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Babylon's Nebula of Cheddar(Phi/Ind)

OH was the one to snipe it btw. He's also probably being annoying here:
[Image: OU76AIx.jpg]

The wonder we built instead:
[Image: GQGdb5o.jpg]

I could have made some more sacrifices to be able to play around that 5% roll and still win the wonder. I'm sort of doubtful it would have been a play with positive expected value, but I certainly could have at least thought about it a bit more at the time. I'm still feeling very good about my chances anyway, we'll just have to lean more into specialists than water tiles.

Here's the last contested border region, with a bonus barb city to the south:
[Image: BApemLS.jpg]
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[Image: 6k2FoGo.jpg]

I don't expect to get any more natural land than this, just maybe one or two more fillers down the line. This is only the 120 land tiles that I should have on average though, I haven't really managed to take more than my fair share. I wasn't really trying to as IND/PHI, but I still felt I was racing for the Jackie Chan and IT Crowd spots, so it's a bit curious. Anyway, my snowball is ahead of the others but the land should be there for them to catch up.

I got my Trade Mission for 700g, which is the first contribution of Phi - it accounts for 420 of that gold. I'll use the gold to power towards Calendar and the MoM. In the case I roll a Prophet next I'll want to be ready for a golden age. If I get an Engineer or Merchant I'll probably bulb Currency or Machinery/Pyramids. I wonder if OH started running an engineer for the Mids immediately after discovering Metal Casing. That would explain why he hasn't gone for any Merchants yet as Ethiopia. Pretty slick move.

I'll slowbuild the Temple of Artemis in Firefly. I don't really expect competition with no marble on the map, and would be perfectly happy with failgold anyway, so I don't want to rush it. Firefly is my likely National Epic location.

I'm saving the forests by House for the MoM. I'm not sure I'll need them all, because I'm not expecting much competition with its heavy nerfing in RtR. Spare forests can be saved for a Great Library attempt in Jackie Chan. That wonder might be contested.

I'll probably make a half-hearted Hanging Gardens play along the way, but I'm waiting to see how many people know Maths. That would be built in Daredevil. It's risky to build because of the aqueduct, but there aren't any amazing options to put my hammers in otherwise and I'm not sure we'll have much competition. The EXP Gav is in a war, and the EXP OH went for Metal Casing first instead of Maths, without a Great Merchant to catch up.

The border with Gav looks quite peaceful:
[Image: MEoM6MH.jpg]

There were no resources to push forward for. Since OH killed the workboat coming over for the fish, settling for the 3 resources was a no-brainer. OH forced one inopportune whip from me and then gave me peace before he got vision on my fishing nets btw. I was about to whip a Trireme that he'd have to deal with, so he probably did maximum damage at minimum cost to himself.
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There's apparently some action going on between Gav and Cornflakes. After the initial city loss, Corn has now taken 2 cities back off Gav. I just don't have the economy to consider joining in. I walked up to this city to scout it, and it was still empty when I stepped up to Gav's borders:

[Image: TfV2FZH.jpg]

But I've got a very nice gems for silver trade going for Gav that's not worth ruining for no reason, so I just turned around.

As you can see, I'm currently making almost no money and I'm living off my Great Merchant trust fund. Unfortunately that will run out a bit before I hit Calendar. I really should not have teched Polytheism. I can't even push for the ToA properly, I need to emphasise beakers over hammers to get over the line. If I don't roll a Prophet in 4t it will probably be fine, I get good bulbs from a Merchant or Engineer. And I still should beat everyone to the MoM with no marble on the map(and I was still first to Maths). However the best use for a Prophet is a MoM GA, so delaying that would really hurt.

OH did GE rush the Pyramids as expected, but he had to eat a revolt turn to get into Representation, which mitigates the swing somewhat.

Once I get Calendar my economy should be on it's way to fixing itself and I can consider the possibility of HBR to get involved in the fighting. I just have to hope they continue stalemating for the time being.
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Rolled the Great Engineer, so time to bulb 1k+ beakers into Machinery. I think we'll also commit to a future of Serfdom, which buffs all these mills (wind, water, lumber) I now have access to, as opposed to Caste System which buffs workshops.
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Looking forward to seeing a Serfdom economy in RtR. How would you say you're enjoying the sequential PB?
Past Games: PB51  -  PB55  -  PB56  -  PB58 (Tarkeel's game)  - PB59  -  PB60  -  PB64  -  PB66  -  PB68 (Miguelito's game)     Current Games: None (for now...)
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We didn't get off to a good start, but we're regularly hitting our turn a day now so I'm enjoying it. I like to take my time in game, get some food and mull things over. That's a bit less comfortable, because I don't have the longest timeslot between when Gav finishes and OH needs to play. But it is real nice to know I can always whip defenders if someone shows up from the fog.

If we had switched the time slots so I played before Gav it would have been perfect, but overall I think I prefer it to simultaneous for low player numbers.
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(December 18th, 2020, 01:20)NobleHelium Wrote:
(December 2nd, 2020, 11:01)Old Harry Wrote: 1. Pindicator [5pm - 9pm Pacific / 0100 - 0500 UTC] although I can most likely fit it in throughout the work day
2. Cornflakes [6-9 am Eastern US / 1100 - 1400 UTC]
3. Gavagai  05:00 - 21:00 GMT
4. The Black Sword 1700-2300 GMT (I'm pretty flexible about playing before that these days)
5. Old Harry [1900-2300 UTC]

I would scrutinize this player order some more.  In particular Gavagai's window is enormous and most likely he prefers a smaller portion of the bigger window.  So I would have further discussion along these lines and see if this is really the best spot for him.

Players should listen to me more often. wink
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Clearly we should. [Image: smile2.gif]

Been a bit busy, but my civ has generally been doing its thing - building wonders. Meanwhile, I've been stressing out about where Pindicator's Horcher stack is going. With Cornflakes taking yet another city of Gav I thought Pin was going to pile on there and an ill-timed collapse would be imminent. I've had my vultures ready to pick out Sardis for the last few turns:
[Image: aXjVImO.jpg]


But Cornflakes has peaced out with Gav's army still intact, so that prospect is less worrisome. As I pulled my Galley back I spotted this horcher too. This suggests that his stack is just behind, since I doubt he's split his forces. Seems like quite a big investment for just the barb city though.

The Horchers could be coming my way too, and I tried to beef up the defenses on my border:
[Image: 8KkIVQB.jpg]

They make good overflow into the Mausoleum build too. Now that Corn has peaced out with Gav, and someone besides Pin just discovered HBR, I'm feeling a bit light up here too:
[Image: O6Cnbjf.jpg]

Daredevil's hammers can at least go toward fixing this military disparity now that the HG is about to be finished.

I'm waiting for the HG population before I bulb Machinery, so I get full value out of the tech(each pop point is an extra 2b from the bulb.) I want to go up Aes -> Lit next for even more wonders, but I might feel the need to detour to Iron Working(Crossbows, Sword) or HBR(Horchers) first for some real military units to build. There's a very decent chance that we start a MoM golden age in 10t with our next Great Person, if things don't get de-railed before then we'll be in very good shape.
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So did we build the wonder that says - put a bullseye over your score.

[Image: Bcg9Myd.jpg]

That allowed us to bulb the 1142b Machinery:

[Image: A6PaQwt.jpg]

OH's engineer was used on the Pyramids, which would be making me ~24bpt already. It cost him a revolt turn also, so that will take a while to pay back. Pretty sure I'd still prefer the Mids though. Colossus would be up to ~17gpt I think. That seems like a good time to update my trait benefits, I'll put that in a separate post.

Post HG demos:
[Image: BW1Q87k.jpg]

Fairly decent. Top power is Pin who is still building horse archers. Also he's now dwarfing everyone's EP output from his cheap Sac Altars, so I can't even keep graphs on him. City visibility will be inevitable eventually. I'll just keep putting all my EPs on him to make things harder, and hope everyone else does the same to limit this advantage somewhat. The alternative is to ignore him and try get research visibility on OH, which is sometime away anyway. I guess we'll see where OH's EP points go in the next few turns. Pin is also top GNP. He has a lot of EP and culture in there, but I think it is a real gpt lead also with his ORG and Altars cutting down the maintenance.

Both OH and Pin have played nice games so far with quite some things going for their civs right now. So hopefully my score points won't freak everyone out and start a dogpile. For the moment I am continuing to build MoM along Pin's border, but I've got potentially 7 units and an emergency whip spear in the city, with hill and 20% defence.
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Ind has gotten me:

T30 - 40h (Henge), 
T48 - 66h (GLH),
T71 - 86h (HG)

Forges(60h each)
T55, T56, T56, T60, T61, T63

Granary dates(30h each):
T11, T16, T22, T34, T35, T38, T51, T53, T63, T63, T64, T68

There was a global anarchy turn on T31 I think from the switch to sequential.

Phi has gotten me:
420g on T58 (Trade Mission)
571b on T72 (Machinery Bulb)
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