Turnplayer Thread #2.

[Swiss Pauli]

You're right. Constantinople would block the desert tile. So it's down to a coin-toss for them between the rice, or the cows. Hmmmmmmm.

Great news about Islam spreading to the capital!

[sunrise089]

If we both managed to get a city in it will also depend on culture. We are creative, which is great, and we have cheap libraries and theaters. Templars have 2 religions, so they can out-culture us if they want, it will just be expensive for them.

Of course if we cross-settle we always have the option of settling 1S of the cow if that's an eligible spot. Tactically, that will keep me up at night worrying about holding the spot, but it will help us in a culture battle greatly.

Anyways, idle chatter at this point. And while I'm chattering, I may as well reiterate that I think bombing Pink Peaks with the Music artist might make sense.

@Sooooo - Crossbowmen are nice, Pikes are better, and Knights are more or less essential in my experience. Pikes are primarily defensive units, but knights are the backbone of a good attack force. Not having them is fine if our economy is so good we don't need to attack, but with neither pike defenders or a defending knight stack we're simply banking that neither of our rivals knows how to launch an effective attack.

[mostly-harmless]

Settler will finish in T86 (it is nowT84). We will settle on T88 (EDIT: T89 actually as we have to move onto a forest tile).

mh

[regoarrarr]

So, (not that I'm recommending it), if we were to whip right now, it would finish on T85 and we would settle on T87?

[Kodii]

Wouldn't an Artist bomb in PP be slightly (if not obnoxiously) offensive? Unless that's our intention

[sunrise089]

@Kodii - Maybe...but maybe not. Templars will be making quite a bit of culture from their capital, so it might not push that culture back very far. What it would do is help us secure the iron, take the unclaimed tiles between Imperio and Templars what would serve as a wonderful invasion gateway should the time come, and secure us the tiles behind the city for points purposes.

[Sullla]

Hey all, I'll get to the turn later tonight (about 7-8 hours from now). My brother, who works currently in Hong Kong, is in town for the weekend, and the whole family is obviously a little busy getting together. I'm still kind of shocked the Imperio and Banana logged in and ended their turns early!

Great news about landing Islam in Airstrip One! That opens up a lot of possibilities for us. Unlike some of the other responses, I *DO* think we should convert to Islam (at some point after the settler finishes in Pink Dot, of course). We're going to want a religion, and we've got to swap at some point, so why not pre-Monarchy, when the capital would otherwise be stuck at the happy cap? Might as well get some immediate benefit, right?

The other question I'll put to the team for discussion: what do we build next in Airstrip One? I would still favor worker next, but I'd like to hear opinions on whether we should go straight to an Islamic monastery.

[sunrise089]

I vote monastery.

[Swiss Pauli]

I say build a Monastery whilst growing to size 6, then convert to Islam once the Settler is done. Interrupt the Monastery to train a Worker then complete the Monastery. It might be worth whipping the worker, too, but I'll leave that to the micro-managers...

[regoarrarr]

I would not build any workers or settlers in the capital until we have maxed our happy cap, which by the time we're done growing should be at least 8 if not 9.

We have the improved tiles to do it.

I do not disagree that we do need another worker though - what about slipping one in at Pink Dot after the settler? It's still at happy cap till we get Monarchy.

I also would advocate swapping to growth mode at the capital to time growth to size 6 with coming out of revolt from Islam (in 2-3 turns).

So yes Monastery next at the capital is my vote

[Zeviz]

I'd prefer training worker at the capital and not revolting until after Monarchy for the following reasons:

1. Monarchy will give immediate happiness boost to all cities, while Islam will help only capital.

2. We can't benefit fully even from Monarchy, because we don't have enough improved tiles to work. What is the point of size 9 city working grassland forests?

3. We are falling back in expansion rate. We were second to reach 4 cities, but by now another civ has 4 cities and everybody else has at least 3. So it feels like we are loosing momentum.

4. What if we get another religion in two cities by natural spread? We just opened borders a few turns ago and got first religion already. Let's wait and see what else comes our way.

5. We can't revolt to Org Rel right away, and even after we do, we will not have Islam in cities where we need the civic.

In summary: there is no immediate benefit to picking a religion, but a lot of costs.

[regoarrarr]

1. I don't think anyone is suggesting that we not revolt to Monarchy too. We are going to have to do both revolts at some point in the game, right?

2. The capital has 3 (soon to be 4) cottages, 3 mined hills, a cow tile, and soon to be winery. That's 9 tiles right there.

3. I'm all for training another settler to get the marble site too.

4. Yes this is possible.

5. Every turn that we are stuck at size 5 instead of 6 we lose 2 f-h-c (Depending on configuration)

[Krill]

Originally posted by mostly-harmless
Settler will finish in T86 (it is nowT84). We will settle on T88 (EDIT: T89 actually as we have to move onto a forest tile).

mh

But I think it takes 2 turns to go from Pink Dot to the Pink Peaks, if you move 998 (turn 86) then 99 (Turn 87) to settle on turn 88, right? Is there a road at 9 of Pink Dot?

[Sullla]

OK, it was a busy day but I finally was able to log in and play. Here are the events from T84:

- Biggest news was that Islam spread to our capital of its own accord, as was mentioned previously. We should think about when to revolt to Islam as a team over the next few turns. Probably soon (so we can piggyback a double civics-swap to Hereditary Rule and Organized Religion after discovering Monarchy).

- Imperio settled their fourth city, which kept the default Mayan name of Uxmal. Hopefully we will find it with Sharon on the northern part of the Grand Tour.

- Speaking of Sharon, we've managed to confirm the location of Templars' Damascus beyond the shadow of a doubt. mostly_harmless has put a sign on the city's center tile. There's no more reason to stay in the south, and good reason to head north to try and find Uxmal, so Sharon will turn around and proceed in the opposite direction starting next turn. Both Sharon and the RBS Discovery will reach the eastern continent in 11 more turns, if all goes as planned.

- Constantinople, the Templars' #2 city, expanded borders this turn. Here's a wide-angle shot of the important southern theatre:



There is still no sign of any Templar settler units as yet. Lady Godiva, our chariot in the region, will keep an eye on it just in case. Our settler will reach the Pink Peaks spot on T88: two more turns to finish the settler, it comes out on T86 and moves NE-NE-N, then moves NE-NE on T87, and founds the city on T88. We've just got to survive four more turns here, so cross your fingers...

- Airstrip One finishes library next turn, and China Beach whipped its library to completion. It drops back to size 2, but will regrow quickly, and we got enough shield overflow that its granary will likely complete in another turn or two as well.

- Winston (worker at capital) started on a fourth cottage for maximum GNP. Parsons, the worker at China Beach, started moving towards the east, where he will build the road connection between Airstrip One and Pink Peaks. I could slip in one turn of road work along the way without dropping the ETA, so I went ahead and did that, marking it with a sign.

- We start researching again next turn! Yay!

- PAL whipped three pop last turn, and two more this one. Their GNP went up last turn though, so they may be whipping libraries (?) Not sure what's going on. PAL's whipping frenzy is either brilliant, or incredibly short-sighted. I think it's likely that whiplash is overdoing it (as he's mostly an MP guy who doesn't think long-term as much), but time will tell. Maybe I'm the one who's wrong!

- Everyone got mucho Soldier points last turn from tech trading. Don't worry about it, it's all an illusion. Imperio built an axe last turn and that was it.

Nothing else I can think of; we're still holding our breath as a team on the Pink Peaks site. Do we still want to send that diplomatic message to Imperio on trading for Priesthood? Just because we have Islam doesn't mean THEY know that, hehe. A second missionary to spread it might be a nice little bonus.

[Sullla]

Whoops, forgot to mention something at Pink Dot:



The barb at Pink could potentially move onto our cattle tile next turn. So here's the question: if a barb moves onto a tile that a city is working, does the tile get reassigned, or does that citizen simply work no tile that turn? If it's the former, we can leave the city alone. If the latter, we definitely need to move that citizen onto another tile, else Pink Peaks will be delayed by a turn!

Because I'm paranoid, I'm going to go ahead and move the citizen right now (to a forested grassland), just to be 100% sure that we get the settler out on time. If we lose 3 shields of overrun, well, not that big of a deal.