(July 20th, 2017, 15:44)RefSteel Wrote: A screenshot of GJ's land should tell us where TGLH was built: Someplace that had a lot of forests when we traded maps but now has none. It only provides one extra trade route in coastal cities in RtR, but is still quite nice, obviously.
Great news on the religion spread! I'd be tempted to swap Muqa to the plains cottage (swapping to the mine when it completes next turn) and let Chubei work the plains cow (instead of the lake) to speed up its upcoming builds.
I`ll take a screenshot of Joey`s lands tomorrow. Getting to know where the GL is built is valuable information.
Muqa is currently on 25/35 hammers so we`re just about to finish the axe next turn with 35/35 hammers. The plan is to let it board the galley next turn and let it enter Kokejin already on turn 81. Getting a military unit out there is very good for my nerves. After the axe is done it can start working the plains cottage. It`s a good investment long term. The reason I let Chubei work the coast this turn is that it`ll grow in 2 turns. If it works the shared cottage it`ll grow in 3.
(July 20th, 2017, 16:11)JR4 Wrote: Muqa is currently on 25/35 hammers so we`re just about to finish the axe next turn with 35/35 hammers. The plan is to let it board the galley next turn and let it enter Kokejin already on turn 81. Getting a military unit out there is very good for my nerves. After the axe is done it can start working the plains cottage. It`s a good investment long term. The reason I let Chubei work the coast this turn is that it`ll grow in 2 turns. If it works the shared cottage it`ll grow in 3.
Good plan! (Just because I'm tempted to do something doesn't mean it's the right thing to do!) Note that after the axe is finished, Muqa will probably want to work the new mine (about to be complete with a chop next turn if I remember correctly). We could put the resulting hammers (from the chop) into a Lighthouse, a Library, another unit (generating a little overflow) or - if it keeps working the Cow instead of the new mine - another one-turn Worker. (Or of course we could spend that turn putting 45-47 food-hammers into a Settler.)
Also, I suspect we don't even need to check GJ's lands for missing forests: That would be the case if he built GLH in a new city that we hadn't heard of when we traded maps. More likely, all we have to do is check the "Top 5 Cities / Wonders" screen and the GLH will inform us that it's in Seven Mysteries (or wherever).
There is a Greek city without any forests left. I think The Great Lighthouse is visible on the map as well. It`s pretty close to us but not really vulnerable in the next turns. If we somehow can gain control of it we`d be in a great position.
Yup: That's the Great Lighthouse in Seven Mysteries. No surprise, as it was his second city - the one he aggressively planted toward us the way we planted Muqa aggressively toward dtay (and the way dtay planted Space Rock aggressively toward whoever is up to his north - and our southeast). When and if we attack State of Zijin, a threat to Seven Mysteries should definitely be part of the plan so he has to split his defenders to some extent, but since I don't think we're rushing to military techs apart from Archery, right now that's just dreaming.
I also want to say: I'm glad we finally got a religion spread to Chubei; it's more than a little frustrating that it happened one turn too late to start a Monastery instead of a Barracks. (We could put the barracks on hold, but that wouldn't really speed things up significantly. A better option might be to whip the barracks the turn after Chubei grows, taking advantage of its spare happy, so we can overflow into a Monastery if we want or a one-turn unit if necessary.)
A turn with lots of decisions to make. I whipped the barracks (good idea!) in Chubei and let Muqa build an axe. The axe in Muqa and the chariot right next to it boarded the galley which went SE. Next turn the axe can enter Kokejin. Actually I`m thinking of letting the chariot disembark in the city as well and let it board the galley again later. If we whip the settler in Borte next turn as planned it can join the galley on turn 83 along with the axe under training in Muqa and land on the gold island already on turn 85. After Muqa grows next turn it can start a settler which can finally build the corn/pigs site.Yes, I`m actually suggesting building that awesome site as our 9th city! Is it a crazy plan?
Our western chariot jumped off the galley and discovered a few interesting things. That fish is probably contested as at least 3 possible city sites could put culture on that tile. More islands out there is nice as long as we get there first.
The workers in Borte`s bfc were split again. One went NW to build a road and the other went E to start a cottage. The worker in Toregene`s bfc chopped down the forest. The library could be whipped next turn. I kept the slider at 100 % tax. After the screenshots were taken I switched Oghul Qaimish to a lake instead of the mine in order to grow next turn.
Graphs and demos. We caught up with dtay in power. He built his 8th city last turn. We can`t delay expansion much if we want to be competitive. Our crop yield is still looking good but we`re lagging a little bit in production.
Note that (at least) one of dtay's cities is actually a captured barb city - the one whose borders we were able to see when we traded maps. (We can see its now-yellow borders from the newly-expanded borders of Chubei.) The place may have just been defended by Warriors, but as it's certainly on flatland without cultural borders, a small number of Agg Axes with Cover (or even just C1 + CR1) would have had decent odds to lay waste to it even if it had fully-fortified archers defending, and even if the archers didn't attack out of the city (which idiotic barb archers sometimes do for no good reason). I don't think this is the city he lost to the barbs earlier on, because I think our map would show a road on that tile if that were the case. I suspect the barbs auto-razed their victim-city and that dtay later replanted on the same tile.
In any case, it's obviously nice to get a well-placed city like that one just by building some units you'd like to have around anyway, but there was really nothing we could have done to prevent him from getting it, because of the geography.
That said, if we want to expand further ASAP, it might be best to put at least one of the 30h chops we completed this turn into a Settler instead of an Axeman at Muqa and/or (especially) a Library at Toregene. (If we change the latter to a Settler, we could also work the forest hill instead of the lake, trading two coins for a hammer, if we so desired.
(July 22nd, 2017, 14:44)JR4 Wrote: Yes, I`m actually suggesting building that awesome site as our 9th city! Is it a crazy plan?
Dunno - but I like crazy plans! I assume the idea is to put the gold city (Bulugan) on the Bananas? Is there a plan to get its Worker labor done, or is it more about just planting our flag there with a defender or two and working the 3/1 deer tile for a while? [EDIT: The real question is whether we'll find some other critical contested sites to spread our military even thinner and delay the amazing corn/pig site even more! This game has been a little crazy altogether, but I think in a good way!]
Toregene switched to a settler build. (It now works the forest hill) and next turn it`ll have 40 hammers invested. That`s a good start and we could whip it out in a couple of turns. Muqa continued its axe as otherwise it`s difficult to build a defensive unit in time to board the galley.
I`m thinking about building on the bananas. It should give us a good food surplus right away (3 from the deer and another from the banana itself). If we follow that plan we`re really short on worker labor. Maybe the worker near Kokejin could enter the galley on turn 86 to get down to the banana city asap? It could chop for a couple of turns before entering the galley. Then we`d need another worker to Kokejin soon. Maybe we could start another galley in Muqa after the axe is done next turn. Building a third galley could be a bit of a waste though.
Dtay captured a barb city while we didn`t. Good for him. He still hasn`t settled up on us. There are no good city sites left on the border fortunately. Also, when I logged in there was a chariot/worker pair visible on the forest just outside of his port city NW of Muqa (FAQ). The chariot had a pending promotion. We need to be careful as to not allow dtay a cheap shot at one of our cities guarded by a lone axe. The chariot is probably entering a galley soon to check out his western islands. I`m very glad we decided to go for early scouting of the islands.
We whipped away a lot of population this turn. Oghul Qaimish is now size 3. Let`s see how Joey reacts to the cultural pressure. Borte needs to regrow asap and might take back the rice from Toregene until it reaches the happiness limit. We`re comfortably 1 turning Archery this turn. Currency is an 8 turn tech for us now. So tempting.
The axe/chariot pair jumped off the galley unto Kokejin this turn. The chariot could scout out the island in the coming couple of turns. The western chariot boarded the galley and could check out another island next turn.
Muqa is now building a worker (it has a lot of production and we soon need more workers I think). I let Chubei start a Monastery. The worker right next to Muqa was sent NE to chop a forest in Chubei`s bfc next turn. I don`t like skipping a turn like that but couldn`t find anything useful for it to do. Borte`s workers continued their duties. Toregene`s worker moved to a hill and will start a mine next turn. We should find a way of chopping down the forest near Oghul Qaimish soon.
Demos and graphs: We`ve built a bit of military and caught up with Dark Savant as well. Joey probably turned on science a couple of turns ago. Whipping away 6 population didn`t help our demos, obviously.
