T171-172
Naufragar declared war on me, and then offered a ceasefire, which I accepted.
Am I pissing Cairo off? Probably. But I really don't see how Cairo and I can co-exist long-term anyway, and I have some plans brewing in that regard. The war, I think, was for scouting? I 'm not 100% sure.
Cairo and Nauf fought a decently-sized battle, which Cairo apparently won.
His stack is Enormous. I'm not sure Nauf can really hold it, but I'm also not sure that Cairo can make a quick conquest here. I don't think I can rush to Nauf's aid after my diplo with Cairo, even though it's probably the correct play. That would feel too scummy. I guess I'll join the war (against Nauf) after a couple more turns, when I can switch civics and start cranking units out again.
Here's my domestic advisor.
I'm basically eking out whatever infrastructure I can while still getting OrgRel hammers (doubly-so in a GA). At the end of this GA I need to switch into Theocracy, because I'm also switching into Nationhood. It's sad (I Organised Religion ), but it's necessary. I'm actually pre-building units in some cities, waiting a few turns to finish them for the EXP. Maybe that's way too greedy, now that I type it out... It turns out harbours are pretty good with Circumnav, Castles and ICTR, but only in the cities that get worse trade routes (3-4 commerce routes, but not 5-6 because of the multiplying mechanic). They're around 5-6 commerce each in those cities, which is great for 80 non-obsoleting hammers! Maybe they'll functionally obsolete if people close borders with me, but I'm far from a runaway, so I don't think that's likely. Speaking of runaways, Charriu declared war on Miguelito/Rusten. Maybe he and Mjmd can cobble a defense together, although I'm not super convinced. Still really hoping Civac will join in from the other side.
As a final side note, I really like these city names. I haven't done as much with the theme as I'd have liked reporting-wise, but the names are just... nice. Pleased with how it turned out.
Is it possible that the Cairo/Nauf war is an elaborate decoy? Are Cairo and Nauf about to do the exact same thing that Pindicator/Nauf did to me 50 turns ago? Should I start panicking? Converting into Nationhood/Theocracy in two turns, will be drafting up a storm for a least a little while following that. Pretty sure it should arrive in time to stop anything Cairo is planning. Once I do get Nationhood, I feel pretty safe until one of us gets rifles, since it'll be Janissaries against Oromos, and no one wins that war. The plan is still to join in vs. Nauf once Cairo moves his stack forwards again. Hopefully it's all irrelevant and this is just a defensive retaliation stack. But I'm going to kick myself so unbelievably hard if this is some kind of revenge naval attack for not joining the war earlier...
The worst part would be that I kind of deserve it.
Even if Cairo does attack me, I'm not dead. He could raze a couple cities, but then I would raze some back. It's just scary seeing a galleon stack come out of nowhere like that.
So it's no secret that I've been burnt out recently. One game at a time is really the way that Pitboss was intended to be played, in my opinion, and I'll be extremely wary of signing up for more than that in the future. Two lategame turns per day is way too much, let alone the period where I was playing three(!). I had been playing on largely autopilot for the last 10 turns, because that was really all I had the time and energy for. That's most obvious in my haphazard tech choices (Astro on T165??? Music on T150 without Military Tradition on T175???), as well as building nearly entirely infrastructure while Cairo was building up a formidable power lead. It seems he planned to attack Naufragar instead of me, but that was a pretty poor 'choice' on my part. Luckily, it's all worked out ok so far. Now that PB60 is over, I don't really have any more time than before (I'm in my final semester of my degree, so work is really ramping up there). But what I do have, FAR more than I did before, is energy and joy for these turns. I've been attacking them with a renewed vigour recently, and I'm really enjoying it. I'm doing actual city micro! I'm planning ahead! Civ is fun again!
But the main reason I post is to say that for T175, I plan to have the same format as I did for T150. That being three posts:
1. State of the Empire
2. Around the World
3. Future Plans
I really like this format, since it forces me to actually think ahead, assess my own strengths and weaknesses, while the 2nd part is mostly just fun to think about. It's nice to remind myself that this is a big PB, and my island is just a small section of it. It sure feels like the epicentre of the world here sometimes. I might have to type these up piecemeal over a few days, but they'll come. Here's a preview of the first part: I'm looking a lot better than I'd been expecting last time. I'm starting to think I might have a real shot at this.
Edit: Also, today there was a magnitude 6 earthquake here, bad enough to feel intense without damaging too much (although now I'm reading some reports about damage in the city). It's the first time I've ever felt an earthquake, we aren't on any tectonic plate lines. Actually, I'm not sure what caused it. Was pretty spooky, I'd hate to deal with them regularly like Californians or New Zealanders. Or maybe you get used to them.
(September 21st, 2021, 20:47)Amicalola Wrote: So it's no secret that I've been burnt out recently. One game at a time is really the way that Pitboss was intended to be played, in my opinion, and I'll be extremely wary of signing up for more than that in the future.
I hear this. And then if you're like me you'll sign up for that one game and then 2 months into it you'll be thinking "man, we're only just starting the classical era and that late game civ itch still isn't being scratched.... oh I can sign up for another game!" I think you know where this goes from here.
Hope everything is good from the earthquake. I live in a part of the world where we don't really get them, but they keep telling us when one does come here it's among the worst in the world (Pacific Northwest of the U.S.).
(September 21st, 2021, 20:47)Amicalola Wrote: So it's no secret that I've been burnt out recently. One game at a time is really the way that Pitboss was intended to be played, in my opinion, and I'll be extremely wary of signing up for more than that in the future.
I hear this. And then if you're like me you'll sign up for that one game and then 2 months into it you'll be thinking "man, we're only just starting the classical era and that late game civ itch still isn't being scratched.... oh I can sign up for another game!" I think you know where this goes from here.
Hope everything is good from the earthquake. I live in a part of the world where we don't really get them, but they keep telling us when one does come here it's among the worst in the world (Pacific Northwest of the U.S.).
You know, that's... exactly what happened. Nice to know I'm not alone there.
Thanks. All ok here, just a fright and a new experience, I guess. We got lucky with that it wasn't any higher on the scale. Made me think about how different life is in other parts of the world, in strange ways.
Here are the graphs from our continent. I'll refer to these a bit throughout the report.
GNP
MFG
Food
Power
The Core
Most cities have built harbours in the GA, and many of the stronger ones whipped banks the turn beforehand (8 total). Some cities have built custom houses too - they're so much better than I expected. For example, in Unravel, the custom house was worth 12 raw commerce. Trade routes are worth 60 commerce, or more than half of Unravel's total. The ratio will be even more skewed out of the Golden Age. This is the only part of my land with cottages, because I wasn't sure they'd be worth it in the south, and I wanted to experiment. It also has the best trade routes, so almost all the multiplier buildings are here.
Pindicator's Land
Has changed a lot. During the GA, I converted to Serfdom, and all of these watermills and windmills were 2/3/2 tiles. These cities were actually significantly better than the core over the last 8 turns, and they've had me thinking about my future civics quite a bit. Notable cities include Constellation (Globe Draft Hub, Pindicator ex-Capital), Thunderbolt(growing but huge hammer potential) and Mouth Mantra (leaning future Ironworks). I do wonder if I'd have been better served by making Constellation a GPP-hub, instead of a Globe/Draft city, but it's too late for that now. Overall, the cities have been building the basic infrastructure that was already present in the core. That means Granary, Lighthouse, Forge, Courthouse, Harbour, Library, Barracks, generally in that order. I couldn't believe this either, but with GLH, Circumnavigation, and Free Market, harbours are significantly better than libraries in small cities - this map creates some wonky trade routes.
Astro Island
New addition! Serfdom was helpful here, it's made all my early improvements time perfectly with city growth. It turns out that with Serfdom up, one worker per city is enough, even when having to hack jungle. The cities have zero buildings yet, and will be whipping granaries/lighthouses ASAP, and then all the other basic cheap infra (Forge, Courthouse, Library, Harbour(?), Barracks). I said this months ago, but something PB58 really taught me is that Roosevelt is near-unparalleled at midgame city growth. Half-price Lighthouse, Forge, Courthouse is insane for getting those cities productive quickly. Of course, the tradeoff is the relative difficulty in settling/capturing cities at all, but I digress.
In general, compared to the last overview on T150, things look better. Much better. It's the final Golden Age turn, so it's cheating, but these are the current demos:
I converted into the 'safety civics' (Bureaucracy->Nationhood, Serfdom->Slavery, Organized Religion->Theocracy) this turn, so at least it's less cheating than last turn would have been. And it's quite clear from these numbers that I'm actually competitive! First in food is particularly exciting, because it wasn't long ago that I was (incorrectly) lamenting an inability to catch the leaders. It's only for this turn, since I'll whip a lot next turn and start drafting, but that was very heartening. I don't think MFG will be too bad afterwards either, although GNP I'm more nervous about. I guess we'll just have to wait and see next turn for both.
Power is also a concern, given that 1st is Mr. Cairo, who's busy rampaging around with drafted janissaries. Those must be unbelievably frustrating to fight against when behind in tech. Poor Naufragar - even a trireme-whacker doesn't deserve this fate.
That's maybe half of Cairo's army. I'm not sure that reasonable levels of drafting will ever catch me back up to Cairo, but I hope it can at least put me back within 'safe' distance. It helps also that I got a headstart in frigate production, thanks to Cairo inexplicably ignoring Chemistry, even as Naufragar ravages the Ottoman coast. While it's fantastic for me, that's not going to matter for Naufragar against the sheer enormity of Cairo's forces - that power graph is truly scary. The trade off for Cairo is that those drafts are really starting to take their toll - our food graphs are moving in opposite directions.
Edit: Wow 'half' was not even close.
Finance Advisor
This looks a lot better. When the GA ends, trade will go back to being my primary income, by several hundreds of commerce. I've been building harbours (~5-6 commerce), and a few custom houses (~8-12 commerce). My recent rule of thumb for an economic building is that I want a return in 20 turns at the latest (compared to wealth/research builds), because without that I always end up building way too much infra (I probably still do). It's not a perfect system, especially because wealth can't be whipped, but it seems like a roughly decent rule. These easily reach it, especially with OR to build them. The other reason for my trade focus is an abject failure to develop cottages in the early-game. We don't talk about that part.
I took considerable loans from Civac (750gold/82gpt) and Tarkeel (1080gold/124gpt), which allowed me to research Economics two turns earlier, and GA+Convert two turns earlier as well. Free Market made more per turn than the loans cost, for an overall profit, and this also sped up my civ, helping not fall too far behind Cairo in these critical turns. For example, instead of converting to Nationhood in two turns, I am now. The loan payments also artificially lowered my GNP (I think?), which was often 1st during the GA regardless. Speaking of being underestimated, I was looking around at the F4 advisor, and I noticed that most of the leaders (e.g. Miguelito, Civac, Piccadilly) have been embargoed by a few players. Charriu and Lazteuq are particularly ruthless. But no one has embargoed us yet! In fact, a lot of players haven't even bothered to get my graphs yet.
The glaring weakness in my little economic miracle is that if everyone closes borders with me, for whatever reason, I'm fucked. During my autopilot turns, I didn't really think about that, and I've mostly ceased construction of Custom Houses now. It's lucky no one's interested in me yet, but I don't know how long that will last. I foresee this being a considerable problem down the line, but it's one for future Amica to deal with. For now, we're rolling in cash compared to 25 turns ago.
Some statistics
Espionage Screen
Current Civics
Future Plans
All of my plans around T150 were based around this premise: "Pindicator has done so much damage that I am incapable of catching up to Mr. Cairo. I may have a short-term boom as the cities regrow, but ultimately Cairo will outscale me, and I need to cripple him before then." And as you can probably tell from the graphs, I could not have been more mistaken. If anything the opposite was true - Cairo and I are about even in tech now (I've caught up rapidly over the last 10 turns, before which he was significantly ahead), and I'm actually ahead in most demos already! I've been thinking about how I could have gotten this so wrong on T150, and there's at least a few reasons.
I did not expect to get an Astro Island, and in fact expected him to get it instead. That's ~40 food and a lot of commerce for me, and the same 'taken away' from him.
I did not expect Pindicator's cities to become so profitable, so quickly. Despite talking about it, and playing him before, I underestimated how good Roosevelt is at his only selling point (well, I guess there are two selling points. Near-guaranteed GLH, with dedication, is the other).
I did not expect myself to research Economics and convert into Free Market, which is ~150 raw commerce, quickly becoming more with harbours/custom houses, and then further multiplied by libraries/banks/etc. Insane civic is insane.
Most importantly, I did not expect Cairo to slam into Naufragar like a freight train. Actually, I thought there was a decent chance that around T152 I'd be on the receiving end of that train instead.
After seeing Miguelito/Rusten invade Mjmd, I've been trying to justify a similar western invasion of Tarkeel/Superdeath to myself.
On paper it looks so good - I could start with Tarkeel, as SD/Commodore/DZ are too occupied to intervene, then move onto SD with a foothold established, and then take out DZ/Commodore with infantry. But I just can't do it. Cairo has no similar option, as Frozen/Piccadilly are far too advanced for him to make an equivalent conquest, and so he would always just hit me from behind. Instead, the long-term goal here is to figure out how/when to hit Cairo before those Naufragar cities become profitable. So far, I keep coming back to the same way to do it: Hit Cairo with drafted Infantry, a little while after Naufragar is dead.
Pros
Drafted infantry are amongst the most cost-effective units in the game.
Allows me to build ORG-factories, and coal plants, before the invasion. I am reasonably confident I can hit Cairo while he's doing this too, if I play my cards right.
Lets Naufragar do considerable damage to Cairo before I ever fight him.
Lets Cairo do considerable damage to himself before I ever fight him, if he keeps drafting janissaries nonstop.
Cons
Corporation obsoletes GLH and Castles. Realistically, this is something like "-120 commerce per turn" attached to the tech. It's worse in my stronger cities, too. I want to delay this as long as possible.
Gives Cairo time to keep drafting and either switch targets to myself, or keep going past Naufragar and slam into me next.
Gives Cairo time to somehow reverse the trend in demographics over the last few turns.
Overall, I am semi-confident that I could get to Assembly Line before Cairo. The bigger worry is if he realises the same thing, and hits me before then. I need to be ready for that too, which is why I switched civics into the safe ones - gotta start building up that power again, pronto. The other option is to take inspiration from Dreylin in PB33 (first game I ever lurked here!), and go straight for Communism for the Kremlin, to hit Cairo with hordes of whipped cavs along railroads. My big worry with that is that janissaries make cavs too weak, but it would be really nice to skip Corporation for as long as possible. Maybe I'll try to make it work, but I doubt it. If only Cairo was any other civ.
Tech Tree
I've picked up mostly economic stuff, after getting the military Medieval stuff very early (Guilds, Engineering). Overall, Miguelito/Rusten, Frozen/Dulland and Ichabod are the tech leaders. Mr. Cairo and I, alongside Civac and Piccadilly/Flunky, occupy a middle-ground between 'advanced' and 'backwards.' Most everyone else is pretty far behind at this point, relative to the seven of us.
From here, I have been considering two paths. One is to grab the obvious military techs (Rifling, Military Tradition, etc), and then work towards Assembly Line. It's boring but safe. The more exciting option was to take Printing Press->Scientific Method->Communism, and make a run at the Great Spy. If I could land it, I'd only need one more great person for a third GA, which would help me convert into the civics I'm planning for, and get those ORG-factories out even faster. No one had Scientific Method as of yet, which is promising, and what gave me the idea. Unfortunately, Ichabod is researching Scientific Method now, which I discovered this turn. I'd hoped he'd want his Assembly Plants at Steam Power first, but unfortunately it looks like I was wrong.
T175 Part Two - Around the World II
The period from T110-150 was pure chaos, as nearly everyone fought major wars. Dogpiles were common, as were eliminations. By T150, that phase of the game was mostly over, and we entered a new era of rebuilding. The victors have rebuilt their cores and improved their new conquests, while those who were less fortunate have been unable to make any ground themselves. The only exception to this general rule was Elkad, eliminated by Civac on Island 4. This may be because Civac's first conquest happened so early - he entered and left the rebuilding phase faster than the rest of us, as did Island 4 as a whole.
The rebuilding phase is quickly coming to an end. After a relatively quiet 20 turns, all hell has broken loose in the last 5. This is true across nearly every island. We are entering a new period of expansion, and I would not be surprised to see many eliminations in the upcoming 25 turns.
Global Graphs
Food
MFG
GNP
Power
Islands
As with my last attempt, consider this at worst to be an updated map of each island. Except Island 5 - not even map request spam can keep up there.
Island One
The eternal war continues. Donovan Zoi (Catherine/China) can't seem to get out of his two-way struggle with Superdeath (Charlemagne/Inca) and Commodore (Lieu Ye/Rome), and the war is thoroughly grinding all three of them down. For a while, it looked like Commodore was working his way back into the game, as he razed or captured ~5 of Donovan's cities. Recently, it seems Donovan has gotten the upper hand again, as he is gradually reclaiming that lost land and making ground again (one can perhaps make out a tiny Chinese stack in Commodore's south), but he has fallen extremely far behind in technology. Through it all, Tarkeel (Hannibal/Egypt) has quietly teched in the corner. He is by far the most advanced on the continent, but still behind the global leaders.
Island Two
Unfortunately, I need the signs. We are the personification of the trend I mentioned earlier. Mr. Cairo (Genghis Khan/Ottomans) and I (Roosevelt/Ethiopia) have largely developed our conquests since the last overview, but recently he has declared war on Naufragar, and I will have to join in soon. Cairo and I are almost exactly equal in tech, but my research is better than his, so I'm trying to find ways to extend the game. Also, I'm very curious what the huge dip in his food was. Naufragar (Joao/India) was been licking his wounds after my earlier attack, and likely cannot stop the Cairo invasion. He has Chemistry and is researching Steel, but I'm not sure that he'll get there in time for it to matter.
Island Three
More consolidation. Piccadilly (Willem/Mali) has sat on his conquest and grown, while Frozen/Dulland (Victoria/Babylon) and Ichabod (Hammurabi/Germany) have a joint tech lead over the game (alongside Miguelito). Ichabod in particular looks quite nasty, about to reach German Assembly Plants and (probably) the Communism Great Spy, with an Astro island to boot, but Frozen has just converted into Universal Suffrage and may be building Statue of Liberty. Ichabod and Piccadilly have just invaded Cornflakes (Pericles/Native America), whose attempt at a cultural victory could politely be described as 'misguided.' Cornflakes lacks such advanced knowledge as Metal Casting and Compass, and he's surely doomed. I have to give him kudos for trying though, since it would have been really cool.
Island Four
The site of the only elimination. Civac (Shaka/Sumeria) had already been rebuilding for ages, and so was ready for more conquest. His target was Elkad (San Martin/England), who was unfortunate to be stuck between the game's two early superpowers. Miguelito/Rusten (Pacal/France) joined in, and Elkad was torn apart - I suspect there wasn't much he could do. Civac has been building again since then, and this turn he launched a Golden Age. Meanwhile, Miguelito has claimed an Astro island, Liberalism, and the Taj Mahal in quick succession. He now turns eastwards to the backwards Island 5, which he is currently in the process of invading.
Island Five
Believe it or not, still no one has been eliminated from here yet. Everything about this island is wonky. Lazteuq (Montezuma/Persia) and Charriu (Ramesses/Greece) continued their apparently eternal squabbles, with Charriu getting the upper end of this one (taking two Persian cities). However, the two then made peace. Meanwhile, Mjmd (Zara Yaqob/Portugal) and GeneralKilCavalry (Julius Caesar/Mongolia) were halfway through splitting Ramkhamhaeng (Cyrus/Arabia), before two timely interventions saved the Arabians. Lazteuq attacked GeneralKilCavalry over the oceans, capturing/razing many cities on the first turn of the war. It will be interesting to see if Lazteuq can finish the job, as his power is not especially high, and he is in Serfdom. The other intervention came from Miguelito, who invaded Mjmd just as Rank seemed next-to-die, and took the Portuguese coast. Then, almost immediately, Charriu declared war and razed an ex-Mjmd city; this continent is crazy. It will be extremely interesting to see how this war develops, and whether Miguelito can advance further. Meanwhile, Ramkhamhaeng may well outlast both of his conquerors.
Amicalola's (Rough) Player Tier List
I would subjectively rank the relative strength and position of all players in this order:
Strong Contenders
1. Miguelito/Rusten - Pacal of France (Island 4)
2. Piccadilly/Flunky - Willem of Mali (Island 3)
3. Civac2 - Shaka of Sumeria (Island 4)
Long-shot Contenders
4. Ichabod - Hammurabi of Germany (Island 3)
5. Amicalola - Roosevelt of Ethiopia (Island 2)
6. Mackoti Mr. Cairo - Genghis Khan of the Ottomans (Island 2)
7. Frozen/Dullland - Victoria of Babylon (Island 3)
Powerful/RelevantNon-Contenders
8. TBS Donovan Zoi - Catherine of China (Island 1)
9. Lazteuq - Montezuma of Persia (Island 5)
10. Tarkeel - Hannibal of Egypt (Island 1)
11. Charriu - Ramesses of Greece (Island 5)
Dead Men Walking
12. Naufragar - Joao of India (Island 2)
13. Commodore - Lieu-Ye of Rome (Island 1)
14. Superdeath - Charlemagne of Inca (Island 1)
15. GeneralKilCavalry - Julius Caesar of Mongolia (Island 5)
16. Cornflakes - Pericles of Native America (Island 3)
17. Mjmd - Zara Yaqob of Portugal (Island 5)
18. Ramkamhaeng - Cyrus of Arabia (Island 5)
Eliminated
19. Elkad - San Martin of England (Island 4). Eliminated T164 by Civac2.
20. Pindicator - Lincoln of the Netherlands (Island 2). Eliminated T148 by Naufragar.
21. Jowy - Kublai Khan of Byzantium (Island 3). Eliminated T143 by Piccadilly/Flunky.
22. Donovan Zoi - Sitting Bull of Spain (Island 4). Eliminated T142 by Miguelito/Rusten.
23. Mr. Cairo - Darius of the Aztecs (Island 2). Eliminated T141 by Mackoti Mr. Cairo
24. JoshyBravo963 - Asoka of America (Island 1). Eliminated T121 by Superdeath.
25. AutomatedTeller - Justinian of the Khmer (Island 4). Eliminated T116 by Civac2.
This is a silly exercise, but a fun one. My city's lockdown was extended today (we are now the longest in the world!), so I had the time to waste. It looks like Island 1 has joined Island 5 in having no real contenders anymore, as Donovan Zoi is too far behind in tech now. It is even worse for Cornflakes, who quite plausibly could be the next player eliminated; that's a shame, a cultural victory would have been impressive. Island 5 has dramatically weakened overall, and Lazteuq/Charriu are probably their last hope for long-term relevance. Cairo moves down a lot, because I think he missed his 'shot,' which was to invade me ~20 turns ago. I find it hardest to place myself in these rankings; I put myself slightly ahead of Mr. Cairo because even though he is better, I think my position is stronger.
Echoed as well for an excellent summary and overall reporting. The general reporting has been rather sad for this game in recent weeks outside of a handful of threads and it's really helpful to get a big picture view of the wider world.
T175 Part Three - Tarkeel Spanner
I wanted to replace some custom house builds with other buildings this morning, but when I logged in Tarkeel had returned a fish/fish I sent, and offered this:
Presumably this means 'joint war with SD T185,' which I would be pretty down for. Superdeath's main stack is here:
StoneCity itself is packed with 18 longbows, in addition to this. Pretty huge on quantity, not so much on quality. So I can't dedicate my entire civ to this, with Cairo looming on the horizon and Nauf simultaneously falling. What that means is that I can't afford to A) fight that stack, or B) piss off Tarkeel in the process. I have a feeling that SD would not hesitate to spitefully direct his stack at one of us, so I would need to make that person Tarkeel. In addition, I would need to let Tarkeel get most of the cities - this actually works out quite nicely with the first point. So I had an idea:
What if I just nab these 3 cities (Seether, Starset, ChemicalRomance) with galleons on the first turn of the war, as well as settle the clam/horse island? That would get me 3 islands, which are much safer than land cities and all coastal, for minimal effort. It also would get me a port on the land, and hopefully in such a position as for Tarkeel to accept it. In addition, I would only need to send ~4 galleons and ~12 hitters (probably drafted Oromos), which would keep me free to focus mostly on the east. As long as Tarkeel plays ball (and can actually kill SD), that would be pretty ideal.
The other part I could look to take is this:
GunsNRoses, Paramore, and Tiwanaku all fall more within my sphere of influence more than Tarkeel's or Donovan's (although perhaps Donovan Zoi would disagree ). So instinctively I was thinking about a way to get these as well. The issue there is SD's stack, which I would have no hope of beating in a 1v1 fight with my cobbled conscripts. Donovan Zoi might also want to just smash straight into me afterwards, and notably TBS logged in this turn - I want no part of a fight with him.
NoHandlebars has a HUGE (100+ gold) Buddhist Shrine as well, and again falls more to me than either of them. The issue with that one is that I think Tarkeel will want it for himself, and since he would be doing most of the work, he kind of deserves it. More importantly, he would think the same thing, so he'd presumably take it right back from me. I could raze it, but that would also piss him off, actually a strong Tarkeel (plus my own port) might not be such a bad thing, as it would give me a proxy of sorts against Donovan Zoi. I would much rather have those two fighting it out than one superpower collecting the whole island. It keeps the overall island weaker if there is competition there, which much like my theoretical port-foothold, would be helpful if I am ever able to turn my full attention here.
Edit: You're welcome, both of you! I'm glad it was helpful.
I wonder if the sparse reporting is partly because of the nature of the map. It's extremely difficult to make significant progress against equal neighbours, which means once you fall behind, I can't really see a way to catch up. People in that position might be suffering engagement issues. Also, two of the competitive teams are Germans, who I believe (?) are reporting on Civforum.net, which can't help either.
Organised Religion ), but it's necessary. I'm actually pre-building units in some cities, waiting a few turns to finish them for the EXP. Maybe that's way too greedy, now that I type it out... It turns out harbours are pretty good with Circumnav, Castles and ICTR, but only in the cities that get worse trade routes (3-4 commerce routes, but not 5-6 because of the multiplying mechanic). They're around 5-6 commerce each in those cities, which is great for 80 non-obsoleting hammers! Maybe they'll functionally obsolete if people close borders with me, but I'm far from a runaway, so I don't think that's likely. Speaking of runaways, Charriu declared war on Miguelito/Rusten. Maybe he and Mjmd can cobble a defense together, although I'm not super convinced. Still really hoping Civac will join in from the other side. 
I might have to type these up piecemeal over a few days, but they'll come. Here's a preview of the first part: I'm looking 
The general reporting has been rather sad for this game in recent weeks outside of a handful of threads and it's really helpful to get a big picture view of the wider world.
I could raze it, but that would also piss him off, actually a strong Tarkeel (plus my own port) might not be such a bad thing, as it would give me a proxy of sorts against Donovan Zoi. I would much rather have those two fighting it out than one superpower collecting the whole island. It keeps the overall island weaker if there is competition there, which much like my theoretical port-foothold, would be helpful if I am ever able to turn my full attention here. 