Preturn: I accidentally hit enter before doing anything.
1640 AD: I trade for Naval Guns(needed to lower tax rate) for 330 gpt and change, do the Enlightment deal not using Naval Guns, and tried to trade for democracy but its vastly expensive. Instead do the trade of Naval guns for gpt and cash from certain civs. We can then research Democracy in 29 turns at 20% science, 10 % lux which is much cheaper given the govt markup. We have 1524 in the bank and -90 gpt. As we get any gpt back, we can switch over more to science to get Demo faster. I think we are close enough to use science now.
Lowered unit cost a bit by getting rid of any extra vet or regular obsolete units that weren't on garrison duty to lower happiness.
Note that I will be building happy buildings to keep up the lower lux rate without the happiness.
Moved units following the Spanish ships that are heading somewhere...
Oh we also found ?? and Korean cities.
IBT: Spain is showings its 'only one with a score higher than us' standing with lots of boats heading who knows where on our south coast.
1645 AD: Since I lowered our Lux, I switched out the mil academy with Constitution, and am building academy at slower rate.
Switched to scientists which are more efficient (demo in 15) but this puts us at (more) negative gold I think we will get some back before we run out. I will also sell older techs for gold if I have the chance. We actually have more gold now than we did when I traded last turn. Turkey is clearly in the next era, but seem to be the only ones.
IBT: Our exploring ship is sunk by Spain. Knossus seems to be spain's target. It was the one near austria hungary on the northwest of the other continent.
1650 AD: We lost 2 Lux and some gpt. Can trade for the 2 lux and some of the gpt using older techs.
The loss in gpt is large enough that I think I need to switch back to gold so we don't run out so fast -43 gpt out of 1494 and Demo in 25.
East India completed. Spanish and Turks switch to Arms Race.
1655 AD: Balance gold and science. I think Spain will land soon. Several civs are now in the next era.
IBT: And I am proved wrong as the 2 Spanish ships pass each other going in opposite directions. We get Constitution.
1660 AD: Keep moving units to handle Spanish landing. Now I don't know where though.
We can run at 100 gpt deficit and still not run out before India deal ends. I do this and democracy is in 12.
IBT: One of the Spanish ships does land between Thunder Bay and Piraeus dropping a Musketeer and Pike.
1665 AD: The units are on a hill so I don't attack. I cover our nearby saltpeter.
IBT: Another landing the units come off the hill. Built a town to solidify our border.
1670 AD: I kill one of the two units, but the other I would be attacked which I don't want.
IBT: Babylon declares war on Spain. Thats nice of them!
1675 AD: I carefully kill the Spanish units which are now off the hills. The most risky attack is a str 6 vet hussar vs a reg str defender. We win them all hopefully preserving our war happiness. Spain will now trade for peace straight up.
Japan exposes its first weak unit this turn which we kill with a missionary for no prize.
IBT: No landings
1680 AD: Built Buffalo. We got a Monk as another longbow is exposed
IBT: I want to keep the deal with England for incense, however our gpt isn't valuable since I am running negative. I don't wan t the deal to vanish so I pay with gold. We are now a lot shorter on cash, but I believe we can handle it.
Spain is building blue Riband.
1685 AD: We used the new Monk on the new town on the border. This should allow us to attack a new Japanese city on the first turn. I start the road to get there. Germany just picked up Democracy.This is great because we now can trade Naval Guns for Democracy since we have researched it sufficiently to bring down the price. The other civ was 'doubtful' probably due to naval gun research??
Notes:
Well I did not switch to republic, but I pushed hard on advancing tech. By normal play we would still be waiting for the deal to end with India to trade for any tech. Naval guns was very pricey - 330 gpt + a few hundred. So I brought down the amount we were spending on units by a good bit (by the heretical action of disbandment). The Vet Knights got pruned as well as ancient cavalry and such. I did keep garrison's intact so we still have older units for that.
Note that we are still equal in strength with Japan so we really aren't weaker.
So it was an exchange - we have gotten Naval Guns, Enlightenment, and Democracy, but won't be able to attack right away - I don't think. We currently have 2 cities making Cavalry to replace the knights, and are still running negative 37 gpt from the naval gun deal. In 9 turns we get the 270 minus 135 back and then 330 gpt minus 56?? in back trades (it was mostly the 1225 gold that we got so gpt was small).
I also took a big advantage of the Spanish war and the extra happiness as that made getting Democracy possible.
I just prefer warfare with rails as I find it more enjoyable. We are close so I prefer a tech drive to rails over a slug-fest through Japan with limited mobility for my turn.
So I would like to continue to push science in the hopes we can trade our next era tech for some real gains. I think this is still possible. We are limited to 70% science and income, so 70 gold, 20 science to reduce the price of the next tech, and 10% lux to keep the cities happy seems pretty good for now. We actually are positive happy in cities to handle the loss when the Spanish war happiness goes (we may also need to go to 20% lux). Later at some point we can raise science as our research is pretty strong now. We have the banks, happiness buildings to keep science at 70% and 150% bonus from the 3 science buildings in most towns.
Wonders:
I didn't build all the small wonders. US Cavalry the small wonder, and military academy will be in 3 and 4 turns resp. We did get constitution already for the lower lux rate.
Lets build the statue of Liberty in Hovd!!. This would be a huge win as Hovd has no less than 11 coastal squares which will each get +1 food, sheild and trade . Its really rare to have that many coastal squares as it requires a corner of land with 2 square wide harbor next to it. It put the town on that task, but it takes 70 turns so I think the first leader should be used here. If there is agreement on that then we can put Hovd, on a market now and rush the other when we get said leader.
The battlefield med, national exchange, Marine Academy, and 2nd palace are the others.
One other comment. It is confusing that the US Cavalry wonder appears to have the same name as the normal cavalry. I would give the wonder a slightly different name. Not coming up with a good one though.
I like to include a picture so here is Houston the place I used the Monk. We need a road and a garrison on the closest square to Matsuyama.