[BTS] A very late ALC attempt - IV. Mehmed

[Choeimok]

Spoiler Turn 128 / 325 AD :

Now, this is how I believe the map to look right now...

Ragnar has to be near the Eastern border, so its actually a fairly narrow map. Lots of walkable space north of Edirne though. SB doesn't have "our close borders spark tensions" with anyone, but I still estimate him to be behind Joao and Giggles, no idea how exactly the land there is distributed. What's certainly notable if this estimation is correct (although there should be more space further up north than it shows) is the giant free space which essentially only Ragnar, Zara and me can access. Joao seems to be squeezed into his corner, building up a military and teching up. Gilgamesh's core land still sucks even after he ruined 2 decent sites for me - only Kish (Eastern-central) is worth anything. He also looks bigger on this map than in the game.
Zara has been busy building every single wonder anyone has built so far, his greatest advantage is TGW. Once he does start expanding, there is lots of open space to him.

It could be that I misinterpret SB's position, but if he is Northeast, then how did he not meet Frederick in the dead center of the map for so long? He also expanded fast early on but hasn't settled in a while.

I want to know more about Ragnar - despite him being small and average in tech, he and Zara are looking like the key AIs here. I don't care about the Southwestern trio nearly as much.

Despite me constantly claiming that his land is bad, Gilgamesh continues to be a surpreme pain with his CRE trait and relative city spam. Hamburg is out of revolt next turn if he wants to hug it. He may also settle the Stone site he ruined earlier, which would be plain annoying.

I kind of have an interest in getting a visibility chariot or two out here, but Gilga is so pesky... I kind of want the extra culture before he starts encroaching further and stealing more tiles.

This would be a fine diversion... unfortunately, I can't bribe him. Ragnar would also be bribeable, but not only would that seem pointless, he also won't accept.

I also did truck that Cow back from Bursa to Istanbul in order to grow to the new cap, whip also just wore off.

3 Archers here... but what a fine city. Guess I'll let it sit for a bit while there's no threat from AIs to take it and finish off Munich first to return here with greater strength. The one HA can stay in the area to observe the situation.

Gilgamesh is a douchebag. At risk of getting blocked off by Zara? Nah, I'd rather be annoying than actually secure my expansion...

Only one guy... but should still be a autoraze despite the culture? 4 or so more turns of waiting.
I derpily attacked his wandering Archer near Saxon, and withdrew. Both units near death. Hopefully Barbs won't mop my guy off now.
SB suddenly went from 4 to 6 cities within 2 or so turns.

Of course you would! Munich just built a second Archer. Still size 1.
But look at this border up there...

Finally. And 2 people started plotting today. In that regard, Gilgamesh not being on by border and having just converted to Zara's religion is... not that great of an omen.

Ragnar does have metal. I actually would love to have a small-scale war against him to take Uppsala off his hands and pillage the rest of his land, but with Gilga having the fist up as well, I'm not so confident. Building an Archer in Edirne, my Settler fiesta is getting delayed (and then there's SB's position. Just... how in hell did he meet Joao long before meeting Frederick?

I didn't see the little hut before, but he is working a 2 tile. Why won't you grow?

I did get this in Edirne... Zara has started to missionary spam. It's pretty likely to become the AP religion... I'll actually do it.

Might as well, at this point. I need Medi for both the route to Monarchy (note the AI constellation ) and, later, Philo, so...

Ragnar settles somewhere. Ethiopia... Yeah. He even has a shrine already!
Munich is still size 1. Just how? Did he whip that earlier secondary Archer?

I also notice Joao has Construction. At now 6 cities, he's not as squeezed in as I believed since Gilga has been ignoring his backyard and settling in my direction... Nobody would give me IW without giving up HR.

Not much news. Ragnar surprisingly weak.

Grrr... sure, now let's start asking for monopoly techs, too. Fine. Jerk.

He... was building a worker at size 1 all this time. Now grow please!

I'm at the point where I'm asking myself... is this really the best area I can settle? The land is slightly greener, but the only food is in a terrible position and the rivers are awkwardly-placed. SB in the NE, and that's a bit too far-flung anyway. I did end up settling this anyway.

On the bright side...

F.I.N.A.L.L.Y!

Thinking of it, I should have grabbed Priesthood before for the discount. SB did build Oracle a while back.

Barbs seem to be having a field day in this area...

Joao has started plotting... apparently already a few turns back, but was already pleased with me then. He likes Zara, is a map away from the other guys... it can only be Gilga.
I was actually considering to let him become Confu, but that seemed like a risky move. Confu SB would have been the one to go for, only realized it too late.

You and your demands... no. My Eastern flank is open as Swiss cheese right now.

3 ~80-percenters. Snakedown does actually appear to have the northern map border right outside of its third ring. The two southern HAs are both C3 and both survived with 0.2 HP. Good thing I took those promotions...
I want to prioritize Saxon before the two northwestern Plains barb cities, but first I'm going to need Workers up here.

All I wanted to do was to put a few beakers into Monarchy in order to trade Maths for it... No!

There. Did that really have to give -1 Diplo for me? Jerk.

Also time to get IW... the one near Hamburg is indeed my only Iron. Munich has one as well, but it's contested by SB's Moundville.

... I think this guy just got bribed for Monarchy. Which is good, because he was marching a 5 stack down to this place.
I'm also SB's worst enemy now because I refused to stop trading with his worst enemies and traded with his worst enemy... Typical AI.

 

[Choeimok]

Spoiler image limit :

Getting a bit sloppy with the micro here... I think I'll try to 3 pop whip this.

He has Swordsmen, so... just take the stupid money. I also decline a stop trading demand from Joao.

Building a mine on top of a mine... That's why he stole the site from me all along. Bursa does get the whip now.

Ragnar's stack. Now, it would be awkward if he was plotting against me all along, and is actually ignoring his Joao phony war.

Eventually came the time to actually cancel my free beef shipments to Portugal...

... I then proceeded to lose half of my army against this lousy barb city Ragnar had been feeding XP into.

On the bright side, I did eventually settle this place, Fishing from one turn at 40%...

... and this is when I finally reach my turnset goal of capturing both Munich and that barb city. I lost another well-promoted HA, now I have just two left. I realize Zara sneaked from 4 or 5 to 8 cities at some point.

Empire overview...

The south. My high-pop cities where I actually kind of care about buildings. I didn't adopt HR yet, which is kind of dumb, but this is why I've been building a temple, started it before the Incense trade, city was mad and it's a quick build. I know the forum hates them and buildings in general. But I don't want to be doing all-out war with size 4-6 cities every game.

The underdevelopped north. Libyan (let's just rename it Tripoli, those barb names always sound awkward) is promising to be the jewel of the Ottoman crown, although its production value is... slighly lacking. Culture will be an issue, and the Cottages will take a while to grow under the reign of the whip. I might want to build a new army in Edirne to at least take the two more northern barb cities.

Need more workers to deal with those more recent acquisitions, I only have 8. Guess I'll switch over Berlin after it grows next turn.

Tech situation isn't actually too bad. Gilga is sneaking towards Music, a path I kind of forgot about after intially maybe wanting the free GA (in both senses). Hopefully the war will push him to Feuda instead. In fact, I'm surprised Gilga is doing so well in tech, he's been in a stalled war (no cities changed hands yet, Joao gained one by settling) and has like 5 decent tiles in his realm.


I'm still not in HR, mid-game Anarchy is always an awkward subject to me. No major cap issue right now thanks to Hammams in my 5 actually big cities, I'm finally able to work a decent amount of tiles. Hoping to spend the middle ages by sitting back and teching to whatever will suit me for a renaissance war and put the game in the bag.
Besides Zara, SB actually does seem like someone who could turn this into a defeat - not at war, lot of units, I have a border... if only he were placed where I believed him to be.
Zara is the only other one not at war, and "would have nothing to gain" attacking him.

Certainly not the greatest of turnsets compared to the micro madness I somehow got into before, my very simple original plan to take over those two cities on Ragnar's border took a lot longer than expected... but this isn't a bad position, still. Most importantly, the turnset was fun even if the quality of play was probably completely unacceptable for higher difficulties (yadda yadda ).
While Gilgamesh did settle another annoying city more or less in Edirne's face as expected, it's not where I feared and my culture actually has closed down that kind of food-poor open space now, except in Ragnar's direction. Zara didn't take off in tech, Ragnar didn't declare on me and remains fairly small, my two eastern neighbors are at war... could certainly be going worse. In fact, SB might actually be the greatest concern at the moment.

 

[Choeimok]

Ok, so... it's been quite the long time, but I would like to finish this. If I remember correctly, this Great Plains map wasn't all that enticing, and I kind of got lost between over- and underanalyzing all the wrong things.
So, it's 325 AD and I see...

Spoiler Turn 139 / 580 AD :

I'll not put in quite as many pictures for the recapitulation.
I have 11 cities, some backfill spots available and a grand military of a whopping 2 Horse Archers left over from taking over Freddy, other than that just a bunch of Archers and Warriors. Economy averages out at around 40% research rate, but my maintenance in some more far-flung cities is awful, Tripoli in the far north is paying 11 ducats - but I'm building a Courthouse in Bursa which only is paying 4.78.

Western neighbor Joao is at war with mutual neighbor Giggles and Ragnar who's on the other side of my empire. AP has not been built but I'm part of a Jewish block with the other 2 top scorers Zara and Gilga. Noone else is plotting war, I have 9 workers, building a tenth in the capital and 2 cities running unimproved tiles. Berlin is building Wealth and I don't know why -it's one turn from growth so, so maybe I was planning to build a worker after that.

Tech-wise, I appear to be ahead, though everyone except Joao and Bull can and probably will research Feudalism - and I don't have Construction and am behind in power.

So, what I'm probably going to want to do is put all that land to good use, hope to catch the northern barb cities and go on a peace/economy episode.

The army remnant is currently in the southwestern ex-barb frontier city (still in revolt but should project control to backfill land between the main area and the vikings), which had a weird name so I just renamed it to Dulkadir. Plan: heal them up, get a proper defense unit in there, hopefully make it in time to punch those barbs. Teching CS, that seems alright. Philo might be an ok choice as well, though I might lose Taoism to Zara. Probably best to save up some money and then observe.

I pass one turn, take the lead in score and Joao converts, making the religious division quite clear. Then, however, Bull converts as well on the next turn.

Not much happens for a few turns, then Gaziantep is founded, just in case Ragnar might get any ideas. It's not exactly a great spot, but I guess it can build stuff at size 2 reasonably quickly. The temple in Edirne is for since it's at cap and I'd rather work more of those mines than whip.
I think I don't even need the Granary, Courthouse or culture building make more sense - I'll go monument first to hopefully discourage Ragnar from sending a Settler down there 1SE of the sugar. Not trusting Judaism to actually spread, and I still have a lot of Missionaries for more important cities to build.

A view of the northern barb cities. Thracian has 2 unpromoted Archers and a Worker. Zara's Sword is Strength II. And yes, Debre Berhan is quite the eyesore there.
Thracian does look pretty good, Sakae... not so sure. While with its placement, it can contest Zara's Wheat and, though unlikely, another floodplain, 1 off the river and missing that cow... I will probably still keep it, saves hammers on a Settler and I'd rather have the land myself than let him have it. Unless Zara were to suicide that guy IBT...

I did grab that religion by one turn of 80% research, better than feeding another one to Zara, and it slows down Liberalism. Sitting Bull is plotting war... so whom does he hate?

Hopefully Ragnar? He doesn't border Gilgamesh, though I wouldn't bet on his rationality. I really wouldn't want to fight him, especially not while his uniques are active.

 

[Choeimok]

Spoiler image limit again :

Doing quite alright on tech, and these guys did not actually go for Feudalism. I just noticed that I do have Monarchy, but no HR active...
HR for Calendar trade is kind of appealing, but right now I would have to throw in Philo... so rather not. Mausoleum is not yet built, I'll get it from Joao after Zara does that - because of course it will be Zara.

This one is difficult with the 3 different greens, but I'm the bottom one. Surprisingly Ragnar is not doing particularly well though...
Zara is ahead in both Gold and Production, though fourth on food.

In the Northwest, Zara reinforced his city, and while I want the northern one, I'm still not sure what to do with Sakae. It's poorly placed. Zara might capture it any second and is almost swallowing it entirely after apparently getting a border pop. It would seem sensible to burn it and instead settle on the spot the HAs are on right now (1S2E; seems better than 2SE to me, and I'd probably rather use the western Grasslands than have Ethiopian-cultured Wheat in the BFC by going just SE), but I just don't have a Settler ready to deny possible Zara shenanigans. It's still a bad (or in the context of this map script setting a new standard of bad, let's say mediocre) city, but the greed, the greed for land... Resettling it would take 10 turns at least...

While there are still 2 defenders, one is now unpromoted and Zara's Sword is injured - he evidently killed one of the Archers, and the barbs rebuilt.

 

[Choeimok]

Spoiler Turn 166 / 1060 AD :

On second thought, this city is a trap. Even if he wasn't CRE. Rather than waste time here...

... I'd rather take and deny the raze gold and hope to resettle it to the West. The risk of Zara doing so first is probably worth it, this spot sucks. No losses, making up for the disastrous barb rolls in the southeast last year.
I'll even fill in a Settler in Edirne (that big prod city) to have a chance. 10 turns to both build and walk is about the fastest I can do without whipping (and I don't have "good" whip land except for Samsun and Dulkadir which are way off), it's very likely Zara will settle first. Oh well...

2 turns in. Joao has Civil Service! It's a bit surprising how well he is doing in tech while having mostly desert land and being in a double war. No trace of SB's plans yet, I've only seen guarded workers on the border.
Zara's up to 10 cities now, but it's not where I razed Sakae.

Got Thracian at the cost of a CR2 Sword. SB's mentioned border worker protection program is in the picture as well. And a new barb city just spawned, in the wrong spot of course... I'll need another unit up there, most likely. Which is kind of unfortunate, because I just finished that extra Settler... Not sure what I'll do with that now. I could send him all the way north of Tripoli to squeeze an extra city on SB's border, but that spot doesn't really have anything going for it. I'm building another Settler in Istanbul for the southeastern backfill, would be silly to switch them around now. Or should I?

After CS, I kind of want Machinery for both types of mills... but it's probably preferable to trade for that. Engineering will probably be teched by AI. Good old Paper -> Education? Giggles can research Music, so that sort of play would be unlikely. Compass line looks pretty worthless. Zara might be teching DR instead of real technologies right now, in his religion frenzy.
Going for Paper.

Ankara (Joao frontier slow-growth Cottage city, has a spare iron in third ring) has decided to hate me. I could do this in response (current maintenance is 17), but 2 turns of Anarchy... ugh. Is that worth it? That's disgusting.

Capital does have an academy and a bunch of science modifiers making it my best research city, but base commerce is... not the greatest. Tripoli and Dulkadir will likely overtake it in the future. So, Bureaucracy would be worth the maintenance, but 2 turns of anarchy...

I just don't think that's worth it. And oh boy, Zara's GNP is scary. I wonder what he is doing to get that much... (at least, in research mode, my GNP is 240...)

Alright now, barbs, what is this? This is wrong! The southern one is slightly better, but, but... And Apache does indeed have 3 Archers... Building more dudes in Edirne and Hamburg again...

A spy, while SB is plotting. I wonder...
(most likely, that was Gilgamesh though, Konya is waaay far from NA)
And there's that Ragnar stack on my border up to no good now that his war has ended... (Joao is still his WE, he's mutually annoyed with SB, I still don't know where and how scary SB's stack is)

 

[Choeimok]

Spoiler once again, the image limit, still the same turnset :

So many Archers! At least these cities are not on hills... Not sure which one to go after first, both block my intended settling spot and cramp my cities. The land is not good enough to share it between cities... or is it?

No worker this time? Incoming 2 unit dow (while having high power from massive garrisons)? Come on, go for Ragnar already...
I can still emergency whip an archer next turn in that case unless he does some culture and road shenanigans...also moving over my anti-barb units to Apache rather than Khazak.

No such thing happens though, only peace treaties are signed, concluding that war... inconclusively. The last of these southern backfill spots is settled, this one will require a bit of an irrigation chain to do anything. Probably going to use it as a low-bar commerce city, it's really not outstanding.

That raze gold was a little... underwhelming, to say the least. Wandering Archer should have terrible chances crossing that river into Tripoli, though he might raze my cottage. Putting both HAs on the same tile to protect the weakened one.

YES! I... knew he was going to do that, that was not lucky at all...
So, I can continue to encroach on the second barb city and have Ankara hate my guts again (it is 2 turns from finishing a temple, just going to eat the , grows too slowly to whip it now) Now, I just need the western jewish hugbox to get busy with something again... not likely though. Zara would be bribeable, but doesn't even want to do it for Philo and Paper.

This looks like a good deal, though - CoL is ancient to me at this point. River bridges at last! His map would cost 120 more ducats, I'd rather not splurge that much right now, going to have some idle horsies soon...

Nothing too informative here... Lots of cities makes up for the lack of wonders, though I might go for some Marble ones now... that are not in the Aethetics tree I skipped. So, Taj and... are there even any others left?
Someone gets a GE and someone gets a general. probably Ragnar since he had been fighting J-man before.
Samsun is angry about the whip, that'll go away, not much to do down there right now.
Also made a tour throughout all of my cities' tile assignments, due to seeing that Great Spy bar again...

Three(!) razes but no losses and no Zara intervention for this one. The Spice is Debre Berhan (which is, I absolutely have to reiterate, a terrible sight to behold) 's third ring, so I might even be able to steal it at some point. Probably not worth it since Berlin has spices, but...

A couple of quiet turns pass, I continue to trade 1000 year old techs...

I also am contemplating to grab this spot while SB is off fighting his war... it's not bad by the standards of this map, and might steal some hammers to chop. Chances are though, he will just get a border pop and invalidate that idea...

 

[Choeimok]

Spoiler :

Surprisingly, this is still up for grabs. Might as well go for the fail gold...?

I could even go for this. Eh...
[Ragnar did build it in exactly 1000 AD]

Is he baiting Ragnar to suicide his stack and counterattack, or is just doing Bull things in this notably offensive war of his?

Map extends quite a bit further west than it looked like initially. So, turns out these two actually have a border...
Plenty of shiny metals on this side, no wonder Zara's GNP was so high. His food... not so much.

Well, I wonder whom he might be going for... I'm pretty sure he can declare at pleased, but was already friendly with he before that turned up...

On another note, that is quite the amount of veteran Gilga units right there... Not plotting a dagger dow, are we?

Can he actually do something if he's already in a war? Then again, 80 gold is not that much, he can have it. I should have stopped trading with Ragnar despite being in process of scouting him out, not worth the Dip hits.

Huh... then why did Zara and Joao refuse to trade this for like a thousand turns? That's rude... And yeah, I'm spreading Judaism for and since the AP is guaranteed to be built by the jewish block any second now. Any second now...

And, there's Education and the Renaissance at least. Liberalism does not seem to be under threat. Now, Rifling is the standard play, but I do have those Janissaries to consider...
Zara gets a prophet and for a moment I'm scared he will shrine Judaism and spike in GNP, just to realize...

... that's actually old news! Well...



I'm at the image limit again, so to not let this take up another post, tech-wise...
Jaoa and Zara would trade MC, Bull and Ragnar would not - is it that useless Colossus or do they just not like me? Zara can research Edu (and is still the only one with Feudalism, no DR yet), but I still have a monopoly on philo. I also still don't have Machinery, which is getting really annoying...
Rather than go for a big slingshot, I probably should just Lib nationalism and use that to build Taj in Edirne to finally get some modern civics.

Janissary war would need at least Trebuchets for support, I just don't have these right now without giving out my monopoly techs under value. Probably should just go for those rifles, or even Cavalry or something...

Sitting Bull and Ragnar are the ones with the juiciest land, and the furthest behind. So, that land would probably do well under different management, and they are not even green.

 

[Choeimok]

Spoiler Turn 179 / 1190 AD :

After a short break, onto the next turnset - plan is to get that Taj and tech to rifles - outlandish, I know. I don't see much other possibilities to get a GA otherwise, my GP generation is awful. And I'm going to want to get an Academy from my scientist upcoming in Samsun. Not sure where yet - Ankara and Bursa currently are ahead in commerce by already having villages and towns, but once the younger cottages in Tripoli catch up, that's going to be easily my best science city... and Tripoli also is on the border, so that culture would come in handy...

I guess... fine. I have scouted them out by now.

Not sure if building that guy was such a great idea... as expected, the culture did envelop that land. Will it actually be worth to settle that? Probably not, to be honest, I'll keep him around for later. That was dumb.

A bit of a skewed trade, but the two green guys have CS at this point. Then again, I could skip this, self-tech MC and trade for Machinery... Yeah, I think that's better, he's probably not teching it... Hopefully. 2 turns.

Is that the Stele UB?

Aaand, after forgetting about it for a turn, I realize that detour was dumb, as Gilgamesh doesn't have machinery. Well, at least I can build Forges now... Could consider the Joao trade. Not giving Philo away just yet, not for this garbage.

The makeshift backup plan to trade with Joao instead never worked out because he was researching Paper already, fortunately Gilga had the right idea what to tech.
Map shaves off 35 ducats.

Was clicking through people looking for a health trade as Berlin hit the cap at size 14, I don't think I've ever seen this one before. (I end up trading my only Fish for Zara's more valuable Wheat)

One turn left... Plan, take Nat and tech PP, that will be massive for the economy. I will need the whole banking line at some point... Edirne is finishing its Forge just in time for that wonder build, too.

That does unlock a whole bunch of Civics... If I could grab Mercantilism and OR before the end of that GA, that would be good... I don't want to run FR as the current state keeps all these western hounds off my back. HR for Joao and Gilgamesh, mostly, my cap is fine.

There goes Zara, the direction is kind of obvious... that certainly looks more competent than the utter junk Ragnar and Bull have been throwing around. each other's faces.

 

[Choeimok]

Spoiler Turn 188 / 1280 AD :

Alright, finally, there's the AP! Sweet hammers! (sadly Zara wins the election - that might be a problem if I go for SB, AP peace enforcement...)
By the way, does a science booster building turn active the day it completes? Otherwise I might have blundered here by running 100% 1 turn before Istanbul completed that its University...

Next turn, it will finally show if I can get the GSci I've been going for since the BCs or if the governor pollution will have a word about that... a prophet wouldn't be so bad, I'd probably shrine Taoism in Dulkadir. Least spread right now, but best commerce potential out of my holy cities... and it's not that big of a difference anyway.
(or, upon looking it up: it used to be least spread for a long time, but actually overtook Confu somehow, still behind Hindu. Alright...)

And there he is! No shrines today. Tripoli did overtake the southern dry commerce cities by now and will continue to be ahead, so that's an easy choice. Snaketown wouldn't be bad either, that might actually be the best city on the map, just happens to be inside the wrong borders unfortunately. Bulb would be... Printing Press. Yeah, not falling for that...

Very much to my surprise, Gilga never did go for Music, now Zara will get the Artist. Oh well... In a way, that's good despite him being significantly more dangerous overall, because Zara can do a lot less culture bombing harm to me.

There we go... I really hope Zara won't actually capture any cities. Bjorgvin down south was looking awfully lightly defended earlier, this however is on the main combat lines already...

So, I 0%ed Poly, and... if I get Mono now, switch civics, I should still be able to switch into the economic civic of choice at the end of the GA... especially considering I have the Museum. In fact, I probably should research Mono at 10% to maximize the turns I can research instead of wait for gold during the GA. Maybe I can get it at 0 by running a scientist or two more somewhere... (and I can!)

So, after at least 4 war decs, an AI finally manages to capture a city - expectedly, Ragnar is on the receiving end of the pain in question, unexpectedly it's not ZY that takes it. And a lot of wonders are built. Colossus is probably worthless, but it was really cheap and Ragnar probably probably won't get it any time soon. Might as well.

Now, what are you up to, Mr. Declares-at-Pleased? Officially nothing...

Doing some tile working adjustments since a lot of yields changed... Samsun will spawn the next GP during the GA, still. So long as it's not a Spy...

A quick calculation on bureau vs FS: I have 61 base commerce in the capital, 22 base hammers and will complete a Forge in 1 turn -> 27.5 for most of the GA, probably rounds down?
Gaziantep has a Forge and seems the most suitable for rounding here, 11 become 13... which would be 13.75. Yeah, definitely rounds down. So anyway, bureaucracy is like 31 commerce and 13 hammers right now, poor growth potential. Now, according to Statistics, I have 11 towns and 16 villages, at two of which are in fact 1 turn from becoming a Town (I'm not sure why I just looked that up). I'm fairly certain I'm working every single one of these. So, at +2 commerce, that's 26 commerce... and that global +100% culture. Difference in State Maintenance is 7 ducats. So, Bureau is slightly ahead, only because of the academy making that commerce slightly bonified than FS would be on average -> run Bureau during GA and switch to FS near the end, together with Merc or Free Market.

 

[Choeimok]

Spoiler still 1280 AD :

So, I'll run this and hopefully remember to go FS/Slavery/somethingeconomic in 10 turns during the next turnset.

And the tech situation... I would rather self-tech Feudalism unless Gilgamesh or Bull get it. No need to dish out my monopolies for very little gain to Zara. Who, by the way, I really hope will finally grab DR. He did recently spawn a GSpy and now I can't see his tech anymore... (though it's only probably a Scotland Yard in Aksum unless he had that earlier)

On the demographics, Ottomans are now #1 in everything, GA certainly helps in the GNP department, and even ahead of Ragnar in power by having built a few barracks for later on and sitting on those old classical units mostly from the barb city era. Not looking good for him, though I still think it's better to continue economically booming to Rifles rather than get into any silly shenanigans with outdated troops there.

I do lack engineering for that war, but I don't really need it until Chemistry, and Chemistry won't be of interest for quite some time. Of course, Janissary/Cannon would be classical Ottoman style, I could stil reconsider and go for that. Then I could even skip the whole Feudalism thing.
Economics is that other really interesting tech, mostly to chain another Golden Age... Might make sense to push that in before Rifling if I can get Banking in time to make it seem feasible. I should shift my spying focus to see what Joao and Zara are up to...

something like this? SB and Rag are so far behind, I don't really care what they are researching. Gilga is a surprisingly useful trade partner, currently onto Engineering, so he gets a 3...

Oh, and another little rearrangement perhaps. Just don#'t give me a spy. I could run a sixth scientist and starve faster, but this way I still get 2 GP during the GA by just turning it up around the end. Stealing the cow from Istanbul helps.

So, here we have the South...

... the center... (that one tile on Berlin is a bit unfortunate)

... and, barely fitting onto one screen, the north.

Important cities:
Istanbul: hybrid capital, sucky food situation
Edirne: Production
Samsun: GP
Tripoli: Commerce (Oxford at some point?)
Dulkadir: Commerce (Tao Shrine into Wall Street?)
Trakya: Production (it's a bit of an Edirne junior, possibly might even surpass it as I think it has more river tiles)

Everything else is a filler doing either commerce or production as well as they can, more or less.

Oh, and looking at Zara's land, I have no idea how he is doing so well - that place is absolutely perched! Even all those Gold mines, half of which he's wasting, should not be enough to do so well. Must be the giant Shrine of Salomon almost on its own? Joao is just as dry, but he at least has a fair amount of Flood Plains. Sitting on most of the good, green land is Sitting Bull...

 

[Choeimok]

Spoiler Turn 193 / 1330 AD :

And of course, very shortly after ending that block, I remembered that Pacifism is a thing that exists and stuff. Could have been useful to run for those 12 turns, I sort of want that prophet at some point. Oops.
Well, that this point I already made that blunder, so OrgRel it is...

Now, the civics switch did not switch Gilgamesh over to Friendly, so I'm still kind of concerned he might at some point decide to start plotting - Joao doesn't plot at pleased, does he?
Maybe that will tick up.

Now revisiting the plan, if I am going to want to go to war with someone, that is going to be Sitting Bull. No one else has remotely attractive land to take over (sure, Zara at least has wonders...). Well, Ragnar at most, perhaps. Problem is, it's the porcupine of the pack.

That most of his cities including his entire border are on hills does not help it... So, either I'm going to war and take over this guy, or I'm just going to not deal with that hassle and go directly to space - later end date, but less work overall. That does carry the risk of Zara sneaking a Diplo victory, though Bull might surpass him in size and probably is a bit less popular.
For the duration of the GA, I'm going to buff up my economy, let's see how far I'll get in tech and how the Ragnar situation develops. (jump him with some scrap army for a last minute land grab if he's seriously reeling?)

I didn't even quite check what his bulb was (Compass probably?), I really want that second Academy. Takes the city to 100 beakers. Also pretty sure SB had a cottage on that river farm tile earlier... Zara (I can see his graph again) annoyingly is on Philo, not sure what best do there. Joao's researching Theo, I wonder if he's going for Divine Right.

Really starting to pick up now, that research! And yes, Gilga's on DR...

Kind of expensive, but I'll have a round of anarchy, please... (he would not give Engi for just Feuda or Paper... oh well, they are old techs now...)

Got Guilds on the next turn, Grocers want Banana, Spices, Sugar and Wine... only have spices out of that, probably not worth going for in preparation for industrializing just yet. (not sure if I have a single Market, pretty sure my only bonified resource is beavers)

Zara, in the meantime, would appear to have wasted his entire medieval army/stack against Ragnar's classical junk behind walls... good times!


Now, Gunpowder or Banking? I still have 9 turns of GA and Banking leads to Economics, which I kind of really want to grab for that bonus...

Is that a good deal? Pretty sure I can skip that whole Aethetics nonsense, not worth the WTFYABTA. Spread some anarchy...

Then again, this guy could be in a GA? Not sure. Production graph looks a bit flatter.

Now, what are you doing in my land? Gilga continues to confuse me here. He's not showing as plotting. Ragnar has Longbows at last, meanwhile.

Hmm... This may actually be worth it. Pretty sure I refused SB for a DOW before, which is why he's kind of stuck at Cautious. Like, what is Ragnar actually going to do? Right?

 

[Choeimok]

Spoiler Turn 201 / 1410 AD :

2 GPs in one turn! A scientist though, not a prophet... 6 more turns of GA. Now, what do I do with these guys...
(and yes, I switched some of my Wealth cities over to units here)

I the meantime... of all places Ragnar could have sent some junk to me, of course it has to be the opposite side of the country! That crossbow should be better than upgrading the warrior for a whole lot of money. Maybe the Sword will waste some time pillaging, but even without, I should be fine here.


Anyway, the GPs: The Merchant would bulb Constitution - not super-interested in that, I'd rather sacrifice him to the gods for 12 more turns of goodness. The scientist would indeed bulb Compass, and while that is, I think, on the line to physics, I'm not in a hurry to get there. I guess I'll build another academy?

Strangely, Ankara is doing surprisingly well here, despite not being that great of a commerce city. And man, 231 beakers! That bureaucracy!


Now, if I'm going for a second GA, I might as well switch Civics now rather than one turn before the end, meaning...

... I have to decide between Mercantilism and Free Market. By how much would 70 commerce get reduced? At 15 cities, Merc is 15 specialists for 45 unbonified beakers, most important one being in Samsun of course. I think I'll go FM here, seems like the safer bet.

And of course, Pacifism at last! Now, that we're at war...

Regarding that Academy, Dulkadir has 8 cottages (some of which are non-riverside), one Fur, one hill and a bunch of water. The much less green Ankara boasts in comparison, 11 cottages that are somewhat ahead in development, and all on rivers. It's short on food at size 14, but has more space for regular cottages on plans once bio hits. I actually think Ankara is the better bet here right now, not just due to the immediate advantages. Despite having to run more farms. Colossus helps Dulkadir until I go for Physics, but it's still behind. And further to walk. So...

As for Samsun, I'm actually gonna let it grow for 2 turns, keeping the 2 priests, and then resume GP production, just as Istanbul and Konya would enter starvation.
Also teching RP before Gunpowder as I have a few mills and am not in a hurry to get Janissaries...

*What could possibly go wrong accempting that call, huh? That certainly is annoying. Fortunately, Zara has units around Munich that are probably blocking the HA from getting lucky against my Archer. Presumably a CG1 long-fortified hill archer with 40% culture defense should be fine, but...
Ragnar has has lost Nidaros to SB this turn - he's not long for this world anymore. Birka on the coast in the far edge of the map is his new capital - with - obviously, since Björgvin lacks it - the GLH.

Kind of amazed - I finally found someone that doesn't have cows! Well, wonder for how much longer that will be... For now, the piggies help with all these green faces my larger cities are starting to see.

You have got to be kidding. Wouldn't Zara's unit inside my city hostile to him prevent that capture if Ragnar moved first? He did have 63% odds... Had I just sent over my Garrison Warrior from Berlin, I would have been fine even without Slavery... This is the worst possible outcome here. Like, that wasn#t even a great city, but that's just so rude...

Some pretty garbage combat luck against this lightly defended city, too. The HA had almost 50% retreat chance, everything starting with the Knight was over 75% win, with two losses at over 90%. Going to need some reinforcements...

My golden age, marked by the loss of territory, ends with one turn before Rifling - so of course, the Merchant is burned.

Screw you! No! (he also canceled our resource trade this turn, so I'm rather displeased with this jerk...)

Also, I did see Joao plotting last turn...

 

[Choeimok]

Spoiler 1480 AD :

A bit of a situation here - I can't take the city, so I might as well not attack at all just yet, continue to let SB bomb it...
Plundering cottages around Nidaros not yet in SB's culture with my scout HA in the meantime.

I also deny another demand, this time for PP from Joao. He drops to Pleased. Stupid demands...

Yup. Why would you be anything but a Spy?
Samsun enters full starvation mode now to pump out one last GP this GA.

SB wasted his stack, and I had a lot less bad luck this time, so this actually went pretty well. However, I did get a Viking revolt in Bjorgvin just. that. turn. Aren't they supposed to be rare in recently captured cities while at war?

Also got a great general, spawned in Edirne. Probably best to settle him before I start mass unit production. Might as well put him right in there, I suppose...? It is, after all, my hammer capital.
SB wants to trade Aesthetics for Calender while I'm 1 turn from entering the Industrial... Then again, I do need Literature for Heroic Epic, always forget about that. Might as well...

Or rather...

Fricking Zara. I could not move my units back from Birka (SE) to stop this from happening - was hoping he would blunder like SB did before. This guy is getting really annoying at this point...
I make sure to pillage as much as I can - having a bunch of horses around helps.

Not that Drama makes a whole lot of sense, but might as well...? Don't think I'll still be trading much anyway.

Now, aside from hopefully not forgetting about the whole civics thing before the GA ends (At least Samsun will probably get its next GP just in time, but I doubt I'll be able to queue another... maybe with Physics and Communism?), the war question. The Ragnar war was a bit of a disaster, losing the though mediocre commerce city of Munich to Zara of all people was probably not worth the 2 coastal cities I got in return. So, options...

Gilgamesh: Garbage land, but an easy target. Probably low prio.
Sitting Bull: Pretty good land and the only one not friendly with me. Long frontline and many hill cities.
Zara: I'm upset about that city. I have 92% culture in it and Berlin's culture can reach it. Can I actually get a revolt though? Not sure. Could try using spies to get even more culture, should it drop down. He did, after all, at least not get the city directly from me. His mainland is a wasteland, and apart from ND and the admittedly juicy Temple of Salomon, I don't care about his ancient wonders.
Joao: Only one that has guilds and can research Gunpowder - so he's actually ahead of Zara in tech now.
Nobody: just stop caring about units, build SoL or something and ride that tech lead into space. Avoids the issue of AP peace nonsense.

Honestly, I'm kind of leaning towards the "boring" old space option. It's just a lot less of a slog. I'm ahead in tech and have most people on friendly. Fully industrialize, grab those free GP and get that thing launched. Makes the Rifling play a bit of a waste since I could have done fine with knights, trebs and my old units there, not like I super-beelined it anyway. That war was a disaster as far as "victories" go, but at least the fire mostly stayed inside the dumpster. Mostly.