Team Bede Gets to Know Each Other

[Ghostwind]

Ok before I went on to my turn I made the trade.

CoL to Maya for 110 gold
CoL to Spain for Map Making and 25 gold
CoL to Korea for Math
CoL to India for 25 gold

Iroquois are the only ones I didn't make the trade with, as they only have 1 gold to offer in exchange and will not pay gpt. No civ has a tech that we don't. All civs are broke and will not pay gpt for any techs.

Will I go to the next turn and find that somehow Iroquois has gotten CoL from someone? Will the AI somehow get a better deal for it than I can, even though Iroquois is broke?

I also dropped lux slider to 10%, raised research to 90%, and dropped the entertainer in NY. Will get Republic in 2 turns rather than 3.

There's some things I have to do so I'll finish off my turns in a couple of hours. I've saved the game right after the deal and before moving to the next turn in case someone has some input.

~Ghostwind

 

[azzaman333]

Iroquios probably traded math for CoL with india.

 

[Ghostwind]

Iroquois doesn't have CoL,..yet. I was trying to decide whether to give it to them for 1 gold because they would somehow broker a deal for it with another civ that would benefit them both. I'd prefer to make sure no one benefits from trading CoL except us, but giving it away for 1 gold seems like a waste. If I could get 20 or even 10 gold for it I would do it for sure.

~Ghostwind

 

[azzaman333]

I misread, but Iroquios will probably trade math to India for CoL.

 

[Bede]

Nice trading round. I think I ran it a little differently but the outcome was the same.

 

[Ghostwind]

Ok, I forgot we cant build warriors anymore because we have swordsmen. So I just went with a worker in Orlando.

1225 BC: Moved settler down by frisco (didnt even see him there before) toward horses. Moved a warrior to garrison NY because we will have issues there when pop hits 7. Moved another warrior into Spanish area to scout.
Moved 2 workers toward WA and Seattle to work the area ASAP. Didnt move any workers already busy.

1200 BC: More of the same as far as warriors and workers. Settler built in WA. Sending him west of Orlando. I'm a little worried about this because of barbs. Scout down by horses is boxed in by barbs. He won't survive. Checked all civs and India now has a monopoly on Polytheism. India wants an arm and a leg and it looks like we will get nothing for it by selling it to other civs, so I passed on buying. Might be wise to allow the civs to catch up a little on tech anyhow. We learn Republic. I chose Currency next since our productive cities will not need aqueducts and we need to make the switch to Republic. Our government descends into anarchy.

1175 BC: A barb horseman shows up west of Orlando, threatening our workers clearing wetlands there. Moved the workers into the city as well the wounded warrior near there. We have 2 warriors in Orlando now, and there is 1 Barb horse, but I fear there are more where that came from. Being in anarchy does not help. Damn.

1150 BC: Another barb horse, this time from the North. Sent a spear out from WA, a warrior from NY, and a warrior from Philly to garrison Orlando. Looks like they may make it in time. Evacuated workers from Orlando in case all goes badly and sent them up toward NY where they will work on a hill. Thinking about working a gold mountain for coin when we come out of anarchy. We will probably be in bad shape for a few turns. Now have 3 warriors garrisoned in Orlando.

1125 BC. Barb horse decides to skirt Orlando to the south. I think he's after our settler that's nearing his horse location to settle. Sent out a warrior to flank him. Added a spearman (from WA) to Orlando. May send another warrior out to the west. He may die, but something has to be done.

1100 BC: Settler and escort arrive at horses, find a barb warrior to the SW. We are on a hill. Hopefully things will be ok. Barb horse N of Orlando moves south into jungle. Horse SW stays where he is.

1075 BC. Attacked and killed barb horse west of Orlando. Attacked and killed barb warrior SW of horses. Sent a warrior from Orlando to bolster garrison soon to built city by horses.

1050 BC. We made it to our republic. Because we have such a big bank, we'll be just fine. Researching Currency in 7 turns at -25 gold per. We have 230 gold in our treasury. Micromanaged every city and unit for optimum performance and checked for trade possibilities. Everything still basically the same as last time.
There are silks to the west of Orlando. Going to send a settler there and try to squeeze Iroquois out from under them. Warrior being sent down to Houston (horse city) runs across another barbarian warrior. May have to rush warriors in Houston to survive. I hope not. If I do though, I will make sure the box has at least 1 shield in it already. (Didn't have to)

1025 BC: Destroyed 2 barb horses and 1 barb warrior. Orlando is safe. Sent spear and settler garrisoned there out to settle 1 tile from silk. Various other minor worker moves, etc.

1000 BC: Last turn, turn before NY built barracks, started in on swordsmen. Settler and spear move closer to settling spot. NY area almost done being worked. Workers will build the gold mountain (I know some of you object, but NY has the food to spare). Maybe after that irrigate the last flood plain.

975 BC: Warrior spotted barb encampment NW of Houston, will attack it next turn. Various other worker and unit moves. Checked trading opp's. Nothing to speak of.

950 BC: Warrior takes barb encampment, loots 25 gold. Washington build settler. Workers begin to mine gold mountain SW of NY. Buffalo settled near silks. Barb horse spotted across water NW of NY.

My turn is done. I may have taken 1 extra turn, but I wanted to finish what I started, and I spent 4 or 5 turns in anarchy anyhow. I suggest the settler built in WA be sent to jungle spot 1 tile north of the wounded warrior NW of houston. We are 2 turns from currency.

We still have a monopoly in the Republic, but I'm not sure how much longer that will last. Unfortunately, there isn't much to trade for out there.

I'll edit this post with the save and an image as soon as I can.

~Ghostwind

 

[SpikeIt]

Nice job on the trades. I worked it a bit differently myself and used horseback instead of code of laws (keeping our monopoly intact). Early on, with civs not contacting each other, monopolies sometimes exist, if only to a particular civ. I bought Math and 1 gold from the Iroquois for Horseback - okay, maybe not the wisest since it opens their UU. Spain gladly handed over MM and their 25 gold for Math. The Mayans were pleased to give all 110 gold for Horseback and India handed over 25 for the same. Net result - everyone is bankrupt and we still hold the CoL monopoly. Either way, we get all the tech and everyone is bankrupt. Horseback seemed a cheaper tech to deal with than CoL though.

As opposed to Bede's use a monopoly to trade, I'll often look to see if its cheap enough to pick up something other's lack so I can use that to trade around instead. In this case it seemed to work better as I didn't have to break our monopoly to keep our edge. As the levels ramp up, this situation seems to appear more often than using the monopoly only because its often seems less likely to ever have a monopoly. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Ghostwind]

I hear ya, SpikeIt. I didn't know if selling HR would work as well as CoL, and I wanted to make sure I bankrupted them. Thanks for the tips.

I'll tell ya what. My game has improved markedly since I began this little experiment game. I am playing on emperor and holding my own in one game, and kicking a** in another.

I'll be sending the save and image here in a second...I just edited my above post for my turn log rather than make a new one.

One other thing: I decided not to settle the 2 settlers out roaming in anarchy till after the republic came along. I heard it helped with deciding how many anarchy turns you get.

~Ghostwind

 

[Ghostwind]

Ok here's the save and an image that emphasizes the new city by the silk and the area I think needs to be settled next. Houston (horses) is a little SE of the screen. The whole thing wouldn't fit on the screen I don't think.

~Ghostwind

Edit: I guess it did fit...nevermind

 

[namliaM]

Holy canoly... You guys have REG spears? Wow .... Good thing the monk is not here...

*Runs away, sits in a corner*

 

[Ghostwind]

I didnt build 'em!!!

And there are only two. Just two...really and truly!!

 

[Ghostwind]

SpikeIt:

As opposed to Bede's use a monopoly to trade, I'll often look to see if its cheap enough to pick up something other's lack so I can use that to trade around instead. In this case it seemed to work better as I didn't have to break our monopoly to keep our edge. As the levels ramp up, this situation seems to appear more often than using the monopoly only because its often seems less likely to ever have a monopoly. Just my 2 cents

.

I'll keep that in mind, definately. I need to learn to trade better to survive on emperor. In this case, though, no matter what we traded, it looks to me like we will actually be needing to help the other civs along. Unless of course, we are going for a conquest or domination victory. Even then, though....forgive me if my memory isn't serving me well, but what is our goal for this game?

Will we finish it? Play it alongside the SGOTM? Or just drop it when the official game starts? I'll probably play the COTM and GOTM as well. I'm starting to feel pretty confident in my game after all I've learned in such a short time.

~Ghostwind

 

[Bede]

Roster check:

residuetiger - up for another round
Bede - got his knickers knotted
SpikeIt - got us out of the jungle
azzaman333 - held the course
Ghostwind - got us out of Despotism

Everything shows you guys are thinking, and good call on mining that mountain. It is still a little early but it seems there is beaucoup food up there.

Spike has it right on the trading scenario: look for the gap in somebody's knowledge tree and try to fill it. Look for opportunities where buying a tech will give you an opportunity to acquire another and then another.

Sometime around the BC/AD era change we can loook around and start to figure victory conditions. As long as we have room to expand let's just keep doing that, then think about where to go next.

 

[Ghostwind]

Got it, boss! Things should get interesting in the next 10 or 20 turns. Spain has a settler moving into our territory by NY. Maybe we should force him back? Or let him settle somewhere, allow the city to get to 2 pop, then take it for ourselves.

I think we need a lot more workers. After we build the barracks, I think we should build some before moving on to swordsmen. There's an awful lot of clearing to be done.

~Ghostwind

 

[Ghostwind]

Here are some thoughts on what we should do next:

After building the next settler in WA, switch to marketplace and chop those trees to the SE to get it faster. We need coin badly. However, that land to the SW of our civ won't be there long. Maybe wait till after 2 settlers, but...well, WA's pop will be a bit low if we do this.

After barracks in Residueville, build a settler to compensate for WA not building one. Or just build one anyhow. It's close to the area that needs settling.

Send that warrior scouting Spain to Seattle for MP and build a settler there too.

Build a temple in NY after the next swordsman. Or maybe a settler.

There's not much land left available and I think we should rush over and grab it. As a matter of fact, it may have been a mistake to build those barracks. I maybe should have switched to settlers and grabbed that land ASAP. Maybe it's not too late. I am not sure. Even if the land is gone by the time we get there, we can send at least one settler to the SE of our land.

Just my thoughts. I'd be interested in hearing others as well.

~Ghostwind

 

[SpikeIt]

The urge to build settlers elsewhere is tempting, but Washington can churn 'em out every 4 turns. Plus the population is recovered in 4 turns. So in 12 turns, Washington can build 2 settlers and still be size 6. I don't think we can do better elsewhere.

 

[Ghostwind]

Gotcha. Hopefully we'll be ready for war by the time it comes back to me.

~Ghostwind

 

[residuetiger]

i've got it

I'd like to have some pre-turn discussion, if that's ok. Throw some suggestions at me if y ou would please.

res

 

[Ghostwind]

I pretty much threw my thoughts out there a couple of posts ago.

Sometimes I am overconfident about things I know which turn out wrong, and other times I am not confident about things I do right that I simply don't know are right.

As I've said before, I play by intuition. That doesn't mean I just guess, but that I make the best educated guess based on how things seemed to have worked in past games.

This is basically the reason I've been stuck on monarch. Even on that level, I screw up sometimes, mostly on Pangea maps.

I'm trying now to change that. That's why I've come to this site. When we started this game, I had been a member for 2 years, but with only 13 posts. Now I have much more in just a week. And my game is improving.

Having said all that, I just started the monthly COTM yesterday, and made some early mistakes that will cost me any type of really good score. Damned pangea maps screw me up everytime.

My point in all of this is that my advice isn't always sound. I don't mind being criticized for it because it will improve my game. That's why I throw out whatever it is I would do and tend to be vocal (so to speak) about it.

Caveat emptor, I guess, when it comes to advice from me.

I'd build 2 more settlers in Washington then switch to Marketplace. I'd build a temple in NY so we could handle larger pops without having to change the lux slider for just one city. I'd build swordsmen in the other cities that can do so fairly quickly, and workers in the ones that can't.

I'd settle the area between Houston, Orlando, and Residueville ASAP. It won't be there long if we don't. That may mean making a settler in Residue because it's close to the area. I'd build a galley in Philly, put a settler and swordsman in it, and send it around the coasts.

I'd go to war with Spain as soon as I could and take all that land, and I'd finish them, not settle for some land and make peace.

That's what I would do.

~Ghostwind

P.S. During the SGOTM I will keep my comments focused on the immediate task at hand. Thanks for enduring my endless questions and numerous long winded posts. Believe me when I say it isn't in my nature to do those things. I just really want to improve my game to make it to emperor. I've been on regent and monarch for sooooo long.

 

[Bede]

Only thing I would change in the Ghostwind program is build a market in New York rather than a temple if you want to use a building to handle happiness. And if Wasbington stays on settler duty as it should then we don'e need a market there.

In short, keep expanding if there is room, build the military and some more workers, and get us ready for the Spanish inquisition.

Can't go wrong building settlers workers and military,

Push the borders to the SW towards the Koreans into those dry plains.