Culture build item
When you build Culture, the game converts Hammers into Culture.
If your City's Cultural Borders expand at the end of a turn when you are building Culture, the Culture build item gets removed from the build queue, to conveniently remind you that your Cultural Borders have expanded and letting you know that you probably now want to build something else
Someone discovered that if you have a build item in the build queue after the Culture build item, that build item appears at the top of the build queue when the Culture build item disappears. In addition, that build item gets all of the Hammers that went into the Culture build item
So, we get out Hammers going into both Culture and the build item that we place in the build queue after the Culture build item
If you fail to put a second build item in the build queue after the Culture build item, then you don't earn the extra Hammers
Amphibious invasion of the huns?
We can't do that. It takes 5 turns to Chop a Tundra Forest (1 turn to move there and 4 turns to Chop). A Size 6 City will be in City Revolt for 5 turns (confirmed via the World Builder with a mighty Lion).
What we need are 3 Workers: 1 for Stone and 2 for Hun
With Galleons 5 and 4 working together, we might just be able to make it on time to get our 2 Forest Chops at Hun as soon as the City comes out of City Revolt, with help from the Worker inside of Hun. If the Forest Chops come any later, we will be unable to risk getting a Settler out of Hun before Liberating the City to Mao
Hastings:
drop two more catapults next to Hastings. 147
I'm going to assume that you mean Coventry and not Hastings.
London:
drop Horatio and pick up WE,
We're going to have to be tricky here, as Galleon 4 will also be needed for transporting 3 Workers, so we'll have to pick up and trade off the War Elephant
drop 5 catapults next to london, 148
There's no reason that we need to wait until T148 to do what we can do on T147.
Plan involves leaving Nottingham empty on turn 146
I'm not sure why we would need to take this risk. If Elizabeth sends her Mace S + SE to the GH Mine Road that is 2NE of Nottingham, what will we do? We'll cry.
Having to recapture Nottingham would be a royal pain in the butt. Plus, then Elizabeth would be encouraged to build another City Defender in London due to having moved her Maceman away, which then defeats the purpose of using 1 more attacking unit as it means that she'll get 1 more unit of her own while probably also capturing Notthingham, which will not be convenient to retake... before we can stop her, she could whip a couple of Longbowmen in the City.
Please don't take this risk.
and Hastings empty on turn 148.
Again, there shouldn't be a need to do so. With the massive reshuffling of units on the Galleons in this City, though, we'll be leaving 2 War Elephants in the City, WE 5 and WE 6. WE 6 can stay in the City to heal. WE 5 will be able to join in the assault on Coventry as follows:
T147 WE 5 moves SE, S from Hastings to end up 1NW of Canterbury
T148 WE 5 and probably Longbowman 1 (in Canterbury) move to the GH Iron that is 1SW of Coventry, blocking the only Road out of Coventry
T149 They help in the attack on Coventry, if needed, or the War Elephant kills a Horse Archer who moved 2W or W, SW out of Coventry, while Subutai kills a Horse Archer who moved W, NW out of Coventry
Should be fine as Elizabeth no longer has any HAs.
Elizabeth has access to Horse and thus could build a Horse Archer at any time.
What is the plan for Warwick?
We don't want to put any Culture into the City, otherwise, we might miss out on +2 Diplo credit with Elizbath for the City not being Liberateable. A Size 2 City will be in City Revolt for 3 turns. Ideally, we'll remain at war with Elizabeth until we're ready to Cease Fire with her, so as to encourage Mansa to stay at war with Elizabeth.
If Mansa stops the war with Elizabeth, he'll likely go back to being Pleased toward her due to no longer being in a Heathen Religion, so we don't want to take that risk. If that situation occurs (Mansa making Peace with Elizabeth), we'll have to bribe Mansa into a Civic other than Free Religion (Organized Religion would not be a good choice as we don't want him further spamming Hinduism), so we'd need to be in Pacifism ourselves.
Thus, for fear of Mansa messing things up, we shouldn't capture Warwick until the turn where we are ready to Cease Fire with Elizabeth. That turn will be on the turn after we've captured Elizabeth's land Hindu City (her last 2 Hindu Cities are Coventry and London). But, if Mansa is Pleased toward Elizabeth due to ending the war with her, then we'll delay the capture of Warwick even further until we have gotten Mansa into Taoist Pacifism and can then afford to Cease Fire with Elizabeth, Liberate her Cities, and immediately redeclare war on her to recapture the empty Cities.
The biggest problem that I see with this approach is Elizabeth getting a City Defender... how will we kill it? Her City is at Size 2, so she can whip a defender at any time. Our Galleons are all pretty busy and we've emptied the nearby area of Military Units. So, when's the earliest, in the best case, that we can capture Warwick? Assuming that we can capture London on T149, then wait until T150 to perform the Cease Firing, then we'd have 3 turns prior at the earliest in the best case that we can capture Warwick. That would be next turn, T147. So, I suppose that we can be prepared to potentially capture the City starting next turn if she whips a defender (she can't whip a Longbowman but could whip a Chariot or an Archer). If she makes a Chariot, no worries. If she makes an Archer, then we may have to attack and just hope that we can capture London by T149.
One alternative option is to leave Elizabeth with both Warwick and Queen's Palace on the turn after we captured the last of London and Coventry. Then, even if Warwick gets a City Defender, as long as we have a boat nearby (Willem Galleon, perhaps?), we can capture Queen's Palace once it has grown to Size 2. Queen's Palace should reach Size 2 on T151.
The important point is that we end one of our turns where Elizabeth owns 0 Hindu Cities, and Hinduism can't auto-spread, so it's fine if she still has both Warwick and Queen's Palace at that time and we can then decide which City to capture (although we cannot capture Queen's Palace until T151 at the earliest, and not until T152 if she goes into Anarchy again, say, due to switching to Confucianism as her State Religion).
Finish NE in Utrecht. Then harbour for whip chain, (34 hammers).
Have the build queue show the following on T146: Culture build item -> National Epic build item
I thought that we discussed the build items in Utrecht and it was shown conclusively that a Harbour is not in any way justifiable. How do we work 2 Deer, 3 Mines, and hire 5 Specialists if we're whipping there?
If we also worked 4 Farms/Watermills, we would be losing 2 Food per turn.
That's a Size 14 City. It's not feasible for us to grow to Size 14, but I think that the point is clearly illustrated that it's not a place to Whip Buildings.
The only reason why we've chosen to Whip the Odeon is because we cannot grow the City to Size 14, so the City will have to hire only an Engineer while working the Mines and growing, then whipping the Odeon to complete The Taj Mahal, then switching the Mines to Artists, completing a Theatre afterward manually so that we can hire another 2 Specialists.
It is arguable that maybe we shouldn't even whip the Odeon.
If we want a build item to build in which to "park Hammers" after completing the National Epic, it could be a partial Theatre while we focus on City growth and hiring 1 Engineer.
If we WERE going to whip another Build item, it would be a Hindu Temple, not a Harbour, as at least a Hindu Temple would contribute base Hammers to The Taj Mahal, but we lack the population points to whip another build item and we don't want to slow-build a build item because we want to be massively growing this City
As for the Watermills at Utrecht, we'll want them:
1SE of Utrecht
2S of Utrecht
SE + S of Utrecht (must be built after the Watermill that is 2S of Utrecht)
1E of Utrecht (yes, over top of the Hamlet)
I'd complete the Farm at 1S of Utrecht before working on the Watermills, though, since we need to grow the City and the Farm can be completed reasonably quickly
The Hague could continue with missionaries, perhaps 2 pop whiping one in 2 turns.
Why would we want to whip a Missionary? There are several nice squares to grow into, such as Grassland Workshops, which are stronger than Whipping.
Consider: GH Mine = about equal to whipping, and it provides 1 F + 3 H
A Workshop at the start of our Golden Age = 2 F + 3 H
We definitely don't want to be whipping in The Hague as we get more Hammers by growing the City and working more Grassland Workshops
Other than Piscatorium, we don't want to spread Hinduism in any more of our own Cities, otherwise we risk being unable to win by AP Victory.
We eventually want to get Hinduism into Marble City and Stone City, but what's the rush? Our Galleons are all pretty busy right now.
I would like a drywhip of a catapult/maceman in york. There is no other way top prevent the loss of our people.
Anything above Size 1 is not really "our people" to begin with.
But, let's say that we want a Maceman instead of a Catapult (that's a good idea).
We either get:
75 Hammers from 3-pop-dry-whipping
bringing us down to Size 3
Or, we get 17 Culture and 17 Hammers
We shrink 1 population point
We then get 75 Hammers from 2-pop-regular-whipping
bringing us down to Size 3
So, which would you rather have?
75 Hammers
OR
17 + 75 = 88 Hammers plus 17 Culture?
I think that there's a clear case against dry-whipping.
The extra Culture also gives Nottingham more squares to work once London falls and Nottingham comes out of City Revolt
We don't want to put too much of our Culture in Elizabeth's Cities that didn't have a lot of Culture in them, but York had a ton of Culture in it, so there's no fear of putting too much Culture into York
As for the units in Hastings:
We want one Galley to be dedicated to use at Coventry, which shouldn't be Galleon 7. So, Galleon 7 should not be the Galleon with the full-health Catapults on it and thus we're going to have to do some shuffling of units in the City
Galleon 7 should be dropping off Cats 1E of London and then rejoining the boat-killing action
Galleon 6 should be be used for dropping off 1 Cat 1E of London and then holding War Elephants to be dropped off later
Galleon 8 should get 3 Cats (2 of the ones from Galleon 7 plus Cat 20) for use at Coventry
The City Raider III Cats should go to London, since we may actually have turns to heal them there, whereas we won't have turns for healing Cats at Coventry
Happiness:
We currently have these Happiness Resources:
Dye, Gems, Ivory, Spice, Sugar, Wine, and Whale
Well, 2 of those Resources, Ivory and Whale, will become obsolete
If Mao ever gets Silver connected, we could get one in trade from him, but it probably won't be until we get him 2 Settlers that he'll connect one up
The only way to get Gold is if we pop it, Toku pops a 2nd one, or Mansa pops a second one
At least we'll get Incense from Stone City, so that'll help
Louis has 2 unconnected Silk Resources, so we'll have to keep an eye out for him to get those connected so that we can get one of them in trade
We also are giving away all of our Fur Resources, which is an opportunity for us to get +1 Happiness now by taking a Fur back from Mao and giving him a Corn in return
Suggested PPP
T146, 720 AD
Sell Theology to Mao and pray that he finally picks Gunpowder
Demand Gold Tribute from Shaka
Cancel this trade:
Wine from Mao <-> Fur
Trade:
Wine from Mao <-> Corn
Liberate All Hail Astro! to Mansa
Mace 1 stays inside of Nottingham
In Hastings:
Galleon 7 unloads all 3 of these units:
WE 3
Cat 16
Cat 19
Galleon 6 unloads these 2 units:
Cat 17
Cat 21
Galleon 8 unloads all 3 of these units:
WE 2
Cat 8
WE 6
These units load onto Galleon 7 (they will be dropped off 1E of London so that this Galleon can continue fighting Elizabeth's boats):
Cat 17
Cat 21
Cat 8
These units load onto Galleon 6 (the Cat will be dropped off 1E of London, while the WEs will stay on board):
WE 3
WE 2
(Cat 5 is still on board)
These units load onto Galleon 8 (they will be dropped off 1NW of Coventry and then the boat can be free to pick up other units for Coventry, if we so desire):
Cat 16
Cat 19
Cat 20
Wake up Galleon 6 (in Hastings) and move him 1NW
Wake up Galleon 8 (in Hastings) and move him 1NW
Galleon 4 moves 3N (2W of London)... not N, N, NE as there is a Trireme there
WE 8 (1SW of London) promotes to Combat I
WE 1 (1SW of London) boards Galleon 4
Galleon 5 (near Hun) unloads HA 1 and WE 9 1NW on the T For that is SE + E of Hun
Wake Spear 6 in The Hague and move him toward Warwick... the soonest that we should capture Warwick is on T147, assuming that we can capture London on T149
Spy 3 (2N of Canterbury): We don't need her visibility, so we might as move her to sit inside of Hastings
Gems: Switch Windmill to SW + W G Farm to grow 1 turn faster
Surfin' Turf: Switch 1 GH Mine and the Engineer to 2 G Riv Farms to grown 1 turn
EDIT: Hippos: Switch Fur to Coast to earn 10 final Hammers in the Forge
Utrecht: GH Mine -> SW + W Deer
Utrecht: Queue up Culture then National Epic
Canterbury: Coast -> Corn for 1 turn for the extra Hammer
Canterbury: Build Spearman, which we can whip after 3 turns
York: Build queue should show Culture then Maceman
York: Spy Specialist -> Engineer Specialist
T147, 740 AD
Galleon 6 tries to end up 1N of London to meet up with Galleon 4, but will meet up with Galleon 4 at 1NE of London or NE + E of London if Elizabeth's Triremes are blocking those squares
Galleon 4 joins Galleon 6, preferably 1N of London, next best 1NE of London, next best NE + E of London
Galleon 4 manually only unloads Horatio 1E of London (don't click against the shore as we don't want to unload WE 1 onto the shore)
Galleon 6 unloads Cat 5 at 1E of London
WE 1 transfers from Galleon 4 to Galleon 6
Galleon 6 should now have 3 WEs on board and Galleon 4 should be empty
Galleon 4 moves to pick up 3 Workers from 1SW of London
Galleon 4 then moves north-westward so that it makes its way both toward Galleon 5 and Stone City with every move
Galleon 7 unloads its 3 Cats at 1E of London and plans to rejoin the fighting alongside of the QE Galleon
Galleon 8 unloads its 3 Cats 1NW of Coventry
Galleon 5 (near Hun) moves 1SE and then heads south-westward, with the plan of meeting up with Galleon 4 to take 2 of Galleon 4's 3 Workers
WE 5 (in Hastings) can move SE, S (to 1NW of Canterbury)
WE 6 can stay in Hastings to heal and guard the City in case Elizabeth builds Horse Archers in London
EDIT: Hippos: Switch GH Mine to Coast to earn 7 final Hammers in the Forge
EDIT: Utretch: Build Theatre but focus on City growth while hiring 1 Engineer Specialist
The Hague: I'm fine if we keep building another Hindu Missionary for now, in case the Piscatorium one fails to spread, but after that we may want to build a Mace for the war with Shaka
Canterbury: Corn -> Fish
York: 2-pop-whip the Maceman