Another Classic SG ...

[TimTheEnchanter]

I started looking at this Sunday night. Holy cow, there are a lot of moving parts to account for now. A far cry from the last time I saw this. I doubt I'll have time to even look this tonight, as it is a "24" night. I'll try to get to it later in the week.

My biggest problem is that I'm not sure what I want to try to accomplish in this set of turns.

It's good to see O&S is back to his old ways, drawing the Barbs out of hiding. We're starting to get back to form. However, looking at the current situation, it will be interesting to see if we make it all the way back to The Viking before the first mushroom.

 

[TheViking]

I started looking at this Sunday night. Holy cow, there are a lot of moving parts to account for now. A far cry from the last time I saw this. I doubt I'll have time to even look this tonight, as it is a "24" night. I'll try to get to it later in the week.

As I mentioned previously I think we should soon (no later than by the end of this 'round', i.e. once Tim and Andu have played) reduce the number of turns per player from 10 to 6-8 turns.

My biggest problem is that I'm not sure what I want to try to accomplish in this set of turns.

Well, my opinion of what needs to be accomplished can be summed up in a single word:
WAR!

The slightly more detailed version is that IMO we need cities on the Japanese island immediately to try to get the Japanese to sneak attack or steal a tech so we can declare war. We have made great progress technologically so we are ready for large scale warfare.

On the plus side we have lots of new cities, including a city north of the Japanese island and a nearby engineer. It would be nice to use that engineer to found a city even farther north by rush buying a transport. This is risky (the English might attack the transport and/or city) but if it succeeds conquering the world will be much easier once we get airports.

I'm a bit surprised there are no superhighways in our biggest cities yet since these increase the delivery bonuses.

 

[TimTheEnchanter]

WAR!
We need cities on the Japanese island
we have lots of new cities,
found a city even farther north by rush buying a transport.
the English might attack the transport and/or city)
once we get airports.
there are no superhighways
delivery bonuses.

See that's the problem. I'm trying to set a particular set of goals for these turns, and there are many possible ways to go at this problem and they seem rather interrelated, so it's hard to focus on one without addressing the others. I look at it and think:

Build a couple cities on the Japanese island, aggravate them, and get into a war...
...OK, that means I will need a cadre of engineers, spies, transports, and of course many guns...
...But i'll have to divert some production to keeping a steady supply of vans flowing to pay for it all...
...but that will require even more transports...
...and if we are going to deliver goods, we should be building superhighways...
...but superhighways are not cheap, so that diverts even more gold and production...
...and if we take over japan, we won't get the foreign delivery bonuses there any more, so we need more transports to deliver goods farther away...
...but if we start the war, sailing past japan may not be secure until we take them out completely...
...so maybe we should start expanding farther north and speed-building those small cities to size 3 and RRing them and building a trasportation chain up that way...
...but that diverts more transports and even more engineers away from war and delivery efforts...
...so maybe I'm not at a point where I want to start the war...
...but the best way to secure the path to get further north might be to go through japan...
...so I should build a couple cities on the Japanese island, aggravate them, and get into a war...

Then I'm right back where I started again.
(And I haven't even started thinking about airports yet!)

 

[Kev]

Gets tough when the AI has done well enough to challege us at this level. In 'regular' deity and below, one usually CAN do everything: founding and improving cities, delivering numerous and lucrative freight, and fighting wars - usually even on several different fronts - all at once.

Perhaps it would be best to focus on one or two top priorities.

I'm not the president, but my thoughts would lead me toward the English as they are bound to give us the most grief if we allow them to go about their business unmolested. I don't think the Japanese, Vikings or even the Spanish will really challenge us in the long run, and we can keep a better eye on them anyway with their locations.

Going toward the English would involve the setting up of a long-term deal that others would likely follow-up with as well. We could get some cities founded way up north where we can hopefully connect to their road/rail - build them up and improve them as quickly as possible, and start an airport system as soon as possible. With a small core of 5-7 cities within striking distance and with airports, we can get tons of units up there in a few turns (given airports elsewhere). A decent airport system can also mean we won't have to use vulnerable ship chains that stretch the length of the map.

This also means we can leave the Japanese to their own devices and still use them, the Spanish and Vikings for freight delivery in the short term while we get ourselves set up further north. Once airports are established, freight can even be moved to the English and Americans for huge payoffs if we DO decide to eventually stomp the local civs.

Basically, it means putting the time and energy (and money) into local freight and city planning up north rather than also having to include spies, artillery, cavalry, and the like for a war that might become protracted if we don't have far superior numbers.

Just my thoughts - and rusty ones at that.

 

[Andu Indorin]

See that's the problem. I'm trying to set a particular set of goals for these turns, and there are many possible ways to go at this problem and they seem rather interrelated, so it's hard to focus on one without addressing the others. I look at it and think: ... Then I'm right back where I started again.
(And I haven't even started thinking about airports yet!)

Ah ... decisions, decisions ... logistics, logistics. But I'm pretty sure we can accomodate TheViking by the next time his round is up.

Just my thoughts - and rusty ones at that.

These two are good thoughts, and I think defines the situation quite well. ...

 

[Peaster]

Sorry to intrude, just browsing... but does Old-n-Slow's pop-up really say "92 units destroyed"? Ya don't see that everyday.

 

[Sharkbait]

Sorry to intrude, just browsing... but does Old-n-Slow's pop-up really say "92 units destroyed"? Ya don't see that everyday.

The joys of Barb Wrath! Still quite a lot of barbs around the map too - there is another uprising that has taken an AI city quite some time ago.

 

[TimTheEnchanter]

Its' been a while, so I just wanted to let you all know that I am still working on this. I have not had much time to play lately, but I am making progress.

 

[TheViking]

Hopefully progress means war .

It would be fun to get some 'teasers'.

 

[Andu Indorin]

To everything there is a season ...

 

[TimTheEnchanter]

Hopefully progress means war .

It would be fun to get some 'teasers'.

Well, in my 2nd turn I put a city on Japan's main island.

Two turns later they predictably sent in a diplomat...

 

[TimTheEnchanter]

OK, so I finished my turns. I hope to finish the writeup and such tomorrow night.

Here's something for y'all to ponder while I finish that.

(Let's see if I can get the image attachment working right...)

 

[Sharkbait]

Nice!!!!

 

[TimTheEnchanter]

I Like
Ike!

1630 (Turn 0)
You probably think I'm insane
Our treasury, to the last coin, I drain
I build lots of boats
I hope they stay afloat
But I've got to get freights off to Spain.

- Taxes set to 60 gold/0 sci/40 lux - Science isn't enough to make a difference. We need cash more. Increase luxury to allow size 1 cities to work/produce food and let a couple more cities celebrate. I'm lazy and it makes management a little bit easier.
- Rush buys take treasury down to exactly 0g.

- Viking Gov't overthrown (Now Demo).

1640 (Turn 1)
We still have some use for Japan
They pay well for the goods in our Van
As superhighways are built
They give more and more gilt
No war for now: That's the plan.

- 2 WLTPDs
- 2 engineers, 5 vans, 8 transports
- 1 harbor, 1 aqua, 1 superhighways
- 1 pollution
- Pop > 20M

- Harp Silk to Edo (D-468), Drogheda Copper to Kyoto (D-1392) -- And with 1 delivery a Rush Built superhighway pays for itself and more.
- Buy a few barbs

- Japan gov't overthrown (Demo)
- Spanish dragoon near Achill. (Can allies take an unoccupied city? Will rush a unit there to be safe)


1650 (Turn 2)
Some cities are grown to size 3
So they can celebrate with great glee.
We work our way North
Sending engineers forth
And continue our rash spending spree

- 4 vans, 3 engineers, 1 artillery
- 1 market, 3 sewers, 2 superhighways
- 1 pollution
- Pop > 21M
- Holmpatrick founded on Japanese Island
- Ardmore founded N. of Notre Dame/Guinness Island
- Belfast Gold to Salamanca (D-1160)

- build Shrule, Letterfrack, and Barna up to size 3
- Spend treasury down to around 100g

- English develop Conscription

1660 (Turn 3)
We're suddenly swimming in cash
We fill up the beaker box in a flash
Japan sends a dip
but we cut short his trip
We are not yet prepared for a clash

- 3 WLTPD
- 7 engineers, 3 vans
- 5 harbors, 1 sewer, 2 aqua, 3 superhighways
- Miniaturization -> Computers
- Pop > 22M

- Dubh Linn wine to Kyoto (D-1965g), Derry Gems to Edo (D-1728g) -- Did I mention...Superhighways Kick Ass!
- Bribe barb cannon

- Japan tries to get dip to Holmpatrick but we have blocked his path, since we're not ready for war.

1670 (Turn 4)
Again, Japan's diplomat expelled
Their leaders complained and they yelled
They wanted to steal
We tell them "No deal"
(It not time for Kyoto to get shelled.)

- 2 eng, 7 vans, 1 transport
- 1 harbor, 1 walls on Japan island, 1 market, 5 superhighways, 1 sewer
- 1 WLTPD
- Computers -> Mobile Warfare
- Pop > 24M

- Expel Japanese Diplomat
- Dundalk Dye to Nagasaki (D-1236g), Dinas Emrys Gems to Nagasaki (D-2096), Belfast Oil to Seville(ND-735g)

- vikings develop conscription
- Spanish develop magnetism
- Americans get magnetism from english; english get Montheism from americans; Americans get Communism from english, English get Electronics or something like that.


1680 (Turn 5)
Our Gold and our Silk bring big bucks
We keep building more and more trucks
On the north route we grow
(I'm surprised it's so slow)
But our engineer supply still sucks

- 8 Eng, 6 vans, 2 transports
- 3 harbor, 2 market, 4 superhighways, 1 bank, 1 factory
- 2 pollution
- Mobile Warfare -> Robotics (Obsolete barracks sold)
- Pop > 25M

- Drogheda Gold to Vallodolid (D-2448), Killarney Silk to Edo (D-1872g)
- Expel japan dip again
- Raphoe founded as transport waypoint to Ardmore and points North
- Connor founded on north side of Ardmore island
- Achill size 2 - built up to size 3, Ardmore built up to size 3
- May need to start buying more from scratch as purchases not keeping up with income

- English govt overthrown (Republic)


1690 (Turn 6)
We start drilling oil offshore
Soon factories will produce even more
But there's too much pollution
Recycling's the solution!
We must free engineers from that chore

- 3 engineers, 4 vans
- 4 market, 2 harbor, 1 aqua, 1 offshore platform, 2 superhighways, 2 Banks, 1 supermarket
- 2 WLTPD
- Robotics -> Recycling
- 4 pollution
- Pop > 27M

- Advanced tribe Annaghdown size 3 on S. end of continent 14. Has Granary, Temple, Market. Access to whale and wheat, but no water access for harbor or boat traffic.. Not a great site, but might be able to produce some engineers, vans or such.
- Kilkenny Copper to Edo (d-568), DL Gems to Edo (d-2520), Guinness Copper to Granada (D-762)
- Holmpatrick, Connor built up to size 3
- Treasury over 10k gold temporarily (before 6500+ worth of Rush Buys)

- Japan develops Polytheism, Japan dip comes to visit

1700 (Turn 7)
Japan wants to learn mobile war
So I promptly show them the door.
My parting advice:
Japan may pay a dear price
When it isn't my turn anymore.

- 3 WLTPD
- 1 Harbor, 1 market, 8 aqua, 2 factory, 3 sewer, 1 superhighway, 2 offshore platform, 1 mass transit, 1 stock exchange
- 1 engineer, 7 vans, 2 transport
- Recycling -> Genetic Engineering
- 2 pollution

- Emain Macha founded to continue path northward
- Raphoe, Emain Macha built to size 3
- Expel Japanese diplomat again
- Japan wants to talk to passing van. Demands Mobile war - no. Update maps while we're chatting. Done. (Japan has a ton of boats clogging up shipping lanes near Spain and several units on Spain continent, but no real presence north or west of their island)
- Kerry Cloth to Edo (nd-164) Gems demand restored as DL(last city to deliver gems) trade minimized by making all workers specialists during delivery.
- Llangollen Gems to Edo (D-1332),Waterford Dye to Madrid (D-1650), Galway hides to Granada (nd-870)
- bribe barb musket at lahinch

- Americans develop Theology

1710 (Turn 8)
There's a limit to how much one can write
In Limerick form late at night.
I've run out of things to say
That rhyme A-A-B-B-A.
I guess that I'm just not that bright.

- 1 Harbor, 1 Aqua, 1 Sewer, 3 Recycling Plants, 2 Factories, 1 Offshore Platform
- 3 WLTPD
- 6 vans, 7 engineers, 3 transports
- 3 pollution
- Genetic Engineering -> Guerrilla Warfare
- Pop > 30M

- Cork Gold to Vallodolid (D-2376)
- Dinas Emrys Dye to Saragossa (D-1626)
- Dun Ailinne founded, built to size 3
- Armagh founded on Continent 14, built to size 3

- Japan dip stopped short again - this time he didn't go to the Forest so we won't be able to expel him (too close to Japanese cities)


1720 (Turn 9)
Vallodolid loved my Gold trucks
But demand is now gone! Damn, that sucks!
Sacrifice Belfast hide?
Lady luck's on our side!
Our Gold pays twenty seven hundred bucks!

- 3 WLTPD
- Disorder in Annaghdown as workers are all screwy after building engineer.
- 2 Markets, 1 Harbor, 2 aqua, 1 Superhighway, 1 Bank, 1 Recycling, 1 Factory, 1 Stock Exchange, 2 Barracks (I know, I know...it's about damn time!)
- 7 engineers, 13 vans, 1 transport
- - - 2 pollution
- Pop > 33M

- One engineer added to Ennis to reach size 3
- Ruh-roh shraggy! Vallodolid gold demand is gone!!! Dye and such take over.
- Dump Belfast hides on Vallodolid (nd-738g) to see if it’s just the 16-turn Dye bug and we can somehow recover. Yeah! IT'S BACK!!!!
- Dubh Linn Gold to Vallodolid (D-2736) And the Gold demand stays!!!!
- Only need about 600 more beakers...Belfast hides to Seville (nd-771g) …and Seville suddenly develops a craving for Gem$. Sweet.
- bribe barb musket at lahinch
- Drat. Belfast Hides supply is gone (although Gems make for a nice 1x replacement)
- More engineers sent north to work on the rails.

- Vikings develop Steam Engine
- English develop Corporation
- Gibbon's Epic History of Largest Civs: Celts, English, Spanish, Vikings, Japanese, Americans. (No real surprises)


1730 (Turn 10)
- 2 harbor, 1 market, 2 mass transit, 1 stock exchange, 1 recycling center
- 2 WLTPD (one restoring Annaghdown from disorder last turn)
- 2 engineers, 12 vans
- 4 pollution
- Labor Union -> Amphibious Warfare (only other choice was Flight and I will delay that choice for next person)
- Pop > 35m

- Bribe last Barb cannon at Lahinch


Some quick comparisons:

Population: 1630 - 19,100,00; 1730 – 35,710,000
Treasury: 1630 – 1836; 1730 – 5276


Cities: 1630 - 1730
Total: 39 - 47
> 12 : 4 - 13
9-12: 12 – 16
size8 : 6 – 2
5–7: 4 – 6
3–4: 3 – 6
1-2: 10 – 4

F2/Units 1630 - 1730
Settlers: 1 – 1
Engineers: 23 - 36
Musket: 1 – 2
Partisans: 0 - 1
ATs: 4 - 5
Rifle: 1 - 2
Horse: 1 - 1
Elephant: 1 - 1
Cavalry: 3 - 3
Cannons: 4 - 5
Artillery: 0 - 1
Galleon: 1 - 0
Transport: 14 - 31
Spy: 8 - 8
Freight: 30 - 75

 

[TimTheEnchanter]

What I was thinking... not that anyone probably cares.

First, my apologies for taking over 2 weeks for this. I haven't had many extended periods of time to play lately, not to mention, I just obsess over way to many inconsequential details.

Sorry Viking, but there was no war. I really was going to build a bunch of artillery early on, but I wanted to deliver goods where they were demanded and that meant safe passage to Spain. War with Japan would have made that almost impossible. And when it came down to it, I really just wasn't in a fighting mood. Andu and Duke are much better at war (and peace for that matter) than me, so I tried to set the stage for them if they want to go that route. I focused on creating a secure path to the north and building up our infrastructure. At least now we can fight with howitzers – assuming things are continued on their current path, the first couple Vet Howitzers should come on line next turn. Knife through butter, baby!

I could have gone to war, had I wanted to. Japan keeps sending a dip toward Holmpatrick nearly every turn. I currently have road access to the city blocked by 2 stacked vans, and a Van/musket combination in the adjacent fort. The dip usually ends up in the forest tile next to the city and I just expel him. (In fact, he's stuck there right now. We're in no position to start a war this turn, so I'd expel him again, but we've already established that I'm a wimp.) If you want to start the war, just let him get to the city and he'll surely do something naughty. Of course he'll probably steal something like Robotics or Labor Union (or Nuke Fission if we learn that soon), and they'll give it to everyone else to make it interesting, but once we go, we'll just have to go through them quickly so they can't do anything with whatever they steal. The alternative is that Japan is already down to Receptive. A request or two to leave our territory might just do the trick without giving up a tech.

There's an Emissary er... a Partisan in Holmpatrick. I assume Duke and Andu know what he's there for.

I consider the northward expansion to be at least a moderate success because I reached continent 14 and started railing the way north. I had hoped to make it farther, but I didn't buy Engineers aggressively enough (I didn't put cities into a major food deficit to build them, and I prioritized improvements and vans). I probably kept too many engineers close to home, and I just underestimated the logistical difficulty getting the rails, transports and such in the right place at the right time. The cities along the route all have decent trade/growth potential, or they could produce more engineers to feed the northward rail effort.

I consider the northward path to continent 14 to be "secure" because it requires no exposed ship chain. The transports all go city-to-city which allows the ability to defend them easily (if we were to do something crazy, like building defensive units!). We're still quite far away from england, but I have a personal dislike for Airports as a means to get units to a Front, as (1) too many things seem to get shot down, (2) you can only send one thing per turn, and (3) you can't move the unit on the turn it flies. This way, with some dedicated engineer work we should be able to plow a path up to the English cities in short order. There are a couple spies scouting out the territory ahead of the Engineering brigade.

Additional cities should be formed along the way as these distant locales should provide some nice trade opportunities, they could build more engineers, provide unit support, etc. (and nothing's stopping us from putting airports in them for additional long-distance transfers). Based on the "near to <city> notices I saw, there seems to be the potential for plenty of decent looking, unoccupied land East of Spain and south of England. Also, there are a couple places where a Transport hop might make sense to cut down on the rails required to get north.

All of the current transport hops have 2 boats (one in each city) which allows for 2-way traffic if necessary (e.g., when northern cities start producing vans, we need engineers to Rail through Japan, or we want to bring units back from their victorious campaigns). Even if there's no units coming south, you should move the boats back and forth each turn to get a northward boat ready for the next turn to provide uninterrupted transportation flow. As we get closer to military engagement, we may want to put 2 boats in each direction to increase the bandwidth to 16 units per turn.

There are 3 Engineers at Achill ready to form a size 3 city to jumpstart the rail route farther north on #14, closer to the English. I wanted to send these out sooner, but I had to wait several turns for the city to first reach size 2 to add the engineer, then size 4 before it could start producing its own engineers without population loss. I'd rush build a transport there from scratch this turn, and ship them out so Achill doesn't starve trying to support them all much longer. I had planned to send them roughly west-northwest from Achill so the new city could build it's own engineers and aid the Rail effort, but that's just me. Without supply lines to the main cities, I wouldn't build a city too close to the English yet.

It's probably obvious, but just to be clear, the path north goes as follows: (Using the notation of +++ for transport travel and === for rail connections)
Original Cities===Dundalk+++Drogheda===Wexford+++Castlebar===Raphoe+++Ardmore===Connor+++Emain Macha===Dun Ailinne+++Armagh===Farther North on #14
Side-routes available:
Castlebar===Quilty+++Leenane==Shrule+++Bantry - this could be an alternate launch point for an attack on northern Japan. The reverse is also the route to get things back to the mainline from Bantry, Leenane, Shrule, Barna, and Letterfrack

The route to deliver goods to Spain is NOT secure - it is a highly exposed ship chain. Keep this in mind before starting a war - it will likely get decimated in its current form. Picking up from the main northward path, it goes Castlebar===Kerry+++Lahinch+++Holmpatrick(Japan)+++and on to Spain. It is set up to allow dropoffs near Salamanca, Nagasaki, Sargossa, Seville and up near Vallodolid/Grenada. The chain goes through Holmpatrick to drop off and pick up extra vans, but the boats do not stay there at the end of a turn. the boat from Lahinch stops a few turns short of Holmpatrick while the next boat goes up to holmpatrick then back down around Kyoto on its way to spain (See picture of Spanish shipping route below). One thing to be aware of, the Japanese and Spanish have a ton of boats in the water between Japan and Spain, particularly near the straits betweem Nagasaki and Sargaossa. This makes it sometimes difficult to maintain proper spacing and placement for the ship chain due to the congestion. It has taken a lot of boats, but the chain roughly reaches all the way back to Lahinch/Kerry now, allowing free and easy transport of units/goods to Japan and Spain every turn. Just keep them going in a loop as shown in the picture below. I actually think I miscounted and there is now an extra boat or two in the area of Kerry now.

I call Vallodolid my "Gold mine". I'm not sure why (and I wasn't about to complain) but demand in Vallodolid (and Salamanca) did not become blocked when Gold was delivered to them. Just keep delivering gold vans to them from Superhighway cities for astounding payoffs. There was a scare in 1720, but it seems to have been a one turn deal. Actually I got even more money delivering to Edo. I was able to get Edo to demand Gems several times by going to the city that last delivered Gems there, making all workers specialists to minimize trade, deliver a van from a different city to Edo, then deliver a new Gems van. Once the vans made it to cities that demanded them, I was able to easily get a tech every turn based on 2-to-4 deliveries with science set to 0. There are a ton of vans in Spain and Holmpatrick waiting to be delivered. I tried not to deliver much more than was needed to fill the beaker box each turn.

In 9 turns, I delivered 22 vans for over 31,000g (an average of over 1400g each). Five deliveries paid over 2000g each; another nine paid over 1000g each. Only 2 were below 500g. Several of the vans near Vallodolid should pay in excess of 2000g each (before flight)

With a couple exceptions, I tried to make sure any city about to deliver goods had superhighways. The increase in delivery bonus is phenomenal and generally pays for itself with one delivery. I spent the last couple turns RBing a lot of vans in smaller cities before they grow. This was to get the rarer goods (Copper, Wine, Coal, Silver, Silk, Dye) built before the cities get bigger, because the bigger cities always seem to produce low-demand junk like salt, and oil. The plan is to build these desirable vans now but save them, living off the current supply of vans from the already big SuperHighway cities. Then let those small cities grow, build the SH's and then cash in for big bucks later. Also a lot of those cities are farther north near the middle of the map, so delivery to Japan/Spain won't pay as well because the distance isn't great. They would probably do better getting dropped on England or America once we get up there, or perhaps delivery back to our big fat southern cities, especially once we get airports in both cities. There are currently 75 total vans (five of them Food) so there is plenty of opportunity to cash in.

City production has been boosted by some Offshores and Factories. These cities either have, or should soon get barracks to produce and support our upcoming war machine. Because pollution was becoming an issue (I was trying to send more engineers northward), I built recycling centers in the biggest shield producing cities. They help a bit; I hope they're worth the cost. A number of cities need Mass transits too - Killarney, Galway, Durrow, Dinas Emrys should benefit, and it may even help in Cork. Others are on the cusp of needing it due to growth (Dinas Powys, Dundalk). If pollution continues to be an issue, we may need to sell the recycling plants and build some solar plants (especially before someone starts nuking everyone)

I delayed pursuing Flight to keep delivery bonuses up. Once we learn it, we should quickly push for Radio and build many airports for the delivery bonus improvements. At that point, since the AI won't have Auto or Radio, (and they tend to be slow to build those improvements once they get the techs) domestic trade will probably start paying as well or better than similar distance foreign trade if we have SH and Airports in both cities. We should be able to make some nice deliveries to our own cities soon.

Once I got going, Hides producers (currently Belfast, Derry, Galway, Limerick, Ballybunion) saw vans rushed from scratch every turn (for 235g, or 210g if the city produces 10s or more). Hides producers without Superhighways (Limerick, Ballybunion) have most of their vans fortified in their city square so I wouldn't deliver them accidentally. I didn't want to deliver until SH were built, but didn't want to disrupt the supply of hides until they were needed. Once the hides supply dries up or those vans were absolutely needed, I would build the SH, then deliver them. Portmarnock used to supply hides but it is now in the process of growing and improving before delivering its hides vans. There has been no hides demand anywhere, but non-demanded deliveries to Spain from the big Superhighways cities still pays in the 700-800g neighborhood so it's worth the price to rush from scratch. Even after Flight they should be worth around 500g each (plus the beakers). And once we can get them up to England... cha-ching!

We have superhighways in 17 cities now, three should get them RB this turn, and a few others are growing to the point where they should get them soon too. Any city that had room to grow, I tried to keep up with needed improvements to make that happen and make them Cash cows. (Harbor, Market, Aqua, Sewer, Superhighways, Bank, etc.). FWIW, at this point I don't think Temples help at all. In fact, according to the happy page they seem to take away a happy face in several of our cities.

I increased luxuries to 40% so the size 1 cities didn't need elvi. It also helped push a couple other cities into celebration so I just kept it. Once the last size 1 city is built to size 3, it's probably worth looking to see if we could drop that back down to 30%. I probably wasted a bunch of gold each turn by not turning this back, but I was just too lazy to try to manage it at 30%. FWIW, Cure for Cancer is available to build although most cities are already 100% happy (Perhaps it will be helpful once we have units in the field). We've got some food vans parked in Bangor and Cork, plus a steady cash flow, so you may want to consider building that when looking at luxuries. On a wonder tangent, we can also build SETI, but since I've had science set at zero the whole time this seemed rather silly.

Improvements and growth have increased our net gold per turn from around 1000g (at 60%) to almost 1800 per turn. This, plus the gold from the deliveries required to learn a tech per turn (a little over 4000b now... no purple civ) gives just under 6000g to spend each turn and still maintain the treasury.

Most units haven't moved yet, which means you can still deliver vans, shift several engineers, etc. I haven't even addressed what to build next in most cities so the next player can do as they please. (note that MANY cities are still set to building the thing they just finished - check *ALL* production before proceeding). I did do a little engineering work, and I bribed the last barb cannon at Lahinch which is now causing a sheild drought in the city, but the intention was for that cannon and the musket to be used to jump-start rushbuys over the next coulple turns.

Oh, and sorry about the limericks. It seemed like a good idea, but it's much tougher than it looks to come up with material over-and-over again. Even then, I noticed as I was putting this together that I used the Bucks/Trucks/Sucks rhyming set twice. That's pretty lame even by my standards.

Enjoy.

Boat route to Japan, spain (click for full image)



And finally, the file:
View attachment BR_A1730.SAV

 

[Andu Indorin]

Hmmm ... great minds must think alike. After OldnSlow's productive set of turns, I formulated a plan of what I might try once I received the game. Tim has already exucuted about half of the plan.

Indeed, my original plan required something like sixteen turns. NOW I may be able to accomplish in ten turns.

Once again, an excellent job by both of you!

btw, you weren't joking about the "heavy traffic" area ...

 

[Sharkbait]

VERY impressive! Great work!

Don't think there be much left by the time the game gets back to me - doubt it will in fact.

 

[Old n Slow]

Nice, nice, nice. It is always a pleasure to watch great minds operating.

 

[Kev]

I tried the Limerick thing too. It was pretty hard!

I'm not sure who's up next - I wonder if it is me.

 

[Duke of Marlbrough]

Should be Andu, then you, then me. I wouldn't have a problem with it not making it as far as me.

BTW, I looked in the thread to see if we had decided on only no city bribes or if units were included as well. I found nothing so I bribed the ship.