[SPOILERS] Pindicator helps clean up SMEGmod

[pindicator]

Turn 097

Core pic:




GNP scrying tells me:
1 person has Compass
1 person has Calendar (Thoth, due to the resources showing as hooked up)
1 person has Construction
2 people have Monotheism

I think I need to stop for a little while after these next 2 settlers complete.

Wait, what am I saying? I'll just build Wealth or hire merchants.

[pindicator]

Turn 098

And it looks like 3 people have Monarchy too.

GermanJoey revolted to Vassalage and also asked for Open Borders. I accepted but I think I'm over-saturated with OB deals now. I need to cut someone loose. Joey isn't a bad person to keep friendly if I decide to attack CH or Brick first (which is likely), but at the same time Thoth has the game's best GNP and has started spending EP against me so maybe it'd be better to cut the OB from him.

Really fortunate to have no direct borders with any of Krill, Plako, or Thoth this game. I will end up bordering plako and Krill a little after everything fills in, but I'm really lucky with this map so far.

[pindicator]

Turn 100 Extravaganza

Well, my homework is officially late at this point and it isn't going to get any 'later' so I might as well take a break and do something fun. Like give a t100 writeup.

Foreign Rundown


me
- 13 cities
- copper, horse, iron, marble
- 3 luxuries (gold, silver, whale)
- 96gpt at tax
- Wonders: Great Ligththouse

Krill
- 11 cities
- stone, copper, horse
- 3 luxuries (silver, ivory, fur)
- 25gpt at tax?
- Wonders: None

GermanJoey
- 9 cities
- copper, horse, iron
- 3 luxuries (gold, ivory, whale)
- 90gpt at tax
- Wonders: Stonehenge, Oracle, Colossus, Moai (in capital)


Thoth
- 11 cities
- copper, horse, iron
- 6 luxuries (fur, gems, gold, spices, sugar, wine)
- 111gpt at tax
- Wonders: None

plako
- 11 cities
- copper, horse, iron
- 3 luxuries (ivory, wine, whale)
- unknown gpt at max tax, but I think it's around 90
- Wonders: None

Brick
- 11 cities
- copper, horse
- 3 luxuries (ivory, silver, whale)
- 30gpt at tax
- Wonders: The Great Wall

CH
- 8 cities
- copper, horse
- 2 luxuries (gold, ivory)
- 26gpt at tax
- Wonders: None


Graphs - I have everybody but Krill on graphs














Top 5 Cities





I think everybody but CH and Brick are still in this. I've got an early lead but it's nowhere near insurmountable. Plus, every civ seems to have their strongpoints: Thoth has an amazing GNP and lots of happiness, GermanJoey has all his wonders and crazy MFG, plako has all around goodness, and Krill has blocked off a large area of land plus has planted on top of the stone for a potential wonder play.

I'm fortunate to be ahead of everyone, although it is hard to tell how much ahead in tech I am, or if I even am ahead in tech. I think we have some of the civs with less good commerce bases trying to keep up in city counts and that is only making them fall farther behind. Something to keep care of myself in future turns.

I'll post domestic stuff in about 12 hours; I need to sleep now.

[pindicator]

Here are the lands as we know them.

Core:



South:



Southwest:



Northwest:



There are two settlers in the field, one in the south to claim the fur/wine location; the other is in the northwest and will claim the fish/crab/stone plant. A third settler is being trained in Puente la Reina, but it's still a little ways out.

City list:




Expenses:



Civics:



Units:



Technology (everything to the left of the screenshot has been researched):



Religion Spread (need work here, but our monastery is finally done):



And Demos:



To make GNP look more comparable for the screenshot, I switched to a tech nobody has researched yet and put the slider on break-even (40%). Right now I'm actually teching Monarchy, due in 2t, and the GNP goes through the rough with that tech on.


Any questions or things you want me to elaborate on?

[pindicator]

It was a time for farewells, wrapped in the shadow of the great cathedral at Burgos. We had intentionally stayed at Agés before, because it was a short walk to Burgos and we could make it to the city by midday. At Agés we already started our goodbyes - some of us, now friends over these past two weeks of walking together, were not continuing past the city. In Burgos we continued them, in the shadow of the cathedral, in the main plaza of the town. We ate outdoors in restaurants, we wandered the museums and toured the cathedral, and we climbed the hill to the citadel and looked down over the town. Burgos was a fine city.




The next day we held on as long as we could, waiting until past noon to say the final goodbyes. The departing gave us their assurances they would return and finish the camino the next year. And then it was past noon and only myself and Elke. The day before we had been a dozen, and now just the two of us continued out of town. The city felt distant and dirty. The tenor of the day was quiet, neither of us spoke much. As we left Burgos and went into the countryside we met very few other peregrinos. It was just the two of us and the open road:




That night we stopped in Tarjados, arriving past 5, which was late enough that we got the only two beds remaining. It was not a great place. A convenience store was half a mile down the road and we made a simple dinner. When we came back we found that the plumbing was not working.

Compared to the previous days of Agés and Burgos, Tarjados was not the most enjoyable destination.





That makes 15 cities now. Feudalism is a 4-turn build, and is really going to be necessary for getting longbowmen in for defending my far-reaching empire. I might be able to get it in 3 with a Build Wealth or two. But I want to develop the cities I have. I have this huge city lead; I don't need to waste it by expanding until my economy is ruined. I did need to grab these two spots: Burgos gets the stone I want for Moai and for a possible Hanging Gardens push. Tarjados gets 2 key luxuries that are both doubled with my half-price markets. Still, it is time to slow down the new-city front.

One last thing: CH gets a chance to snipe a worker of mine. It was either that or have the worker sit in place for half a dozen turns, and I decided to chance it.




Will he snatch it?

[pindicator]

Turn 104

Sure, let's give it a shot.




Edit: Right when I remembered to go queue something up in the city in case Krill finishes the wonder this turn, CH logged in and rolled the turn. Well, I hope that didn't bite me...

[pindicator]

Turn 106

No pic, but some thoughts:

GermanJoey is going all-in on the religious buildings / wonder strategies. For a moment there I was considering teching Theology next and building the AP palace, but it seems clear that this is GermanJoey's goal as well: he just finished Theology this turn. He has also built another wonder in his capital, landing the Temple of Artemis. The Lord Parkin strat is a dangerous one if I continue to leave him be.

So my question now is which is more beneficial? Do I think I can out-tech and out expand him? I do already have a sizeable city and land grab lead; the only thing keeping him up in score is his bevy of wonders and the two Moai cities he's built (he's got like 100 more points wrapped up in wonders than I do). Or do I rush to knights and try to sucker punch him while he is in builder mode?

A couple of things that make me want to stay peaceful and try to out build him:

• I have 5 more cities than him, with a 6th on the way. In addition I have room to plant at least 7 more, and that's just filling out the lands I have claimed. There's more land to be claimed northwest of Tosantos and east of Zubiri. It's not out of reason that I end up with 25 cities without declaring a single war.
  
• I have an awesome capital for building wonders. St Jean is stupid awesome for production and it's only going to get better as it grows onto all it's production tiles.
  
• Once I stablize the west (horse archers already arrived, but longbows still needed) it's going to be easy to defend from Thoth or Krill in the west. At least until navies get to be a real factor.
  
• My neighbors to the south are Brick and CH, the weakest two teams in the field.

But there are lots of good reasons to attack:

• I may not get a better time. Give GermanJoey the time to build up and build more wonders, and that may leverage him into a huge tech lead. See: Parkin, Lord in pb4. Plus, if he's still going for infra techs then my going for Guilds now may give me the perfect window to crash into him.
  
• CH is a tasty target for Thoth and Thoth's power is spiking now. Likewise plako and Brick.
  
• I like smashing things

I dunno, I'll think on it. I just finished Feudalism, and I'm saving gold on Aesthetics right now. (Statue of Zeus fits both plans, I'd say.) But maybe next turn I swap to construction.

[pindicator]

If I land Statue of Zeus then I need 4 Vassalage-boosted buildings in the capital to get 10xp units. Currently I have Granary, Barracks, Market, Forge. That's a check.

Let's put this down for another reason to go to war.

[pindicator]

Turn 107

Krill has settled himself up to 15 cities. From what I know of his finances, he isn't doing too hot though. I dont think I've seen him save more than 60g at a time. Perhaps he's been running near break-even to mask things, though. Still, he's managed to tie me for city lead, at least in the near term.

In the north I spotted the barb city had lost 2 warriors in the IT. Somebody is attacking it from the north, and with just 1 barb left I took the 75% chance and attacked with my chariot:




I burnt it, of course.

Looks like Cheater Hater was farming XP off the guys; his chariot sits at 9. Ironically so does mine now, both of us 1xp away from what we need. And 30g wasn't much of a haul. I can't even run 100% science this turn. And looking at 100% science, it would come up just short of letting me tech Aesthetics this turn. Which is a shame because Hanging Gardens finishes this turn and it'd be nice to just run straight into Statue of Zeus.

Oh, we're close, let's see how much it takes to get there:




Not a whole lot, actually

[pindicator]

Sounds like there may be a little break here with the server going down.

I finished Hanging Gardens and with it the uncomfortable point lead. I'm not used to playing with a target on my back, but the free 15 pop is pretty sweet.

And then I didn't switch into slavery. I finally am able to, 15 turns later, but I also want to switch to Vassalage soon amd not wait another 15 turns to start getting the military bonuses from vassalage.

I added up the vassalage -boosted buildings in my empire and it is clearly superior to Bureaucracy. It's also paradoxically cheaper to be in high-upkeep vassalage than medium-upkeep bureau because of the free unit support. The only advantage Bureaucracy gives is it concentrates the hammers in one city, which is great for building wonders. And so I'm waiting at most 3 turns while I build Statue of Zues or fail at it. Then we'll swap to HR, Vassalage, Slavery, and maybe Organized Religion. I still have no temples so I probably don't want to give up the +2c on steles quite yet.