After a long hiatus I'm off and quite excited about it.
Step one is to MM the empire. I don't necessarily feel it is absolutely needed but it's the best way I know to familiarize myself with the empire again and maybe I can get an extra sumpin' sumpin'.
Did the big tour and I have to say things are well in order. I could get a total of 4 beakers extra from the big MMing experiment and went to -30gpt (with no gold specialists).
Next step is to check out trades -- sorry about the anal quality of this round, but I want to make sure I have a good understanding of the lay of the land before any decisions have to be made.
We have 12 turns left of coal with the Ottomans and 7 turns left of lux trades. There is nothing I can see to be gained from the options on the table either. I've inherited a tight ship
After thinking about it, I decide that a few lost gold isn't worth the growth. Once we get those farms improved we will have the pop for instant reward and we'll get a ton of gold back the turns before Electricity comes in. Hire a couple of taxmen in places where there is still growth with no reward for working citizens and Mytilene, which has no more workable tiles, (-22gpt)
Off we go then.
1160AD T1
Make the worker turns first.
Found two towns where the settlers are. I'm not sure about this and we may need to rush some settlers when war comes but the unit upkeep will help and it does push the borders in a strategic way.
Pillage some roads in no-mans land.
Shuffle some troops to see what we have and see where our logistical weak points are.
Decide to trade Medicine to Willie for Free Artistry, WM, 43gpt and 30g. It puts us back in the black and evens up Willie and the Arabs
IBT Cleo and Punk Boy sign an MPP. Arabia is in Demo.
1170AD T2
Focus on our uncorrupted cities for rails. As I think of it though, I'm going to dedicate 24 workers to rail a single line to our outer borders for logistic reasons. I don't think we really need to rail to the actual border, but only the border cities until we get arty.
Finish pillaging the no-mans land. Shaka's cavs can't get past 1 square into our territory now so our cities are safe with the notable exceptions of New Argos, Mytilene and Tegea.
I've also grouped our troops together as I find them easier to keep track of that way. Border towns get 6 rifles per. MIs are in rax towns that are connected by rail.
It also looks like Shaka only has one source of salt in the desert near Cheju. Sit on that and he is stuck with LBs until he gets RP.
IBT A few builds came in. We now have 30 rifles and a number of MIs. We are also down to -18gpt so I'm moving off the military builds and focusing on factories in productive towns, courts where they will add benefit and cannon and settlers in corrupt towns.
1180AD T3
Continue railing and shuffling troops. It seems that our 30 rifles will just cover the border towns. I don't think it is a big deal as the open cities 2 rows back form the Zulu border will nicely draw Shaka in to be slaughtered.
Of more concern at present is our ability to move troops instantly between cities. The core is coming along well but I may have to divert more workers to get the movement we will need. I would feel a lot more comfortable with double the amount of slaves but nothing can be done about that at present.
Our lack of effective farms is a big hurt on the economy. I might peel off the stack of 6 to change some land next turn.
IBT Zzzz
1190AD T4
Same old, smae old. Rail and shuffle. No trades going.
IBT Athens factory comes in (3-turn rifles). A Uni is built and Electricity is now in 2.
1200AD T5
Full rail connection will be accomplished next turn and then we can focus on completing railing the core and re-improving.
No trades going.
I'm a bit worried about the economy but we are still okay.
Start mining the cow and some slight MMing to get Athens 2-turn rifles.
The ToE pre-build looks good. We should have enough for US at almost the same time we get Sci Method; although we might have to slow down production as it gets near.
IBT Arabs declare on the Turks. Babs ally with the Turks. A number of builds come in.
1210AD T6
Decide to build the bank and delay Electricity an extra turn. This means that US will need to be slowed down.
Deals expire next turn. I'm not quite sure how it will impact the economy. I'll have a think as I play this turn.
Reconsider and up the slider to take Electricity next turn (90g is not a big deal)
We will lose wines, gems, furs and 7gpt next turn. Hire a couple of clowns for safety.
IBT deals expire
1220AD T7
Sorry, I shouldn't have hired the clowns. That was an oversight from being out of the loop for so long. Can get wines, dyes and gems +5g for 11gpt and steam (all the other leaders have it) with Willie. Decide to go for it. Willie has Industrialization and the Turks and Arabs don't so wheel and deal.
Industrialism to the Turks for 173gpt and 362g (so much for my economic concerns)
Indust to the Arabs for 130gpt
Indust to Egypt for 49gpt, 12g and WM
Up the sci slider to 100% and RP in 6 (+199gpt)
Continue railing.
IBT Inca joins the war against the Arabs. Buy furs from the Arabs for 80gpt.
1230AD T8
163gpt and RP in 5. Seems we have the cash we need to continue military builds. I think we will be ready for war when RP comes in and the ToE seems set up as well.
With this new influx of funds, it seems to me that we are set up for military builds and will be well set up for our poke.
Continue railing. We are doing okay but we have a ton of important worker turns to do. About half of our tiles are railed, there are a number of unimproved tiles left and there are a bunch of tiles that need to be re-improved (mines to water in corrupt towns and water to mines on the second and third ring medium producing towns).
IBT Zzzzz
1240AD T9
Finally finished roading to the military poinst on the border.
The settler that was built I fortified on the rail network and think that the next 3 that are built should stay there too. We will need about 4 to take our coal in 1-2 turns and I think it is better to in-fill the gaps after we control the territory rather than push the borders. Let's let Shaka waste movement on unimproved land while we use worker turns improving the current empire. Once we have military control of the territory, we can start diverting workers to improve the land.
IBT Babs want to talk but decline as we can make any deals later and I don't want to make any decisions until we have time to dicker.
Shaka is in anarchy. I assume he will move to a more cash rich gov't and that helps us when we declare next round.
1250AD T10
Railing
Current military:
33 rifles
65 Cav
11 cannon
2 settlers
+150gpt and RP in 3
So that's it. There isn't much else to do at present.
I think I missed an opportunity earlier. I don't think it makes sense to aim to be more than 1 tech ahead. Once we are 2 ahead, trade away. When I got cash from Willie in turn 1, I got cash but left the Turks and Arabs tradable options. That was a mistake. I would have been better off trading away the tech for off tech for whatever I could get and bankrupting the AI. I also should have given up FA and tried to get more cash. In principle, I don't think we should look to be more than 1 tech up at least until we enter the MA and control much more land. It would have given us more cash and assuaged my economic worries: that could have changed some build decisions I made.
At any rate, we are looking at all of our core and most of our second tier cities with factories before we make our poke. We almost have all science improvements built in productive cities. I went ahead and started couts in cities up to 75% corruption (change at will): I personally feel they pay for themselves but know that it is a debatable point.
We have almost doubled our gold since I took the set and so I am fairly confident that we are in position to declare the turn after we get RP if everything is set up. Border towns are all connected and have 5+ rifles to defend. Only the most easterly of our cities are vulnerable to a 1-turn attack so units can be shuffled.
If one of the armies is moved to the square N of Hubishna, only Mytilene and Tegea could be attacked in 1 turn. The other army should proceed to Shaka's salt by the most direct route possible. With Phoncaea open, that should be Shaka's attack route. His units can be weakened with cannon (or arty if we have the cash) and then cut down with cav. I would expect 1-2 turns of defending before we would want to make the counter assault.
In the West, we may want to place some cav on the Mt SSW of New Ephesus and SW of New Mycenae (or even on that salt) to be in a good counter-punch position.
We have a skeleton rail network connecting all of our cities but that is all we should need. I think we are in position to now dedicate a small group to re-improving corrupt land while the rest focus on continuing to rail medium corrupt towns. I was using the CAII list of corruption to decide where to improve and considering the terrain as well. I don't see the point of wasting 36(?) slaves on a Mt at this point although there were times where the 24 slaves made sense for a hill in the core (i.e. getting Athens up to 40spt).
Shaka has been building like a fiend so we should expect to be hit hard for at least 3-4 turns before we can move stacks not protected by an army into his territory. However, with our 2 armies, we could use one to pillage his salt and whatever else came along while the other one moved our invasion force in (once the cannon have been upgraded). I think minimizing losses is key because of our production penalty and WW so using arty that don't have valid targets to destroy improvements and roads will be key. We want a safe support route and that will only be possible if there is only one road to defend.
Those are my thoughts. I just want to say that it was a really fun set. It wasn't too exciting but I inherited a tight empire and I feel back in the game now. Sorry to be away so long but the reintegration felt seamless.
At least they didn't have it to trade amongst the others.
