Preturn:
We have towns that are starving that are trying to generate shields. That is not optimal. Calculating shields comea after starvation so any set are lost. It is instead better to put the units entirely on scientists (or taxmen) which comes before starvation. This gives a big boost to science from starving captured cities.
Make some trades for older tech. Decide to trade for Bastion Fortifications because we can afford it and no 2-fer is possible - it is the only tech we can work on. It costs 270 gpt from England. We haven't caught up in tech as Absolutism is also the only tech possible, and advanced civs have it. It is 7 turns.
I also decide on 20% lux. We can't work all squares at 10% in some core cities.
Switch Palma to an explorer. I think losing you Palace does reset your Settler BTW. The Explorer is in case I am wrong.
IBT: Our boat exploring the other continent is sunk by a Privateer. Ugh, I hope we have a replacement nearby.
Our Explorers are kicked out of Nubia. Note: One can use the strategy of walking the border between two civs, where you always switch whose land you are in. I will be trying this on the US/Nubia border
1690 AD: But town near spain on Galleon. Will rush it at some point so we can explore.
1695 AD: Boats nearby to load but it is 4 less turns away than we have peace so will wait a little bit.
1700 AD: Build road to closest point of to Casablanca.
Been building Eastern Merc in Mooville because some of our cities are lacking 2 defenders.
IBT: Made an error on the Explorers and we get booted. Ugh.
1705 AD: Our boat toward Spain is launched.
1710 AD: Our lack of Saltpeter is getting expensive: 215 gpt. Once at war, we should continue the Magreb war until we grab the Saltpeter (near their capital).
1715 AD: Def 5 Eastern Musketeer are near Magreb so will consider war soon.
1720 AD: Decide to wait for reinforcements that are nearly there before war.
We can now run at 10% lux (until WW kicks in) with only 2 cities still needing happiness buildings. Decide to go with that.
We get Absolutism. All advanced AI have all 3 tech we can learn with no 2-fer possible. Max science is 8 turns on Mil Tradition - which we don't have to avoid this game. That will give us
4 vet cities along with the great palace.
We now can build Hussars.
1725 AD: Declare war. We can reach Casablanca this first turn. One retreat and we capture the city gaining 49xx gold. Gain a Monk killing a Xbow unit.
IBT: Lose the Pike on our Silver
1730 AD: We capture Tangier and Leptus Magna for over 8000 gold each, losing one Cuirassier on each city.
Our settler met a fairly large stack that has an emigrant, but we might lose it if they attack.
Our Lawyer went Elite on its very first attack.
IBT: We do lose our settler. Unfortunately the emigrant was already on the settler spot, otherwise the Grenadiers might not have attacked.
1735 AD: We kill advancing units and gain a leader. Initially I was thinking of the Great Palace at Wonsan so moved injured units toward it (see notes below)
Notes:
I bought plans from Spain so we can see all units until the next turn. They do not have a settler (what I expected). Next player should see what they have before hitting enter. Boats with units is right outside their border. We still have a few turns of peace left.
To decide: Leader is at Wonsan. What do we want to do?
1) Rush University at Wonsan
2) Rush Great Palace at Wonsan.
3) We can buy Mil Tradition this turn for 4075 gold + coal from England. If we do this we
can rush mil academy in Wonsan and upgrade next turn doing both. If we do this we may want Cuirassier units 5 or less away from Wonsan so we can upgrade next turn. I think a few can get closer.
4) Some other plan I did not think of
Initially I was planning on 2 - It would really help the war effort to be able to upgrade the Cuirassier to Hussars. A place to heal and attack 6 would be a real boon.
I then decided we have too few Veteran units being built, and should continue to build the Great Palace at Bagdad. That left me with 1) rushing a university at Wonsan, but then 3) occurred to me after that as a way to do both. I find 3) tempting but maybe we should have Iron Horse Saloon build the academy for max vet units.
So I left it for the next player to use the leader. If the team prefers 2) or 3) we can still do that,
but my current vote is 1) - but also buy tech right away and start academy in Iron Horse Saloon.
I did not build a lot of units. I think it more important to get our science up. Next player may need to build more.
We could buy all 3 tech with what we have now from England. We should also discuss if we wish to buy any. I think buying Mil Trad is worthwhile to start the academy in Wonsan or Iron Horse Saloon.
The vulnerable Sassanid is because I didn't want an injured unit to retreat. It is expected to die.
