[SPOILERS]PB46: (In Search of) Fine Foreign Dining, by Hannibal of England

[Krill]

Big update for T95, but I'm knackered so I'm going to bed, and I'll write it in the morning. Then probably combine the T96 and T95 reports.

Working 4 days in a row is exhausting. I don't know why most of you work Monday to Friday. I did it for 2.5 years and it was shit. Shifts just feel so much better, even if you have to do nights and weekends.

[Krill]

Turn 095

Normally we do big updates on T100, but I think that will just be a pic dump and this will be the written update. T100 should fall on Friday unless we have a pause, I doubt anyone wants to update on Friday (most people don't even play their turns on a Friday evening, one of the unspoken rules of PB games).

Either way, this is still going to have a lot of pictures. Full set of graphs, F screens and cities with a new world map. First of all, I have an amazing announcement to make.

I finally built my first cottage.




96 turns as as FIN leader to build a cottage has to be a record. I have 5 workers allocated to cottaging (well, 3 of them are finishing a chop or hooking the second ivory, so I'm not even being honest with myself).

It's worth noting that FIN is giving me 15 commerce, ORG would save 10 gold, AGG saves almost 10 gold (rounding) and even with no gold multipliers FIN is still better but also helpped get Libraries down to pop borders, so I don't think that it could be labelled as a junk trait. Not saying it is fantastic, but the 35% library bonus is relevant.





Couple of observations: Barracks in Ravenna means borders will pop and stop a galley from running through TBW's territory until we get OB. I'm not going to declare on him due to the gold/ivory trade, so the galley has to go NE and go around.

That spit of land to the north doesn't look like it's an island, it looks like it's our shared continent. I'm a bit hesitant to say I do not want to settle two cities there: it would be really important to defend my coast from naval incursions of preatorians, OTOH I'm fewer than 20 turns from CG2 Longbows. I also lack production on that coast, so more coastal cities in that area is good.

GKC is not close to the choke point. Doesn't mean I've not reached for it, just that he has not prioritised it. Given he is generating 12EP to my 4, I doubt I get graphs on him for a while, therefore scouts and sentries are order of the day. It is worth noting that if I had been really aggressive, I could have used the Lucker settler for Sneatonthorpe, and then settled 1NW of the grass cow to lock down that entire area. Theoretically I could possibly still try to do this, but it seems...unwise to be so aggressive when I have no production base nearby, no classical era military techs and he is playing Aztecs and can just whip whatever he wants. I will not be agreeing OB with GKC, ever, IMO.





I've stopped working the scientists because I'm trying to force growth to size 10 and then restart working them. There is not exactly a rush: The previous GPP plan was based around using library and market slots, a revolt into Serfdom makes that irrelevant as I can just run 4 specs here.

Torn between a market or galley next. It'll probably be a market because I could always just whip the galley out of an island city.





I'm going to mine the southern plains hill on T101, and finish the workboat then. Stop growth on a worker at size 7. With the Serfdom plan, I could run 7 specialists with another farm and the fish, requiring size 13. Without the fish and a farm, that's 4 specs at size 8. I'll have the former as the aim for the golden age, but size 8 is the current plan for growth right now. That's attainable once the next whip unhappy wears off, so I will likely start working the scientists at size 7. Actually, might not even need that plains hill mine...





Not posted yet, but I'm thinking Monarchy by eot104, so I need to have workers ready to improve the wines then.

With the ivory hooked T98, and the whip unhappy wearing off, and then the wines, I think Owlthorpe just grows to work every cottage and wine, at size 9, including a plains cottage. Cottages are more important that city improvements, but I'm hesitant to build a barracks here, it wouldn't do much except in a worst case scenario I have to start whipping everything because I've been invaded. I'll probably save that forest chop for a short while.





Oh, Wetheral, you dreadful city you. I reckon there is a good argument that I could have risked not settling this city and jumping straight ahead to Scarrow.

THe ivory is camped T97, road completes T98, and then cottages will be completed on T100 and T101. I've actuallky built a scout, not a library here: with the knowledge I need to retreat Gilbert and send the galley NE, I'm going to try and run Gilbert and a new scout, plus a chariot along the coast and then use the galley to keep them all island hopping. I think this is a more integrated solution to scout than most players have run in the past, but I'm minded to do this for a couple of reasons that I will post somewhere more relevant.

All Owlthorpe has to do is to work whatever tiles are available to max food and grab a library at some point to pop borders. This city can build a barracks, if I want to stagnate it on mines that's trivial: a crappy 14hpt at size 5 if I chop that forest. Whatever output I can get, I'll take.





There are two workers at Owlthorpe, and one worker chopping that western forest into Seahouses, these are the workers that need to improve Scarrow. I think there are two cottages due T98 and T99. This is another city that wants a Market IMO. I'm now reconsidering the need to run irrigation from the river through Scarrow to the northern wheat if I settle a front city. That would mean only cottaging the eastern and western grasslands, but there are more than enough tiles there.

The problem is I want to cottage everything here, at least once it is at max size. I probably have to do that last couple of cottages in Emancipation though. With two new happy, it can reach size 10, 11 with a market which costs 125 food (126, but I overflow 1 food this turn on growth to size 4). Thats 25 turns of maximum growth, and the market takes 13. That works all the allocated grasslands and one plains cottage.

Again, this is just another city that has to grow at whatever pace it can maintain. It gives a window of opportunity for aggression from TBW, but I can't magic food out of the ether. Sure, there is one additional farm I could make that could shave 4 turns off growth to size 11 but that cripples another city by delaying a size 1 granary.





Should have grown this turn, but due to Currency tightness I worked a coast instead of bare grassland. There is an archer coming down to act as MP.

This is another city that needs to generate a GP, but using the Serfdom slots and 5 specialists it will overtake WT if I'm not careful. Probably going to just grow to size 7 and then start working the first scientist.

One somewhat difficult to overcome problem: If I use Aldeburgh, Westminster and WT to generate three great people after Fuedalism, where do I generate the settlers I want? I have earmarked four city locations that I want down, if not ASAP, then before Fuedalism.

I'm going to have to be careful, but I think I can fit a triple whip into a settler for the southern double food city and I even have the two workers present. That city helps to prep the NE city and it is easy to set up. OTOH, if I need an emergency GA, I will still have the capital GS in reserve.





If this is going to be the Moai city, then I need stone hooked once the lighthouse is fininshed. But I'm going to be saving gold and rushing to Monarchy, missing Masonry. Noob.

Just whip the damned galley Krill, that way you can overflow into a later resource multiplier.





Works the plains hill mine T96, whips T97 then struggle to size 4 to double whip the lighthouse? Honestly, not checked the numbers. I get the feeling that just as it reaches size 4 it would be able to single pop whip the lighthouse because of the mine. It'll regrow eot98 (I think). In fact I think it whips the lighthouse 3>2.

Then it's just growth onto coast for the push to Feud, and will have to build an archer as an MP.





Granary chopped T97 as per plan. Overflow into workboat and whip and regrowth@2 eot100. Due to flood plains, just going to double whip lighthouse (other option is to chop, but cottages at Scarrow are more important). Again, growth onto coast. Going to have to mine a few grass hills IMO. This is one city that could easily fit in a settler whip or two at size 6, but if I'm worried about military I quite likely just need to grow it to max size, bring over 4 workers and mine everything (and farm one fp). And this gives me a 24hpt city.

Jesus. I am so fucked.





Growth@3 eot100, granary whip T102, and then I need to consider if a library whip is necessary or if I could use Serfdom enabled artists to pop borders. Essentially that is a civ wide costs versus food output question and I lack the information or willingness to think about that right now. Still going to need to get both workers to come back to improve the wines though.

Timble is not a sexy city.





Using avoid growth on T99, pig hooked T98, growth eot100 food box 15/24. Chop the last forest T102, complete the library and growth@3 eot102, and then time the whip of the workboat for Luckers clam. I probably have to also get the workboat for Sneatonthorpe (which has two seafood tiles available a turn sooner, T107), so I reckon mining a grass hill to work at size 2 actually makes sense in this scenario.


Now for the F screens




Currency makes everything look better, but it isn't. I can't afford more cities, OTOH I need to settle cities because otherwise I run the risk of not having the production available come the Medieval era (Slavery or Serfdom feels irrelevant, most current cities are either medium production like Seahouses and Westminster, or low food and can't provice much anyway (Scarrow, Owlthorpe, Wetheral).

I'm also worried that I need more coastal production cities. I am going to have to work at this problem, and try to time settlers to be whipped just before I finish Feudalism, but also make sure I have enough workers. These costs are what defines the number of turns I have to solve this problem.





7 real units, and 12 cities next turn. And 13 workers. Starting to feel less shaky though as the barb net is holding, and I know who my neighbours are.





]Tech costs

Myst, Polythiesm, Priesthood and Monarchy are 657 base beakers (at current costs). In reality, this is fewer than 4 turns of max tech after a period of saving gold due to growth. What I think I'm going to do is save most of the gold (enough for slightly over 3 turns max research), then I'm going to finish Myst and overflow enough to get Polytheism about 75% completed. Then I'll save a bit more gold (turn or two most likely is the most I would need) then research Polytheism, Priesthood and Monoarchy on consecutive turns. This means I need to save about 300 gold maximum before restarting research, which is maybe 6 turns of saving gold? it depends on the Sneatonthorpe cost.

I'm not sure what base bpt is going to be in 6 turns though. I think it'll be over 180 but it could be 200. That's why I'm tentatively thinking Monarchy in 10 turns. After that, Feud costs 1140 base beakers, and I have no idea what base bpt would be after I've saved gold. Could be over 300? Just working 3 wines, 10 hamlets and 20 coastal tiles/scientists in cities with libraries is 130 base beakers. Spread over 12 cities, that's 3 pop on commerce tiles per city so it's probably an underestimate. 300 base bpt is Feud as a 4 turn tech, 380 base bpt is a 3 turn tech.

FWIW, I am really liking cheap libraries. Takes a bit of effort, but this next phase of the game is going to show just how great they are IMO.





Judaism = Rusten, and is going to be my chosen method of tracking how far behind him in total pop I am. Right now I am at 5.71%, so he probably has double my pop. So he has probably got 30 pop over me? Even with granaries that would suggest that he has accumulated 400 food more than I have (this includes HG pop).

That actually seems not that far ahead? Is he whipping, (well, obviously he is). I can't measure the hammers into whips except through cities and military but soldier power doesn't affect me and he can't have significantly more cities than I do.

Even with religion, I would question how high his happy cap is. He isn't FIN, ORG or AGG so he is paying full costs on everything, so his horizontal expansion must be hitting a limit, so is he going to have to slow down and give the rest of us an opportunity to catch up?

Hinduism is BeardBeard, don't care, he is playing PRO/IMP/HRE and even a shrine isn't going to save him. OH seem to have gotten a ton of spreads, that has to be lucky rolls from the RNG, and the low numbers on Buddhism is suggestive of that double holy city for BeardBeard.

Wonder if GKC will make a holy city and shrine and I can capture it? Shouldn't be too focused on that, it's one of the mistakes I made in PB27.





We know Im #1 in land, just tracking the pop number atm.





TBW and I are at the bottom of the score pile. OTOH, between now and T110 I should get the score from 4 settled cities, the pop growth, and the score from a bunch of ancient era techs and Monarchy. The "spike" is already starting to show: Keep in mind I settled Scarrow as fifth city on T73 so 22 turns later I have double the cities and score lags.

No idea why TBW is struggling though.





Something to reflect on now and after the game: I decided to stretch and didn't plant or work cottages after Scarrow, and other than Archery, basically went 28 turns without researching a tech. I went from several turns ahead of TBW to being down IW.





Keep in mind that I am working one hill mine at the capital, and the copper hill mine at Wetheral.





I'm pretty sure that TBW is now so far behind in expansion that he can't just whip an army and present a permenant threat to me: if he whipped an army, once I removed it he'd be gassed.

If he targets another player, even if he wins, I should have long enough to get to Feud and the I'm relatively safe (provided I take appropriate precautions in the future, like actually building units). The distance to move units is just...well, that's actually most of the time to Feud is the travel time for units.

It's worth pointing out again, that tech speed has to be matched up to the time to build and use units. Right now I am not claiming everything is balanced appropriately, and this is just a single game on a very large map. TBW could have gotten IW before Currency, but I leave that to the lurkers opinion if that would have been a wiser course of action. I'm still not sure that the free trade routes on Currency aren't a massive distortion on the Classical era tech race.





The spike is IW, not a preat. I'm checking this every turn, and sentries are going up the isthmus.





Barracks at 30 hammers, or Libraries at ~53 hammers? You can see that TBW got a single barracks in the late T40's, and then another in the late T60's and recently put in a few more, but I can't see more than a single library.





This graph is always worthless until the mid game to track courthouses IMO. Or you want to confirm someone needed to grab graphs or tech vis through the slider as a one off.





I'm chasing down Rusten and OH now. I'll make a comment about Rusten landing the HG: we always seem to have considered how useful it was based off cost and ability to trasnfer production through the whip. I'm not denying that, but I'm interested in seeing what he does with that pop. What he has done is to push his growth even further towards a vertical growth limit. Does he have the free happy to keep on growing, and the "Free pop" is just pushing him ahead a few turns on his continued growth, or is he going to have to slow down because he lacks the happy cap room? And if he does...does he whip that pop, and into what? EXP markets if he has a bunch of market happy would be an obvious route out of all these problems. And frankly, I already think he got an early metal happy (explains the religion play) if he also got the cheap markets, furs, whales, ivory etc then he would be getting all the breaks he needs.

I don't have a way to track Rustens GNP, and I also have OH and Hitru muddying the waters in the crop yield. I'm going to keep on focusing on my growth and compare later on. What my neighbours are doing is more important than Rusten and OH/Hitru at this point.





Nothing to say, really.

[Krill]

Turn 096

God, Play a turn when getting back from work, and the turn rolls at 2200. Then I'm holding up the turn the next morning? Writing three turn reports in a single day can be a bit tiring, even if it is enjoyable to see progress. Thankfully T96 was an easy turn:




Settled Sneatonthorpe. gpt only dropped by 2, but means costs have gone up significantly for cities. Doesn't matter really.

I'm uncertain on what to do with the chariot. It's uncovered a fish that would support a city on the grass hill south of the river, but that would be possibly the most aggressive front city I have ever seen. It would only exist to try and hold the tile 1S of the cow to keep a route into Sneatonthorpe. I kinda want to push GKC around a little, with his unprotected worker. I want to shepherd him into settling for no overlap, to settle on the plains hill 1S of hte wheat. OTOH, the chariot is getting bogged down in forests, and it would be better to keep it around the river. if I don't want to risk losing it.

Cavendish can scout to provide me what information I need, so perhaps I should just retreat the chariot.





Horse is hooked T97. Forests chopped T101 to complete library. Borders pop eot106, and I can have a work boat from Lucker improve the clam T107 with no difficulty. That means a granary would be at 58/60 and foodbox at 12/22.

Fuck, should have worked the hill. OK, I can mess with the work boats. Won't solve it but no point crying over spilt milk.

The workers will probably double pasture the cow now.








8gpt cost increase in cities, but over 5 of that is just Sneatonthorpe. Civic costs also went up from 20 to 27?! Must have passed a threashold. I'd have passed it in the next few turns anyway.





51 behind first place.

[Krill]

Turn 097

Speak of the devil, and he shall appear:




So, there is a very small island, and an isthmus. And a workboat from Rusten.

I'm not going to try and ambush it. If Rusten declares then I'll ambush it. I'll rush a galley out of Westminster. I have also swapped EP over to him: I'm never getting graphs before CoL on GKC, if I need them I have to use the slider. Rusten I could get graphs on with the free EP.

The current plan is to move the galley (The Merovech) NW - N next turn, and load Gilbert on T99, move the galley NE, unload the other scout (Stackhouse) 1E of the grass cow, then move the galley 1SE and load the chariot. Let's see if I can use a two capacity unit to transport 3 units...The archer is just wandering up to the plains hill 1NW of the wheat as sentry.





Next turn Cavendish will move SW, then I can move the chariot to 1S of the wheat, and then move Cavendish again. Perfectly safe, but given the warrior was barb busting I'm only really checking for GKS units.

Given what he did in PB47, I wonder just how paranoid finding me will make him. Unfortunately I can't explain it further (Cairo is a global lurker here IIRC), but it is known to all players that we were at war for a long period of time and he has not exactly recovered there.

Maybe he will be cautious rather than aggressive? That'd be ideal. My greatest concern is that he rushes Paper for Privateers and puts me between three windows of opportunity and I can't make anything work (and I get stuck between double bulbing Astro, rushing Paper myself, and grabbing Banking). Given Privateers requires Optics anyway and I'm planning to do a none-GA revolt, the Astro bulb shouldn't be a problem, but he could make me delay Banking, Merc and the GA which would be very annoying.





Rusten lacks contact with TBW, which suggests that TBW does not have culture to the east of the continent. I should be able to get my galley up there and at least meet someone new.

I didn't get a screenshot of diplomacy with Rusten, but he is in OR and does not have Alphabet (and I would reject OB with him anyway, even if he was gifting me multiple happy resources. I would expect him to cancel the deal the moment it suited him, and the happy would be of no economic benefit).





COSTS WENT DOWN!





Assume Rusten is at 9.99% of world pop: I have 38 pop, therefore Rusten must have a maximum of 60. Only 22 pop points ahead. Could be worse. But he still has less land than I do. Archipelago start?

OK, interesting point about this map: the map settings specifically ensure that there were 3 food resources at the capital, and that there were a minimum of 5 food resources in the area around the capital.

If Rusten (and OH) had land starved starts, the food resources would have been placed closer together. If they were placed such that they could be used inner ring, that would explain his explosive start. The map generator also ensured a miniimum of 2 early happy near the start, same problem: if Rusten got gold or gems, that explains Monotheism.

This is something I've been wondering about, and was also something that occurred in PB27 with the mod change that ensured capitals got 2 hammer city tiles. There are some things the mod can't change or balance: they have to be balanced on the map.

tl;dr: I think we need to go back through the map generator and the map scripts and completely redo the resource generation sections of the script. But I don't know how what we would want to change it to.





So someone is at -33 import/export? And someone is competing for third place in crop yield. And if Rusten is top crop yield and has 22 more pop, then that takes up 44 or the 53 food generated: he would only be growing at a rate of +9fpt above my current growth rate.

[Krill]

Turn 098

So after a breakneck 3 turns available to play in 12 hours, a lightly more sedate single turn expected today. Gives me a bit of time to consider the new information that scouting has uncovered.

I'll start with the obvious bit: another GP was birthed, that's Rusten making his shrine IMO. His shrine could be anywhere, but if he has spread religion to his 10+ cities it's a no brainer play on a huge map, so I'm not even considering some weird and wacky bulb plays. They would come later (he might already be working on the GS for a Philo bulb, but GP>make a shrine and run 4 GP whilst second city makes a GS for a Philo bulb, then use GA+Pacifism to pump out GP for another bulb play ie bulbing Astro is such an obvious play for the only SPI leader who is in the food lead. He can use Pacifism beyond the GA if needed so he isn't limited to 7 turns of Pacifism, and if he isn't pressured by any bneighbours Theology will have limited appeal. He'll just swap into OR when needed for building whips and stockpiling missionaries for 5-8 turns then swap back. This is his basic play IMO, when I said weird and wacky I meant stuff like fitting in a GM to land immediately after an Astro bulb to push through to Lib etc, stuff I can't even begin to figure out because I have no information. Although the HG landing suggests he would do something like this except try for a GE to rush Taj and draft and murder someone off boats when they have no counters because all his beakers have come from bulbs that no one else can match due to lacking Pacifism).

Well, this wasn't what I was intending to write about, but whatever: Rusten has always considered bulb plans integral to game play rather than reactive to other players. In his position though, why should he be reactive? Je is on the front foot.

Below is where I'm on the front foot:




GKC is moving forward a second warrior. Not a paranoid move, but putting forward eyes I could poke out with no real difficulty suggests he is not going to be aggressive with a forward plant right now. OTOH, he could have two spears and an axe in the fog and I wouldn't know it. I'm going to send the chariot to the north and try and peak around the coast, then retreat the chariot back onto the plains hill to keep an eye on the appraches.

I'm currently using both my axes to fill gaps in the barb busting net. If GKC were to try and settle an annoying city location (which I'll define as any city east of the plains wheat, except a city on either of the two desert tiles for that crab), what could I do to dissuade him? Not much IMO, I would need to just hit his stack before he settled, or after and raze the city. That means stacking 1 pop whips in Lucker and Sneatonthorpe IMO, no where else I can build anything.

I hope he just settles where the chariot is, and 1N of the sheep. 5 years ago I would reconsider that granary in Lucker and get a settler out for a city 1NW of the cow, but I just see that dragging down the tech rate and forcing an aggressive repsonse from GKC even if it would "solve" this immediate problem. I like to think I'm a teensy bit more laid back now.

EDIT: After logging back in to make changes, there is a spear 2W of the chariot. This is not a threat, I will have an axe on the desert hill the same turn he has a spear on the plains hill.





I confirmed that there is no settler in Ravenna. Previous scout moves remain valid.

Whichever way I've tried to work this out, there are no options to leave the gems for TBW and to have a front city that isn't dangerous. Arguably the most defensive option for me is to go without a front city, and settle 2E of the fish after TBW settles the expected tile. This would lock out every tile apart from the desert 2W of the incense and Scarrow should actually claim that in 30 turns (and no one is going to settle that tile unless they have an artist to bomb with). I am loathe to do this though, because if I ever make a move on GKC, I give TBW a route to run straight into my core, over hills and I can't realistically defend that and be aggressive elsewhere.

If TBW has a settler coming out, I'm not going to beat it. I've considered getting a settler via a slow whip out of WT, but I don't think that would come anywhere quick enough, even if I'm trying to be low key on the whole affair. OTOH, if I wanted to rush a settler out, I could chop and double whip a settler out on T101, and settle the grass hill T104. It costs a little in worker turns, but nothing horrific or unreasonable. Settling T106 is trivial and perfectly efficient though. (Worker on ivory move to forest T99, chop T100-102. Whip settler in Wetheral T103, T104 move W - SW - NW - W, T105 move NW - NW - NE - NE, T106 settle, but if I want to not use so many worker turns I can delay the settling further). If I don't whip I could finish a settler in Wetheral eot104 anyway, and would only need 2 workers to road and all the cottages would still get built on time.

I do question the wisdom of settling towards AGG Rome though, especially a player whose demographics are somewhat unthreatening. I don't want to make TBW into an enemy, so an area worth exploring is what I have available to give him to keep him happy?

I'm poor, we can't trade units, I'm already trading him my only spare happy and health is irrelevant. So no, I probably couldn't keep him happy. Misery it is!

But just because I can do something, it doesn't mean I should. OTOH, this still seems like a reasonable route to generate one of the 4 settlers I want, so even if I change my mind about a front city, the plan to get the settler seems worth following. The other build changes are straightforward: Swap Scarrow to a spear, Owlthorpe to an archer, move the warrior in Owlthorpe to the horse and move the axe there up to the front area.





I've got a plan to get a settler triple whipped out of Aldeburgh eot102, and settle 1E of the wheat T104.

T99: Worker2 mine 3/4. Worker1 road, Aldeburgh growth@6
T100: W2 mine/fin. W1 road/fin. Aldeburgh work shep/crab/crab/mine/coast/coast, build settler
T101: W2 move SE - SW - SE - mine. W1 move 1S. Settler 30/100
T102: W2 mine. W1 road. Whip settler.
T103: W2 mine. W1 road/fin. Settler SW - SE - S - SE. Aldeburgh growth@4 33/26.
T104: W2 mine/fin. W1 move 1S. Settle Oakenclough, work marble, build granary 6/60. Aldeburgh growth@5 30/28.
T105: W2 move 1S mine/cancel. W1 chop. Granary 12/60. Aldeburgh 26/30.
T106: W2 move 1SE - 1SW pasture/cancel. W1 chop. Granary 18/60. Aldeburgh growth@6 eot36/30.
T107: W1 chop/fin. W2 move 1N - farm. Granary 54/60.
T108: W1+W2 farm. Granary 60/60.
T109: W1+W2 farm/fin. Oakenclough work wheat, food box 11/22.

This is a not a no brainer: It'll cost me, but dependent on how and when Serfdom lands this is the city that I could end up pushing a GM out of. It doesn't need to rush a library and could instead just get a lighthouse and grow straight to size 7 at 9fpt (reaches size 4 eot114, whips lighthouse T115, reaches size7 eot121. It's also important to grow this new city ASAP if the NE goes into the city on the grass hill between the three peaks as Oakenclough would lose all the food tiles and just work coast for commerce. And if I have to change all my plans and rush to Paper and whip privateersm the more pop I have available the better.





Just logged in and made the changes. TBWs chariot is wandering, I'm going to need two spears just to deal with that.





Inflation is starting to hit. Oh how I hate that mechanic.





After a few whips by other players, I went up to 7% of world pop. Rusten is no more than 18 ahead (he just whipped 3 pop).

[Krill]

I'll be doing the missing turn reports tomorrow morning.

Solidly third in crop yield and Rusten turned around and will not declare war on me to pass through. Any requests for specific screenshots on T101, or questions you want answering?

[Hollybombay]

Likely winners, losers, current tier list of how everyone is doing that you have kept track of?

[Krill]

Look, I don't do C&D for everyone in the game. It's not worth the effort. I'll do you those lists, but they are going to be more based off score and past knowledge than current game state.

[Krill]

Turn 099






Fur, gold and whale...

At least one of those golds will be in his core: there is no point rushing to hook up two gold resources in distant cities, as those newer cities need to grow, therefore one is core, and the other could have been hooked 50 turns ago or last turn, I couldn't know. BUt this supports the idea that Rusten had a higher commerce output start than I got (and I don't know if what he got was normal for this map, or out of range). 11 seafood is not obscene, that could be spread amongst more than a dozen cities and he just hooked the last couple: I have a similar amount that will all be hooked in 8 turns or so. The GPT is just from the higher commerce tiles IMO: in other words, it's not just India that's pushed him into this position, or EXP, the land and terrain are probably the majority of it (And that Rusten knows what he is doing, he is essentially acting as a pace setter for what could be achieved with a specific quality of land).

Also worth noting: EXP with double market happy.





I set the galley up to be 1 pop whipped if Rusten declared and entered borders. I'd have used the work boat to block off the eastern route, and forced him to either stand still in my culture, or wander right past the galley and lose the work boat. I'm going to slow build teh settler in Wetheral and see what TBW does with the front city area: the later I can plant a city there, the fewer turns between the plant and being able to cram longbopws into it and fewer turns TBW has to react and stamp on my fingers, therefore no whip expected (but I will chop because I want to get Wetheral back to growth). Spear in Scarrow is mandatory anyway because of the wandering chariot.

The GS is interesting, waiting to see if that is a Philo bulb or someone is going for a golden age.

1 galley and 3 scouting units is working so far.





GKC has a spear under the scout, but my chariot is threatening his city. I don't actually want to make GKC think I'm going to run in and start razing cities: if he thinks I'm that blood thirsty I probably can't control his reactions, and he'll turtle, militarize and force an arms race I just don't want. Therefore I sent him a 1g for 1g trade offer as we have no trade route.





The loss of working coast at the capital drops the gpt precipitously. I'm a bit concerned that I don't know how to effectively manage costs: If I go for Feudalism, that means I revolt into Serfdom and lose the opportunity to whip courthouses.

I'm not sure how much I value getting courthouses down earlier: I need EP to deal with GKC though, and I do need to consider the effect getting the last 7 cities (above and beyond the planned 4 pre-revolt) will probably crash the economy. Do I just bite teh bullet and set up to triple whip markets in as many cities as possible, and just try to out run costs?





GNP went up from 140 last turn to 200 this turn. That could be someone turning on research or a GA increase, who knows?

[Krill]

Turn 100

Not doing a huge update this turn, but you get F1 in place of city screens and a couple of overview pictures.





Scouting is moving ahead. The barb warrior is 1.6 health and C1, but it will not get to hit any of my units. I'll load the scout on the banana and move the galley 2E. Probably going to move the chariot NE, then consider if I want to reload Gilbert who is underneath: Is that an island to the east, or does the continent loop around?

The second gems here releases a bit of tension if I invalidate settling for the gems on the isthmus. I'm not sure about how TBW will plant a city for the cow/banana, as we could end up cramming cities very close together if I settle 1E of the desert hill. Need to keep an eye on that.

Another GS, so it looks like players are starting to plan for golden ages. I'm feeling much more certain that delaying the first GA to push for Banking and Merc is the right choice given the neighbours. I just don't have the pop to make a GA worthwhile.





GKC retreated the spear onto the pig. I think he has very limited military in this area and the chariot is stretching him. I retreated the axe became that might scare him a bit much. Cavendish moved forward: no culture producing building, no Caste, so borders aren't goign to pop and trap him. Horse is unroaded, but that does not mean he does not have another source somewhere.





Note: Lighthouse in Catfish is whiped T103, granary in Timble is whipped T103, library is chopped in Lucker T102, and library chopped in Sneatonthorpe T101. There are 6 cities growing eot and I should also get the score from settling Aldeburgh eot. In fact, I should get score increases from land T102 (Huxter), T106 (Aldeburgh border pop), T107 (Catfish), T108 (Seahouses), plus tech score increases so I think the position at the bottom of the scoreboard is coming to an end.

I've had to fracture the barb busting net: Yeld is covering the grass hill 3E of Sneatonthorpe until borders pop, but every turn I can check if a barb has spawned on the plains sheep tile.




I'm missing the two remaining settlers to settle the grass cow/dye, and fish/wheat/sheep location, otherwise this is just about vertical growth and deicing what to whip before I give up slavery.

I think it's worth noting that Lucker, Seahouses, Huxter and Catfish all need to get lighthouses and grow onto coast to manage costs. The latter two are almost complete, Seahouses is going to fit a whip in when I can be bothered to work out most efficient way to do it, but Lucker will be delayed due to needing those two work boats.





For posterity.