Moah. I've just played 10 Inca-games, and none of them even went till Oracle. Missed Buddhism in 5 of them, in 3 my 2nd target had Chariots, and in the remaining 2 my Checkers failed at hills-cities. 10 good maps played and lost in under 3h, now I remember why Incas were so frustrating again.
So I have time now to finish the next part of this Writeup with Ramesses. It's titled:
New Food for the new generation!
In the last episode I conquered Elizabeth empire and made her vassalize to me in a Shock and Awe Blitzkrieg, that only lasted 4 turns. At the very end of it, I gave you the info, that the Research of Biology had been completed, that was about 400 AD. I finally got the tech of Corporation from Lizzy, raising the empires Research from 1050 Beakers per Turn to 1250 BPT, and am only 1 step away from the biggest Milestone in the round: Sid's Sushi!
In addition to the tech of Corps, I also got Democracy from Lizzy. I wanted to have the Statue of Liberty really bad in that game, but it was the right time anyway to start a golden Age and fasten up the Research, so
I use the Great Spy I still had from Communism + the Great Scientist I got from Physics and there it begins, the 3rd golden Age of the yellow egyptian empire!
This not only raises the BPT by almost 20% (from 1250 to 1450) , but also
increases the production of the SoL, the Kremlin and the Wallstreet significantly! Here are some pictures of Thebes, Heliopolis, Lisht and Kyoto which I find quite amazing:
Thebes making almost 400 BPT and 115 Hammers.
The holy city of Buddhism, constructing the WS in 27 turns and generating an income of 200 Gold already.
Those State Property powered GA fueled Workshops look really amazing, keeping in mind that they have an output of 7 yields and are normal Grassland (or Plains) tiles.
Kyoto, as being the only real Shipyard of the empire suffered from some heavy whipping before the war against Lizzy, you can see its whip-timer being almost 200 turns. It's not like the other coastal cities had nothing to do, they were chain-producing Workboats, it's more that the war against Lizzy had to happen real fast and I needed those Frigates really urgent. Anyhow, with Sushi, this city is going to recover soon.
Those are some insane looking yields, aren't they?
Thinking back, I think I maybe slaved too hard, Kyoto is not the only city having a whip-timer of 200 turns, anyhow, the war against Lizzy wouldn't have been possible so early if I wouldn't have done that. Today I know, that the SoL is a good Wonder on Huge maps, but it's not as ueber as I thought it would be, so the whole rushing wasn't so necessary and would delay the war against Darius quite a bit, and even though the cities can recover a little time now, they will suffer harshly again once the crazy Executive-whipping starts.
Important: The reason for this GA was only to speed up the production of the SoL and the Wallstreet and to speed up Research, it was not to generate a lot of Great Persons, therefor, I ran Universal Suffrage, Burocracy, Caste System (only to make those Workshops more productive, not for the Specialist Slots) , State Property and Organized Religion for the 1st half of it. US was incredibly useful, as it let me buy those Workboats directly where they were needed, and I didn't only buy them for my own cities, but also for the unimproved Seafood-Ressources of my Vassals! I knew I was late with Sushi, so I needed to at least have as many Ressources as possible when it became available.
Btw.: The empire has reached the mark of 50 cities!
The last paragraph was all still on the same turn, the war against Lizzy found it's end. 4 turns later, in
430 AD, the Construction of
the Kremlin is complete without any Civ even having gotten the tech of Communism up to that point:
Another Milestone, the greatest Wonder of the Industrial Era.
In the meantime, more and more Settlers finish and are loaded onto the Fleet of Galleons, which are doing overtime atm.
The cities that have to regrow to recover from the heavy whipping are either producing Gold-multiplier-buildings for the upcomming full stop in Research that'll be caused by the insane maintenance of the Corporations, or Airships for the upcomming war against Darius. I also replace some Warriors that have done a great job as Military Police in the cities with more modern units and gift them to Mansa, who's atm. in war with Viccy, with whom I'm only cautious atm. as to not having the favorite Civic bonus. She must not vassalize Mansa, otherwise I will be next. I even go as far as gifting him some of my expensive Airships. It seems to help, Mansa gets a GG the next round, which is a sign that he destroyed some units.
Just a minor thing, but during the whole time, I gift all techs fastening up research and all techs not being monopoly to my Vassals, and of course I also give them every ressource I can spare.
To give you an impression how
crazy the
expansion prior to Sushi is: In the time
from 390 AD to 500 AD, which are only 11 turns,
I found 8 cities! This is something I really learned from reading
T-Hawk's Writeup, one has to expand, always, and as hard as possible. But yes, 500 AD (which is T400 already) and still no Sushi.
Some turns later,
I get Steel from Lizzy in exchange for Biology and Military Tradition:
In hindsight, it would have been a lot better to trade Communism instead of MT, because Asoka had researched it, and by giving it to Lizzy (and Hatty in the next trade) I would make it available on the open Market. Guess I was lucky again that Viccy didn't get it, Mansa would have had no Chance against a Cuirrassier-Viccy.
Next trade with Hatty is Steel + Biology vs Steam Power, so the way to Railroad and Mining Inc now is also clear:
Lizzy is the weaker Vassal and Railroad the 2nd most important tech after Medicine (in a highscore-game) , so I waited until Hatty had completed Steam Power and then ordered here to research Railroad, but she'd take too long for it, 35 turns while I would only need 12 at 100%, so I ordered Hatty to research Assembly Line while Lizzy should research the less Beaker-intensive Electricity.
And then, the big moment is there: In 520 AD, the researches of the great yellow egyptian empire discover Medicine!
!111
After 2500y of maximised research (100% for 99% of the time) , after constant war and still in the craziest expansion, a great Merchant by the name of Coco Chanel founds Sid's Sushi Co for the great yellow egyptian empire!
The Corporation starts with an astonishing 66 Ressources giving, not less astonishing, +17 Food, 66 Culture and raising the maintenance of the city by 250%!
I try to keep the research as high as possible, as I want to reach Railorad asap, but with not being able to run SP anymore but having to run Free Market instead, only 60% are still possible. Anyhow, 60% are over 1000 BPT, so I'm still faster than Hatty would have been.
The crazy Exec-whipping starts: Even though the cities have suffered greatly from the last wars, all of them have whipping-anger lasting between 150 and 220 turns, the Execs have to be produced,
they have to be whipped cold (meaning without investing 1 turn of production in them), otherwise, the spread would simply be not fast enough.
I spread to Thebes first, because that city is the most important, after that I spread the Corp to the GT-city (because that city can spread it to all the former japanese cities without having whipping-anger-problems, it also can whip a lot of Execs for the island-cities) ,
and after the 3rd Exec is whipped from Heliopolis, I go for some Exec-City-hopping actioin (meaning, I whip an Exec in one city, spread to the nearest city on the same round and then whip the next Exec there) .
In the meantime, Mansa and Viccy are still fighting. Viccy is far superior to him, she conquers a 2nd city from him. The reinforcements I've sent to Mansa aren't helping against her huge Military, it's time for me to act and make peace, by offering her 1000g for that:
Let's have a look at how successful this bribe was in the end:
Maybe a little too small, but if you look closely, you can see, that Viccy's Graphs have a totally other direction after the bribe (I've marked the time from the beginning of the war until it's end by the red circles) . While Viccy was on par with me at the beginning of the war, she burnt out through it, while I was able to conquer Lizzy with only small losses. Her military is impressive, no discussion about that, but she lacks Production, she lacks Food, she lacks population. She is still very strong in tech, I'm always amazed by her capabilities in this discipline aswell as the other, the military, but the round is at a changing point again, the point from Viccy being superior to me, to the time where Viccy will fall back more and more and later be no opposition at all. I don't wanna get into a war with her still though.
To be safe, I sign a Defensive Pact with Hammurabi again.
In 540 BC, I finish the construction of the
Wall Street by buying it with US. This was of course a no-brainer, being and getting in more and more financial trouble, finishing the Wall Street of course had the highest priority, and Heliopolis wasn't able to construct it normally, as the city had to whip the initial Executives and was size 2 after those. The immense power of Sushi helps to recover it fast though. The other cities are sharing the fate of Heliopolis,
I only have very few large cities left, most are size 2 to 4 (I really took whipping to an extreme in this round) .
Here is a Screen from the domestic advisor, showing the cities sorted by their size:
I didn't remember that it was so bad, the screen looks ridiculous, only 10 cities being larger than size 4 O_o .
Anyhow, the other Civs are now willing to trade their Sushi-Ressources, same turn, I almost double the Ressources that fuel the Corporation!
I make a note, that
I'm excited myself about how fast the recovery of the empire will take place with now getting over 30F from Sushi, so I'm going to watch this closely.
In 555 it's really really bad, I notice, that my empire cannot even run at a rate of 30% Research. The maintenance caused by 100+ Sushi-Ressources is extreme, and the small cities aren't able to hold against it. There is only one way, I have to whip more (Banks) !
I cannot slow down the expansion of the empire, because this is the most important thing once Astronomy becomes available, I found the cities #58 - 66!
And then, the golden Age ends XD !
The economy collapses. Here is a screenshot from the financial advisor with 0% Research!
I'm lucky that I'm at least writing black numbers still, but of course, 0 BPT are no option, I still need to reach Railroad somehow.
I decide that I must slave harder! Banks aren't enough, I need Grocers and Markets on top! I need them for their ability to multiply gold and I need them for their Merchant Slots.
With Specialists, I can switch to REP and have a decent Research at 0%! I know that it's not gonna get better as Inflation will play a growing role and I know that growing the population won't help either, Specialist Economy is the only choice I have.
With all those whipping anger, it's now really good, that I have the Kremlin, that's, why I'd advise anyone to go Communism before Sushi.
While the Grocers and Markets finish, and the recovery takes place, I'm able to conduct another
trade again, this time
with Mansa, whom I and my Vassals have all got on friendly because of the Free Market Civic, so no WFYABTA anymore from him.
Steel vs Military Science:
The power of Sushi is extreme. I admit, that what you're going to see on the next screen is with a little bit help from the
SoL, which
finished in the meantime, but this
screen is from 600 AD, so only 5 turns after the economical collapse:
500 BPT and a stable rate of 20% Research, one can live with that. Like this, Railroad will gonna take another 30 turns so yer, I could have let Hatty research it and trade for it, this would have spared me a lot of trouble, but as long as I can still hande the situation somehow, I don't mind.
Good things come to those who wait,
in 610 AD, Asoka ends his Vassalage with Viccy!
And:
The score is stable at 450k points now, even though I slave as hard as possible,
every city, if possible, needs a Bank, a Market and a Grocer, not to mention a Granary, (a Lighthouse) and a Courthouse, and of course a Forge to make all that whipping a little more attractive.
Lets have a look at how far I was able to take the spread in the 18 turns that Sushi is available now:
32 cities in 18 turns, this is about 2 cities / turn, which is good, because often, the Execs take 2 turns to reach a city, sometimes even longer if they have to reach it by ship, you can see that some of the cities you don't know the names of (the numbers cities / the island cities) have Sushi already, all the core-cities are supplied with it. Just imagine that a Galleon to Moscow takes already 3-4 turns to only cross the water, I really tried to coordinate the spread as well as possible, and this is the proof for it.
Sushi is the main focus of this episode, the economy is only the secondary,
lets have a look at the city of Osaka, the one having the GT:
About 400 turns of whipping anger, number, rising. This city is in a
Food-lock atm. , meaning, it has got so much Food, that it would even grow while producing a Worker / Settler. This was a funny phenomenon I noticed during that round. Only possibility to get the city out of the Food-lock was, producing one of those units, then all the Food would get converted to Hammers and the Settler would finish ultra-fast in only 2-3 turns.
I wanna give you
another picture again, that shows the crazy expansion that took place prior to Sushi and that is still taking place: The globe-view at 610 AD, with
every sign you see, being a city:
Another view at it is possible by viewing the scoreboard:
70 cities at 610 AD! Remember that I had 50 in 390 AD? So
in 33 turns, I settled 20 cities, that's almost 2 cities every 3 turns!
625 AD, I'm able to conduct yet another trade, it's Steel + Economics + 500g vs Rifling with Justinian! I don't know why I'm not getting WFYABTA anymore, but I don't mind if I don't :> .
This was the 44th trade in this round, and I got Cavs now, which are a lot stronger than the old Cuirrassiers, though, even those are still strong! Not many Civs have got Rifling already and with Airship-Support, Cavs beat even those.
5 turns haved passed again, let's have a look how far the recovery of the empire has gone already:
The
city maintenance has grown significantly (about 20%) but the cities are holding against it. It was the right decision to whip all those Grocers and Markets on top of the Banks, without them, I'd now be broke and my units would be in Strike.
650 BPT at 20% of Research are 30% more than 5 turns ago, are you beginning to get a feel for how powerful Sushi really is?
Here is a clearview of the cities, sorted by their size:
What did I say last time? 2 cities larger than size 10 and 8 cities larger than size 4? Now compare this to the screenshot that was taken not even 20 turns ago, 12 cities having a size of 10+ and 19 cities having a size of 4+!
If you're as amazed by those Screens / Numbers than I am, play a Sushi game yourself, it's really incredible. Just imagine, I whipped Grocers and Markets during the hole time in those cities, those are huge buildings costing 3-4 pop even with the Kremlin, you can see the crazy whipping on the screen showing the scoreboard, yet, doesn't matter how hard one slaves, the cities grow almost faster than one can whip them!
Remember Kyoto, the shipyard? The city that had to whip all those Galleons and Frigates and that I showed you in the beginning of this post? Here are 2
pictures of it
just for comparison: Kyoto when it got Sushi and only 12 turns later:
It's impossible as a read to still have a clearview over the cities, but
I posted the screens of the domestic advisor also for those, who're interessted in what the cities are building, and Kyoto as an example to show the power of Sushi. If you look at the last screens closely, you'll notice, that the city has not only more than doubled its size, it's size 13 and only needs 2 turns to grow!
It's time to compare the the Demographics of 565 AD (the date where the GA ended) to 100y later:
3300 GNP, 400 Mfg. , 1343 Crop Yield, 800k Soldiers, 500k Land area, 4.5M Population.
Gold: +270%, Production: +220%, Food: +100%, Soldiers: +30%, Land area: +20%, Population: +750% !!!
640 AD is the Date where this post ends. It's time to look at the Financial advisor again, only 3 turns have passed since the last look:
I'm amazed. This must have been the shortest economical recovery an empire has ever had. The research is still stable at 20%, but the cities now have sizes, where they can work a lot more Specialists than before, that's why the empire has an output of almost 1000 BPT which is twice as high as it was when switching to REP and having the SoL. City maintenance also went up by the same amount. Nice to see, the extremely weak Spiral Minaret giving about 150g (with multipliers) from of 40 temples, the two Religioius Shrines giving about 2.5 times as much (again with multipliers) , the foreign Trade giving almost as much as the Shrines (Ressources for GPT) and the unit cost going down even though the military is growing :> .
I've bribed Viccy against Lincoln again by giving her Steel, hoping this would be as good as the 1st bribe. This bribe has more reasons though:
Like this, Asoka won't Vassalize to Viccy again, so
Hammurabi is the biggest global player besides me now, and Hammurabi is a weak techer and peaceful unitspammer = stupid, but best of all,
with Viccy being in war, I can now finally fulfill my next goal, the Conquest of Persia, without having to be in fear of getting backstabbed!
-------------------------
So Sushi has been reached and the economy is holding aganist the enormous costs, that the insane spread (also to cities not having a Courthouse yet) causes. There is a growing problem though: Democracy has reached almost every Civ, and they all have emancipated their women (of course, Mansa the Masher was the first, as always) . I still need to run Slavery, because otherwise, the insane spread would find an abrupt end, no way i'm going to let that happen, but how am I going to deal with it?
Read more about that and the war against Persia in the next Episode: "An era finds an end - The last Cruasade of the egyptian Cuirrassiers!"
Till then, cya,
Seraiel