[SPOILERS] Isabella of Carthage, starring Ellimist, SleepingMoogle, and Nicolae

[Ellimist]

Some parts of this game are just so damn satisfying.

[Ellimist]

Okay, T80 played according to the recent micro plan I posted. Swapping to the hamlet in Sirius caused it to grow this turn(instead of next) but also sped up maths research by 1 turn(eot82).

I hired an engineer in Canopus, I'm planning to work him at least one more turn(80 GPPs), maybe 4 more. The worker finished EoT at Canopus with no overflow; I'm not sure what to build next there. Probably a settler, but maybe another building(library?)

I kept building a missionary in Sirius. There are several good spots we could use it, and Kuro wants to pay us to get one to him soon-ish. I'm hoping that we'll see more natural spreads once the religion is present on the donut.

[Ellimist]

T81 played, Arcturus founded at the coastal corn/stone spot. I think we still need to continue with the land grab, but it's getting more expensive. Our per turn expenses went from 28 to 35 when Arcturus was founded.

In Arcturus, right now I'm planning to pop borders, farm the corn, and whip a granary at size 2. Next, I think it would be best to grow to size 4, 2-pop whip a galley, then put a unit on the center island. I'd like to settle the entire island if possible, before other civs get the chance to(assuming the island is worth it.) I estimate that it will hold approximately 6 cities. We have to inform NH when we find resources on the east side of the island, but we can get settlers on the way before we get a good look at it. We also have to settle at least one city on the west side of the island before settling the east.

Last turn I put together some dotmaps. Here's a link to the blank map.

The BFCs of our current cities:

I consider these to be the more obvious new city sites:

More speculative sites:

I'm not sure where to plant the city in the center of our border with NH, but I'm considering either on the wines or 1N of them. 1NE of the southern gems is also a likely spot.

[Ellimist]

Okay, T82 played. Kuro has a settler on the inner coast, probably going to settle next turn. I discussed some options with him for a possible settling split regarding the donut.

I'm hoping we can grab a huge chunk, perhaps all, of the center island. We can complete 2 settlers out of Canopus by eot89, and Sirius is a bit larger than usual and can whip 2 nearly back to back as well. Regulus can whip the a settler as well, and maybe even Pollux. The center island can accommodate perhaps 7 cities and I think we can put 3-6 on it before anybody else realizes what's happening. We already have a long-ish NAP with Noble and Kuro apparently still wants one so we may be able to even get some concession in exchange for securing our southern border.

Pollux didn't have enough improved tiles to work this turn so I hired 2 specialists. Mathematics came in at end of turn, currency due in 6 at 100% research. Unfortunately, we're out of gold so we'll have to run 3-4 turns of 0% first, but I think we might be able to get it in 8-9 turns overall. We should definitely have it in time for our next big settler push, which I want to continue to go 100% for.

From the info we have right now, this is what the world looks like.


I might have missed a few mountains, and I don't have the exact locations of some cities so they weren't placed either.

[Ellimist]

Okay, I've had a chance to review the Sirius micro. Right now, this is what I'm thinking we ought to do for the next several turns. We can get 2 settlers and the vast majority of Moai.

T83 Swap from mine to either farm or coast. (Otherwise we mess up the overflow from the whipping.)
Eot83 Missionary is completed.
T84 Start on a settler.
T85 Whip settler for 3 pop.
T86 Overflow from settler into Moai Statues. City grows to size 6 at EoT.
T87 Start another settler.
T88 Whip settler for 3 pop.
T89 Hook up stone and overflow from settler into Moai statues. Complete forest chop. City grows to size 4 at EoT.

That will give us 4 settlers out of our 2 best cities, and Canopus can produce another one after that in another 4 turns. We can get at least one out of Regulus, and Pollux could produce another. We might be better off with a worker out of Pollux, but it has grown quite a bit. We can probably also put some chops to good use as well.

Soon Regulus will have 2 floodplains cottages and the 2 food bonuses for a food surplus of 19 at size 4, so we'll be whipping it constantly and need happiness. I'd like to send the new Hindu missionary to Regulus, and probably whip the forge when it arrives. We can overflow into a settler and whip it the following turn.

Math came in at Eot82. It's hard to say how long currency will take with all the whipping planned, but I estimate T92 or earlier. Settling Arcturus revealed plains incense (and some fogged jungle), so I think Calendar next would be good, then probably Iron Working.

[SevenSpirits]

That's a very nice-looking map!

[Nicolae Carpathia]

I don't know the micro doesn't feel right to me, remember the food bar doesn't fill while you're putting turns into a worker or settler.

But it's a good outline!

[Ellimist]

Thanks Seven! I originally planned to map just the center island and the water around it.

I think I took all that into account Nicolae, but I know making long-range micro plans isn't my strongest skill. Do you mean a certain city in particular?

[Nicolae Carpathia]

In Sirius. I'm not quite sure if we can get 3 pop growths in 4 turns, when we're going to be spending around 4 turns building 2 settlers. I don't like it because food that is going straight into the hammer bar is less hammer efficient than food going into the food bar

And I do agree, that's a really nice map because it's a useful way to collate strategic information. How was it made?

[Ellimist]

Well we only need two turns of food accumulation for that plan to work. We'll get one next turn when the missionary is finished, and we'll grow to size 6 when we're dumping the overflow from the first settler being whipped. Once we hit size 3, we'll build Moai with mostly overflow anyway. I haven't really planned past that.

Setting aside the tactics for a bit, what do you think about the strategic side of it? Are we making a mistake with so many settlers so fast? I'd really like to take over the entire island, but it will require 7-9 cities. Our neighbors seem willing to give us a chance for it with these silly NAPs. Is the economic cost too great? We'll have currency soon, and Colossus coast, so our cities will be able to pay for themselves quite quickly.

I also think I can maybe get Kuro to race us for the Hanging Gardens, a wonder he wants that we have no interest in. If I drop a hint about "chopping it out now that we have stone," I may be able to get him to rush it out the way he did to us with the Colossus(which he apparently had no interest in.)

I used MS paint to make that map. I started with a grid and just filled it in with the appropriate colors using the bucket "fill space" tool.