"Follow the leader" or "You can go your own way" ??

[Rik Meleet]

Monotheism is due next turn. Research after that is easy; Chivalry to get knights and exploit C3B's lack of horses.

But then ??

"Follow the leader" => CDZ has gone the top branch; reducing the research cost for us.
"Go your own way" => If we go the bottom branch we have no reduced research cost, but we might have tradeability. I think CDZ and CGN have agreed to both research a half of the tree and trade them around.

Or even:

"Money money money" => No research; finish the game with knights. This will accumulate money that can be used to cashrush and upgrade.

P.S. this poll is informational; the discussion is most importantly

 

[magnusmarcus]

If we were to go for gunpowda we would know if its available to us or to c3b. I think that knowledge of who has gunpowder is going to be key.

 

[Provolution]

I agree with MM, go for Gunpowder then war with gold gold gold

 

[Rik Meleet]

There is a danger in going for Gunpowder.
If we go for Gunpowder to spot Saltpeter, we make it cheaper for C3B to research it. And it is not even sure the game lasts till then. Let's assume it takes 8 turns to chivalry, 8 turns to Engineering, 8 turns till Invention and 8 turns till Gunpowder; that is 32 turns of constant research. 32 turns just to check if C3B has saltpeter is not a good reason to go that way. 32 turns in which we could seriously harm C3B with knights.

I also fail to see its usefullness; if C3B has gunpowder and Saltpeter, we will know soon enough and reconsider our options. 4-3-2 knights against 2-4-1 muskets is a battle I am not afraid of to take on.
And if they don't have saltpeter we have wasted a lot of commerce on that knowledge. Commerce we could have invested in exploiting our upper hand given to us by the fact that we have horses and fast units and they don't. And how can we be sure without completely seeing their lands that they have no source of saltpeter ??

As long as C3B has no horses we rule till at least Nationalism and perhaps even till Replaceable Parts. Even if they have muskets.

 

[Provolution]

Well, go gold then.

 

[akots]

We are safe with knights before C3B has Physics.Then, it would be needed to research to cavalries. But we certainly have a chance to finish the game with knights.

 

[Hygro]

"money money money"

get knights and stop until we have military dominance (read won the game)

 

[Donovan Zoi]

Money money money money.........

DZ strains to remember the next verse. Oh yeah, all together now........

MONEY!

With the newly available cash, we may be able to upgrade several units while rushing others. Let's do this, and thumb our noses to the imperialist Svengalis to our West. We can settle the score with them next game.

 

[RegentMan]

The money option seems logical.

 

[Rik Meleet]

I must remind the Money-lovers that if C3B does get horses (for instance via trade with CGN) that going for money also has its dangers.
We'll be slacking tech-wise while not having an advantage any more.

 

[akots]

With all due respect, if we were going to research, then we have a wrong civ (Maya) and a wrong government (Monarchy). It might be better to research as little as possible and only what is absolutely required for survival.

 

[rcoutme]

Akots said all that I would have said. We are not in the right government or civilization to research anything. We are planning a war to end all wars (at least for this game ) so let's not worry about C3B getting cavalry some 120 turns down the road...

We need the cash for unit upkeep and civics upkeep. If there were a better government for war, I would even ask to switch to that once our GA was over. We should not even bother upgrading stuff as rush-building is probably more useful, imho.

Go for chivalry and then crush our enemy under the heel of our boot!

 

[Matrix]

Pink Floyd says it all.

Money, get away
Get a good job with more pay and your O.K.
Money it's a gas
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash
New car, caviar, four star daydream,
Think I'll buy me a football team
Money get back
I'm all right Jack keep your hands off my stack.
Money it's a hit
Don't give me that do goody good bull****
I'm in the hi-fidelity first class traveling set
And I think I need a Lear jet
Money it's a crime
Share it fairly but don't take a slice of my pie
Money so they say
Is the root of all evil today
But if you ask for a rise it's no surprise that they're
giving none away

 

[classical_hero]

Sire, we are rich, rich, rich!

 

[Hygro]

^^^^^

 

[RegentMan]

Ahh, good ol' Civ II. "We are rich sire! Rich rich rich!"