Next turn - 1300AD

[funxus]

1180 AD: RB a lot of stuff. Set tax rates.

1200 AD: Zulus develop the BB. Aztecs engineering, indians get it from GL.
Aztecs and greeks end war. Aztecs land with warrior on forest east of BP.
Aztecs get feu from greeks, greeks get phi. Sign peace treaty.
Indians undertake KRC. Barbarians land south of BBF.

BP builds temple. (crusader)
FJ builds temple. (crusader)
BS builds salt caravan. (temple)
Igl builds temple. (MP)
PB builds salt van. (temple)
Dou SE. (caravan)
LC builds dye caravan. (aque)
LP builds coal van. (MP)
RF builds MP. (harbor)


Talk to indians:
Exchange invention and feu. Give away sanitation. Maps.

Deliver Dou hides to Tlax: 452g/b

All caravans from cities with 3 routes are headed towards Neu for wonders. I haven't got any specific plan what to do with these carans, but since we are in need of wondervans I assume this is the best way. EF van near dou an exception.

Shields are RB in all cities marked RB and have started production to a point where it's complete within 1 or 2 turns.

1220 AD: Aztecs undertake KRC. (We'll have to make sure that when one is finished, they don't switch and finish one of our pri-wonders)

El builds harbor. (dip, rearrange workers for cel.)

We get to chose tech to discover: Chiv, gunp and Theology

We discover Theology.
We pick: Gunpowder


BBF builds dip. (temple)
FW builds food van. (MP)
EF builds van.
Neu builds food van.

Deliveries to Dou:
EF dye: 49g/b, route 5t/turn
Ipec salt: 55g/b, route replace EF 5t/turn
PB salt: 37g/b, route of 7t/turn (the road helps )
Trollhättan builds crusader. (temple)

Shields are RB in all cities marked RB and have started production to a point where it's complete within 1 or 2 turns. Since we now have 662g left I decide to RB some of the productions not marked RB.

Set tax to 50%(407g-60g=347g), sci to 30% (4t)

1240 AD: Chinese develop Navigation.
2 of 3 barb crusader attack and lose against chinese HM. 3rd heads east, though too close to BBF to bribe.

BBF celebrates.
BS builds temple. (caravan)
Igl builds MP. (aque)
VM builds coal caravan. (aque)
PB builds temple. (MP)
Nae builds salt van. (crusader)
Ipec celebrates.
LP builds MP. (caravan)
RF builds harbor. (caravan)
BP crusader. (caravan)

Caravan unloaded in India (headed for Delhi).

Dou has reached size 20 (2 einsteins)

FW dye delivered to Dou: 50g/b, route 5t/turn.

Shields are RB in all cities marked RB and have started production to a point where it's complete within 1 or 2 turns. Also in u-cities (undeveloped cities) and FW MP.

Science set 0% to not waste beakers on delivery to Delhi.

1260 AD: French get IW from Greeks. Greeks get med from Fr. Peace. French get math, greeks rep. They sign an apparently not so secret secret alliance against us. Exchange Poly and SF.
The chinese undertake Magellan's.
Greeks aquire Mas and chiv from French. Indians get them. Exchange trade and feu.

Indians request talk:
They want to exchange Chivalry for demo: NO. They want demo: NO. Maps.

I don't know which wonder has highest priority, but giving them demo could be a way to get them to build the statue instead of AS or Leo's.

El builds dip. (temple)
BBF builds temple. (MP)
FW builds MP. (aque)
EF food van.
Dou builds Dye van.
LC builds aque. (van)
Neu builds van.


Tax 40%, Sci 40%.
BS salt delivered: 25g/b, route 4t/turn.
Caravan delivered to Delhi: 326g/b, route 10t/turn.

We have a lot of money about 1100g, spend all but 350g on RBs.

1280 AD: Super builds harbor. (MP)

CFC discover Gunpowder.
List:
Chivalry
Explosives
Metal
Navigation

BP builds salt van. (MP)
BS builds silver van (demanded in Dou). (MP)
VM celebrates.
PB builds MP (celebrates).(aque)
RF celebrates.

I RB a lot of stuff.
Set tax to 50%, sci 30%.

LP coal to Dou: 48g/b, route 5t/turn.

1300 AD: Barb unrest near BBF.
EL builds temple. (MP)
Cel cancelled in BBF.
FJ builds spice van. (MP)
EF, LC, Neu, RF build food caravans.
Ipec builds aqueduct. (caravan)
LP builds beads van. (another)

Nae beads: 60g/b, route 6t/turn in Dou, 8t/turn in Nae.

RB some stuff.

 

[funxus]

BBF is defended by a legion. Sleeping dips have 2 moves left.

Things to consider:
Tax rates.

Looking at the current situation, which wonder shall we start with. Shall we deliver all commod caravans or use some of them for wonders.

We can trade nav with chinese, and probably should before next turn.

What about growth and improvements in smaller cities?

Shall we try to grow larger cities (although just a few pops) if we can, even if it means severly reduced production for several turns? E.g. LC.

 

[TheViking]

We should bribe one of the elephants near BBF and use it to kill the barb stack.

We definitely should try acquiring navigation from the Chinese. A new question that this raises is whether we should try building Magellan in addition to the other three wonders (which would take priority of course).

I think we should try to finish the three wonders we want ASAP by combining caravans and cash by setting taxes to 70% for maybe 2-5 turns. Building wonders while celebrating isn't a very good idea IMHO.

We should deliver caravans from cities with less than three trade routes to Dou but use other caravans for wonder building even if they are not food. An exception might be something like LC's dye caravan, dye is widely demanded but few cities supply it - we might even want to deliver this one abroad.

Regarding the smaller cities: Rush buy, rush buy, rush buy ! We are almost finished perfecting the bigger cities but I don't think we should start celebrating until we have a little more stuff in the smaller cities (FJ, BP and BBF). Also we need Bach before celebrating unless we want out triremes to stay in town (a bad idea IMO).

I'll post a poll tomorrow, it will probably be a short one (continue with the build queues yes/no, tax rate and how to build the wonders).

I seems to me we should be ready to start celebrating roughly 5 turns from now.

 

[TimTheEnchanter]

I haven't looked at this turn much but I agree with much of what Viking says.

Bribe and kill the barb elephants. It would be nice to capture the leader, but with just a legion in BBF, it's not worth the risk.

Getting Navigation = A Good Thing

I would not build any wonders until we are close to having enough vans in reserve to build the next one as well. Both economics and Invention are out there, so we want to be able to respond if someone is close to finishing either. Waiting until we have enough sheilds for both is the safest approach.

Caravans for trade routes go to Dou. If there's a good demand delivery, go ahead with it. Everything else goes to Neu for Wonders. I'd IPRB these to speed the wonders. I'd be interested in seeing a list of what we have left to buy where before celebrating (including the vans for at least 3 wonders)

 

[funxus]

BBF is defended by a legion, and the only land square outside it is jungle, so any elephants trying to attack us would be killed before. The question should be if we shall try to bribe the lone one despite it not being a none.

It really begins taking a lot of time to play the turns, I spent 4h 30min this sunday and only played a few turns.

 

[TimTheEnchanter]

You're doing great. Take all the time you need. If we have to cut back to less than 2 rounds a week then so be it.

A quick thought about trading for Navigation. Since we have Gunpowder, the Chinese will undoubtedly demand it in exchange for Navigation. Is that something we are willing to give up at this time? or should we just plug away at it by ourselves?

Perhaps our Foreign or Defense ministers have thoughts on this matter?

 

[TheViking]

Planning what the MoDA wants to do is sometimes also starting to take a lot of time, especially when taking into account the time it takes to then create and post the polls.

Planning the build queues etc. last time plus posting polls etc. probably took at least 3 hours (!), probably more.

Playing less than 2 times a week (either only once a week or e.g. every 5 days) is an idea and maybe playing 6-10 turns in most cases instead of the frequently 4-6 turns.

This could be made easier by making the build queues more 'generic'/flexible.

Regarding the Chinese, they might accept the 'alternative' tech instead of GP. It would be fun to wholly or partially conquer an AI civ before it gets gunpowder. We need more land for our empire - there's a lot of land near BBF though and once BBF reaches size 12 I'd like to IPRB 4-6 settlers there to found new cities and then grow BBF back to size 12, preferably by celebrating.

 

[funxus]

Well, first of all we should see who is in position to aquire it from the chinese: Peace with the greeks. There is a risk that the greeks will get it, especially since the greeks are far more advanced than the chinese, and we don't want them to have it. They are not really close to discovering it themselves, but if they trade for invention they'll be able to pick it as their next research. It should be included in some poll.

Second of all, since the indians will get it from GL we should probably give it to them ourselves first if we decide to do the trade.

 

[funxus]

I'll play tomorrow instead of today, and hope that's all right.

 

[TheViking]

It's all right - actually I'd favor increasing the time between playing the turns a little because running the empire (domestic affairs in my case) is starting to take a lot of time.

 

[funxus]

I start to play now.

 

[Duke of Marlbrough]

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