Freeciv LongTurn (LT57 report)

[NobleHelium]

How does ship fuel / movement work? I just assumed ships could either move across ocean or not, like in Civ4.

[HansLemurson]

How does ship fuel / movement work?  I just assumed ships could either move across ocean or not, like in Civ4.

It's the same system that Civ2's Bombers used (or AC's needlejets): A unit has a fixed number of "fuel points" that get consumed at the beginning of each turn. Every time a unit begins its turn outside of a City or other Base, it uses up one "fuel point". If it has no more Fuel-Points left at the beginning of a turn, it is lost. If it ends its turn in a City/Base, then the Fuel-Points are restored to the maximum.

The GUI for Freeciv decided to make this more convenient, by showing that a unit with 8MP and 3 Fuel has a total of 32 Moves (8 for this turn + 8*3 for the three additional turns). Annoyingly however, the total moves it calculates turn out to be incorrect when you have things like Small-Wonders and Veterancy-Ranks granting movement bonuses (it applies the bonuses for this turns movement, but not for the future).

This is the first time we've really tested "Fuel on Ships" and so there's a lot of unexpected behaviors like this because previously only Aircraft and Missiles had fuel.

One unanticipated surprise was the issue that since damaged ships have less movement, you can win a battle at sea, and then find yourself too far from home, and thus the ship is doomed. We're exploring ways of dealing with this.

[HansLemurson]

Turn 49

Wonders:

I got the Workshop!!!

Top 5 Cities:

Vectron's Glory will be forever known to all!
...And Lübeck.  Is there really a shortage of Size 16 cities?

Demographics

Here's a number-crunching problem for you budding analysts out there:  What is the population of the 2nd Ranked Nation?


Science

Slowly accumulating Lightbulbs, while keeping funding to a minimum.  I needs me my gold! Gold for war, gold for infrastructure...I NEED MORE GOLD.
But am I losing out on something by not getting Sanitation ASAP?
Then again, I'd hate for max-growth to come at the cost of getting my land conquered.

Nations

Here's the list of nations.  Score is visible for team-mates or anybody I have an embassy with.  
The Romans have an Embassy with me.

Lemurian Sea


Sailing my veteran Caravel out of Bronn, I spy the crippled Square-Rig that sunk my boat.
Middle-clicking on it reveals good odds.  It's defense is twice my attack, but with 1HP left, how could I lose?


Oh, right.  I could become too crippled myself to move to safety or complete my journey.   
I can't risk Ste's square-rig getting a promotion against me and becoming useful, so I had to disband it to leave nothing for the enemy. 

I didn't need to attack it. 
WHAT WAS I THINKING???  
It was going to run out of fuel on its own!
I was hoping that I'd lose about 2HP and gain a vet2 Rank for that ship.  I did get the promotion, but at the cost of 8HP.
My plan wasn't technically that wrong.  According to a combat simulator, I had an over 50% chance of walking away with at least 80% health.  
This result was in the worst 5% of bad outcomes.

But since what I need most is Transport Capacity, I never should have taken the risk.  
That's 2 Caravels and 3 Workers lost to being overly aggressive with my ships.
I think I should try to be good rather than lucky.

Roman Visit


The Romans visited to drop off a Diplomat to make an Embassy with me.
I nearly pissed myself given how defenseless Osilia is.
Fortunately, Diplomats can only Investigate and Make Embassies from a boat.  
I'm safe for now, but Osilia has been scouted and found empty.

Events


Here are the events that happened so far in the turn.  Roman Embassy at the bottom.


Domestic Policy


I got money to BURN this turn!!!
Kiel builds a "Just in time" aqueduct.
Lubeck builds a Migrant, and will immediately regrow its population due to large food stores.
Mount Vectron gets a Courthouse.  Why?  Because Even the Capital has some base level of corruption, and it's so wealthy that it actually adds up.  
(Courthouses also give +1 Content population, which will make it easier to celebrate in the future.)
Bronswiek got its Market rushed.  Gaining it a turn sooner earns me +8 Gold, which gives a nice offset to the 30g I paid.  Using 22g to buy 15 Production is a bargain!
Hannober has a forest underneath it now.  You can convert Plains to Grassland via the labor-intensive route of Plains->Forest->Swamp->Grassland.  It's slightly less labor intensive if you do it in a city-center since you don't need to rebuild the irrigation.
Food is more valuable than Production, and I want to have as many cities as possible capable of getting +10 Food/turn in order to maximize their population growth.
Estland is going to finally get the infrastructure it needs to grow.  It's been a bit neglected, but soon will become a proper bustling port city.


Military Updates

YKnot strikes back!
In the north, YKnot is able to use a veteran Swordsman he built to destroy a stack of units that Ste had left sitting next to Bronn.  Sure they were on a river+forest, but 4 attack is a lot more than 2 Defense.  Even with the defense bonuses, there was still a 72% chance of victory, and those are no-brainer odds.  The Sword also got to stay in the city and will be healed soon, ready to punish anybody else who dares threaten the city.
However, the fortress on the other side of the river is still inching along towards completion.

My naval tactics must have been a great inspiration to Ste, since he decided to attack a Square-Rig Caravel with a NORMAL CARAVEL that (probably)had soldiers on board!  
That's 1 Att vs 2 Def, and the chance of victory is...low.
YKnot's ship even got a promotion out of it!

In the public discord chat...


Team chat:

The Server often gives more information than the Clients UIs are set up to use.  Some people have made custom clients, or Lua scripts to run on the clients to interpret the information better.

[civac2]

Is size 16 some kind of natural barrier to growth?

[HansLemurson]

Is size 16 some kind of natural barrier to growth?

Yup!
A city cannot grow beyond Size 8 without an Aqueduct. (Unlocked by Construction)
A city cannot grow beyond Size 16 without a Sewer System. (Unlocked by Sanitation)

To get Sanitation, I will need to research Philosophy and Medicine first.  I want it soon, but I can't ignore military necessities.

With a Sewer System, there is no upper-bound on the size of a city besides its own food supply. Whoever gets it first will have a head-start on the population race.

[HansLemurson]

Turn 50 The big Five-Oh.  This game is over the hill now!

Top 5 Cities:

Maybe it ranks cities by wealth?  Because Daaaaamn!  This trio re-appearing on the list ain't no coincidence.
Having a Wonder also seems to offset losing a population.

Demographics

Minimal research, but lots of Wealth.  Our team also has 3rd place.
Still worried about the implications of production though.  I'm not exactly neglecting it, and yet I'm middle of the pack.
I wonder what price is being paid by those maxing out production.


Science
Forgot a pic, but I'm still going after Feudalism.  It's really cheap now, just 98 bulbs.  I'll get it next turn.
Actually...*rummages around a bit* cgalik posted a picture of what my nation's intel looks like from his "Nations" screen:

How convenient.
In the Intel window, you can see a basic overview of what that Civ is up to.
I'm a Burgomaster!
In other tabs of the window (not shown here) it lists technologies they have, and marks things they have that you don't, and vice-versa.
The information is up-to-date, you can actually see when and whether another nation has spent its treasury.
If you imagine that this brings up a whole 'nother dimension of shennanigans and counter-intelligence, you'd be right.  I'm not sure if I want to play that game though.

You only get this level of info on nations that you have an Embassy with.  
Since Chill (of the Romans) has an Embassy with me, he has about this much info about my nation.

Upgrades!

Varochiio 
Verrocci's
*ahem*
Vectron's Workshop has produced its first free upgrade!  
It upgraded a...Tribal worker to a Worker.  Oh, ok.  A bit anticlimactic.  It'll work a little faster, I guess.  
Good thing it wasn't on the front-lines and depending on its un-capturability...


Speaking of capturing...

I got raided!


Let's see what happened...

Enemy units are (mostly) highlighted in the blue brackets.  Team-mates can mark the map for each other to talk about specific locations and units.
Cities get bracketed in green, locations in red, and units in bright blue, when marked by a team-mate.  ctrl+alt+rightclick marks a position.

That's a sizeable force.  3 ships.  But only two stacks of units...

edit: it has come to my attention that these pictures are very dense with information and can be hard to parse.  
I didn't have time to mark up the image, so I'll summarize the forces.
Enemy forces:
Ships:
-2 Caravels, both veterans. 1 empty, 1 with at least one unit still on board.
-1 Square-Rigged Caravel, no combat ranks.  Carrying 1 unit.
Armies:
-2 vet Archers next to Danzig.
-1 vet Phalanx on a hill (not marked with brackets) north of Danzig diagonal to river mouth.
-1 Catapult, being guarded on the same tile by the Phalanx.

I've got barely any defense on the island, nearly all my cities are empty.
...Except for the cohort of well-trained shock-troops I just sailed into port earlier this turn.  
My Forces: 
-1 Caravel in Danzig, carrying 3 units.
-2 vet Swordsmen
-1 vet Elephant
(The elephant is my "currently selected" unit and so appears on the city of Danzig.  
The L on it is because it's still technically "loaded" on the ship.  If the ship left port, the elephant would go with it.  
The other units are visible because it always shows a list of other units on the same tile when you  have one selected.)

I wasn't expecting company, and frankly, if Ste had landed one turn earlier and I would have been screwed.  
But it's not one turn earlier. 

Here is some banter from the in-game chat:

(T50 - 07:37:09) <Hans_Lemurson> Looks like I have company.  Welcome to the island of Lemuria, Ste!
(T50 - 07:37:39) <Hans_Lemurson> I see you have already taken one of my citizens aboard as part of our cultural exchange program.
(T50 - 07:37:48) <Ste> Oh, you noticed? Damn. I told them to be quiet and don't disturb the host.
(T50 - 07:45:37) <Hans_Lemurson> Just remember, my cities are all very fearsome, very dangerous, and not defended entirely by workers cowering in a hole while I try to rush-buy city walls.
(T50 - 07:48:26) <Ste> Oh right. Well my army is very well assembled and definitely not a starving bunch of ratbags on a hasty suicide mission.

The elephant is my weakest attacker (3 Atk, compared to a Sword's 4).  
I should attack with it first, then use my Swords for the tougher target of the Phalanx on the Hill.
But first...

(T50 - 07:52:32) <Hans_Lemurson> It looks like some of your guests are a little shy.  Could you bring them all onshore?  Preferably all in one nice stack?
(T50 - 07:53:50) <Ste> Nope
(T50 - 07:54:13) <Hans_Lemurson> I want to show them a magic trick

(T50 - 07:56:29) <Hans_Lemurson> watch your army...disappear!
(T50 - 07:57:26) <Ste> Nice work. Didn't expect elephant there
(T50 - 07:57:51) <Hans_Lemurson> To be honest, I didn't think I was going to need it so soon.
(T50 - 07:58:11) <Hans_Lemurson> Ready for the second act?
(T50 - 07:58:20) <Ste> yes
(T50 - 07:58:46) <Hans_Lemurson> This one's a little trickier.  Our volunteers appear to be on a hill.

(T50 - 07:59:56) <Ste> Well played
(T50 - 08:00:45) <Hans_Lemurson> Landing troops is really damn hard in this game.
(T50 - 08:03:15) <Ste> Undefended cities and 2 attackers in one place - that's gold. You should be proud.
(T50 - 08:03:40) <Hans_Lemurson> Operation - Honeypot
(T50 - 08:04:36) <Hans_Lemurson> Honestly, it's why we need amphibious units in an earlier era.
(T50 - 08:07:06) <Hans_Lemurson> empty yet untouchable cities is just a bit weird

Combat report

2 Archers 1 Phalanx, and 1 Catapult destroyed.

Operation: Honeypot was actually cgalik's idea.
He told me I should leave a bunch of cities empty to tempt the enemy into landing, then destroy them.
I told him he was smoking crazy-stuff, since the key requirement is that I actually have forces capably of crushing a landing (which I most certainly did not).
I Rushed paper-thin defenses on Osilia to discourage landings there while I prepared to bring new forces from home to the front lines.  
On newly built ships of course, because something happened to my transport fleet...

So here I am, with a boatload of reinforcements hoping to stealthily ship them to Osilia when suddenly an invasion lands in my lap.
So, accidentally, I did actually create the honeypot.  Through a combination of negligence and fortune.

Now, I think Ste was probably being honest about the "starving bunch of ratbags on a hasty suicide mission".  There have been numerous miscalculations with fuel this game, and I think he realized too late he might not be able to get some of these ships home.  Or maybe the sight of empty cities was just too tempting.

But here's the important point:  The enemy is now convinced this was all part of an elaborate trap, and will be much more cautious before attacking me again.   
My paper-thin defenses have now been reinforced with bluffing and intimidation!  

(now to be fair, I think everybody's defenses are paper thin.  Island games do that to people)

Pirates sighted

My caravel that sailed through the Aramean straits was able to refuel in Zubr, and take on some passengers that it will take on a journey to Sardinia
While leaving port though, my heart skipped a beat as I saw a warship from kevin551's Pirates!

I sailed as far away from it as possible while still being able to sail to kamBLR's city in Sardinia in a single turn.


I gave the ship a Goto order with just over 10 hours left on the clock.  It should be able to slip into Nightcap's harbor at the next Turn Change.
Units cannot move twice within 10 hours on two subsequent turns.  
Goto orders given to a unit that has moved 9 hours before TC will be cancelled when the unit tries to move before its timer is up.
A lot of maneuvers in this game do sadly depend on clock exploitation.  That's why it's a 23 hour clock, so no one time-zone is permanently favored by critical times being at more convenient hours.

You can also see a nice view of some of kamBLR's lands here.  He's not doing bad, but didn't max-out his growth to the same extent that me and the Irish did.  Still, he's in 3rd/4th place in Econ.

Eastern Islands


Here's the eastern islands of our team, all now visited by the enemy.
I rush-bought a Catapult in Stettin and a Diplomat in Deventer in hopes of doing some evil things after TC.
Catapults can attack units in "non-native tiles" you see, and there are some ships right next to shore...
If Ste doesn't move them immediately after TC, I can cause some merry mayhem.
My plan is to bribe the empty Caravel for ~136 gold.  It's a bit pricey for buying a ship, but if you consider that the enemy loses it too, then it's worthwhile attritionally.
The still-laden Square-Rig or Caravel are targets for the catapult.  I've given the Sword a Goto order to occupy the hill to give backup to the catapult.  
Would hate to have it captured in my moment of triumph.

These cost me a fair bit of gold, and I had to lose half the production in the city's Temple projects, but what's the price of security?

On Osilia, I have a Chariot slowly being built that can be rushed to completion at a moment's notice.

Main Islands


Estland and Wismer get their "just in time" Aqueducts.  Wismer got its population boosted by a Migrant so that it could get up to speed faster.  
Good thing I have lots of gold to make things happen.
Hamborg gets its market rushed a turn early too, so extra gold next turn.
Lubeck will build a Caravel next turn which will help with my naval shortages.

Other cities with Barracks are going to store up production in units, since I'm going to get Feudalism soon.  I plan on building a bunch of cheap Warriors which will then get upgraded for free by V's Workshop.
I also need to build my Leonardo's Workshop to make full use of this.  A Warrior being upgraded to a Pikeman saves me 15 production.  (I hope the extra maintenance costs of this many extra units won't cancel out the benefits.)

I would have bought more buildings, but I needed my gold for the War.

However, I noticed that with Lubeck and Mount Vectron now being sizeable cities with most of their infrastructure built, that they would probably be able to Celebrate like Vectron's Glory is.
I bumped my Luxury spending to 40%, which will cost me about 40 gold, and with a little bit of tweaking to maximize Trade output, both cities reported being "Happy"

Party Prep

A city will CELEBRATE if at least half the population is Happy, and nobody is unhappy.  
Achieving 8 happy people in a Size 16 city requires 26 luxuries.
When a city has enough luxuries to begin celebrating the next turn, then it shows a status of "Happy" next to the Name and "Population" stat at the top.

A city in celebration will produce +1 Trade from every tile that makes any trade.  Not just the +1 on Land Tiles that Republic gives.  (Republic's Trade-bonus was nerfed to being a land-only bonus to avoid becoming overpowered)
This means that a city in Celebration can often easily pay for the extra luxuries required to maintain it's happiness.
Interestingly, it also means that once a city starts celebrating, it often has enough Luxuries to continue even if you increase the Tax-Rate.  
There's a hysteresis effect.  You can raise the Luxury spending to "ignite" celebrations in your wealthiest cities, which will then keep on going after you cut spending again.
It's one of the trickier things to manage in the game, and isn't apparent at all to newcomers.  It is of course, yet another feature straight out of Civ2.  But one of the more interesting ones that's not entirely bad.

[HansLemurson]

Turn 51

Top 5 Cities:

2 Irish cities now?  I think it must be biased towards recent growth.

Demographics

Look at that Economy!  That's what celebration will do for you.
I'm still max-taxing, and I think I will for a while.  I need to make sure my cities are strong.


Catapult!!!

This was my first move of the turn.
Only one ship remained next to the coast, so I sunk that one.
The Caravel that had been sitting next to Danzig vanished right after TC, so I think it ran out of fuel.  
I'll have to think of something else to do with the Diplomat I rushed.
Catapults don't get veterancy bonuses from Barracks, so getting a promotion from combat is very nice!

Science
Forgot a screenshot again.
But suffice it to say, that I'll get Feudalism next turn.

Celebration

Here you can see Lubeck now in celebration.  Because of its extra Trade, I can sustain its celebration at 30% Luxury funding.
The happiness window shows the full breakdown of what contributes to happiness.  Only the top 3 rows really matter here.
I get 3 content citizens for free with my city-count.  If I only had 14 cities, I'd get 4 content, but I can't say no to a sprawling empire.
Luxuries are next.  2 luxuries will turn a content citizen happy, or make an unhappy citizen content.  
Since luxuries are applied before buildings like Temples, it means that you have to spend 4 luxuries to make each new Happy citizen.  2Lux for angry->content, 2Lux more for content -> happy.
The first 3 content citizens though can become happy for cheap.
For a size 16 city to celebrate, it needs to have at least 8 happy citizens.  6 Luxuries will turn the first 3 happy, and then 20 more will happify the next 5.
Lubeck produces 28 Luxuries, so ends up making an extra citizen content.
After that, it's up to the city's amenity buildings to turn the remaining unhappy people content.
Hanging Gardens gives all cities +1
Temple gives +4
Amphitheater gives +3
Courthouse gives +1
9 content-making is more than enough for 7 unhappy people.

And thus, Lubeck can celebrate.  The luxury spending is made up for by the bonus trade, and when boosted by a market...it's quite nice.

Czech Front

The Czechs founded a new city next to Bronn, and the Fortress across the river has been completed.
Osilia looks safe for now.  No empty cities to tempt landings.
Worker is building roads through swamp and forest, opening up the whole island to quick access.


Homelands

Look at that X next to Wismer!  That means it's unable to grow.  I forgot to actually buy its aqueduct last turn.  And after all that meticulous planning...
Well, I bought it now, and it's working high-production tiles with minimal food so as to not waste its effort on food surplus that will gain nothing.
Estland will get my very first harbor!  It needs it, since it has so little land, and once I have it, the Whales will be as awesome as Bonus-Grassland, and it will be able to maintain +10 food without squeezing good land from its neighbors.
I also forgot to buy a Granary in Riga soon enough, and so it grew without retaining half its food.
Riga was a nice city location, but it's going to have to be eclipsed by its neighbors.
Lubeck, Mount Vectron, Meideborg and Vectron's Glory are all building Warriors on the last turn before I get Feudalism.  I'll hold onto them and hope they get free upgrades to Pikemen.

I'm at 70% taxes now, so I'll have EVEN MORE MONEY to spend next turn.  
The only thing I have to fear right now is a major invasion on Osilia.

[HansLemurson]

Turn 52

Top 5 Cities:

4/5 of the top cities are from our team.

Demographics

I'm in a growth-race with the Irish in both Population and Econ (which end up being basically the same thing)
The total number of tiles worked is Population + Cities.  
That means I'm generating an average of 454/(190+26) = 2.1 Trade and 166/(216) = 0.77 Production per citizen.
This is an average of course.  Many cities are inefficient due to corruption, and others are super-profitable.


Science

I think I'm going to go for Philosophy next, to get on the road to Sanitation.
I've marked the costs of each technology, and a red dot to indicate how many enemy nations have that tech.
Our team has a big spreadsheet on google docs that we all contribute our intel to.  
Since the cost of a tech goes down proportional to how many nations know it, we can judge when the enemy has gotten a tech, because the cost went down, and it wasn't our doing.
Banking Nobody has this yet.  I've thought about getting it, but I think I'd want sanitation first.  Banks are the successors to Marketplaces.  They've been nerfed to +30% gold and Lux, since it proved too much of a "one right choice" when nations are building up their infra.  Their effect was split into a second building, the "Mercantile Exchange" so that all the benefits don't come too soon.

Philosophy Important tech as a prerequisite, but not much else.  Except for the fact that the first nation to get it gets a free tech.  That's useful.  Somebody rushed for it many turns ago, and probably got disappointed by getting a cheap low-level tech for free.  2 enemies have it now, and the main reason for getting it as far as I can see is because it's on the path to Sanitation.  I may not be the first to get a Sewer System.
Gunpowder Extremely important military tech!  I could grab it in 4 turns if I went full science, but I'm not sure I want to.  I have a lot of stuff to buy.  Musketeers are potent defenders, and it leads to many other valuable techs.  It's a big landmark tech.  Once you have Gunpowder, you're in the mid-game.

Monotheism gives you Crusaders and Cathedrals.  Crusaders act as a tough heavy cavalry.  They are supposed to be available only to Fundamentalist governments, but there's a bug in the LT57 ruleset that will let everybody build them.
Not sure I'd prefer them to Knights, though.

Physics An "empty tech" inherited from Civ2.  Who thought techs that give you nothing was a good idea?  Oh well, it's important because it leads to Navigation, which grants you access to the mighty and fearsome Frigate.  
Frigates are the first ship which can attack land units, and so make navies suddenly a force to be reckoned with.  It's especially important on an Island map, since you can strike from a long distance and clear out defenders from your landing zone, and possibly even take cities without resistance.  City Walls don't help you against Frigates, but Coastal Forts do.  Gunpowder gives you Coastal Forts.  Frigates are a mortal danger to any Civ without gunpowder.  Pikemen just don't cut it.
Frigates have 4 Attack, but 20HP (a stupid design scheme inherited from Civ2), which is roughly equivalent to 8 Attack with 10HP.  The moment a Frigate enters the water, every thing from the previous era goes obsolete.

Gosh, if I just hyped them up so much, why am I not rushing for this? 

Chivalry This is the military tech that everybody is gunning for right now.  Knights are very strong attackers, with 6 attack strength.  On an Islands game though, this makes them defensive units.  A small corps of knights on an island can inflict nasty losses on any landings.  2 Enemies already have this.

...
Upgrades

The Workshop finally does something useful!  It upgraded a Horseman to a Chariot.
Interestingly, this caused a bit of trouble.

Chariot on a Caravel

Caravels can't actually carry Chariots.  They are in the "Big Wheeled" class, which contains Chariots and...Tanks?
But since the unit was already loaded into the Caravel, it remained so after being upgraded.  I took it for a test sail, and the chariot stayed on board.
The workshop upgrade code is supposed to have checks in place prevent the upgrading of units that would create such invalid cases.  
But it's such a weird edge case for a specific rule in this ruleset...
Chariots were made wheeled to nerf them a bit.  They can't go into rough ground without roads, so can only use their powerful attack on the open plains.
Or forests and hills with roads.

Loading up...

A new batch of units loads into a ship bound for the colonies.
My caravel peeked its nose into Riga's Bay in order for the Sword and Warrior to hop on board.  The Horse needed no such help.

Iceland


I checked in on Iceland to see how Zoe was doing.  The Indians have been sailing caravels around Icelandic shores, threatening workers.  Zoe has so far kept her workers safe, but doesn't like being scouted.  She doesn't have a navy yet to do anything about this.
The Indian Caravels i question are bracketed in Blue:
#1 between her Main Island (Iceland) and her Extra Island (Greenland) near the city of Laki.
#2 near Hengill and Langjokull.  This one was new, and I marked it for my team.  I alerted the team in the discord channel for this front.

Irish Coastguard

Louis94, regent for the Irish had just built his first warship, and was happy to try it out on an easy target.
Caravel #1 was sent to the bottom, and the Irish warship became level 2.
I snapped a pic in the middle of the battle, as the animation was playing and the HP was disappearing.

Hansa


Since I only just researched Feudalism, Warriors have not all been purged from my build-lists.  I'm going to see if I can build a few more, just for fun.
Bremen and Duorpm will complete their buildings using their own production power.  These Courthouse and Aqueduct weren't rushed at all!  They've made good use of the Buffalo and Hills nearby.
Hameln got its harbor rushed, and Spice Harbor got a Granary.  Hameln will be able to pull in a steady +10 Food, and will have plenty of free water to work to rake in the cash.  Spice Harbor will follow a similar plan...but later.
Hamborg's Courthouse will gain me some food, production, and synergize with its pre-existing marketplace.  It may soon be another candidate for Celebrations.  We'll see.

I'm running out of useful things for my Workers to be doing, so they're going about seeing if there are any Plains tiles they can turn into Grassland without mucking up the cities plans.  Hannober is now on Grassland.

Lemuria

Danzig FINALLY gets it courthouse.  It's been needing that thing for ages.  
It will grow to Size 5 without a Granary or a Temple, but the Courthouse will give +1 contentment, and give it enough Trade to have a little bit of Luxuries, and the lack of a granary only costs 12 food.  Stifling the growth just seemed wrong.

It doesn't seem that long ago that I shipped all these workers over, but the island looks like it's almost developed now.
The island is peaceful now that the Czechs have left.  I don't think they'll be back any time soon.


Osilia

Bargen gets a Barracks to make use of the production it's gaining from the Iron mountain.
The rest of the cities slowly add production to unit-builds, gradually lowering the rush-buy cost in case I need them on short notice.
I'll invest gold here for growth once I'm done with my actually profitable islands.
The worker guarded by a warrior extends its road to the end of the peninsula where the Fur is.  It will also build a Mine there, because you can't do anything else with Tundra.

Bronn

To the west of Osilia, the Czechs continue to be up to no good.  The fortress UU of Bronn is now garrisoned by 2 Pikemen.  It ain't gonna fall.
Ste has also moved some warriors out.  Who knows what for?  My guess is that he wants to send workers there to build roads.
1U of the fort, a Warrior also sits on a mountain, with a Horseman to keep it company.  What are they for?  Not sure about that either.


Land Ho!

I did some scouting with the Caravel.  5 moves out of Nightcap, took a picture, and then 5 moves back inside.
I'm sure I alerted the sentries at the mouth of the river on the new island.  The fact that there are shallow-water connections here makes the rivers a big vulnerability to the other team.
The new island is number [24], and I think I will name it "Providence".

Raw Map


This is the raw map-image that the Freeciv client is willing to provide.  
You can see how the isometric geometry is rendered by just cutting off the 4 corners of a regular 2D array.
It's not as nice as the enlarged mini-maps I've produced, but I thought you guys might like to see it.  
I've been saving a map image for nearly every turn now.  They'll make a nice animation to cycle through to see progress in the world.

[HansLemurson]

Turn 53

Top 5 Cities:

The Inca and Aleut cities show their face again.

Demographics

Grew 11 population in a single turn!  Just edged me over the 200 pop marker, and into 1st place.
Got first in Econ again.
Irish are second-place.
Badians are 3rd place.

The whole enemy team seems to be in Monarchy, while we have many Republics.
We are very worried about the unit counts.  I have 52 military units, one of the highest on my team, and yet I am only 5th place.
Monarchy gives good military upkeep, so we are afraid they are massing up a giant military to do some evil to us with.


Science

Inching along through philosophy on the way to Sanitation.

Upgrades

The workshop did something useful!  This upgrade happened in Hamborg.


Scores

Jwrober has embassies with two enemy nations now (Aleut and Arameans), so we can see their scores and get an idea of relative strength.
I'm not 100% sure what goes into your "score".  Population, wonders, buildings, techs...and maybe some other stuff.  I think.
It may not be precisely proportional to your real strength on the map, but better scores do correlate with better nations.


Scouting Sardinia

On the distant island of Sardinia (forgot a minimap, just look for some half-purple islands in another screenshot), I sailed my boat out southwards, to see the rest of the island, snapped a quick picture, and then ran back home.
Island has been fully mapped.
kamBLR is building a road through one of the forests next to Nightcap so that units can venture forth from the city.  (His worker is guarded by a Pikeman)
This may allow us to attack the units guarding the river mouth in the future.  We'll see.

The Pirates meanwhile continue to cautiously develop the island.  No lone workers next to the water.


Homelands


Estland and Duorpm got markets rushed.  They will earn me an extra 20g/turn, and even more as the cities grow.
Riga gets a Harbor to make full use of its whales so it can grow faster.
Vectron's Glory, Mount Vectron, and Lübeck are all nearing maximum food, so in order to not let their unavoidable surplus go to waste, I'm building Migrants there to transfer population to other cities.
They'll regrow instantly, so it won't cost me any population.  Hannober and Riga will be the targets for pop-boosting.
Ossenbruge is also nearing completion of an actually useful warship.  A Square-Rig that's a veteran this time, and could actually maybe sink something.

I have a lot of cities that are on a 2-turn growth cycle, and which all grew last turn.  My population will increase a bit for Turn 54, but will explode again on Turn 55.


Lemuria

Development continues on Lemuria.
Rostock will get its Granary in time to not waste food on growth.
The other cities will wait their turn.
The Breton ship on the left of the image is keeping an eye out on the seas while also being exactly 1 turn's movement from the city of Bronn.
My ship on the right just dropped off some Slovakian Horsemen on Lemuria.  These can be a backup defense force in case of invasion.  
My ship is sailing toward the Arctic to pick on the Slovakian Settler that got lost there.


Bronn and Osilia

Bronn:
The lone Czech warriors next to Bronn are actually doing mischief: they are preventing Bronn from using those valuable tiles.
Ste is also bringing a Settler out (UUUR from Bronn) to probably found a city UR of its current position.

Osilia:
I shipped in two more workers and a Swordsman to help reinforce Osilia.  
The sword is hiding in Bargen.  
One worker is building a road into the Iron mountain.
The other is building a road to Revel (guarded by a sentried worker)
The last worker (already present) is also building a road, but on the furs.  
These guys should be able to make Osilia a nicer place to live.
Once I get courthouses built on the island, I may even be able to earn some money from it too!

Cash 4 Knights

Cgalik wants cash.  He just got Chivalry, and has an idea of some damage he could do with some knights.  But he needs extra cash to upgrade them.

The situation:

Cgalik has several horsemen on Castaway island, and he thinks that the units a locations 1 and 2 look vulnerable to a knight-strike.
1: Pikeman (fortified) + Veteran Horse.
2: Pikeman + Worker

Neither of these pikes are veteran, but Cgalik's knights will be.
A v2 Knight will have an attack of 6*1.75 = 10.5
A Pike fortified on a river-hill has a defense of 3*1.5*1.5*1.25 = 8.4
Narrow advantage to the Knight.

A v1 Knight will have an attack of 6*1.5 = 9
A Pike on a mountain has a defense of 3*2 = 6

The attack occurred without me there to document it.  

Aftermath

Total Victory!
This is the plan of attack as best I can reconstruct.
He used Triremes to sail the knights up the river so that they would be able to be shipped home if they were too damaged to move.
Apparently the weaker Knight (A) attacked the Hill(1), and the v2 Knight (B) attacked the Mountain(2)

Both knights won and were promoted.  
In his haste though, he shuffled his ships wrong, and spent the moves of a ship that was supposed to head home to refuel.

[civac2]

The triremes can run out of fuel on river tiles? That seems wrong.

You buy courthouses in your island cities to make them productive?