SGOTM 11 - Fifth Element

[Dhoomstriker]

I just got back from vacation (internet was broken all week) and am hopelessly behind on the posts and what is going on. I also have 2 final exams due on 8/3 so there is just no way I can pick up BLubz's save and be done by the third as the schedule says.

So, can I swap one more TS and pick up on the next TS after the "finish on 8/3" TS?

Welcome back, UT. Take it easy for now, but we'll definitely be expecting you to contribute another turnset before the game is over!

Havr, are you ready to jump in?

If not, does that mean that I have to play again? Are we okay to wait until Mitchum is ready? Shall we have a never-ending-BLubz turnset? Irgy again?

 

[Irgy]

... Irgy again?

Definately not me, I'm packing boxes this weekend to move house the next. As much fun as it is, I was glad enough to get through the last one (although not quite yet, still that one more thing to do), and kind of relieved that it was probably my last turnset, as I seem to have over-comitted myself.

We should decide soon though, being up next is the main thing that brings people back to life, I think everyone (with one obvious exception ) is getting a little burned out otherwise. Which is a shame because this is in many ways the exciting part.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

Toku's Paper Maché

I think that i can resume our options as follows:
- no discussion for the need to bribe Toku for peace and war. we'll pay what he asks.

Fair enough. Good luck with your bargaining $kill$! (note the word "kill" inside of the word "skills"... skills, skills, skill 'em all! hehehe)


The Never-ending Liberalism Debate

- what we need is to decide what to squeeze out of Lib, so (worst case to best case):
a) SM
b) Physics
c) Electricity
d) Radio

Well, I gave my suggestions in the form of the master plan.

I still think that by keeping 2 Great Scientists (and even better, 3 Great Scientists, if we can get another one near the end of BLubz' turnset) will give us the most freedom of choice.

While I see the argument for getting Observatories a bit faster, it's not like our Cities don't have other buildings that they can build in the meantime. Plus, I've stated a few times now how I believe that faster Observatories are less valuable than keeping our Monastaries active for the length of time that it would take for us to manually research the portion of Astronomy that a Great Scientist would Lightbulb.

So, although getting Observatories is a good thing, keeping our Monastaries (and Great Library and Parthenon) for longer seems to be a better thing, in my eyes.

My opinion is that SM is more than safe, Physics is streched but doable, Electricity and Radio are out of reach.

That sounds like a reasonable analysis if we are not willing to trust Toku to go for Economics instead of Liberalism. It's a big risk to take, so I am not saying that we should take such a risk (the risk of delaying Liberalism after Toku learns Education), but I am simply presenting the idea as a possible alternative option, should we be "caught with our pants down" at a bad time during our research when Toku learns Education.



First Turn Stuff

What i can do is to open the save, make all the trades/bribes and save, reporting what's up. I will also check how many turns we need to have Astro+SM manually researched.

Sure, please do so. Also, if you agree with my suggested changes to the Cities (message #2448), then you can also adjust the Citizen allocations and build queue changes for T240.

If there are some points that you disagree with, I'd appreciate you saying which ones that you do not want to do, so that I will not make the assumption that you will do those things.


Waiting on Lightbulbing Astronomy can buy us a few more turns

Since the GS can give us some 60% of Astro we can wait to bulb it some turn, to buy time to discuss and to see how things move in game.

I would agree. There is a "best time" to Lightbulb Astronomy, should we feel forced into doing so.

I would say that you can play 4 turns if you stay at a 0% Science Rate. This way we will for certain be able to still get the maximum number of Flasks out of Lightbulbing Astronomy. At that point, we should pause play and analyse the situation to see if we will need to Lightbulb Astronomy or if we will try our best to manually complete research on it.


Great Prophet

A GPro can bulb PP if you know DR and paper or Lib if you know Edu and DR.

Good info to know and thanks for sharing! Certainly, this point will factor into our analysis if Toku has learned Divine Right within the next 4 turns.


Only 1 Scientist for Scientific Method?

So, we must decide between option b) and c). I see c) too risky even if we can hold paper for long. So i propose to go for b), using 1 GS for each tech.

My concern here is that if we feel rushed enough to Lightbulb Astronomy, then manually researching Scientific Method while we can only use 1 Great Scientist on Lightbulbing Scientific Method will not be enough Great Scientists.

The other side of the issue is that if we feel that we can safely research Scientific Method mostly (or all) with manual research, then I would prefer not to use any Great Scientists, so that we get the most value out of the buildings that Scientific Method will obsolete.


Lightbulbing Path

Sorry, but i see your proposed LB path more like a dream than like a plan. Sure if we popped a GS instead of a GE from GPF (and still popped a GS from Dehli, despite higher chances for a GE) it could have been more of a plan. But unfortunately we can't control the GPeople we have when our cities are polluted.

Please point out the specific flaw or flaws that you see in my Lightbulbing plan.

I think that it nicely covers all of the possibilities of our "hands being forced to learn Liberalism," including the possibility of needing to Lightbulb Astronomy--but the plan has us only Lightbulbing Astronomy if we feel that we have to take Scientific Method with Liberalism.

The goal of the plan is to maximize the length of time before we learn Scientific Method, so if you see a flaw with the plan in achieving this goal, I would like to hear about it so that I can update the plan.

 

[BLubmuz]

Good news.

I played the remaining of turn 240
- cancelled the deal with Zara, forgor to renew, but did it next turn
- sell Literature to Izzy for all her gold (120 IIRC)
- bribed Toku for peace with Zara for CoL+CS and he gave us all his gold (330)
- then bribed him at war with Mehmed for Philo+105 gold. Now Zara is still the worst enemy of Toku, but i think and hope this won't last long
- waited for the trade with Justy, since his 2 galleys were right outside Zara's borders. I would have something to bribe him too for peace, if needed.
All the actions were taken, so, turn 241:
- IBT Zara offered Drama+65 gold for Compass. Why not? Done.
- Justy moved his galleys peacefully inside Zara's territory. If he's got a target, it's not Zara, so
- i pick Eng from his list and ask what he want. Philo+optics were enough for Eng and he added all his gold and his WM.

Paper is still our monopoly. A GS is born in faraway land. It can be only Mehmed, he's the only AI we can't see the cities.

Astro can be due in 6 at 100%, 13 at 0%. SM Will ask 7 at 100%. Our present rate is 20%, a bit worst than when i checked few turns ago, probably due to our walking units. War is a luxury.

Waiting input. More inclined to wait. Under this condition: if we pop a GS we will burn him immediately.

A note: Physics is 9360 b, when Electricity is 10530. IMO it does not worth the risk. Radio would, with its 14040.
A GS can bulb 2709 at present, so 3 and full research and we can have Physics in 1 turn. But the same can apply to Elec.

So i think (but i can change my mind): all or nothing. Much will depend from our next GP, due in 9 turns from Dehli. GPF, even running another (6th) Sci can arrive to 11 at best and starving to run the 7th can arrive to 10. At 95% chances for a GS. If we remove 2 Sci from Dehli it will arrive 1 turn later (of course no, since the rate will raise).

So we can count for sure on 2 GSs, maybe on a 3rd if we push GPF.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

Waiting input. More inclined to wait. Under this condition: if we pop a GS we will burn him immediately.

While you are waiting for our responses, can you make sure that you:
1. Traded Fish to Isabella for 3 Gold per Turn
2. Changed the citizen allocations as per my message 2448
3. Changed the build orders as per my message 2448
4. At least CONSIDERED the Worker suggestions as per my message 2448

I'll answer your other comments shortly. Thanks for waiting for me to get back, by the way.

 

[BLubmuz]

I changed almost nothing in turn 240, but i'll follow your suggestions, which seem reasonable from 241. It's late ans i was concentrated in trades and by Justy's galleys.

If you see my analysis, i think you will agree that Elec is not worth the risk and Radio is really too risky for Lib.

I propose the safe Physics, with a LB for Astro. Then, when we arrive at some 3000b to complete SM, if we see no risk, we avoid to bulb and keep the GS for Elec. This way we can be reasonably safe and squeeze the most from our monasteries, with an eye to safety. Having a couple observatories won't be bad.

Tell me what you think about the GS from GPF first, sacrificing some in Dehli. We can run 2 citizens there, to keep the GPP low and to assure some research. Or we can build a couple LB, just in case.

 

[BLubmuz]

While you are waiting for our responses, can you make sure that you:
1. Traded Fish to Isabella for 3 Gold per Turn
2. Changed the citizen allocations as per my message 2448
3. Changed the build orders as per my message 2448
4. At least CONSIDERED the Worker suggestions as per my message 2448

I'll answer your other comments shortly. Thanks for waiting for me to get back, by the way.

Forgot anything but the trades with Izzy. Tomorrow (well, it's already tomorrow) i'll set up everything.

 

[Irgy]

I'm inclined to wait with the GS now. With a paper monopoly still held, the possibility of slow-researching Astronomy and Scientific Method to then spam 3 scientists into Physics is still reasonably viable. Not that likely, but plausible enough to be worth accounting for.

I've been fairly well convinced now that there's no need to bulb astronomy, better to wait. As Dhoomstriker said, we've got plenty of other things for cities to build.

If we do get Physics and Electricity from then only be two techs from the end of the game. It does feel like we've got a lot to do before then, namely:
* Take some silk from Mehmed. We've got Ivory, and we're currently trading dye from Isabella, we're assuming fur is on the barb island.
* Get those troops to the barb island. They are still heading there right? It's a long walk. Engineering will help though.
* Run Theocracy and Buddhism for long enough to get the bonuses high.
* Convert Isabella to Buddhism.
* Make sure Buddhism is spread to absolutely every last city we own.
* Make sure we're the population leader.
* Generate 4 great people and send them off to the fur.
* Build a whole bunch of galleons to transport the great people and warriors.
* At least a couple of other things I haven't thought of.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

- cancelled the deal with Zara, forgor to renew, but did it next turn

That works. Are we still getting Gold per Turn from Zara?

Also, are we keeping our Borders Closed with Zara for now? You didn't say one way or the other.

- sell Literature to Izzy for all her gold (120 IIRC)

Sure, that works. Maybe she'll collect more Gold for us.

- bribed Toku for peace with Zara for CoL+CS and he gave us all his gold (330)
- then bribed him at war with Mehmed for Philo+105 gold. Now Zara is still the worst enemy of Toku, but i think and hope this won't last long

NICE! Okay, that news is good news!

- Justy moved his galleys peacefully inside Zara's territory. If he's got a target, it's not Zara, so
- i pick Eng from his list and ask what he want. Philo+optics were enough for Eng and he added all his gold and his WM.

Uhhhh... what? I don't know what to think about that first bit.

Great... Engineering is ours for a good bargain and that's one less tech that Saladin will trade with Justinian!


Hmmm... Isabella or a Settler Party. It's got to be war with Isabella, because you don't get the "fist" icon when you send a Settler Party.


What is our relationship status with Isabella? How about with Justinian? Are we at Pleased or higher with both of them?

If yes, then we can TRY to "beg" for 10 Gold from each of them. However, wait as long as possible before you ask them, as Justinian likely still hasn't forgotten the begging that Irgy did. Each turn that passes gives us another chance of him "forgetting." If he still remembers, he will refuse us.

- waited for the trade with Justy, since his 2 galleys were right outside Zara's borders. I would have something to bribe him too for peace, if needed.

Great planning!

- IBT Zara offered Drama+65 gold for Compass. Why not? Done.

Ummm, I thought that we were waiting to trade with Zara until Toku liked him again, now that they share a war with each other against Mehmed. Oh well, it's done now.

Paper is still our monopoly. A GS is born in faraway land. It can be only Mehmed, he's the only AI we can't see the cities.

Well, maybe it will be worthwhile to capture his captiol to get his Academy... nope... wait... we're not warmongerors, so by the time that we do so, Science will no longer be an issue. Okay, moving on...

Astro can be due in 6 at 100%, 13 at 0%. SM Will ask 7 at 100%. Our present rate is 20%, a bit worst than when i checked few turns ago, probably due to our walking units. War is a luxury.

Okay, well if you are spending our Gold on a turn or more of 100% Science Rate, then we probably have to decide whether or not to Lightbulb Astronomy next turn.

I would say that if we still have a monopoly on Paper next turn that we DO NOT Lightbulb Astronomy. Is that okay with you?

If someone has learned Paper by next turn, then let's discuss who it is and their odds of beating us to Liberalism before you execute the Lightbulb action. Fair?

Waiting input. More inclined to wait. Under this condition: if we pop a GS we will burn him immediately.

What is the rush to obsolete our buildings?

Slower Scientific Method is more valuable than sooner Observatories.

Plus, by slow-researching most or all of Scientific Method, Observatories are not that far off, anyway!


Confucianism
Do you still plan to switch into Confucianism after 5 turns are up? If yes, then we should probably check what our trading options are before you switch, just to see if someone has another Tech or Resource to offer us that they will give to us while we are Buddhists but not when we are Heathens.

A GS can bulb 2709 at present, so 3 and full research and we can have Physics in 1 turn. But the same can apply to Elec.

So we can count for sure on 2 GSs, maybe on a 3rd if we push GPF.

If we get and KEEP 3 Great Scientists, we will maintain the ultimate flexibility, being able to finish off our "tech in progress" within 1 turn and take the "next tech" with Liberalism. Therefore, it would make sense to hold onto our Great Scientists until the last minute possible.

 

[Irgy]

If you see my analysis, i think you will agree that Elec is not worth the risk and Radio is really too risky for Lib.

The point of Dhoomstriker's options was that we can play for the possibility of Elec without taking any risks. At any given point in time, if someone learns Education, we can finish what we're doing with the GS's we have and safely take whatever's next.

In fact the only option that does involve a risk is bulbing Astronomy.

The other thing we should do to minimise risk is make sure we've always got enough cash in the coffers for two turns of 100%. The AI might demand some of it, but that's ok, it's cheap diplo points if they do at least.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

I'm inclined to wait with the GS now. With a paper monopoly still held, the possibility of slow-researching Astronomy and Scientific Method to then spam 3 scientists into Physics is still reasonably viable. Not that likely, but plausible enough to be worth accounting for.

Even if it is not viable to get Physics, there is still no need to Lightbulb Astronomy. BLubz, do you really fear that we cannot manually research Astronomy before an AI can research all of Paper + Education + Liberalism? Only if you truly have this fear would it make sense to Lightbulb Astronomy from an economic standpoint or from a maximizing-Liberalism standpoint.

* Take some silk from Mehmed.

Yup, that'll be a tricky one, but a possible one, since we will still have to wait to get our Great People to the Fur, so we will have the time to do so.

We've got Ivory, and we're currently trading dye from Isabella, we're assuming fur is on the barb island.

I make no assumptions and we will now be building your Caravel so that we won't be forced to make assumptions. Cool?

* Get those troops to the barb island. They are still heading there right? It's a long walk. Engineering will help though.

Great point!

* Run Theocracy and Buddhism for long enough to get the bonuses high.

Yes, the timing of switching from Pacifism to Theocracy will be an important one. Let's dig in the XML, shall we?

"5" is listed for Toku, which I think means +6 max (60 turns). 5 + 1 for currently being in that Civic? Although I think that the bonus disappears as soon as you leave that Civic, the "bonus" for "Mutual Military Struggle" does not disappear once a war ends, so maybe that's why we might get a bonus +1? Or maybe I'm just remembering wrong and it's only a max of +5.

"4" is the max listed for our Theocracy-loving Civs, which I think means +5 max (50 turns).

* Convert Isabella to Buddhism.

Confucianism first, especially if we want a chance to stop the wars that she is getting herself entangled into.


BLubz: Now that you started investing Hammers into a Forge in Ivory Towers (by playing past T240), please REMOVE the Forge from the build queue, so that you do not forget to switch to building Confucian Missionaries there once the Confucian Monastary is complete. Note that we can add the Forge back to the build queue later, without losing any Hammers. Please and thanks.

* Make sure Buddhism is spread to absolutely every last city we own.

How about sending Confucianism and Buddhism to the Barb Cities? Hopefully, a Confucianist Missionary will be built once BLubz adjusts the build order.

Remember that every City must be running our State Religion. It doesn't matter which Religion exists in all of our Cities, as long as every City has one common Religion, since Irgy pointed out earlier that we can switch Religions on our last turn, as long as we haven't switched within the previous 5 turns.

* Make sure we're the population leader.

Kill, kill, kill 'em all! Or, maybe just Mehmed.

Okay, I admit that we probably won't even need to capture more than 1 City of his (for Silk), although we'll need enough units to defend the City, defend a Coastal Fort (unless the City itself is Coastal), and enough units to defend a Fort built on the Silk.

* Generate 4 great people and send them off to the fur.

Where they will be used to build a Fur coat for El Dino.

* Build a whole bunch of galleons to transport the great people and warriors

Optionally, we can slow-march them across the western continent.
Otherwise, we will need 3+ Frigates to guard our Galleons from Privateer attacks.

* At least a couple of other things I haven't thought of.

IF we can capture all of Mehmed's Confucian Cities, then we can consider spreading Confucianism to Justinian and Saladin, giving us an "everyone against Mehmed" Holy War.


Also, we'll need to build The UN somewhere, too.


Maybe build some Privateer defence (Frigates).


Honestly, you've got a really great list there and it's tough to find things that are missing from it!

 

[Dhoomstriker]

Galley 3 that is going west should come back now
Well, I am guessing that BLubz is still sending Galley 3 to the west. If were to build a Coastal City by the Barb Cities, then we could for sure upgrade it to a Galleon.


Since we are instead going to build a Fort. If a Fort allows you to upgrade units in it, then fine, continue to send Galley 3 to the west. But, if we cannot upgrade units in a Fort, then I think it's best to drop off the units in Galley 3 and send Galley 3 back to our homeland. That way, we can have the opportunity to upgrade it to a Galleon should we need to send out a Settler (or a Barb-City-raiding party) for any additional islands that we discover with our Caravel or through Map Trading.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

Forgot anything but the trades with Izzy. Tomorrow (well, it's already tomorrow) i'll set up everything.

Tomorrow morning? Night? It sucks to keep waking up in the middle of my night just to see if your posted, only to find out that you didn't post a message yet.

I don't need to know an exact time if you yourself do not know, but it helps to get a reasonable guide as to when you plan to play. Just a suggestion for the future, thanks!

 

[Dhoomstriker]

Tell me what you think about the GS from GPF first, sacrificing some in Dehli. We can run 2 citizens there, to keep the GPP low and to assure some research. Or we can build a couple LB, just in case.

PLAN A
Ideally, what you will do in Grt Person Farm is work the Fish, GPig, and PCow, hiring Scientists with all of the excess citizens.

If we started on T240, we'd get a Great Person on T250. I'm not sure what timing we will get if we start on T241, but at the latest it would come on T251.

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO... what I would suggest, if you want the Great Person to spawn in Grt Person Farm first and if you think that T251 is an okay time to get our next Great Person, then do the following in Delhi:
T241: Keep 1 Scientist hired, to keep our GPP output even.
T241: Turn the other 4 Scientists into GRiv Irr and GIrr squares.
Grow for 2 turns so that we reach City Size 15.
T243: At City Size 15, rehire the 4 Scientists so that we have 5 Scientists hired.

That way, we should be able to get the Great Person in Grt Person Farm first without greatly sacrificing our Science output in Delhi.


PLAN B
The alternative is to hire as many Scientists as we can in Delhi now, to get the Great Person out faster. I mean like Corn + Corn + GRiv Irr + G Riv Irr; the rest are Scientists. If it is a non-Great-Scientist, BAM, Golden Age time. If it is a Great Scientist, then we have one more Great Scientist under our control.

I know that you like us working the GRiv Cottages, as well as the Mines for the Bureaucracy bonus, but if you want to put a focus on Liberalism's safety, then that's the sacrifice that we'd make in favour of said goal.


My Suggestion
I'm not really sure which option is better, but since I think that Delhi will probably generate more Great People AND since I think that if Delhi is going to generate a non-Great-Scientist, it would be better to generate it sooner rather than later, my recommendation would be to go with PLAN B.

But, I do not feel very strongly either way, so if I have not convinced you to follow PLAN B, then I think that PLAN A is the best way to achieve your stated goal of a Great Person ASAP in Grt Person Farm without sacrificing Flask output in Delhi.


EDIT: Note that the plans cannot be mixed--PLAN A has us growing in Delhi, which means that our Foodbox will be half full after growing to Size 15. PLAN B has us shrinking Delhi, almost emptying its Foodbox starting from a point where it is almost full, just to get a Great Person out ASAP. So, pick a plan and stick with that plan.

 

[BLubmuz]

Sorry, but i thought it was clear i can't play in the morning (about this time). I'll try to play in late afternoon/evening instead of in late night as i did previously. So, say 7-8 hours from now.

Great people: plan A meas a GS almost for sure. plan B less. But if we can afford a GPerson for a GAge, plan B is better.

Galley: there're too many unroaded tiles. I will move it for 2 more turns, then unload the LB+worker in a Sal city and bring it back home.

There's another target for Justy's galleys: a barb city in the NE area of the Spanish/Ottoman continent. With silk. I've noticed when i first opened the save, i hope anyone did.

Izzy is still cautious, Justy is friendly, Sal, Toku and Zara are pleased.
No, i don't OB with Zara, waiting for an input.
All that diplomacy is distracting me from the MM. I must cease to play so late.

Unclethrill and roster
welcome back, how Roma was?
I think that Dhoom can take the swap, since Mitch is still in vacation and me and Irgy have just played (well, i'm still)
so i think that we can go with Dhoom after me, Unclethrill, Mitch and Dhoom until the end.

I think we can stay in Buddhism unless something moves us to change. Almost all our cities are B.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

So, say 7-8 hours from now.

I'm around now and will try my best to stay around for the time period that you have listed.


Spawning the Next Great Person

Great people: plan A meas a GS almost for sure. plan B less. But if we can afford a GPerson for a GAge, plan B is better.

At the end of your turnset or during the next turnset would be the ideal time to run our Golden Age, if we wanted to use one to spawn more Great Scientists. After the end of the next turnset, or perhaps sometime during that turnset, we may have to consider switching out of Pacifism into Theocracy, for the positive Diplo modifiers.

Obviously, one does not HAVE to run both Pacifism and a Golden Age at once, but it is preferable to get them both at the same time if one can.

Still, if we just keep getting Great Scientists, then I will be just as happy not to get the Golden Age. In that case, we can use the Golden Age to speed up us getting our last couple of Great People instead of using it to generate more Great Scientists now, so a Golden Age that gets delayed will still have its uses.


Galley 3

Galley: there're too many unroaded tiles. I will move it for 2 more turns, then unload the LB+worker in a Sal city and bring it back home.

Sounds fair to me.

There's another target for Justy's galleys: a barb city in the NE area of the Spanish/Ottoman continent. With silk. I've noticed when i first opened the save, i hope anyone did.

Mehmed captured a Barb City a while ago named Chinook. He also had a few Silk (I think 3 was the reported number) available for trade.

Unless you think that there are ten million Silk within his lands, I doubt that the Barbs still control that City.


Regardless, an AI will not get the "fist" icon when it attacks a Barb City. They also don't "sail through" their war target's land area, only to turn around and attack them from both sides (that would be awesome programming if they did, though!).

So, even if Justinian still "thinks" that there is a Barb City there (did you try trading for Justinian's World Maps yet?), then he's still got a war target to the east. He didn't know Mehmed when he got into fist-mode, so he has to be going after Isabella. Let's make sure that we're working on the Confucian Monastary and Confucian Missionaries and in Ivory Towers and let's make sure that we take the Forge out of the build queue there for now.

One AI attacker at a time, she can probably survive, thanks to the Chichen Itza. Two at a time... maybe, maybe not. It will be nice to be able to have the possibility of "rescuing" our "damsel in distress."

Izzy is still cautious

Too bad. I was hopeful that the "excess trading value" from Literature would have given us some positive Diplo points.

No, i don't OB with Zara, waiting for an input.

I would say: check all of our Cities to see if we have any Domestic Trade Route. If all of our Trade Routes are foreign, then we don't have a use for Open Borders with Zara until after Toku stops treating him as a Worst Enemy.

If we do lack some foreign Trade Routes, then you can Open Borders with Zara... but if Toku says "stop trading with Zara," then we have to say "Yes, Sir, Toku, Sir," and give into the Demand.

All that diplomacy is distracting me from the MM. I must cease to play so late.

Indeed, Civ 4 is a multi-faceted game with many different challenges coming at you from all sides at once. That's why many of us are still here today and will likely be here for quite some time to come if Civ 5 proves to be a major disappointment.

I think that Dhoom can take the swap

Alright, but I think that if Havr decides to plays, and can tell us within the next day or so, then I will give the turnset up to him.


Confucianism vs Buddhism

I think we can stay in Buddhism unless something moves us to change. Almost all our cities are B.

Going back to Confucianism has a few advantages:
1. We might actually generate a Great Artist in Riverdale around the time that we need to Lightbulb Radio and Mass Media, which would be excellent news. Running Buddhism means that this City misses out on the GPP bonus from Pacifism.
AND
2. We will get a lot more Flasks per turn, increasing our research rate by a noticeable amount.
AND
3. We might get +1 with a Buddhist AI who asks us to switch into Buddhism (of course, we would accept such a request). We can't get this +1 if we stay in Buddhism.

So, I would strongly recommend that we switch back into Confucianism ASAP (T244? T245?).

 

[BLubmuz]

1) I'm around now and will try my best to stay around for the time period that you have listed.

2) Mehmed captured a Barb City a while ago named Chinook. He also had a few Silk (I think 3 was the reported number) available for trade.

Unless you think that there are ten million Silk within his lands, I doubt that the Barbs still control that City.

3) Indeed, Civ 4 is a multi-faceted game with many different challenges coming at you from all sides at once. That's why many of us are still here today and will likely be here for quite some time to come if Civ 5 proves to be a major disappointment.

4) Alright, but I think that if Havr decides to plays, and can tell us within the next day or so, then I will give the turnset up to him.

1) I'll play after dinner, say in 3 hours. Sorry.

2) If he captured the city i can see, the city won't display its name and size

3) i Got many doubts in CiV. I'll buy it, but i think i will continue play CIV.

4) Havr posted that he won't even have time to watch the thread. I keep him in the team, but just because he contributed and actively played. He should be a nice person, happy to have him for next one.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

1) I'll play after dinner, say in 3 hours. Sorry.

That's fine.

2) If he captured the city i can see, the city won't display its name and size

What we know is that on T240, Mehmed owned a City named Chinook. After capturing this City, he built 2 more Cities. Could it be a different Barb City? Yes, it could be.

However, since he expanded so well and since he has multiple Silks to trade, it would logically follow that there is a great chance that Chinook is the name of the Barb City at the western edge of his borders.

If it is not Chinook, then it is a second Barb City in his area and will likely be captured by him before anyone else can get to it.

3) i Got many doubts in CiV. I'll buy it, but i think i will continue play CIV.

I will likely wait a few months to see what CFC members say about it before putting out my cash.

4) Havr posted that he won't even have time to watch the thread. I keep him in the team, but just because he contributed and actively played. He should be a nice person, happy to have him for next one.

Okay, he said that he is busy, but as Irgy said, people will often "make time" for a turnset. I won't be able to start playing within a day, either, as I'd at least need to work on a bit of a plan before starting. So, he still has some time to speak up, if he wants to jump in and play.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

As for when you're pausing to report on the status of your play, it would be most helpful if you did not end the turn that you are reporting about, at least until you get a bit of feedback or a lot of time has passed with no feedback.

A lot of Diplo situations change after the UP player Ends the Turn, so a suggestion that might be offered based on the info that you present to us might no longer be valid one turn later.

I'm not saying that you have to pause play after every turn, but it would be ideal if:
1. You tell us what you've done in the first turn of play and pause play before ending that turn, so that we can make suggestions like build order changes and possible Diplo actions that may have been forgotten, like setting up Resource Trades and buying a World Map, etc. Usually, there are a lot of things planned for the first turn of play, so it is easy to miss a step or two.
AND
2. Whenever you encounter a Diplo screen that asks you to do something that you aren't sure about, pause play before answering and seek some feedback.
AND
3. Whenever you have the opportunity to do something on a turn, like trading a tech, that you aren't sure about, pause play within the same turn, so that whatever advice that you get will for certain still be applicable. It, of course, helps to leave at least 1 unit with movement points left, to avoid accidentally advancing the turn when switching between the game and the thread.


These are probably some general guidelines that could even go in the team's rules section, if you like the sounds of them.

 

[BLubmuz]

will start play in less than an hour, or so.
I'll try to implement all your advices.