[SPOILERS!] Pericles of Babylon. Kyan, Twinkletoes, Whosit.

[Kyan]

Yeah, I should be able to handle it, especially if the timer gets extended. The only risk is that I'll get so lulled into complacency by all these pauses that I forget to actually check the game once it starts again.

Great, thank you.

'Course, the break gives us a theoretical opportunity to go into more detailed discussions on how to handle our position, but we have kind of covered a lot. The only other big issue is further expansion. I'd probably want to get a couple more units out of Exodus to cover a Settler for Horses, but all that land to the north does not fill me with eagerness to head out there. Far from the capital, and generally food poor from what I recall.

The north is woeful. The horses site should be next. Other potential sites after that are one to use floodplains/corn in our south east, one maybe just east of ruth? or maybe to our NE near the byz border.

Oh, how far are we all from Gunpowder? Guilds has already been passed around, right? So Gunpowder can't be far behind. I'm still kind of worried that our border with the Spectre Council is guarded by a Bowman and two mis-promoted Warriors. Losing Leviticus is not the way I'd want a potential war to begin.

Gunpowder? Not too far tho it's not being teched just at the moment.

The byz border is our least defended because it simply doesn't need it. I know you don't like to trust anyone, but Byz are our good friends. They will NOT attack us. If they did, i can forward on emails to all their current buddies in CUDDLE that would cause them to have no friends whatsoever not to mention Maya would instantly plough into them (We have a MPP with Maya in regards to Byz). Though it's unlikely to ever be used as us 3 are all friends.

[Whosit]

The north is woeful. The horses site should be next. Other potential sites after that are one to use floodplains/corn in our south east, one maybe just east of ruth? or maybe to our NE near the byz border.

I'll have to look again. That north territory would only be appetizing to Darius of Holy Rome. Or maybe England, apparently. What about that land to the west of Ruth, with the Gold and some floodplains? It's mostly desert, but a few cottages and it can probably pay for itself. Or would that aggravate Rome too much? It's kind of close to their territory.

I'll take another look at the land near Byz if you don't think that would piss them off. South, southeast of Leviticus I've looked at. Some potential, but I'll have to take a harder look to see what would make the best use of it. All that damn desert makes anything only half-useful.

The byz border is our least defended because it simply doesn't need it. I know you don't like to trust anyone, but Byz are our good friends. They will NOT attack us. If they did, i can forward on emails to all their current buddies in CUDDLE that would cause them to have no friends whatsoever not to mention Maya would instantly plough into them (We have a MPP with Maya in regards to Byz). Though it's unlikely to ever be used as us 3 are all friends.

Bah. Someday, you'll see. You'll all see! I know what shadows lurk in the hearts of men! Or maybe it's just these shades I'm wearing.

[Whosit]

Oh. Are we done with the turn currently? I'm not sure if the game is still paused, but if the timer is running, I may not get to the comp in time tonight. I'll do my best, though. I'm assuming it's the same turn I played, like, two days ago. All I left undone was moving an Axeman on scouting. Speaking of, where is he going? I think we were moving him in opposite directions.

Edit: No, wait. I see it's a new turn, and the clock is running. At least it looks like you whipped Joshua!

[Kyan]

Oh. Are we done with the turn currently? I'm not sure if the game is still paused, but if the timer is running, I may not get to the comp in time tonight. I'll do my best, though. I'm assuming it's the same turn I played, like, two days ago. All I left undone was moving an Axeman on scouting. Speaking of, where is he going? I think we were moving him in opposite directions.

Edit: No, wait. I see it's a new turn, and the clock is running. At least it looks like you whipped Joshua!

Yeah it's a new turn and i grabbed it. The axe missed a turn whilst i negotiated OB with Inca. We have those now so can continue. I figure we use him to remove the last bit of black on the map?

[Kyan]

This is purely Maya, not including our Banking in 3t and Mali doing Printing Press:

T126 - We get Nationalism from Carthage
T127 - We finish Liberalism, take Military Tradition as our freebie.
T128 - We finish Drama
T133 - We finish Gunpowder.

[Whosit]

OK. Status update for Turn 125.

Seems I miscalculated on the whip times for most of the Workers. I always seem to forget the Forge bonus is applied to whips as they happen (that is, affects the pop required), so I set back the whip in Numbers a couple of turns. So bleh. My

Ruth is being hassled by Barbs and doesn't have a ton of defense. I'm going to wait a turn to see what happens. Barb Sword could cause problems. Barb Horseman south of Leviticus is also problematic, but I'm on it.

Going to do what we should have done ages ago: Set out some fog-busting sentries. We're a little short-handed, but I'll see what I can do. It will still take several turns to get them in place, however.

Workers have been put to work. I'm going to focus on Joshua before Ruth because the former is older and can be more developed. One Worker is doing a Farm to irrigate the Corn, and another is going to chop/mine the plains hill for hammers. Laying down/replacing cottages comes after that.

Leviticus' happy cap is sadly low. Increasing the garrison would help, but don't really have the spare troops to do that at the moment, so I'll have to cap it. Can always build/whip a Garden for +1 happy at some point . . . . Doing a University now.

Kyan: Unless you have a preference, I'm going to use the GS we're getting next turn to put an Academy in Leviticus, since it is our #2 science town. Probably put the one after that somewhere else.

Also: Going to use Number's Worker, maybe the one being built in Judges, too, to go and connect that Silk up north. We need more Happy, badly. Sugars west of Judges will be available soon due to border pop.

Worker actions were a bit haphazard this turn; I hope to have a chance to lay out a more coherent plan over the next couple of days.

Trades:

Looking for a trade for happies, but we really have jack squat. We're also still exporting our Marble. When can we cancel that?

Oh, can you explain that tech bit again? We're not doing those techs ourselves, right? When you say "we," do you mean the alliance? Drama will be great, though. Cheap Theatres will let us make the most of our Dyes. I'd also like to get Corporation sooner rather than later to unlock Wallstreet. I want to talk about National Epics, but at a later time. I need to get to bed . . . .

I've queued a Settler in Genesis, by the way. It should be ready 4 turns after the University is done, so we can get Horses soon. Knights will really help us keep the Barbarians under control.

[Whosit]

OK. Couple barbs suicided, which is good. Still that Swordsman by Ruth which could be troublesome. Most likely going to lose a unit to it.

Whipped the Worker in Judges.

Built an Academy in Leviticus. Netted us a few more beakers. Leviticus does have a lot of room for growth in commerce and beakers, so it should pay off in the long run.

Kyan: What are we supposed to tech next? Banking will finish next turn. Or are we supposed to go 100% gold and give how much to the Mali?

I've calculated a whip (this time all modifiers accounted for) in Leviticus. Put 6 turns into the University, 2-pop max whip into Garden (extra happy), that should take a couple more turns to finish off, then maybe a Bank.

I'll have to do some number crunching to see whether Genesis or Leviticus will have the most beakers long-run. Are we expecting to stay in Bureaucracy for the whole game?

On another Civic note, Emancipation could be good for us if we can somehow find the way to Democracy. We are going to have a ton of under-developed cottages because our core cities have really not been working them very long. I think that's why our commerce output is relatively low.

And State Property would be good eventually.

National Wonders: The only thing I think is certain (from my perspective) is Wall Street (needs Corporation) and Globe Theatre (needs Drama) in Ruth. That city can produce the most specialists, I think, especially if we end up farming over the cottages, or even building watermills if we're in State Property. If it had 15 4 food tiles . . . . well, that's 15 specialists it can hire. We'd have to be in Caste System, of course, but that would be pretty freakin' sweet. My plan there is still to hire 100% Merchants so that we can keep the slider high and run Scientists everywhere else. In this dream world of mine, those 15 merchants = 135 gold per turn (accounting for 200% modifier). That's also 90 gpp.

Oh, we should think about the National Epic, too.

Ah, and I'll mention that Leviticus is now running an Engineer and working a forest for hammers to get the University out quickly, so it's not producing many GPP right now.

Ah, and speaking of money, any chance we can tech Economics next to try for the Great Merchant? Or is someone else going for that?

I've gone ahead and signaled end-of-turn, but there's a lot of time left on the clock if you want to look around.

[Whosit]

Checked in, moved a couple things, put us on 100% gold 'cuz we're broke, ended turn. Looks like you caught the turn, Kyan. I do need to get a Worker-action list written, though, since we seem to have different ideas. I don't want to chop the last forest by Leviticus, since it is potentially useful. Let's chop down the riverside jungles, instead.

[Kyan]

Yup 100% gold on constitution (waiting on a tech for that to be traded to us. i did request it).

I'll leave workers alone for now- sorry mate.

Mali have asked if we'd be willing to potentially put pressure on that Roman city around turn 145-150 IF Rome jump in to attack Mali. (which may happen as Mali intend to attack Inca, their rival).

[Whosit]

Like, militarily put pressure on that city? Umm . . .

We're in no position to do that right now. I'll keep Exodus on troop building duty, and I can divert some workers to make a more direct road network to Joshua and Ruth, but I think that it will easily be a couple dozen turns before we could be ready to threaten Rome. I mean, all we really have are Bowmen in Ruth. We can pull that Mace down from Joshua, but that's it. Our cities are barely defended as-is.

If you can clarify what Mali wants us to do (capture/raze the city, stand a bunch of units around, w/e), that would help. Though priority right now should be to get the Horse city down (could whip the Settler if necessary), so we can build Knights. 4-6 of those could harass Rome, I think. Maybe hit units in transit, or pillage, if we are cautious.

Short version: Say that we're assist however we can, but we can promise nothing militarily at the moment.