Well, it is certainly nice of Joao to found us the Confused and the Taoist holy cities for us and especially since they are right next door. Priesthood will be nice and establishing a national epic city will also help.
Cities look fairly well managed so no need to swap a lot of people around. We will be having a great scientist born soon which will create an another academy in Thessalonica. I would have built a market in Thessalonica first, but the actual gold for gold is not a very big difference (courthouse may actually be better after I found the next two cities).
We do have some trades available to us. I send Saladin dyes for furs and once the gpt deal can end, I hope to also grab sugar. I trade Incans dyes for wines. I also want his pigs but this new patch makes trades redicously lopsided so will have to wait for him to make the deal with us (I will check each turn, but it's unlikely we will ever get a decent trade).
The Incans and Saladin have a small tech-lead something we can probably combat through the wars that we may bring to them (either by us, or having someone else do it).
Onto next turn.
Turn 246: Eventul turn indeed. Incans complete Pantheon and Saladin declares on Montezuma. This religous part of the world has really bogged those AIs down. Nicea finishes it's courthouse and I start it on a stable. Nicomedia is founded and a granary is queued up. I swap Washington from Global Theatre to Granary. Send clams for sugar to Saladin. I also send him fish for 3gpt.
Turn 247: Jackpot! Incans offer us pigs for clams and of course I accept. He also discovered feudalism so longbows are on the way. I trade Ragnar aesthetics and code of laws for Metal Casting and 180g.
Turn 248: Granary is whipped in Washington and overflow will go into global theatre.
Turn 249: Ragnar wants to trade drama for monarchy and 10g. I would accept if he tossed in the rest of his gold, but no deal. Monarchy is only four turns to tech now anyways. Antiloch finishes the mosi statues at long last and now a forge is queued up. Civil service is in and I start literature until I realize that Saladin already has it and won't trade it meaning he is building the great library so I swap us to monarchy in hopes to snag feudalism with civil service.
Turn 250: Joao completes the collosus. Constaninople finishes the jewish missionary and starts up a spearman. Thesallonica finishes the courthouse and starts a market. Washington switched from Global Theatre to barracks as it should start whipping units out next.
Turn 251: Well, we're 5th on the most advanced front; certainly not where I would like us but having a slow start really didn't help much either. We also receive an impressive event getting all our mounted units flanking 1. Flanking 1 and Byzantine... Flanking 1 and Cataphracts. I think that's a hint that's not very subtle eh?
Turn 252: Nicea finishes the stable and starts up a spearmen. I would like to add a few more defenders to our backfield (which should be replaced with longbowmen at some point). Once we have some more troops in back other than units that could easily be taken. Nicea should start on a forge. New York completes its library and starts a courthouse. Incans are the first to machinery which means no trade available to us.
Turn 253: Saladin wants Civil Service for Compass and some gold. No thanks. The next offer is with Montezuma asking us to declare on Arabia... I'll declare on them when you have more goods to offer us, Monte. Monarchy is in and hindsight is 20/20. Literature still unlocks heroic and national epic so I start it up - due in 2 turns. The Incans also have feudalism for sale and we can get it for civil service and 10g. I actually debate this trade for a while before I accept it. I really did not want to give Incans macemen and beucracy, but I think in the long-run it will pay for more itself more than 2-fold. This means shifting more troops to the front while replacing them with longbows. Barracks whipped in Washington.
Turn 254: Fish to Incans for 3gpt.
Turn 255: Nicea finishes the spear and stats up a longbowmen. This will be swapped to the heroic epic once Constantinople goes on troop duty. Literature and machinery is queued up. I also realized this turn we do not have a lighthouse in Constaninople, that's an extra three food that's being missed and I immediately swap the spearmen from here to a lighthouse. After the great scientist is born here, this city should thrive again. I send cows to Saladin for 3gpt. Washington swapped to longbowman.
Turn 256: Arabia asks us to declare on Montezuma. I see no reason not to tarnish the relationship to favor the Aztecs so I comply. The Incans continue to be the more dominant of this game and complete the statue of Zeus. I whip the courthouse in New York. I generally dislike whipping when the happy cap is not reached, however this city can benefit from it as it has little commerce and few cottages to work.
Turn 257: Al Razi, the great scientist is born for us and is sent to Thessalonica to create an academy.The scientists in Constantinople are now fired and I revolt us from representation to hereditary rule and bureaucracy. Monarchy is to continue whipping longbows out of Washinton and stationing them there for the happy cap and using the overflow to build the global theatre. Once that is done, we will have our rear cities covered with longbowmen and ready to start making macemen and/or trebs for the war against Joao. I sell civil service to Saladin for a small bargain of 100g, he was 5 turns of researching it himself and he is now friendly with us. Likely a trading partner until the bitter end.
Turn 258: Joao demands Feudalism and I quickly send him on his way empty-handed. Academy in Thesallonica is created. I move the slider to 60% and we have -8gpt with marchinery due in 4.
Turn 259: I sell corn to Ragnar for 2gpt.
Turn 260: Nicea finishes the longbowman and I queue up an elephant. The Incans also finish the stone wonder which grants them +25% in all cities. I whip the courthouse in Adrianople for max overflow. This can be put into a market or into the national epic and we can start to farm these cottages.
I made a few mistakes this round, but nothing that will swing the game one way or the other. I mistimed a whip in Washington on one turn for example. I also did not set the irrigate chain to New York correctly and this city needs irrigation to grow. I also spent more time making cottages when it should have been spent making more farms. Irrigation is finally near Nicea, but it should have been done within the first 10 turns of my set. We also need more workers and I failed to build a single one of them. On the bright side, Washington is now setup to where it can build the Global Theatre with relative ease. Put as close to 29 shields into a longbowman, whip him and put the overflow into the theatre while keeping the longbowman there to cover the unhappy. Once that's done we should look into revolting into theocracy and back to representation provided we have good growth going on or into police state and start the war train onto Joao. We should also refound Boston now as we can afford that city and it will gain another fish which we can sell. If this game makes it to Sushi, then that corporation will be fairly powrful for us. As noted, Nicea should swap to the heroic epic once Constantinople finishes the lighthouse. We have a fair bit of change around also which can be used to upgrade a handful of our swordsmen to macemen when the time is right. For now, though, it should be saved for emergency cases or events.
There are many trades which net us +gpt, as the AIs increase how much GPT they have, renegotiate these deals for more gold.
The tech we choose is really how we want to play it out. I mainly picked machinery to open up engineering or guilds. We have some powrful knights and they all will start with flanking promotion as well. If we choose to play peacefully, then I would go the paper route and into liberalism. I see no reason to play peacefully though as I see the quickest way to wrap this one up is through domination which I think can be done before infantry.
) and the AI difficulty in handling the right decisions. For example, this game here would actually be a lot more interesting if the west coast was getting along. We would be in up to our neck if they were all building economy and teching rather than beating each other up.
per turn?
