Nobles' Club 302: Louis XIV of France

[soundjata]

Update T184

Spoiler :

After a little bit of healing we take Munich (we don't have a medic 3 which is baad)
Losses are substantial on both sides and we take a cease fire in order to heal, stop Biz from building units and release the war weariness pressure (but SOZ is ours now)

We would like to take a few more cities before extorting some valuable tech (PP is on the table) from Biz.

We have switched into Bureau and OR (mainly to deal with strike).
Maybe it's not the smartest choice but there is always that builder mentality...

Now I would like to sollicitate war tactics experts because we still have a pretty large and mobile army and AIs are known to defend border city and not inner cities (like the player does sometimes too)

What's the best way to make Germany dissipate their army all around? Strike the backyard / Follow the coast / Fork / how ?

 

[soundjata]

Update T192

Spoiler :

BIC is so good at drawing colourfull war plans it feels almost like cheating

Yellow : check
Green : check

Heavy casualties taking Hamburg and Berlin.
Chicken Pizza in Hanover was the best decision in Bizmark life.

Notice Germany decided to research rifling. Maybe just a little too late?

Time to cease fire and heal for a couple of turns I guess.
Great medic is alive
Then maybe a slight detour to Hanover before we go to Frankfurt and Cologne ?

We traded for Astro with Justy and for Printing Press + Replaceable Parts with Sitting Bull who is teching like a Mansa Musa.

Rename your city plx​

Monty hates my guts and is plotting. Probably piling medieval units somewhere.

Good luck winning the game bro ​

 

[soundjata]

Spoiler :

I don't think it should be tough anymore at this point. We're past the hump aren't we?
We have options
We are able to pump units right (our new capitol is close to the front ).
It's the reason why I was thinking of a cease fire (climb the power graph for just a few turns, move units in the east)
It's not ideal that we lose victory points but what does biz have that we want except cities?

In terms of victory I was thinking of acquiring the whole continent and cruising to space.
Maybe conquest (annihilate everything on the other continent) would be more elegant though

 

[AcaMetis]

Spoiler :

Not going to lie but I kinda want to see a space race just to see Sitting Bull be competitive in a Space Race. Don't see that every day .

 

[soundjata]

If Soundjata decides to...

Spoiler :

So, Communism and Levees are the two major tech targets ? You gonna all the way ?
Is it possible to get a trade for Scientific Method or is Sitting Bloom too much of a haggler ?

Spoiler :

Well I'm fond of levees, they're like better forges ^^

Communism I seldom use, was kinda in the mood for Ironworks in Tolosa > great engineer > Mining Inc but maybe the GP price for it is just too much...

Cap in Tolosa, Forbidden city in Agra maybe...
Holy city (shrined) + Wall street + Corp HQ...

Before coal we have 15 Mininc Inc resources on our continent.
If Justy conquers Monty he should have a few to spare with us.
Maybe we could expect +25 from the corp.

With Ironworks + Factory, Tolosa could hire 5 engineers, which in Pacifism would mean 31 GP/turn so 26 turn before we get our great giner

Maybe not the greatest plan let's think about it...

 

[soundjata]

Quick update T200

Spoiler :

Have you ever heard about "Eau de Cologne"?
Some kind of skin perfume right?
Very typical of the French culture right?

- So Bizmark (look, he's last in score ^^) what do you say about your last source of iron?
- Pizza? Chicken Pizza? Of course I razed your pizza! Another of your cultural malfunctions

Army count : 30 Cuirs.
Hope it's not too much, we would not want to spend money on troop maintenance
(No cease fire)

We switched to Mercantilism and Representation.
Economy is on fire. But forbidden palace is done and FFG (french fail gold) can start again

Regarding late game economy.

Spoiler :

I think from this point on, I can use the WE (whatever economy) based on this simple fact:

Maybe it's not so simple but if we think in therms of base hammers what does state property give?
Zero
We'll see

 

[soundjata]

Update T206

Spoiler :

We grabbed Dresden this turn by the skin of our teeth. 15 cuir remain. (and 91 died)
Unhappiness is not manageable anymore (80% culture slider last turn)
We cease fire with the plan to raze the last 2 german cities in a few turns... We'll need a couple of galleons to make it a 2 turn war maybe.

^^ Making use of OR to build stuff

62 years life expectancy ​

​

Sitting Bull just built Kremlin and is spying on us furiously (surprise )
Monty and Justy are warring. We're sending an explorer to take a closer look
We might be first to chemistry.
We have 32 worshops atm. It may be time to build a few more workers...

But where is our great engineer going to come from Fusion?

Finances:

Expenses on the right column will get higher and higher (inflation)
Income will increase as we improve our shrine (bank next turn!) and we add more hammers to wealth.
Commerce has reached a plateau obviously (no cottage) but research will improve with the slider and as we build a few extra libraries.

 

[konata_LS]

Update T206

Spoiler :

We grabbed Dresden this turn by the skin of our teeth. 15 cuir remain. (and 91 died)
Unhappiness is not manageable anymore (80% culture slider last turn)
We cease fire with the plan to raze the last 2 german cities in a few turns... We'll need a couple of galleons to make it a 2 turn war maybe.

^^ Making use of OR to build stuff

62 years life expectancy ​

​

Sitting Bull just built Kremlin and is spying on us furiously (surprise )
Monty and Justy are warring. We're sending an explorer to take a closer look
We might be first to chemistry.
We have 32 worshops atm. It may be time to build a few more workers...

But where is our great engineer going to come from Fusion?

Finances:

Expenses on the right column will get higher and higher (inflation)
Income will increase as we improve our shrine (bank next turn!) and we add more hammers to wealth.
Commerce has reached a plateau obviously (no cottage) but research will improve with the slider and as we build a few extra libraries.

Spoiler :

It seems the war is going well The war tactics plan drawn by @ BiC is awesome

A little surprised that Biz is the largest AI in your game, mostly because Justy and Monty are still fighting, not capitulate. In my game Biz lost a city to Boudica while Monty capitulated early to Justy, which let Justy become the largest one .

But... looking back at your empire's financial situation on T179 and T186, these strikes seem too close to the reality . SNCF's service quality is among the highest levels of the world, though their service sometimes is affected by the strikes.
And you're planning to found a corporation which will be unlocked by Railroad
(It's a little weird that Railroad technology enables Mining inc. Logically, Railroad should unlock some railway companies )

Seriously though, I agree with @ BiC, SP is generally cheaper under Normal speed, especially with Deity maintenance and inflation penalty.
But if you really want to have fun with Corporations, there is a recent Deity space win with Corps for your reference : actually @ Anysense used "strike economy" after spreading corporations. At the end of that game, - 40000 per turn .
(Once again, the strikes with a corporation unlocked by Railroad... a little too realistic )

 

[soundjata]

@konata_LS

Spoiler :

Last time we researched anything by ourselves was T159 (military tradition)
Since then we've been staying just above the STRIKE line, quite an experience indeed! (and I'm not speaking about Paris public transportation system )

Now I expect more chill but have a plan for the GE

1. GPP 600 & 700 by Athens > keep for golden Age
2. Levee > Ironworks in Tolosa > Hire 4 engineers
3. Research Assembly line (hope to trade for Corp) and build a factory in Tolosa > Hire 7 engineers. Start Golden age (+Pacifism) > get 800 engineer points
4. Railroad. Enjoy the power of corps.
5. ....
6. Space

When you realize there is a whale that you haven't used for a thousand years (facepalm)

 

[soundjata]

Update T216

Spoiler :

We research Chemistry T208, one turn ahead of SB.
We use it to backfill with Justy

We dow Biz one last time T210, under the cover of Anarchy (switch to Free Religion) because my citizens are mad (because of eternal war )

We are a bit tight with the numbers and throw everything East.

Third turn of the war, after we razed Duisburg & Leipzig, we have to suffer one turn of 90% to appease the angry populace.

Then we start cruising on the Whatever Economy train.

This turn we've reached Steam Power (monopoly) and can start the levee dream.
Steel in 4 turns, quite convenient for Tolosa.

I thought Pagodas gave plenty of bonus even outside of a state religion, but in fact they give only +1 for incense.
Yet we might be back in OR in the future (space parts buildup) and then they're a full +3 joy building.

Bad news : only 2 sources of coal on our continent.

Good news : our dear friend Justy is trying his best to acquire mining resources (on our behalf hopefully)

 

[AcaMetis]

Spoiler :

Are my eyes deceiving me...or was Monty going for a cultural victory ?

 

[soundjata]

Spoiler :

Are my eyes deceiving me...or was Monty going for a cultural victory ?

Spoiler :

IDK
As good as Monty performs vs the human player, he does not handle well AI vs AI situations most of the times

 

[soundjata]

Update T128

Spoiler :

Turns become somewhat quicker.
Our main activity is now to manage the few mega cities that are important.
Most cities are currently stagnating.

We keep changing farms to workshops and workshops to farm around Tolosa
(and thank you Bizmark for the few extra workers in the end!)
Ironworks completed last turn and we started hiring 4 engineers immediately.
We'll hire 2 more in a couple of turns, at which point we should be ready to launch a golden age , except if the game gives me the 7% merchant
20 turns later we could have a 100% pure bread Tolosean great engineer

Look it's a native american encroachment on our continent ^^

There are just enough cities building wealth for the slider to be maintained at 100%

Monty vassaled to Justy and I would love to have a friendly relationship with Sitting Bowl. Anyway can do?

Edit:

Spoiler :

and Athens gives us a great scientist.

 

[Fish Man]

@konata_LS

Spoiler :

Last time we researched anything by ourselves was T159 (military tradition)
Since then we've been staying just above the STRIKE line, quite an experience indeed! (and I'm not speaking about Paris public transportation system )

Now I expect more chill but have a plan for the GE

1. GPP 600 & 700 by Athens > keep for golden Age
2. Levee > Ironworks in Tolosa > Hire 4 engineers
3. Research Assembly line (hope to trade for Corp) and build a factory in Tolosa > Hire 7 engineers. Start Golden age (+Pacifism) > get 800 engineer points
4. Railroad. Enjoy the power of corps.
5. ....
6. Space

When you realize there is a whale that you haven't used for a thousand years (facepalm)

Spoiler :

Don't bother with that. Just go communism, state property, spam workshops, and get massive production to win any way you want.

My space attempt failed because even though I had the game in the bag after capping Bismarck (lib physics + 1120AD communism, 20 cities and about 700bpt at 100%, break-even at 60%), the global tech pace was just too slow for me to trade enough to win space under turn 250 (my self-defined limit). Sitting Bull was roleplaying Mansa in this game, with his freaking almost HoF-worthy start (but of course he wouldn't give me anything, lol).

As for how I avoided Alex DoW - simple. Die enough times and eventually you'll get him to pleased via religion/open borders/resource gift before he starts plotting. At any rate, construction is pretty early and once you start building up an elepult force even 10 swordsmen or something can't do anything to you. Early space requires cutting a few corners...not that I succeeded here, unfortunately.

 

[soundjata]

Hum...

Spoiler :

Usually I spam those in this kind of context but in the end, many spy points are wasted aren't they?

 

[AcaMetis]

Spoiler :

Gotta be honest I didn't even pay attention to the actual land the other continent has. I just saw Sitting Bull sharing a continent with Monty and assumed that neither was ever going to accomplish anything. Instead I got Sitting Musa teching up a storm like it's going out of style .

 

[Fish Man]

Spoiler :

Gotta be honest I didn't even pay attention to the actual land the other continent has. I just saw Sitting Bull sharing a continent with Monty and assumed that neither was ever going to accomplish anything. Instead I got Sitting Musa teching up a storm like it's going out of style .

Spoiler :

SB is not a terrible techer - it's just that he rarely gets to friendly with other civs, is stingy with tech trades, always spams espionage to poison random peoples' water, and is a hate magnet for every warmonger that breathes. That means that he usually can't start or join in three-way-friendly lovefests which basically result in half the map giving each other free stuff for the entire game, which is as responsible for an AI's quick tech progression as innate economic ability itself. Isolate the self-teching ability from this variable and SB isn't that bad; behind the S and A tier AIs but still not Genghis-level awful. His flavors/personality are also not bad either: growth flavor means he prioritizes actually useful techs/builds somewhat instead of going entirely military, or declaring pointless wars that tank his economy. Give him flood plains wet corn gold and he can do quite a lot. And here, he had Buddhist buddy good-guy (high peaceweight) Justinian to bounce off, who also acted as a buffer against Monty.

 

[AcaMetis]

Spoiler :

A good lesson not to underestimate what an opponent is capable of just because circumstances are usually different, as I've just learned, I suppose .

 

[Fish Man]

Spoiler :

A good lesson not to underestimate what an opponent is capable of just because circumstances are usually different, as I've just learned, I suppose .

Spoiler :

Unlike the most recent Star Wars trilogy, your NC maps never fail to "subvert expectations" but in a good way . This time it was Sitting Mansa, while a few NCs ago it was "Monty goes off the rails and wins domination", or "you can phalanx-rush 2 AIs because they start with no metal".

Also, I forgot the exact number, but there was a De Gaulle NC quite a while ago where Sitting Bull became the dominant AI/techer on the other continent because he got decent land and 10-11 cities. Of course, the other continent was pretty bad anyways (whereas you started isolated in wonderspamming heaven), but still, he's had a precedent of showing promising aptitude here and there.

 

[soundjata]

@BornInCantaloup damn you are right!

Spoiler :

Sitting Ball has everything I need.

Can't I just run the espy slider high instead of building all those prisons?
And also... Hmm... regarding the spread of Tao... Missionaries are a commodity I can't afford (no monastery )
Does it matter? Will I get a discount still?

The slider gives us
1500 beakers at max research and
1000 spy points at max espionage...

T233

Spoiler :

Just a quick look at Berlin for drools.

Don't worry it has not reached its full potential yet

Emancipation is under control (-5 here). Can we keep it that way?

Edit: Stacking hammers. Thinking of doing 150 (out of 160) into a Palace next for 3254896 overflow into the 3 Gorges Dame maybe...

Eddit: and Scotland Yard so... Yeah!