With the Dromons in play the wines spot MUST have a unit on it to take the bombardment. If I had thought more carefully about the Byzantines and Dromons being the game I would have stuck with the original dot map.
I have more thoughts on the science disaster department. Do we go for astronomy next? It is the cheapest of the 3 techs, and the AI will research it before we complete. Of all the techs, that has the best chance of getting under 50.
I can't even stomach the thought of a 50-turn minimum run for the science rate. That pretty much insures tanks vs. rifleman. At best we are stuck hopeless behind for tech for more of the game.
The Spanish have horses. We have going to be stuck with Conquistadors and 6 movement factors. This is going to make putting workers anywhere near the borders high risk of losing them unless we protect them. I notice those units won't attack much of anything.
Well the havoc truly starts. The double front has begun.
I hope Meldor has more leader luck. We are going to need that 3rd army and the Pentagon.
No final dot-map as green dot is still left to build. I think we need a team idea on expansion direction before planning beyond green dot. This is what I see as a general attack direction. The front doesn't get to much expansion. If we can't increase the science rate we lose IMO. The dyes get us another desperately needed luxury.
Signed up:
LKendter
Greebley
Meldor (currently playing)
Grs (on deck)
Northern Pike
Remember 10 turns per round - STRICT 24 hours got it, total 48 to complete.
It will drop to 5 to 10 turns in the industrial age.
Variant restrictions:
1) Homeland defense armies only. The armies are prohibited from leaving our borders for even a millisecond. This includes attacking a stack outside borders and moving between 2 cities if there is a border gap.
If an army is trapped outside our borders due to a flip is must return to the nearest city. It may NOT kill any units on the way there.
2) Leader hording is prohibited. If we get a leader, and can't build an army it must be used to rush a building. We can delay using the leader to get it moved to an optimal city and waiting a turn for the shield bin to get empty. Once a leader is set for a building, no shifting back to army.