Acronym's Bucket List Succession Game - sign-ups open!

[Lanzelot]

I would move 4 one tile SE, though. You do lose that one FP tile, but our capitol and 2 already need that, and moving it causes less overlap and should give us a decent city once we clear the jungle around that area.

However, if we move 4 SE, it'll be distance 6 from the capital, that is almost too far to be considered first-ring status. Even distance 5 is already quite far for my taste, don't know how high corruption will be there. I usually settle at 3-4 and never have problems in getting 12 tiles for all my core cities.
Also: there are many hills but only few food-tiles. I'd much rather settle on a hill there, than on grassland. (The defensive-bonus can't hurt either, as it'll be on the Viking-border for quite some time.)

What I find quite extra-ordinary in this game: the Vikings researching Writing! I've never seen an AI research Writing at such an early date! However, we can hope that they will go for Map Making, as this is a favorite tech for the AI and as they are sea-faring. And it looks like there aren't any huts in this game, so there's no risk that someone pops Philosophy from a hut. So I would still take the risk and go for the "full sling", even if we are quite late for Writing.

 

[choxorn]

MrRandomGuy, I think you're up, you got the save yet?

1. Acronym
2. Lanzelot <-- Just Played
3. MrRandomGuy <-- UP
4. tsj282 <-- On Deck
5. CommandoBob
6. Choxorn

 

[MrRandomGuy]

I've got it and will start playing tomorrow.

 

[tjs282]

T36, 2310BC: Copenhagen is founded inside our first ring! (Blocking our spot 5.) That means war will be unavoidable.

Not necessarily...? Although Copenhagen is not ideally situated, it is in one of the potential spots suggested for City5 in my earlier post. It has also been built on a hill, which will make it that much harder to capture using only archers (potentially against Spearmen, now we've found that the Vikings alread had BW). So I would prefer to avoid an early war if possible -- especially on my watch! -- and would like to make a case for a cultural offensive instead.

Why? Well, with all our cheap libraries (and later universities), we are going to be pumping out culture as well as science, especially if we also get the Colossus and the Mausoleum -- so although we cannot expect Copenhagen to flip to us anytime soon, I think we can expect it to do so eventually (especially if we encourage it!). Although I realise that hoping for a cultural conversion over the longer term is non-ideal (and less proactive than marching to war!), it might be less risky, and possibly also more cost-effective, than building up our military for a protracted campaign in the short term.

Here's my 'plan', such as it is

• place Cities 1-4 as planned
• count Copenhagen as our (future) 'City5'
• use our fifth settler to found a temporary(?) city on the plains at 1E-2NE from Oasenstadt

(Ragnar will almost certainly become 'annoyed' about that, but I'm not sure how likely he would be to immediately declare war, at this stage?).

• Settlers 6-8 found Cities 6-8 as planned.

Nuts and bolts:

Having built a regular warrior for MP, we set both City4 and Temp?City to building a library before switching to full-on military production. Here are 'worst-case' scenarios, with only 1 worker per new city, assuming at least 1 excess fpt for every turn:

City4:
At Pop=1, assuming that Oasenstadt is using the floodplain, we will be using the river grassland tile: this will produce 2 fpt excess (growth in 10 turns, during which time we should be mining+roading that grassland) and 1 spt (2 spt after the mine is built); at Pop=2, we will get 2 fpt excess and 2 spt, while the new citizen works the other as-yet unmined grassland (and 3 spt after the second mine is built). It will reach Pop=3 in 20 turns, and at worst that new citizen will start working an unimproved hill, for 1 fpt excess and 3 spt. Building a warrior will take the first 10 shields (8 turns?), so the library will get 4(?) shields before growth (10 turns), and another 20-25 shields at Pop=2, leaving 11-16 shields (4-6 turns, with MM) needed to complete at Pop=3.

Temp?City:
The floodplain should already long since be irrigated by the time this is founded, so at Pop=1 we will get 3(2) fpt excess and 1(2) spt (growth in 7 turns, during which time a plains tile should be irrigated -- on the last turn before growth, the citizen should be switched to that tile to minimise overrun/ maximise shields); at Pop=2, if the new citizen works the iFloodplain (and the iPlain on the last turn) we get 3(2) fpt excess and 2(3) spt. It will grow again after another 7 turns, and at worst the new citizen can be sent back to the iFloodplain, for 3 fpt and 3 spt at Pop=3. Temp?City will grow to Pop=2 before the warrior is complete (8 shields, with MM), but will complete it after 1 turn at Pop=2 (8 turns total); it can then put 15 shields (with MM) towards the library before it grows to Pop=3 (17 turns total), needing another 25 shields (= 8 turns with MM = 25 turns total) to complete.

So both cities could each therefore have built a warrior+library at most 26 turns after founding. Apart(!) from their Emp-level production advantages, the Vikings get no cheap culture, so we might even be able to build at least one of those libraries before Copenhagen gets a temple. Our cultural borders will pop 3 turns after completion of each library, encroaching on Copenhagen from two directions -- our borders might even end up touching the city (NB we then wouldn't have to violate ROP if we need to go to war). If we choose to keep Temp?City after 'acquiring' Copenhagen, it will need an aqueduct for growth beyond Pop6 (or we could just turn it over to producing warriors/ horsemen/ catapults).

As planned, after Cities 3+6 have finished building a few curraghs (how many, BTW?), they (and later Cities7+8) can be turned over to exporting MP warriors and/or 'defensive' archers/horsemen. (City 2 could also build warriors as well as workers, if necessary).

I haven't worked out exactly how long everything would take -- but given that we were planning to build all those settlers, improve all those tiles, and (eventually) build libraries etc. anyway, I don't believe it would be (much) longer before we'd have productive first ring cities (plus Temp?City) at all planned spots. We should get more beakers more quickly (from City4 and Temp?City), as well. What we _wouldn't_ have is such a large military to intimidate the Vikings with -- so we might have to bribe them instead.

All that said, if at some point 'Corporal Punishment' (Mr F3) tells us that we've (somehow) managed to develop a strong military compared to the Vikings (maybe we could persuade them to attack the English first...?) then... go get 'em, tiger!

 

[MrRandomGuy]

Assessment:

We know two civs at this time and are considered weak militarily for both of them. England and Scandinavia both have 3 cities compared to our two. Production for our capitol is set for settler while our other city is set to build the colossus.

I think we are harming ourselves by attempting to build the colossus. It eventually will become obsolete by Flight, which we will need to get if we are going for a spaceship victory. We need to focus more on building up our military and expanding our empire rather than focus on a wonder that will eventually become obsolete. If this were a Chieftain game we would be fine attempting to build a wonder straight away. However this is an Emperor level game where the AI is already two steps ahead of us in the beginning.

In addition, the colossus only affects one city. We can get a better output of gold per turn with good micromanagement of our cities.

Last, we will need more workers to quickly build up our infrastructure.

Beginning to play now. Will post turn log when I'm finished.

 

[MrRandomGuy]

1 - 2110 BC

Changed production from colossus to spearman to be complete in 2 turns.

used worker to road the oasis

explore with warrior

IBT

Our capitol produces a settler. Production changed to barracks so we can produce veteran units. Will be complete in 7 turns.

2 - 2070 BC

Moved luxury slider down to 0%. Now that our capitol has less citizens luxuries are not needed to keep people from revolting.

Moved settler to spot 3 on the map.

explore

IBT

Our 2nd city produces a spearmen. Production set for barracks.

3 - 2030 BC

Hamburg is founded on spot 3. Production set for worker.

8 - 1830 BC

IBT

Writing has been discovered. Research set for philosophy.

Capitol produces barracks. Production set for warrior.

9 - 1790 BC

IBT

Barracks produced in 2nd city. Production set for worker.

Summary

Both workers have been improving the surrounding capitol area. We need to get the floodplains roaded and irrigated asap to prevent our capitol citizens from dying due to disease.

Also, we need to stack our workers in groups of 2 or 3 when available. Stacking workers will improve the terrain faster than if they were working on two different tiles by themselves.

Overall it was pretty quiet. England homeland has been discovered but beyond that there wasn't much of a peep from the AI during this turnset.

 

[choxorn]

Two things:

1. I think we're still doing 20 turn turnsets at this point. You only played 10.

2. While I'm in agreement with your decision to switch the build off the Colossus and usually don't think building wonders this early in the game is a good idea, that's a big enough decision that you should have probably asked first.

 

[tjs282]

@MRG:

Two criticisms:

(1) I agree with Choxorn that you should have consulted with us -- or at least with Acronym, since it's [his] game -- before switching off Colossus. Building that wonder was the stated purpose for founding Kolossusstadt, to maximise science output from that city, with all the coastal tile trade, and it was in no danger of being attacked in the near future either. Posting an action plan and then immediately acting on it (your turnlog was posted less than half an hour later!) without waiting at least 12-24 hours was just plain rude, in my view -- we're all in different timezones, and don't necessarily have the luxury of following this game 24/7. Believe it or not, some of us may not even go online for fun during our working day (I shouldn't really be here right now)...

(2) That said, if you were so intent on building military, then why a (regular) Spear? An Archer has the same shield cost, but intimidates the AICivs significantly better (because the attack value is given higher weighting than the defence value in the calculation of relative military strength), making them that much less likely to declare war in the first place. Being an instinctive builder rather than warmonger, I lost far too many of my solo games at the early stages before I learned about that (from the War Academy article 'Inner Workings of the Military Advisor'), because I was preferentially building Spears over Archers -- and then wondering why all the AIs were ganging up on me... Even if I survived the onslaught(s), by the time the dust had settled, my expansion would have been so badly hampered that I couldn't win over the longer term (too few cities, no iron/horses on my turf, lagging behind in tech, etc.).

Now, in the early game, assuming the first unit in a city is a warrior, and I have a choice between building a 20-shield A&#8805;2/D=1 or a 20-shield A=1/D&#8805;2 as the second unit, I'll almost always go for the A&#8805;2 unit, all other considerations being equal (exceptions: defensive UUs). Since I started following this policy, the AICivs have shown much more respect, and I haven't got suck(er)ed into nearly so many costly early wars (and those I've fought have been over much more quickly, because early Golden Age military production kicks butt).

 

[Elephantium]

Assessment:

I think we are harming ourselves by attempting to build the colossus. <snip>

lurker's comment:

While this is a good conversation to begin, it's grossly inappropriate to change direction like this -- particularly to harm the empire by building a regular Spearman -- without gaining consensus first.

 

[choxorn]

Posting an action plan and then immediately acting on it (your turnlog was posted less than half an hour later!)

20 minutes later, by the times those were posted.

I'm almost amazed he played 10 turns that quickly, even this early in the game, considering that he had to spend at least some of that time typing and uploading the save.

 

[tjs282]

Since I'm up next, I need to decide: Do I take MrRandomGuy's 10-turn savegame now and play on, or wait for him/her/it to play another 10 turns first (i.e. 20 turns per player, at least for the first round), as we originally agreed? (Or at least, as no-one strenuously disagreed...)

Also, do any of you have any further comment on MRG's unilateral about-face on (or complete ignorance of?) the various suggestions/plans that were made in the pre-game and early-stage discussion? Since they have nearly all been blown out of the water, what now?

A n00b needs some guidance here...

 

[MrRandomGuy]

I'm sorry. I messed up. I offer no excuses but do express my deepest apologies. It was not my intention to be rude at all.

I'm new to succession games too and have only previously played one before this one. I'll leave it up for the group to decide. What is the best way to fix the situation?

 

[tjs282]

@MrRandomGuy:

OK, apology accepted, for my part, assuming that it also implicitly contains a promise not to make such unilateral decisions again (at least during this SG!). As such, I am happy for you to play the next 10 turns, if everyone else agrees. I have not yet downloaded the savegame, so the following thoughts are based solely on your turnlog. For your remaining turns, my vote would be that you get the various city productions back on track as planned:

Firstly and most importantly, Oasenstadt should be pumping out settlers (not military). We still have plenty of room to build (most of) our core cities, plus a few more, so we don't need to expand our empire through conquest at this stage. We will probably not be able to take Copenhagen by force in the near future anyway, and I don't think we should try. Rather, we should aim to build up a 'ballistic missile deterrent' (i.e. lots of Archers!), especially in our border cities, to encourage Ragnar and Liz to stay peaceful -- and for that we will need more production, and that means more cities.

Secondly, regarding the placement of Hamburg: I hope that you have mistyped or I have misunderstood, but the second Settler out of Oasenstadt should have founded a city at Lanzelot's recommended Spot2 (hills to the SE -- our planned worker pump), not Spot3 (coast to the NW). If you have actually built Hamburg at Spot2, then great. However, if you built it at Spot3 by mistake, then it will not grow fast enough to act as a worker-pump, so please switch its production to Curragh. That way, we can at least do some coastal exploration and maybe make some new tech-trading contacts (and use any acquired techs/gold to buy off the Vikings, if necessary). Also, the next Settler built should be sent straight to Spot2.

Even if Spot3 has not yet been filled, once Spot2 is settled, I think we should alter our plans and send the next settler towards Spot4 -- it has better near-term growth prospects than Spot3, and we need it to be able to grow and produce lots of shields ASAP. City4 should have been the first (or at most, second) city to get a barracks, but there's no point ing about that now. Get the City up and running, build reg Warriors until it hits 4-5 spt, then build a barracks and vet Archers.

I'm not sure what to do about the Barracks in Kolossusstadt and Oasenstadt, though -- selling them would waste those shields as well, but we're supposed to be putting as much gpt into science as possible, for the Republic sling... so can we really afford to keep them at this early stage? (Anyone...? Anyone...? Bueller...?)

As for the Colossus projects itself, given that Lanzelot had put, what, 16-18 shields(?) into the box before you switched to the Spearman, that wasn't a major loss, but the idea was to build up such a shield-lead that the AI's production discount wouldn't allow them to catch up, if/when they started on it. Switching may well have negated that headstart -- but has anyone else started building it yet (have you had any messages, or hit F7)? If not, my vote would be to go back to building it, and prioritise improving the tiles around Kolossusstadt so that its SPT climbs quickly enough to make up the loss. At worst, if someone beats us to Colossus, we might at least be able to switch those shields to the Mausoleum instead (unless the Wonder cascade effect kicks in -- what are the chances of that?).

My earlier suggestion of building an early library at City 4 to try and culture-flip Copenhagen can be ignored. Since we cannot now be sure of getting the Colossus, our cultural influence may not be nearly as strong as I'd hoped/expected.

What does everyone else think?

 

[MrRandomGuy]

Yeah I hit it on spot 3. My mindset at the time was "oh it's the 3rd city so it should go on spot 3" not realizing that spot 2 hadn't been settled on yet.

Ok, I'll play the next ten turns and steer the SG back on track. On our 2nd city I will resume building the wonder if the civs we know haven't started on it yet. The city on spot 3 will change production to a curragh and finally I'll find a city on spot 2 in order to produce lots and lots of workers.

I will start playing a little over 24 hours from this post to ensure everyone is in agreement.

 

[tjs282]

Yeah I hit it on spot 3. My mindset at the time was "oh it's the 3rd city so it should go on spot 3" not realizing that spot 2 hadn't been settled on yet.

I was afraid that might have been what you thought/did. Damn

Ok, I'll play the next ten turns and steer the SG back on track. On our 2nd city I will resume building the wonder if the civs we know haven't started on it yet.

After I posted, I realised that because you built a Barracks as well, we've actually lost 40 shields (i.e. the AI's production advantage) from the Colossus (/Mausoleum) build, rather than 20 -- so I'm now not sure that's even worth doing. Oh well... If the Colossus is now a non-starter, we can at least use 'Vorherige [='ex'] KolossusStadt' to spam out military...

The city on spot 3 will change production to a curragh and finally I'll find a city on spot 2 in order to produce lots and lots of workers.

If you've piled up &#8805;10 shields already, and Oasenstadt has at least Pop4, we could whip it to finish off that third Settler in one turn, but I'm not sure it would be worth it (cost: 3 citizens in total, plus subsequent unhappiness). Buuut... would it be feasible to run the city at 0 fpt, or even a -1 fpt deficit before starvation hits (e.g. switch a citizen from floodplain to the hill) to shave a couple of turns off the build-time?

I will start playing a little over 24 hours from this post to ensure everyone is in agreement.

My post (effectively your/my/our action plan) has been up for around 24 hours without any comment, so I'm guessing no-one has any objections (or everyone has given up following this thread! ). I would suggest you can play your turns a little sooner than that. Your post's timestamp reads 9:30 am to me, but I'm assuming that's been adjusted to my timezone (CET). So maybe wait another 6-8 hours at most, i.e. play and post the savegame this Friday evening (CET), rather than Saturday morning (CET).

I must admit to some self-interest here: My wife is visiting a friend this evening, and is invited to 'mums'n'kids-but-no-dads' BBQ tomorrow, so I'll have much of the next 36 hours all to myself. That said, I also looked back over the earlier posts, and reminded myself that that Lanzelot (our strategist) is on vacation right now, which may be why [he] hasn't commented (or logged in?) for a couple of days. [He]'s back Sunday, but I'd rather not wait that long, if it's all the same to everyone...?

 

[MrRandomGuy]

Ok, since you want me to post a little earlier I will do so. A little over 12 hours seems to be appropriate.

10 1750 BC

IBT

F7 screen is blank so production changed in Kolossusstadt to Colossus. If someoe does end up building it before us we can probably start on something else. For now I have the citizens working in the forest and a mine so we can use the most shields as possible.

Production changed to settler in our capitol and finally for the city on spot 3 production changed to curragh.

Hamburg is in danger of revolting this turn, so luxury rate raised to 10% and I moved the warrior from the capitol to the city.

12 1700 BC

Moved workers to the hills so we can build a road to the city spot and settle there quicker.

IBT

Hamburg produces a curragh. I'm thinking another curragh will be fine to produce for exploration purposes.

13 1675 BC

IBT

Notification of England building the pyramids

14 1650 BC

Our capitol is now in danger of revolting so luxury slider placed back to 20%

15 1625 BC

A little micromanaging of cities. Settler needs only 2 shields left to build, so moved citizens to floodplains and one on a hill. Switched a citizen in our 2nd city from the forest to the mined sugar tile so it can grow faster.

IBT

Settler has been produced in our capitol. Production changed to archer.

16 1600 BC

Now that a settler has been produced I can move the luxury slider back to 0. I decided to raise the science production up a little bit so we can research philosophy a little faster.

17 1575 BC

Konigsberg founded on spot 2. Production set for worker.

Workers moved to a floodplain beside hills to build a road and irrigate.

18 1550 BC

Moving the sliders to 80% Sci 10% Lux since Kolossusstadt is in danger of revolting.

19 1525 BC

IBT

An English and Viking warrior are both on our borders.

Hamburg produces curragh. Production changed to Archer. Whoever takes it next can decide to change it if they wish.

Summary

Not much happened. We are back to building the colossus. I don't like how those warriors are close to our borders and I have a feeling they will try something. I left the warrior in our 3rd city unfortified just in case the person who takes it next wants to move it to the capitol.

 

[choxorn]

Took a look at the save. Not many comments, though I'd suggest we consider moving at least one of our military units east, just in case Scandinavia or England tries to pull something (unlikely, the AI usually will send more than one regular warrior to attack if it wants to attack).

Also, wow, is our location crap or what? Surrounded by Jungle and Marsh to the south and Tundra to the North, with Scandinavia right next to us to take the few halfway-decent locations between the wetlands and the snow. Our capitol is nice, but our other cities aren't, at least not yet, and there aren't many resources in the area, and the few that are are all Bonus Resources. The only Luxes I see are the wines that Scandinavia and England have and those Dyes in the far north. Not even sure about Strategic Resources, we won't know until we get some more tech.

 

[tjs282]

OK, got the save.

It's getting a little late for me now (after midnight, CET ), so I'll have a quick look, but probably won't post any (more) ideas until tomorrow morning at the earliest.

EDIT:
Ah, Choxorn, you're on. Are your finals finished now? If so, hope everything went well.

 

[choxorn]

Did my last one yesterday. Am now on summer vacation. Generally don't have very much to do.

 

[tjs282]

Did my last one yesterday. Am now on summer vacation. Generally don't have very much to do.

Is a in order?

OK, here's my text-dump. I've copied/adapted this from a .txt file I wrote while looking over the savegame last night and this morning. Sorry it's so long, I wrote everything down to get it all clear in my own head as much as anything. (Also, I haven't yet figured out how to tabulate stuff neatly in this window -- need to do that at some point...)

Preplay status:

Cities:

Oasenstadt [FlPl]
Pop: 1
Working: rmOasis
CPT: Tax=1,Sci=3,Lux=0,Corr=0
excessFPT: 2 (Stored=14: growth in 3 turns)
SPT: Useful=3,Waste=0
Building: Archer(vet) (Stored=12: complete in 3 turns -- needs MM)
Garrison: NONE

Kolossusstadt [CoRivPl]
Pop: 3
Working: RivFor, rmRivSugPl, rmOasis
CPT: Tax=0,Sci=4,Lux=1,Corr=1
excessFPT: 1 (Stored=2: growth in 18 turns)
SPT: Useful=5,Waste=2
Building: Colossus (Stored=43: complete in 32 turns -- needs MM)
Garrison: 1 Spear(reg, 1 move)

Hamburg [CoPl]
Pop: 3
Working: riRivPl, riFlPl (+1Taxman)
CPT: Tax=3,Sci=3,Lux=0,Corr=1
excessFPT: 1 (growth in 19 turns)
SPT: Useful=2,Waste=0
Building: Archer(reg) (Stored=0: complete in 10 turns)
Garrison: 1 Warrior(reg, 1 move)

Konigsberg [RivHills]
Pop: 1
Working: riFlPl
CPT: Tax=1,Sci=2,Lux=0,Corr=1
excessFPT: 3 (Stored=9: growth in 4 turns -- needs MM)
SPT: Useful=1,Waste=0
Building: Worker (Stored=3, complete in 7 turns)
Garrison: NONE

Other units:

2 x Warrior, exploring north and south ends of continent
2 x Worker, both irrigating rFlPl S-SE of Oasenstadt
2 x Curragh, exploring coast north and south

Problems/Notes/Ideas:

Cities:

Aaarrrgggh! Just realised that Konigsberg has been founded in the wrong place! According to Lanzelot's last posted dotmap, it should have been placed 1S-3SE from Oasenstadt (i.e. 1 tile SW of its current position). Where it is now, there will be a lot of overlap with Oasenstadt, and we currently have very little room to place City4. Possible responses:

1. Just live with it, and make the best of the situation. It can still act as a worker-pump for now
2. Build a Worker before growth to Pop2 and disband K'berg (4 turns with MM), and rebuild later
3. Abandon it (1 turn, no worker produced)

Obviously, Options 2+3 would waste the 30 shields and however many turns it cost to build the Settler that founded Konigsberg -- and we'd later have to clear the ruins in order to use that RivHill tile -- so not ideal. But at least Option 2 would give us another worker.

Military:

The English warrior is only 2 moves from our unguarded Capital, putting it in imminent danger of capture (what would _you_ do if you saw an unguarded AI Capital...?) Possible responses:

1. Switch Oasenstadt build to Warrior(vet) (will waste 2 shields, but complete on the IBT)
2. Move Warrior from Hamburg to Oasenstadt (can still be done this turn, leaves H'burg unguarded)
3. Move spearman from Kolossusstadt (crosses river this turn, reaches Oasenstadt on the next turn, leaves K'stadt unguarded)

I like Option 3 here, since Oasenstadt's terrain has no defensive bonus, I'd rather garrison a D=2 unit there than build a D=1 with wastage.

The English Warrior is also 2 turns from Konigsberg, which will not be able to build anything in time to defend itself. But since an unguarded Capital is a more tempting target for the AI, I expect (/hope!) that Liz will send him west rather than south. If so, we could 'decoy' it towards our empty Capital on the interturn, and then move K'stadt's Spearman in on our next turn. Johnny English will most likely then head for Konigsberg instead (giving us a breathing space of 2 more turns). Hamburg's Warrior can get to Konigsberg in 2 turns.

The Viking is 3 turns from both Oasenstadt and Hamburg, so not a major threat... yet. If one of Hamburg's citizens is moved from the riFlPl to the rmOasis currently being used by Kolossusstadt (one of K'stadt's shields from that tile is going to waste anyway), Hamburg can produce 4 SPT (excessFPT=0),and a Warrior can be built there in 3 turns (with MM).

Downside to moving military from H'burg and/or K'stadt: Taking away the mil-pol will put the city into disorder, unless I hire a clown or increase the lux slider (currently at 10%). Don't really want to reduce the science rate, though...

In other news... Both our exploring warriors are now too far away (20-30 tiles) from our core to be of any real use to us -- might be worth disbanding them to save the upkeep cost (or at least, transfer it to the new garrisons that we will need to build SOON for MP and deterrence). As you can see, our southbound Curragh has found a food-rich lagoon (bananas and fish) near Lanzelot's Spot8 (and I'm now certain that we should rethink that placement). Our northbound Curragh will eventually reach the Vikings' coastline (and their offshore island), if we don't find anything more interesting to investigate on the way.

Science:

Slider is at 80%, giving 5 turns to Philosophy (with currently worked tiles), so we will get there during my turnset. 'Republic slingshot' tactic does not work in Vanilla, so I've not used it before. If we are first to Philo, I'm assuming we should choose Rep as our free tech, but what then? Is it worth switching govs at this stage for the extra production, even while our cities are still so small and undeveloped...? Or should I just try to use Philo/Rep monopoly for trading advantages at this stage?

Other:

Vikings do not yet appear to have a coastal city -- they will probably not be starting Colossus any time soon. London appears to be landlocked as well, but York is coastal, so could build Colossus if good Queen Bess decides that she deserves it.

I won't hit 'End of turn' and start playing until I've had at least some feedback on the current state of affairs -- I'll check back later this evening (after 8pm CET), and/or tomorrow.