Dare you enter the Whizzard's Realm? Magic and Mysteries abide.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Turns 233 and 232

Look at the end of turn demographics here. Ok we are full tech, but so is our assumed competitor for top GNP scooter, who is also in GA. We do have a lot of culture output, but this would probably be mostly matched by his impressive EP output. As GJ loves to ask, 11 hindu buildings now, first cash multiplier being built EoT. I've turned tech on as we might as well use the cash when we don't have a multiplier building and save when we do. Don't know who has a 56 GNP or even how that is possible... 

Empire shots. Unlikely to have any ugly tile use for the forseeable future save for a turn or 2 in new cities. Only 3 non hindu cities now, and 3 missionaries in production currently. Galley in Hogwarts is loaded with a settler/longbow pair for the silver island to land with the longbow already on the island. Workboats all ready to use on the resources and the silver to be hooked next turn. Couple of courthouses down now and as mentioned 11 hindu buildings, with a lot more 1turning eot. 

Also see below, confirmation likely a currently peaceful galleon. Longbow in the settle spot that is less aggressive towards us. We can hopefully peacefully coexist up here for the time being.

We need to be careful we aren't cut out on the East though. RMOG have settled for this fish already. (didn't realise until now it is jungle fish) I think plans need to be changed, and the next settler should go for that hill that channels the 2 water bodies, and locks us a nice land border with RMOG. Make it uncomfortable to settle for the freshwater clams. Also over here I think we will be able to annoy him and compete for his cities second ring just up from here. Religion in Durmstrang already, will get a monastery and a temple soon. If we pop third ring there that will be really irritating for them with a limited ability to reply.

So plan for settlers is after the market another from tower. It is size 8 currently, so should be able to whip it after a turn of building. I think it is important to lock down that Jungle grass hill with a city myself. Then one from Hogwarts to use it's big size well, and a further perhaps from Baradur as it will be size 8 next turn. 

Also looking over city potentials, I think actually Hogwarts would make a better NE site than UU. It has a few more resource tiles that are less under pressure to be shared that UU. If baradur doesn't have the deer then longterm either it or the city west won't have a proper food source.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

FYI The tags do work, they just aren't in the editor. You can use them manually if you wish.

Another FYI: in the new editor, the 3rd button from the end, you can click that and it has a dropdown to select "screenshot" or "spoiler" tags.

Thanks, very helpful. Nice new look, but no QoTM?

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Turns are coming at about 1.5 a day. Quite nice.

Demos are shapely. Remember that Scooter is in a GA. We are pulling in 111gpt after whips, he is currently on 147gpt. I think our constitution 3bpt boost to all cities makes the difference here, putting us roughly on par. If he gets constitution before the end of his GA I believe we would be about on par. Actually our max research is likely to be better with the monastery boost we have in most cities. We have builds coming in that would put us up another 10gpt before any growth helps us also. I'll put another turn of max research into education next turn as the turn after tower will be whipped down to size 4 to make way for the eastern coast cities.

Good news. Realised we won't need a galley to reach the other copper island. We can use the jungle hill city to fort right through. Can just get through straight away. However, I am not 100% sure where the settler will come from. The Hogwarts settler won't be ready to whip for 4 turns, and will need 3t of moving to get onto the galley. I just rejigged tiles in baradur, and I reckon I can get it to get a missonary Eot, and then use the overflow to get a settler ready to whip in 2 more turns. It'll be pushing it, but I think it can be done. Onto the galley in 6 turns. It'll be tight but doable.

2 more courthouses and 2 more hindu buildings EoT. Border pops down south to get the iron next turn and then start on the wines. Also note the screenshot of the culture war on the silver island. Last turn that was only 15% ours. We will be making more with the monastery Eot, we should flip those tiles soon. Interestingly, we aren't getting unhealth from those jungles either. I guess the forests/jungles need to be on the same island to cause health issues for the city.

Mistoin settled the gold island like it seemed he would. No major worries there. His explorer is hanging back now too. No other major news to report that I can think of.

[El Grillo]

Good to see that the Ottomans aren't reaching too far. If it weren't for the ICTR, I'd think about shifting that settler down to the isthmus and further reducing border tensions while also claiming more land, but the tradeoffs might not be worth it, and there aren't enough workers nearby. Does it make sense to offer their team, or any team really, map trades or resource trades at this point? Maybe as the unique polar luxuries come online?

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Good to see that the Ottomans aren't reaching too far. If it weren't for the ICTR, I'd think about shifting that settler down to the isthmus and further reducing border tensions while also claiming more land, but the tradeoffs might not be worth it, and there aren't enough workers nearby. Does it make sense to offer their team, or any team really, map trades or resource trades at this point? Maybe as the unique polar luxuries come online?

This I have been tossing up for a while. We have been half scouted by Mistoin and Plako I think. But what would we gain? I don't think that any map knowledge is that useful to us, but we have quite useful map info - for example, I doubt anyone but RMOG knows that we have stretched to get the extra silver island, and he might not even realise that we are about to settle the other. Also no one else has copper connected, so perhaps they are unaware of what is on that island. Also we are giving away more city positions than others, although they might already know that as the others could have traded maps. Our explorer is currently in Plako lands, I am sending him down to Mistoin to get a feel of them. We have OB and they are playing the most unorthodox method, so it will help quantify where they are.

I have also been thinking about whether it will be useful to offer silver to whomever out of Mistoin/RMOG that doesn't get it... Undecided on that front. It is likely to be RMOG and as it would be awkward to hit us anyway could push him more to Mistoin and trying to push out onto them.

I actually think grabbing that istmus is a good idea. Let me be clear - the settler for the Eastern Jungle hill to lock in RMOG is coming from tower. The settler for the other copper island is coming from baradur. That means in 4 turns the whipped Hogwarts settler is currently up to place. I can ship a longbow or 2 from UU to that spot, and also ship the settler there from the North getting there much quicker than otherwise. It doesn't need workers instantly, it can share the northern fish with the silver isle and whip a workboat for the clams. I'll look in to what we can do with it now.

Finally is it worth bringing the jungle hill settle forward 1 onto the banana? It'll make getting the lake clam easier and completely block RMOG, but would be hard to defend and is probably greedy... I would lean against, but not strongly.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Also the polar sources - perhaps, more to foster relations and make friends. We have silk and wine. Others that were possible were sugar/spices/dye I think. Cannot think of others. So we are only 3 sources off every happy source. I really don't think we *need* any happy sources as such, although a lot of people have theirs online already. I haven't checked for resource trades yet, I will do so shortly.

I would be more interested in securing the sugar/spices for the possible health benefits with industrialisation looming. Health was sparse on 33 and quite limiting. We also don't have free harbours in coastal cities, and sheep appear absent from the map actually I have just realised. Lets see what happens when we have them available and who has what.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Regarding pushing the RMOG border city forward by 1 tile (to 9), I was initially against it. But having had some thought about it, it might actually be a good idea. It saves a ton of worker labour on having to (1) plantation the banana, and (2) fort a tile to workboat the clams. Its expanded borders give a ton of vision over any stacks that RMOG could send at us. And while it's not on a hill (which is very useful for coastal defence), it can only be boated from a single tile from the south, meaning it's easy to defend it using a few ironclads blocking the inlet. The downside is its relative vulnerability from the north, but we can block off the narrow channel chokepoint with ironclads there).

The downside of settling on the jungle banana is the low productivity in the mid-run, as we'd need to clear a ton of jungle in order to workshop it, though it can build 2 mines in the short term.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Regarding pushing the RMOG border city forward by 1 tile (to 9), I was initially against it. But having had some thought about it, it might actually be a good idea. It saves a ton of worker labour on having to (1) plantation the banana, and (2) fort a tile to workboat the clams. Its expanded borders give a ton of vision over any stacks that RMOG could send at us. And while it's not on a hill (which is very useful for coastal defence), it can only be boated from a single tile from the south, meaning it's easy to defend it using a few ironclads blocking the inlet. The downside is its relative vulnerability from the north, but we can block off the narrow channel chokepoint with ironclads there).

The downside of settling on the jungle banana is the low productivity in the mid-run, as we'd need to clear a ton of jungle in order to workshop it, though it can build 2 mines in the short term.

SHort term we can get a lot there from the whip. We would get an increased yield on the city tile and quick access to a 6/0/2 lake clam, with the other clam easy to get. 

I'll see what I can do with the galley, might not even need to delay it. I'm conscious they have pushed out along there to grab that jungle fish and will want to press us for nicking their silver island...

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Regarding pushing the RMOG border city forward by 1 tile (to 9), I was initially against it. But having had some thought about it, it might actually be a good idea. It saves a ton of worker labour on having to (1) plantation the banana, and (2) fort a tile to workboat the clams. Its expanded borders give a ton of vision over any stacks that RMOG could send at us. And while it's not on a hill (which is very useful for coastal defence), it can only be boated from a single tile from the south, meaning it's easy to defend it using a few ironclads blocking the inlet. The downside is its relative vulnerability from the north, but we can block off the narrow channel chokepoint with ironclads there).

The downside of settling on the jungle banana is the low productivity in the mid-run, as we'd need to clear a ton of jungle in order to workshop it, though it can build 2 mines in the short term.

It's less efficient with worker turns, but we can land the settler with the longbow from salem the same turn it would move onto the grassjungle hill. Pulling the worker on the hill 9 of yhodsharpura with another to the tile 7 of him, and roading that and the one 8 the settler can board and then be dropped on the tile the next turn. We will get the added bonus of having the ability to land the longbow to make sure the settle is safe first.

[El Grillo]

I need to clarify something in my mind, how are you getting a settler to the other copper island from Barad-dur? The galley from the northeast would need to go through an isthmus port city, right? If so, I favor the spot on the bananas as well, it can share seafood immediately and hook the lake clams, and I really like Nic's proposal for fortified ironclads (though they're admittedly still a ways off).