TJS1 -- Going on the Pill-age

[Speedbird 95]

My plan for the next 10 turns is to focus on commerce & science, and not produce any workers or settlers from Trondheim.

I am thinking about building a temple in Trondheim (after an archer), 1gpt in maintenance is slightly better than 1gpt per city per happy face from using the lux slider.

Bergen: we can do archer-->archer, or archer-->wealth...-->worker, timing the worker to coincide with growth. Or do we want to go archer-->granary?

I will follow Spoonwood's worker plan but I haven't yet worked out the exact details.

Barbarians: The Arabs know wheel, does this mean we can expect horse barbarians soon?
I don't have enough experience with emperor level barbarians to judge whether we need spearmen in addition to archers.

Military: we are "weak" compared with our neighbors. If one of our neighbors demands writing, should we give in or refuse?

In case of war with the Arabs or Russians, I would suggest an alliance with the other one & let them fight each other. This would mean selling writing to someone for cash to open an embassy, & writing for the alliance.

 

[Spoonwood]

I am thinking about building a temple in Trondheim (after an archer), 1gpt in maintenance is slightly better than 1gpt per city per happy face from using the lux slider.

Units produced last you the whole game, unless you disband them. The temple can have less utility later on, once you have access to enough luxuries. Though, with the concern about getting The Republic slingshot, there does seem to exist something of a trade-off to consider.

 

[tjs282]

I am thinking about building a temple in Trondheim (after an archer),

Please don't. Temples are full-price for the Vikings (60s -- which will take at least 10T to complete at 6SPT), and we won't actually need it any more once we're in Republic (with the commerce bonus), and have access to more Luxes. (Though, I'm not sure how Lanzelot figured we could make it to Republic in 20T, when we still have 19T on CoL, never mind Philo...?)

Admittedly, I haven't actually looked at Chox's save yet, but with 1 Lux already connected, all that river-CPT and LUX%=10%, and 2 military units in T'heim, surely we should be able to keep order in the town until at least Pop6? Remember, to prevent riots, all we need is for Happy citizens to outnumber unHappy ones -- so at Pop5, having 1 Happy, 3 Content, and 1 Unhappy is fine. And if you/we then build a Settler (30s), ideally timed to complete on growth to Pop6, that would not only be much cheaper than a Temple, but also solves the imminent unhappiness problem (at Pop5, with a half-full food-box, +2 FPT + 6 SPT, for 5T = growth to Pop6, and completion of 1 Settler, immediately dropping T'heim back to Pop4) -- not to mention increasing our GPT (and free-unit allowance) a couple of turns later, by allowing us to found another city (on my/ Lanzelot's purple spot).

That said though, if unHappiness is likely to become a problem already at Pop5, then we could perhaps think about making the 5th citizen into a Scientist, while completing the Settler (before we've built a Library, getting 3BPT for a couple of turns in exchange for losing 1-2 CPT and 2 FPT, may still be a better trade-off than sinking 60s into a Temple, and then paying 1 GPT maintenance on it until we dismantle it again, for which we only get 15 gold return).

1gpt in maintenance is slightly better than 1gpt per city per happy face from using the lux slider.

Not at this stage it isn't, it's exactly the same, because the 10% LUX%-setting won't affect Bergen (or any other newly founded town), while its CPT is still very low. Right now Bergen is getting, what, 4-5 uncorrupted CPT? 90% of 4-5 CPT = 3.5-3.6 BPT, which should round up to 4 BPT (and zero Happyfaces, HPT) -- so running 90%SCI or 100%SCI will make no difference to Bergen's beaker-output. If you had to push LUX% to 20%, then yes, we would start losing BPT from Bergen in favour of HPT, but even then, it might still be preferable to building a Temple, because at least all our citizens would keep working.

Barbarians: The Arabs know wheel, does this mean we can expect horse barbarians soon?

AFAIK, it works like Barb-boats, which don't appear until someone (2 someones?) knows MapMaking: so Horse-barbs won't appear until someone (2 someones?) knows HbR. Barbs don't build Chariots!

I don't have enough experience with emperor level barbarians to judge whether we need spearmen in addition to archers.

The only difference that difficulty level makes is the unit-bonus against barbs (lower at higher levels). I can't remember exactly what bonus we get at Emp, but there is still a small advantage. Archers are better than Spears, since they can kill barbs before they arrive at the town gates. Barbs are set to 'Restless' for this game, IIRC.

Military: we are "weak" compared with our neighbors. If one of our neighbors demands writing, should we give in or refuse?

That's probably still partly because of their starting-units, but if Bergen is turning out vet-Warriors and -Archers, this shouldn't be an issue for much longer.

Remember also that (our) Warriors, attacking on the flat, have roughly the same chances of winning against (their) Archers as against (their) Warriors; and even with the Emp-AI's 20% production discount, we can still build new Warriors (10s, with no waste if carefully managed) faster than they can build more Archers (16s, likely with plenty of waste, because the AI doesn't micromanage).

As for folding on demand, it would depend how far away the would-be extortionist was -- if it was the Arabs, I'd be less worried than if it was the Russians, because by the time the first Arab troops arrived at our borders, we would probably be able to kill a few of their units, then talk to their envoys and make peace again. In the meantime, a DoW would also give us War-Happiness.

But while there's still plenty of land to fill, you probably don't need to worry too much about potential DoWs...

In case of war with the Arabs or Russians, I would suggest an alliance with the other one & let them fight each other. This would mean selling writing to someone for cash to open an embassy, & writing for the alliance.

Building Embassies will make the AI-Civs friendlier, at least for a little while -- so it might be better if we did that before anyone DoWs us! And if the worst comes to the worst, only one party needs to know Writing to form an alliance -- you don't have to sell it to the other guy, just like you don't have to know Navigation to trade maps with someone who already has that tech.

If you're absolutely strapped, and selling our tech-lead is the only way to make money, then OK -- but that really shouldn't be a decision made in desperation. Finding some barb-huts to smash for cash, would be far preferable (there's all that Tundra to the south of us for barb-farming...). After all, the AI-Civs can't make MAs against us until after they have Writing/ Embassies...

 

[Lanzelot]

No Temple, please. It's just a big waste of shields in almost all circumstances. I never build them (except when playing for 20K or 100K, or when I really desperately need a culture expansion somewhere).
Look at it this way: it will constantly cost 1gpt, no matter whether we need the extra happiness or not. During the time, when Trondheim is size 4, it will be happy without Temple, and during the time when it is size 5, we simply raise lux tax to 10%, which also cost 1gpt, like the Temple. But contrary to the Temple, we can turn it off again, when Trondheim drops to 4 e.g. because of a Settler build. So basically we spend 60 shields, only to get a disadvantage... These shields can be much better invested.

After the Archer better build a Worker, as discussed earlier. We need more river tiles getting roaded to increase commerce. (Or maybe another Archer in 3 turns at 6+7+7 and then the Worker. But I think the Worker now is more useful: we still have so much work to do, and in order to complete another Archer in 3, we would need to work an unimproved BG for two turns and lose even more commerce.)

Regarding Bergen: I think, we have enough units for the moment. What is everybody's opinion on using Bergen as a prebuild for something? We can later decide, whether we want to turn it into the Forbidden Palace, or perhaps the Hanging Gardens, or just a Granary or a Library, depending on circumstances lateron.
Also please comment on the "town role distribution" I proposed above.

Never, ever give Writing away! If someone demands it, tell him where the door is! And if they then declare war -- even better! We get free war happiness, speeding up our research! The AI is not to be feared at this early time: before their units can reach our territory, at least 15 turns will go by, and even then they will send nothing that 3-4 Archers can't handle. So keep relaxed...

(Though, I'm not sure how Lanzelot figured we could make it to Republic in 20T, when we still have 19T on CoL, never mind Philo...?)

No, at the moment we have 16 turns left, if we switch the two tiles I mentioned in my previous post to high-commerce tiles. And in two turns the Archer will be finished, so we can then lower lux tax to 0% and science to 100%, givig another turn. And another turn or two should be shaved off, when our third town goes online. So I'm confident we can do CoL in 14. Phil is very cheap, and by that time (more river tiles roaded and Trondheim at size 6) we should be able to do it in 6 turns?! Maybe a few turns longer, but definitely Republic will come in in less than 25 turns.

 

[Nathiri]

Yeah I'm for getting the extra worker and then getting another settler out asap.

As far as Bergen, I think a Granary and then build a couple workers, but you did say maybe the next city could do that. I think we need to get workers and cities out.

But we do need to have a prebuild for the Great Lighthouse in some coastal city very soon.

 

[Lanzelot]

But we do need to have a prebuild for the Great Lighthouse in some coastal city very soon.

I guess you missed that: my plan is that Amsterdam will build the Lighthouse for us. So no need to start a prebuild for that... We only need to make sure to gift Map Making to Amsterdam before we give it to anybody else. (And we need to pay attention when doing our exploration, as to whether any other AI capital is coastal. So far we met Arabia, Russia and the Aztecs, none of which usually start on the coast. F11 shows another AI capital that we don't know yet: Carthage. They are seafaring, so that would be a contender for Amsterdam.)
As I said: Amsterdam is coastal, it is uncorrupted and it gets a 20% discount (due to Emperor level), so it can build the Lighthouse much faster than we could... And Amsterdam is very close: our galleys can reach it in 5 turns, so the Lighthouse can be easily taken over, once it is finished...

Well, even if Amsterdam gets beaten to the Lighthouse by another seafaring civ, it won't be a big deal: at the moment it looks like any nation on the map can be reached via safe coastal tiles. We would only get it like 10-15 turns later, if it gets built elsewhere.

But we could start a prebuild for Artemis soon. On this map it is very powerful to get it on our continent. And every city can build it, so it would be a bit of a gamble to rely on Moscow or Mecca for that?!

 

[Nathiri]

I guess you missed that: my plan is that Amsterdam will build the Lighthouse for us. So no need to start a prebuild for that... We only need to make sure to gift Map Making to Amsterdam before we give it to anybody else. (And we need to pay attention when doing our exploration, as to whether any other AI capital is coastal. So far we met Arabia, Russia and the Aztecs, none of which usually start on the coast. F11 shows another AI capital that we don't know yet: Carthage. They are seafaring, so that would be a contender for Amsterdam.)
As I said: Amsterdam is coastal, it is uncorrupted and it gets a 20% discount (due to Emperor level), so it can build the Lighthouse much faster than we could... And Amsterdam is very close: our galleys can reach it in 5 turns, so the Lighthouse can be easily taken over, once it is finished...

Well, even if Amsterdam gets beaten to the Lighthouse by another seafaring civ, it won't be a big deal: at the moment it looks like any nation on the map can be reached via safe coastal tiles. We would only get it like 10-15 turns later, if it gets built elsewhere.

But we could start a prebuild for Artemis soon. On this map it is very powerful to get it on our continent. And every city can build it, so it would be a bit of a gamble to rely on Moscow or Mecca for that?!

I didn't miss, I just temporarily forgot.

 

[tjs282]

I guess you missed that: my plan is that Amsterdam will build the Lighthouse for us.

That seems awfully risky -- do we know for sure that Amsterdam has sufficient shields available? I vaguely remember from my exploration that it had a lot of water in its BFC.

So no need to start a prebuild for that... We only need to make sure to gift Map Making to Amsterdam before we give it to anybody else.

That is, assuming that we can get to MapMaking before he does: the AI looooves MapMaking, after all... (Wonders and buildings and units, oh my!)

And having gifted MapMaking to Willy, how do we then prevent him from gifting it/ selling it/ conceding it to everyone else himself?

And we need to pay attention when doing our exploration, as to whether any other AI capital is coastal. So far we met Arabia, Russia and the Aztecs, none of which usually start on the coast. F11 shows another AI capital that we don't know yet: Carthage. They are seafaring, so that would be a contender for Amsterdam.

Yeah, because Carthage itself will likely be coastal, which definitely (unacceptably?) increases the risk of having to go a long way and spend a lot of shields to get the Lighthouse for ourselves, if Hanni builds it:

• He's had the same leg-up on Alph -> Writing (-> MapMaking) that we got, and
• He's IND, so his Workers will have got mines built faster than Willy's, and
• I don't fancy trying to fight fortified NuMercs using AA-units (do you?)

And while I agree that it's looking likely that our ships will be able to reach everyone via coastal movements, they won't be able to hide on Sea-tiles until we have the GLite... I would really rather that we (pre)build it ourselves...

 

[Toxicman007]

Lurker's comment; What if you are counting on Amsterdam building the GLight, but then someone you haven't met finishes it first? Someone who is across ocean tiles and unreachable for some time? Won't that just fudge up your entire gameplan?
Even though my vote means naught, I vote for building the GLight yourselves. It's the only wonder you will really need, why not make sure you get it?

 

[Lanzelot]

And having gifted MapMaking to Willy, how do we then prevent him from gifting it/ selling it/ conceding it to everyone else himself?

Easy: by giving him all the other techs as well, so that the other nations don't have anything to pay him for Map Making... (The AI doesn't do "gifts"...)

Yeah, because Carthage itself will likely be coastal, which definitely (unacceptably?) increases the risk of having to go a long way and spend a lot of shields to get the Lighthouse for ourselves, if Hanni builds it:

• He's had the same leg-up on Alph -> Writing (-> MapMaking) that we got, and
• He's IND, so his Workers will have got mines built faster than Willy's, and
• I don't fancy trying to fight fortified NuMercs using AA-units (do you?)

And while I agree that it's looking likely that our ships will be able to reach everyone via coastal movements, they won't be able to hide on Sea-tiles until we have the GLite... I would really rather that we (pre)build it ourselves...

We'll see much clearer on this, once we have completed our exploration, so we can discuss the details then. But in general I see no problem with your objections:

• We don't need to "hide" on sea tiles as long as we have not declared war yet... And certainly the conquest of the Lighthouse will be our first campaign. (Just like in the Sid game, where the Lighthouse got built in a city that was not accessible via safe coastal tiles -- and still I was able to get it!)
• We only need the Lighthouse by the time we have Berzerks. The Berzerks won't feel a difference between Spearmen and NuMercs...

Lurker's comment; What if you are counting on Amsterdam building the GLight, but then someone you haven't met finishes it first? Someone who is across ocean tiles and unreachable for some time? Won't that just **** up your entire gameplan?
Even though my vote means naught, I vote for building the GLight yourselves. It's the only wonder you will really need, why not make sure you get it?

At the moment it looks like the entire world is reachable via coast. (Don't forget we have 4-movement galleys, which can span a wider gap. And also: this is a 60% water map; the rest of the world will probably look just like the part we have already discovered. With 80% water, it may be different, but the way this maps looks, I would say there is no big risk, even if the Lighthouse gets built at the other end of the world.) So the Lighthouse is not essential to our plan, it is only "nice to have". But again, we can wait with the final decision until we have better information. With two Curraghs out, we'll need another 20 turns of scouting and then we'll have met everybody and can see the shape of this world.

And don't forget: we have a pretty bad start and cannot do everything ourselves. So let's use the AI to do some of the work for us!! Letting the AI build a useful wonder for you, is one of the easiest ways of making good use of their potential. I have done that many times. What did Schwarzenegger say? "Trust me"...

 

[Lanzelot]

Hmm, if you are worried about Amsterdam being too slow, we can even ship a spare worker up there to do some mines for him...

 

[robbus]

I am trying to keep up!

 

[Lanzelot]

If you have any question, just ask!

 

[Speedbird 95]

The save


In a nutshell:
We are at war with the Arabians
We will have a settler due next turn
No, I didn't build a temple, and I didn't trade writing to anyone

 

[Speedbird 95]

The details

2150 BC (Turn 0)

Pre-Flight:

Preferences: turn off music
Preferences: Un-check always renegotiate deals
Set map squares
City governators: set emphasize commerce (only), all cities, default

F1 check:

Move archer back towards T'heim will save 1g next turn

Micromanagement: Reassigned T'heim from unmined bg to tobacco and Bergen to river grassland, gaining 2 commerce, same as Lanzelot's recommendation. I tried to switch a mined river grassland to Bergen, but unfortunately Bergen doesn't get any benefit from a third unit of commerce, because it will be lost to corruption.​

Re-check F1

Bergen is down to 1 shield/turn (spt) & T'heim will overrun shields on its archer production.​

F4 check possible trades (for reference only, not intending to give up writing!)

Russia: Masonry + 45g for writing
Dutch: Masonry + 25g
Aztecs: Masonry + Myst + 25g
Arabs: same as Aztecs, or wheel only​

F11 check, for reference

F7 check, the Dutch are constructing the Colossus in Amsterdam

calibrate my city planner spreadsheet, lots of overrides
save
check Civ Assist
Hit enter
​

2110 BC (Turn 1)

-nothing happened IBT​

Archer enters T'heim

Set lux = 0 science = 100, CoL due in 14, 19g-1
curraghs explore
warrior climbs hill overlooking The Hague, sees an unfortified (i.e. new) spearman

The key decision this turn is where to send the worker:

1. My original plan was to chop & road the 2nd fur forest, which would give T'heim a grassland with 2 commerce and 10 shields for a temple. But the temple plan faces opposition.
   
   
2. Roading river squares near Bergen won't help, because the extra commerce will be corrupted.
   
   
3. Roading the tobacco won't help Trondheim, because the 3rd commerce is lost to the despotism penalty, but it would save 1 turn for a settler moving south.
   
   
4. We are not interested in improving shield production somewhere
   
   
5. Therefore I send the worker to the unimproved bg SW of Trondheim, because this square would be assigned by the governator when Trondheim grows in 5 turns.

2070 BC (Turn 2)

-(IBT)- 1 Dutch warrior moving N out of The Hague, followed by 2 more warriors moving into The Hague.

Trondheim produces an archer, wasting 3 shields. Production set to archer for now...

Send an archer on a short fog-busting trip west of Bergen. It will stay close enough to cover Bergen for MP/protection duty.

Worker starts a road

Curragh spots an Arab warrior 5-SW+1S from Trondheim. Other curragh finds a pass at southern tip of deserted island and heads north. We are not as likely to meet other civs if we go towards more tundra.

Warrior climbs a mountain east of The Hague

F3 check, no barbarian warning

F4 check, no changes on offer
​

2030 BC (Turn 3)

3 Dutch warriors move east from The Hague, following our warrior. I think they are after barbarians.
The Aztecs are building the Pyramids in Tenochitlan. Too bad they are not on our continent...
Miscellaneous exploring...
F3 check, no barbarians
F4 check, Arabs have improved their offer to Masonry, Mysticism, Wheel + 16g (out of 25g total)
​

1990 BC (Turn 4)

Warrior sees a barbarian from the north; warror moves on a mountain ridge.
​

1950 BC (Turn 5)

Dutch have settled Utrecht

Trondheim grows to size 5

Worker moves to river grassland on west bank between Trondheim & Bergen. This is a flexible square that can be used by both cities & it doesn't commit to chopping a forest, moving across a river or settling in a particular direction.

I decide to let Trondheim complete an archer, wasting 6 shields, in order to grow further before producing a worker or settler. At this point I am still undecided which to produce first.

Up lux rate to 10% to prevent riot in Trondheim.
​

1910 BC (Turn 6)

Trondheim: Archer → Settler, due in 5 turns (after growth in 4)

Bergen grows to size 2 and is working a bg; I do not reassign tiles to gain more commerce, because the next commerce is corrupt in Bergen.

worker starts a road

curraghs explore

New archer goes from Trondheim to Bergen

I remember my previous idea of blocking Arabian settlement on the isthmus, and send an archer towards that direction. I have wasted at least 3 turns sending that archer back nearby Bergen, and then I remembered that we don't need an MP there until Bergen reaches size 3.

There is a barbarian next to our warrior on a mountain. I decide to advance to the next mountain instead of fortifying. Spot the barb camp on another mountain.

F3 check, nothing
F4 check, Russia has 46g instead of 45g (their economy is doing +1gpt)
​

1870 BC (Turn 7)

-(IBT)- Arabs demand writing, we refuse & they declare war
-our warrior defends successfully against the barb, no damage, no promotion. Moves to hill next to barb camp.

Since Arabs don't know writing they can't recruit allies against us, so I decide not to sell writing to the Russians/Dutch

Two of our archers are exploring, we have time before the Arabs come to us.

F1 check: we can reduce lux to 0% because of war happiness.

Keep science at 90%, CoL due in 8 with 13g and breaking even.
CORRECTION: decide to up science to 100%, CoL still due in 8 at -1gpt, we can regain our gold later but I want maximum beakers.

F3 check: we have 8 units and have reached our limit of free units.

F4 check: Russia has a worker & is willing to trade worker+Masonry+wheel+46g for writing.
​

1830 BC (Turn 8)

Warrior fortifies on hill next to barb camp. There are 2 barbs next to it. My combat calculator says we only have 36% chance of success (+25g) attacking the barb camp on a mountain. But if it becomes a veteran it's 50/50, and elite is 60/40, not accounting for barbarian adjustment.​

Our western archer is watching the land bridge & reports no enemy in sight.

It's decision time for both Bergen and Trondheim; each city can produce an archer, spearman or barracks next turn. An Arab stack can't reach Bergen for at least 8 turns.

I decide to let Trondheim complete a settler, we really need another city.

I decide to switch Bergen from granary to archer, a barracks will cost 10g in maintenance before Bergen can produce a veteran unit. Also there is an Arab warrior wandering about somewhere.

F4: Aztecs are no longer offering Masonry+Myst+25g for writing, now they would only do Masonry+25g. They have 5 cities (I was forgetting to check # of cities each turn)

Russia: 4 cities
Dutch: 4 cities

Note: we don't really need Masonry for walls until the Arab stack is 5-6 turns out & only if it is too much to handle with archers.​

1790 BC (Turn 9)

Bergen: archer → archer (or whatever)

Worker completes road, giving Bergen 1 corrupted commerce. Micromanage Bergen to give up the bonus grassland & work another river grassland, gaining 1 more commerce. Try tile swapping with Trondheim for the mined bonus grassland, but Trondheim would give up 1 commerce, so I don't do the swap.

Worker crosses over to the east bank of the river. The plan is to road the east bank grassland then go to the unimproved bonus grassland east of Bergen.

Trondheim will grow next turn, needs 9 shields for the settler. Micromanagement: switch Trondheim from working tobacco to the western bonus grassland. Now Trondheim is making 8 shields/turn (and 1 less commerce.) Contact governator & emphasize production, de-emphasize commerce, this city only.

Curragh discovers a new island or continent. I decide to go left for no apparent reason.

F1: Income 17 Expenses 19, gold=11, Code of laws in 6 @ 100% science
F3: “Unless we get more gold...”
F4: Russia still has a worker in their capital, they might have barbarians or might be at war with someone, we can't tell which without an embassy.
​

1750 BC (Turn 10)

-(IBT) a regular Dutch warrior kills the barbarian on the mountain & gets 25g.

-(IBT) another Dutch warrior moves next to our unguarded worker. None of our archers can guard the worker this turn. I decide to leave Bergen un-guarded as bait, in case the Dutch decide to sneak-attack us they might go for Bergen instead of the worker.

wake up our warrior & leave movement decision to next player

Curragh meets the Carthaginians; they have 4 cities, zero gold & know Masonry, Mysticism, Wheel and Writing

Trondheim grows to size 6 but fails to produce the settler; the governator has assigned the new citizen to work the tobacco square. Recall the governator & emphasize commerce again. Next turn it will produce a settler & waste 7 shields. No micromanagement needed this turn.

F1: Increase lux to 10% to prevent riot

9g in the bank, -2 gpt @ 100% science, Code of Laws in 5 turns, but we will need to raise taxes & delay science.

Note: Moscow has just produced a settler

F4 check:

Russian worker has left their capital
Dutch have 50g & will offer all of it + Wheel & Masonry without haggling for less gold
Aztec offer for writing is down to Masonry + 15g after haggling, they might be close to discovering it themselves.​

F3: --Order of battle--

1 worker
2 warriors
4 archers
2 curragh​

Support cost = 1gpt

The Pictures:

I haven't figured out -- or forgot -- how to do an image inside a spoiler, so here they are as thumbnails...


​

 

[Speedbird 95]

Some thoughts on my turns & future strategy

[I need to get some sleep first...]

 

[Nathiri]

I see that a settler is coming next turn, and if our next city was to be east of Trondheim, we do not have a road for it to make it there quicker.

 

[Lanzelot]

Very solid turnset, and a lot of attention to detail! I especially like that you caught that the "always renegotiate deals" flag was on, and how you kept track of the tech prices. That fact that the price for Writing for the Aztecs dropped, shows us that a) either they are now researching it themselves and have already made significant progress on it, or b) they met Carthago (and as Carthago already knows Writing, it is no longer a monopoly tech for the Aztecs).

Very good news that we have war happiness! We can now run Trondheim at size 6 with only 10% lux, and at size 5 with 0% lux! This is a lot of gold we can spend on research instead of happiness... Everybody please remember: don't make peace with the Arabs, unless things go really downhill!!

Bad news that Carthago knows Writing already. This might become a close shave... A ray of hope is, however, that the Carthaginians are seafaring, so they will probably be researching Map Making now instead of Philosophy. But there is still a slight risk that they pop Philo from a hut.

The only bad mistake in this turnset was, that you set the governor to "emphasize commerce"! This doesn't do anything, because commerce is collected before city growth. (Same for food.) The only setting that makes sense is "emphasize production", because shields are collected after city growth.
Because of this slight glitch, we have a picture now that almost gave me a heart attack, when I opened the .sav... (Please be more considerate with an old man like me... )

(Yesterday I thought "did this guy ever hear about a thing called "micromanagement"?!... But now the glitch with the governor now explains it.
But anyway: now that I look at the picture again, I notice that there is no shield tile except for the many forests, so what have you been counting on?? We know that even with "emphasize production" the governor does not pick a forest, if the town has only +2fpt! So your plan wouldn't have worked anyway, and you could have given the mined BG to Bergen already a few turns ago! The settler would still have finished on the same turn, but Bergen might now have an extra ~10 shields in its box... If we want to win on Emperor with the "bad to medium" start position we have, we can't afford to waste our precious resources like this...)

Next turn it will produce a settler & waste 7 shields. No micromanagement needed this turn.

No micromanagement needed this turn? Quite the opposite! Give all shield tiles to Bergen to do at least a bit of damage control. Bergen is only doing 1spt, so it can use a little boost... ("Archer in 7" is quite a difference to "Archer in 19".)

But other than that, we made good progress this turnset.

BTW: the more we scout, the more it looks like this is indeed one big snake-like continent... But amphibious attacks will nevertheless be very powerful here...

 

[Lanzelot]

I see that a settler is coming next turn, and if our next city was to be east of Trondheim, we do not have a road for it to make it there quicker.

Yep, ideally we want to manage our worker jobs in such a way, that each new settler can reach its destination in 1-2 turns. For all first-ring towns this should be doable. Unfortunately our next settler will have to walk 3 full turns through the countryside, before he can settle down...
So a road on the tobacco would indeed have been better, and also we quickly want to connect each town to the capital in order to reduce corruption in that town.

 

[Lanzelot]

BTW, if we really want to block the isthmus against Arabia, we need at least a Spearman and 2-3 Archers there. A single Archer will only get himself killed... Better pull him back into safety, until we have more forces.

If nobody likes my idea with prebuilding the FP in Bergen, then we should do a Granary there. With the three BGs, Bergen can easily be turned into a 2-turn worker factory, once we have Republic!