Clive1 - Monarch (Training ?) game

[Bede]

@ scout good questions. sorry for the plagarism.

My answers: I'm better at war than building and thus tend to seek military strength. first. I like efficient workers, so I tend to choose Industrious civs. Before this game, I never used artillery before 'real' artillery. I like armor (tanks or modern). usually if I'm having success, the game is all over except for the milking. I tend to focus on shileds over food (and the improvements that help, i.e. CH, factory, etc.)

Taking a break from trying to keep the Rising Sun from sinking into the sea and thought I'd answer the questions:

How would you describe your style of play? Builder? Warmonger?

Neither. I am opportunistic and commercial.

What do you tend to seek first, military strength, commerce, production, or science?

Above all things else I enjoy trading and diplomacy so I am always looking for competitive advantage. So it's food in the early game, then cash, then, military. Resources and luxuries are important throughout. Science is a tool to get all the other things needed to sustain competitive advantage.

Do you have preferred civ traits?

Nope. Each combination of traits presents both opportunities and challenges. Finding the ways to enhance the opportunities and mitigate the challenges is the most fun.

In warfighting, do you prefer to "blitz" or use a "combined arms" approach?

Overwhelming force, however attained. I usually seek the weakest opponent who holds something I need, hit 'em hard and take what I want.

Do you have a favorite Age?
Every Age has its own set of challenges and opportunities.

In summary, then, I am always seeking advantage. I try to adapt my thinking in order to enhance the strengths of the nation and overcome the challenges presented by the map and the opponents. My biggest weakness is that once the outcome is no longer in doubt I tend to lose focus and do really dumb things just to see what might happen.

 

[viper275]

My answers to questions:
1. Warmonger, and I have to admit, a sometimes risk-taking one at that.
2. Production.
3. None in particular, but it all depends on the game I'm going to play.
4. I tend to be a bit more on the combined arms side.
5. I think I like both Industrial and Ancient Ages more than the others.
Please note that these are just trying to give answers to questions and just to give a basic idea of my style of play.

I was thinking about a little bit of expansion after Ghandi's gone to cover some spaces that Egypt or the Arabs could take from us. After that I was thinking about attacking the Arabs because they have no nextdoor neighbors to help them and they look like a better target than Egypt (Egpyt has a bit of a tech lead, while the Arabs are backward.)

 

[scoutsout]

I gotta tell you guys... seeing my old questions from GK2 brings a smile to my face. ...but what amazes me still... Bede's answers. Here's a guy I've been in a couple of SGs with, and I find new reasons why we seem to play well off each other. Enough of that. On to the game.

Played half of my turns. Fairly slow progress I 'm afraid.

...sometimes, tremendous progress is made when the going appears slow.

Mil Trad is due in 1 turn. Move sci down to 50% - still due in 1 but we make another 100g

You guys wouldn't believe how many there are out there who don't know when to ratchet down the science slider. Attention to detail makes a huge difference.

Next turn will switch to ToG. Not sure where I am going to build it yet. High production towns are mostly building Knights + Banks + a couple building <snip>

@ Bede, Sesn: time for a quick mini-seminar on pre-building....or build-swapping...

I need to give you guys a link to DD01 (Master of the Bow)... a fun Monarch variant game in which we limited ourselves to Archers, Longbows, and Panzers. I was handed a game with a ToE underway, a nicely done palace pre-build, and someboyd wanted to snag Universal Sufferage. Within 20 turns from the point I got the game, we got ToE, US, and Hoover Dam.

This is why I wish this game was at Emperor... pre-builds are the way to get it done when it comes to wonders.

A lot of the northern captured towns are building stuff like Musketman which will
take about 50 turns to build, and these towns don't have Barracks. Will switch some of
these to Granary (although they will soon hit size 6 and will need aqueducts)

Why not build courthouses?

 

[SesnOfWthr]

@ Bede, Sesn: time for a quick mini-seminar on pre-building....or build-swapping...

Funny thing Scout. when I read that, I was thinking the EXACT same thing. "Where to build it? Why isn't it half done by now?"

I saw Bede talking about a prebuild earlier. I thought it was pretty well understood at that point, at least...

BTW - I wasn't going to post solely for this, but.... I think you can do better on those answers Bede. While any good player tries to adapt his playstyle, we all have certain tendencies when it comes to style and preferences. Hope the phrasing isn't insulting, it was my turn to partake tonight.

To be fair, here are mine:
1. Warmonger, with a slight tendency towards killing other civs.
2. Land, land, and more land. Sometimes to a fault. Of the options given, I'd probably put them in this order: Commerce, Military, Production, Science
3. I've always been partial to the Industrious trait. This one I'll cop out on though, it really depends on the map and victory goals.
4. I prefer to blitz, like with a cav rush. I probably have used the combined arms approach more though. These days, seems like I'm never in a position where a cav rush would be effective.
5. I guess the Medieval Age. The one thing I can say for sure is that I have a love/hate with the Modern. I love the units and variety of options, but hate the time Modern wars take.

 

[Sir Clive]

@ all - nice gambit viper Sir Clive will have this just about wrapped up when it gets to me. where do we want to go next - arabs or egypt? Looks like my turn will be finish Gandhi and set up for ...?

Egypt are currently polite towards us and we have an alliance with them against India. Arabia aren't particularly enamoured with us.

So I would favour against Arabia next. I'll probably start moving a
few troops towards their border just in case

 

[Bede]

Having accepted Sesn's challenge here is an expansion on responses above:

I tend to overbuild things like courthouses, libraries and marketplaces. My military is often inadequate to the task at hand and I occasionally over-commit and forget to provide for defense.

I view corruption and waste as personal affronts so will try too hard to eliminate them.

On the other hand I really love squeezing the last minim of juice from the pomegranate. Hand me a large empire with lots of towns and I can spend hours tuning and trimming to get maximum output and minimum waste.

There are lots of things I don't know about this game so I prefer playing SG's to solo games: I learn a lot from fellow players and don't get that middle of the night, it's dark and I'm lost feeling when confronted with a nasty challenge.

@AdmT: when you want to play in Texas you gotta have a fiddle in the band...the devil went down to Georgia...Johnny B. Good....

 

[SesnOfWthr]

Now that's what I was looking for, Bede.

I agree wholeheartedly on the SG aspect. I find it difficult to muddle my way through any solo games these days. I've had my current game going for about three weeks, and I'm only at 50ad.

On a completely spammy sidenote: Devil went down to Gerorgia is one of my all-time favorite songs, and I generally dislike country. In fact, I even downloaded it to my Mother and GF's phones so it plays that when I call.

 

[Sir Clive]

I tend to overbuild things like courthouses, libraries and marketplaces. My military is often inadequate to the task at hand and I occasionally over-commit and forget to provide for defense.

I view corruption and waste as personal affronts so will try too hard to eliminate them.

I do exactly the same Bede ! I also tend to overbuild temples, colloseums , cathedrals and wonders and don't build enough military. This is why I normally end up with a very happy population until I get absolutely mullered by the AI's stronger military.

This game has ben excellent for me as it has emphasised the importance of making a good solid start so that you can get a good balance between infrastructure / happiness and military.

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

Plagarism has good points:

I for one am glad there are so many trainers and advanced players following this thread. Though I can't say I really know anybody here yet, I recently got a glimpse into Ted's mind... and what a brutal, twisted, cunning mind that one can be!

Delete Ted, insert, scout, sesn, or bede

I do the prebuilds for wonders as well and try to turn the ToE, HD gambit just about every game I have a shot at winning.

Which city do we want as our science city for ToG? Is a science city really that beneficial? pardon the question, but I'm used to regent and usually have GL, Tzu's, shake's and MoM by now. Also keep in mind I've never really toyed with the Little Red Book before.

Holy S***, Batman, I just got to page 11 of GK2. and this is all starting to make sense. BTW, my wife is now looking at me like I've lost my mind.

 

[Sir Clive]

1275 AD (5) Settler will reach iron east of Punjab in 4 turns .
General worker / troop movement north.
Move Armies / Cats towards Dacca.

IT None of the civs we can sell to have any cash. I know in some circs it
may be wise to gift techs to other civs so that they can get stronger and
maybe help us in an alliance but we have nothing to gift to the Egyptians and
we don't want them to get too strong anyway.

I am wondering if it might be worth targetting the Mayans once we have enough
vessels capable of ferrying troops from Bengal + Kolhapur (once captured) across
to Kaminaljuyu. They will be the weakest civ left once we have finished off
India and capturing their lands would allow us a two pronged attack on Egypt if / when
they become a threat

Egyptians attack Dacca - hope they don't capture it before we do

We discover Thoery of Gravity. Only choice is Democracy or Magentism. Go
for Magnetism.

Don't know why I set Tarsus as prebuild for Newton's - it will take 50 turns
Switch Kanesh to Newton's (23 turns).

Definitely take on board Sesn's points re pre-builds.
I normally go for quite a few wonders and use palace / other wonders that I don't want
as prebuilds a lot when I play at the lower levels but here
we have been mainly concentrating on building military in our high production towns so
haven't though of doing it.


Forgot to set unhappy captured cities to starve Switch Karachi and Ugarit to all
taxmen

Up science to 70% . Can still get Magnetism in 5 and make 115 gpt

1280 AD (6)
Knight wears down defence in Dacca. Army captures Dacca. Set to taxmen. More
units moving towards border with India.

IT India wants a peace treaty . Best we can get from them is 1 worker - they
won't give us any of their remaining towns. I therefore decline. Egypt are
moving a lot of troops towards the existing Indian towns. I have a feeling they
may capture them before we do. Delhi is struck by disease - need to get some
more workers up there and clear the jungle.

Egypt have Democracy. The best we can get it for (without giving them ToG) is
Ivory + 45gpt + Saltpeter + 2684g.
They would give us 340g + 104 gpt for ToG.
If we give them ToG we can do ToG + saltpeter for Democracy + 100g + 2gpt.

Seems like they are putting a pretty high value on saltpeter - think I will hold off
on this for the time being.

1290 AD (7)
We capture Kolhapur. Switch to taxmen.
Trebs bombard Bangalore. Do some damage but I have a nasty feeling that if we don't
capture it this turn the Egyptians will nab it inter turn. Egypt are in Democracy - wonder
how they are dealing with the war-weariness ?

Our military force is currently

3 Sett, 49 Wor, 9 Warr, 16 Spear, 13 Sword, 17 Pike, 1 Longbow, 7 musket,
28 Knight, 8 Cav, 2 Cannon, 5 Caravel, 3 Army, 14 Med Inf, 9 TMC, 7 Treb,
7 Crus, 3AC

We have 12 turns left on the alliance with Egypt vs the Indians

Change Hubishna to Aqueduct and rush for 332g. Can't move my cannons to bombard
Bengal as there are no roads . Not a worry - defences are weak and a couple
of Cav do the trick. Capture Bengal.

Army (Kyoto's Demise) captures Bangalore Workers continue roading to the north
and irrigating unproductive towns.

IT - Maya want our territory map . The will only give us 2g + a worker + TM
so I decline. (still fancy the idea of attacking them soon )

Egypt have a stack of 8 knights heading towards Jaipur (last Indian town) Looks like
they will get there before us. Think about offering peace to India since we won't
get the town but I assume if we do that then Egypt may also make peace (since we
are in an alliance) and that will leave India with 1 town so I don't bother.
India don't have any tech / cash to give us anyway.

Continued in next post ...

 

[Sir Clive]

1295 AD (8)

Send newly produced settler from Hattusas towards Yalbert. Might put him on
a ship and send him East and try to grab one of those empty spots south of the
Mayans to get a foothold inside Mayan / Egyptian territory. Wonder if we
could get the Egyptians and Mayans to go to war with each other whilst we
beat up Arabia ? Then come back and pick up the pieces ?

Settle Iron Lake east of Punjab to pick up free iron.

More general worker roading / irrigating

IT Arabs (Annoyed) ask for Territory map exchange. We refuse. Maya and
Egypt sign military alliance vs India (I'm starting to feel slightly sorry for
India now ) Maya decleare war on the Indiands (naturally).

Egypt (as expected) capture Jaipur and the Indians are no more !

We are now at peace with the world !

Seeing as I only have two turns left and would welcome discussion on who we
should hit next I am going to try to stay at peace for the remainder of my shift so
that we can make a group decision on who is next for the

Arabia now have Democracy ! We can get it for Metallurgy , 600g + incense. Decide
to take it . Arabia are now cautions rather than annoyed.
Switch Allepo from Cavlry to Library.

Magnetism is now due in 1 - can put science slider down from 70% to 50% to make
247g for the next turn.

Egypt already has Chemistry so it's not really worth that much to us as far as I
see it. Sell Chemistry to Maya for World map, 70g + 1 worker. Sell Chemistry to Mongols
for 17g + World map.

Find the final lost civ !! Spot red borders on right hand side of map about half
way up , NE of Palenque, Quirigua, Calakmul (Mongol cities)

Just checked F8 screen - we now have 49% of world population .

1300 AD (9)

Switch Karhayuk to Palace. Would like another city putting some shields in the bin
for prebuild. Not sure what for yet but the way the science looks we shouldn't end
up wasting them.

IT - Enter industrial age. Switch to steam power . Sci -> 100 % , Steam Power due in 6,
-103 gpt. (best we can do with +ve gpt is sci at 80%, SP due in 8 , +46 gpt) I just want
to get all those workers railing ASAP as moving troops up to the north is a major
pain in the **** at the moment. Let's hope we have coal ! Seeing as we have 5 iron
there may even be a chance of a town that can build Iron Works
Arabia are now the only one with any money - can get 200g + World Map for spices but
decide not (hope this is not bad news - I don't like having all these spare luxes)

Still haven't managed to contact the Reds although I can see their borders

1305 AD (10)
Workers irrigate / road. Nothing else happens.


A couple of notes for the next player (Admiral I think)

1) There are a number of workers (and possibly the odd military ) on goto to the north.
This is because we are not at war and there is nothing much left to defend / irrigate
/ mine or road in the middle of our lands. None of these should have more than 2 turns
left on the goto.

2) There aren't many spare spots left to settle. There is a settler on the tile ne of the
Dyes near Punjab. He is waiting for the workers to clear the wetlands before settling.
There is also a settler heading towards the gap between Spice Jungle and Bengal in the
east of our territory.

3) Far east of the map is an empty galley which is about 7 tiles from the Red
(unknown) border

4) There are a lot of cities to MM at the moment. I've kept to building military
mostly in the inner core, but haven't taken much care of the outer cities since
most of those are only producing 1spt so I have just been concentrating on
growth rather than production. Feel free to change as many as you like.

Just notice I don't seem to have a 1285AD entry . Guess that means I
screwed up again and played 11 I will try and be more careful in future -
sorry all

Revised roster

Viper275 -
MSTK- on vacation 31 Jul - 19 Aug
Sir Clive - Just played
mtgfreak - vacation 31 Jul - 13/14 Aug
Admiral Kutzov - Up
Bede - On deck

Screen shot / save to follow shortly

 

[Sir Clive]

Red blob on the minimap is where the border with the last unknown
civ is (I suppose we should know who it was from the 'Most advanced nations
of the world' thing early on but I can't remember who it was). Red is normally the Romans ?

1305 AD Saved Game

 

[Bede]

Items for discussion:

Do we want Democracy? What is our best government choice?

Once we have Steam Power, what research path should we take?

What IA wonders are most important and how do we plan on building them? Timing, location and precursors?

What trading strategy to pursue? Whom do we weaken and whom to strengthen?

BTW, what nation has built the Pyramids?

Are we building workers anywhere?

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

@ clive - nice set of turns!

lots to think about.

Do we want Democracy? What is our best government choice?

I thought we had already decided on going red.

Once we have Steam Power, what research path should we take?

My pref. is the path that leads to RP (for infantry; ground pounders are good); however, see above, I thought we had decided on Communism?

What IA wonders are most important and how do we plan on building them? Timing, location and precursors?

I only care about 2 - Toe + HD. ToE to get something (having mid-life crisis, memory fails at times) + electronics. This enables HD (which needs a high spt city + a river). BTW - I never build coal plants - speak up if ya want 'em. Before looking at save, I plan on Steam, Nationalism, Communism, then the path to RP, then ToE. Y'all want hospitals sooner?

What trading strategy to pursue? Whom do we weaken and whom to strengthen?

Mostly clueless (except strategic) - Cleo is threat #1 at this time even though she likes us. 99% of the games I've played, Abu attacks me, regardless of priors. Therefore, I'm paranoid about the pink (see signature). Someday I will learn spelling & grammar. My inclination is to weaken Cleo, they're on our borders and relatively strong (note, this doesn't mean an invasion) and attack Arabs.

BTW, what nation has built the Pyramids?

Have to check F7 after I load the game. Assume it is Attila or Cleo (u all know about assume, right?)

Do we need to build anymore workers - let you know my $.02 after I look at the save.

 

[SesnOfWthr]

For the science city, you should choose one with high base commerce to get a bigger beneft, i.e. one on a river. How productive is Rubble river?

For the next target, if either Egypt or Arabia is lacking salt, they would be a nice target. Cavs really tear through pikes.

I originally wanted to say "no way!" to Demo, since conquest seems to be the likely end to this game. However, you already have several luxes, and it might be a nice time to "practice" and experiment with WW.

Why wouldn't you go the ToE path? Then on to RP, I would imagine.

Three most important wonders are ToE, Hoover's, US. In that order, IMO. Though if you go the demo route, you could bump US up to number two since no one else will even be able to start Hoover's for a while. Kanesh and Rubble river seem likely candidates for Hoover's since you have to have a river in the radius.

Getting to be time to stop strengthening anyone, except possibly Mongols for a fun showdown.

I can see five workers in progress in the screenie, though I realize that's not what you meant.

Random:
Why is the growth at Kanesh stopped? If another grass is irrigated, you could probably work a mountain...

City builds:
yekaterinburg - MDI? Useless now, IMO. Krasnayorsk - a galleon? I would also dump those granaries, you can get the pyramids before most of them finish. Alalah - insert Bede's temple rant here.

I wonder if Bede's questions were even intended for me? Probably not. :shrug:

 

[Sir Clive]

Items for discussion:

Do we want Democracy? What is our best government choice?

>>> I normally try to play peaceful games and when I have got this strong before (which has only been at much lower levels) I will switch to democracy, go all out for Marketplaces, Banks, Universities, Research Labs and try to win by spaceship or UN vote. Normally what happens at higher levels is that the AI attacks me and I am forced to switch back to Monarchy / Communism to avoid war weariness. I am trying to practice warmongering so I would say personally I would prefer to win by domination / conquest . However I can't see nay reason why we shouldn't have 20/30 turns on Democracy to build up the infrastructure and bank balance and get ahead in tech . Would it be **** to go to democracy whilst we get railed and get our infra built up and then go back or is 2 spells of anarchy too much ?

Once we have Steam Power, what research path should we take?

>> I nearly always go Medicine -> Sanitation then Industrialisation->Refining->Flight. However I am normally so far behind at this point (at Monarch ) that I can buy the techs for very little anyway . I normally am well behind on number of towns so I want them all as big as possible so Hospitals are important . I would guess here it doesn't really matter if none of our towns go past size 12 since we have pretty close builds ? Better to get factories and pump up the production ?


What IA wonders are most important and how do we plan on building them? Timing, location and precursors?

>> Recently I have avoided building Great wonders (again because I am normally behind at this stage and don't have a hope of getting them ). It looks like there are only 2 great wonders in the IA - Theory of Evolution and Universal Suffrage. ToE should catapult us ahead in Tech (very valuable no matter which victory condition we are going for) US is obviously useful if we are going to carry on warmongering although we don't seem to be too unhappy as a nation at the moment even when we are at war. Would US reduce war-weariness enough for us to remain at war for a reasonable time (say 20 turns) even if we are in Democracy ? If so it would seriously be worth getting.

What trading strategy to pursue? Whom do we weaken and whom to strengthen?

>>> Egypt looks like it is now our biggest rival. I would like to go after the Maya next and the Mongols after them so that we can (hopefully ) prevent the Egyptians from getting much bigger. However how we slow down the Egyptians growth without going to war with them I am not sure . I suppose gifting techs to the other civs means that Egypt makes less money out of it's research ? Not sure how that will work though since Maya and Mongols are weak anyway and can't pay much. However we still need to find out about the red civ (unmet)

BTW, what nation has built the Pyramids?

>>> Maya have the pyramids (chichen itza) . The also have Hanging gardens (Copan) and Sun Tzu (chichen itza)

Are we building workers anywhere?

>>> Only in captured cities that can't really produce anything useful. Dacca, Punjab, Yakutsk, Karachi + Rostov.

We have 52 native workers and a fairly large number of captured workers.

 

[SesnOfWthr]

>>> Maya have the pyramids (chichen itza) . The also have Hanging gardens (Copan) and Sun Tzu (chichen itza)

Looks like they're getting beat up on, may want to act fast. Either sign an RoP with Egypt and get some cavs over there, or make an amphibious assault. You don't want to let the Mogols grab it first...

Oh yeah, why do you have so many knights? Loosen he purse strings and make a bunch of cavs while you have an advantage.

 

[Sir Clive]

Oh yeah, why do you have so many knights? Loosen he purse strings and make a bunch of cavs while you have an advantage.

Thanks for reminding me SesnOfWthr. I was contemplating upgrading the
knights to cavs since we have quite a bit of spare cash. However I didn't
need the firepower to finish off the Indians and seeing as we were at peace at the end of my turns I thought I would leave it up to whoever was going to launch the next attack. (Didn't want to get the blame for running our treasury down to zero )

 

[Bede]

Excellent progress, gents.

Items for discussion:

Do we want Democracy? What is our best government choice?

We are doing really well as a Monarchy and unless we decide to pursue a space victory I don't think a government change will help.

Once we have Steam Power, what research path should we take?

Here is where I am going to suggest a different path. Research Steam Power, then Industrialization and start factories in the high shield towns. After Industrialization research Nationalism (it is tough to buy as the AI puts a really high value on that path), then Medicine on the path to SciMeth, ToE and Hoover's. While that is going on set up precisely timed pre-builds for both ToE and Hoover's in cities that have factories. It would be truly satisfying to nail both of them on the same turn.

I don't think it is necessary or even desirable to be the first to a tech, especially in our current postion where most everybody is poor, so our monopoly position isn't worth much. Let the AI pay the higher price, if we are second or third it costs us less and if we can time our wonder builds precisely nobody can touch us. Make good use of scientists in the towns that are long food and have no libraries and are corrupt. Researching Nationalism or buying it is important for THE POLICE. Using them and scientists in the the outlying long food towns will do really nice things for cash flow and research rate. It will also help with happiness.

IMHO the two most important techs in the IA are Nationalism and RepParts. The others add eye candy and the possibility of monumental buildings, but do not add real capability.

What IA wonders are most important and how do we plan on building them? Timing, location and precursors?

IMNHO none of them are as really critical as your management skills. They are nice to have though.

What trading strategy to pursue? Whom do we weaken and whom to strengthen?

What about trading luxuries and resources? Do we need the cash flow? Tech is not the only tradeable item. Trading resources and luxes can have just as much an impact on the direction of the game.

BTW, what nation has built the Pyramids?

>>> Maya have the pyramids (chichen itza) . The also have Hanging gardens (Copan) and Sun Tzu (chichen itza)

Looks like Maya are next for the Hittite How we going to get there?
Pyramids would be reallly nice for gunning population growth in the west so we can make use of specialists.

Are we building workers anywhere?

>>> Only in captured cities that can't really produce anything useful. Dacca, Punjab, Yakutsk, Karachi + Rostov.

We have 52 native workers and a fairly large number of captured workers.

We also have over thirty cities and a lot of ground to rail and re-uimrove once those rails area down.

To the team: do we need a tutorial on effeicient rail building?

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

Sorry if I missed an oportunity with the Maya. They're not dead yet. Egypt keeps movin troops south and our agreement just expired. Forum was down when I tried to log on last nght.

Before 1310, Set kanesh to ToG, RB to Pentagon, Military Academy if they were't there already.

1310 - moverment of forces, embark musket + settler on caravel

1315 - Meet the Babs, trade currency for map + 10g

1320 - moverment of forces, cut roads between jaipur & Bangalore

IBT - Pentagon done. RB->palace (prebuild). Egypt building ToG

1325 - rush rax in Bangalore. Stack of egyptian pikes moving south.Crusader join Satusma'a Vets. Investigate Heliopolis - ToG in 23 turns; Egypt is Democracy; has 1 each salt, iron, horse; city has rax, temple, market, lib, cath, univ, col, 3 musket, 2 treb; Egypt lux are fur, dye, spice, silk; makes 17spt, 27fpt (3 surplus); science @ 40%; happiness @ 0%. Tradiing - Arabs have 102g; we have Physics & Managetism to sell. No deal. Egypt has 34g; we can sell Physics & Managetism. No sale. Maya have 2g, want to buy Banking, Astro, Metallurgy. No sale. Mongols are broke, have one worker to sell. Could sell them Demo, Nav, or Physics. No sale.

1330 - upgrade all trebs. Check F4 - 14 turn til deal with Arabs ends, 6 til deal with Cleo is over. Found new Tarsus & (@sesn) Green Monster. Sell banking to Maya, I didn't note why I did this

1335 - mongols still don't have metallurgy. Maya fading in face of Mongol assault. Ruch library in Smolensk to expand to iron and coal (settler will take awhile to get there. Note future IW site NE Smolensk.

IBT - Finish Steam. Electricity in 9.

1340 - More of Cleo's troops move south. Rush walls in Bengal.

IBT - Cleo & Attila building Shakespeare's

1345 - More of Cleo troops moving south. Don't see the pont in trying for Free Artistry at this time. Settlers moving towards Smolensk.

1350 - Trading situation stagnant

1355 - Settler on goto Smolensk Building rails south from Smolensk & Bengal. RB 119 shields into palace.

I tried to follow Washington's advice about entangling alliances and the screen should be clear for Bede. I also didn't want to run down the treasury so I didn't upgrade too much. Most of our forces are on the eastern front. If Arabs Attack (Sunday night at 8:00 PM on Fox), we have a stack of knights in Smolensk. I started Privateers around the Palace Region to take care of any potential Mongol invasion.