[SPOILERS] Dhal checking in.

[Dhalphir]

Okay, turn 79!

First up - I got a great scientist this turn. I had to pop him at the capital since there was nowhere else to do it. My capital is actually looking really sad, but a few worker turns and turns of growth will fix that right up. As a result, the Academy is only worth 20 bpt right now.



Demographics at sustainable science post Academy. Pretty much everything is solidly third place.



Moai statues finishing this turn. This isn't the BEST spot ever for a Moai, it can only work ten water tiles in total, and some of those are overlap, but it's not too bad, and I always feel that if you delay the national wonders too long to get the perfect location, you end up not being able to utilize them very much. This city will be able to pump out ships and military for my island settling.



Aforementioned island settling spots

[Dhalphir]

So this is the new world from the current turn.

Gazglum now has a vulture in the area, and you can see part of his borders in the top left there. That means we are in contest for this area. I believe he's going for the tile that my archer is sitting on as a settling location. I don't know how close he is to having a settler in the area, but with a vulture around it's probably not far off - a few turns.

Unfortunately, I delayed my settler out of Tylo to get a courthouse up instead, as 10 cities was about the most I could manage without getting my outlying cities courthouses. Had I not done that, I'd have a settler to that spot next turn. Instead, my settler is only just beginning this turn, and I would prefer to send him to the northern rice/clams/sheep/silk location that's at the top right there (the rice is under the jungle).

However, I did some playing around, and I have a galley finishing in my Moai city, as well as another galley returning from settling another island city to the east. I will also have three horse archers and an axe in my Moai city. That will all be gathered in 5 turns time, and I will have two more axes built out of Tylo by then, if I delay the settler more. That means that any city that Gazglum can found, I can hit half a dozen turns later with three HAs and three axes - there's no way any island settling force can defend a city against that.

I'd rather not fight Gaz, to be honest - I was hoping I could nab the middle of this continent peacefully and focus on Whosit and Ilios - but it's not to be, it seems, and with my border with Ilios filled out and my border with Whosit only having room for 1-2 more nice cities in the jungle area, I pretty much have to settle at least the midway point of this continent. In addition, the marked spot is an unbelievably good canal city. Personally, I'd probably put it one tile south on the plains hill - It gives up the sheep, silk, and marble, but it gains whales as well as having the cows and clam in first ring instead of just the clams. And the sheep and silk will belong to the northern city of mine anyway.

So.

We'll see what happens. It's almost a shame we don't read each other's threads, because I would rather Gaz know that I can shred his city and that he doesn't even try to found it, because that would be a better outcome for both of us.

[Dhalphir]

Cancelled my 17gpt for Stone deal with Ilios this turn. Finished Moai a couple turns ago. That jumped my GNP up to 220 at break even science, which is 30 below Ilios.

Three settlers will be out within the next 6 turns to found cities 11, 12, and 13 on the new continent. Another three settlers coming out in the following six turns, so by the time the next dozen turns go by, assuming I don't feel the need to go into a whipping frenzy from a Whosit or Ilios attack, I should be at 16 cities with all of my mainland spots filled and a solid hold on the new continent.

[Dhalphir]

Gaz founded a city in the new world. It wasn't on the canal spot pictured earlier. This is the old picture for reference - I forgot to take another.




My archer in the area has moved up to the forested areas to the east, but I still caught a glimpse of some borders over the marble. He's either settled on the desert hill where his Vulture is, or one tile south. The desert hill is the more defensive plant, but I think he's more likely settled one tile south to claim crabs first ring - otherwise his city will grow very slowly. It's already a low food city as it is, and I'm not sure I'd have bothered settling it.

In any case, this does present me with a problem. I want that city on the plains hill to the south, 1N of the cows. It picks up cows and fish and has the aforementioned clam too, and most importantly it is a canal through the new world landmass without having to go around to the north. It is of massive strategical importance. With it, I can threaten Gaz at any time with boats. Without it, I never can.

So, if Gaz founded on the desert hill, no problem. If he didn't, however, and he settled on the flat desert spot invalidating my canal city - well, two of the axes are already on the new world, with a third axe and the first horse archer due to step off the boat next turn. Then the boat goes back to pick up the two remaining HAs.

I don't think Gaz's city will even have grown by the time I raze it, so I don't think its a question of keeping that city. And I wouldn't keep it even if I could - it's a poor city.

[Dhalphir]

Now that I look at the picture some more, I think that Gaz's own city near the rice to the north invalidates the desert hill plant, so he must have planted 1S of the hill, on the flat desert.

You know what this means lurkers.

[Dhalphir]

[Dhalphir]

Turn 89

Demographics look pretty good. This is them at 0% science.




I really need to settle more cities - I lose only 5 gold per turn at 70% science.

With that in mind, here's the next two cities to be settled.

Pol



Eeloo (settler is finishing in Tylo and heading up to where the archer is.



Border city with Whosit



This GP will probably be used for a GA if its a scientist and a trade mission if a Merchant. But it might be a GA either way, I haven't decided.

Tech news
-Finished Machinery, going for Engineering next for Pikes. Everyone seems to be building masses of HAs and War Elephants for their attacking stacks, so having the ability to build Pikes will be important. I will do one turn of 0% science to gather gold, then burn it on two turns of 100% to finish the tech.

In foreign news

-Yuri is planning to attack Gazglum, I think. He's had a fair bit of power built up over the last few turns, and when I look at the border over there, even I would attack The Argo with culture up against it like that.
-I'm still planning to raze Gaz's city - you can see the pictures of the forces assembling in the Eeloo settler screenshot above.
-Ilios asked for open borders and I gave them. I only got about 10 gpt from it, I think he probably got a lot more, but it fills out my TRs nicely
-It is pretty inevitable that Ilios will attack someone within the next dozen turns. He has pretty much run out of land to safely expand to, and there's enough map trading going on that he knows about our special island that he can't get to. Hopefully, by picking up Engineering, that will give me the logistical ability to defend from Ilios without allowing Whosit to get frisky, as well as bringing me some Pikes to defend against the inevitable elephant storm. My only concern is that I have a very low MFG, due to my growth phase in my cities. Hopefully I can correct that.

[Dhalphir]

Gaz lost the city of The Argos to Yuri this turn. My turn wasn't very interesting, just a lot of putting hammers into things, so I didn't take any photos. Next turn will have more interesting stuff.

Hopefully that means Gaz is distracted by the war and doesn't notice my small band of troops advancing on his island city.

[Dhalphir]

So this is unusual.




If I'm understanding this correctly, the only ones who have built any significant number of courthouses so far are me and Gazglum. On a map where, at this point in the game, even cities in your first ring from the capital are incurring 6gpt+ base maintenance costs, with 9-10 on new island cities, that seems like a serious oversight. Nearly every city of mine has a courthouse. I understand Yuri lacking them, because he's built a huge army to go fight Gaz. And Whosit only just finished Code of Laws a couple turns ago. But it seems very weird that Ilios hasn't made more courthouses.

And it's also kind of scary too, because wow, if he's currently burning cash from massive maintenance costs, when he does eventually whip down a couple dozen population to get courthouses in most cities, his GNP will leap ahead.

[Dhalphir]

Oh, and I will be founding my 12th city next turn, putting me even with Ilios, ahead of Yuri by 1, ahead of Gaz by two, and ahead of Whosit by four.

my 13th and 14th half a dozen turns later.