One Last Roll of the Dice

[Cam_H]

Meiz, I admit that I'm a bit like yourself in that firing off a Golden Age at this point in the game is uncommon to say the least, but I sense that if we want that land grab to happen as quickly as possible, then this is probably the best way of doing it.

I'm really quite OK if we don't go with the Golden Age and take a more conventional pathway in settling him, especially given that we'll be running with Representation pretty soon for a while, and the +3 from the settled Great Prophet will be a nice touch to the and .

In the very unlikely chance that we get a Great Engineer, I'd still vote for rush building The Parthenon in Lyons.

 

[grandad1982]

Ok going to play in a few hurs time.

I can dig an early GA. Ususally save them till I have a few cottages etc but Cams plan seems pretty good.

I wouldn't consider HG untill our blocks are complete.

On the power front we do need more than 2 units percity as we're very weak and are about to piss off our rivals by blocking their peacfull expantion.

 

[grandad1982]

I just played.

I'll write a full report tomorrow.

In brief I traded techs andd built our power up. Got some workers and one settler out (theres another next turn).

Still in PS so next player needs to swich to rep.

Heres the save to have a look at.

 

[Cam_H]

Nice work! All those tech' trades have helped I lot I think, and good turn-around on the power rating.

It'd be nice if Christianity spread to us!

Yeah ... certainly need to keep on REXing .... now we've got a massive Silk site to address as well! I presume 2N of the Rice over there ... even with three dead coastal tiles? Settling on the bottom Silk is do-able too, but seems so wasteful.

We're a bit disjointed tech-wise. We should work out which one we need to complete first. I'm inclined to see Currency first, but happy with a return to Metal Casting. Wow ... Churchill's another tech' fiend! Up Calendar, Construction and Monotheism on us.

Initial thoughts going forward;

• Orleans to whip the Axe now (+25%), then switch into Representation as grandad recommends.

• Road to Marble and from Tours to Paris.

• Paris needs to grow back up to 6 I'd suggest; Library / Aqueduct there, and Cottage every tile in its BFC that's not already been improved (Cottage remaining Hills too?) given its food surplus? Or do we aim to run specialists out of there until we get to Civil Serice and leverage its Wonder-based points?

• Orleans and Lyons back to Settler production next turn?

 

[Meiz]

Yeah ... certainly need to keep on REXing .... now we've got a massive Silk site to address as well! I presume 2N of the Rice over there ... even with three dead coastal tiles? Settling on the bottom Silk is do-able too, but seems so wasteful.

I'd still settle on top of the lowest silk so we can get one filler city in between. Dotmap below ok?

We're a bit disjointed tech-wise. We should work out which one we need to complete first. I'm inclined to see Currency first, but happy with a return to Metal Casting.

I will continue with Currency unless someone can give a clear reason not to

Initial thoughts going forward;

• Orleans to whip the Axe now (+25%), then switch into Representation as grandad recommends.

I was thinking switching to settler immediately and whip it ASAP.

• Paris needs to grow back up to 6 I'd suggest; Library / Aqueduct there, and Cottage every tile in its BFC that's not already been improved (Cottage remaining Hills too?) given its food surplus? Or do we aim to run specialists out of there until we get to Civil Serice and leverage its Wonder-based points?

Agree on growing and using cottages. I'd like to get as much cities as possible while Paris heads towards Hanging Gardens. Everyone ok with that?

• Orleans and Lyons back to Settler production next turn?

Definitely.

 

[grandad1982]

IHT

Paris is set to put its overflow into a settler.
I whip the Axe in Lyons.

I trade with Mehmed.

Spoiler :

I switch tech to Alpha 100%


1

Not much going on here just some worker movements etc.

2

We meet this guy. Legend.

Spoiler :

I OB.

Mansa Demands Math. No thanks. As our power rockets, Mansa won't mind this snub, to much....

Orleans, Axe > Worker


3/4

Zzzzzzzz....(worker movements...)


5

I make the Math trade with Mansa.

Spoiler :

Tech, Alpha > Currency. Sorry about not going back to MC but I felt getting closer to CoL and CS seemed the prude move ATM.


6

GPoth, He spreads the word and sparks a Golden Age across the land.

Ironically in this time of geat joy the goverment decide to set up a police state

Paris, Settler > Worker. Settler head towards Marble City.

Make a trade with Churchill. Lets try to be his friend.

Spoiler :

7

Lyons, Lib > Axe.


8

Realise Rheims is building a Lib(!) for maybe 2 turns? I switch to an axe straight away. I also delete the Lib from the que so this can't happen again. No Lib here!

Make a couple of trades.

Spoiler :

Sadly I forgot the screen of the Khmer trade

9

Orleans, Worker > Archer. Not sure why an archer instead of an axe.


10

I upgrade the Warrior in Paris to an axe as there is a barb entering our borders near the horses.


11

A chop goes into a Barrack in Orleans.

Paris, Axe > Settler.
Lyons, Axe > Worker.

Tours is founded and a Granary is set.

Spoiler :

I make a deal with Mehmed.

Spoiler :

Forgot the screen again

12

Axe kills the maruding[sp?] barb.

A chop goes into the worker in Lyons.

Rheims, Axe > Axe.


13

Mansa founds Islam and suddenly I start to eye up his Religious city. Yummy!

Spoiler :

It means Lyons will have trouble in the short term BUT when we go to war we get his nice city!


14

In the last days of the GA sparked by the GProth salvation finally reachs the French lands as Lyons becomes Islamic.

Lyons, Worker > Barracks (chop).


15

Paris, I chop and whip the Settler. Lots of overflow. Worker next??? your call Meiz.

Orleans, Archer > Axe.


Info

Demo

Spoiler :

Power from 7th to 3rd! Sweet lets keep this going. The GA really helped this set but it does paper over some of the cracks. We need to plan what some of our cities are doing so our economy doesn't tank. More on this later.

Tech

Spoiler :

I did a lot of tech trading this set so Maybe we should hold of for abit now till we get another good trade tech.

Glance

Spoiler :

That trade of Alpha to Charchill makes us pleased with one of the two main contenders. Don't care how Mehmed and Mansa feel about them. I suspect if we woo Churchil and Sury then we do what we want to Mansa and Mehmed

So. Cities. What I think.

Orleans and Lyons. For these cities I suggest that we mine the hills and farm the grassland so we can run specs (both Sci and Merc) whilst still producing units etc. These cities are key to keeping our economy going till we've chopped out our jungle commerce cities and got the cottages going.

With this in mind Paris should have all the hills minded and the grasslands cottaged in prep for Bureaucracy. We should shot for some more wonders here so it can be our GP farm for now.

Rheims. Keep pumping military and military focused builds here. Finish farming the cottages and mine the plainshills.

Tours just get those jungles chopped and proced as normal.

This set up should allow us to use Lyons and Orleans to produce settlers and worker as well as benifiting from the Rep powered FE we will be running here, ie. specs and hammers.

My thoughts on Techs.
Finish Currency for the Markets. Then its MC or CoL. I'm leaning MC as we have beakers already invested. BTW I was running binary so keep an eye on the gold levels For what its worth Courthouses may be pretty handy soon....

So two more things.

I spent alot of worker turns this round farming cottaged floodplains. No Cottages on floodplains!

This game is shaping up to be really fun! Looks like two wars soonish (Mansa and maybe Mehmed? against US!) and loads of land to settle still(!) will give us real moster of an empire. Mid to long term enermies, Churchill and Sury and still more AIs to find

Might add more comments in a bit.

Roster
grandad1982
Meiz - up now
Cam H - on deck
Admiral Kutzov

The save is here.

 

[grandad1982]

I don't mind settling on a silk as you teed some to trade and some to cottage over. Settling just means instant silk when it becomes avalible.

 

[Meiz]

Turn 0

Final turn of our GA. Not much to do except switching Orleans to settler and revolting to Representation.

Turn 1

We are the third wealthiest, if anyone cares...

I decide to let Paris overflow to go towards a library. Lyons finished barracks and is set to build an axe, which finishes in 5 turns (same time as the city grows). Rheims will focus on axes probably for the whole set.

Turn 4

Orleans whips settler for two pop.

Turn 5

Whops... we don't have barracks in Rheims That will definitely come next. Paris starts aqueducts so we can build HG. Orleans starts axe while waiting to grow.

Turn 6

Lyons hires two scientists and starts to build a worker.

Turn 8

Settler has reached the destination of our block site, but I'll delay the setting until we can get some roads there.

Turn 9

Great Lighthouse BIDL.

Turn 11

Looks like we have to settle now and crash our economy a bit more

Turn 12

Orleans hires two scientists as well and starts a worker. 15 turns looks bad, but chop is on the way.

Turn 13

I'll set Rheims to build science for a while as I don't think we need more unit mainteinance costs.That shaves off one turn from Currency.

Turn 15

Currencly is finished and our economy can breath again. Rheims switches science to wealth to keep our economy going.

We could trade Currency to Mansa for Calendar or CoL. I'd suggest the first option as we have numerous calendar resources available. We can also trade Currency to Mehmed for Monarchy + 100 gold. IMO we should take that as well. Churchill knows Currency already.

Paris should finish aqueduct and then continue with HG. We can still settle more city spots and keep the economy going with specialists. At least six more cities available, including the barb city

We have a settler waiting in fish / iron spot. When should we settle it?

Overview:

Roster
grandad1982
Meiz
Cam H - up now
Admiral Kutzov - on deck

 

[grandad1982]

Ca we get some swords for the barb city? Seems like training afew units for our future wars is a good idea.

Nice looking set Meiz. Sadly csn't look at ay saves till tuesday.

Try to start a Market next set.

Get a couple of workers to each jungle city.

I'd settle the western cow city before the fish as it'll have lower maintinance (just).

Remember to cottage the jungle cities and put specs in the southern cities.

 

[Meiz]

I was mainly thinking fish / iron site for the blocking purposes. After that, there's no way anyone would steal rest of the spots.

 

[Cam_H]

Nice looking set Meiz. Sadly csn't look at ay saves till tuesday.

I'd rather wait for everyone to have their say than play on too quickly.

Agreed, nice turnset. Good stuff.

Mehmed being WHEOOHRN is a bit unexpected. Is it a concern?

Mehmed Monarchy deal looks OK to me.

I'd cancel our Clam for Corn deal with Mehmed. Rheims could do with the +1 via the Granary.

I think that Calendar is very important to us, however I'm actually learning toward Code of Laws > Caste > Merchants. With Representation, this 'should' keep our economy afloat while we work the jungle and continue to REX. I appreciate why Meiz put Rheims on building Wealth, but I'd like to see a better option. Losing Slavery is a big loss, I admit, so I'd be happy to talk this one through.

I think we should keep researching Metal Casting, and then trade it for 'whatever' incl. Calendar and Construction. Do we have any interest in the Colossus? At the moment the unfounded Fish-Iron-Corn is the only city that even qualifies, so I suspect The Colossus is an indulgence we can live without. I'm OK to settle this city if you guys feel that we can afford it, although I doubt we 'need' to settle it until we see a Khmer party coming that way.

I'd still vote for Paris to go for The Hanging Gardens. Alternately, to some extent, we could push along points in Paris also and get another Great Person in Admiral K's set.

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

I'd go for the Calender and Monarchy trades, then go MC then COL.

No interest in Colossus given the number of inland cites we have.

Mehmed being WHEOOHRN is a bit unexpected. Is it a concern?

Is he gearing up for an invasion?

 

[grandad1982]

His power is pretty low so just station some Axes and Archers. What about HBR at some near time.

I don't mind going to going caste. Seems logical with Rep.

No to Colossus but yes to HG. Paris for a wonder GP farm? Not good for specific GP but a nice mix...

If we could get GLib in Lyons.... farm her up and away we go.

Try to get some swords. Does Rheims have a barracks yet?

I like Admirals tech plan.

Also agree canceling the trade. Calender will really benifit our tade economy.

What do people think of walls in Lyons and Orleans? Help defence and also power rating. Cheap with stone. Remember to farm these two cities and not cottage them yet!

We should really start to think about getting a stack together. Try to get the cariot to medic2.

 

[Cam_H]

Thanks for the feedback. Again, I'll wait for grandad to have a decent look at the save before playing, as well as taking any extra comments from Admiral K or Meiz.

Calendar or Code of Laws

As before, I'm OK to go with Calendar, except I'm concerned about our economy. We'll pick up 110 (or 150 by selling Meditation to Sury' for 40) that will cover most 'unfortunate' events if any occur, but we're running at 40% and will go backwards with more cities. To be repetitive, the Caste System will allow our small cities to run Representation-boosted Merchants while we continue our envisaged expansion, and Rheims really should be pumping units. Obviously CoL also unlocks Courthouses and The Forbidden Palace.

If you all feel that Calendar's better than CoL, then I'll take it.

Horseback Riding

I like it, except we might have missed our chance to take out Mali with Horseback Archers. I'm more leaning to getting either; Aesthetics > Literature or alternately Machinery.

Colossus

Yeah, I think we're of the same mind on that one. Just put it up as a query in case I traded around Metal Casting and The Colossus was part of our agenda. It's not, and that's fine.

Lyons and Orleans Walls

Sounds OK to me.

The Great Library in Lyons

It could work. Paris seems suited because it's already pumping out some points, but Lyons woulld benefit from the Culture, and won't have a contaminated pool if it runs with Scientists. Maybe 'cross that bridge' in a couple of turnsets?

 

[Meiz]

I think we should settle rest of the spots and get them running before invading Mansa. At this point we need catapults if we want to achieve anything without big losses. I'd rather wait until catapults + maces. Agree that Horse Archers might be a bit outdated already, especially if Mansa heads for Longbows.

I think Rep scientists should be enough to keep our research going, and I'd hate to lose slavery at this point. Our new cities could really use the whip to get Granaries, Forges and Libraries up and running. Especially Libraries so we can hire the scientists. That being said, I would still trade Calendar before CoL. We can easily get CoL and much more from Metal Casting.

Great Library sounds good, as we have marble available soon.

About Rheims, we were actually losing money with 0% slider at one point, so I didn't really have any option than to run Wealth Rheims should definitely continue with troops once our economy can handle it (soon if not immediately). Swords for barb city should be the next priority. Rheims has barracks already.

 

[grandad1982]

I'm more in favor of CoL as its a solid choice for our Rep empire and also the Chourthouses come in handy. We can probaly trade for Cal at some point.

I suggested the GLib in Lyons as if we farm it all we can run many sci spec here to try to get a clean GSci pool. Lets hope Mansa doesn't go for the Glib as he has Aes.

 

[Cam_H]

'Darn' it ... just when I thought all three of you wanted to go for Calendar! Now it's 2-and-2!

... how to split the tie?

As before, keen to get a monopoly tech' in Metal Casting and trade it around. I assume we're happy enough to keep trading with Mansa even though we'll aim to take him out at some stage?

I'd also like to grab the western Cows site before Mehmed as the next one.

 

[Meiz]

'Darn' it ... just when I thought all three of you wanted to go for Calendar! Now it's 2-and-2!

... how to split the tie?

Both of these techs are coming in the near future so ultimately it won't make a big difference. I still feel like we could use slavery with new cities, and most of our sites have calendar recourse of some sort. Especially plantaged dyes and silks will give a nice boost to our economy. Anyway, I don't think CoL first is a bad bet either.

I assume we're happy enough to keep trading with Mansa even though we'll aim to take him out at some stage?

Yeah, Mansa generally doesn't build big defences so we should take advantage of his techs while he is alive. Poor fellow...

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

Anyway, I don't think CoL first is a bad bet either.

Keep researching MC. We should do the Cal/COL trade. I always like courthouses and with caste, we can delay building libraries and markets.

 

[grandad1982]

I also think Mehmed cow blocker next.

We're going to need even more workers very soon if we want our economy to handle filling in those jungle cities. Try to get 1 or 2 workers out in this set.

If you can shift low level tech for cash then go for it. Also any resourse trades that look ok with cash coming in. Cal will really kick this off.

Don't mind hanging off caste for a bit but courthouses will still be needed from CoL.

Could you post a summary of your plan Cam H as the above is all slightly confusing