Improving on Monarch level

[Todelotti]

While I've never used it, there's always the slider.

Ah, OK, I forgot the slider! However, if I'd want to accept to run with less than 100% research I could also run culture to get happy faces. With 30% culture I would get rid of at least +6 unhappiness, basically the complete emancipation unhappiness, but 30% espionage slider only gives me around 300 spy points, still quite a bit away from 1000 points. I fact in my situation 10% culture would solve the current emancipation problem and get all citizens back to work.

Just to give an idea how happiness and health problems in the cities look like, here's a city overview:

 

[Todelotti]

1. When you fail a spy-mission, no gets subtracted.

2. You definitely need to work all Spy Specialist slots to get enough , 800 / city seems very high to me though. It's best when you take a city for those missions that is near to your palace. Spreading your religion to it also reduces the cost, if the AI runs a different religion, having the holy-shrine to the religion gives another discount, and having a TR with the city again gives 20%. Also, you must not forget that Spys that are stationary have another 50% bonus, so you'd never need more than 1200 every 5T, with those tactics even less.

Lol, I should have known that my self-made theory could only be wrong - more or less. Thanks! These are many interesting details and it changes the picture a lot of course!

The exact current numbers for influencing civics are: Zara=912, Ramesses=828, Mansa=546.

Btw: What's a "stationary spy"? Is it a Great Spy "settled" in a foreign city? (I remember there was something like that...)

 

[Seraiel]

Stationary Spy = Spy that occupied the zone where the espionage-mission is planed for for more than 1T. The longer your Spy-unit is in the city and doesn't move, the greater the bonus you get. 10% for waiting 1T, 20% for 2T and so on. That's why it's incredibly important to get the Spies into position early, and to have more than just 1, so no matter when, one can select one with 50% discount.

 

[ChaosSlayer]

Stationary Spy = Spy that occupied the zone where the espionage-mission is planed for for more than 1T. The longer your Spy-unit is in the city and doesn't move, the greater the bonus you get. 10% for waiting 1T, 20% for 2T and so on. That's why it's incredibly important to get the Spies into position early, and to have more than just 1, so no matter when, one can select one with 50% discount.

I must note however that the check to detect and kill your spy ticks in every turn - so if you sit too long you may get killed off before you complete your mission, so you will have to run up another spy there. Of course if I am really low on Spy point - I get no choice but wait a few turns.

 

[Todelotti]

I have a city revolt threatening in a border city I'm defending the city with a stack of units for quite some time and the chance for a revolt was zero until now but suddenly it's increasing turn by turn. What can I do? Just build and move more units into the city? Will the chance decrease again when I have converted one of the other AIs from Emancipation to Caste?

 

[elitetroops]

The revolt risk is because of 88% Malinese culture. You'd need >50 to completely get rid of the revolt risk, I think. Mansa's culture is quite strong, not sure if it's realistic to get there.

 

[Todelotti]

The revolt risk is because of 88% Malinese culture. You'd need >50 to completely get rid of the revolt risk, I think. Mansa's culture is quite strong, not sure if it's realistic to get there.

The Malinese culture is at 88% since quite a lot of turns. However, the revolt risk > 0 appeared during the last few turns even though the stack of my defenders didn't change at all. In between the "we yearn to join our motherland" was increasing by +1 and pop was growing by 1 citizen as well. (That citizen must be a Malinese. ) I was wondering about the rules behind those changes. Anyway, it doesn't seem to be a big deal, I've built and moved a machine gun to the city and the chance of revolt is now below 0.2. I suppose another one will bring it back to zero.

 

[elitetroops]

The revolt formula is quite complicated and takes a lot of factors into account, one of them being the highest ever population in the city. If the city hasn't been pop 12 at any point earlier in the game, then this is likely to have caused the sudden revolt risk. Another factor that could cause a sudden jump is "current era", which is the average era of all players alive, so the AI advancing to the next tech era could cause a sudden increase in revolt chance.

Do you currently have a state religion? If so, is it present in the city? If not, spreading it there should fix the revolt risk, even if you move out half of the garrison.

 

[Todelotti]

The revolt formula is quite complicated and takes a lot of factors into account, one of them being the highest ever population in the city. If the city hasn't been pop 12 at any point earlier in the game, then this is likely to have caused the sudden revolt risk. Another factor that could cause a sudden jump is "current era", which is the average era of all players alive, so the AI advancing to the next tech era could cause a sudden increase in revolt chance.

Do you currently have a state religion? If so, is it present in the city? If not, spreading it there should fix the revolt risk, even if you move out half of the garrison.

It's possible that the city has been at size 12 when it belonged to Holy Rome but it's definitely the first time since I'm the owner. Good tip about the religion! The city indeed doesn't have my state religion. Will try to spread it there which also will add a bit .

 

[Todelotti]

Turn 259 - 1745 AD

- Research finished for Superconductors, Genetics, Satellites, Composites, Fission
- Rocketry traded with Mansa (which answers my earlier question if Mansa trades the tech that enables the Apollo Project: Yes, he does)
- Researching Fiber Optics now
- All civs converted from Emancipation to Caste System, happiness is in good shape in all cities at the moment
- Apollo Project finished

So, I'm close to ending all research: Just Fiber Optics, Fusion and Ecology is missing (about 9 turns). I also have prepared a lot of tiles (cottages and windmills mainly) to be converted into workshops and mines within one turn.

What is the right approach for the last steps now? My "theory" would be:

- Start the first space ship parts (Casing or Thrusters) in the slow-building cities so that the wallet is almost empty when research is finished
- Start Golden Age when Fusion is finished (or when Ecology is finished?)
- After the last tech turn down science slider to 0%
- Change civic from Representation to Universal Suffrage (attention: -3 happiness in 5 largest cities)
- Convert prepared tiles to workshops
- Put all other space ship parts into production
- Stop production for a part one turn before completion
- Complete all parts when the very last part gets finished so that all 16 parts come out of production at the same turn

Something like that? Or totally different?

 

[Pangaea]

Something to keep in mind is that your best cities, typically the Ironworks city, capital, and probably also Heroic Epic city, can produce more than one part. Especially the Ironworks could be good for this.

 

[Todelotti]

Something to keep in mind is that your best cities, typically the Ironworks city, capital, and probably also Heroic Epic city, can produce more than one part. Especially the Ironworks could be good for this.

Yes, I also had this in mind and the whole spaceship production would probably go faster as well. BUT: How can I ensure then that all 16 parts finish at the same turn (to avoid destruction by foreign spies)? I could build one part until the last production turn and then another part (necessarily of another type then) and then finish both parts in 2 consecutive turns. But I would have a finished part waiting for at least one turn. Would you still risk it? I mean, it would be really bad luck if a spy destroys the part exactly at that waiting turn and at that location.

Regarding moving to Universal Suffrage, on a second thought, I believe it's of no use. Iirc Seraiel mentioned that space ship parts can't be rush bought and the additional hammer for towns is pointless if I convert all my towns to workshops anyway.

 

[Seraiel]

Building the SS parts over 2 turns is ok imho. I don't even micro my cities so that they all finish on the same time, I sometimes have a non-finished SS for 5 or 6 turns, and I never had a Spy destroy any of my parts ever. I wouldn't go such a risk in your game though, because you finish a lot later than me, but 2T should be ok usually.

 

[Seraiel]

Very curious for the final screenshots .

 

[Todelotti]

Very curious for the final screenshots .

You can relax, take your first popcorn and watch screenshots now! No more questions (at the moment at least )!

Turn 268 - 1790 AD

- Research for Fiber Optics, Fusion and Ecology finished
- Started production for space ship parts (I started directly at the turn when the Apollo Project was completed with the first parts). A few parts are already produced til the last production turn.

Here are 2 screenshots and a save from that point. The fact that the Engines finish earlier than the last Casings/Thrusters which is - I believe - suboptimal is a result of my research order to tech Genetics (for health bonus) before Rocketry. This delayed the Apollo Project by a few turns and these are more or less the missing turns now for a Casing/Thruster completion that is in time with the Engines. Would think twice the next time to tech Genetics so early and rather try to get health elsewhere or live with a bit unhealthiness. The research order from WastinTime's game seems pretty well thought! One Casing and the Life Support must go into 2 of the production slots that become free during the next turns. The cities that are running wealth now are too weak to produce a space ship part.

I'll start the Golden Age next, set research slider to zero and convert cottages to workshops. I won't change any civic.

 

[Pangaea]

Your Empire looks like a big-headed animal of some sort

Feet down in the ice, tail at Monty's Grave (fitting for its exit, ho-hum), an eye of sorts by Vienna, some fluffy ears, and an open mouth near the inland lake. Massive afro, perhaps?

 

[Todelotti]

Your Empire looks like a big-headed animal of some sort

Feet down in the ice, tail at Monty's Grave (fitting for its exit, ho-hum), an eye of sorts by Vienna, some fluffy ears, and an open mouth near the inland lake. Massive afro, perhaps?

Haha, a mutated poodle maybe, three uranium mines and Monty biting his tail was too much

 

[Andera412]

Have you the strong concurents in spaceship race?

 

[Todelotti]

Have you the strong concurents in spaceship race?

Hi Andera412! No, the other civs (Ramesses, Mansa and Zara) are way behind me in tech. Nobody has even completed the Apollo Project nor do they have any of the techs that enable building a space ship part. Ramesses is very far behind, Mansa and Zara are a bit better, but they got all of their more advanced techs from me because I traded them for some Gold (usually only something between 100 and 200 Gold) to keep my own research constantly high.

When I saw Mansa's research last time (I can't see it anymore because I invested spy points for converting him from Emancipation to Caste) he needed 13 turns for a tech that I had researched in 5 turns (can't remember which one, something around Physics). I believe I'm running away in tech since I've built Oxford.

Since that time I could have won most likely by clicking quickly turn by turn and without managing my cities and workers at all. But I'm trying to fight for the best completion date that is possible for me in this game by applying Seraiel's and Pangaea's strategic advices as good as I can. The next space race will come for sure and hopefully I'm well prepared then when it gets tougher.

 

[Todelotti]

Turn 271 - 1802 AD

Last city screen shot - now in Golden Age and after converting cottages to workshops around the production cities - uaaah, my nice commerce capital is destroyed... and a dirty hammer city now. Government is pushing to press the last hammer out of the cities and citizens have to suffer in a thick soup of toxic smog.

Some of the Thrusters and Casings in the list are already backup builds (in case some spy will destroy one). If I didn't miscalculate the space ship should be ready in 5 turns (exactly when the Golden Age ends). Then 10 turns for the flight, so: Estimated finish date for the game: 1832 AD.