[Spoilers] Haram hopefully reports

[Haram]

Met Dreylin. His scout came from the eastern isthmus. He gave me a 78% shot to kill it, but I’ve chosen not to. If I’m reading the map correctly, eastern/western neighbours should do a decent trade partners (at least in the beginning), while the main early competitors should be people from the north / south, cause we will compete for the same inhabited land, across the sea. If Dreylin declares to see my capital, I’ll start regreting the decision.

My assumption is, that we are all on the same continent, that wraps like a ribbon - 3 wraps with 3 players each. Between each wrap there are inhabited islands or continents. Each player has his own „home system” (see screenshot below), connected from both sides with a jungled isthmus to the other players. I might be wrong, but thats how I would build this map, given the starting location.

Bleh, I just noticed that Jowy is using The Witcher theme in PB28

[Haram]

I decided to grow my capital to 5 on the Stonehenge. I have only 1 worker so far, because I didn't want to put Stonehenge at risk. It would be a different story if I were able to finish it with chops (and direct them into something else, if someone completes before be). Converting hammers into failgold at this point of the game would be really painfull. The plan is to stabilize the capital on 5H mines and build work/set/work/set... for the foreseeable future.

I still don't have The wheel, so my second city went to the pig location, it gets trade via the river. It will be my future capital, with every single tile cottaged, that is not a resource. It needs a lot of help with cottage growing. In the midgame I'm planning to run relatively high slider with ziggurats, shrine and some wealth builds.

[Haram]

Mechanics question: what are the rules on barb spawning? IIRCa barbs cannot spawn in 2 tile range from the unit (regardless if it is fogged or not). What about the distance from culture tiles?

[Haram]

I just realised I haven't explained my pick so far, so here we go

PRO I value as a strong trait, that gives bonusses throughout the whole game. IND got indirect buff, with reduced bonusses from resources to building wonders (also national ones). Failgold is still viable option for IND, while for others it's not that appealing anymore. Both traits have a nice synergy. Initially I was planning to beeline calendar to build MoM, then abuse PRO hammer bonusses with consecutive GAs. Now, I started to consider other option. Tech Monoteism - introduce OR - then tech MC and whip forges/ziggurats. MC seems to be a very strong option for me on this map. Cheap forges give me +2/3 happy, so I can pretty much ignore happyness constrains while whipping. Sea control will be very important, so triremes are a must... sooner or later.

Sumeria I wanted for an easy access to 90H courthouses. Early expansion is usually rapid and there is a moment (usually after maths), when you really start to feel the weight of the cities you just planted. This is a moment when you have so many classical tech priorities - currency/calendar/monarchy/IW/MC. At this moment, when you usually experience some sort of tech choke, CoL needs to compete with all these usefull techs to offer courthouses. That is why I like to have an option to spend 74 beakers for Priesthood, instead of 586 beakers for CoL to build CH if my economy starts to crash. It's also 30H cheaper then normal CH, so can be 3 pop whipped, whis is very important in the begining. Vultures are more universal defenders than common axes, but it's not really important factor for me.

I think I've already made a mistake - I should have taken Hindu instead of Buddism. I was afraid to delay AH and BW 2 more turns, but now I think it wouln'd have made a big difference. At this point I would be 105 beakers closer to Monotheism and OR. Of course, buildings other than granary probably won't be build for the next 30 turns, but I still regret choosing meditation over poly.

[Haram]

I got The wheel and Pottery, Sailing next. That is why I finally went west to clear the coast for the potential trade routes. I kind of hope one of my neighbours gets Writing, so I won't have to tech it immediatelly. Joey is to my west, he probably thinks that he has Dreylin as neighbour, cause Dreylin's scout went to Joey's land long before me. So, both of side neighbours are imperialistic and both doing very well.

I settled my third city for double cow and a fish, decided to delay gold/silver a bit more. I need another strong production city to catch up with expansion and to be competitive to islands. Temporary eco freeze should not be a problem, since I have easy access to ziggurats and guaranteed T85 shrine.

I left city marks, so you can see my dotmap. My next settlements should be silver -> stone -> copper -> corn/sheep -> islands. Initially, I was planning to place copper city 1N and a filler in the middle, but I need to have some real units when I go to the islands and I don't want to wait another 10T for the culture.

[Haram]

Settled my silver and stone spots. I thought, I will fall behind a little bit, after my religion/Stone opening, but demo and city count look pretty ok atm. So, I decided to make a quick re-arrangement of my worker forces and try to trade 100 hammers for Metal Casting. I prefer MC rather than Monarchy, cause my cheap forges also give me 2-3 happy. Math would be even better, but it's T59 already, so I decided not to delay The Oracle. More prophet points will also be usefull. Early shrine doesn't give much income, but increases the chances for the autospreads. When I finally get another prophet, I can use it for Theo bulb. For IND with forge/OrgRel bonusses AP is not that expansive, but it's only an option at this point. GA may be another use for the prophet or I may mix the pool with scientists and roll a die.

I just realised I got 4th culture ring in my capital and I am able to hook the copper without planting a city. So, my next cities go oversea.



Cities, demos.

[Haram]

I settled my 6th and 7th city on the southern island, 8th one is comming next turn east of my cap (cottage helper). As you probably know, we have 9 islands. Theoretically it is 1 per player, but they are situated in a way, that each island can be contested by 4 players. I aready have contact with Scipio (south) and Tsargon (south-west, so he is also Dreylin’s eastern neighbour).

I was thinking of how to approach to settling islands and finally I decided to concentrate resources to control the closest southern island. The western part of it could be a problem, cause it is close to GermanJojo and Tsargon. As you can see, there is also a barb city in a good spot, which makes it even more attractive. I’m putting 2 vultures on my galley and I try to get it asap. It is a bit of a stretch at this point, but if I want to control the whole island, I need to hurry. As a second objective, I’ll try to get a foothold on the other islands. I don’t want to invest (and risk) a lot of resources, but having even a single city on an island opens further options, in case of other players’ conflicts.

I’m also trying to evaluate my chances for MoM. Other players, like fenn/wetbandit, TBS, dreylin, can definatelly reach calendar before me if they go directly. I sacrificed cottage development to keep up with foodhammers and expansion. Worker logistics can also be a problem, cause the only spot that can build MoM in a reasonable timeframe is Quinarra, on the island. I may have 225% bonus and plenty of forests, but tech is usually something that determines the Wonder winner. At this point I think my chances are no more than 30%, but I probably still want to test it. MoM is simply great and Calendar isn't a bad tech, even if I lose the race.

The pyramids I gave up completly. First, I didn’t believe I can get it without hampering my expansion. Secondly, it is pretty antisynergetic for me. I have access to cheap early forges and ziggurats, while Mids would pull my resources to libraries and scientists. Happyness is not a problem for me atm.



There is a white culture to the north, so fennbandit it is. It looks like they settled on a plains between the horses, pig and fish. This means, they have to settle west of gems, if they want to have it. I don't like this spot.


So, I already know the locations of 7 players. Only TBS and Borshe are still not identified. Jowy's location I guess from the recent drama.
From my perspective (Sumeria is the center of the universe, obviously) it is:

? ---------------- wetbandit ------------- Jowy

Joey ----------------- me --------------- Dreylin

Tsargon ----------- Scipio ---------------- ?

[Haram]

I have an idea of how to speed up the Calendar. I can produce over 200 failgold on the Colossus in my capital while completing it in Mehar Xull (it doesn't even have a lighthouse, but who cares ). Both cities already have a forge.

The biggest problem is, that it requires a lot of simming to do it properly and I'm short of time lately. I don't even have updated sandbox

[Haram]

Just to make sure. If I offered GJ a pig resource (which I totally accept, if he confirmed), it would be at least grey area, since we have 'real trades' rule? I assume it would be, so I didn't offer. Just would like to hear lurker's opinion.

[Haram]

I become pretty optimistic about MoM. Dreylin and Fennbandit went Currency, TBS is logging multiple times in course of recent turns and top power went up significantly. That might mean some tension on his borders, but not necceserily.

I didn't finish my turn and didn't move western units, cause GJ came upon my workers improving marble. One of the workers evacualted last turn, but I didn't move the last one this turn. I really doubt that he declares, but I can't be sure.

I got 230 failgold from Colossus, now I need another package from Maoi, if I don't want to get stuck before Currency.