Overall Strategy Thread

[azzaman333]

Parthenon isn't worth it. I'm probably beating a dead horse :horse: but the only pre-Renaissance wonders I'd seriously consider would be Great Library and maybe Statue of Zeus.

 

[Lord Parkin]

Yeah, the Parthenon isn't really worth the hammer investment, especially without Marble. And either way, if we're heading down that tech path, it'd be far better to make a shot for the Great Library than the Parthenon.

 

[AlphaShard]

Yeah I don't much care for that Wonder anyways.

I have more Sirius issue with our Gold making ability, because being at ZERO gold is not going to work forever. Were going to need money and I'd like to know how were going to do that without Merchants, Shrines or lowering our Science slider.

 

[Lord Parkin]

Eh? We have plenty of gold. And we don't need to stay at 100% on the slider. Better to have 50% of 100 commerce than 100% of 30.

 

[AlphaShard]

What are you talking about? We don't have any gold. As soon as we settle our first city were going to go negative and kiss our units good bye as they disband. I've seen it happen on Warlord level and I hate to see how bad it can be on Monarch.

 

[Trystero]

We aren't accumulating coins because we are running the research slider at 100%. As LP said, we can decrease the % of commerce going into research and accumulate cash if needed, so we aren't close to running negative commerce yet. Regardless, we will mine the gold hills in Sirius before settling the second city so we'll have plenty of commerce to support expansion.

 

[AlphaShard]

That's what I wanted to know because I know some players like to keep the Science Slider at 100% and then act like Markets/Grocers/Banks are worthless.

 

[azzaman333]

Well, they may not be worthless, but they certainly aren't cost-effective if you're running a high slider value.

 

[AlphaShard]

Even 10% gold is something. If were not even going to make Shrines we might as well use the Markets/Grocers/Banks in our commerce rich cities.

 

[GoSkins]

Sure, with the gold to boost our beaker output, I can see Writing first. So the tech path proposed is: finish Mining > BW > The Wheel > AH > Pottery > Writing > Sailing?

The minimal tech path to Writing/Sailing would be finish Mining > The Wheel > Pottery > Writing > Sailing, but we'd lose the ability to chop/whip, and the discount from AH on Writing.

What do we need AH for? Let's scope out our land first and see what resources we have first. CS and Astronomy in my opinion should be our techs.

I agree REX should be our strategy, no need for wonders. Although, I can't help but be tempted by the Collosus...with those 2 gold and cottages and Bureaucracy, our capital could fuel our economy during our REX.

 

[Lord Parkin]

We should be using a binary research slider, i.e. switch between 0%/100% research after we found our second city. That way we avoid wasting beakers due to rounding issues in the game. We should avoid running (e.g.) a 90% slider if at all possible, especially in the early game where a few lost beakers matter most.

What are you talking about? We don't have any gold. As soon as we settle our first city were going to go negative and kiss our units good bye as they disband. I've seen it happen on Warlord level and I hate to see how bad it can be on Monarch.

You seem to be a bit confused here. Do you not realise that when we go into -GPT at 100% research, we just drop the slider down to get positive again? Units will not disband after you settle the first city on any difficulty level.

 

[GoSkins]

I didnt read the turn thread before I posted. Noting that we're on such a small island, we may need sailing or astronomy to REX.

 

[AlphaShard]

Ah Binary I had forgotten that tatic.

Also GoSkins, AH will reveal Horses though I am not counting them being on our Island.

 

[Lord Parkin]

We'll need Sailing, not Astronomy. Our capital allows us safe passage over the ocean to the mainland.

 

[azzaman333]

What do we need AH for? Let's scope out our land first and see what resources we have first. CS and Astronomy in my opinion should be our techs.

I agree REX should be our strategy, no need for wonders. Although, I can't help but be tempted by the Collosus...with those 2 gold and cottages and Bureaucracy, our capital could fuel our economy during our REX.

Horses.

 

[champinoman]

Do we want Horses if we have Copper though?

If we have Copper I can see us leaving AH for a while as we really don't need it.

 

[azzaman333]

Yes. Axes are unreliable at best vs other axes. Chariots give full coverage.

 

[Irgy]

You'd have to compare them to, for instance, building wealth. How many turns will it take to get more gold from them than the 150 gold you'd have got from building wealth instead? With a low gold slider, it could be a long time. When adjusted for the increased value of gold-now compared to gold-later it might not be worth it ever. They are often still worth building, but not always a priority over things that give you a multiplier on a generally larger number.

The game will auto-adjust the slider to a value that doesn't send you negative before it will start disbanding units. Not that it should need to anyway if we're paying attention. As long as you would make a profit with the slider at 100% gold you're safe from disbanding.

Without events, there's almost no point in having gold in your treasury. Every coin you have could be a beaker that gives you a tech that does something more useful than sit in your treasury and look pretty. Emergency ugrades is about the only thing treasury gold is good for, and I don't think it's worth keeping around just for that.

I had kind of assumed we'd be binary teching here anyway. Ever since I started I can't go back to doing it any other way. It doesn't make a lot of difference, but it's generally just better. What I like the most is only committing to a choice of tech when you're a minimum number of turns away from it, much less chance of going for a music great artist or religeon or something and missing out.

If we are going to binary tech the it is worth considering stockpiling some cash before we build the library though.

EDIT - Wow I'm so far behind the conversation again. I'm responding to Alphashard's comments on markets and on running out of gold, but LP's said it already.

 

[Irgy]

Chariots aren't that great vs axes. Anyone who can build axes can build spears, and a stack of 6 axes and 2 spears on a hill is quite well protected from, say, 8 chariots. Archers defend against axes better than anything else. Although we don't have archers without hunting.

Still it's a lot better than not having chariots. Horses are worth revealing just so we can work them, and avoid settling in stupid places relative to them. The only question I think is whether we lose more beakers by researching it after writing than we do by delaying writing. That will be an issue we can resolve later.

 

[Lord Parkin]

Horses.

Sure, but we won't be needing Horses (if we even have them) until we expand onto the mainland. We're completely safe on our little island, and thus I'd say skipping AH in favour of a Creative Library chop several turns earlier is the preferable option.

Yes. Axes are unreliable at best vs other axes. Chariots give full coverage.

Spears?

No unit gives "full coverage", although it's certainly handy to have Chariots around (if we have Horses). However, I repeat, we do not need them at all until we're about to move onto the mainland.