SGOTM 9 - jeffelammar

[Paul#42]

So this is the first post of page 43 and something has happened. Everybody court the prophet

Great move with the disbandment of Odense. It hurt but payed off!

Please remember to sell any cultural improvements before losing a city!
Let's "gift" 2-3 slaves with every city so he has instant power beyond resistance.

Let the games begin!!

 

[Jove]

Yes, all hail 42.

I've got it and am ready to go. Should have a save for you guys by tomorrow afternoon. Here's to the downfall of the Viking Empire!

 

[Jove]

Ok, here's the save: http://gotm.civfanatics.net/saves/sgotm9/Jeffelammar_SG009_AD1700_01.SAV

Yes, I only played 5 turns. It seems like a good place to stop and think, you guys will also probably enjoy playing this part, and I'm training for a marathon lately, which takes a lot of time. Let's keep moving, no more waiting teammates!

Pre-flight check: Verify this is the correct save. Resolve not to do anything silly.
Hunt down our workers, move some to become presents for Ghandi.
Note we're 9 tiles to the limit... Check around for culture expansion. New Alesund will grow in 11, hopefully Ghandi takes action by then.
Interesting, Celt's borders now touch India's, but they haven't met yet.
Attempt to breadcrumb the stray archer, and...

Ibt- Ghandi's archer captures our worker! I think he's tasted blood now.
A few builds complete.

Turn 1 - 1680
Switch a few scientists to taxmen.
Perform a few worker actions in our new homeland.
Try to set up a more appealing trail of breadcrumbs for Channel City.

Ibt- Renew peace with Celts.
Ghandi captures another worker!
Learn Free Artistry.

Turn 2 - 1685
Start Recycling, can get it in 10 at 40%, about +300gpt.
Sell cultural buildings in Molde.

Ibt- The Indians capture Molde and the Seti Program. They only net 27g though...
Another archer is taking the bait at Channel City!!!!!
Still more builds. In a nutshell, I'm going financial, avoiding culture until we back off the dom limit a bit.

Turn 3 - 1690
We're getting a lot of pollution. Turn down science to 10% to fund Ghandi better.
Just checking, Ghandi still doesn't have HBR yet.
Sell the venerable culture buildings of Channel City. The place had 7707 culture.
Since it is E-Day, start on the Apollo Program in Entremont to set a good example.

The Ibt we've all been waiting for....
GHANDI CAPTURES CHANNEL CITY!!!!!!
He steals 40g this time.
Another Indian spear is on the move.
Complete Shakespeare's Theatre.
Other builds, trying to get some more workers for Ghandi.

Turn 4 - 1695
Relieve Stavanger of it's defense.
Attempt more worker baiting... there's a spearman near Stockholm, let's see if it really works.

Ibt- Ghandi's spear ignores our worker, I guess he wants to re-inforce Molde. He is going after Oslo, however.

Turn 5 - 1700
Building Granaries in places where it looks like it'll do Ghandi some good. His pattern seems to be to starve off the population and cultivate Indian nationals. So let's help.

Notes:
-Ghandi has all the techs we gave to Osman. He's broke, and he still hasn't met Celts yet.
-We have plenty of settlers in Celtland if we want some new towns there. Careful though, we're still just 36 tiles from the limit.
-The breadcrumb thing seems to get results sometimes, but Ghandi has to be ready.
-It's time to decide- are we going to gift cities to Osman or Brennus? Gift them cash? What is the best way to encourage Ghandi now?

 

[Paul#42]

I rarely was so enthusistic about losing a city to the AI.

Remember to rather give him slaves than our native workers, he would not enjoy them too much as they will be unhappy when joined to his cities.

How about finishing off Osman now? We do not want him to sell techs to Brennus, do we?
I do not think we should let Osman take Spain as resource provider as Spain IIRC still lacks a second Aluminum source (needed for some parts and Apollo). We need to get Gandhi there or let someone (rather Celts?) get Spain plus another place with aluminum.

With Brennus having his capital in Delhi, he won't be prospering too much in Spain...

 

[denyd]

Wahooooo - Gandhi has finally come out of his shell.

A couple of things. We should probably introduce Brennus to Gandhi and give a chunk of cash to buy a tech froim Gandhi. Also we should be seeing a War Elephant soon, so get those warriors ready. Lastly, we should probably get a list of SS resources and their location to map out a startegy of getting them to Brennus.

The next couple of turnsets should probably see a couple more cities fall. Have we lost our FP yet? Do we have the replacement city picked out yet? Do we want to use the MGL for the FP or use pre-build?

 

[Paul#42]

We should probably introduce Brennus to Gandhi and give a chunk of cash to buy a tech froim Gandhi.

Do we have any chance to find out how much India wants to receive for these techs? I'm not sure how Brennus would deal with money he can't purchase a tech for...

Also we should be seeing a War Elephant soon, so get those warriors ready.

Yes, scare up those elephants! A nice stampede would be helpful

Lastly, we should probably get a list of SS resources and their location to map out a startegy of getting them to Brennus.

I remember some southern Island to have three resources there, aluminum one of those. Let's get those towns in Spain and that island to brennus. Let him keep Delhi as his capital for more corruption and as a twist of fate (and to back up our own decision).

 

[TimBentley]

Let's hope India chooses to build war elephants over flaks and TOW infantry. India chose to be a republic, their war weariness (read Oystein's article to see why they have such high WW now) must be hurting them (probably level 2 by now).

Do we have any chance to find out how much India wants to receive for these techs? I'm not sure how Brennus would deal with money he can't purchase a tech for...

I would guess something close to the cost it would take Brennus to research them. At one point I tried to figure out the cost of buying technologies, but I gave up when I couldn't figure out how to figure out the cost of empty techs.
Motorized transportation would cost the Celts 1920g to research. India and the Celts know each other; it seems like a motorized transportation for music theory, sanitation, and espionage deal would have been reasonable. (India also lacks printing press; the Great Library doesn't give some optional techs for some reason).

Lastly, we should probably get a list of SS resources and their location to map out a startegy of getting them to Brennus.

Aluminum, uranium, rubber (they have that one).
4 aluminums on Celtic island, 1 on Spanish island, one on an island south of Celtic island
3 uraniums on Celtic island, 2 on Spanish island
The Spanish island and southern island would work well.

We'll want to airlift some slaves to the home continent.

 

[pindicator]

Well, my RL time crunch went away a little bit... but it's not a good thing. Got laid off today. So tomorrow is job hunting!

Great work on Ghandi! I was wondering if we'd ever see that happen, but maybe I should stay away more often if this is what I'm going to come back to! I think we need another dancing banana to celebrate.



Agree on wiping out the Ottomans. The Celts are (relatively) ignorant of techs, so they will at least be able to buy some things. Everyone's giving good ideas just from what I've read and I haven't looked at the save direct. But I have a lot more time for that now, so I'll do so tonight and see if I can glean anything.

 

[Paul#42]

Well we already had some here lately but you can never have too many so feel free to join the party

When giving those resources to Celts we have a good chance to let them be traded to Gandhi. So there is no further use for Osman in this scenario. Does really nobody want to keep this nice guy around?

 

[Jove]

Last I checked, Brennus and Ghandi actually hadn't been introduced, so any resource deal will have to include a communication trade.

We could attempt to use both of the AI to trade with Ghandi. For resources we have four of, we could let each AI have their own set. I'm kinda playing devil's advocate for Osman here. Y'all want to hang him, don't you?
But of course, Ghandi may need money to buy stuff. Will the AI still trade tech for resources? How are their reputations? It's already been talked about, but if all the AI have plenty of money, hopefully the goods will flow.
Maybe we'd like to turn science down to 0% for even more cash. I mean, how bad do we really need either Recycling or Integrated Defense right now?
And one more repeated idea- instead of gifting towns with two of each resource to the AI, how about we gift them the resources we want them to have, then gift them towns with one of each desired resource. That way, we're essentially gifting them the surplus, but can retain possession over the actual land. Your inner control freak will love it.

 

[Paul#42]

Last I checked, Brennus and Ghandi actually hadn't been introduced, so any resource deal will have to include a communication trade.

We could attempt to use both of the AI to trade with Ghandi. For resources we have four of, we could let each AI have their own set. I'm kinda playing devil's advocate for Osman here. Y'all want to hang him, don't you?
But of course, Ghandi may need money to buy stuff. Will the AI still trade tech for resources? How are their reputations?

That's exactly why Osman should have to leave the scene. Brennus and Gandhi will have a good relationship if Osman does not tell Brennus something bad about Gandhi (could he?).
Also I see a small risk that both AIs trade the sources between them because Gandhi can not offer such a resource which they might rate higher than techs or money...

And one more repeated idea- instead of gifting towns with two of each resource to the AI, how about we gift them the resources we want them to have, then gift them towns with one of each desired resource. That way, we're essentially gifting them the surplus, but can retain possession over the actual land. Your inner control freak will love it.

This would be a smart move but after 20 turns (which is a very short snatch facing Gandhi going to space!) we would have the same problem, wouldn't we?
However we should keep a (weak) base on spanish island to encourage Gandhi landing some troops there and finally grab the whole island.

 

[denyd]

What minor wonders have we lost so far and which ones are likely to go next?

We might want to get a couple pre-builds on the Celtic island ready to replace them. We've got that one MGL. I thought we'd use him for the new FP.

 

[CKS]

Well, hallelujah. Ghandi finally made a move.

I'm having Internet access issues this week, and I haven't been able to check in regularly. If my turn comes up again before Monday, please skip me. (By Monday I'll be back at work, so I'll at least have access there.)

 

[denyd]

Just curious, but who's up and what's the current roster?

 

[jeffelammar]

Pindicator should be up. I thought he posted a "got it", but looking at it, it's not clear that it was a got it.

For the record...

Roster
Jove <== Played
pindicator <== ??? Wazzup Pin?
TimBentley <== Up in 12hrs if pindicator doesn't check in.
Paul#42
CKS
denyd
jeffelammar

 

[Paul#42]

So what are our current plans?

wonders
1. build every available great wonder except one (Manhattan?) to let Gandhi start on it and switch to Apollo when everything else would lose lots of shields.
2. build small wonders in Celtic Country as soon as they become available. Rush FP with leader - in Spain's Iron Works town?

Osman
rip him soon

Gandhi
1. continue selling culture of soon-to-capture cities
2. sacrifice slaves (not workers)
3. watch out for the elephants and ignite Golden Age

Brennus
1. Gift (build) him two or three towns (with harbors and airports) in Spain with 1 aluminum and 2 uranium sources plus the aluminum island to the south.
2. Always keep him solvent (not that he sells improvements needed for trading!)
3. Gift him contact to Gandhi

public safety
Some land units to Spain
Some ships to block Brennus and direct Gandhi to Spain

Research
optional techs slowly, budget has priority

EDIT: Expression

 

[denyd]

Excellent recap Paul#42 - I hope the next magic number isn't in the 80's , with me not having work access we'll never get to that many pages.

 

[pindicator]

Yes, this is me checking in! I definitely have more free time than I want to now. I'll play and post this afternoon!

 

[pindicator]

1725AD - the save

I liked the structure of Paul's to-do list so here is an update along those same lines:

Wonders
1. Only one wonder appears available to be built and that is Manhattan
2. A list of Small Wonder progress:

• Apollo was built in Entremont.
• Military Academy was built in Entremont
• Heroic Epic (re)started in Camulodunum (Celtic Island)
• Other small wonders yet to be started
• Careful on the culture that these wonders produce!
• MGL in place to rush Iron Works in Steel Harbor, or can wait until Stravanger falls to rush the FP

Osman

R.I.P.

Ghandi
1. Continually sold cultural buildings on border towns.
2. All slaves on mainland have been given away. I've spaced out the workers for more baiting opportunities and to minimize the risk of disbandment.
3. Elephants not yet seen
4. Ghandi captured the following towns: Oslo & Stockholm

Brennus
1. The gifted towns are set up as follows:

• Settler on the western Spanish uranium
• Celtic Alum (aluminum) ready to be gifted next turn
• New Honningsvag (uranium) ready to be gifted
• New Svolvaer (aluminum) ready to be gifted

2. Solvency can be maintained by cash donations
3. Brennus not only has contact, he has negotiated with Ghandi a boycott against us as well as a mutual protection pact with Ghandi.

public safety - the one area I skimped on
1. More land units in Spain needed.

• Entremont set up to produce either 1-turn MA or 3-turn Armies

2. More ships to blockade Brennus needed.

Research
1. Chugging away on Recycling with our 560gpt income.
2. Wall Street needs to be rebuilt

The nation
1. 31 tiles away from Domination
2. Check culture screen to target towns that are about to expand borders
3. Should we sell all culture producing buildings in towns that have had their first cultural expansion? At least for now.
4. Need to sneak in some border expansions in old Celtic lands so those towns can become full producers. Low priority

Finishing with a picture of Ghandi:

 

[TimBentley]

Got it. Where do we want the FP?