LK149 - WM, Indonesia

[LKendter]

350 BC (0)
(IT) Monty can have $100.

330 BC (1)
Padang makes Borneo rather crowded. This is the end of the peaceful expansion except possibly poaching some sites.
I love China and India at war. Having our two closest neighbors weaken themselves is great for us.
BLEH, even more civs knowing currency the price didn't drop. I send China $1375 for currency.
I sell currency around. Zululand gives us $257 and wines. Australia gives us $200. India gives us $181 and $7/T. The rest offer too little gold to give the tech up at the moment.

310 BC (2)
I send literature to Argentina for $64.

290 BC (3)
America picked up some cash, so they get currency for $159.

270 BC (4)
The Songhai just got to $101, so I sell currency yet again.

250 BC (5)
Brazil gets literature for $40.
(IT) India and China sign a peace treaty.

210 BC (7)
(IT) Persia and Mongolia get $100.

190 BC (8)
Argentina gets currency for $107.

170 BC (9)
We can sell monarchy to multiple civs, but the cash is so little I don't bother.
We still can't get feudalism from Babylon. Despite the Sioux needed monarchy, we can't get peace and feudalism from them.
You say you want a revolution...

150 BC (10)
Anarchy is a drag, playing a few extra turns to finish most of the anarchy.
(IT) Even I have my limits. I refuse to give Lincoln monarchy for free. We wind up in another war.

 

[LKendter]

130 BC (11)
More civs know feudalism, but we still can't get it. I hate to leave a worker with China, but right now I don't want to miss a 2 for deal because of a worker purchase.
(IT) The Aztecs wipe out Venezuela. You rarely see a civ go this early on the world map.

90 BC (13)
It is too cheap, but Argentina gets monarchy for $117 and $6/T. All our cash continues to be an insult for feudalism.
(IT) Monarchy is pretty much out of value, so I give into the Zulu demand for it.

50 BC (15)
(IT) The AI is really pissing me of. Now the Songhai demand monarchy.

30 BC (16)
We are now a monarchy.
Feudalism is still frustrating. We are still having no luck getting it, and hopefully trading for at least engineering.

Summary:
I have no question India is our first target. The question is when. We need to raze their city with culture on the iron. In addition, they've placed two more annoying cities on shared islands.

We have one settler in Asia just in case. That Indian city near iron must be razed and replaced.

ROSTER:
LKendter (just played)
Northern Pike (up)
Greebley (on deck)
Elephantium

 

[Northern Pike]

I appreciate your playing through the anarchy. It could have been most of my round.

 

[Northern Pike]

right now I don't want to miss a 2 for deal because of a worker purchase.

Absolutely. Now that we can cut back on settler production in Jakarta workers are practically free there.

I've got it.

 

[Northern Pike]

I notice we aren't min-researching anything--do you consider it pointless to min-research Feudalism at this point?

 

[LKendter]

We could start 50 on feudalism, though I hope we could buy it before then.

 

[Greebley]

Can we get Feudalism in a decent time if we research at full? To buy it, it costs us 50% more because its a govt tech. Especially if we can build some libraries, research will make it cheaper when we can finally buy it. Libraries make it 50% cheaper rather than 50% more.

- or we could start market places if we really want to do min research.

 

[Northern Pike]

View attachment 351927, end of turn

 

[Northern Pike]

30 (0): I switch Jakarta to a harbour build, which will turn it into a true one-turn worker pump at ten shields and plus-ten food.

Medan swordsman --> spearman.


10 (1): Depok harbour --> catapult. We have to make some kind of start on our bombardment force.


10 (2): The French have a few free gpt, so we might as well pick them up: Monarchy to Joanie for 9 gpt and 38 gold.

Jakarta harbour --> worker, and we have our one-turn worker pump.

Surabaya marketplace --> aqueduct, Tangerang swordsman --> swordsman.


30 (3): We get two spearmen to Semarang, which is a relief. I don't care to leave an isolated horse town held by one unit.

The Mongols and the Sioux have Monotheism. We can afford it, for basically all our gold and gpt, and then probably trade it for Engineering. But it won't get us Feudalism, and we'll make back almost nothing of its cost, because the AI civs are all poor--a real problem for us. So I judge that spending all our gold without addressing the real bottleneck we face--Feudalism--is the wrong idea. The Mono-Engineering twofer should be available for a while, and will become cheaper.

We yield to an Argentine demand for 100 gold. Three happiness wars, even with all our enemies in the Americas, would be pushing our luck.

Jakarta worker --> worker, and so on every turn for the rest of the round.

Medan spearman --> spearman, Palembang spearman --> spearman.


50 (4): We sell Polytheism to Brazil for 70 gold.


70 (5): Our supply of wines from the Zulus runs out. We replace it by sending Monarchy to Australia for ivory and nine gold.


90 (6): We get two new workers to Tangerang, which needs more mines.

We get a second worker and a reinforcement spearman to Malang on New Guinea.

Medan spearman --> spearman, Palembang spearman --> spearman.


110 (7): The Sioux land units next to our helpless Philippine town of Bogor, so we have to give them 400 gold for peace. That's not a round-up--they won't take 399.


130 (8): Two more new workers reach Tangerang.


150 (9): Medan spearman --> spearman, Palembang spearman --> spearman, Depok catapult --> catapult, Makassar temple --> aqueduct.


170 (10): Finally an opening in the tech situation: the Zulus have Feudalism, but not Engineering or Monotheism, the first time that combination has occurred. So, we first buy Monotheism for 2914 gold and 13 gpt from the Sioux. Next we need a partner for the Monotheism-Engineering trade, and the best offer comes from the Argentines, justifying the rather cautious decision not to take war happiness from them: Monotheism for Engineering, incense, and 3 gold. (We could get them to include gems for a few gpt, but I don't do this to keep our reputation safe--an easy point to overlook after a couple of years of CCM's unbreakable trade routes. ) Then, the main act: Mono and Eng to the Zulus for pig-in-the-python Feudalism, wines, and 15 gold.

There's even some money in circulation amongst the AI civs, for the first time in a while, so we scoop up 18 gpt and 207 gold from Germany for Monotheism, and 36 gpt and 58 gold from France for Engineering. So our nest egg is almost gone (298 gold), but we're at 88 gpt, our best rate of the game.

We can see now that the Aztecs and the Sioux are the world tech leaders, ahead of the pack by Invention and Chivalry. The Chinese have just Chivalry.

Taking a final look at the position after we get Feudalism, I notice that we can upgrade swordsmen to macemen, as expected, but we’re not offered the opportunity to upgrade spearmen to pikemen. Pikemen don’t appear as possible builds, either. Is there something unusual about pikemen in this mod?

 

[Northern Pike]

The changeless East:

 

[Northern Pike]

Jakarta is working perfectly as a one-turn worker pump. We just have to reset it after every interturn to nine shields and ten food, with one mined BG unworked, and it'll gain the tenth shield on growth.

Starting in five or six turns we should merge every second worker we produce out of Jakarta into one of our best cities, starting with Surabaya and Djokjakarta. Our aim should be to get those towns as quickly as possible to size twelve, or at least the greatest size allowed by happiness. In most games worker merging is just a detail, but in this one, with our ability to stay afloat in tech looking increasingly marginal, I think it's critical. Our unusual ability to spam out workers is almost our only asset in this position, and we need to take full advantage of it. Natural growth may not be fast enough to keep us in the game.

The galley off Surabaya should carry the nearby spearman to Djokjakarta. The Bangka near Makassar is carrying a second garrison unit there.

Despite our building a lot of spearmen this round, we're still in the inefficient position of having veteran swordsmen/macemen (when they upgrade) serving as garrison units. We need another six units--pikemen now, or even archers as our cheapest build--to replace the veteran swordsmen in Medan, Surabaya, Palembang, and Depok, so that the swords can move to the mainland. In addition, Depok, Bogor, Batan, and Padang need second garrison units for their own sake.

When Bogor completes its harbour in two turns our single scientist will have to find another home if we care about fifty-turning Invention; perhaps we don't.

 

[LKendter]

Pikemen don’t appear as possible builds, either. Is there something unusual about pikemen in this mod?

UGG - my apologies to the team. Indonesia was based on Greece, whom can't get pikes. It is fixed for the future. I don't know any way to fix a mod mistake in an active game.


Don't forget being seafaring that size 7 is a magic number. We gain another commerce in our city square.


ROSTER:
LKendter
Northern Pike (just played)
Greebley (up)
Elephantium (on deck)

 

[vmxa]

Lurker:

That is going to be painful.

 

[Northern Pike]

Oh well, we don't win or lose by the defensive units available to us. I remember an old Meldor game in which we were Austria-based-on-Germany and couldn't have tanks because Germany builds Panzers instead of tanks--exactly the same phenomenon. Back then it was quite a mystery.

We're building several aqueducts, so we'll be getting some cities to size seven soon.

 

[Greebley]

The spear will be useful for squashing resistance and extra garrison for happiness, so they will still find uses. I will start some pike now as NP states. I think we want to work towards our first war and it will take time to get the islands more secure.

I am back from my weekend trip and I have got it.

Edit: For towns that need Aqueducts, I think I will go for walls for defense as well.

Edit x 2: The auto-ad on this page mentioned sexy Indonesian Women. I wonder if they take gpt.

 

[Elephantium]

All women take gpt...I was shocked at the effect on my budget when my ex-wife and I separated!

 

[Northern Pike]

to both of those.

 

[vmxa]

Lurker:

gpt and lump sum. I had to pay for my divorce in 1991. The real bad news is no canceling the gpt, was for life.

Greebley no pikes, that is why I said ouch. Not as bad as an AW continents or pan map though.

 

[Northern Pike]

So we've established that Civ provides a better model of real domestic life than The Sims does.

 

[Greebley]

Lurker:

gpt and lump sum. I had to pay for my divorce in 1991. The real bad news is no canceling the gpt, was for life.

Greebley no pikes, that is why I said ouch. Not as bad as an AW continents or pan map though.

Ah right, I get it now. I was thinking no upgrade but its no pikes at all which means Spears until the expensive Musket guys.

I don't think it will kill us, but it might cost a city if an island is attacked and we can't defend it - though this can also happen with pikes as well.