Monarchists' Cookbook I

[OTAKUjbski]

In addition to the fact 1S of Angle is better suited to get a more substantial bonus from Bureaucracy (as Cottage Spam) ...

It'll also come into play later as we settle more cities on that large landmass, since it won't be considered a 'Colony'.

As far as Colonial Maintenance is concerned, our 2-city "Old World" islands will cost considerably less than if we leave the large landmass as a 10-city colony.

 

[Solon70]

Is it 3 cities on a landmass that increases the maintenance?

 

[Diamondeye]

@Above: Yes, the difference between two and three cities on a colonial landmass is substential (the col.expanse from 2 cities is like .25 each, where from 3 cities is more like 1.25 each).

I'll have to have a better look at saves as well as statistics on thursday, got work wednesday and friday - I won't be able to be at a computer until around 9 GMT friday, just in case you need to know.

 

[Solon70]

That seems like a pretty important point, particularly with respect to the folks who squeezed 3 cities onto the island south of the starting spot.

 

[futurehermit]

I wasn't thinking about lib yet. Focused on expansion still.

 

[vale]

I would suggest that those of you who want to continue spamming wonders in this game think about getting Angkor Wat built asap, and then using Priests to provide hammers whilst keeping the GPP flowing.

This is one of the reasons I ended my round early. Berlin has literally just finished the GL and ostensible has a hindu monastery queued up (if we are switching to pacifism I want somebody to still have the option to build missionaries).

However, there are no hammers invested. Someone could just as easily do the Angkor Wat first and start stagnating Berlin around pop 11-12 with an engineer and several priests.

 

[OTAKUjbski]

I'm going to be out of town this weekend and so expect not to be back online until Sunday. I probably won't play Round 4 until Monday.

MY VOTE:

First off, I vote against my save. I wasted the Music Golden Age and am too close to the edge of diplomatic insanity to make my round a safe choice. I'm the only one who settled Gems and Dye, but that's nothing to write home about, imo.

I vote for Bleys' save.

He has a very strong economy (especially compared to his rival) and an immense tech lead on everybody.

Militarily speaking, Saladin is multiple techs away from fielding anything other than Axes and Archers while we can field Macemen and Catapults.

As for peaceful expansion, he has the most Courthouses (including 2 on the way) working towards the FP.

I think this means his save is conducive to my preferred peaceful expansion plan as well as a military expansion plan against Saladin.


-- my 2

 

[Diamondeye]

:nod: OTAKU makes some strong points here, I think Bleys' is a solid save this round aswell...

 

[Bleys]

Wow, two votes for my save and I felt this was my weakest turn set of the 3 we have played, LOL.

I do want you all to notice my tech lead is at the expense of diplomacy. I refused requests, and most of you gave in to them, and as a result, my relations arent as strong as most of the others.

Another negative of my save is Sitting Bull. Hes a beast to take out if he has land, and Suile gave him a TON. While I am glad to see I didnt get an IND spawn like many, if I had to pick an AI I DONT want to play against it would be him. He is an espionage nightmare, and can steal techs right into parity. My KK LHC is like this, he has triple esp on me, and every big tech I got, he steals within a few turns, Artillery, Combustion, I was almost going to research something less useful JUST to try and get him to burn points.

I do not seem to have a solid preference though. I agree that OTAK and Diamond wasted their Golden Ages, but thats not a total negative. I like vales, but no Machinery or Construction leans me away.

Winston has a very strong game, that GP farm he already has is a huge plus. He lacks Construction, but could tech it next when Philo finishes. A small trade for Monotheism after Philo, then revolt into Paci and OR, man, 150 GPP a turn would be pretty sweet. He has Calendar, which means MoM right away (for me anyway, its become my favorite mid-game Wonder), and although he didnt manage the Colossus, it looks like this game is going to be well in the bag before the Coastal tiles make much of an impact. While its nice to be able to switch to food-neutral 3C tiles when cash is tight, the power of the Colossus isnt really felt until cities start breaking the double-digit barrier.

In Winstons game, he built that darn 3S city, but it is actually NOT as big a problem if we move the Cap ASAP. Thats our GP farm, and we will be running max specialists there ASAP, so not having access to a few tiles to the south isnt as much of an issue. If we had no intention to move our Cap, I would be suspect (again) of that choice.

My vote is for Winstons. I think he has a pretty strong set up. The GPP points cannot be ignored, his "GP farm" is already DOUBLE most of ours (yes, he is running 4 specialists, and most of us are still keeping production and growth high, only running a couple Scientists, but still . . . its solid).

 

[vale]

150 GPP a turn

Won't be quite that much. It will be 105GPP a turn after Pacifism as his base GPP is 30 per turn. (45 is from NE and Parthenon).

 

[Bleys]

Ah, you are correct, I forgot that he had NE already, no wonder he is so far (at least double) everyone else.

I am slowly coming to appreciate GPs more and more, I think GPP management is one of the most important "advanced" techniques in the game. I actually save GP for post MOM GA's. At one point in the KK LHC game I mentioned, I had 3 GP's sleeping in my capitol. I hit Lib, took Nat, built Taj as I teched to Rifles, then had 30 turns of Golden Age in a row (I missed MoM that game, someone used a GE on it, but I did conquer it later, however I am at 3 GPs for another GA, LOL, so its kind of worthless). That powered me to enough troops and Galleons to conquer 3 AIs, and had I went after Monty and Gandhi instead of Wang, Zara and Boudi, I would be winning easily now, since SB would have to actually ship spies over instead of walking them into my cities that border him. \

But I could see myself putting together a similar scenario with Winstons save here. Tech Music, build MoM, save that Artist for later, bulb Education with the next generated GS, tech Lib, take Nat, build Taj, and have 2 15-turn Golden Ages to get to Rifles and kill whoever is next.

 

[Winston Hughes]

My vote is for Winstons. I think he has a pretty strong set up.

Thanks. I'm quite fond of my save too, although not enough to override the gentlemen's agreement. (I should've known my 'no voting for yourself' suggestion would come back and bite me on the arse in the very next round.)

I'm not sure who gets my vote yet. You, vale and OTAKU seem to have very strong positions, but I want to take another look at all the saves before I make any decisions.

In Winstons game, he built that darn 3S city, but it is actually NOT as big a problem if we move the Cap ASAP.

hehe, did you look at that shadow game I played? The city placement in that one would've made you

bulb Education with the next generated GS

If and when it shows up, the next (ie. first) GS should probably go on an Academy.

After that, I guess you could do some bulbing, although it's hardly necessary with our superior tech rate. And, given the Prophet/Merchant weighting from the wonders, it could take quite a while to get a second GS.

The thirty-turn pre-war Golden Age plan is a good one, though.

 

[futurehermit]

As long as we don't go with one of the saves that used a golden age (disagree with that move) I don't care really. Bleys' save is good, but a lot of our saves are pretty similar imo. I think we are in good shape whichever way we go. There's no way we can lose this game really. The AIs are just hopeless on this map (such is the way with archipelago).

 

[Solon70]

As long as we don't go with one of the saves that used a golden age (disagree with that move) I don't care really. Bleys' save is good, but a lot of our saves are pretty similar imo. I think we are in good shape whichever way we go. There's no way we can lose this game really. The AIs are just hopeless on this map (such is the way with archipelago).

I agree with this 100%. I like the concept of getting the FP up and moving the capital to the new continent as soon as possible, and then we can go about anywhere from there I guess. Bleys does have a nice save.

 

[futurehermit]

Could someone clarify for me why we wouldn't just build the FP on the new continent? Is there a good bureaucracy location on the new continent that could be developed quickly?

 

[vale]

I'm assuming because of the colonial expenses.

I'm not really on board with that plan though. Two settled GP (in most saves) in what is going to be our GP farm in that plan doesn't seem like the best idea.

 

[Solon70]

From the earlier discussion, I thought it made sense that since you don't pay heightened maintenance until you have 2 cities on a landmass, it makes more sense to put our capital on the big continent and let the original island be a colony.

 

[Diamondeye]

afaik we dont have any saves with overseas palace, so while it should be discussed, it will have no real impact on voting, imo. Otoh, Bleys has most courthouses aswell, making for a fast FP be it on Germany Maior or the new world.

 

[futurehermit]

I see that Sitting Bull was created in Bleys' game. I'm not sure if I missed it, but whose colony is he?

Something I found interesting about my game is that Suleiman crippled himself by making Liz a colony of all but 1 of his cities.

 

[Bleys]

I see that Sitting Bull was created in Bleys' game. I'm not sure if I missed it, but whose colony is he?

Something I found interesting about my game is that Suleiman crippled himself by making Liz a colony of all but 1 of his cities.

He is Sulei's vassal, so basically the same thing, Sulei gave SB a pile of cities on the big continent.

I consider this a "negative" of my save as well, since SB is much more difficult to deal with than Liz (futurehermits) or Lincoln (Winstons). When he has land to REX, he becomes a powerful AI who has a strong EE type of style that can be SO annoying.