[SPOILERS] Pindicator emerges from the wilderness to play pb74

[pindicator]

Lighthouse, library, my brain mixes words up all the time.

[klops]

a lighthouse works well to keep an eye on the neighbour

Both hikes look awesome to me. I may have a cite for plains/marshlands/river in case you don't already have something in mind. but going offline for now...

[Mjmd]

Waimea Canyon picture isn't working for me for some reason, but Eagle Cap looks AMAZING.

[pindicator]

Oh, I didn't post a pic for Waimea Canyon, because I only saw it from my friend's phone.  But here's the pic on wikipedia:

[pindicator]

And klops, I absolutely need more city names! I'm settling a river city next turn and don't have a good one lined up yet.

[klops]

hmm, like a few other people, I cannot upload images anymore, no idea what happened, made small jpg-kopies but the forum doesn't want them.
I'll go with internet-variants from other people...


(Esteros del) Iberá 

Northeast Argentina, one of the largest wetland areas in the world. Big lake(s), rivers, swamp, grassland and small patches of woods that look quite jungly.
Kaimans, capybara, deer, tons of birds and fish...






Almost 20 years ago but this extended travel of south america is still one of my best memories. In this part of Argentina, I had my own personal tourist guide whom I met at the tourist office somewhere else. Waiting for carneval (which was only in a few days by chance) and somehow that very rare magic kicked in and we talked more and more and then she took a week off and visited Iberá with me.
(later we met again and travelled to Cordoba and Salta in the northwest )  Once in a lifetime situation, but I am getting slightly offtopic )

We were the only guests in a small patch of a few wooden houses/lodges for touristsout side of a village. Felt like being in the wilderness with the luxury of having a bed and shower. Some hikes and a boat tour which was mainly propelled by a large stick of our guide. The small outboard-motor(?) was only allowed in an area with fishing activities for the people who live there. Hot and calm day, awesome experience,  and it paid off to have someone who naturally speaks their language and even works in tourism, so my friend was able to get some special deals I guess.
The ranger and infostation looked quite new (or renovated), probably had a good timing. No idea if this area is touristy nowadays but it was extremely calm back then.
To underline this: when we went back home (hers) with the bus, the ride was very wild with very bad streets and a sudden banging/crashing/unpleasant sound from under the bus. Part of the exhauster just fell off and we were stranded out of nowhere together with 10-15 Argentinians on their way to the next city until we had a new bus 1-2 hours later. crazy shit... lol, I was sooooo glad to not be alone that day with my 10 phrases  of spanish language

[pindicator]

That looks gorgeous, and I think is perfect for the next city

[pindicator]

090

All right klops, here's your city!




Your second city, other people gotta start stepping up to the plate.

Our scouting work boat passed by Amicalola's capital and saw a settler, so there's a good chance he takes the banana/sugar spot ahead of us. If not, we have a settler being whipped out of God's Thumb on t93, and we can settle the banana spot ourselves t96. There has been some talk about grabbing the multi-dye location, but it's a big stretch and we would have to defend it pretty well. I think I take it if it's available but I'm not going to rush for it.

Anyway, we only saw expenses jump up by 2 for this one, but Currency is still coming eot95. Just too much in unit costs overall. Commodore pulled in Currency this turn which is a bit concerning. Getting Currency by t90 is really good. He did a better job of getting cottages down than we did - we did get a bit chop happy early on. But we still have a shrine coming up within the next 10 turns so I'm still feeling good about our economy. Zigs are also in progress in half our cities.

Was able to confirm that GKC is the horseback riding enthusiast, which makes me feel better about our borders. Someone else has teched Iron Working, and I know it wasn't anyone nearby.




Feeling better about our border with Bing. That is an ugly border between him and Commodore and he's going to have to spend a lot of troops to defend it.

Finally, we'll end on a classic bit of civ 4 micro:




That's Bassa not working the sheep in order to finish the granary this turn. And because of it being about halfway through the food bar this will mean it comes out ahead in food after growing to 4.

[pindicator]

091

It was probably a bit of a foolish hope that we would be able to bulb Theology on t118 with our current plan, and this turn we find it fell before our first Great Person was even both:




I think that's Miguelito founding the religion, using a Great Prophet he got from an Obelisk. And then that would mean Gavagai has the first shrine, on the previous turn. I keep thinking +18 would be for the wonder and +16 for the tech - but PBSpy has been a little wonky lately and if there were other cities founded or whipped close to either great person being used (close being very relative) then.

In any case this led to a discussion and complete reworking of our game plan. There are no more easy religions to grab - unless we go for Code of Laws right now, and we aren't going to delay Currency or Calendar to chase that. In addition, a big draw was also landing the Apostolic Palace and transitioning into chasing a religion based victory type - and now with Theology off the table there really isn't the same incentive to put the investment into religious infrastructure.

So after a lot of debate, we're switching gears. We'll get a shrine as planned, but we're running our next Great Person for a golden age now and not to attempt any bulb. This means we dont have as much demand for a great person. We also figure that our strength is going to be in the vast amount of resources we're about to hook up, so the goal is now to grow our cities as best as possible. Once IW and Calendar are done we can grow to size 13 without any additional infrastructure.




But when it comes to the details things get messier. Here Palouse is still working scientists because we really don't have any tiles for it to work right now. Workers are either helping improve tiles for Eagle Cap in the south or up in the jungle in the north. And pretty soon we will have all hands on deck for getting plantations up. So I need workers now. Easy solution: whip a worker here, right? Well not so much: removing the scientists means we don't get to Currency by eot95. And I can't put them in the capital if I want to grow the capital, so they need to stay here.

We still do need workers, though - and so Finisterra and Bassa Verda have both been switched over to build a couple more. This will keep the capital growing to happy cap (8) and Eagle Cap can keep the corn so it can grow quickly as it has 2 spices and a silk tile we want to work after Calendar is done (eta t100). We'll not need to shuttle a worker over to Bassa Verda here as it is buidling its own - this slows the stone by a turn but lets us build tile improvements in Palouse and God's Thumb.

Finally, we may need to build more units for the north:




There's only one spot this settler can go, and that is the tile 1W of the rice - or 3 tiles away from our city. We're going to swamp this city in our culture and this is going to turn into a flashpoint. Honestly I'm surprised Amicalola picked this spot - much better for him would have been to settle on the east coast and take the Sugar/banana spot. This city will struggle to grow and just turn into a flashpoint on our border.

[pindicator]

092

Very clever by Amicalola. He disguised roading up to invade us with having the settler there:




He offered us peace in exchange for Waimea Canyon. Unfortunately we have no option but to accept - we don't have the units in the north yet to repell this kind of attack. A few turns from now, maybe.

On my turn I re-offered and then whipped everything that was building a unit. In case he were to change his mind. Besides, in 10 turns we're just going to have to go through this again.




And we're going to have to get our city back.