[Mjmd #52 no players] Working on the Homestead

[Mjmd]

Man that tech oopsie is sooooo bad. I think I'm going to be one turn short. I'll probably turn off tech for 1 turn next turn (so that library cities can regrow). I think I'm still settling my next two cities in two turns. I want the SE city to grow culture to hit all its good stuff pronto. I could wait on the fill the space city I guess,  but I'll have two workers there to improve the sheep. I guess they could prechop and wait. Anyways I'll probably finish Calendar after currency because why not at this point. I have two resources in borders for it which will be worth something. After that I will go to horsebackriding because I have a very fortified barb city to take.

Did I mention it looks like I have infinity room to expand to the west? Yummy yummy grassland river and TONS of forests for Indian workers. Unless there is a landbridge southwest? Maybe Gira is just Northwest and this was supposed to be a contested area? Scout will go NW. Axe will check SW. The cow barb city isn't size 2 yet, which is too bad because it had 3 warriors in it when my scout zipped by. The sheep copper has 3 fully fortified archers. TECHNICALLY I could take it with the axes I have...... However, I'll probably just wait on horse archers as my best odd are only 66%. Some of my axes will go back east just in case.




Settled horse city of Time, which long term is just a fishing village with a bit of production, but it can help grow a few cottages. It will probably get a library at some point, but no market. I'll go into name of this city and next two once they are all settled. For now I'll just point out how much time it took me to road here......

World news the only thing of note is that SD has been doing A LOT of single pop whips. If they were double pop whips I would think Hanging Gardens. He is imperialistic so maybe he just let them sit in que for a bit like I did up at Pork Chops (double whip there but overflowed nicely that way and had to wait for whip unhappy). OR he is being SD and going to war, which seems odd if people have as much room as I do (again I prob border Gira though). I still suspect HG as no one else is whipping in response yet. 11 one pop whips; 1 two pop whip over last 7 turns. Most of them happened 3 turns ago at turn 90.

El Grillo. After calendar > archery > horsebackriding >masonry (forgot I need to improve the stone), what are your thoughts? Construction for safety? Also with all those forests I could brute force a wonder(s) pretty easily even with the nerf to resource production and I have marble available eventually (can settle next after this round of settlers (prob turn 105ish, 10 turns for border pop). Question being what wonder. Great Library? Obviously those forests could also become a massive army of War Elephants as well, or even Knights down the line........ (more likely as right now have plenty of room). So could go that direction for tech. Choices choices, but not for many turns.

[El Grillo]

1-pop whips in that number are presumably military, how's the global average/top soldier rating looking? It looks like you haven't actually met superdeath yet, so there's that at least.

Just a thought, CR Swords also do a pretty good job against flatland fortified Archers, HAs are less hammer-efficient against them but HBR is well worth knowing for WEs, and I'd definitely recommend Construction soon after Calendar. Need to keep up deterrents/appearances with Charriu after all

[Mjmd]

This is why I love having a dedlurker; asking the obvious questions I've just not been focusing on because it doesn't pertain to me. Looked at the demo's this turn, but was mainly looking at food, just because really.

I'm at 7th at 100K; top is 200K. I have 8 axes 5 spears for reference. Obviously could be barracks, walls, additional tech in there, but maybe he is attacking someone. Shrug. Will find out as he is easy to spot in a turnsplit.

So Pindicator is in a war. If SD is also going to go to war. Who is building Hanging Gardens??????? That fill the space spot could brute force it out. How many workers can I get over there......... Could obviously go masonry after calendar. I had kind of given up on it after my war, but it is still is out there.

[Mjmd]

Pindicator is actually NW of me. I can barely see his culture this turn. Looks like a city 6 tiles above that western Z. Definitely want to block off the west for backfill. May not be urgent assuming he has spots to contest with Mr Cairo up there. Still, gives me a goal. Gira scout must have scurted around Pin or gone through Mr Cairo. I'll go meet him next turn in case he knows currency (seems likely). Updated map in a few turns when I know area better / it isn't 5 am......

[El Grillo]

I haven't been keeping much of an eye on it but the recent spike in posts for this game, combined with those 11(!) whips from SD, is awfully spooky. Keep an eye on top and global Power in the upcoming turns. I'd bet my hat that that's a stack of a dozen or more Horse Archers about to hit someone.

[Mjmd]

Gira is down to 1 city as well. I assume he WAS in my direction; I'll do a screenshot shortly. I was really hoping he would hold out a bit longer. I might have to sprint a bit more over there if Pindicator isn't SD's assumed target.

It was 12 (11 one pop, 12 two pop).... this turn another 5 (3 one pop, 2 two pop). So I will check global power again next turn.

Carriu settled a city for the sheep far to the east, assuming has a seafood over there.

My plan is just trying to expand quickly west and have a natural border with Pindicator. I totally forgot to check how many cities he currently has, but he does not have currency yet (both good and bad). I think i finish mine in 3 turns. I run out of gold in two, but if my poor math is correct I can still finish at break even the next turn.

I did send a second scout up into AT to try to meet more people that way and get a better sense of the map.

[Mjmd]

I think that is Pin's main territory up there. 100% his culture. There is an injured axe, but assuming barb. This war hasn't been free for him. You'll note the grassland cow outside his culture. He could have built a monument for, but probably built more units instead. Pin did 3 one pop whips this turn. Maybe SD is going to attack him?

Barb city has an improved cow which hopefully means it will grow soon. You can see Pin's workboat down there. I wonder if boats are required for circumnavigation or not. You can see I've started scouting NE with a scout. I'm hoping to complete via land. You can see why AT wanted that city soo bad now. Clam gems early. Banana and sugar at calendar. Still not sure it was right with how early he settled it. Looks like he got a free barb city too right near his capital interestingly, which means he has settled only other directions.

Mr Cairo got currency this turn, sadly it wasn't quite enough to push me down to 1 turn. Needed literally anyone else to have. Sadly don't know SD or Jowy yet. Should be easy to get still the next turn. Still kicking myself. I don't know if I've ever done that mistake in my single player games grr....

So I'm already running out of things I like Maple Syrup on (I could keep putting different types of meat but that's repetitive). I have a couple more, but I didn't have 3, so I think I'm going to start going into the process itself. I'll do a separate post a little later, but 3 new cities are Time, Some trees, and Low Budget. Other option is to rename all the cities, but meh to that.

If anyone has recipe suggestions feel free to put them in the thread. Preferably ones not requiring liquid maple syrup. I've had good success with using maple sugar itself substituting, but any time I try to substitute maple syrup into recipes it is supposed to work in it never goes well.

[Mjmd]

Yep; SD v Pin. SD took a city off of Pin this turn. So I have FOREVER to take all that land over there.

Back to my question. If SD and Pin are fighting, who is building Hanging Gardens? We know Chairru has had stone and masonry for a while.......... but I could whip / chop out a few more workers. Then whip out some settlers / take the northern barb city (western one I will take as soon as hits size 2). Prechop a whole bunch of forests somewhere. Maybe even the double cow barb city; has more forests and natural production. Can either chop out Hanging Gardens OR do mausoleum then. Would mean I would have to settle for Marble soonish. But again I think I have time..... Or place the crab city at a non optimal position 1W. Not sure why Pin gets a great location for Marble and I get crappy location for mine. I think I would prefer Hanging Gardens though, but it is super late for that as is.

I'm kind of liking chopping out some workers from Some Trees and using whips where I can on settlers in any case. Lets crash hard!!!!!! To be fair half of my eastern cities will want to whip out markets. I also plan on not whipping Salmon and it is going to slowly slowly start on a great scientist. Probably not for my capital. I'm thinking Pork Chops actually. I know synergy with Bureaucracy, but if we end up with a large empire it is possible we just end up in vassalage at some point for some knight action. Pork chops has enough food to cottage every tile in its cross. All the Brandy thoughts.

[Mjmd]

I met everyone else this turn. Met Jowy over in AT land. He evidently has a peace treaty atm with Chairiu which is interesting. It is good to note that despite the early war I am not horrifically behind in city count. By my count I can place 8 cities without even touching the jungle below Mr. Cairo / East of Pin, but maybe I can get another in there. So many places to expand! there is a very obvious dead zone if you draw an imaginary line above my horse city / barb city, so even if this war is short I can't imagine not getting those spots if I try.

I also get to   the Pindicator SD war. As literally only El Grillo is dedlurking I'll probably not post pictures every turn, but I do appreciate you El Grillo, so here you go. Based on culture I'm assuming SD is forking a couple of cities atm. Also, based on number of whips, I'm assuming he invaded with two stacks and this is just one of them. I haven't seen any UU from Pin yet., but they could be on the old Gira front. Speaking of he exited last turn. Really sad he couldn't hold 1 city somewhere, I wanted 5% bonus beakers on archery. Plus hold out / come back stories are always great.

[El Grillo]

Exciting times, thanks for the screenshot! It sounds like there could be some border tension between Charriu/AT/Jowy in the east so you could have a great opportunity to fill in the void toward ex-girarober while everyone else is out of room. Even better if pindicator and superdeath get into a protracted stalemate where pindicator can’t pivot and hit you feasibly. Very curious where his Numidians are, could prove crucial in terms of how much damage superdeath can do here.

Has the border with Charriu and AT been quiet for the most part? Any critical tiles liable to flip in the south?