[SPOILERS] Parkin brings the rain down in Africa: Churchill of Zulu

[Grimace]

Turn 187

In world news, mackoti generated TWO great generals in the capture of one of retep’s cities. Must have been a serious clash of units. He also completed Notre Dame. Wetbandit build The Hagia Sophia. Haram got a Great Artist.

In domestic news, Zebra grew to size two and started working the copper tile, so I switched it to culture for 1 turn and it will pop borders next turn. Ape is still 6 turns from size 2 (it’s only able to work a farmed grassland right now), so I don’t want to switch to culture until it grows.

Settler is due in 2 turns, and I’ll have his security ready, so he can move right over and build the last city. The question is: what’s the best city spot?


All 3 spots would share pigs with Zebra. Red would have me fighting for the clams to the east with Seven’s city of Rural and will have the most overlap with Zebra. Green loses me access to any seafood, but has the least overlap with neighboring cities. Blue allows me to share the seafood with Kudu, but also has a lot of overlap with both of those cities. Green and Blue also give me the desert tile, but are also fresh water locations. I’m honestly not sure which is the best. I guess if I had to make a choice right now, I’d probably go with Green. I lose the shared seafood, but I have the least overlap with Kudu, no overlap with Wildebeest and I still get all of the hills in the BFC. What do you think?

[Old Harry]

You can fit two cities in there... And overlapping cities are pretty good usually... But actually I wonder if you should try not to provoke Seven. Do you think he's most likely to be looking at you or Wetbandit next? What does his power graph look like?

Anyway, I like blue best.

[Grimace]

Turn 188

In world news, haram’s GA ended and I caught one of his spies nosing around my territory. Mackoti and retep both generated GGs again when mackoti captured another of his cities. Wetbandit got a Great Artist. And Seven plunked down a new city, Sassafras, right here:


You can also see that he has a few Rifles. Luckily, we’ll have Rifling next turn.

In domestic news, Zebra popped borders which should hopefully keep pressure on Seven’s new city. Otherwise not much to report. However, I figure it’ll be a good time to see what happened last turn during the battle between retep and mackoti. So here’s the power graph:


As you can see, retep’s power took a nose dive, while mackoti’s was just a blip. I’ll post it again next turn so we can see what the latest battle looks like on there. Mackoti is also 2 turns from Steam Power

Sorry there’s not much more to report right now.

[Grimace]

Turn 189

In world news, Seven generated a GM. Gawdzak and wetbandit signed a DP, then Gawdzak attacked retep, so I can only assume that some form of extortion was used there, too, otherwise why bother to sign to the DP when you know you’re going to attack that same round? No captured cities though, although mack captured another of retep’s cities.

The power graph shows an interesting tale, too:


Retep is plummeting, and he managed to cause mackoti some losses, but not really all that many. His power rating just dropped a little bit.

We got Rifling (yay!) and I switched to Education to get that out in 1 turn (with help from the GS bulb earlier). The tough part is what to research next…Astronomy? Chemistry? Steam Power? Constitution? Drama?

The even bigger question is…spend money upgrading units? Or keep teching? The scared little boy in me thinks spending a few turns getting cash to upgrade most of my units is the best choice, but we’re already behind technologically and it’s not going to get better.

[Old Harry]

Well Mack is going to give you 40 turns, so the question is: how much do you fear Seven? He doesn't have the power to worry you unduly at the moment, but you should keep a close eye on his graphs. Steel and Railroad are good defensive techs if they start to spike.

When is your next golden age? Switching to Rep might be useful then. Also, how much would Free Market get you? (+1 trade route and any route over 4 gets +1 gold and over 8 gets +2). There aren't any ICTRs are there?

Are you running binary research anyway? Might as well have a reserve on hand for emergency upgrades but don't spend it until you have to... It also allows you to draft the leaders and react to what they are teching...

[Grimace]

Turn 190

In world news, Gawdzak captured one of retep’s cities, and someone lost a GG as part of that fight. Our peace treaty with haram has also expired, though I have no intention of resuming hostilities any time soon.

In domestic news, we planted our newest city, Buffalo (in honor of the Cape Buffalo, one of the most dangerous beasts around), on the blue dot. Had a missionary ready to give it Confucianism immediately, and started it building a granary.

We built our first cavalry this turn, and I upgraded one unit in a few border cities to a Rifleman. I’ll do the rest next turn, so each border city will have at least one rifle. I started researching Astronomy…I think my tech path is going to be Astronomy->Chemistry->Steel. Now it’s time to get some universities built so I can build Oxford.

Power graph is basically unchanged this round…mackoti’s started going up again, so he’s clearly continuing to build military. As a result, I’m going to start building mine up again. Though not lowest in power, I want to be big enough to be a risky target.

[Grimace]

Well Mack is going to give you 40 turns, so the question is: how much do you fear Seven? He doesn't have the power to worry you unduly at the moment, but you should keep a close eye on his graphs. Steel and Railroad are good defensive techs if they start to spike.

When is your next golden age? Switching to Rep might be useful then. Also, how much would Free Market get you? (+1 trade route and any route over 4 gets +1 gold and over 8 gets +2). There aren't any ICTRs are there?

Are you running binary research anyway? Might as well have a reserve on hand for emergency upgrades but don't spend it until you have to... It also allows you to draft the leaders and react to what they are teching...

Next GA will not be for a while. I don't have a great GP farm, so I'm only able to work 2 specialists at most. Almost all of my GPP are coming from wonders. And I already did a GA, so I need two GPs for the next one.

I don't really fear Seven too much. We have one land connection which is heavily defended because it's also where my SE border with haram is. And unlikely mackoti, we don't have a huge water connection. His conquests of GJ's land gave him more water access to me, but it would still be difficult to mount an effective invasion. He could sting me, but not conquer me the way things stand. But he's got a big tech lead, so that could change in 20 turns or so if he gets to Assembly Line.

I am running binary research, and I'm trying to take advantage of the known tech bonus. Almost everyone has astronomy now, so it seemed like a good choice.

[Grimace]

Turn 191

In world news, retep lost 3 more cities – 2 to mack and 1 to Gawdzak.

In domestic news, the big event is that New Fox’s borders popped, giving it back its seafood and allowing it to grow speedily again! Hooray!
(Yes, I’m short on exciting news. Sue me.)

Seven’s power is creeping up, so I’ve started more rifle/cav builds. I’m also trying to get my 8 Universities built so I can build Oxford in my capital, but that’s going to take about 10 turns or so.

I promoted another rifle in each of my remaining border cities, so they all have one rifleman. I’m researching Astronomy at 50% -- yes, I know it’s not entirely optimal, but it serves two purposes. It gets me Astronomy fairly quickly (6 turns, which is what it would take running binary), but it still allows me to run at a profit, thus keeping money available for upgrades should they be needed.

[Old Harry]

Saving up a big chunk of cash before Oxford comes in is usually a good move, unless you really need those techs...

[Grimace]

Yeah, I'm not desperate for them right now. They'd be nice, but TBH I don't think my research would be drastically faster going binary at this point.