Spoilers!- Superdeath tries his best.

[superdeath]

I got the great library, popped a merchant.. I wanted a scientist but I used it to bulb code of laws. Maybe should have used it for cash for the upcoming golden age... But I will have something to build while I tech my way to knights. I'm looking likely, 15 turns from knights. Which should be competitive. I also look like I'll get the SoZ, and I'll have a heroic epic up and lots of workshops.. Should be exciting

[superdeath]

also 8 turns or so from colossus

[superdeath]

turn 136-137

Great Library grabbed. SoZ/Colossus/ToA to be grabbed over the next 2-5-3 turns respectively. im set to get either a Merchant or a Scientist by the end of my golden age, as both cities are 8 turns away. i have slightly more than 3 turns of 100% research going atm, which will allow me to burn thru priesthood-monarchy-and most of the way thru feudalism. With a combination of wealth builds and some tile manipulation i know i can get to machinery by the end of the GA. Knights no more than 15 turns away if that. My target once i get to knights is likely going to change depending on any wars that might break out. Charriu has Monarchy and is likely rushing to ChokeOnYous. So if i attack him it will be messy. Shallow has already built some spears, but i know if i attack him i can grab 3 cities before having to really consolidate. Rome is a juicy target, but i gotta make sure his army will be occupied elsewhere.. as 15-20 preats is a bit messy to deal with. And of course Magic has 15 units in his border cities already, if he notices that i get knights he will likely rush longbows if he hasnt already.

Rome got the MoM, so i have to grab as many wonders to keep GPeople points away from him, Shallow has 14ish cities, and i really want to take him down a peg. Id love to take out Charriu's two border cities, and then peace out but there is no guarentee ill be left alone by Shallow ( who would rush the gems city/ my heroic epic city ) Or magic who has plenty of motivation and hatred towards myself for razing his city.

My food is lower than the leaders and that is something that i cannot change atm due to having less cities, and a focus on production. I should take the lead in non-GA GNP, and should stay top 2 in production due to the many hills and many many workshops ill be building.

[img][/img]

[img][/img]

[img][/img]

[img][/img]

[img][/img]

[img][/img]

[img][/img]

[img][/img]

[superdeath]

turn 138-

Prepping for my either 2nd golden age, or an academy + merchant gold for the push to knights.. trying to decide what is better. Going straight for knights via golden age with Wealth builds to go as fast as possible.. or academy the cap that runs 2 free scientists, a bunch of cottages, and use merchant gold to fund the 100% research + maybe some HA upgrades? Guess it really depends on if i want to spend the ( have to check in a game ) i assume 700+ gold for 5+ HA upgrades. probably not worth it, i might just get as close to the 3rd GP as i can, and then run wealth everywhere while i wait for the 2nd GA? Decisions. . .

[img][/img]

[img][/img]

[img][/img]

[img][/img]

[img][/img]

Civ's units-

 [img][/img] [img][/img]  [img][/img] [img][/img] [img][/img]

Im not super happy where i am in the game, as the 3rd place runner up behind the "roughly" tied for first shallow/rome. Shallow has way too many cities for my likeing. IF i can beat him to knights before he grabs Lbows and pikes i would love to take a couple bites out of him. Rome, im simply waiting to see if he runs off and hits magic/Charriu/Shallow with any kind of force. I can easily take 2-3 good cities and threaten his cap in no time. Charriu... i cant really expand too much into his territory after taking his 2 front cities ( which IMO are bad plants ) because i will then be surrounded by even more Shallow culture.. Magic has shown that he has longbows, which add to his 20 unit count of defenders in his border cities with me. I get it magic, dont attack.. NO WORRIES. I would need 20+ knights to crack much from him atm.

Im not even sure building the colossus right in the border city with rome is all that great of an idea.. Other than the great library, all my other wonders will be in border cities.. TGLH-TOA-Heroic Epic-Colossus... i guess if i land SoZ next turn it wont be on the border, but it might as well be with how quickly shallow could get to it.

[superdeath]

been playing a bit of the new Magic the gathering - Arena beta. Not too bad. There are some obvious players that have either been playing FAR longer than myself, or have bought 100$ worth of virtual packs.. but i still manage to get some wins.

[superdeath]

Turn 143-

Landed all the wonders i was after, 2 turns left on my Golden Age. Next turn i pop a Great Merchant from The Flash, and then in 6-7 turns after that i should have the Great Scientist from Superman. And unless one of them can bulb Guilds, leaving the other to do something fun, my current plan is to pop the 2nd golden age and bum rush to Taj/Cuirs while building a stack of knights. I will finish Machinery EOT, and will begin building up gold for the next ga. My power has stagnated lately, but ive also been starving two cities for GP... and building forges. Now i begin building a win-the-game stack.

I suspect Elkad is going to attack Charriu soonish? Ill be ready to snipe his border cities with me, and i hope Shallow either attacks Elkad, or helps finish off Charriu whom i believe is probably rushing to Choke on you's which will be fun to play against.

Following predictions-

Elkad attacks Charriu
Shallow attacks either Elkad or Charriu
I eat two cities off of Charriu
Magic decides to either attempt to take a city off of me, or hammers Elkad
RFS slowly dies to some random attack.

Current rankings-

Shallow > Elkad > Myself > Charriu > Magic > RFS

I very firmly believe only the top 3 in this game have a chance to win outside of some really weird luck/stuff happening. Charriu stalled aganist Rome and didnt get enough of RFS to become competetive.. Magic had the misfortune to start next to me, and i felt threatened by exp/pro inca's expansion speed. RFS made some really.... Interesting decisions and didnt expand fast enough and ended up as lunch.


[img][/img]

[img][/img]

Graphs-

 [img][/img] [img][/img] [img][/img] [img][/img]

[superdeath]

t-144

Made a classic newb mistake and forgot that GA grants 100% more GP.. so it'l be closer to 8-10 turns till my next GA. I swapped to Vassalage/Slavery for the safety and for knights in 7 turns or so. I have my Great Merchant, and he can only partial bulb CS.. so ill just save him for GA. Im figuring i can use this 2nd GA to leap thru the tech tree towards nationalism and the Taj. Using the Taj GA to get to Cuirs/cav's before anyone else. ( i should be first to Knights by at least a little while ) ATM, with how Rome looks to be waiting to eat some of Charriu, and Shallow is waiting to pounce on rome.. it looks like so long as i can get good defenses in my ONLY iron city and my border cities with magic, i should be able to eat some of charriu to start off the fun!

[img][/img]

[img][/img]

[img][/img]

[img][/img]

[img][/img]

[img][/img]

[img][/img]

So to those of you lurking, there will be blood soon! Im also hoping to improve my power over the next couple turns because ive somehow fell down to 4th/5th in power, Shallow has really been cranking the units and Rome is in Police state and is making some units.. Cant wait for things to heat up :D

[superdeath]

t-148

Well. Elkad hasnt attacked Charriu, and Charriu has a fair amount of units in that area.. If elkad starts an actual war i WILL snipe charriu's border city with the iron.. as i desperately need a 2nd source to prevent someone like Shallow from just taking out my knight production. That being said, my Heroic epic city is the Iron city so it will be producing crossbows/longbows until the golden age/knights can be made. Once knights pop it will be non-stop production of them until i have conquered something worth the effort.

Current targets-

Border city with Charriu for extra iron.
Several cities off of Elkad if i spy that his main force is deep in Charriu/Shallow territory. kinda sneaky/backstabbing but he has a turn 1 city snipe on our border, and right after that is his cap. From there i can go straight down.
Shallows border cities if he commits to attacking Elkad.
Magic if he ever moves his 20 unit stack somewhere else.

Otherwise, im setting up to research guilds-thru nationalism during the golden age. I very likely wont get that far, but i hope to get most of the way thru philosophy before running out of juice. Im building the National epic in the cap because im sure there are better places to put it, but having 100% more Great Scientist points + golden age, ill pop another GS that might be able to bulb philo? Who knows..  

[img][/img]

[img][/img]
Elkad, Shallow, and Charriu are all churning out units.. I just need one of them to hit Someone and ill be happy.

[superdeath]

t-157

Setting up Superman for another great scientist in roughly 2-3 turns depending on if the Parthenon takes a turn off or not. Fairly sure ill be using him for an academy, which together with Buro isnt bad. Im currently teching towards the Taj and plan on using that golden age to tech gunpowdwer/military tradition and go hunting from there. Im hoping things heat up here soon, Shallow did several whips, elkad is below me in score now so i must have missed a couple whips from him, and charriu has some weakened troops in RFS territory with RFS looking like he is on his final turn/next to last turn.

[img][/img]

[img][/img]

I also offered open borders to Magic because im fairly sure i could use a couple trade routes, and im fairly sure he could as well.. Although i wont take offense if he doesnt accept, he showed a war elephant.. Dont know if that was intentional or not. I really want to have an actual border that is semi-safe. If elkad has engineering he can hit my border in two turns, Charriu and I have a very interesting border, and Shallows border is just stupid. Magic's border is my only "real" border and its very heavily armed on his side. I suppose that is part of the downside to trying to keep someone with super-early-game expansion civ/traits in check. Ill have to make double sure i want to do that in the future.  

War path is currently get some knights, take the 2 border cities of charriu's, then if elkad is busy somewhere slam into him. If not, tech into cuirs and try someone.

[superdeath]

a quick turn roll, means....  Another turn report!

Turn 158-

3 Turning philosophy and i have my GS setup to pop at the same time. ( would have loved to have bulbed philo...) after that, its continue to build knights while teching nationalism. Ive swapped to Buro/slavery to keep tech rate going and to stay somewhat safe incase someone tries to take a swing at me. My power is a bit lower than i want it to be compared to others, but Magic doesnt seem like he likely has an attacking stack, just defensive units. Shallow has a small stack on our border which i hope is just a counterstack to me. Elkad has the most swing power, whomever he hits will lose this game. Im trying to figure out what he is waiting on to smack his preats with, the longer he waits vs me, the more knights ill have. The longer he waits vs Charriu the more X-bows he will have. Shallow has his main stack right next to his border there, id love to see that clash..

im thinking The Hulk will be the city i build the Taj in. its got some nice base hammers, and a very nice chokepoint incase someone attempts to grab it before i finish it. I have to becareful not to become the "runaway" civ until its too late for the others. I really REALLY need some wars to start soon that dont involve me. Slow all of them down.

[img][/img]

[img][/img]

Graphs-

 [img][/img] [img][/img] [img][/img] [img][/img] [img][/img] 

Any questions? Anything i should include or not include in turn reports/updates?