I saw on the BUG tech screen that someone just researched metal casting. So either this is a bunch of non discounted Mints being built or a bunch of horse arches to finish off Xist. My bet is on the former. I think that's not the best move here. Aetryn's tech rate right now is slow - metal casting is 300 beakers and he hasn't researched math yet, so he's a long way from currency. Forges are good, but the 10% gold is very weak as a bonus goes and you won't be able to turn any of those extra hammers into cash until Currency. We'll see in a bit what the graphs show.
(Fun fact - I am leaps and bounds the leader in MFG just because of all the stupid mines and hills I am stuck with. That will be great once I can finally build wealth, but what a pain it has been until that point!)
Two other players get their first great person as we build the shrine. A Henge prophet for Aetryn and presumably a scientist for Bing. Aetryn won't be able to do much with the Prophet besides get the golden age. I thought he had founded one of the early religions, but Bing has Hinduism and Xist has Buddhism, so he can't get a shrine. A golden age for him to get to Currency might be worthwhile if he can also fit Monarchy in. But I doubt that.
The shrine itself is only 8 gold per turn so far - it will go to ten as we get the last of our cities converted, missionaries on the way. Sadly it is not enough yet to bump us to 20% science - that's how crippling costs have been on this map. Hoping that a palace move and more cottages being laid down will take away some of that bite.
Cities overview:
Micro fail here - I should have emphasized hammers to get the temple done before growth to avoid unhappiness. I will admit that I feel like I've been playing the last 20 turns more on autopilot just because the cost issue has been so crippling I feel like there are hardly any decisions to make. Just like clicking 'prioritize commerce' on the governor screen and going to sleep. Size 11 is where I want to keep the city for now: a lighthouse lake and a mine are the only extra tiles I can squeeze out, and they aren't that valuable. I am in need of more workers, and settlers once I can finally afford the damn things, so a city that is finally done growing and that can relax will be a relief.
The heavy whipping and chopping out of Dune got us Oracle and a great person, and now it can finally grow onto some extra tiles. I think I will aim to get a second GP using caste in the first golden age. After that, who knows?
That second ring lake tile at Creation has saved my bacon at a couple points, providing just enough coins not to fall into STRIKE territory. This city has been pumping workers, settlers, and now missionaries pretty much the whole game. When I finally get sailing, I'll build Moai and a lighthouse here and turn this into a real powerhouse. Eventually this will take the pigs back from Metamorphosis, but for now it is just using the high hammer configuration to build stuff that needs buildin.
The sad border city. I have decided to go with the scientists over the mines here just because there's not much worth building in this city. It has granary, walls, and the library. Besides slowly stuffing it with arches to deter any galley shenanigans from Bing there isn't much else to do here, I feel.
Now that Diamond Age finally has its borders popped, it can fill up nicely on the non riverside cottages. Workers are in process of leveling the forests to that effect. Hoping to get around size 10-12 and then stagnate on foodhammer builds.
Homegoing also is enjoying the border pop, now growing faster than I can cover it with cottages. I would have loved to build more workers, but that would have conflicted with needed to grow all my cities as much as possible on commerce tiles to combat the HELLISH MAINTENANCE. Cathy of Sumer would have been beyond overpowered on this map.
Huckleberry Finn is going to have access to its seafood and outer grass tiles shortly. I will probably slip out a worker here rather than hiring even more scientists. This might be a good candidate for GP number 2.
Micro fail number 2. I should have swapped to another archer or a temple here a couple turns ago, but had a brain wiring fail and thought one was coming from somewhere else. I'll admit this has not been my best played game!
A chop is coming in to finish an archer and overflow into the temple. OR has been doing decent work and it will only get better with time.
(Why all the temples instead of more archers? Well, I don't want to drown in unit maintenance in addition to everything else. But that might be a mistake)
Julius Caesar keeps growing on the farms, for now. At some point it will swap onto some cottages and give the farms back to Carmilla. All these forests are making it slow to develop tiles! I just wish I could do more with the hammers besides temple, library. Having access to markets will be so nice.
Carmilla continues to grow up to the point where it can go back to having extra scientists. I need workers to farm up most of that river. Someday this will be a great production city, but the road to get there is so, so long.
Our economic recovery is visible, as is our lead in hammers. But the gap in crop yield and cities remains deeply concerning.
I think the Oracle -> Monarchy play was not a bad one. Our land is starved for luxuries and it has let us be competitive in city size with our neighbors. But the costs, man, the costs. No early game commerce tiles, a pain in the ass fjord and foodless peninsula meaning we can't settle in three of the compass directions away from our capital. I wonder if it would be better just to have sat on seven cities until we got Currency and then plowing onward.
Once we get Currency things will be much better. Our mine heavy cities can build wealth until we get machinery and can throw down windmills everywhere. Then we can move onto a Civil Service + Guilds plan and get ready to hit someone with Phracts. Xist is the easiest target, but I am concerned the maintenance will be so bad that we would just be throwing to Bing. So we have the option of doing some kind of naval Phract fork on that sea to raze Bing's capital. This would need a dogpile signal from at least Aetryn. But Aetryn isn't even in a position to hit Bing because This Map Is A Real Pain In The Ass.
t102: I offered Aetryn a health resource for one of his spare silvers, and he was kind enough to accept. That solved the immediate happy crunch.
Math is in. Only one person (guess who) has Currency. I might end up finishing Pyramids just for denial value - still no one has built it.
Currency only takes 3 turns at 100%, but we'd be losing over 100 gold per turn. That means our economy is in good shape except the hellish expenses. A detour to Code of Laws might be the play here. Bing's Sacrificial Alters are looking good here, and the missed Zigs on our pick will haunt me till the end of days.
Xist is feeding foreign trade routes to Bing. That's a big no-no. I am thinking I'd rather attack him first. Settling HuckleberryFinn where it was gives me a pathway to his land, and Aetryn would help me split him. I can get decent value out of more land even given the monstrous expenses because I have a shrine going. Normally, aggressive Praets would be enough to give Knights pause, so having shock Phracts on hand will give me somewhat of an edge at least.
I will say, Aetryn's economy has been surprisingly weak this game, given he has FIN/IMP and triple silver and a seafood capital and sailing. He was sitting on 8 cities for a while, 2 less crippling maintenance costs to pay, and he's been limping to Metal Casting at the same speed I have been. Maybe FIN is a weaker trait in this mod than I imagine. Or that early conflict with Xist set him back.
Also musing on using a golden age with Mids to cause a Police State Phractageddon. Maybe not the most viable play for winning, but it would be a fun blaze of glory to go out in...
Halfway to Currency. The Palace move is almost done. This should hopefully help a bit with the distance maintenance that's killing us. Two settlers are in production to complete around the time Currency comes in.
Aetryn lands Colossus. No surprise given early Metal Casting. That should help his economy a bit. Better that Bing doesn't have it.
Turns out, we do have an early game happy... buried all the way up north that it's touching a snow tile. I'd rather have triple silvers, myself.
Both of my current 'allies' are sure making it hard to like them.
It's doubly frustrating because I had all the production in the world to grab this spot earlier, but I couldn't because I was so crippled by maintenance. I mean, this spot was already kind of a reach, but Aetryn was stuck on 8 cities for ages. And he can't even use the wines. I guess I shouldn't complain too much since he is giving me some free silver. But still, bah.
Currency finally, finally comes in. It's enough to bump us to 30% science for now. Next tech is sailing. Need it to build galleys and settle on the other side of the fjord - the only good overland site is the furs city until Calendar is in. It will also be key for any overseas attack on Bing.
Aetryn asked for our stone, which I turned down. We need it for Moai and finishing Pyramids. Once those are done I might consider giving it to him.
From here, there are only 4 more techs to Guilds. MC, Machinery, Feudalism, and Guilds itself. The main economic tech I'd be skipping on the way is Code of Laws (which thankfully Bing hasn't managed to get to yet - if he did, that'd be GG) and Civil Service. We can generate another Great Person to get a golden age on the way. Question is if we want to make the CS detour or just plow straight towards Phracts.
Starting off with some rare good news. So it turns out that me, in my general Civ rubeness, totally missed that CtH protective also buffs market production. Markets are now on the menu in some big cities to speed recovery. This will pair nicely with the shrine:
Who needs early forges? A chop + whip will hurry this to completion and speed the upcoming lighthouse + moai build.
I have room for a few decent cities on the other side of the fjord, but it seems like 13-14 is where I am going to plateau for lack of better available land. The great expanse that Bing has penetrated into is mostly foodless. Seriously, look at this:
I can't imagine settling this will break even until at least Replaceable parts. Or even Biology. The only places I am considering are the copper site that would need to live off Republic's fish, the sheep+cow, and the wheat + silks, which will be settled as soon as I get a galley in the water.
While it is unfortunate to not have more productive land to settle, the decent news is that I am confident I can get phracts online before Xist will have anything capable of stopping them. So there's an easy avenue for expansion. But I don't know if that will put me even with Bing or if I will still be behind.
