On wealth, I'm not a big fan, but I didn't like the possible flip side. Saving a
few shields in a petty town costing us a lot of wasted shields in more productive
towns when the timing for harbor was thrown off. Sounds like you did great to
shift thing around and guide us into Harbor making
> 150AD: Ur completes library. (Of the great variety).
Woo!!!
> Starts another

LMAO! Well... why not? Oh wait, I thought u meant started another
placeholder for a wonder, not library. (BTW I don't value the chances, or
the utility of Gardens much in this game)
> 210AD: China completes the Great Lighthouse.
> Fort Knox swapped from taxman to alchemist, science dropped to zero
oh good, oh first read I missed this and thought "now he DID make a scientist
if he set to zero, right??"
I like the tip on max sci then zero sci. I thought I noticed that happening,
but wasn't sure if it was an optical illusion or what. As for trying to squeeze
blood from a turnip... that's my vocation!
TODO from notes:
* San Charisso is set to finish temple on its own
* Roberto and Martino set to WWW
* Martino/Lola needs 2nd troop
* Spare Rosa and Holguin the whip.
= Don't let Chupa grow past size 3
- Cyreno, use a granary whip to speed up harbor
- Ice Palace stuck at 3 due to rioting that would occur
- Harbor for Ur then and start another wonder
- Think over science choices: zero now, or gun Philo (to Repub), Math (to Constr
or Curr) or Polytheism (to Monarchy)
Other thoughts...
- I'm going to *hope* that the lack of contact and us getting GL is a sign
that the AI is scraping, and may not find our ice rock for many years yet to
come. That means no military beyond MP, pushing gold, not relying on GL to
kick in until it FLOODS in much later, and it means researching our own next
line of govt. Having that online around same time as FP would be good.
If and when "first contact" is made it will call for a full scale re-evalution
and rapid response.
- Which govt? I don't think the corruption factor will really matter, since
we're talking post-FP, and all our cities are on one island, never to build
more in far-off lands. Both are pay-rush, 100% efficiency, an irrelevant draft
rate (for now... we ARE religious and could switch fast if needed)
Monarchy has MP 3 and 2/4 unit support for our small/size7 cities. That's
versus Republic with 1 extra commerce on each square already producing one.
The math on that... with 21 cities, extra cash would be about sum(sizes)+nCities
with roads on all worked squares (which they should be but aren't quite yet).
That value is 85, and doing an actual count with current squares is 75
(Missing: Ellipi 2, Cardenas 1, Rosa 2, Chupa 1, Lola 2, Cyreno 1, Tamarino 1)
Number of units, which would all cost under Republic, is 66. Allowed under
Monarchy would be 44. The cost difference in maintenance is 22. We would need
to keep THREE extra citizens content, with no cathedrals for a looong time to
come I think. How to calculate that? I'm not sure 8-\ Playing with the
slider suggest that's about three 'notches' on the luxury slider, which for us
now has a cost differential of 35 gold per turn (49 vs 15).
Revenue of 85 balancing 35 extra luxury costs + 25 main costs leaves Republic
out ahead by a good bit right now, decreasing as number of units increases.
But... as number of citizens increases, the extra commerce squares are pure
extra bonus in republic. Before doing the math I though Monarchy would win.
Viva la Cuban Republic! Here's the turn...
250 AD (0) - The party atmostphere continues, and the Mayor of Ur is
sent off to a well deserved vacation. In hit stead they bring in,
oddly enough, a Fisherman to run the nation for the two hundred years.
He finds all is in splendid order on his arrival. ("Oh great, a perfect
situation where the only noteworthy thing I can do is screw up!")
Hmm... our 'max rate' for steady-state science is merely 20% (15 turns vs 39)
We push to 40% then will back to zero and cycle...
260 AD (1) - Ninevah pops Spearman, starts Worker. We have 41 mil units and
need 44 for 2 per city. That leaves Havana to pop us 3 more.
Cetacean whispers... "psst!! 38 shields, whip me!" But the fisherman is
appalled! "Whip you?? So you can build what, wealth?? That will only stunt
your growth and is unneeded. Build my child, build!" Cardenas also beckons
with 21 turns to harbor. But... it's got everything else it needs, and will
take 50 for FP so why rush? Let it heal! Roberto and Martino, otoh, have seen
less of the whip and can stand ONE more, with it's one shield output. Rosa is
spared only by request. It's 3 shield output save it. Later on, compare
happiness of Rosa and Roberta, who differ in one whipping right at this
juncture.
270 AD (2) - Cyreno grows, what to do. The plan of whip-granary-switch to
harbor sounds good, frontloading the whipping, with no more to be done,
letting the city complete the harbor in its own time. Roberto and Martino,
done with the whip, now kicks back to complete a library on their own in
forty yrs. The extra horses in Havana are dispatched for MP duty.
I almost miss Ninevah being unhappy.
280 AD (3) - MMOW. Ninevah and Ur swap a shield.
290 AD (4) - Cyreno WWx done. He has 20 years both to grow and finish
the harbor, so that will erase memory of latest whip. Ninevah-Ceta
ping pong continues, as does the bloody turnip science drill.
300 AD (5) - Ur about to finish harbors, takes in some extra food. The
mine does NOT take Charisso to three shields (corruption) and so it
decides to a half-whip of the harbor instead (switch, whip library, switch back)
Decide to start a half-whip of Guantanamo's harbor too. (Lola will get
same after her temple done.)
310 AD (6) - Ur finishes harbor, starts... placeholder

(Keep at 8, eh?)
Fort Knox finishes Temple (finally!) and starts granary.
320 AD (7) - Fishing vacation.
330 AD (8) - Ellipi finishes harbor, and with zilch left to build, considers
wealth to ease the crunch but interjects a worker order first.
I 'investigate' the sadness at Ice Palace. By sliding MP out,
cranking down luxury, the sliding back to restore, I can see that Ice Pal
has memory of TWO whippings at this stage. Pop 4 would be 3 due to size,
two for the whips, vs the temple and two MP, and one from luxury. Can't
quite cover it with our going 20% luxury rate. We can in fact handle it at
size 4 now with our going 20% luxury rate. I let it grow. I also see in
this test that Akkad has no memory of whippings (huh?!) Ceta has a memory
of 1 whip, Holguin has none. Rosa and Cardenas have forgotten.
Anyway, the quick test to see if you can rise a size w/o unhappiness
is to slide one MP out, see if any unhappy faces, and return him (it's
via road obviously).
340 AD (9) - More fishing.
350 AD (10) - Lola finally finishes her temple, and begs the next leader
to whip her in WWW fashion! Cetacaean also finishes its harbor.
Treasury at 21, expenses net 20 with 'up' sci rate of 40% (darn, 2 turns
if we could only sustain it). At zero sci though it's 29 turns. Hmmm, that's
only ten turns less than it was 10 turns ago. Ah, sweet, it's only
4 turns away at 'Steady-state', 20%. So over this reign the flipping
saved one turn (14 vs 15 turns). The turnip bleeds, just one drop

Actually, very good chance that that '4' will turn into 3 as you almost
always get to drop back at that last turn when it's due. Soon... (well, 40 yrs)
the Republic!
EVERY city now has two MP units stationed in it (Knox's is on the way)
There's just one 'extra' unit which can be stored in Ur or Havana,
or replace a warrior. Havana and Ninevah are producing one extra for
Havana and Ur. Until contact is made, that should be enough.
The amount of whips left, overall, is small. Most have had their 'three'
and need to heal for a good while. The only ones left I see are Lola's
and Tamarino's harbor, and Knox Granary.
I know you'll check out the cities, Ur will need definite attention (and Ninevah
might if it reaches 6), but this turn its generating the cash to keep us positive. You can probably eek out some more cash over the rock.
So, do we see a few hundred years of peace or does someone land on our shore
next turn? (I SURE hope the former) Does us getting the GL in any way
"announce" us to the world?
Good luck,
Charis