Goz7 - The Squeeze

[Sir Bugsy]

Pre-flight – Our cities look good. We are far behind in techs. After Lit comes in, propose lone scientist and start purchasing our techs. Gilamesh is in the MA.

IBT – Sumeria completes HG.
730
IBT – Literature=>IW
Eridu: worker=>library

710 – I don’t know if we could have gotten the GL, but without a pre-build we can write that off. Found Zariqum to the far east. Start temple.

Trades: I go for the most expensive techs first.
Theodora: Lit for CoL & HBR
Bismark: Trade Lit, CoL & 16G for masonry, philosophy & IW
Tokugawa: Lit for Myst & 75G
Gilamesh: Lit & 34G for Math
So I got seven techs and 25G for lit.

BTW – Theodora just entered the MA. We’re down four techs to her. So did Tokugawa, same four with him. Bismark is only up one tech.

We will have iron. I just need to get it hooked up.

I have science at zero, we’re making 25 gpt. We may be able to two-fer with Bismark.

690 – Bismark used his 16G to purchase Polytheism.

IBT – Babylon: settler=>library
Nineveh: bowman=>library

670 – Run into one of Shaka’s galleys. He is still in the AA. Trade CoL & Lit for MM & 12G. I look for a two-fer but it costs us most of our cash.

Ashur: barracks=>library

650 – Nippur has grown. Whip the temple.

Elippi: Bowman=>library
Nippur: temple=>library

630 – Buy currency from Sumeria for 164G & 17gpt. Sell it to Germany for Polytheism & 5G.

610 Found Sippar. Start temple of course
Akkad: settler=>library
Eulbar: temple=>library

590

550 – Found Izibia very aggressively. Whip Shuruppak’s temple.

After Action – Keep whipping temples as we get above pop 1. We’ll have to think about some aggressive settling or war.

Sitrep:

Save: http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/GOZ7550BC.zip

 

[microbe]

Cool. It looks like we have a lot of brokering opportunity. And we need to prepare a war with Sumeria at some point.

I can't play this tonight. Greebley if you want you can grab it and we switch order forever. I will play tomorrow night.

 

[gozpel]

So I got seven techs and 25G for lit.

Good job! Continue build up an army and settle aggressively. I'm glad we have iron (where is it?)

Buy currency from Sumeria for 164G & 17gpt.

Is this a setup for demanding them to leave out territory in the near future?

 

[Greebley]

Bugsy,
Some good trading.

Do you have your game set to putting new towns on Govenor's? I noticed some with white outlines = govs. There was one town on govs in the last game too.

I can play today, Microbe, so that sounds fine to me. I got it.

 

[Greebley]

Preturn: Some towns building barracks don't have libraries yet, so I switch them. Since we will want construction next, I set research positive to lessen the price (we want construction for the free tech and the hopes of trading.

Early: Rush a few Libraries and Temples. The Maintainance cost is high, but we really need to keep up our culture or we will lose cities to flips.

Mid: We connect Iron. Building spears and swords.

Late: A demand from Sumeria for 21 gold.

Notes:
We have most of our Libraries and Temples. Even so we will be hard pressed to keep within 1/2 of Sumeria in culture. They have nearly double the number of cities.

We are slowly building up units. War is still a ways away though.

I am also building some Markets to support our economy. What our economy really needs though is for our cities to grow in size.

On research:
In this game I think we will find self research benificial. Buying with gold is a clear winner when you can purchase techs and get 2-fers, but self research is better when you can't. I would really like to sit down and compare costs of techs vs researching. The markup in price seems high to me - I am wondering if the "conventional wisdom" of buying techs may not be as accurate as it used to be.

I think government techs (and Especially Feudalism as it is a non-optional tech) are almost always worth self research.

In at least once case the cost of a "normal" tech more than twice the research cost. If this is true in general it means even a 2-fer isn't as good as self research in this game (most games you often have Markets but not Libs which bias away from research - in this game we will have more libraries than normal). I would like to investigate this more.

 

[gozpel]

Feel free to investigate, Greebley. You're usually right to the point Logically it sounds right to do self-research, but if you can prove it, it's even better.

Roster:

1 - Bedhead -> lurking
2 - Kaiser Berger
3 - gozpel
4 - Sir Bugsy
5 - microbe -> UP
6 - Greebley -> Swapped with microbe

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Greeb - I didn't change the preferences. I usually don't use governors, unless that is the variant. Usually the only thing I change is turning automation on or off, depending on whether I feel like watching some dopey moves or not.

 

[microbe]

350BC: we can build FP but our production sucks with such a tight build, so I will not start one.

I think we need to prepare a war against Byzantines or Japanese.

Why are we building spearmen? With the same cost we can build bowmen.

We are only about one half of Sumeria's culture.

IBT Sumeria starts Leo's!

(1)330BC: Zulu gets Construction and lacks Currency! We pay 63g and enter Middle Ages. We draw Feudalism!

Unfortunately Germany entered Middle Ages at the same turn.

No AI has Monotheism yet, that's great news. Why didn't we get that tech?

I don't quite like too much mining in corrupt towns..

I exchange furs for ivory with Germany. Zeus hasn't been built? But we can't get it anyways.

IBT Japan completes Zeus.

(2)310BC: Germany gets Engineering.

(3)290BC:

IBT Japan starts Leo's.

(4)270BC: whip a library.

(5)250BC:

(6)230BC: start research on Monotheism in 45 turns.

(7)210BC: Byzantines complete Great Library, as if they needed it.

(8-10): nathing.

Apparently Sumeria is at war with Japanese and it has captured all its towns on our continent.

I just hate being next to a monster.

 

[Greebley]

Ya, the Sumerians are going to be a real pain.

I almost always want spears to defend my town. In this case Bowmen will be obsolete before we go to war (I would like to be republic before we start our GA for example).

The spears can already be upgraded to Pikes and I would rather have pikes defending my city than Bowmen.

I saw no reason to build any more Bowmen.

I think I would prefer to research Republic at full before we work on Monotheism. Also our corruption is not going to be much different from a normal game. Rank corruption is exactly the same and our cities placement is only a few squares different. We have as much need of the FP as any game.

I think I would a;so prefer our first war to be vs Sumeria with the Byzantines help. I have seen too many run-away AI's recently (In which case monarchy is attractive).

 

[microbe]

I think I would prefer to research Republic at full before we work on Monotheism.

I started on monotheism already (nobody has it). Republic would be nice but Zulu might get it for us and it lacks Feudalism. We could probably pull a 2-fer with Republic with Monotheism.

We could also sell our only iron to Germany when needed.

 

[gozpel]

Roster:

1 - Bedhead -> UP
2 - Kaiser Berger -> lurking
3 - gozpel
4 - Sir Bugsy
5 - microbe -> Just played
6 - Greebley

 

[bed_head7]

Oops, didn't realize I was up. Sorry. Should play today.

 

[bed_head7]

Pre - I think I'll opt more for agressive settling than war. I don't want to fight them. I'll still build units, but we are in an awkward position for war, and there are more capaple warmongerers on this team than me. Not that I even have any units with which to fight. We have a few holes where we can steal territory, and even though that will hurt production a bit down the line, we aren't working all of our tiles and we are losing ground with culture. Soooooo, Ashur switches from Aqueduct to settler. Nippur also switches to settler, from Colosseum. Zariqum, which can only do 1spt, switches as well, from Harbor.

Early - Japan learns Monotheism. Shucks. Which forces me to make a decision on whether or not to continue. I hate these decisions. We have researched six turns, but we still have way too many to go. I guess I'll stay the course, hope the Zulu research a gov tech, and trade Feudalism for whatever they research.

Middle - Monotheism is known by all of the leaders. Zulu learn Monarchy, we trade Fuedalism for Monarchy straight up. We are religious, so I'll go ahead and revolt. Almost took Fuedalism, which wouldn't be awful in our gov type. We could still pop rush, and our cities won't get big. Actually, had we discussed it beforehand, I may have tried to make a case for Feudalism. Monarchy does wonders for our economy.

Late - Not much.

After - Nineveh can be switch from the forest to a 2fpt tile next turn. Right now it isn't growing, but it needed 11spt for one turn to finish the pikeman in 2 turns instead of 3. The settler in Uruk is headed two NW. Our worker force is pitiful. Trying to fix that. Any non culture buildings are very vetoable. We have some more holes that can be filled with settlers, though, and I mentioned the worker problem, so unless there is a serious problem with any of those I think those cities' productions should not be changed. Not much progress on the army buildup, and I don't think that the Byzantines will be enough help against Sumeria when the time comes. It seems much more likely that Sumeria will swallow them up and then do the same to us. We probably lost more ground in tech than just Monotheism, though it is difficult to be sure as Sistine's hasn't been started, and no sign of muskets.

I like this whole early, middle, late thing. Less work.

 

[bed_head7]

Picture, for no particular reason.

 

[gozpel]

Right choices there, bedhead.

I agree on more workers NOW. Already in that screenie I see 2 more possible sites to settle and they will SQUEEZE! Wasn't that what the game was about?

KB, size the moment and make it happen.

Roster:

1 - Bedhead -> Just played
2 - Kaiser Berger -> UP
3 - gozpel -> lurking
4 - Sir Bugsy
5 - microbe
6 - Greebley

 

[microbe]

And please do not mine everywhere! I tried to get irrigation over Eridu but I see we mined again.

 

[bed_head7]

In the screenshot, there are at least three sites. One north of Zariqum, and two in the plains and deserts to the south.

As for mining, it makes sense to me to have some cities that stay at size six or below, saving us an aqueduct. On river cites, go for irrigation. But aqueducts are expensive, and we are practically doing ICS so they are not as valuable as they normally are. We need to get just about every shield we can get.

I didn't manage to get any more workers in my turns, but there are a number of good places for build them at this point. I also didn't start the FP. Forgot for the first few turns, and then was undecided on where to stick it. We ought to decide on that soon. I should have, but yet again I proved myself spineless.

 

[microbe]

As for mining, it makes sense to me to have some cities that stay at size six or below, saving us an aqueduct.

Even that, more food means we can hire more specialists, which is how corrupt towns become useful.

 

[bed_head7]

Eridu isn't really all that corrupt.

 

[microbe]

Zariqum needs the irrigation from Eridu.