Part 10: Sorte

A short update today, as little happens without the advent of Astronomy and there is a need to have everyone's input as to what happens next. To compensate, the end-of-post vote will be straightforward and will close within 24 hours instead of the usual 48.



As mentioned previously, Chichen Itza is sort of a high-priority Wonder for the AI since it is based on a useful and common prerequisite Technology and does not have a Social Policy prerequisite. However, the Hagia Sophia is also a good catch for the AI, so as far as I am concerned the choice between the two is something of a coin flip (with the corollary that we could potentially lose both). We'll see if we win one way or another by the end of this post.



Since we know where our next City is going to be placed, we can prepare our site in advance since it will be relatively close to an existing border with Lisboa. The Worker will improve the Ivory resource so that the new City will have a Camp ready for it once the Settler gets there.



This shows a ranking of the Civs by Tourism output, and so far a mystery neighbour must have the Parthenon and a Great Work of Writing (more on how we get the latter later) to account for this score.



This will help our next Missionary or Pagoda purchase to be sure, though we have a better design on our next Faith for the time being.



Our settler prepares to move for site I for Iron.



Luanda, meanwhile, will try to make the most of the money it makes from Ivory and Sugar, so that the new city can be supported with a potential building purchase or two.



Workers will start on the Ivory, but note that there is a lack of the typical bonus associated with Goddess of the Hunt, this is because the hex is 4 tiles away from Lisboa, which only affects the nearest 3 hexes. Thus, the Pantheon bonus does not automatically apply.



The second Worker team will move to improve the Deer resource, since the City will be online by the time the Worker arrives so the Deer will be ready for the harvest.



Speaking of which...

I was thinking a bit about Portuguese municipalities that might apply to this site, but Portugal wasn't particularly known for settling so close to the Antarctic. While I could consider the presence of Iron lending itself to finding the type of iron-sulphur thermal springs Azorean municipalities like Furnas are known for, the simplest decision in the end was to focus on the city's southern position on the mainland.



Bem-vindo a Faro!



Its first building project will be a Monument, which will complete in a relatively short order given the presence of Iron and Maritime Infrastructure. The issue is that the new City has dropped our Happiness again, and without the presence of Sebastianism we can't create another Pagoda right away. Our City growth will stall for a bit but we can manage for now, while I keep my fingers crossed that Chichen Itza completes for us.



Meanwhile, looks like we won the coin flip. Apologies to thread readers who wanted Colossus and the Hagia Sophia, as luck has not been with you this game.



Our Trade Route refreshes again, and an interesting possibility presents itself. Cities on trade routes with a Granary at their origin point have the option of sending those Trade units to the Civ's own Cities for an increase to their Food base. It's a proposition that provides growth at the expense of Gold, and a good one to take for a new City. However, in this case we will not be seeing growth from that Food due to low Happiness, so back to Riga it goes until we get a second Cargo Ship.



With the Camp complete, the Worker will use "Route To" mode in order to automatically build a Road to the spot designated. We can't see my cursor, but I have selected the Pasture southeast of Lisboa, 2 tiles away.



With that, our second Great Prophet appears, and we can further enhance Sebastianism.




These are the Follower bonuses that remain...




...and these are the Enhancer Bonuses, and we are missing some as other Civs have beaten us to Enhancement.

All the same, we have to decide which Bonuses will govern Sebastianism.



My own choices for this run are Religious Community and Messiah, because I like Production and cheaper Great Prophets are strong in a Piety tree where we can focus on creating Holy Sites.

Also, I promised not to leave you in suspense.



Voting closes in 24 hours.

Até amanhã!