moneymaker

I've built some core cities and progress is ok. Got Pottery for a Granny 1 turn before my rax pre-build was finished :D . I will try another approach than the commie one. I'll try to stay out of war (unless some declare on me of course) and save money from unit cost. I'll stay in republic trying to be just ahead in the tech race and generate cash from biz. Going for the Colossus is a must. Research will be towards the slingshot, then currency asap. This will not be the biggest empire in size but hopefully the others can generate a lot of cash for me.
 
I have started too; I played to 1000 BC last night.

Spoiler QSC stats :


QSC stats (start of turn)

11 towns/99 tiles/20 citizens
2 settlers (3 in production)
7 workers (3 in production)
6 warriors [1 vet]
2 horses [2 vet] (1 in production)
1 curragh
1 granary
2 barracks (1 in production)
2 courthouses in production (will end up as libraries or marketplaces)
1 colossus in production

need Construction, Currency (due in 6), Map Making, Monarchy (not)

Government: Republic (since~1400 BC)
spending 3.5.2
treasury 149 (+2 per turn)

have six out of seven contacts



I plan an OCP grid with temporary towns for unit support during Republic.
I'm gonna start stockpiling Horses, and hopefully make more than a dent in one of the AI before Chivalry.
I then plan a slow beeline to Mil Trad, to maximise the life of my War Elephants.
Hopefully the action will be over by the time Communism comes in, whereupon I'll thin out the towns and watch the money roll right in.
 
i've had well over 999999999 before....
though i suppose it's really a cheat....
 
I played a further 20 turns, but my short-term plan changed slightly in 975 BC, when I was sneak-attacked and one of my towns was auto-razed. I have instituted a dogpile that I intend to keep going as long as I can.
I'm in the Middle ages (most of the others are too) and I have Engineering and four turns to go to Feudalism.

Spoiler :
As a thought-experiment, I loaded back the 1000 BC save and forced a declaration, preventing the auto-raze. After playing that through to 550 BC I was in a marginally stronger position, largely because that time, when I gifted them forwards, the Greeks got Monotheism rather than Engineering; thus I would have been much closer to Chivalry.
 
My tech pace is about the same and I'm a notch ahead of competition. The gpt payments so far is 10 from Greeks and 16 from Incas (don't remember for what atm). Aztecs have ToA and had one of my towns flip, otherwise I'm peacefully expanding and holding a nice position in landmass (top 2-ish).
All contacts except Zulus. I'm spending some on the dreaded temples to keep my small towns in the sticks from flipping. I'm about to finish Leo's for cheap upgrades and I have the Colossus. Incense, Dyes and Ivory is online and I also have Silks but they need a lot of turns before roaded. Not much of a cash flow yet... Spending my way to the big bucks :D
 
I'm now at 750 AD. The Maya are gone, the Iroquois have one city (they had a settler when I took their last city; their new capital is far away so I made peace for now, there was some WW), The Aztecs have three (and falling). I'm going to start on the Americans very soon. My long-term dogpile has more or less petered out, I made peace myself with the Great-Library loving Inca, so I could leverage Gunpowder from them (only the Greeks are still fighting them). So far I have not interfered with the Greeks or Zulu (Shaka hasn't bothered leaving his island, despite having built the Great Lighthouse).

I have four turns to Mil. Trad. (the last 3-4 techs have been at a four-turn pace) then I need ToG and Magnetism, they should be four turns each too. I also detoured to Economics, and I should get Smiths about the same time as I reach the IA. I also built the Colossus and Leo's, and I have benefited from the ToA for a short while after I took it from the Maya. I captured SoZ and MoM in the Aztec capital (SoZ expired after making only one AC).

I'm debating now whether to gift the Greeks forwards since I'm not sure I can get their free tech from them without dastardly tricks (they do have a settler/hoplite trapped in my terrirory, and they're furious with me).

I'm also pondering now the switch to Communism. I'm going to need Sanitation to get the most out of my OCP, but the top priority in the IA has to be Steam. Industrialization will be nice, for a factory to build the SPHQ.
So I think it's going to be: Steam/Nat/Ind/Com/Med/San (maybe I'll go to RP before sanitation?). Then Corp., I guess.

I'll probably rush a lot of settlers/workers just before the switch; lots of my outlying OCP cities are already building courthouses or aquaducts, the core cities mostly have Courthouses/Markets/Libraries, and are building Banks.

When I get to 1000 AD, I'll post some pictures.
 
I forgot to mention; my War-Elephant triggered GA lasted from 170 AD to 410 AD, some of this time I was maximising research, and some of the time I was gathering gold for upgrading Horses (once Leo's was done, of course) or rushing Settlers. I tend to skimp on micromanagement in intense war-time and I probably could have gotten more benefit from the GA than I actually did. My first Leader came in 210 AD, since the I've had four more.
Thus far, there's been no sign of an SGL, although I have a sneaking suspicion that Abe MGL-rushed Sun Tzu's Art of War.
 
My game is a bit on hold since we're doing a lot of work on our house and I've been moving funiture and stuff. It will be cool to see the end result of our different approaches. No SGL's here either. On GW's Smith's looks like a no brainer so I will go for that one too. Otherwise keep down unit cost except for workers, clear up and irrigate everything outside the core and then use a lot of specialists. I'm thinking on doing some more culture along the S coast where Aztecs has settled some cities...hmmmm
 
Last night I played the 12 turns to get me to the IA. Alexander got Medicine when I gifted him forwards. I have decided I'm going to do the dastardly deed; I can buy Medicine for 200 gpt, then demand he remove his Hoplite. If he chooses to leave I will declare war. :mwaha:
If I do abandon my reputation, I'll give Abe peace for his offshore town then raze his last city; also I will cut short Hiawatha's peace treaty which I absent-mindedly allowed to be renewed (the original treaty included 2 gpt on his part, so he re-negotiated after 20 turns--it didn't occur to me that the new straight-up peace treaty would be another 20-turn deal).

It's going to be six turns for Steam at -50 gpt (I failed to build sufficient temporary towns and I have lots of settlers on long hikes). I also noticed that I need to research Espionage to be able to build the SPHQ; I will almost certainly go for RP before switching to commie, but that gives me more cash-rushing time.

Other news; Monte has left the building; Shaka (bless his cotton socks) has finally built a boat but unfortunatly he opted to load it with an Impi and a Swordsman and invade me (he unloaded his troops but the sword didn't survive the upkeep phase :lol:) and since I'm not in need of a happiness boost, I didn't wait for him to declare.
 
if you demand until he is furious, then do remove or declare he will almost always declare.
 
Oh, he's already furious. :D

It's funny how the AI hates you for razing other peoples' cities, but they race into the gaps with their own settlers.
 
Ten more turns takes me to 970 AD.
I decided I want RP sooner rather than later, and with some MM I got Steam (our people want to build the Irom Works...maybe we should :banana:) and Electricity in five turns each with positive gpt (many of my temporary towns are now zero-growth, one-specialist, wealth-building establishments). RP is five turns at about -50 at the moment.

Alex did sell me Medicine (cost 254 gpt) and obligingly declared war; he now has one offshore town--I rushed a galleon and it'll take two turns to land an Army.

I disposed of Abe and Hiawatha in an honourable fashion (well, as honourably as you can steamroller somebody), and my rail network is good enough that I should be able to re-group quickly for a lighning war with the Inca even though I don't think I have quite enough forces for a one-turn job.
Actually I haven't ~quite~ decided whether to keep the Inca or the Zulu alive 'til the end of the game; I kinda feel like punishing the Inca for their sneak attack in 975 BC so my inclination is to give them a lock-down desert city before laying waste to the rest of their empire (I'll keep Cuzco, 'cos it has the Pyramids)--that way they will witness the glory of the Indian Communist Utopia.
I will probably not bother invading the Zulu island for a while...until I have Transports...then it'll be "lights out" for them.
 
I made it to 1000 AD. With more micromanagement I got RP in four turns at roughly break-even on average; it's due next turn, so the run to Commie can begin. Below is a picture of most of my empire, with temporary towns still in place:

Spoiler WUXGA :
moneymaker1000adcorevs1.jpg


The following pictures are the advisor screens:

Spoiler Domestic Advisor :
moneymaker1000adf1na0.jpg


Spoiler Military Advisor :
moneymaker1000adf3zy2.jpg


Spoiler Foreign Advisor :
moneymaker1000adf4jr5.jpg


Spoiler Science Advisor :
moneymaker1000adf6yg6.jpg


I razed the last Greek city, but it seems he has a settler on a boat. :mad:
On a more positive note, I did have sufficient troops to mop up the Inca in one fell swoop; this is the Inca empire now:

Spoiler :
moneymakerwhossorrynowue0.jpg


I'm still trying to decide if the best plan is to change to Communism immediately or spend a few turns of zero research in Republic, doing some cash-rushing. If anyone would like to offer opinions, I'd like to hear them.
 
Update: (I have no pics, because I forgot my USB key) 1500 AD; treasury ~84k, gpt ~2k

I got an SGL for Replaceable Parts in 1010 AD (saved him for Hoovers, once ToE got me to Electronics).
People's Republic of India established 1100 AD (this was asap--I revolted in the interturn). I don't remember the exact order of research, but I discovered I needed Industrialisation before I could research Espionage to build the SPHQ.
I was a little disappointed with the immediate results of commie (gpt and research fell) but once the HQ was up, and a few more police stations built, and a bunch of the temporary towns gone, things looked better.

I'm still doing some research (30% was giving me six-turn research and ~2k gpt, but now flight will be seven) because I want to get Mass Transits/Recycling Centres to combat pollution (I've had up to five tons/turn) and Nuke/Mfg. plants to boost Wealth.

A while ago I decided it was irresponsible of me to leave the world's supply of Furs in Zulu hands, so I captured that. A short while later I razed the rest of the Zulu cities; it's just me and Pachacuti now.
I'm at around 60% territory, so I will found a few more towns after I have consolidated my current holdings a bit more.
 
I've had a few false starts at this. My current plan is to try a CxxC placement, focusing on growing all cities as much as possible (so irrigating everywhere). I plan to sell techs to the AI as much as I can, rather than wiping them out (although I might hit a few of the neighbours for extra land).

I'm also considering monarchy over republic, if the combined effects of more free military + MP will offset the trade and corruption bonuses.

BTW, Bartleby, I love the city named Who's Sorry Now :)
 
I doubt that Monarchy would pay off in the long run. If you are crippled with unit costs, found more cities (I hope that doesn't sound too glib). If need be, settle CxxxC, because this will allow you to put towns in the middle to relieve the crunch.

You can see from my 1000 AD advisor screens that I was paying hefty support and researching at 90% in Republic. When I went commie in 1100 AD, obviously the unit support went to zero but my research times went up and gpt went down, because the commerce bonus was lost; I can put up with this because I believe that when more infrastructure is in place I will recoup the loss--I just don't think Monarchy ever could.

It'll be good to see how different approaches pan out though. What was your prime motivation for going as the French rather than the Indians?

(I'm glad you liked my name for Pachacuti's retirement home. :hatsoff:)
 
It'll be good to see how different approaches pan out though. What was your prime motivation for going as the French rather than the Indians?

(I'm glad you liked my name for Pachacuti's retirement home. :hatsoff:)

I don't see how Religious would help here if you only do one government switch. It would save about four turns on average, but I think it's negligible compared to the impact of faster roads and slightly increased shields (esp. with mass wealth).
 
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