Complete Mac Mayania

[frunobulax]

Revised roster:
Beamup (on deck)
dojoboy
Serkhon
Blue Monkey (just played)
frunobulax [skipping this turn]
Aoxomoxoa (up)

Sorry guys, I'm gonna have to skip this turn as I'm up to my neck marking mid-term exam papers for next couple of days
(much as I'd like an excuse to avoid doing them!)

Over to you Aoxomoxoa

 

[Beamup]

Do you know how long it'll be? We could do a swap instead, and you could play after me or something like that.

 

[Blue Monkey]

Yes! Swap turns. Even if frunobulax isn't available until my turn comes around again, I'll step back to let him in the queue. Those of us with meat puppet lives have to stick together!

 

[Aoxomoxoa]

I won;t be able to get to this until tomorrow. Grabbing and checking things out.

Aoxo

 

[Aoxomoxoa]

So I lied. What's a little sleep.

Turn 1 - 1300 - All quiet on the western front. Founded New Quiriga. No trades of consequence available. Do not want to give up any techs for luxuries at this point.

Turn 2 - 1305 - Learned Nationalism -> Communism. Founded New Uaxactan

Turn 3 - 1310 - Founded New Kaminaljuyu and New Cuello. Continue to lay rails and produced more workers from some of the large towns.

Turn 4 - 1315 .. Traded Furs to England for 5gpt. Traded furs to Celts for 19gpt. Rushed New Yaxichilan's courthouse. Get another worker going there.

Turn 5 - 1320 - Rails, rails, rails. Few more workers.

Turn 6 - 1325 - Rails, rails, rails. Few more workers. The Dutch have founded Deltt on the 5 square island west of our western territory. Micro'd the last tech turn to the tune of over 930+ gold .

Turn 7 - 1330 - Learned Communism -> Medicine. Switching governments. Descending into anarchy. Just about everyone started Shakespeare's Theater.

Turn 8 - 1335 - Founded New Coba. Anarchy continues.

Turn 9 - 1340 - Founded New Dzibilchaltun. Anarchy continues.

Turn 10 - 1345 - lost our supply of wines from portugal. They want tech for them. Will let Beamup decide what to do on that front.

Turn over notes. I did not want to trade anything while in anarchy. I think we should get a settler over to the 6 square island just south of our western territory. Also, I have a pile of mostly slave labor clearing a marsh spot just NW of Marlboro country which should be a good spot for a new city. Other than that, Salamanca needed a couple entertainers. A couple more settlers in the western territory. As a general rule, I went Court/Market/Lib/Univ/Bank/Colliseum/Factory as far as priority. Some exceptions, but in general that was the breakdown.

View attachment Mac Mayaniac of the Maya, 1345 AD.SAV.zip

 

[frunobulax]

Do you know how long it'll be? We could do a swap instead, and you could play after me or something like that.

Could be until/after the weekend - I have a lot of papers to mark

Thanks for the various swap/queue jumping offers - probably easiest if I just rejoin on my next regular turn

 

[Beamup]

Got it. Will play tonight, or maybe tomorrow. Depends on how long I'm at the gym.

 

[Beamup]

Inherited turn (1345 AD): A quick survey of the empire shows little happening, due to anarchy. 2 more turns to go on that. Trade our WM around for some gold and map updates. The price on imported luxuries is really prohibitive - that's what happens when you have 3 domestic luxes, markets, and a lot of cities. I also export a few more luxuries for gold, also Horses to the Netherlands, and re-negotiate some deals including RoP. Total of 87 extra gpt, and a pile of upfront cash.

I see 3 more city sites. 2 on the Iroquois peninsula, 1 on the 6-tile island offshore. Maybe a couple fishing villages to fill in tiny gaps. I'll try to get those taken care of.

We have 84 cities! Decent number of workers, but we could still use a few more. Luckily, they're in production.

Several entertainers added to hold off rioting.

1350 AD (1): Lots of railroads going up.

Interturn: Lose our Incense. We just can't get ANY luxuries imported! That's the downside of having this many cities. Anarchy is over, I select Feudalism.

Yes, I really did.

You didn't expect me to do that?

Well, don't you think it's sensible?

Oh fine, I'll go with Communism. But only since everyone's yelling so much.

1355 AD (2): Now that's more like it! Corruption is down to 343 out of 1570 total. A lot lower than before. Entertainment has to go up to 20% to compensate for our loss of luxuries - that's just excessive. I can get the Incense back for Iron+Saltpeter+Furs+1gpt. Not happy about it, but we need the happiness. I didn't like it before, don't like it now... but it's necessary. The going rate on anything past that is 2 techs and a big pile of gpt. NOT gonna happen. Still, the one is enough to get us down to 10% again. Medicine in 4 at a profit.

More railroads. Many Courthouses swapped to Libraries, which are now more needed - let's close up our borders.

1360 AD (3): Newton is completed - CI now produces 75 beakers per turn at 80% science. Starts a Factory. All sorts of infrastructure ordered up across the empire.

1365 AD (4): Settlers built and dispatched to the good sites.

1370 AD (5): Blast, Spain beat us to the offshore island by a single turn.

1375 AD (6): Medicine->Electricity (in 5). Military Academy complete. Salamanca will finally get a marketplace. Next to last palace expansion.

1380 AD (7): Spain is also trying to snag a spot on Iroquois Peninsula! Not quite in time, though. We'll get it first, though in a suboptimal location - New Uxmal founded.

1385 AD (8): New Mayapan founded.

1390 AD (9): Nothing of note.

1395 AD (10): New Kabah founded.

Electricity is due in 1 - remember to crank science back up. Our treasury can no longer be spent on rushing (might have been good to spend it off before revolting), so go ahead and run a deficit. Lots of infrastructure, lots of railroads, mostly a quiet set of turns. There are some Spainards near New Uxmal, they're no threat.

Roster:
Beamup (just played)
dojoboy (up!)
Serkhon (on deck)
Blue Monkey
frunobulax
Aoxomoxoa

 

[Aoxomoxoa]

Once we get Scientific Method should we go back and get Sanitation or move on to Replaceable Parts?

Aoxo

 

[Beamup]

Given how much work needs to be done on the empire, I'd say definitely RP. I'd follow that up with Espionage for the SPHQ, and only then Sanitation. We don't have all that many cities that can profitably grow past 12, so it's not the highest priority.

 

[Aoxomoxoa]

it's liable to come from Theory of Evolution then right (it's been sooo long since i've been this far in a game)?

I've forgotten the mechanics of what two techs you get.

Aoxo

 

[Beamup]

You get the tech currently being researched, and then select another one.

The idea is to keep researching until you can't learn another tech before ToE completes, then turn off research entirely and select Atomic Theory. When ToE completes, you get AT and select Electronics, which you also get. Then you turn research back on and proceed as normal. (AT + Electronics is highly valued because those two are quite costly and get you to Hoover.)

 

[dojoboy]

Got it!

 

[Beamup]

I have just had a very naughty idea. It would be entirely possible to launch some limited attacks to get additional luxuries. With Cavs and Rifles, our tech superiority should be decisive in a small-scale conflict. Infantry would just solidify that. Also, only the Celts can compete with us for culture (and that not well) so we shouldn't have much worry about flips as long as we aren't capturing cities.

Specific targets, in the order I'd go after them:
Wines in English territory by York would be a very easy target. Found a city, defend it, and they're ours.
Incense in the Netherlands, in the W, by Maastricht. Raze that city, refound on the spot.
Silk in Spain, by Vitoria. Raze and refound.
There's an Ivory on the coast at the NW corner of Celt territory, near Lugdunum. Again, not hard to grab with a new city.
For Dyes, we'd actually have to go up against Portugal, who are the strongest. Still, that cluster in the NE of their territory wouldn't be that hard to lay our hands on. New city.

I suggest we seriously consider this - we have significant happiness issues from only having 3 domestic luxes, and our power and tech lead should allow us to do a bit of landgrabbing without a problem. England, Spain, and the Netherlands especially have little to no capacity to put up a fight.

Of course, if we wanted a Diplo victory, this would be a bad idea. But if we go for Space, the additional luxuries would be extremely useful. And in a Space victory, we don't care what they think of us - our power, tech lead, and isolation mean we don't need anything from them. Except luxuries.

It would also have the advantage of keeping things a bit more interesting - at this point we've as good as won Space, it's just a matter of putting in the turns.

Edit for followup: If we do want to go for Diplo, we should go ahead and start trading techs for luxuries. Gotta build up those relationships!

 

[Aoxomoxoa]

If i'm playing by myself, maybe a diplo victory is fun. But frankly, I'm having more fun with everyone here mixing it up a little. I think I'm leaning more toward that end. Hard to believe those civs are not gonna really extort us for those luxuries and it's only gonna get worse.

Aoxo

 

[Beamup]

Oh yeah, it's only going to get worse. The price they charge is based on how many happy faces we'll get out of the deal - and with this many cities, and marketplaces, that's a lot for even one. When it gets up into the 3-4 happy faces per lux range, it'll be insane.

And as we grow our cities and build more markets, it'll only get even more extortionate. I really think the only way to get a supply of luxuries at a workable price is to take them.

 

[Blue Monkey]

I have just had a very naughty idea. It would be entirely possible to launch some limited attacks to get additional luxuries. ... New city... England, Spain, and the Netherlands especially have little to no capacity to put up a fight.

I usually play the Indians, going for Cultural V, and try to not initiate military action, although I will crush anyone who attacks me. One of the things I'm learning in this SG is the whole strategy (tech research order, etc.) that goes with being more agressive. If I understand what you're suggesting, we send in a settler (and probably a couple of workers for immediate development) with substantial military escort. As long as we hook up the new city by road or port we've got the resource, right? I'd like to play that way, to try it out. If we pick on the weak ones how do we keep them from running to our more formidable opponents and ending up in a real shooting match?

 

[dojoboy]

I prefer Spacerace. Btw, I'll complete my turns tonight.

 

[Aoxomoxoa]

How do we prevent them? May not be able to. That's the beauty, we weigh the pro's and cons and make a move based on our best conclusions. The the AI will react. Think of it this way, turn the board around and what would you do.

Aoxo

 

[Beamup]

If I understand what you're suggesting, we send in a settler (and probably a couple of workers for immediate development) with substantial military escort. As long as we hook up the new city by road or port we've got the resource, right?

Pretty much, yeah. Enough Rifles to hold the city, enough Cavs to cause trouble to force them to sign peace. A Galleon load of each per target should be more than adequate until we get into the Celts and Portuguese.

If we pick on the weak ones how do we keep them from running to our more formidable opponents and ending up in a real shooting match?

I don't think we have to worry about that. It's not really like even Portugal could do much about it - not against Rifles. And remember, the stronger enemies (Celts/Portuguese) we don't need to take any cities - just drop our own in their territory.