[spoilers]The Courts of Chaos: Thoth disrupts the Pattern

[Thoth]

Morgenstern and Arden seem kind of duplicative. Waiting for Cabra to build its lighthouse.

Arden is a forest, Morgensten is a horse.    


Cabra will get a lighthouse eventually but without seafood it's a lower priority for the moment.  

[Thoth]

Popped the hut on the Eastern island for yet another map (4/5 so far with the other hut giving me 40 gold).





Looks like I found Pindicator and my guesses about commerce specials were about right. He's also got a pair of hamlets (at least) one of which is about to become a village.

I've got a brand new hamlet and a couple of cottages with a few turns worked. I'm aiming to ramp that number up over the next 10-20 turns once I've got a few more cities settled. In the meantime, I'm Financial so I can get 3 commerce from any coastal tile if I'm getting tight for cash.

[Thoth]

Now comes the fun bit where I show up on Pindicator's border with a galley.......

[Thoth]

Hmmmmm.....Commodore is whipping hard and Rival Best soldier count has been spiking.

Wonder if Commodore and Pindicator are neighbours again.....

[Thoth]

t38.

Loaded my scout back onto my exploring galley and moved to clear a trade route to Pindicator.


Trade screen is interesting:




Two precious metals and no copper or iron connected (yet).  Lack of copper/iron would explain the early HBR even if Pindicator isn't planning on Keshiking someone.   





I'm aiming to sail south west along Pindicator's coast and see if I can contact his other neighbour(s). 


I didn't grab a screenshot, but I did find some whales off the East coast of my northern island so the city that claims the furs won't be a complete bust.  Still hoping to find some seafood up there but if I don't then I'm fine with the 2 good and one marginal cities over there.  I'll claim two early and one late luxury, a unique health resource, and extra corn and sheep for potential trades.  A very lucrative island indeed when you factor in the extra commerce from trade routes that the cities will provide.

[Thoth]

Thanks to Krill being up a bit late, we got a second turn in.

Speaking of Krill, guess who made contact with a W2 Scout from my south this turn?

4 city Victoria with Mathematics teched. 

North Island exploration continues:





Kolvir grew to size 8 and two unhappy pop thanks to the ridiculous amount of food I'm making here with a lighthouse in place.  They'll be whipped away as part of a 3 pop whip in 2t which should generate ~39 hammers of overflow to get multiplied by OR and Expansive into around 90 hammers worth of Marketplace.  





End of turn finished Currency, worth 7 commerce per turn right now.  More in a few turns once I settle my second island city.

Pindicator is making 28 gpt, Krill is teching with 107 gold on hand.

I'm making 24 gpt at max tax right now.   15 turns to my prophet.

Time to get a few defensive Axes and Spears on the board and some form of scouting party sent south.  Krill doesn't have HBR yet but he could have  it any turn now if that's what he's teching.  

hmmmm.....might spend a turn or two's worth of gold to run some espionage to get Krill's graphs.   I'm at 32/8 eps vs Pindicator and 0/4 currently with Krill.

[Thoth]

Yuri built the Colossus and I declared war on Pindicator to move past his territory.


Whipped out my 5th (out of 6 cities) granary and my first library this turn. 3 pop settler whip in Kolvir next turn, 1 pop whip of a worker in Arden, 3 pop whip another settler in Courts of Chaos the following turn.

That will claim Ivory and a second island city (and silver with a border pop). I'll want a bit of vertical growth and some infra (read: Marketplaces) in place before I settle much more than that. I'm also getting a bit of a defense force together. 1st axeman completed last turn. Still in 3rd place on the power graph. Looks like Pindicator is 1st or a close second from the looks of his graphs.

[Thoth]

Not much to report. Settlers whipped out for my next two cities, exploring continues. Ect, ect.

Markets are due in Courts of Chaos in 2t and in Kolvir in 3t. I'm going to turn tech back on next turn to grab 4t IW and then stockpile gold with my shiney new marketplaces and second overseas trade routes in place.

I'm slipping a bit in power rating so I've got a few defensive units due to complete over the next few turns.

[Thoth]

Settled my 7th city of Greenwood on the northern island this turn (t46).




Lousy city but claims silver with a border pop and it's a second overseas trade route which will help to pay for my 8th city which will be settled next turn to claim Ivory (ready on t49 to help with unhappiness throughout the empire....).


Ending turn finished up my 6th granary and second marketplace.

Things are looking good overall from an economic perspective and I've still got plenty of room to expand.

[Thoth]

t47 opened up with the sighting of the 1st non-animal land barbarian I've seen so far this game:





Settled my 8th city to claim some valuable desert terrain:




Iron working due next turn (Krill and Pindicator already have it).

Then it's time for Metal Casting I think.    With barb galleys starting to appear, a trireme or two in the water seems prudent.