[68] Miguelito's famous last words, and Amicalola's sighs

[Miguelito]

This feels a lot like a trap (capital has an archer and a chariot), but I can't help it, the corn gets pillaged.

Only after comitting to that however did I note this, which I had missed for two turns:


 
Kroth lost a city and... they made 8 culture over 2 turns - with Cre that means that they are down to the capital! Yuri's power had shot up a while ago, and he managed to put it to great use! Against Agg/Cre nonetheless !
This seems to neutralize the praet threat near permanently, also considering how we are starving them, and yuri has been working in the same direction - although if we lose the units on the corn we might suffer short term. If we don't, we could even make an attempt for the capital, together with the 3XP shock axe on the galley (autopromote struck again . City raider might have been nice, but shock is certainly good in most cases). But we'd have to face yuri's power afterwards, so probably unwise. We could keep the force around though in order to capture/raze it from yuri if and when he takes the capital (however, the capital just being unassailable until at least cats might be the most realistic scenario).

Pessimist outlook: yuri can grow really strong (and has Phi for mid/long term strength). Meanwhile we can't even plant an extra city as long as the cap stands. Let's get all the wonders then?
Should this also lead to a change in our tech priorities? Constru seems less critical for survival, as we might be able to handle Comm's dogs with just HAs as well (not as well as cats though). We could look to maximize our yields with IW-AH.
Masonry is nearly finished. It might be wiser to not finish it until we actually want to use it though: Comm might see it as us going for Pyramids and could feel extra motivated to intervene fast.

[Amicalola]

Autopromote scares this dedlurker.   But that's great news overall! I would retreat from the corn next turn, although you might be planning that anyway. I wouldn't make an attempt on the capital, Kroth not whipping to save it would be unrealistic, given that they always have copper. 

I think I agree on swapping to IW/AH - with corn/fish pillaged and a lost 2nd city, I don't think Kroth are going to be killing anyone with praets anytime soon. If they somehow do, it will probably be the team that took their city anyway.

[Miguelito]

It's getting better!




I moved the stack SE to keep Hastur save, even though I was tempted to double axe that axe in the forest. Kept the worker. He may have a chariot in range, but it's not very likely and against a C1 axe on a forested hill it is not clear cut at all. Moving onto the iron hill next is too much probably. Free worker is nice! I was tempted to hold off on whipping the one in the capital, but it feelslike 3 workers would not be too much actually, for quite a while.


Kroth are starving, and 26 land tiles confirms that they have just the capital left.

Commodore meanwhile has kept low power. I hope we have enough of a time buffer to react if that changes.

I set research to IW at 0%. We could start next turn, unless you think Writing->Maths should go first. We oracle MC right?

[Amicalola]

It's getting better!




I moved the stack SE to keep Hastur save, even though I was tempted to double axe that axe in the forest. Kept the worker. He may have a chariot in range, but it's not very likely and against a C1 axe on a forested hill it is not clear cut at all. Moving onto the iron hill next is too much probably. Free worker is nice! I was tempted to hold off on whipping the one in the capital, but it feelslike 3 workers would not be too much actually, for quite a while.


Kroth are starving, and 26 land tiles confirms that they have just the capital left.

Commodore meanwhile has kept low power. I hope we have enough of a time buffer to react if that changes.

I set research to IW at 0%. We could start next turn, unless you think Writing->Maths should go first. We oracle MC right?

Excellent! Yeah, I would have kept the worker as well - if we get punished it's just bad luck. 

Definitely Oracle MC, and I would like to start IW next turn. I'm pretty sure it should come before Maths, the pig and iron tiles are both strong.

[Miguelito]

Worker is safely on the galley (together with the axe who didn't feel like shenanigans); Thoth whipped for 2 and had the first praetorian in his cap. Let's see which way he feels like pushing. I also retreated the 3 units (and we saved a coin of supply).
If you don't object, we'll whip a galley in Brute next turn. The OF into Oracle is measly, but it can annoy Commodore in its own right.

In the capital I had a hard time deciding between putting 45h OF into a settler or granary, ultimately decided for the granary, as I feel we need a little more worker and military support for the next plant. Whip the settler 6->3 then probably.

I started IW.

Overall the theme right now feels like Lean back and Develop. I'm a bit worried about Commodore whipping out a bunch of dogs out of a sudden, or Kroth dedicating their remaining strength and ire towards us, but we're not completely unprepared for those scenarios, and all in all it feels like we're in a good place for the moment.

[Amicalola]

That all sounds good to me. I don't object to the galley in Brute, we got early Sailing and we might as well use it.

[Miguelito]

Next turn whip the galley in Brute, then the turn after Oracle gets finished.
The granary in the capital is badly timed with growth, but the tiles are so good that it doesn't make sense to delay growth for 3 food in the bin.
I seem to remember that we said at some point no granaries before settling all the cities, when did we change that? Now we will have to stick to no forges before settling all the cities - but will we, or will temptation win again?
The stolen worker being on the fur might be an error. Improving it just takes an awful lot of turns (8 with the road). On the other hand, with granaries incoming we'll really want the happy... The question is who prepares the city in the jungle. Probably Comm is about to claim the fish anyways with a monument, and it could be debated whether that means that we should hurry tf up or rather delay until maths, in order to chop out a quick culture bomb or something (2 chops are 3/4 of Stonehenge - not very serious, but I'm a bit at a loss over what to do there).
The worker in the east who just chopped for Oracle is supposed to build the iron mine next south of his current position, so that only leaves the one on the FP for 6 turns of roading (3 FP, 3 PH). But then I'd like to finish the cottage first with 2 turns remaining.... haven't thought this through.

[Miguelito]

Duty fulfilled:


I worked a grasshillforest over better tiles for a turn to speed it up. I don't think it was in danger, but getting that culture going early has value in itself. And we did start putting hammers into the first Tatara in the capital:



The picture is from after the turn. I feel like this city has too much food, so even though the conversion is bad, I'm inclined to put 2 turns into the settler, and put overflow into the Tatara. With iron it should then come online fairly quick. I'd rather not build new units before the Tatara, if we can avoid to.
I also think that the capital should go for a pure engineer straight away. It has the best food potential, with 7 units of unshareable surplus. Near certainly Machinery, although of course Pyramids will be tempting. But Samurai is what we're here for, right? We could also hire a second engineer in another city, to get at least a partial chance afterwards.

The Brute galley is being nosy:


I made a mistake in not loading up at least a warrior, but Commodore most likely will not leave the worker open, and we may disturb his micro a bit. And at least tear some nets. Doubtful that he'd have a galley of his own sitting around.
Tile yields tell that he has iron - good for him and good for us, as we've been getting an additional KTB for 2 or 3 turns, which sped up the tech by a turn - and no AH yet, although that road means that he's about to get it. Now that urgency is a bit concerning, also considering that Comm has no AH food available. It would totally be in character for him to throw out the Agg and Totem Pole boni and go for horchers. Hopefully we can keep close wathc from the sea (sequential means that new units are always visible in the cities where they were build). With the CG3 archer fully fortified in Brute I'm not too worried about chariots.

Fwiw our demos have been a bit less stellar recently. Solid top in GNP (which now includes 15 culture), solid in MfG, but trending 3rd in CY. As we see, Comm has 4 cities, while our 4th will still take a bit of time, and will claim food only slowly.

Actually we should discuss the next city. Here's the map:


We can:

1. found yellow, have it work the oasis, double chop the monument into a workboat, hope that we can defend it (the city and the workboat), and if all that works out after some 20 turns and a granary we might have a useable city.
   
2. found yellow, and speed it up a lot plus make it safer with some culture bomb. The only option I see for that is a Hindu holy city, but that would require for Buddhism to spread to Brute first in order to work reliably. Also further beakers that we don't spend towards construction. Getting both of Judaism and Hindu seems too costly for the purpose. I've joked about Stonehenge with math chops, but that's too far out tech wise.
   
3. found blue, and accept that we won't get fish until we build a wonder or holy city there. The upside is that it can take corn and be useful immediately, and is also a bit safer. Stonehenge with maths is not completely unreasonable, although mostly it is... or Colossus even? That's also just 156 raw hammers including our cheap forge.
   
4. found pink. Claims no new food nor land, and in terms of food only shares a crab that has no WB yet. It would help with working the gold, allowing to whip Hastur more, but that's about it. I don't see horses as part of our short or mid term plans, and anyways we can just build a pasture.
   

Seeing it written down like that, I sort of like 3. best, with a tendency towards Colossus, although the spot is quite exposed for razing. It also doesn't reuqire as much preparation/immediate protection, while yellow needs the road, axes, probably a spear on top, and two workers chopping immediately.

[Amicalola]

Definitely support putting in extra food turns into the settler to create more overflow. I do that a lot, RB tend to have too much food early on, and I think it usually works out well for me. Also support the Engineer!


I like 1 or 3 the best. I think we're thinking long-term here, not short-term. Maybe I'm wrong. Is chopping Stonehenge really so unreasonable, if we go for route 3? Anyway, I would agree that 3 is best, though I am mostly opposed to 4. I do not think we found that city except as a final filler.

[Miguelito]

Just realized that MC also unlocked lumbermills for us, if I'm not mistaken? I guess the plains forests E of spices and E of gold should get them? Any others? Maybe the Banana forest until calendar? I had considered making it a voyage, but that might be even better.
Of course worker turns are scarce currency yet, so it will take done time until we can get to that.