RBD SG3 - The Builders

Unless we're going on an offensive campaign, I don't think we necessarily need more units (although we could use more catapults), but instead we need to upgrade what we have. Once we have a modernized army, I don't think any AI's trying to wage war against us will be able to make much headway, especially if we have a few more catapults. Most of the AI's ignore upgrading, so our pikemen will be facing mostly archers and horsemen. Also, mass upgrading is much easier now that we have Sun Tzu, so unless we are going to get Leo, I suggest we upgrade soon and concentrate on infrastructure.
 
With the building of the awe inspiring Sistine Chapel, the hearts of the
American people turned in one accord to the man they knew could lead them
to glory... Deacon Charis IV! He surveyed the situation quickly...

... we have Sun Tzu's but several barracks lying around in towns
... we have Sistine's but almost no Cathedrals
... we have good building capacity but are behind on techs to build them,
such as Copernicus, Newton, Smith's, and the culture rich Shakespeare's.
... we're due for Bach's and Democracy soon.
... our ranking by the historians has been on a march of DECREASE since
the last reign of the good Deacon Charis III.
... only ONE American city in the top five, with Washington as #1. (The pitiful
city of Orleans was #5, outranked by Paris, Athens and Kyoto). Some day...
Boston and Chicago would enter this elite list!!
... India and Japan were in Republics, everyone else in Monarchy

Sensitive to outcries of leaving the treasury in arrears, the Deacon set out
this turn to:
- Have a massive Library and Cathedral building campaign
- Take a close look at techs other civs have... get us BUILDING more wonders
- Keep enough miliatary to keep the status quo
- Help make Boston and Chicago special cities
- NOT upgrade ANY units until we see if we'll get Leo's or not. The AI's
count total unit *count* as military strength. This is insane but true,
one worker or warrior is counted identical to a Modern Armor or Mech Inf.
Plus we can update and any point if war is looming.

500 AD (0) - Sold ten barracks, redeploying officer candidates to Sun Tzu's.
We trade France the tech to shut down their Great Library (Education)
for Engineering and their small treasury, gpt, AND spices. We note few folks
have Theology yet, and no one printing press... The latter and some point
might be able to buy us astronomy or such.

510 AD (1) - A couple more cathedrals started.
520 AD (2) - Memphis expands borders, putting the squeeze on New Bombay.

530 AD (3) - New York starts a Univ - consider this a placeholder. Boston
starts palace as placeholder for next wonder.

540 AD (4) - Rome wants to see us, to trade territory map. They get a 1 gp
gift instead, and we note they know the secrets of Chivalry. (Stay in awe
of us know, keep away! ;p)

550 AD (5) - zzzz
560 AD (6) - New Bombay is proseletyzed by Deacon's Deacons!! They overthrow
their oppressors and join our just cause!
570 AD (7) - zzzz

580 AD (8) - We discover Democracy, and hold the switchover til Bach is complete
in 4 more turns. Next up: Free Artistry or Invention? If we can have

placeholder can likely buy Invention, while no one will have access to Artistry
for ages. French start Leo! Free Artistry will take us 6 turns burning cash
or 7, and Invention 5 more after that. Look at the diplo screens, France
is the ONLY country with Invention at the moment, and about everyone is so
poor that no brokering is likely to occur and they're all quite behind
(with Chivalry being the only one we're missing). We look who we can get
Chivalry from for luxuries instead of cash, to keep everyone broke ;p
Greek fits the bill, and will bankrupt themselves AND give 1 gpt and Chivalry
for our excess Ivory ;)

590 AD (9) - Like his ancestors, Deacon Charis is lauded for his efforts and
the temple is expanded.

600 AD (10) - Buffalo and Baltimore expand our borders. As a final tribute
to faith, the Deacon rushes Temples on the border cities of Cleveland
and Phoenix. The treasury is at a healthy 450 gold :P

Upcoming notes...
- WashDC finishes Bach's in 2 turns. Placehold with University for a bit.
Chicago is placeholding with colliseum due in 5, while Free Artistry
arrives in 4. When it arrives, start Chicago on Shakespeare's Theater.
No one will even research artistry before it finishes there.
Quickly research Invention at max rate (4 turns) and pop Boston onto that
(it's so ahead of France on shields we should get this.) Choose Astronomy
next. Put Chicago on a placeholder until Astronomy is done, then swap
Washington to Copernicus (and soonafter, Newton's) and Chicago to Shakespeare.
(DC is our max science output city). If we end up with Econ too, New York can
go for Adam Smith. WE OWN THE MEDIEVAL AGE WONDER CHAIN! :P
- If instead you want max culture in one city, put Shakespeare in Washington,
although other choices for science city may not be quite as strong.
- Would strongly suggest NOT brokering techs that lead to other starting
wonders, and would avoid paying hefty cash for ANYTHING. Other countries are
so poor they seem to have shut down their infernal tech sharing. Keep it
that way.
- Give in to threats from no one, it's far too close to parity and we could
switch production to pikes quickly enough to counter.

Good luck, (Carbon's up I think)
Charis
 
I probably wouldn't have played it like that (which is the point of these succession games, I guess). With cultural victory disabled and us running away with a lead on the upper tech branch, I probably would have held off on Free Artistry till after Astronomy, and possibly Economics, and we still would run away with Shakespeare. With our culture already relatively high in comparison to our neighbors (not saying much when we're standing next to those unwashed Roman troglodytes...), more culture piled on top isn't going to especially help us in the same tangible ways that Copernicus or Adam Smith will (and with France now on Education, they're one jump away from having Astronomy). So for that I say we go for max science in Washington, and maybe even write off whatever we've dropped into Free Artistry and start on Astronomy instead. I'll have to look at the save and wait on some more feedback, though, before I will commit to any sort of big decision like that.

And of course America is going to slip in relation to the other civs on the histograph. Russia, Japan, Greece, and maybe England still have No Man's Land left to settle, and it's still larger than our homeland (you'll notice that the score histogram closely tracks the power histogram more than the culture histogram, and a lot of power is based on cities and territory controlled).

Anyhow, I'm going to study the save file, and either add or retract some comments a bit later.
 
We really should be going for Copernicus or at least Leonardo first before attempting Shakespeare. I personally am not a fan of Leonardo and don't go out of my way to get it, but I do dearly love the combination of Newton and Copernicus, and we are losing that race to France. I checked the diplo window and what techs we had that the other civs didn't. Of our opponents only France had Education (because we gave it to them), so they are four techs short of STARTING Shakespeare (Banking, Printing Press, Democracy, Free Artistry). This will buy us at a minimum of 16 turns before they could possibly aquire the tech to start Shakespeare. Every other civ still needs Education, as well, so they are all five consecutive techs short of even attempting it. France is only ONE tech away from being able to start Copernicus, though. They already have Invention, so they must be researching something else, and that something else could be Astronomy. We still have enough research time and cash to switch gears to Astronomy, get that, then run to economics and get Adam Smith started (at which point we should have enough cash flowing to really bury the AIs in research), and still have plenty of time to buy up Invention and maybe/maybe-not steal Leonardo and STILL stroll away with Shakespeare. If we get enough banks we could use Wall Street as a placeholder once or twice before building it for real.

If we have to allow the AI to have medieval wonders, the ones we want them to get are Magellan, Leonardo, and Shakespeare (Shakespeare they probably won't get around to until we have already started the Industrial Age): The computer hardly ever upgrades its units, period, let alone often enough to make Leonardo in French hands a danger to us, Magellan is just shy of useless in a pangea map, and while Shakespeare is a nice culture wonder, by the time it becomes hotly contested we'll be building up towards Hoover Dam, Theory of Evolution, and Universal Suffrage, and the computer has never been accused of playing a very astute culture game to begin with (has anybody ever lost to an AI cultural victory?).

I would suggest that we research in the order: Astronomy->Economics->Free Artistry->path to Theory of Gravity. With astronomy in 5 turns, we can lock Copernicus, then throttle back science a notch and score Economics in 6 or 7 turns, and still have Free Artistry in about 20 turns.
 
Delaying the revolution is a mistake. We're not in ANY danger of losing the wonder, so what use waiting for it? It will still be there when the revolution ends, and we're bleeding cash and science in Monarchy, plus our workers are slower. (Why rush toward the tech at max science, and running a deficit, just to sit on it for four more turns?) Revolt asap!

The rest sounded agreeable.

Charis's plan with wonders would work, but may be bent toward getting Chicago onto the top 5 more than anything else ;) -- Carbon's plan sounds good, too. But remember, we're playing for score -- culture, space, and diplo are all disabled, so the only use we have for Shakespeare's is to have a night at the theater and marvel at our superior culture. I agree that Copernicus would be more vital, and in fact could be built at Chicago as easily as Washington -- both are palace cities, both on rivers to pick up extra trade. Making sure we get Leo (since we can, we should), would be my main request. Sort it out the way you think best, Carbon.

Oh yeah, and consider putting us back on 10% luxuries, or even 20%, to boost our score per turn, when the revolution ends, unless we have enough luxuries rolling in from trade to keep almost all our people happy anyway. I would have run some on my turn, but getting to Democracy asap seemed more urgent.

We have wiggle room at this point, so don't sweat any of it. Just don't give away our techs. I'm less concerned with getting the best value or even keeping the strongest lead, than I am with keeping the entire process as slow as we can get it. We can only slow it so much, but the more the better.

One final point: the sooner we get Navigation, the sooner we send swarms of settlers and troops across the ocean to found New America in the no mans land above England. I'd actually set this as a highish priority, but not at the cost of Leo.


- Sirian
 
In my sleepiness I did forget Cultural was disabled, so thinking was incorrectly swayed toward the 8 cult/turn wonder.

However... it's NOT an either-or! We have *3* cities capable of knocking out a wonder, and UNLIKE the AI, we get to start building them *before* we get the tech. The plan I gave essentially starts Washington, our desired Science city, on Copernicus immediately after Bach, it's just that the production order shows "University" until we research Astronomy. What might not be clear is just how FAST we can research things. Invention will take 4 turns, and Astronomy 6 to 8. Both together less time than it takes to build a University. So we can build Leo's and Copernicus without losing a single shield in speed.

So agreed, Free Artistry wasn't the top priority, but don't lose turns to switch away from it, as that would gain zero time actually building the wonders. And yes, NOW seems best time for revolution.

Charis

PS As for Chicago wanting top-5, it's hard (read "Impossible for Charis") to play a "Builder" game trying for pumping score without also not having DOMINANT top cities. In fact I'm wondering what can be done for poor New York or maybe San Fran :P Still, Chicago going for a high-culture wonder fits well game-wise. Also, note that our current high culture has already seen: two fairly quick flips, and enough pressure on a culture-bare Rome to make it docile as a lamb.
 
Waiting with baited breath to find out what Carbon the Revolutionary is going to decide. :)
 
You say you want a revolution?

Well, you know we'd all love to see the plan.

Turn 0 - 600 AD
-I delay on revolution no longer. The country goes into the most well-behaved anarchy I've ever seen, only St. Louis was rioting. City tiles all over reshuffled to prevent starvation.

1) 610 AD
-Rome moves a HUGE stack of settler pairs into our territory. Four in the vanguard, plus a few more settler pairs a turn behind. What the HELL do they think they are doing? They're definitely not invading, the AI never sends settlers WITH their invading forces, and Rome would be awfully optimistic if they think they can take any of our cities with a pike, two spears and an archer. I let them wander around for a bit longer while I'm still in Anarchy, trying to figure out what the hell they're doing. There's another mystery settler in Baltimore. As I don't see any unclaimed territory, I just fortify him for now and let someone else deal with him.

2) 620
-Nothing happens except Rome moving seven settler pairs in our territory. I see a settler pair on the Indian border heading south from one of their border towns.

3) 630
-Mob destroys the Library in St. Louis :mad:
-Rome is sending a THIRD wave of settlers south. What. The. Hell.

4) 640
-zzz

5) 650
-Greeks start Copernicus(!) :eek: I didn't expect them to hit Astronomy first.
-Russians start Copernicus(!!) :eek: :eek: We've got a real race on our hands but we're running as fast as we can in a different direction. Since we didn't come out this turn, I suppose this anarchy will last the full six turns :(

6) 660
-We come out of anarchy. -116 gold/turn, WTH? Oh, we're still running 100% science. I choke back to 70% and we still get Free Artistry in 3 turns, plus 57 gold per turn. :D
-French Start Copernicus (!!!) :eek: :eek: :eek:
-Since we're out of anarchy, I let the Romans know that they are not welcome in our territory. They teleport back to Rome, and I still have no clue what they were after.

At this point, I'm trying to see if I can get anyone to sell me Invention or Astronomy for something reasonable. When I try to get one of the three civs with Astronomy to trade, they always want Music Theory and Printing Press, or at least 600 gold. Music Theory? They still want Music Theory? Don't they know that Washington will finish JS Bach in two turns, rendering Music Theory worthless? No, they don't :mwaha:. So I broker Music Theory to all the civs with Education. I get:

-Astronomy from France
-World map, 21 gold/turn, 34 gold from Greece
-World map, 20 gold/turn from Russia
-15 gold/turn, 47 gold from India

I then take Chicago off of its colosseum and onto Copernicus. After switching tiles to get max shields, I come out at 17 turns till it finishes.

With the extra 56 gold/turn coming in, I decide to raise the luxury rate to 10% We love the President day celebrated in various cities.

7) 670
-Russians start J.S. Bach. They better hope they can pound it out on this turn, as it's coming to Washington in 680.

8) 680
-Washington finishes J.S. Bach. Cities with Cathedrals in them Love The President. University placeholder started
-Seattle finishes aqueduct, starts marketplace
-Buffalo worker factory continues to pound them out
-Democracy + Industrious is a very nice combo. Road segments on flat land are laid on the same turn, irrigation or mines take 2 workers or 2 turns. 1 worker can chop down a jungle square in 8 turns instead of 12, though stacks of 8 are much nicer.

9) 690
-Free Artistry finished, Invention next.
-Science goes back to 60% while still keeping us pegged at 4 turns.

10) 700
-Philly finishes library, starts cathedral
-Atlanta finishes cathedral, starts caravel
-Harper's Ferry finishes Library, starts harbor
-France takes away their spices again. They want two techs or 500+ gold for 20 more turns of it, so I just turn lux to 20% instead. Still making about 50 gold per turn
-As we've got a bulging treasury, I rush a few buildings. Saint Louis, the rowdiest town we have, gets a Cathedral, and Detroit gets a library so it can start on an aqueduct next turn. ~900 gold still left in the treasury

-Boston gets switched to Shakespeare. 4 turns. Leonardo will be available to us in 3 turns. Depending on what we want to do, Boston can finish any of those three wonders in four turns (or less? does Leonardo cost less than Copernicus?) France is building Copernicus in Paris, Russia is building it in some scrubby little town away from their palace, and Greece is building it in Sparta, which is mostly unimproved and still size 5. France is building Leonardo in Rheims, which is in more or less the same condition as Sparta or worse. Paris is definitely the most serious competition for Copernicus, but it seems to be built for lots of food rather than lots of shields (it has irrigated grasslands and very few mines). Right now, either Chicago or Boston should build Copernicus, Washington would finish it 6 turns later than Chicago and I'm not sure if we HAVE six turns to delay on it. So, the options are:

Boston: Shakespeare (4)
Chicago: Copernicus (13)
Washington: Leonardo (??)

This is how it is currently set up. We could also do:

Boston: Copernicus (4)
Chicago: Shakespeare (13)
Washington: Leonardo (??)

or

Boston: Copernicus (4)
Chicago: Leonardo (??)
Washington Shakespeare (19)

or

Boston: Leonardo (??, probably 4)
Chicago: Copernicus (13)
Washington: Shakespeare (19)

I still can't decide which of these should be built where, except that Washington would be too slow on Copernicus for my tastes. As we have over 900 gold in our treasury, we could possibly investigate Paris to resolve what needs to be done about Copernicus. If Paris is enough turns out, I would be happy seeing Copernicus in Washington and Shakespeare in Chicago, with Boston snitching Leonardo the turn after we get Invention. I shall leave that for Sirian to decide. Once we get Invention, we should press ahead for Adam Smith, then back to Navigation for ocean squares and Magellan, then onward to Theory of Gravity and we will have swept the entire Medieval wonder catalog.
 
Leo is 600 shields and it's been running the Longest. Copernicus is like an extra university, not bad, but a weak wonder for large maps (it is not multiplicative with libraries, etc, rather additive, which makes little sense and departs from previous civ games). The French have been building Leo since Charis's turn. Whichever of our cities will finish first should be on Leo. Even if we lose Cop (which I doubt). Leo will cut upgrade cost from Pike to Rifle from 100 gold to 50, saving 50 gold. Per Pike. And what about the rest of the upgrades we'll be making from now until 2050? It would even help upgrade tanks to armor. Boston should stay on Palace and snag Leo. Get Cop if we can, but if we lose it, accept Smith/Shake as runner up item. Just don't lose Leo.

A seaside town (Atlanta? San Fran? Buffalo?) should be slated for prebuilding Magellan. We could also get some minor towns with high food building some settlers and pikes in preparation for the exodus to New America and our new colonies north of England.

- Sirian


EDIT: one more note. There's no sense leaving cities in unrest during anarchy/revolution. As you found out, buildings can be lost to this, and it's not necessary. Go ahead and use entertainers, and max out food production otherwise (shields/trade useless during anarchy). If a city is BADLY strapped for food, put it one turn on and one turn off max food production, so that it never spends more than one turn at a time rioting, and time the last turn of the anarchy (you can TELL how long it will last, just hit F1 and talk to the Domestic advisor) so that the city is peaceful and orderly on that final turn... as the first turn out, I believe production DOES count.
 
St. Louis was starving already, having given up some of its flood plain squares so Washington wouldn't start starving. I figured I'd take a gamble on just riding out the disorder without losing buildings. I guess I lost.

As for the wonders...I don't think Rheims stands any sort of serious chance of buliding Leo versus Chicago or Boston or Washington even with a ten turn head start. It is just not developed. The real race, IMO is Copernicus between Paris and whichever town we decide to build Copernicus with. That said, I do think that the cities would be best served with Shakespeare and Copernicus in the palace towns and Leonardo in Boston. If we want to investigate the French towns to see how they're coming along, Paris and Rheims are two of the least expensive French cities to investigate, with a sum of less than 200, IIRC. I didn't spy on them, myself, but I was *sorely* tempted to.
 
Got it (I believe it's my turn, correct?).

It's no good having money if you don't use it, so the first thing I'm going to do is investigate Paris and Rheims, just to be on the safe side. Personally, I think the AI emphasizes growth and food too much (irrigates too many grasslands), so I don't think that either city is much of a threat, but with ~1000 gold, better safe than sorry.
 
Game just crashed. :mad: I was on my next-to-last turn, but looks like I'll have to do it all over. :( If only the game didn't have the autosave bug. It would make this so much easier.
 
That's why I recommend saving periodically in these things. Yes, the autosave OUGHT to be the solution to that, but for the moment it isn't. I'm sorry you have to redo so much. :( On a map this large, I'm saving every other turn by this point. At least this serves as a reminder to everyone. Maybe your pain can be someone else's gain, in preventing this from happening again.

- Sirian
 
After the term of Carbon the Revolutionary, the people of America wondered who to choose for their first democratically elected president. Inexperienced in the ways of democracy and perhaps fooled by the ill-conceived "bovine ballet" in which the only candidates were cows, they elect Schnarrd, whose platform was to make hay widely available for all. Consequently, most historians speculate that Schnarrd's presidency was run by advisors, but no one knows for certain.

0: Investigate Paris, which will complete Copernicus in 26 turns, and Rheims, which will complete Leonardo in 42 turns. Seeing this, I switch Boston to Copernicus, complete in 4 turns, Washington to Shakespeare, complete in 17 (I believe) turns, and Chicago to a Palace for Leonardo. I also lower the science rate, as increased science will not speed our research. Finally, I do a round of diplomatic negotiations:

India: Increased the price of wines to 14 per turn.
France: Changed the deal to two luxuries for two luxuries.
Greece: Increased the price of ROP to 2 per turn plus their treasury.
Japan: Increased ivory to 15 per turn.
Russia: Signed a straight ROP, as they were annoyed. This brought them up to polite.
Rome: Increased ivory to 8 per turn.

The new luxury from France also allowed me to lower the luxury rate.

1: Eager to fulfill his campaign promises, Schnarrd signs a bill to chop down the jungle around middle America, allowing grassland tiles to be worked and hay to be harvested from the grassland. To this end, bands of 3 workers per jungle tile set out to clear jungle, as they clear it in 3 turns and can then build a road and tile improvement in one turn.

2: Schnarrd takes a nap in the sun.

3: Tech discovered (forgot what we were working on :o ) Schnarrd dreams of colonizing the area above America (lots of hay grassland in that area :D ), and to this end sets the research goal to Navigation. Settlers and caravels started in various cities in preparation for colonization.

4: Copernicus built in Boston.

5: Flies buzz around Schnarrd's back end.

6: Nice turn for a nap.

7: Massive amounts of Roman settlers and pikemen infringe upon America's territory. Schnarrd tells them to buzz off, as their stench bothers the people of Kansas City. They do so, much to the relief of Kansas City. Navigation finished, research on Economics started. Atlanta starts Magellon.

8: Greek ivory increased to 9 per turn (they were paying us 1 per turn before :eek: ).

9: Ghandi requests a map trade. The trade is given at the price of 1 per turn plus their paltry treasury.

10: Zzzz.

Three caravels with settlers and pikemen are on their way to the No Man's Land above America. Also, tons of jungle has been chopped down (doesn't look like the same map!). Carbon is right; industrious plus democracy is a great combination.
 
Forgot the save. :rolleyes:
 
Looks like a good if not quiet turn, Schnaard.

The wonder shuffle should work out well, *but* if our foes had more capacity that might have lost Leo. Under those conditions, Boston for Leo was essential, and Copernicus for either Wash DC or Chicago. With their small sizes, I'm pretty sure we'll get Leo in Chicago. On the plus side, I think that flushed Paris' shields down the drain with no wonder to switch to (Rheims on Leo, and Paris on Copernicus when we built Copernicus) :lol:

Boston can crank out Smith's and still land Newton's when that becomes buildable (some 20-30 turns from now). That ONLY leaves Magellan. If we finish both those before they figure out Gravity, all wonder shields for all foes go down the toilet. I was glad to see Atlanta already on it! Thought for our next leader (Sirian) -- convert one or two irrigations to mines in the Atlanta radius. Our production there is medium, and it's very conceivable we could be beat, and beat by just a few turns. We could shave a half-dozen turns off time-to-Magellan doing that. That will be the last wonder 'in contention', I think every single one after that is ours if we want it. It's also good to see 4-5 turn tech discoveries running at only 60% :hammer:

Things are looking in stellar shape. :goodjob:

Charis
 
Inherited Turn: rearranged a few orders, nothing major. I am dismayed at how far the AI's have pushed into the English No Man's Land. Wow. Rabid bastids. No sense building any more settler parties, so I can any further ships/settlers. Also, at 50 workers (Buffalo been cranking one per turn ALL this time???) I shut down the worker training mill and swap that to Library. St. Louis also needs a library.

Click next turn, Cathy demands Printing Press, gets laughed at, declares war.

WE ARE AT WAR.

810AD: I pay Joan 18 gpt to fight the war for us. PLEASE NOTE, this commits us to a full 20 turns of war with Russia unless Joan blinks first and those two make peace. Should be a phony war for us, unless Russia sends ships. Not likely. Even so, I set in to start beefing our border garrisons, especially in the south. I'm none too thrilled about elephants moving around down there, either. If India went hostile with us, I believe we would lose cities. I'm looking forward to Leo, when we can upgrade everything to musket in one fell swoop, at half price. Won't happen on my watch, but so it goes. Baltimore switched to Smith. We start on Gunpowder.

820AD: With no Russians in range to attack, President Sirian continues to prosecute our War on Vegetation, swearing that every last corner of jungle shall be wiped out during his term in office. (Environmentalist wackos protest but are ignored -- who cares if a few thousand species are wiped out? Screw habitat, give us farmlands!)

830AD: My predecessor's devotion to mining is noted, then vetoed. Even aside from the particular objective of this scenerio (scoring high with population/territory), for which faster pop growth is more urgent than production, even in general it's good to be ABLE to grow quickly whenever you want. Most cities have 17-20 squares and only 12 pop, so one can easily afford to irrigate a few grasslands. They can come in handy. Some forests can also be planted in shieldless grasslands to get 2 shields out of the square, pending arrival of rails. A good mix of some of this and some of that (rather than all squares with 2 food and 1 or 2 shields) gives a micromanager like me enough toys to keep him from going nuts and heading to war for lack of something better to be doing. :) So begins the Great Irrigation Project in the jungle heartland.

840AD: Before I click next turn, I check science slider and note that I could reduce as far as 10% and still make the breakthrough. Well, hmmph, I know what that means. An AI has researched the tech and brokered it to all who can pay. I give Joan 1 gold for Gunpowder, then start on Chemistry. Every turn counts! I then go to upgrade a couple front line units to musket and discover that we have no saltpeter. Anywhere. The closest is on the far side of Rome, which we have no hope of getting hold of before it's too late. With no saltpeter and no horses, you can forget Military Tradition right now. We can research Steam and Nationalism first, and just blow past these resources soon. On the other hand, if we by ANY chance turn up no coal in our land, the nearest source will be targetted and acquired, on my next available turn if not sooner. I can stomach sitting around with no horses, or even no muskets, but no rails ain't happenin. Some nation or other will come due for extinction before that happens.

850AD: San Diego founded.

860AD: Greeks come THIS CLOSE to being selected for genocide as they settle Apolyton on the spot where our second colonial settler was heading. Those final bits of land are filling up fast, we'll be lucky just to get three spots on the far north end.

:die!:

900AD: Russians land right on my intended third colony site with a settler pair. Well screw them, I plop our city down right where we stand (sucky location with overlap, oh well). It seems we did NOT get three full city sites, but rather 2.7 -- and barely that. What a rip! Next time, the game needs to create the No Man's Land a wee bit closer to our starting location.

I removed some shields from Washington so that it would NOT finish the placeholder before Theory of Gravity comes online. Note that once it is swapped to Newton, it needs to be put back on break even food, higher shields. Also note, you MUST get ToG tech in four turns, after Physics. Any more, and DC will complete the placeholder instead.


OK, so here's the deal. The jungle is GONE. As promised. There's not a single fern or palm left standing anywhere. The worker army is moving south consuming all jobs in its path, should be done with all useful tasks soon and then standing around waiting for rails to be built. My Irrigation Project is also complete, and some forests have been planted that can be chopped down again once we get near or to Steam.

I trained 3 longbows (cranking one every other turn out of New York), and a bunch of catapults and pikes. Our military situation is much improved but still relegated to defensive posture. Russia destroyed one French Jungle Colony above Caeseraugusta, so those two are finally engaging, after spending 9 turns moving their troops toward one another. I don't expect much to happen, just wait another 11 turns, cancel the alliance, and make peace with Russia, even if they want a minor stipend in tribute. BUT... if they want tech or serious cash, tell them to blow it out their ear.

All spears should be upgraded to pike once Leo comes online. India has become the big tech rival, they could have paid IN FULL for techs at second-civ cost, but mostly in gpt, and if Russia bought them into alliance, we'd just have given tech away for free, so I declined to do any brokering. In a peaceful situation, I might have decided differently. On the up side, Russia and France are both in Monarchy (still? or went back to it? No idea). They could both be doomed, long term, as a result of this war, as the rest are just sitting back, sniffing for signs of weakness.

Our fourth ship/settler party is almost to the colonial land. There's a horsie southwest of San Diego, which we can grab while still avoiding dangerous cultural pressures with England if we settle in the square above it.

My main advice: build more troops. We don't the terrain types for oil, so I'm thinking we're going to have to wage a ground pounder campaign with key resources as objectives, at some point here. If nobody nearby has oil either, we may have to conquer Rome for their horses and saltpeter and be in for a whole lot of rugged warfare, the kind that democracies have trouble sustaining. Still too early to tell, but the resource layout does not look good. On the up side, with all that jungle we had, there OUGHT to be rubber and coal on hand. If not, I'm going to scream. :eek:


- Sirian
 
No saltpeter AND no horses? :mad: Well, IMHO the only reason for getting saltpeter is for cavalry, which are used as the attacking unti of choice for an incredibly long time (and are even useful in the modern era for mop-up, pillaging, and garrison), and we don't even have horses for cavalry. Good thing riflemen don't require saltpeter. :D

I've said this so many times, but I'm rather amazed that there hasn't been war already. Nice to have Joan fighting the war for us :goodjob: as even if Cathy was close enough to fight, we're in no shape for anything but a defensive war.

Also, I'm going to be out of town until late Sunday, so if my turn comes up in this game or benevolent, just skip me until the next turn. :(
 
IIRC, oil does show up on plains tiles, at least it has done so in the LK8 game, with two of our four oil sites occuring on plains (with one in desert and the fourth on a remote all-tundra island). Plains we have plenty of in the greater Chicagoland area, so hopefully we'll be lucky. On a side note, I've not bothered to check, are there any extensive desert or tundra areas in this map, period? This is a lot of jungle even considering the map parameters.

And yes, if we end up with no rubber or coal in our lands with all the jungle we claimed, I will not be a happy camper.
 
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