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Not trying to crash the economy. Our GNP is actually #1. Everyone aside from Elkad has the same number of cities. I think it is time to expand and get some more happiness resources in play. We are severely happy constrained at the moment. Ivory and silver are my next targets.
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we were break-even at around 30% science, but you probably have a better idea of the bigger picture
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This is the nicest way I've heard of saying that I have no clue what I'm doing. 
You are right. Cities are very expensive. I do not have a great plan to save the economy other than we are ORG and we will need to raise the happy cap and build cottages. Fortunately, we have good riverside cottages to work. The next city has to be the silver city and that city will have to sacrifice by working that tundra silver mine for a while to salvage the economy. But this allows for other cities to work 5 new cottages, which I'll need to get into place. For now, we have a good food surplus, finally, but no happy cap. So excess food is going into a surplus of workers to get us ahead of what we really need right now. But there is just no real purpose in chopping forests. Granaries are built (4/5), and we can only build barracks and units. We will want barracks at some point but I think production queues are better suited using foodhammers that otherwise we can't do much with. We can't afford to whip due to needing every coin we can scrape from the cottages.
The only civ that is teching at all is Wetbandit, who is also ORG, and who I peg as likely to be on a sugar high spending Stonehenge failgold for a few turns. Or, he has worked his silver (or equivalent) earlier, which in retrospect is a good play despite being in the safe back line area. Costs are king, and happy cap is just behind. After silver we will have another city very shortly thereafter for ivory. Our economy will crash but then rebound with a further five cottages. The target after this will be the whales for more cottages.
This plan is not elegant, but it will eventually be effective. We have to work as many tiles as possible as soon as possible to be strong. The sooner we invest in cottages the sooner they pay back. And even if we did put our surplus of foodhammers into chopping out a hoard of...something (which we can't afford), when we capture cities we'd die from expenses. The capture gold, though, would be a nice shot in the arm for the economy but on the whole that just is not a practical approach right now IMO when so much good land is still available. If we can manage expenses we will still get our share and then some of the land.
Last thing, but no picture as I didn't think to take one, the barb city should grow to size 2 in another 2 or 3 turns (I put a signpost down in game). JR4 has staked his claim with a warrior and has a spear following to support. Unfortunately for him, I've got two phalanxes on the way to be at the city when it grows, and 2 phalanxes handily beat a spear and warrior. I think he will tuck tail and run. If he decides to continue toward the city I'll have to muscle him out and I'd prefer not to do that just now when we have more profitable prospects in other areas. We have the #2 army right now, and it's a dead heat with #1, and phalanxes can be tricky to counter in the early game.
Overall, things look good. We just have to continue to manage the tightrope between expansion and the economic abyss.
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No pics, weekend and all, but the barbs are doing their best to stymie our expansion. They're sending wave after wave from the backline peninsula. This indicates that other players are more effectively spawnbusting and that leaves very few other options for the barbs except what I've chosen not to spawnbust. I wanted to get HE unlocked early but this is crazy. There are 2 axes, a spear, and a warrior racing in, after I've already killed several. I have two promos on one axe and 4 xp on another. Things are covered but damn.
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Hows it looking? Overview? chances to win?
June 26th, 2019, 12:44
(This post was last modified: June 26th, 2019, 12:45 by Mr. Cairo.)
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Hey BGN. Logged in to have a look around.
How did we lose that barb city to JR4 in the north?
What's the liklihood of war with DZ? that border looks pretty iffy and it looks like we're both putting EP into eachother beyond the usual 44.
Any plans for a Great person? We're about to finish a library in Talibanjos, want to hire a couple of scientists there or keep working those cottages while waiting for whip unhappy to go down?
Are we sticking with binary science from now on?
any wonders you're eyeing up? and if so shouldn't we get masonry soon to connect the marble and stone?
what do you want to be done with the workers by ammo?
Also, I swapped the sheep by YH to that plains cottage this turn since I don't see the value of growing YH into unhappiness, and I didn't see any luxuries about to be connected.
Finally, do you care if I delete some out-of-date signs, like the one marking a JR4 spear on turn 70?
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I think wetbandit razed the city. JR4 got there with a settler first. I decided that would overextend us militarily.
War with DZ is almost a certainty at some point. He has CRE and I've settled a city that ought to have been his. And, from my point of view, he has crowded into what could be some of my territory with city placements. But as all things civ, what ought to belong to whom matters less than who has the best hardware at the right time. I'll count on him spending hammers on barracks and stuff that he shouldn't and hope that we can hold out. And I just readjusted EP onto him this turn after getting graphs on Cornflakes, our last contact. DZ has spent above what was required so I'm catching up.
We have libraries in a couple of cities so when we hit bankruptcy soon we can limp to Alphabet with science specialists. The first specialist will almost certainly be a priest for our shrine. We can swap to Hinduism whenever, I just haven't thought it worth the delay of a turn with just two cities having the religion. But with three new cities coming up soon maybe sooner is better. Your call if you want to go for it. Build cottages wherever it makes sense. Keep in mind that we can extend the happy cap in ~12 turns with whales.
Binary seems the best for now. Our GNP isn't eyepopping and we have good enough power and a solid UU that no one ought to want to tangle with us for now.
Masonry is a luxury right now IMO. We are limping to Alphabet and are continuing to expand. Let's get out of this hole and hten we can get back to wonders. GLH would be meh, Mids went to Superdeath. The wonder I'm most interested in is the Heroic Epic so Aesthetics is in my thinking once we can stabalize the economy again.
Ammo: I want to chop the bottom row of forests before wetbandit's holy city culture swipes those tiles from us. I don't think it is happening in the next 10 turns but I don't want to chance it. That said, those workers are certainly going to be needed to get the eastern seaboard up and running. Use your judgement.
Delete any signs you don't find helpful. Thanks for playing. Sorry I'm basically the worst "team" player ever.
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Made a bit of a boo-boo this turn. wetbandit offered OB, which I accepted, didn't see a reason not to. But then, a subsequent trade deal asked for 2 gold/turn. Which means he has Currency. I should have noticed that in the OB offer but I didn't. I was very tempted to reject that demand, seems a bit rich for wetbandit to ask for money for OB when he has Currency and we don't. But I had a look at the power graphs, and #1 & #2 are wetbandit and DZ respectively. So I decided that 20 gold is a small price to pay to remain on good terms with the civ with the largest army while also having border friction with the civ with the 2nd largest army.
If I had noticed he had currency I wouldn't have accepted the OB offer in the first place. And maybe in ten turns we can cancel it and ask for money.
We are very far ahead in city count. I settled the one of the east coast and captured that barb city. I renamed it Thebes so people who didn't know there was a barb city there won't be able to find out through the diplo window. Probably not relevant, but no need to reveal information you don't have to. The gains from OB were just about canceled out from the increased maintenance from the barb city and we got some capture gold, so our economy isn't quite yet in the pits.
Otherwise we're growing onto cottages, building units and libraries. Etc etc. Also JR4 declared war to move a WB through our territory and then offered peace, so we have a 10 turn peace treaty there.
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Hey BGN, any chance you can take over the turns? I just started working nights and my brain isn't 100% into the game atm.
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Well, we're getting Alphabet in 2 turns, then on to Currency. Elkad already has alphabet so I asked for open borders with him. He's in last place and doesn't have many cities to begin with so it's not that big of a gain for him, if at all, I didn't check to see if he has OB with anyone else.
Demos are ok:
We've kept up in power as well:
Once Alphabet comes in I'll swap to Research builds in some cities. I'll probably also finally adopt Hinduism, the GP is almost here and the shrine should help it spread naturally.
Idk if anyone else has much room to expand but we're ahead in cities and as they grow we'll only improve. We need more workers though to start cottaging every tile around.
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