[SPOILERS] Will the Sun(rise) Ever Set on Washington, Mongolia?

[Whosit]

Oh, note to self: Switch Gideon to a Granary build. With that Hinduism spread, it doesn't need the Monument.

[novice]

I don't know, I don't have enough info. If it were an island even a dud city would be worth it once you get currency, for the extra trade route. Doesn't look like an island though. Now that you're there you should probably just settle, regardless, unless there's a juicy spot available elsewhere on the coast.

Maybe settle 1E to get the hill defense, sheep, spice and clams, although the clams look like they're second ring to the korean city. (Who wins a culture war? I don't even remember your traits, let alone Korea's.) The whale itself is not that great a tile, you mainly want the resource, which your capital will claim when it pops fourth ring. Don't know when that happens.

[Whosit]

Hm, I wasn't sure that the capital would get it with another border pop because of the ocean tile (I don't recall all the culture rules). I might test that in the sandbox (artificially inflate capital's culture). Korea is EXP/ORG so won't get any culture bonuses. Neither do I. Anyway, if the capital will get the whales eventually, then yeah, I think I agree about moving 1E for the hill defense and taking a shot at those clams. I know this is a tough call; I should have explore this area more thoroughly before.

[Whosit]

OK, confirmed you're right, I think. Capital 4th ring will get whales. In like 100 turns.

[Whosit]

Alright, picture time. (And I should finish updating the sandbox, I go too long without updating the turns there and I worry I make mistakes in continuity.)

My reminder that I swapped the build here.



Moved Settler. Kind of a wasted turn, but I didn't know to drop him on this tile. I hope this city works out.



Power graphs. I think that big bump for me are the two Axes I whipped from Mabel, probably? It makes me feel a lot safer, at least.



Demographics. Not doing too poorly! I'm 5th in production, but the leader is only 7 points ahead, so the top 5 are pretty clustered. And 3rd in food, but not too far behind (I know the food leaders have done some whipping lately, though). My GNP is pretty shitty, though. I only get 66 at 100% science. But for this stage of the game, overall, I think this might be my best performance thus far.



Income screen. Useful? I really snapped it to make sure it squares with the sandbox on this turn. I was getting some incorrect values.



Dipper screen to help me get the sandbox version right. Also, until now, I thought there was a forest 2N of the city. Oops.



Shots of the "north." I've been thinking about where I'm going to focus on Settling post Currency, and it's probably up here.






That spot to the south, with the wheat and 2-3 seafood? Yeah, that's great. But I don't think I can work out the logistics to make it work and be defensible. Settling the area north of Mabel means I at least have several older cities to contribute to the development of the new ones. I'm planning to jam a city between the stone and marble. It will totally SUCK as a city, but picks up two very valuable resources. With a border pop, it can work the flood plain (which I'll farm) and a couple other grassland farms should give it enough food to do... something. I actually might want to consider getting a Settler there even sooner than planned because I'm sure CH has eyes on that area as well. I need several workers to build roads and improvements, and I think to defend the city I want 1 Archer, 1 Spear, 2 Axes. I don't have those available just yet.

And which city to build the Settler? Soos is an option, but I'd rather it build troops because it has a barracks, or Workers because of the hammer bonus. Perhaps Mabel, but it would have to take the Pigs back from Gideon, and even though it's not as effective, maybe 3-pop whip a Settler out (Working Sheep, Pigs, grass Farm, and some food neutral tiles, that's probably ~11 foodhammers per turn). Put 3 turns into building the Settler then whip it.

Soos Also needs to produce a few extra archers for the island cities (city?). I might have to stretch the defense around Mabel thin for a little bit. I don't know if I'll have time today to make another big plan, but I don't have to decide until Mabel hits size 6 or larger.

I also want to settle that Sheep/Fish spot north east of Mabel. Not in as much a hurry there because I need IW to really get that city going. I don't want to settle it earlier than that unless I must. Also, I'd put a fort 1SW of the city to allow ships to canal through it! I still might like a city on that hill SE of the korean warrior, but I'm less concerned about it now. It wouldn't be a great city, but it would have some strategic value from its location.

Speaking of strategy, what's mine? Well, right now I don't think I'm in contention to win, but I do want to advance my position. I want a peaceful border with CH (though no doubt it will be a tense border), I'd like to be friends with Johns' Zulu, and I want to take the Great Lighthouse from Korea, and more Korean cities, preferably. Based on the power graphs, they aren't going to be pushovers, but perhaps a speedy naval landing might catch them by surprise. I don't think I can 1-turn the city, though. 2-turning it might be hard, even. And this depends on when I decide to do this, as I'd like to keep expanding peacefully for a time longer. I'm going to make a push for the SoZ in Soos, and if I wait for HBR, I could easily get a few amphibious HAs or WAs out of the city, plus a bit of whatever else. Maybe get 4-5 galleys full of units? Korea's 5 cities look like they are somewhat spaced out, so even if they have a turn or two of warning, well.... It's impossible to say without knowing, but I might have a shot at it.

[Whosit]

Meet Robbie. He's a loser. Maybe he'll get better?





GOOD NEWS EVERYONE







This is an island, and the Korean border is second ring! So once Currency is in, all my cities will have a pair of 2C domestic trade routes, and with Novice's fine suggestion of moving the city's planned location, it will have a hill for defense and should get two food resources (2nd ring unfortunately but I'll deal). As long as I keep this city, it should be worth the investment (bonus points for picking up a new calendar luxury). The only question: Cottages or workshops?

Meanwhile:

I think I'm going to deviate from the original plan and spam 3 Archers out of here. This archer is getting exactly 25 hammers invested, and the city is producing 15 hpt right now. So it will 2-turn Archers with overflow, and would be on a 2-2-1 pattern. However, Soos will grow soon and will work a new mine, but that's fine. 2 of these archers will be sent to Robbie, and 1 will get sent to Pacifica to bolster the defenses there. I've seen no galleys from korea yet, but I'd rather not be surprised.



Worker moves.



The city finally got a Granary at size 6, lol



Did not finish turn, still a couple worker actions to decide on.

[Whosit]

Finished turn. Loaded up Stanford Worker onto Galley, moved Soos and Dipper Worker to the Soos plains hill. Couldn't think of a more effective move, but they can mine and road the hill by the time soos grows, so there's that.

Also, haven't recovered trade route with Zulu. Considering offering map trade, but is it too early for that?

[Whosit]

Things I did:

[Whosit]

Turn rolled and as much as I wanna log in and check, that'll have to wait for tomorrow. (Also, I really need to steal a few hours so I can chart my new course.) However, look at this:

CH 406
Elum 373
johns 347
Whosit 340
Dreylin 318
Grimace 305
Adrien 280

The difference between the leader and the loser is 126 points, or 145% of the last place score. I think that Shaka of Rome here is not going to be a significant player and I wonder who is gonna get to eat them. I don't know where else to draw a line. I'm only 7 points behind Johns right now, but I still feel like it's a Top 3 and then Everyone Else. Hm, just realized CH's score increase was 31 points. A wonder? I'll have to see. 1 pop point for Elum, a whip for Johns, 2 pop points for me, a pop for Grimace, tech+pop for Dreylin?

I dunno. I should go to bed. I don't know how much of significance there is to learn from just the score here.

[Whosit]

Turn 89

I just snapped these to help me remember what I was doing with a few units. Up north, Mabel is putting a few turns into a Barracks instead of building a Worker as originally planned. Mabel will grow to size 6, then take the pigs back from Gideon (crippling the little bugger for a while) and will start a Settler. 1 Worker will start roading to the marble/stone site, and will finish right on time for the settler to plop down a city.









Turn 90

I got to take a look at the former barb city of Carib.



Too bad I didn't have an Impi or something. The Workers fled after CH played his turn. CH has his stupidly free-upgraded Axes, but I haven't seen any spears in his forces yet. If I were able to get 3-4 Chariots up there before the borders popped, I could probably burn it down. Of course, I'd have to prepare for reprisals....



I'm not doing too badly in demos, surprisingly! But look at that, I'm barely behind the food leader and I'm 3rd. Really close contention right now. I'm 3s across the board for the main stats, and I'm OK with that.



This Warrior is poking around up here at a bad time. I can cover and defend my workers alright, but now CH is going to see me roading towards the new city location. I worry he'll either race me to it or attack me. Securing those resources could be important for either of us.



I decided to drop science to 0% for a couple more turns because I was a little short on case, and remembered that I should wait for the Library to finish before kicking on the research.



The Library will be worth 5 beakers here... not a ton. I suppose my capital ought to be working more cottages than it currently is. It will eventually steal back that one cottage that Wendy is working, and once Currency is in I'm planning to build/whip a Market here, cottage every remaining land tile (maybe the riverside grass hill, too) and grow it as big as I can (I think it'll get stuck at size 13, though. Enough to work all the land tiles in the city radius, but there's not enough food bonus there to grow really huge. Could maybe put a lighthouse in there some time in order to work those coast tiles....



I threw together a new 10-turn plan to get some bearings but I don't know if it's any good. I felt I was running out of useful things for my workers to do as my core cities hit the happy cap. That means I don't have enough NEW cities settled and growing, but I am not really sure where to put new cities right now. Most of the easily accessed locations only have food in the second ring, and most of the better locations are too distant from my core to easily defend right now. It's a conundrum.