keep my military competitive.

[plako]

Some kind of update. Got a minor urge, since I spotted that GLH hasn't landed yet. I made my 1st micro plan of the game to land it in few turns. As a side effect it increased significantly my enthusiasm/exitment level for the game. If I land it, I might even go for a very unorthodox Alpha-Currency next to enable early foreign trade routes and build up science to get another batch of trade routes fast from Currency and skip Mathematics for now.

Other significant thing is that I was able to plant Marble city near Xenu and possibly try to land also MoM again. Looking a lot like a replica of PB13 . To be frank I don't think I've realistic shot at MoM, even if Calendar will be high on my pririty list. I've 4 Calendar happiness resources + couple of Bananas. In PB13 early tech pops made my Calendar landing date very early that helped out there a lot. Here my calendar finishing day will be later.

[plako]

Looks a lot like I'm getting the GLH. At minimum a coin flip.

Demographics look decent

Most worrying thing is that there is already someone with more land than my claimed+unclaimed main land tiles. My expansion prospects are very limited. There might be islands to claim in the south and possibly NW.

I'll probably go for Alpha->Currency next to take real advantage of GLH. I also considered Mathematics+Pyramids, but I don't think I want to go towards Feudalism after Calendar and Hereditary rule will be decent enough for me. Feudalism is a very important tech. Lbows are essential to keep the coastal cities safe cost effecively. There are so many ways you can get attacked easily here.

[plako]

Boxed in everywhere:

That Xenu's plant really pisses me off. For a moment considered giving up and tech HBR. I feel I've no chance to compete from this poistion.

[Rowain]

Annoyed plako on warpath ?

[plako]

Annoyed plako on warpath ?

You'll surely see it. This setup doesn't leave me much choices. Either I'll sit on my butt with 10 cities or go fight Xenu that might come after me even before I'm ready. I hate how hard the fighting will be. Almost all of my cities are in galleyable range from my other neighbors requiring AI-like garrisons and then I need to fight with a guy well known from building excessive militaries. His economy is also still rolling well making it pretty hard to get significant military tech advantage and of course because of lack of land I don't have MFG to really build an army so I'll need to use excessive whip.

So what techs do I really need (roughly in priority order, might take some military techs before all the ecomic ones):
Economy: Alpha - Currency - Maths - Calendar - Metal Casting - Monarchy (+those religious prerequisites) - possibly CoL (I'll probably switch all of my cottages to Workshops)
Military: HBR - Construction - IW - Feudalism - Machinery - Guilds

I think this is it. I'll happily skip Civil Service to get faster to Guilds. I'll also use my 1st great person for Golden Age to speed up these goals and revolt to Vassalage+HR (+caste, if I manage to get enough worshops down to use it instead of Slavery).

[Rowain]

nudge nudge - turn 100 report

[plako]

I've settled everything except one last city that will be settled next turn. Someone already has 50% more land than I'll ever have .

[plako]

I probably could have got MoM, if I had really tried unless it lands before I got Calendar. However I don't have marble connected, because I didn't really belive I've a shot at it. I've not built many workers, because of small amount of land tiles to improve so that makes it a bit difficult to make a shot now.

Instructions for the future map makers: I suggest making setups that have at least some directions safe unless you really want maximum stress game. It is really painful to play, when a couple of galleys or smallish stack of Horse Archers at wrong place could easily ruin you. I've several cities that could be 1 turned from the fog. All of my cities would be reachable 2nd turn of the war .

[Rowain]

Any news from (p)laconia ?