HC-03: The Ottomanation

[Hackapell]

Played 15 turns, did OK. Istanbul running two scientists, Samsum founded for cottaging, land improved, spearmen built,and so on and so forth. Some interesting Diplomatic things:

3 of our cities are now jewish, but I didn't convert yet. The only one we'll really be angering is Monty, and that's no too big of a deal, right?

Made this trade (after teching meditation and preisthood)

Jewish Roosy who's willing to do this trade:

He and auggie are buddies, so trading it to him won't be too bad. wait one turn to let samsun finish it's monument.
Otherwise, GS in 20+ turns in Istanbul, more troops thanks to HR to grow more, and the save.

 

[mice]

Got it , and can play soonish.

BTW , an updated roster after each go helps the game tick along I found.

The Roster:
Hackapell -Just Played
mice -UP !!!
slobberinbear - On deck
pigswill
stuge

 

[mice]

With no serious happy problems I built a courthouse in Erdine. It can switch back to HR units after that.

I OB with Roosevelt to have a look at his land. Quinn offers Calendar for all our good techs. We will not benefit from Calendar so I say no.

Augustus builds the GLighthouse. I put a farm in Erdine because I still believe it should be a prod powerhouse.

1 worker heads south to help clear the jungle. That's three of them down there. We could possibly do with one more.

Fred goes Con-fu-tzu.

Feeling stingy,
Monty would like pigs for gold . We dont need happy so I deny him health.
Fred would like horses for wine. We dont need happy so I deny him horses.

Why give them needed resources until we have to ? (rhetorical)

That's 15 turns. uneventful, but settler due in 3. The cities are shaping up nicely. Personally I like to use HR to the tune of 3 or 4 units/happys , and then switch to Rep or US later without too much grief. We are nearly courthoused fully, and then we can just put archers in our cities, or look at an axe hit on Quinn.

Jewsih block is looking good with the holy city in China.

Roose and Auggy , pals in Judaism , look to be on track to dominate the game. Our Musket hit on Quinn needs to be decisive and net us land and production to take on those two, whether space or dom.

Forgot to mention, Civil Service in a few turns. Perhaps Lit. for the G library?


The Roster:
Hackapell
mice -Just Played
slobberinbear -UP !!!
pigswill - On deck
stuge

 

[slobberinbear]

Now that's the way to play a turn. 30 minute turnaround, baby!

Got it.

 

[slobberinbear]

Turn 1: Finished courthouse in Konya, started on Library. Bursa building archers to garrison cities for higher happy caps.

Turn 2: Finished courthouse in Edirne, started on archer for garrison. Istanbul finished settler, started on worker to aid in workforce. Ankara finished courthouse and is building wealth.

With all the courthouses and cottages, we are running a surplus at 90% research.

Turn 4: Civil Service learned; switched to Bureaucracy but stayed in Slavery (didn't go to Caste System). I started researching Paper per our plan for the Northern Route of Gunpowder. Gaziantep founded in other jungle location south of Istanbul.

Turn 5: We are the third most Powerful civilization on the planet. After the anarchy ends, we are still showing a 1 GPT profit at 90% research.

Who says courthouses are overrated?

Turn 6: Freddy asks us to stop trading with Monty. I agree, as we have no active trades other than Open Borders. Finished archer in Bursa, switched to worker. Edirne finished archer, started Library. Will start chain irrigation with Civil Service soon.

Turn 7: Toku asks us to stop trading with Roosevelt, who is leading the game in score and power. I refuse. We were "cautious" with both to begin with; Toku is now annoyed. Our exploring galley has hit the western side of the other continent, and Monty's borders. Monty refuses to talk with us due to stopping trade, so I can't get OB again to sail through. Galley is parked for now.

Turn 8: Roosevelt wanted horses for cows. I gave him a horse of a different color -- pink. He got pigs for cows instead; I figured we could use the health. Worker finished in Istanbul, going to assist jungle chopping after other Istanbul river tiles are worked. Istanbul building research -- chopped a turn off Paper by doing so. Bursa finished worker too, did research there too. Faster gunpowder!! Konya finished library, started on barracks.

By the way, I am farming a bit here to get the chain irrigation going on the non-riverside tiles. We may need to cottage over some riverside farms later after the irrigation is chained.

Turn 9: Great Scientist finishes. To lightbulb him, we would get Philosophy and we would found Taoism.

At this point I am going to stop and wait for the group-mind's decision. We can either settle him in Instanbul or get Philosophy and a religion. If we lightbulb with him, we will likely not get another GS in time to lightbulb education for us. I suppose we could also save him, finish researching Paper (in 2 turns) research Philosophy manually (11 turns estimated), then lightbulb as much of Education as possible. Frankly I'm not sure how much that really helps us in terms of getting to gunpowder ASAP ... we'd be better off using the extra 11 turns on Education.

My vote is to settle him. I'll wait until tomorrow at 12:00 central standard time (U.S.) for a decision.

 

[mice]

One advantage of settling him is that Taoism may go to someone in the Jewish block and thereby break it. OTOH we may get it anyway with just researching.

That's not a firm vote as I'm not strong in this area. These days I usually just settle, but as we are going the Edu route, .... hm.

 

[pigswill]

If we don't have an academy in capital use GS for academy.

If we're going for liberalism then use GS for philosophy instead.

If we have an academy in capital and ain't going for liberalism then settle in capital.

 

[mice]

The Roster:
Hackapell -
mice -
slobberinbear -Just Played
pigswill -UP !!!
stuge - On Deck

If we follow this roster then it's you that makes the decision Pigswill.

 

[slobberinbear]

No Mice -- I still have 6 turns left. I stopped to get a decision on the Scientist. I'll finish today.

 

[mice]

No Mice -- I still have 6 turns left. I stopped to get a decision on the Scientist. I'll finish today.

Are yes, you are right. I am too sleepy.

 

[stuge]

What piggy said about the GS.

 

[Hackapell]

Academy in Istanbul.

 

[slobberinbear]

Very well. Building Academy and finishing my turnset.

 

[slobberinbear]

I finished my turn.

The Great Scientist built an Academy in Istanbul. Our workers continued to clear land and spread irrigation. We are 13 turns from Education.

We had two negative diplomatic developments in my final 6 turns. First, Roosevelt demanded our world map. I refused him. Secondly, Augustus sent a galley around to our northeast shore and dropped off a settler and a legion at one of the city sites near Bursa. That's not an emergency, but it will have to be dealt with.

I have four of our cities building research. That may be overkill, but we need Gunpowder ASAP. Also, our exploring galley is fortified on the west coast of the other continent, FYI.

The save:

 

[pigswill]

Got it.

Probably need the full 48 hours.

Is Istanbul meant to be GP farm or science city?

 

[mice]

Nice turns slobberin . I'm not expert on the high road to Gpowder. After Education, we got it, is that rght?

what's the feeling about Nationalism and drafting? Possibly a Globe draft hub.

Or will we just use our production? I would like to see a galley armada with some units to take out that iron in the South just when we attack with Jans.

It will really hurt Quinn to have no iron.

 

[slobberinbear]

Yes, Gunpowder unlocks after Education. I like the northern route because most every tech is so darned useful. CoL, Civil Service, Education ... all winners.

We could eventually get Liberalism too, though the other good Liberalism targets require some techs we don't have (Philosophy for Nationalism, Guilds/Banking for Economics, Calendar/Optics for Astronomy). We may be able to trade/demand some of these prerequisite techs.

If we go for a Janissary drafting strategy, we'll need to back up to pick up philosophy and drama, then get Liberalism for Nationalism. Very workable.

 

[mice]

I like that we aren't chasing liberalism . Others in the roster may want to go that way. What's the consensus? Strike as soon as we can build a few of them, or wait and draft. We are not so food rich but have two very good prod cities.

 

[slobberinbear]

My vote is just to build them out of our production cities, supported by a few wall-removing catapults. We have to assume Qin will be defending with protective longbows.

 

[stuge]

We have enough prod to take Qin out. If we're going after someone across the ocean, drafting will come in handy.