JFC1: Spacecakes

[Jet]

I started by hiring the mercs, and maxing specialists in Ikea to starve off the unhappy pop. Queued Workers in Mexico, upgraded Galleys to Indiamen.

The Mercs appeared uselessly in Winburg. I sent them and the GG to Europe.

Alex lost some units and we lost a couple. Made peace with Suleiman for our $5, and with Alex for his $5 + $2/turn.

Moved reinforcements in on Berlin.

A new city:

... is the first city in Australia.

Traded Cow to Isabella for Sheep.

Before I could move up enough units to take Berlin, the AP voted us out of the war by a majority of everyone to us+Peter+Surya. I may have misunderstood the user interface, but I couldn't seem to fire the mercs while they were on a ship (what, you can't swim?) so I disembarked them in Cape Verde and fired them there.

Surya offered to be our vassal, but he was at war with Japan and Persia, so no thanks. France took him instead.

Finished Chemistry.
Traded: Astro + Edu to Peter for Nationalism + 130
For PP, Darius will would take Chem (2320, known by Carthage, England, Portugal) or Econ (1638, known by Asoka and Toku).
Traded: Econ + 110 to Darius for PP + Map. Filled out pretty much the entire map.
Started Replaceable on the way to Steam Power and Rifling.

A new city:

and a new recruit:


France has Cavalry and England has Airships.

We got a Great Merchant in Ikea. I think Ikea is the best spot for Wall Street (highest food) so we could settle him there or half bulb Constitution, both good.

I accidentally unloaded a missionary in Florida. He was on his way to Mexico.

We have a GG in Luxemburg. How about putting him on a Maceman for Medic III and West Point?

Builds are geared toward expansion, expansion, and more expansion.

For example I have two Settlers queued in Mexico, even though it isn't really optimal to build them there, so that we can sooner stake a claim on two more cities there. I was thinking east of the Clams, to get the Cotton, and on top of the Dye, to prevent someone else from settling right next to us. I think if we settle the cities they'll get the free buildings, so they would start strong.

In South Africa I see two main ways to settle it. One, keep it simple and build just one city south of the gems. Two, build one city per seafood. With free buildings and Dikes, I think both ways are viable.

large world overview:

Spoiler :

Roster:
Jet - played
Sweetacshon - up
LtCowprod - on deck
Indibil - welcome to rejoin

 

[Sweetacshon]

I'm up again already

I think you are right about Mexican cities, but as for SAfrica, I don't recall the layout, so if noone comments by the time I play (probably tonight) then I'll make it up as I go along.

Two questions: Did you start cottaging Holland? Are we going to take Berlin at some stage?

 

[Jet]

1 No.

2 I don't know. There's only three of us, what do you want to do? I didn't build a lot of units, but a few more spies/EPs and Cannons and we could probably take it out. Seeing how close Warsaw is, I'd raze it, but that would still solve tile problems and destabilize him.

 

[LtCowprod]

Persia... thanks. looks like we'll be getting that overdue golden age in a couple turns!

 

[Sweetacshon]

OK, we have a problem... or at least I do. My poor computer is not enjoying this resource thirsty mod. Not only does each turn take an eternity, I stopped alt-tabbing out after turn 1 due to the amount of time it takes switching in and out. This means my report will be quite general.. and I also stopped taking s/s, not because it took time, but because I lost the drive to tell the story... sorry.

save

Europe:
I settled the GM in Ikea, and we subsequently popped a GE. The GG is still sitting there unused. Our 2/3 UHV gave us a GA, which is now almost over. I spent the time building cash/science buildings, except for Lux which kept on with cannon and musket and mace. I didn't start cottaging yet, because these buildings are not completed, and we aalso have a few NWs that should be considered.

France has been aggressive, probably due to his new found hatred caused by his vassal, ad asked us for help a few times. Funnily enough, Arabia declared on us, and refuses to talk to us... as does Justinian, for some reason. A few defencive pacts are popping up, so you should check that out.. the biggest is England/India On the upside, Russia is at war with Germany, and if were going to sneak in and do our thing, now is a good time.

Mexico:
The barbs have stopped, probably due to french cav. They almost took the barb city, but I beat them to it and razed it. Our 2 settlers are almost ready to go.

SAfrica:
One city is in, another settler should be produced soon. Ethiopia took the barb city to the north, so we should probably beef up defence a little, although they are currently warring with the french.

Aus:
A shipload just arrived on the east coast, but unfortunately I d and dropped them all off. I was thinking of one in the uranium spot, and another in NZ. But it's up to the next player. With Japan so close and constantly annoyed, we should get some defenders in.

Techs:
Did a fair few trades, and made a bit of cash also. We're currently on steam for dykes, but grabbing Wall st might be a good option next. Just a note, privateers have started turning up, so it might be past time to get some frigates/SotLs out there.

 

[LtCowprod]

Nothing new with Justinian.... he's refused to talk since I declared war on Greece my first turnset.


Which cities are we planning to settle in N.America? Denver, Los Angeles, and Seattle are all great sites ... generally America never settles out that far either.

I'm thinking Denver has oil/corn/gold, it might not reach the oil though I'll have to check. Los Angeles just has crazy pop capacity and good production in general. Both have coast or river tiles. I think Denver may have Uranium as well.

 

[Jet]

Whatever either of you want to try is OK with me. I think in general what we'll need for the space win is research/commerce. Seattle and LA seem like they'd be pretty good, although since they're outside our historical area, I would suggest giving higher priority to developing Mexico and grabbing more of Australia and Indonesia. Denver sounds like it might be light on food and commerce (although I know some Wheats appear later).

I suggest saving the latest GE for the Channel Tunnel. <soapbox> all mods with a +100% research world wonder are unbalanced; it's a wonder you practically always want. <can't get off the soapbox> especially when said wonder has to be coastal and the mod has no Oxford, but does have a +3 trade routes national wonder.

 

[LtCowprod]

1640:
Stage galleons and troops for possible German invasion
Pressed enter

1645:
Congress of Chennai, Our options sucked so no request.
Winburg: Missionary -> Customs House
Ox City: Settler -> Lighthouse
Resettle Yucatan peninsula on the dye

Spoiler :

1650:
Cathy asks to war with Germany. How can I say no to such a sweet young las?
Unload cannons and maces in the forest.

1655:
Khmer wants us to war with Ethiopia - decline
Izzy cancels cow for sheep
Vikings declare on Rome, Portugal declares on the Vikings
We bombard Berlin.

1660:
Persia wants us to war with Mongolia - decline
Amst: Frigate -> Grocer , Frigate heads to Mexico
s'Grav: Market -> Lighthouse
Bombard some more, unload more troops
Capture Berlin.

1665:
Zara wants us to war with Rome - decline
Ragnar wants charity in the form of Replacable Parts - decline. Trade Sci.Method+Const for Military Science instead.
Luxemberg: Musket -> Musket
Winburg: Customs House -> Lighthouse
Ikea: Frigate -> Cathedral
Move our troops on Warsaw.

1670:
Arabia makes peace with everyone and becomes Turkey's vassal.
Luxemberg: Musket -> Worker/Worker since Germany captured our last one

A large German stack showed up on Romes border so I just bombarded Warsaw then made peace for 110gold+2gpt.

1675:
Tampico: Courthouse -> Lighthouse
Germany collapses.
Rome captures Warsaw from Indy

Spoiler :

1680:
Winburg: Library -> Market
Niew Holland: Lighthouse -> Customs House


1685:
Wasted a Privateer and found this in the Carribean.

Spoiler :

Went 0% research to dump overflow research into draining coffers (Steam Power finished next turn regardless)

1690:
We learn to harness steam. Louis has rifling now and will possibly trade so we're researching Biology instead. We're gonna need it to chop jungles and the AI usually ignores it so we've got decent trade value there.

Popped coal at Amsterdam/Luxemberg/Winburg
Queue dikes in Ams/Lux/Ikea/Winburg ... pretty much anywhere it was less than 4-5 turns

1695:
Berlin out of revolt.
Plague hits Ikea and a few other nations, no need to close borders since we've caught it already.
Joao offered Lib+70g for Steam Power - decline
Vikings ask to war with Rome - decline
Oslo falls into Dutch revolt


I skipped doing much settling since I moved on Berlin. Instead I ganged up workers and knocked out lots of economy buildings. Once Berlin come online our economy had a BIG boost. We're poised to settle a few more cities easily now.

Spoiler :

45 hammers and 25 beakers - can't complain

I checked the layout and I think we should really settle Denver. Here's the dotmaps but it brings in Corn/Wheat/Marble/Gold/Oil and either Cow+Uranium or Pig+Wheat depending how it's settled.

Spoiler :

 

[Jet]

Should we try to beat him to Jamaica? I think that might be in our national interest.

 

[LtCowprod]

Ahh forgot the save... here it is.

Jamaica might not be a bad idea. I usually hate settling the Caribbean since it pretty much sucks, but with the Dutch that may be a different story.

 

[Sweetacshon]

Argh, the Romans. What a pest. Green for Denver, imo. Less mountain and more grass is always good. As for the carribbean, well, not a huge priority, but if we get a chance, why not?

 

[LtCowprod]

Yea greens better imo we can grab uranium with culture. Looking at the date we should probably wait to settle it though. America will spawn in about 10-12 turns so if we wait we know it don't flip. Maybe use that settler in the caribbean and build another for there?

If we have and hold Denver that pretty much takes America out of the space race too.

 

[Jet]

0 1695

Send 2 indiamen full of units from the homeland off to the east indies. It's a little risky, but we're about to get the plague; can build more at home; and need defense out east.

I'm feeling insecure about military The only person willing to trade Rifling atm is Louis, who won't do it for anything. So I start Rifling, aiming for a half trade.

1 1700

Somebody sabotages one of our non-resource mines.
Plague spreads... and yet our stability is back to Solid .
Move settler gang... toward Denver? all right.
Hook up whales, woo-hoo.

France is now ruled by Napoleon (still Friendly, and even still has wisely chosen your civics, which is odd). But we now have zero techs on him. How did he get 2 techs in one turn? Well, no wonder he didn't want to trade. We can finish it manually in 6-7 turns, but we do have the ability to build Grenadiers, so... OK. I switch back to Biology.

Trades? Various people have Liberalism. Alex and Gandhi have Democracy. Alex. is Peter's worst enemy, and maybe Isabella's, but not Napoleon's (that's Toku.) I guess we can wait.

2 1703

Johnny Depp gets our Crabs in the Yucatan and I send him to Davey Jones's locker with our Haiti-watching Frigate.
I was kidding about Jamaica, by the way. That was just for role playing. Besides, Mexican-- SO ANYWAY...

More plague. 2/3 of our homeland units are on their way to Indonesia; 1/3 are hiding in the Von Trapp house a plague-safe 3 tiles away from Luxemburg and Berlin, and the remaining 4 (a skeleton garrison) are hiding on a boat in the Kattegat. Way I'm livin'. I did lose 2 Workers to the plague.

Dutch New Guinea:



3 1706

Zara requests Scientific Method. He's already Pleased, but it's widely known and he has a large stack nearby, so I oblige. Now he's Friendly.

Look, another city. I positioned it to get both Cows. I also renamed it "Spacecakestad". Then I changed my mind again and renamed it "Omaha". If you can think of a silly Dutch way to say Omaha, that might be better.



and... OMG ANOTHER CITY. I guess this wasn't historically Dutch, so I may be living dangerous here. It does have zero defense at the moment. But it's not quite as dangerous as if I had settled it on the fresh water and banana, which I thought would have invited too much conflict with Tokugawa. The big thing about this city is that it claims the only SILK on the map not spoken for by a 5000 year old Asian civilization. Apparently the colonial city here was Isabela city (different Isabela), so in "her" honor I named it that. Can you see I'm hoping for a defensive pact? (Not really - I suspect it's better for us to avoid entanglements. I've seen the combination of world congresses and DPs lead to huge world wars.)



4 1709

Kublai demands Chemistry. Huh. Kublai. I REJECT his EMPTY threat.

In a surprise turn of events, New Orleans is captured by the Native Peoples. It was the plague. Go, Native Peoples! And Fort Caroline is in Washington's Flip area . Also, for some reason, Napoleon's stack with the 3 settlers is still vacationing in Haiti, doing nothing! Dude, that's a perfectly good tile I have to admit I would like to sneak a settler over there for no reason other than to cheese it out of him .

In other news, the AIs are zipping along, but now I have no opportunity to get Democracy. Alex has Steam Power, and Mansa now has Democracy for trade, but he has Steam Power too.
However, I just might be able to out-Moose the Moose. Let's see if I can. Darius just learned Democracy and can trade next turn. I put one turn of research into Democracy myself.

India vassalizes to Persia, but collapses anyway. How the mighty have fallen.

5 1712

In a FLASH OF MICROMANAGEMENT GENIUS, Amsterdam, The Hague, and Ikea finish their Dikes simultaneously. It is so INTENSELY BRILLIANT that they all recover from the plague, and I restore their skeleton garrisons. I start Trading Company in Amsterdam. I saw it queued in Ikea, but surely we want it in our best science city? 3 National Wonders per city, so Palace + Opera House + National Park + Trading Company + Academy + Channel Tunnel means basically a size infinity city making a billion beakers per turn. That's what I was thinking, anyway.

Isabella is flattered by the city we named after her and offers Deer for Dye, which I accept for stability. Or... I try. And then she refuses! Why, Isabella, why do you play with me like this? I offer her this and that, and she demands Coal every time. Finally, she accepts Gems instead. IS THAT SUPPOSED TO BE SOME KIND OF HINT?

Darius... does not want to start trading away Democracy yet. Argh! Darius already has Military Science. I can combine it with Steam Power in other trades, but only the Moose will give me a tech-for-tech for Military Science. The Moose. I know he'll just sell it off, but he's like my dealer. The man's GOT WHAT I NEED! I trade him Military Science for Corporation. This actually Pimps My Civ, since so much of our income is from trade routes. I keep research on Democracy.

6 1715

We finish recovering from the plague.

Behold:



Take that, Moose! I also trade Steam to Ragnar for Liberalism and change. We get a map update. I resume Biology because it looks like there's a decent chance we'll be able to get Rifling for Steam Power. I bite the bullet and revolt directly to Universal Suffrage, Free Speech, and Emancipation. It might have been more optimal to save one of the switches (like Free Speech) until we also switched to Commonwealth, but we're at Solid now, so I think we'll be fine.

Napolen retakes Nouvelle Orleans.

7 1718

Anarchy. Isabella is "Friendly" and yet won't trade Physics for Democracy + Military Science + Steam Power. Humph. Next turn she asks the outrageous price of those 3 techs for Rifling and... you guessed it... I accept, thank her, and ask her politely for another slap. (Really, there was no other trade we were going to get for it.) Upgrades are fairly cheap and I turn science off for the last couple turns, to give us some choices. Also note that we're in Universal Suffrage now, so rush buying stuff is an option.


We're playing fast, no worries about time, Sweetacshon - just let us know.

 

[Sweetacshon]

Well, I can give it a go, but it was struggling in the 1600's, so I have no idea how good it'll be.

 

[LtCowprod]

Yea I'd queued up the Trading Co. in Ikea. Started to build it in Amsterdam but Ikea had the better trade routes at the time so that was my thinking. Forgot to mention it in the report.

As for defensive pacts if we're gonna get one it should probably be Russia. Most anyone they will war with is out or our reach, or a good navy can save us. Rome is our biggest threat I'd say, but with all our friends that might not matter. Speaking of which our diplomacy has been pretty good, at least 4-5 civs are friendly...

 

[Sweetacshon]

Righto, sorry about the delay, I can play tonight.

 

[Sweetacshon]

I played 5 turns and have stopped, as I'd like some advice.

I sparked up biology again, settled NZ, and kept up with the temples/courts/etc in the colonies. We had a couple of approaches:

Well, she's just a little temperamental, isn't she?

This could cause problems.

Now here's the thing for a RFC noob. What's the best way to play this? Deny the opposition our cities? What are the consequences?

 

[Jet]

If we refuse, anyone who voted YES (if you can see them behind the dialog box ) might declare war. That's what happened earlier when congress voted to give Luxemburg to Germany. Germany and Greece decided to declare.

I'd suggest whatever you think would be more fun, even if looks risky.

 

[LtCowprod]

Those arrogant Americans! They've had what 6 turns to train units? So they probably have a handful of rifleman, a couple cannons, and 1-2 galleons. And whatever longbows/muskets flip...

Big round ones they've got.

 

[vra379971]

Go to war, back your troops out of the theater if you can till 10 turns passes...