The years 500 AD - 765 AD Part 2!
Expansion goes further:
630 AD: Foundation of
Cherokee, city #63.
635 AD: Foundation of
Bejing, Yasoharpura, Babylon and El Ashmunein, cities 65-68 (forgot to mention one) .
Microing all those cities has become a real pain now. It's necessary, because the advisor cannot handle Growth and Specialists, even if one sets the cities to Growth + Commerce. He always wants to work those dumb Spy-Specialists instead of Merchants and doesn't want to work the Food-Ressources. Every round now takes at least 5-10 minutes.
Also, it was a round where lots of Cottages grew to Hamlets and lots of Hamlets grew to Villgages, so GPT are getting better again.
Here are some updated screens that you'll probably find interessting:
So City-Maintenance has risen by 200 GPT in only 3 turns! Maybe you'll now get a feel for how fast this all goes, let's have a look at
some other stats:
What is seen here, is basically
the real power of Sushi and the power of golden Ages. Score, Food and Culture go straight up from the point once Sushi was founded. The production curve has those huge spikes caused by the GAs and seems to have reached the a limit for now, because cities have reached the size where they can work the maximum tiles available. At the power-graph, I now it's very small but one can see it if looking closely: The Blitzkrieg against Cyrus, his power-ratio drops down straight. A short look at
demographics supports what the Graphs before that have shown:
I hope I get this right, but this means that there are actually
270 Mio Incans, whereas the 2nd best Civ only has a population of 28 Mio. Let's continiue
further with the Writeup:
645 AD: Another great Person is born, and it's a
great Merchant! This will help fasten up the Expansion and the spread of Sushi. Also,
I notice something very important: Pericles doesn't have a defensive Pact with Viccy anymore! I didn't get a message about that one, and I actually don't even know how it happened, but I was checking the Diplo-Tab every few turns, and somehow, the DP disappeared
I take a look at the land owned by the Empire to see, if it's possible to conquer Pericles. I know, Pericles had something like 7% of total landmass or so, so I have to be careful with this, I don't wanna win already. Here is a
screen from the Victory Tab:
38% of the landmass, so with Pericles, I'd come out at about 44-45%, that should be still ok, shouldn't it? I move the Cavs into attacking position, but before that, I found
Lisbon and Paliptura in
655 AD, Status of the Incan Empire: 70 cities!
Concerning the war: Pericles has Rifles and MGs, but he also only has a power-ratio of 1.8. I can see his cities through Espionage, they won't be able to withstand the force of 50+ Cavs with Airships, I decide to
overwhelm him by pure Numbers. I even decide to split my Stack in four smaller ones and Blitz him again.
660 AD: Willem dows Lincoln, I gift Military Tradition, Iron and Horses to Lincoln, but even having those, he will vassalize to Willem in near future. I also found
Bunyan and Karakorum, cities 71 + 72. And: The GM has reached Timbuktu, I get 7500
from him which I invest all in further Courthouses, Granaries and Executives. I want further spread of Sushi, I want it fast, and I need those Courthouses for that, as Maintenance is really eating at the GPT as you cannot imagine it. Want to have an updated Screen from the financial Advisor? Here is one from before the war against Pericles, it's
665 AD!
5000 GPT for city maintenance?!? Only 6 turns have passed since the last screen, so this makes -150 GPT / turn! I didn't look at the advisor in that game so often, but I noticed the drop in GPT. I still could run 15% of research though, so I think, with having all Cottages, I can expand further. What's also very interessting for me, is, that a huge part of the income is still generated by TRs.
Before we come back to the war, let's just have a look at the great Coorperation HQ of Sushi: Cuzco!
Of course, this city is far from a normal one, having the HQ of Sushi with Wallstreet, generating 750
alone.
What can be seen very good is the insane amount of maintenance Sushi causes, you know, this city is the Capital, so this is the one with the lowest maintenance, and still, it costs nearly 100 GPT.
It's grown very large already, it's size 29 which is equivalent to 12 Mio inhabitants in it. It's nearly at the limit of
even though having an Aqueduct, a Hospital and a Harbor. I still think though, that it was the wrong decision to build all those, I should have build Settlers instead. No discussion about the Banks, not even the Grocers and the Markets as those generate
, but
keeping cities healthy and happy with Sushi is not possible!
This was just a short detour from what is most important, the
Blitzkrieg against Pericles! Here is a Screen from the Cavs and Airships being in positioni to attack:
And
this is a Screenshot from 1 turn later:
4 cities down in 1 round of attack, this is real Shock and Awe! Pericles power-ratio has already dropped from 1.8 to 2.4, so he's basically lost his main army in 1 turn. With fighting the MGs, it turned out to be really good to have some Airforce as those are immune to collateral damage but can be hit by Bombardement from the Sky. I know, Airships aren't strong, but as
ahcos once said: It often needs only to scratch the top-defender, and the city will fall without too many casualties.
680 AD, Frederick get's the GA-Event from being invaded (by Pericles of course)
. I also wanna have that now, I need more Gold!
I found another city, and 2 other ones from Pericles fall in the same round. Athens is down to 1 defender, he was lucky to survive and Pericles Capital will fall next round for sure, here is
another Screen from the Blitzkrieg:
Pericles is down to 2 cities on the continent, all the other ones are on islands. He would be willing to capitulate already, but it's gonna take till
725 AD until I finally can
accept it, because in the next turns, my dumbass Vassals will be loosing so many ships, that Pericles cancels his will to
Capitulate, because he thinks he is now winning the war!
In the meantime,
power-settling has gone further, Status of the Incan Empire after the vassalization of Pericles: 93 cities, owning 45% of total land and 60% of total population! I have to get more careful now, any conquest is totally forbidden, and I may only settle cities that don't have too many land-tiles. You might think "well, there are still 6% to go" but believe me, those 6% are nothing, they'll come by Sushi-Culture alone, and they'll come fast. More and more cities are revolting because of the Incan-Sushi-Culture every turn, once they'll flip, Domination will be reached.
To end this Writeup for today, I have some last
screens for you from 765 AD. I know this is a big leap, but nothing special happens during the meantime except that I decide for some further power-settling in some really crappy locations (the ice, no ressources, but also very few land that will be gained through those cities) and that I have started on building Wealth again (unbelievable but true) as I find out, that I cannot keep my cities healthy and happy. Here they are:
You see,
city maintenance is going crazy with 7600 GPT! What was a totally wrong decision from me in this game, was to spend so much attention to Health, you see that the Empire owns more Grocers than Banks! Again, very interessting for me, TRs still are a huge source of Income, but still, without all Cottages, I'd be broke soon.
Besides city maintenance, Inflation is also beginning to play a significant role in Empire Expenses, as Civic upkeep will. This one has doubled from the first Screenshot I gave to you. I hope that I can build the Cristo Rendentor Wonder soon, so that I can revolutionize to
cheaper Civics, those will really make the difference between "doing ok" and "doing fine" .
Here are some Screens from some core-cities:
Hamburg, size 36, having 23 Mio inhabitants, costing 125 GPT but also generating 220 GPT, so this city can still pay for itself. The TRs look amazing, 11 Commerce from the top one to York, which is Lizzys overseas Capital. All other TRs are empire-intern already, because the cities have grown to an unbelievable Size. Look at the Food, remember it's size 36, still it has a surplus of 18, so this city will further grow, get even unhealthier, and, what I totally underestimated: Even after having pumped out so many GPs so early with so many GP Farms, there are still GPs to come! I really wished I wouldn't have switched to Theocracy at the end of the last GA but to Pacifism, as then, I'd have more GPT and even more GPs.
Kyoto, size 32, one of the best-developed Commerce-cities. Also being unhealthy and building Wealth.
Vilcas, the Ironworks city. Not being so large, but having a tremendous
output of 285! Not being a Commerce-city, but building a Bank, because TRs are generating so much income. Even though having the Verssaille Wonder, this city cannot pay for itself, but it will get very important in near time, because it'll produce some very large Wonders and after that support the Empire immensly by building Wealth in it.
Berlin, the city having the Globe Theater. If it wouldn't have that, over 50 inhabitants would be unhappy for a time of 650 turns
. This city produced the most troops with heavy whipping and heavy drafting.
And the domestic Advisor Screen:
Finished with scrolling? XD I remember now how insane it was to manage all those cities. In one turn, I microed all of them perfectly, I even changed all their buildcues to sort out unnecessary buildings a.s.o. That turn took me over 1h
. From now I know, that there are only very few buildings a city with Sushi really needs, that's a Granaray, a Courthouse, a Bank, and everything beyond that is only necessary if the city is somehow special. Forges help a lot with
, but Production doesn't play a role anymore at that time running US and rush-buying most of the things, Grocers help a lot with
and also with
. In some cities, one will also want a Market as that helps with
and
, but anything besides these buildings I listed, except the Lighthouse of course, is unnecessary imho.
With this Screen, I'll leave you alone to think, see you in near future, yours
Seraiel
. Anyway, the map was so insanely good and I showed much better Macro and Micro, so that I was able to reach Sushi at 130 AD, sometimes I had as much as 2000 :science / turn without building Wealth and anything.
. Will beat Ossis game if something doesn't go completely wrong now and maybe I'll even beat the Score of this game, so stay tuned 
invested for a very late war. Reaching Physics was also for the GP from it, something I think I overestimated in that game. A 4th golden Age is a possible move, but burning 3 GPs for 24 turns of GA is just something that I'd do again as I like the playstyle, I know from my current game (the one mentioned above) that one can also do with only 3 GAs and from then on use the GPs for whatever seems best, the difference between the options really isn't so great.
. I used Slavery aswell as US for that. Executives can be 2pop-whipped quite well with large OF, and after that, the 2nd Executive can be baught very cheap. Money and time are the big problems here, you can see the also insane amount of maintenance caused by the huge amount of Sushi-Ressources, -60 
would work perfectly aswell, and that city wouldn't have any problems with setting up the Cathedrals.
