Singaboy and Sullla's team thread

[Sullla]

Jebel Barkal should have 5 cities in range and will therefore be worth 28 faith/turn. That's a staggering amount of faith income, the equivalent of more than four cities with Holy Site + shrine + temple. How much production would it cost to build that combo, probably something on the order of 1000 production or something, right? Jebel Barkal will be absolutely amazing for China and well worth losing a single copper resource (which, by the way, will be harvested for about 150 gold, and that's not bad itself.) Quangzhou's Petra will still have 4 flatground desert tiles, 1 normal desert hill, 1 copper desert hill, and 1 iron desert hill to play around with. Since the city is unlikely to get above size 12 before the game ends, that's plenty of good tiles to work. What your analysis is missing Athmos is that Quangzhou isn't getting "nothing" by harvesting the copper, it's simply working another tile with a slightly lower yield. For example, it might be working the non-copper desert hill tile, which has a yield of 2 food, 4 production, and 2 gold. In other words, the city is only losing 2 gold/turn, not all those other yields. This would only be a problem if Quangzhou lacked good tiles to work, and it has plenty of good ones even at the cost of giving up one of the two copper hills.

OK, now for an early version of my turn (yay Fridays!)



Here's the situation in the southeast, where my barbarian killing force has been injured but remains still standing. The barb scout disappeared entirely, and I suspect it ran back into fog off to the east. I'll finish it off if I spot it again. Unfortunately, I can't spare time to destroy the barb camp that has to be east of those two rice tiles. The priority right now is stopping that Kongo settler from advancing too far north. I spent a while thinking about this, and I believe that I can block the settler from getting too far. Even with a Kongo warrior on the grassland hill in the center of this picture, I can move units onto the four marked Xs and block any movement further to the west. This requires using all of my units in the area but it can be done; I need 3 more turns to get them all in position. My one fear is that the barbarian scout will run into this area and muck things up, since I'm being forced to use the very low health warrior coming down from the north. I swear, those stupid barbarians... I would have had this whole area blocked long ago if that camp hadn't erupted at a terrible moment.

The full health archer went north to guard the settler about to pop out of Firenze. I really could have used that unit in the south, but the English scout means I can't send an unescorted settler, nor can I guard it with the nearly-dead warrior, who would simply die to a scout attack. One other point of note in this area: the Kongo military has a total strength of 65. That's two warriors and an archer, meaning that we have visibility on all of Japper's units right now. I'm planning to get my cities down in this region and then upgrade and attack around Turn 90. I should be able to have 4 legions and 5-6 crossbows ready by Turn 90, and I don't see him being able to stop that. Things could change, but that's the current thinking. Then follow up with chariots upgraded into knights after that.



Scouting note: it looks like the southern ocean finally ends down here in the far south. I will confirm next turn whether or not there is a passage east; afterwards, I'm going to double back and be prepared for this galley to help out in an attack against The Jungle Book in 15-20 turns.



Chevalier Mal Fet did not accept my Declaration of Friendship as Singaboy suspected. He's been warned twice at this point, now we see what we can do to surround and kill this unit. I don't want us to declare war unless we can be certain of a kill on the first turn of war before he gets a chance to move. Singaboy, I think you should move your warrior E-NE as planned, providing cover for the apostle to move and convert Lisbon. Next turn I'll drop the envoy I'm picking up from Military Tradition into Lisbon, and if the scout is still sitting there on your following turn (Turn 73), we'll decide whether or not to attack on China's turn. My fresh archer is coming up fromt the southeast and may have a good chance to shoot that unit. Note that Chevalier Mal Fet also captured the city state of Kabul on his turn, taking him up to 6 cities in total. Russia/Germany has 11 total cities, we have 10 total cities, and England/Nubia also have 10 total cities. (Kongo/Khmer have 6 total cities - they are way behind everyone else.)

Domestically, there was good news at Roma this turn, as the city's tile picker chose to expand onto the jungle tile 2 south next turn. Now I can use the builder popping out of the city to farm that tile and get a Feudalism farming triangle. (This will also give me 3 farms + 1 plantation for another point of housing, expanding the cap again.) I'm going to use this builder to improve Roma and Firenze; I'll have to get more builders out somewhere to improve the new cities going up in the southeast.



This was the quiet interturn in the south. Both builders moved onto hill tiles and will chop out districts next turn. Note that I also have three settlers all just about done in Firenze (1), Roma (2), and Venezia (3). That's the order in which they'll be popping out, and I'll be jumping in one stroke from 5 cities up to 8 cities. I don't know if that was the optimal way to play this, but it minimized the time spent in Colonization policy. I'll be able to drop Serfdom next turn when I change civics, but I'll need to run both Limes and Colonization a bit longer. I'll probably try to swap out both of them at the following civics change, and set things up (perhaps with a slightly delay) to line that up.

Engineering tech finishes next turn, and I'll be moving on to Shipbuilding (4 turns) next. It will be faster to move some of my units to the southeast over water than over land, and I want to have that tech before I'm ready to attack. Then I'll likely go Iron Working (3 turns) followed by Machinery (6 turns) to give me enough time to build another two archers before obsoleting them. I think 6 archers would be a good total to have and would decimate a team that doesn't have access to them yet. Note that this research path would finish up around Turn 85, enough time to upgrade and then go attack when the current Declaration of Friendship with Kongo ends on Turn 88.

Similarly, my planned civics path after Military Training is Drama (3 turns), Recorded History (4 turns), and Mercenaries (6 turns). The plan would be to knock out Recorded History to pass the boost over to Singaboy, and then reach Merecenaries civic for Professional Army policy around Turn 85, enough time to upgrade and attack. At the very least, that's the current working plan.



Singaboy, I requested a salt luxury from you. The reason is that our initial spices deal is set to run out next turn; on the resources screen, it said that the deal would expire in 1 turn. I don't know if the deal will run out on your turn or my turn, so I'm suggesting that you check to see if you have the spices back on your turn. If you do have the spices back, accept the salt trade. If you don't have the spices back, then REJECT the trade I offered you and offer me the exact same deal on your turn. I'll accept on my turn, and then you'll have the spices back on your next turn and we'll be in the identical situation with none the wiser. Does all of that make sense? This way Rome never has a turn where it loses out on the amenities coming over from China.

Elsewhere, TheArchduke claimed the first Great Scientist, and the next one up is...



A medieval one, rats. I should have expected this though; Civ6 never seems to offer more than one Classical Great Person no matter what happens. Right now, 6 of the 8 teams in the game are in the Classical era and you would think we'd get another Great Scientist. Nope, it goes on to the Medieval era and the more expensive Great Scientist. Well, I should be a favorite to get this one, since Kongo/England/Nubia all make 1 Scientist point/turn and I make 3 Scientist points/turn. The biggest threat is actually Russia, who has only 2 Scientist points invested right now but gets 2 points/turn and has Divine Spark pantheon to double the points from each Campus district. I have a huge lead though, as well as a fourth Campus district about to be chopped out, so I'm certainly a strong favorite to claim this one. A Great Scientist would be a huge help to pick up the Education boost and Al-Zahrawi is probably the best of the three Medieval Great Scientists. +20 healing for units on the same tile is decent enough, but using him is probably even better: +5 healing for all units everywhere, forever, along with a boost for a random Medieval/Renaissance tech. Definitely worth having.

I would also love to have the first Great Merchant, both for the ability on Crassus and the Mercantilism boost further down the civics tree. I very well might run a Commercial district project to try and grab him, but it's not worth doing that until the project can grab the Great Person instantly. Right now, a Commercial district project would cost a little over 100 production and yield 27 Great Merchant points. After I get a settler and archer out of my capital city, this could be worth seriously thinking about. My one concern is chasing after too many objectives at once; if I'm planning on fighting a war, this might not be the best way to spend the capital's production. I'll continue thinking it over.



I offered a Declaration of Friendship with Germany; we'll see if TheArchduke accepts. I think Germany and China have reached a position of mutual standoff in the west right now, so hopefully we'll agree to demilitarize the border for a little while. Elsewhere, the only really big news was Chevalier Mal Fet taking that city state. He's now up to 29 culture/turn - how? How is he getting so much culture?! England is not a cultural civ in this game! He's getting more culture than Rome with Open Sky pantheon and Russia with Choral Music. It makes absolutely no sense to me.

[Athmos]

(...)
He's now up to 29 culture/turn - how? How is he getting so much culture?! England is not a cultural civ in this game! He's getting more culture than Rome with Open Sky pantheon and Russia with Choral Music. It makes absolutely no sense to me.

I'm not sure, but the only thing that comes to my mind is via suzerainship of Kumasi, with multiple trade routes to city states. From a city with 2 districts, a trade route to kumasi is worth +5 culture. From two such cities, +10 culture. +4 per trade route to another city state. Kumasi is probably among the strongest city state in the game, for sure the strongest cultural one.

[Singaboy]

Turn 72:

I can't see spices on my trade screen, hence I send back the same offer to Rome as requested. However, with Rome becoming suzerain of Lisbon, Rome should get citrus anyway and have no amenities issues. I surely would not want to lose the nice happy bonuses I now receive for all Chinese cities.

The much more significant news though is (forgot to take a screenshot), England is offering a DoF. His scout is gone somewhere. Anyway, I gladly accept that. England and Nubia might have the same in mind as Rome, so I guess Rome should go after Kongo and Khmer once the DoF runs out. Depending on Germany's reaction to the suggested DoF, I might be able to send some supporting units there too.

Shanghai finished its granary and it ready to grow again, hence the sugar from Quanzhou goes to Shanghai for the time being. This brings city growth down to 4 turns while Qunazhou only suffers a setback of 1 turn for its own growth. Shanghai starts the trader finally. In three rounds, we are eligible for yet another trader and we should make use of them more than we did so far.

Sending a trade route to Rome would result in 6 gold and 1 science for my, something which is quite nice.

At Beijing, the construction of the Colosseum begins and I am happy to see 105 hammers invested in the project after the first builder charge. 20 hammers overflow from the previous chop is nice to have. A calculation of hammers and charges reveals that the city might end up with 399/400 hammers after 4 builder charges. That would give a huge overflow of 85 hammers into the settler, which should then be ready on T79 if Colonization is used from T75 onward.

As Hangzhou will switch from chariots to a settler, it might need to delay its own settler to keep the cost for Beijing down.

In the southwest, I swap the units as suggested to block Germany. The chariot moves toward the area approaching from southeast to block that access too. I do hope Germany will accept the DoF.

Next turn, I will need to swap out of feudalism and iron working. The latter should be almost exactly at its threshold (48 beakers). I will then swap to celestial navigation or stirrups, depending on Germany's reaction to our DoF.

Also, I can purchase the first Wat next turn, adding a little to our science output and getting faith to 37 per turn. With a potential new wonder in 3 turns, China will reach 40 faith a turn soon. I will then produce 2 missionaries next for conversion of the new cities.

[Sullla]

Oh that is excellent news about England! That will make it infinitely easier to move units around in the northeast part of our territory. Here's an important question: can anyone confirm that England will not be able to declare war on Rome? I suspect not because Rome and China are allied, but it would certainly be nice to confirm that.

With regards to amenities, let me check to see if I pick up a citrus resource from Lisbon next turn. There's none visible on the map but the city itself could be sitting on a citrus tile. I genuinely do feel bad about stealing so many luxuries from China, but we do have the Colosseum about to complete and send every Chinese city into ecstatic celebrations so you'll have to put up with my mooching a little bit longer.

Since Shanghai is a pretty weak city, having it produce a trader isn't a bad idea. I will throw out again the possibility of having Shanghai train a builder instead and use it to charge the Colossus, which grants a free trader upon completion. I mean - the builder and the trader are almost the same cost, right? Up to you, either call is pretty solid.

Singaboy, my ideal scenario with regards to Kongo would be take one of their cities and then immediately gift it to China upon completion. I think we established that would be fair game in the Organizing thread, right? The Jungle Book would be perfect for this since it's a little bit out of the way and located on the coast. Having one Chinese city in the far southeast would then allow China to faith-purchase units via Theocracy and contribute to fighting over there. I would also ask that China send a missionary or two off to the southeast after the Wat gets purchased so that they'll be able to convert Kongo cities and let Rome make use of Crusade. Now obviously this is getting way ahead of ourselves, but I think this is a path for our team to make real progress in the turns ahead. We don't need to beat our heads against the Defender of the Faith wall of Russia/Germany; we can snowball off Kongo/Khmer and rely on China's incredible faith output to magic up a combined Roman/Chinese army at the front lines.

[Singaboy]

Good call on the city gift. yes, a one time initial gift is allowed. That would make it a lot easier for us and I could provide additional help this way.
The next two missionaries will cost 170/185 faith respectively. With an output of 40 faith a turn currently, that's 9 turns total, this means by T82 I have generated both of them. That would tie in nicely with the war against Kongo.

I did some number crunching for the next settlers:
T79 Beijing's settler is done, will found the city on T82
T81 Hangzhou's settler is done, will found the city T89 (there is some really rough terrain)
T86 Shangdu's settler done (it will start settler production after its current CH), found the third city on T93. Might want to speed this up with a potential forest chop that would finish the settler put the overflow into the Holy Site.

With Ilkum gone on T75, I would like to replace Corvee for now and establish Colonization. This leaves room for Urban Planning for the lack of other good policies unless I want to enable Serfdom right away. It would give more flexibility to produce the next round of 2-3 builders. For example Quanzhou could simply produce that builder and go for another. The first builder could use its two extra charges to improve the land. Hangzhou could follow right after its settler with another builder done in 4 turns. And it means that Jebel Barkal and Petra could be started a lot earlier as I could swap to Corvee again on T86.

I think, that's the way to go forward into the next 10 turns or so.

Well, Lisbon has citrus somewhere up its sleeves

[Modo]

1) Enjoying the "we should build a trader but..." subplot.

2) A couple of turns ago "Singaboy, we should not attack Germany, we'll see on my side what can be done with the weaker pair"
Then on the free Friday "If Japper doesn't get his act together I'm gona go medieval on his ass"

[Sullla]

We didn't have a turn yesterday since Japper was unable to run through his turn. I had the save arrive this morning and ended up with a really great turn:

* Declaration of Friendship signed with both England/Nubia *AND* Russia/Germany, dated to the same turn (Turn 72). We're now clear to hit Kongo/Khmer when the current Declaration of Friendship wears off on Turn 88.

* Lisbon suzerained with the new Rome envoy, happiness problems ended.

* Units moved in such a way that Japper's settler should be blocked in the southeast no matter what he does.

* Forest chops went off without a hitch, double Commercial districts finishing next turn.

* Bath districts are available and cost a ridiculously cheap 55 production. First settler finished next turn, followed shortly by two more.

I'm running off to a nice breakfast and wanted to post the quick highlights first. Full turn report when I get back in a few hours.

[Modo]

That must be some breakfast

[Sullla]

Alright, let's get down to it:



This was what I saw when I opened up the save. For starters, notice how every city of mine was unhappy. That's due to the sugar trade from 30 turns earlier finally running out, and my cities (which were already pushing the edge of happiness) now losing an amenity from China. We'll deal with that in a minute. More importantly, note that Chevalier Mal Fet initially declined my offer of a Declaration of Friendship, only to offer another one in turn. He probably declined to discuss things with Woden and then re-offered on his own turn. This was excellent news and I went right ahead and accepted:



There we go, we're indeed happy to let the world know that we stand united as friends. The second diplomatic notice undernearth that first one is that TheArchduke *ALSO* accepted the Declaration of Friendship that I offered him on the previous turn. Singaboy, let's be really clear about how these deals went down: TheArchduke signed the DoF with Rome on his turn (the very end of Turn 72) which Rome signed the DoF with England on this turn (the beginning of Turn 73). They will both expire in 30 more turns and we'll need to be ready when they do.

I think it's highly significant that Russia/Germany were eager to sign a deal with us (they came asking Singaboy a few turns ago, remember) and the England/Nubia suddenly changed their minds about the same offer. I suspect that this game, which has been peaceful thus far, is about to turn violent in the near future. Nubia/England finished taking the second city state on their continent last turn, and Nubia will claim a Great General next turn. They're going to attack someone and by far the most likely target is Kongo/Khmer. However, Russia/Germany don't know that for certain and they're probably looking to shore up their eastern border to be ready to push back a Great General-led attack if it would be coming their way. This is all setting up beautifully for us; in an ideal world, England attacks Khmer first and Japper/Cornflakes concentrate on defending on that front. Then Rome sweeps in and easily captures the Kongo cities a little bit later. I don't expect things to be that easy for us, but that scenario is very much a possibility.



Those were the first two diplomatic offers. The third one was the re-offered salt luxury from China. Note that the spices deal has now run out and Singaboy had four total luxury resources available for his civ. I went ahead and accepted the offer, with the net result of Singaboy staying at three luxuries exactly the same as before. China also has the Colosseum completing in two more turns, which will drive all of his cities to Ecstatic and end all of our happiness issues for a long time to come.



Speaking of happiness, I invested the extra envoy from Military Training civic into Lisbon, taking Rome to 4 total envoys and suzerain status. It's a shame that the suzerain bonus for Lisbon is all but useless, but the real benefit here was gaining control over the citrus resource owned by the city state. It must be built directly on top of the resource since I don't see citrus anywhere on the map. The net swing of two luxuries this turn took all my cities from negative to positive amenities, and that's a 10% swing across the board (going from -5% to +5%). Very nice indeed.



This was the military situation in the southeast when I opened the turn. Japper continued moving his settler forward although he left his archer escort behind for some unknown reason. He also shifted his warrior on the grassland hill down a tile to the southwest; I'm not exactly sure why. What he doesn't realize is that he's already fallen into my trap and his settler will be blocked from moving forward, at least over land. Here's what I did with my units:



In the contested central area, I moved my archer east onto the hill while moving a warrior onto the cattle tile. Japper is about to be completely blocked here; my extremely damaged warrior will take the grassland tile next to the fish in two turns and that cuts off all his movement options forward. He can't reach the marsh tile, he can't reach the jungle tile, and he can't reach the spices or the plains hill tile. None of those are legal moves for a unit with 2 movement points from the grassland hill where his promoted warrior is standing. If Japper would try to move his warrior NW-NW onto that flat grassland tile, I'll simply occupy the southern grassland hill tile and block him that way. Unless he can embark his settler via Shipbuilding tech (which I really doubt he has finished given its cost and his lack of any galleys), he's blocked off here.

So Japper is likely going to have to plant his settler somewhere in that area to the east. I would love it if he would pick the tile northwest of the rice. That's a pretty good city spot and I can work around it with the three cities I intend to establish in this area. If he would divert somewhere further south, even better. He may also want the hill tile where his warrior is currently standing, and I'm OK with that spot too. It would be extremely vulnerable to attack, with Rome able to pour in legions and crossbow shots from half a dozen tiles to the northwest. If Japper does found a city where his warrior is currently standing, my third settler will probably go to the offshore island. As long as he gets no further northwest than this, I should be fine.

Further north, my archer occupied the hill tile east of the iron and spotted the missing barbarian scout. I think that I can kill that unit next turn with the archer; I don't think there's anywhere it can move to escape. This move from the archer was only possible because I signed that Declaration of Friendship with Chevalier Mal Fet, as otherwise the archer would have been forced to guard the settler coming out of Firenze. Now it's impossible for Chevalier Mal Fet to declare war. I checked and Rome couldn't declare war on England, nor on Nubia. I couldn't attack Germany or Russia or Kongo or Khmer either. We are completely safe from attack until those DoFs run out. The English scout is irrelevant now for the next 30 turns.



I finished Engineering tech and Military Tradition civic this turn. Military Tradition granted that envoy along with a civics swap; I almost forgot to do this, and it was the last thing I did on my turn. I replaced Serfdom with Urban Planning for the modest production boost. I'm gunning now for Recorded History civic via Drama and Poetry, both to pass along the boost to Singaboy and also to unlock the Natural Philosophy policy. That would be more useful than Urban Planning right now when I don't need a production boost of some kind in the Economic slot. Natural Philosophy doubles the Campus adjacency bonuses and that would be worth 4 beakers right now, about to go up to 5 beakers when I finish chopping out the Campus district in Venezia. That's better than +1 production in each city. Anyway, so Drama followed by Recorded History and then Merecenaries after that.

Engineering tech unlocked Bath districts, which are ridiculously cheap to build at only 55 production. Yes, they are actually CHEAPER than granaries for Rome at the moment. Insane. I tossed one down at Firenze to demonstrate, and the city will build it to completion once the settler finishes next turn. I also tossed one down at Venezia on the marsh tile, which I'm not bothering to invest a builder charge into clearing. Ostia will place its Bath district next turn because it has chop overflow that it needs to use next turn. Roma will eventually put down a Bath, but not for a while since I want to continue using the wheat tile where that Bath will have to go. And Milano has a jungle on the site of its future Bath, which I'll need to harvest before it gets placed. Every Roman city will eventually want a Bath district because they're so ridiculously good. While most of the other civs will start to slow down growth due to lack of housing, Rome can keep right on growing upwards with no interruption. It really is amazing.



In addition to everything else, I had two forest chop completions to do this turn. Ostia and Milano both chopped their forests for 102 production into city walls, with nearly all of that going into their respective districts. This was the "before" picture above, now here's the "after" picture below:



Two Commercial districts will finish next turn for +12 gold/turn, a total income increase of more than 50%. Rome also isn't all that far from reaching 6 envoys in Lisbon for even more income. Mercenaries civic provides one envoy and Theology civic will provide a second for the 6 total needed. The two builders will mine their respective hill tiles and then move to Venezia to chop/mine the jungle hill and forested hill tiles there. The forest chop will be used for Limes city wall overflow while the jungle chop will be used for Colonization settler overflow. That's a much lesser amount but it's still 45 free production plus 30 free food to immediately regrow back the lost pop point from the settler. I'll use the forest chop to finish the Campus district and then the jungle chop to probably complete the Bath district, then I'd like to slot in Maritime Industries and get to work building some more ships - a few quadriremes would be really nice. There's another forest offshore on the little island that I could use to do a naval ship chop overflow with the +100% production, which I could use to get a Commercial district for Venezia. The plains hill tile outside my culture where the archer and trader are standing would be the desired spot, on the river and with double adjacency bonuses for an instant +7 gold/turn. Anyway, a lot to digest in this area but that's the plan for Venezia.

Ostia will work on its Bath district next and then it has a trader halfway done to complete. Roma has the most interesting micro here: it finished a builder this turn and is moving to the forest tile SE-SE of the city. I have it on an archer for the current turn since I want two more of them for upcoming military operations. Next turn the settler in Firenze will complete and the cost will scale up by 30 production, so Roma will swap back to settler and build it to near-completion as the builder moves onto the forest tile. On Turn 75, I'll chop overflow the settler and use the 90 free production for a 1-turn Library, then go back to the archer again. Then the builder moves onto the jungle tile to clear it and farm it for a Feudalism farming triangle, although I don't think I can set things up for any kind of production overflow tricks there. The last two builder charges will go into a plains hill mine at Roma and a grassland hill mine on the awesome tile at Firenze.

Milano is probably building a second archer next to get me up to 6 total before I obsolete them with crossbows. (I really would have preferred Agoge policy here instead of Urban Planning for that last slot, it's a shame that it was obsoleted.) Then it's probably time to get out some builders for more chopping abuse with overflow from Maneuever while building chariots. Those new cities in the southeast are going to need their own builders - never enough of those things.

Overall then it was a really good turn. Our diplomacy is lining up the way we want and we're set up well for the next phase of the game. Looking forward to seeing the Colosseum get another turn closer to completion.

[Singaboy]

Turn 73:

I start my turn by getting one Eureka for Engineering and two Inspirations, one for Military Training, the other for Mercenaries as the first of two chariots in Hangzhou is done. I sure would like to build a few more warriors and archers before getting iron working and machinery.
I am swapping out of feudalism for a turn as I need Corvee for another two turns. The plan is to bring Military Training to 1 turn completion and then swap over to the lower civic tree to get to theocracy.

With all the treaties secured, the area in the southwest is now just a matter of holding off any German settler. Hence, the chariot moves southeast to block the other part of that thin land strip. Meanwhile, our little slinger has almost reached Beijing for upgrading and gaining the Eureka for machinery.

The Colosseum makes great progress, in fact, too great. The city has produced 14 hammers by itself. If I keep production the same, the Colosseum would finish next turn with two builder charges. That by itself sounds great but I need that overflow for the settler. hence, I decide to switch production to a settler for a turn after another charge has been put into the wonder getting it to 205/400 hammers. Next turn, two charges will get it to 376/400 hammers and the production between turns to 390/400. The last charge will get Beijing 75 hammers overflow into the settler.

The third builder has reached the iron but as I am not using that tile, it will first improve the grass hill before going back to the iron hill itself.



At Hangzhou, micromanagement has resulted in city growth a turn earlier on T74. I swap two tiles still getting growth next turn and maximizing production. We have accumulated sufficient faith for the Wat   Two additional beakers for science never hurt. My research output is fine. Culture is the problem but hopefully, the Colosseum will take care of it. Initially, it will add 8 culture a turn for a much needed boost. Of course, the amenities boost should get all 5 cities to be ecstatic. Currently, all have a plus of 1 amenity. 4/5 cities will receive an extra 3 amenities and the AI should manage to sort this out in such a fashion that all of them have +3 amenities for now. It would give a nice boost to all output.

Last image shows an overview of Chinese land. Shangdu is soon finishing its CH and will start a settler. Next turn, a forest hill will be added. That hill will be chopped by the builder coming out of Quanzhou to speed up the settler. Hopefully, immediately after that, I can swap back from Colonization to Corvee to start working on Jebel Barkal and then Petra.

Shanghai's trader should speed up once the city grows to pop 4. All cities need granaries to start growing again. Currently, 3/5 cities grow at reduced pace or not at all due to housing. As usual, too many things to do in a limited time.

Of course, the wall projects have not even been thought about properly yet. That's just another item on the list to get more districts running.