SGOTM 16 - Fifth Element

[ZPV]

I'm worried by the fact that we can run out of time in generating GAs, needed for the LCs.

I also think that with MI slavery is all but useful. The less in the new cities, which are so small to cannot be whipped. At least until Sushi. But surely Sushi gives its best with Caste, where you can run almost endless specialists of the chosen kind.

The new cities all have seafood, and all have their work boats built for them. Thus, a 1-pop Granary, 1-2 pop Forge, Lighthouse, then courthouse when Mining is spread, etc.

For old cities, there are a few which won't need to whip their factories or coal plants.
For the rest, 5-6 turns building the factory instead of 2 means 3-4 turns' loss of wealth/research.

Running out of time to pop GAs? I don't really understand. It will mostly happen right at the end anyway, when we choose some cities of size 25+ (maybe larger due to Sushi) to starve, working all artists. When we get lots of cities pulling several hundred GPP/turn, it doesn't take very long to pop a lot of great people in succession.

 

[Shaandore]

Bad news: Communism Gspy is lost.
Good news: nobody has democracy. We can get SoL for sure if we want to.
BTW Hammurabi still doesn't have Physics, so we migth even try to get the GScientist from that. I guess he switched to culture generation. He didn't research anything in the past ~10 turns.
Even more good news: Thebes popped a GS, so we have a GP and a GS (and a GM for sushi) sitting around.
Mining Inc. trades didn't really happen, We could only get 1 gold from Qin so far.

Eight cities have mining Inc., and we have 16 minig resources. Thebes can get Mining inc. next turn, and the Factory just when we finish Democracy. It is now set to grow. Up to now I could manage to get every executive except one in 1 turn, but now we will have to do some 2-turn executives. Most ipmortant thing to decide for next set is the places where we start factories, and next tech: Democracy vs. Physics vs. Biology->Medicine.

I think that Hammu is not really teching. Saladin might be going for Rifling, since he just got Repl. parts. Qin is the main threat for Democracy, but only if we try Physics first.

There are 2 more sushi spots to be settled, one of them already has its settler.

SB doesn't really have any stack. (At least I couldn't see one. I sent the explorer to look around.)

We can capture Giza next turn, the Ram war won't take very long now.

In Gergovia I chose to use up food faster, since it doesn't really matter how many artists are hired each turn if we don't shrink in size, and we only work the corn and 3 food tiles. So we can now choose to stay on size, starve 1 or starve 2. The number of artists hired during GA will be 10, 16 and 21 respectively. I vote for shrinking 1 next turn. (5+11 specs)

Thebes will most likely beat Gergovia with the next GP.

Enough rambling, save gets attached soon. Done.

I would hand over the save once the GA ends, so the GPP micro and early MI spreading micro is not interrupted.

 

[ZPV]

Well played, Shaandore.

Straight to Sushi. We can think about picking up SoL or Physics after that. That should also bring Gergovia ahead of Thebes. (Starve 1)

Well, we'll want factories pretty much everywhere with Mining Inc. The only city I'd consider skipping it in is Paris. They all need to be slotted in, over the next few turns, and we also have to spread Mining Inc and tech to Medicine without crashing.

I suspect Hammy is researching Liberalism. His culture graph doesn't look like he's turned off tech.
edit: Maybe not - I forgot he part-researched it while we went for Liberalism.

 

[Shaandore]

I thought the same about factories, what I really meant is that we also need to keep spreading. I would like to assign 4 cities to build factories and plants now, so they can take over the spreading after that.
Paris can use a factory just like any other city: we are switching to FS next turn, so it loses the Bureau bonus. With a grocer we are healthy at size 14, and we can grow to 16 with an aqueduct while staying healthy.

For the rest of the cities, we will need slavery, so I suggest that we switch to Representation+Free Speech + Slavery. I guess GP generation is more important than Org rel bonus, so I would stick to Pacifism. If we are okay with a longer period until next Golden Age, then Org rel is very good as well for whipping factories.

If we go straight for sushi, we might lose SoL. You are most likely right that Sushi first has better returns. SoL would give us 36 specialists, but sushi gives us >10 food in every city, so we will run much more specialists with that. The Physics GS is most likely already lost, and we already have a GS for the next golden trio, so I didn't really consider that as an alternative.

This means that I will have to trade for SciMeth this turn. The only alternative we have is SciMeth+80g for Chemistry and Repl. parts with Hammu.

EDIT: I will post a PPP covering the 2 turns remaining from the Golden Age in a couple hours. I would like to finish my TS today. Folket, you are next on the roster. Are you ready to take over?

 

[ZPV]

I thought the same about factories, what I really meant is that we also need to keep spreading. I would like to assign 4 cities to build factories and plants now, so they can take over the spreading after that.
Paris can use a factory just like any other city: we are switching to FS next turn, so it loses the Bureau bonus. With a grocer we are healthy at size 14, and we can grow to 16 with an aqueduct while staying healthy.

For the rest of the cities, we will need slavery, so I suggest that we switch to Representation+Free Speech + Slavery. I guess GP generation is more important than Org rel bonus, so I would stick to Pacifism. If we are okay with a longer period until next Golden Age, then Org rel is very good as well for whipping factories.

If we go straight for sushi, we might lose SoL. You are most likely right that Sushi first has better returns. SoL would give us 36 specialists, but sushi gives us >10 food in every city, so we will run much more specialists with that. The Physics GS is most likely already lost, and we already have a GS for the next golden trio, so I didn't really consider that as an alternative.

This means that I will have to trade for SciMeth this turn. The only alternative we have is SciMeth+80g for Chemistry and Repl. parts with Hammu.

EDIT: I will post a PPP covering the 2 turns remaining from the Golden Age in a couple hours. I would like to finish my TS today. Folket, you are next on the roster. Are you ready to take over?

I don't think losing Pacifism hurts as much as you think - Gergovia has National Epic anyway, and will be able to run more specialists post-Biology. That doesn't mean we shouldn't seek full use of it this turn, of course.

Yeah, that's the only available SciMeth trade. We've got to do it now, since there's so much overflow from AL.

 

[Shaandore]

PPP until I hit enter at the end of next turn

Cities:
Switch every city builidng wealth to factories. Cities that have MI or are about to get it can start their factories unless they have more important things to do (helping new cities, building executives). Keep some cities on wealth so we can get to Medicine faster.

War:
Capture Giza. March the east stack towrds Giza and heal the injured for one turn, while the healthy guys from both stacks move to Harappan. Bring 2 Privateers and 2 galleons to the area for safe transportation to Hieraconopolis island.

Send the rest of the Privateers to form blockades. (Target SB and Qin since Hammu gets Chem this turn, and Saladin might get it very soon.)

New cities:
Settle the remaining sushi spot. One old city produces 2 more settlers for the 2 fillers.
Keep on spreading Hinduism.

Civics, GPP
Switch to Free Speech, Slavery and Organized Religion next turn. Strave Gergovia now with 11 specs, and hire 4 specs next turn. (Better than starving next turn due to Pacifism bonus)

Diplo:
Trade Chem+Repl Parts to Hammu for SciMeth+80gold.

Research:
Keep slider low enough to have enough money for MI spread (60% -> -6 gpt, but we get 80 g from Qin and we only do 2 spreadings next turn.) Research Biology.

 

[ZPV]

I don't think you should completely mass-produce factories.
Only cities which have Mining Inc, or will get it in the next 2 turns should build theirs right away (obviously with the exception of some executive-producers) - the other cities should stay on wealth so that we can get to Medicine ASAP unless a particular city has very high production without it.

Apart from that, looks good!

 

[Shaandore]

I can play tomorrow morning if I get enough green lights until then.

 

[ZPV]

Looks good to me

 

[Folket]

Look good to me. Good luck on that great merchant.

 

[Folket]

Blubmuz, am I on deck?

 

[Shaandore]

@Folket:
According to the 1st page, you are next. If you are busy, then ZPV is next. But actually whoever can play fast turnsets should pick up, we are running out of time. IMO at least 60 turns more are needed until game ends, and we will have a lot of micro to get every objective in the end. Maybe we should start playing shorter turnsets so one doesn't need a week of freetime as active player.

@All: since a lot of time passed, I'm playing now despite the low number of reactions to PPP. I hope I'm not crossing anybody's plans.

 

[Shaandore]

Notes to next player:

Executives:
Lyons->Galleon 3 (Chartres) -> Chartres
Apache->Uzbek
Paris->Gergovia
Tolosa->Verlamion
Thebes->Heliopolis

War: our cannons are all badly injured, but the remaining 3 citites of Ram are lightly defended, so we should move on. I would bombard with the badly injured while the lightly injured can heal to max, so they can attack next turn.

Missionaries are headed south to southern island citites. We have Org Rel , so we can start producing Missionaries more efficiently. (Memphis and Elephantine could spread to newly conquered Ram cities)

Avignon settler is planned for the unsettled sushi spot. The Privateer that is blockading Yangzhou is guarding the enterance to that sushi city.

A Privateer and a galleon is headed south to help transportation, and we have a privateer and 2 galleons on the south of our landmass (Calleva Area) headed there too. There is one more Privateer (the westernmost), that could form some blockade on a Chinese city. AN injured Privateer is headed to SB's lands. They can heal while blockading IIRC.

A fishing boat NW of Marseilles is headed to Toulouse; an other is being produced for Bordeaux, should be able to cross through the fort, which is ready next turn. There is also a Privateer taht could go blockading once that fort is ready.

A fishing boat near calleva is headed to the crabs near Brest. 3 of these southern cities will need some military police. We could send some low experience muskets once the war is over.

A worker on the Brab island is building a fort (I accidentally started a workshop, misclick), so we can send in a ship to kill the Galley, and 2 workboats for the resources.

 

[Shaandore]

I somehow missed SB's stack, it might have been in the ocean already. He just declared with 5 Galleons. Landing next turn at Tours.

Good news: he only has medieval units. We have Chicken Pizza, and we can upgrade to Machine guns. We are in slavery, so we can whip defenders if needed.
Bad news: we currently have 1 warrior in Tours, and an incomplete Railroad system. There are 5 workers nearby that can build railroads.

I'm sorry guys, this is a big screwup, we migth lose a turn of MI spread with this (if we upgrade the warrior, our money for spreading is gone.)

I feel bad handing over a save like this for the next player, but my turnset has ended.
:suicide:

I will help with the defense plan as much as I can.

Log attached.

 

[Folket]

Well played.

This is my got it.

I know I'm a slow player but I have vacation and will put a goal of playing 5 turns a day. I will post the first PPP in a few hours.

 

[Folket]

We have also managed to get three shrines. Blubmuz, could you update our progress page?

 

[Folket]

I think our third corporation should be creative constructions or civilized jewels for the extra culture in our legendary cities. Probably civilized jewels as we are not generating great engineers.

 

[ZPV]

It's not the end of the world.

I'll try and determine whether the stack will attack amphibiously. If not, we'll just build a few musketeers, move our cannons over, and destroy it.

 

[Folket]

I will try to have some reasonable questions.

Why are we building a library in Pi-Ramesses? It has one town which Heliopolis will take over once it has grown two steps. Is it because it is cheap specialist slots?

I see room for twelve more cities that those marked. They are not that useful yet but very soon they will be. To me building 16-17 settler in the next 20 turns is a good idea.

So unloading in BTS takes all moves unless you unload in a city right? So if Paris was undefended for one turn that would be fine?

 

[Folket]

PPP
Tours upgrade warrior to a machine gun and finish the half built musket. Unless ZPV is confident that warrior and musket will prevent a amphibious assault. In that case I will use money to spread mining inc instead.

The four cannons in Apache will move east. they should be instrumental in decimating the invasion force.

In the south Harappan will fall this turn. In three turns Akhetaten will fall. In four turns Heraconpolis will fall to a amphibious invasion. I could kill Heraconpolis in three turns but but it will not be as safe for our galleon. If we loose it, that would delay the war victory.

Paris builds a machine gun. Have two workers build a railroad on the corn.

Get Medicin then research rifling.

I will build mostly factories and wealth. I will not allow beakers at break even to go below 1k.

I will make sure to be building on five executives every turn.

Workers will prioritize to connect all cities with railroads. Then mines and workshops. Possibly farms somewhere.

Uzbeck will build a settler.

Get a market in Thebes for happiness.

I will try to build a few more settlers as well.

Please come with feedback fast so that I may play and make a new PPP tomorrow.