[SPOILERS]The 3 Muscateers playing Ragnar of Rome!

[Catwalk]

I might farm 2 to get it going fast, considering we're about to hit a happy cap of 6 pretty soon. They will probably be turned into cottages later. The short-term goal now is to make our cities a lot more productive, we have a lot of economic potential to harness that has been neglected a little while expanding. Do you think we should have done anything differently up to this far regarding expansion and improvement? Would have been nicer with bigger cities while expanding, all our cities have been 1 below happy cap for a while now.

[Catwalk]

Before I forget, soldier points reveal someone other than waterbat and TheArchDuke built barracks last turn. Also, currently making a brand new tech tracking section and found out how to use a new spreadsheet function! Yay.

[Catwalk]

Current tech count (under construction)

Azza
10, last tech 1t ago
Agri, Wheel, Pottery, Mining, Fishing? (might be Mysticism)

Catwalk
8, last tech 2t ago

Xenon
7, last tech 3t ago

Waterbat
8, last tech this turn

Superjm
8, last tech 1t ago

TheArchDuke
6, last tech 6t ago

[Catwalk]

t42 report

Getting close to circumnavigation! Xenon doesn't seem to be blocking off the desert arm too bad, our chances to get contact look good

Landed Monotheism in Eager Eagle I held the chop 1t to see if this would happen, and it paid off Now we can develop the resources faster and will get a granary up much faster. I want to delay Monarchy and get it after Currency, then revolting to HR and OR. That will let the religion spread a bit on its own before we start sending missionaries to the remaining cities. Getting Monarchy sooner is not needed, and OR does us little good until it's been spread around. This will be the first time I've really used OR, it's like being half-Industrious Will get extra failgold too, 2.25 gold per hammer spent.

We unfortunately lost the warrior by Waterbat, he attacked at 32% odds and won. He probably had another warrior ready to finish it off, so I won't complain any. My warrior completed his mission over there, harrassing Waterbat for a few turns and gaining visibility on his capital. It will take waterbat 8t to send a military unit to Eager Eagle, so I have a warrior en route there. I know that Waterbat doesn't have anything better than warriors yet, if I see a power spike I will make sure to get an axeman in a hurry.

Cloak and Dagger stuff

City count
Azza: 6, 3, 1
Catwalk: 5, 3, 2, 1, 1
Xenon: 4, 3, 2
Waterbat: 4, 4, 3
Superjm: 4, 1, 1
TheArchDuke: 6, 4

Techs:
Arch finally discovered Bronze Working this turn. The earlier barracks I thought went up could also be discovery of Archery.

[Catwalk]

Yet another teaser report.

Judaism struck Eager Eagle as we knew it would, accelerating its development considerably. I had a chat with slowcheetah about medium term plans, and we ended up with the following:
1) Go for GLH. Noone else has Sailing yet, and Waterbat is most likely tied up with Pyramids.
2) Pink dot Waterbat on the tundra hill with a sign that says Aggressive city. We will start building 3 axes to go there soon, founding will wait until GLH completes. Keeping a close eye on Waterbat's land to see if he settles the horses. Another good thing about the pink dot is that I will likely be denying Waterbat silver, as Azza knows I will be grabbing the silver between us per our border agreement. That gives Azza a strong incentive to grab Waterbat's silver, and if Waterbat manages to grab it Azza might not be pleased. I will need to extend the border agreement with Azza, it expires t54 along with the NAP well before I am able to settle those sites.
3) Get another city right as GLH completes, possibly even two. Locations are not yet decided, maybe Marble city. We don't really need the Marble for anything at this point, but it's a very nice site.
4) Maintain friendly relations with Azza and Xenon, seems to be working out well so far. My low score might contribute to me seeming like less of a threat.
5) Tech path:
Sailing => Hunting => Writing => Mathematics => Currency => Calendar


Tentatively planning on having Math at t60, hoping to chop the 3 remaining forests near AA on that turn to complete GLH. Holding off on additional expansion in order to power up my research and get Math sooner. Will make a more detailed wonder plan soon. I want to make a play for MoM as well, I might even go for Calendar before Currency in order to get to it fast enough.

EDIT: Just noticed that Azza, Superjm and Xenon all have Writing as I'm able to offer them open borders. I might be able to get trade routes with Azza and Superjm through Dingy Dingo, going to offer OB to both of them right away.

[Catwalk]

Here is what my micro plan looks like so far:

AA
t44 complete granary => 1h to warrior (need it for BB, and have time to produce warrior + axeman in AA before Sailing)
t45 size 6
t46 complete warrior => 8h to axeman
t48 complete axeman => 3h to lighthouse
t49 double whip lighthouse at 17h
t50 complete lighthouse => 29h to GLH
t59 complete Mathematics, chop 3 forests
t60 complete GLH

Will be fleshing this out some more. It looks realistic to get Mathematics by t59, and I should have 3 workers available to finish the chops by then. If I can complete Mathematics on t58 I might be able to gather enough hammers to complete GLH by t59. AA and BB will both contribute one axeman for the eastern front, CC will follow up with a spearman and a settler for the pink dot. Marble city will be backfilled soon after. What kind of invasion force will be required for dislodging those 3 defenders with C1 on a hill?

GLH should work wonders on this map, with lots of fjords all over. I have secured an OB deal with Azza, NAP/border agreement extension to t63 and OB for the duration of our NAP. I have not yet discovered any islands, but I feel pretty sure there will be some. I will send out a galley soon to explore, maybe I'll be able to pillage some clams from waterbat while I'm at it.

[Catwalk]

t45 report

About to cross through Azza's lands, with OB secured. His horse/fish city has an obelisk and a granary, and horses are hooked up. Will be great to be able to use his roads to zip through his lands, will probably go straight through to waterbat's eastern borders.

Also set to cross through Xenon's lands, giving me a nice shortcut to Magellan's. He agreed to OB and the border proposal saying neither one of us can settle past the gold until t60, but denied the t60 NAP extension. Meaning our NAP currently lasts until t54. Not real worried about it, but will make sure to garrison DD.

Waterbat is in the mood for mischief... The warrior shown here has moved into EE and fortified, giving me 90% odds of winning if he attacks in 3t. Considering it's my holy city and I need the happiness pretty bad, this is no idle threat. I won't be able to reinforce the city further by the time his warrior can attack me, but an axeman will be underway from AA in case he walks past me and starts pillaging. If he has another warrior right behind this one, I could be in serious trouble as that might push his odds closer to 30%. In the unlikely event he's bringing 3 warriors, his odds will go up to around 80%. However, if they're delayed just a little bit I will be able to whip an axe in EE. I've also sent him a peace offer, not really expecting him to take it. I know he has no chariots or axeman incoming, so the worst case scenario is 2 warriors immediately behind the visible one. Crossing fingers...

Magellan's is getting closer rapidly! I will get it in 8t without any roading, so chances are I will get it in 6-7t. I'm skipping my WB exploration plans since Sailing is coming in soon, going to get a galley in DD instead (only coastal city other than AA). Might have to wait a little bit, as DD really needs the granary up first.

AA will skip the planned warrior and build an axeman, I think I will be able to finish Sailing by the time it completes.

Just whipped a granary here, producing a warrior afterwards to calm people down. Got a worker in place to get another cottage ready.

CC is still a runt, but about to catch up. It'll work the lake next turn for much needed commerce, and probably whip the granary in 3t.

Being able to work the gold in 2t will hopefully help ensure Sailing in 3t. As mentioned earlier, I'll need a warrior here soonish, probably provided by BB. Hoping to scout a bit of the east coast before assigning it to garrison duty.

The holy city is coming along nicely, sheep will be ready next turn. After that I might have to move the workers back to the capital and construct a cottage, I'd prefer to go straight to the wheat but Waterbat probably won't let me.

I'm not overly concerned about the soldier count here, I know that Waterbat was the leader last round with 41k points and he didn't have anything other than soldiers. I'll need to figure out who has which techs soon.

[Catwalk]

After ending turn I was able to grab graphs on waterbat, so here is a full set:

Nothing really surprising here, as predicted Waterbat is keeping pretty good pace with us. The data will be highly useful for completing my soldier and tech C&D, hoping to have that done soon.

[Catwalk]

Quick teaser report:
1) Azza built Oracle, congrats. Was expecting that to happen soon, although I thought Arch would land it. Azza is definitely a competitor in this game, off to a decent start. Strongly assuming he took MC with it, meaning he will get Colossus too. Better him than one of the FIN players.
2) Waterbat declined cease-fire, unsurprisingly. No more troops underway yet, if I don't see another warrior next turn we're at minimal risk. Even so, a unit can be whipped in EE to handle a second unit. Would prefer not to, axeman will complete in AA next turn and march over there.
3) Waterbat built a library a while ago, just realized that from the overland view of his city. Turns out that he has a badass GNP, guessing it's from his lower city upkeep.
4) I forgot to defog the coast to Azza... Backtracking the warrior to deal with that, no foreign trade routes yet.

[spacetyrantxenu]

Trade route mechanics strike again!