Dave Fires Up The Epstein Drive [Japan]

[oledavy]

Love the show Steve!

Do you think a rule about not editing posts in the diplomacy thread would be a good idea? Seems like you could be disadvantaged if you're asleep and someone posts something then edits it...

That's an excellent point, we should have thought of that. 

I'll bring it up in the organizing thread - it hasn't been a problem yet but it may yet be in the future. 

At any rate, it was a quiet turn on the home front. 

Turn 44



I'm not uncovering much of the map these days because two of my exploring units are backtracking. My settler is en route to my 3rd city location.  Just biting my nails as the turns on Ceres's project tick down. 

The good/bad news is that the Vikings are mobilizing - he's definitely not running a district project at present. I can tell this from his faith production. I imagine his military is slated to take Toronto, but I will have to be wary. 

Woden now is making 2 GPPs per turn towards Hypatia. I'm a little sad nobody is contesting him for it yet. I'm really tempted to broadcast his SPT to the world write large, but I don't want to sour our potentially good relationship this early. The good news from my perspective is that Singaboy is near him, so Woden will likely end up being his problem. I'm just a little too far away to do much of anything. The Vikings are my likely problem. With radio silence from Jpper about John the Baptist in the diplomacy Thread, I guess we're just going to leave this competition unspoken. 

Here's hoping nobody is about to complete Stonehenge though....

As a final note, Singaboy confirmed he met another CS, and Archduke met two things over the course of the last couple turns, I suspect CFCJesterfool and his city-state. 

With that in mind, there are likely 1-2 unmet city-states left out there. The time in which I can meet them is ticking down. I'm prioritizing the area east of Jerusalem as being the most likely area to contain an as of yet, unmet one.

[oledavy]

Turns 45-46

It's been a quiet couple of turns. These parts of the game, where I'm waiting for a plan to pay off, are by far the most nerve-wracking for me. 

In the south, I continue to explore. 



I'm expecting to meet Spain and perhaps find one of the last unmet city-states in that vast unexplored area south of Ceres. 

I'm definitely going to be pushing expansion towards the islands to my south and southeast, they are both far better than the distant city-sites to the west on my small continent. 

Settler will be in position to found my 3rd city on t49.

[oledavy]

Turn 47-49

I've been holding off on reporting the last couple turns because I wanted to see if I had actually made a mistake I couldn't fix. 

The mistake was finishing the research of archery. This raised the cost of my district projects from 56 to 60. I had not anticipated a 6th tech increasing my district project cost when I had 5 civics researched. The project in Ceres was fine, I would still finish it on t50. It's worth noting that it's extremely important I finish the prophet and found the religion before t51, as that's when I'll finish Political Philosophy and advance, increasing the costs further. Moreover, if I want to proc the "spread my religion" quests on Jerusalem and La Venta, I need to have the religion before I hit the Classical Era. 

At any rate, Ganymede's project was in trouble. I had 57 hammers, and I needed 60. If I had skipped the shrine, this wouldn't have been an issue - but working it in meant I had basically no room for error, and increasing the cost meant I wouldn't finish the project until 51, screwing with the above timeline and rendering quite a bit of the GPP rom the project wasted. 

Then I noticed that Ganymede would grow in 2 turns, and that I had a 1/2 tile I could work, earning me 4 extra hammers and giving me 61/60 required. Problem solved right? Wrong. 

Ganymede was growing to size 5 into unhappiness, and -5% off its production of 16 HPT would mean I would end up with 59.4 of the 60 hammers needed to finish the project on t50. 

But, salvation came this last turn. I was hoping I had a fractional hammer in the build queue I had forgotten about, and turns out I did!

So, with that minor drama behind me, I will be finishing both projects on t50, and with any luck, recruiting John the Baptist the turn after that. The last threat to me is really Archduke building Stonehenge. 



Singaboy built a campus and expanded to a third city, so he isn't building it. I can already surmise Jpper007 and Woden are not. The critical break was the as yet silent and unmet Spanish Empire building a Holy Site. I had thought him most likely to build Stonehenge, but this would seemingly indicate he's going to take a much longer path to grab his religion. 

So, that leaves only Archduke. Hopefully he doesn't grab JtB out from under me over the next couple turns. It wouldn't be the end of the world if he did, but it would be a setback. 

At any rate, this last turn, I founded my third city (second to one if I'm reading scores correctly), Callisto. 



After this, it'll be a round of builders, then spamming campuses, then two more settlers. I'm aiming to be at 5 cities, 3 campuses, and 2 holy sites by t75. 

In the south, I've found the bottom of the map. I'm expecting to meet the Spanish more or less directly south of me, and for an unmet city-state to be somewhere north of them and northeast from Jerusalem. I'm still holding off on upgrading my archer just in case I meet another city-state in the next couple turns and its quest is also to train an archer. 

I continue to be pretty happy with my standing in this game. Singaboy and Woden seem to be the biggest threats abroad. I've given up quite a bit to get my early religion and districts, but it has been mitigated by Meiji Restoration and that sweet discount on Holy Sites I got courtesy of Jpper007. I'm not happy about having to run 2 district projects to guarantee first religion and Defender of the Faith, but it's worth it to me if it means my neighbor doesn't get it and I become an unassailable porcupine for most of the rest of the game. With Divine Wind and Defender of the Faith, galleys protecting coastal waters near my cities are 40 strength, and warriors on the seashore are 35 strength - on par with swords. 

My preeminent long-term concern at this point is keeping pace in science. Woden is currently making double me, and I suspect Singaboy is in a similar situation. That's bad news long-term if I don't act decisively to rectify it. Hopefully my plan to abuse district discounts for 3 cheap campuses, combined with Meiji Restoration adjacency bonuses and Jesuit Education not too far down the line will stabilize my situation and allow me to keep pace.

[oledavy]

Turn 50

I was hoping to report this morning on whether or not I landed my religion, but sadly the turn didn't make it around 

At any rate, I get to hang in suspense for about the next seven hours. 

Here's the big international news of t50 though. 



So, I have to believe Jpper is declaring war to get through Singaboy's borders. Buenos Aires must be one of the unment city-states out there. There may actually be no cultural or scientific city-states in this game at all. 

It seems like Singaboy already has suzerained them? The best answer to how he did this is this: 

1. He met them first (1)
2. He accomplished their ancient era quest (1)
3. The 6th civic he researched is not PP, and instead one of the civics that grants an envoy, getting him to 3 envoys total.

At any rate, that gets Jpper to three city-state contacts. 

This means there are at most 2 unmet city-states left. Here's hoping I can find one of them.

[oledavy]

Turn 51

And so, the big turn arrived. Did anyone jack JtB from me at last minute?



YES. Okay, we're in business. Went 5 GPP over, but that's fine. I knew that would happen due to my shrine build. And we're going to stay on that musical kick I started on back in PBEM2 with my choice of religion. 

Hello, would you like to change religions and have a free book written by Jesus?!?!?



Defender of the Faith secured. The wording is more clear than I thought it was - limiting the bonus to being within your borders. Still, I think a solid pickup, partly for denial purposes and partly to make myself just that unassailable. Considering how much of my strategy is predicated around my picking up Jesuit Education, it was a natural second choice. 

I chose the crab as an icon so my religion would have a distinctive color more than anything else, avoiding the situation Alhambram and Woden found themselves in in PBEM2 with religions of the same color. 

Here's how it looks in religious view. 



I bought a missionary to spread Mormonism to Callisto, and have a couple spreads ideally on hand for La Venta and Jerusalem (if things work out how I think they will). 

He cost a steep 150 faith, but he'll be the only purchase with faith I make for a bit. For the foreseeable future, I'll be saving faith for libraries. 

I went ahead and upgraded my slinger to an archer this turn, getting a second envoy in Jerusalem and clearing out its quest for reaching the Classical Era next turn. 

Next turn I swap into Agoge to start pumping out workers, so with nothing urgent to build, Ceres and Ganymede each sunk a turn into granaries - essential early builds if I want to grow these cities large and emphasize districts. 

The other big news of the turn came in the deep south: 



He's exactly where I thought he would be. Apparently Jpper007 also has a galley a bit to my northeast, as he's apparently about to meet him. The challenge now is finding his city-state, and finding any unmet city-state in the area before Jpper007. It doesn't appear that CFCJesterfool has any galleys out early. I think there are 2-3 large islands constituting this large area of land to my south, but its hard to tell at this point where one begins and the other ends. I'm currently worried by southern galley is stuck in a massive bay, and is going to have to do a lot of backtracking to start exploring again. 

At any rate, Classical Republic next turn, with my religious gambit in the rear view mirror, it's time to kick my economy into high gear.

[suboptimal]

Coulda been a Boat Mormon...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjQDBIG0...3&index=12

[oledavy]

Coulda been a Boat Mormon...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjQDBIG0...3&index=12

Next time.... 

I guess I also don't really need to say that Mormons feature semi-prominently in The Expanse, which was the other reason I thought to make my new religion Mormonism. 

At any rate. 

Turn 52



Worst case scenario, I'm second to PP here. All in all, I'm pretty happy with my cultural production this game, relying purely on God of the Open Sky. I will need to start building some monuments soon though. 

I did briefly debate if I wanted Autocracy or Classical Republic. The +1 to all yields from Autocracy is just so good. But the Wonder production bonus would be completely wasted, and CR's policy setup is just a bit better for what I want to do right now. So, CR it is!



This also immedietly solved my amenities issue in Ceres and Ganymede. Yay early districts. 

The bad news this turn is that neither Jerusalem or La Venta proc'd a 'spread religion' quest 

La Venta wants me to produce a GS, something I'm at least 40 turns away from, and Jerusalem wants a trade route. On the flip side, I did quickly figure out a plan to get a 3rd envoy into both for +4 faith apiece. I will use the mysticism Envoy on one, and my first naturally produced envoy (due in 10 turns) on the other. With two Holy Sites, that will catapult me up to about 20 faith per turn, or about 1/7 of the cost of a library. With any luck, I will have enough faith for all three initial libraries by roughly t80. 

In the far south, I met Spain: 



Looks like he emphasized cities (he's at three) and infrastructure early. Very intriguingly, he may have a commercial city-state (it might also be the yield from the truffle camp he has). I'm going to see if he bites first in the diplo thread. I will find it either way, it's just a matter of time now, and I no longer feel any rush to track it down. 

Here's where my southern galley is: 



I'm still confused by the island layout down here, but I should have it all defogged soon enough. Having the territory between me and Spain and the territory between me and the Vikings defogged this early will give me a massive leg up in the settling race for these islands between players. I will know what I need to target, what would overstretch me, and how much force I need to hold the area. 

I'm probably going to go on a naval building spree not long after settlers 4 and 5. For now though, it's time for builders and campuses.

[oledavy]

Turn 53




Okay, so there are three islands here. CFCJesterfool's city-state, which I'm leaning towards being Religious now (crap, I forgot to check if he had a pantheon or not - that would tell me for sure), is probably to the east. This southwestern island is almost assuredly uncontestedly his. The northern island (relative to him) is disputed territory between him and me. I'll get an idea of how good it is over the coming turns. It will only take one galley to defog the area, so I need to figure out what I want to do with the other one. 



At home, I converted Callisto, and found Woden's galley to the west. I may connect to Woden over those mountains in the far northwest, but for all intents and purposes, the discovery that the finger of land to the southwest ends in a marsh confirms I'm on a continent to myself. 

Singaboy was second to PP this last turn. I'm curious to see if he's going to start to run Inspiration and give Woden a run for his money on Hypatia. She's a pretty great GS, well worth fighting over imho.

[oledavy]

Turn 54

So, apparently Singaboy and Jpper007's war is real. Interesting. 

Other than that, not much to report from this latest turn. 



There are four islands, as it turns out. Spain's island must extend pretty far to the southeast.

[oledavy]

Turn 55

Met Archduke in the far west this turn. 



He's also at three cities. I'm really surprised he didn't rush Celestial Navigation and get a Royal Navy Dockyard early. 

In the south, CFCJesterfool is about to plant his 4th city, although on a painful location.



I take it distance rules prevent him from planting somewhere that doesn't waste that wheat floodplain. He's definitely one to watch though, I had thought Spain was limping along a little bit - with no early districts or investment in exploring. It seems instead he is pushing expansion hard. 

Also, I was completely wrong about his city-state. It's Hong Kong. If it survives long enough, it might be useful this game. Still, its suzerain bonus is just so niche.... 

It is on shitty land though, which increases its odds of surviving. I'd wager it was manually placed there by Cornflakes - maybe out of an effort to make it less appealing to simply kill. Some of these 1-tile wide channels also feel suspicious. I'll be curious to see after the game what was a manual edit and what was generated naturally.