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

[Krill]

Turn 104

First up, Elkad:




Looks like he doesn't like TBW. Sorry Elkad, AGG Preats are scarier than you with SoZ and triple promo archers. Fish for Fish stands.

Second is scouting:




Hello Borsche. He has Alphabet, so I proposed OB. Doubt he takes it, but we'll see. Elkad razed on of his cities a while ago. I'm going to be sending the galley to the NE past his galley, but I have to decide if I want to come back for the southern scout. I reckon I don't, that I probably want to leave it as a sentry if I'm sending the galley the long way around. It would make scouting logistics much much easier.

OTOH Borsche could be planning to settle this island now with his galley so who knows? Maybe I'm being unreasonably greedy.




City 13. Provides 6 commerce, costs 10 gold. Eeek. Micro is below, lifted from T96 report:

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.

Probably going to go with a library whip though, after lighthouse. There is a fish 3E1S of Oakenclough, so it looks like that is a good chunk of land to the SE and I ought to prioritise it. Just like everything else...but if Borsche is claiming that island, I could send the galley and capital settler to that island, and use the Wetheral settler for the triple food site past the dye city. So much to settle, so many different ways to bankrupt myself.





Losing that gold really took the edge of my plans.

A new world map for you, a belated christmas present to the lurkers:







I'm still expecting Monarchy eot106, but I might have to squeeze a bit harder to achieve it in terms of wealth. Polytheism is already 136/140 with Masonry completed at about 260/107. OTOH I only need to generate 430 base beakers to finish Monarchy in 1 turn, plus finish Monotheism at 140 base beakers. 570, and with this and next turns tech I'll have generated 470, so maybe I won't even need to build wealth on T106?





And I'm up to date

[Krill]

Turn 105 - Settling thoughts

So…ignoring the issues I’m having with dreadful MFG, and the costs issue, let’s focus on what I can do with the limited number of cities I can settle before Feudalism, and where I would want to throw settlers after this point.

Out of the three remaining settlers I have in queues, I have to be wary of the costs and make them at least cost neutral in the run to Banking. I need them to be settled for easily developed, high food locations, and I need them to be able to either work coastal tiles or cottages. Kettlewell (Dye city), and Kettleness (fish/sheep/wheat) are the only cities that realistically have two food resources (all others are single food resources plus lakes at best). So unless I want to go and settle that front city against TBW, I have a “spare” settler.

It’s worth identifying the different areas I can expand to. There seems to be land to the south of Sneatonthorpe: this is either an island, or an area that GKC can run down to (he would have a lot of land if this is the case). I have no coastal cities over here, so this is another plus to Kettleness. This area is arguably not worth rushing, as GKC seems to be behind in the settling race, and this is an area that we could fight in at a time that suits me. As it’s also under developed, it should mean that I could develop my south coast and get an invasion going, rather than being stuck guarding yet another flank.

Then there is the 2-3 city island that Borsche might be settling, to the NE. This area is really hard to reach at first, but guards the northern reaches of my civ from coastal invasion, and could provide some more coastal production in an area I have none already. It seems much more worthwhile Owning this area than the far, far south.

The small island north of Wetheral seems to be a bit of a dead zone, but I’ll still want it for a single city just because it puts me in a solid position to push at TBW in a multipronged naval attack much later on, and it has a single forest and can steal the plains ivory whilst being shielded by the three land tiles. It’s also not a city that I think TBW is anywhere close to settling, so it can definitely wait until after Feudalism is in.

The big unknown is the land to the SE of Huxter. That could be anything from an archipelago, to a massive subcontinent of another 100 tiles and I can see a single grass forest and an ocean clam. Looking at it, I need to send a galley and units over here to scout, and I can’t really justify any delay. I can whip a galley out of Huxter and double whip an axe out of Catfish (overflow almost finishes the archer), plus finish an archer in Huxter as the second transported unit. Huxter then has enough hammers to finish its own MP archer. If I can make the changes this turn before it rolls, I could whip both units T106, load them on T108 and unload them T109 to start scouting. Plus I could easily bring the worker back from the plains hill sheep to improve a new city, so I know the galley isn’t wasted.

Back to those three pre-Feudalism cities: Do I want to send the third settler to the Borsche island? If I whip the settler this turn, I could still found T116, which I think is before I could reach Feudalism. All settling does is to claim a foothold, as I need the artist slots to pop borders anyway and I’d be locked out from gaining a foothold on the SE landmass. Do I want to not settle Kettleness, and instead try for both foreign landmasses?

Gut feeling is that I want Kettleness: I can get the fish hooked on T116, in addition to a double chopped granary or library, and I can get it settled T113 with either settler from Westminster or Wetheral. Whilst that may be a few turns too soon, I can’t exactly slow down the settler: it takes 3 turns of production whatever I do (I’m 1 hammer short if I delayed a turn to finish the hill mine). I’m also really unsure about the galley, because of the happy issues at Westminster. The other gut feeling I have is that I should build another settler and put that on a galley “ASAP” to settle Borshe island the turn I revolt to Serfdom/Vassalage. I can triple whip the settler this turn, and get the galley next turn, use the galley to transfer the settler to the island and then use the Huxter galley to transfer to the “unknown” landmass, loading onto the Huxter galley T109. If I delayed the whips two turns (so double whip the settler T107, after I’ve gotten the beakers out of Westminster for Monarchy), this would sync up with the worker and Huxter galley movements.

This still seems too fast IMO, but where would I get another settler out for Borsche island? I’m coming to the conclusion that I should probably just suck up the unhappy at Westminster, swap to the galley T108 when the wines are hooked and build it at max hammers eot109 and then finish the settler without a whip, run it along the roads to catch up with the galley. This would settle Borsche island T119 (limited by galley movement). The SE landmass I could try and settle with two whipped settlers from Huxter and Catfish: Both cities can make 15fhpt or 11fhpt depending on corn (copper mine versus two hill mines, so I need to bring the worker back to make a mine on T111), so triple whipped settlers fit in nicely. This way I can also judge the time to Feudalism and a revolt, but I can’t see growth being so slow I can’t whip the settlers. I’d also be able to speed up one of the settlers if I thought the Borsche Island would come after Feudalism, or if I was too slow and Borsche started to settle that island I could redirect that settler wherever seems best at the time (Possibly the 4 tile island north of Wetheral).

I would still have 6 mainland cities to settle, post Feudalism, but most of these can wait a bit.

What about the military to defend these? Well, if I send an archer/axe pair to the SE island, those are the city defenders. Borsche Island would pick up an archer and be reinforced with a longbow and follow up settler ASAP to claim the whole island, if possible, so the defence is sorted in the context of expansion.


Turn 105 - Turn report




I've not repeated this screenshot, although I could have taken it to show that Borschian galley has wandered into the fog. Next turn I will unload teh chariot and scout onto the one tile islands, T107 I'll reload both and head wherever.

What a new screenshot would show is that Borsche has granted OB. I need to find him, grab what commerce I can, and offer him a decent resource trade to keep him happy.

The scout I'm probably going to leave, given what I typed above, because if I am sending a galley around the long way I really don't want to waste half a dozen turns sending the galley towards an already settled area.





If I use the Scarrow worker, and the Timble worker to road to Kettleness, I can have both forests chopped T114. I'm not actually sure if it makes sense to do that, or to hook the grass cow T111 and then chop T116. The issue is how the granary falls in Kettlewell: I might not benefit from the extra cow food, but unless I sit down and crunch the numbers, I'll stick with the earlier resource hook up. I need to rush the whips in Kettleness though, push in as much as possible before Serfdom. Happyness will not be an issue.

You can see that I will still need 2 units to fogbust between Kettleness and Oakenclough, to stop galleys from spawning. Nothing I can do about that except settle more cities.





(Screenshot is old, Huxter is making a galley, Catfish an axe and tile allocations are different).

I really don't want someone else having cities off my established core cities. I am a defensive player at heart (read it and weep, but it's true), so I'll prioritise settling this area rather than trying to conquer it: Redcoats need to be used to knock out a strong player, not take something which should be core for me.











TBS, question for you (don't answer me here, it's a complicated question) but do you think it's the map, or the mod which has put two players really far ahead in terms of crop yield? I really don't think it's the mod, even if it is the two players with granary UB, because that food only comes from pop working actual tiles, and somehow, despite being third, someone still has 40% more crop yield?

On a completely unrelated note, I might get up to top 5 in score in the next couple of turns...except I'm about to whip 11 pop over the next 2 turns, which is 20% of my pop.

[Krill]

I hate Christmas, for lots of different reasons, but delayed turns are pretty high up that list.

[Krill]

Turn 106

A turn for reflection, and not for playing: I hate holiday slow downs.

Scouting has given me pause for thought though, so this is a good thing:




It's not just made me think about settling, it's made me reconsider who are the real threats in this game. Who can win, who is making it to teh late game as a contender.

And I can't see past OH/Hitru and Rusten looking at the current demographics. Maybe Gav pulls something together with Mids, and then Com and Pin look to have good score (which suggests better in game position because Gav has so many points from Oracle and Mids). AT looks to not be a push over, but JC of Sumeria doesn't scale into the late game except ORG cost savings, so I don't think he is a "Contender", but he definitely doesn't meet food criteria.

Elkad, Borsche, TBW and 2MN are not threats. They are food. I should not care which of these players settle this island, because they are all targets later on in the game and I'll have to prepare to take this stuff from them. I should not be throwing resources at this area, except the resources to prepare for the future assaults.

Another point: GKC lost a city to either Borsche or Pindicator. I'd have put down a fiver that it was Pin, but now I know where Borsche is (and that he doesn't have contact with GKC!) I know it was Pin that razed the city. Elkad and TBW seem to have a spat going on. I've been given what I need, turns to develop and distracted neighbours, I should make the most of them.

Therefore full speed ahead on developing towards the south. Claim the area SE of Huxter.





The only cities on wealth now are cities that don't have anything else to build: Owlthorpe, which is a long way from finishing a market, and Timble, which would lose hammers on the library double whip which is due T109. This F2 screen is a fair example of the economy, but it was taken after whipping 3 pop in WT, 2 pop in Catfish and Huxter, and 1 pop in Seahouses, for a total loss of 22 commerce. All that pop (and more) is going to regrow over the next 3-4 turns anyway. I think current breakeven bpt is about 60, but I suspect that it's going to be over 100 by T110 (and then drop when I settle the new cities and finally recover).

I'm not sure when I'll finish Feudalism. T115 seems unrealistic, but T120 also seems way off. Feud will be a 4 turns tech, but the last turn will be around breakeven, if growth leads to max bpt of 300 (seems reasonable, it's just when I reach it). I don't know how OB with Borsche is going to affect it though, that might give me another 10 commerce per turn, which goes straight through beaker multipliers (costs are constant!)





Two other players are vying for first in land area, and there are another few players jostling for third in crop yield. Bottom crop yield and GNP are sad.

I think the Banking beeline is the correct move. I think I need to get there at the end of the GA, and revolt out of Serfdom and back into Slavery, and then go take shit from people. Mercantilism and Stock Exchanges will keep the economy humming along, and the availability of whipping means I can then fit courthouses into cities so I should be able to balance the needs with the opportunities that arise. Looking at these demos, most players are still developing, and no one seems to be stacking up, causing a chain reaction in everyone else swapping over to military builds.

The downside is I'm going to have to plan the second GA. The Westminster GS triggers the first GA. Aldeburgh gives a GM for a Banking bulb (but I don't have to do this, if OB pitch in, the economy grows, it might be a wasted bulb. I still "Want" to double bulb Astro if I'm expecting to be opportunistic, as I will not be able to fit in researching Astro as I clear up the Classical era techs up to Engineering and Paper. But that means I need to figure out where to cram the 300, 400, 500 and 600 gpp GP, and getting that 600 point GP is going to be hard without the extra slots. If I don't use the Aldeburgh GM for the Banking Bulb, that helps significantly.

I'm struggling to figure out when to start a GA: Machinery and Guilds probably require around 440 base bpt to complete in 6 turns (7th to complete Banking in case the bulb doesn't combine with the overflow to complete the tech), and that is assuming two players provide the KTB. I don't think I'll make that, in a GA, by the time I'm ready to start Machinery. OTOH, Guilds and Banking cost teh same (possibly more due to lacking KTB on Banking), but with extra development I'm more certain I'll hit that base bpt if I delayed the start of the GA. This will always be a work in progress until I start the GA and then figure out wealth building needed to make things work.

This is why I'm considering delaying the GA: it's much easier to figure out what I need to do after I've reasearched Machinery than before, but it keeps open the option of a Banking bulb or saving the GM for the second GA. Then I just use the GA to push out three GS (Wormelow Tump, Aldeburgh...somewhere?) There are even other options, to try and not pop the GM from Aldeburgh but keep it close to popping out the GM, to let weaker cities pop out other GS, then Aldeburgh could use a grocer and market merchant slots to push out the GM at the end to trigger the second GA. I'm not even sure when I would want the second GA, because that is based around revolting into Rep, Nationhood, Environmentalism and Theocracy, with curveballs for Free Speech and Universal Suffrage (or do they wait until a third GA??)

So I'm still mulling over options.

[Krill]

Turn 107

I played this turn two days ago, but because of the way shifts have fallen I had no opportunity to writeh report until now. Unfortunately work has been so busy I can't remember any thing about this turn as I start the report, so hopefully the pictures jog my memory.




There is a path around TBW to the west, so I'm going ahead with the galley/scout/chariot combo. I need to consider if I want to rush them out, or if I want to finish these units with Vassalage (and possibly figure if I can cram in a barracks so the chariot has sentry?) The galley could get +1 move, so it would eventually pass an unpromoted galley as well, and with the workboat out with the primary aim of circumnavigation, the galley combo is just about pure exploration and meeting new players. I can't truly rush out the units anyway, so I'll look at this in the near future to see what the difference is, but I'm leaning towards having the units finished in the queue but waiting for the revolt.

The east is easier, dump units on the hill, circle the galley back around the the back up scout, then send the galley up the NE. One landed unit can run SE to look for players, the other will try to find where the east coast of Borsche land is to try and figure out a path for the galley.





This picture isn't at the end of turn, I moved the barb busting warrior 2S, preparing to barb bust incoming galleys.

Still annoyed that Cavendish is blocked, but I'm looking to uncover cities to see if I can use teleport shenanigans from GKC border pops to get him free. I'm not optimistic though.





The happy cap looks quite low here, but that's because most cities lack MP. WT is sitting on wealth at 1hpt to hold overflow





At this point it's Mastermind: I've started so I'll finish.





Rusten just pushed over 10% of world pop this turn. It looks like he has maybe 28-30 more pop than I do? So he is either pulling ahead or this is the consequence of me whipping a bunch of pop and catching him just before he whips). As it is, he whipped 11 pop on T107 after I played so it looks a bit better with him being "only" 20 pop ahead.

Oh yeah, this is why I have so many screenshots this turn: I have graphs on Rusten:





Couple of things to note, after looking back over old turn reports:

That score bump just before 1880BC was Rusten landing Judaism, so that's mostly tech score (24 score from tech compared to me)





You can just see a GNP spike before 1880BC as Rusten made a run at Monotheism. Looks like he did push commerce a bit then. The big spike aroun 1200BC must be Writing with three prerequisites, which lines up with the top GNP on T69 jumping from 60 to 81.

The raised GNP between that second spike and where I got my recovery started looks to be matched with a large crop yield increase, which sugegsts two things to me: he got an island city down earlier than I did, and he was able to work a lot of commerce tiles early. Probably seafood tiles, which is again suggestive of a peninsula start.

The final thought on GNP is that I'm not matching him, despite what teh graph says now: that's at max research versus Rusten not researching IMO.





MFG has to be judged in conjunction with crop yield:





That crop yield jump on T69 with the GNP spike is soul destroying. Island city with immediate food isn't all that can be, that's just a massive jump of everything happening on one turn. The rate of growth seems similar other than that, but he is starting to pull away. He has to hit some form of growth limit now, or has he just got everything: religion, lots of happy and food and commerce tiles to mitigate costs? If he has, then all I can do is try to keep up, I'll never surpass him this side of Astro or an easy conquest.

What I'm struggling to understand is the MFG difference in the first 50 turns of the game. I know I got a stupidly early granary, but Rusten got a stupidly early settler, first person to a second city. It almost looks like his second city didn't add much food, but added lots of production: more likely the second city picked up a food slack and the capital went onto hammers without a granary, but the second city grew onto commerce/hammer tiles which is where the commerce comes from for the Mono run. That fits with the hypothesis that he had gold close to his capital, and that I'm playing this start at an output disadvantage never mind having a slower leader/civ combo (not a complaint, an opinion based off an observation: I need to figure out a way back into the game).





Look, 30 extra pop over me is 15K soldier points, he doesn't have anything different in terms of real units, but that doesn't matter. That TBW with very little is close to Rusten and on my door step is more concerning.





Religion in every city v libraries to pop borders v AGG barracks.





No Courthouses. (This does n't confirm of deny if he has CoL, but the Philo bulb he does on T108 proves that he is up CoL and Alphabet though).





I'm going to jump ahead now and make a point which will be reinforced in the T108 report: OH/Hitru had not whipped for about 8 turns, but after I played this turn they did. I suspected a player had triggered a GA, and they are the obvious candidates, running Caste in the GA and just dropping out now into Slavery for teh whip and in the T108 report there is an almost 40 food increase in top Crop Yield.

I don't think that Rusten, despite appearing so far in front, is actually winning this game. I don't think he is the crop yield leader, and I am actually quite worried that we are going to have a repeat of PB18 where OH/Hitru are in the position Dtay had: reach knights before other players have even gotten a small HA stack together. I swear that if I hadn't neighboured Dtay he would have overrun that entire continent in 20 turns, but that was a tighter area, and this map is huge, but the point holds: someone looks be even further in front that Rusten, and pretty much everyone seems to be behind me in terms of a whipping base from crop yield. And whipping units is the only way to hold off a knight rush.

Someone is going to die soon. I need to find where OH/Hitru area and work out what it means for me. And with two leaders, hopefully I have time to try and catch up.

[Krill]

Turn 108

Big turn this. Rusten bulbed Philosophy, and Pindicator bulbed Theology. I wonder why he didn't do it before, I thought he popped a GP, but I suppose it could have been GKC that popped the GP, but GKC dallied and Pin just stole it from him? Or maybe Pin razed a city that had the GP in? Not like Great People haven't been murdered before. Or maybe GKC just popped that GP and Pin, playing the turn first, sees the loss of a religion if he doesn't bulb now? Who knows.

(As an aside, I can't know if wasn't the other way around...except Rusten would have shrined Judaism if he had a GP for what would probably be a cool 25gpt, so I'm going with the sensible idea for once). This does mean the GS born a few turns ago was probably Rustens. I wonder why he got that, unless he was running a mixed pool for speed, and intends to built AK later on to try and random another GP in the future. Not like he needs to plan around GA for civic swaps.

Rusten also swapped into Caste, but not Pacifism?! This feels like he isn't about to pump out a bunch of GS and bulb into the future. Border pops and workshop hammers, wait and see what he revolts into over the next 10 turns.




The workboat takes whatever western rout looks best. In this case, W - SW next turn. There doesn't seem to be land north of GKC so I should be able to find a path, if I heads NW then I might run into land. The galley can head in that direction.

This also raises an issue that I might have to take Alphabet next for OB to get the workboat through. If Alphabet gave me full trade routes it would be worth 19 commerce per turn (25 commerce per turn with the next 3 cities down). It probably pays back pretty quickly, so I will likely go that route next rather than Feud: it's not even two turns of maximum research now. There is an effect through delaying Serfdom, but more on that later.





Interesting question: Is it better to send teh scout or the galley SE? If I have to run through unroaded terrain, the scout could be quicker, but there is a greater risk of barbs eating it. Answers on a post card. Probably right to send teh chariot SE - E - SE into the next city along before deciding if I need to send the scout coast hugging outside culture but in protected areas (if culture has effectively barb busted).





There is a library in Tlateloco, but it was not there on T104 so borders can't pop until eot109 at the latest. I was going to leave the scout on the grass hill NE - E and see where Cavendish gets bumped to but according to this post by DanF it would be the copper tile with a score of 11, as the minimum score for any tile on the other side of Tamuin would be 13. I'd consider testing that, but if it screws up I can't move Cavendish, and I don't see why GKC would push culture in that city, so Cav would just get locked in.

Probably better to just leave Cavendish 2W of Tamuin and see if the other, older city pops border sooner.





There is a hill SE - SE - E of the galley, so first thoughts are to dump the archer onto that and see what is uncovered. Is this just a small 4 tile island, or is it a massive 10 city subcontinent I need to rush? As I'm not sending teh capital settler north anymore, it will be brough down here with its own galley and therefore this galley trio and just explore without need to return for unit transportation needs.





Regarding the capital settler: I will swap off onto a galley, complete that T110, then finish the settler with overflow T111, load T112 and be able to unload onto the far island T115, picking up the island worker along the way on T114.

I've also reconsidered the Great People order. I'm leaning back towards the Astro double bulb because it opens up the Observatory for an additional scientist slot. The issue is where to get the 400 point GS, as the 500 point GM is actually trivial given the available merchant slots on a grocer. I think that the best case is to actually get the 400 point GS from WT, after it pushes out the 100 point GS. Then use Westminster for the 200 point GS (it will blitz this out in Serfdom, probably finishing it in the first or second turn of the GA), and then Oakenclough can probably push out the 300 point GS by the end of the golden age (as 8 turns of GA, 7 turns of Serfdom gives a minimum of 222gpp (5 specs at -1fpt@size7), so running 4 specialists for 7 turns before triggering the GA means it fits in easily. In fact, I'll probably have much more freedom and can make this work much more efficiently, and quickly than I originally though. I'm probably beaker limited more than anything else, which gives me more turns to grow the cities to get more gpp.

I'm not against the Banking bulb, but I'm a little worried that I'm not going to get a religion (not entirely relevant but delaying a GA gives a greater chance to get a lucky spread before the first GA) and that I'm going to be flatfooted in responding to opportunities if I lack Astro for galleons to actually reach people. The Banking bulb will always be available as a backup plan, but the Astro bulb just fits in perfectly (if I detour to Alphabet now it's perfect, as I need Optics for Privateers for defense anyway).

As an aside, there is actually a way to bulb Divine Right with an Artist, but DR costs over 2500 adjusted beakers and an Artist will just about cover half of that. DR is right before Aesthetics in the bulb order, so if I use Serfdom to generate an Arist and research Theology, then DR is the bulb.

This feels stupid though, so I'm just going to leave it here for other people to think about.











Honest question here: why am I third in crop yield? The massive expansion push I achieved in the T80's is the obvious cause of it (going from 5 to 9 cities in 9 turns and picking up 8 food resources when I previously had 7 is going to have an impact)...but why did everyone else hit a wall? Or did players just...stop expanding? Rusten and OH/Hitru didn't, but what lead to players stopping expansion? Delayed Currency? Needing military due to barbs? What?

[Krill]

Turn 109

Interesting turn. Just logging in had two major developments:




This isn't fantastic, but it could be worse. At least there is religion, and it may be worth considering helping Rusten via shrine gold if OH/Hitru look monstrous. I can also grab Meditation for a monastery after Alphabet if I really need to dedicate myself to spreading it ASAP, it'll be something like a single turn delay on Feudalism.

OTOH, this is just awesome:






I have no words to describe just how fucking great this is. It bumps me up to two market happy, and I'll probably be able to trade for another market happy. There is now an interesting point where, combined with Judaism, I could get OR and the market production bonus to cram down the markets at the start of the GA in critical cities, but this is looking too deeply at the benefits of another 20+ pop I'll be able to get working, on a map where no one has spare happy to trade (and I only have 4 wines and an ivory to trade anyway). It even spawned in the one location where I can force out a workboat straight away, as Oakenclough finished using the marble mine end of last turn, hence whales will be hooked T113.





I thought there was a land tile south of the dyes, but was mistaken. Straight west here. FWIW, I have no scouted 51 tiles east to west, and it will take this workboat 8 turns just to reach as far west as I have already scouted.

Note the axe and two workers underneath roading forward. Looks like TBW is moving to settle more land. I'm not going to stop him, but I may just delay sending the settler from Westminster to the islands if I need to counter settle to block off a stupidly forward plant.





Next turn Cavendish will end up sitting in place waiting to see if teleportation works.





More scouting! Aren't we all so lucky...

Next turn the archer moves 1NE, the galley moves SW - S and dumps teh axe onto the plains hill 1E of the sheep, to reload on T111. The archer will just wander down the coast to check if the island is "mine" or if someone else has coastal access.

I suspect that the two city locations here will be 2S1E of the clam, and 1E of the plains sheep, as there is no single city plant for both food resources. Nothing is set in stone, even though I expect to be able to settle this land on T116. I should be able to get this entire area scouted pretty quickly as it doesn't look very big. Main question is if I can even get a galley to the fish area east of Oakenclough.





New player! Found 2MN. I puzzled over the movement, then moved the chariot: there is a worker underneath the scout which will finish roading next turn. Borsche will settle the archer tile on T111, or 1W on the same turn. I don't really care, but I can use teh scout to uncover a coastal path to 2MN, and I should be able to offer OB on T111. If he accepts, the scout will just be able to enter borders T112. The chariot will stick to the road network as expected last turn. The problem I have is that I think I will need to send the galley back to Elkad to get vision on a city for OB (I can never remember if I just need vision to someones culture, or into a city for OB). This will delay circumnavigation.





Again, no happy to trade.





2MN got screwed over by losing an early city to Borsche, so they are neighbours. Does he neighbour anyone else? He is essentially food tier by score.





After taking this screenshot, I umm'ed and arr'ed over whipping Timble, but in the end I double whipped it. With the whales, I want to cram as much food into WT as possible, and if I intend to get the first GS from there, I need to get it back to working specialists ASAP. If WT goes max food, it grows eot109 and eot110, and can then pick up two scientists. WT should push out a GS eot122 with 5 points overflow. And Timble has no good tiles to work until borders are popped and the wines improved. Still, I should focus on the macro, on the great people, and giving the resources to WT is the right move in that respect.

With that in mind, I also realised I fucked up the worker micro from Owlthorpe, but not massively. I'll use the two workers at Kettlewell to improve the cow T111, and then chop at Kettleness T116. The other 4 workers will chop forests on T112, T114 and T115, which gives granary eot114 and growth@2 eot116, food box 10/24 and a library eot115. The 4 workers will be able to get the plains wine improved on T115, and the plains wine hooked on T116, and the last wine on T119, with spare worker turns used to improve tiles at Timble. Then on T120 Kettlewell has expanded borders and the wheat can be improved before starting to cottage the grasslands (No Civil Service, no fresh water, therefore the concept of farming to grow onto cottages is impossible here).

I'm also going to double whip the market at Scarrow once it drops down to a 2 pop cost. I can't get another tile improved there until T115, so at most the whip costs me a single turn of cottage growth, and it can go onto either wealth or a barracks afterwards.

The stone will finally be hooke on T111, and the forest at Sneatonthorpe will be chopped on T113 for walls, or the workboat to overflow into a lighthouse. Probably walls if I could bring myself to actually build units (Guess what lucker will have the pleasure of double whipping?)

Owlthorpe would grow into unhappiness, but I will hand the wheat over next turn to delay grow slightly, and help get Westminster to size 11 quicker to use the whales happy).

Huxter and Catfish are getting a little ahead of themselves, growing on alternate turns as I swap the corn around, and although I want to triple whip both for settlers I need to be slightly hesitant because I might not actually need to depending on how much land I find, and I also have issues with when I'm actually revolting into Serfdom. I might actually end up stagnating them a little longer into double whips or fitting in market whips with the new happy situation.




I'm building wealth this turn to ensure I can get Alphabet eot110. Theoretically if I signed OB and got max trade routes on T111, I would gain 19 commerce per turn, which is roughly a 25% increase in my breakeven tech rate. I'm also a little unsure what the costs are going to be with Kettlewell, so I'll adjustwealth building as needed.





Rusten just pushed ahead on land this turn, but I'm catching the pop number now. He can't whip anymore, but specialists should slow his pop growth.





Turn 99 was when first place breached 200 crop yield (207), so I'm 10 turns behind. I'm closing the gap: I was 13 turns behind on T90. I wonder what things will look like on T120? I can count 33 just in resources, will I grow a further 30 pop over those turns to still be 10 turns behind? I'm reckoning I might only be 8 turns behind (in crop yield) at that point.

[Krill]

Turn 110

Just a quick turn update tonight.




So Pindicator confirmed as the founder of Christianity, and it looks like he already had a GP stored. I'd go back and verify who popped what but I don't care enough to do it today. I'll do that when I'm next off.

Slight mismove of the chariot, I don't want to send him north, so he will be a tile behind the best scouting path. I'll offer OB next turn as planned. I'll also see if I can rush T111 before anyone else to offer OB immediately, and see what I need to do with the galley (get vision into Elkad city, or 2NE for scouting.





City locations confirmed, but I'm not yet certain that using the capital settler here is the right move as everything valuable is second ring, and the food requires work boats. In fact pretty much every other city location has second ring food that needs artists to bring into play, so I'm a little screwed.





Kettlewell, cow improved T111, granary eot114, library eot115, growth@2 eot116. Worker micro does not require posting as should be relatively easy to figure out (ie I don't need to remember it so you lot are SoL).





Going to whip the market in SH next turn (and immediately regrow). Considering another high pop settler whip later on as I have 10 city locations I want to found, and I'm falling behind on cities compared to Rusten and OH, so I should try to time it to found the cities during the revolt. Those 10 settlers are a pain to find, but I can already see ways to get 8 of them, if GKC and TBW play nice. Costs don't feel that bad, as Rusten is making about 130 gpt: If I get all those trade routes I should be at around 100gpt to 110gpt.





Fuck.





Part of me feels that I need another couple of workers, but that's just because they are slightly out of position. Two of the three workers will be returning to Seahouses, the two workers there retreat to Scarrow, and it all feels better again. Really, it's the settlers I need to catch up in crop yield, but that damned Serfdom revolt is the barrier.

Still feels that the revolt is the right thing. I'll try to do a big update on T112/3 on Tuesday with a world map and look at these figures in closer detail.

[Krill]

Turn 111

I'm writing this turn report before playing T112. I also loggged into this turn at the start before most other players had played, then again to play the turn before I went to work, and after GKC paused for no publicly or privately stated reason to unpause. Important actions occurred at all these times, but unfortunately I only have screenshots of the middle section.

I first logged in to offer OB to Elkad, TBW, and 2MN. I alse moved the western workboat, then decided that I wanted to go back to sleep at 0330 because sleep is a fantastic activity. When I logged back in, I discover that Pindicator had found my workboat.




Obvious offer is obvious. Neither Pin nor I can be certain who will get the trade routes first, but hey, no reason to not accept it as we aren't neighbours, we aren't going to be at each others throats and we need to do everything we can to catch up with OH and Rusten.

Also, his gpt looks poor but I was at that three turns ago, so my first thoughts are well wide of hte mark. His score has been consistently higher than mine and he has a shrine, EXP, and the availability of Theo against my CHM. His position shouldn't be considered bad, if judged only on the knowledge that I have at this point.





Another Judaism spread, this time into Timble. Typical that I got the spreads into the two cities that have no food and limited production.

I also found the other side of Borsche. I think the chariot is going to take hte wide route, and move onto the mining worker to check as many tiles as possible for coastal paths: it looks like the galley has a long way to go, so I should have enough turns to do whatever scouting I need and it looks like the second scout will help make a few dents as well.

The GE is a bit of a weird one though. I have no idea if someone won a low odds toss, if is was Gav or anyone else. That could be MoM, the GL (hello Astro bulb), or an Engineering bulb (please god don't let that be Rusten with the GE).





Next turn axe moves onto the hill, galley moves to the south east of hte island, and I should have most of the map knowledge I need for this area. Nothing screaming at me that it needs to be rushed now, but then, I have a settler and this still looks like the best place to settle. And that helps with the galley and worker logistics.





I'll give the precise numbers next turn, but I think FIN is giving me more output than any other trait would do at this point.





Part of me wonders how close Rusten and OH are to having 25% of the world pop between them.





Throwing this in now because it raises a questions: Is Rusten starting to struggle with costs? How close am I to his breakeven bpt?





Still fighting over third in crop yield.

[Krill]

Turn 112

Time for a big turn report, and a new world map. Unfortunately the map is getting so big it's getting hard to match up the gridlines well, so it's a little bit rough. It's also 6MB.




First things first, I have a full set of 3 commerce trade routes, so all new cities should provide a minimum of 7 commerce. This turn I need to construct plans for settling as many cities as appears sensible (which is almost all of them) because I expect to lose the whip within 10 turns.

Second things second: When should Fuedalism be completed? Without going into details (more for that later) Feud will be a 4 turn tech and I need 3 more turns to save the gold to research it, so Feud is expected eot118, with a potential revolt T119 or T120 (if I want to possibly whip a couple of longbows to complete in Feud). That means all whips need to be completed within 8 turns. That is quicker than I expected, I didn't think I'd fill the trade route slots.

I'll do the turn report first





Another shrine incoming? And wait to see if TBW settles in the annoying position that makes it imposible for me to guard the diagonal. If he does, then he is using some crap worker micro, and if he moves forward to settle in my face I'm probably going to just settle 2E of the fish and run culture so it's an unstable border. Draw his attention to a naff flatland city and hit him with galleons up both coasts, behind his front holding force.

Still, I made my decision to not poke him. I'm not regretting that decision just yet.





The chariot is going to run up the west coast, but the galley is stuck trudging along. Interestingly, I know that Elkad's cities are mostly, if not all, on another continent, so I either bite the bullet and delay the galley, bring the scout back and dump it in his culture, or I have to send yet another galley up here to scout.

The answer is I'll send a galley up here, because I need to build another galley to settle the Head of Tind area. Full speed ahead for circumnavigation.

Also, please note that Borsche is building a plantation for sugar, so I could trade wines for that in a few turns. He has cottaged a lot of his dyes, but I have my own source so meh. I see two sources that aren't cottaged.

2MN has his own struggles of losing an early city and dealing with a CRE leader, but I wonder if his area extends over the the east, or south? Gilbert will roughly follow the coast to ensure I have a coastal route to anyone in the south.





Fun little settling challenge here. Only a single tile to pick up the southern fish, so that city is nailed on, but there is a decent reason to settle 2S1W of the crab, or 2S on flatland. But is it worth rushing? I think that it's worth rushing the far southern city, because I could get it settled T118 (unload onto middle island T115, reload onto second galley T116, unload on city tile T117 and settle T118). OTOH, I may not be able to even run an artist until T121, so that sugegsts that I don't need to use the capital settler for that city.

The advantage from settling that city (Widewall) is that it can run an artist to pop borders, and give a route for workboats from Aldeburgh to hook resources, instead of taking the long route. This lessens the pressure on Huxter and Catfish to provide everything for the island area, and Aldeburgh has nothing else to do except build workboats, grow and then run merchants.

It's probably still better to use the capital settler for Sourin (settled T117) so that the worker can hook the sheep.





Kettleness goes down T113 Borders popped at Tlateloco, and GKC sent me an OB (ignored) and fish for fish (returned) offer last turn I forgot to mention. I'm trying not to get fixated on the idea that one of GKC or TBW is a friend, and the other is food, but I'm struggling. TBW is backward, and GKC isn't much better, but TBW is about to become much easier to handle, and GKC will be a long term annoyance until I can get courthouses down: I don't want to give him OB and him to get city visability. I have no counter, and it will make invading him later so, so much more difficult as everything has to go through Sneatonthorpe, or along coastal routes where I have no ability to build galleons yet. But even if I don't give him OB, that doesn't mean I'm going to invade him in the near or long term. I'd offer to trade him wines, but he already has them (if not hooked) and we have no other resources to trade each other.





A more detailed overview picture.

I have more cities that can build settlers with out whipping than I thought.

Scarrow will complete a settler in 6 turns due to overflow. No point waiting, it takes 4 turns to grow and growing doesn't speead the settler. Wetheral can be forced to grow this turn, and then it makes an 8 turn settler. Seahouses and Sneatonthorpe are actually quicker to build by hand than top whip (both reach size 7 and then build 5 turns settlers). Then Timble, Kettlewell and Kettleness, WT, Aldeburgh and Oakenclough are all either too new, or focused on great people generation. That leaves Lucker, Owlthorpe, Huxter and Catfish as the only cities that actually need to whip to finish settlers. That's 4 whipped and 2 hand built settlers, and easy opportunities for a further 2 a bit later on and that will fit in much better with worker micro.

The capital, Westminster, is the odd one out, as it could build a settler in 5 turns, but I'm going to need it to pump units, so it wants a barracks, but I also want the market for the extra 2 happy, and it has to start running scientists at size 11 to follow WT for the second great person. I can't fit all that in and get a settler, and that isn't mentioning the need for a galley to claim Head of Tind, which likely uses the Wetheral settler and so is on a really tight clock (need the galley eot119 so it finishes before the market.

So allocating settlers to cities: I have one settler now, then a further 6, and a follow up two if wanted.

The obvious cities I want later on are Head of Tind (Wetheral) and Southease (Scarrow). I checked the movement, and the workboat started this turn in Aldeburgh lines up perfectly with a double whipped settler out of Owlthorpe settling Kelling and using an artist to pop borders. The two settlers from Huxter and Catfish are for the islands, which just leaves the lucker settler. I think that fits with Skinningrove, then Sneatonthorpe gets the settler for Saltergate once it is able. This way I probably don't need a settler from Seahouses except to run it all the way over to the islands, which seems wasteful.

The only bit that doesn't realy fit is the Lucker settler movements, I need another worker to help with a road down there. I was planning on using 4 workers between Seahouses and Scarrow, but I actually don't need all of them so I will just bring one back (shame I've already moved it up but I won't lose any worker turns).

This brings me back to the capital settler: I'm going to use it for Backaland. Then the Catfish settler (eot116, double whip) can settle Widewall T121, and the settler from Huxter (eot116, triple whip) settles whichever other city I deem most important.

Finally, Seahouses doesn't need to build a settler then: I can swap it over to a barracks, prepare the sentry chariot and the 3 move galley, and then push out longbows until I get MC, then cram in a 5 turn forge and carry on putting 30hpt into units sitting at size 9, 0fpt, 24 base hpt from T118 if I can trade for another happy (looking at you, Borsche), or T120 if I can't.

Anyway, onto the cities. I'm doing them out of founding order, because that no longer matters: All the timings are based off hte revolt to Serfdom and when great people spawn.





Easy city: If I revolt to serfdom T120, then the GS will be at 87/100, and WT will be at size 8, and it pops out the GS eot121.

Spoiler written after completing report, best to read at the end.

(EDIT: After writing this report, I acknowledge there is an opportunity to grow now and run more specialists to pop out the GS slightly later, with the knock on relaxation at Westminster. Oakenclough just can't keep up with the 300 point GP, so there doesn't seem to be a cost to this, except that that I spend a labourer turn working a farm so I endup paying gold for a tile this turn and next turn I only breakeven, so meh. The idea of holding the fish for ever actually costs me commerce at Timble and breaks Oakencloughs attempt to generate a GS).

Growth this turn. If Owlthorpe is building a settler via a double whip, I want to cram as much food into growth here as possible. I've already explained why I'm not going for a settler, but I do need a galley eot120 to allow full speed settling of Head of Tild T124. But if I'm revolting T120, it has to finish eot119. As I also expect to pop a GS from WT eot121, so I need to work a total of 15 scientist turns by eot121. Can I get a galley and market done it that time frame, and also enough scientist turns?

Next turn Westminster can make 19hpt, which is 25hpt into a market. For ease of maths, I'll say build the galley this turn, then finish the market eot118, then eot119 I would have only 32 hammers into a galley. So no, I can't get both.

This makes it a bit of a conundrum. Do I delay the market or the galley? One thing I've not considered is the military to guard HoT. Obvious defender is a longbow, but the only way to actually do that is to whip it in Wetheral, otherwise that's the delay!

The next problem is food: if Westminster grows eot112, it would grow again eot118, and unless I can trade for happy the market is the only way to keep on growing: alternative option is to swap coast for scientists to stop growth.

Interestingly, if I revolt into Serfdom on T120, then on T121 Westminster can work 5 scientists on T121, which means I need it to work 10 scientist turns between T112 and T119: I can have 3 turns of not working scientists. But after that Westminster will work 5 scientists for ~7 turns to generate the next GS. And it will need to because Aldeburgh and WT will be stacking up gpp themselves.

I don't think it is wise to whip here: I could stagnate at size 10, finish the market eot117, build the galley T118 and whip it T119 to finish at size 9. I think it's just better to delay the galley a single turn to finish eot121, so Westminster is at size 12 sitting in happy, works a bunch of food, coast and scientists to push out the next GS. I'll have no difficulty dragging an archer from Huxter onto the galley to act as a temporary defender and then drop a longbow in a few turns afterwards (build it in Wetheral).





Then plan for Westminster has a knock on effect at Owlthorpe: I need it to finish the settler eot117, I was planning to double whip it from 52 hammers (built using two hill mines) but Westminster is using them all, so it looks like I'll have to delay growth, and double whip from size8 and immediately regrow, eating the food cost of the regrown worker.





Next turn pick swap both cottages for the hammer tiles, finish settler eot120 except there is the anarchy, so settler eot121. Load onto galley T123, unload T124, settle T125. Wetheral completes longbow eot126, unload into HoT T128.





Settler eot117 is obvious. That means growth@8 eot122, so no more cottages needed until T123.

Ignore this until told to read later in the report.

With the settler completed eot117, I can't use it. I need to wait until the revolt on T120 and then settle. Because of that, it doesn't need any roads in place to found within the limits imposed.

Proceed to spoiler at Seahouses

The workers can focus at Seahouses:





Assume no traded happy, then need growth@9 eot119. I need 54 food to reach size 9. two turns of 9fpt, then 6 turns of 6fpt (use three grass mines) gives maximum hammer output. I want the galley as close to completed, a finished barracks, and a chariot as close to finished as possible. That's 120 hammers when I'll generate 78 hammers over that time period. Jog on Krill.

What are wants, what are needs?

Defense is a need. CG2 longbows are core, but CG1 longbows might be needed quicker due to settler timings. Barracks is the need. The (sentry) chariot is a want. The galley is a want.

Build the barracks now. Finish the galley before hammers decay. Ignore the chariot.

Ignore this until told to read later in the report.

There are currently four workers in this area. I'm going to send one of them back down to road towards the Skinningrove location, leaving three here. One will finish the last grass hill mine on T113, the other two will mine the plains hill on T113. T114 the plains hill mine is completed by a single worker, and both unused workers move to separate plains hill, which are mined on T118. The third worker can just put turns into cottaging grass land. I'll actually put a single turn into all of the tiles, so that in Serfdom I will only need 2 worker turns to finish every cottage. Much more effcient. Then the mining workers will do the road up to Southease/Scarrow settler location.

Might need to change the hill usage at Seahouses though: I think double whipping at size 5 is the best hammer output available. Work two grass mines and stone from T113 gives settler @64/100 T117, double whip to 128/100, then hold the hammers behind wealth to dump into a longbow, or more realistically complete the archer. (Triple whip occurs T117 but at 114/100, 14 hammers for 14 gold 7 beakers, but the problems are on T114-6 Lucker needs the hill mine).

I think I'll be using the triple whip here, and swapping Seahouses from a coast to a grass mine this turn to make up for the turns it cannot work the grass mine. I think it works out. I think I'm going to hammer lucker with a longbow double whip on T120 (archer eot118, longbow T119 and regrowth@4, T120 whip before revolt).

Please proceed to the spoiler at Scarrow and follow the adventure!





"Aldeburgh has nothing else to do except build workboats, grow and then run merchants."

Whales hooked next turn. This workboat (eot114) will be sent via Huxter to improve one of the seafood resources on the middle island. The next workboat will be completed eot116 to improve the fish 3S of the desert copper on T124, but this requires working two plains hill mines for a turn. Then the third workboat will be completed eot121 for the Widewall fish hooked T124 (east of Oakenclough). Meanwhile it will just pick up whatever extra food to grow and then work whatever merchants once happy capped.





Growth@6 eot113 with archer 10/25, T114 give over the corn and build settler, triple whip settler T116 114/100 and send the archer mp up towards Westminster to act, T117 dump onto galley. Build archer eot117 for city MP, and regrow on a workboat. Settler is interchangeable with the Catfish settler, settles Widewall T121 with border pop eot123.





Take corn T114, double whip settler T116 115/100, load onto galley T117, regrow on workboat. Thre three workboats from ALdeburgh (T114), Huxter and catfish are enough to hook all middle island seafood visible, if there are any more on the south island, they can pass through Widewall after T124.





...I don't even care, but due to happy issues at WT, it will steal the fish on T113 to grow to size 3, and again to size 4 eot116. It can work the wines as they are hooked, so those 4 turns working the fish are enough IIUC. I think I will try to build a market here in the GA, but I don't quite want to drop an archers worth of overflow just yet, when I don't need the archer (and certainly don't want to pay for it).





The chop lands T114 but it can be delayed until T115 due to overflow issues. Some bright spark can figure out what I'm doing wrong, but I'm going to whip the workboat T113. If I just let it grow onto the horse: workboat eot114, growth@4 eot115. T116 improve crab, growth@5 eot117 30/28, lighthouse eot118 63/60, foodbox 22/30. With workboat whip: workboat eot113, T114 regrowth@3 24/24, lighthouse 54/60, T115 improve crab, foodbox 20/26, T116 growth@4 28/26 lighthouse 60/60. eot118 Growth@5 foodbox 33/28 > 19/30, 14 base hammers invested (work boat eot121 or 122 depending on hill versus coast usage).

This matters because the Lucker settler plants a city on T121 or T122 (Skinningrove), so border pops for the fish eot123 or 124 (probably eot124 as more likely to settle flatland tile which takes longer to get to). Not whipping delays the fish hookup and costs significant growth: granary is chopped eot126 with growth@2 eot129 25/22 > 14/24.

An emergency longbow whip is also trivial to fit in at the expense of a delayed workboat but it's still flexibility that exists around T118-120.





I'm getting slightly tired now, as I've been working on this report on and off all day.

Lighthouse whip T115. Library whip is possible but I'm still unsure about it (OTOH, I am going to be putting a lot of scientist turns in here and I don't think the delay in the 300 point gp is going to be that bad). And I can't use artists to pop borders, and I can't steal the marble from Aldeburgh to hand build it. Nothing else affects this city: growth and specialists are order of the day. I think I go with the library because I might be struggling for tiles if I try to grow past size 6 to run a food deficit strategy in the GA, which would theoretically catch up with just growing striahgt to size 7 and sitting at 4-5 specialists until the GS is born.

FWIW, size 9, foodbox with 35 food will run 7 specialists at -5fpt for 7 turns, generating 294 gpp, whereas running 5 specialists would only generate 210. That means 6 turns of sitting at 5 specs and -1fpt to generate the 300 point GP by the same turn (and just running 2 scientist turns before the GA in the size 9 example, which I'd want to do to get the foodbox sorted. So time until GA is also a factor. Growth from size 2, 13/24 to size 9 35/38 takes 127 food. Oakenclough takes 15 turns to achieve that, and a library single whip would occur on precisely T120 (at size 5>4, foodbox 19/28 for immediate regrowth). That would mean growth@6 eot123, growth@7 eot125, border pop eot126 (one of the scientist turns), growth@8 34/34 eot127, growth@9 eot130 44/36, foodbox 35/38 eot 131 but only one scientist turn invested, so if the GA starts on T133 then Oakenclough can pop out the GS in 7 turns.

None of the above actually matters that much, because if Feudalism lands eot118, MC is a one turn tech, and Machinery will be finished by T128 and the GA will have to be started around then (give or take actually, because I will have to work out saved gold for the Guilds>Banking run).





"Kettlewell, cow improved T111, granary eot114, library eot115, growth@2 eot116. Worker micro does not require posting as should be relatively easy to figure out (ie I don't need to remember it so you lot are SoL)."

I could single whip a worker here? Maybe? Nah, I'm just trying to fit in whips, but whipping here makes no sense.

Oh god, is this report still going on?





For the lazy of us, this is the overview: it is worth noting that as of T120 every city on this list, and the new city (from next turn) of Kettleness will have a library. I wonder how the other players are doing with that?





City costs went up 7 this turn for some reason? Yeah, yeah, pop growth. Yet because of trade routes I still had a massive increase. And FIN coast costs less than it gives in commerce (I'm still having flashbacks to the inability to grow out of the cost pressure in PB42).





I'm sure that there is something about having easy access to trade routes via OB is part of how Rusten is doing so well. OTOH, maybe that is how HItru/OH approached Currency, with the wealth builds and having a lot of near by neighbours/dining opportunities. There are no economic costs to OB, are there...





I'll try to post this screen every turn for the next few turns just to track other players costs. Rusten was making a good gpt, but I'm not sure his max bpt is as high as mine anymore (I've breached 300bpt at max). His costs must be higher: he isn't ORG to help with civic costs, he has another 25 pop to pay for, more cities affecting the OCN/per city cost, and he lacks the tile output from FIN.





I know Elkad is missing, he has nothing of relevance and is not showing a positive gpt so meh.





Pitiful. Cavendish is trapped, Yeld will be running up to Seahouses from next turn. But if this is the only advantage I have at this point of being crammed in a corner with no one to interact with, I better make it work.





Every tech except Feud (4 turns) and Theo (3 turns) is a 2 turn tech. Except IW, Med and ph, they are 1 turn techs. If Feud comes eot118, and I save gold T119, I should finish MC T121 due to the revolt, and then I should have Machinery in 8 turns if I tech at teh same rate as I am now (but there will be 22 cities compared to the 14 I have settled this turn). I think I will be faster..





C'mon Pindi, get me some spreads with your shrine power. Get them into Westminster, Seahouses and Aldeburgh so I can spread it during the GA.





I have 70 pop, therefore 10 pop is only 1% right now. Rusten still 20-odd ahead, but each pop I generate should be more productive than his. Except he still has a large MFG lead...





The end. The MFG number will improve, but I need the power to go up a bit with Feud and a few longbows, walls in Sneatonthorpe etc and I'll feel safer. But in all? Hannibal of England is ahead of most of the rest, and every other pick was faster. The slower starting combinations are playable, and pickable in this mod version: it's the map that will define how well something plays, affected by player skill.