Polish/South Korean vacation succession

[Kaiser]

I suggest operation "Osadnik" (the first thing I found for Settler in polish)

That looks very good and it is a great idea to prop Japan up for his fight against Hungary. Maybe Hungary did already have some gains and Japan is on two cities for that reason?
How quick does JRTI churn Settlers out at the moment?
I see you have finished 3 Sukieniecze (probably spelled wrong) as well, this amazing gold income in an online speed game seems game breaking. I think Hungary will be in for a surprise when it meets you and sees 8 cities already settled.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Another turn played. 4 settlers are on the map, with 4 more due within ~8 turns (I could calculate out the micro but honestly it doesn't matter). 




JRTI can kick out a settler every 4 turns at present production rates, and of course thanks to Magnus it doesn't lose a pop while doing so. At the same time, Civ-wide gold production is such that I can afford to buy a settler every 8 turns, as well. Right now, though, with medieval faires coming up, I'm saving that gold for traders. Each of my first 4 new cities will get a brand-spanking new trader purchased to go with its builder, so I'll get a road network setup rapidly and really get these cities off to a roaring start along with their builders. Then they'll build Commercial Hubs and Sukajkldjaf;dks and the NEXT 4 cities will get traders, and so on. I think that's a better return than buying even more increasingly-expensive settlers, not when JRTI can just build them so cheap. Gold will be handy for upgrades later, but right now my military cost is 0 and I'm making money hand over fist. 




Abroad, two bits of news. Our scout has pushed on and sighted Hungarian borders in the fog. I could make contact next turn, or I could hold off. I think I'll go ahead and contact him, since I know where his military is. I want to ascertain exactly where he stands on his research rates, population, military score, etc. I have a larger empire score even with his Japanese conquests, and I've been building economy (no way anyone has as many Markets as I do, for example!). 




Speaking of, he also captured another Japanese city. Japan lost beautiful Fukuoka last turn and is now down to just his capital of Kyoto. Hopefully my gift of horse made a difference...Hungary won't have much benefit right now as long as Japan's cities are in occupation, but if he conquers Japan, I need to go to war mode right after htis round of settlers in ~10 turns and be prepared to meet a Hungarian army somewhere in the desert west of Germany. 

We lead in score by a mile, but our empire score is actually even with Hungary's. These new cities will accelerate us past, though, and they will grow faster than his conquered ones. I remain confident.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

3 day hiatus as a dispirited Japan holds the save for two days.

Nothing much happens. I don't meet Hungary, as the city state's units block me. Maybe next turn.

I also grab an extra turn's worth of income by selling 4 diplomatic favor to Canada. That's 2 turns' worth of diplomatic income for me, but I think the gold is more useful. I sell another 4 to get 4 gpt from Canada, which is all he has. Japan makes 5 gpt, Germany and India 10 gpt each.

We make 56.

Anyway, this puts our next settler purchase 2 turns out, JRTI is due to finish a settler in 3 turns, BWC the turn after that, OCISLY the turn after that, and IBC the turn after that. Obviously these timelines will get kicked around as the settlers finish and increase in cost, but roughly we're looking at having 9 settlers out and settled over the next 10 turns, counting the 4 on the map already.

[Sullla]

Very impressive stuff! I didn't know this game was taking place until I spotted Chevalier's post today. It looks like you're lapping the field and I'm looking forward to seeing where things stand in a dozen turns when Poland has raced out to 10+ cities. I think that this demonstrates something that can be easy to miss around here: the skill level of everyone at Realms Beyond is insanely high compared to your average Civilization player. Chevalier and Kaiser can blow away random MP individuals who don't have the same level of knowledge. The public reporting in our forums has always been our unique advantage that helps everyone learn and improve by reading about what works and what doesn't work afterwards. Good luck and keep it up!

[Kaiser]

I am happy that you are executing the Settler strategy. I was surprised of the relative value of gold on online speed, but this game showcases this greatly.
Combined with the monster JRTI is, you are out-expanding the competition greatly.

You have to be prepared for Hungary though, did you already pick your religion?

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

I can squeeze in a quick update at lunchtime, then need to go catch up on the 24 hours of Werewolf I've missed. 

Anyway, the latest turn opens with a mildly unpleasant surprise:




Germany founded at the Me, I'm Counting site, and not only that, but bought fully 4 tiles to secure two of the Chocolate Hills and a nice campus spot! :o That's a LOT of gold to spend on tiles, and frankly, I don't think it's worth it. The Chocolate Hills tiles are only okay - like a low-grade iron tile. If they had one more food, so that they were food neutral to work, they'd be great, but as is you have to support them with farms elsewhere and they kind of hurt city growth. 

Contrast Germany's spending with mine: next turn I'm going to buy my third settler in 6 turns. What's going to be more impactful - those 4 tiles he bought, or the brand new city I'll get someplace else? 

Germany is tunnel-visioned on me and the Chocolate Hills site, instead of paying attention to the growing threat to his rear.




I go ahead and make contact with Hungary, and he's solidly second, I think, just ahead of India. Despite having a larger empire than me at this point (by 3 points!) his science is only half mine, as all of his production has gone to units rather than infrastructure. At 222 military points, he leads the pack in Domination - but that's not a lot of units. A single round of horsemen among my cities will have me firmly in the lead, which I think is next on the menu after hte settler waves. We'll dip into Maneuver, crank out as many horses as we can save up in the next couple of turns, hopefully 4? and then start eating Bandar Brunei and Cardiff before sweeping east and then south. 

Looking at Hungary's trade screen...




Either he's renaming Japanese cities as he takes them (unlikely, given his default city names) or he's burning them...or the Japanese cities don't show up on the trade screen yet due to occupation. Tough to say. If he's burning them, then that's fantastic news. All he's accomplished is removing Japan from the running without being in any way a threat to me at all. I have twice his science, twice his culture, 4 times his gold, all on a similar population, and soon, I'll have twice as many cities. 

I think the play is to set up a picket line so he can't surprise me, settle my cities, eat the city states, and then decide from there whether I roll for Domination over the map or stay peaceful. The game seems firmly in hand at this point, however. Hungary doesn't have the gold or culture to really threaten me with city-state levies, and he doesn't have the science or population to threaten me with homegrown armies. Germany and Japan are out of the running (and Germany doesn't have the excuse of a Hungarian invasion, he's just terribly backwards), and India is competitive with everyone else but has the second-smallest military and not a lot of prospects for quick expansion. If we did go Domination he'd be first on the list, to remove a backlines threat and give me a solid rear area before sweeping West. 




I pass on Euclid - I've already got Mathematics, thanks, and could get more use out of another GS. Hungary will take him this turn isntead, probably. No worries. Our own religion is 5 turns away. I need to start planning Holy Sites in my Empire elsewhere, but I'm not too stressed over it. 4 settlers out with #5 coming next turn.

[Kaiser]

Annoying, but that was the reason I had it first on my list to settle there. There are enough spots to settle though.
I think cities which are still damaged do not show in the trade screen, he might have more cities recently conquered.

The plan for conquering the CS sounds good, make sure to leave some defenders on the German border and utilize Germany as a puffer zone. If you can leave a horse or two you might be able to snipe raze a German city from Hungary.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

We settle the first of ten cities:




Also suzerained Antioch, discovered the borders of a new science state, a few natural wonders, and lost our campus in But Who's Counting to barbs. Annoying.

[Kaiser]

The other players must believe you are crazy when you settle that many cities in short succession

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Two new cities in as many turns. Each drops a CH to lock in the cost, as that is going to be my leading district for the discount. Me, I'm Counting (name moved from the lost iron site in the SW, now Berlin) will finish its own CH, since it'll only take 6 turns. It also instantly gets a trader unit that I've been holding in reserve, which gets the city off to a flying start. 

Gravitas Shortfall, settled this turn, locks in its CH, then works on a trader since it's already got the builder. 




In the northeast, it's mostly unsettled, just overrun with city-state units. It keeps the barbs down, but at top center yo ucan see that warrior STILL parked on that village. Very frustrating. I'll have two cities in the next 8 turns here, setting up my eastern border with India. I might stretch to the north, moving Look Ma! No Hands! down a tile in order to squeeze in a riverside city near the Natural Wonder. Good spot for a Holy Site and Encampment later (which perfectly suits Poland's flavor, naturally). 

Let's see...in other news, I have Crassus as my second great merchant. No one else has finished a Commercial Hub yet, although India placed one at its second city. Which three tiles I want are trickier. I'm going to pick up the deer at Me, I'm Counting, and the other two I THINK I'm going to spend on the volcanic tiles at Just Passing Through (which is what I'm renaming Just a Really Big...because I can't remember what the Really Big thing was supposed to be). Those tiles are pretty great, but are third ring, so one tile purchase second ring on founding, then Crassus teleports and instantly refunds me, grabbing the two volcanic tiles in range. Fez and Kandy kind of block any further attempts to exploit the volcano. Oh, well. 

Japan is holding on in the far west, with two horsemen and some archers visible, backed by a great general. He's only on one city, though, and is skint broke, and is very demoralized, holding the turns for more than a day each time. Hungary suzerained Antioch in the wake of Amani's departure, dumping a bunch of envoys there to get some map knowledge of his own northeast (my northwest). He has about 2.5x my military score, so in about 5 turns when the settler wave finishes I intend to FINALLY finish a civic (notice that I"ve been sandbagging civics and techs for about 10 turns now, either chasing eurekas or just not needing them yet), swap into Maneuver, and start cranking out horsemen. My stockpiles are low due to lack of Encampments, however, so a mixed Horse/Sword force will be necessary, which in turn means saving my gold. I do want one more settler purchase, though...Eh. We'll see. No need to decide yet. 

First objective is Bandar Brunei, then sweep north to Cardiff to establish the frontier. Next I shall launch a campaign to secure the religious states to my northwest, and roll around through Fez to Jerusalem. Then we can evaluate if Canada is ripe for the plucking or not. That should take about 50 turns from now and SHOULD all but end the game once everyone else sees what I have become.