PH14: The Return of the King

[pigswill]

Got it. Had a look. CoL looks a good tech to research. Confu could be useful if it spreads to Hats and Qin. We'll certainly need courthouses at some point. Caste is worth considering if we can live without the whip.
I'd use GE for Glib because we don't need many more wonders at the moment. We could do with a couple more cities, power rating could also do with some work.

 

[pindicator]

Good turns, pigswill! I am thinking the GLib needs to be built in Washington, don't you? Then we can put an academy there next.

For that northern island, we can either cram in 3 cities or space out with 2 and miss the clams. I would personally fit in 3 just because they will all get intercontinental trade bonuses (placement would be 1W of fish, N-NE of clams, and capture the barb city). Either way the barb city can wait until last.

Maybe I misunderstood what you wrote as Currency being a placeholder, but I think we should finish Currency before swapping to CoL. I've only liked going CoL before Currency in 3 circumstances. #1 - Beelining CoL immediately for religion or another strat (like a UB a la Aztec) #2 - Caste System for quick merchants/scientists #3 - If we have high maintenance costs per city. Because with number of cities, Currency usually fares just as well or better than CoL for improving the economy. Plus researching Currency first gives a discount to researching CoL later.

Spoiler for a more elaborate argument :

In our case we currently have City Maintenance cost of 15 and we have 5 cities. So for sake of argument say that after researching CoL and building courthouses in all 5 cities we save 8gpt due to the rounding gods smiling on us. That's an investment of 540 hammers for 8gpt savings. Researching Currency will give us 5 commerce immediately, and with 1 market in Washington (really the only city that should remotely consider one) will give us 2.8gpt more for an investment of 225 hammers.

Another thing we need for our economy is foreign trade routes -- we don't have any thanks to the barb city. We need to either raze the barb city, explore the rest of the coast to the south, or build a road to Egypt. That would get us at least a 5gpt right there.

Since we're going to lay the smack down on Egypt eventually, we probably should send a warrior or chariot to map out Hatty's lands, too.

 

[pigswill]

I'd favour CoL before currency because of confu and the absence of religions on our island as far as I can tell. Connecting trade routes to Hatty is certainly a good idea. Currency after CoL. I'd like to grab the spot ne of marble before Hatty beats us to it. The far west city and northern island may have to wait a short while until the economy improves.

 

[Diamondeye]

@Desert Island: Settling the Plains tile seems like the only sane thing to me. Anyone have a different perspective on this?

 

[Thy_Spellcraft]

I'd like to grab the spot ne of marble before Hatty beats us to it.

@Desert Island: Settling the Plains tile seems like the only sane thing to me. Anyone have a different perspective on this?

Neither I know which spot is meant to be ne of marble nor which sould be this Desert Island plain title..

But I too would prefere CoL for the religion..

 

[pholkhero]

@Desert Island: Settling the Plains tile seems like the only sane thing to me. Anyone have a different perspective on this?

oohhhh ~

maybe it was a translation problem, but i think you meant the Deserted Isle. I was looking and looking for island full of deserts, never thinking that you just meant that island in the above pic.

assuming that's what you meant, I think the plains tile would make an uber city, but would prefer to make two cities up north ~ one just W of the fish, by the horses and one on the Southwest-est grass tile, 2 N of the clam. The barb city, unless there's a resource i can't see on the pic (since I haven't had a chance to load the game yet ), is going to be crap.

 

[pigswill]

All this talk about Deserted Isle. Its all way above a simple hobbit from the Shire. So I played some turns, stopped for my second breakfast, then played some more, then stopped for a spot o' lunch, now I'm posting this report and then I'll have my tea.

185bc (T0).
Swopped to CoL (13 turns!). Deleted a warrior near Egypt who was busting no fog. Moved GE towards Washington. Set workers chopping forests for Parthenon in Boston. Moved some axes towards barb city.

170bc.
GE builds Glib in Washington.

155bc. CoL suddenly down to 8 turns. Not much else happening.

140bc. Not much happening this turn either. Except a barb galley turns up on the western coast (no doubt from the havens of Umbar). No easy voyage for a WB now.

125bc.Washington builds a spearman, disbands a warrior and starts a settler.

110bc. New York builds spear, disbands warrior and starts a galley.

95bc. Stuff happens this turn.
First we get some delicious truffles appearing in the middle of nowhere (unless we want to build a truffle city). Then Philadelphia completes a library, hires some sages, CoL suddenly due in 3. Then four axes attack Cherokee, defended by three archers: win, win, die, win and just like that we get 90G and a razed city.

80bc.
This is not a screenshot of the Great Library:

Boston starts building a barracks. A Great Scientist founds an academy in Washington (+16bpt).

65bc. zzz

50bc.

So Boston has the Parthenon and a Religion. Its getting a bit posh.
Conmiss heads Egyptwards slowly.

WB and galley are cowering near New York. A second galley can join them in two turns.
The Corsairs of Umbar continue to threaten our coasts.

Workers having been busy building a bambi sanctuary near Atlanta. Starting on a road network. Still no coastal route to Hats. May be worth connecting us to Egypt by road.

Currency due in 5 turns.

 

[pindicator]

Yay for religion! I had forgotten that Confucious was still on the table.

lol, that sign reads like we can just delete the barb galley

I'm sure the next settler is headed towards the ruins of Cherokee. After that I'd like to grab the island city location(s) sooner rather than later. And that barb city has no resources so it is going to be crap. I'd just as soon leave it as a barb city except it will probably cut trade routes to any cities on the north end of the island. So we probably should raze it.

 

[Thy_Spellcraft]

Good turns pigs!

About the upcoming set: Hatty is willing to trade Mono and Archery for Lit, and as we want to reach Monarchy in the rearby future and already build TGL, this could be an option. With Mono and CoL we should swap civics to Castle and OR.. And maybe we should even change to Conf for the happyness..

If we're changing to OR Boston should stop the barracks and go for spreading the religion.. If we don't we should keep the missionary for the upcoming city!! It will need the culture! Furthermore Phili should rather start on a courthouse.. And as we're still last in power NY should get some military out the the "front"!

For teching: I'd go for monarchy right after currency to get some happy faces into our citys.

BTW: Hatty doesn't have fish.. So selling at least one to her after currency is in might be an option.

 

[pigswill]

I reckon its better to use the missionary to spread Confu to Hats asap. She should probably convert fairly soon and that wiould give us free diplo points.

Regarding monarchy. We've got HR available from Pyramids but we're running rep instead.

Resource trading is always a good idea.

 

[Thy_Spellcraft]

Regarding monarchy. We've got HR available from Pyramids but we're running rep instead.

You're damn right.. Just forget about my words.. Seemed to be a lack of coffee in the morning!

 

[Diamondeye]

Yeah I meant the deserted Isle, and I believe it woulod be easiest to settle the Plains tile, then, if we want another city on the island, take the barb one.

 

[pholkhero]

all right ~ good turns, pigs. I've got it for now.

I, too, think i would rather spread Confu around our cities for now, simply due to our lack of happiness options at the moment (since I don't think we should be swapping out of Rep). Also, if we're going to conquer her (not that I know that we are ) the free diplo pts matter not so much. With that in mind, perhaps we should go towards the top of the tech tree and head for theatres, as well as for Philo perhaps for a 2nd religion (and more temples).

I'm not sure what our maintenance costs are right now, but i'm thinking we should settle right near DC for now ~ say, at the sheep site ~ to cut costs a bit. For monarch, the game seems to be chugging along slowly from the perspective of the AIs so I think we can wait a bit on the island, esp as it'll cost us Colony expenses, too.

I won't be playing today most likely so we have some time to sort things out a bit ~ let's discuss our options and figure out where we're going.

 

[pindicator]

Agree that the missionary should spread the word at home. Hatty is a friendly enough AI anyway.

Our maintenance costs are not that bad right now. Our worst offender is Philadelphia, and that town sits at 3.87gpt -- though Coldlanta will probably beat it out once it grows. Total city maintenance is only 16gpt. And colony maintenance won't rear it's head unless you get 4 or more cities on an island.

I think we should put down several more cities, especially considering we're aiming for a SE. Personally, I'd pop down the city at Cherokee's ruins, 2 at the northern island, and the sheep city all in the next turnset or 2. Either that or put the hammers into military.

 

[Diamondeye]

Actually cities on another landmass is raised already when there are three cities on the landmass. But we're only aiming for 2, right?

 

[r_rolo1]

Actually it is raised for every city , but as the increase is quadratic, you only start noticing after city #3 in a land mass

 

[Thy_Spellcraft]

Actually it is raised for every city , but as the increase is quadratic, you only start noticing after city #3 in a land mass

In that case we definitly should settle only 2 cities on the island!

But if we're going top grap this babarian site we need to make sure that Hatty won't attack at any time. Otherwise this city will get hard to defend. So I'd rather settle those 2 island cities and the two-three backline cities (the sheep site, the one in the middle of fish an truffles and maybe the site 2N of the second horse).

But when do we want to make a charge onto Hatty?? Some medieval war? Or will we wait till rifles?

 

[pholkhero]

so, then settlers, not military??

 

[Thy_Spellcraft]

so, then settlers, not military??

Washington for settlers, NY for military and Boston for religion.. The rest should concentrate on infra I think..

And we need to discuss whether to take the tech deal with hatty or not and whether we should swap civics or not.. I'd to both! (swaping to castle as well as to OR)

 

[pindicator]

Washington for settlers, NY for military and Boston for religion.. The rest should concentrate on infra I think..

IIRC, the colony maintenance for 3 cities on an island is just under 1gpt per city -- you really don't notice it until you get 4 or more cities on a landmass.

I like settling cities now and going after Hatty with trebs/maces.