CTIV-9: The Academians

[Scowler]

Agreed. And the Epic adds 1 x Great Artist Point, so would have contaminated Ptah anyway.

Turns have been played: largely uneventful, but with one (probably unavoidable) setback. I'll have the full report up in an hour or so.

 

[Scowler]

And here it is.

So, following the agreed plan, workers are diverted to begin reconfiguring Ptah for GP production. Science is reduced to 10% for 1 turn to give us 282g, which will no doubt be very welcome after we've switched to Pacifism. The Forge at Shenzhen is vetoed in favour of a Courthouse.

In 1625AD Chemistry is finished and Constitution started. We revolt to Caste System / Pacifism.

Work on Ptah is completed by turn 4 (1670AD); the city is now producing 63GPP.

In 1685AD Constitution is finished and Corporation started. We haven't yet revolted to Representation.

Things start to go awry in 1695AD. Firstly, HC demands that we stop trading with FDR. I was afraid of what might happen if I refused so I gave in. HC is way more powerful than us and our relations are not particularly marvellous (+1). On the other hand FDR is weak and happy; we drop to +7 after cancelling and he is no longer speaking. This could be a problem if we decide to go for a diplo win, but I think it was the safest decision to make. The worst consequence is probably the loss of income from general and specific trading with America: we lost around 8gpt.

The second annoyance is that Mansa's borders expand, encroaching onto our NE territory and causing starvation at Zu (we lost control of the rice resource). I've hired an artist to help with the cultural battle, and a worker is now building a windmill on the grass hill 1E of the city. Might be an idea to start farming as well...

1700AD: Corporation completed. I've set up Sci Method - change if necessary. This is the current tech trading situation:

For the next player:

• The settler is doing nothing - as I said, I don't know where he should go. If this annoys GreyFox then so be it
• It would be a good idea to send more workers to help with the food crisis at Zu - it needs to be tackled ASAP.
• The next Great Scientist is due in 4 turns.
• Mansa Musa is now Nappy's worst enemy, so expect a demand from one of them to stop trading with the other.
• We are running deficit research at 90% science. Might be worth thinking about upgrading some of our units. I've built a couple of grens, but we could do with some more.
• I noticed a cute Barbarian city while exploring. Ruff will have some new friends to play with

~ Save ~​

 

[ChrTh]

Roster
ChrTh
Ruff_Hi
Maquis
Scowler -- Just Played!
GreyFox -- UP!
JesusOnEez -- On Deck!

Don't worry about cancelling the deals with FDR. He won't talk to us for 10 turns because of the cancellation (it's a built-in algorithm to prevent turning around and immediately doing an Open Borders/Trade again), but I'm sure he'll be fine to reopen the borders.

I do think, however, we should beef up our forces in order to deal with HC if the need arises.

 

[Scowler]

One futher comment: On second thoughts, it might be as well to avoid Sci Meth for as long as possible as it will obsolete the Gt Library, losing us 2 scientists.

Oh, and you may want to build a windmill on the grass hill NE of Ptah for when the city grows another pop point.

 

[GreyFox]

Got It, Turns Played, Report in 5 hrs (if I had nothing to do during conference).

-

 

[ChrTh]

we're over nine hours, GreyFox must've had something to do

 

[GreyFox]

First off, we really should decide which victory condition we are going to attempt ...

- Cultural: is possible, we have cities with high commerce or high food. Problem is we only have 3 regions, and only have 8 cities which isn't enough to support 3 cathedrals of a religion. More serious is, its already 1750AD, a tad late to start cultural.

- Space: is possible, we are in tech lead over everyone except Mansa. However, the danger is Huayana, who has the largest piece of land (a whole freaking continent, in fact) all by himeself. He is bound to catch up research and prod wise.

- Diplomatic: is unlikely, since we are friendly only with the smallest Civ.

- Conquest/Domination: is unlikely, unless we start pumping troops by tthe millions.

So, I think we are likely to go for Cultural or Space. To such end, I vetoed SciMeth to continue building Monastries, and spread Islam to another city.

Research wise, we learn Steam:

and I head us towards AssemLine. With steam, I am glad to report that we have Coals.

In the other news:

- I deleted the scout. Resistance is Futile. You will be deleted.

- America and Alex are engaged in war again:

Within my turnset, the Americans lost one city, and look at Philadelphia:

It will be gone one way or the other.

- And we have a city that is so fond of bacons that the populance renamed their city "Bacon".

- Nappy cancel our Marble, but supply us with something else (forgot what

- I and decided to veto the windmilling in Zu Chongzi to lumbermilling. At the end of my turnset, I decided windmill is a better choice, so the worker are now undoing the lumbermill and redoing the windmilling. We have keep up the culture output in Zu Chongzi to get back the rice from Mansa.

- Here is our city build info:

>>> The Save (1750AD) <<<

 

[ChrTh]

maybe we should declare war on FDR and take Philly and that annoying city to the South if feasible? That would give us 9 cities so that we could have cathedreal support.

Roster
ChrTh -- On Deck!
Ruff_Hi
Maquis
Scowler
GreyFox -- Built Bacon's Academy!
JesusOnEez -- UP!

 

[Scowler]

Couple of very quick points:

- Why are we building an aqueduct at Ptah when the city is 4 points below the health limit and barely growing? The city will actually stagnate next turn unless we build a windmill on the NE grass hill.

- That barb city is still around if we need one extra, though it will obviously cost us in upkeep.

- Build and upgrade some more military?

 

[GreyFox]

... no "build us the Bacon Academy " besides my alias???

maybe we should declare war on FDR and take Philly and that annoying city to the South if feasible?

You do mean or, don't you?

 

[GreyFox]

Why are we building an aqueduct at Ptah when the city is 4 points below the health limit and barely growing? The city will actually stagnate next turn unless we build a windmill on the NE grass hill.

Because once we got two more scentists, we would turn off Ptah and turn on Bacon as GP farm, then Ptah will grow. Its better than the measly 2 commerce you are producing before my turnset..

 

[Scowler]

That's fair enough, but we could be building a monastery in the meantime and getting the science bonus right away.

 

[GreyFox]

Yes, agreed. I simply choos eone and forget abt iit

 

[ChrTh]

... no "build us the Bacon Academy " besides my alias???

Whoops, fixed it!

You do mean or, don't you?

I had forgotten the southern city at first and added it at the last second so my grammar was iffy. Honestly, we would probably raze Philly.

 

[JesusOnEez]

I've got it and should be able to play tonight after work.

Razing Philly sounds like a good idea, assuming we can defend against any backlash from FDR before we sue/declare peace.

So, saying we're going for a cultural victory seems to be contrary to our "science" outlook on life, whereas Space is more our "thang". But true, that do do that we'd have to slow HC and probably Mansa down...I don't think we're in any position to do that at the moment (ChrTH - you sure this won't turn into a huge space race with spies all over the place again?). If so, we want to be bumping that culture slider to 100% in the not too distant future.

I'll await feedback before playing...

 

[ChrTh]

1750 AD seems late for a Cultural Victory attempt imo. I fear we could lose to AI Space Race if we try for Cultural.

I'm actually not sure which way to go. Usually my games make it obvious what victory condition to shoot for by this point.

 

[JesusOnEez]

I think it's a bit late for cultural as well...let's go for Space and have the spies at the ready!

 

[JesusOnEez]

Hmmmmm...I was hoping for a bit more feedback regarding winning conditions, hence the delay...

Never mind, will play my turnset after work and report today.

 

[GreyFox]

I have throw in what I think abt victory condition, I shall repeat them here (with 1 change ... I changed my mind):

- Cultural: is possible, we have cities with high commerce or high food. Problem is we only have 3 regions, and only have 8 cities which isn't enough to support 3 cathedrals of a religion. More serious is, its already 1750AD, a tad late to start cultural.

- Space: is possible, we are in tech lead over everyone except Mansa. However, the danger is Huayana, who has the largest piece of land (a whole freaking continent, in fact) all by himeself. He is bound to catch up research and prod wise.

- Diplomatic: is unlikely, since we are friendly only with the smallest Civ.

- Conquest/Domination: is a low possibility, we can start pumping troops by tthe millions, and raze everything (only keeping cities already having an academy).

 

[ChrTh]

- Space: is possible, we are in tech lead over everyone except Mansa. However, the danger is Huayana, who has the largest piece of land (a whole freaking continent, in fact) all by himeself. He is bound to catch up research and prod wise.

The player is smarter than the AI in this case, though, so hopefully HC couldn't beat us. If Mansa or another financial Civ had a continent to itself, I'd be a lot more worried.

Wait, crap, HC is financial. ... I still think we're smarter than him, though.