Replay #5 A history of heroes!

[Seraiel]

Episode 4 - Part IV​

The age of heroes​

Lincoln - In exile
Frederick - In exile
Viccy - In exile
Roosevelt - In exile
Pericles - In exile
Justinian - On the way to exile
Zara Yaqob - On the way to exile

Biggest problem: Bottleneck at the production of Galleons, even though having six Shipyards, one being fueled by Moai-Statues.

Solution: Proceed with Conquest over land.
Chosen Target: Louis XIV
Reason: We need to test out our weapons, as French, you should understand this.

Anyhow, we're not there yet. Things happening before this (not 100% following chronological order) :

• Willem DoWs Peter, reason: Lizzy's in war with Peter and Willem is a backstabber. This is a nice developement of events, because Lizzy is too weak to stand against Peter, and Willem is quite advanced in tech. The war will slow down Willem and will push back Lizzy's capitulation to Peter.
• A GM is born in Ollantaytambo. (NP-GP-Farm)
• The Incans reach the knowledge about the principles of Corporations. Sid's Sushi is founded in 240 AD!

We switch live to the great Ferdinand Magellan who wanted to circumnavigate the world at first, but as he heard that that had already been achieved by the Khmer because Seraiel funked up the map-trades, he decided to found a Corporation which would become both, the sake and the curse for the Incan empire and their leader.

A switch to the Free Market Civic was needed for this. This has a devastating effect on the Economy, as the additional Traderoute cannot make up for the lower maintenance that comes with State Property. Here are Screens of the financial Advisor from before and after the Switch:

So while the Commerce rises by about 10% (180 in total) , the expenses (due to the higher city-maintenance) rise by over 30% (330 in total) . Now if would stop Research completely now, I'd have some money and could rush-buy a lot of things with US, but not nearly as many things as I need, so I do 2 additional switches at the same time, I revolutionize to Universal Suffrage and to Slavery a) be able to buy all the Workboats in place and b) whip the Executives and the necessary Infrastructure. As GP-Production is severely crippled with running Slavery now, I do a third switch, I revolutionize to OR. Here is a view at the Financial Advisor after all those Switches:

So I now also lose the Research I had through REP-Specialists, I lose Food & Hammers I got through CS and SP, and I have to pay an even higher maintenance due to the high cost of OR. The only negative thing that doesn't rise, is the upkeep payed for units, which was ridiculously high with having a huge Military and running Pacifism, so in the end, it is:

• 90 gained at a loss of 400 which is massive.
• Lower Food, Production and GP generation

But:

• 2 options to rush things now.
• Bonus on the construction of buildings.
• Sushi.

Now that those switches are done, with the Slider not breaking even at 60%, with a lot of Research still to be done and a lot of Workboats having to be bought, with insane maintenance caused by Sushi but also insane amounts of Food expected in near time, I need the Infrastructure for a gold-based Economy, I need Banks, I need Grocers, I need Markets in all core cities. On the same day, 5 Million Incan Slaves, which is 1/4 of the total empire's population die through the harsh Slavery of their leader! Anyhow, when the survivors of this day wake up, they find that all major Commerce-cities have a Bank, allowing the construction of a way larger Project callen out by their leader: The construction of the Wallstreet, a Wonder of national size that shall add +100% to the Income of the City of Washington, which is already the center of Religion and Gold, but shall become the same much more in the future.

The news reaches the heroes that are overseas, fighting the Forces of Zara-Yaqob at this moment (or not?) :

After the friendly request to plz continue the fighting, the Incans show the Ethiopians their mercy:

They conquer the complete island, slaying 14 defenders without a single loss, till 320 AD, when Zara Yaqob is found in the cellar of the last hut and sent to exile aswell! The Score of the heroes rises from to 110:18 (with counting lost Siege) and another GG is born.

In the meantime, the slaves are experiencing the hardest times ever: Another 4M die in the following 2 turns due to the need of Courthouses in every city, and also Grocers and Markets wherever there are still enough Slaves left to whip those buildings. Only Cuzco, Berlin, Nottingham and York are spared because those provide crucial TRs to the islands-cities. Executives again get cold-whipped to spread the new Corporation the fastest way possible. Also spreading like Mushrooms in a Forrest are cities founded on islands. In 340 AD, the Incan empire is up to 70 cities!

While Lizzy capitulates to Peter, a short time after the foundation of Sid's Sushi Inc., the other Civs are also willing to trade their Ressources. I am able to aquire 89 Ressources bringing Sushi up to +23 Food. This has to get a lot better though, in the end, I'm going to have about 170 Ressources and +45 Food through Sushi, it shows, that the AI is slow with developing their islands-cities and that lots of islands haven't been settled yet.

The Incans finish the research of Steel and Mansa finishes Replaceable Parts:

Another National Wonder, Ironworks, gets constructed in Warwick:

Mansa gets ordered to research Steampower, while the Incan empire fully stops Research and saves money to buy the Wallstreet!

But the Incans aren't only great Fighters, harsh Slave-owners and skilled Architects, they're also full of List: With Berlin having been respecced to a Spy-city, new options have arisen: Switch Mansa to Judaism and Organized Religion to make Ramesses also friendly towards him, via shared Religion and shared favourite Civic, and get the Tech of Military Tradition with double friendly diplo-stance through trade!

But before that, we switch live to the heroes again, who have conquered Justinians first city "Rhodos" in 330 AD:

Back to whats happening in the empire, there, a Great Prophet arises from Washington as planned, the Date of his birth is 370 AD. Now I got a GM, a GP and only need either a GS, a GS or a GA for the next GA ( at that sentence) , and there is still very much time left to create one of those. While Sury DoWs Willem, and the Spies are going into position to manipulate the Mali, the Spread of Sushi on the Continent is complete:

Those are 38 cities having Sushi on the 14th turn after Sushi had been founded, shows that cold-whipping of the Execs really is the way to go and that I'm pushing it as hard as possible.

I convert Mansa to Judaism and Organized religion via Espionage...

Which makes Ramesses friendly towards Mansa, he was already friendly towards me...

And like that, I'm able to trade Military Tradition from Ramesses in 380 AD:

Before we come to the end of this post, which is the completition of the Conquest of Justinians empire in 390 AD, I want to give you a clearview of the Incan empire again, as Sushi has changed a lot. First, the different departements:

Northern departement:

Southern Departement:

Just to give you an impression of the mass of islands-cities...

A better impression of the size of the empire can be aquired with a view at the worldmap:

The Victory Tab and the Scoreboard:

The graphs are going crazy because of Super-GAs and Sushi:

But the economy is collapsing, or has it already collapsed and is only virtually held stable by the Super-GA?

----------------------

This was the fourth part of the episode "The age of heroes" , the insanity has just begun, and is about to get bigger in the following parts of the episode. Atm., Incan heroes have a kill / loss ratio of 124:18 (with counting the lost Siege) , this ratio is already insane, but it's going to get dramatically better with the newly developed Cannons. The Incan heroes don't know about that yet though, so make sure to follow the next part, featuring the astonishement about the new Weapons in the Conquest of France. Better read it, or "I'll go rampage!" Cya,

Seraiel

 

[WastinTime]

When you switched all those civics, did you consider dropping Bureaucracy for Nationhood? What would be the effect at that time?

 

[happyturtle]

Oh the insanity!

 

[shakabrade]

The best read around here. Amazing!



I am with WastinTime on Nationhod.

76 cities * 2 = 152 , but don't know if you had any hapiness problems.

However, no upkeep from nationhood with 76 cities would probably make more money than Bureaucracy.

 

[Killroyan]

OMG you have like a gazillion cities and only own 27%? And you have Sushi incorporated with +24 food and still have only 21% population. Now my head is really going to explode. When you keep this up I am going to include you in my signature

 

[vranasm]

The best read around here. Amazing!



I am with WastinTime on Nationhod.

76 cities * 2 = 152 , but don't know if you had any hapiness problems.

However, no upkeep from nationhood with 76 cities would probably make more money than Bureaucracy.

civic upkeep is "only" ~400 gpt... OR is high cost too and not sure how all else would mix in, I would expect the sparings be ~100 gpt

what is crippling is the city maintenance and for that to cover there is no good way unless state property which is obviously not available

 

[Choggy]

Sushi-madness time!

What happens with corporations and SP civic? Does SP mean you lose the food/culture benefit AND the maintenance hit from Sushi if you're already running it? Also, under SP can you spread Corporations?

 

[Um the Muse]

Would using the NP for a production city be any good?
For example, in an area that used to be jungle (grassland and maybe a river) it could be farmed to grow to max size, and then converted to all workshops. No unhealth from pop so each tile will be self supporting itself under state property, and would give out a beastly production.

Obviously, I think using 10 specialists would be pretty amazing and I'm sure you'll show us what you do with it Sera but is this a viable alternative for, let's say Space Race?

Losing the coal is usually a bigger loss to productivity than becoming unhealthy. If you're going late enough in the game to get them, coal plants are usually the way to go. Not to mention that you can get plenty of sources of health a this point.

A one city challenge will sometimes use the NP for production, though. Even there, it's not guaranteed to be one of the top 5 national wonders, though.

 

[WastinTime]

What happens with corporations and SP civic? Does SP mean you lose the food/culture benefit AND the maintenance hit from Sushi if you're already running it? Also, under SP can you spread Corporations?

You lose the food and the maintenance and the income.
You cannot build new execs.

 

[Pangaea]

That's a lousy deal then. This has probably been discussed page up and page down, but what is best between corps+free market and state property+caste+workshops?

 

[Seraiel]

well not sure with the hardcoded thing, but if there is some AI that does it regularly then it's mansa...

I remember one of the first NC games I played on Prince difficulty like 2 years ago, he did the same...
after I got to double the number of his cities...voila "I want to be your friend lalala" and I got mine first peace vassal ever ;-)

I actually find it pretty funny that Mansa has a STRATEGY afterall...since it is good one, if the player is inexperienced and not cautios enough

would be even more hilarious if there was no spy abuse available.

Well, I'll get more cautious about Mansa, because this is actually the 2nd time he tried that with me (and I only had him as a Vassal 3 times, so that makes 66%! ) . Anyhow, I can't be too mad at him, because he didn't instantly go for Culture in this game (he did in Replay #2 I think) , I was able to get a few techs from him, and as those techs were in the critical phase to reach Mining Inc. , he imo did his job.

I revenged myself harshly anyways .

I thought I was the only one who preached minimal workers. 0.5 workers/city sounds good to me.

One has to be very careful with such things imo. One definately needs a lot of Workers when one has to develop a lot of land on onesown, like me in the beginning, there, the 1.5 Worker / city rule was fitting, but with land one conquers, one get's improved tiles which need no Workers, that's why I could do very well with only up to 0.5 Workers / city in the end. I think the 1.5 / city rule is very good for beginners, it takes an experienced player to know how many workers he "really" needs.

You have barracks in every city, even the little island ones?

A Barracks gives +2 under Nationhood, and as no- / low-cost Civics are necessary / the best in the end of a Sushi round, and cities grow very large and need every and possible, yer.

So out of curiosity - I see you posting these games where you've put in 200+ hours. Do you just work on one game at a time, or do you play shorter games in between sessions for a change of pace?

I do play shorter games between my 200h rounds. I don't play very focused in those though, and often play too fast, which lowers my performance so drastically, that normally, those games aren't worth continueing. I have about 10 unfinished games that are quite good with various Civs waiting for me though, those always get played if I run out of good starts .

Exactly what is the Paper/Education-block?

If you happen to complete the MoM while in a Golden Age, will it get added on top of the turns left of the current GA, or will some be 'lost'?

Thought that was a wonderful move for what it's worth. Shows how well you know the game, tech tree and AIs when you can instantly get him to do that instead of whatever else he may have wanted to build.

Normally, one can slow down the AIs on their way to Liberalism by denying them the pre-techs. Didn't work this time, but it did in at least 80% of my games, so this time I was unlucky with Hatty beelining Liberalism.

About the MoM, really cannot tell you, never tested that. I'd guess the turns get lost.

Excellent stuff about build orders and selected buildings. This is the type of stuff that should go into an article at some point, as it can easily get overlooked in such massive threads as these. Same about city specialisation and building selection and orders.

There are a few articles on city specialisation and some of the cover parts of this, but more articles on it would certainly not hurt. How to decide which city get what type of specialisation (particularly HE, GPF, GT and other such places); what buildings to build where, in what order; how to specialise the city in terms of tile improvements.

This is, I think, one of the key areas that separate the pack from the top level players, so thorough yet fairly concise articles on how to get better at this would be great additions to the War Academy.

Good luck with the further conquest of the world, and the settling of Sushi and Mining And of course the covert muck-up of Mansa's culture war

Well, to know if a building is worth building, one has to know how long the round will still take, and do Math. Those buildorders only suite Sushi-games which go to about 1k AD, and even then, they don't fit the last founded cities, those have to skip on the forge to be perfect, and of course they also don't need gold-multiplier buildings. This is probably the harest thing, because it takes a lot of rounds that were played with similar settings, to know when the round will end, or it needs very good intuition.

Getting Hammers up before Research is one of my own preferences, and it means having a good economy through many Cottages to be able to do so. Good skills in diplomacy / tech-trading and a huge tech oracled suite that approach. It's just one possible way.

Regarding the guides, I'm looking forward to those . Keeping it simple will be the most fun about them, as I think, every lvl can be beaten with very simple concepts / rules + good observation / logic + some math.

The "education block" refers to how you can block the AI from advancing too quickly by not trading them Education. It takes a long time for them to finally decide to research it. (Paper too, but not as important to block that one in my experience.)

Or not, like in this round, when Hatty beelined Liberalism after losing Music. Anyhow, you're right on 80% of the games, I was very surprised about AIs behaviour in this game too.

How do you do that though? By giving them Philosophy or Divine Right and hope they continue down those paths instead of to Paper and Education and later Liberalism? Simply not trading with them?

Normally, AIs decide for the lower military path (Engineering, Guilds, Gunpowder, etc.) , because military techs have a higher value to the AI. If they're religious, they often go Diving Right and with having Philosophy, Nationalism gets attractive for them because of the lower cost, then they normally continue with Constitution. It's very rare that AIs go the middle-path of researching Education, I've seen screens where AIs had Physics before Education.

loool, you're researching industrial techs by 1AD? I've seen this insanity before in these types of games, but it never fails to amaze me. Reminds me of early civ3 games I had where I would trade/extort techs from the AI at every opportunity (RoP-rape ) and reach the industrial era around the early ADs then roll over spears/pikes with tanks - felt very much like cheating but sure was fun

Back to the game, hopping into the workshop lovewagon: workshops with all the upgrades even without the golden age boost are so awesome, they're like having a copper or iron mine for every workshopped tile

Also the hero captions are a nice touch

The speed with which Deity AIs (and onesself through trading techs) advance through the tech-tree was something I found very sad in the beginning, because it basically funks up the whole time-line, that fitted very wel until Emperor. From a todays perspective I can say, I like it, it saves me to deal with inflation, which I find is the most stupid concept of Civ . And it's really not like I'm stomping Spears with Tanks, AI is keeping up very will still, at least the AIs I trade with . Cannons vs anything (without AI having Rifles) was a little op, I aggree on that. And, I had the same thought that you had about the copper / iron mines that upgraded Workshops can become. Biggest increase is definately the +1 from State Property, that Civic is really really powerful. For early domination, I guess it's even more powerful than having Sushi + Mining.

Would using the NP for a production city be any good?
For example, in an area that used to be jungle (grassland and maybe a river) it could be farmed to grow to max size, and then converted to all workshops. No unhealth from pop so each tile will be self supporting itself under state property, and would give out a beastly production.

Obviously, I think using 10 specialists would be pretty amazing and I'm sure you'll show us what you do with it Sera but is this a viable alternative for, let's say Space Race?

I sometimes have used the NP in other cities than for a GP Farm. Anyhow, I think the unique ability of it (to get up to 19 free Specialists) is worth more than the benefit of having a city which doesn't need the buildings. High production cities can construct those very fast anyway, and it's not like Aqueducts, Grocers or Supermarkets were that expensive, a Factory + PP costs a lot more.

When you switched all those civics, did you consider dropping Bureaucracy for Nationhood? What would be the effect at that time?

I thought about it, and I will switch to Nationhood soon. The thing hindering me was, that I wanted to get Peters Ressources somehow, and therefor needed the Burocracy Civic, but in a few turns I'm going to find out that Peter only had 1 Fish for trade. Difference between Nationhood and Burocracy would have been about 100 at that point.

Oh the insanity!

I know you love it, admit it!

The best read around here. Amazing!

I am with WastinTime on Nationhod.

76 cities * 2 = 152 , but don't know if you had any hapiness problems.

However, no upkeep from nationhood with 76 cities would probably make more money than Bureaucracy.

Absolutely right about that. On the clearviews you can see the cities being really small after all that whipping, and I had basically every Ressources available myself (with the exception of Ivory, that wasn't available on the whole continent but I could trade it from Willem) , so no problems with atm. Anyhow, +2 through Barracks will be a huge thing in late game.

OMG you have like a gazillion cities and only own 27%? And you have Sushi incorporated with +24 food and still have only 21% population. Now my head is really going to explode. When you keep this up I am going to include you in my signature

This shows the process of maximising the score. Water doesn't count, so founding as many islands-cities as possible, to stay under the domination limit, is the way to go. And Sushi is still quite new and the population is being whipped harsh every turn for Banks, Markets and Grocers, I'm not in the Growth-process yet, or when being very excact, that process has just started with the end of the last post. I remember that one of the last turns of that post I made a note to myself "score rising even though whipping as harsh as possible" , so the +24 from Sushi are taking over just at that time.

But be prepared (and don't explode) : In the end, I'm gonna have about 49.5% of the land, 200 cities and about 80% of the total population . Micromanaging those, that was the real challenge, because as some may have noticed already: I'm expanding so harsh in the posts, that the economy is almost collapsing during a GA, just wait until the GAs are over, then you'll see me get desperate and sweat to make it form round to round.

civic upkeep is "only" ~400 gpt... OR is high cost too and not sure how all else would mix in, I would expect the sparings be ~100 gpt

what is crippling is the city maintenance and for that to cover there is no good way unless state property which is obviously not available

Good guessing here . The cities are still small, the empire's population is small, Civics aren't the problem yet. They will be in very near time though.

Sushi-madness time!

What happens with corporations and SP civic? Does SP mean you lose the food/culture benefit AND the maintenance hit from Sushi if you're already running it? Also, under SP can you spread Corporations?

See WastinTimes answer for this, basically, SP disallows Corps or all benefits from them while of course eradicating the negative sides of them too. It's like Theocracy and Religion.

Losing the coal is usually a bigger loss to productivity than becoming unhealthy. If you're going late enough in the game to get them, coal plants are usually the way to go. Not to mention that you can get plenty of sources of health a this point.

A one city challenge will sometimes use the NP for production, though. Even there, it's not guaranteed to be one of the top 5 national wonders, though.

Can 5 National Wonders be constructed in OOC or why the Top 5? National Park imo is one of the lowest priority NW's ever, NE + HE are a lot better, as is IW. The NP is powerful if one has a city for it and if one reaches Biology early.

You lose the food and the maintenance and the income.
You cannot build new execs.

I think there was this one HoF with someone asking a few Months ago, he had to switch to SP because he could pay the costs for Sushi anymore. All his cities starved but he finished a game that would have been lost totally otherwise.

Writing the next part now, TY all for your feedback,

Sera

 

[happyturtle]

In OCC, Ironworks just isn't necessary. By the time you can get it, the city is so strong that it's popping a unit every turn. Even in a space game, production is usually faster than you can research the next tech. NP on the other hand, gets rid of the health constraint on growth, and if you can save even a few forests for preserves, then you'll have free specialists >> more GPP >> more settled super-specialists >> more GPP and so on. Snowball!

 

[Seraiel]

Episode 4 - Part V
The age of heroes​

In the last part of "Episode 4 - The age of heroes" I was able to conquer the remaining cities that once belonged to Pericles. The next target for war has already been chosen, the heroes will go up against France, the empire is in it's 3rd GA, a 4th GA is already planned, I REXed like a madman from 22 cities in 370 BC to 76 cities in 390 AD, that makes 54 cities in 75 turns, so I'm keeping my pace of 2 cities per 3 turns. Sushi has been spread over the whole continent, I'm gonna spread it to the islands now. The bottleneck, the supply with Galleons is still there, but I worked against it with whipping some of those, atm. I own about 30 Galleons which somewhat is a magic number when it comes to those. My biggest worries atm. go towards the economy which produces only about 300 / turn at 0% of research, even with running a GA, that's why I decided that I need to rush-buy the Wallstreet and get the forbidden Palace up.

This is how the game continued:

I buy the Wallstreet in 420 AD for a few thousands of Gold that I could aquire through trading various Civs always the last turns of the tech they were researching. Having a flurishing production of Espionage points already proved to be very valuable when I switched Mansa's Civics in a way that Ramesses would become friendly towards him, allowing me to trade MT from Ramesses even with combined Diplo-stance. Here is a picture of Washington, showing how urgently the Wallstreet was needed, and a picture of the Financial advisor before having it:

+350 through the Wallstreet seems amazing, doesn't it? Also notice how powerful the Temple of Salomon has come, generating an Income of over 300 (including multipliers) itself. It really can be regarded as a Super-Shrine.

Again, this is from before the Wallstreet and from before the forbidden Palace. If you followed the screens from before, you will have noticed that the number of Banks, Markets and Grocers is rising steadily. The big problem of course is the city-maintenance caused by Sushi, now even the almost 200 GPT I pay for the huge military don't seem so huge anymore.

In 460 AD, I buy the Forbidden Palace in the islands city of Pisac. The picture shows the Worldmap with its 2 palaces:

And here is a screen of the Financial Advisor in 470 AD:

Things this screen shows: The total Income has risen dramatically from 4000 to 5000, that's 25%. This is because of the Wallstreet, because of the steadily growing Number of Banks, Markets and Grocers, and I'm working Specialists again where it is possible (almost all Merchants) . I decided that I wanted to have Mining Inc asap (I got Steampower from Mansa) so I switched to REP again. Before that, I bought Workboats in all Sushi-camps, this is why the city-maintenance has also risen dramatically from 2500 to 3000, that's 20%. Sushi is up to 110+ Ressources now so it's almost creating +30 already. So a lot of the newly gained income got eaten up by the expansion and the increased number of Sushi-maintenance, but it does look a lot better than before having those 2 National Wonders.

I wanted to get some attention for another very important strategy, the "power of not whipping 4 cities" . Have a look at an average islands-city:

This is an islands city that is quite new, which you can see from its size and its buildings. The interesting part about it, are the TRs this city has: Those go towards the biggest cities the Incan empire has, Cuzco, Nottinham, Berlin and Warwick, they're 100% internal, and, this city is not only self-sustaining, it is creating a benefit to the empire through those TRs alone, even without having a Courthouse!
The TRs to Nottingham and Cuzco are giving +4 which is 33% more than the TRs to Berlin and Warwick give. Nottingham and Cuzco are size 18+ while Berlin and Warwick are size 12+, showing that there are breakpoints, and that passing those breakpoints can make a huge difference when one has in mind, that I have about 50 islands-cities. If Berlin and Warwick also were size 18+, the empire would experience a gain of 50*2 through the islands-cities, so with running 0% Slider, that'd be 100 / turn generated only through the power of not whipping 4 dedicated cities!

With being close to bankrupty, this again can be a crucial factor that can decide if one can have some more Sushi-deals, or not, it's just as important as to micro the Sushi-deals themselves, so one always has a number of n*4+1, and doesn't pay for Sushi-Ressources that are not generating extra .

Now what if a city get's Sushi without having a Courthouse yet (it won't get a Courthouse in near time if it doesn't get Sushi, spreading Sushi to islands-cities not having a Courthouse is another essential tactic) .

Yer, then it gets crazy. The maintenance of a non-Courthouse Sushi-city is insane with these amounts of ressources, that's why getting up a Courthouse has one of the highest priorities. For this, the Slavery is needed and invaluable, which I noticed in the end of the round, when switching to Emancipation. Mining Inc. is great for getting up the Banks, Markets and Grocers or anything a city needs, but even with a very powerful Mining Inc. (something like +30 ) , a Courthouse still takes 10 turns, now look at the city again, 10 turns in such a state means that that city will generate a loss of over 500 . Therefor, it's indispensable to have well developed, strong Commerce-cities on the Continent, that have every Gold-multiplier building and can tank 1 or 2 of those new cities, here is an example of such a city:

Notice that that city can barely tank one of those non-Courthouse-Sushi-cities I mentioned above? It is missing a Grocer still, but don't forget, all of these pictures are from a time within a GA! I could evaluate further on this, and maybe will come back on it if the round continues, but one can make the derivative that 1 fully developed Commerce-city is needed for every non-Courthouse-Sushi-city. If you've read that, you know that I'm in deep trouble now, anyhow, I didn't at that point of the round...


So let's continue:

While the other continent is in constant war, Hatty has decided to research Democracy. This is always a sad and frightening point of the round, because Emancipation-Unhappiness is just what I don't need atm., switching out of Slavery, impossible. I've ordered Mansa to also research Democracy, as I won't be able to get it through trade from Hatty, and I have the feeling, that the SoL could be the only thing that could save my economy.

430 AD, the next GP gets born, it's a Great Spy! I'd love to found Scotland Yard with him, but I have to save him for the upcomming 4th GA.

In 450 AD, I merge the GG I still had from the war against Pericles + Vassals and merge him with Flashhand, now the Incan military has 2 Supermedic Tactics Morale Champions.

460 AD: With having Steampower from Mansa and a small surplus in GPT, I switch to REP and start on Researching Railroad very slowly again. I also queue my favourite building, "the Levee" , in all cities that can build one.

470 AD: I also make myself a note that "I'm displeased with the rate of expansion, I have to expand harder!" Madness has struck me, but you know what I'll do next. Yes, focus even more on Settler production, fasten up the war-prep against Louis. In the following turns, I upgrade the War Elephants and Knights to Cuirrassiers and the Trebs to Cannons.

480 AD: Self-note saying "1 turn 1 hour replayed" (people who've read Replay #4 or people ever having tried an ultimate highscore approach with a Sushi-game will understand this)

490 AD: Self-note saying "Specializing cities is worth it, even with Sushi, city-types are "Commerce-center" , "Settler-pump" and "Sushi-camp". " This basically says, that for a perfect Sushi-round, having cities that are specialized on nothing but building Settlers is important, and it again states the need for strong Commerce-Citie's tanking the Sushi-camps. As Settler-pumps, I'm currently using the few Hammer-cities that I have, because get multiplied by Forges, and the Commerce-cities shall grow and become stronger to tank more of the Sushi-camps. Don't forget though, that a Settler-pump again is a city causing a loss in treasury, so those cities also need Commerce-centers tanking them.

Self-notes that are also from that turn: "I need waaaaaaaaayyyyy more cities" and "War against Louis in T minus 2" . So let's switch to the heroes again:

"Ok heroes, I don't have a full plan about this war, except, that we totally annihilate the french, take every of their cities, and destroy every of their units! We have Cannons and Cuirrassiers now, shouldn't be too much of a problem. As you see, I've split you in 3 Stacks, we have an overseas invasion Force that'll take the Islands, the Cuirrassiers will mostly operate on their own because of their higher speed, and the Mainstack, having a ton of Cannons, will destroy Louis' Stack when we find it and take hard cities, should there be any! I've directed Espionage towards the French, so we should be able to see all of their troop-movements soon, don't worry, it's gonna be like a walk.

---------------------

Those orders make the heroes laugh, "no plan" , what are they up against? Are the French really as weak as expected? Are the new Cannons more powerful than they think? In 505 AD they'd find out, because that is the year of the Declaration of War!

This has been a short post, mainly reporting about the economy and handling some important strategies. For the war against the French, I'll need a new post, because that one will have lots of pictures again. Make sure to keep following the episode, or, well, you know it . Till then, cya

Seraiel

 

[vranasm]

this is epic story... you bring some talent here i tell you!

 

[happyturtle]

Madness has struck me

I knew it!

 

[Shaandore]

I'm the heavy lurker type, but this series is so awesome that I had to drop in.

So thanks for the amusing stories and the educational writeup.

I learned quite a lot about economy from Replay #4 and #5 (so far). The 4-large cities trick is a great idea too. Looking forward to the war against the French!

 

[coanda]

... saw you able to support about 10% research off internal gold in 420 AD, in a GA, was thinking "this will not end well." Then you just go and create another 1000gpt out of thin air in the next couple turns.

Also, how can one war elephant make a formation? It doesn't make sense.

 

[Seraiel]

Episode 4 - Part VI​

The age of heroes​

Without any further introduction, we jump right into the war against the French. Just one short sidenote: As already mentioned many times, I chained the 4th GA directly after the 3rd.

Here is a clearview of the French empire from 505 AD, where war has already been declared and Air-Bombardement has already taken place:

We see a lightly defended Tours, a heavier defended Chartres and the the main part of Louis forces is in the North of his empire. As Tours is only lightly defended, and can be attacked diagonally, it's a perfect target for the small force of Cuirrassers, here we see hayppturtle in action:

Lymond has a hard fight against a Longbowman, but he's also successful:

The city falls without a single loss, T1 of the war ends with 1 city taken, the Mainstack in attacking position, the overseas-invasion-force in attacking position, the remaining Cuirrassiers in attacking position (!) , and with the heroes pushing their score to 127:18. Here is a clearview showing the end of T1 of the war:

510 AD or on T2 of the war, Tokugawa vassals to Ramesses . Anyhow, this is nothing of our concern, what is of our concern are the attacks on Chartres, Cherbourgh and Rheims:

First, Chartres:

It takes 9 Cannons to reduce the city's defenses. After that, the CR2 Cannons move in, leaving a mess:

The city falls without a single loss, no Cannon gets destroyed, all heroes have 99.9% attacking chances. Score: 133:18.

After Chartres, the Cuirrassiers attack Rheims:

What's that? Ozbenno forgot to ask how the new Rifles are used, and he's not the only one! The city falls with the loss of him and the loss of an unknown other Cuirrassier! Score: 138:20 for Team Incans.

Team Incans also attacks Cherbourgh on the same turn:

Screen basically shows the reality of that war, Cannons are just totally overpowered if reached early enough. Lets be honest, 80% maximum dmg. and 60% collateral dmg.? That's ridiculous. The first Cannon has 80-90% attacking chances against the medieval units Louis has, after that, the collateral has hit so hard already, that the chances go over 90%. And it's even gonna get more ridiculous now that I have about 5 CR3 Cannons!
I understand that people playing faster speeds like 2-movement units very much, but just comparing the power of Cuirrassiers vs Cannons, Cannons are from another dimension! The score is 144:20 for the Incans now, the number of lost non-siege-units can still be counted with 2 hands, and 1 Incan unit has beaten 7 enemy units until now, and the ratio is getting better and better! The conquest may be slower with 1-movement units, but arguments like "the AI whips a lot more" are just stupid, because they're countered by the fact that "one almost loses no units when hitting with Siege first!"

Anyway, this shows the French empire at the end of T2 of the war:

With the capture of Rheims and Chartres, the cultural borders have been pushed back extremely. I pushed forward with the troops, went to sleep... And on the next day I discovered that a Stack of Louis is approaching my troops from the north! They're all spread out and almost all of them are specced to City Raider... Let's see how I can handle this:

515 AD, or T3 of the war, I pull back the forces to Chartres:

I pillaged the road leading towards it, so that if Louis decides to go after my Stack, he'll be stuck on the open field before Chartres where I can hit with my Siege first.

Regrettably, Louis decides not to put his troops in that suicide situation, so I have to fight him Lyons.

It takes some time for the forces to heal up and move there, in 525 AD, the island-invasion-commando around Sun Tzu Wu and Keilah takes the city of Poitiers, with the loss of 1 Cannon (had 95% chances, but losses like that must happen when so many battles get fought. )

In 535, the Mainstack is finally in attacking position for Lyons. Louis has sent all his troops for the big showdown:

Now watch Airships and Cannons do their work:

The city falls without a single loss. Current score: 164:20 for Team Incans. In between turns, Louis decides to counter attack the city, but shakabrade, Kid-R, Tachywaxon and Um the Muse defend it like real heroes do:

This is the end to the French military. Louis has nothing left, now all that's needed is to take what rightfully belongs to the Incans. Score: 168:20 for Team Incans *lol* .


540 AD, Mansa has finished on researching Democracy. I trade it from him in exchange for the tech of Steel:

I order Mansa to research Railroads, as he can do that faster than I could do it atm.. The em. pire isn't big enough already and has too few Markets and Grocers to be working a lot Specialists, I don't mind about the wasted Beakers, as like this, I'm at least going to be able to get Railroad in easy exchange for Biology. I myself continue with researching Electricity, another important tech that enhances Wind- and Watermills and offers new Ressources by some nice Wonders.
Construction of the Statue of Liberty is assigned to the IW-city of Warwick, which has overtaken Cuzco in Hammer-production. A picture of the insane Hammer-city Warwick, constructing the SoL in 15 turns:

I actually don't know why Warwick has so many beccause due to WW, because I only lost a handful of units until now, but who cares.

I've also rexed to 117 cities, and my economy again is about to collapse, even though I'm running a GA. Anyhow, there's a savegame called "I HAVE TO REX HARDER FFS!11" Here is an updated screenshot of the Financial Advisor:

Basically showing that the air is getting thinner and thinner. I built a lot of Banks in the meantime, but the economy is only stable still, because I'm in a GA, the insane spread of Sushi into freshly founded non-develeoped island-cities + the extreme rate of expansion is too high, the cities can't develop fast enough to make up for that. Concerning the "REX", I had 78 cities at the beginning of 440 AD, now it's 100y later (15 turns) and I'm at 117 cities, so I have been expanding at a rate of almost 3 cities per turn over the last 100y!!!

Ok happyturtle, not for the expansion, but for the save "I HAVE TO REX HARDER FFS!11 you may call me insane from now on. If you like to laugh: There's a savegame called "Ok, I produce 1 Settler in every city that has got Sushi now and REX to 300 cities. All I need now are some Galleons."

A screen showing the spread of Sushi from 550 AD:

Sushi was founded in 240 AD, that was 36 turns ago, now, 72 cities have Sushi, which is a rate of 2 cities / turn! Having in mind the limit of 5 Execs of one Corp, and having in mind that they have to board the Ships, travel, and unboard, this was the most I could achieve!

What else is happening with the empire? The time of the "Squeezed and Crap cities" has begun. As I didn't have enough Galleons to transport the Settlers, and as Louis was blocking my way to the northern islands with his huge naval fleet, I founded cities in between the continental cities wherever it was possible, and, I don't care if locations have ressources or not from now on. A screen showing the extreme density of the city-grid:

Lets have a look at some important cities in 560 AD:

Washington, the centre of the madness:

A city generating over 1500 GPT. It's size 18, still it has a Food-surplus of 25. Working every possible Merchant is the only way to survive against the insane maintenance caused by Sushi on a Big & Small's map in a highscore attempt. The ToS has gained yet additional power, it's at 122 GPT base atm., showing that I'm still spreading my Religion, or at least, I try, the limit of 3 Missionaries makes this task extremely annoying.

Cuzco, the centre of Research:

A very important city to the Incan empire as it's big (doesn't get whipped) so it provides valuable TRs to the islands-cities, and, it is the city that produces 1/6th of the empire's Research still! In addition, it's the highest developed Commerce-centre that can tank 2 non-Courthouse-Sushi-cities.

Nottingham, the Moai-Shipyard:

This is the largest city of the Incan empire, impossible to keep it happy. It's 4 sources of Food give it a Food-surplus of 31, though it already has a lot more citizens than there are workable tiles. It's the main-Shipyard, provides the most important TR to the islands-cities (just look at its own TRs) and in addition is a great centre of Commerce, able to tank a non-CH-Sushi-city.

York, the HE and WP city:

York is the main-producer of highly-promoted ground-based troops. It's a city that cannot pay for itself fully, but who cares about that, if one sees those Hammers ...

We had a picture showing the IW of Warwick already, so lets look at the Spy-cities Berlin and Ollantaytambo:

Those are under construction, they still lack a lot of the buildings unlocking the Spy-Specialist-Slots and which multiply the Espionage-Points those generate. A great future is prognosed towards those.

----------------------

With these pictures, this post shall end, but I've got one more, the Financial Advisor in 560 AD:

So I did it! I've spread Sushi fast enough and REXed so hard, that I'm doing negative GPT during a Golden Age!!! Even with rushing Banks, Grocers and Markets as much as possible, the economy has collapsed. What will happen once I'm out of that Golden Age? Will all heroes be disbanded because my units will go on Strike? What will be the solution to these problems?

This and more of the heroes in the next post, going online soon! Read it, or you'll regret it .

Seraiel

 

[Seraiel]

this is epic story... you bring some talent here i tell you!

Haha, thx . I just got to know that WastinTime is going to make a new highscore attempt, so maybe, this will not have been the last Sushi-game that you've seen from me .

I knew it!

Read the last post, I've agreed seeing the names of some saves I took, expressing my thoughts.

I'm the heavy lurker type, but this series is so awesome that I had to drop in.

So thanks for the amusing stories and the educational writeup.

I learned quite a lot about economy from Replay #4 and #5 (so far). The 4-large cities trick is a great idea too. Looking forward to the war against the French!

Bringing a "heavy lurker" to post something I take as a big compliment, so thx .

... saw you able to support about 10% research off internal gold in 420 AD, in a GA, was thinking "this will not end well." Then you just go and create another 1000gpt out of thin air in the next couple turns.

Also, how can one war elephant make a formation? It doesn't make sense.

I create a 1000 GPT... And I splash them .

And what do you mean with "one Phant making a Formation" ? If one displays units normally, 1 Phant is 2 Phants, and ment is the promotion "Formation", the one giving +25% against other mounted units.

Regards, Sera

 

[Revent]

Niice. By the way, how do you get two hammers on water tiles in nottingham?
Nice read as always