Round 9 - 1470 AD to 1816 AD [72 Turns] - Two Civilizations Eliminated (Part I)
I continued the process of growing my civilization and beelining to Industrialism for tanks. After that, my goal was to research Plastics and then Computers for the internet. Of course, I was a little behind in that regard, since in 1470, Catherine had Electricity and Assembly Line, Gilgamesh had Railroad and Assembly Line, and Willem had Assembly Line and Biology.
My biggest concern was always Ragnar, but Gilgamesh wasn't far behind.
I finally finished up Forbidden Palace, and given that Democracy was due next turn, things were looking up economically. You can see how much unhappiness I'm suffering from.
On the next turn, with Democracy in hand, I took advantage of some last opportunities to use the whip. Slavery is the best civic in the game, and I take advantage of it up to the turn before I switch to Democracy.
My research focus was now on Assembly Line. I also switched to Universal Suffrage, since I no longer had pressing needs for Hereditary Rule happiness. In fact, the military units I stationed in cities were there because of the Emancipation unhappiness. My civics after this were
Universal Suffrage, Free Speech, Emancipation, Free Market, and
Free Religion.
Unfortunately, that switch would make Ragnar pleased with me. He was annoyed towards several other leaders (and already at war with Mehmed II), and I only border him via one or two land tiles, so I'm hoping that he will look elsewhere for war targets. Since he was at the WFYABTA limit, I made this trade before switching civics:
The war was not looking good ... for both Mehmed II and my situation. And on this same turn, Ragnar obtained Railroad, Gilgamesh got Artillery, and Catherine incorporated Creative Constructions.
But on 1540 AD, I received great news -- I got a Great Engineer! This means once I get Railroad, I can start up Mining Inc.! You can see that I'm building wealth in many cities. I'm at the point where cities don't have useful buildings left to build (e.g. customs houses, Jewish Synagogues, etc.) so I set many of them to produce wealth in order to get Assembly Line (and then Railroads) ASAP. Then I can start factory production!
More bad news -- Ragnar completes Sid's Sushi, before I had a shot at it.
And if that wasn't enough, Gilgamesh built the Pentagon last turn.
On the following turn, I got Assembly Line and checked the technology situation:
Yes! I can finally trade technologies! I hit up Catherine for a trade. This one made the most sense to maximize my gold amount and to clear up an important prerequisite for Electricity. I couldn't have gotten Railroad, anyway.
But on the same turn, I also made a very important decision. It was a bit of a gamble, but if I hadn't done this, I think Ragnar would have had enough power to overwhelm every single computer-controlled player. The demographics told me that there was a leader with a terrifying amount of military power. I knew it was Ragnar by taking advantage of the odd tendency of the Catherine AI's ability to be bribed to war with someone who she's friendly with. I remember that I was friendly with Catherine at one point during this round, so when I looked at Catherine's availability to be bribed for war, Ragnar was the only "red" or unavailable name on the list (i.e. she was willing to be bribed to attack all other leaders), with the reasoning "We're afraid of their military might." Not good ....
The gamble part is, of course, that I'm giving him factory production and that he's only pleased with me.
Notice, though, that Willem is also at war with Mehmed II. I'm hoping Willem vassalizes him so Ragnar targets Willem next.
I obtained Railroad on 1570 AD (of course, Gilgamesh had already researched Rocketry several turns ago) and had a Great Engineer ready to set up Mining Inc. It was just in time, since Catherine got a Great Engineer this turn!
To recap, my tech was
Democracy -> Assembly Line -> Physics & Astronomy (Trades) -> Railroad. I now set up research for Biology.
At this point, I built factories in all important cities to prepare them for tank production. I also finalized some National Wonders. The capital finished Ironworks and Carthage got West Point, which you can see being produced in the following screenshot. Notice that Catherine built the Apollo Program.
After some amount of turns had passed, I finally had the chance to start Wall Street in Utica. I gave Utica the copper mine Carthage was working since it's a terrible production city.
With a Great Engineer, and a Great Merchant (who failed to found Sid's Sushi), I now had the chance to start what may be my last Golden Age. I decided to wait until finishing Industrialism. Oh, don't worry about Ragnar being WHEOOHRN ... it's almost certainly Mehmed II. And if it's us ... well we're about to start producing an army!
The tech situation upon Industrialism. Plastics was up next for me, for the possibility of getting the Three Gorges Dam. I was building so much wealth that I had positive gold income at 100% research. That wouldn't last, of course, since I now had better things to build.
(The full tech path was To recap, my tech was
Democracy -> Assembly Line -> Physics & Astronomy (Trades) -> Railroad -> Biology -> Combustion -> Electricity -> Rifling -> Industrialism -> Plastics.)
After the Golden Age, I had stunning demographics.
And Mao is going down ...
[To be continued in next post.]
There were also some minor changes I made to cities' resource allocations, so that they could get to their next population level sooner. For instance, with Zhou, I want to grow first and then work the cottages.
In fact, why don't I start playing right now!
and watch.
. Yes, I definitely need their cash ... the problem is I need to get the tech before the other civs can get them!
