PH12: Men in Tights

[Refar]

Here's our Culture Situation. Not owewhelming, but not too terrible as well, i.e. as there is room for improvement.

We can Construct Hermitage - apparently it should go to Loxley, is it does not have any multipliers yet. Then stuff each city with 5 cathedrals... Free Speach will come with Democracy as well...

There is also a overview of the expected corporation profit - could be improved by trading for some ressources of course...

 

[r_rolo1]

Another Ph for the week ...

Got it.

The corp stuff has a iffy issue: do we have any realistical hope of getting the necessary GP for CC and CJ corps ( and add Al co, for extra Al for CC )?

 

[Refar]

We alredy have a Merchant, Artist and Engineer stockpiled - the dudes i was ranting about earlier - if we dicide to go for the corps we, just have to remember not to use them on something else...

AlumCo would need a additional Scientist, if it's worth it depends on how much coal we got/can trade for - which we dont know yet...

However the corps do look far less tasty than usual - the map seem to have some odd ressource distribution... Or just someone else got all the cool stuff...

 

[r_rolo1]

Ok, This was not the best turnset possible.... but nothing calamitous, just minor spy bad luck ( we were unable to steal techs..... )

But let's start with the big scare of the turnset.. I was happily in rebuild mode ( and making jails.... it doubled our espionage output ) , when the AP asked politely if we were open mind to the idea of giving back Constantinople to JC ( I was so surprised that forgot to take a screenie ) and my mouse hovered between "no" and "Defy" for a while ( why can't we check diplo when prompted by AP/UN votes? Never understood that one... ) . I remembered that vicky had a good deal of budhist cities and was not too keen of JC, so I tried the no option.....

Spoiler :

There was no need to worry ,after alll....

The other American leader ( leadin the native americans ) proposed a DP....

Spoiler :

Kind gesture , but I doubt that would be useful for us ATM. Declined....

We got a GA Decided to settle the dude in Gisborne... with 3 cathedrals and Hermitage this made gisborne pass from cultural #3 to culture #1... we'll not need to worry much more with it

Spoiler :

We got some bad luck in the spy business ( Vicky is putting extra power in spying as well... that didn't helped ) and we were unable to steal anything....

Some food for the thought:

First , tech table.... this is not looking good at all

Spoiler :

Second, espionage screen for our two "shops"

Spoiler :

F1 screen ,ordered by culture....

Spoiler :

Our worse city is Loxley now... has two cathedrals queued. In fact I strongly suggest that , if we get another artist ,we settle him there.

A check on the hands full status of the big guys

Spoiler :

Charlie is not planning wars, but Vicky is... Not hard to see on who...

Spoiler :

Vicky wants to finish the Bizantine deal... which leads to my next screen

Spoiler :

JC only has 2 cities, Antioch ( that will be Vicky's 1st target most surely ) and this one ( it is always fun to see a Moai city with no sea tiles workable ). It is feasible to capture it if we just wait to JC to move this to defend his poorly garrisonned capital ( 3 units ). We don't need any more cities for a cultural win, but a extra city means a extra courthouse ,Jail and spy specialists .... and it would remove a lot of the cultural pressure that it is doing in Constantinople ( not Istanbul ... ). If Vicky dows JC we should capture this city IMHO and let Vicky finish the Bizantines

Another issue is the next GP... as you can see in the previous SS ( thank god for the widescreens.... ), it is quite likely that we'll get a GS.... Should we keep it for a possible Al Co or use him for a Academy ( it worths 4 culture.... )?

Shopping issues... We have 3 spies in the closest Japanese city ( 2 of them with -50% ), we manage to get hindu in there ( it was hard.... ) and we're finally able to steal something. Here is the menu:

Spoiler :

I'm somewhat divided between SciMet and RP.( we already have atleast 1 monastery for every religion but the extra would be pretty useful ).. either way next we should point guns to Charlie ( he's near Physics.. why the dude is insisting on researching not that useful techs for us? )

To end ,a question.... sooner or later we'll need to go FR..... When? Charlie will not go FR easily ( being the founder of hindu ) and the religion modifier is probably the only thing that is preventing him of attacking us.....

EDIT : After finishing the report, I remembered another thing: We should go to Emancipation ASAP...

 

[Refar]

I would stau out of FR for a while - state religion ensures our AP majority - once we drop it we will be unable to block harmful resolutions (like giving back cities)... As we are not really teching the 10% tech do not matter. And well 1 per religion is not that beig as well...

Antioch should just flip on some point - its under pressure from a would be legendary city...

I am not sure what to steal as well... From what i remember, RP was chap enought so we can tech it on our own (~ around 15 turns)... But Sci Meth has no immediate benefit...

Perhaps concider taking corporation (Unless we have TGL) - extra trade route will give some - even not much... Not sure.

 

[pholkhero]

gisborne?? i think that was before your set it was number 1

re: techs ~ it's not that important, i think. what we really only need is demo for more spy stuff, *maybe* marxism, and then we can stay around and try to get those late-game culture wonders. I would head in either of those directions techwise, and just stand pat if we can't.

also, i agree w/refar on FP ~ we can stay w/a religion, but the lack of religious penalty may be a good thing, but i don't know if its necessary.

Roster:
pholkhero
Refar
Meiz
r_rolo >> just played
Ralph_Jackson >> UP NOW
pawelo >> on deck

 

[Ralph_Jackson]

OK got it, will be Thursday when I play / report

Ralph

 

[Ralph_Jackson]

I suppose a save is traditional !!

 

[Ralph_Jackson]

Well a classic building stealing and religion spreading set!!

So how are we doing to start….

Umm 382 that’s a lot of turns to legendary but lets see what a bit of stealing can do!!

To start with despite rumours to the contrary Charlie is now Free Religion. However due to the AP as mentioned earlier it is not time for us to switch yet.

However what we do want is to steal liberalism and

Take the key civic switch to Free Speech…

Now when we popped our GP against the odds it was a Spy. Now we may decide that a GA is a good option for him as stealing will dry off soon so I have kept him for discussion purposes.

Now having hand researched Democracy we got RP in a trade so lumber-mills are under way and we immediately started S of L in our capital. We may lose the race but worth trying…

Now other than that we spread Christianity fairly successfully and now all but 3 of our cities have the full set and we can complete the requirements for a couple of Cathedrals.

Now I didn’t keep all the kleptomania to myself and have left our two happy shoppers in Vicky and Charlie’s cities ready for these 2 “donations” if we desire.

Mil Trad should have decent trade and defensive value.

Out time to Legendary has dropped by over half in turns (from 382 to 143) so not too shabby at all. In deed our capital may be the lagger once we finsih Loxley's Hindu Mandir in a couple of turns time.

Vicky remains having enough on her hands but hasn’t moved versus JC and his culture pressed city has a large enough garrison never too flip.

 

[pholkhero]

great turns RJ! Looking good on the culture front here!! Obviously Gisbornne should get the focus culturewise from here on out. We can also bomb that remaining GA in Sherwood to make up any culture deficit.

let's get on w/the stealing, and I say grab a GA with the spy. I also think we should burn the GM at this point. With *about* 80 turns remaining in the game, will Sid's have much of an impact anymore?? I doubt it will, but we can debate it. Maybe we can burn the GE on the SoL?? Or is it used already??

Let's play @ least 20 turns per set now ~

Roster:
pholkhero >> on deck
Refar
Meiz
r_rolo
Ralph_Jackson >> just played
pawelo >> UP NOW

 

[Ralph_Jackson]

let's get on w/the stealing, and I say grab a GA with the spy. I also think we should burn the GM at this point. With *about* 80 turns remaining in the game, will Sid's have much of an impact anymore?? I doubt it will, but we can debate it. Maybe we can burn the GE on the SoL?? Or is it used already??

We definitely need to decide on the use of our 4 GP.

I am far from an expert on using corporations, particulalrly in culture games and must admit the amount of resources about (probably due to Arboria?) mean they wont be powerhouses??

If not then the GE to accelerate S of L feels very sound...+ Sid's Sushi + bomb the GA?? (or save for a 2nd GA with our next gp due in 32 turns, faster with S o L?)

Its not Gisborne that will hold us back Pholkhero (I think) as with its two settled GA's its will probably be legendary first.

Ralph

 

[r_rolo1]

Gisborne will not be a issue: like ralph said, it has 2 settled artists and Hermitage... adding to that , we still have to make the christian cathedrals in the 3 bigs.

About corps... I don't think they will be very effective in this game. The resources are not in our favour. If we still have a stab in SoL ( I wonder how... NA has Demo for a long time ) we should try it ( just leave the GE to the end... no need to waste a GE in a lost wonder )

 

[Ralph_Jackson]

Makes sense to me, I do think we may lose the race (even with the copper + industrious bonus to help)

Ralph

 

[pholkhero]

meant Loxley ~ but as you said, we'll have to wait until the next cathedral is on line.

even still, i think saving the GArtist for a bomb is the right move now. I also think using the GMerchant for a GAge will be better for us in the short-term.

As I said, we should only have about 80 turns left (about 4 turnsets ~ less when we get those christian cathedrals in!!) so to make any use of Sid's we need corporation and medicine (how far is any AI from them?), and I think we won't get them for another 30-40 turns, imo.

also, do GE hammers get multiplied for wonders if your IND??

 

[pawelo]

Heavy RL week-end - can play on monday, as well as the PH11
I will also have to take a closer look at the save before

 

[pawelo]

Once again I'm sorry guys - will have to ask for a skip.
Professionally speaking, it's never been that heavy.
You must think - what a sloppy player is this pawelo... Very sorry to have kept you from going further

 

[pholkhero]

adding this to my list ~

edit: and of course, that is what I am thinking

 

[pholkhero]

I played a fair few number of turns, and we’re doing real well. I made two big moves that may save us or screw us we’ll see ~

Basically, it was a classical late-culture game set: build enough temples for more cathedrals, any other culture buildings, etc.

I went through a burned off 3 of our GPs. The GS went to a Forest Camp Yard, the GM went to Golden Age, and I burned the GE the next turn for the SoL.

And, Voila ~

I stole a bit:

And we can steal again:

I spread around Christianity more to get more temples. It’s not *that* hard to spread a fifth religion in. Seems to work 2/3 times or so.

We got a cool event relationwise:

I voted for Julius for AP Pres.

It was more of an anti-Charlemagne vote. He’s all speeches; Julius has solutions!

OH, and here’s the questionable moves:

I figure we’ll be safe from attack at this point, but there is the danger of getting involved in a war by proxy.

We’re 2nd largest in size:

I also notice that Julius is trying his damnedest to hold onto Nicea:

And the requisite culture shot:

Obviously, I’m not going to get this back as I think it should be over real soon. Gisborne should be able to get another Cathedral, and you’ll need to dbl-check the other two for any other ones. I’ve got two GAs now @ Loxley, ready to bomb the city at the end, but that may change w/more multipliers in the other cities.

Roster:
pholkhero >> just played
Refar >> UP NOW
Meiz >> on deck
r_rolo
Ralph_Jackson
pawelo

 

[Refar]

I can not play before Friday night perhaps even Saturday noon, which would be 36 to 48+ hours from now.

So if there is any chance that Meiz can play sooner, you can/should skip me out.

-----

On comments... Culture looks good, i don't think we need to worry about a emminent AI win, so unless everything dogpiles on us, we should be fine. Let's build enought units to keep our power rating somewhat up...

How does this double DP work ? I suck at Diplo, so in my personal games i never even was close to getting a DP
We have DP with Vicky and Wash, but Vicky hasn't one with Wash (Or has she ?)... So say Burgerking declares on Wash, we jump in, will Vicky jump in as well ?

 

[r_rolo1]

Double DP is a tricky thing:

-If we are attacked both our DPs are activated and we have two allies

- If one of our DP partners is attacked and they don't have a DP with each other ( normally that only happens in AP enforced ones, like we had in PW 2 ) we'll be forced to Dow the attacker and because of that we'll lose the other DP ( because we DoWed someone.... DP are broken when one of the partners DoW ,regardless of the reason, unless we are talking of the vassal DP )

Said this I think that we didn't needed a DP with NA ... the guy is weak and Charlie can turn to him any second ( remember that he's not exactly a trustful leader..... ). That could drag us in a war with Charlie , the thing that we need less right now...... Vicky DP is cool: the girl has a good stading army and I doubt that charlie would enough to doW her.

IMHO we should cancel NA DP ASAP ...