[SPOILERS] Banzailizard and Woden go hunting!

[Woden]

Turn 46-Gaul
Last turn, I wasn't able to kill the barb galley with 2 hits, left him redlined but he is gone this turn and it wasn't possible for him to escape so I have 2 barb kills. Just need one more for the boost to BW. There is another barb galley by the barb camp, so I should get the boost next turn. I move my galleys around, bringing the injured ones back home and the healthier ones towards the barbs...
   

Two turns until PP finishes and then with Oligarchy a single galley can kill a barb galley. Ngazargamu doesn't have its galley in the city but I suspect it is close and could move back any time. I might have to heal some galleys before I attack if it does move back in. We will see. Or, at least I will have to wait until the next galley out of the capital can move up. 

Internationally, Thrawn captured another city state last turn and I think Ljubljana captured one this turn. They are dropping like flies now. We really should think about giving them walls to start the game. We are back in 2nd place in MP and I have 3 redlines galleys so it looks like definitely have the 2nd largest navy (after Thrawn). Probably won't last as I will spend 10 turns not building units but tehn will go back and focus on ships once I get my base empire established.

[Banzailizard]

England Turn 46

Barb warrior is gone so I take it he is dead.  Moving my warrior and slinger towards the camp to clear it. I don't like that I can no longer see the scout.  I moved my builder back towards London to be safe for now. I also moved my gallies north. One is at 78/100 the other is full health, the last is at half health.  I forgot they need to be in my territory to heal.  I will send the half health down to Leeds, and next turn, the new galley from Leeds will go up to replace it.  8 turns until Oligarchy which will give me 24 strength. More than enough to take out Zanzibar. On a side note, walls in CS might not be a bad idea.

London has grown.  I choose to work a 2/1 tile to build up some extra food (ignore the 22 turns, its more like 10) so that it will regrow quickly after the settler.  The 1/2 tile does not get the settler done any faster anyways.

Pottery is done, enough overflow to get writing down to 4 turns. That is good news, I can plant the campus in London and then let it finish the settler. Also means that archery will be done sooner. The London campus should be discounted.  Since I am not saving money for the GA, I can spend some soon to buy a tile (making sure to leave 80 to send off) which will let me buy the government plaza site for the city2 spot.  Leeds will start a settler next turn, put down the campus when it grows to size 4, then finish the campus after it regrows to size 4.  I may also opt to work on the settler for 4 turns, finish the campus and then use that to help discount the government plaza.

   

[Woden]

Turn 47-Gaul
Open the save to see the barb galley did attack my galley. I easily kill it with 2 galley attacks and get the boost to Bronze Working...
   

Both BW and Political Philosophy finish next turn. I will start bringing ships towards Ngazargamu to start the assault on T50. 

I did send a request for 80 gold this turn. I don't need it for a few turns, so if you had plans for it in the immediate future, feel free to reject the deal. I just didn't want to forget it when I need it. 

Also, I would bring all your galleys to Zanzibar before they get a galley out. Even the half strength one could get a shot in and maybe get a promotion. If they do get a galley out, increasing their DS to 23, you could sail one of your 4 movers east, looking for another team, while the others heal for the assault and they move the galley out of the city.

Edit: Maybe we want you to send a few of your 4 movers east and bypass Zanzibar for the time being. We only need to meet 3 other players for you to get a Golden Age (with the barb camp, a splendid campus, a tier 1 government, and suzerain of a city state). There is a good chance you will meet 1 team and maybe you will come across Thrawn out scouting. I will send a boat NE after I take the city state and maybe I meet someone. There is still 12 or 13 turns left in the era, so it is still possible.

Edit2: Also, after Writing, Archery, and PP, don't complete any techs or civics. Everything gets a 20% discount at the era change. If we meet someone, I will postpone Iron Working until the turn of the era change to save the science. I plan on finishing 6 or 7 techs the 7 turs after I place all my campuses and can do it because of the discount and Free Inquiry.

[Banzailizard]

England Turn 47

Per your suggestion, I moved all my gallies north.  Next turn I will attack. I might have been able to get one hit in this turn but I would rather just attack three times next turn.   I will also move into my final attack position for the barb camp next turn and start attacking it properly the turn thereafter.  One or two slinger shots followed by my warrior should kill the spear-man.  The barb scout appeared near Leeds, and it is active, so I need to finish this camp off before it makes it home.

Leeds finished a RND granting a galley (also moved north) and gives London +1 production, though this does not change anything for my settler production.  It also got me the cartography boost, a little way down the tech tree but nice still.

I accepted the gold deal so that I don't forget myself.  The RND at Leeds increased my gold per turn to 11.2, and I will clear the camp soon.  I will have plenty to purchase a tile to two that I need for districts.

I did look and Thrawn has 6 civics completed. Hopefully one of those is not PP so you get the full era points for the golden age.  We are in third now militarily, CMF's team moved into second.  I will take this as a good sign that people are preparing for thrawn. Finally, someone else has also built a harbor, they are earning 1 GA point a turn. I am earning 4, so I will easily grab the frist GA, but maybe that will be competition for the second or third.

   

[Banzailizard]

Had an idea this morning, I wanted to write it down so I don't forget. I will change my civics path to military tradition first over mysticism. I don't need an envoy if I am not going for the 3 points for a golden age. I would much rather have the flanking bonus and give you the civic boost to get your own for attacking city states. I will still upgrade the slinger to an archer for a free envoy, and set myself up for the points as soon as we reach the next age. In addition this means I don't have to run diplomatic service and can instead run something like urban planning.

[Woden]

I did look and Thrawn has 6 civics completed. Hopefully one of those is not PP so you get the full era points for the golden age.  We are in third now militarily, CMF's team moved into second.  I will take this as a good sign that people are preparing for thrawn. Finally, someone else has also built a harbor, they are earning 1 GA point a turn. I am earning 4, so I will easily grab the frist GA, but maybe that will be competition for the second or third.

I think he only had 4 civics a few turns ago, so I assume he was waiting on the State Workforce boost from Krill, as I doubt it would make sense for him to build a district and suspect he researched either Mysticism or Military Tradition (most likely) and is now researching PP. I don't think his culture would be high enough to finish SW and then PP right away. The harbor might be Krill, since both CMF and Ljubljana built holy sites and it is in line with the above, but then again, it is in line with going to CN after Astrology, so could be anybody. I guess we will know next turn if I get 1 or 2 points for finishing a Classical civic. 

As for MP, I hope people are building navies but I also have 4 redlined galleys, so our MP has dropped a bit. You should get the 1st GA for sure and probably the second one if they don't add more GA points.

[Woden]

Had an idea this morning, I wanted to write it down so I don't forget.  I will change my civics path to military tradition first over mysticism.  I don't need an envoy if I am not going for the 3 points for a golden age.  I would much rather have the flanking bonus and give you the civic boost to get your own for attacking city states.  I will still upgrade the slinger to an archer for a free envoy, and set myself up for the points as soon as we reach the next age. In addition this means I don't have to run diplomatic service and can instead run something like urban planning.

A couple of things to consider: (1) you still should use diplomatic service to get the 2-for-1 envoys, (2) you should be able to finish both Mysticism and Military Tradition after PP before the era changes on T59/T60, and (3) if Zanzibar doesn't put out a galley this turn, you should be able to take the city in 2 turns, then you can send a galley or 2 west to look for other players and I will do the same once I kill my city state. There is a good chance in 5-8 turn that we come across some players and you still might be able to get the Golden Age, so I think it might be better to play as if you are still trying for it. I think if you get everything else, we need 3 players. If you find someone, I believe you meet both teammates because of shared vision. If I find someone, you will meet only the player I meet. So, you only need to find someone and I need to find someone different and you will get the 3 era points. If Zanzibar does get a galley out before you attack, I think it will be better not to declare, heal your injured galleys and send the full strength ones west to look for another team.

[Woden]

Turn 48-Gaul
Bronze Working and Political Philosophy complete and I am first, so get 2 era points. BW reveals iron at both our capitals, I pinned yours. The iron gave me the boost to Iron Working but not Wheel. I think I ran into that bug in PBEM14 or 18. If need be, I can remove the mine and re-mine it for the boost. 

I take Oligarchy for another 3 era points and run Maritime Industries, Conscription, Ilkum, and Colonization as policies. At my capital, I chop put 2 builders and put a 3rd chop into a settler, due in 2 turns. I noticed we are now in last place in MP...
   

We will have to see if we stay there as mu galleys heal. The assault on Ngazargamu starts next turn with 2 attacks, 3 attacks on the following turn, and then I should be able to take the city on T52. If you look behind the minimap, you can see a barb warrior on the southern island. This will be useful when I finish Shipbuilding and build a spearman for the boost to whatever Medieval tech requires a kill by a spearman. I have to work out the timing but I think can get a 50/50 chance at boosting Buttress right about the time we will need it. The other tech will be Castles, so not a bad boost if we get it either, as it unlocks Medieval Walls, which will make our cities pretty much impervious to longboats. Other constraints will be getting through Feudalism, building 3 archers, and building an aqueduct, all of which I play on doing.

[Woden]

What you could do with Mysticism and Military Tradition is research them down to 1 turn each. Finish Mysticism, slot diplomatic league, place the envoy and then finish MT to swap out of the policy. That way, you only run DL for 1 turn.

[Banzailizard]

England Turn 48

No galley from Zanzibar, so I got one attack in on the city, three more attacks next turn.  At that rate, should be able to capture it in 2 turns, or maybe next turn if the rolls go well.  I did a little scouting with the damaged galley, it needs to be out of the way to rotate the other gallies out and itself in when needed anyways. Lets hope no galley anytime soon.  Good news for my attack but bad news for later use, Zanzibar has very low production.  That would make it hard for it to get out a galley unless it had already been producing one for a while. The bad is that I still need to capture it for strategic reasons, but it will mostly be slowly building some of its own infrastructure, and providing some science and culture, not really producing much else.  Maybe I get to grab the crabs eventually and get some gold from it too.

Next turn I attack the barb camp as well.  Its 36 to 34 strength in my favor, but with the slinger firing first, I can bring that even more in my favor.  Scout has officially found Leeds, not sure why it had an ! over its head the turn before that.  Hopefully that means I have another turn to clear the camp since it has to turn around now.

I appreciate the iron marker.  I will keep that tile in mind for future builds.  It might make it worthwhile to go bronze working myself after archery.  Its that, irrigation, or ship building next. Writing done in 2 turns, animal husbandry in 3.  Interface says 4 or archery, but I think the overflow should push it down to 3. Either 8 or 9 turns then until I need the money for the upgrade and to have the slinger in the right spot.

I also like the research own to 1 turn plan for mysticism and MT.  

   

Just to check the golden age math:

At 10 need 23
+1 from PP
+2 from government
+2 from suzerain
+1 GA
+2 barb camp
+3 splendid campus

So that is +11 for sure I can get in the next few turns.  I need 2 more.

+2 if conquering Zanzibar (which is on a new continent) counts for "A city is placed on a continent you have not yet settled."
+2 if I get the GA, and use her with a galley to kill a barb or city state galley (Admiral Defeats Enemy)
+2 if we run into 2 other civs
+1 if I can get the second classical GA before the era ends (takes 15 turns after I am done with the current GA, given current districts, maybe using faith or money could help)
+1 if I find a natural wonder
+3 if I am the first to find a natural wonder

I suppose there are a lot of options here