[SPOILERS] naufragar, Charriu, and Zalson's Threepenny Opera

[naufragar]

Well, we found another luxury.


I think we bring the warrior home to fog bust or garrison; the odds of meeting another player down here are slim, and we won't be settling further south than this for a while. What do you all think?

[Charriu]

A luxury and in such a convenient place. 

Don't worry about meeting anyone here. I see ice SE of there. But I encourage you to move on just to make sure this doesn't connect back to Commodore. It probably connects to the tundra in the west. But maybe a workboat can finish the exploration.

[naufragar]

We are indeed on an island, but note what I've highlighted in red.


I think this means BGN and we have a defogged route between our capitols, but we haven't caught sight of each other. This happened on turn 55. Bafford's borders popped on turn 54, so there's a chance that BGN is to our east. There's the additional chance that he caught a glimpse of Bafford's borders like we have with Commodore. We're thin on units, but all of our cities are coastal, so I guess it's time to get defenses up. Archery due next turn. ETA on our overseas colony is 6 turns.

[naufragar]

The turns are getting more involved. We need to improve the right tiles, keep planting cities, build an army, and especially on this map, build a dominating navy. Look at these islands:


Donovan Zoi landed the Oracle a couple turns ago. Presumably took Metal Casting (which unlocks triremes and Colossus. And Donovan is Financial. Hey big spender!   ). Well, at least it won't go late enough for someone to take Feudalism or whatever.

We're building granaries now. I'm feeling the bite after I whipped without them a couple times. Then we desperately need more settlers to reinforce our western land grab. Here's a bit where I struggled with the micro. It's the next two turns for our axe/settler (in red) and boat (in blue).


For some reason, I thought that since the axe is a 1-mover and the boat is a two mover, it'd be faster to have the boat backtrack  to pick them up. This is faster by a turn. I had said 6 turn ETA for our next city, but I forgot we can't cross ocean. We have to take the long way. This difficulty will go away 5 turns after founding our colony because our culture with form a bridge.

[naufragar]

Our pioneers have made landfall.



That eastern pig is not as interesting as I'd hoped.



Research is set to Mysticism. From there, it'll be Masonry, Polytheism, Aesthetics, Literature. I'm getting nervous. Deviating from Currency is scary for me. But it'd be a shame not to use our marble, and we're going to want lots of Great Scientists for Astro. Eventually, Bafford's will get the National Epic too.

[Charriu]

I just noticed that you made contact with Commodore between screenshots. (The last two)

[naufragar]

I just noticed that you made contact with Commodore between screenshots. (The last two)

I DIDN'T!! (Maybe I forgot to move a boat 1 tile at a time and I blew past him?) Therefore, let me walk you through how this turn felt for me.


"Hmm. Interesting. We have contact with Commodore. Well, it's not like I can do anything about it now."




"     Well that's just terrible."



Here are his cities.

We found a neighbor. So be it. We had to meet Commodore eventually. Wait, what's this?


Hello BGN/Xenu. Had to happen eventually. I don't think there's much point hiding from them. We'll make contact next turn.

But wait there's more!


That's Rusten land out there. Looks like that pigs tile is going to be a stretch. I won't make contact. I'll just keep scouting around the pigs.



Never mind! Alright folks. On this day in history, turn 65, we met 3 neighbors and found out that we don't actually have a whole bunch of free overseas real estate.    I've put our EP focus onto Commodore.

Here are Rusten's cities. Rusten's doing Rusten things and out expanding me.



If Commodore moves the chariot onto the hill, we have to attack. Chariots only get offensive bonuses versus axes. Our axe will have a 75% chance to win. If you were Commodore, would you move in? He doesn't know what the city is garrisoned with, if anything. So he might move to the hill to take a peek. I suspect that next turn I'm rolling the dice on that 75% outcome. We can get a spear there in ~4 turns. I think this is a scouting chariot, but he very well may have a second one. Can it get to our city before our spear?  

Here are the demos.


Lowest rival pop is superdeath with two 1-pop cities. He founded one last turn. I imagine this means he has peace with Commodore, who now has all the time and focus to devote to me. Yippee. I think if we can find superdeath, he and I are going to be real good friends this game.

Finally, an overview.


Game got interesting.

[Charriu]

Boy, what a hard turn of events. Well at least the Rusten island looks so bad that we propably wouldn't have settled it very soon.

Commodore has to declare war if he moves to the hill so I don't see any reason not to attack him. But this is the exact stuff I feared and why I think it was better not to make contact. Now Commodore has to assume that you settled "his" continent unknowing of his presence. Because he is/was already in a conflict with Superdeath he might not want to antagonize you.
I think the way you got contact with you is by starting on the same tile as he is now. Last turn he moved 1NE, saw your galley and moved back 1SW. That way you didn't saw him. But this also means he knows that you two are propably not on the same landmass.
I doubt that he has a second chariot around that area. You just met him last turn, so he couldn't know you are there. It's propably just a scout. Nonetheless if he moves in it's time to kill his chariot.

[naufragar]

I'm falling behind in reporting; sorry. Commodore did declare war and move to the hill. He then offered peace. When I logged in to the peace offer, I was able to use the military advisor to see his chariot. I figured ten turns of enforced peace beat taking a shot at the chariot with a 25% chance of losing the city. This was three turns ago.

None of our neighbors have met each other. Here's BGN's closest city (as of two turns ago).


It's growing like a weed, now at size 4. It must be working a couple fish. Unfortunately this can't be boated from the fog, but I wish I were in a position to challenge him here. He has one more city than us plus a religion and he's obviously able to do that by skimping on military. I think we have enough on our hands, though.

Rusten offered corn for rice, and I agreed. We want to be pushing west anyway.

I'm gotten cold feet about the Great Library plan and tech path. I'm currently researching alphabet (just started), having finished mysticism. I think we save gold for ~4 turns and then the actual tech takes us 8. I want Currency before the Library, basically. Because of the enforced peace with Commodore I have to assume we're in a race for our next city on his continent. The settler for that is still a ways away, unfortunately.

[naufragar]

Turn 70 was a turn for great people.


The prophet was Donovan Zoi from Stonehenge. I don't know who got the great scientist, but I think early library plays are stylish, so good on whoever that was. The great general is interesting. Hopefully not Commodore...

I missed Gavagai landing the Great Lighthouse a few turns ago, but he did.

Edit: To expand on the Great General, whoever got this guy can get a 4-move or a couple 3-move galleys. In anybody's hands, this is terrifying. If it's Commodore, expect him to be thinking unkind thoughts about our western city.

Further edit: I hope whoever just spawned a great scientist isn't thinking about the Great Library. I still think Currency first (especially with 2 overseas routes) is the right call.