[SPOILERS] Banzailizard and Woden go hunting!

[Woden]

There is nothing on the list of 16 era points that you for sure can get that I think we can delay. As long as Thrawn is around, we should realistically plan on a pretty massive military build up around the era change and delaying of the listed items will cost us more than we will benefit from a classical dark age/medieval heroic age.

For the quest of an archer, upgrading a slinger does count, so maybe plan on having Archery done and a slinger to upgrade when you can get into Oligarchy and run diplomatic service. You could research Mysticism right after PP and put the envoy into them to gain suzerain.

[Banzailizard]

England Turn 37

Builder continues up the coast, some more good land up here, lots of forest.  Settler lens shows it is all settable so no city state within 3 tiles.  Barb warrior did suicide on my slinger giving me the archery boost.  Attacked the scout to use discipline one last time before swapping into Maritime industries.  Galley is started in London, 3 turns to completion.  1 Turn until Craftsmanship is done, then I can swap out of God King and into Urban planning.  Pingala is also set to establish in London in 5 turns. I was going to go connoisseur for his second card, but if both writing and archery are on the research list to get suzerain status, then I might need researcher in first.  We shall see, interface says it will take 24 turns to get to archery as is, though it will be less than that due to growth.  Of course I also need political philosophy and mysticism, so maybe connoisseur is still better.

   

[Woden]

Turns 37 & 38-Gaul
No chance to write-up yesterday's turn, so I will do a double turn report. On T37, Writing and Craftsmanship finish. I put both campuses down and switch City 2 to a galley. For research, I slot Bronzeworking and State Workforce. I have over 25 faith, so get to pick a pantheon...
   

I do with Fertile Rites for the builder and slightly faster growth. I move the builder towards City 2. Galley in the south finds path to the east and is far enough south to see the edge of the map, so we are definitely in the south. On the pantheons not available, I see God of the Forge was gone, probably taken by Thrawn. God of the Sea, River Goddess, Divine Right, and the culture to Plantations are gone. I assume Ljubljana took Divine Right and CMF took River Goddess. No clue who took God of the Sea and the Planation pantheon but I suspect GoS was taken early. 

For T38, moved my galleys a bit but no signs of City States but have found more islands so there is promise. Maybe next turn. In between turns I changed my mind on sending my new builder to City 2. I have been going back and forth on my chopping schedule to get the GP/Ancestral Hall at City 2 and some settlers out at the capital. I was going to move Magnus after the campus chop and move him back after I chop out the GP at City 2 but I think straight building the GP and double chopping the AH gives the best timeline. The other way would have delayed the settler out of the capital for too long. The downside is they will have to wait a few turns until the AH is done until they can settle but I think overall they get the settle quicker than if I moved Magnus a few times between cities. This means the pantheon builder will be better used at the capital than City 2. Anyways, when I go to move the builder, I saw something odd...
   

It looks like the mod Thrawn made to be able to remove resources and luxuries has a pretty big downside, you can tell where resources are located because the "harvest feature" button shows up as an option even though they haven't been revealed. Not sure if I like that. We will have to be mindful of this as we move our builders around. I wonder if anybody else has noticed this yet or is it widely known ad I am just not aware of it?

[Banzailizard]

England Turn 38

Well I found, but did not yet meet, a second city state.  It is northwest of my island.  Looks like a financial city state from the boarder I can see.  I will meet them next turn with my builder and then turn the builder around.

I also found a barb slinger in the north.  Maybe should have left my slinger where it was without discipline to fall back on, but I wanted to scout a bit more to find the barbarian camp.  I will probably fall back next turn, let my warrior also attack the slinger.

Leeds has an unhappy penalty now. I didn't realize amenity penalties kicked in at lvl 3.  I left it running the 1/3 tile for now as growth is not as important if I am just going to get another amenities penalty again.  I also want to get the monument done to get faster boarder growth.  I will switch back to the 3 food fish tile after the monument, though eventually I am going to work the 2/2/2 copper mine. 

I took earth goddess as my pantheon.  Its not fantastic, but there was honestly not a lot left anyways. Its earning me about 3 faith per turn.

CN done next turn so I will throw down the RND, London will need 2 turns to finish the Galley then it can build the RND. I do have 2 turtles now, so I could throw one your way for amenities purposes.

   

[Woden]

Turn 39-Gaul
Found a couple of city states, both were near where I pin because of the barb camp. First one is in the east and I haven't meet yet but can see borders in the fog....
   

Looks like purple borders, so a cultural city state. In the north, I meet...
   

This one will be marked for early conquest. In fact, the builder has not built fishing boats on the crabs yet and I will grab him next turn if he is still there. I did move my galley back west 1 tile so not to spook him. There is currently a galley in the city  and we will have to see if we can coax it out. 

Magnus will establish next turn and I will chop out the campus.  State Workforce will then finish on T42 with 2 galleys being completed. I did send a request for you turtles.

[Banzailizard]

England Turn 39

Big turn in some ways but mostly not on the map, so no picture.  The one thing I might have taken a picture of was the city state.  It is Zanzibar, which is actually a fairly nice city state as it gives otherwise unobtainable luxury resources.  Sadly the quest is to train a horseman.  Otherwise I would have taken suzerain status over them since I have to do so for at least one city state.

I also got an era point for a classical age tech, CN.  With CN done, I put down both of the RND, London's should be done in 5 turns (1 turn of Galley, 4 turns of RND).  Leeds should be done in 8 turns (2 turns of monument 6 turns of RND). Either way, I will get the state workforce boost before I need it. With the political philosophy boost from the third city state this turn, should be all set to have a government in around turn 48.

Mining says it is 4 turns away, but I thought there should be some science overflow. Maybe that does not come in until next turn?

I also retreated from the barbs in the north.  A warrior showed up with the slinger.  I would rather pull them both into the killing field where I have the city 5 pin.  I moved my warrior next to that pin, should be able to hit the slinger twice next turn. I need to make sure to keep my own fragile slinger alive to upgrade it to an archer.

On turn 40 I should do another round of planning.  I know my rough plan is to get the era points for a golden age, including clearing the barb camp, get settlers out, and getting campuses down. It is mostly a matter of planning the timing on all of that.

Accepted the turtles deal too. I should have proposed it last turn, but didn't think about it until this turn.

[Woden]

Turn 40-Gaul
Open the turn to Magnus establishing in my capital, so I chop out the Campus, earning 3 era points for a splendid campus. My eastern boat finds a cultural city state...
   

They want me to earn a prophet. That's not going to happen. They may be a little difficult to conquer before Shipbuilding with only a 1-tile approach. Zanzibar wants me to clear a barb camp within 5 tiles, which I assume is the one on your island. Agian, not going to happen by me but at least I will get a new quest afterwards. Not sure if we want them to be around that long as they are an easy target for the Vikings, with three exposed tiles for attack. In the north, Ngazargamu was kind enough to move their builder out into the open...
   

There must be a barb galley that chased him out. Not going to let this gift go by, so I declare and capture the builder. As soon as I get the boost to BW, I will take the city. Hopefully I can draw the galley out of the city center. 

Here is an overview...
   

I swapped tiles around and gave City 2 the grassland hill for a little more production. That capital is starving right now but will go back to food neutral next turn when I mine the grassland hill I chopped. With the extra builder, I can hook up the fish for a 3-food tile and faster growth to get to size 4 after I research PP. 

Looking over the leader board, I am a little worried right now... 
   

We are last in military power but we are first in science. Hopefully Thrawn doesn't show up in the next few turns and takes advantage of us. Good thing I am building nothing but galleys until I finish PP. I think I will have 5 more by T48 with 2 out in 2 turns (capital says 3 turns but the overflow from the campus will make it 2 turns). I did switch research to Irrigation this turn. I would have to switch in a few turns anyways since I don't think I will get 3 kills by then and figured it might help production in City 2 if I hook up the luxuries now that I have an extra builder, it is still under unhappiness even with you turtles.

[Woden]

Turn 41-Gaul
The stars must have aligned today, the save came around again today. Not much going on though, I mine the grassland hill and rearrange the worked tiles so the capital is food neutral. I bring the builder towards my island and send the galley along my north coast so he can look for barbs from the east camp while still being able to protect the builder before he makes landfall next turn....
   

State Workforce completes next turn and thanks to your galley, we are not last in MP. CMF/Inc must have 4 or 5 ships combined and we beat them out with the land units. Two galleys complete next turn and I think I will have enough overflow from City 2 to be able to get 2 more out in 3 turns. City 2 did grab the sheep this turn and I switched off the cotton for more production. I will be running a gold deficit until T48 but should have enough in the bank to prevent any issues. City 2 will start the GP after the next galley (~T45). I only need 1 galley after the next pair to finish PP, so I think I will start the GP sooner and can get a jump on the AH.

[Banzailizard]

England Turn 41

Not a lot happened on turn 40 anyways.  Biggest news was that I finished my galley and started the RND.  I am sending the galley up and around the coast to find where exactly the barb camp is.  Turn 41 was a bit more busy.

   

Killed the barb slinger which was on the city 5 pin space by using my slinger.  That got me the boost for bronze working.  There was a barb warrior behind that which I expect will move up next turn.  As such I set my warrior to heal.  Next turn, if the barb warrior does move up, I will move the slinger to the hill tile London owns to heal over the next few turns, then move the warrior to the tile the slinger was on. I may not have discipline but crossing a river and attacking up hill and into a forest is +11 CS for me (5 from the river, 3 each from hills and forest) which should keep even a slightly wounded warrior safe.  If no warrior moves up, both units will stay in place and heal.

The way the timing works out for my chop, I will be chopping out the last 5 production of the RND.  Therefore, I put a galley in behind the RND.  The overflow will get the double production boost from maritime industries.  The RND will also spawn a galley.  Therefore in about 4-5 turns, I should have 3 galleys out which should help secure us if thrawn shows up. Leeds needs about 6 turns for its RND (the interface in the picture did not update after I moved tiles around).

I still need to develop an actual plan of course.  State workforce should be done in 4 turns.  When it finishes I am going back into Discipline and starting Colonization.  I might need to research mysticism for a turn to make sure the overflow from the chop still gets the MI boost but if my math is right the timing should work out. Then London will start a settler, as will Leeds 2 turns after when the RND is done.  Where I am settling depends a bit on how things are looking with the barbs and the north in general.  I think I would like to put down a city at the site labeled "City 2".  The site is not the best but it could get the copper from Leeds and it will also be the one to build the government plaza for adjacency reasons. Unless London should just build that, but I am not clear where it would. I would also rather that London build a campus.  The Leeds settler will probably go to the city 4 site.

Political philosophy is listed as taking 13 turns (so 17 in total with State workforce) but Pingala + connoisseur should get that down to only 5 or so turns (9 with SW). This is where I need to do the actual spreadsheet updating. I will likely run Oligarchy to take out the barbs with the cards Discipline, Maritime Industries, Colonization, and Diplomatic League in the wildcard slot.  +9 stregth on my units should mean I can clear the barb camp easily. Once I have suzerain status and the ensuing era points, I can ditch Diplomatic League for Urban Planning at mysticism.  Also possible slotting in Agoge to get new builders out for the new cities.

[Woden]

Turn 42-Gaul
Two new galleys and State Workforce finish. Start PP research. Exploring galleys find some barbs...
   

I moved the east galley in the pinch point back a tile so when the barb galley moves to attack, I can hit it with 2 ships. I could have moved next to the barb galley and then still hot it with 2 galleys next turn but it would have left me open for a second galley attack by either the northern one or another one in the fog. 2 more galleys finish in 3 turns and then one more round to complete PP on T48. 

Internationally, Thrawn has captured his 3rd city state. He is moving fast and we will have to go into military mode pretty soon. I am going to see if I can chop out 3 settlers, instead of 2. Might need a loan to buy a 3rd ring tile. If I buy the jungle hill, I can chop and mine it and grab the 2nd jungle tile. Both those chops could speed my 2nd and 3rd settler and get my capital back to galleys. Still need to work it out and see how it might work.