[BTS] Any Chance of Recovery?

[knight508]

It's been a couple years and I'm trying to jump right back in where I left off: Emperor.

Had a half assed semi successful axe rush but not finishing off Washington really put a damper on the party. Fell behind in tech and it's just turning into a horsehocky show real fast. I know enough to get in trouble but apparently not enough to avoid wasting time. Got BUG/BULL etc. installed.

I chopped and whipped but I royally screwed up when I went literature instead of currency.

 

[sampsa]

I think it's a decent position. Enough strong cities and very safe diplo position. I'd say you can win it 100% if you play it well.

What you need to do now is stop building units (and mostly stop building buildings, too) and gear your empire towards getting a strong military tech asap. Steel or rifling, maybe both. Since liberalism is gone next turn, education is not really a useful tech for you. Universities are just another building for you to build. I think you are overbuilding buildings anyway. I would likely have no rathauses for example, definitely not one in capital.

I'm a bit torn on what to suggest as next tech. Printing press maybe (since nobody has it), but AI likes to go for it and will trade it around. Nationalism? Not on the tech path that I wanted. Guilds? 3 AI have it, so not much trade value. Guess I'd recommend PP, but switch to something else if Sulei grabs it via lib next turn. Anyway. Try to tech and trade towards steel and rifling.

Getting NE up in your GLib-city would double the main benefit of the wonder ( points). I'd start a golden age with the incoming to run caste/pacifism to get more . Chemistry is bulbable with GS btw, but education is higher on the list. A reason to skip paper in non-liberalism games!

Resource trades and begs:

• Willem: cancel ivory/horse, corn for 5pt deals. Get ivory+5pt for horse. 2 gained.
• Zara: marble for 7pt.
• beg from Sulei, Zara, Willem. Joao is pleased so could ask for 40 but rather wait until he has more. Sulei was willing to give 100 at least, probably should have asked for more.

I'll play a few turns and post a save showing my interpretation on how I think you should proceed.

Edit: Did some calculations on begging based on Kaitzilla's recent post. Arrived at number 315 for Suleiman with assumption that AI contact happens late on emperor. Begging 300 succeeded.

 

[sampsa]

Nice trap. Hit end turn.

 

[knight508]

I'll keep at it then. I feel like my biggest problem the first time around was I always built too many buildings. I felt like the courthouses/rathauses were necessary as GPT was a big issue. Good reminder about keeping an eye on bulbing paths. Washington peace vassaled to Zara for a bit but recently broke free. I was going to go after him but I think I'll instead do as you suggested and run cast/pacifism and crank out GS and turn most production in cities to research. I'm thinking of B-lining cannons at this point. If and when I do I'll try to finish off Washington which will net me another four cities. I should then finally have the advantage to start rolling on my neighbors and hopefully get some vassals.

 

[sampsa]

You'll soon understand what this meant...

Nice trap. Hit end turn.

 

[sampsa]

Anyway, you can learn a lot from this game.

• don't build too many buildings, build wealth and failgold
• don't have a standing army when your diplo is very safe
• if you go for GLib, get NE up too
• go for pacifism to get and a big tech lead, aim for a military tech
• be aware of bulb paths
• you can beg for a lot of ! Tweak resource trades as often as possible
  
• liberalism is not a winning condition, and the techs that lead to it are not very useful
• diplo/religious is a winning condition. Pretty sure voting for an AI to win is a sub-optimal play

 

[knight508]

Got home after dinner and fired up the game. Tweaked and tuned things for a couple minutes and hit the next turn button.
Not sure why I didn't abstain, maybe was mad and clicked whatever was on the screen to get out of the game and upload my progress here (though I still would have lost even after abstaining).
Think I'm going to reload before my big skipping currency mistake and go at it again. Thanks for the tips.