Yep, I was going to mention the speed of play as well. However, I also view all this as an exercise, so even though you had progressed in a suboptimal way earlier, at least we see the decisions you are making and can correct them. Also, by posting up saves you always have something to go back to to try again.
IW is indeed not a good thing to tech early or at all. On higher levels this fact becomes even more pronounced. It is something you can easily trade for. Which brings up a point I call AI priority techs. AIs tend to always emphasize teching on certain paths, with military type techs (techs providing military units or strat resources) being a priority. Techs like IW, Maths, Construction, Feud, Machinery, Engineering, etc. As you move up levels you really have to focus your tech paths in ways that are not only optimal for the human player and the map, but that also help setup trades. With that said, this is Noble, so with our help you should be teching at a much faster pace and sometimes will tech some things you may not on higher levels.
Mysticism tech not necessarily bad here as it gives you Charismatic monuments (+1
), but both of your cities are far from needing one currently.
Poly is not something you need. It does nothing for you. Writing should generally always be your priority after the initial food tech and BW. I'm inclined on this level to probably tech AH before Writing. AH provides the bonus with POT on Writing. AH is not really an urgent need here but the pigs could be improved sooner than later, and seeing if Willie has horses would not be a bad idea since if he gets them online, chariots will pose a problem for Axes with their innate bonus against them.
So I would probably go something like AH>Writing>Maths for now. I notice you are running 90% research, so may have not seen both Sampsa and my discussion on the slider, or did not understand it. Again, either 0% or 100% for now. Queue up AH and run 0% for the # of turns needed to then finish it out..probably 2 or 3 turns at 0% to bank gold. Rinse repeat.
Builds:
Obviously time to start building Axes. Remove the warrior in Pers and start an axe which can take the chop from the worker, who I assume is chopping that tile. Parg did not need a Monument, but might as well finish it and start axes there. Worker down there can start chopping forests around Parg for axes.
Slavery:
Parg obviously is not in a position to whip, but has the strong copper tile to work so chops should net a few axes from there quickly. Pers has growth potential, but one issue is that two pop whips there are impossible with the powerful pigs tile. This leads to a bit of an explanation on whip mechanics.
Each whipped citizen is worth 30H. Ideally you whip 2 or more citizen to produce something - a settler, worker or unit. In fact, slavery is a great way of turn food into production as settlers/workers are built with both food and hammers. This is why we state that "FOOD = Production"
Unless an absolute emergency, one does not whip something immediately, that is, with no hammers in the item, as this incurs a penalty.
Axeman is a good example to explain. Axeman cost 35H. In order to two pop whip you cannot put more than 4 hammers into the Axe. (35-30 = 5 so 4H or less production to 2pop) At 5H into an Axe then it becomes a 1 pop whip. Now some 1 pops are not necessary a bad thing for a military unit. However, 2 popping an axe gives a lot of Overflow hammers which will often simply complete a new Axe in 1t.
(note: also, whipping multiple citizens at a time helps against the happiness penalty, as you incur only 1
(10t) citizen for the whip no matter the amount of citizens whipped)
Now the problem with Pers, well it really is not a problem, is that the city has 8 base hammer from tiles worked. So setting up 2poppers in Pers is impossible. But this is not a big deal here as you have plenty of forests to chop. So that is what you will do, but maybe 1pop whip one or two axemen that are near completion.
Parg can simply slow build axes straight-up and take chops. It is only size 1 anyway.
You should be able to get out a nice stack of 6 to 7 axeman quickly, which is what I think you need here to start the war...maybe followed by a couple more as Willie may get a new city. But Amsterdam is your first target.
I laid out a little plan for you in the screenshot for Pers worker actions - the letters denote the order of action:
Note that at site B..the worker will chop and then road tile..a strategic road for axe movement from both cities.
Axes will congregate on the border where I marked for now...no reason to move them out of borders until you have a sufficient army. (It costs unit maintenance if you do)
So I would follow those steps until you have 6 to 8 axes and then stop and report.
edit: Note ..you might actually stop the moment Willie settles his first city. I recall when of you later plays that he settled somewhere SW of his cap. The placement of that city might change you attack path, but I don't recall the timing of his second city.
edit2: Hmm..more I think on it, I think 1N of the spot for axe congregation is better. So after chopping/road on tile B, I might chop the tile that original marked for axes to stand and road that too, then follow the rest of the plan. (the other chop spots are river/grass tiles ideal for cottages soon which is why I prioritize them first) The road on B and the other spot are for Axe movement but also give some progress later for road toward Dam.
Reason I like spot in NE corner of Pers borders, is that if Willie settles where I think he will it will change the attack route, but still is same distance if we do decide to attack Dam from the SW instead of NW. (in other words finding the fastest attack point to Dam at the corners)
edit3: Oh..meant to mention that Pers should take Silk tile from Parg and have one of the citizens working that 2F1H1C tiles instead of a 2F1H. This goes into the city micro concept. Always work best tiles, even if unimproved. No reason not to get that extra 1C.
If you don't know how to switch tiles between citizens, I'll explain. Both Pers and Parg share quite a few tiles, but Parg took the silk tile into its domain when you settled it. It's easy to change that. Go into Persopolis city screen and simply click on the silk tile. You will see it light up as a workable tile for the city. Now click again and one of the citizens will move there. (Tiles worked by citizens are marked with the white circles)
For advanced play, you will monitor your cities closely, and tiles worked, especially in the early game. All these little differences, like the extra 1C make a difference.
but you are still able to move your units, it makes most sense to revolt right after you have built a settler.
(you can see it by checking out old thread over in the SGOTM forum..a new SGOTM is pending)
-value for your techs. This doesn't mean that the trade is bad for you - it's "free" tech for you anyway. I don't think you need to be very concerned about giving AI something, unless it's a key military tech. But in general, you should be trading a lot. There is no diplo penalty for not accepting their offers, so you can always decline when they pop up and return to the trade screen later. Selling techs for gold is especially good.
