[BAT Mod 4.1] Help me earn the title Imperator (Emperor)!

[Gumbolt]

None of the AI have paper yet. I can't see you losing liberalism here.
Great scientist is 1500 beakers + 3x population. So waiting has some merits if your population increases. (Capturing Celt cities will offer you more science. His capital alone is 10+ pop. )Absolutely no point taking lib on anything under 3k beakers. If your planning cuirs then Military traditions is good.
Looks like you were unlucky on the barb galley.
Can't turn the clock on the golden age. NE now might just be a waste if you intend to spam cuirs.
Look at odds next turn on the attack. You could bombard with 3-4 catapults and attack with the rest. Phants can mop up.

Your running a lot of specialist in cities that are unlikely to create a great person. Not sure holding back city growth for this is good. You don't have the mids so these specialists are only producing 3 base science plus any bonuses from libraries or academy.

You do need to cut out non essential builds like Lymond suggests.

 

[lymond]

True, but GPP now is GPP later...say if IK gets Taj...so I see no harm in running specialists in most places that at least have the food to support it now.

Ah..so it is pop that impacts beaker value

Also note that you may want to Capitulate Brennus at some point since he is at war with Justy too. No clue how that side of the war is going, but whittle Brennus down enough he may cap to Justy. A couple more cities including Bibs will probably be enough. I might just give him back his cities and make him a strong vassal. He will be decent in future war efforts if you prop him up.

You can have your vassals tech piddly stuff you want to ignore for now..and gift them military techs or econ techs to boost them in research and fighting.

Oh..you could trade CS and compass to Justy for Feud.

De Gualle may make a good next target even with Elepults. I might ignore Justy for now since he is so friendly.

 

[Gumbolt]

Yes I was a bit confused by your comment about bulbing. Given the bulbs are done on a formula. Does it get the bonus from prequisite techs too. (No bonus for prequisite techs.)

True if she builds Taj. By then she might already have edu and Lib. Still same problem that her core cities are size 4-6. They need to grow. After lib abd Edu the bulbing route war wise becomes less useful. Printing press and chemistry after gunpowder. I normally turn off science after MT and engineering. Then spam cuirs. Unless she plans to go communism here and a hammer economy?

 

[krikav]

@lymond "Another thing to note is that bulb value increases with tech rate which increases during a Golden Age"

I thought that the bulb value was fixed at 1500 + 3*total population

 

[Gumbolt]

He just makes up the game mechanics as he goes along.

 

[rah]

Another thing to note is that bulb value increases with tech rate which increases during a Golden Age, ofc. Depending on timings of things, I may wait toward the end of the Golden Age to max that bulb value before bulbing stuff, usually getting the other techs I need like Compass. Try to keep slider maxxed as much as possible as well as that factors into the bulb value over time during the Golden Age. Ofc, that is dependent on Gold. Do your bulb before Golden Age completes that as research rate will drop, as will the bulb value. (you can check bulb value on the GS each turn to see what I mean)

Thanks, didn't think that was part of the equation. I thought it was based totally on pop. Hmm x-post, didn't see the other replies first.

 

[lymond]

He just makes up the game mechanics as he goes along.

I do indeed! Yeah, sometimes I make assumptions based on observation. I assumed my bulb rate was going up do to overall research rate, since I had played around with that a lot. I mean it seemed to work...but, ofc, my population was usually going up at the same time. Amazing what we still learn with this game. Ofc, many folks new the correct answer for a long time.

One thing that is weird though that makes me think there is more to it - and partly why I had made the apparently wrong assumption - is that my bulb value decreased dramatically after a golden age. No loss of pop, ofc, since I was in caste.

 

[Fippy]

Izuul has made many great bulb calculations (exact within 1 beaker), so i know it's indeed only connected to pop

Happy to help

 

[lymond]

Izuul has made many great bulb calculations (exact within 1 beaker), so i know it's indeed only connected to pop

Oh..just rub my embarrassment in further why don't ya!

 

[Gumbolt]

Least you were not advising how to pick a great person for a golden age. Then we would of been in real trouble.

 

[Fish Man]

Least you were not advising how to pick a great person for a golden age. Then we would of been in real trouble.

You can pick which specific person to generate in a city, somewhat. Just reload and pop the GP another turn and the seed might give you a GS instead of a useless GE.

(No, I’m not addicted to savescumming, what are you guys talking about?)

 

[lymond]

You can pick which specific person to generate in a city, somewhat. Just reload and pop the GP another turn and the seed might give you a GS instead of a useless GE.

(No, I’m not addicted to savescumming, what are you guys talking about?)

Gumbo is actually referring to an infamous case of yours truly burning the wrong great persons for a Golden Age in an old SGOTM, as we had them stack together...or I did. Never have I lived that one down ...and once again..

 

[Imperator Knoedel]

I replayed from an older save until the turn I got Civil Service. Should I adopt Bureaucracy right away for one turn of anarchy without a second civic to switch to? Also I'm about to declare war on Brennus (again).

I'm guessing I should play a few more turns spreading Buddhism and growing before triggering the GA and switching to Pacifism?

 

[Gumbolt]

I think bureau is very useful. My gut might be to just do it now. You are not ready for golden age yet. Unless you want to wait for that catapult. Bureau will add 35 science and 50% production.

You need to spread bud to Nuremburg. I wouldn't spread it everywhere. Just to cities you can focus growth on.

Some of those cottages should be farmed now. You need city growth. Pick 3 key cities you want to run specialists. Capital is first. Glib city second. Vienna 3rd. Avoid whipping these now till your golden age.

I see your building National epic in Nuremburg, This city will need to be much bigger to use this. I almost prefer VIenna as it already has bud and has wheat and fish. It can also farm the 3 grassland tiles. Downside is it has G Lighthouse so you may end up with Merchants. Pretty sure Nuremburg will give you a GS soon anyway.

Cancel all your worker builds and switch to farms in your great people cities. Leave your capital on cottages as this works well with bureau. All these road builds now are very low prioity.

You don't need the 2 rauthaus. Look at the city costs per turn. -4 in each. I would consider Rauthaus when this reaches -9-10+. Really not needed.
Same for the city wall. If you have no decent builds then use wealth. When your on the attack and have a huge stack defences are not really required.

Mainz could probably whip a catapult.
Florence should be running that cottage 2N. Never use unimproved tiles unles you can avoid it.
Vienna needs to work the wheat for growth. Lose a mine.

You could wait for more units but I wonder if you really need to? You have enough units to declare now. Save catapuls for his capital. Bombard and attack?

Celtics capital would of made a great GP farm. You would need to pretty much wipe them out. Might take too long.

 

[Gumbolt]

To be fair I never lived down my.... Do bears really only move 1 tile? Hence my avatar. Haha. I mean who really checks how many tiles animal barbs move? I certainly didn't many a year ago.

 

[Fish Man]

I replayed from an older save until the turn I got Civil Service. Should I adopt Bureaucracy right away for one turn of anarchy without a second civic to switch to? Also I'm about to declare war on Brennus (again).

I'm guessing I should play a few more turns spreading Buddhism and growing before triggering the GA and switching to Pacifism?

Are you still playing this save, by any chance? It's been a while since everyone suddenly stopped commenting here, myself included.

 

[Imperator Knoedel]

Are you still playing this save, by any chance? It's been a while since everyone suddenly stopped commenting here, myself included.

Yeah sorry, I stopped for a while as I had a lot of stuff going on in real life.

Tonight I played this game again all the way from the very beginning, though I somehow managed to play a bit worse than the last attempt I think. I stopped turn 130 just after discovering Music.

Some things were different this game. For one, I adopted Judaism because Augustus Caesar asked me to literally the same turn it spread to one of my cities, and I didn't have any other religions so I figured sure. Insultingly, both Caesar and whatever other AI had Judaism both switched to Hinduism just a few turns later, isolating me diplomatically.

Also Justinian doesn't have Ivory to trade, which means no Elephants. Now the question I'm asking myself and the others in this thread is, should I go ahead and research Construction anyway to attack Brennus like last playthrough, or should I just peacefully research along the Lib path until Cuirassiers or Rifling before going on a conquest spree?