ALC Game 13: Mali/Mansa Musa

[Gwil]

Izzy is crazy for religion, true, but the real guy to watch is Mehmed. As someone else has mentioned, he is a backstabber of the highest order. Take him out and subjugate Izzy to being your idoliser - he will happily turn on you with or without shared religion.

 

[Sisiutil]

Yes, taking on Mehmed is made tricky by the certainty that his UU will arrive fairly soon. I think the best thing is to keep up in military to deter and/or defend against any attacks--as usual. I have several good city raiding units now that can be upgraded if the need arises.

"In times of peace, prepare for war."

Maybe I should send my veterans down to that barb city, just so they can hone their skills. A couple of my Swordsmen still don't have CRIII, after all.

I did sort of do a late cultural victory with Victoria; the difference there was that I held it out as a possibility from early on--so I lightbulbed Theology and built the Sistine Chapel, for example. That's not gonna happen in this game. Cultural is still possible, even with out the SC, but less likely. And if I get involved in a slugging match with Mehmed, I think it's out the window. I'm still thinking Space Race for this game, but we'll see. I think the final decision may be made in the next round, once my Caravels have revealed the remaining civs out there in the fog.

 

[KMadCandy]

If you do succeed in flipping Santiago will you keep it or disband it? It's a crappy city location, but it is the Christian holy city.

hmm. that is a totally crap city, no food on land and no seafood resources. christianity isn't anybody's state religion. but we only have one holy city, we won't be getting her others peacefully. islam is still open but not on the path we're concentrating on atm.

i'd probably keep it even if it wasn't holy. it has incense which we don't have yet. it's coastal so it has free (no workers needed yay) commerce, and a lighthouse lets it feed itself in spite of the starving land tiles. it gives land area and a buffer-zone that we'd not keep if we raze it (i tend to raze flipped cities if they're surrounded by my territory already but this one's not). she'd probably send another settler down that way anyway if we razed it since at this point all the land she has to choose from is crap.

 

[ratrangerm]

While it's true you don't want to wait out the war with Mehmed for too long, it can work to your advantage. If Mehemd declares war on you, Izzy will have the "You declared war on our friend!" demerit with him and is more likely to join in on your side.

That happened in an offline game of mine... Louis XIV founded Confucianism and everybody but Huayna had it. I converted when Hatshepsut asked me, and Monty was Confucian too. I knew war with Louie was inevitable, so I assembled two stacks and waited.

Sure enough, I spotted a small stack in Louie's territory and knew it wasn't just patrolling, so I moved my stack to intercept. He declares war, so I get Monty to declare war on Louie (one good thing about Monty... it's so easy to get him to declare war on somebody else for tech... I got him to do it for Drama and Code of Laws).

Long story short: Louie is gone (I would have let him live if he had given me Economics, but he wouldn't part with it no matter what) and now I'm preparing to take out Huayna just to claim a little more land.

So anyway... keep your eye on Mehmed. Izzy you can trust, Mehmed you can't be sure about.

 

[KMadCandy]

Maybe I should send my veterans down to that barb city, just so they can hone their skills. A couple of my Swordsmen still don't have CRIII, after all.

i'd take your 9/10 vets but also some non-9s too, since barb xp caps at 10. i haven't loaded the save and have no idea what troops are in there. might be all battles would be so easy you'd only get 1 exp no matter what pick, so use the 9s. might be you have some troops that could earn more exp off some of those barbs, and far easier than they will off mehmed, so use guys that haven't hit 9 yet. just a thought.

 

[KMadCandy]

While it's true you don't want to wait out the war with Mehmed for too long, it can work to your advantage. If Mehemd declares war on you, Izzy will have the "You declared war on our friend!" demerit with him and is more likely to join in on your side.

true, cool.

and i'd skipped over part of what you said earlier... "Izzy is Friendly with you, and as long as you keep it that way, she won't backstab you. But considering that she founded so many religions, she could end up switching to another if one becomes more dominant than the others... it will be one she founded herself, so she won't have a problem switching, and she can switch easily given her Spiritual trait."

we're spiritual too, and we have all of the religions that she does. we could switch if she does. it would hurt as far as the loss of benefits from whatever civic we're in until we spread the new one around, but we could do it if we need to.

 

[Validator]

Maybe I should send my veterans down to that barb city, just so they can hone their skills. A couple of my Swordsmen still don't have CRIII, after all.

The question is do you plan on keeping the city or razing it? Keeping it would deny Mehmed a source of iron which coupled with his lack of horses would leave him with limited unit choices if war does break out. In fact you actually might want to deny him the source of copper near Izmir. Instead of generating a GS in Karakorum maybe you should go for a GA. A culture bomb in Ning-hsia should put cultural pressure on Izmir and will flip it if it doesn't get any culture soon.

 

[Validator]

hmm. that is a totally crap city, no food on land and no seafood resources. christianity isn't anybody's state religion. but we only have one holy city, we won't be getting her others peacefully. islam is still open but not on the path we're concentrating on atm.

i'd probably keep it even if it wasn't holy. it has incense which we don't have yet. it's coastal so it has free (no workers needed yay) commerce, and a lighthouse lets it feed itself in spite of the starving land tiles. it gives land area and a buffer-zone that we'd not keep if we raze it (i tend to raze flipped cities if they're surrounded by my territory already but this one's not). she'd probably send another settler down that way anyway if we razed it since at this point all the land she has to choose from is crap.

It's a tough decision, that's why I razed the question. Sisiutil would actually get control of the incense tiles before the city flips, so that isn't a concern. Also Izzy wouldn't be able to refound a city in that exact same place, it would have to be north of there.

While coastal cities usually aren't bad for a Fin civ, this one only has 6 coast tiles, and 2 of those are shared with Gao. I'm not sure if that's enough to pay the maintenance.

But it is holy. The question is whether it will be worthwhile to spend the hammers to spread Christianity to enough cities, and also generate a Prophet for the shrine.

 

[KMadCandy]

It's a tough decision, that's why I razed the question. Sisiutil would actually get control of the incense tiles before the city flips, so that isn't a concern. Also Izzy wouldn't be able to refound a city in that exact same place, it would have to be north of there.

While coastal cities usually aren't bad for a Fin civ, this one only has 6 coast tiles, and 2 of those are shared with Gao. I'm not sure if that's enough to pay the maintenance.

But it is holy. The question is whether it will be worthwhile to spend the hammers to spread Christianity to enough cities, and also generate a Prophet for the shrine.

i do admit to a personal hatred of the AI settling right by my borders, i'm the "this land is my land, even if the tiles don't say it yet" so that's influencing my thoughts there, even tho i know she'd have to go north.

IMO the answer about spending hammers on missionaries/getting a GP is, if we keep it we don't have to do it now, if we raze it we lose the option if we do have the time/hammers later.

i'd not noticed the overlap, finally getting over my laziness and trying to swap to the warlords CD to look at the save (my drive goes real weird when i change disks).

 

[kniteowl]

The Next Tech you should research after Metal Casting Would Be Civil Service for the Civic which will allow you to speed through the bottom half of of the tech tree as you require 3 techs for Optics, Machinery==>Compass==>Optics.

I'd like to Comment on the usage of your Great General, Using it for a Super Medic is almost always a good idea, but lets assume, your gonna play peaceful and not go to war, and the other Continent is likely to be Peaceful Continent that will likely tech and trade like crazy, and on a high level you assume there's a good chance you'll lose the Optics & Circumnavigation Race and possibly, Ultimately the Liberalism race also.

How would you combat this? Well it always helps to have more Tech trading partners by being the first to the other continent so and since your gonna play peaceful, you Super Medic and gonna stay stored up doing nothing, your better off using your Great General on a Trireme Giving it Flanking 1, Navigation 1 & 2 and Morale Promotions for an Extra 3 movement Points, then when you upgrade it to a Caravel, It'll have 6 movement points, which mean it'll reach the other continent twice as fast and you'll have more information to consider your option/decisions nut that's if you decide to take the risking path of using your GG on a Naval unit which you might never be used after it wins circumnavigation.

 

[patagonia]

I'd like to Comment on the usage of your Great General, Using it for a Super Medic is almost always a good idea, but lets assume, your gonna play peaceful and not go to war, and the other Continent is likely to be Peaceful Continent that will likely tech and trade like crazy, and on a high level you assume there's a good chance you'll lose the Optics & Circumnavigation Race and possibly, Ultimately the Liberalism race also.

How would you combat this? Well it always helps to have more Tech trading partners by being the first to the other continent so and since your gonna play peaceful, you Super Medic and gonna stay stored up doing nothing, your better off using your Great General on a Trireme Giving it Flanking 1, Navigation 1 & 2 and Morale Promotions for an Extra 3 movement Points, then when you upgrade it to a Caravel, It'll have 6 movement points, which mean it'll reach the other continent twice as fast and you'll have more information to consider your option/decisions nut that's if you decide to take the risking path of using your GG on a Naval unit which you might never be used after it wins circumnavigation.

Interesting idea with the GG. Just one question: this is a fractal map so why are people assuming there's only one other continent?

The last ALC was an excellent illustration of how to grind your neighbours into the dust, so how about using theh remainder of this one to illustrate how to happily coexist with them?

Don't forget you can use cottages for a cultural win too, should you decide to go that route rather than space. Teching as far as democracy and then military tradition for a DP with Spain would result in a slightly later win in that regard, but open up cavalry for building in the non-culture cities. Those two factors combined would keep you safe from harm while you got the 3 chosen cities up to the limit.

As it is, you'll have 11 cities once you've founded the last two (assuming I can count) and a lot of good land at your disposal. 6 cities is sufficient for a space win on Monarch so you're well ahead of the curve in that regard. In terms of late game wonders, when shooting for a space win with a smaller empire, TGD is something of a distraction. Getting coal plants up early is of greater benefit and you already have plenty of health resources at your disposal.

 

[pigswill]

I reckon that the best use of first Great General is as Military Instructor in a production city with Heroic Epic which enables you to pump out Lvl3 units with peaceful civics which is useful throughout the game.

 

[cabert]

I reckon that the best use of first Great General is as Military Instructor in a production city with Heroic Epic which enables you to pump out Lvl3 units with peaceful civics which is useful throughout the game.

If you don't plan on another war soon, thn that is 100% true.

About victory conditions, you said space feels like easiest (or something alike).
I would say quite the opposite :
- you don't have the great library, meaning you don't have the pool polluting scientists
- you have 9 cities (and some room for more)
- you have loads of religion,
- you can safely run OrgRel for easier missionaries (it doesn't prevent you from building monasteries in the 3 big ones!)
- you have cottageable land en masse.
- you are financial and spiritual!

the only "bad thing" is using the free GA for a great work in a cultureless city. I don't think this pig city is a good candidate for legendary, but I may be mistaken.

What I would do?
- missionary spam
- cottage spam
- go for lib first, then fill up with drama and such
- win

 

[Sisiutil]

What I would do?
- missionary spam
- cottage spam
- go for lib first, then fill up with drama and such
- win

Interesting. I've played a little bit of the next round (I hope to finish and post it later today) and I've been focusing on (a) spreading Buddhism (Djenne is a missionary factory at the moment); (b) tile improvements (resources and cottages are top priorities; farms or mines only where needed); and (c) infrastructure buildings.

Of the latter, I'm trying to focus on those that will most help my economy--so that's markets, mints, and courthouses. Science multipliers are a lower priority. I'm waiting to finish Machinery and Civil Service before building any more military; why build units that will soon be obsolete?

I liked Kniteowl's suggestion for the GG--too bad it didn't come up sooner! But I think I will take your suggestion regarding CS before the Optics bee-line. I was about to generate a Great Scientist in Karakorum when I left off. He'd pop Compass, so I think I should use him for an Academy in the capital.

Thoughts? Let me know soon--I'll try to play the round this evening!

 

[cabert]

academy is fine (it also gives culture ).
Other than that, the economic build up may be a bit useless. I'd need to open the game to have a wise opinion, but you really need to choose now if you go for cultural (well, you could go for domination>cultural of course, but with your present situation, it would be a waste)

 

[Validator]

But I think I will take your suggestion regarding CS before the Optics bee-line. I was about to generate a Great Scientist in Karakorum when I left off. He'd pop Compass, so I think I should use him for an Academy in the capital.

If you plan on generating more GPs you might want to think about lightbulbing Philosophy for pacifism. I like the idea of researching CS first, since it should open up the option of lightbulbing Paper which will allow you to build U of S. That's in addition to Bureaucracy and irrigation chaining benefits you get from CS.

 

[Sisiutil]

Round 6: 545 AD to 1214 AD

It was a blissfully peaceful round, one I started by making a few recommended adjustments--as usual. Gotta love and respect that awesome group mind!

For starters, I made a slight civics adjustment, since Spiritual gives me the freedom to do that without penalty:



Caste System allowed me to immediately start generating great people, and I set Karakorum about that task, running 4 scientists to start (and 6 by the end of the round). The city's production absolutely stinks, but once I'm finished with the Liberalism race, I'll send those scientists back out to the fields and build some infrastructure there.

I also changed the builds to culture in the cities that needed their borders popped to the fat cross. I got Djenne building nothing but Buddhist Missionaries (though I did fit a quick Mint in there once Metal Casting was complete) and spread my state religion to every one of my cities by the end of the round. And speaking of cities, I moved my Settler and Skirmisher and founded my next one:



I was unable to trade Metal Casting for anything because Mehmed's and Isabella's techs were much more expensive. That's what I get for leaving it so late. My workers focused on hooking up all the resources and on laying down cottages. Sometimes they built a mine or a farm where needed, but mostly it was cottages to take full advantage of the Financial trait and to get my economy back on track. Research was languishing in the 40% region.

Mind you, I found ways of boosting it, such as taking that barb city in the southwest:



I razed it. I knew Mehmed would build there later, but I really couldn't afford such a distant city. And if Mehmed back-stabbed me, it would be easy pickings for him, cut off as it is from the rest of my territory. I know it gives him access to iron, but that's just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes.

I then finished another key technology:



I switched to Bureaucracy immediately, which gave my economy and research a needed boost. My food production went up in a few cites immediately, others thanks to some chain irrigation. The latter was my focus around Kumbi Saleh, just in case Isabella took those piggies back.

Mehmed remained pretty accommodating, which was very fortunate, especially since he was building up his power base while I focused on infrastructure. I made what I thought was a pretty good tech trade, all things considered:



He wouldn't part with Feudalism for Philosophy no matter what, so all in all this was a decent deal.

And then the true tech leader showed up.



Dang. Financial and Industrious--quite a combination. So he's the guy who's been hogging all the wonders. His list of techs had me worried too, since he was on track to beat me to both the circumnavigation bonus and Liberalism. Well, at least I got a couple of techs out of him. I could have traded those same 2 techs for Engineering, but I wanted Optics in a hurry to see if I could indeed get the circumnav prize. I immediately upgraded my two Triremes to Caravels and sent them in opposite directions on the next turn.

Once I had completed the bee-line to Optics, I went after Engineering. Meanwhile, Isabella and I continued to make nice with one another:



We haven't come up with treacly-sweet pet names for one another yet, but I'm sure that can't be far off. Not all is smooth sailing in our relationship, however. I have a -2 demerit for close borders from her. It ain't just the pigs. I took one of her incense tiles, and Santiago experienced a revolt. It hasn't flipped, but I really think it's just a matter of time. So the question remains--when Santiago flips, keep it or raze it? It's a fair swap, though; she beat me to that island off my east coast. There ain't much there besides fish (though there'll probably be a late game resource out there, I'll bet.)

After Engineering was done, my tech choices were limited to the AI's hit parade. I reasoned that I would be meeting the remaining civs soon and could probably trade for their favourite techs with them without encountering the WFYABTA limit or making my two remaining neighbours too advanced. So I started researching Printing Press, to further leverage Financial and all my cottages. It would also put me on track to Riflemen, a good choice for fending off Mehmed's Janissaries.

Meanwhile, my Caravels began encountering the other remaining civs:



Whoa! For a Financial leader, Ragnar is woefully far behind, isn't he? You'll see why in the next post, when I show you the map.

And I finally met bachelor #7, who was a little more useful, though not by much:



Despite this, George went from "cautious" to "annoyed"--seems he and Mehmed despise each other, and I refused to stop trading with my Ottoman neighbour just to make George happy. The different religions obviously don't help.

I produced no less than three Great Scientists out of Karakorum this round, and popped all of them for techs. The first one popped for Philosophy. GS #2 gave me Paper. I began building the University of Sankore in Timbuktu right away--hey, historically accurate! How often does that happen in this game?

Although I had access to Pacifism, I didn't switch civics right away. Because these were my very first great people, they were still cheap. In addition, I wanted to run Organized Religion for as long as I could to help me with my infrastructure builds.

However, I soon noticed that Huayna had Education on me! Obviously the Liberalism race was in peril. I considered abandoning it altogether. But I decided what the heck, I've got most of the techs, let's give it a shot. Huayna beat me to the circumnavigation bonus in 1100 AD, but I was determined to give him a run for his money on Liberalism.

I switched civics to Pacifism to speed up the next Great Scientist, who I would pop for Education:



I kept researching Printing Press rather than switching to Education. I didn't know exactly how much of Education the GS would lightbulb, and I didn't want to waste flasks. In addition, I reasoned that PP would help me with research overall anyway.

With the science slider on the rise, it was time to build the last of our planned cities:



Timbuktu's borders had expanded a couple of turns before to make the spice tiles workable, so I had a bit of a head start to giving the city some improved tiles.

Then, in the capital, I finally built my first wonder of the game!



Just in time for the Liberalism race! And that wasn't all I got in time for the final push. I had begun building Angkor Wat a few turns before in Kumbi Saleh. I knew I wouldn't be successful, but I got around 221 gold for my trouble, and it showed up just in time. Turns out Huayna, who got Philosophy last of all the contenders, built AW. I can't remember for sure, but I think he may have gotten a Great Engineer from one of those other wonders he built.

That meant that Isabella and Mehmed were both flush with cash, since they had also obviously attempted to build the wonder. (If Isabella were a human in a multi-player game, I bet she'd be hopping mad, having discovered Philosophy first and all!) And wouldn't you know, I had a juicy tech to offer them that I no longer needed to keep to myself?





Just for good measure, I got a handy tech from George as well:



Generous, perhaps, but I figured I could now build Stables and Knights with Combat I and Pinch to counter anything Mehmed threw at me, like, say, Janissaries. Especially since he doesn't have horses. And I figured I'd keep Education in reserve for another tech George might have on offer later.

All that gold (over 1400 in the bank by the time I was done) allowed me to push the science slider to 100%. In spite of that, of course, Huayna had a huge lead on us. I kept expecting to hear that creepy music every turn.

Near the end of the round, Huayna showed up offering me a resource trade. Horrors! He beat me to Liberalism and chose Astronomy as his free tech. Oh, woe is me! I waited and listened for the dread dirge. And waited. And waited. Huh? Did I miss it? I checked the log. Nope. I checked the tech board. Turns out Huayna, who had all the pre-requisite techs for Liberalism--get this--decided to research Astronomy on his own. Oh, and Guilds and Banking as well.

Bless the AI and its messed-up priorities!

As you'll see in the next "state of the world" post, I've pretty much got a lock on Liberalism. Below is the saved game file.

 

[Sisiutil]

The State of the World, 1214 AD

Let's start by looking at the map. First of my continent... well, not exclusively mine... unlike most games... heh...



And a look at the other land masses:



Well, this explains a lot. Such as how Huayna won the circumnavigation race. Oh, he had Optics way ahead of me, of course. But it looks like he could have opened up a lot of the map just with Triremes. Still, most of the landmasses do appear to be just out of reach before Optics, don't they?

And poor Ragnar! Stuck on a mostly-barren rock, away from everyone else--no wonder he's dead last! I can't help feeling sorry for him; that could have been me! With any luck, he'll somehow manage to build up some gold and I'll be able to sell him some obsolete techs. I could do that now, but he's had all of 20 gold or so to offer since I met him. Sure, he'd become "Pleased", but why do I need the game's 98-pound-weakling happy with me?

Speaking of foreign relations, here's a look at them:



So Izzy and Mehmed remain my buddies, and that's how I've been playing the triangle diplomacy for the most part. Oh, I've traded a bit with the others, despite the Isabella/Huayna and Mehmed/George tension. If my neighbours come by and ask that I stop trading with their worst enemy, of course I'll do so. Nevertheless, I'd appreciate any further advice or insights on the diplomatic front. I think it's still one of the weakest areas of my game, especially compared to aelf's mastery of it.

Let's now look at the tech board. Now remember that on the next turn I'll have Liberalism for two techs. First, how I compare to Isabella:



I'm thinking of trading one of those techs (or maybe Liberalism on the next turn?) to her for Divine Right and then attempting to build the Spiral Minaret in Timbuktu. If Izzy is as incompetent at building that wonder as she was with Angkor Wat (when she had a lead of several turns to get it done), despite having access to stone, I think I've got a shot at it. Even if I don't, as AW showed, the gold can be put to good use--I'm thinking of upgrades to some of my veterans.

Techs compared to Huayna:



Yeah, he had Education and went off and researched Gunpowder, Banking, and Astronomy. Go figure. What do you think of getting Banking and some gold from him for Printing Press? Or for Liberalism? Or is that giving too much of a boost to the score and tech leader? Not to mention the fact that Isabella won't like it, though I think I'd really have to mess up for her to drop from Friendly to Pleased.

Poor ol' Ragnar:



Can this really be the same guy who was such a headache in the Asoka game, way back when? I think Huayna is gonna load up some Galleons and invade him, frankly. I'd give it some thought myself, but his territory really doesn't look worth the trouble.

Mehmed:



Okay, so the Ottoman has Gunpowder for his UU, which has a bonus against pretty much anything I can throw at him at the moment. Good thing he's pleased, too bad he's not friendly. At the moment, the best counter I can come up with is Knights with Combat I and Pinch, which is why I'm building Stables all over the place.

I have a couple of Macemen and Crossbowmen built, but I really focused on infrastructure this round and relied on the shared religion to keep things peaceful, which has worked so far. Niani is not really ready yet to become the Heroic Epic city; I'm thinking I should mass my workers on it to accelerate its destiny.

And finally, ol' lonesome George:



I suppose it would be good to improve relations with George, but I don't really see how I can do that without ticking off Mehmed, which would be dangerous right now.

Trade deals:



So, should I cancel that OB deal with George to keep Mehmed happier? I already earned a demerit from the Ottoman for it, and for the tech trades, but that was before I realized they were gonna be worst enemies. And what about the deals with Huayna? I figure I have more leeway with Isabella, but how much?

Current civics:



I'm thinking of changing from Pacifism back to OR once the next Great Scientist appears in Karakorum within a few turns (he'll go to Timbuktu for an Academy). I could switch to Theocracy and produce several military units, I suppose--but since they'll mostly be Knights for now, in cities with barracks and stables, what's the point? They'll already be at Level 3. No, I think more infrastructure built faster would be better, along with more missionaries. I also need to get several more monasteries built before Scientific Method makes them obsolete.

The Religion Advisor:



Just to prove I was a good boy and spread my state religion to all my cities. And spread several others, too--Look at Timbuktu, with 4 religions! All it needs now is Taoism. Oh, Isabella founded Islam, too, obviously, but that hasn't spread to me yet.

Power:



Yeah, this is worrisome. I'm down there with Ragnar and George. I'm gonna look like a tasty treat to Mehmed before long, if I don't already. Hence the stables and, after that, Knights, Knights, and more Knights.

Demographics:



Gettin' there.

Top 5 cities and wonders:



Well, keeping Kumbi Saleh's pigs pushed it into the list! It's going to experience its next border pop, probably in the next round, so I'm hoping that will solidify its hold on the tile. Ning-hsia has had no trouble holding on to its clams. And no one has claimed our continent's lone copper tile! I'm thinking I should rush a settler to the grassland tile 1 NE of it and claim it. Hey, I may want to build the Statue of Liberty later, you know? Whaddya think?

And finally, victory conditions, since we need to think about those:



With the lack of wonders, my cities aren't exactly cultural powerhouses, so I think that's out. I'm thinking I should improve my relations with my two neighbours, pursue a peaceful end-game and launch the space ship. Walita is a natural for Ironworks--hills, lots of rivers for watermills.

Now, on to the decisions.

First up, Liberalism. I'll have it on the next round, which strikes me as incredible every time I think about it. Which tech should I choose? Astronomy looks less attractive than usual. I'm just building my first couple of Universities, so Observatories are not a pressing concern, and they'd have to wait until after I beef up my military anyway. Huayna already has it, and in order to keep Mehmed and Isabella happy, I may not be able to trade resources with anyone but cash-poor Ragnar.

So I was thinking of getting Nationalism instead. It has several attractions. First off, no one else has it. And I have marble. I'm thinking of building the Taj Mahal in Kumbi Saleh (me and my porcine obsession, I know!). Seriously, though, the golden age would, I think, prove very helpful in getting infrastructure and military produced. Speaking of the latter, Nationalism would allow me to draft, and I'm well on the way to having Riflemen, and the GA would push me on that path even faster.

Which leads me to the next decision point: what to research next? I'm thinking of focusing entirely on military for awhile. So after Liberalism and Nationalism, I think Gunpowder is a must. I'd need Banking for Replaceable Parts, which makes that trade with Huayna more attractive despite the negative modifier from Isabella. I think Huayna already has Economics--I seem to recall seeing him get a Great Merchant just a couple of turns back. So I could leave that race alone and pursue Rifling instead. Then I switch to Nationalism and Theocracy, draft Rifles, and that should keep Mehmed off my back for some time.

After that, the choice would be between Chemistry/Steel to further beef up my military, or Constitution/Democracy to pursue the Statue of Liberty (in which case I'd better go claim that Copper ASAP). Early Emancipation to speed cottage growth and hamper the AIs might be attractive too. Or Representation combined with Caste System might be even better! Should I fit Military Tradition in there for Cavalry and a Defensive Pact with Isabella?

Your thoughts, as always, are much appreciated!

 

[Sisiutil]

Slightly off-topic follow-up: I think I'm going to go try an offline game as Hannibal while I wait for your responses. I feel like I really didn't do him justice in the recent ALC. Everyone pointed out that the real strength of Charismatic is to war early and quickly build up an army of veterans, which is not what I did in that game. Since I'm aiming to be peaceful for the rest of this game, I need somewhere to get my ya-ya's out. Lest my trigger finger get itchy.

 

[uncarved block]

Just remember that you need Gunpowder to get Pinch. Normally it's not a big deal, but having Mehmed next door changes that. I played one turn of your save, and Gunpowder will only take 5 turns-- but I still wouldn't put it off. Going ten or more turns without it would likely just be painting a huge target on your back. I've had Mehmed attack at +9 relations before, and have no doubt other players have similar tales to relate. Add in a low power rating, and you might want to consider whipping a few Knights instead of waiting for Rifles. IMO, Mehmed is a lot like Alex as a neighbor: if you can't distract him or whup him, it's just a matter of when, not if, he starts a war.

You don't have Permanent Alliances on, right? Izzy would be shaping up as a perfect candidate, if you do.

Given the state of your defenses on the coast (and that's a good lesson for those of us who feel compelled to keep three defenders/city all over the empire), getting some defensive naval units out for an early warning seems even more needed than normal. Huayna isn't above a sneak attack too, and if he gets a unit into your territory to nose around . . well, that's just asking for trouble. Of course, that's 20-30 turns out, at least, but maybe still worth worrying about. Especially with Cavalry coming up soon.

Barring too many bumps in the road, a Space win looks to be a lock.