DaveV talks like a pirate, me hearties!

[DaveV]

Unfortunately, it will be a while till I can get a galley into the body of water containing the marble island. It may actually be faster to build the galley in the capital and pass it through canal cities than to build it in Dead Mans Chest.

Even if I have to wait for a while for my island city, I still want to research Sailing next to enable lighthouses.

[Mardoc]

Next on the list. Great Lighthouse would be incredibly good for me, and that island also has marble on it for a possible Heron Throne and/or Bone Palace.

Good point - they're both very attractive wonders, especially on this map.

The drama bard would be great, but I don't even have currency.

You mean 'don't even have Festivals', I hope?  Not much call for Currency til the late game.

If you're going for OO after all, then I agree not to go this route.  You wouldn't want/need the benefits from Drama itself, and Sanitation has limited value without an aristofarm economy.  Denial is valuable but perhaps not *that* valuable.

Titan is always good, and would be particularly good for me as a Charismatic civ, but I'm a long way from having the XP to qualify.

Ok, true.  Maybe if it's still there after your first war.

I'm probably already behind on the Bone Palace race, with both Aurorarcher and Q having OO. Here are my thoughts:

I'm not sure on this.  I think the tech isn't nearly the limiting factor, so much as a) a city that can build it in reasonable time and b) a big enough empire to benefit from the Palace.  Someone who's on 3 cities really should be putting their hammers into settlers, not wonders.  You've got a dramatic head start on both factors; 7 cities is enough that it's probably worthwhile, and your cities are bigger due to Cha, and you're emphasizing hammers.  

I wouldn't necessarily beeline for it, but if it hasn't fallen by the time you have marble, I'd give it a try, myself.

I want a Sea Haven and Lighthouse in every coastal city, which I believe will give me +100% on trade routes. So, 2 commerce domestic routes and 3 commerce foreign routes. But I need 90 hammers for those two buildings. Since I'll be able to feed most of my cities easily with water tiles and bonus land food tiles, I'm thinking of workshopping every land tile. That means Construction next, then Smelting would be very appealing for +1 workshop hammer. After Smelting, it's hard to resist Iron Working for Boarding Parties and Shipyards.

Of course, this all makes sense too.  I haven't seen anyone try the workshop route with Lanun but it seems like it should work.  I don't think it makes sense to beeline this route, but that's mostly because Smelting/IW are so expensive.  Would only slip in cheap techs on the way, like Message from the Deep.

It *does* have the advantage of being a combined economic and military path.  So that's an angle I can definitely get behind.  Galleys + Chariots + Boarding Parties is a solid army all on its own, although some collateral would certainly help.

One minor comment: I believe you'll want lighthouses all over the place eventually, but don't push them too early.  90 hammers is another settler, after all.  Bonus food in a happy-capped city isn't worth much, in contrast -

A similar argument can be made for FotT: if someone else builds it, I can capture it and gain its benefits. I'm thinking that boarding parties on fast galleys would be pretty hard to resist. Speaking of fast galleys, I'd love to grab circumnavigation, but I'd expect the other players to do their best to keep me from gaining +2 speed on my boats.

I'm not sure.  It takes a lot for people to take a personal penalty in exchange for slowing down the leader.  You've got Carto (I think) which means you're one of the only sources for foreign trade routes and foreign maps.  It's true that you'd likely get more benefit from any open borders or map trades, but everyone's got six other foes to think about, who might take advantage of you if they don't.

Later, once the vital stuff is out of the way, it can be worth picking up some Air adepts for Fair Winds, to add yet more movement to your ships.  I can imagine your chariots moving faster by ship than by road!

Unfortunately, it will be a while till I can get a galley into the body of water containing the marble island. It may actually be faster to build the galley in the capital and pass it through canal cities than to build it in Dead Mans Chest.

Even if I have to wait for a while for my island city, I still want to research Sailing next to enable lighthouses.

Makes sense to me.  Plus galleys will be useful on other bodies of water, plus you can't start working toward the marble city until you have Sailing.  Plus there may be Pearls.

------------

The only tech you didn't mention, that seems worth making a priority to me, is Trade.  It's got an awful lot to offer the Lanun.  Extra trade routes, extra coastal trade routes, faster Cove growth (and cottages, if you've built any).  It doesn't take long to pay for itself

[DaveV]

The game continues to tick along. The cove did indeed upgrade even though the city wasn't working it:



I ran a quick worldbuilder test, and cottages still must be worked to increment the upgrade counter. Maybe it works differently on water?

Anyway, that will change my strategy a bit: the pirate coves are a so-so tile, pirate harbors are good tiles, and pirate ports are excellent tiles. If I can get the upgrade while working better tiles, yay!

The barbs moved in very accommodating ways: I'll have another 96% attack against the guy by Eye Patch, and I can pull my warrior off the grass hill into Brace of Pistol for the bronze weapon upgrade. The elephant is standing on my city site (3S of Wooden Leg), but he should move off next turn.

[DaveV]

The game's back in motion, following Ellimist's vacation. Here's a shot after the barb turn:



The mouseover shows my shock warrior, who won his 96% attack against the barb warrior. Next turn, I'll have bronze weapons to attack the warrior by Brace of Pistol. There's also a goblin coming from the northwest; I should be able to kill him easily, even on forest. In the south, the elephant moved, so I can put the settler from Wooden Leg and his escorts onto the plains hill. That's where my next city will go.

I haven't posted the demos for a while. They're pretty good.

[DaveV]

Turn 69 opened with the ding-a-ding ding sound of a bunch of units being upgraded to bronze weapons. +1 combat strength means good odds against the barbs.



He still took damage below 50%, as you can see in this post-move shot:



The stupid elephant is going to be trapped forever in my culture, meaning it will be a long time until I can work that tile. If I'm going to lose a tile, a grassland forest is better than the incense. The goblin moving onto the forest by Shoulder Parrot means I lost a foodhammer on my worker; he was supposed to be only one turn from completion, like the settler. Oops.

Ellimist has built Loki, which gives him the inside track to circumnav. I also need to keep a close eye out for Loki's shenanigans, since I'm generating zero culture.

[Mardoc]

The stupid elephant is going to be trapped forever in my culture, meaning it will be a long time until I can work that tile. If I'm going to lose a tile, a grassland forest is better than the incense.

A Hunter plus a bronze warriorpult or two can shift an elephant. Hunting is cheap in EitB

[DaveV]

Change in plans: new warriors are dedicated to the conquest of Ahepetr instead of scouting. I really want that city.



Two more happy resources would make Deruptus pretty irrelevant, so Wooden Leg goes on warrior building duty, as do Hook Hand and Eye Patch. It will take me a few sacrificial warriors to clear the archers, so my back-of-the-envelope calculation says I need a stack of about 6-8 warriors to take the city. I also put the new city (which I forgot to rename) on a workboat instead of a monument after taking the picture of Ahepetr's garrison.

Both of my attacking warriors took a lot of damage again, at 97% and 99% odds. Maybe I'm saving my good RNG rolls for when I need them.

[Mardoc]

Ooh, yes, that looks very nice. Even if it doesn't have food beyond the pigs, it's worth it just for the resources. Plus it's nice to share the sea with established cities.

I can't tell - is Arhpetr on a hill? And is it going to be renamed Arrrr, Matey! ?

[DaveV]

Ooh, yes, that looks very nice.  Even if it doesn't have food beyond the pigs, it's worth it just for the resources.  Plus it's nice to share the sea with established cities.

Long term, cities can be fed by water tiles, and it has a decent number.

I can't tell - is Arhpetr on a hill?  And is it going to be renamed Arrrr, Matey! ?

Flat, which makes it a lot easier to take. If I can get Odio's Prison in my borders, though, it's in range for the defensive bonus from that feature.

I was thinking of renaming it The Black Spot - I thought that was an appropriate name for a former barb city.

[Mardoc]

Long term, cities can be fed by water tiles, and it has a decent number.

Oh, well, yes.  Plus it will have pigs as soon as you arrange for culture.  Honestly I haven't seen anywhere on this map so far that isn't worth settling, it's just a question of how fast you can come up with settlers/workers/workboats/garrisons.

Flat, which makes it a lot easier to take. If I can get Odio's Prison in my borders, though, it's in range for the defensive bonus from that feature.

Ran Sareln's calc.  3 bronze warriors gives a ~90% chance to kill each Archer, 2 is ~60%, so that's probably 5 for the archers (one wins on the 2nd attack, the other on the 3rd).  Against the warrior, your second warrior has 81% odds.  So I'd want to bring seven warriors to the party, expecting to lose 4.  Maybe a couple more to be safe, particularly for insurance against the city building another warrior, although that also increases the odds of the city having *time* to build another warrior  

4*16 = 64 hammers for a city is still a darn good deal, of course.  Especially since apparently it comes with a worker too

Of course, those are odds for unpromoted warriors.  If you bring your vets, you shouldn't need as many. May be able to kill the warrior outright with one of your Shock monsters.

I was thinking of renaming it The Black Spot - I thought that was an appropriate name for a former barb city.

Ok, that works too.  I was just inspired by Ahr = Arr, but The Black Spot is definitely more classic.