[SPOILER] Close to Win

[Charriu]

T39+T40:

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[Ramkhamhaeng]

It's a dry scout killer trap.

[Charriu]

No, the scout has 200% against animals in this mod and will likely survive.

On to something else. I think Giraflorens and pindicator are in a conflict with each other. Pindicator did log out twice after the turn roll and is a lot later to the turn then in the past.

[Charriu]

TT40-T43:

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Well that turned out as a surprise. AT isn't my eastern neighbor it is Jowy. And he only has 2 cities, which means he settled his second city in T39, while I settled my third in T38. I would say that's good for me. Still wondering why he's so late. I will have graphs on Mjmd in two turns and then everything goes towards Jowy. By the way AT is still pumping espionage into me like crazy. Don't know why seeing that he must be my northern neighbor across the jungle.

Stay tuned for a bigger update about my upcoming plans next turn, when I have explored enough to give you a nice overview map.

[Charriu]

T44:

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Big overview map

Other data

As promised here is the big overview-map as well as the current state of tech. This is how I see the current state of geopolitics:

• The south is pretty secure aside from any barbs.
  
• Same goes for the north due to the mountain range, the jungle.
  
• With the bigger inner sea between me and Jowy I think we can have a fairly peaceful border between us. The southern isthmus is also not that attractive, which is why I doubt that conflict around the south will erupt soon.
  
• Now the western border is a lot more interesting and maybe tense. I will have a fairly big land border with Mjmd. Him being IMP I will need to settle quickly in that direction.
  
• If I manage to settle purple and green I will have huge portions of land without any war. Right now I'm looking at 8 initial cities securing the border, with the option to fill this up with some filler cities, coastal towns etc. for up to 14 cities.
  
• I have a good lead on city count and GNP right now. And just highlighting this: Those are 1 bonus commerce from Mysticism and 3 from Protective, giving me the 1st place in GNP.
  
• I'm lacking forests so far and will try to preserve the ones I have until after Mathematics.
  
• With ivory in the 3rd ring of BerserkHalfling, silver fairly secure in the south and maybe even the option of furs in the south east I have a quite a few early happiness resources.
  

This leads me to my goals for the upcoming 25ish turns:

1. Secure the west with settling red, purple and green and later a city near the southern sheep. Next city after that will be the northern 1N copper spot to secure the border towards Jowy. Run the farmers gambit aka I'm a cautious turtler game for a while to secure all city spots.
   
2. Make a play for religion via Polytheism. If somebody else snatches it try Monotheism seeing that I'm probably the only one going for early Masonry. Hopefully the holy city lands in BerserkHalfling to get it to 3rd ring.
   
3. Get to currency, maybe even by snatching the Oracle. Another trade route is crucial for PRO. Get there via Mathematics.
   
4. Wonders: Maybe try nabbing the Great Wall. I have stone and could need the defense against barbs. Later on the Hanging Gardens is also a very nice option.
   

I already worked out a plan for all of this, which you can find in my spreadsheet under 'Recent Micro'. My tech path will be the following with turns of finished tech: Masonry(T47)->Polytheism(53)->Agriculture(T56)->(Monotheism)->Priesthood(T59)->Writing(T63)->Mathematics(T75+)->Currency

Masonry: Is very cheap for me. I also want and need the Dun for culture. BeserkHalfling also wants it's stone connected.
Polytheism: For religion and hey I have marble later. Maybe even build the Temple of Artemis on my island later.
Agriculture: Maybe even optional. I only tech this to give CommandoPygmies some better food options and farm the southern floodplain for red dot.
Priesthood: I already have Polytheism by that time and it's so damn cheap that I thought to get it for another tech advantage towards Writing. Also needed for the Oracle.
Writing: Very cheap thanks to three prerequisites.
Mathematics: The forests need some chopping and I need a way to currency.

I also never talked about my dotmap in the south-east:

Yellow: Most flatland but thankfully it shares the copper for hammers as well as the deer on the island. Will be a good commerce or great person city. By the way the island city will be founded on the tile 1S of the deer.
Orange: My main defensive spot on the isthmus and a great production city.
Grey: Another sad little fishing village. Hopefully the border pop from the cap reveals a seafood under the remaining undiscovered tile.

[Charriu]

T45:

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The relentless turn pace is back in action, third turn today for me. I finally got Mjmds graphs. Very interesting GNP looks like he secured himself a gold or silver tile with his second city. In his mercy AT also stopped putting points into me right, when I was about to loose graphs on him. Next espionage target: Jowy.

I also see Giraflorens' Work Boat down in the south-west, but so far the game does not recognize us meeting, but I suspect as soon as they move, I will have met them.

[Old Harry]

I love how much thought you've put into this.

A couple of things:
If your workers have plenty of other stuff to do then saving the forests sounds okay, but if they're just roading or making non-river cottages you may be better chopping out settlers.
You only have one island city site, I forget exactly how pro affects trade - do you get 3c from overseas trade and/or from other players? If so alphabet is worth considering both for the foreign trade and for research builds.

Do you know at what point your economy will crash?

[Charriu]

The workers have more then enough to do until mathematics is done for example river cottages.

Yes the island will give me 3c trade routes. Foreign trade route should be 3c too. I also don't need Alphabet for them as Writing unlocks OBs

It will crash at some point. Mathematics will be the first harder tech to get (couple of turns collecting money). I think the crash will fall neatly into the same time I discover Currency

[Charriu]

Just looked back at the settling times for 2nd cities of all players:

T27: Mjmd
T29: pindicator
T31: Charriu
T34: Mr. Cairo, Superdeath, AT
T39: Jowy
T40: Giraflorens

I'm really curious what caused Jowy and Giraflorens to settle their 2nd so late.

[Charriu]

T46-T48:

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Exploration in the south-west continued with me finding Mjmds third city and an awkwardly placed copper. I highly doubt that this is Mjmds only copper.

Back at home everything is in peaceful development with my settler spawning in T50.