Inherited turn.
We are at 70% science, losing 38gpt per turn. If we finish off Isabella, I think we are going to find ourselves in a classic 0% science and still losing money scenario. We have happiness problems. Both Dortmund and Essen (our fishing villiages) are growing into unhappiness as soon as I click next turn. Since all they can do is food, I think letting them grow into unhappiness and then whipping libraries and courthouses in both of those cities seems to be the best move. The low overall happiness in these cities makes this troublesome, further exacerbated by the war weariness. I'm not sure what the best approach here is - stagnate them by making citizen specialists or let them grow into unhappiness and whip? Seems like the second option is the better of the two. As for the engineer, I agree with Kylearan that using him for a tech might be a waste. The only wonder available to us now is the Hanging Gardens, which would be cool, but what we need is happiness, not health. What do you guys think about Notre Dame?
As such, I immediately whip the granary in dortmund and queue a library. I also immediately revolt to Representation (we were still in Despotism) and I also go for organized religion. Now that we are in full-courthouse mode it makes sense and saves us a turn of anarchy later. The problem, of course, is that it will further deterioriate our economy. This is going to be an interesting one to pull out of...
Turn 1 - We meet Catherine. She's first in score, and has all the same techs that Tokugawa does plus Music. Looks like that other continent really got the good draw. Cycle through all cities setting them back to growth to take advantage of the new Representation happiness. This will have to be watched a bit carefully, as the cities which recieve the bonus may very well change. I dial back research to 60% at -26gpt. We are well into civil service research, and as of right now Tokugawa and Isabella don't have it, so if we can (hopefully) get it first, we can go a long way towards busting out of this tech hole. However, we would have run out of money before we finished researching it at 70%. Units are still healing up in Madrid.
Turn 2 - Catherine starts a golden age, probably with the artist that she got from music. Quiet turn otherwise.
Turn 3 - I move our troops out of Madrid towards Barcelona. Naturally, this trashes our already desperate economic situation. I have to cut back research, again. We are really in a bind here - After we take Barcelona we will have no choice but to call for peace and rebuild. I have to dial back research to 40%. We still get CS in 5 turns, so hope remains that we will be able to trade it around.
Turn 4 - Hagia Sopiha BIDAL. No growth was turned on in Dortmund and I didn't notice it until now.
Governors are frowned apon in Succession Games... That delayed the whip in that city for, well, 4 turns. Berlin finished another catapult and starts a Jewish Missionary. Now that we have the shrine and organized religion we need to get this spread. It's still on max growth, so it'll take awhile, but one we hit our max size it will speed up considerably.
Turn 5 - Troops move into position to attack Barcelona next turn. I've had one catapult working on the walls the last several turns, so hopefully it will go well. There are 8 defenders, though, and no one has tried to counterattack the stack yet, so it may be a might difficult.
Turn 6 - I take the walls of Barcelona down to zero, and I'm going to see if a counterattack comes. I've got two more catapults on the way, so I'll probably wait for those if the counterattack doesn't come this turn. Madrid comes out of resistance and starts a courthouse, which I plan to whip. Whip library in Essen.
Turn 7 - One turn away from Civil Service now, and Tokugawa and Catherine still don't have it. Cross your fingers!!! I have ten catapults to kill 8 defenders in Barcelona. I'm going to wait one more turn to make those odds 12 to 8.
One turn before CS comes in...
Turn 8 - Civil Service comes in. And, of course, it's not available to trade. I sure hope this is the "can't trade a tech on the turn you discover it" thing...
Capture Barcelona. I decide not to call for peace right now - I'll leave that decision up to the next player. War weariness is plaguing us a bit, but not too badly. We may want to finish her off. What I do do is immediatly revolt (again) to Bureaucracy.
One turn after CS comes in... This game gets to me sometimes...
Turn 9 - I still can't trade Civil Service. I guess both Tokugawa AND Catherine got it, on the same turn I did. HOW FREAKING NICE FOR THEM. I set research to Drama, since neither of them have that one either and we could always use theaters for more happiness. We still have that engineer waiting around, so going for music and Notre Dame is tempting, but I choose Drama first for the simple reason that they don't have it yet and we may get trade value out of it. After all, you see how well that worked for Civil Service. Drama will only take 4 turns. As you can see, Montezuma has a large force headed our way. Zeviz's prediction may be true about Monty declaring a war on us now. We can handle this first stack (we have spears) but it would certainly prevent us from pressing the war against Isabella further.
Monty's Stack...
Turn 10 - I whip a courthouse in Madrid. I also had to move Madrid's defender out of the city to kill a wandering sword, the next player should move him back in next turn. The Jewish Missionary finishes up in Berlin and I start a Colosseum there timed to finish right when Berlin grows again. Whip courthouse in Essen. Dortmund should whip its Library soon.
And that's it. Notes for next player:
1) Move Madrid's defender back into Madrid next turn.
2) Watch out for that stack coming from Monty! May want to call peace with Isabella to deal with it.
3) Look to try to trade Drama when it comes in.
4) Remember we still have an Engineer, my initial thought is to go for Music to get Notre Dame, but there are certainly other options.
Our new lands...
The Game