America SG

very good job vadalaz!

Quick idea for Mizzenmast in case he hasn't started - Hanging Gardens is still not started by the Byzantine. It might be started by the Unmet civ though. But an idea is a quick switch to Mathematics (3-4 turns), finish the library in the capital and then attempt Hanging Gardens if it is still not being constructed. Doesn't seem like a huge loss if we fail it. And in the meantime continue to Theology. For maximum chances, Representation + Aristocracy as policies... this also prepares the next policy for Liberty finisher for another wonder.]

also a quick reminder to revoke the pledge to Genoa, maybe they will give the quest to pledge them again, and we won't risk to have diplo decisions to make because of it.
 
90: Met Venice. I like your ideas Tiberiu about the policies to speed Hanging Gardens, so I picked those and went for Mathematics. I also changed tiles so Washington will add a pop before Mathematics completes, and so the Library finishes on that turn and we can get spillover production. I checked Theo’s capital, she is building Colossus now. Also renewed the Caravan to Carthage, it’s good science/gold/ diplomacy even if we lose the 75 production later. Sicced her on Egypt for 12gpt around this time, so no distractions while building HG.

I unfortunately lost a Chariot to Dutch horseman. He has a Galleass so probably going to rush Sea Beggars and I think he could cause us trouble later. Bought 1 Chariot to replace and chopped out another.

Went for Engineering after Math, for Aqueduct after HG and to build some FORTS. I also built some tactical roads this round which can be deleted later, you can check them out.

Enhanced our religion. Temple happy and Defender of the faith were both taken. I took Just War. For the follower belief, it was between Religious community and Divine Inspiration. I took the latter for many small reasons:
1) RC wouldn’t shave another turn off HG, which we are set it to finish right as our Golden Age ends
2) Synergizes well with Just War for a strategy of converting and conquering the most Wondrous capitals first, likely Thebes
3) Less incentive to keep our religion in our expos after getting Pagodas = More faith for Prophets to leverage Just War
4) We will finish Liberty as we reach Theology and can hopefully use the Engineer on a Religious wonder to get +8 Faith in the short term. But it will pan out to much more Faith than this by saving on the religious buildings & getting their yields sooner.
5) Saves us short term production (and maintenance) on Shrines and Temples which we would otherwise need to buy Pagodas in time. We have been needing all our production for units and Walls so far.

Also, with Just War we don’t need a late game Faith sink either as Prophets will remain powerful. AKA we don’t need to finish Tradition for Engineers. Maybe we go for Monarchy very late, but no need for the growth bonus in a Dom game IMO especially with our wide empire. Put the points in Exploration/Rationalism instead. (B52s on Carriers for Greece and Byzantium?)

99: We could rightfully make white peace with William, so I did. I think this was because we re-allied Antananarivo and he had a 1 pop city right next to it, so felt threatened. I bought a grassland in Atlanta and finally settled Chicago on the desert to block available spots for his Settler:

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Unfortunately this did trigger the modifier with Dido, but we can probably defend ourselves now; we're about to have more Trireme shields out and have upgraded all our Archers. Probably have a few turns though, because she is is still at war with Egypt. She also wants Open Borders but I’ve been saying no because she just wants to consolidate her Quinq army this way.

100: Omg, Theo got Hanging Gardens... We had 2 turns left. Sad, because now I’m not sure if Divine Inspiration was worth it. Maybe we can get still get Borobudur with the Engineer, but Venice has built Hagia Sofia so it seems less likely.

Good luck @Tiberiu. My idea was to build 2 forts where the Spearmen are stationed. Also please check citizens. And be mindful of Supply, we are close to cap but the latest city will help us out.
 
In this session Egypt died and we had a word to say in this as I took a city as tribute and sold it to Mongolia. I am not sure if I was within the rules - if no - we should get a bit more specific rules about these things :) )
I sold Venice's only city to the Byzantine too, so @vadalaz has a lot of cash to do stuff in his session.

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The HG is unfortunate but we are doing fine I think. As it is expected in a Succession game - there might be some conflicts of plans and inconsistencies. I have deleted some roads because I didn't have GPT, but then made the money...
Also I left Atlanta building a Spearmen but it was either a misclick or it was in a queue or something. But it's ok to have one more in the area.

After I assess the situation I see Egypt has lowest soldiers and is ally of Belgrade. I liberate that Worker for Belgrade and give it 250 to become ally. I DOW Egypt so that we can maybe get some tribute. Is accepting cities allowed? Hope so... I have started to see taking cities as tribute as <too> exploitative vs AI but we did not discuss it so I think for this game we go with standard rules. I would have liked to also DOW Carthage but it feels a bit awkward to lose our caravan.
Venice also has low soldiers and also has one city... I decide to DOW them.

Turn 100: Ally Belgrade, DOW Egypt. DOW Venice too.

101-103. Preparing to grow the capital a bit with a food caravan and an aqueduct and by triggering WLTK with Crabs. The Netherlands hates us badly now and they are Hostile. They denounced us and I denounced them back. I think we're ok. Especially with Belgrade as an Ally.

104. We kept expansion promise with Carthage. We're running a bit low on happiness and I start building some colloseums.

106. Take Memphis from Egypt. It has Terracota Army. I raze the city, sell the workshop and then sell the city to Mongolia for 85 gpt, 800 gold and Citrus.
Take Bratislava from Venice and raze it. Sold it to the Byzantine for some cash.
Pay Dido to war William.

107. Egypt = out! Dido took the capital. Theology discovered and we can take a policy. I could bulb Borobudur... however, is it really worth it? It is basically 5 faith for us here. I have learned from vadalaz that this wonder can be good but I think not for us in this position. I would rather take the policy into Tradition so that we can finish it... Maybe, first pump out the natural Engineer and then finish Liberty?!
Discover Mombasa.

108. William enters the Renaissance and I send the spy to Venice, a good stealing target. He should have fast NC compared to the others. Meet Ife. They have Incense + Dyes. Maybe bribe 1000 for more faith for pagodas and also for happiness.

A few extra notes -

- please arrange all citizen how you like, they are set for food mostly. I suggest we grow at least our capital on maximum food now that it has an aqueduct so that it can get some decent population.
- some CS need some gift (Belgrade especially) and I think we need to actively DOW the Netherlands. Maybe steal Quebec from them if we can before doing that.

Good luck!
 

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T110: Trade Gold, 3gpt <> Incence with Alex for WLTKD in New York. Start Writers Guild in Washington for Sidon's quest. I move the spy to Athens - Venice has Compass and Greece doesn't, judging by the Fish tile yields, so I think Athens will be a faster steal. Reckless expander penalty is gone so I'm not too concerned about Dido now. Moving some CBs towards the Netherlands.

T111: DOF with Venice. Buy Belgrade, Quebec, Buenos and DOW William.

T112: Alex and Dido DOW Genghis, Venice denounces Greece. Renew DOF with Genghis, denounce Greece.

T113: Our friends are happy we denounced Greece. So I also DOW Greece for good measure.

T114: GG born. Capture Nijmegen, raze and sell to Dido for 16 gpt. Lose a scout for it. Steal from Athens is in 7 turns. Caravan to Dido ends, move it to Atlanta. I will send to Antananarivo for a quest.

T115-120: Uneventful. Alex enters Renaissance via Banking. He should also finish a university in time for our next steal.

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William and Alex both offering cash for peace. Hopefully our spy steal goes through, and if we're lucky we can steal all the way up to Banking from Alex. Buenos Aires wants Iron, so I've been checking every turn to see if anyone has a spare copy, but no such luck so far. Been building roads leading to Dido in case we want to citadel and DOW her, but maybe we should complete Sidon's quests first.
 

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Nothing out of the ordinary this round. Plenty of lux sales, we have 2.5k now. Set to steal Education in a couple turns. I went for Machinery so we can take Amsterdam with Crossbows. Captured & puppeted Utrecht last turn. Used the Liberty engineer to rush the NC.

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A session focused on growing the cities... I set the citizen on food again. We will need population to have good production for World Fair so I think more population and Workshops in all cities + Ironworks in capital and an Artist on standby for golden age is what we need to have in the next 20 turns. I captured Rotterdam through war and took Breda as tribute from the Netherlands. Sold both for profit.
I accepted the DOF from Dido in turn 140 because ... why not. We can get constant loans from her from now on in case she backstabs.

@vadalaz we have 2 generals now and one is around the Netherlands. I think we should settle one more city for those 3 fish and buy Lighthouse + Aqueduct + Granary. It will catch up real quick.

note - there is a Barb camp to the South of Chicago that needs to be taken out because it can spawn caravels and cause trouble. We have a sea route in the area there.

130. Pay 1000 To Mogadishu. Peace with Alexander. 1500 to Mombasa.
131. Proposed World Fair. Bought a few luxes for happiness and we love the king days.
132. Stole Education.
136. Belgrade elections schenanigans.
137. A deal expired and we are on -95 gpt, I sold Utrecht to Carthage to make some gold.
139. Dido asked if we want to DOW her and I said that we are just passing through the area.
140. Accept DOF from Dido.

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Sorry, I forgot to upload the save :crazyeye:.
 

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- Bought uni in the cap to time Chivalry with our spy steal
- Stole Banking
- Built some workshops
- Settled fish-city
- DOWed William
- Spent some gold on CSs

Amsterdam about to fall. Alex entered Industrial era via Industrialization. He has Gunpowder as well. Would be nice to get a natural Golden Age for WF here but we're going to take a happiness hit with Amsterdam here, and fish-city needs to grow as well.

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Prepared for World's Fair this round, conserving luxes so that we get our natural golden age on time, and can save the Artist for boosting our WF culture instead. Got universities in all cities save Seattle, and opened Rationalism. Set up for spillover production in some cities, others still need to be fiddled with.

World Affairs: Captured Amsterdam, and a CS ally finished off the Dutch. Stole Economics from Greece; next steal in 30, so moved to Constantinople, still establishing. Bribed Dido on Genghis.

With Economics and 3 Golden Ages in our near future, I built trading posts over farms on our remaining unimproved flatlands.
Spawned a Prophet which we can plant or use for spreading / Just War shenanigans.

There are many quests and WLTKDs out for Incense. But it might get banned in the vote, and is expensive to connect now (by allying Ife.)

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Is Genghis not building Machu Picchu anymore? I didn't go for it in my session because the graphic was there in New Sarai back on turn 130, but now I don't see it. We can buy a mountain tile and 6-turn MP in Chicago, and maybe even shave off another turn with the upcoming Golden Age. Dido could start it in Thebes or Saguntum, but I think we should be able to beat that.
 
@vadalaz , hey.. can you handle a bit of a small screw up? I am leaving the empire with -66 gpt but we do have 1000 gold or so. And we are winning World Fair after your first turn.
I think I made a few hastly decisions (like sold 2 land caravans to buy Cargo ships, but this was costly), I took a few un-necessary loans, bribes and the such....
It's nothing that we can't handle really, just I feel bad leaving you with negative income and 0 happiness....

apologies to @Mizzenmast too if I deviated a bit too much from the estabilshed rules by selling cities and the such.

But I promise we are fine, just have to build some markets and banks and if you want you can take Commerce opener and bulb Big Ben too.
I left research on Steel so that next turn the new spy will steal faster...

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160. Buy Incense from Alexander (costly, but for 3 quests and WLTKs). Alexander is building Macchu Picchu, I'd rather not attempt... We will trigger some WLTK and fulfil Quests with this.
Made some loans to buy aqueduct and granary in fish city to make it grow tall. We have the happiness to grow more.

161. Voted NO to Incense ban. AIs like World Fair usually so I think it should pass anyway. Macchu goes to Alexander.

162. World fair passed. I made a Holy site with the Prophet. We can manage without Just War for the time being I think. Bribe Mongolia for 15 gpt to DOW Byzantine because Ghenghis has too high production. He might not even use it for World Fair but I would rather make sure. Entering WF race with 185 prod. Mongolia has 226.

163. Accepted Research agreement with Venice. Broke friendship with Genoa because we still had pledge on it, didn't wanna piss off Mongolia. Proposed DOF to Mongolia, they accept. Pay Dido 11 gpt to DOW Alexander.

164. Nobody really cares about World Fair, they put 1% so far. I have sold Amsterdam to Dido because we will lose some GPT from a deal soon and I don't want us to be broke. I also set her up to be weakened by a few of our CSs by pitting her against them. The idea is to soon attack Carthage when it is convenient after the deal expires and we have our units ready.

165. Research agreement with Byzantine. Dido asked for 500 gold and I refused.

165-170. Dido lost many units to the CSs and also a city. However some deals ended and I also got fooled to sell a luxury we had only 1 copy of.. (it was showing 2 in the trade screen, I should have suspected it was a glitch).
 

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Stopped one turn short of 180.

Bought a couple of luxuries from the AIs for lump sums, paid Dido 15 gpt to make peace with Quebec, and constructing trading posts is a bit slow with just three workers, but we should still be fine. Some deals are ending soon and we'll get a bit of gpt back.

Spy steal timing in Athens was 28 turns, I tried Adrianople and that was 30, so I moved him to Mombasa with whom we lost ally status. I haven't finished Acoustics because our veteran spy is waiting for Enrico to research Architecture or Metallurgy in time for our steal, but I don't know how realistic that is. Enrico's just entered Industrial via Industrialization. Might have to leave and re-enter the city.

Natural GS spawned faster than GE in the capital despite not working sci slots and starting a Factory right away. We'll still get an engineer in 10 turns though and we can buy one with faith very soon too. I took Secularism and finished Tradition with the WF bonuses.

Dido might go for Antananarivo next, so maybe we can block some of her units to prevent city capture. I could've done that in Quebec if I paid more attention.

More importantly, we just finished three factories and we can now choose an ideology. I didn't want to make the decision on my own, so I stopped playing on turn 179. To me Autocracy doesn't make much sense, but Freedom and Order seem about equally good.
Spoiler :

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I am such a dissapointment in this game....At least we might get to see those unique bombers in play, though.
 
With the WF culture, I took 3 Order (Monument :c5happy:, GP %, Factories), then right side of Rationalism. Rerouted 2 Cargoes to Constantinople, economy is stable now. Used an Engineer on Brandenburg gate in Philly.

Aborted spy mission in Venice, moved him to Washington. We are teching hard, will soon surpass others, and personally I like to start with a veteran rather than train up a noob. I also like the Order spy policy if we don't need happiness, but maybe we prefer the 15% Combat bonus instead. Would combo well with Just War for city-hopping.

I like how we had trapped Dido's Merchant + Prophet, but I let the Merchant get away by not renewing Open Borders (waited a turn). I think she used it on Sidon and may attempt a coup soon, so I put our other spy there.

Surrounded Anta with units to prevent capture, but Dido didn't attack it. Instead everyone has denounced Mongolia and there will probably be a world war soon. We received a lot of invitations to war (mostly against Venice) but declined. Friendship has ended with Dido, didn't seek renewal.

Overall our position is enviable... We begin to reap the benefits our WF policies now, and even with the sale of Amsterdam retain a massive Rationalism empire. But I do think it will be a long game.

America 190.jpgAmerica demos.jpg
 

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Oh and T, don't disparage yourself - you've been playing well as always. I don't really mind your city sales this game, since we still have a long fight ahead of us. That said, to sell a captured capital in a Dom game feels wrong, but I see you got 90 gpt in the short term which we badly needed to get out of debt. Whenever we have our next SG we can flesh out the rules for these situations. It's difficult keeping track of economy across 10-turn sessions as well, so GPT emergencies can pop up unexpectedly and lead to tough choices.
 
Hey, thanks guys, kind of you to show support. And also for patience as I was a bit busy in the last days. For a next game I will be less radical in doing very important decisions for the team.

In this session I mostly done some Sim City and grew our cities a bit. I sacrificed points of Great People but I did add quite a few citizen for our empire and especially so in New York where we now have 3 sea routes for +10 food.
I suggest to continue to grow at least this city on max food at least till 20 pop so that it becomes a decent city.

I made a few cheap-ish bribes so that we are left alone to build Windmills, Public Schools and the such. And also signed 2 new Research agreements with Venice and Byzantine.
Alexander no longer hates us, he has become Friendly and I bought a few luxuries from him too to trigger some WLTKs.

Alexander has a spy in Sidon so we should keep one there as a counter to his rigging. And somebody else is doing rigging in Belgrade too so maybe the Modern Era spy can be moved to Belgrade to try to counter that.

@vadalaz please put citizen in the cities how you like as they are mostly on food now. It didn't feel very wrong to add a few citizen, to have available to work both trade posts and specialists. And also we have a Writer and an Artist but we are close to our natural golden age so maybe keep them both until we trigger it.
We have also received word that we are being worked against us secretly by Dido. I think Dido is waiting for the first opportunity to strike us but she is in a few wars now so that's why I didn't bother to upgrade triremes. I think the mostly likely scenario for Dido to DOW us is after she makes peace with Mongolia, and maybe at the same time or a few turns after, both Carthage and Mongolia jointly DOW us. However I think we have a strong empire and we will soon become the literacy leader.
We will most likely blitz the entire map after we get to GWBs.
 

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Greece started to take our CS allies from us, so I spent some gold to get them back and DoW Alex. Also purchased a Great Prophet for one of those CSs' quests. Alex hasn't sent anything our way yet, but I upgraded a couple of triremes and sent them east to intercept a potential plunderer. Haven't done anything with the Prophet yet.

I didn't finish Radio and went for Biology instead to reveal Oil and get another trade route. We have 4 Oil in Boston, plus 4 in Sidon, 2 in Mombasa and 2 in Quebec. Went Refrigeration next for Subs and to improve our Oil and probably Sidon's as well.

Genghis backstab-denounced us. Byzantium went Order so we should be safe from ideological pressure. DOF with Venice has just expired.

Spoiler :
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