SGOTM 14 - Unusual Suspects

Deckhand · Nov 16, 2011

Xcalibrator said:
I tend to err on the side of preserving units when in doubt, so if anyone wants me to be bold you'll have to work on it.

Conservative is good.

SteelHorse said:
May be worth upgrading an axe to mace.

Yes, our axes won't fare well against their maces. But axes are on the front and returning home to upgrade is inconvenient. Maybe upgrade the one in SF and rotate forward?

SteelHorse said:
. need a pillage stack to take out the iron. that should leave asoka defenseless. then walk through his territory destroying roads and resources.

Why do you think that is Asoka's only iron? Another iron, or copper or Ragnar with excess iron or copper will enable Asoka to continue to build macemen. Pillaging is probably a weakness in my game, but I wouldn't make this a priority or take risks to do it.

Deckhand · Nov 16, 2011

Xcalibrator said:
Having not relied on lightning horse war before, can a more experienced player offer advice on how hard to push? As a rough guideline, I'd rather not put any cuir under strength 10 in harm's way, unless they can attack at good odds and have decent protection from an IBT counterattack by the AI. I suspect that means I'll have to pretty much stop and heal everything after taking the next Indian city (on the spoke leading to Norseland) for a turn or two. Am I being too conservative? Also, how do you feel about razing that city? The only reason I'd keep it is to increase the rate of unit healing.

I forgot to move the triremes. Will do it this turn, using them to scope out the coast for advancing Indian units and to find cities. I won't go beyond the first coastal city so Asoka can't sneak a galley toward our coast.

From memory, only the Southies can research Econ, and they won't trade Guilds. I need to check previous saves and see when they could research Econ. We're due to pop a Merchant in Houston in about 6 turns. He could be used to bulb Econ after we have Banking. It's a little risky--we don't want to bulb it and lose to the Southies--but if we beat them it would get us the free Merchant in exchange and keep it out of the hands of the Southies. We could also revolt to Free Market during the Taj Golden Age. On the other hand, once we have Banking we could run Merc'lism for free specs--I guess it depends on what the AIs run. The Taj can be completed in around 8 turns from what I recall.

Looking forward to getting the Heroic Epic and a chariot supermedic. If I'm careful to always keep several highly promoted cuirs with the medic, would it be OK to upgrade the chariot (once he's a Warlord) to a cuir? Every cuir helps, and the chariot just doesn't have enough strength to attack anybody and get up to the next Level for the Sentry (visibility) promotion.

Ah, here is the other post I wanted to comment on.

For lightning horse war, you need enough forces to have one group healing while the other advances.

Like I said, I don't have much experience pillaging. Creating a pillaging stack to harass Asoka is a good idea. But I would wait until the assault force was adequately manned. (horsed?)

I would keep the Indian city with fish, clams, and two silk. It keeps Shaka from marching up the spoke. Not much production but it will grow fast.
But again, I seldom raze cities. Having a place to heal is good too.

I don't think we will get Economics, but certainly won't if we don't try. I'd probably prioritize rifling, unless we want to build banks or run mercantilism. If the merchant bulb is a one turn bulb, then no risk. If no one has Econ when we bulb it, then we get the merchant. Spend one to get one.
'course if bulb is partial, then it is a Big risk. Wait until bulb goes all the way.

I usually leave the chariot as a chariot and attack with it at 97%+.

Xcalibrator · Nov 16, 2011

Yes, units are a bit scattered but I haven't finished moving them, which should help. I also need to cycle through the cities and reoptimize after growth, etc. I'd like to stick with the mona in Wash for the extra hammers and beakers, but after that, yes, build cuirs. Agree with Deckhand that we probably can't keep Asoka from building maces, but I'll check the Strategic Advantages screen for clues. We'd also like to concentrate on Rags in hopes of getting the GLH and Parthenon. Xbows are a good mace counter, though, and fairly cheap, and a Woody2 mace would do quite well stationed with the axes in the forest by Ayodh--hopefully I can get a few reinforcements there before he gathers enough to attack. Maybe get a pseudo-medic Woody3 unit!

Unfortunately I was too tired and busy to play tonight--tomorrow for sure, though. And that gives more time for comments and advice.

Xpost with DH's second: I don't think we have quite enough units to have two groups (healing, attacking) yet, but we're getting close. OK, leaning toward keeping that next city. Econ is a bit more expensive than PP so it would be only a partial bulb--if I try it I'll wait to finish it off with the bulb. In any case, we need to get Banking for Replaceable Parts so it's on the path.

[Edit: I forgot that Great Sci's have 50% more bulbing power than other Great People, so using our Great Merchant on Econ is probably not a good idea.]

kcd_swede · Nov 17, 2011

Yeah, units are scattered. Need to assemble and heal. Don't promote the chariot to a cuir... its main role is to be a medic, the visibility bonus is not worth the risk of losing him.

Need to start thinking about garrison units for captured cities as well. I think Xbows work best, and should be made as close to the front as possible.

Remember that we want to save high promoted cuirs for upgrade to rifles, so use lower promoted units for first attack on strong positions. This is, btw, the main reason why being conservative about losses at this stage is a good tactic. Low losses here means lower losses later, too. :goodjob:

I think we need to concentrate on Ragnar before we worry about the pillaging. But we have 20+ cuirs at this point. A large stack (about 14-15) goes on the attack with the medic to enable half to heal while attack continues. the rest can go to pillage wherever needed... usually I like to have this near the attack area in order to act in support as needed and draw units away from the attack.

Recall that Rag/Asoka have caravels... those triremes won't last long in battles... but might get them spamming caravels instead of pikes.

I think we'll need to pause after banking to decide if RP or Econ is next. Econ if the GM is still available sounds good to me.

we make 108bpt at 0% and 612bpt at 100%. 252bpt at sustainable 30%. Econ is 3322 beakers away, Rifling is 7890 beakers away (without econ). The 2184 beaker detour is made up for with only 4 turns at 100% research instead of 30% research, so its well worth it if we can get the GM. I don't like bulbing with a GM, though, unless it saves 3 turns or more. We'll want to upgrade to Cavs soon and beakers are in short supply.

In any case, its looking good, and I eagerly await the next installment.

SteelHorse · Nov 17, 2011

Deckhand said:
Why do you think that is Asoka's only iron? Another iron, or copper or Ragnar with excess iron or copper will enable Asoka to continue to build macemen. Pillaging is probably a weakness in my game, but I wouldn't make this a priority or take risks to do it.

was thinking the pikes are a bigger concern than mace, but not sure why i thought that was only iron. perhaps the resource screen did not show before it was mined, but clearly doesn't mean the isn't other. i do like the idea of a mini stack neutering asoka while main stack takes on Ragnar. but perhaps keeping stacks near each other is a better idea.

we have 20 cuirs, but progress is slow on next set.

good luck - go go go.

Xcalibrator · Nov 17, 2011

T160/1000 AD continued:
Yeah, that was a cuir from Wash that put us over the GG threshold. Shaka won't trade his map. Only Shaka/Mansa (Southies) have Guilds and they will not trade it. They have Banking but are not running Merc'lism. Hmm, StratAdv says Asoka can't build pikes (which require iron) but the trireme shows iron on his coast--ahh, they don't have Engineering yet.

In case Mansa/Shaka go into Merc'lism so we can't see what their trade routes are worth (as a proxy for Trade Mission payoff): Ulundi, uMgun, and Timbuktu are worth 4gpt. Pataliputra and Varanasi are 4 and Delhi is 5. Other routes are 3 or less. So if we're in a hurry, Ulundi and uMgun look good. [Edit: D'oh, I was judging distance as the crow flies--a bit farther by land]

I move a bunch of units toward the front, let others heal, and assemble a stack of 8 pretty healthy cuirs 2NE of whatever city we're attacking next. Research back to 0%.

T161: Finish Guilds (giving us +1h for workshops and opening grocers), start Banking(7). Granary done in Xcal, start Chouse(22). Ah, Ragnar has a berserker and sword 2 S of us. Mathura is the city's name and it has a sword, LB, and settler on plains. Attack with C2 cuir at 79%, lose. But we win the next 2 and take it at pop1 with a lighthouse. Keep it. Lay road so western stragglers can move to city or attack. Kill berserker and sword. Asoka has a WE and sword on the way to Ayod so our pike moves to the forest to defend our healing cuir (and 2 axes). Other units move into Mathura to heal with the chariot or stack next to Ragnar's territory. We now have 20 cuirs. Not surprisingly, Southies won't trade Banking.

T162: Monastery done in Wash, start cuir(3). Cuir done in NY, start cuir(8). Trireme done in Atlanta, restarts cuir(5). Move triremes, find Madurai (pop12, 2LB, sword, cat, and a caravel

). Advance into Norseland, find Shangian (pop9, 20%, berserker, spear, axe, 2LB). Capture it, losing 1 unpromoted cuir at 71%. All it has is a lighthouse but pop8 plus rice and pigs so keep. 1HA, 3 chariots, and 3 cats in the forest S of it. Kill them all! This puts a cuir in the forest from where he sees a lone LB on the desert S of there. I put an axe in there, too. Gandhi will trade his map for ours+5g. Doesn't show much if anything new. I'd really like the Southie map.

T163: Mansa adopts Free Market so he has Eco. Yeah, I saw the birth of a Great Merchant in Ulundi last turn.

They still won't trade Banking so I crank up reserach to 100%. Asoka sinks one of our triremes with little damage to himself. Our other trireme runs away. The GG joins our chariot, which promotes to Medic3 and moves into Shangian to heal our many wounded units. We kill a stray HA. Philly finishes settler, starts treb(5).

IBT: A wicked Viking chariot kills our warrior fogbusting S of England--OK we need something more than a warrior to defend PortXcal.

T164/1040AD: Xbow done in SF, starts LB. Heroic Epic done in Boston, continue cuir (now making 96 hpt! Sorry, that was with overflow-more like 58 hpt, but soon around 65 with another workshop). We have 9 fully healed cuirs in Shang waiting for action, but I'm tired--enough for tonight. At breakeven we'll have Rifling in 9+14 turns, but we'll get a lot of pillage gold, a Trade Mission, and a Golden Age before then. At 100% we'll have Rifling/cavs in 10 turns. Taj finishes in something like 6 turns. Great Merchant from Houston next turn. Haven't optimized cities yet this turn.

Link to save

Spoiler log :

Deckhand · Nov 18, 2011

Again, nice writeup. Good job. :goodjob:

Who is up?

Xcalibrator said:
IBT: A wicked Viking chariot kills our warrior fogbusting S of England--OK we need something more than a warrior to defend PortXcal.

It was actually a good Indian chariot.
We can get a bit of revenge and a promotion for our archer#1 by killing the scout to his north.
Sorry, not much productive to say tonight.

kcd_swede · Nov 18, 2011

@Team: Who can/wants to take the next set? I think its only been about 7 turns for Xcal so I have nothing against that he continues. Might be the fastest solution with respect for finish deadline.

Status: Ragnar has 8 cities left, Asoka has 9.

Next turn have 93% chance of GM... trade mission to where? Escorts?

Next turn comes an AP vote... Ragnar has Confu so there is very high chance that "Stop fighting amongst the faithful" comes up in a vote, which we would lose. Do we defy and take the happiness hit? Only Chicago and Shangian will suffer for it immediately, so I advise DEFY. If the vote is instead "declare war on heathens (Asoka), we vote yes, right?

We skip Econ (trade for it later), and go RepParts -> Rifling, right?

We finish off Ragnar which ends the chance for further AP resolutions needing defiance. Taking his last confu city gains prio all else being equal.

Keep making units. Its a big map and we need to capture at least 4 or 5 spokes to win domination. Hard to judge if a tech press after rifling or a massive upgrading to cavs is the faster strategy once we get rifling, but I suspect that upgrading will take higher prior over tech pace for a little while after rifling.

Yamps · Nov 18, 2011

I'll take a good look tomorrow to catch up, I can play when XCal finishes the set.

ChrisShaffer · Nov 18, 2011

Goodjob. I can't play until next week at the earliest. I vote for Xcal to keep playing, then Yamps after.

Keep killing Ragnar.

Xcalibrator · Nov 18, 2011

I'm happy to keep playing and will have time this weekend, too. Glad you thought about the AP, kcd--I'll do as you suggested (and pay attention to which of Rag's cities are Confucian--we still want GLH more than anything, though, right?). The fighting will get harder from here because we'll be going up against well-cultured cities. I'll have low-promoted units take the first shots when possible but may bypass hill cities defended by LBs for now. Advice welcome.

I'll have a cuir escort the GM, trying to balance speed with payoff. Ulundi might be good. It would be good to have Econ by the end of the Taj Golden Age so we can switch into Free Market--nice that Mansa went with that instead of Merc'lism.

What should we do with the settler on his way from Philly? Settle by the mountains (on the southern hill or in the desert with handy forests?) or somewhere in the hub to block Shaka and maybe enable a canal to the south-central ocean? Here (1st screenie) is a view around the mountains. I vote for the desert--2 forests to chop for a theatre and then we can farm.

What do we want to do with our next GG? Settle in Boston for XPs or use on another supermedic? I vote for the former.

We need to decide pretty soon--Taj GA starts in around 7 turns--whether or not we're going with the culture bombing ploy; gotta start growing Great Artists if so.

[Edit: Wash will pop a GP just a couple turns after Houston. If it's a Sci shall we bulb Chem or save for Astro (which requires Compass)? I guess I lean toward Chem for the extra workshop hammer and frigates (which also need Astro).

Will kill enemy scout with archer#1.]

SteelHorse · Nov 18, 2011

Good work
Take Ragnar out - defy AP vote if needed.
Is it worth it to get Optics for some Naval defense before Rifle?
Agree that Rifle is next path.
I would use GG as second medic and whip out a second wave of cuirs during GA to start on Asoka.
Two WEs from Asoka - be careful.
How many artists would we need to culture bomb cities in all 4 mountain locations? Can we estimate the numbers of turns to get?
desert location sounds fine for next city.

ChrisShaffer · Nov 18, 2011

Why a theater?

Xcalibrator · Nov 18, 2011

T164/1040AD continued...
Archer1 kills a scout. Healed cuirs from Shang attack Roskilde--we lose 1 unit but kill 5 or so. Roskilde is now pop6 and has a granary, Lhouse, copper, fish, and sugar. Advance 5 cuirs 1 more tile and see 2 berzerkers and a sword.

T165: Wash done with cuir, starts LB(2). Boston done with cuir, starts cuir(1!). Great Merchant born in Houston--he'll take 7 more turns to get to Ulundi or uMgun, 10 to Timbuktu, 15 to Delhi. Wash pops in 4 (84% Sci). Cuirs find Uppsala (60%) which has the GLH! Plus 2LB, Berz, HA, sword, and 2 cats. But it's on grass.

IBT: WE attacks our woody axe near Ayodh--we lose. Our trireme by SF fish dies to a caravel.

T166: We pick off another scout and chariot to our west. I'm clearing the way for our settler to take the desert spot by the mountains--there's not much free land left. Chicago has 1 unhappy and 2 unhealthy--Taj in 3. Houston goes back to growing. Southies now have Nat'lism. Nobody has Astro yet, nor PP. I don't want to trade Nat'lism at least until we have the Taj done. Ooh, Rags now has knights--1 in Uppsala, 9 units total. We have only 10 cuirs that can attack it this turn. Odds are not good--70% best. I don't want to throw away units...yet...so I turn to pillaging and looking for softer targets.

T167: Our pike dies attacking a WE but we finish off 2 of them who advanced past Ayodh. I pillage and advance in Norseland. Northies (Liz, Khan) are the only ones without Guilds. They'll give Mono and Drama plus 100 (all) gold. If that ever decreases I'll do a trade for Drama and gold. They also now have Nat'lism. Our breakeven is now barely 10%.

T168: Ah, Jelling (western coast of Norseland) only has berz, LB, and sword with 20% defense. We have just enough cuirs within reach and take it without losses. It has pop11 with a granary and Lhouse, wine, corn, and whales--keep it. Uppsala now has 15 units, including 4 knights. I have a few trebs on the way--if we can knock down the defenses then it should be pretty easy but right now it ain't gonna work. I choose Ulundi for our Great Merchant--3 turns.

T169: The Taj is done, our Golden Age starts. This is a good place for me to stop because there are many decisions to be made. But first... 3 cats venture outside Uppsala--goodbye. Hello--Birka has 40% with 2LB, berz, and spear. We're set to take it next turn.

Status: We have a Great Sci in Wash who can bulb 1962/2808 for Chemistry. Under our Golden Age we're running breakeven around 30%, giving us ReplParts in 2 and Rifling in another 12. Chem would finish in about 3 after bulbing. But... we have a Great Merchant who could reach Ulundi next turn. I don't know how much that gives us. But at 100% research we're running -318 gpt, 846 bpt.

That's without running any extra specs, which we want to do under the GA. We should also consider adopting Confusion and revolting to Pacifism to pump out the GPs. But of what kind? Our settler is on the desert by the mountains, ready to settle this turn. Now or never. If we run an artist and build culture it'll pop in 3 turns, that might give us control over an adjacent forest to chop for a theatre. If we drop the artist after getting the iron mined we could build 5 culture per turn plus the theatre's 3--something like 20 turns to a 3rd ring border. 2 rings (the BFC) might be enough to see inside. In any case, if we want to get some Great Artists it would be safest to start running artists in dedicated cities now. Edit: Note that if we run Confusion we get a lot more AP votes--need to check if this is enough to prevent any resolutions from passing without defiance.

Or... do we want to go for paratroopers? But what if there's only one "open" tile inside the mountains occupied by barbs, or a city? Then we'd have to use nukes. :crazyeye:

I'd like to go for the culture-bombing method, even though we don't know what's inside any of those mountain rings yet. We're going for a 1000-pt GP next. It's 200 steps after that. Set Wash up for Sci's, Boston can slow-grow an Eng (and other stuff, not that slowly), Philly for Sci's, Seattle for a Mer and later an Artist, LA for Artist, Houston for Artist. I've set up the cities to rough out a plan and will try to quantify where and when for GP pops.

I have galleys nearly finished for SF and Seattle--holding out for galleons because of the caravels.

Log is very long so I post it separately.

Xcalibrator · Nov 18, 2011

Save link

Spoiler log :

I'm happy to play more but we need agreement on how to proceed.

Xcalibrator · Nov 18, 2011

SteelHorse said:
Good work
Take Ragnar out - defy AP vote if needed.
Is it worth it to get Optics for some Naval defense before Rifle?
Agree that Rifle is next path.
I would use GG as second medic and whip out a second wave of cuirs during GA to start on Asoka.
Two WEs from Asoka - be careful.
How many artists would we need to culture bomb cities in all 4 mountain locations? Can we estimate the numbers of turns to get?
desert location sounds fine for next city.

AP vote never came up!

I didn't check to see when the next one comes. Again, if we adopt Confusion we gain a lot of AP votes.

I don't think we need naval yet, but it would be handy (for frigates to bombard defenses). What I'd like to do is ReplParts(2), then run at 100% with Trade Mission money for Rifling(5), Economics (?) to finish before the GA ends and revolt into Free Market, then bulb Chem and finish in 3, trade for Compass, then start Astro and bulb the rest when Wash pops, ...

I don't think we should whip much, if any. Our cities are big and particularly productive (hammers and commerce) during the GA, and we need extra citizens in the lesser cities to run lots of specs if we're going to get enough 3 or 4 Artists. I'll work on a rough timeline for GPs tomorrow. I'd like to spread Confusion to all cities that need to pop GPs quickly so we can run Pacifism, at least during GAs. Capturing the Parthenon (still don't know where Ragnar has it) will help a bit, too.

[Edit: Boston was getting 69 hpt before the GA--it must be close to 1 cuir per turn now. And Chicago is now freed from building the Taj. I have it working on a forge for hammers and happiness and then it can turn to military units--we have pretty darn good production now. We're being slowed by the culture of the core cities; I have some trebs on the way but it'll be around 10 turns before they can get to Uppsala and knock down the defenses so the cuirs don't suicide themselves. In the meantime there are some other cities to take. We'll probably have cavs in 7 turns and can upgrade some cuirs then in the cities we've captured, and the trebs will be arriving very soon after that. Just as a thought, we might consider taking 10 turns of peace (after taking one more city). Chicago is already hurt by WW.

Oh, and yes, those WEs were a pain--took out an axe (woody in forest) and a pike before they died. I have a spy in India and haven't seen any more. StratAdv screen doesn't know if he has more ivory or not.]

ChrisShaffer said:
Why a theater?

I'm hoping we can get enough culture without a bomb to at least see inside the nearest mountains--if there's nothing there then we won't need a bomb. It could be that only one of the mountain rings has anything in it so we only need 1 Artist. I think running an artist to pop the first ring and then getting extra help from a theatre for the next ring is the fastest way to do it, at least if we can chop most/all of the theatre.

SteelHorse · Nov 19, 2011

Are we sure the culture bomb approach is best?
Are we better off using GS to bulb towards Physics after Rifles for an airship.
This will give us a chance to peak inside all 4 of the mountain areas sooner than using an artist to look inside 1.
Do we want to trade Guild for Optics and Drama and Gold?
Are the CHs more valuable than Cuirs at this point? More Cuirs mean shorter war, less unhappiness.

Xcalibrator · Nov 19, 2011

Xpost with SH: No, we're not sure the culture method is best but it's going to be a loooong time before we get airships. More intell now is needed, even if it's incomplete. CHs were tentative builds, but they're cheap (for Philo's) and if we run Pacifism we want to hold off on more units for a little while. More cuirs at this point won't be a big help--we need better units: cavs for punch, trebs to knock down high-culture cities that even cuirs/cavs can't handle, and may be a few rifles for defending stacks (if they can keep up, maybe with Woody2 or Guerilla2 promos) and captured cities.

------------------------------------
Comrades! The game ends Dec 10, 21 days from now. We have to keep moving. If Yamps can't play this weekend I humbly suggest that I keep going.

Apostolic Palace: There are 5 turns until the next vote, and 2 votes until the next election. Shaka has 190 votes (double), Mansa 14, and Rags only 3 now that we took his biggest Confu city.

We have 106 votes but can double that by adopting Confusion. We can also spread it to a couple big cities to get even more votes. Currently 194/313 votes are needed to pass a resolution. About 260/419 would be needed if we adopt Confu, with 212 of those votes ours. Most of our cities have Confusion, but Philly and LA (where we plan to run many specs) are among those that do not.

War weariness: Our big cities have 4 WW. Chicago has 1 unhappy but is working on a forge (which will then put it further in the red on health, requiring a harbor or grocery). Philly has 0 happy reserves.

Research: With my tentative spec assignments (and during the GA) we'd have -300 gpt at 100% research. Breakeven is around 30%. I'm guessing that a Trade Mission to Ulundi will yield around 1500 gold (but if anyone knows how to check in advance, please do so and check other cities such as uMgun and Timbuktu). Liz/Khan will still give us Mono+Drama+all their gold (70) for Guilds; they are the only team to not have it.

Misc: We need 7 more XPs for our next GG; taking another Viking city next turn should do it. I've left a couple forests for lumbermills since we're so close to ReplParts (could get next turn). Boston can build West Point in 8 turns (after we use our unused promo on the chariot to get to Level 6--I suggest Morale for +1 movement). We should gift some resources to the Westies for diplo points, particularly if we adopt Confusion. Shaka/Mansa will balance, Liz/Khan don't matter much because we will kill them next and they're technologically backward. Asoka has several knights on the way to the front (seen by our spy). If we want to bulb most of Chemistry (which I suggest) we need to do it before we trade for/get Optics (which opens the Astro bulb). Nobody has Astro yet but everybody has Optics. (Hmm, I'm a bit confused--not sure if I mean Optics or Compass here.)

Suggestions

We just started a 12-turn Golden Age. Revolt to Confusion and Pacifism and pump out the GPPs.
Have Wash finish its cuir and then build 2 missionaries for LA and Philly so we can gain the Pacifism GP bonus. I'd then go for a bank.
Have Boston build a monastery (giving it 44 base hpt, or 99 for military units), then a missionary for our new desert/mountain city, then West Point.
Settle by the mountains, run an artist, build culture or start a monument. (We don't have Drama yet for theatres and also may not be able to claim the adjacent forest from the English until our first border pop.) When we can, chop forests in our culture and after we trade for Drama, chop out a theatre. It might be fastest in terms of culture production to sometimes build culture while working the iron mine instead of running an artist. We can also spread Confusion here to gain another 1 cpt.
Next turn, take that southern Viking city, beat up other Eastie units, and take 10 turns of peace. They're spamming knights and we can't take their nice cities with just cuirs. It'll take around 10 turns for our 3 trebs to reach the Viking frontier. And in 10 turns we should also be able to build cavs. Asoka will probably be able to overwhelm our defenses on his western frontier within a few turns--we need time to get better tech and more units. And WW is becoming a problem.
Bulb our Great Sci toward Chem, then trade Guilds to Northies for Mono, Drama, and gold.
Start cuirs in many places but hold off on finishing them until we get Rifling. I'm assuming that partial cuirs would then finish as cavs. Can someone confirm? But we'll want one completed cuir to use as a 2nd supermedic.
Before the GA ends, revolt from Pacifism to Theocracy, and to Free Market (assuming we have Economics). Consider changing Representation for Police State and maybe Bureau for Free Speech. Edit: If running Confusion hurts us too much diplomatically we can revolt back to Free Religion.]
When the time is right (probably immediately after the 10 turns of peace expires) attack the Easties again with cavs (mostly), trebs (bombard high-culture cities), and rifles (to defend our stacks, particularly in forests/hills).

I'll try to work out a GP plan. There are lots of assumptions but if we adopt Pacifism during the GA (but then switch out) I'd say we'll pop one from Seattle in about 8 turns, then Wash after another 4, then probably Philly, LA, Boston, Wash, and Houston. I'm aiming for 3 Great Artists for bombing, but we'll need fewer if some of the mountain rings turn out to be red herrings.

Xcalibrator · Nov 19, 2011

Yamps said:
I'll take a good look tomorrow [Saturday] to catch up, I can play when XCal finishes the set.

It's getting late in Croatia so I'm guessing Yamps won't post today. I'll wait until 8:30 p.m. Eastern US time (12:30 a.m. GMT) and if nobody throws up a red light I think I should play more, according to the plan I laid out above. I would only add that when in doubt I'll build wealth to speed research and/or provide money for cuir-->cav upgrades, which are pretty cheap. Yes, I'll be careful not to waste XPs when doing so (waiting until the 13-XP threshold when we have 11 or 12).

Xcalibrator · Nov 19, 2011

Really? Nobody but SH posts since yesterday? :rolleyes:

I'm not really comfortable playing without more discussion but I think we have to keep moving. As they say, it's easier to get forgiveness than permission, so...

T169/1090 AD continued: Revolt to Pacifism from Free Religion. Before: 235 bpt/ +103 gpt at 0%, 913bpt/-300gpt at 100% research. After: 213bpt/+94bpt @0% and 854/-309 @100%. Revolt to Confusion. I gift sheep and silk to Monte; he's the only one we're at negative relations with (-1). Found St. Louis by the mountains.

T170: ReplParts done, start Rifling. Attack Birka (5 units, 40% defense) at 75-92% odds and win all.

Birka is pop10 with granary, Lhouse, harbor, and Chouse.

Kill a cat outside Uppsala. We have a new GG in Wash. Ayodh now has 10 units in it, with knights on the way. We can't hold for long so I pillage. For peace, the Easties will give Mono, map, 120g, and 9 gpt. I consider taking only a ceasefire but I think we can put the 10 turns to good use--first treb won't get to the frontier for 5 more turns and we'll need time to upgrade and build more cavs after we get Rifling. Peace for 10 turns.

Great Merchant gets 1500 gold in Ulundi. Rifling in 4 turns at 100%. Spread Confusion to LA. Bulb Great Sci for 1992 toward Chem. Northies will give Drama (468 beakers) and all gold (down to 30 now) for Guilds. No go on Optics (936). I take it.

T171: Now that we have Asoka's map, we see that he has 1 iron, 2 copper, and 1 horse. Rags has 2 copper and 1 horse. I'm going to send our spy to sabotage the iron. St Louis borders pop and there are only 4 fogged tiles left, but it looks like it's just solid mountains. Curse you neilmeister!

11 o'clock so I stop.

The Save

Spoiler log :

SGOTM 14 - Unusual Suspects

Procrastination at its finest

Procrastination at its finest

Ultraviolet Catastrophe

Jag är Viking!½

Deity

Ultraviolet Catastrophe

Procrastination at its finest

Jag är Viking!½

Deity

Board gamer

Ultraviolet Catastrophe

Deity

Board gamer

Ultraviolet Catastrophe

Ultraviolet Catastrophe

Ultraviolet Catastrophe

Deity

Ultraviolet Catastrophe

Ultraviolet Catastrophe

Ultraviolet Catastrophe

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