LK135 - Dutch, monarchy, Hemispheres map

[yena]

I did read your post about forest reserves, but when I got in the the early-rush mode it slipped my mind. Sorry about that, but I still think we needed to chop a bit to get troops for the Zulu attack in reasonable time. In this case short-term needs conflicted with long-term planning.

I agree that we may need Construction more than CoL, depending on how well defended Shaka's cities are.

Edit: the problem is that we only have three cities, and Utrecht is pretty useless as a production city (since we want to work both gold mines and need to keep population in the flood-plains to do so). At least until the Zulus are dead we need hammers more than science and specialists in the remaining two.

 

[njorls]

The national park can be put on the northernmost coast. There's copper, fish, and 9 forest tiles there.

We have an opportunity now, we have metal and Shaka doesn't. The plan is to exploit this the best we can, prevent him from hooking up metal. We can raze a city or 2 and pillage all his tiles and come back with cats if his defenses are too strong.

I think scouting Shaka out would be worthwhile. A quick open borders, poke around with the chariot and see what we're up against. We have a few turns until the rest of our stack gets in range. Closing borders/declaring with a chariot in Zululand should pop him safely to the north.

 

[Meiz]

So do we want to raze Shaka's cities if that's possible or should any of them be kept?

 

[Tatran]

@yena
I can understand the chopping part, but why building mines too in 's-Gravenhage?

Because we've researched Calendar, our cities should grow. So, improving those
Calendar resources have the highest priority. More tiles will be worked and bringing
in more commerce.

@njorls
Yes, that's an option too.
My main point is the purpose of each city.
Amsterdam + Utrecht are heavy commerce cities, but what will 's-Gravenhage be?
The first goal, claiming iron, has been achieved.

I like large cities.
With dyes + silk + spices on line another 3 happy faces.
With theatres (dyes) + marketplaces (silk) + forges (gold), another 3 happy faces.
A colosseum + Hereditery Rule gives another 2 (or more) happy faces.
So, we need a lot of workers for all those tiles.

What to do with the Zulu cities?
My first impression, raze everything but Ulundi.
The Zulu capital looks food heavy, good for the Globe Theatre.

It's fine by me to declare now and lure those Zulu units out of their cities.
Capturing cities can be done later.

 

[LKendter]

I haven't see enough detail on the Zulu cities to comment on razing. The only clear one to keep is the capitol, as I rarely see a capitol without some food.
There are no wonders to influence the keep / raze decision.

 

[Tatran]

I haven't see enough detail on the Zulu cities to comment on razing.

I'm almost sure 2 Zulu cities are founded on grassland hills.
Well, we've supply costs for our army at the moment.
How long do we want to continue this without declaring war?

 

[Meiz]

Researched Construction for catapults. I don't think we have enough troops to take Shaka completely down with his 50% cultural defenses and cities on hills.

Shaka built Oracle. Great Lighthouse and Pyramids were built far away.

Amsterdam and s-Gravenhage both built libraries. Two scientists are hired in s-Gravenhage. Utrecht is building a settler which should be settled in place that can obtain silk. I set some workers to build plantation for third Dye near our capital. My reasoning is that our next city could take use of that.

I'm not sure if Currency will do any good for us yet. Still, there are some breakers already invested in it. Maybe we should research Metal Casting first?

Razed two of Shaka's cities. For other two, we have to wait for catapults.

 

[Tatran]

That's a nice progress.
I also see another resource I was hoping for, whales.
This will give us another happy face (+1 extra with a marketplace).

Ulundi has built the Oracle.
There's a good chance we'll pop-up a Great Prophet in the future,
so going after a religion is an option.
I guess events are on, so let's keep some spare money.

 

[Tatran]

We'll get a Great Scientist in 23 turns, almost the same amount of turns
to research Currency + Code of Laws + Mysticism + Meditation.
The GS can lightbulb Philosophy.
We need those techs anyway to get Monarchy.
What does the team think?

 

[Meiz]

Sound plan, Philosophy slingshot can't never go wrong

 

[LKendter]

I agree with the Philosophy plan.

 

[Tatran]

Utrecht is building a settler which should be settled in place that can obtain silk. I set some workers to build plantation for third Dye near our capital. My reasoning is that our next city could take use of that.

I don't see much options for this commerce city.
1) settle on the river spices
This has no food resource, but has dyes, a second spices + 2 silk sources.
2) settle 1W of the river spices
The city can't built a dike (no fresh water), but has 2 spices, 1 corn, dyes +
2 silk.
In both cases there are 4 or 5 overlapping tiles + some dead tiles.

 

[Meiz]

I don't see much options for this commerce city.
1) settle on the river spices
This has no food resource, but has dyes, a second spices + 2 silk sources.
2) settle 1W of the river spices
The city can't built a dike (no fresh water), but has 2 spices, 1 corn, dyes +
2 silk.
In both cases there are 4 or 5 overlapping tiles + some dead tiles.

I'm not sure what I was thinking I ment Yena's original red dot shown below. Very nice commerce city.



Wonder if this spot makes placement of silk city too complicated...?

 

[Tatran]

Yellow dot is unacceptable, because it makes another coastal city in the west impossible.
The eastern red dot is also unacceptable, because it isn't coastal.

Here are my suggestions for future cities :

 

[njorls]

I like red dot in Yena's dotmap. 2 mines, farm the rice, plantation the 4 tiles and the rest cottages. 16 riverside tiles for a dike. Good spot for Oxford or maybe Wall St.

Pink dot should move to the coast.

Tatran's west coast citites look good.

 

[Tatran]

With so much land, maybe we should only settle the best spots and cover
the rest of our continent with culture.

@njorls
You're up, so you make a decision.

 

[LKendter]

New Updates
I checked, and Shaka hasn't settled any islands.
With 5 food tiles Ulundi is a keeper. I forget who said it, but I agree that this city already looks like our location for GT.
I am open for suggestion on Nobamba. IMHO it is at 55 to 45 to keep, but that certainly isn't a strong endorsement.

My vote for the settler is Tatran's on the spice city. The push for calendar so early was due to three calendar resources nearby. Lets get the third one on-line.

Roster
LKendter
Yena
Meiz
Njorls (currently playing)
Tatran (on deck)

Remember 15 peace / 10 war turns per round. STRICT 24 hours got it, total 48 hours to complete.

Win target: open

Planned wars - eliminate the Zulu as soon as we have enough troops.

 

[njorls]

I'm going to need a skip, sorry.

 

[Tatran]

I am open for suggestion on Nobamba. IMHO it is at 55 to 45 to keep, but that certainly isn't a strong endorsement.

We don't have the clam resource, so a city on that island is required.

I've seen already 14 seafood resources and there are maybe more, it's early,
but Sid's Sushi looks very promising.

 

[LKendter]

I'm going to need a skip, sorry.

Roster
LKendter (on deck)
Yena
Meiz
Njorls
Tatran (currently playing)

Remember 15 peace / 10 war turns per round. STRICT 24 hours got it, total 48 hours to complete.

Win target: open

Planned wars - eliminate the Zulu as soon as we have enough troops.