Thoughts from checking the save:
- We are weak, very weak militarily. We are in fact dead last in power. The leaders are not just ahead of us, they are hugely ahead of us. We may draw a DOW from someone just because we are so weak. And I do not see any pre-built units, either. If we get a surprise DOW from Zara, we will lose cities. We must get some more military this turnset.
- Zara is about to finish Feudalism, so he will have longbows defending his cities. If a war starts, we will be on the defensive and his cities will be invincible. We can not afford a war right now with Zara.
- That galley of Zara's probably has a settler onboard. There is also a workboat with it. They are after either our horse site (only the horse tile itself is not covered by our culture) or more likely Sugar Island. Nothing we can do about it, either.
- Technology...very frustrating.
Lots of techs we want are known by a single AI: Currency, CoL, MC, Philosophy, very soon Feudalism. None are available for trade, in most cases we do not have much to trade with. Paper, and once that is spread around Education. Enough to get what we want, yes, but it would have been nice not to have to break monopolies. Let's hope we see some techs available for trade very soon.
- Espionage. We are keeping visibility on Zara's research, which is good. We are putting the rest of our points on Saladin? Why Saladin? He is a neighbor, yes. But why not the leader Justinian? The question is whether to continue this, hoping to get Saladin's research visible, or shift the EP now? We can see Saladin's demos already, while research is still quite a ways off.
- Micro. Sleepless mentioned it, and I will repeat it (often!) below in the city-by-city section. But we have stagnant cities, below the happy caps, and not working our best tiles.
This is bad, very bad. We knew we have whips for universities coming up, we should have been growing our cities, even into unhappiness, as preparation. Now our universities will be delayed and our cities are going to suffer to get back on track.
- That small landmass in the far west, where ice turned back our WB. I am
VERY suspicious of that landmass. Ice blocks both coasts. There is what could be a line of mountains blocking the portion which can be reached by sea from the southern part. Furs with barbs (visible barb territory!) south of a line of mountains, with ice lining the coasts to prevent a landing. Mountains block the north from the south...requiring paratroopers to cross and capture the furs. Airports required to airlift the welcoming committee for the goddess.
My nasty, nasty suspicions of the scenario are looking more true by the moment.
Turnset goals
1) Complete Education (should be 3 turns, maybe 4 at worst depending on our gold reserves).
2) Start university builds everywhere -- we have 6 cities, we need 6 universities to start Oxford. So every city needs to build a university immediately, completing it as fast as possible.
3) New cities -- we have two settlers being built, due in 1 and 8 (likely more, see below) turns. Where to settle? Much will depend on Zara and if he takes one of our planned sites.
Do we have any real interest in trying to poach a gold/fish site from Saladin? We don't have the military force to keep it, if he gets annoyed with us. I think we should settle our planned crab/fish site and get our culture working to make sure we get that crab tile. But should it be next (the 1 turn settler)? Or should we grab Sugar Island first, assuming Zara doesn't decide the issue for us?
Cities
- Capital. Why is the city stagnant, with the corn not being worked? We should
always be working our power tiles. We are not at the happy cap, so the city should be growing. We are going to need pop to whip for universities and also to help build Oxford. Also, why are we building a Christian temple? The happiness may be useful eventually, but why not a military unit to improve our woeful defense situation?
The not-yet-cottage will be shifted to work the corn, to get the city growing. With Education due in 3 turns, put the hammers until then into military (spear, or maybe archer or axe?). Shift to a university ASAP, and after putting in a couple turns whip it for 3 pop. We should pop our GP right about then, so kill the scientists and one cottage. Resume the military build while regrowing.
- OasisWheat - Another city stagnant and well below happy cap.
We need some workers here to farm the grass tile adjacent to the lake and the plains next to the oasis, so we can grow the city larger.
Continue the settler until Education finished, then put one turn into a university, followed by a 3-pop whip to complete it. (Lose the scientists and iron tile.) Regrow while building military -- spear? Maybe even an archer? Then finish the settler.
- HorseCopper - Yet another city stagnant and well below happy cap. We have a bad theme going here.
We are working the miserable desert stone tile for 3 hammers -- we should have a farm on the river grass and get 3 food + 1 commerce instead. Settler due in 1 turn, finish it. Put 2 turns into a Hindu monastery (for later religion spread and a bit of beakers), then start university. We are pushing for max GS GPP here and need to keep the scientists, so do not whip it, just slow build.
- PigFish - Why are we not working the fish and pig tiles?
Yes, we are at happy cap, but we need pop to whip universities. We should have grown this city into unhappiness as preparation for the whip. Switch tiles immediately for max food and grow, grow, grow! Hammers are scarce here and we want max overflow to feed into the National Epic, so we will keep building NE until we hit size 8, then put one turn of hammers into a university and follow with a 4-pop whip. Food is what this city has, let's use it. And we get the same whip anger for a 4-pop whip as for a 1-pop. After, go back to the NE and finish it.
- RiceMarble - a city which is growing! Excellent.
Like PigFish, food is pretty much all we have here. So keep it growing, adding the river grass (which needs to be farmed) at size 7. Grow to size 8, starting a university the turn before growing so we can 4-pop whip ASAP upon reaching size 8. Continue the WB in the meantime, and the overflow will finish it after. Also, steal the marble from ThreeClams and work it instead of the plains forest, for +1H +2C.
- ThreeClams - growing, but small.
This is going to be the weak link in our university program. Work max food, and continue the WB. RiceMarble's WB will also come here, which will get all three clams netted. Wish we had a lighthouse, but oh well. Once the WB is done, start the university. Plan to 3-pop whip it once the city hits size 6, but that is going to be a while.
Oxford is going to be set back 10-15 turns as this city is just not capable of building a university any faster.
Tech
What to research once Education is finished? As my city plans above should make clear, our tech rate is going to drop for a while as we whip away scientists for our universities.
But this will be the fastest way to get them built and then regrow so we can rehire scientists. Alternately, we could slow-build the universities and keep our scientists, at least until ThreeClams is ready and we finish whatever is left on all the universities with whips. This would give us more beakers in the short term, but fewer overall as our cities will get universities later and regrow later.
If we whip the unis early, it might be best to set research to 0% and accumulate a bit of cash. We can restart serious research once the unis are done and cities regrow enough to hire scientists again. But there will be some beakers (from CopperHorse, at least) -- where to put them?
If we wait for the AIs to be willing to trade Currency, CoL, etc., we will be waiting for some time.
But if we research them directly, we are duplicating and spending turns on techs we might have been able to get in trade. Tough choices.
If we pick an existing tech, I would vote for CoL -- Currency seems more likely to become available in trade, since there is no longer a religion to found with CoL. Also, Caste System will be useful to us. Finally, it opens the path to CS.
But let's hear everyone's thoughts on this. This is a tough decision, and we should agree as a team on what we want to do.
Diplomacy
- Keep an eye open for tech trades.
- Watch the Ottoman/Spanish war. Do nothing for now, but if Isabella loses more cities (and especially if she loses her capital), we may need to take action.
Settling
- We have a settler in 1 turn. Where to send it? My preferences would be:
1) If Zara does not take it, Sugar Island. But maybe not the marked spot. Maybe 1 NE of that, if there is seafood in the area we have not explored.
2) CrabFish, but moving the site 1W to put the crab in first ring. We could definitely keep control of the tile in that case, and crab is a health resource we do not otherwise have.
3) HorseFish - to keep it from Zara, plus grass horse is a very nice tile to get the city growing quickly.
4) DeerFish - close to the capital for low maintenance, and the deer is already improved for rapid growth.
I do not think it is worth going for the golds by Saladin. I do not think we could keep it, even if Saladin did not beat us to the site.
Units
- Galley by Saladin to move towards ThreeClams to support, and help explore Sugar Island. Less important if Zara settles Sugar Island.
- Workers at the capital to finish cottage, then send two north to help farm at CopperHorse, RiceMarble, and OasisWheat. Workers near CopperHorse to farm there, or help at Sugar Island or HorseFish if we settle them.
- Pull back warrior from Zara's lands to our borders. We are paying supply maintenance, let's save that money.
- Exploring WB returns to net crab (if we settle CrabFish) or fish at PigFish.
Your input is always appreciated and maybe we can get you for a turnset at some point.
We have 7 warriors (good, we may need spares), and then 1 spear, 1 axe, and 2 chariots. That is it. We are so weak we may draw an attack, which we are in no position to fight off right now. Zara can declare at pleased, and we are weaker than he is and reachable by land. So we are definitely running a sizable risk. We need more troops.
