We can complete Aesthetics in 2 turns with a couple of wealth builds, so I put us on that track. We have several hammer cities that could start on Shwedagon Paya:
AG 19 base hpt, size 10, no forge - it'll take about 14 turns to build SP.
BB 13 bhpt, size 10, moai will add hammers - without moai it'll take 17 turns.
CS 17 bhpt, size 6 - we can whip the sword in 2 turns and overflow into SP, which should mean it takes 12-13 turns to build SP.
FaL 3 hpt, 3 forests, size 5, not hindu yet - even with hinduism this city will take 45 turns. No point showing a picture then.
HotR 4 hpt, 5 forests, size 3, no forge - this city is growing quickly and could move to 9hpt in five turns or so with a plains hill mine. The missing forge slows it down a bit, but with enough worker support (19 worker turns needed + however many to move the workers to the forests) we could get SP done in about 15 turns. If we switch to an archer this turn and whip it next turn this might be as low as 12 or 13.
AG has other priorities (grow!), so I'm interested in CS and HotR. CS was going to be our main military pump for the next while but we can get units from elsewhere. Looking at it in more detail we're better off overflowing from a scout and 3-whipping the wonder on t127. That means GA t128-136 with the Astro bulb near the end of that.
HotR needs a whole bunch of worker turns and we don't have many of those available in the area. We can shuttle three down from GGH and one from FaL and we've got one on the way already. I think that we could finish it on t128. Probably better to finish the forge and turn those forests into galleons.
Except that Aesthetics lets us build the statue of zeus. Would that be more use to us in Constant Sorrow? Or would HotR have fun making 5 XP galleons (6 movers!) with Theocracy after the Pacifism burst...
Surprisingly apt this turn - but more on that in a minute. Our costs go up 10 with this one, but income goes up 7 so that's just fine. The forests will make some nice buildings and that marble means we don't have to cancel our marble/stone deal with Superjm. Now how quick can we get workers here?
So it turns out you need Meditation to build Shwedagon Paya. We can't get that if we want to bulb Astro. So our new plan is to grab Literature and the great library, then Calendar for sugar and dye tiles and some extra happy, then CoL for Caste during the golden age which we'll start about t130. Then we get Machinery, Compass, Optics and bulb Astro whenever the GPs appear. We're not going to be the quickest to get there, but hopefully we won't be too late to eat Donovan and then Superdeath.
Here's all our other cities.
After the forge we'll start the great library. As it grows we're going to work coast or specialists anyway so it won't gimp our tech too much to get Great Scientists out of here.
BB will provide the great person for the golden age. After that it wants to work Moai tiles as much as possible.
The Statue of Zeus is the real reason we teched Aesthetics. Honest. Heroic Epic will follow, then units.
DttR will get the National epic, although it'll take a while to build it.
EM will pop one of our Astro-bulb Great Scientists. Long-term it'll produce navy for us.
Free at Last has three forests to chop. The Great Library would be pretty good here, but it would take nearly 40 turns to build it. With calendar the sugar and dye will make it a pretty good commerce city.
GGH is supposed to be a production city. It's going to need a lot of workshops to be that. The plains tile SE of the city will be a fort to allow us to move units through the inland sea.
HotR will whip the forge into the Parthenon when we get our marble hooked. All those forests are going to be useful, possibly for the Parthenon, possibly for galleons.
The library should have stabilized the culture battle for the gold tile and the temple will push the balance back our way. As ever we don't know when Superdeath will snap and attack us for no particular gain, but at least then we can have some fun.
With the iron Jimmy is suddenly a pretty good city. I'm disappointed that we're not IND to build a second Moai here.
KF is probably even better than Jimmy, not long before it starts contributing.
LitD will be a commerce city - it can steal the cottages that GGH has been growing, but probably won't grow much past size five.
The former barb city will be a good 'un - I'm thinking farms or watermills on the floodplains for a powerful production city (by our standards).
It's a fairly marginal city, when borders pop it'll work a fish and grass hill, but it's useful as a buffer against Donovan. Expenses go up 10, income only goes up 5 . Superjm got Alphabet and asked for open borders so he should take the re-offer and make this city better off by 2gpt.
We can get Literature this turn but I decided to keep the slider at 0%, since we're not ready to start TGL or the epics. As long as we don't have the tech we can see if anyone else gets it. We'll be ready in four turns. After Literature we were planning to get Calendar, CoL, Machinery, etc. But we're one tech from a free Great Artist and the Sistine Chappel (number one priority for a SPI civ aiming for a culture victory). And building culture is cheaper than missionaries... But we need more land to make that culture count and Astro is the way to get that. Also we've got very few places where a wonder is secure and plenty of wonders to build already, so I'm inclined to head for Astro asap after Literature. If Sistine is still available after we get Astro then I'd grab it with both hands.
I thought Lewwyn was in a turn split since he didn't play after the turn roll, but he's not at war with anyone. Is he planning to hit Donovan, in a settling race or just busy? Any rate we're ten turns from getting graphs on Superdeath.
Demos. OT4E built the Mausoleum of Maussollos which means he can't rush to Nationalism to start drafting.
Donovan declares on Lewwyn, but loses his CR2 morale axe. Lewwyn only has one war weariness so he only took on two fights last turn and won them both (or he just took one fight and I've forgotten how the mechanic works).
Demos. Krill and Superjm are saving cash at around the same rate we are. Superdeath on the other hand is going at 120gpt - the Great Lighthouse is pretty good on this map! We could close borders, but that would cost us about ten commerce. He's settled five cities in the last ten turns, so he's stretched pretty thin right now. Perhaps he's a better initial target than Donovan? Especially if Donovan is dead in the next 15 turns. We'll get SD's graphs in about ten turns.
Lewwyn took Vogsphere last turn - his war weariness was 39. That's 6 for the city capture and the remaining 33 means either 11 battles lost, 10 lost/3 won, 9L/6W, 8L/9W, etc. I'd guess he won 6 battles. That's pretty bloody for both sides. Donovan hasn't moved his triremes back to defend so Lewwyn must be attacking over land. Perhaps with catapults? Given that he lost so many units it's possible that Lewwyn will make as little progress as we did. Fingers crossed. (Also note that Superjm built the Confucian shrine - it should be getting 10-15 gpt for him.)
We'll complete Literature this turn and Amazing Grace will overflow into the Great Library with the marble that we'll hook next turn. No-one else has Literature so I'm optimistic we'll get the wonder.
Machinery and Compass also haven't fallen yet so I don't think we need to worry about overseas invasion for a little while, so we're mostly going to keep building infrastructure for now. We'll complete The Statue of Zeus and Moai Statues in a couple of turns for a nice big score increase at which point I'll be able to look at the scoreboard again.
Demos and power. It's 8 turns until we get Superdeath's graphs - depending on how the war between Lewwyn and Donovan goes SD may become our primary target.
The last few turns haven't been too interesting. Except that Lewwyn took Vogsphere from Donovan and then signed peace. One up on us then. We're not planning to hit Donovan before their 10 turns of peace expire, but we need to be on our toes to make sure he doesn't hit us with all the units he's just whipped. I don't *think* he's got any galleys yet... Oh, and we go the Statue of Zeus and were about to start on the Heroic Epic in Constant Sorrow when I realised we don't have a 10XP unit.
This turn I cancelled our 4gpt-ivory deal with OT4E and offered Cairo a silk-sugar deal. Gavagai offered spices for our marble, but we're using it on the Great Library (eta eot132), National Epic and Parthenon (eta eot130). It's possible that we're overly wonder-whoring here, but who's going to attack us? Eh?
Perhaps Cairo? He's just whipped in a bunch of Sacrificial Altars so his economy is buzzing - he's got a choice of hitting us or top-of-the-table Gavagai, so we need to keep a close eye on what he's up to and his Guilds eta. A more likely attacker in the short term will be Superdeath, but he's a long way from our core, so we're only likely to lose our gold city if he does attack. We'll scout SD's mainland a bit over the next few turns to see what he's up to.
We have Code of Laws! So now we need to get a bit detailed about plans for each city, since we can do slavery bursts in among the use of caste. We'll probably save the caste switch until t132 (or 133) when we start the golden age, then after the GA we can switch back for a bout of whipping and throw all our units into someone's face before t150. City plans are spoilered for length:
AG hopefully completes TGLib in 4 turns, then grows on a lighthouse while working a lot of GA scientists. I don't plan to whip here ever again.
BB will pop the GP for the golden age, then try to work as many tiles as possible during that golden age. We'll get a couple of extra happy online in the next 8 turns so it can keep growing. Next it'll build a galley to queue-upgrade to a galleon. If it needs to stop growing another worker is useful.
CS - Units! Units! Units! Also the Heroic Epic when we're allowed to. I want to whip a galley into a galleon here while running Vassalage or Theocracy for a 5XP, 6-mover but that's some way down the line. Three workshops will be built here soon and it'll take back the mine, but it's never going to be a huge unit producer.
DttR will 2- or 3-whip the settler into the NE, but it won't complete the NE in time for the golden age. I think the SW cottage will become a workshop at some point.
EM is trying to fill up the food box at size 8 so that it can run lots of scientists during the golden age. Doesn't need to whip until we want units after the golden age.
FaL will run 4 scientists at size 6 in the golden age. It should pop the 300 point Scientist eot137, the second will either come from AG or EM. Possibly the latter since it's unpolluted.
GGH will want more workshops - possibly a farm chain too when we get Civil Service (this isn't a high priority tech for us though since our capital isn't a bureau monster - Vassalage and Nationalism seem better choices on this map). We'll leave some units uncompleted in the queue to save money and build another worker in the golden age. I'm thinking we don't need any more whips before the GA starts, so why not switch to caste straight away?
HotR will chop the Parthenon eot131, then overflow into a courthouse. The workers could make a few workshops, or it can work water tiles as it grows. A settler for the northern half of the island and boats will follow.
IFA is the first whip-candidate, but it's got a bunch of unhappiness already, so could just slow-build some things. If Superdeath builds something cultural to try and steal our gold we can just run some artists in the golden age rather than building a pointless monument. We do want Drama to put a pavilion in here at some point soon. Should probably swap the galley build for a unit as it has a barracks.
Jimmy Mack can only really produce things with the whip - although it will get it's iron back in a couple of turns and a workshop could go on the plains tile for a bit of production. I think it has to 2-whip the forge next turn for the happiness. After that just boats?
KF could 2-whip the courthouse next turn as it doesn't have many improved tiles to grow onto in the golden age and only has one worker assigned. Alternatively it could build another worker or a settler for the southern tip of the island.
LitD will pop borders using caste artists, then work a bunch of water. I've been waiting for a natural hindu spread to put the 24 overflow hammers into a building, but no luck yet. Do I just keep waiting?
MSL has one of Gavagai's chariots sitting nearby threateningly, so whipping the spear in a couple of turns would be great, allowing us to safely improve the iron tile, but it also has good tiles to grow onto, so not whipping would also be great. I guess we need to see if Gav retreats the chariot this turn.
NKtT will chop into the lighthouse and run caste artists to pop borders, so it may not need the whip soon.
O death won't need to whip for a while.
Hmmm. Caste would net us 3 extra hammers right now and the cities in need of a border pop (LitD and NKtT) aren't in a hurry. I think we can switch next turn after a couple of whips. Any naysayers?
What is evident is that we need more new cities.
Demos and power. Gavagai built Shwedagon Paya, so I don't think he's going for an Astro bulb.