Seeing as how the only suggestion for the PPP (buildwise) was the last galleon in iron --> mace, I'm probably going to start my set later tonight.
Since I'm giving up on the idea of dropping-off 3 units at a time at Willem, then yeah, the build order shouldn't have to change much: we just need to make sure that you're building the right composition of Macemen/Trebs to be able to fill that 5th Galleon with 2 Maces + 1 Treb, as seems to have been the consensus on that issue.
I'll sell CoL to Willem for cash, and if possible, revolt him to caste before we revolt. The same for Cathy -- revolt her by selling her aesthetics. I will also sell aesthetics to Izzy for her cash.
Okay, sounds good.
A couple of comments:
Sure, let's avoid giving this tech to Ragnar--let him remain the brainless brick on the block. He only has a measly 20 Gold anyway--which is not a large enough amount to get upset about missing-out on.
Cathy will switch both Civics for Aesthetics if you trade it to her first. We won't know if she'll ask for Gold if you sell it to her after selling it to anyone else. However, everyone else will require less value (i.e. small amounts of Gold or only 1 Civic switch in Willem's case--assuming that he hasn't switched in the last 5 turns), so you're probably best off selling it to Cathy first.
Also, remember to make these tech deals before switching our own Civics.
We will continue exploring as discussed (Willem warrior north, Russia warrior north, Vicky warrior too). I'll upgrade the galley into a galleon when we get cash and explore to the SE for a few turns (4-5 turns out) before heading back.
Okay, that's a good compromise--sending it out and back again. It would, of course, be ideal if it could be back in time to help with speeding-up the 5th Galleon, but I don't think that doing so will likely be possible if we have to explore for 5 turns out and back... oh well, we can't have everything.
A note here: you can move the Galley 2-movement-points within our Cultural Borders towards the intended direction and then upgrade him when it has 1-movement-point remaining. Doing so gives you a 2-movement-point head start.
Another Galleon should be prioritized for shipping around our Workers while we are busy whipping our forces. One Worker can land on one Forest, while another could either land on a different Forest or could land on the SW Grassland Horse Resource, which could be Roaded and Forted.
The odd Horse Archer can be invaluable as an anti-Catapult stack defender and as a "clean-up unit" for stacks of AI units with only 1 wounded unit remaining on flatland when we are in a position where we want to keep our stack grouped (i.e. the Horse Archer can attack and come back to the stack on the same turn). So, I'd push for putting 1 Worker on the Grassland Horse Resource.
Slider to 0%...
@Dhoom
We are going to be capped around size 5-6 after the whipping spree in most of our cities. So yes, we will want drama soon-ish.
Again, I'm not saying that we shouldn't self-tech Drama, but that if we can delay learning it until we need it, then we might have upgrade options and we *might* see an AI research it first, allowing us to save a few Flasks by piggybacking off of said AI's research.
shyuhe said:
AI cannot change war targets once it decides to plan a war. One of the more moronic aspects of the CIV AI. I think we assumed that he's going after either Cathy, Izzy, or Willem since his boats sailed west.
I do not think that it is wise to make such an assumption. Given Ragnar's dislike of us and our relative Power levels at the time of him entering "hands full" mode, we were the most likely war target. Isabella was also possible, but not really the others.
I still believe that we were the target, since Ragnar didn't go directly to the south towards Isabella and because the others were not really valid targets--similar Power levels, better relationships, etc. I.e. I do not buy into the idea that he is going after Willem.
If an AI can't change their target, then it is possible that he will "give up" on the war as our Power level increases. If not, then we should be prepared for him to come for us.
I looked again and the western Trireme IS in a good position to spot his stack--that Trireme should stay where it is, since it CAN spot Ragnar's stack without it being able to "sneak by" without us seeing it.
HOWEVER, I recommend that you continue to manually Skip that Trireme's Turn (Spacebar key) each turn, so that you'll be forced to visually look at that area.
It's also good that we have a second Trireme near there (somewhere by Gold City). Ideally, we will fight enemy Galleys with Triremes, not Galleons. That's why we built the Triremes and they have a specialized bonus against Galleys that makes them perfect for this purpose.
If a Trireme loses or if we don't have enough Triremes, fine, use a Galleon, but the Triremes (if they are within reach) should be our first line of attack/defense against AI Galleys.
Losing a Trireme would not be terrible, but losing a Galleon would suck.
