BB-01 open succession game--fast space race

Actually, my plan for Portugal was to improve their core lands (including rails), once our workers are done with improving our land, and then founding and gifting them a few good core cities, like Corihuayrachina, Paris and Tours. (I'd rather lead a war against France, because some of their cities would still be good second rank cities for us: Besancon, Rouen, Marseilles.)
Even if Portugal won't contribute to our research, we can still expect quite some gpt, if we develop them well.

 

There's no hurry, we'll have the tech before any city will have accumulated the necessary shields.

I've also done Corporation before going on the Electronics path, simply because of what Elephantium said: Corporation could be done in 4 turns, while we don't yet have the necessary commerce to do the more expensive techs leading up to Electronics in 4 turns. At the moment we would need 5 or even 6 turns for those, while in a couple of turns we should be able to do them in 4. ==> A few turns saved on the way to Alpha Centauri.

Electronics is really expensive. So if you are not 100% sure it can be done in 4, do some other cheap tech before! Hoover is nice, but doesn't help with research, so it doesn't matter if we get it 4 turns sooner or later. We don't need the production at the moment: we have more units than necessary (even with our small and backward army, we could probably conquer the entire world, if we wanted to), and all our core cities already have every improvement they need... (We don't even need research labs, if we go for the "Internet sling".)

The only thing important at the moment is, that we plan the prebuilds for ToE and Internet 100% precisely. I expect the only way to maintain our 4-turn research until the end of the game, is to have the Internet ready right in the first turn of the Modern Age. (And of course to let our science farms spread. So once in a while check for those towns, where the governour has picked a hill instead of a railed/irrigated grassland! The governour likes to do that, even though the resulting shields are 100% corrupt. Stupid AI programming... So always switch them back to grassland for maximum growth.)

Wonder plan confirmed.

 

BTW: that leads me to another idea: usually we would upgrade our existing units now. But the gold is probably better saved for future "negative budget research" (and for rushing slaves and settlers). So we could disband our obsolete units now in towns that are building settlers, and build fresh Infantry from scratch in those core cities that have nothing better to do. If we build 15-20 Infantry over the next 10 turns, that should be all we need for conquering France...

 

If we can get it without endangering ToE, why not...

 

A galleon was already on its way to Huamanga and should have arrived there on Elephantiums 2nd or 3rd turn. (Unless he sent it some place else...?! )
(And why do the smilies already have those stupid Christmas hats on again?! It's still 8 months to Christmas!)

Yep. We already have rubber, so you could even build infantry instead of rifles. But Cavs would of course be best.

Edit: checked the save now. Things look really good. (And the galleon is already in Huamanga, so no need to rush one.)

 

In the grasslands, ICS style should be best. A town needs to work only 3 GL for maintaining pop 6. (Edit: in fact, just 1 grassland and 2 plains are sufficient! Of course, with a food resource we need only 2 tiles to maintain pop 6.)

Bad luck that France got Nationalism. The next player should send a few scouts to check whether they already have any rifles, and if yes, let's build a handful of artilleries.

Roster check:

Kulko - just played
Lord Emsworth - up
Lanzelot - on deck
brazilbear - mia
Elephantium

 

It`s me again?! Quite fast turnaround time... I need a day or two before I can get to this, though.

 

Already played 3 turns yesterday...

 

Spoiler :

Pre-flight:
Double-check the MM and send some scientists back on the fields for extra food. We have a bit shield-overrun atm, but that's ok, shields are not important for us. Some other core towns have food-overrun, so we need to replace more irrigations with mines.

If we can get the remaining techs in 4, we have 21 more turns until reaching the MA. Uruk has 20 turns left on the Palace, and with Hoover that's going to go down a bit still. That's a problem. Can we still build something else there? I could switch to a bank wasting 206 shields, but I think that's better than starving it down or not having an 800s wonder later to shave some shields off in case of premature overrun.
But with currently 32spt, it will not be able to complete the Internet from scratch in 20 turns! ToE would be possible (can mine two more fields for 38spt, and after Hoover it'll have way over 40spt), but then the capital can't build the Internet!

That's a big problem, what can we do? The prebuild was started definitely too early and will overrun before we finish the IA, but if I abort it now and start from scratch, it will be too late. The only good idea I have at the moment is to take two mountains away from Uruk and slowing the build down that way. Ok, I give one mountain to Samarra and the other one can be given next turn to Elippi for a few turns. (But I need to be careful not to slow it down too much... In ten turns things will be easier to calculate, as then we'll have Hoover.)


T191, 760AD:
Mongols and Germans sign a mutual protection pact. I don't expect us to lead any wars on the other continent, but better keep that in the back of our heads...

Atomic Theory -> Combustion

New Zariqum defects to the Mongols, one turn before our harbor there is finished!!!!!!!!! Darn.

But fortunately we can by now trade with the Mongols and Mayas: they have connected to the German road network, so we can now trade via our harbor in New Uruk. (Though, isn't it completely ridiculous, that none of the three nations on the other continent has built a harbor up to now?)

Sell some resources to everyone except France for more cash and gpt.

Send some workers to the core to complete the last rails there and change irrigations to mines.
Join workers to Zariqum, Izibia and Sippar. At 100% we are now making 1012 beakers at -102gpt. Almost 600g on the bank account. 1066,5bpt are required for Combustion, with a few more scientists we are all set for 4 turns!

Juli falls without losses.


T192, 770AD:
Workers and not much else.


T193, 780AD:
Chuito captured, one MI lost.

8 Inf, 8 Cav, a handful of MIs -- I decide it's time now to start the French war. Sell Electricity for some gold and a worker.
Move the Inf next to Rheims, then cancel the RoP and the lux deal and then declare war. (They go from "gracious" to "cautious"... )

Rheims captured, losing two vet Inf against a reg Pike!! Lose one MI picking up stray MIs.
Marseilles is defended by a reg Rifle, Rouen and Besancon by reg Spears. I decide to go for these first, before they upgrade...
3 Cavs take Besancon, 2 Rouen.
Lyons and Orleans have reg Pikes, so with the remaining 3 Cavs I decide to risk another attack against Orleans (size 6, grassland).

Increase shield production in Uruk again.


T194, 790AD:
Lyons now has a conscript Rifle, they drafted!
2 Artillery, 3 Inf and a Cav now take Marseilles, losing two Infs to a spear and a 1/3 Rifle... Grr.


T195, 800AD:
Combustion -> Electronics

Two Cavs and an Inf take Lyons.
Three Cavs take Tours, one loss.
Three Cavs take Chartres.

At 100% and with 14 scientists, we make ~1110bpt. We need 1200bpt, so 30 more scientists, that should be possible.


T196, 810AD:
One MI takes Grenoble.
Slow down Uruk again.


T197, 820AD:
Our two artilleries damage two Rifles in Paris, 5 Cavs, an Inf and an MI then take it, 1 Cav lost.
Three Cavs take Avignon.


T198, 830AD:
More worker management...


T199, 840AD:
Electronics -> Mass Production
The Mayas have researched Democracy... I buy it and sell it around.

Reduce science to 70%. We will have to increase it to 80% for 4-turn research lateron, but I want to collect some cash first.
Scientists on towns that have not yet reached size 6 are sent back to the fields.


T200, 850AD:
Hoover Dam is finished. We have 11 more turn in the Industrial Age. Palace in Uruk and ToE in Babylon now show 9 turns. Take some mountains offline and change civil engineers to scientists to make it an exact 11 turns. for both cases.

Science back to 80% plus some more scientists bring Mass Production down to 3 turns.

The Volcano next to New Akkad is now active. Keep your fingers crossed...

Handover notes:

• A ship with 4 MIs is on its way to Dijon (last French town) and will arrive in 2 turns. If MIs are not enough to take it, a few Cavs and Infs are waiting accross the shore.
  
• Three Infs have already arrived at Tamboccocha (last Incan town) a few turns ago, but it did not yet have its culture expansion.
  
• I have 6 coastal cities building Cruisers. Remember to switch them to Commercial Docks interturn, when Mass Production completes. (Some of the Cruisers will otherwise be built.)
  
• I meant to build a mine for Adap, but forgot... Hindana also needs more mines.
  
• Corihuayrachina, New Karana, Ashur 2, Tours and Paris should be prepared with market, courthouse an aqueduct, if necessary, pushed to size 12 and then gifted to Portugal. Use forrestry and disband units from the core.

 

Some more thoughts on the current situation:

• We need 11 turns for the last remaining 3 techs (one tech is already started). Our two prebuilds for ToE and Internet will also finish in 11 turns. The next player just needs to make sure that nothing "breaks down". Just have enough scientists to maintain 4-turn research, but send unnecessary scientists in small towns back to the fields, so these towns can keep growing. (Our science farms are not yet sufficient for the modern age.) Check the pre-builds once a while and make sure we have some shield-overrun. I once had it in a 20K game of mine, that I had timed a wonder-build perfectly, and then pollution hit a mined & railed mountain like 2 turns before finish date, and I was not able to make up these lost shields in the remaining time... In our case this would be a major catastrophy...)
• Perhaps it's not worth the effort to beef up the Portugesians. What can we expect? Certainly not a tech, so the best we can hope for is some decent cash. But we can probably gain the same amount of commerce by just keeping those towns and using them for science farms... Beefing up a neighbor may have worked for an industrial tech, but now it's too late. I guess we just forget about it and just take the cash they have...

Roster:
Elephantium - up
Kulko - on deck
Lanzelot - just played