Newly elected Chairman of the Chinese People’s Party, Profucious Garfield, paused to reflect on his appointment before beginning to look through the reports on his desk.
The former Chairman, a man who now was only referred to as Chairman C. C., had announced his retirement on the second day of the Party Conference of 1395. It had been a rather large surprise, despite the fact that he was rather old, because he had not given an unofficial announcement of the retirement beforehand. All regular Party business was forgotten as nominations for the Chairmanship were accepted and discussed at length. Strangely, on the day scheduled for the election of the Chairman, the outhouses were almost as popular as the Party Chamber, where the election would take place. Even more curiously, the sudden bout of illness did not affect even one man who supported Profucious Garfield for Chairman.
Chairman Garfield suddenly felt nauseous as a gust of wind blew the stench from the outhouses into his office. He immediately shut the window, poured some vinegar on a cloth and breathed through said cloth for a short period of time. The Chairman wondered for a moment if it had been a mistake to replace the mushrooms that were used for cooking on the night previous to the Election; he concluded it was not, but that “lethal” was perhaps a more appropriate characteristic than “laxative” for this kind of thing. The Chairman then remembered that travellers had reported that some foreigners had methods of disposing of human waste that eliminated the stench; some scientists were working on this problem now, but the Chairman immediately resolved to trade some Chinese secrets for the knowledge.
The chairman began looking over the city and regional reports. If they were to be trusted (and he would soon send his own men to determine if that was the case), the country was, generally, being managed properly. He sent out a few directives for changes, but was generally content.
(0) 1380: Rearrange some production, sell of courthouse in Straybow Canal and put scientists to work in the fields to up food production. Trade Explosives to the Germans (which they were researching) for Sanitation; switch production in Straybow to Sewer system. Change Turin production to Granary. Change TatuCanal prod to marketplace.
(1) 1400: Aztecs develop Communism, Germans get it via GL. Begin Metallurgy. Turin Granary, begin harbour. English: Demand tribute, they withdraw troops, give no money, and their attitude drops to Cordial. Build Xin on the Jian. Give Babylonians industrialization, which they are researching. Indians: demand we go to war with Romans. No. Demand explosives. Yes, I came to give that knowledge to anyway, because you are researching it. Give Romans seafaring before they cut talks off.
Chairman Garfield sat on the side of the road nursing a few bruises and small cuts. His carriage had run over a large hole, the wheel in question had broken, and the carriage had fallen over. Fortunately, he didn’t have the candles lit, so nothing caught fire. He immediately decided that there had to be a railroad connecting the important cities in the Chinese Nation, so that accidents like this wouldn’t happen to important people like him.
(2) 1420: English build Eiffel Tower. Germans: War with Romans? No. Tientsin Library, begin Diplomat. Hut: South Chengdu. Give Romans Industrialization and Navigation before they cut talks short. Give Babylonians Bridge Building, which they are researching, and Steam Engine. Give Indians Communism (after refusing to go to war with Romans), which they are researching.
(3) 1440: Give Romans Masonry and Banking. Give Babylonians Explosives, which they are researching. Hut: 100g.
(4) 1460: Metallurgy, begin Electricity. Shanghai harbour, begin Aqueduct. Give Germans metallurgy, which they are researching, and trade maps. Give Indians metallurgy (after refusing to go to war with the Romans), and get maps. Give Romans astronomy and university. Build Hang Canal. Hut (north pole): Barbs.
(5) 1480: Taibei builds engineers, now supporting 3, no food, must make change (re-home 2 engineers). Beijing Harbor; sell it due to no immediate use and no other urgent things to build, and start it again. Hut: Hong Kong. Give Romans Wheel and Physics.
Chairman Garfield was sitting in his favourite office when the door burst open and the Director of German Intelligence ran in. “Well, hello Chan Han,” the Chairman greeted. “May I ask why have you left Germany, and what is so important that you felt the need to run here? It’s not like running will get anything solved any faster when you will have to sail thousands of miles back to Germany to implement anything.”
“Mr. Chairman, it is about German research.”
“Ah, have you followed my directions and had the Ambassador share our knowledge with the Germans in an effort to get them to discover something that we might find useful?”
“Yes, Mr. Chairman, and the Germans have developed Theology. They have also started to build the Cathedral designed by J.S. Bach many centuries ago, having used their new knowledge of Theology to unlock the mysteries surrounding the Cathedral. If they build the Cathedral first, a replica will have no effect on our people; we have to build it first. The Germans, however, know this and refuse to trade knowledge with us.”
“You idiot!” the Chairman replied, full of anger and a little fear that the Germans might be the ones to benefit from the work of J.S. Bach. “How on Earth could you let this happen?”
“I was following your instructions!” the director replied defensively. “I don’t see how you can blame me for this; you specifically said to give them all knowledge that we have once we discover that they are studying along those lines, until they start to research something we don’t know about.”
“That’s a pathetic excuse!” the Chairman retorted. “I was at least 3000 miles away, and would never go to Germany. If you had done differently than I had instructed, I never would have been the wiser! You are supposed to be smart enough to know when I’m wrong, and not do as I instruct in those cases! It’s not like I kill people who don’t do as I say.”
“No, you don’t kill people as such, but I’m also here for my wedding and I certainly don’t want to spend that night in an outhouse, as I recall happened to the Governor of Naples.”
“It’s not like I knew that Governor personally, as I know you. You knew me for years before I became Chairman, so enough of the 'Mr. Chairman' stuff as well. In any case, we have to solve this problem, so we’re going to steal the secrets of Theology as soon as possible, if you can’t convince them to trade with us.”
“It takes a lot of time and effort to organize a theft such as that, and a lot can go wrong. Most importantly, the thief may not know which secret to steal; the Germans have knowledge of several concepts that we don’t, so we might get the wrong one. There is also a little matter of the fact that stealing secrets is frowned upon by civilized nations, but I assume you have thought of that and accept the price.”
“Well, we’ll cut down the chances of mishap by trading for the other techs the Germans have. You can get them from the Babylonians and Aztecs, can you not?”
“Yes, Profucious, but no one else knows Feudalism, so we can’t inform the thief of how to tell the difference.”
“Well, there is only so much we can do. Oh, you are getting married tomorrow, and are leaving for Germany two days after that. We don’t have all that much time, you see.”
(6) 1500: Germans develop Theology, change from SoL to Bach’s. Start WS in Prague in the hopes of “decoying” the Germans into building it. Naples3* Marketplace, begin Temple. TatuCanal Marketplace, begin caravan. Rush diplomat in Hong Kong to steal theology if necessary. Give Romans Democracy. Change Beijing production to SoL, also in the hopes of baiting Germans to switch wonders (also will be where I want Bach’s to be built.
(7) 1510: Babylonians Nearly complete SoL. Germans do not switch. Straybow Canal SewerSystem. Disband Crusaders in Hong Kong, rush 2nd diplomat. Hut: 200g. Babylonians: Trade Republic for Monotheism. Aztecs: Trade Sanitation for Economics. Do this to limit techs that we can steal from Germans. Build Upper Tibet. English: Demand tribute, get 150g, English withdraw troops. Give Romans republic and bridge building. I realize barbarians never attacked the explorer on the north pole…
(8) 1520: Babylonians complete SoL, English abandon. Babylonians report they are at war with the English. Germans nearly complete JS Bach Cathedral. Aztecs nearly complete WS. Hong Kong Diplomat. Nanking Harbor. Demand tribute from Germans, they ignore threats, attitude drop. Steal Theology (fortunately not Feudalism). Germans declare war. Reputation drops to honourable. Put 8 caravans into Beijing. Build Fort North.
(9) 1530: Babylonians develop Communism. Aztecs build Women’s Suffrage, Indians switch to UN. Electricity, begin Feudalism (Refrigeration not available due to tech theft/trades.). Hire taxman in Tatu Canal. Beijing builds JS Bach’s, Germans abandon. Build Tapei. Give Aztecs Bridge building and Steam engine.
(10) 1540: Indians develop Conscription. Naples3* builds temple. Steal Feudalism from Germans. Make peace with Germans. Build People’s Rome. Hut: 100g. Build Chinan Lake.
Profucious Garfield reflected on his term as Chairman while riding in a train on the way to Beijing to announce his retirement. On his orders, cities were built in parts of the world that he would never see and a system of railroads connected most of the cities on the Home Island (his personal favourite accomplishment). He did other things, as well, like permanently damage relations with Germany and, to some extent, with all the other nations as well. He laid the foundations for a religion that taught people to work for the government, on the grounds of making everyone equal, instead of just telling them to tolerate their condition in the hopes of a better afterlife. He expected that the next chairman would oversee an agricultural revolution, when the vague concept of “refrigeration” was studied more carefully.
Notes:
I went to the extremes to get Bach’s because it will allow cities to get larger before needing coliseums, and will prevent the need for luxuries in all but the very largest cities (19-20).
When we get refrigeration, I would change some building production to supermarkets, and start double-irrigating the land in question. Cities can grow amazingly fast with supermarkets and farmland. I would usually build granaries before supermarkets, however, because they are cheaper and use less maintenance.
You may want to switch Turin production to a Factory (the harbour will be completed next turn). With Railroads, the city at size 6 will produce 17 shields. On the other hand, a harbour would let the city grow larger and have extra trade, which is always useful.
I wouldn’t recommend spending gold in any large quantities, except for emergencies. We currently run a surplus, but the maintenance on a few improvements will eat this away rather quickly. I don’t think raising taxes is a particularly desirable action, so we should keep enough gold to run a deficit.
I’ve started building cities in the South, which can spawn more cites. These should all be defended, in my opinion. My actions against the Germans will likely incite sneak attacks from the AI, especially the Germans.
Beyond researching Refrigeration as the next tech, I don’t have any recommendations on the science end of things. The Indians have conscription, whenever you want to get it.
I’ve been giving the Romans techs to try to make them more advanced (and hopefully switch to democracy and do research). If the next player wants to continue this path, they should contact the Romans every turn, because the most I’ve been able to give them is 2 techs per turn (1 from their demands, and one as a gift). Babylonians are at war with the English, so avoid contacting them.
South Chengdu and Hong Kong both have marketplaces because they are advanced tribes. I recommend that they be pampered and turned into tax cities once they are adequately defended and can no longer easily produce engineers for new cities.