The Order of the Knights Templar

[Manco Capac]

T126​

Going to irrigate those corns near the capital.
Ignoring the pagan Cyrus' ire, I traded CS+Music+285 gold with Ragnar for Feud+Construction. That might ensues next turn with trading away feud with Mansa (once in peace again) and Charlemagne.

T127​

Feud for MC+20 with Charlemagne.

Literature for 120 gold. (Genghis)

I give up my plans to snatch workers off Mansa with the exploring chariot. Make peace for 45 gold (could have done it for Lit last turn sadly) and will attempt to trade feud for Theo.

T128​

Sadly, Mansa is building a wonder from Theo. No possible trade. Maybe I should try to bring asap a missionary+spy there.
Traded MC with Cyrus for 70 gold.

T129​

Paper done. Will trade maps.
Start Nat.
Charlemagne was building the Schedagon Paya, not the MoM.
Cyrus got a great Engineer.

Traded Lit with Saladin for 30 gold. He is once again CAUTIOUS.
Mansa is going Divine Right tech. 7 turns to go for him.

After trading map, I see Saladin hasn't started any Theo wonders yet. I also see Djenne seems to be the chosen city for Mansa to build a wonder, but he has barely started.

T130​

Cyrus rushed the Sistine Chapel. Indeed, AI always rushes bigger wonders in term of hammers first.

T131​

Traded Philo with Mansa for Compass. Looks like he was manually teching it because he is asking 10 gold on top of philo itself.

T132​

Traded pigs for fur with Ragnar. Ragnar got Theo. I get it for Philo.

T133​

Now we have our third GScientist. Enough to get a fast Lib.
Switch back into Slavery and I chose this Theocracy as we'll pump strong cuirassiers.

Scythian is ours thanks to Charlemagne who diligently weakened its defenses for us as a good future vassal. Free two workers.

Mansa is looming towards Lib as he has 4 turns left on Paper.

T134​

Traded Compass with Cyrus for his 70 gold.

T135​

After bulbing through Lib. I traded with Charlemagne Paper and Theo for Machinery and 50 gold.

520 AD. MoM is ours.

T138​

I am one turn away from Libbin' MTradition. Gunpowder should be the next tech in line and then wrap up the game by dominating everyone with cuirassiers.

 

[Sengir]

Got it, will look at the save tonight.

 

[Sengir]

Looks good. My set will be pretty straightforward I suppose: Bulb MilTrad, tech GP, get barracks + stables in place in most cities.

There are two missionaries in Vikingland, I suppose they are on route to Mansa?
The missionary being build is better used in one of the former barbcities (either Bactrian or Hsung-Nu), to get the Theo benefit.
Why is Thessa building a marketplace? I don't think we'll get much use out of it.

What do we tech after GP? Engineering will be nice for the extra move, so that would get my vote.

 

[astre]

something we should talk about is the order of killing ^^
do we start with gengis? (most likely approach)

will see the save tonight for more comments.

 

[pigswill]

It appears from post #1 that we're meant to control the Temple of Solomon in order to win, it hasn't been built yet. Do we need to work on a Great Prophet?

 

[Sengir]

Played until GP was in, also popped a GS. Quite uneventful set. Only one scary moment when the horns sounded, but it was Ghengis declaring on Sally.

I've set tech to Engineering, but Mansa will finish researching it next turn, so maybe we can swing a deal.

Anyway, next player will have to whip some horses and get the army rolling, then we can start eating up some AI's.

 

[Cam_H]

Thanks for the turnsets.

Uncertainties / Talking Points?:

Like Sengir, not 100% sure of our tech' path from here. Rifling? If so, do we bulb Great Scientist (Printing Press), or merge him into Constantinople, or set up an Academy in Antioch? Do key commerce cities warrant a Uni'?

It could be argued that the Heroic Epic will pay for itself quickly (only marginally more expensive than a single Cuirrassier given our Marble). If so, Thessalonica or Hsung-Nu?

Given we have the Mausoleum of Maussollos and Marble, is the Taj Mahal on our radar? If so, where?

With all of these proposed (non-unit) builds, if we go that path rather than 'Cuirrassier whip frenzy', should we move into Organised Religion?

Health is becoming an issue - perhaps trade our Incense for Rice with Saladin, and make the happy up later by putting a Plantation on Scythian's Spice (build Culture there for the border expansion)?

Can we afford to settle near the Stone as Charlemagne's imho likely to take it if we leave it bare? Is this even an issue?​

Roster (as I understand it!):

lymond
pigswill
nocho
Tachywaxon
Sengir
astre <<< Up
Cam​

 

[astre]

I will try to make propositions tonight

 

[astre]

PPP:
Tech toward print press
Assign more cottages to cap (one at a time)

Builds:
Constant : cuir
Tessalonic : cuir
Adrianopole : barrack &#8211; cuir (might need CH instead)
Nicaea : forge - cuir
Antioch : barrack - cuir
Nicomedia : barrack - cuir
Hang-su : forge - cuir
Bactrian : forge &#8211; CH - cuir
Scythian : granary &#8211; forge - barrack - cuir

will road west of cap to prepare invasion

we can sell marble or ivory to charles (9 gp). any opinion?
where do I stock our army? capital?
how could we get great merchant point in tessalonica?

 

[Cam_H]

Righty-o ...

We should build The Heroic Epic in a unit pump city and therefore not trade the Marble until we've done so.

I don't know what plans we (you) have for the Great Scientist.

I'd get the border pop in Scythian by 'building culture' for three turns so that we can access the Spice tile.

 

[pigswill]

Will GS bulb PP (assuming we're heading towards rifling)?

 

[astre]

did not saw the GS yesterday
No idea what to do with him ^^
bulb pp might make sence.

PP will increase our gold and that is enought for me in the short term.
We could continue to riffling but that is not an obligation ^^

It is not yet a plan by the way, it is a draft afor discution

 

[astre]

ammended PPP:
Tech toward print press (bulb) then engeniring (part trade for it)

Builds:
Constant : cuir
Tessalonic : heroic epic - cuir
Adrianopole : CH - barrack &#8211; cuir
Nicaea : forge - cuir
Antioch : barrack - cuir
Nicomedia : barrack - cuir
Hang-su : forge - cuir
Bactrian : forge &#8211; CH - cuir
Scythian : culture - granary &#8211; forge

will road west of cap to prepare invasion

we sell ivory to charles (9 gp)

 

[lymond]

bulb PP sounds fine to me. Maybe trade Paper for engineering with Rags once we get some beakers into it.

Are we gonna build Taj? Hung-Su might be a good place for it. Lotsa chops. Although this might be a good HE city too.

We are short on production at the moment. Need to whip those forges in like in Bactrian. 3 pop whip, then Bactrian can produce Curs at a fast pace.

Nicaea should be working more food tiles.

Adrianople does not need a CH.

 

[nocho]

Sounds good to me too. Taj with marble sounds like worth a shot.

 

[astre]

will try to play tonight with lymond propositions.

What about the great prophete we might need? (for temple of salomon)

 

[Cam_H]

Thank you lymond for your invaluable insight.

I wouldn't concern myself too much with the Temple of Solomon until we at least take out Mongolia.

 

[astre]

played until banking is in

teched PP, part teched eng (finished with trade), trade guild and teched banking.
nat epic is in. few cuirs are here also.

i refrained from whipping horses and grew quite big cities

taj mahal is in 2 turns (earlier if whiped but i don't think it is a good idea).

We are in force peace with gengis for 8-9 turns. He asked for break deals with mansa, i accepted for +1 :/

 

[lymond]

Yep...um...that is a problem

 

[Cam_H]

Thanks for the turnset astre.

PPP &#8230; Version 1a:

Golden Age

I guess my first issue is what to do about the Taj Mahal;

Assuming we complete it soon, do we swap into Caste/Pacifism/Mercantilism and run copious specialists in Constantinople (National Epic) and Thessalonica (with its &#8216;curious&#8217; level of points that we should leverage for one Great Person), therefore nerfing their unit productivity in the meantime? If so, enough points to get a Great Person out of each, or do we want to &#8216;go the whole hog&#8217; and starve down Constantinople&#8217;s population (and/or other cities) for more?

Alternately we can stall production of the Taj Mahal given our monopoly on Nationalism if we wanted to defer our Golden Age, and instead focus on whips (population reduction) and Cuirassier spamming (than pops and population retention for optimal tile usage). So &#8211; Taj in two turns or hold off for later?

Economics

I&#8217;m mindful that we&#8217;re pursuing Rifling, but Economics&#8217; Great Merchant&#8217;s still there for the taking. I suggest that we digress from the Rifling pathway temporarily and go after Economics. Once we get him (or &#8216;her&#8217; if Coco Chanel, or &#8216;it&#8217; if Zheng He!), do we keep him for a Corporation, a Trade Mission, or a Golden Age? The extra from Free Market would be welcome too.

Health

Unhealthiness continues to be problematic in terms of city growth. We can (a.) hook up our Bananas, (b.) cancel our Pigs export to Ragnar and replace it with our excess Corn, and (c.) while Spices require a Grocer for the Health bonus we should get that tile developed. I acknowledge there&#8217;s a lot of chops going on to help with the Cuirassier output, but I&#8217;d like to get the Spices nonetheless.

City Management

Whether we starve down Constantinople and Thessalonica with specialists, or not, will impact on how we manage these two core cities.

If we don&#8217;t go down the spawning route, than I&#8217;d leverage Thessalonica&#8217;s Heroic Epic and take production and food tiles off Constantinople. Constantinople in turn to focus on the villages/towns currently worked by Adrianople, while Adrianople gets the &#8216;dud&#8217; end of the tile redistribution.

Generally I feel that our empire has too many cottages and we&#8217;ve got our food balance/needs &#8216;out of whack&#8217;. Nicomedia&#8217;s probably the most glaring manifestation of this, where we have a city with no food resource being cottaged up rather than farms-workshops-watermills. Adrianople basically goes into stagnation or thereabouts as soon as we work the commerce-rich Incense, while there&#8217;s an unirrigatable grassland near Antioch which has been cut off from water due to cottaging. We have several cities which are therefore quite production poor and also food poor at a time where we&#8217;re gearing up for war. Our Workers are flat-out as it is, but I&#8217;m very inclined to get some Farms up.

Builds

I would seriously consider Grocers in Constantinople and Antioch for both health and wealth, but I am happy to press on with Cuirrassiers nonetheless. Nicea&#8217;s lacking a Stable, but at this point I would rather just get out the Cuirrassiers. Scythian could start on the Maoi Statues using whip overflow from other stuff. I&#8217;d like to get a Christian Missionary out of Adrianople up to Bactrian, but I fear time&#8217;s against us.

Therefore, thoughts?

I assume we should complete the Taj Mahal rather than defer it. Yes?

If we do get the Taj Golden Age, do we nerf our unit production in Constantinople and Thessalonica for spawns? Other cities to try to spawn Great People? Conversely, just make the most of the extra commerce and productivity that the Golden Age brings and not get distracted with Great People production?

Are we happy to go for Economics for the free Great Merchant? (This research will take up most/all of my turnset).

Other relevant comments? Cheers.