There were some scary moments, but things played out just fine.
I have to say, I've made some important decisions on my own. I thought a lot about stopping and asking for confirmation, but I was convinced that the decisions were correct and wanted to save time. Judge for yourself and criticize if necessary.
Well, here is the report:
T165
Did
the planned things:
Converted Kublai (for free!), DP with Cyrus, canceled DP with Fred, OB with Cathy. Bought the Clam for Stone, got Deer back for more health. Whales deal I couldn't cancel then. After a lot of considerations, I finished the farm. That's a future Watermill, but not yet. Hired the 5th scientist. Didn't want to push our luck, Cyrus and Saladin had one more gold for the trade, but I was worried that canceling deals with them would change things. Upgraded a maceman to a gren. Scouting Russia with Caravel.
T166
Cyrus offered Divine right +100
for Liberalism. I didn't plan to trade, JC has everything. Besides, Liberalism trade could bring Free religion to Cyrus and change relations. Btw, Cyrus also completed SoL!
Cathy decided to stop trading! We were hers worst enemies, she said, and refused trading. WHEOOHRN still active like before, no wars yet.
Izzy dropped back to annoyed.
T167
NY revolted for the first time! We also gained iron and oil! Scientific method researched. AI didn't have Physics, I decided to go after that. I calculated that going for Communism first would be too soon,
Physics first was the right thing to do.
T168
Liz has Physics! I couldn't see that the turn before. After some considerations, I decided to go for
Biology. Communism was to soon, and JC had everything else. This was a tough call, but you will see that this was a right decision.
T169
Capac demanded that we cancel deals with
Fred. Missionary was almost there for the conversion, bad timing. Tough call, we want Capac too to be friendly. I declined. Btw, I had finished the gren, built another caravel, missionary and started building cannons.
Cannons are not 14
, only 12
, but still better against LB than grens. I'm micromanaging and using the farm
to build a cannon every 2 turns.
T170
Time for another decision. I started thinking about
Free market again. One more trade route was 10
. +50% bureaucracy gives 15 base commerce. Science multipliers were at 225%. 15 x 325% = 48.75
We were losing that every turn! I estimated that we had enough money from resources and enough gold in treasury to sustain Pacifism for a long time. In fact, we had so much to last at lest till Environmentalism. That would mean skipping Free Market entirely, not an optimal decision. We should have revolted to Free Market immediately. Anyway, I calculated that the revolt is still profitable and revolted to Free Market.
T171
I realized that I had made a
serious mistake, really critical.
Cathy's Galleons were not in the port and I had no idea were they had gone!
I had just moved a Caravel a bit to scout Izzy, Cathy didn't have much troops and I didn't expect her to go anywhere. That was a real blunder on my side, sorry guys!
Well, after some deep breaths and a short break from play, I started hunting down those Galleons. Scout and warrior were patrolling the coast, I decided to build another Caravel for exploration too.
T172
A big relief! Louis attacked Mansa and Cathy attacked Hatty! Attack on Mansa was expected, attack on Hatty was probable too. Cathy was only cautious with her, and she loves to dog-pile. Monty was still at war with Hatty and Alex was the only one with WHEOOHRN and not in war. However, I was still concerned about those Galleons. Could Cathy still attack us, 2 civs at the same time?
T173
I continued with the cannons. I couldn't attack Cathy first, that would cancel DP. Therefore frigates couldn't stop her and cannons were planned anyway. I asked
Fred to convert. He did it for free! I could have asked him that a turn or so before, but I was a bit preoccupied with more pressing matters of the state. *cough* misplaced galleons *cough*
. I also finally sold whales to Capac for 2
I was begging for stuff constantly, btw. Could you spare Corporation to a good friend? No? What about Replaceable parts?
Didn't get anything, but you have to ask you know.
Still didn't want to give anything to the AI. Like I said, JC had it all. Why should we help the AI?
T174
Alex wanted us to stop trading with Liz. Yeah, right. Kublai wanted MT for DR + cash. Well, no. Most important thing that happened: war with Hatty is over! And no, it didn't end with a peace treaty! Hatty had some grens, I scouted the fight with a caravel. (Btw, those galleons were not there! *gulp*) However, Cathy had a mean stack of rifles. I couldn't help Hatty in no way, she didn't have a chance.
Egypt out! I'll post some screenshots of the fight later, really scary. At least Monty and Cathy don't have enough on their hands anymore.
T175
2
galleons and 2 frigates finally
spotted in Heliopolis!
I was controlling all the possible attack lines, it seems that those ships never moved far from St Petersburg. I believe they actually went south to Moscow for some reason.
T176
Louis asked for OB. Declined, he was still at war with MM and Louis had other enemies too. No reason to OB with him.
Mansa Musa was losing the war, btw. Helping him was not an option, JC was annoyed with Mansa.
T177
I was scouting
Alex at that time, he had a nasty stack of
Maceman, still preparing for war.
T178
Liz wants to trade RP + cash for Steel. Well, same answer.
Biology researched,
started Communism. More food from Biology enabled more scientists, 6 were hired. That reduced the ETA for Communism from 7 to 6 turns.
T179
I felt that
another Caravel would serve us well for early warning duties, this is very important. If we want to attack, we have to move a lot of soldiers out of the city and that's risky. Btw, I had turned on the "show enemy moves" and "show friendly moves" options to see AI movements at the end of turn.
Fred was at +10 and friendly, Capac at +10 and pleased, hidden modifiers. Signing DP with both Fred and Washington was possible, but that would have been an unnecessary risk.
T180
Well, I had played for 15 turns. However, everything was so close, Communism, PA, everything. Stopping at the PA point was the logical place to stop. Just...few...more...turns!
Enrico Fermi was born! Yes! Enough with the artists. I settled him in the city. However, bulbing becomes an option now, game will be finished soon.
T181
Asoka discovered Communism. Btw, many civs had
MT already at that point, no good. Didn't want to trade MT, there were no good trades for us.
T182
Didn't note anything, nothing important.
T183
Kublai and Capac sign DP. Oh, well.
T184
Communism discovered! As calculated,
PA was not available yet! Few more turns were needed. What to research? JC has everything except
Medicine. We need Medicine for extra health, so Medicine it is. I emphasized production at that point for more cannons. We don't have enough production for war, we will need lumber mills, possibly workshops!
Cathy and Saladin signed a DP as feared, they can sign DP when Pleased. However, I don't think that they'll be able to sign a PA, PA demands Friendly. I don't think that there are exceptions, but that should be checked.
T185
Cathy canceled OB, Washington wanted to trade Steel for RP.
T186
PA possible!
PA signed! Techs acquired, AI doesn't have anything to offer anymore! However, some won't trade Democracy, Physics and Steam Power. JC will provide Physics on the next turn. LB upgraded to rifles, we still have cash.
Stopping here.
We can cancel the Stone deal now, we have just gained Clam! New York is on one size 1 btw, embedded by our culture.
I've build 8 cannons, 1 gren, 1 missionary and 3 caravels. That's 1120
, not bad for 21 turns. However, we don't have enough soldiers for the attack. We could attack Izzy or Toku soon. They don't even have gunpowder, we can build a unit every 2 turns. That will improve after Medicine (~10 turns for that). Sadly, domination doesn't look possible, but we should attack Izzy and Toku first and re-evaluate.
Signing PA with JC
changed relations a lot. Cyrus and Fred were Friendly, relations dropped to Pleased. Even the relations with JC dropped, we don't have OB and DP bonuses anymore. Of course, that doesn't matter. Another thing, Alex had WHEOOHRN the last time I checked on turn 184. He is not preparing for war anymore, I believe PA changed that.
The position requires
thorough investigation. What's our victory condition? Starting a war would cancel DP with Cyrus, Cathy and Sal both hate us. Let's take some time to examine this. I'll upload the save and post some screenshots now.
This is an important point, I'm expecting contribution from everybody!
3
as planned, I'm hiring the 5th scientist ATM, but I'll MM with the mine tile probably.
I thought Classical was up and melior if Classical is skipped.
