[SPOILERS] Mardoc's Magical Mystery Tour

[Mardoc]

Finally got our third city planted! It did cost us, but not as badly as I thought: 4 gpt or so empire-wide. The next settler will complete next turn, and it looks like he'll be able to head east directly.



In other news, the barbs were very cooperative this turn. On both sides of our empire, they moved onto flatland next to our warriors. In the south, my 14 XP warrior should be able to get his last 3 from the barb; in the east the units are newer but they'll at least get themselves started.



And, of course, we got our Great Sage this turn. I'm considering delaying a turn or three to start the golden age.

Reasons to delay:
- We'll add at least two worked tiles by settling the eastern city. More if we can grow our core and find some happiness. Happiness is coming soon - gold just needs worker turns, while OO happy will come as soon as we fire off the Golden Age in any city that's gotten a spread by then.
Reasons not to delay
- Snowball! Stuff now is better than stuff later
- With the expanded perimeter and another warrior about to wane, we'll need to build more warriors pretty soon. I'd really rather start them with 4 XP than 0. Both because it's closer to being a wane themselves, and because new warriors are much more useful with a promo for security's sake.

Fake edit: Waitasec, Conquest has been delayed to Warfare. Only apprenticeship is unlocked at Edu anymore. Still gives us the vital first promo, but it's not as much of a benefit. It does save me from waffling on whether to adopt Conquest or not (whether wanes or city growth is more of a priority) .

I think I'm leaning toward, on balance, saving the Golden Age three turns until I settle the eastern city. We don't delay the benefits by much, but that's a pretty big jump point.

I'm also debating what makes sense as a next food/hammer goal. From the scouting I have so far, it looks like north is the best direction for new cities. But we really ought to push out some more warriors to scout further and push the barbs back a bit. In any case, I need to spend some time dot mapping, very soon.

[Mardoc]

Got my warrior up to 17 XP! Now I just need to find the time for him to walk, slowly, back to the capital, and build a replacement or two. I am tempted to slide in Horseback Riding just so our wanes can have Mobility...

The settler completed, so our fourth city should be established in three turns. I'm currently planning the Golden Age for then.

Education is complete. I'm going to pick up Animal Husbandry - important for the fourth city - then pause to build an event fund. That'll take...maybe two turns, after which we'll head for one of the first to bonuses. Probably still going to be Drama next.

Didn't spend any time dotmapping. Might circle around and spend some thought on that after dinner, or I might wait another day.

[Qgqqqqq]

Agreed with delay, btw.

[Mardoc]

Played the turn. Took a turn off of working the Sage in the capital...because combined with overflow, that let us have a 1-turn worker. Combined with September's worker, that puts us up to five for soon-to-be-four cities. Probably enough, maybe? I think Bananas will spit out a couple warriors then...then we'll have to have a plan again. Actually, wait. It should go onto another worker, and save the warriors for after our revolt.

Probably what makes the most sense is to keep pushing settlers, with maybe another worker first, but I don't have a destination in mind for a fifth city. So that's the first thing to fix.

No barb killing this turn...mostly because I didn't have enough warriors in the south to both go out and kill barbs, and feel confident in covering the city and the workers. There's a pair of goblins and a warrior hanging out around the borders that I'd love to smack - but the warrior's hanging out in a forest, and the goblins are in a different direction, and I only have two warriors to use. Should be able to fix this as soon as I can spare the production to up my warrior count.

[Mardoc]

In case I have time to dotmap at work, or you have any suggestions, Q, here's the current state of my knowledge:


Both corn to the north have fresh water, so it must be a lake to the west rather than more sea.

[Qgqqqqq]

South: North of corn, SE of Wheat.

East: W of cows. Awkward, but that's probably as much as we can get without causing problems. Could go E of cows, but that's quite far from previous.

North: South of corn.


That's all I've got.

[Mardoc]

Hmm, something like this? I could see it:









This time, although the north looks tasty at first glance, I think I prefer to settle them south -> East -> South -> North. Because the south and east cities have a nice mix of some food + a bunch of hills, while the north pretty much just has food. Could turn the north into cottage cities, but honestly we seem to be doing fine on GNP with Elder Councils + Wanes.

It makes it pretty clear what the high priority scouting directions are, too - directly south, and northwest/northeast. Those directions have fog where it feels like we need cities.

[Qgqqqqq]

Agreed.

Oh, and a city on the "gorilla 48" sign looks good.

[Mardoc]

Had three turns since the last report - this PYFT crew is fun . I don't think I played quite optimally, but on the most recent turn we had several nice things happen.

Fired off the golden age, retired our third wane, and started working the gold tile. I debated what type of wane, but went with a Sage because I feel hammers are more vital than food right now. Also there's a chance we eventually want to leave God King before we get gold multipliers built, but we'll never un-build the Academy. I'm not 100% convinced, the next wane may well be a merchant even if the situation doesn't change much.

Demos look almost kinda-sorta passible after that.




Well, ok, our skewness is still there. GNP is crushing again, while hammers are ok and food is still way behind. Gotta keep pushing settlers.

Finished off Festivals, and it looks like we can get to Drama in six. After that...probably I will grab Bronze and Warfare and Philo and MilStrat. If we're lucky, we're first to all of them. Then it'll be time to grab Hunting and consider some military adventures - assuming I can push the settling pace enough first, of course.

Our capital looks very nice. Combined with the probable Drama bard, our next golden age is due in...well, a little more that 20 turns, since our GPP rate will fall once the current GA ends. 23 turns, maybe?

Settler won't be quite due in four turns, since I think I want some more warriors, but he won't be that much delayed either. Going to alternate warrior - settler turns, and the warriors look to have a lot of overflow. Maybe settler will be done in six, with three warriors in between, something like that? Need to get some more health resources hooked; fortunately that's already in progress for the new cities. About the only thing I might have to consciously do for health is spare a worker to put a road on our corn.

I realized something I could have been taking advantage of: Spirit mana grants units extra healing. Which is also a nice bonus when it comes to having the same units fight again and again. Going to try to work the logistics to spread around some Courage promos on top of the Enchanted Blades.


September continues to be solid but not great. With the revolution, we've got some growing to do. I'll also try to push out a couple workers, and at some point finish off the Temple, and swap to working a Priest. Gotta invest a few more worker turns here, get a mine and some more farms built.

The GPP counter is keeping up with the capital, so we'll have to take a turn off to be sure the cap's person comes out first. That's fine, we aren't quite as dependent on the Sage beakers anymore and would rather have a Prophet for the shrine next, I think.


Ants is looking as solid as a size 2 city ever does. Workers are en route to the wheat, then copper.


And 99 Luftballon is also doing well. The copper mine is due to complete in 2, while we're also working on the clams and another grass farm: actually improving tiles a bit faster than we're growing here.


Finally, our upcoming GNP situation looks pretty strong as well. No one's quite ready to wane, but we've got three warriors to the halfway point. I think we've boosted our tech rate enough that I'll have to let one of these guys go all the way to 26 XP; Warfare isn't that far away anymore.



All in all, I wouldn't say we're in first place. But we might be tied for it.

[Mardoc]

Well, looks like our dotmap has been adjusted for us. On the other hand - if I can get to bronze fast enough, a handful of axes is definitely going to be cheaper than a settler. I'm tempted to divert from the Drama rush, but I guess there's no hurry, the place has got to grow before we can conquer it.



We do have horses available. And not much else to go with them in a city. Maybe where the bear is standing would do. Maybe there's something good in the fog to go with them, in fact.



Otherwise, just more of the same. First settler is likely going south, assuming I can push out enough warriors into the area to feel confident in doing that. We're up to nine of them, and I have at least one more to build before the settler comes out, so it's looking possible.

Still no OO spreads .