Without goin' to read carefully the War Academy (but i did in the past), i can say this: the harder you beat an AI, the better peace deal you can have. In some non compeitive solo games i experienced this: Take the last city i was interested ATM, save, ask for peace, decent deal. Reload, kill a couple units around, ask for peace = better deal.
About war weariness, it's proportional to the number of units outside your borders (minor) and the number of units you lose (major). On this matter i have the suspect that siege do not count (machine). Losing a city has a big impact (never experienced, but i've read of it). Can't remember if conquest has a positive impact or nothing.
But if i let the AI with only one crappy city this won't give nothing of nothing. At best his WM.
This can mean that if we take the NW city and ask peace we can gain a better deal than now. Take both the coastal cities can give an even better deal, but can drop in the "last crappy city" case. There's another problem, less tied to the AI behaviour: I have units to take a city quickly (just the time to arrive) without much problems, mainly because i can figure it will be lightly defended.
But:
1- i lack more catapults to sacrifice on a second target (i can use the injured ones to bombard and attack with the full health) but after the first city i need to heal
2- moving from the NW city to Kumbi requires 3 turns, assuming this unkown city is between the rivers, 1 more for attack, not considering the need to heal.
We can instead ask for peace right after the fall of the NW city, heal, add some cats and prepare the final push considering also the jungle city which we'll raze. We have 10 turns of forced peace, but we have an actual delay of only 6/8 turns for Kumbi.
There's another point to consider: Mansa was pleased with us, so he will probably agree on OB 1/2 turns after the peace or even immediately and this can be good for our economy.
Now, a plan which i'd like to be considered as a guideline for all the game:
As i said earlier, we can't whip indefinitely because there's a limit due to unhappiness but also a convenience in let our cities grow. I'm goin' to use again a comparison with our past game, which at least 4 of us know well, to have a common ground.
Let's take Paris (science city) and Orleans (production city). They shared 3/4 tiles and when Paris needed to boost production it stealed some hills from Orleans which in turn stealed some mature cottages from it. Or when we needed production in both at the same time, Orleans worked other improved hills otherwise not worked. There was also the coastal city (that was a real cottage helper) which when Paris can work all its cottages worked sea tiles. That was a good example of overlap cities well used.
Now, let's try to look at the situation of this game: we're relented in the land improvement by the jungle (wasted turns) and by the forests (immediate hammers).
Aside Vienna, which is a natural science city, as can be FurryFish, we do not have great production cities. Even worse, those cities have no natural commerce. Now, if we agree that a target size for any city is around 9/10, we can see that we need some improvements. Mostly cottages, maybe later some workshop. Without cottages we can't have a decent economy.
Looking at Prague, it's growing faster than the time i need to build its cottages. It's now size 6 and it's working the 3 mines, rice, 1 fresh cottage and an unimproved grassland (cottage ready next turn). Considering it will arrive to size 9, it needs 4 more cottages. It will be reduced to 4 this turn, but it grows fast, so at least 2 more must be built in 10/15 turns
Another rule can be: do NOT chop a jungle if you don't build an improvement immediately. No one of our cities has health problems, thus those are worker turns wasted. We can do that later.
The above are the lines i'd like to follow in my TS. Please give me your opinions.
Now, builds, to complete my plan:
- Aachen: finish axe in 2, archer. Both will later be loaded to protect the gold city. Stagnating due to happiness cap reached.
- Prague: whip CH (2 pop) then, depending by the overflow: archer or library. Library in any case soon, worker when back to size 6
- Vienna: whip CH, Galley (we need it to speed up ferries), slow build Palace with some chop, after the mine is finished
- Nuremberg (gems/ivory) not possible whip CH now, do it as soon as it is, then barracks - that city have good production and good food soon
- Augsburg: whip CH, then barracks or market
- Mainz (silver) same as Nuremberg. To note that silver comes on line next turn, marble next but first a road on the jungle to connect it with Augsburg: too long move to/from there without it. After the marble and the road the workers will move to improve the copper, which was under Malinese control 3 turns ago (pillaged fort)
- Ulm (horses): there's a sword ready in 1 turn, but we don't need it, so library, which is desperately needed, the sword will wait some turn. Working the cottage instead of the lake for investment
- Florence: finish LH, finish archer, granary. Iron mined in 2, then road. The worker can build a cottage waiting to move on the gold hill once we - hopefully - have the city in place and defended. Monument first in that city.
- Djenne: granary, whip when possible, out of revolt next turn
- Timbu: out of revolt in 8 turns (this is one of the things i hate in CIV, the turns to go out of revolt after the conquest are the same at any speed). Wait 1 turn, then whip the CH. If possible, wait another turn and whip a market. Or viceversa, probably it's better
We need also more workers (3 or 4), i'll see what is best.
The GG will be attached to the chariot as super medic.
Another thing to note is that our sword has just reached 10 XP by killing a scout, so the HE is open. Just the time to have Literature <sigh>.
) If we have a very long game, and find some other strong production cities, those cottages might end up useful. So please don't take this as an attack against you or anything, I just like to be precise about things so nobody gets hurt or feel neglected.
