[SPOILERS] Woden gets swept away by the Gathering Storm in PBEM15

[Woden]

The 2nd World Congress




I think the best option would be to vote to slow down suboptimal's great people generation. I put 4 votes (60 favor) into science city states to provide no suzerain bonus and 5 votes (100 favor) into no points earned towards great generals. I think I might be able to hold both these votes unless suboptimal focuses on 1 resolution with all his favor. 

I went with the great generals because I should have 3 barracks/stable and 3 armories finished by the next congress and should be generating more points than suboptimal. He should still get El Cid but I should get the next one.

[Woden]

Turn 132
And the winners are...



Pindicator voted with me on the first resolution and we win. Suboptimal will not get the scientific suzerain bonus.This also probably means there is not another scientific city state or suboptimal is suzerain of both. For the second resolution, we get a tie. Suboptimal voted to deny us Great Admiral points with 5 votes and pindicator voted to deny Great Scientist points. Looks like a tie has no effect; I checked and I am earning both GG and GA points. If it passed for both, it would show zero points on the Great People screen. I earn 1 diplomatic victory point. 

Hanging Gardens finishes at El Nino and the city starts a crossbow. Bomb Cyclone finishes a barracks and starts an armory. I was going to build a crossbow but want to get Gunpowder done sooner. I spotted a tunnel by pindicator's city in the east. He might be just looking to improve or harvest the stone nearby but could also look to push on El Nino and Thundersnow. Better to have better units than more units right now. I will have La Nino finish the Immortal I have partially done after it completes the barracks next turn.  

Thundersnow finshes the Holy Site for 3 era points and starts a shrine...



I use the Great Scientists to gain +8 (with the double adjacency card). Builder chops the jungle, cutting production time in half (4 turns to 2). Colosseum finishes in 2 turns and the Mahabodhi Temple is 6 turns. 

In the southeast...



I get vision on suboptimal's city and find the Tsingy de Bemaraha, for another era point. Up to 95/106 needed of a Golden Age. With 9 turns left, I should get a Golden Age. Horseman will continue east to uncover the map and work towards the circumnavigate bonus. Galley continues to follow suboptimal's scout south along the coast. He may be just looking to outline the coasts and work towards the circumnavigate bonus himself. I will have a quad come down to watch him on my other coast if he crosses over there.

[Woden]

Turn 133
Start the turn off by finding the barb spearman with my knight...



Must have gotten a bad dice roll because the spearman survived. He will die next turn. Micro Burst finishes a shrine and starts working on an aqueduct. I rearrange the tiles so it will grow to 4 population on the same turn that Magnus gets established so I can harvest the stone and overflow into the Industrial Zone. Not much else going on this turn, pretty quite.


Turn 134
Finish...



Also complete Colosseum and get the boost to Butress, my next tech. I look at the happiness situation...



Looks like it needs to update. I have a few content cities while one city is ecstatic. I chop some jungle at El Nino and the city become unhappy. I look and my deal with pindicator has ended (probably some time ago) and I resend it. Should help keep my cities happy and maybe point him in suboptimal's direction for any aggression.  

Barb spear suicides against my knight in between turns and I get the boost to Military Science. Now I just need another barb camp to appear so I can get the boost to Square Rigging. 

Turn 135
Start turn off with...



I look around and have no "suitable" location for a dam. Dams must be broke like the floodplains. That is too bad, I could use some additional housing. 

Magnus is established in Micro Burst and the city grew to size 4, so I can place the Industrial Zone (at the discounted production cost). I harvest the stone...



That is enough to finish the aqueduct and overflow a little into the IZ. I will chop the forest to complete it in 2 turns and gain 4 era points. El Nino finishes a crossbow and starts working on the Encampment. Missionary has made it to Thundersnow and converted a few citizens. One more charge should convert the city.

[Woden]

Turn 136
Quite turn. La Nina finishes an Immortal, starts another. Galley in the south finds suboptimal's scout down by the ice. I think he is trying to circumnavigate the world because I set one of my quads to get ready to sail east when Cartography finishes and finds...

 

He has a Great Writer sailing west. The other side of the land mass must not be that far east or he has had Cartography for a while. Embarked units get 3 movement right, or is it still 2? I know there is a tech right about now that adds a movement point to embarked units but can't remember which one. Looks like he will get the era points.

I will have a new city (Inversion Clouds) next turn once I get Serfdom in play. I think I will also buy a settler next turn but that will be the last for a few turns. I need a lot of faith for something coming up and will need to bank a bunch. Right on schedule to get my third Golden Age.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

I need a lot of faith for something coming up and will need to bank a bunch. 

>:o You tease!

[Woden]

Turn 137
Start this turn off with...



Time for a policy swap. I take out Gothic Architecture and Feudal Contracts for Serfdom and Chivalry. I want to build a few horseman before I finish castles and I don't need the wonder card because there is only 1 turn left on the temple. I chop the forest at Micro Burst for 126, finishing the +4 Industrial Zone and get 3 era points. Will have enough for a Golden Age after next turn. Four more turns until Era ends.

Now with Serfdom in place, I found my next city in the southeast...



Inversion Clouds. The city starts a harbor and it will probably be a while before this city does much of anything. The next trader that is free will get sent here. I added a junk city pin in between Bomb Cyclone and Polar Vortex. It doesn't have freshwater, an aqueduct location, or the coast, so housing will be an issue but it is close to the Colosseum so it can grow to size 6 before costing a luxury resource and will get the +2. I am thinking the desert and junk city might be my next settlements for the extra culture and limit the need for more luxuries.

I played this turn a few days ago and the turn has finally got back to me after a little delay with pindicator and suboptimal, so one more turn to write up later.

[Woden]

Turn 138
Open the save to a complete Mahabodhi Temple at Polar Vortex and 2 Apostles waiting for me. I use both to evangelize beliefs and take...



I think those where the best options; additional science down the road after I expand and more gold as I spread my religion. Church Property should be worth at least 40 once I spread it around, maybe more if I convert the western city states. 

Polar Vortex starts a Theater Square. Bomb Cyclone finishes an Armory and starts a horseman. I chop out a jungle into an aqueduct at La Nina and place a discounted Industrial Zone (135 cost). The city continues working on the Immortal that was in production. 

Here is the score...



Not much to say about it but did notice that suboptimal has earned 10 great people so far.
 

Turn 139
I play the last turn on Sept 4 and this turn on Sept 7...and the turn before T138 took a couple of days to get back to me. I hope this is not the start of a trend. I hope the others are not starting to lose interest. Anyways, here is the turn. Start off with...



Now I can sail the seas. My 2 quads sitting off the coast start heading east to find what is over that way. I notice that my culture is double pindicator's and will be double suboptimal's next turn when 2 temples complete. I also take a look at the cultural tree...



In 3 turns, I will be complete with this level while the others have not started it yet. Then, I should have both the next level boosted once I get the Great Merchant. I am surprised that I have double Gorgo's culture and I have not built a monument or Theater Square yet. I have 1 monument in El Nino that Jester built but nothing other than that. I am going to start building cultural buildings soon and we will have to see how far I can get ahead. Now the others have the advantage in science right now but I am still in the middle of the pack with number of techs but I think culture is more important since it unlocks the policy cards. 

One issue has arose...



Suboptimal's great writer is sitting on the natural wonder, just east of Antananarivo, and surely will meet them soon. I am sure he will place at least 3 envoys in there to get the +2 to theater squares. If he has more than 3 envoys, he could become their suzerain and with 10 great people in the bag, that is +20% for him. I do have 2 envoys of my own, so I can take suzerain back but they might become contested. The age of nobody knowing about them is over. I will have to keep an eye on them now. 


Turn 140
Start turn off with a great person...



My first admiral. They can form a fleet with an unit. I will keep him around for a while and use him to create a frigate of ironclad fleet. Here is suboptimal's great artist scout... 



If he heads due west this turn, he should be able to see some purple borders. I move my boat back and will block his view from the sea but he can always go on land and meet them. His scout in the south is pocking around Derecho. He has to be getting close to the circumnavigation bonus soon. Not much going on this turn. City's keep building and units move around. 

New Era starts next turn...

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Is most of your culture coming via religion, or paradeizas, some combination thereof? it's impressive to be so far ahead of Gorgo with no actual culture buildings.

[Woden]

Is most of your culture coming via religion, or paradeizas, some combination thereof? it's impressive to be so far ahead of Gorgo with no actual culture buildings.

Right now, my culture is 119.3/turn (@T140; Sub's 58 and Pin's 50). It come from a combination of a bunch of sources:

• 3 shrine, 3 Temples = 18
  
• Colosseum applies to 5 cities = 10
  
• Pyramids = 2
  
• 7 Trade routes @1 per route = 7
  
• Population of 69 @ 0.3/pop = 20.7
  
• Pingala in El Nino (13 pop) = 13
  
• Antananarivo is giving me 2 for the 1st envoy plus 10% bonus (5 Great People; suzerain bonus) to my overall culture
  
• Buildings: Monument in La Nina (not El Nino), Arena in Derecho, and palace in Polar Vortex = 4
  
• All but 1 city is Happy for 5% more culture.
  

The rest of it comes from the Pairaezas, which after Diplomatic Service, provide at least 2 and I have a few that provide 3

I am building a +5 Theater Square in Polar Vortex right now and have a +4 one placed at El Nino, both at the district discount, and should be able to build a third at the discount. It really will skyrocket now that I building cultural buildings.

[Woden]

Turn 141
New Era and everybody has a Golden Age! Once again, I choose...



I should get good value, now that my faith generation is north of 100. I should be able to get a settler out every 4 turns to start and add a turn every couple of settlers due to increased costs. This will all start after Magnus is established at my new frontier city, west of El Nino.

I think suboptimal has got the first to circumnavigation era points...



His scout is south of Derecho and his scouting Great Writer is southeast of the fish, directly north of Ground Blizzard. He moved southwest this turn and I hope he continues towards Ground Blizzard. Keep him away from the cultural city state. I have 3 horseman finishing in 2 turns and don't have enough horses for more. With Humanism finishing next turn, I will switch out the Maneuver (or whatever the current card is) and put in Feudal Contracts to push out a few Immortals before finishing Gunpowder. The plan is to work the next 2 civics down to 1 turn, finish one of them, put in both upgrade cards and upgrade a bunch of units in about 7 turns.I will finish Gunpowder to upgrade a bunch of musketmem. It would be nice to have a few Immortals afterwards for future upgrades and maybe a few corps, as the next stop will be Nationalism. 

Other than the new era, fairly uneventful turn. I am a couple of turns away from my doing my own circumnavigation of the globe, as I can fit what my eastern quadrireme and western horseman have uncovered into the same screen. There looks to be a fairly large ocean between my east coast and the west coast of the other players.  I doubt and attack is feasible going east unless I can find an island off the coast for upgrades. 

Lastly, my Great General is sitting over by pindicator's tunnel by Brussels, seeing if an attack is being stage but is not seeing anything.