LK153 - Australia

Not sure how much more you played since this post, but for me those two cities are the #1 priority. We need to be set for when rails arrive.

I'm roughly halfway through my set. We're poised to take the first city next turn.

Next weekend is fully busy for me, so take your time you want to finish.

I'm most of the way through my set. I could hand it off or play two more turns. On the last IBT, we lost Dyes (Venezuela has been hammered hard by its enemies!). Team, what are your thoughts on replacing the happy faces lost with the dyes?

Don't have time right now to see save but:
If you can't get a trade for an older tech for the dyes from someone else, I would look at the cost to raise lux vs buying it for cash and go with the cheaper option. I would keep growth high when possible as we usually need settlers; scientists in corrupt cities can make sense however.

Is there an alternate happy to grab? I know the pickings are getting slim since we have most. I think our core can survive with one less happy, but I suspect some cities will be problems.

Pre-turn: Look around and make a few minor changes.
Persia declares on Germany, who signs peace with Babs.
Egypt declares on Venezuela
Mongols suicide two LB and kill one Musket @ Jabira 2-1
Jakarta riots
Port Arthur also riots

850AD-We kill one LB next to Jabiru 3-1
2nd Cav Army rides down 4 MDI between Jabiru and Albury 7-1
First Knight Army rides down three MDI...and then we lose the e* MDI trying to kill a fourth 10-2
Egypt and Zulu sign MA vs. Venezuela and Germany
Mongols lose 1 MDI but kill 2 Muskets and seize Oodnadatta
11-4

860AD-Third Cav Army rides down an MDI and a Pike, then retakes Oodnadatta by killing a Musket and an MDI. 15-4
2nd Cav Army rides down MDI
Cavs ride down a redlined Musket and a redlined MDI 18-4
First Cav Army rides down 2 Spears, a Pike, and a Sword 22-4
2nd Cav Army rides down another MDI 23-4

Sioux and Egypt sign MA vs. Venezuela
Aztecs and Egypt sign MA vs. Babylon
No attacks from Mongolia...
Aztecs and Sioux sign MA vs. Venezuela. Dogpile!

870AD-I see that America has now entered the IA.
Third Cav Army kills four redlined Mongols near Albury 27-4
First Knight Army rides down three Swords near Jabiru 30-4
Two eCavs ride down redlined units near Albury, and one nets a Leader! 32-4
Three more Cavs ride down units near Jabiru, and First Cavalry Army rides down three more near Albury 38-4

Persia demands 100g and our map. We give in.
Egypt signs India against Venezuela and Argentina against Russia
Persia declares on Russia, too!
880AD-
I call up Babylon and declare war!
A miskey has a Musket attack a Mongolian LB...but we win flawlessly 39-4
3 Cavs wipe out a redlined stack next to Jabiru 42-4
Third Cav Army kills two more lurking in Egyptian territory 44-4
First Cav Army wipes out two MDI 2N of Oodnadatta 46-4

Persia issues a boot order
Egypt brings Argentina into the war on Venezuela
...then they bring in the Songhai, too
Mongols and Argentina sign MA vs. China
Russia and Venezuela sign peace.
Mongols capture a Worker stack. I missed that line of attack

890AD-
Khorsabad:
Arty redlines a Musket and pings a Spear; we kill both with MDI and Army to raze the city! 48-4

Glad to see those two Babylonian towns gone.
OTOH I am really starting to wonder what we are gaining out of the war with Mongolia. We have moved forward a bit, but it is starting to feel like fighting for the sake of fighting.

I can't believe we still haven't gotten a chance to deal for theory of gravity. I didn't expect us to complete it with 40 turn research, but that is looking possible.
At least we have a few thousand more to buy once we get into the next era.


ROSTER:

LKendter
Elephantium
Greebley (up)
Northern Pike (on deck?)

Nice work grinding the Mongolians down.

LKendter said:

I am really starting to wonder what we are gaining out of the war with Mongolia. We have moved forward a bit, but it is starting to feel like fighting for the sake of fighting.

Click to expand...

This looks like a classic case of our first grabbing a few of the enemy's towns, then spending a couple of rounds reducing their field army before we spring forward again. I expect that our progress against Mongolia will speed up a lot in the next twenty turns.

Yes, I'm on deck.

We can buy ToG for about half our gold, but there haven't been any ways to recover that expense.

Elephantium said:

We can buy ToG for about half our gold, but there haven't been any ways to recover that expense.

Click to expand...

I would rather save that gold for rails. The is the point where the human player truly excels. The AI cities with extra food only get worse. People have enough sense to mine some to get max shields for units, and to build a thin rail net that does wonders for mobility.

This game is above average in needing rails. It will also end our dependence on to long of ship chains.

I got it.

Is a 2-fer even possible now? I thought ToG was the last required tech. If true, at this point waiting 10 turns and going for a 2-fer with steam for rails would make sense.

longer term do we want to ally with egypt vs persia or do we want to ally with persia vs egypt.

Attacking Egypt sooner is better because its the leader, but attacking Persia first may get us a better front line.

Greebley said:

Is a 2-fer even possible now? I thought ToG was the last required tech. If true, at this point waiting 10 turns and going for a 2-fer with steam for rails would make sense.

Click to expand...

A 2 way trade isn't, but a discounted price was. During my set I kept hoping Argentina would take the top path letting use the bottom stuff for a discount. At this point I don't know if that is possibly anymore.


At this point I am not ready to talk Egypt or Persia first. I want rails laid down before we talk about that. I do know we don't want to hit Egypt without some strong allies on our side.

Rails first seems reasonable. Hopefully they are 10 turns away - we get ToG in 10 and then buy steam. I was just thinking there may be differences in play depending on who we plan to go for next, but it can probably wait.

I think I will increase worker count.

Will start playing soon. This weekend is partially busy so I am not sure how much I will get done.
Edit: Or steam could randomly expire my password and crash civ without allowing me to save.....

I cannot find the turn log anywhere. I think I rebooted without saving it. I did do a lot of map trading and getting the small change from civs. Other deals as well.

I didn't do anything special - you can see our progress in the map below. We did take the Mongol capital.

Some notes:
Mongol Cavalry popping out of Egyptian lands is a real problem for defense. There is 1-3 (usually one) cavalry each turn

We don't have enough Settlers. I suggest rushing some in Asia. We get 2 next turn but one is far away (size 12 hometown). I switched towns to Settler, but they need to complete. I also used the ones we had (maybe one in the area and one on the way?)

Two cities are undefended because they may flip. My idea was to allow them to be taken so we can retake them (if taken). If we abandon them then Egypt will get all the lands. Also switching hands means reduced size which is good. We have to keep them or give the lands to Egypt so I would starve them to size 1 first.


Important part:


I was planning on playing at least 5 turns, but in 990 AD I came across a situation that needs team discussion. I have had the game long enough to pass it on.

Discussion:
Short version: I want to trade lux for lux with Egypt and go for Persia in 8-10 turns (before egypt).

Long winding version that explains more of the reasons for why:
We are short one Luxury of having enough to run at 0% happiness (7th so +4 with market) and we can trade for that Luxury with a straight up deal for one of ours. It is however, Egypt who is offering it. I think we should take this deal and go for Persia before Egypt; probably after we get rails. We can get the tech in 6 or so turns (we should have enough after we get ToG to afford it) and shortly after build connecting rails as Lee suggests. This sounds like it would be good timing with the Mongol war ending sometime around there.

I took a quick look at the map. Fighting Persia IMO is a total waste. Even with rails our borders will be utterly horrid. We will just be that much more exposed to Egyptian attacks.
Even going further versus Mongolia is questionable as we get further exposed to Egypt.

I don't know how we can take on the Egyptian monster at this point, but IMO that is the only viable option. We still need a thin-net completed before we start.
We will have to create a dog pile getting every other decent civ into the battle to have a fighting chance.
My first goal would be former China as that will secure the final luxury via settler.

I've got it.

I don't really understand the seventh-luxury discussion, since right now we're at 100% cash on six luxuries, with no problems that I can see. Am I missing something here?

I wouldn't object to Persia as our next opponent, since I think it's more important to conquer now the enemies we can conquer now than to keep neat borders. Losing a few completely corrupt cities at the beginning of a major war may be messy play of the kind we usually avoid, but it isn't that important in win/lose terms. However, given our still-modest forces (only six armies) and the distances to be covered, I don't expect to do more on my round than to mop up most of the eight remaining Mongol cities in range, and to build our first rails. So it's not a decision we need to make yet.

I think Persia is the strongest ally we have vs. Egypt. I hate to burn our best potential ally. I think the only to beat Egypt is a dog-pile from the rest of powers in Eurasia.

Lurker comment: Loving this thread! Lee, is there a thread or a post where I can download this mod for myself? It looks pretty awesome.

Edit: I did some more digging and found the mod, so nevermind. Still though, I love following these SG's. Just wish there were more of them!

I entered a post before but I don't see it.

The issue was that I bought 2 other Lux that turn and it doesn't automatically adjust. So I was looking at our cities as if they had 4 lux instead of 6.

I should have thought of that, I have often had to go click every city to see the true value.