I am not too experienced how fast the AI will research alphabet themselves. With that many AIs the risk might be quite big that we lose our trading position sooner than later.
Oh absolutely. There's no surefire way to proceed. It's just a question of trying maximise tech exchanges. On that subject some of the trades didn't look that generous.
Maybe Dagnabit could post a save, so we can have a look at it.
We probably need to be building swords rather than axes now, as swordsmen are *much* stronger at capturing cities. A spear or two wouldn't go amiss at some point too in case we encounter enemy chariots/horse archers, though I suspect that's unlikely in Alex's case or we'd have already seen them.
Had planned on using the galley to check out Alex's other city but with only the two and one being pretty much tied to coppertownski I was a little leary of getting it too far from Moscow which needs to produce a few troops in my opinion if we are going to be timely. I think we will need at least 6 axe/swords to topple Alex's first city which is on a Hill. One of the archers is +70% which must have come at the expense of our earlier chariot.I must admit I tend to find axes a better all round unit than swords however I've no objection to building swords although they take one more turn IIRC.
@Dagnabit - it would be helpful if we could move a galley to scout out Alex's land to the north.
Cottage it is and more swords on the agenda.We probably need to be building swords rather than axes now, as swordsmen are *much* stronger at capturing cities. A spear or two wouldn't go amiss at some point too in case we encounter enemy chariots/horse archers, though I suspect that's unlikely in Alex's case or we'd have already seen them.
St. P is growing nicely now we have the gems - size 6 already
Does New Novgorod want to be working its cottage rather than the forest? It's building a library but getting the cottage to grow will have a bigger impact on science than having a faster library at this stage.
Will start the closest boat scouting Alex East. But think we need another galley build. If we take Alex we will then be bordering Mao and he has already shown us is galleys.@Dagnabit - it would be helpful if we could move a galley to scout out Alex's land to the north.
I am leaning to this approach. Anymore discussion? I will try and finish my turns in about an hour and get the save posted shortly thereafter.I'm not sure what to do with the tech trades...I don't generally give away Alphabet, but we WANT the AI to research fast, that generally means trading away anything and everything we get as fast as possible for anything we can get for it. The fastest space race/diplo games in the GOTM seem to take that approach, sometimes even giving the techs away for under 100gold, just to get an AI to have it.
Also, it is still early enough to get rid of a negative for trading with enemies, so I don't think it'd be a problem to trade with Julius and/or Vicky. We definitely want Mathematics, Masonry, and Agriculture...the religious techs would be nice, but we don't have to have them...archery would be good because we don't want to get to feudalism and find we can't build longbows cause we don't have archery!
So...my preference would be to trade IW and alphabet with gandhi if we can get everything from him taht way(do it in separate trades, AIs don't up their offers enough when you do two techs), otherwise trade with Julius to get the rest of what we need, as we are more fearful of him right now.
I'm not sure what to do with the tech trades...I don't generally give away Alphabet, but we WANT the AI to research fast, that generally means trading away anything and everything we get as fast as possible for anything we can get for it. The fastest space race/diplo games in the GOTM seem to take that approach, sometimes even giving the techs away for under 100gold, just to get an AI to have it.
I must admit I tend to find axes a better all round unit than swords however I've no objection to building swords although they take one more turn IIRC.