P3-02 - Hostile Takeover Inc.

[Ralph_Jackson]

OK Got it for tonight

Ralph

 

[Loki Strikes]

We need CoL soon. Our expenses are starting to run high (for instance in Tourist Office and Volcanic Office); otherwise, everything seems to be in order, because we're having enough BPT to keep R&D running.

I would lean Currency-COL-CS, trade for alpha + monarchy at some point and I would bulb philosophy for the religion + pacifism so self research meditation at some point, that with alpha trade should enable the bulb as we have math.

 

[Ralph_Jackson]

Pre Play Plan

So basically we will go down the Currency COL path whilst looking for an Alpha & Monarchy trading opportunities.
We are very unlikely to pick up a religion from COL this late so our two short term opportunities are:-

1. Roosevelt with his wonders will pop a Prophet soon-ish and if the religion is still available he is quite likely to Bulb Theology which should quickly result in a spread to us or
2. We could Bulb Philosophy with our 2nd GS. I actually think our first will be from Riv Office and our 2nd from Tourist office in the next player’s set so we can decide then.

Alongside this let’s explore what land might lie to the NW so we can form a medium term plan.

The last outstanding items is to puzzle out how we will get a great Engineer (Merchant and Artists aren’t hard to come by) to keep our corporation options open.
We have stack of workers, a spare settler and a few cities running out of useful builds until markets are unlocked so we will dump some hammers into wonders for cash conversion.

Report

IHT
Naval Ops starts a Galley for exploration

Start Palace Move in Riverside Ops

100 BC Looks like CofL has lost its religion

75BC Start Heroic Epic in Naval Ops

25AD Riverside Office pops its GS which forms an Academy in anticipation of Palace Move

Unfortunately all that is to the NW is a fishing village

And a Barb Galley promptly sinks ours

75AD Currency in -> C of L

250AD C of L in so handover

I would suggest that as Roosie is refusing to assist our R and D department by researching Alphabet we pick it up ourselves which will allow us to trade for Meditation, etc so we can unlock the Philo Bulb for the next GS due in 7 turns & Monarchy to help our happy issues. (All CEO’s have delusions of grandeur and think they are actually Monarchs!!)

With Markets and Courthouses gradually coming on stream so we can afford to settle another city and I would opt for 1 N of E coast dye, our settler is lurking within our borders


Ralph

 

[Meiz]

This game seems to be progressing quite smoothly, we are in AD before I have even played my first set

Are we moving our HQ because of cottages or what's the reasoning for that?

 

[nocho]

I hadn't thought about the palace move either, but of course it will maximize cost efficiency of the enterprise, especially when eventually Roosy will be bought out of ownership of his current holdings by means of shiny hard metal currency...

Nice we're building HE already, didn't realize we had a level 4 unit already.

Also agree that alpha next will be useful for some trades. Remember that by variant we're not allowed to run bureaucracy so CS by itself is only useful for chain irrigation (to MO). OTOH I guess more than ever we want liberalism as soon as possible, as we'll want free speech and CS at least opens up paper. So CS next anyway which is nice trade bait too. Hopefully Roosy is researching the lower half of the tech tree to help us get to optics to meet other hostile takeover (inc.) targets.

 

[Meiz]

I don't think Roosy will trade with us if he hasn't met anyone else. This changes if he becomes friendly towards us, but I don't see that happening too soon. Of course he may rethink the trading once we "purchase" some cities from him.

 

[Pindrus]

We should definitely look to get the Hanging Gardens (& Pyramids??) up (maybe in HO?) for the GE. If we have a chance to slip in MC and run an engineer specialist we can slow-cook an engineer with a pure GPP pool while getting a few scientists for the Lib race.

I think our situation depends a lot on the unknown blackness beyond our island. We and Roosevelt may be horribly backwards if there is an AI love-fest on a huge landmass. Alternately, there may be other isolated civ's or religious hatred. Does anyone remember GG's being born? I can check the log when I get home, but it was a thought. 100 BC is fairly late for Confucianism's founding, so either other AI's are already religified or teching slowly.

About the palace move I guess I had forgotten about our variant, but still it helps the specialization of our cities--I think HO is more production-oriented with all those plains and hills (though it also has the dyes...?). Riverside is also a more central location.

We should settle the fishing island soon for the trade routes. It should more or less pay for itself.

Also, after Alpha see if Roosevelt has Calendar to trade, or consider researching it ourselves. We have 2 calendar resources.

 

[Loki Strikes]

I don't think Roosy will trade with us if he hasn't met anyone else. This changes if he becomes friendly towards us, but I don't see that happening too soon. Of course he may rethink the trading once we "purchase" some cities from him.

AI's will trade Alpha and Monarchy regardless of how many people they know with it, other techs require Friendly disposition or the AI to be Mansa if they don't know anyone with it, may be one or two other techs but no others that I recall.

 

[Meiz]

AI's will trade Alpha and Monarchy regardless of how many people they know with it, other techs require Friendly disposition or the AI to be Mansa if they don't know anyone with it, may be one or two other techs but no others that I recall.

That's completely new info for me. I still don't think it's necessary to research Alphabet just for Monarchy trade, IMO it's better to wait that Roosevelt does this for us.

Paulus is up btw.

 

[PaulusIII]

I'm willing to let you go first because you haven't had a set yet Meiz... if we just want to stick to the roster then I got the save.

 

[RRRaskolnikov]

AI's will trade Alpha and Monarchy regardless of how many people they know with it, other techs require Friendly disposition or the AI to be Mansa

lurker comment: I think they will trade any techs that doesn't unlock buildings or units, regardless of WFYABTA

 

[Meiz]

Ok, got it for tonight.

 

[Meiz]

I need a skip after all, sorry for holding this game... . I should be able to play tomorrow, but Paulus can take this today if he can.

 

[PaulusIII]

I need a skip after all, sorry for holding this game... . I should be able to play tomorrow, but Paulus can take this today if he can.

In that case a got it.

 

[PaulusIII]

Played to 600 AD. Decided to write a more in-character report from some of the various divisions of the company

Research & Development Report - Hostile Takeover Inc.

The projected output of the Alphabet is excellent. It will make the exchange of ideas much easier.

Our development of Monarchy was a joint venture with the competitors, who aided us with developing a system to legitimize our rule over the nation while keeping the people happy. In return, we aided them in the development of their own version of the Alphabet so that communication between the two nations would be easier. We had to throw in a small part of our profits, though - don't worry, I already cleared it with Finance and they agreed.

We continued a brief stint into more esoterical matters, as we finished on Meditation. Arguably, it helps keep the scientists' minds clear, so it's all good.

We briefly had one of the greatest minds in the history of our nation working for the betterment of the research division, the famed mathematician Zu Chongzhi. who we discovered working while working on the Calendar theory in the Volcanic Office. While his contributions to the R&D department were substantial we could only enjoy his inspirational leadership for a short time, since he resigned his position as Chief Scientific Research after a few years and retired from public life to become a philosopher instead.

Note: His philosophical works are well known around the R&D Department and the whole of the Corporation, though. These works form the basis for the Judaic religion.

After Zu Chongzhi's leave, the decision was made to pursue a way of utilizing the various odd plants that can be found in the vicinity of our head office and the touristical office in the south of our lands. Before we were able to properly utilize these resources at our disposal, we found we had to find a way to keep track of time so that we could maximize the output of the aforementioned resources, by making sure that we planted and harvested them at the proper time. We dubbed this invention the Calendar.

We encountered another problem with acquiring the goods though - we found that particularly dense and overgrown forests could not yet be removed by the tools we currently had at our disposal, so instead we needed to devise a new way of cutting down these jungles. Preliminary tests with common bronze axes (the same Construction usually uses for chopping down forests) showed us that the problem was not our axe design - the problem was the metal. Bronze, while good enough for chopping common trees or the axes Security uses, did not do well in the tests.
The solution was to use a new metal, named Iron. The Americans already use the technique so we were able to reverse-engineer. We found that iron axes are much better for chopping down the harder trees found in the jungle. Other tests have also been done to determine whether iron was fit for military application; it can outperform bronze in every sort of weapon. A natural iron deposit has been found north of the Volcanic Office; we suggest sending a construction team over as soon as reasonably possible to claim it for ourselves. Especially with those twits in charge of Security.

Construction Report - Hostile Takeover Inc.

First of all, good news for the board; their new HQ in Riverside Office is finished. It's more centralized than the old HQ, so that should cut some costs.

We have mainly focused on the infrastructure Finance and Marketing wanted - Finance wanted courthouses to keep costs down, Marketing wanted markets to increase sales. As usual that means that R&D has been whining all year long for their scientific facilities, but they shouldn't be whining. Every dollar Finance saves or Marketing sells tends to go straight to R&D anyway.

Bigger building projects such as the 'Hanging Gardens' were on the drawing table, but never made it past that. We found out the Americans already finished a similar design, and we want to do something unique... so, dangit.

And as usual all the budget cuts were at Security, so they haven't got anything new. No wonder they keep making slips, like the reports of offshore piracy or the 'San Francisco Incident'. Those guys are terribly underfunded.

Acquisition Report - Hostile Takeover Inc.

Our acquisition division has managed to secure a new office, far out in the sea - we decided to prioritize acquisition of this location with regards to the projected returns of . The 'Fishing Post' as it is informally referred to is not expected to grow quickly, but with the aid of trading it will soon enough pay for itself as goods from this office are oddly enough in demand - I dunno, I heard Marketing has been selling them as 'offshore goods' and managed to double the prices on them. Make sure Construction gets their priorities right this time - First a beacon Monument to be able to work farther out sea, then a Granary to aid in the food storage, then a Lighthouse to increase the ease of fishing, then an Ikhanda to cut costs. After that, I 'm out of ideas, Construction can work on their own from there. Put some stone statues over there and make it a vacation resort. Who knows what it might bring in.

Will you PLEASE fire whoever's in charge of Security nowadays? The competitors slipped RIGHT THOUGH OUR PROPERTY to guarantee their acquisition of a new location for their ventures - yes, the one right north of our naval operation. If I get my hands on that guy, I'm going to press criminal charges against him on grounds of corruption because surely he's been paid off by them.

This setback might give us some unexpected opportunities, though. That place is not very well guarded and close to our home offices. Perhaps a little bit of industrial espionage is in order to see what the hell's going on there.

Here is a list of our current assets, in case you forgot. Don't worry - it's hard to keep track of them, nowadays. We're growing big.

 

[Loki Strikes]

I am thinking we roll over the American soon so we have room for corporate expansion

Also we should really be in caste + pacifism in order to get us to lib in a decent amount of time

I think we should finish settling out our island rather soonish regardless of our Roosevelt policy, it is 600 AD, lets spam some settlers please...

Agreed that we can steal a lot from San Francisco, state religion present, close to capital, open borders, fortify a spy there 5 turns and we can grab some stuff we need (like metal casting) in no time.

 

[Meiz]

Ok, got it finally.

 

[Meiz]

While our business is as good as usual, our reports seem to contain a lot of outdated information which don't make any sense. "C for access to foreign land"? "Possible foreign acquisitit" ? Our sloppy clerks have apparently also forgotten to update our Group Head Office location. I'll immediately order my assistant to correct these misinformations.

Turn 1

We invent masonry and come to a following agreement with America.

Like taking candy from a baby... . Organized religion is adopted immediately to utilize the latest trend of Judaism.

Turn 3

We are glad to inform that Dye suppliers is established for more fasionable clothes. Start of David T-shirts will surely be a huge hit!

Turn 7

Disaster strikes in our formed headquarters and we lose courthouse and library

Turn 10

Islamic Apostilic Palace is built in a distant land, whatever that is....

Golden Farmers is built to take some load off from Mine Operations.

Turn 11

Civil service comes in and we start to research paper.

We also get an estimate of our advancement, which does not look too good.

Turn 14

Secrets of Code of Law are stolen from us!

Turn 15

Favor returned on next turn.

We also get a great scientist who can research part of education once paper is invented.

Bad news is that Roosevelt just moved his troops next to our borders. His catapults are still hanging in New York, but we should definitaly prepare for the worst.

 

[Loki Strikes]

Why no pacifism + caste? I seem to recall that we have a decent defensive force, I am not concerned, however if Roosey insists on fighting I think we should take peace this time then take him out with Medieval Junk(TM)

 

[Meiz]

Why no pacifism + caste?

I wasn't ready to abandon slavery just yet, especially because of the new cities. Organized Religion also helps us to spread religion, as it was only present in couple of cities when I started. Obviously 25% hammer bonus comes really handy while getting infrastructure up. We also have a lot of unmatured cottages which need to be worked or they are useless.

Personally I would convert to caste/pacifism once we have universities up and running.