1260AD (186):
Preflight check. A few things scream out to me.
1. We need more cities! It's definitely been a longtime sentiment of mine, and now it's fairly confirmed. We are miles ahead of the AI in tech, despite the fact that we are not financial. However, someone is beating us in total land area (probably Egypt, as they are second place so far). So, we need to fill up our continent at a measured pace.
2. We need more workers! A lot of our empire is still wilderness, and we need to fix that for maximum effectiveness.
Anyways... quite a lot to do on the home front, and we need to start grooming our potential PA partner. After checking it out, I agree 100% with Greece. Their favourite civic is Rep, which we don't want to drop, and they have a natural enemy in Khan which we can bash. Therefore, I sign open borders with Pericles and drop off the Tao missionary.
Checking around for tech trades, it seems that both Charlie and Ramesses wants Alpha and Calendar for Monarchy and Mono. That's 600 beakers to us for 929 beakers to them. Nah. However, Ramesses will take MC and 55 gold for that. A net loss of around 100 gold, but I don't want to go back to research those two, and we are sufficiently ahead in tech anyways (Charlie already has MC btw).
Time to check the cities...
Berlin is building a Caravel, but we have 3 already in the water. Berlin is high potential, so we should do something else. I dial us a settler in 7 turns.
Hamburg starts Notre Dame, as we don't really need more military at this time. I take over the shared mine from Berlin, and work forests, and we have it in 23 turns, with growth in 5 to work one of the 3 hammer tiles. Good to go.
Munich is building a market in 12 turns, and doesn't really have much else to do. However, we have none of the happiness resources that are boosted by the market, and the +25% gold doesn't do much for us at the moment due to the pitiful 5.5 gold this city makes at 50% gold. Since we have massive excess food, and we need workers, I dial one. We will finish the market eventually, but we lack the caps to run merchant specs. Speaking of which, I fire the engineer and run a spy for more EPs (keep the priest for a lucky prophet).
Cologne has 4 hills and is working none of them while trying to build a market. We are also, for some reason running scientists here instead of working tiles, despite the fact that this is a clear cottage city. I put the scientists back to work, but in the mines, taking the build time from 125 turns to 19 turns. Better. Growth in 4 as well. On second thought, I dial a temple first, because we have lower happiness here.
Frankfurt is building a crossbowman in 2 turns, and I'll leave it since it is almost done. We are missing buildings here however, and with Civil coming in 5, we will have irrigated corn, but we need to build 2 farms to do it! Growth in 1, so will have to deal with max health next turn.
Essen just started a caravel, so I cancel it and dial a temple.
Dortmund is at max happiness and set to grow in 2 turns. We're doing the 1 hammer per turn market here, which doesn't work... We are Industrious, so I dial a forge with the intent to whip it next turn.
Stuttgart is building a harbor. This is good, but I also note that the workers building cottages have wasted precious worker turns, because we want to build farms there to get water to the corn.
I cancel their jobs. We need better road networks, among other things. They will get on the farms in 5 turns when Civil comes in.
Note also that this cottage by Berlin on the plains was a waste, because we again want a farm there to bring water to Cologne's corn. I recall there already being a farm on that tile before, so some
there.
I dial science down to 40% and add 10% to EPs, so we can get a sizable lead. Civil not affected. For some reason I cannot reassign the EP weights on the espionage screen. Will try again later.
1270AD (187):
A GS is BIAFL.
I whip Dortmund's forge for 2 pop.
2 pop whip Essen's temple.
And 2 pop whip Cologne's temple as well.
I finally manage to remove the EP weight from Genghis and Greece. I leave some on them, but shift weight to Ramesses and Charlie, since they will be our competition later.
I activate our chariots and send them off to probable sites we will settle. I'll settle the production site and the filler first, in case there is any dispute over others.
1280AD (188):
Forge done in Dortmund, it wants to go back to a market, but I switch to a Taoist Temple instead.
Same deal in Cologne with the temple finishing, but I'll let the market build.
Frankfurt finish the crossbow and is at the health cap, so dial a settler in 6 turns.
Essen finished... uh... something. I think a temple. I dial up a market.
I spot an orange border west of Egypt.
Hello, it's Hannibal!
He is Bud and has lots of techs. Not as many as us, but enough to show that he's clearly financial.
1290AD (189):
Hannibal adopts Caste and Vassalage. For what? Shadowboxing?
1300AD (190):
A great Merchant is born far away.
The worker is done in Munich, and it went to a market, which I 4 pop whip.
I spot a situation at Argos.
And I find another barb city we need to deal with.
Cologne can afford to shed some pop, so I 4 pop whip the market there too.
1310AD (191):
The market is done in Munich. I dial a colosseum so it can grow back a bit.
Cologne also done its market, and do the same with a colosseum.
Stuttgart is done its harbor, and we have a wealth of possibilities, so dial a forge first.
1320AD (192):
Yay! Flexible Farming!
Angkor Wat was BIAFL. Top cities screen says that Ramesses piled it into Thebes.
Genghis got a GG, and the missionary can see this happening...
About to get ugly, if it isn't already.
Great...
Shaka is Jewish. Any other civs left to discover?
With Civil done, I dial up paper immediately. Map trading will cut down on our caravel travel time...
1330AD (193):
Shaka wants open borders. No.
Argos got toasted by Genghis this turn. I would check to see if they kept it, but I'd rather spread Tao in Athens.
Berlin finished the settler and defaulted to a Caravel. Switch to a courthouse as we are about to expand.
1340AD (194):
Hannibal wants OB now too. No.
Greece converts to Taoism as expected and makes peace with Genghis. Expect a conversion request soon, which we want to take.
Frankfurt finished a settler this turn, and we're at the health cap, so dial a duct.
1350AD (195):
Bleh. We get the minority odds and pop a great spy in Berlin (thanks a lot Great Wall!)
We also see that Ramesses is teching Paper in 6 (gogo EPs!). Luckily we have paper next turn.
I give Pericles Med for 40 gold to curry some favour. Of course, it doesn't make him grateful, but now he has 2 points on Khan.
Notre Dame done in 8 turns. The chop from the spices conveniently went into it last turn (love it when a plan comes together). With Civil enabled, we can even feed more food into the city through the grasslands.
What to do with the Great Spy? I would settle him, as he's good for +12 EPs, and +9 beakers while we have Rep. I sent him to Munich, where we'll be piling our modifiers.
The two settlers are almost exactly where they need to go. IMO, settle those cities ASAP so we can finish getting the continent filled out. We need consensus on a plan in the south.
Allying with Pericles? I OBed him, but nothing significant has happened yet on the diplomatic front. Pericles lost Argos to Khan, but Khan is fairly weak and we could probably chase him out to help Pericles.
Pericles just did get hit HARD though in the power department.
Anyways, we will have bonus diplo from him for his favourite civic... when he gets it. The other choice would be Hannibal, since he favours Free Market...
Roster:
cripp7
S.ilver <-- Just Played --
Trynthlas >> Up Now <<
Ralph_Jackson <-- On Deck --
altonhare
, I see the reasoning. but is it need right now?
