Emperor Cookbook IV: Suryavarman II

[RJM]

All went for Biology?? don't really understand why with little farms, Not so urgent. Little settling of off shore islands for trade routes/resources. HORSES!!!!!!

With the Great Library, I usually delay Scientific Method until there is nothing else useful available. I then swap for SM and the next choice is between Physics and Biology. I usually choose Biology because I'm hoping that Physics will be available to swap. I'm willing to be convinced that this is not ideal. How do you play it?

RJM

 

[plattfuss]

The forge was built earlier in the game when I had some happiness issues. Gave me plus 2 happy faces for gold and silver. Anyhow atm happiness is not a problem.

I think it depends a bit on how we want to win this game If we are going for a space race victory (which I rarely do) I think RJM's save is best. If we go for a domination vicor (which is probably more difficult from where we are at) I think mine is better. However, in Chrmium's + my save there is still a threat that Ragnar wins due to AP votes. So RJM's save is probably the way to go.

@RJM: maybe you can explain us a bit on how you plan to continue your game? That would prolly increase my confidence even further .

RJM 3 points
Chrom 2

 

[RJM]

@RJM: maybe you can explain us a bit on how you plan to continue your game? That would prolly increase my confidence even further .

My plan (if that is the right word) was to go for a space ship victory. Playing on my own, I would research towards Rocketry while building up production. I would then build Apollo while researching to the techs that unlock the space elevator. I try to keep constructing at least one military unit in the hope of fighting off the allmost inevitable AI attack. As plans go, it's not very sophisticated, but it's the best I've got.

RJM

 

[Gumbolt]

My plan (if that is the right word) was to go for a space ship victory. Playing on my own, I would research towards Rocketry while building up production. I would then build Apollo while researching to the techs that unlock the space elevator. I try to keep constructing at least one military unit in the hope of fighting off the allmost inevitable AI attack. As plans go, it's not very sophisticated, but it's the best I've got.

RJM

Is a UN diplo win not possible or is our pop too small.

Again not sure what the Ai base their votes on!!!

 

[RJM]

Is a UN diplo win not possible or is our pop too small.

Again not sure what the Ai base their votes on!!!

I have found a space win rather easier than a UN diplomacy win, but if someone wants to lead the way, I'm willing to learn!

RJM

 

[Gumbolt]

Question is how to stop Gilga winning diplomatic victory on UN. He has a huge empire and no doubt hidden weighting with other AI. Do we need a higher points total or more + diplomatic points with other AI?

 

[IPEX-731BA5DD06]

I agree, U.N. Victory, or attempt at, is handing the game to Gilgamesh, Apostolic palace is Ragnar.

I see space as only viable victory. That was what I was aiming for in my game. Settle as many cities off shore for trade routes/resources. Spam Confucianism to Gilgamesh mainly, but to boost my wall street city, and head to space.

Trouble is I fell to Apostolic palace vote, on the very turn it was spread to me, didn't even get notified, I had to vote 1st , told 2nd.

Military is out, as Gilgamesh is too big, and with Statue of Zeus in Uruk, and needing to take 1/2 empire BEFORE we could reach it.

Again that's why I was aiming for pleasing 5/6 people. Space race win. Monty is Monty, He'll rant and rave, huff and puff, and keep Ragnar/Charlie occupied.

Gilgamesh is biggest threat, diplomatic, space, military.
Ragnar is Religious only. (damm you Gilgamesh)
The rest are just making up numbers.

@RJM- I usually play the specialist economy, so I generally beeline Biology, the food boost can easily offset the loss of Great Library, and I have multiple cities running 6+ Scientist by then anyway.

building academies in other science generating cities, something I've avoided, I should look at more, 50% bonus to 100+ beakers better than 200% of 6 beaker or 18 beakers.

 

[ChromiumL]

Here are my votes:

1st - RJM - Probably the safest save, good tech rate, etc...

2nd - Platt - Not as safe (but better than mine).

That puts the grand totals at:

15 points - RJM
10 points - Plattfuss
8 points - Chromium

That makes RJM the winner! Congratulations! We will be playing from his save! The next round will go through 1700 AD. Lets try to finish up this round and start voting next Wednesday.

 

[Gumbolt]

A new round

Not sure how much we will really get done by 1700ad. I think unless someone can get a diplomatic win it will be a space race.

We could suffer a dilpomatic loss or cultural loss too. Has anyone checked the cultural pace so far?

 

[IPEX-731BA5DD06]

Round 5 Emperor's Cook Book​

​

As per usual I start off with a review of builds, civ's, workers and cities.

Spoiler :

I go through the cities, adding barracks to the front for Military builds, renaming cities to what they'll do.

I check the relations screen 2 “Mr 10%'s” are only pleased, but I'm aiming for space only.

As we're 1 from Biology, I need to generate a Great Merchant for Sids Sushi. I also notice that we have the only OIL SOURCE for Gilgamesh on OUR Island home, a short war to claim it is on the cards, or a culture war??, why not kick him off our continent.

I also see he has one on an island with 2 fish, above our own city site. Looks like the war may be off.

1510 AD pop a Great Scientist, Build an academy in Angkor Thom, yielding 40 beakers. Set research to Democracy, as the Statue of Liberty, will be huge for us.

Wall street will attempt the Statue of Liberty, due to the Great Merchant points, and it being No 3 in hammers, without a forge (2 turns). Pity we haven't popped copper or claimed it.

I make the following trade with Gilgamesh for our only coal, he has one, so good monitoring tool.

Spoiler :

Puts us at 80% in profit, after I sacked a number of merchants and adjusted some tiles.

1545 AD Gilgamesh had just adopted Theocracy, and is WHEOOHRN mode along with 2 others being Monty (ha) and Ragnar (ho)

1590 AD Assembly line is in, I queue, factories behind most builds, Statue of Liberty, looks like a pipe dream, Versailles, is being built in our far east land mass. Chain farming to Wall street to enable plains farms and use more workshops.

1620 AD I Made a trade in error, I traded Biology to Gil for Communism, I wanted to ask what would make this work and refuse it. Useless tech now. Bah. Better trade it about now.

1650 AD Gilgamesh just cancelled our coal deal, he's now got Steam power.

1655 AD Monty declares war, and I upgrade a few troops to Machine guns, near his naval flotilla.

Spoiler :

I also revolt to Emancipation, as unhappy was getting high. Science goes to zero for 1 or 2 turns for cash to upgrade, I had 1.4K in bank, but spent it on 515 warrior upgrades

1670 AD I nearly lost Isvarapura to Monties attack, I had 3 machine guns and lost 2, a archer and received a near dead rifleman. I've sent in another sword, upgraded to a machinegun, and promoted existing machinegun, hopefully he's gassed out now, as troops are injured and must have retreated or won battles.

1680 AD I lost an infantry man at 92% odds to a wounded knight, Crap. Cleaned up rest of monties invasion force. Science goes back on, completed Moai statues, merged Great General into city, building Infantry in cities where factories are complete, along with a machinegun. Spammed Confucianism to couple cities, 1 remaining, then its to Gilgamesh, I'll just gift them.

1695 AD Monties actually taken a mainland city from Cyrus, Ecbatana. Don't how long he'll hold it for though, building drydocks and Destroyers now from Moai statues, Pentagon in Capital city, Statue of Liberty in Moai statues, factories either built or being built in most cities, rebuilding lost pastures/mines.

1700 AD All cities are on building builds.

Spoiler :

I made this trade with Gilgamesh as he DOESN'T have Railroad as yet, and has put a workshop over his oil

Spoiler :

we have maintained, if not increased our tech lead on our opponents

Spoiler :

With Gilgamesh still in WHEOOHRN mode, but we are now top of the tree in relations. Looks like Charlie. The other was Ragnar, but no threat.

Monty, Very Nearly took that city, if I hadn't upgraded and moved some machineguns, he would have, I should have promoted a rifle to Infantry as well.

All looking good. Future Plans;

Spam Confucianism to Gilgamesh Via gifting the missioneries to overcome the Theocracy.

Finish off Radio and build the wonders, same for Electricity in Ironworks.

Statue of Liberty in Wall Street, which needs Wall Street and domicile any corps there as well.

Finish Versailles, or stop 1 turn short for the cash.

Moai statues, has 1 Great General, it should spam troops only, unless it need an industrial park or Laboratory.

Capital gets all Science producing wonders, or Christo Redentor (engineer)

Future research is;

Industrialism for tanks/Marines. Kick Gilgamesh off his 2 oil sources.

Flight for airports and +1 trade routes/fighters.
Plastics for 3 gorges dam.

I stupidly haven't revolted to ORGANIZED RELIGION. +25% building

Nothing dramatic, average effort, mainly building.

Enjoy.

 

[ChrisShaffer]

Spoiler :

A builder round, but it feels unfocused. I guess the main thing I did was build factories. No new cities, no wars, not even much diplomacy.

I did manage to pop a great merchant and found Sid's Sushi, but no expansion yet. There are a lot of sushi resources available for gold-per-turn. I also slipped in Fascism for the great general and created a medic.

 

[Gumbolt]

Spoiler :

A builder round, but it feels unfocused. I guess the main thing I did was build factories. No new cities, no wars, not even much diplomacy.

I did manage to pop a great merchant and found Sid's Sushi, but no expansion yet. There are a lot of sushi resources available for gold-per-turn. I also slipped in Fascism for the great general and created a medic.

Spoiler :

I doubt this round will offer many interesting tales if its a space race thing.

Do we think 1700ad is too short for this round??

 

[RJM]

Spoiler :

I decided to disregard the threat of an AP victory by Ragnar. Partly this was a hope that if Hinduism arrived, I'd have enough time to spread it and get enough votes to block the victory. It was also partly a feeling that if I did act, I'd be using information from other games which I wasn't entitled to. Anyway, that's the path I followed.

My plan was slightly different from the plan I posted. I set out to research or trade anything useful for a spaceship victory except corporations - I wanted to keep the lighthouse as long as possible. This was sacrificing hammers for beakers, since it meant factories were available much later. I regularly sold techs to maintain my research rate.

In 1630, Montezuma launched a distracting but ultimately pointless attack on me - knights against artillery and machine guns was no contest. But it did mean I lost some rather sweet deals with him. In 1660 after his expeditionary force had been destroyed without my losing any units, he gave me 75 gold for a peace treaty (actually, I lost 1 worker, because I didn't notice that he still had a chariot left). During the course of the war, I swapped for Corporation (by mistake; I meant to get some money), but the loss of beakers was quite small and it did open up assembly line. On reflection, I should have gone for corporation much earlier.

In 1675, I decided I could not take the unhapiness any longer and switched to emancipation - I'd have done it ages ago if we were a spiritual civ.

Whilst there is always scope for something to go wrong, I'd feel confident about landing first from this position.

RJM

 

[ChromiumL]

1700 may be too short--this is the first time we have actually gone this far into the game . The thing is, for a space win, 1700 seems like nothing, but if we were trying to finish up a conquest/domination win, 1700 is plenty of time. I think that I may extend the next round though, depending on where we are with the save that gets picked.

 

[Gumbolt]

Next round should be to the finish. Finishing off a space race wont take long. Click click. )

I will try to do my round later today. Well in 10 hours or so time.

 

[plattfuss]

Spoiler :

I tried to continue the spaceship route and focused on maintaining a tech lead and improving MFG. Thats why I was heading for assembly line hoping to also be first to build the 3 something damm world wonder. I let my cities grow quite a bit which was possible due to some favorable tech trades, one of them with Monty, however, he decided to decleare war about 8 turns ago and now I am in some happiness problems.

 

[Gumbolt]

Spoiler :

A rather clicking round for me.

I teched towards Apollo project although in hindsight a few factories would of helped.

Monty dow on me and I paid HRG to attack him and ragnar. Probably a mistake but his fleet turned away back to HRG lands.

Frederick is now a colony of Ragnar.

I have a GE now which i could use for mining inc. I am rather short of wall street.

I am about 20ish turns off Apollo project but the empire as a whole will struggle to build a spaceship before Gilga builds UN i fear.

Hmmm.

 

[IPEX-731BA5DD06]

Why don't we all just play our own saves to the bitter end, be that space, domination, or a loss due to various factors..

I'm sure we all have our own idea's about optimum way's to tech/build.

Spoiler :

I like the Sids Sushi save, but its not my wall street city. he he.

Aluminum Corp, build in my wall street, and the +3 science is nice.

Great Engineer for Mining corp, tasty.

Me, I got a Great Scientist, who was merged or build an Academy or both (2)

Gilgamesh has combustion in some, and not in others.

Just my thoughts, happy to vote, or play own saves.

 

[ChrisShaffer]

I'd rather vote for one. I may not even play the last round, depending on time. What I really appreciate about voting is hearing people's reasons for liking/disliking the saves.

 

[Gumbolt]

Might as well vote. I think the main issue for our saves will be building the 2 engines. Theres no real production power house on our island and the engines take forever to build.

Also stopping Gilga getting UN. Not going to be easy.

I think we all knew this anyway so didnt use a spoiler.