[BTS] SGOTM 26 - Unusual Suspects

[kcd_swede]

What is the scientist doing? Not too surprised at Oracle... Stonehenge so late seems to have been an aberration.

New plan? Plan B (or was that Preparation H?)

BTW- I am gone incommunicado until late Sunday, from now. I hope you all have a nice weekend!

 

[SittinDown]

Well, it makes Priesthood pretty useless at the moment.

• GS is currently sitting on his butt, but that's just 1 turn. I can move him to where we anticipate building an academy.
• S Paya - ....I don't think I've ever built that. Interesting idea - lets us wait on mono, monarchy, and philo routes to focus on Astro. I'm hoping more scouting helps us find out if Peter is isolated on that side. I'm guessing yes, otherwise one of their WB's would be poking around at this point

Any thoughts on Construction? Archa-pult attack is pretty sad, but it might work against a non-metals rival.

 

[Zhary]

I've built paya sometimes for free religion. If you want to lib something late and expensive for example radio and have gold the 10% bonus pays of the invested hammers. Lib radio in our game seems a bit risky though. At least I think it's the prophet wonder with most benefits for us.
I dont think we want to go to war before we know all the Ai in the game. Tech and bulb optics should be our top priority.

 

[SittinDown]

• SP seems like a good fit. Should be easy to build - low risk of getting sniped, that one tends to go pretty late.

In light of missing oracle.....

• Do we still want MC now?
• If not, do we head right for Aest -> Lit and get going on the GLB?

MC is base ~450
Aes + Lit is ~500

 

[SittinDown]

Rough draft PPP:

• Tech Metal Casting.
• Keep whip/chopping Mids in Bib.
• Keep growing cities and working good tiles. Get libraries in place so we can run specialists when Mids is done.
• Scout Peter.
• Scout unknown land south by SB. (Had parked the chariot for now in a spot where i could see units in both Poverty Point and Cahokia.)
• Any thoughts on whether we should / shouldn't build GLH? For now, it's just a fail-gold dump, but Tolosa has a decent shot at finishing it.

 

[Zhary]

Aest and lit seems to be better. We are not in a hurry for forges glib gives us more.

I still vote wait for un rather than build the big shiny house.

 

[SittinDown]

Cool - sounds like there's no support for GLH.

We'll leave our Merchant options open, and let GLH go by. Colossus, Eiffel & UN all have merits. UN probably best of the bunch, though Eiffel saves us from teching Mass Media.

 

[SittinDown]

PPP:

• Research Aesthetics.
• Run slider at 0% until we have enough for Aesthetics.
• Repeat for Literature.
• Scout Peter.
• Improve gems.
• Chop / Whip mids.
• Grow Western cities towards Granary and Library, and LH's. Put some overflow into GLH for fail gold. DO NOT FINISH GLH.

Questions:

• What to build in Vinnne - it only has units or useless buildings [dun, aqueduct, palace]
• Other considerations?

 

[ChrisShaffer]

With aggressive AI, it might make sense to build a few more units in Vienne.

 

[Zhary]

Green
Dun is not useless is required in the end. Maybe better with units now anyway.

 

[SittinDown]

Ok that works. I'll make a couple of chariots in Vienne.

(Dun is required, but I was figuring, it's more efficient to build it later when there's a +25% bonus. Efficient overflow whip at 12 hammers, so might save it for when we can use it more, or at 4 hammers with +50 bonus).

I can play this evening in about 12 hours.

 

[SittinDown]

NOTE:

I will be away starting 8/1 through 8/8, so someone else should be ready to play. I'll trust everyone's judgement while I'm gone - keep it moving.

 

[SittinDown]

• Great lighthouse is built - gets us 76 fail gold.
• Peter offers to trade wine - so he has monarchy. We accept in exchange for a furs.
• Got fail gold from Temple of Artemis. It was built in the same city as Stone-henge. So we probably have a wonder spammer somewhere.
  
• Aesthetics in.
• Literature in.
• It's now 500 BC.

Mids should be in ~ 12 turns.
Can OF whip Dun into GLB in Gergovia now.

Found a 4 food-island on the far side of Peter. We're actually quite close to circumnavigating.

Spoiler Images :

 

[ChrisShaffer]

I see a couple of 3 food islands, but not a 4 food island.

 

[SittinDown]

Good point - my mistake.

 

[kcd_swede]

Metal Casting was more to get us to Optics than to build forges right away. I could go along with a path that helps the science rate instead, as long as we don't forget that we have 2 cities to settle and see nowhere better than in place at the moment. How long to wait?

I see Priesthood as still a good path if we then get CoL and make some courthouses. Currency is not as attractive since only domestic trade routes would be added. Exploring is still key. What would we need to tech for the GSci to bulb Optics? Maybe we should tech alphabet, MC, and Compass and then bulb it. But we'll get another GSci before then, so settle or academy would be best for the moment.

The longer we wait to settle our 7 cities, the slower we approach our goals and the farther we fall behind.

I see no value in doing archery/HBR and horse archer rushing SB. We get more from friendly relations than we would from taking his land. The same is probably true for any other AI we can presently reach.

Exploring first; economy only in so far as it speeds the time to astro.

 

[Zhary]

Well played
I agree that Alpha is our next tech. If Peter has monarchy and know sb we might get something from him. Otherwise we open up research build and astro bulb.
For astro bulb I think that we are in a position where we can bulb compass, optics and astro but has to tech machinery and mc. I would suggest we tech calendar for mom after alpha otherwise it's bulbable to I think.
Would be great If someone confirmed this. Also I think teching Col would block compass bulb.
For the wonders:
I thought that car would be better for glib in the long run but to speed up astro bulb it's better with Greg since that city is more mature.
Spaya/Moai would be best in cal since its poor in rawhammers and has lots of seafood.
Mom in Vienna maybe.

 

[Zhary]

An intresting idea when we have mids:
We settle ironcity for the military benefits and buy all the buildings in the city with us.
I haven't done any calculation on it yet just wanted to hear what you think...

 

[SittinDown]

Exploring is still key.

I think we've maxed out our sea-exploration without optics / caravel.

 

[kcd_swede]

Well played
I agree that Alpha is our next tech. If Peter has monarchy and know sb we might get something from him. Otherwise we open up research build and astro bulb.
For astro bulb I think that we are in a position where we can bulb compass, optics and astro but has to tech machinery and mc. I would suggest we tech calendar for mom after alpha otherwise it's bulbable to I think.
Would be great If someone confirmed this. Also I think teching Col would block compass bulb.

From the Link Deckhand provided early in the thread:

Bulb order Great Scientist:

Writing
Mathematics
Scientific Method
Physics
Education
Printing Press
Fiber Optics
Computers
Laser (BTS)
The Wheel
Alphabet (BTS)
Philosophy
Chemistry
Fission
Fusion
Optics
Paper
Astronomy
Biology
Electricity
Flight
Genetics
Compass
Satellites
Aesthetics (BTS)
Sailing
Alphabet (Vanilla & Warlords)
Calendar
Medicine
Ecology
Advanced Flight (BTS)
Iron Working
Metal Casting
Engineering
Steam Power
Liberalism
Agriculture
Masonry
Bronze Working
Machinery
Gunpowder
Refrigeration
Superconductors (BTS)
Rocketry
Fishing
Combustion
Plastics
Composites
Stealth (BTS)
Mining
Military Science (BTS)
Radio
Meditation
Drama
Theology
Music
Civil Service
Democracy
Corporation
Communism
Economics
Hunting
Archery
Animal Husbandry
Construction
Robotics
Monotheism
Mass Media
Horseback Riding
Replaceable Parts
Rifling
Artillery
Future Tech

So it looks like after we tech alphabet, GSci would bulb compass. So we could tech alpha, bulb compass to trade for monarchy or MC or... tech MC/machinery, bulb Optics, bulb Astro while avoiding anything that enables Paper or Philosophy, or Chemistry, or Edu or PPr etc.