Back to the struggle at Monarch

[M60A3TTS]

It is turn 97.

Two cities added, Magdeburg and Essen. The former to get metals as I feel nervous having only horses and archers if someone like the Zulu attack if the army is busy with Stalin. Essen rounds out the western border opposite the Khmer. They have a blue border like America so it didn't occur to me they were different civs until I saw who owned the Great Wall.

My bad on research, it's back @100. Currency in 5.

The chariot I figured was a cheap fogbuster to keep the arctic pacified. Nothing to really do up there otherwise. There are 3 chariots total in the army and one can be a super medic once war starts again. GG points are 28/30.

Here are a couple diplo shots. Roosevelt has a couple worst enemies and Stalin senses he may have a problem as we are worst enemy.

This is the early read on Russia. He has iron at Rostov so far, and 5 cities.

Here is domestic production. I've largely stopped with HA's to get some basic infra down, like granaries for improved whips and a couple more workers to support the new cities. I can resume cranking more out more HA's in just a few turns.

 

[nate46]

shouldn't have founded magdeburg, that's an incredibly crappy city. You have iron in Kish, and even if you didn't you could have just taken rostov's iron.

Lagash is also a terrible city, I would have consdered razing it. although i guess it has forests and you're organized so there's an argument for keeping it...

should have founded the "lake city" by now. you want to get that gold up and running.

 

[M60A3TTS]

T103

Currency in, construction next. Raised barb town on the coast for gold at the cost of a HA.

Here is Russia.

 

[M60A3TTS]

shouldn't have founded magdeburg, that's an incredibly crappy city. You have iron in Kish, and even if you didn't you could have just taken rostov's iron.

Lagash is also a terrible city, I would have consdered razing it. although i guess it has forests and you're organized so there's an argument for keeping it...

should have founded the "lake city" by now. you want to get that gold up and running.

Point taken on the crap city. It has started out a bit unlucky as I connected the iron, started to build axes, then a random event destroyed the mine after only a few turns. I can still connect the German empire with the American with a couple road tiles. Better trade routes coming. Lagash is also not much, but then if I raze it, Stalin settles there and it's one more city to conquer. That's my $.02.

Construction is in and COL next. Zara asks me to switch to Buddhism on turn 118 (75AD). Since Stalin isn't carrying a religion, and Ethiopia, America and Zulu are Buddhist, I agree to convert.

And with that, the invasion of Russia has begun.

 

[dutchfire]

I see a city building a market on your last screenshot. That's almost certainly not what you want to be doing during a war.

It's a bit hard to have an overview of your empire at the moment.

 

[M60A3TTS]

I see a city building a market on your last screenshot. That's almost certainly not what you want to be doing during a war.

It's a bit hard to have an overview of your empire at the moment.

Let me tell you my thoughts here, and you can tell me where I'm going astray.

First, I should have reported that 3 turns ago, Sury got wardec'd by Shaka and Zara. That leaves only Roosevelt in a position to intercede in my fight vs. Russia and he won't now that we are both Buddhist and Stalin carries no religion. Second, on the face of it, this is another one sided fight. There don't appear to be any scary SODs on the Russian side and his known metal source is going to go quickly. To my way of thinking as long as I have one unit left to take Russia's last city, then that is enough. Third, with 10 cities and more to be absorbed through this war, and paying supply costs, my economy is going to be really strained. Of course I can go wealth/research but wouldn't basic wealth buildings be a better answer?

I know the mantra of building units during war, but there seem to be enough reasons to at least start laying wealth based infra down in this instance. I can always inject combat units into the city queues if needed.

 

[nate46]

Of course I can go wealth/research but wouldn't basic wealth buildings be a better answer?

nope. Market takes 150 hammers, and if you build wealth, you just get 150g for it.

market is only going to give you around +2 gold per turn MAYBE, could be even less. Would be in the industrial era before it pays for itself. Don't build markets. courthouses are fine though since you're org.

 

[MegaLurker]

At this particular difficulty and map size I don't think you've prioritized correctly. You can win this map with nothing more advanced than Elepults, for which you already have all the prerequisites. IMO you should have gone for construction before Currency. You probably don't even need Feudalism, though I'm not sure whether it would be faster to research that and then capitulate remaining AIs or just turn your science slider to 0% and wipe everybody out. Raze cities that won't provide more than a couple units, city capture gold will see you through to the end when you'll be losing money with the slider off.

So scaling back on the production of units to build any infrastructure that doesn't contribute to the war effort is slowing you down. You want a granary and barracks in every city, and that's it. Then you build nothing but units or wealth. You might not even face a single Longbow the entire game. Almost certainly no Pikemen.

 

[M60A3TTS]

What a bloodthirsty group.

Russians are dead. I razed Yekaterinburg, Rostov and Yakutsk, none of which had their own food sources. Kept Moscow, St. Pete, Novgorod and Yaroslavl, all of which have their own food sources.

 

[sampsa]

Not sure if someone pointed this out earlier, but you should not build workers in size 1 cities. You should also not slow build workers in any cities after you have a granary. Whipping them from size 4->2 is super efficient.

 

[nate46]

Not sure if someone pointed this out earlier, but you should not build workers in size 1 cities. You should also not slow build workers in any cities after you have a granary.

who makes these silly rules? lol

 

[M60A3TTS]

Not sure if someone pointed this out earlier, but you should not build workers in size 1 cities. You should also not slow build workers in any cities after you have a granary. Whipping them from size 4->2 is super efficient.

OK thanks, I figured what was good at the start of the game was good any other time. Now I know better.

 

[M60A3TTS]

Burned the last city of Russia that was of no use.

Extended our property line accordingly.

 

[M60A3TTS]

760AD

Khmer next up on the menu.

 

[M60A3TTS]

They lasted 11 turns.

 

[sampsa]

who makes these silly rules? lol

It is not a "rule", whatever that is supposed to mean. Do some math/testing yourself if you don't understand why it is optimal. That way you will learn.

@M60A3TTS: gg You are definitely ready for the next difficulty level.

 

[nate46]

@sampsa: it depends on the cites... i mean if you have a lot of extra food its better to whip, but with good hammers or commerce squares its better to slow build or chop. size of city doesn't matter that much...

@M60: As you can see you've basically won this game and your market still isn't finished building, don't yuou wish you had built gold instead? Also i don't know why you teched philosophy.

You need a city with a library running scientist specialists. then you could have teched faster.

Although this is good enough to win monarch, congrats! try emperor next game IMO, you're ready for it.

 

[sampsa]

@sampsa: it depends on the cites... i mean if you have a lot of extra food its better to whip, but with good hammers or commerce squares its better to slow build or chop. size of city doesn't matter that much...

I understand what you say and partly agree with you. However, after you have invested on a granary, it is nearly always sub-optimal to stagnate that city, as it renders the granary moot. This is so important to realize that we might even call it a rule. If you want to slow-build/stagnate on a rather small size working high -tiles, just skip the granary (obv).

It's very rare to have a game where you don't have a city with 1 or 2 good -resources, while all other tiles are mediocre. Such cities make good worker/settler-whippers. I mentioned size 4, as it is optimal to be as small as possible and not grow onto more mediocre tiles such as 21(1).

 

[M60A3TTS]

Don't need temples or monasteries?

Don't need markets, grocers or banks?

Don't need universities or Oxford?

It's all been a lie!!!

...and Roosevelt lasted 19 turns.

@ Nate: re philo=More religion! I know, I don't need that either. Rats!

 

[nate46]

It's very rare to have a game where you don't have a city with 1 or 2 good -resources, while all other tiles are mediocre. Such cities make good worker/settler-whippers.

They make better gp factories.

also, should build your workers/settlers sooner than that in most games, unless you're going for a peaceful expansion strategy and you're pushing 8+ cities self-founded. If you're at <6 cities and but you already have a high food high pop city with a granary that's not your cap, you need to build settlers sooner than that...