[Spoiler] Fintourist loses his multiplayer virginity

[Old Harry]

"COME ON TIM!" ?

Does circumnavigation usually fall in the news at the start of next turn? It's been a while since i got it...

[Fintourist]

"COME ON TIM!" ?

That's actually pretty funny! Unlike your previous suggestion..

Does circumnavigation usually fall in the news at the start of next turn? It's been a while since i got it...

I bugged Seven with this and he guessed that it will be calculated when the year changes.. So the next report will be full of bananas, ranting or (again) a whole bunch of

[Old Harry]

"CANNOT BE SERIOUS" might not fit...

[AutomatedTeller]

Nav bonus comes in at the beginning of the turn. I believe it's like a wonder - you completed it this turn, get it next turn.

For azza - well, he's imp, so he builds settlers. The question is - does he still have an economy?

As for culture - you have a religion and you can found with that crab in your inner 9. it's your tile (unless azza is creative or has henge, in which case you might not get it)

[Fintourist]

Nav bonus comes in at the beginning of the turn. I believe it's like a wonder - you completed it this turn, get it next turn.

I'm sure your right (I hope!). Although when I complete a normal wonder it is visible in the city and the event log immediately after ending the turn. So this circumnavigation thing works differently. It is possible that I'm not the only one who managed to fill the criteria this turn so maybe I'm in a coin flip situation

For azza - well, he's imp, so he builds settlers. The question is - does he still have an economy?

Azza's economy is currently not as strongs a mine. I am ~1000 beakers ahead (my guess is 3264 vs. 2254) and the difference is growing. However, Azza is FIN so if he grabs a lot of land he can build fast a solid cottage economy. Moreover, I believe he has Currency so I don't think he is no way near crashing his economy.

As for culture - you have a religion and you can found with that crab in your inner 9. it's your tile (unless azza is creative or has henge, in which case you might not get it)

Azza has no own religion (pretty certain), CRE or henge. I have the henge and I will swap into OR in 5 turns so I will definitely have a missionary ready when founding that site. However, that city will still have to wait ~20 turns because it needs immediately a bunch of military and worker support, I'll tech IW in around 15 turns and I feel that I have to secure couple of island spots first.

[Fintourist]

Turn 87

This pic pretty much sums up the turn:




I got it! If my opponents leave me alive I will promise that they will enjoy dealing with my 5-move Galleons and Frigates. 50 % speed increase for Galleys and Triremes will also have an impach on both my economics and available military tactics.

You can alse see that "Come on Tim!" was founded and thanks to my amazing micro skills it immediately has fish hooked up and granary chopped.

Unfortunately my opponents are also progressing.. Azza settled his 10th city! Quite a respectable amount for 700 BC. I was this turn the 2nd to settle my 7th city.. That really shows how rapidly he is going horizontal here. I've seen many games from Azza where his game has been compromised due to an early war that have emerged for various reasons. But this time everyone still has so much expansion room that I guess nobody is going to ruin his plans in the near future. It is interesting to see what kind of results his strategy creates. Damn, it would be great if Azza had started where Viqsi is right now.. I'm pretty sure Azza will complicate my expansion in many ways.

I also believe that Sareln also researched Currency. According to my calculations he has now 22 trade routes available. Hmm.. Should I close the borders? I would simply lose 2 commerce + a diplo hit. Azza's 10 and Hydra's 6 cities are enough for me now and I will soon get a trade route to Viqsi that is not dependant on open borders with Sareln.

On the other hand, Sareln can get a maximum of 9 domestic +2 commerce routes. He also gets 12 routes to Hydra and Viqsi. So basically he only needs one route from me.. Again this prisoners dilemma.. Closing borders does not really do that much good yet. I think as soon as he settles his 7th city I will close borders and reoffer them with a request of couple of gpt's that are aligned with the value he is getting from me.

Ok, I cannot apparently stop writing. Here is the pic of my hero:



There is also Sareln's 6th city... and a 3rd gold resource.. Seriously!!!

In the next pic you can see Azza's 5th city quite close to Hydra's core. I hope he pushes into that direction and completely neglects the area between us..

[Fintourist]

Turn 88

4 pop whipped away for 2 settlers. 4 pop received at the end of turn. Granaries surely are nice city improvements.. You can see two gallys in the screenshot that are ready to transfer my settlers to their respective island sites:



You can also see that I finished CoL. Three To A Can became the holy city of Confucianism. That city does not really need that culture but oh well, maybe I get an extra vision that might be useful when protecting against post-Astronomy attacks against Sareln.

Civil Service next.. That is definitely needed in the tech race because that damn GLH combined with bunch of gold tiles does mean that I'm not the only one, who is researching fast...

[Fintourist]

Turns 89 & 90 + State of the World

Here we go again. Let's start with my western cities:


Main points:

• Settler-axe-pair landed safely into the island. They will soon be joined by a worker and a spear.
  
• Spices are connected. Nice!
  
• Capital produces 4 extra gold from wealth this turn. Next turn it will start putting hammers into a missionary.
  

And here are the eastern cities. (My island city in the north is currently at size 3 building an axe that will be whipped next turn. Overflow will go into a lighthouse.)

Main points:

• Settler+Warrior will land next turn. Worker will follow 1 turn behind. The main defender (Axe) will arrive in 2 turns
  
• My 7th worker was born in DV. It will have work to do!
  

But the most interesting news is surely this:

The first great person of the game! Next turn I will fire my first golden age. Lots of stuff will be happening then!

State of the world

Let's start with my favorite overview illustration:

Key takeaways:

• I have finally more or less caught up Sareln in the tech front.
  
• Hydra, Viqsi & Azza are approximately 1200-1600 beakers behind
  
• Azza is the clear leader in the city count. If he has an appropriate worker support for those cities he is surely doing well
  
• Viqsi was the leader in the expansion still ~20 turns ago. Now the pace has decreased a bit, maybe due to limited use of whipping
  
• Sorry Hydra, but currently it seems that you are clearly behind the pack. When we also take into account that you don't have a single real military unit you definitely should have more pop or techs researched. I believe that you are partly suffering because of slowest starting techs (Mysticism) and lack of early game traits (SPI/ORG). (compared to e.g. EXP or IMP that all my other opponents have)
  

EOT90 demos:

Rival best in GNP is Sareln researching Monarchy with a huge 52 % research bonus. The difference between us is pronounced as I'm collecting cash right now. Our actual tech rates are quite close to each other. I think I'm teching slightly faster overall.

Here are the graphs+comments for the interested:

Food:

The effects of Azza's 10 cities and Hydra's problems are clearly visible here

Production:

This is my weak point. Sareln is currently putting lot of hammers into something (probably settlers or MoM?)

GNP:

Me and Sareln are producing the most culture but the gap is still there.

Power:

I have actually the most soldier points when it comes to actual units. But yeah, no real militaries anywhere. Hydra should still produce an axe or two...

Thanks for following along!

[Old Harry]

I'm not happy with the tiles worked graph - it doesn't take whip cycles into account - so I think you need to do an average over ten turns! How much time are playing and reporting the turns taking you at the moment?

[Fintourist]

I'm not happy with the tiles worked graph - it doesn't take whip cycles into account

You are right! Different whipping cycles do affect the graph. However, at this point everyone has enough cities so that they aren't all in the same rhytm, which mitigates the effect. And still, the effect is so small that it does not really change the message of the graph. It does not really matter whether someone is couple of pop points too right or left in the graph because the graph will never be an absolute truth. It is just a rough illustration of the situation.

so I think you need to do an average over ten turns!

Because everyone is growing I think it would show roughly how the situation was ten turns ago! Or at least I would not know anymore how to correctly interpret the graph So I guess I will stick with my more simple graph and accept its flaws

How much time are playing and reporting the turns taking you at the moment?

I think a standard turn takes now 10 minutes, because I'm typically first looking the save, and then I look my latest sandbox simulation regarding the current turn so I don't miss anything and then I actually play the save. Although since this is my first game I very often stare the game for additional ten turns and simply make sure that I don't forget anything important.

I do the C&D between the turns and that takes usually 10-15 minutes. However, sometimes there are more complex situations when players have both grown, whipped, received land points and researched a new tech.. There have been couple of turns that have taken a good while to crack.

What takes the most time, is the actual planning. I'll try to always have at least a rough plan how I will manage my civ during the next 5-10 turns. How much time I have for that depends a lot of my RL situation. But I think it's fair to say that I'll spent at least couple of hours sandboxing every two weeks. When I have not that much work I do it more often.

Well reporting takes time. Since my English skills are only moderate typing these messages is not so fast. I believe doing a big update like last turn takes almost an hour. I would not do it unless it would also be fun to analyze the game, but I hope still that my opponents appreciate it afterwards

Now it's time for turn 91 It's still night in the US where Hydra is located so I'm not in a rush to play it though.