This round was tough. Alot of diplo to keep an eye on. None of the AIs teched
Alpha until Cathy finally put her words into sentences (in AD no less).
I normally tech alpha while building Oracle. I hate not being able to see the tech
situation. I can't remember what i traded her for it, but trade i did. I think i got
Mono and IW in the trade as well.
I decided to go a different route than most i suspect.
Initially, i let Priesthood finish, then started Oracle in Ulundi, while teching math.
Alot of MM later and Oracle finishes same turn as Math. I pick Currency as planned.
Next i go Sailing->Masonry->CoL->Mediation
I decided on Masonry for 3 reasons. It's relatively cheap, it opens the 'mids, and
none of the AIs seem to wanna build wonders in this game.
A massive deforestation effort takes place near Ulundi, i think i chopped 8 or 9
forests total to win the Pyramids. Even some out of Ulundi's BFC.
A turn or two after mids are done, CoL is in, and i switch to rep / caste, dump slider to 0% (where it has been for most of my round), and start running scientists.
I forgot to keep notes on the round, but it was more or less a "keep an eye on JC
who has his hands full, tech towards Lit and CS while keeping Cathy and Charly
happy" kind of thing.
Of course JC DoWs soon after the BCs becomes ADs. He has a tiny stack of
1 praet and 4 chariots, to my 4 WCs and 1 Axeman in Memphis. Another 2 praets
are coming towards Timbuktu from the south.
I bribe Charly into war with JC, in return for Currency (i think). I then finally have some luck
with the RNG, decimate JCs tiny stack, then just hide inside my cities and let JC
and Charly have at it. The war is still raging as my round finishes, with Charly
moving a stack through Egypt towards Rome.
I'm not really where i wan't to be tech wise. CS was done 2 turns prior to the
round ending, i pick Paper just to pick something.
During the round I've spawned 2 GS, for an academy in Thebes and one in Timbuktu.
I could have bulbed philo with the 2nd GS, but I'd rather secure the academies first. Thebes and Timbuktu are pulling the majority of the research for the empire,
they need all the help they can get.
The status is this:
8 cities, all growing
11 workers (yeah i know, not enough, JC ruined the roll i was on)
Thebes is building GL (6 turns left), will then start NE
Ulundi is building HE (5 turns left)
Timbuktu is building Forbidden Palace (dunno how long left.. alot?)
Barb city on Incense is building Parthenon (19 turns left)
Marble got hooked up last turn.
As it is now,
output is horrible, because most cities are in build mode
after landing CS.
In max specialist mode, the empire is turning out 124
at 0% slider, and
a healthy 55
profit.
Strengths:
- Economy is doing spectacularly well. Research is so-so.
- Ulundi has a settled GG
- Charly and JC are successfully blocked off. And at war with eachother
- JC was buddhist for a while, then he went jew, and now he's hindu.
- Cathy isn't friendly, but not completely hostile yet.
- Asoka is pleased.
- Charly is friendly, and to my surprise, teching pretty well, even with the tiny bit of land he has for himself.
Weaknesses:
- Not enough cities.
- Not enough workers.
- Not enough military.
- 3 turns left on the peace i bought with JC. I'm praying he'll be happy to just pound on Charly for a bit till Ulundi can start spitting out units.
- Or even better, Charly's stack of 3 cats, 3 chariots and 1 sword will cause some mayhem in the roman lands.
Some screenies:
) After my initial crash placing blocker cities against Charlie and JC. My army is mediocre and my cities are few, but I did found Confucianism in a city set up to be a great commerce city. My plan was to expand another 3-4 cities in the next few turns while pumping missionaries from Timbuktu to spread my religion. I'm very interested in seeing how other people played this round to compare styles and learn new strategies.
)
, was going to let them grow from here.
battle. The market, probably wasn't needed until those cottages matured, jumped the gun there.
