Merz02 - Emperor Island Empire

[Luv_Muffin]

Here is a quick dotmap for the SG to take a look at.
Consider the spacing for the eastern proposals, I don't think we can get those three fishes in one city's area of influence. Unless I'm not seeing the obvious.

I included the two choices for city ideas to the north, and have showed fat crosses to the east to give the group a sense of scale.

Here's a blank screenshot, if you'd like to make your own dotmaps.

 

[Merzbow]

so lets decide here and now, should we go for a cultural victory now seeing as we do not have any psychos next door?

if so we need to structure around that NOW.

AS for east, yeah lets rush that. that's a total whip town if I've ever sen one. slap globe on in and WHeeeeeeee.


Lets decide on a plan now.

Cheers!
-Liq

I say we delay this decision until we've expanded some more, but I think it's unlikely. Our civ has suboptimal traits for cultural. If we expand and find no iron we may have to, but I would like to take out Mansa at least.

 

[Luv_Muffin]

Okay Scowler, you're up.

 

[S.ilver]

Which city site to we want to be hitting first? Red looks really good, but I'm partial to getting light blue down first, seeing that it's closer and will be more easily defendable (as well as suffer less maintenence).

Yellow looks pretty good, easily accessible. We might want to drop off a warrior to stake out the place first though.

Aren't I up? If I've been skipped, that's fine, but I'm sure I'll have time to play it tonight. Sorry for not replying earlier.

 

[Scowler]

S.ilver, I won't be able to play until late tonight at the earliest, so feel free to take it.

 

[Luv_Muffin]

I think we should snag the nearby city spot first, too.
Less distance means lower overhead for us. Besides, it would be nice if we luck out, and our culture border can push Mana off his iron (longshot - Kumbi).

I said Scowler was up because the SG stalled for over 48 hours. I didn't know if you were having technical difficulty or anything, and in the interest of the team thought that we keep to our 24/48 schedule instead of coming to a dead stop. Glad to have you back, btw.
If you got it, work your magic on it.

Rome is growing, and can grow more once we get a temple (we have +1 from a fur trade). With the extra pop in both cities (antium is getting cows in 4) we can grow them, and work mines now for the hammers. Commerce will be good too, once monarchy comes in for our other resources.

Our military is tiny compared to the other civs (2 warriors). We will have a galley next turn, and an archer in a few more turns, doubling our military size, but check the stats afterwards to check the impact. Swap Antium from hammers to food/commerce once the galley is built. We might even be able to do that before you click "end turn".

If you can, when driving our boat from Antium north, see if you can meet the civ to our SW. Our galley may bring it into range on it's voyage, and maybe we can get a tech by trading or something?

As for the eastern city sites, I think Yellow makes sense, but more information is required for the red. Dominating that straight makes tactical sense, but maybe placing the city south on the larger island makes even more sense. Would like to see more fog lifted before I come to a conclusion.

 

[S.ilver]

(0)625BC: Preflight check. Antium does need to grow, and the galley can be finished next turn if I move production onto the cows from the forest. Nothing can be done with Rome that won't slow growth, and I'd like to leave it that way until we've maxed out happiness.

(1)600BC: Galley is done. Noting that Antium grows painfully slowly to begin with. Begin granary.

The civ to the southwest looks like Alex. Or it could be Cyrus. Pray that it's Cyrus, or we probably won't be able to go the peaceful way. I send the galley to look for him, seeing as archer is not done yet.

I send the settler north, so he can board closer to where he'll need to be. The galley will have to double back anyways.

(2)575BC: Whew...

(3)550BC: I contact Cyrus again, and he immediately says "Soon my numberless swordsmen will destory you!" Let's hope he means numberless as in he doesn't have any yet . I get open borders with him.

This sucks, it seems that everyone else has iron...

Also... there seems to be an anomoly... Please direct your attention to what is NOT in the city screen resources...

I don't get it. It's in our territory. Is it because the culture doesn't wrap around the coast?

(4)525BC: Archer done in Rome... Start the temple. I think we're looking at growth first here right?

Cathy adopts organized religion. Sure. Maybe she will get another city with confuci in it?

The cows are done. Time to hook them up.

I will go for the city on the island to the north first. I think we have enough food up there to place the city on light purple. It's grass, but with two food resources, we need to be concerned about semidecent production. Also, I do not want us culture flipping this early... Although Kumbi Saleh might give us Confuci .

(5)500BC: Cows roaded... health coming in. Otherwise... zzz...

(6)475BC: Antium is done granary. Builds an archer. Unlike Rome, Antium has a barracks, so this archer won't suck bigtime when he comes out .

The worker is being sent to hook up Rome's cows for the extra production. Always good.

(7)450BC: Cumae founded. Start lighthouse.

That could not have been a closer call...

(8)425BC: Cyrus' boat continues to move. I'll be damned if he settles on our little island. However, we are pathetically weak, so I'm not going to try and sink his boat...

(9)400BC: Going to stop here so that the year looks nice.


Turn Synopsis.

Size of our military is increased by one. Wow. Another archer will come in next turn. Coincidentally, monarchy will come in next turn as well.

Appear to have poached a city site from Cyrus. That's exciting. If Cyrus continues to take his settler father away, I'll place a bet on who's going to bankrupt their economy.

Surprisingly, cottage spammer Catherine is not in the tech lead.

Mansa will trade, problem is we have nothing to trade him. I'll bet you any money that Qin and Cyrus are gonna race each other to the Hanging Gardens. Will be interesting. Try and get Lit from Mansa next turn when we get Monarchy (unless there is a reason to be holding on to it).

Expansion phase is not my forte. Knowing this is emporer, and my solo victories are on prince only, I can't really comment on strategy. All I know is that we're dead last in military, and I would fix that problem (although there are probably other priorities here). Also, I believe the AI's are up to 4 cities now (and Cyrus is going for his 5th).

 

[Luv_Muffin]

Sweet! Very nice moves, S.ilver.
Cumae, I think, was a good decision. And I hadn't thought about getting conf spread to it from Kumbi! Would save us from making a missionary though.

Okay, for next turn, we have civics options. I think we are still running slavery, that's it. Will Heriditary rule be good for us? We also have caste system and organized religion to choose from too.
But any bonus we recieve comes with an expense increase. How we doing for cash? Can we afford to drop to 90% to pay for modern(er) civics?

*screenshot from my turn, still usefull info though.

I'm so happy we got Cumae instead of dealing with some Persian city blocking us from ocean travel to our north. I'd like to see what is to our west too, there has got to be iron around somewhere for us to take.
Maybe we can build a workboat, and while we wait for Cumae to pop it's borders, explore the shore (I rhymed) to our west?

Are any wonders available to us that we'd like to build? Other civs seem to be grabbing math, I wonder if they have ivory or something. What should our next tech be?

 

[Scowler]

Just taken a look at the save. We're currently on +1gpt at 80% science.

Tech-wise thinking about going for Maths next? Qin and Cyrus both have it but are "not willing to start trading away this technology just yet":

If we can get Lit from Mansa Musa, is it worth trying for Great Library? It's a pity we don't have another worker on hand for the chops. We should think about building another pretty soon, especially with all those wine resources opening up.

Also, another settler to grab yellow or red dot? Cyrus and MM still haven't met Cat and Qin so presumably none of them have expanded too far - yet.

 

[Merzbow]

We should have been building more settlers. If we get stuck with three cities we're not gonna win, period. And without copper or iron we can't attack anything until Chemistry.

We should go for whatever tech we think the least number of AIs have. We're gonna live or die by our trading ability this game. Since we seem to have good relations with everybody, we can serve as the tech broker I think.

 

[S.ilver]

Sincerest apologizes Merz... I forgot about building settlers... well... sort of...

I felt that we needed more military presence, and that developing Rome further would be beneficial. Still, I'm quite convinced that I did ok in Antium, although I probably goofed with Rome. Looks like another bad judgement call by me.

 

[Scowler]

Turn 0 (400 BC)
- I adjust Rome to bring the build time for Temple down to 3 turns
Tech learned: Monarchy
Antium finishes: Archer

Turn 1 (375 BC)
- The big question is: what do we research next? Here are our options:

Civil Service would be wonderful, but it is too far away to be practical. Bearing Merz's advice in mind I decide to go for Metal Casting. It is a priority tech for us, but the other civs appear to be concentrating on the upper branch of the tech tree so there is also a good possibility we can use it for leverage.
Research begun: Metal Casting
Antium begins: Settler
- We trade Monarchy for Literature with Mansa Musa. He urges us to stop trading with his worst enemy - Qin. This raises a good point: we need to start thinking about which civs we are going to ally ourselves with. Our worst relationship is currently with Qin, and I can't see this changing due to him being the founder of Buddhism. He will never like us so there is no point wasting time and resources on him. With this in mind, I cancel our Clam for Fur deal with Qin and set up the same deal with Cat instead. I also close borders with China. I think Mansa Musa tends to be a more useful ally than Qin and so we are better off trying to cultivate him and Cyrus (also a potentially good friend) if possible.
Tech learned: Literature
- We revolt to Hereditary Rule

Turn 2 (350 BC)
This is a bit more encouraging:

- Next, I trade Alphabet to Cyrus in exchange for Mathematics
Tech learned: Mathematics
- I switch Rome from Temple to Great Library since the happiness issue is less critical under HR and I don't want to waste any turns. GL is only 13 turns away, so it should be possible to grab it with a couple of chops.
Rome begins: The Great Library
- We also have no urgent need for the health bonus of the cows, so I don't bother connecting them yet. Instead I put the worker immediately on chopping duty.
- A hint of yellow borders - Hatty?

Rome's borders expand

Turn 3 (325 BC)
- The other civ is indeed Hatty. She is Hindu and way behind us in tech, so no opportunity for any trades.
Contact made: Egyptian Empire
- Cyrus's thwarted settler group is heading east. Will have to find out where he lands.
- Qin has calendar but won't trade it: "we fear you are becoming too advanced". This presumably means he will never trade with us again, unless we get him up to friendly relations - no way that's going to happen.

Confucianism has spread: Cumae

Turn 4 (300 BC)
- Great: the Confusion in Cumae will push the borders out more quickly to cover the clams and fishes.
- I open borders with Hatty to allow our circumnavigating fishing boat through.

Turn 5 (275 BC)
- Aaargh! Mansa Musa has grabbed part of the eastern island, ruling out red dot. And a very nice site it is too. Note the presence of Buddhism in the city...

Turn 6 (250 BC)
- Mansa Musa converts to Buddhism, dropping him back to cautious - damn! Maybe if we can send some missionaries to his cities we might be able to convert him back.

Turn 7 (225 BC)

Worker sings the lumberjack song.

Turn 8 (200 BC)
Cumae finishes: Lighthouse
Contact made: Incan Empire
Confucianism has spread: Corihuayrachina (Incan Empire)

Turn 9 (175 BC)
Cumae begins: Work Boat
- The Jewish nation of Inca makes its presence known and I take the opportunity to get Currency from HC.

Tech learned: Currency
As a bonus, we even manage to spread a little Confusion in one of his cities.

Rome finishes: The Great Library
Christianity founded in a distant land

Turn 10 (150 BC)

- But as a final sting in the tail, Christianity FIDAL. From the trading screen it turns out to be Mansa Musa...

 

[Scowler]

- This is the current tech situation. Metal Casting is due in around 14 turns.

The settler will be ready at Antium next turn so it is time to think about where he should go. With Mansa Musa claiming that island to the east, I'm inclined to look at the western island instead; maybe at blue dot:

Yellow dot is still available, but rather crappy. It might be possible to settle on the other side of MM's town, but the upkeep will presumably be higher and the city less defendable.

- We are due to pop a Great Person at Rome in 2 turns - most likely a Prophet.

- Other bits and pieces:

 

[Merzbow]

Not bad regarding tech. Good move getting the GL also. We need some cottages though.

Argh, our land situation is critical right now. Should we semi-beeline for Chemistry and hope to take some land using Grens? I don't see how any unit prior to that could be useful without copper and iron (the AIs will have longbowmen soon, making it pretty much impossible for cats to take cities alone).

I agree with Metal Casting, it will serve as trading leverage and let us build the Colussus.

It looks like we're close to getting the circumnav bonus, no?

 

[Luv_Muffin]

Turn 7 (225 BC)

Worker sings the lumberjack song.

A sweet rack of turns.
GL! Met new civ's, grabbed techs... you did it all.

I agree, settle the west Island. Just to get us some breathing room, if nothing else. Plus, one fish resource is better than no resource to our east.

As for placement?... your idea makes a lot of sense.
Maybe once the liq sees what's over there, we'll know for sure if that position is best, but for now it looks decent (with our available recon of the area).
Depending on the lay of the land, one tile NW may make sense too. (we may slot another city on the southern tip of the west island too, perhaps, if land is available).
Liq will have to figure it out once he sees what's going on over there.

If we can't settle near iron, I'm starting to think moving towards gunpowder makes sense. Grenadiers against longbows for the checkmate. Yeah baby!

 

[Liquidated]

uh I missed that it was my turn up and just got off a 6 hour game of galciv2 stint... that's not yet over! hahaha.

Not sure if I should be going to work tomorrow since I went in wed without warning. I'll see.

feel free to obcess over the save to give liq the heads up on where to plop a town etc.

The less smoke merz can accuse of liq, the better!!!!!

pardon me while I gas the holy @#%@#%@# out of the ape men.. the drengians or whatever.
Cheers!
-Liq

 

[Luv_Muffin]

Curses to you, Space Cowboy Liq!

I have been watching that game for several months now!
No stores in my village seem to have it.
I already took the dogsled out for a cruise to get it on release day and came home with a dress for my wife instead!

Nuts!

Foiled again.

 

[Scowler]

Get the download version. Stardock Central is your friend (sometimes)
Seriously, its quicker and easier than searching in a store, and you can archive and burn your own copy to disk with no trouble at all.

And it avoids the risk of buying dresses...

Would be great if we could get together for a Galciv SG sometime...

 

[Liquidated]

I'm trying to get my effiong head around the techs.. there's soooooooo too many that one really needs to decide what path one wants to take and spec in it.

As for now, I'm putting research into whatever fields are cheapest to see what all they do.

And what scowler said, just go digital download.. less dresses though Liq must admit you sure do look purty in them muf. Almost as purty as spending 4 hours tweaking the appearance of one's ships so that they scream 'badass'.

www.galciv2.com

Stardock kicks ass.

There will be galciv2 SG's scowler. Then again liq really needs to be able to buy an effing clue how to play the game first hahahaha. Maybe can learn better in an sg... that's where I learned 90% of my civ game from..

If you want to start an early galciv2 SG let me know, really effing clueless right now but a noob sg is fine, just look at fs-1!

Still at work btw. omg gotta go~~~

insert that cool *ducks* smilie muf abuses.

Cheers!
-Liq

 

[Luv_Muffin]

Got it. Let the Intergalactic Muffinator Stormtroopers roll!

Execute order 66 !