Atlas said:
I think we will researching deep into the tree next-after paper will be printing press (this will be good), then replaceable parts, steam power, Iron working (finally), Steel, railroad (this will take forever), combustion. Then it will will be catchup time. After combustion will be sailing , calendar, compass, optics, astronomy.
At last, the light at the end of the tunnel is visible!
It's going to be late by the time we get there. We won't have much time to fight in, and we're going to have to fight at least the majority of the AIs once we do. Note that we won't have any military better than we currently do on land once we can attack, so every Grenadier we build now is one we can use on our first attack. We'll get Machine Gunners shortly before the end, but possibly without much time to build them, and they're of extremely limited use anyway. Nevertheless, a few to serve as stack defenders will be wise. Our main military thrust is going to be Grenadiers, though.
We need to already have enough of those to send out a dozen Galleys, at *least*, as soon as we get Sailing. (Galleys? Sure, we'll have Combustion at that point... but neither Oil nor Uranium
Yes, this does mean the first target *must* be Mao.) We'll have time to set up Drydocks with Steel, as well. We *may* have been able to build Ironclads to support the Galleys by that time, but that's dependent on whether or not we have Iron.
Anyway. I shifted a few tile assignments back around, in several cases noting that the current arrangement was the same as having the governor on Emphasise Commerce, which is superior since it tracks new citizen growth better than Governor Off.
Map trading-wise, only Louis will pay full price, but I think I have to take it, since with his map info as well I might have enough to trade for Mansa's which I don't have, currently.
...
No dice, I'm afraid.
That's what we get. Nobody else is offering.
Turn 1 (1580): Mao circumnavigates. The Bank at Washington lets us push back up to 70% @ -8gpt.
Subsequent turns: Lots of nada.
Turn 6 (1605): Further Banks bring us to break-even at 70%. Thusly, I push us up to Eighty percent, in order to get Printing Press next turn.
Turn 7: Printing Press gives us *another* half-dozen gpt, so we're now at 70% @ +13gpt. 8 turns to Replaceable Parts (73 listed until Sailing. We still need to bring that down, there are only 228 left in the game!)
Turn 8: The AIs make peace.
Turn 9: Mansa offers Open Borders, which I see no reason not to accept since he can go wherever he likes anyway, and I want to keep the runaway happy, at least for the moment.
End: We're up at -19 at 80% for a few turns. There are enough Banks, Markets and Grocers still to come in that most likely by the time we run out of money from that we won't be losing it anymore. Replaceable Parts due in 4. When it comes in, think carefully about which forests to chop, and which actually deserve the lumbermills.
Keep it up, guys! I know we weren't expecting this big long stretch of nothingness when we started this game, but it's almost over! A few more turnsets, and we'll need to pay every bit of attention to push our military might out onto the globe before we run out of time!
Let's not miss the opportunity to start with a bang, shall we? Mao is GOING DOWN.
Garath
PS: I've just noticed some resource trades have reappeared on the table. Set them up for us, Jabah.
PPS: This gives us a good track on where Mansa is on the tech tree. He's just got Astronomy.