The Trial of Coco Chanel

[floydmcw]

I faced an unusual decision, curious what others think.

Emperor, Tectonics, normal settings, no huts/events, as Washington.

Decent start with lots of food and forests and some calendar resources. Founded several cities and cottaged up; had horses and copper but no iron.

The other inhabitants of my continent were everyone's favorite neighbor, Montezuma, and everyone's second favorite neighbor, Tokugawa. I had to fend off an attack from Monty on T86 but was not in real danger and was able to end the war.

By T121 I had researched Construction and had chopped/whipped some catapults. I had the same religion as Monty and Toku, they were Cautious and Pleased respectively.

Well of course it all ends in tears. Toku was plotting, declared on me, and bribed Monty in.

Now Monty was not really ready for a war, and had a Great Merchant in my territory. (But little stuff like that never stops him, why would it?) Snickering, I splatted poor Coco. But now I wonder, was that the right move? Should I let her escape so Monty will settle her? Or is it too dangerous to let him have all that $$$?

The situation:
- I have 6 cities, a fair bit of forest to chop, 8 cats, 14 axes [edit]. No ivory. Construction, no HBR.
- Toku has 7 cities and Calendar/HBR on me (he lacks Alpha). My city nearest him is on a hill.
- Monty has 4 cities and tech parity. Several of his cities are on hills so the war promises to be a slog.

Toku has iron but no horses. Monty has horses and iron, the iron is very close to me (in fact I built a settler planning to put a city there after splatting one of his).

--

[Edit]: Forgot to mention that I am between Monty and Toku so if we spare the GM, Monty can't easily send her over to Toku.

 

[sampsa]

Just let him settle that IMO, it will be your city in 30 turns.

Other random remarks:

• you have two cities without expansive granaries? Another one of them is your capital, size 11. It's possible that Monty blew them up with but you should just re-build then.
• It was close to 100% that Toku was plotting on you. You should have tried begging a -resource from him. Gift clams to Monty, beg clam from Toku for example.
• Oracling Alphabet with this crowd was unlikely a good move.
• You are building but not going for a military tech. Calendar isn't going to change the course of the game at all.
  
• Finish calendar now, then build a big enough army to take Monty out. Like 10+10 should be easily enough. Make peace with Toku as soon as available.

 

[floydmcw]

Just let him settle that IMO, it will be your city in 30 turns.

Other random remarks:

• you have two cities without expansive granaries? Another one of them is your capital, size 11. It's possible that Monty blew them up with but you should just re-build then.
• It was close to 100% that Toku was plotting on you. You should have tried begging a -resource from him. Gift clams to Monty, beg clam from Toku for example.
• Oracling Alphabet with this crowd was unlikely a good move.
• You are building but not going for a military tech. Calendar isn't going to change the course of the game at all.
  
• Finish calendar now, then build a big enough army to take Monty out. Like 10+10 should be easily enough. Make peace with Toku as soon as available.

Hi sampsa, thank you for teaching me to hamburger!

Washington (the capital) has a ton of food so a granary never seemed necessary (and it can put out settlers/workers so fast I've been sparing with the whip). Mostly I've been trying to slow down its growth.

Yes Toku was plotting (as I saw from the prev turn save) but I assumed Monty was his target, since he was Pleased with me and I'd bribed him to break deals w/ Monty. I'll remember the beg-health-resource trick.

I built Oracle cause I had marble and forests. Sometimes I go CoL for a religion but Monty had founded Judaism and it was spreading. Being in a different religion seemed dangerous with this crowd.
I've actually done okay with deals, picked up 2-3 cheap techs. Also my economy was hurting due to my rapid expansion, Alpha helped there.

Was building Calendar for the $$$. I don't have Currency either. Maybe I should have gone HBR but was planning to take out Monty with cats and axes then cats and swords once I got his iron. Didn't expect to fight both neighbors at once.

I've played till T152 already, before posting this:

Spoiler The Perfume War :

Toku sent his units in bite-sized chunks. I killed three small stacks (of 3-5 axes, swords, cats), chariots helped here. On T134 he gave me Med for peace (see! Oracled Alpha working for me! )

I took Monty's cities and it was in fact a slog. Took cities T129, T140, T,148, T152 was the end.

Also I hadn't faced Monty in awhile and forgot how crazy he is. Case in point, I took his capital and he attacked my healthy spear, on a hill, with a chariot! Sometimes that helped me but sometimes (not that time) he would get lucky and kill units. And of course he spams a ton of military.

 

[Snowbird]

Hi sampsa, thank you for teaching me to hamburger!

Washington (the capital) has a ton of food so a granary never seemed necessary (and it can put out settlers/workers so fast I've been sparing with the whip). Mostly I've been trying to slow down its growth.

Don't know about ugly hamburger stuff, but growth is bread and butter of CIV... so if a city grows to fast it's likely best to learn managing it.

In general the more food you have the better returns from granary...

 

[lymond]

Yep, Snow is correct, floyd. The more food the better the granary. You lose a lot of growth and production potential without it.

Currency should be in the bag one way or another long before your current position

 

[Anysense]

Just whip away citizens working forests and chop those forests, that would solve your military problems. Slowing down growth is something that should not even cross your mind. This is the worst thing you can do with your cities. And yes, be a gentleman