[SPOILER] The Steak, Beer, and Cigar Saloon

[Catwalk]

Just to make absolutely sure we understand each other (and thank you for taking your time):

Last turn I moved first, then plako moved. I could have killed his scout here.
On the turn before that plako moved first, then I moved.

On this turn neither one of us have moved. I can kill his scout unless plako moves first.

[spacetyrantxenu]

OK, I think I see where you are now.

T71 (Now) - Neither of you have moved, you are in position to attack his unit.
T70 - You moved first, then plako moved.
T69 - plako moved first, then you moved.

I think in this scenario the actions on T69 and prior are irrelevant. So looking at last turn and this turn, you can either legally attack now before plako plays (since you played before him on the prior turn), or you can let him move (essentially legally/peace time double moving you) and then attack him legally, if you are still in position to attack his scout. In either case whether you choose to let him play first or not, I think you're legally in position to go forth and if you so choose.

Now, since you've asked plako to hold off playing he probably has an idea what you're up to so maybe delaying is no longer a good idea (and I think asking him not to play was probably not the right way to go about it either -- probably better to have declared war and asked him to wait until you had finished your turn). I think your caution is admirable but I think you're OK either way here unless I'm totally misreading the situation.

[Catwalk]

Okay, I will go ahead and attack. I know plako has a reputation for being honourable about double moves, so I really didn't want my first PB screwup to be against him. He seems to have waited as requested though, as he was online when I messaged him. And yeah, I definitely could have declared war first as all I'd have lost were potential trade routes that probably won't matter. I'll do that another time, thanks for that tip and your advice on the situation.

Had he run away I still could have eaten him, I'd just have to chase him through my lands for a few turns (he's approaching a dead end). I rather need my axe going east, though.

[spacetyrantxenu]

For future reference you have to get up early in the morning to play before plako. There's a reason there was an award named for him in PB7.

The plako Award - Not abusing the turn timer, even trying specifically to not abuse it, as though you were roleplaying some sort of perfect turn timer gentleman.

[Catwalk]

Turn 72
After much deliberation I pulled the trigger on a harmless scout:

Tasty tasty XP! Axe got hit once, leaving me at 4.4/5. This will help me a bit versus Jowy, can well mean the difference between losing to a stack of three axes (versus a fortified spear and axe) and holding my ground.

And there's more!

That's a dead warrior's leg sticking out behind the mine. 2 XP for the spear as well, giving me a promotion and possibly free healing should I need it.

Micro plans:

Dishes is about to grow into triple whipping range on the missionary. Unfortunately the whip anger timing is a bit off, I still have 4 turns left so I can't triple whip it without losing a bit of production. If I'm willing to delay the settler for a few turns, I can put 2 turns into the settler after this one, then grow again on the missionary and triple whip. I'm thinking that I'll keep building missionaries here for a little bit, I need 2 over by Jowy and it'd be nice to have one for Groceries as well. Any suggestions?

Vacuuming is ready to triple whip. I decided to delay it one more turn (39/100 hammers), giving me another turn of production with 5 tiles and giving my worker time to build another road so the new city won't be delayed any. It'll likely build another axe after this, I don't want to risk Jowy making an opportunistic strike at my expansions here.

Groceries is slowly improving, I'm building two cottages for it and a grass river mine. I have a lot of overflow from this granary, what should I put them into? I could build a work boat in preparation for the southern city, exploring the islands down there before netting the fish. For that matter, I can send the Dishes settler down there now instead of settling both sites by Jowy right away. Vacuuming will regrow to size 6 in a hurry to whip out another settler, wouldn't delay my elephant city all that much and happiness seems to actually be working out okay with the tiny bit extra from buddhism. Lurker comments about this are also welcome

Punching Bag will get there soon enough, a grass horse and a grass cow are decent tiles to start a city on. Cow pasture finishes in 2 turns.

In the north, Foot Rubs gets the pig pasture next turn and grows to size 2 the turn after. That lets me whip the granary a few turns later. I could also chop it, but I'd to waste two turns moving onto a nearby forest so that chop would come in rather late. And it'd be done right before getting Mathematics, seems wasteful.

Jowy lost a unit last turn, looks like a random barbarian fight. Good news for us, our power is now higher than his:

Nakor is getting away with a farmer's gambit, but there's no helping that. With that said, I'm tempted to send my axe over to this pink dot area:

Problem is that it's really easy to dislodge with a chariot. And rather than discourage him from settling in my direction, waving an axe in his face will just make him build more military so he can expand securely. On the other hand, that's basically what I'd want him to do. I have a reasonable power rating, he can't know that it's pointed at Jowy rather than at him. If I do this I'll need to provide a different unit for Punching Bag which is currently undefended as my axe is venturing out.

Yeah, I remember that award Xenu. Turns tend to roll late in the evening in this game for me, though.

[Catwalk]

Turn 73
Nothing much to report. Decided to settle both Jowy spots first, will send 3 units right away and another 2 shortly after. Also sending 2 missionaries in short order. Started on a work boat in Groceries, I can never decide when to start exploring and I figure I have a good chance of being able to use this one for fish before too long. Demos took an expected hit as I triple whipped my settler, pasture came in by Foot Rubs, forest grew by Punching Bag.

[Catwalk]

Turn 74

Met yuris this turn, accepted OB from him. 2metraninja founded Judaism and converted to it, he's SPI. zanth has 9% of the world's population converted to Hinduism, that suggests high population in his cities and/or lucky spreads. Considering I got 2 spreads already, I suspect it's the former. BaII still hasn't put any EP on me, so I get graphs on him next turn with 32 EP. Jowy has stopped putting EP on me as well, we're at 160 to his 90. That's good news for us, both because it slightly suggests he's not hostile and because it frees up our EP for use elsewhere while maintaining research visibility on him. He's researching Math btw. Here are some graphs and demos:

It all looks good except for that last screen. I'm managing well compared with my neighbours (I'm also the only one at 5 cities) but someone is off to a good start somewhere. I think Nakor / Gaspar just researched Mathematics, that's due to be slotted in around here and gives a bunch of soldier points. Jowy seems particularly weak, he's way behind me in food and GNP and only marginally ahead in MFG. Nakor is slightly behind me on all 3. Oh, and max power is now up to a whooping 93k. I think 10k of that is Mathematics, but that's still a lot.

[haphazard1]

Back after a couple days being very busy. Some nice XP, new cities soon to be founded, and demos mostly looking pretty good.

The top GNP and top crop yield figures are a bit worrisome. Hopefully not the same civ with both of those. But someone has really got the food and growth booming.

Have there been any great people born? I am wondering if someone might have settled a GP as part of that very large GNP figure.

[Catwalk]

A great general was born last turn, confirming that war is happening somewhere.

[Catwalk]

Turn 75

More nothing happening, and another lazy demos screenshot

That's right after triple whipping two settlers, so I don't think it looks bad. I'm first to 5 cities, Yuri + BaII + Jowy + Nakor are all at 4 cities still. I'm settling the cow/pig location first, then the elephants. I can easily live without the happiness for a few more turns, and that gives me more time to get military and a missionary there. My axe arrives next turn, it will start fortifying the area. I also got graphs on BaII, he's doing decently so far.