Observations on 1553AD

[DaveShack]

Boaring Wallow is building a courthouse, which will give us 1 gpt. A grocer would give us a lot more benefit now that we have guilds.

Auda City only has 1 garrison and has two unhappy. We're in hereditary rule, so we should add garrison units until the city is balanced for happieness.

Abydos has a couple of wooded hills which could be mined to increase the hammer potential. There are a couple of unimproved grass tiles which can be irrigated to balance the food and allow the higher hammer tiles to be worked.

Micalian's Gate should become a high commerce city, working all those lovely 3g water tiles. It's OK to be off commerce doing production once in a while.

Old Sarai is stagnant at only 6 population. We can irrigate a river jungle and then mine and work two wooded hills.

We're still next to last in power and dead last in GNP. The above city improvements will help the GNP (more citizens working -> more GNP) and we're building units which will help power somewhat.

The danger is still renewed hostilities. Being so far behind in power, we have only our better strategy and ability to coordinate units to save us if Bismark comes knocking.

 

[dutchfire]

more observations

put science slider at 50%, banking will be finished in 9 turns.
Make open borders with Mansa, Saladin and Alex.
Trade Engineering+50 gold from Sally with our Theology, Philosophy and Civil Service
Trade Music+World Map+30gold from Mansa for our guilds.

 

[robboo]

IF we upgrade some older units it will boost power also. Do we have a better civic option than hereditary rule.

 

[donsig]

There are also several units that can be promoted. Are we holding off on these for some reason?

In the absence of orders I had to spool up something. Forgot this is not like Civ III where we can switch builds and transfer the sheilds we've already invested. For the cities we did have orders for there are builds spooled up beyond the current project which is a very good practice. Thank you, Mr. Governor!

 

[Oldbus]

There are also several units that can be promoted. Are we holding off on these for some reason?

When I was SoW I held off because it was not clear what we needed. I think we should hold off now. If in 30 turns or so we decide to attack Germany then we would pick one set of promotions. However, if Germany decide to invade again, we would pick a different set of promotions.

There doesn't need to be any hurry about this - the TC would be stopped if anyone declared war so we would have time to decide what we want. Let's not waste them.

 

[Oldbus]

Thread for State of Confusion here


Science Rate

I agree with Dutch that we should set the Science rate at 50%. When I looked at the CoL I was surprised to find it is the Citizens' responsibility to decide what the rate is (I think in the past the Pres had to take emergency measures because our economy was so bad ). I've started a Citizen's Initiative poll here.

One thing to bear in mind is that the Courthouse in Fort Impervious will finish in 1 turn which will give us 6 per turn extra.


Military Units

I may be falling into the trap of all Governors, but after the current units finish building in Confusion, I'd like to only build 2 military units in the state until Old Sarai completes its Granary (in only 7 turns, so it's not too bad). Then I'll be back at 3 units constantly building across the state.


Trades

I think it is very important that we get the most from the new trading situation. It appears that resources are clustered by continent and we may be able to get some more happiness and health by trading our extra resources for new ones.

I've done a quick check with the new Civs we've met and none seem to have resources available for trade (even though you can see them on the map). Is there something we need to do to get this to happen?

In Confusion we are in need of both Happiness (fur, ivory, silk or whale) and Health (banana, spices, sugar or dye) resources.


New Worker

In New Port City I've nearly reached the current pop limit based on food and happiness. I was thinking of stagnating growth for a while (until we get Happiness resources). I could work a Science specialist or I could build a worker.

I think there is a lot to do for our workers at the moment and we could make good use of another one. What do people think?


Workers in State of Confusion

I promised Sweetacshon that I would try and prioritise worker requirements in Confusion. Here goes:

CURRENT
Finish farm 2S of Old Sarai
Finish farm 1NE of Fort Impervious
Worker chopping jungle 1N2E of Const Falls is wasting its time: join worker Kilo 1SW of city

HIGH
Chop jungle and build mine 1N of Old Sarai
Build road to corn 2NE of Toot Uncommon
Build farm 1SW of Const Falls
Replace farm 1S of Const Falls with a cottage

MEDIUM
Chop 1 tile of forest next to New Port City to provide production boost

LOW
Chop jungle and build mine 1SE of Old Sarai
Build cottage 1SE of Basillica

 

[DaveShack]

This is great, just the kind of discussion I was hoping to get started. Thanks go to all participants, lurkers please contribute so we can recover this game!

I've done a quick check with the new Civs we've met and none seem to have resources available for trade (even though you can see them on the map). Is there something we need to do to get this to happen?

There is a tech required for trade on ocean, but I don't remember what it is. We may even already have it. They also must have a connected (to the capitol) coastal city and either their map shows one of our coastal cities or our map shows theirs. If that hasn't happened, send our caravels around the other continents to get connected.

We should also consider map trades with the off-continent civs, since that might get connectivity faster.

 

[robboo]

promotions...alwasy hold them till a fight. Custom built units promotions do NOT affect power numbers.

be careful trading maps until we can get around the world. You may help someone else.

OLD BUS... As SOW I only asked for 2 of 3 builds to be units. Feel free to switch off as you see fit or until we have too many units. We need healthy, happy, productive cities.

 

[DaveShack]

be careful trading maps until we can get around the world. You may help someone else.

We've already circumnavigated and got the +1 movement on ships.

 

[RegentMan]

There is a tech required for trade on ocean, but I don't remember what it is. We may even already have it.

We unfortunately don't. The technology is astronomy.

 

[robboo]

We've already circumnavigated and got the +1 movement on ships.

I need to read the TC info better.

I have been up to my eyeballs in stuff since i am selling one house and buying another and moving to another state and getting a job and gettign things in order to go back to grad school. I shouldnt have taken an office...but you guys needed bodies.

I forgot this earlier....The courthouse in BW saves us 1gpt BUT it also provides a quick courthouse so we can build the Forbidden palace. So in a way it helsp a less productive city by allowing that city to build something else instead of a courthouse. Hard to judge whats better courthouse in BW or courthouse elsewhere..just depends on how close we are to the Forbidden palace.

 

[dutchfire]

Regentman,
About the techs, we have to chose between:
printing press (extra from towns and villages, but how many of those do we have???),
banking (banks + mercantilism),
astronomy (trades with all those other civs could benefit us a lot (religion, money, happiness).
more usefull choices?

 

[RegentMan]

Regentman,
About the techs, we have to chose between:
printing press (extra from towns and villages, but how many of those do we have???),
banking (banks + mercantilism),
astronomy (trades with all those other civs could benefit us a lot (religion, money, happiness).
more usefull choices?

Printing press would also be a good choice. We have eighteen villiages and towns right now, so that's an extra 18 . However, free market's extra trade route per city would give us a reasonable chunk too. Plus, with Bismarck founding Islam, and no other religion's present on our continent, we'll have Islam spreading like wild fire through our lands.

And I can't believe no one has changed our details yet. It still says we're the Egyptian Empire!

 

[Oldbus]

If we set the science rate at 50% for a while, then we don't need to get Astronomy immediately. However, if we don't trade for resources soon we won't be able to grow our cities.

However, once we finish Banking (in 9 turns hopefully), then maybe go for it. The more we can grow the cities, the more Printing Press etc can help us.

 

[dutchfire]

one thing about astronomy though, I don't know how much the AI will prioritize it, but there's a decent chance some ai on the other continent will get it first, and to us, it doesn't matter who gets it to get the traderoutes.

2nd thing: astronomy has less use if we adopt mercantilism (or if the others do that).