Singaboy and Sullla's team thread

[Sullla]

Really glad that the combat worked out at Antananarivo. That situation had the potential to get a bit messy if we came up short this turn. And while it's a mostly crummy city that we wouldn't have planted normally, a free city is a free city after all. I think the obvious district here will be a Harbor on the tile southwest of the city center, where it gets the adjacency bonus from the two seafood resources. With two forest tundra tiles to chop in the northwest, that's a fairly easy district to build and then the Harbor will open up the Great Lighthouse later on. Obviously China needs Celestial Navigation before the Harbor district can even be placed, and we might need to think a little bit more about where to place everything to fit the wonders and their tile requirements. Still looking good regardless.

It's great that Defensive Tactics will be done next turn and the Mahabodi will be done a turn sooner. It's not so great that there are no cheap civics to research afterwards to faciliate future civic swaps. I think Feudalism is indeed the one to target next, since the boost will be getting passed over from Rome in 6 turns. On the plus side, China's culture is essentially going to double when the Colosseum finishes and that should speed up some of the future civic swaps. Here's my one offbeat suggestion since you're going to be locked into the next civics for a while: what about dropping Ilkum for Colonization? You don't really NEED Ilkum for the two builders (at Hangzhou and Beijing), right? It just makes it more convenient. If China's going to be starting some settlers soon, it might be more worthwhile to have Colonization running alongside Corvee. Up to your best judgment of course, just throwing this suggestion out there.

Now as for my turn:



The barbarian warrior moved forward in the east and I killed it with my damaged archer. I had vision on the tile southwest of the rice at the start of this turn, and the barbarian archer was not on that tile. It might be on the rice tile though, so my fresh warrior rotating in paused on the wheat tile. I'm trying to set things up so that my fresh warrior can get in the first strike against the barbarian archer, which should be enough to set up a kill on the thing. I've killed two barbarian warriors and a barbarian scout in the area already, so hopefully there aren't too many more units present.



Nothing new found in the southern ocean yet. My warrior along the Kongo border moved a tile further into the jungle without seeing anything. I'll have visibility on that second Kongo city in a turn or two.



Antananarivo is now flying the green banner of China. My archers are going to begin the long treck towards the southeast border, as I want them in the Kongo region for potential combat use when the Declaration of Friendship runs out on Turn 88. It will take them about that long to walk down there, heh.



This was a pretty quiet turn for me overall. The biggest action was mining the plains hill tile at Roma that was chopped last turn to trigger the Apprenticeship boost. At the moment, only three tiles will benefit but that number will grow quickly over the following turns as I have a lot of chopping/mining actions queued up for the post-Serfdom builders. Roma will finish the Commercial district for +6 gold/turn (well, +5 gold/turn after accounting for the cost of the district itself) and this will also be the first Commercial district completed in the whole game. That will hopefully give me pole position on recruiting the first Great Merchant, especially with several more Commercial districts planned to be chopped out in the upcoming turns. I need to get up to 4 trade routes and 2 markets for some of the upcoming civic boosts on the horizon.



Overview shot for the turn. Thankfully the tile picker at Milano cooperated and the wheat tile will be grabbed next turn, with my builder in position to farm it. That's farm #5 and the final one will be the rice tile southeast of Ostia. It will be grabbed by cultural borders in 4 turns, and the builder up at Roma is moving down there to farm it for the sixth and final farm required for Feudalism. It takes 5 turns to move down there, so Feudalism due mid-turn in 5 turns. It took a lot of planning to line up those six farms only 70 turns into the game, but I managed to pull it off and without needing to purchase any of the tiles. Whew.

One place I do intend to purchase a tile is the plains between the two wheats southwest of Ostia. That's slotted for the Campus district at Venezia and it won't get grabbed by the tile picker in a million years. Ostia can also throw down its own Commercial district west of the city, and I could have done it this turn. The interesting thing is that the district is actually eligible for the discounting formula, since I have four total district types eligible and the Commercial district at Roma will be the fourth one completed. However, that requires finishing a tech or civic to refresh the formula, and finishing Apprenticeship will only unlock another district type ruling out the discounting formula. So it looks like this won't actually be a place where I can use the discounting mechanic, ah well. I have enough distrcts finishing that it should be usable in other places though.

Quiet turn for score changes internationally. Chevalier Mal Fet looks to have finally finished his first district, and we'll know the type next turn. Otherwise not too much. The biggest mover was Singaboy and his conquered city state.

[Singaboy]

Turn 65:

Time to switch civics. I change Urban Planning for Corvee with a heavy heart. The loss of production in 5 cities will hurt us quite a bit currently. However, for the sake of getting wonders for slightly less than 5 builder charges is more than a proper compensation. I leave Ilkum active as we badly need it for the overflow of two chops at Beijing (rain forest chop and forest chop). Those two chops alone are worth around 90 hammers and thanks to Ilkum result in additional 27 hammers.

On top of that, Hangzhou will have its builder delayed by a turn giving the city an overflow of around 25 hammers upon completion. Add to that 23 hammers from the wonder overflow and we get around 50 hammers overflow. I am now thinking, those extra hammers should be used for its campus. Currently, the campus has a production of 13/117 hammers. With the upcoming overflow, half of the campus is done and with a production of around 18 hammers a turn post apprenticeship, the campus would be done in 3 turns on T71.

Elsewhere, production is delayed too. Beijing can compensate this by growing to pop 3 next turn. Shangdu should be able to make up for the loss in 4 turns as well when the salt mine gets an additional hammer, just like Quanzhou that has started a shrine after the completion of the horseman.

The horseman is on its way south. The northern horseman gets its promotion and is almost healed. It will move onto the hills to check the terrain there. In fact the harbor could be constructed north of the city gaining the same bonus as in the south due to tow fish resources. Additionally it would enable a wonder to be built next to it without touching a resource there.




Next turn, Beijing will get a jungle chop as well as the entertainment district locked. Due to the new civic, the cost of a district is now at 165 hammers. Surely, two forest chops are required here to get it done as fast as possible. Currently, the yield of a forest chop has increased to 61 hammers. That's around 75 hammers from the first chop using a builder. If the second chop can be timed nicely using the heavy chariot, that's a potential 90 hammers - perfect. Next turn, I can purchase the forest hill in the north for 95 gold to get a raw production of 8 hammers.

One question, Sulla, can you get the conversion time for Rome via the religious lens. I can't see anything but pressures etc.

[Sullla]

I don't have anything to add for China right now, it looks like you have things well in hand. Nice to see the Mahabodi coming along; only a couple more turns of using the builder charges and we'll have another very useful wonder. The +8 faith/turn along will be pretty huge, and I think the first Wat will be ready for faith purchasing in about 8 more turns. Anyway, we actually cycled around to a second turn in one day today. Awesome stuff even if it does mean typing up two turns reports in one go.



In the southeast, the barb archer has come forward aggressively. Looks like it was on the rice tile last turn - I'm glad that I held my fresh warrior back on the wheat tile. The tactics here were pretty straightforward, moving the Battlecry warrior to attack the barb archer while my own archer moved to a safe position:



There we go. My archer is completely safe in this spot and my warrior was able to get in the crucial first strike at +12 strength advantage. I rolled slightly above average in the combat result, trading 50 damage for 16 damage. My warrior should get shot on the interturn, but then I'll be able to move my own archer forward for another free shot, followed by an easy kill with this warrior. The only potential problem would be more barbarian units out in the fog, which is why I have another fresh Battlecry warrior moving up a little bit to the north to help out. We'll clear the barb camp that's almost certainly hiding in the east, and then these units will stand in neutral territory and block the movement of any Kongo units. Seriously, I think four units can block the entire isthmus if placed correctly. At the very least, I'm trying to establish informal control of this region by having a lot of units in the area. Settlers will come in their wake in about a dozen turns. Hopefully Japper has other areas he's more interesting in settling first - I think their team is more worried about an attack from Woden from the opposite direction.



Still nothing too significant in the southern ocean. The western galley has come across some nice land though, so perhaps we'll find something soon. This area over here looks like a good place for future Chinese expansion one day.



In the northeast, Roma finished its Commercial district between turns and increased my income by 6 gold/turn. Still a long way to go to equal China but I'll take it. Roma started on a settler next, and I'm trying to manipulate the timing here so that the settler in Firenze finishes first. If Roma (and Venezia) finish their settlers first, then Firenze will be stuck waiting around forever to get its build done. Roma will have to stop its settler for 1 turn to finish its builder when Feudalism civic completes, and therefore the timing of the two settlers is pretty close. I sat here and calculated the math on Firenze when it grows to size 5, and the city is just barely short of shaving a turn off that settler build, by all of 2 production if I've done the numbers correctly. I might have to purchase the 1/2 plains forest next to the horses tile just to cut that turn off the settler build, even though I hate to waste the gold. The settler in Firenze is the logjam holding everything else up right now, and I really want to get it done faster to speed up my expansion curve. Anyway, we'll see what the city looks like in 3 turns after it grows. I would really like to have that settler done on Turn 73, however, and then the Roma settler coming out just behind it a turn or two later.



At Ostia, I did purchase a tile this turn for 85 gold, something that was planned all along. Ostia tossed down its Commercial district on the tile next to the city, where it will be worth +7 gold/turn with the +4 gold/turn Commercial city state buff and then another +3 gold/turn from being next to a river and next to a city center and Campus district. Ostia has a builder 1 turn away from completion and its walls are also only 2 turns away from completion. (The walls should actually wind up at 79/80 production after this turn in a nice bity of city micro.) I'll swap off the walls next turn and put a few turns of production into the Commercial district, then when Serfdom finishes I'll complete the builder and use it to overflow chop the plains hill forest. That will knock out the Commercial district, once again with only 2 turns or so of actual production into the district. So this is shaping up nicely even if it does feel like it's moving in slow motion at times.

The Campus is for Venezia. This city is currently building another settler, and I want that settler to be the last of the three finished. Venezia has better production capacity than Firenze right now, so I'll build this settler to near-completion at the increased settler cost for a little while, then I'll overflow chop with a jungle tile on the settler, followed by doing the standard Limes city walls chop on a forest tile. Those two together should easily be enough to finish this Campus district, although it might take a little while to manuever the builders in place for both of those chops.



Here's the overview shot of all those settlers and city walls under production. Milano swapped from a 2/2 grassland hill forest to the 3/1 farmed wheat tile so that it grows faster to size 3. Roma is currently slated to convert in 6 turns, and once it does, it will put further pressure on Lisbon to convert faster as well. We're doing a nice job of spreading China's religion around to most of our empire.

Only one noteworthy score change: TheArchduke finished his fourth district this turn, the type still unknown. I can confirm that Chevalier Mal Fet's district from last turn was a Campus worth 1 beaker/turn currently. Everything is mostly quiet right now in my territory, building towards some big turns when Apprenticeship and Feudalism finish. I'm looking forward to finally completing some of these builders with Serfdom policy card in place and getting to cash in more of the saved-up forest chops. Going to get some districts and maybe some traders and libraries. Then it's on to Bath districts next just as these cities are starting to hit the housing cap. I love playing Rome - everything always feels so smooth with this civ.

[Singaboy]

Turn 66:

We have met Germany!

Opening the save, I get the message that we have met Germany and I wonder where his unit is. Clicking the message gets me to Beijing and I get a little worried that there might be a scout or so. However, when I move the slinger that has shifted west last turn, not only do I spot a German warrior, I spot German borders too. Good thing, we concluded the campaign in the north to shift units south. The horseman is reaching Beijing and an archer on the way too. I am now thinking of shifting the second archer south too to protect my builders there constructing the Colosseum. I rather Germany doesn't even get too much intel there.
The good news is that both Germany's and England's military power is not that great either.




At Shanghai, the horseman that is poking in the northern forest spots an empty barbarian camp that Antananarivo must have been fighting but got sidetracked by our attack. I am certainly not complaining about 50 gold for free as we need to invest it anyway  As stated earlier, the harbor placed in the north might be better protected (much less exposed).



Now for the intricacies of the builder overflows. At Beijing, which just grew to pop 3, we chop the rain forest for 30f 30h and the result is the builder being at 71/82 hammers. It will take 2 turns from here to actually chop the forest where the Colosseum is going to be. The builder at Hangzhou is also two turns away from completion at big overflow. However, a completion there would diminish the overflow at Beijing where it is badly needed for the entertainment district (which is immediately locked).



I proceed to buy the forest hill NW of the rice, also effectively blocking Germany from getting to our core. The plan now is this. Next turn, with both builders 1 turn away from completion, I will switch Beijing back to its heavy chariot (the city will grow to pop 4 immediately) making 12 hammers for the chariot (8+4). At the same time, Hangzhou will switch from builder to wonder (much better to produce the wonder for its bonus production) producing more overflow from the wonder itself (currently at 171/400). A turn later, the builder is put back and will then complete on T69 with some sizeable overflow into the campus. On T70 the completion of Mahabodi will result in more overflow into the campus. I am hoping with the completion of campus, commercial district and entertainment district, that sooner or later I will get into the district discount territory. I will need to do some math here.

Mathematics itself will be getting its Eureka soon.

Since the 2f2h forest hill is not used a turn from Beijing, Quanzhou is taking it for a turn for an added hammer
I am now thinking of resuming military production in Quanzhou once its shrine is ready. How I would love to strike Germany earlier rather than too late. Don't you want to divert your units west to strike Germany, Sulla?
Seriously though, Germany/Russia need to be struck earlier rather than too late.

[Sullla]

Big news this turn finding Germany (and Russia). Let me comment on the small picture micro stuff before getting to the big picture strategy.

- The tile two north of Shanghai does seem like an ideal spot for the city's Harbor district. The Colossus and the Great Lighthouse can go on either side of the district, with one of the two fish getting harvested in the process. The tile northwest of the city can be used for the Mausoleum later on. And the 50 gold from that fortuitous barb camp clear is always appreciated.

- Let me make sure I have the builder micro at Hangzhou/Beijing correct. Beijing is going to complete its builder first, using the chop on the Colosseum tile itself for maximum overflow into the Entertainment district, is that right? Then Hangzhou finishes the slightly more expensive builder and overflows into the Campus district, with Hangzhou otherwise building the Mahabodi because the production modifiers are better there for overflow purposes. I think that you have all this straight in your head, I'm just trying to sort it out for myself.

- OK, now for the more serious response, the part about grand strategy. I would advise against charging off to attack Germany in the strongest possible terms. The distance is too far away and the terrain too rough to mount a successful attack right now. Even if Germany is weak right now, by the time that a few horses could march all the way over there Germany will either have crossbows on hand or be close enough to rush towards them and upgrade archers. In an absolute best case scenario, we might be able to raze one city. But we could never take and hold territory at that great of a distance, and I think sending horses and archers right now would be a major waste of time and effort.

China's major strategic goal at the moment should be settling the territory to the north of that one-tile chokepoint in the southwest near the stone resources. This is part of the reason why I thought adopting Colonization over Ilkum might be a good idea, since I was guessing that we would need to get more Chinese settlers out. Anyway, it's water under the bridge now so no use worrying about it. We should be focusing on trying to get 2-3 more cities in that lakes region, and only then will it be time to potentially think about going on the offensive. More likely though, I think we should try to hold in the west against Germany/Russia and look to go on the attack in the east. This is just a function of our opponents in the game. Germany/Russia is a strong team with Defender of the Faith in their back pocket to discourage attacking. On our other side we have Kongo/Khmer, an extremely weak team with no such protection. We would do much better to focus on conquering them as opposed to fighting head on against Germany.

Some spoiler thoughts about this situation related to PBEM5; don't read this if you're associated with PBEM5:

Japper is heading the Kongo civ in this game, and it's pretty clear at this point that he's one of the weaker players in Realms Beyond MP. He was crushed badly in PBEM4, and he just launched a disastrous invasion in PBEM5 that pindicator is in the process of cutting to shreds. Japper is playing as Rome in that game and he's losing badly to pindicator playing as America - I think that speaks for itself. Meanwhile, TheArchduke is the one playing as Germany in this game, and he's shown repeatedly that he knows what he's doing. Always go after weakness if possible in these MP games. That's as true here is at was in Civ4, where one of the truisms that emerged over time was that most important thing in a starting position was "weak neighbors to devour." We have that here and we should leverage it to the hilt.

Anyway, so I think the big picture goal is to settle the disputed border region with more Chinese cities and generally hold position there on the defensive. Meanwhile, we attack in the southeast and try to overrun Kongo/Khmer to snowball ahead that way. Rome is already in the process of building settlers to grab that border area in the southeast, and we have much better odds to make a successful attack against the weakest team in the game as opposed to the stongest. While all of this is subject to change, I think this is the best big picture strategic plan available to us. As I wrote way back in the beginning of the game, we beat Russia/Germany not by attacking them head-on but by out-snowballing them, and I think this is best way to go about doing that.

[Singaboy]

Just an additional information as you can most likely not see them.

Germany makes 37gpt and Russia 19gpt Both are friends with Nubia/England

[Sullla]

I have contact with Germany but not Russia right now, one of those oddities of the team setup in this game. We'll get to some of the stats that became available upon gaining contact with those teams in a minute. First the turn report:



The barbarian archer was smarter than I expected. Not only did it shoot my warrior, it moved back a tile before doing so, making it impossible to attack with my own archer this turn. Before moving any of my other units, I moved the northern warrior on the iron tile east onto the hill, which revealed that there was another barbarian warrior back there. That's unit #4 out of this camp, sheesh. At least it's not spawning horsemen. This ruled out any possibility of attacking with the damaged Roman warrior, since that barb warrior would be in position even if the barb archer was killed. For that matter, the combat odds suggested that attacking the barb archer would not result in a kill, instead coming up just short. As a result, I went ahead and did this:



I moved the injured warrior back onto the wheat tile and fortified there. What I'm trying to do is bait the barb archer into moving a tile forward and shooting. My warrior won't die, and then my own injured archer will be able to shoot and kill the barbarian archer. Yes, even at low health my own archer fires at about strength 25 (with its promotion) and can one-shot the enemy unit. I just need to get the barb archer in range without being shot first. If the barb archer fires at the unit on top of the hill, I'll probably creep forward with the injured warrior and the fresh warrior coming up behind it. The barbarian archer is in a really commanding position over here, able to shoot 2 tiles in every direction, and it makes approaching it difficult. Still, I have enough units here that I'll get it sooner or later.



Unfortunately I still can't see the Kongo capital down here. Annoying. (It's the tile southeast of that improved chocolate resource.) This warrior will circle around to the north and keep looking.



The galley down in the extreme south finally reached the end of the map. There's a clear sea passage down here, much like there is above our own continent. I suspect all of the world's oceans are connected this way via the arctic regions. I'm going to continue heading east for the moment to spy out if there are any city states in this area. I'll circle back eventually to participate in a future attack on Seoul and The Jungle Book, but either of those events is clearly a long time in the future.



Domestically, Ostia swapped from its nearly completed ancient walls (79/80) over to its Commercial district. Note that both the builder and the walls here are 1 turn away from completion, waiting a few more turns for the arrival of Serfdom policy and a forest chop. I'll sink a few turns into this district right now, then likely swap onto either a trader or a library, both of which would be nice to have. Feudalism gets one more turn of research, with about half of the culture invested this turn going to waste, then I'll swap over to Military Training next turn while waiting for the boost to arrive. The builder north of Ostia is moving to the rice tile to farm it; it will pop into the city's borders at the start of Turn 69 and the builder will farm it mid-Turn 70 to complete Feudalism. The nearly-completed builders will therefore pop out on Turns 71 and 72 and get to work chopping out those districts.



Here's a tidbit I spotted on the religious advisor screen. Russia's religion has spread to 7 cities in total, one fewer than the 8 cities that we have for Marco Polo, and we can see the pantheon belief of the cities in question. This is the list I've been able to compile for everyone's pantheons:

China: Monument to the Gods (+15% production on Ancient/Classical wonders)
Rome: God of the Open Sky (+1 culture on pastures)
Russia: Divine Spark (+1 Great Scientist/Prophet/Writer point per district)
Germany: Religious Settlements (+15% border expansion rate)
Kongo: Oral Tradition (+1 culture on plantations)
Khmer: Dance of the Aurora (Holy Sites get +1 faith adjacency bonus on tundra - I have no clue why they picked this)
Nubia: Goddess of the Harvest (faith equal to chopping/clearing)
England: City Patron Goddess (+25% production towards districts in cities without districts)

Well if there's anything reassuring here, it's that Russia and Germany have fairly lousy pantheons, especially Germany. Divine Spark doesn't do much once that first Great Prophet is claimed, especially with Russia having zero Campus districts built thus far. And Germany's pantheon was the eighth and final one chosen so TheArchduke didn't get much out of it. One other note here: it looks like Nubia is next to Russia based on religious spread thus far. That means England is likely to the east of Khmer, and I share an ocean in the east with Chevalier Mal Fet. I'll need to have a real navy to cope with him there in the future.



The score tracking looks pretty much the same way it has for a while now, with our team holding a small but clear lead over Russia/Germany and everyone else trailing behind. Unfortunately, our lead has been slowly but surely getting eroded away by Russia/Germany over time, and I suspect that they will pass us eventually. That's somewhat our of our control because they each get half cost / double score unique districts, and those things have a bigtime inflationary effect on the in-game score. (Remember how in PBEM4 TheArchduke still had a higher score than oledavy on the last turn of the game because his Royal Dockyards were pumping up his score so much?) So I think they're going to pass us in score over time, and that's OK. It might even be a good thing if we're a little bit less of a target for other teams.

Nonetheless, I think we probably should have pushed expansion a little harder. I probably should have looked to get at least one more settler out of my cities instead of funneling a series of chops into districts. Then again, perhaps not too. Oledavy wasn't leading in expansion in PBEM4 for most of the game and he came back to win that game due to a really well-developed core of cities (and, uh, the Venetial Arsenal). Rome is still on pace to have eight cities established by about Turn 80-85 along with a strong army (all the warriors/archers upgraded into legions/crossbows) and 8-10 districts completed. I have four districts done already and Limes wall forest chops set up to knock out several more in quick succession. China has three wonders done now and two more wonders queued up to complete in short order. We have a widely spread religion with excellent beliefs attached to it, and Mahabodi completing soon to fill out the rest of the religion.

Still, with all that said...



Yikes, this team is going to be a monster down the road. 36 gold/turn income on Germany?! I was going to ask Singaboy what Russia's income was as well, and it's scary to hear that Russia is getting about 20 gold/turn income as well. So much for our big edge in finance for this game! I'm legitimately curious about how Germany is making so much money. Singaboy is getting 30 gold/turn with a religious belief providing 18 gold/turn of that. Germany has exactly one Commercial distict finished which completed this turn. Where is all the money coming from?!

I had one mistake in my spreadsheet for Germany: I had TheArchduke down for 5 cities and 4 districts when it looks like he has 6 cities and 2 districts completed. TheArchduke is apparently running the Inspiration policy card for +2 Great Scientist points/turn; I thought he had 3 Campuses and was getting those points naturally instead of 1 Campus and the policy card. So this isn't really that bad, as TheArchduke went for an additional settler over districts, and I certainly could have done that too. Germany and Rome always make for a fascinating comparison, and here's how we stack up right now:

Cities: Germany 6, Rome 5 (both with one conquered city state)
Population: Rome 20, Germany 18
Districts: Rome 4, Germany 2 [Rome 3 Campus / 1 Commercial, Germany 1 Campus / 1 Commercial]
Science: Rome 25.1 beakers, Germany 16.5 beakers
Culture: Rome 24 culture, Germany 17 culture (with the gifted Russian Great Work for 4 culture/turn - very smart move on their team's part)
Military: Rome 197 power, Germany 169 power
Gold Income: Germany 36 gold/turn, Rome 20 gold/turn

So yes, Germany has one more city but I think I stack up pretty well overall with TheArchduke right now. The only eye-popping thing is that income - where the heck is he getting all that money from?! Oh well, we'll manage. The main point is that TheArchduke and EmperorK are playing some stacked civs in this game, and they're playing very well indeed. Their biggest weakness longterm is that they do not have any weak civs next to them to attack. China is on one side and it looks as though Nubia is on the other side. No soft targets here for easy expansion. That's going to have to be our path to victory in this game, absorbing the weak Kongo/Khmer team that we were fortunate enough to start next to in the east. This won't be an easy game.

EDIT: Singaboy, can you check how many cities Russia has? I'm unsure if it's five or six. Thanks!

[Singaboy]

@Sulla,

Russia has 5 cities.

The goal is clearly to push out each three additional cities. That alone together with Rome, Lisbon and Firenze will add 18gpt for China if all cities get converted. That should be possible with those Apostles (two cities to convert) and 2 missionaries.

I should get Feudalism on T75 and then be able to change to Colonization. Now, how can I speed up settler production before that. I should think settlers should come from Hangzhou, Beijing and maybe Quanzhou.

Hangzhou: With a good portion of the campus coming from nice wonder and builder overflows, the city can then get to work on chariot (+50%) with the aim of a nice overflow into the settler. If the settler is not done by T75, Colonization will clearly help for the remainder of the hammers.

Beijing: Chopping of entertainment district will take place on T68 (75 hammers) and then on T70/71 (90 hammers). That will finish the entertainment district and start of Colosseum production. The city can then produce a nice overflow via Colosseum production which flows into the settler. As charging takes 5 turns, this will nicely coincide with the Colonization civic.

Quanzhou: Most difficult of the settlers. It could use a horseman/chariot production overflow for the settler. Production of the horseman to commence after the shrine (T71). To use Colonization card to finish
Alternatively, I could use a forest chop from the tiles that get potentially added via Mahabodi at Hangzhou with the Colonization card at Hangzhou again.

My suggestion would be to use Beijing settler to settle the spot SW - W of the sheep and to use Beijing settler for the city to the southeast of Beijing. This would close off Germany. The third settler could then settle SW of the iron near Quanzhou.

[Sullla]

That all sounds pretty solid to me. I don't have a whole lot to add beyond the micro that you already laid out in your post. The most important immediate two spots for cities look like the two southern blue dots you identified: southeast of the bananas and southwest-west of the sheep. Those two spots will block off the rest of the land to any potential German colonization, and there will be room to fill in more cities along the west coast later on. This is exactly what you typed and I'm happy to see that our separate analysis came to the same conclusion. China is never going to be able to expand quite as fast as some of the other teams because we've needed to sink so many builder charges into wonders, but every individual Chinese city should be stronger thanks to the power of having things like the Colosseum, Jebel Barkal, ultra fast population growth from happiness + Hanging Gardens, and so on.

Also good news that Russia only has 5 cities and not 6 cities. That means three Lavras completed instead of two - it's tough to tell with those unique districts whether it was a new district (6 points) or a new city and a new pop point (5 + 1 points). If you have a chance during one of your upcoming turns, could you post the current beaker/turn and culture/turn rate for Russia? I'm curious how fast they're researching right now. Thanks.

[Singaboy]

Turn 67:

The situation at the start of the turn. Hey, there is a German archer too. I wonder what Germany is up to. Their military power is not that great either. I am not scared. However, it will be wise to protect my workforce at Beijing.

I move both archers further south, the slinger to the west discovers more land there and the German warrior comes back into view. Both horsemen move south too. The important part of the turn though is undoubtedly the micromanagement at Hangzhou and Beijing.




First Hangzhou: The builder is at 80/82. Time to swap to the wonder for this turn before finishing the builder next turn to create a nice overflow. The wonder gets charged a third time and is at 257/400 hammers. My calculations said 84.5 hammers per charge but its actually 85.6. Let's see how many hammers are added this turn with those three bonuses in play. I am hoping to finish the campus soon after Mahabodi is done.




The second city to micromanage is Beijing and it costs me quite some time to figure out the best way to go about this city to maximize the chariot overflow. The current situation is a builder at 79/82 hammer and the chariot at 25/65 hammers. Beijing has grown. It takes the forest hill back for 9.4 hammers, which will result in the chariot at 39/65 hammer next turn.
On T68, the builder will be chopped into the entertainment district gaining around 70 hammers for the district (+the actual production of 9.4 hammers next turn)
On T69, production of chariot resumes with 8.4 hammers, which results in 51.6/65 hammers . This is repeated on T70 getting to 64.6 /65 hammers. This is just perfectly lined up.
T71 will see the forest chop of the forest hill into the entertainment district, finishing it on T71. As I have two builders around, the second builder will jump into immediate action to charge the Colosseum which should be done on T75
If all goes well, this should be the turn I can swap civics yet again to enable Colonization.



Below a picture of the final situation with the archer from Germany from the previous screenshot as it is now hidden in the FoW. Shanghai will grow next turn and can then work the crab and two hills which will both benefit from Apprenticeship and give that small town a slightly better production.



As Sulla requested, I check all values for research, culture and faith. The UI does a terrible job in a team game. One can hardly read any numbers.

Overview Research/Culture/Faith (Khmer missing as I have no contact with them)
Kongo     17          11.7      1
China      22.9       11.7      24.1
Rome      25.1       24        1
Russia     19.3       17.4     15.7
Germany 16.5       17         0
England   16.9       11        1.1
Nubia      17.9       9.3       6.3

While we are leading with regards to research, the combined numbers for culture are the same for Rome/China and Russia/Germany. I am happy to see that China can outwit the faith monster Russia for now. Let's see whether I can keep this up. Mahabodi and Colosseum will be really good to have.

We need to discuss the next phase of the game after the planned expansion phase. Rome obviously wants to go after Khmer/Kongo while China holds its borders steady against Russia and Germany. It might be a good idea to run Limes and get city walls in all those southwestern cities up and running before too long. At the same time, I should think of the next three wonders, Oracle (at Hangzhou), Petra and Jebel Barkal. Them I need to think of the sea wonders, which will be tougher to get with the production pretty low at Shanghai.
This also means that I will need Iron Working, Mathematics and then the sea technologies in the not too far future.