Rex Tyrannus
280lbs of gross stupidity
My memory stinks, but I'm pretty sure it was starving from war weariness during my set.
Okay, my play stinks, too. But that's another matter.
LotR27 Science-Scorning Spacists
- Thread starter Arathorn
- Start date
My memory stinks, but I'm pretty sure it was starving from war weariness during my set.
Okay, my play stinks, too. But that's another matter.
Pretty much every city was shrinking due to WW and as we only rid ourselves of Pericles in the last turn, no city has had a chance to grow again.
We also got a Great Prophet, who we should keep for a Golden Age.
We also got a Great Prophet, who we should keep for a Golden Age.
T-hawk
Transcend
Ok, I can't get an accurate read right now on the happiness situation that we had, since "motherland" anger just disappeared by killing Pericles, and WW will disappear when I hit end turn.
Anyway, our biggest problem right now is city sizes. This issue often crops up in succession games - each player wants to finish some buildings or units or techs during their turn set, and optimizes cities for that, while growth gets left on the back burner. As a Financial civ, we should be growing as much as possible and working all those 2-0-3 coastal tiles. I'll do the best I can to fix that.
BTW, here's how I manage city growth in the later game. First click all of the "emphasize food", "emphasize production", and "emphasize commerce" buttons, which makes the game put new citizens on workable tiles and not hire specialists. When a city has filled up its workable tiles (minus true junk like ocean and tundra), switch it to "emphasize production" only, which will make new citizens become engineers or Angkor priests. Also keep an eye on cities starting to hire specialists and convert their farms to better terrain improvements.
Using farms at a city like Vilcabamba to support engineers is wrong. That converts 2 food to 2 hammers. Better is to simply workshop the grass tiles instead; each such laborer converts 1 food to 3 hammers, much better.
Spy report: On the inherited turn, I pull the two non-embedded spies out of Hannibal's city into Joao's city. Really want to steal Rocketry while the brokering iron is hot. And send espionage to Joao as planned.
Diplo report: Cancel the stone/marble export to Joao, we need them for CreateCon now. Replace the happy with a deal of Rice to Vicky for Silk.
And I do some other MM tweaking, like building Culture for a turn in Eretria and Pergamon to pop the border for two food resources each.
End of turn reveals Joao's research. It's Composites.
=======================
Artillery brokered for Communism. Ordered up Intelligence Agencies right away, even ahead of factories. They're just THAT good. To pick an average city like Corihuayrachina, it sends the math from 45+6 x 1.75 = 90 EP to 45+14 x 2.25 = 132 EP. 40 EP gained for the 180 hammer investment.
Artillery + Communism brokered for Electricity. I threw Adopt Nationhood in there because it was free just to inflict the anarchy. And it might work to our favor. We aren't spying on Cathy, so perhaps if she puts extra EP on her neighbors, her neighbors may respond by putting more EP on her instead of us.
Communism sold to Hannibal for $1350. It's not full price, but it's enough to be worthwhile. And I was hoping some "fair and forthright" might tip him back to Cautious and tech trading.
Next steal wasn't Rocketry, it was Radio. Traded Radio for Medicine.
Then I stole Rocketry from Joao. Also stole Military Science (it's cheap, with a not fully embedded spy) for brokerage value. Traded Rocketry + Mil Science to Mansa for Industrialism.
Stole Plastics straight up, no brokerage.
And on my last turn, when a batch of spies reached full 50% discount, stole both Satellites and Composites from Joao.
That makes ELEVEN techs acquired on my turn.
We are now at 100% FULL TECHNOLOGY PARITY for spaceship techs.
Foreign news:
Vicky declared war on Hannibal!
Mansa made peace with both Catherine and Hannibal thanks to a "diplomatic envoy" random event.
Joao completed the 3 Gorges Dam.
Hannibal is 2 turns away from Hollywood.
Catherine demanded Rocketry and I paid. She is not our space competitor and I don't mind having some peace locked in.
Hannibal built the UN and won the election. We were the second candidate, by a margin of 12 population over Joao. Hannibal is not currently a threat to win a diplo victory. Vicky and Mansa both hate him and Joao is neutral at +2.
I used spies to bonk Hannibal into Uni Suffrage and Hinduism. Both of those moves avoid Hannibal getting a UN vote from Cathy, since now they don't share Cathy's fave civic (HR) or religion (Taoism). We no longer need the religious discount for stealing from Hannibal. And it might be useful to have Hannibal less angry in the same religion as us.
Joao is one turn from Computers; we have both the EP and the embedded spy to grab it right away. Don't think we need the Internet.
AI culture news:
England is trying culture but is not a threat; the third city added barely over 1000 culture during my 10 turns. It's at only 12k.
Carthage just started a belated culture try. His culture slider went to 100% in just the last couple turns. He will not succeed, even his capital still says 60 turns to legendary, and I can't even figure out what other cities he intends to use.
Can't tell if Mansa is trying culture, but if he is, he's behind even England. Joao is not, he is still researching at full speed. Catherine is not, she has only one religion in her core cities.
Domestic news:
I started CreateCon by sending the first executive over to Corinth. Corinth then built a handful of executives to spread to our high-hammer cities in that area. CreateCon is out to 7 cities presently.
Cuzco finished Wall Street. Cuzco must run Merchants as its specialists now - both because it's the Wall Street city, and because we need something other than a Prophet for the 2-man Golden Age later.
Corinth got its factory and hydro plant cash rushed, and started Apollo. That is due in 8 turns, probably 7 after growth.
Our answer to creating high production cities is going to be cash rushing factories and power plants. We are 100% caught up in spaceship techs, and easily have the espionage to remain so. That means that lots of economy can go into cash rushing buildings and CreateCon execs. Generally, right now we have hammer cities on factories and coastal cities on Intelligence Agencies. But feel free to veto any of my current builds.
Anyway, our biggest problem right now is city sizes. This issue often crops up in succession games - each player wants to finish some buildings or units or techs during their turn set, and optimizes cities for that, while growth gets left on the back burner. As a Financial civ, we should be growing as much as possible and working all those 2-0-3 coastal tiles. I'll do the best I can to fix that.
BTW, here's how I manage city growth in the later game. First click all of the "emphasize food", "emphasize production", and "emphasize commerce" buttons, which makes the game put new citizens on workable tiles and not hire specialists. When a city has filled up its workable tiles (minus true junk like ocean and tundra), switch it to "emphasize production" only, which will make new citizens become engineers or Angkor priests. Also keep an eye on cities starting to hire specialists and convert their farms to better terrain improvements.
Using farms at a city like Vilcabamba to support engineers is wrong. That converts 2 food to 2 hammers. Better is to simply workshop the grass tiles instead; each such laborer converts 1 food to 3 hammers, much better.
Spy report: On the inherited turn, I pull the two non-embedded spies out of Hannibal's city into Joao's city. Really want to steal Rocketry while the brokering iron is hot. And send espionage to Joao as planned.
Diplo report: Cancel the stone/marble export to Joao, we need them for CreateCon now. Replace the happy with a deal of Rice to Vicky for Silk.
And I do some other MM tweaking, like building Culture for a turn in Eretria and Pergamon to pop the border for two food resources each.
End of turn reveals Joao's research. It's Composites.
=======================
Artillery brokered for Communism. Ordered up Intelligence Agencies right away, even ahead of factories. They're just THAT good. To pick an average city like Corihuayrachina, it sends the math from 45+6 x 1.75 = 90 EP to 45+14 x 2.25 = 132 EP. 40 EP gained for the 180 hammer investment.
Artillery + Communism brokered for Electricity. I threw Adopt Nationhood in there because it was free just to inflict the anarchy. And it might work to our favor. We aren't spying on Cathy, so perhaps if she puts extra EP on her neighbors, her neighbors may respond by putting more EP on her instead of us.
Communism sold to Hannibal for $1350. It's not full price, but it's enough to be worthwhile. And I was hoping some "fair and forthright" might tip him back to Cautious and tech trading.
Next steal wasn't Rocketry, it was Radio. Traded Radio for Medicine.
Then I stole Rocketry from Joao. Also stole Military Science (it's cheap, with a not fully embedded spy) for brokerage value. Traded Rocketry + Mil Science to Mansa for Industrialism.
Stole Plastics straight up, no brokerage.
And on my last turn, when a batch of spies reached full 50% discount, stole both Satellites and Composites from Joao.
That makes ELEVEN techs acquired on my turn.
We are now at 100% FULL TECHNOLOGY PARITY for spaceship techs.
Foreign news:
Vicky declared war on Hannibal!
Mansa made peace with both Catherine and Hannibal thanks to a "diplomatic envoy" random event.
Joao completed the 3 Gorges Dam.
Hannibal is 2 turns away from Hollywood.
Catherine demanded Rocketry and I paid. She is not our space competitor and I don't mind having some peace locked in.
Hannibal built the UN and won the election. We were the second candidate, by a margin of 12 population over Joao. Hannibal is not currently a threat to win a diplo victory. Vicky and Mansa both hate him and Joao is neutral at +2.
I used spies to bonk Hannibal into Uni Suffrage and Hinduism. Both of those moves avoid Hannibal getting a UN vote from Cathy, since now they don't share Cathy's fave civic (HR) or religion (Taoism). We no longer need the religious discount for stealing from Hannibal. And it might be useful to have Hannibal less angry in the same religion as us.
Joao is one turn from Computers; we have both the EP and the embedded spy to grab it right away. Don't think we need the Internet.
AI culture news:
England is trying culture but is not a threat; the third city added barely over 1000 culture during my 10 turns. It's at only 12k.
Carthage just started a belated culture try. His culture slider went to 100% in just the last couple turns. He will not succeed, even his capital still says 60 turns to legendary, and I can't even figure out what other cities he intends to use.
Can't tell if Mansa is trying culture, but if he is, he's behind even England. Joao is not, he is still researching at full speed. Catherine is not, she has only one religion in her core cities.
Domestic news:
I started CreateCon by sending the first executive over to Corinth. Corinth then built a handful of executives to spread to our high-hammer cities in that area. CreateCon is out to 7 cities presently.
Cuzco finished Wall Street. Cuzco must run Merchants as its specialists now - both because it's the Wall Street city, and because we need something other than a Prophet for the 2-man Golden Age later.
Corinth got its factory and hydro plant cash rushed, and started Apollo. That is due in 8 turns, probably 7 after growth.
Our answer to creating high production cities is going to be cash rushing factories and power plants. We are 100% caught up in spaceship techs, and easily have the espionage to remain so. That means that lots of economy can go into cash rushing buildings and CreateCon execs. Generally, right now we have hammer cities on factories and coastal cities on Intelligence Agencies. But feel free to veto any of my current builds.
Attachments
T-hawk
Transcend
Roster:
Arathon - UP NOW
Rex Tyrannus - On deck
Ozbenno
T-hawk - just played
Parity on imoprtant techs. Second most population. Economy (both cash and espionage) doing well. Optimal civics. Am I doing much besides holding the fort and using cashrushing to keep pushing us faster and into better production?
Remember -- we can't build the space elevator. It gets great scientist points, which we are forbidden from having. Just a reminder. That's gonna make parts a bit more expensive than I'm used to.
It's been a really long time since I've been in this part of the game. Do we have aluminum? That will help with a number of pieces, at least, IIRC.
Not sure when I'm going to get to this, but it is definitely in the queue.
Arathorn
Arathon - UP NOW
Rex Tyrannus - On deck
Ozbenno
T-hawk - just played
Parity on imoprtant techs. Second most population. Economy (both cash and espionage) doing well. Optimal civics. Am I doing much besides holding the fort and using cashrushing to keep pushing us faster and into better production?
Remember -- we can't build the space elevator. It gets great scientist points, which we are forbidden from having. Just a reminder. That's gonna make parts a bit more expensive than I'm used to.
It's been a really long time since I've been in this part of the game. Do we have aluminum? That will help with a number of pieces, at least, IIRC.
Not sure when I'm going to get to this, but it is definitely in the queue.
Arathorn
Good progress.
We can't use Laboratories either which hurts.
Aluminium will be good, do we have any?
Probably need to head some spies over to Portugal's big cities to disrupt some production of parts.
We can't use Laboratories either which hurts.
Aluminium will be good, do we have any?
Probably need to head some spies over to Portugal's big cities to disrupt some production of parts.
T-hawk
Transcend
Yes we have aluminum. One source conveniently right at Corinth, our Ironworks city.
I always ignore the space elevator in BTS. Robotics isn't worth the research cost. And +50% really isn't missed on top of huge multipliers from factory/power, aluminum, and Ironworks anyway.
Sending spies to Portugal isn't necessary. Completed SS parts can be sabotaged from anywhere, like in Joao's city right next to us. I discovered this in Epic 26 when one AI did it to me. Anyway, from here we can probably win without subterfuge. Just save cash, slam to 100% research on the last tech once we steal the second-to-last, and use optimized Corinth to build the last part complete with forest chops and a golden age.
I always ignore the space elevator in BTS. Robotics isn't worth the research cost. And +50% really isn't missed on top of huge multipliers from factory/power, aluminum, and Ironworks anyway.
Sending spies to Portugal isn't necessary. Completed SS parts can be sabotaged from anywhere, like in Joao's city right next to us. I discovered this in Epic 26 when one AI did it to me. Anyway, from here we can probably win without subterfuge. Just save cash, slam to 100% research on the last tech once we steal the second-to-last, and use optimized Corinth to build the last part complete with forest chops and a golden age.
Kylearan
compound eye
Rowain deWolf
King
They have done a great job on it 
but it also shows how completly unbalanced the spy-system is.
but it also shows how completly unbalanced the spy-system is.
Rex Tyrannus
280lbs of gross stupidity
They have done a great job on it
I look at it more like a less-than-perfect AI. Any human would have jumped on the chance to take out Longbows with Infantry. If we win it's only because the AI was too soft on us. We should have been someone's play-thing long ago.
T-hawk
Transcend
Possibly true, Rex, but the AIs have also spent a lot of time fighting each other and perhaps never had the means and opportunity to send an invasion our way. And each AI was probably right not to conquer us for its own interest. AIs can't conquer quickly and can't develop conquered territory well (because they build too many units, and don't ship workers across continents) - for each AI, it's not likely they could actually speed themselves to a victory condition by conquering us.
Only Joao ever should have tried - all the other AIs needed to stop Joao more than us. Yet that is really not the right move either. The only reason we are a threat to beat Joao is because we are the human player. If our Inca were an AI, lagging 20 techs behind Joao, Joao would have no need to worry about Inca at all. If Joao does attack us to stop us beating him, he is doing so only because we are the human player, and one of Civ 4's design factors is to avoid the AIs ever singling out the human player for different treatment.
I think our comeback is more about the broken cheapness of espionage economy (which the AIs cannot do correctly), along with the omnipresent beaker multiplier of brokering. In 50 turns, counting from my first turn set, we went from lacking Paper to Composites. In 50 turns. Paper to Composites.
Only Joao ever should have tried - all the other AIs needed to stop Joao more than us. Yet that is really not the right move either. The only reason we are a threat to beat Joao is because we are the human player. If our Inca were an AI, lagging 20 techs behind Joao, Joao would have no need to worry about Inca at all. If Joao does attack us to stop us beating him, he is doing so only because we are the human player, and one of Civ 4's design factors is to avoid the AIs ever singling out the human player for different treatment.
I think our comeback is more about the broken cheapness of espionage economy (which the AIs cannot do correctly), along with the omnipresent beaker multiplier of brokering. In 50 turns, counting from my first turn set, we went from lacking Paper to Composites. In 50 turns. Paper to Composites.
I suppose I could post some of the pretty pictures I took, but is it really all that illuminating to see the steal technology screen again and again?
We stole:
Computers for 2737
Flight for 2808
and I guess I didn't record what Fission cost us -- probably ~3k.
Our EP/turn is up over 2500. We now have a huge stockpile against Joao. On my last turn, I distributed the EPs a little more evenly with most still going to Joao. I recommend we keep EPs on people until we can see their research at least. That shouldn't take too long.
I could have stolen Refrigeration, too, but I decided to do something different. Computers to Cathy got us Refrigeration, all her gold (40) and a double civics switch (to Nationahood and Free Market).
Otherwise, I concerned myself with buying things. For a while, our gpt was over 600, too. But disaster struck in a UN resolution. I debated defying the switch to Environmentalism, but I didn't think it would pass. I was wrong. The switch from Free Market to Environmentalism (with the spreading of Creative Con I'd been doing) cost us almost 200 gpt. Oh well, it helped our health, which will eventually mean more people and more commerce, so it's not all bad. Our EP/turn jumped significantly, too. We could steal everything Joao has, destroy all his completed spaceship parts and still have plenty of points left over.
Our military is beyond pathetic, however. I built an infantry and started a modern armor, just to give us some high-level units, should the need arise. We should probably get a modern navy, too, but that's a ways off.
Apollo completed for us (and a bunch of others). We are building a ... cockpit (I think) and several of our casings. Just kinda getting up to speed with Joao using cities which can either afford it or already have the necessary infrastructure (except I didn't build any power plants. We might want to build a few nuclear power plants, just to be safe).
Unless someone declares war on us, we should be safe. I guess I didn't realize just how powerful espionage was. We just jumped ridiculously far since my last turnset. Hmph.
Arathorn
We stole:
Computers for 2737
Flight for 2808
and I guess I didn't record what Fission cost us -- probably ~3k.
Our EP/turn is up over 2500. We now have a huge stockpile against Joao. On my last turn, I distributed the EPs a little more evenly with most still going to Joao. I recommend we keep EPs on people until we can see their research at least. That shouldn't take too long.
I could have stolen Refrigeration, too, but I decided to do something different. Computers to Cathy got us Refrigeration, all her gold (40) and a double civics switch (to Nationahood and Free Market).
Otherwise, I concerned myself with buying things. For a while, our gpt was over 600, too. But disaster struck in a UN resolution. I debated defying the switch to Environmentalism, but I didn't think it would pass. I was wrong. The switch from Free Market to Environmentalism (with the spreading of Creative Con I'd been doing) cost us almost 200 gpt. Oh well, it helped our health, which will eventually mean more people and more commerce, so it's not all bad. Our EP/turn jumped significantly, too. We could steal everything Joao has, destroy all his completed spaceship parts and still have plenty of points left over.
Our military is beyond pathetic, however. I built an infantry and started a modern armor, just to give us some high-level units, should the need arise. We should probably get a modern navy, too, but that's a ways off.
Apollo completed for us (and a bunch of others). We are building a ... cockpit (I think) and several of our casings. Just kinda getting up to speed with Joao using cities which can either afford it or already have the necessary infrastructure (except I didn't build any power plants. We might want to build a few nuclear power plants, just to be safe).
Unless someone declares war on us, we should be safe. I guess I didn't realize just how powerful espionage was. We just jumped ridiculously far since my last turnset. Hmph.
Arathorn
Rex Tyrannus
280lbs of gross stupidity
Okay, I see the save but I won't be able to play until Thursday night.
On another note. Prior to this game, I hadn't played Civ since just after BTS came out. I do not believe I've ever played this late in a game under the new space race rules. I'll do a crash course on these boards to determine the latest best practices.
Shouldn't matter too much for this set, but I ought to know.
On another note. Prior to this game, I hadn't played Civ since just after BTS came out. I do not believe I've ever played this late in a game under the new space race rules. I'll do a crash course on these boards to determine the latest best practices.
Shouldn't matter too much for this set, but I ought to know.
T-hawk
Transcend
Double posted...
T-hawk
Transcend
The trick here to managing research will come with 2 techs remaining. Whichever one Joao researches, we research the OTHER one. Then we finish our tech and steal Joao's. Boom we have all the techs ahead of him and an easy finish. Yet another advantage of espionage economy is the ability to "pre-spend" the economy before the techs are even available.
The trick to managing parts is to launch with only one Engine. The only consequence of missing the second engine is 2 extra turns of travel time before the spaceship arrives. The first Engine always goes in the Ironworks city, and almost never will you have a second-best hammer city able to complete a second engine just one turn slower. So just make sure our best hammer city (Corinth) is ready and available to start on the Engine when we get Fusion, and we'll be fine. Typically the Ironworks city builds the Engine, while the second-best hammer city (Ephesus?) builds whatever the last part is, and they finish in synch.
All the other parts should be built. Each Casing means 20% success chance, so you need all 5 for 100%. Thrusters beyond one are optional. Each one means 2 fewer turns of travel time. But they come early and aren't too expensive so there's no reason not to build all 5.
And I try to time a Golden Age so that it ends just as the last part is done. A GA contributes more to building parts than to research, since +1 hammer on a tile is a bigger proportional gain than +1 commerce.
Military - don't worry about it. Corinth is inland and no AI will be able to attack it. We have drafting and can make loads of cash for upgrades. Usually I continue to Robotics after the last SS tech is finished; AIs will not crack drafted mechs.
Environmentalism is annoying. But civics resolutions almost always pass, each AI votes for them like 95% of the time. Right call not to defy, the difference in the civics isn't worth eating that much anger.
The trick to managing parts is to launch with only one Engine. The only consequence of missing the second engine is 2 extra turns of travel time before the spaceship arrives. The first Engine always goes in the Ironworks city, and almost never will you have a second-best hammer city able to complete a second engine just one turn slower. So just make sure our best hammer city (Corinth) is ready and available to start on the Engine when we get Fusion, and we'll be fine. Typically the Ironworks city builds the Engine, while the second-best hammer city (Ephesus?) builds whatever the last part is, and they finish in synch.
All the other parts should be built. Each Casing means 20% success chance, so you need all 5 for 100%. Thrusters beyond one are optional. Each one means 2 fewer turns of travel time. But they come early and aren't too expensive so there's no reason not to build all 5.
And I try to time a Golden Age so that it ends just as the last part is done. A GA contributes more to building parts than to research, since +1 hammer on a tile is a bigger proportional gain than +1 commerce.
Military - don't worry about it. Corinth is inland and no AI will be able to attack it. We have drafting and can make loads of cash for upgrades. Usually I continue to Robotics after the last SS tech is finished; AIs will not crack drafted mechs.
Environmentalism is annoying. But civics resolutions almost always pass, each AI votes for them like 95% of the time. Right call not to defy, the difference in the civics isn't worth eating that much anger.
There are still several techs remaining. So we're not at crunch time yet.
With no libraries, no universities, no labs, no nothing, can we even research a modern age tech in a reasonable period of time? We're missing about +100% multipliers and a core Oxford city. That seems ... problematic to me. We should probably start building up a huge gold reserve so we can mass deficit-research whatever we need, even with our huge inefficiency.
And maybe take the EPs off everybody just Joao. We are close to enough EPs on him to steal 6 or 7 remaining techs but he might up his EP spending, too, making it more expensive. Dropping our espionage spending down will get our cash reserves up faster, too. We may well need them and more.
I'm not worried about an attack after 20 turns. It's being attacked now that concerns me. If we're close to space and just have to hold out, well, being on an island is almost enough for that.... My concern is more with actually waging a war and being strong enough to ... discourage that.
Something I didn't do (because I was focused on growing our cities) was optimize tile usage for our best hammer producers (by stealing tiles from neighbors and such). I was working on railing nearby river tiles so that we could replace towns with watermills and gain some hammers. We can even do workshops, eventually, though another 3-4 workers might be necessary to get everything done at once around two cities.
Thanks for the crash course, T-hawk.
Arathorn
With no libraries, no universities, no labs, no nothing, can we even research a modern age tech in a reasonable period of time? We're missing about +100% multipliers and a core Oxford city. That seems ... problematic to me. We should probably start building up a huge gold reserve so we can mass deficit-research whatever we need, even with our huge inefficiency.
And maybe take the EPs off everybody just Joao. We are close to enough EPs on him to steal 6 or 7 remaining techs but he might up his EP spending, too, making it more expensive. Dropping our espionage spending down will get our cash reserves up faster, too. We may well need them and more.
I'm not worried about an attack after 20 turns. It's being attacked now that concerns me. If we're close to space and just have to hold out, well, being on an island is almost enough for that.... My concern is more with actually waging a war and being strong enough to ... discourage that.
Something I didn't do (because I was focused on growing our cities) was optimize tile usage for our best hammer producers (by stealing tiles from neighbors and such). I was working on railing nearby river tiles so that we could replace towns with watermills and gain some hammers. We can even do workshops, eventually, though another 3-4 workers might be necessary to get everything done at once around two cities.
Thanks for the crash course, T-hawk.
Arathorn
timmy827
King
Yikes.
I was curious and your 100% science was 1500 beakers/turn - not stellar but should be plenty sufficient to do T-hawk's strategy as long as you save some gold. Looks like this is gonna happen.
T-hawk
Transcend
Also, building Research is out of bounds, but building Wealth to support deficit research is okay.
So we have three strategy lines. Outresearch Joao to the last tech. Or match his tech via stealing and outbuild him on the last parts. Or sabotage his completed SS parts. Any of those should be enough on its own, so some combination of them will surely work. And it looks likely that those critical spots will happen on my turnset.
If Arathorn thought his last turnset was dull, how about just clicking turns till the spaceship arrives. 
So we have three strategy lines. Outresearch Joao to the last tech. Or match his tech via stealing and outbuild him on the last parts. Or sabotage his completed SS parts. Any of those should be enough on its own, so some combination of them will surely work. And it looks likely that those critical spots will happen on my turnset.
If Arathorn thought his last turnset was dull, how about just clicking turns till the spaceship arrives. 
