I'm just trying to do some forecasting on the Divine Right conundrum, which I wish I'd done before my turnset rather than after FiveRings's (more
on my part) - please feel free to correct any errors you might pick up ...
We have 39 turns before the 'clock' runs out.
We can expect only one Great Prophet
The Oracle (2
per turn) will get us our first Great Prophet in 25 turns. If Edirne had one Priest running from the Jewish Temple due in 4 turns (+3
per turn), that would cut it back to 13 turns.
The second Great Prophet would take 40 turns to pop (Oracle + Jewish Priest) after the first (or in 53 turns total), so we can rely only on one Great Prophet pop in time.
We don't have the food there to run a Buddhist Priest as well, and even then we'd still be unable to get out a second Great Prophet before the 39 turns were up.
As such, we don't really need to run a Priest in Edirne at all for these purposes, however as noted below, we need to ensure that we get a Great Prophet out of Edirne before Istanbul pops a Great Scientist.
Therefore, Ankara need not build that Buddhist Missionary for Edirne to get up a Buddhist Temple (at least with regard to this Great Prophet bulbing exercise).
We still need to trade for Monarchy. We know that Ramesses has it (he is willing to trade us Wine), but we can't make any moves until Mansa becomes willing to make the trade or another AI (hopefully Egypt asap) picks up Alphabet.
We can't therefore make progress on Divine Right (or put our bulb toward it) until we secure Monarchy and/or Alphabet in trades. As such, we can afford to slow-tech the last turns on Theology until then.
Cost of Divine Right
Assuming that we do secure Monarchy relatively soon, Divine Right is 1794
. Our Great Prophet 'should' bulb something like 1030
(1000
+ 2 x our population in
), leaving us with 770-ish
to self research.
Let's assume we capture Tufan, we might get 60
in plunder, meaning that we can research almost all of Theology in 10-ish turns before we pull the slider back down - however please note 'binary research' proposal later. Meaning we have around 29 turns to acquire 770
, or that we need to make on average 27
per turn (or equivalent in
that can be redirected into
later on). Right now, if we pull back the commerce slider to 'break even' (40% at the moment), we pull in only 18.8
per turn.
If we were to hurry a Library in Istanbul, it would take its 8.8
/ turn (at 40%) up to 10.8
, but also allow for the running of two Scientists (+6
), taking Istanbul up to 16.8
per turn, and at current rates the empire's haul up to 26.8
per turn. Now, there's still some cost in terms of time of getting this Library built and the population back up, so we really need to get cracking on this Library whip.
The Library build does allow us to do some 'binary research' ... commerce to 0% until the Library is up ... then 100% for a little while (until we get close to completing Theology) ... then back down to 0% until we acquire Monarchy.
To complicate matters, if we were to run two Scientists in Istanbul, we need to be careful that the city does not pop a Great Scientist (17 turns) before Edirne pops its Great Prophet (currently 25 turns). Therefore, Edirne should run a Jewish Priest to avoid this timing issue.
We also have to bear in mind that Beshbalik, Karakorum, and Istanbul all have cottages available for working and growing, so our empire's overall commerce haul will marginally improve if we do commit to working these cottage tiles.
A Proposal
The way I see it, we need to finish off that Jewish Temple in order to get a Priest running in Edirne. The Priest will pop the 'Divine Right' Great Prophet before Istanbul pops a Great Scientist.
Istanbul should work quickly to a point where it can whip out a Library, and then work its cottage tiles while rebuilding the population to the happy cap by using the Corn. It can run Scientists when we're in a '
phase' (i.e. heading toward completion of Theology, or once we start researching Divine Right).
Karakorum and Beshbalik likewise need to grow their cottages in order to improve the overall commerce haul of the empire.
Such is the need for Monarchy now, that we should trade for it at the first opportunity. Ramesses and Mansa both know this technology, so there is 'some' hope that we can trade away (our monopoly tech
) Metal Casting for it before we complete Theology. If I had known that the AI would be so sluggish about Alphabet, I'd have taken the cheaper Monarchy over Metal Casting with The Oracle.
I would be reasonably speedy in getting most of Theology researched, but I'd not spend any effort in researching other technologies, and we should pull the commerce slider down until we have got Monarchy in a trade. When we have almost all of Theology researched and waiting to acquire Monarchy, just horde cash so we can later run a research deficit to get Divine Right finished before our deadline.
Technology: Continue with Theology, but drop technology rate to 0% until Istanbul completes its Library. Once Library is up, consider boosting the technology rate until we're 'say' one turn from completing Theology, and then back down to 0% until we acquire Monarchy. We need to get Monarchy and/or Alphabet (as a second preference) in a trade, and we almost certainly will need to (reluctantly) trade away Metal Casting to get it. Try to get multiple trades for Metal Casting on the one turn (before the AI can trade it around among itself).
War: Take Tufan, but I'd consider settling for peace after that. With six cities, much more expansion will start to hurt our commerce rate. Alternately raze Mongolia's last cities if willing to continue the war effort. Personally I'd just finish up the conflict after Tufan.
Istanbul: Work to a Library whip. Work Cottages and Corn. Run Scientists when appropriate, but avoid a
rate that will beat Edirne's Great Prophet pop.
Edirne: Complete Jewish Temple and run a Priest. Given this city will be stagnant, it may as well build a Worker.
Ankara: Buddhist Missionary isn't necessarily required, so consider any number of city improvements; Library
culture: +
) or Forge
hammers: +
) seem like reasonable choices to me.
Mongolian cities: Both Beshbalik and Karakorum should continue to grow their cottages. Both could be a candidate for; Forge > Colossus if we wanted. Karakorum to shoot for a Monument if we don't get natural religious spread for a border pop to get the Pigs. Note that a road should be built to connect these cities to our Ottoman core, so they can get better
(with the last of the Egyptian cities).
____
On a largely unrelated matter, Kubai is back down to just Archers. It seems that Karakorum's Horses were the only ones developed:
Cyrus has (a.) Horse Archers, and (b.) "Enough on hands" ... Alexander may be in a spot of trouble, as he seems to have only Chariots and there's no evidence that he's got Phalanx units available.
-rich cities in light of our cramped and 
, thank you so much!
