Geopolitical, neighboury-type thinks.
I currently have 3 main neighbours; Mr. Cairo to the N & NW, Gawdzak to the SW, and AT to the East. Minor neighbours are BRick to the S and Adrien to the NE, who is my only land neighbour. I have mapped out the adjacent territory of each, with the exception of BRick which I didn't get around to before sniping his island city, which has given me a good view of how they are configured. I'll take pictures of these regions tonight, but until then you'll have to use your imagination / older views.
In no particular order:
AT: our Naval border is primarily focused on the island region, although he has 2 cities on the inland Sea offshore Troll (I can never remember what I actually named that city
). We have visibility on each other's border cities - his on mainland, mine on island - and are roughly keeping even in units with a Longbow and ~3 others. He currently has control of the Peak tile that blocks off the South of the Inland Sea, so he can also see my Naval pump and knows I have Triremes in the area. CRE is helping me win the culture fight here, so I have decent warning of anything going on, but we've been peaceful for a long period and I expect us to remain that way - he has enough land neighbours to worry about. We have had limited trade in the past; he scored GLH so I didn't give him OB for a long time, then made him pay for a while until I wanted to map out his territory. Those have been canceled again.
Gawdzak: he controls the territory across the South-western channel, but only has one city actually on the coast in that region. Infact there is quite a lightly populated gap near his border with Mr. Cairo. The channel is narrow near his city and we can see each other's city tiles (CRE vs CRE here). He has another coastal city West of my latest island plant, but I'm keeping a decent garrison here to prevent temptation - and he's still dealing with BGN. I've explored a chunk of his land, but I rushed it a little to accelerate locating Yuri & Nyles (for KTB) and I need to get back and re-expose what he's captured from BGN. In return he's mapped out most of my coast with a WB.
We've had a decent relationship so far; he paid me for OB for quite a while and we are maintaining that. I have been somewhat propping up BGN with Furs and Stone, but drew the line at his Iron request last turn. It's probably time I drew that to an end to maintain goodwill over here.
Mr. Cairo: this is the tense border.
He has one city immediately across the straight from my Moai and then his Capital to the NW. We had OB for a while, but when he used that to stage an attack on Adrien's Stone city I canceled and we have not renewed since. In the meantime I explored his territory completely and he looked at most of mine in return. I have my main fleet in this area (6Trireme & 3Galleys) and had been thinking to take advantage of his attack on Adrien to grab that city, but the opportunity did not arise. He may not realise it, but I have since unloaded the Galleys and they currently sit empty. He has at least 8 Galleys in the area acting as a supply chain to his colony; I have not seen any Triremes yet, but feel that he must have them, so am continuing to add to my own. Land defenses here are strong, though reinforcements are relatively few. I'm trying to de-escalte the situation and we recently agreed to trade my spare Gems for his (only?) Incense, so we'll see where things go from here.
Final border in the NE is the complicated one. I established a strong border city at Troll, and
Adrien reached a bit to grab the area and form a buffer between me and Jowy and AT. It's a strong city and it's the one I've had my eye on, but it's also on flatland and a little too close to established borders for me to try to keep it, I think. When Iron popped up in the gap N of Troll, I decided to put a throw-away city there to grab that and the Clams. It's flatland, but has been left alone to develop nicely and for that reason I'd like to see if I can "adjust the border" somewhat.
I may have missed the window though, because beyond Adrien's city is Jowy ... or soon to be
Ichabod and his Cataphract hordes. Ichabod and I have been remote up until now, but we've had a long-term Gem-Gold trade going and recently signed Open Borders, so I think we count as friends. I'm also the least-practical for him to extend and attack, so my feeling is that as long as I don't step on his toes we will remain that way.
My best route for expansion is probably the most problematic - to the South.
BRick is irrelevant and
Yuri & Nyles are holding each other back by taking chunks of each other. If I could assemble a force down here, I might be able to secure a decent slice of new territory. However that would take 1) a tech advantage & 2) a sizeable force, neither of which I have at this point. It's something I need to keep an eye on though, as I do need to find
somewhere to expand my land area to stand a chance of keeping up with Ichabod & Gawdzak.
Vague planning-type things:
Short term: Research Engineering (3t), look spiky, don't get attacked by Ichabod (lesser, Mr. Cairo).
Bonus goal: grab some of Adrien's remaining territory.
Short/Medium-Term: After Engineering it's off to Banking; trigger 2-man GA and adopt Emancipation, tech to Nationalism (bulb Philo??) and adopt Mercantilism before end of GA.
Bonus goal: build Taj.
Medium-Term: build up troops (Knights/later??) and stage attack on someone. Options: Mr. Cairo, Brick/Yuri/Nyles mess.
Bonus Goal: boat someone's core as effectively as I did Wetbandit's....
EDIT: pictures added.
).
.
