OK, I have taken a look at the save. Lots of good stuff going on
but also a few problems.
Draft PPP
Primary Goals
- Conquer Suleiman!
Or at least start doing so....
Research and Tech Trading
- Complete Writing, then start Alphabet. Check each turn to see if we can trade HBR to Victoria for Alphabet. If/when available, do so. From pure beaker costs, I am guessing we will need to put maybe 4-5 turns (sustainable rate) into Alpha to make the deal work.
Diplomacy
- Catherine and Victoria are both willing to sign OB. I think we should immediately do so with both.
- Cancel sheep giveaway to Louis as soon as we are able (3 turns).
- Keep an eye on possible resource deals. We could do a sheep (or cow) deal for fish with either French civ right now, essentially a neutral deal for us (and we will shortly get our other sheep back anyway). I suggest waiting until we reclaim our sheep, then trade it to Louis for his fish. This will continue to accumulate resource-turn trade points with him, eventually giving us +diplo.
- Once Writing is done, should we sign OB deals with other AIs? All on the favored list? All? Other?
Worker Actions
- Davy should continue roading to connect Marble Arch to the rest of our civ. We are losing out on trade route revenue (plus happiness in MA) due to the lack of connection.
- One of A/B/C should head northeast to help road connect MA. Two turns would be lost in moving
but we need more worker support for MA. We could do work along the way (partial tile improvements), delaying the arrival to help by a couple turns, but that may be better. MA won't pop borders for maybe 15-16 turns so we have some time. Alternately we could keep all three south.
- Other two (or all three) of A/B/C move to improve other deer for CS, as military cover allows. That Suleiman archer is very annoying.
If not able to improve deer, prepare another mine.
City Builds and Management
- SL builds HAs.
- HF builds HAs.
- CS builds axe (to deal with that archer and/or cover workers, plus possible future anti-spear duty against Suleiman). Then HAs.
- MA finishes granary, then starts monument. Afterwards barracks.
Both SL and HF will grow into unhappiness almost immediately.
We have good tiles to work, so I am reluctant to aggressively whip away pop to control unhappiness. That only works short term, or if you are planning to build some workers/settlers to allow whip anger time to wear off. How do we want to handle this? We could use more HAs...maybe always keep one whip anger counting down, but not stack the penalties?
Unit Management
- We have 2 warriors out of our borders, warrior 1 north of MA and warrior 2 to the west. I think both should be brought back inside our borders, as we are shortly going to be paying support costs as our army moves into Suleiman's territory. These two are not really gaining us much by being outside our borders, and will add to costs.
- Alternate idea for warrior 2: head north and explore Catherine's territory after we sign OB in a couple turns. It will cost us some money, but might be useful knowledge later.
- Our scout is unfortunately way out in Louis' territory and not available to be a medic.
I think the best we can do is explore westward to find out more about that barb city -- is it an island? Reachable through Louis' territory? Need to be careful of Suleiman units, but also could probe Ottoman borders to learn more about future targets.
War Planning
- Declare immediately (this turn).
- Grab the worker south of HF using a chariot. Depending on what is defending that new city, we could either destroy it first (say if only warriors are defending) or leave it alone until later (archers on that hill). If spears are present we will need to reinforce the chariot to keep the worker.
- Note that Suleiman has copper at his city of Ankara, south of the new city. Ankara has expanded borders which will cover the copper, so we must assume it is hooked up and spears will be present.
Do we make Ankara a priority target to disconnect Suleiman's metal, or do we push for his capital and hope not to find (m)any spears? We can always shift priority if we find the capital too strongly defended, so I am tempted to at least try to rush the capital.
- We have 5 HAs and a chariot available to move towards Suleiman's capital (leaving one chariot to take the worker and assuming it does not need immediate reinforcement). These move east into enemy territory, then push for the capital to see how strongly it is defended.
- Additional HAs (those that have already moved this turn, or newly built) flow forward as reinforcements. We may need to divert an HA to deal with that archer to the west of CS.
Miscellaneous
- Catherine has a settler moving south, to the west of the mountains. She will presumably grab some of the territory there, maybe including the copper. Not much we can do about it, just keep an eye on the area.
- Do we keep all EP on Catherine?
Stopping Conditions
- Any AI other than Victoria shows up with Alphabet.
- Any close neighbor declares war or goes WHEOOHRN.
- Victoria is willing to trade Alpha.
- Meet the final AI and can learn the hidden objective.
- Serious threat (AI or barb) to any of our cities.
- Something unexpected.
- 5 turns pass. I feel war turnsets should generally be kept short, to allow for team input and to avoid mistakes not getting spotted and corrected. Maybe play a couple blocks of 5 turns, then handover?
, then build cottages and work them. Things will get easier when we get to Currency and can build Wealth.
Just to mention that we should look out for some roaming Sulei units, most specifically an archer west of CS. I think the city with minor micro could do an axe in 2 turns to protect our resources there. Also, I guess it's evident but workers ABC can't go to the other deer now if we declare this same turn.
).
The other England (assuming the pairing of leaders per civ pattern holds) would be the final AI, with the hidden objective revealed if we meet them. So I am assuming they will be very hard to find/inaccessible.
I thought any trading with WEs leads to penalties.
