Lewwyn is on the List - SPOILER THREAD

[Lewwyn]

Haven't updated or taken a picture. I've got bad feeling hangover from PB55. Honestly playing this game soothes my ravaged soul after playing 55. SD is even in this game and I don't care. It's a PBEM and its solid and certain. And no one can claim I'm being a jerk.

Just a little heads up where we are. I've been growing all the cities, barely whipping and my crop has shot up to 204. Next closest is 153. This has also improved my economy. I have continued saving gold all this time, I am building libraries in my top 5 econ cities. First GP will pop next turn and we'll start a GA, finish the libs, swap to buddhism and OR, turn on tech and blast through monarchy in 1t, feudalism in 2t, HBR in 1t, IW in 1t and start teching machinery on our way to guilds. Then last turn of GA swap into HR and Vassalage. Should get a GProphet at 90% out of Lucio at the end of the golden age for my shrine.

While teching machinery and guilds, build forges, barracks, stables, then get knights.

I still have 4 cities building granaries and lighthouses. It's taking a while to get them up. Mei my new 1 tile island city is going to be bad for a long time. I mean it's going to be a net positive economically, but it's not going to have a granary or light house until it whips from 4>2 twice. it will need to steal reapers crab for a while, leading reaper to steal the sheep and Bishop to just work cottages and slow grow, which isn't all that bad.

[Lewwyn]

Got a GE at 25% odds. Well doesn't matter going to pop a Golden age no matter what GP. Next GP out of Lucio is going to take some dedication and dilute the GP pool a bit... I think the shrine is worth it. Also I was looking at tech and that drama artist was calling out to me a bit. Should I change my plan? Eh. Bob is very weak, knights will crush him, I don't think I should change my plan.

Demos look like this:


I haven't even connected 3 crab resources or built lighthouses in 4 fishing villages yet. Food should go up more. Still saving gold, so I think maybe my culture is putting my 0% sci rate on top. Top MFG is NoGas with their forges in almost every city. I'm #1 in power with all the archer spam I've done preparing for HR. With vassalage + Barracks, I don't even need the stables right away to get 5XP on new knights. I wonder how soon bob will notice my power and what his plan will be. I'm not sure who, but someone has construction, I think it might be SD, his GNP is spiking since he got his GS and I think built an academy.

I'll turn tech on next turn in the GA. First library is ready in Lucio, and 2nd will complete next EOT in Junkrat. Libs in Zenyatta and Reinhardt are going to be a little slower, but luckily built with 50% bonus, forges + OR in the GA.

[Lewwyn]

I've popped my Golden Age. I think it was the right call to do it now ASAP. I'm not full on gold enough to run tech at 100% for the full golden age, which is a shame, but popping the GA now allows me to swap to religion and OR right now, which makes 2 citizen happy (I grew 2 cities into unhappy last turn) and helps me finish 3 libs in 2t. So my new plan is to burn tech at 100% for 6 turns after saving gold this turn and next. That allows the libs to finish in my top cities and I can burn tech after that.



So I've decided the Free Music GArtist is too valuable to pass up. I'm going to save gold for 2t, then 1t Monarchy, 2t feudalism with a ton of overflow, 1t Aesthetics, 1t Lit, and then very possibly 1t Music with the massive overflow from Aesthetics and Lit. It's going to be a bit close, but I'm pretty sure I can get it done.

Burn costs 208 gold right now, so I'm likely going to need a bit of wealth build to burn out that last turn. I also checked everyone's gold, and it doesn't look like anyone can make it to music in the next 8t. Everyone needs to save more gold for burning. It does delay guilds, but it also gives me a little extra time to get infra up and more cities ready to help produce knights. I don't think bob can tech fast enough to really stop a mass of knights particularly if I use galleys to attack him from all sides.

Speaking of Bob:



He built a Library there, so that's going to be annoying. Another good thing about the GA this turn is Lucio is able to start the missionaries. Can produce 2 in 3t to get here and help both cities with A) culture B) complete libs in 4-5 turns. That will give me an edge on Bob's culture production. plus if I get music I maybe build a bit of culture. I'm going to lose the cottage and the horse to Bob for a few turns but I should be able to take it back within 5t of losing it. A shame I couldn't get more culture here earlier, I knew it was coming I just had higher priorities like more settlers and and workers.

I have 4 more city sites I could settle, but haven't yet because i'm still absorbing my new ones AND the new sites are a bit shit, eventually I will settle them, but right now it's not conducive. 1 site was that PH East of Reinhardt, SD had a chariot on the PH I think he was going to settle it, but my culture has expanded over the tile and pushed his chariot back. The only site he can settle on that border now is on top of the PHsheep by the desert. I hope he doesn't go for it, and he might not because if he does it invalidates the PH which i will settle at some point. If he does, it's such a shit city. Oh well.

I'm going to pop the GProphet out of Lucio in 7t, I could have made it 4t but it dilutes the pool. I'm trading speed for more certainty. I do want a shrine. Depending on how the tech goes, I may run specs in Zenyatta and Rein again as well to get both of those GPP counters up a bit during the GA. At the same time I do want to use the GA MFG boost, so I'll think about it.



Demos, yeah I'm in a GA. Food is still great though.

Just had a thought. Could I go straight to Lib? Lib Nationalism? avoid machinery and guilds, get gunpowder, tech mil trad for conquistadors and skip knights altogether? I dunno, it feels a bit too long on tech because Bob is not great and Rusten will probably attack him before I can get my army together to get a piece of the pie. Guilds feels more doable faster, and its unlikely BoB can get there, or to Pikes even, in time. I likely will face some cats and WEs though.

Hmm am I wrong to spend my GA getting Free artist? hahaha Bob makes this difficult.

[Lewwyn]

The game is interesting. It's me in the lead and trying to decide how to expand that lead best. I have to make a few key decisions soon. Let's look at the tech tree:



I'm moving forward with my current plans, though I have to decide whether to get drama as well on the way to music. It gives me an extra 160 some beakers so depending on if anyone else techs aesthetics in the next 2 turns I will likely tech drama before music. 4 people have construction but no one has HBR. I can wait on construction and be okay I think. Once someone has HBR I'll have to be more careful. I will have longbows though so I should be fine.

So 1 thought I'm having is use the free artist to bulb nationalism and build Taj. Possibly do a 14t Taj here at Symmetra:



To do it I need to chop/workshop, chop/workshop, chop/workshop on the first turn of Taj in order to have enough production to slow build Taj in 14t with only 5 chops. I don't have any cities with more chops available. I guess 1 option here is to use a second golden age + Burea Cap to do it faster, but 5 forests is the max I've got for any one city at this point.

Bulbing Nationalism seems like something to do if I want to go for Conquistadors before knights, which is possible. I could tech CoL>burea>Philo and I think I need Theo in order to get the artist on nationalism... But how many beakers does a Great Artist give me? I think Nat is like 2.5k and an artist bulb might only give me around 1.5k... Would using it in a second golden age be better? Probably... Maybe I'm trying to think too far ahead here.

I think I should be able to tech to guilds before Bob can get to a reasonable defense. the other possibility is to run into Rusten and capture his holy city. He doesn't have a shrine yet, and maybe he won't get one. Actually, SD and I are the only 2 who have spawned GP so far. I might spawn another + the music artist before others even get 1.

Will people turn on me? I think SD and I have a NAP basically and we also have a very difficult land border with a ton of space between our cities. The ocean border is tighter, but I also have a trireme there to help enforce peace. SD is China so he's going to get CKN and go attack someone, likely NoGas. I expect him to try and take advantage of CKN before NoGas reach phracts. He won't get far but he might do some damage. In retaliation I expect NoGas to go hard at SD and likely take half his empire. Depends on how well SD techs, he might get to guilds before me his tech rate has been very good and I'm taking the music detour. I'll be glad to have the KTBs if so.

Demos:



GNP was double this when I was researching Monarchy. Finished it 1t and I expect Fued to take 2t with overflow. I also expect I will need wealth builds in Orisa, Lucio, and other places over the next 5t in order to max out the GA. I'm going to have to make the drama first or not call on the last turn of the GA. It might be playing with fire to get drama first since I'll have to tech music from scratch, but it does mean +40% prereq discount and I will have a shrine with a market by that point. Although if I'm not going to bulb Nationalism with the artist, drama becomes less important, but I also will need drama for philo.

IW,HBR,Machinery,Guilds...Engy would be good too, citadels are going to be great. Ah I'll play it by ear.

[Lewwyn]

I got 2 free spreads of Buddhism in the last 2 turns and I spread Buddhism to 3 cities via monks this turn as well. The end result is 10 cities out of 16 with Buddhism:



I need to spread it to 3 more cities in particular, but I'm finding less opportunity to build monks, I have 2 of my best producers on wealth, though I think that will change next turn, Zenyatta is getting the market down and only 1 top producer is on Monks... it just finished another this EOT, but I will need to start running more GPP in the city for 3t to get a jump on the next GP. Worried that the 2nd GP for the second GA is going to be a long time coming. I don't have as much of a choice right now. I'm hoping for a Prophet at 85% odds in 2t. could have finished that a turn early, but I don't want to dilute the pool more.

NoGas started their GA and its a bit terrifying. They have like 12 turns of golden age, they are in Caste and will get at least 2 more GP and their MFG is way up. They are saving gold last turn after finishing monarchy. I faced a decision of whether to finish fued or start going after the GArtist. Given their current GPT and current gold I think I can still beat them to music even taking a turn here to finish feud, so I did that. I want to swap into HR next turn to stop unhappiness in 3 cities so I had to finish feud this turn if I want to swap into vassalage before the end of the GA.

But yeah, NoGas have more forges being IND, they have a size 10 Moai city in a GA, and their MFG is above mine by a few point even with only 11 cities. They'll chain GAs into phracts and just wreck SD. I have a nominal lead, but they are about to shoot into a juggernaut that I'm not in position to stop. Good plan by them. GLH and MOM are just real strong. I got 4 wonders and they are helpful but I'm not sure they are the level of those two. To be fair they are solo IND so if they hadn't gotten at least MOM it would have been a really weak game by them.



We are not so weak ourselves. I think the game is much tighter than it looks at a glance, I am in good position. I do need to get knights ASAP though. Worried about Bob coming alive and rally a defense. I feel like he's sleeping on the game a bit right now, but I'm sure my GA and NoGas's GAs are waking him up.

I grew 3 cities into unhappiness this turn so HR will set me aright. Mostly though you can see I'm still trying to grow more cities vertical, work more cottages and get the NW cities up to snuff with granaries and lighthouses. Once they have those, they are commerce fishing villages and can be whip centers for knights. I might try to whip forges there once Buddhism spreads before I'm ready for knights.

Demos:


Part of my MFG drop is that I'm building wealth in 3 cities and that's not turning into MFG here. So given that it's not so bad. GNP is up over 450 when teching something. I think NoGas will go Feudalism now that I've teched it so I should be safe on music. Still a good Crop lead, gotta keep growing these cities.

[Mjmd]

yaya actually reporting. I woke up way too early. I'm looking for random lists!

[Lewwyn]

yaya actually reporting. I woke up way too early. I'm looking for random lists!

Nah man, we do it proper in here. 

Next game, maybe just lists.

[Lewwyn]

Well last turn Nogas settled a city to get to 12, and then this last turn they settled 2 more! They are at 14, and are 2nd in city count with a MOM infused GA and phracts on the horizon... That's just bad news all around. I really need to get my ass in gear and conquer cities to keep up with NoGas when they start conquering people because I'm not making it over the ocean fast enough with knights and I'm not going to Astro right away.

I'm not sure what Serdoa is thinking. I'm pretty sure SD is going HAM on CKN and is going to go after NoGas, the question is if SD is doing his SD thing where he diplos incessantly to get people to do stuff for him IE: Is Serdoa going to come at NoGas or just keep banging his head into Rusten? I saw a cat in Serdoa's lands.

No one has HBR yet, how civilized.

We fell out of our GA this turn:



I think my economy is comparable to NoGas even outside of a GA. I went with drama for the extra beakers on Music and because NoGas isn't catching me. I've got so much overflow I might be 1t teching Music even out of a GA and less than 100% tech rate. You may notice I only have 3 gold left, I only used 3 wealth build for the last 5 turns push out full tech for these 6t, very much worth it. Eked as much out of my GA as I could.

Should I build GLib? Parthenon? Where do I build NE? Globe? These are some questions I'm facing now as well. Still need to get Music>IW and get my marble quarried though.

Shrine goes down next turn.

Still growing cities. Will have to do some lighthouse whips out there in the NW. Still have 5 cities to convert to buddhism, probably build 3 more missionaries and hope the shrine spreads bud to the other two.

Demos:



MFG will go up 30H when I stop wealth builds. Food is still good. Power is fine.


Goddam MoM... trigger 2 GA and you've got another GA for free.

[Lewwyn]

Yo we got the shrine:



I'm the only one with a shrine. Only one with at least 2 GP so far. I assume NoGas will pop 3-4 GP over the next 20 turns when they chain the second GA. But the shrine is good, it's only 13 gpt right now, but I also finished a Market in the city this turn, so that will help. I figure I need to obuild Wall STreet here in the cap, but also the cap is the only city I have with 3 food resources in range. Does this mean I want to build NE in the cap? I think I might... It's seems a bit strange though. I could build NE in Soldier on the north island which will have 2 food resources I suppose. Building Wall street and NE in Zenyatta means no Oxford though. Do I want Oxford in Zen? It's cap and I've got a bunch of unworked cottages at the moment. I think maybe I do WS and Oxford there and NE in Soldier... Zen should pop more GPs just with the wonders built there and I can work a bunch of specs there even without NE.

Notice I get Music in 1t at 20% tech. Tons of overflow off Drama, so it's nice to get drama and the extra beakers for music, and eventually for philo.



I forgot to take demos, but basically 2nd in GNP and MFG, and still up like 50 food on the next rival. MFG is at 116 which is not too far off even out of the GA.

Even though I just got a shrine and a free GArtist this turn and I'm growing my cities, I do feel like I'm stagnating a bit. I wouldn't feel like this if NoGas weren't charging up on me in the GA. Someone got HBR last turn and I think it was NoGas. They will get Machinery and guilds in a few turns and then phracts are coming. SD is going to get rolled, and I'm not going to be able to fully keep up with their rising conquered city count.

WORRIED!

Maybe I should skip trying to conquer and go full builder, get lib and go for cav?

[pindicator]

Trying to recreate your Always Peace masterpiece, I see