LK170, China, CCM, True Communists

[Jersey Joe]

Nice round of trading.

We can build the Great Palace but no city jumps out as great.

We need the Great Palace so we can use spies to steal tech, for 10859 you might have been able to steal Absolutism and another tech.
I would suggest you build the Great Palace in one of the following:
Earth Horse Ranch: Hire 2 Engineers and it can build the Place in 5 turns. (Once Earth Hourse Ranch builds Dockyard it will have more base shields than Shanghai.)
Shanghai: It can build the Place in 5 turns:
Beijing: HIre 2 Engineers and build the Palace in 3 turns. (The extra 5 culture might help if we go for a 1 city culture win. though I think it is doubtful.)

 

[Jersey Joe]

Next town?

If that black blob in the forest next to the mountain is our only source of Coal it gets my vote. Any other sources of Coal, especially ones that are already in our territory?
Looks like about 10 tiles need to be roaded to get the coal.

If we do have coal there is a nice spot between in the grassland between us, Persia and Germany.

 

[Elephantium]

It's a little far afield, but the site looks good. Chop two of the forests, irrigate all the plains, and mine the rest, and you'll hit size 20 no problem. Maybe chop a third forest to speed city growth above size 15?

 

[Greebley]

That was the only coal that we can see that is anywhere close to us. There could be some in unexplored territory but that would be owned by the AI.

You have also reminded me that we may already have spies as we are communist. I will check that and consider a steal of Mil Tradition if so. If we have spies already we could wait on the great palace.

 

[LKendter]

If we have no coal, then definitely the next town. Break off a road laying crew to get in on the road net.

 

[Jersey Joe]

Just to be efficient, when we build our initial road to the Coal, we should also pick-up the Iron and the Hardwood. The road will still cover the same amount of tiles.

wait on the great palace.

We need the Great Palace to build spies and run spy missions.
The Capitol is the wonder with properties similair to a Palace (reducing corruption in surrounding cities).

 

[Elephantium]

The hardwood requires 1 extra tile though.

Iron is 5W of Tabriz
Road 1NW from there
Build city 1N from there
Road N or NW from the city
Finally, road coal from there.

That being said, unless the timing with the Settler is exact, you'll need one more road than I've described, and it might as well be the hardwood.

Looking at the save...we're 20+ turns from building that city. 550 AD is T170 in-game, we should get a Clan at T180, upgrade, then another ~10 turns to move to the Coal site.

 

[Greebley]

I thought I noticed early on we had spies already but will need to check as I am not sure. One other thing to consider is that planting spies can lead to war so there is risk involved with steals. I think we are strong enough to take that risk, but I would choose a civ that is farther away so such a war will be less interference.
I will start on the road as well. A Lawyer or two nearby to take out a settler pair might also be useful.

 

[Greebley]

Preturn:
Trade our older tech for 300-400 gpt or so.
Trade Juriprudence for Merchantilism.(Spain)
Trade 10859 gold for Absolutism (Magreb had best price)
Trade Absolutism + 1095 gold for Fossil Energy (Austria)
Trade Merchantilism and Absolutism for Medicine, 112 gpt + change (Britain)
Trade Absolutism for 197 gpt + 380 gold (Australia)
Trade Fossil Energy for all Persia gold 3422
Upgrade units to attack 6 Asian Riders

We are up to 1065 gpt instead of 377 gpt before but are down to 8090 gold.

560 AD: Declare war and star moving into Persia

IBT: We lose 2 Asian Riders and a Cuirissar that was exploring a bit.

570 AD: Capture Namp'o and Teheran. 4-5 losses on the Teheran capture and bunch of retreats. Namp'o was easier.

About spies:
I successfully planted a spy in Germany, but without the wonder, we can't use them.

580 AD: Move on Gordium and Persepolis

590 AD: Lots of units in Persepolis and so even with 20 attacks we barely are able to capture the city (1 Rider left over). Gordium falls more easily.

600 AD: We capture Pasargadae and Sidon with attacks lined up on Antioch and Arebela, though I am not fully sure it is enough units to take them.

Notes:
If we put the Great Palace in a city near the capital we get little use of corruption reduction. Instead I think Persepolis is a really good spot as long term that has hills and mountains with Grassland to support it giving it more shields than our current lackluster current cities and the Great Palace will make it go from (somewhat) corrupt to little or no corruption plus lower distance corruption in all cities North of us.

Persia has 3 cities left and should be gone in 2-3 turns. This will keep flips from happening. I am hoping we can get a leader to rush the Palace though Persepolis with the hills and mountains and can build Great Palace fairly fast.

We are roading toward the coal (some units couldn't reach and are irrigating sugar but it needs one foreign worker more). There are two Lawyers heading that way to deal with settler pairs if they show up before the settler can get there. Also some Riders though those can't attack and an Enslaver.

Current Persia:

 

[LKendter]

I was right that Persia was in trouble. I must thank Germany for wearing them down. We badly needed more cities, and we got them.

Summary:

ROSTER:
LKendter (swapped)
Jersey Joe (up)
Elephantium (on deck)
Greebley

 

[Jersey Joe]

I got it

 

[Jersey Joe]

I intend on getting Naval Power (dockyards), Economics and Military Tradition in trades, this turn.

Any idea who we want to fight after we annex Persia?
The Inca have some low grade troops standing on the Iron near the Coal. We might be forced into a war vs them over the coal. The Inca do not have saltpeter.
Korea has some nice land left.
We might get a war with Germany if we attempt to steal tech and fail. They have to cross mountains to get to us, so it could be mostly a "fake war".

 

[LKendter]

I think the Inca are next. Some of the cities are garbage, but they are close to our capitol. I hope they will have lower corruption.

 

[Elephantium]

I'd lean towards fighting Korea immediately (unless we need more troops, that is). It'll take most of a turnset to reposition our army to attack Inca -- I'd almost rather wait until we learn Railroads for that.

Edit: We could also go after India.

A short war with Germany would be OK, I think, if we can snap up Cheju and Hyangsan.

 

[Jersey Joe]

I'd lean towards fighting Korea immediately (unless we need more troops, that is). It'll take most of a turnset to reposition our army to attack Inca -- I'd almost rather wait until we learn Railroads for that.

Edit: We could also go after India.

A short war with Germany would be OK, I think, if we can snap up Cheju and Hyangsan.

Interesting that you mention India. There is coal 1 tile south of Bangalore. That is much closer to our borders than the coal we are roading toward. Except for the fact the we have trades with India, we could grab Bangalore while our armies are in Persia and not go any further into India waiting to make peace.

A short war with Germany to pick up Chenu and Hyangsan is viable since we don't have any trades with them. Why might be able to pick up all 3 towns while getting prepared to go to war with the Inca.

Our rivals are about 20 turns from learning about Railroads, which is when we will most likely learn them since we still do not have enough towns to research techs quickly. Capturing towns helps, but we still need to build Academies, Observatories, and Universities.

 

[Elephantium]

CivAssist shows a Coffee for gold deal that we could kill anytime. India...oof. 15 turns left.

So. Germany, making peace ASAP, then Korea, then India?

 

[LKendter]

I would really hate to take the one city from India, sign peace, and then it flips away. If we go after India, I want a full blown conquest.

 

[Jersey Joe]

Our roading toward the Coal is coming along fine. Though the Inca are moving a lot of troops toward the northeast, it does not look like they are interested in the Coal.
I am continuing Greebley's idea and fortifying each piece of road with a Musketeer.

All of the Persian towns have been destroyed, but a Persian Settler is just off shore in a Dhow. I should be able to sink the Dhow in a few turns as soon as I get a Frigate to it.

The question I have, is it okay to leave most of our Mounted troops that are already in Persia up there to guard those towns? We could build a decent sized moble army from scratch if we wait until we learn about railroads, before we attack the Inca.

 

[Jersey Joe]

Two teasers:
The Germans solved our houseboat problem by sinking the Dhow that had a Persian Settler onboard and we got this message:

I wonder how they rampage in the sea

Then there is this:


To celebrate this achievement we stole knowledge of Steam Power from the Germans I figured it was a win-win situation. We get Steam Power or of Germany Declare war we have our fake war and get the 2 former Korean town.

Now all we need is Coal so we can build Steam Engines.

 

[LKendter]

The Germans solved our houseboat problem by sinking the Dhow that had a Persian Settler onboard and we got this message:

I think that is a series first where another civ solved the houseboat settler.

Now all we need is Coal so we can build Steam Engines.

I wouldn't be an a rush for many steam engines. They go obsolete way to fast.