Tax rate 740 AD

Which tax and science rate

  • A. tax=30% (84/35), sci=40% (5 turns), lux=30% (recommended)

    Votes: 3 60.0%
  • B. tax=20% (58/35), sci=50% (4 turns), lux=30%

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • C. tax=70% (200/35), sci=0%, lux=30%

    Votes: 2 40.0%

  • Total voters
    5

TheViking

The world is not enough
Joined
Mar 31, 2001
Messages
776
Location
The N hemisphere near fire and ice
This poll is intended to determine our tax rate. Option A is recommended by both the domestic and science ministries, it results in a decent science rate (5 turns) and some cash ($50) per turns which will be used to rush buy stuff like caravans and settlers. We would then switch to 50% science later on after some caravans and settlers have been built/rush bought.
 
The hides caravan is 4 moves away from Bombay and still has movement left, so it will get there in 3 turns (800ad). To avoid wasting beakers, we should either complete research on Medicine by then, or else be somewhere around 1/3 done so the delivery can finish the job. If we go with the recommended tax rate of 40%, we’ll probably be about 75% done and the caravan will be stuck in no-mans land for a couple turns waiting for medicine. That’s no good.

Decisions, decisions, decisions!

Here’s my dilemma: Should I suggest we go after this the way I probably would do it myself, or should I stand firm on protecting the turf of the Science Ministry?

To heck with turf, let’s have fun.

I’m changing my mind and voting for the 0% science option :eek: although I’d actually prefer to keep 10% just to keep things moving a little. If it does end up being 0%, just make sure we have an Einstein to push techs over when/if camel deliveries fill the box.

We have a lot of things we want to build just to get our infrastructure set up. We have a lot of improvements in progress in cities that need to build other stuff. We want 7 settlers. We aren’t able to capitalize on the things we know now, so I’ve come to the difficult conclusion that rushing to complete research on engineering and sanitation will do us little good. Once we get a sewer in Dou, we’ll want to start celebrations soon, but without Shake’s that will be difficult to grow more than a few more citizens. Even at 60% luxuries, it takes a specialist to keep the redheads away in Dou. When we do start to celebrate Dou, we should be ready to bring at least a few more cities along with it. We definitely are not ready for that.

So I now think we need to just bite the bullet and spend the money to improve the infrastructure. We’ve got about 600g worth of rushbuys, just to finish the improvements in progress, not counting any camels or settlers. That doesn’t even begin to address bribing barbs.

This goes against the grain for what a Science minister is probably supposed to do, but I think we should pull back the research for now. Only the Indians are close to us in techs, and even they’re not that close. Let’s put this thing away now.

If we have a hundred-or-so gold per turn to spend, plus the caravan deliveries when they start coming in, we should be able to get most of what we need before too long.

So I say…
Rush the Dou caravans!
Complete the in-progress improvements!
Start the camels walking!
Get those settlers shoveling!
Rush Newton and Shakes!!! (probably with camels)
Establish internal trade routes!!!!

If any AI starts getting close to any critical techs, we can turn on our science at 60-70% and jump back ahead in just a couple turns. In the meantime, we just become stronger.

My Deputy Science minister will probably try to get me impeached ;) for essentially abandoning research at this time, but that’s the way I’d play if it were my game. I’d rather get the trade routes and SSC wonders now instead of trying to do it a little bit at a time. More research doesn't help us if we're not prepared to take advantage of it. Half measures rarely work well. If we’re going to improve internally, we may as well commit to it wholeheartedly.
 
I totally agree:goodjob:
We need to improve in practically every area, so cutting down on research might be a really good idea. The caravans (and a low science rate) could give us a tech no and then.

Get the wonders, settlers, improvements and routes we want now, start celebrating later and get our cities up to 12+. Hopefully most cities will have decent production and trade to get techs every 1 or 2 turns after that. Roughly speaking...:)
 
I now agree with Tim, I was too sleepy when posting the poll and voting at 2 AM to notice the caravan delivery timing nuisance (when posting the poll I regarded 70% tax/30% lux as a crazy choice but I put it there just in case). Delivering the caravan when we are almost done discovering a tech is a big waste so high taxes are better. An alternative is to delay the delivery but we want the cash ASAP and the caravan also could get killed by barbarians or from a sneak attack. And, as indicated by Tim, at the moment our infrastructure simply sucks.

This enables us to greatly accelerate the Global Domination Plan by rush buying improvements, caravans and settler at a much faster rate. The Ministry of Domestic Affairs will publish a list of recommended actions in the next several turns soon. This will include rush buying of marketplaces (so the cities building them can start building caravans ASAP), rush buying some caravans (to speed up Isaac Newton's College) and settlers. I also think a few (maybe a third or so) of the upcoming caravans should not be used for wonder building but for domestic trade routes. This is especially true of big cities that do not have a trade route yet. A particularly obvious example is Neu, I think we should deliver it's about to be finished caravan in Dou instead of using it for wonder building. In contrast, caravas from a city like LC would be used for wonder building. And BTW we will need more triremes soon to ferry caravans and settlers, maybe BS should build one in the near future.
 
Originally posted by funxus
Hopefully most cities will have decent production and trade to get techs every 1 or 2 turns after that. Roughly speaking...:)
I once played a game where I discovered three techs in one turn. Several times in that game I also discovered two techs in one turn. I had a huge SSC that was generating well over 1000 beakers, a lot of caravans and perfect infrastrucure (MPs, banks, SEs, libraries, universities, superhighways in almost every city). This followed a roughly 20 (IIRC) turn shopping spree with 0% science (but still several discoveries thanks to caravan deliveries).
 
Top Bottom