You know who really wants the Statue of Zeus (+3xp to all units in RtR)? Cyrus (Charismatic-needs less xp to promote, Imperialistic- Gets great generals easily). That's right. Rusten landed it. Get ready for commando knights.
I actually went to check because I don't use commandos often. (In SP, the AI still keeps a significant garrison in its inner cities, so commandos aren't as useful.) Charismatic is not nearly as good at getting commandos as Aggressive, but still. You need 20xp. With a barracks, stable, and Statue of Zeus, Rusten can be at 8. He would need six settled great generals by the time he got to Military Science. Do I think he'll suddenly become a warmonger to do this? No, but it's worth noting that SoZ is only good for fighting. Just when I thought deer for deer meant no worries for the rest of your days.
Speaking of fighting, Belisarius (great general) was born in a far away land.
Our noble scout boat sails on. Looks like maybe Pindicator is our next target for trespass. I thought I had taken a zoomed out photo, but I guess not. You can see from the mini-map that this sea looks to make a circle. If I were a gambling man, I'd wonder if there weren't astro-accessible islands in the center.
Instead of a power graph, have a demos screen.
While I'll grant you that my demos aren't completely terrible, you have to remember:
Joking of course. These demos are great. I'm not whipping as hard as I should be, and I've slowed down my city pace to where Rusten is beating me (I think. Can't remember actually). And non-Imp leaders like TBS are tied in city count. What's interesting is that the top power (Mackoti) and top GNP (Rusten) are both my neighbors and the way you deal with a tech runaway is anathema to how you deal with a giant military build-up on your borders. For what its worth, Rusten and Mackoti have not yet met. That high mfg is basically all getting turned into units. I'm operating under the assumption that even with a million horse archers, Mack would still lose one to a spear somewhere, so I'd notice if he already attacked someone. Until he does, I have to assume it could be me. The tension is that I don't want to whip my civ into the ground for defensive units if he never shows, but when he does, if I haven't prepared adequately, my game's over. Decisions, decisions. I had entertained some wonder plans post-Mathematics, but it's just taking me so long to get all the infra I need in the spots that have the forests required. I'm not good at planning for wonders.
A closing thought about Rusten: SoZ requires Aesthetics. I wonder what he oracled? It would be a pretty classy move to skip Metal Casting and just clean up the artsy part of the tech tree, but leaving metal casting or a similarly expensive tech on the table with Oracle would be painful for me, so I don't know if Rusten did. I've said it before, but man, Rusten's play has been great. Tons of cities. Very good wonders.
Turned out the purple was Commodore. I declared and offered a ceasefire, but I have a feeling I don't have a way south that doesn't go through his borders. Darn creative civs settling on the coasts. I imagine that TBS and Commodore's city placements will be the source of much in the future. Either side can surprise the other will a galley attack. (Actually, not totally true. Both cities will have visibility on the other, so they can see if galleys are massing.)
I didn't do an opponent analysis when I met TBS, so here's some for the both of them. TBS is Pericles of Zulu. Zulu is great. Nobody wants to attack into Impi. Nobody wants to get attacked by impi. I image TBS is pretty safe. Pericles I said I thought would be great if TBS could keep pace in expansion which it seems like he has. He has yet to leverage his great people power yet, but I'm sure that time's coming. (Unlike Mackoti who just got a second great scientist). Ability-wise, TBS is one of the best civ players at RB (which is saying something). From what I can tell, he's a micro fiend.
Commodore is Kublai Khan (Cha/Cre) of Rome, and this pairing looks so lackluster that I must be missing something. There's the tiniest of synergies with Charismatic getting praetorians promotions, otherwise, I got bupkis. Creative I'm coming to value more and more highly (even after my glowing review on page 1). Commodore, if memory serves, is a fan of Cre as well. I was thinking about ways of improving my own play and one thing I did poorly was pop borders. I've built so many barracks everywhere, which blows through any hammer savings Imp got me. If we think of Creative saving 30-60 hammers per city, we can compare it to Imp which saves 33 per settler. (Obviously, Imp is a better savings because you spend less time not growing while producing that settler.) If I had to guess, I would bet Commodore is already planning his knight rush. Glad I'm not his neighbor. TBS and Commodore bordering each other should be loads of entertainment.
So it begins. And frankly, so it probably ends, too. Mine is a suspicious nature, I guess, because when I first saw this, I thought "Fake War. Mack's power is way too high for Aretas, so this is a feint and Mack will hit another opponent." That's borderline paranoid, so I discarded it, but my confusion still remains. It seems like Mackoti could've attacked 8-10 turns ago with no meaningful difference in strength. Aretas has 3 cities and is not in slavery. Perhaps I underestimate just how many units are needed for an MP war. I've sent a chariot north to try to get eyes on, but it'll be ~5 turns before it arrives due to the large swath of forests and hills between Aretas and me. I don't think the chariot will have anything to see besides rubble when he arrives.
Planet according to Germany:
I should be checking this view more often. Do you see that yellow and green speckled square in Aretas' east? That's the commingled borders of Aretas and Rusten. (One upside of Mack's invasion: Rusten will find out Mackoti's around. Of the people I've met, Aretas only knows Rusten and Mackoti. Obviously, he perhaps knows neighbors to his north, but I worry that this invasion might go unnoticed by world news. (When really, this is going to be an important event, methinks.) I don't give this overview often because it spoils my builds for people to mock. You can see one settler about to be completed in Thorny Vineyard. It'll head off to the island east of Water Garden. Already have a galley waiting. (In fact, my micro here sucks, I was trying to get a worker there a turn early to start chopping the forest on the island, but the galley has trouble making two trips.) You can see Fort Survivalist starting on a settler. It was building a library, but I looked around and thought "What the heck? Why am I building a library in a place that has like 8 total commerce when I'm falling behind on cities." The kind of letting my foot off the gas I've already described. Next turn that settler gets two pop whipped. Annoyingly, pretty much no tile combination got me 25 hammers. Everything was 1 short, so I moved off my improved forested furs (2/1/4) to a plains forest (1/2/0) to get it done in time. I am so bad at this game.
In the above pic, you can also Commodore's creative borders taking up all the coast tiles as predicted. He actually logged in while I was in game and accepted my ceasefire, so I could move my workboat further south:
Now, I've got a choice to make. I can immediately redeclare war and keep going, fulling knowing that there are likely several more cities' worth of culture I'll have to pass through (case in point, 3 turns ago Ramtown didn't have third ring borders, so that westernmost culture is likely another city's). Or I can turn around. I didn't really have set goals for the workboat. I don't have my heart set on circumnavigation (didn't even check water percentage). Really just wanted a lay of the land and more contacts. I've read a lot of Commodore's stuff; he's one of the best reporters on this site. I don't know which Commodore would show up if I moved again through his borders: relaxed Commodore in his auspices as elder statesman or Montezuma Commodore? He has moved his galley. It moved 1NE and then back. (I should check vision rules. I thought the forest 1N of Threeway would already provide the vision he needed.) Unless he has another galley (I doubt), the workboat can outrun him. All that said, I think the workboat is going to turn around and come back home. It had a good trip and by the time it gets back I think I'll have the requisite border pop for it to retire to a nice clam farm.
Or is this stupid? There's no way Commodore attacks me until Astronomy. The distance is too great. And what do I gain from not upsetting a neighbor quite literally on the exact opposite end of the ocean. Eh. I think the boat is still going home, but I worry I'm a big softie.
Edit: Had a change of plans about settling that eastern island and logged back in.
I doubt Rusten will make a bid for these islands, but if he does, I'm just not set up to deal with even 1 archer on a hill. My entire military doctrine is "Screw Horse Archers." The galley should be visible, so Rusten, if he's not already in striking distance, will assume that's a settler plus escort. Next turn, I drop the warrior and spear on either tile and declare is I see Rusten get close. I'm still 4 turns, I think, from the city getting founded. If Rusten were to get a city there, it would have to go. Too great a threat.
Thanks, Zalson! I hope I'll be around to report for a long time to come.
Ipecac, you're right. Plus there's been activity in Aretas' lurker thread for the first time in a very long time.
Noticing that Rusten and Aretas' borders abut each other makes me hope that Rusten will be able to burn a city before Mackoti gets it. Don't think Rusten has horseback riding yet though. I'm trying to imagine the fallout of this war and having trouble. The land between Aretas and me really is food poor. I think Mackoti ends up making a half circle from my West to North, which leaves me with a very wide front. I have a scout heading to check Mr. Cairo's borders. (He's Mackoti's southern neighbor.) Hopefully they are right up against each other.
I even checked my thread about that whipping bug, but for some reason, I didn't pop into worldbuilder to try this out. Oh well, started another city on a settler. I'll two-pop whip that one next turn. This city planting is kinda wrecking my economy and putting off my Currency date. This is the story of every civ game I play. Crash land at currency and hope enough passengers survive. (And yes, I am a complete and utter moron. I should be working the furs instead of the oasis. Fixed.)
Guess who has Iron Working?
I haven't ended my turn because I think I need Commodore to move before my work boat. Initiative is confusing when people play simultaneously. He moved his galley before my work boat, though, so I don't want to double move him, especially since I am redeclaring war. I feel sheepish, but a return journey would make me declare war on Rusten, and I'd rather get to work on building up that peace bonus for trade routes. Oh well. A barb galley would've done the work boat in eventually, if Commodore didn't.
Man, Praets are just so damn nasty. They only move a tile at a time, but holy smokes. Strength 7 +50% city attack? It's like a bad joke. Whelp. Good luck, Commodore. Good luck, Commodore's victim.
Logged back in and barely did anything. And what I did was weird. For starters, I didn't re-invade Commodore's waters. Instead I sent him pig for pig in the hopes that when next turn I trespass he gets that its the friendliest trespass ever. More likely he thinks I'm yet another newbie with fuzz for brains. Which I am. But not for this reason.
His galley is one tile in front of my boat. So, I could only move one tile into his territory. I suspect this whole sequence will cause some raised eyebrows.
I think Mr. Cairo founded a city near me this turn.
I sat for a sec trying to figure out how this color pattern could happen. The game likes to color in tiles when you have vision on a tile next to it. I have vision on that grass hill 1NE. Since I only have see one red square, I think that that square is the NE corner of Cairo's first ring. This makes the city 3W of the sheep. Hope that reasoning makes sense. I considered changing that settler build in Fort Survivalist back to a library because I'm worried about the number of cities I'm planting. (3 more in the next ~7 turns and I'm already at 50% science for breakeven. Next tech has got to be currency, which will need its own post.) Decided to keep planting stuff. For a bunch of reasons, but none that I feel like spelling out, just in case I have to face my own magical thinking. Seeing Cairo's plant was definitely one reason. I only have 1 more good natural plant. I have two other spots that practically don't pick up their own food resources and another that's just a trek into the fog. I really, really want to plant 1N of the sheep between Cairo and me. Why? No clue; it's got absolutely nothing of value and would be sandwiched between two cities. Just got that Imperialistic streak, I guess. And perhaps the paranoia that if there's a spot for a city, someone's going to plant there and I'd rather have my city on the hill than his.
We're increasingly militarized. Partly, this is in response to Mackoti. Partly, we don't have anything else to build. I'm building one more worker, but I'm doing ok so far on worker labor, and there are two settlers on the way to keep ruining my research rate. Otherwise, nothing to do but train troops. This problem will continue until we get some infrastructure techs. I'm building a few extra libraries partly so I don't have to build soldiers! I'm also getting hit with unit supply costs. I've got something like 7 units out of my borders. Add to this, I'm at a tiny cap. (Kinda. Size 7 compared to Rusten's size 10 monster. The only other happy in my borders requires calendar. There's a gems spot I'm considering, but gems would be second ring and the city would have zero food.)
Got eyes on a Cairo city.
Protective archers in hill cities are nice. There's a barracks for culture. I moved the scout away from the barb but I worry that that city's borders are due to pop any time and block me off. You can see just barely that the tile 2S of Super Trouper is also owned by Cairo. That likely means there's either a city 3S1W of Super Trouper of 5S1W. Either way, the scout likely doesn't have a route west unless slipping between Mack and Cairo. I've got a chariot in the south that's looking for another way around.
Have to wait until Commodore logs on to see the pigs offer before I declare war and start building my reputation as a crazy person.
Edit: Civstats watchers will notice that Aretas lost a city. I think he only whipped once last turn. This will be quick.
Joking of course. These demos are great. I'm not whipping as hard as I should be, and I've slowed down my city pace to where Rusten is beating me (I think. Can't remember actually). And non-Imp leaders like TBS are tied in city count. What's interesting is that the top power (Mackoti) and top GNP (Rusten) are both my neighbors and the way you deal with a tech runaway is anathema to how you deal with a giant military build-up on your borders. For what its worth, Rusten and Mackoti have not yet met. That high mfg is basically all getting turned into units. I'm operating under the assumption that even with a million horse archers, Mack would still lose one to a spear somewhere, so I'd notice if he already attacked someone. Until he does, I have to assume it could be me. The tension is that I don't want to whip my civ into the ground for defensive units if he never shows, but when he does, if I haven't prepared adequately, my game's over. Decisions, decisions. I had entertained some wonder plans post-Mathematics, but it's just taking me so long to get all the infra I need in the spots that have the forests required. 
I'm not good at planning for wonders. 
in the future. Either side can surprise the other will a galley attack. (Actually, not totally true. Both cities will have visibility on the other, so they can see if galleys are massing.)
More likely he thinks I'm yet another newbie with fuzz for brains. Which I am. But not for this reason.
I think he only whipped once last turn. This will be quick.
