[spoilers] - Pindicator makes America great again!

[pindicator]

Turn 113

Eventful inter-turn events:



Here's hoping 2metra builds us another wonder with that engineer.

As far as who built the Great Wall, only Old Harry and OT4E had point increases enough to cover a wonder being built.

Our settler for the iron moved into position:




Considering I have no worker support in the area for him I'm considering not planting the city until either (1) I want to build a sword, or (2) I get one of those dye jungles chopped. However, it will still be 7 commerce coming in, which i think will be about the same as the cost of a new city, so I probably will plant it anyway just to get the 10-turn border pop timer going, and to get hammers going into the barracks. I could also just steal one of O'Malley's mines, although I do want those hammers going into horse archers...

Speaking of horchers, don't they look gallant, moving across the plains towards so? Pretty much the only thing I have going for me in this game right now. And I made sure to show TBS that I have them, moving the one finished from Bush onto the same time as his Impi. I strongly suspect he is building wealth to finance his research, and I want him to get nervous enough to slow down that research and build some more units. Because i want to be able to dig myself out of the hole that I'm going to be in after this war. Well, I'm already in a hole. The apex of my civ was somewhere around when we grabbed Currency and we've been slowly sliding down the scoreboard ever since then.

And speaking of spots to settle, I found myself another one!



I look forward to 30 turns from now where I can debate whether it's better to settle that crab first ring or put it second ring where I can also pick up the forests and plains hill in the BFC


Invasion Force Update

Current Units: 2 horchers, 1 chariot
Completing this turn: 1 Stables (Cruz)

[pindicator]

Turn 114

Invasion Force Update

Current Units: 2 horchers, 1 chariot
Completing this turn: 1 Stables (Drumpf), 1 Barracks (Sanders)


I held off on settling the iron city this turn, as I want to have it worked an improved tile, and there will be a mine finishing next turn. It can work that and build a granary while I chop and farm one of the jungled dye tiles.

Found Commodore in the north, here's hoping that translates into filling out the remainder of my trade routes at end of turn.

Oh, and this happened:



Kudos to mack for winning the game. If he doesn't get too down on his odds I think he can beat out Old Harry here.

I mean, this is why I said I lost on turn 0. Mack pursued the right strategy from the start: grow tall and use the tallness to fund reasonable expansion. But since I grabbed a fricking grow-wide combination, I went with wide from the start. And so I moved my capital off the coast to a spot where I could get settlers out a little quicker. Which turned out to be an awful idea. But how could I have known? Moving off the coast also pretty much eliminated me from the race to build Great Lighthouse, which we correctly identified as the right path (or rather, Scooter did -- kudos). But witihout a capital on the coast there was no way to compete when other teams correctly identified it as well. I'm not even sure Bureaucracy is going to be worth it for me: Drumpf has no commerce, and finding that good city to later shift the capital to just never happened.

Silver lining? Mack getting Civil Service effectively doubled my known civ bonus. So we're looking at a 48% bonus to beakers put into Math now, instead of 20% for teching it first (and the 34% it was last turn).

Darker linings? Aesthetics was researched by someone this turn. One of these games I'll build SoZ...

[pindicator]

I bet the next game I'm going to play in the map is going to be one of those fantasy toroid scripts. And the mapmaker will incredulously exclaim: "But nobody ever told me not to use the fantasy script!"

[pindicator]

Turn 115

Although I would hold off on it longer if I could, I decided this was the turn to settle city #14:




It came out about even: nets a loss of 2 for GNP, but since that also takes into account the culture from Stonehenge it means that we lost 3 commerce overall. In exchange another 1 food and 6 hammers - perhaps I should just set this city on build wealth after it's granary finishes... I would have waited longer, but I decided Sanders is going to build some swords for the invasion. Not the most useful things for running through 2metra's countryside with, but they will be helpful for taking the first city, and helpful in future wars.

I feel like the Democrats really did us a disservice this year. There are just so many Republicans to choose names from and so few Democrats. I'm still only with candidates that appeared on at least one state's primary ballot too; I don't know if I'll get to the ones that don't appear on any of the ballots.

3 turns away from Math. I was thinking a bit about that as the next tech choice, but my hammers are going to go into units, so I need to get Calendar now and get commerce that my workers can pull in. Later on we'll grab Metal Casting and Code of Laws, when cities are building infrastructure again.



Invasion Force Update

Ground Units: 2 horchers, 1 chariot
Naval Units: 2 galleys
Completing this turn: 3 horchers (Clinton, Cruz, O'Malley), 1 galley (Rubio - whipped)

[pindicator]

Turn 116

Everybody must have had the idea to get Aesthetics all at the same time; 2 more civs grabbed it this last turn. I'm guessing our golden age civs are both trying to make a play on the Music great artist.

In my humble empire, we finally turned on the tech for Math. 2 turns away, and I didn't think to delay chops until last turn. Well, we still have a few forests left.


Invasion Force Update

Ground Units: 5 horchers, 1 chariot
Naval Units: 3 galleys
Completing this turn: 2 horchers (Drumpf, Bush),


We haven't done a stitch in a long time, and I didn't bother to make sure I got all the resource icons, but anyway... enjoy! (Caution: it's a large image, even shrunk down to 75%)

[Aurorarcher]

I'm not seeing the last pic in spoilers. Is it showing for you properly?

EDIT: I am seeing it now, I guess the erroer was on my end.

[pindicator]

It may have just taken a while to load because of the size

[Fenn]

Thanks for the beautiful stitches.

They give me an appreciation for how desolate your land is.

[pindicator]

Thanks Fenn! I use a program called Image Composite Editor, makes panoramas and stitches really simple to do.

[pindicator]

Turn 117

Another opponent grabbed Aesthetics; now half the field has the tech after nobody owning it as little as 5 turns ago. I would if this is deliberate chasing or if the RB meta is so set that everybody does the same thing at the same time now

As for me, I just managed to squeeze in Math this turn with a few Wealth builds in cities that aren't contributing to the war machine. But I'm falling pretty far behind by diverting so many resources towards units and not towards building Wealth. (Although it also shows just how awful my land is - that I have a comparable number of cities, but am absolute shit in GNP.)

Invasion Force Update

Ground Units: 7 horchers, 1 chariot
Naval Units: 3 galleys
Completing this turn: 1 horcher (Cruz), 1 chariot (De La Fuente), 2 galleys (Kasich - whipped, Rubio - whipped)

We set sail in 5 turns!