[Spoiler] Any volunteers for a human sacrifice? Brennus of the Aztecs, by Krill

[Krill]

Turn 138 - War! What is it good for?

Answer: Stealing land.

This turn I was lucky, and azza played his turn an hour before I was ready to play, so I didn't have to hang around biting my nails. This is what greeted me, after moving my sentry chariot:

Well, azza moved his spear out of Celadon, removing the fortification bonus and culture defence, but now it is on a jungle the spear actually has an increase of 5% defensive bonus. Acceptable, and it does make it easier to take the city which is the critical part of the turn, and then reassess what I want to do. Unfortunately, no matter how I promote units, HA will attack the axe, and chariots will attack the archer.

The options then are to attack with a 2 promo or 3 promo HA, and with either F2 or shock. Now, I don't see the point in attacking with an F2 HA at this point, as the C2 shock HA will have odds to win, so unless I get really unlucky I should lose at most one HA taking the city. So, promote, and attack:

And promptly lose, but drop the axe to 0.8 health. Annoying, but whatever, can't win every battle. Promote a 6XP HA to C2 and attack the archer at about 70% odds and win at 1.7 health, so the HA will promote next turn, then clean up with a 0XP chariot to take the city, nothing special about the choices here.

Azza has no cities south of Celadon until Vermillion city, which is the next target. Keep the city, as it has a granary and light house (I have a screenshot from later on in the turn to check out), and already has Buddhism, so once it is culture bombed I have no need to build a culture building to continue putting culture into tiles.

Now for the hard decision. There are two units on the jungle protecting two workers, one axe and one spear. The spear will have odds no matter what I do to attack it, but a shock chariot will get odds on the axe, for 120 hammers of workers. The aim of this little jaunt isn't to capture workers though, it is to go and break azza completely so I can capture his land over the next 30 to 40 turns. I want Pallet Town, or at least Vermillion (a nice size 8 city that protects Saffron). I don't want to lose too many units, but if I don't attack that stack, azza will attack with his spear next turn, and maybe the axe, and delete the workers, so I'll likely lose at least one HA anyway to the spear, and maybe another to the axe. So attacking now and losing 1HA but also getting the workers is pretty much worth it, considering the extra XP might give me a promotion.

So, if I'm going to lose a HA in most scenarios I want to limit the likelihood of losing any more, so I'll promote one HA to C2 shock and attack the spear; this gives a 50% chance of dropping the spear to 49hp or better, which gives me 90% odds with a C1 shock HA to clean up.

Trolololol. Straight up win at 3.4 health, to 13 XP for another promotion, and that, I think, is WP sorted. HE, WP and SoZ anybody? That means I have two axes to deal with, both with fortification bonus on jungle, and two shock chariots with which to attack them. Well, the only difference between the chariots is that one is on 7XP and the other is 6XP, but that doesn't really affect anything at this juncture, and the odds are only about 75%, so onwards...

See? Well, I can't complain, I won with the HA which is the important part, so I can afford to lose a chariot. Clean up with a 0XP chariot...

Easy...

Praise unto the RNG Gods...

Losses: one 8XP HA, one 7XP Chariot, for 80 hammers total.
Captured: three workers, one size 2 city with religion spread, granary and light house. Total of 470 hammers. And most importantly, removed ivory from azza so he can't build WE to screw over my HA.

Next target: Vermilion city. I moved everything save the jags into Caledon. Next turn I could move them onto the tile 77 of Vermilion to attack on T140, or I can wait a turn for the jags to reach that tile to make sure azza doesn't have any surprises to attack my fast movers with. Next turn, T139, I can move the sentry chariot onto the fort to peek into the city, and then assess the situation, and if need be withdraw onto the hill.

And back to regular viewing. More ice balls for yuris to settle.

Chopping this hill this turn because azza has nothing in range to stop me, and I don't want him camping on that hill in 5 turns time making me waste resources trying to remove him. Next turn the workers will run all the way to the last grass hill to mine that, for the new pop point to work.

Sentries, I hope they don't do anything...smart. You can just see azzas warrior in this screenshot, I'm sending on jag to go deal with it so I don't have to divert a HA from the front instead.

Now to look at my tech speed without FR...

This is one of the cities I'm considering a court house in simply to get enough to build the FP. It'll likely save me 4 gpt by the time I get around to building it, but the market is more valuable.

MORE UNITS! Really need to continue building units until azza just capitulates. But I'm definitely building WP here and shoving a GG in to pump out 4 promo units. And after this turn, I'm not far from my first GG...

Really want an archer in this city...

Just churn out the archers until I got enough to cover all the important tiles. Once I get Construction (probably looking like turn 145 now) I should have enough archers and build some catapults for the attack towards Saffron and Cinnabar. Work the sugars as they are improved to grow, but not before.

The river grassland should be cottaged next turn to work, but after that I'm moving a couple of workers to the roaded jungle tile to cottage, so the turn that Calendar is in I can use 5 workers to immediately hook the banana. There will still be a worker or two around here moving over to the forest to chop it and hook this banana.

OK, this is a bit weird. I've given the horse to the new city, as 6 turns working the horse and a forest chop gets the granary completed, then it can work the banana to grow onto as many new cottages as possible. SMS needs to work the forest to complete the granary next turn with a chop, and the forest only needs 1 worker to chop it next turn to finish it. I need to move a worker to the road T141 sign, but I moved 2 workers to road in Pingos land this turn, so those two workers are going to do the road and chop. That leaves 2 workers that chopped this turn, and one spare that chopped jungle to chop jungle next turn, and then plantation the banana on T140. After this, it's chopping jungle and cottaging tiles to grow onto, and repositioning workers for new cities.

Nazul have sentries out, making sure I don't go any further east than here, but now I have to wait and see if they are going to try and take advantage of me being distracted. Hopefully this wall dissuades them...

I'm going to slow growth by a single turn again here, to work another plains tile, so I save more food in the granary. Probably worth it...but not exactly top of my priorities right now.

Azza has been so preoccupied with his east that he has totally neglected his north. He tried to second guess where I was going to attack, and this is the result. Three dead axes, a dead spear, dead archer, three lost workers and no control over his choke point. I won't actually build culture here, the turn after revolt ends, I'll culture bomb it, and work the two farms. The captured workers will road the forest to give me a path I control into the city, so I do not rely on Pingo. Beyond that, I'm not sure what to build. Probably slow build an archer so I can whip it if needed? I will definitely have to get some archers over here from SMS and Opportunism.

Apart from the resources, everything is cottaged and windmilled. Everything.

City maintenance is going to be a total bitch very shortly. Get Calendar, then Construction, then CoL and I might even go so far as to whip a few of those court houses.

Not even much of a dent in the soldier numbers so far...and the GNP number isn't that painful to look at, either.

[Krill]

Editor's note: This is a weird turn report to repost, at a rather weird time...

Turn 139 - Well played, azza

Er, what? Not the diplomatic offer I expected to receive this turn, and as no one has maps of my starting area, I'm not interested in trading my maps just yet.

OK, this is where things start to become a bit more interesting. There is a single warrior in Vermilion city, and I have a 15 strong stack ready to attack it. Even if azza gets two spears here (and he hasn't slaved Vermilion), it falls. To put this into perspective, I'd say I'm odds on to raze Vermilion AND Pewter city, but I don't think I'll be able to take Pallet Town even if I beelined it. There should be at least 4 spears in Pallet Town by the time I could attack it. But razing two cities containing over 18 pop points is not a bad returns for that stack, considering as I should be able to keep a third of it alive.

Ah. I didn't think azza had three axes in Saffron. Oh dear.

OK, this is where things get a bit weird. Three axes, if they all have cover, is enough to have about 80% odds of taking the city against three archer, with the three spears being able to clean up most of the time. I'm not sure that they all have 3XP to promote with, but I think it's a fair assumption as most of the large cities that azza has have barracks. The annoying thing is that I should have withdrawn the G2 archer last turn (considered it, but as I said, I didn't think azza had 3 axes to attack with). This, or moving a HA down here would have meant I wouldn't have much to worry about.

Now, there aren't any good solutions to save Opportunism. The only real option is the one azza has forced, perhaps unintentionally: Peace. Is it an option? Well, if I want to be sure of saving Opportunism...pretty much, yeah, it's the only option. azza wouldn't want to lose half his core and I don't want to lose the major front city I've built a strategy around. Sure I could recapture it if azza didn't raze it but I'm not sure azza would even hold it, and if he did he'd have 6 pop for him to slave spears with. So offer white peace and see if he will will accept, I'll still come out on top with ivory.

Another angle. azza will move first on T140, but he will see that if he attacks Opportunism, he will definitely lose half of his core. I attack Vermilion with a 6XP HA, capture it, and then move the rest of the stack 221 to threaten Pewter, the Moai city. T140 attack Pewter, and move the remainder of the stack 33 to threaten Pallet, each turn moving the sentry chariot first to check out the city defences.

More iceballs.

As the market should actually take 9 turns to complete, the aim is to finish Calendar this turn, then four turn Construction and CoL, then save gold using the markets. The market in Crapital is worth about 17 gpt at max tax.

The market in DF will be worth 4.5gpt from the shrine and 10.75gpt from the commerce slider at max tax...so when saving gold, the market gives 15gpt, with Crapital that is an additional 30+gpt, not shabby. As I should have the important techs techs researched, I might save gold for a while whilst deciding what to research next.

This is where things start getting difficult. I need to balance the state of my army, the ability to build cats is just around the corner, and whilst I know I need them, I'm also going to need really units with which to bash people, and I need to be careful of civic revolts: I might save gold for 4 turns, then revolt out of Theo to FR to blitz out Construction then CoL, meaning I need to one turn units from now until I'm out of Theo, at which point I can grow one pop size as I should have sugars and silks online for more happiness. This is the point where SPI really takes off, and you have to be able to stay on top of the game to abuse it. Unfortunately RL is a bit hectic for me atm so it's not easy.

Right now though, I can just sit out the next 5 turns by building one archer and 4 more HA, then on the sixth turn (the last turn of research Construction IF I use the FR civic) one more archer then build catapults. They will only be 6XP unless I settle a GG, but that is acceptable IMO.

Considering this is my weakest "front" city a couple of archers aren't a complete waste.

So, if this city is going to hold next turn, I'll need to push more archers into it. Starving it to be able to 1 turn an archer next turn is worth it IMO, because if it falls next turn, who gives a damn? the western sugar got roaded and the G2 sentry archer put on it, so it is out of range of any of azzas units and on T140 can still get into the city along with a couple of HA.

Need to get a worker to chop the forest, but I won't be able to time it perfectly for when the granary would reach 30/60 hammers, but shouldn't be more than 2 turns behind. I'll move onto the cottage on T141 most likely.

Banana will be hooked on T140, but after that I'll have the three workers I captured from azza to improve this city, mainly chopping jungle and adding a few cottages.

More last turn of working an unimproved tile. Looking at 70 hammers worth of production, but what to build? Monastery, Barracks? Temple? Half a market? PD is not going to be a great commerce city, but 23 hpt with mines and one watermill at size 10 means it will not need raised happy or health caps except to work cottages, but there is no reason that I can't grow PD to size 20, it has nothing but good tiles to work and it is pretty close to my preferred FP site. With the ivory about to be inside my borders, I'm looking at a happy cap of 18, and health cap of 14...Still, I think a barracks is the smarter call, I'll need to be able to build some military in this area to deal with Nazul instead of splitting units off from my main stack for defensive duties.

Need to get either caste system in use and a bunch of artists here to pop borders to 40% to take control of the extra 3 coastal tiles, or build more cultural buildings somehow...

I'm betting this city costs 6 gold in upkeep once it comes out of resistance...

Something to consider, making culture for one turn to pop borders five turns sooner. That delays the granary by a single turn, but will enable the usage of the second banana for a further five turns, gaining an additional 15 food. Probably worth doing, and I have the workers in position already to get the banana hooked in a single turn, instead of having to keep them in the area doing other, less productive stuff, for a further five turns.

Yeah, court houses definitely can't come fast enough. Unit costs can only really be handled by Vassalage or pop growth, but pop growth will push up the city (and civic) maintenance. FWIW, ORG would be worth 26 gpt, and FIN would be worth 19 commerce per turn. But I'm playing in a manner that would fit ORG quite well, and this start is about the worst start to use FIN with, with no seafood and bad coastal city sites.

Looks like more people are starting to pick up on the GNP game.

Time to take advantage of this power...

[Krill]

Turn 140 - New Aims

OK, so, the question is did azza accept the white peace offer?

Yup...though it doesn't necessarily mean I'm going to leave him along any more than I really need to: my units aren't going anywhere and a couple of extra cats and HA to support a second stack against Saffron, with a one move, well, that would be rather difficult to defend against. I'll need to get Opportunism growing asap with a barracks for when Construction is completed and throw out as many cats as possible.

Looks like azza wouldn't even have been able to get a single spear into Vermilion, so he really would have lost Pewter and Vermilion, 18 pop from a player that doesn't have much more than 50 pop in his entire empire. If I hadn't screwed up, and left Opportunism under defended, well...I wouldn't have been able to hold the cities, but it would have made the next attack so much easier: azza wouldn't have had 10 or so turns to build or slave units from those cities. I can't complain though, I will control the choke point with the artist bomb, forcing a two city front on azza, and both of the cities are important cities he can't afford to lose. That and it's my mistake to begin with.

Sounds weird perhaps, but one of the most fun parts of CIV to me is exploring, never knowing what is going to be uncovered on the next turn. I wonder what those islands are like for yuris to expand to.

I moved one archer out of Opportunism to go garrison SG, and whilst I would like another 5 or so archers, I don't think I'm going to get them. So if I'm not going to defend, what will I do? Obvious, really.

The artist will bomb on T142, popping borders to three times, which actually means that I will have a cultural presence on the tiles adjacent to CrazyPlantHand and Toonces; I might be able to one move them. One question is if I want to do this, but I need to bomb to hold the choke point from azza. I might not want to be so aggressive to Pingo, but they can one move SG and I can't afford to lose it and the ivory with it. But just because I bomb doesn't mean I have to attack Pingo, especially if I'm considering a third attack on azza in 10 turns.

So what are the other options? Extortion, demand something, but what? Obvious option is CPH, especially when I've got such a large military edge, but I seriously doubt anyone would acquiesce to that "trade". Resources? He doesn't have anything I want, except I suppose OB that I am going to lose with a war declaration. His map? Meh. Something I need to think about but if I really wanted to not go to war, I could bomb, position a stack in range of CPH, then send the demand (maybe even offer them ivory on my side?), and see what happens.

But looking at this graph, I don't think Pingo want a war, and they might at least consider the ivory for CPH trade.

Plantation started on the silk, banana hooked means I get a bit of head room on the health cap.

Need to consider giving a tile or two to RVC, but as there aren't any other tiles to work instead, I'll likely just let RVC work a few ocean tiles whilst finishing the library.

With peace assured with azza, now would actually be a good time to start growing the city, but I would likely need the HA to add to a stack of catapults from Opportunism to hit Saffron. Seems like I'm going to just have to suck it up: every single HA I've built has come from WTF? It might need to give a little bit more for the empire.

GNAP has finished the settler, and I'm pretty sure I won't want any more built in the near future, I have enough to fill in every city site I would want to settle. But what to build now? NO to any military units, GNAP is too far away from the front, I don't want to build a barracks, and neither a library nor market really interest me. Wealth seems like a good choice, but as I don't need the gold for a short while I'll gamble on someone completing the MoM and giving me double the payoff compared to building wealth.

More boring.

I think I can grow Opportunism to size 8 in four turns, not five with the plantations coming online on turns 141, 143 and 144. That would leave two turns to grow to size 9, making 16 food over those two turns...I'm not sure I can actually get the city to size 9, unless I work the lake.

More boring.

Barracks, or units? Or even a missionary for DP or any of the new cities? Well, the need for religion is lessened because any new cities are going to be back lines cities, so can just build culture for 10 turns and can wait for the religion spread, and I do need a city to build those generic stack fillers of spears, archers and axes...

Yeah, barracks next seems reasonable, that should finish just before CoL is researched then build a court house.

Don't worry, this city did work the flood plain and grow this turn.

Not much longer until all hell breaks loose over here.

Building culture here at the last possible turn.

Need to get a handle on those expenses.

...

[Krill]

Turn 141 - Do Pingo hate me more yet

Still only an axe and a spear on defence, workers spread about, not a particularly defensive position.

Nothing dangerous here, only population that can be whipped, and not all that much even now. I feel comfortable "demanding" CPH now.

novice, Space, at least you taught me something Moved out 3 HA to defend the artist from anything hidden in the FoW and did check with a junk chariot towards azza if he was bringing up a settler, which he isn't. Next turn is going to be interesting.

Considering a missionary for DP from here after the market.

More boring.

Looks like I will have to MM the granary for a half full food box at size 7...

Definitely going to hit size 9 on eot T145, but the real question is what tiles will I have hooked up. I have one worker improving the western hill, but I need to put a road on the jungle to get that improved as the last tile. I think I will use the worker mining the grass hill to help improve the final sugar, to free up another worker to road the jungle hill. Shouldn't be too difficult.

The forest should be chopped eot T145.

Could do with a farm or two here but I only have one tile that I can really farm, so I suppose I should consider farming the overlapping tiles with PRNGG (hey, I should just call that city Pringle). So long as all the tiles are worked it shouldn't matter all that much now I have so many more workers.

Yet more boring.

I will almost certainly not get the 300gpp GP from here, but the 400 one should be easy to do. Around about turn 185.

One more turn...

Next turn borders pop (eot T142) if I build culture, and T143 I will be able to hook the banana, and eot T144 the granary should complete. Not entirely relevant as the population isn't there to work it just yet, but I'm going to offer the other banana to Pingo in the trade for CPH so it is nice to have a back up resource online.

I wonder how much a war with Pingo would cost...

70K above second power and growing.

[Krill]

Turn 142 - Now Pingo hate me

A belated turn report, everything seems to be happening at the same time for me in RL. This turn got played in two parts, I made the trade offer to Pingo then logged out, playing the rest of the turn about 15 hours later.

Um, no. I don't think I want that deal.

This is the deal I want. Note, I will get a new source of sugar and banana hooked over the next few turns, and the ivory I will get a source of if they trade me the city, so it isn't really a loss on my part.I'm also giving up my map, which might be a mistake. With Nazul having a fair bit of my lands explored and Pingo scouting me out with a work boat, they will only see WTF?, GNAP and Crapital, and I think giving them vision on those cities is worth it for effectively a free city.

Looks like yuris is going to have a lot of iceball crab cities.

They discarded the trade, then had a look around. It seems like they thought the trade was a reasonable one, so reoffed it to me with the exact same terms. Who am I to say no to such a reasonable deal?

Size 8, needs religion, but with Music I can easily pop borders now just by building culture, and it should only take two turns to do that. Extra source of ivory to replace the one I just gifted to Pingo, some more sugar to use as food resources...and most importantly of all, an easily defended border.

I'm offering this OB simply to get another 6 commerce per turn. I'm not fussed if they turn it down.

Any attack at Cinnibar is going to be difficult, but will most likely involve a slow mover stack moving along hte grass hills to be adjacent to the city to then bomb down, collateral, and raze, as I don't want a city on that tile and it will not be developed enough to be worth keeping IMO. Saffron will just fall on the first turn of the war.

I do not have much to build in Crapital once the market has been completed, so I'll likely just pump out missionaries until I do find something reasonable to build.

Boring

With Pingo giving up CPH I need to reconsider just how much I want to pay for more units. Then I think azza is there for the taking and carry on anyway. Just got to plan this out properly and not screw it up this time.

Minor MM point. I could have swapped the ocean tile for hte grass cottage in DF, then used the spare pop in DF to work a grass cottage in Crapital, and the spare pop in Crapital to work the silk. Didn't realise this until after the turn though so couldn't do it until it was too late.

More hammers for fail gold. Though last time I built hte MoM for fail gold I built it by accident, so we'll see how this strategy works later.

It's not worth giving up the plains hill to delay the granary IMO, unless I'm about to go broke. Otherwise, just keep on working the hill.

At size 8 need to work the lake for two turns to grow to size 9, but otherwise no real problem growing to size 9 which is the ideal size to work all of the hills. Size 10 is preferable though to work all of the four yield tiles.

With the cottages on the river tiles, I can't farm the eastern grasslands, so I either get to cottage or workshop them. And this is a coastal city, so I think it would be quite nice to have a decent hammer city down here.

More catapults?

Next turn the mine is finished so will work that and I should not have to work an unimproved tile over here.

If it were not for trade routes, expansion would be nigh on impossible. One of the reasons AW games are different, FWIW. With CoL just around hte corner, a revolt to caste is perfectly feasible to pop borders to 40%, but that only works with plan to get the 400 gpp Gp from this city if I want another artist. And I'm not planning on bombing with the current artist, so...what to do.

Just build culture and suck it up...

Should have ran culture here this turn but forgot, delaying the banana hook up by one turn. Annoying.

This city needs a name, but I don't want to be insulting. I think I'm going to make an exception to the naming scheme and leave this name intact. But look how I got a barracks and library for free, that's another 150 hammers...so, so much better than declaring war.

I'm down to 60gpt, which is...painful, but once CoL is in and I build those 90 hammer courthouses, the markets complete in Crapital and DF, I'll have a rather decent break even bpt figure. Apart from the fact by that point I'll be at war with azza for a third time.

77K soldiers up on second place...and now I have ivory, and I'm about 5 turns form Construction and CoL. Fun times.

-

An overview of the improved world map, thanks to the trade with Pingo.

Though I might actually have found it easier to take Pingo on, and kick them off my continent, than defeat azza. OTOH, I would never be able to remove Pingo from the game, with their cities on the other continent.

Reasonable capital. Crap expansion land. Though at least they had food resources. The city on the sheep is planted for a fish (which makes sense). Currently the beaker leader in the game but they are currently turning that into a land "advantage". I don't think they are up by an awful lot though, only a mere 4K beakers on techs I have, but I think they lack Aesthetics to Music, which would actually make the lead much smaller. Like, less than 3K.

Um, Mick are going to be out of this game in 40 turns, land that could be good for scooty but very easy to screw up with a naval invasion.

As you can see from the mini map this is the island just off the south east coast that Nazul have claimed. I think this will be a major battle ground between Nazul and scooty, and I'm not going to stop them fighting over it. It looks like a damned nice bit of land, if you can get it developed. Not easy to hold though.

These islands are Nazuls, no new resources, but land that can easily be cottaged or workshopped for more production. If they were workshopped, then that is a lot of production to turn into military units to fight with. And will generally be used for building boats to defend against scooty, not myself, so I definitely think blocking of jungle expansion for Nazul was good for me.

And island both Nazul and scooty can fight over, TBH, these islands do not look shabby at all, well worth the investment.

[Krill]

Turn 143 - Inteval

Um, no. Since when would I give someone vying for the lead free resources? Actually on that note, go trade the spare sugar and ivory to Commodore so he can carry on beating up Cyneheard...

...

So azza is getting spies out? I wonder how useful that intel of a huge stack on his doorstep is going to help him. Also note the fast worker farming a tile for me. So nice

Getting there...

Ditto

The ideal civic swap timing would be immediately after finishing the last 1 turn HA here and then giving up the hills and growing. Whether I could actually do that with a need for more catapults...

Last settler is finished now, so build a 5XP chariot to promote to sentry to scout out around Opportunism.

If MoM falls before I get CoL, I'll probably just build wealth and then build a court house after CoL. Not like I have much else that will be awesome, a market gives me roughly the same amount of gold as a court house, but the court house gives EP and is cheaper, and I won't need improve happy and health caps.

Slow city to take up space on the map. Great use of a settler.

After the barracks is finished, I can either build a spy or an axe. I prefer the axe to be a useful stack defender against spears. Then lots of catapults.

The way things are going the granary will likely finish just after growth. Sucks, but whatever. After that court house at max hammers, improve the banana and the hills.

More cats for sure. The missionary for CPH can wait.

Barracks to court house again, need to get costs under control.

At size 7 BL can work 4 specialists easy, but take 34 turns to make a GP. I need to weigh up the usefulness of a merchant or an artist.

I need to turn SG into a production city, so this is another reason to head to MC sooner rather than later.

Better late than never...

Using two workers, soon to be three to improve CPH and SG, means that the workers I have around Opportunism need to head up to SMS to chop that jungle and improve the city. General worker migration, joy of the game.

Boring...

My GNP is gradually falling down the rankings.

[Square Leg]

Can everyone who is dedlurking me in this game please post here?

I'm not a ded-lurker but I have only flitted into the other threads to check something from your reports.

[Krill]

Turn 144 - Time for a breather

yuris seems have a green island with few food resources and ice balls with tons of food. Poor guy.

Silks are improved at last. Just look at those happy and health caps, all I need now is to grow my cities to work all of the tiles...what, you mean I'm already there? Well, size 18 is the maximum working two specialists at zero growth, and that is going to take a while to reach. More important to grow WTF? IMO.

So...don't grow here. Just keep on working cottages and making gold multipliers. I need a light house to really grow here, and four coast tiles just are not important.

Last HA built before I turn tech back on...do I grow it? And what do I build if I don't?

Sentry chariot...finished one turn too early for catapults. I could have considered slowing the production slightly, but I need the chariot asap and frankly if I build an axe here I'm not that concerned, I need a few axes and spears for stack defence.

I'm surprised what this city is doing tbh. profit of over 21gpt...not shabby.

Some finish MoM please. If I finish it this turn I can get Construction and CoL on consecutive turns. If I don't, I can get Construction on T145 and then CoL on T146, so next turn I turn tech back on (and revolt to FR) in case MoM is completed by someone else on T145...and I need Construction sooner rather than later anyway.

No longer a front city, so the archer intended for here has moved on towards CPH.

Axe for stack defence. I can leave it in the queue until I revolt back to Theocracy if I want, to cut down on unit costs as well. And hide my power, and hide the unit from azza's spies. Not I will work the MM so that on T146 all three hills that need mining will be mined and worked for 23hpt. I think 1 cat to bombard and 3 cats for "suicide" (I say suicide, but with CR2 I think they'll have odds) and Saffron will be mine. Because of this I'm going to prebuild units during the 5 turns not in Theo: one turn on the axe, two turns on a cat, then one turn on a spear. The fifth turn I finish the spear (azza has no mounted so this is the unit that needs the extra promo the least, and can probably get the fourth XP cleaning up in the attack), then overflow 11 hammers into the catapult, which overflows 30 hammers, which then one turns a catapult, then finish the axe and overflow 14 hammers which means three cats over the following 6 turns. That's 5 cats, 1 axe, 1 spear in 10 turns. War will be declared at some point in this time frame. And expect more cats from other cities.

Granary next turn...

With a lack of workers, what will this city work at size 5? Decisions, decisions.

CoL will finish the turn I complete the barracks here, so can go straight onto a court house build. With costs increasing dramatically with each new pop point...it can't come quickly enough.

With the increased happy cap, instead of working 4 artists, I could instead slave that pop away. In a single slave I would get only 110 hammers, but split into two slaves I could get 140 hammers out, finishing the light house and court house easily enough. Probably worth it, actually.

Boring.

Building Wealth next turn until I can build a court house. At size 2, steal the second banana and grow as fast as possible to about size 8 working nothing but farms. After that, hand the second banana back to SMS and grow to the happy cap on the farms and cottages, and micromanage the farms to be turned to cottages at the happy cap. And market after the court house.

No interesting tiles to work at size 9...so another possible location to slave for a catapult or two (both one pop slaves).

In the past 15 turns inflation has increased by 20gpt. Need to manage that better, primarily by building a few more court houses and increasing population costs. And probably by using Vassalage for a few extra free units which would also decrease the inflation cost.

GNP is now only better than Mick's, who are being eaten alive by scooty, and Commodore, who is trying to kill Cyneheard with minimal tech. Wow.

[darrelljs]

I like the reverse psychology on the MoM.

Darrell

[MWIN]

You are not settling south west of second guess by the fish, where your Galley for blocking Azza is at?