Well, it's been an interesting few rounds. Nothing earth-shattering, but holy crap are barbs getting all up in our grill. In the last ten turns we've probably killed 6 barb warriors. Impis are f*#$ing AMAZING barb hunters -- able to move rapidly to different parts of the empire in order to smash them before they get close to cities. Our main anti-barb Impi is already C2/Shock/Mobility (two promotions above his default). He'll probably get to 10XP before long if he doesn't die.
In other news, I got graphs on both our neighbors, so you can see below. We're fairly low right now because our cities have been recently whipped so we have nothing above pop 3 at this moment.
On the other hand, our rushing out the settler got us city #4 this turn: Outcast
Because of the rush our worker is a little further behind than he would have been on T60. I'm building an Ikhanda because we want to get those fish online as quickly as possible. So build will be Ikhanda->WB->WB->Granary. I think in the long run this will make a great GP farm.
Strangely, Whosit declared war on Dreylin last turn (after we played). Must have been opportunistic because there's no possibility we're having border clashes yet. Maybe a worker or settler he wanted to nail? Whosit is still on 3 cities, though Dreylin and us have 4 now.
Things have been cruising along...not really too much to report.
On T60 I got this diplo message from Dreylin...
Which definitely leads me to believe the conflict between him and Whosit was probably a result of an opportunistic attack, especially since they made peace the turn before.
Amarok will have the next settler built EOT63, which will give us city #5 around T69ish. The Chamber finished its Ikhanda this turn and started on a worker, which will be accelerated with a chop/mine in 2 turns. Hibernaculum will finish its axe next turn and will put 1 turn into a library, then switch to a worker (needs 1 more turn to grow to size 5). At that point it will be working two riverside cottages, so we want to get them growing. The one it is currently working, in fact, will upgrade to a hamlet next turn. After the worker, it will resume the library (which will helped along with a chop).
We'll also start camping the furs south of Hibernaculum next turn (worker arrived on them this turn) which will increase our happy limit.
My apologies for lagging on the reporting, but I have been so incredibly busy with work this past week. I am, in fact, traveling to Detroit, Michigan for a customer next week.
On the other hand, nothing exciting has been happening. We put down city #5 this turn (T66): Peace On Earth
We are now tied with Dreylin at 5 cities and 1 ahead of Whosit who is still sitting at 4.
EDIT: Also, I had to skip "Far Above the Clouds" due to space issues.
Amarok finished its axe and is now building a library. An Ikhanda was whipped in Outcast, which is followed by a work boat. The Chamber finished a worker and is now building an axe. Hibernaculum is finishing its worker and will then build a settler.
We'll finish Math EOT, so the next question is what to pick as research afterwards? I'm thinking about Sailing, as by the time we get that we'll have at least 4-5 seafood, which will start making lighthouses worthwhile.
Greetings again, people of RB. I, Grimace, have returned from my business trip and now have sufficient time to give an update on the status of our empire.
First, the graphs:
Score
We're leading the other two folks on our continent, but we're in the middle of the the world as a whole.
GNP
We're doing OK in GNP...not great, but I'm still working on laying down some more cottages.
Prod
We're doing quite well here. Lots of hills and such around.
Food
Not as awesome here, but we're not the worst off either.
Power
We're competitive here, which is really all that matters. We do not a juicy morsel make right now. We have a good number of impis and axes out and about.
And overall demos
As you can see, for the most part we're fairly middling, with the exception of food, where we're on the lower end. Fortunately, that should change over the next ~10 turns or so as our new cities' borders expand and we can bring 2 fish, 2 sheep and some pigs online.
Next, a summary of all of the cities
Our capital, Amarok. Doing very good. Since the seafood is online for Hibernaculum and we were building a settler here, I took back the wheat. I also just 1-pop whipped the settler this turn to finish him, then it will finish the library while it grows back, and will then build a worker. The library will give us a nice +4bpt while we're researching as well as some more culture. With the settler available on T74, that puts city #6 built around T76, as a road is already in place.
Our second city, Hibernaculum. Another library being built, as those cottages will produce some nice commerce in a few turns. The library will be followed by a settler.
The Chamber, city #3. It's building an axe for 1 turn, then will switch to a worker (to allow it to grow). By the time it's done with the worker, it will almost have lost its whip unhappiness and we can whip again.
Outcast, city #4. Doing quite well. I changed its build slightly after taking this screenshot as I realized the WB would complete in 2 turns, but its borders won't pop for 4 turns. We need the workboat to finish 1 turn before border pops (because it will take 2 turns to get to the fish, which will allow it to grab the fish the first turn it is able to). So I inserted a granary which it will put 1 turn into, then switch back to the WB, then go back to the granary (which will be whipped, overflow going into a second work boat).
And finally
Peace on Earth, city #5. Without a significant food source at the moment, it's slow-building the Ikhanda. I have a worker chop/mining the grassland hill it is currently working, but it will finish 1 turn after the Ikhanda finishes, so the hammers will go into a Granary. Another worker is chop/cottaging the tile 1N of the city, which will finish the granary and overflow into a unit...probably an impi.
So overall, the empire is doing adequately. Our expansion started off a little slow for an IMP leader, but we're doing alright. We're at least doing as good if not a little better than the other folks on our island. We are going to have border problems with Whosit and The Chamber. He built a city 3 tiles to the west of it, so that's going to be fun.
Long term, my hope is that because of the ill-will Whosit already engendered with Dreylin that we'll be able to use that to our advantage and double-team him and feed upon the carcass of his fallen empire.
As a side note, I decided to run up the religious tree and grab Priesthood to see if we can get the Oracle. Worst case we're in a good position to nab Monarchy...I plan to do Meditation->Priesthood->Sailing
If we can get the Oracle, I'm thinking of grabbing Code of Laws for the religion and the courthouses. If not, well, we still need Monarchy for Hereditary Rule and for our Wine.
Like our other two forward cities, it's really not going to take off until its borders pop, but then it will be a nice city.
Another settler is being built at Hibernaculum and should be ready T80, for our next city ~T82-T83.
We also started The Oracle this turn at Amarok.
I've got a worker starting a chop next turn, so that should be cut down to 7 turns. I think we have a chance...not sure how good of one. I'm definitely planning to take CoL if we nab it -- the only tech that's more valuable right now that we can research is Currency.
Other than that, things are going well. We're keeping pace with the other players in the game, so that's a good thing.
Not too much going on most of these turns, but sadly, on T80, we lose the Oracle race. I believe wetbandit nabbed it, as he has an 11 point score increase, compared to much less for everyone else. He's definitely got a significant lead now.
On the other hand, we got 61 fail gold, so more research!
We produced a settler in Hibernaculum this turn, which began moving to its new spot. The next city will be built on T82 (one more turn of movement, even with a road in place). I also switch Amarok to a settler which it will be able to complete in 1 turn thanks to the Oracle failure. Thus we'll get another city on about T85ish. The Chamber is also building a settler and will complete it on T83, so the next city after that will probably fall on or about T88. That will probably be our last front-line city, and we'll have to start filling our back line, including a little 2-tile island we discovered north of The Chamber.
Still just growing and building. Mostly units, workers and settlers, with a few buildings here and there. Ikhanda->Granary in every new city, for example.
T82, we settled city #7 -- Moonlight Shadow
And T85 we settles city #8 -- Foreign Affair
We are now tied with Dreylin on our continent at 8 cities, while Whosit is still at 6. And our city #9 will be going down on T88. At that point, we will basically have pushed as far into the continent as we could go and will begin the backfill process. We have space for 3 more cities on our coastline, plus at least two islands that can take a city, so we'll be able to settle at least 5 more cities before we're saturated.
I'm building a galley in Outcast so we can explore (and then settle) the islands off our north and east coasts. The rest of our cities are either still building their Ikhanda/Granary, or are building units. My goal is to have an Impi/Axe in every frontier city with a small reserve of Impis/Axes more central to respond to any incursion.
I tried to write "We have too much on our hands" and hit enter to send him a message, then I was going to decline, but instead enter accepted the deal.
I've never used the window to write messages, so I (incorrectly) assumed Enter would just put your message in the window. I guess I will just decline straight up.
Well, I haven't updated here in forever, but I thought I'd give a general update because, well, Dreylin's going to read this later and I want to apologize.
Wetbandit offered me 6gpt for open borders when I logged in, and I figured it was for exploration purposes...you know, to scout out my territory before he invaded me. And I'm like "Sure, you can check me out for 60 gold. I'm totally down with that, since there's nothing I can do to stop you if you attack me." But it turns out after I got out of diplomacy that he and Fenn are warring on Dreylin. And that I gave him another avenue to attack, though he doesn't really need it.
In any case, Dreylin, sorry man, I would not have accepted if I'd known you guys were at war at the moment, but I didn't know it.
Overall, I'm in second-to-last place, ahead of Adrien, and behind technologically, though I do have Rifling...that being said, wetbandit has frigates and I'm still using Triremes, so...
And that I gave him another avenue to attack, though he doesn't really need it.