Turns 140 - 149

[1889]

600 AD

Inflation is up to 5% costing us 2 gpt now. Left science at 70%, if we want to bump it up to 80% we will lose 2 gpt.

Barbarian axe is now heading for site 11, our axe is moving to intercept.

Piffle named one of their cities to Chappaquiddick. Clearly they are untrustworthy.

Our Epsilon bound warrior has met an Epsilonian axe. Their explorer is heading down south and we should be seeing their caravel off the coast soon. I don’t think we would be able to see if they develop astronomy and galleys. We could be in danger of a seaborne invasion.

Mean while our population is approaching first place, our score is and GNP and MFG are tops. People are beginning to see the danger we pose. But that has not convinced Loco to trade with us. I hope nobody has tipped them off because I’m seeing a power increase now.

 

[1889]

Epsilon is running Theocracy now and it makes me nervous to have most of our West coast in fog. So Chowderton is building a galley to patrol for any Epsilonian threat.

Put science to 80%, we loose 3 gpt but it saves us a turn on reserach. 2 more until Guilds.

We should make one last attemptr to get theology. We should probably chance civics next turn and build up our army. Even if you don't go to war we need troops to keep the peace since Loco still won't trade the gold.

 

[dutchfire]

I'd keep our forces at home to ward of any foreign threat instead of sending them out to fight Loco.

 

[1889]

We're a close second right now. Many others see us as a threat, so we need to be making friends or destroying our enemies, and we haven't been quite so active diplomatically so...

Chowderton alone can quickly replace troops that are sent abroad and I think it is a very dangerous strategy to leave our enemies unmolested while they work out their plans. Anything we do entails some risk so lets not seek to be safe, but wise.

 

[1889]

Epsilon is about to settle a new city. Our own settle ment has a few troubles though. The axe must have found a different way to go, but an archer has showed up closer to town. Let’s be careful not to put our people in danger next turn. Reinforcements are on the way.

A barbarian warrior has been spotted to the west of Magadan, and our scout warrior on his way to Aloha has fortified to meet another. Looks like our northern galley was a waste. The route is blocked by ice so I don’t think we have much for it to do but send it to the scrap heap.

Had to switch to Vassalage due to unit costs. Vassalage costs 3 more gold, but will let us build 9 units and not have to pay upkeep costs. The loss of Bureaucracy cost Wheelville only 2 gold and 4 hammers. So we loose 5 gold this turn but essentially gain 1 back with each unit we build now. Also lost a turn on guilds, 2 turns again.

 

[Theoden]

So we loose 5 gold this turn but essentially gain 1 back with each unit we build now.

Not completely true. There is a discount on unit upkeep depending on difficulty. I think it's 60% for this game. So the reduced unit upkeep from vassalage can be no more than 9 * (100 - 60) = 3,6. which means that at best we've lost 1,4 gold from switching to vassalage. The question is whether we're willing to sacrifice four hammers in the capital and having to pay a bit of additional upkeep to get the +2 XP from vassalage.

 

[1889]

Why don't people tell me these things! Well its too late now but at least we get the xp bonus, that alone might be worth the extra cost for a few turns.

 

[dutchfire]

Would you consider building a settler in ploughland to settle near the sheep to our west?

 

[1889]

Not in Ploughland, it's busy building galleys for the invasion and after that it will build camel archers as it has a barracks.

 

[1889]

Something is going on in Epsilon. A mace and catapult are on their way down to that city they just settled.

Meanwhile we have barbs on every border. Warrior west of Magadan, and NE of Glassport. Our archer in Polynesia had to leave the city to kill a barb archer (2 unhappiness this turn) the new site is threatened by a barb axe. If the axe heads toward undefended Polynesia our axe can get back on the hill and use the road to beat him back to the pig pasture.

Lots of visitors too. Loco's warrior is still wandering up in the arctic, Epsilon's explorer is in Polynesia and Piffle's warrior is just across the border.

Our invasion will be built in about 10 and needs 9 to sail into position.

The galley that we sent up north is at a dead end. Unless someone can think of something useful for it to do lets just disband it.

 

[1889]

After the worker finishes the workshop near Chowderton I was going to have him build another in the other jungle to the NW.

When our guy in Magadan finishes the mine maybe he can start building a road around the bay to the spices north of Sinsburg.

 

[1889]

One last thing. Our eastern defences are very week. As I said Polynesia is undefended and both Epsilon an Piffle can see that. Just in caes defenders of Sinsburg and Glassport have left those cities and moved south just incaes someone does something crazy. (Neither city is unhappy as a result, yet).

The good news is that an axe has just hopped on a galley leaving Ploughland and an archer has just left Chowderton heading east.

 

[dutchfire]

Sinsburg will grow in one turn, it's currently building a courthouse, but I think that we should change it to a settler next turn. It doesn't really need more growth at the moment, and the settler would be finished in 10 turns.

I micromanaged Chowderton for hammers, got 2 base hammers from an engineer by giving up two coast tile (4 commerce), and work 1 plantation (4 food, 1 commerce) instead.

Changed 1 citizen in Polynesia from Grassland forest to plains cottage.

What should I do with all the boats? Sail them towards the Chowderton area to pick up units? And the north boat can explore some more coast to the west and then be disbanded, unless we want to settle a landbridge spot anywhere near soon. (I believe spot D, or something like that, has a landbridge.)

There were no more barbs in our territory, so I guess we were lucky with the RNG.

Settled site 11, named it Port Tropicana (not much inspiration, I know). It has 4 maintenance and will build a granary in 60 turns, but that will be sped up next turn when we can start working the hill. Cost rose by 5, and went back 1 immediately when I spread Hinduism there.

Piffle has 95 gold per turn available, and is probably accumulating cash.

Next turn we'll need builds for Chowderton and Wheelville. They're set to a mace and a galley at the moment.

Feel free to request screenshots.

 

[1889]

I can't currently evaluate the costs of settling another city, but I do know that the army will cost us a bunch and the war may give us a bunch of Loco's cities. For that reason I would build the courthouse over the settler. It saves us 2-3 gold per turn.

I was planning to patrol the west coast with the 1 galley because Epsilon's scouting is suspicious. that explorer had to be dropped by a caravel but why didn't it sail down south, their explorer skipped that area too. Have maps alreday been traded?

You can send one galley down the coast to explore Loco, maybe build a missionary in Polynesia to send along with it

But the other 4 galleys can sit offf Wheelville until they fill up with troops.

 

[dutchfire]

I can't currently evaluate the costs of settling another city, but I do know that the army will cost us a bunch and the war may give us a bunch of Loco's cities. For that reason I would build the courthouse over the settler. It saves us 2-3 gold per turn.

Current maintenance there is like 5, 50% of is 2, with inflation, that might add up to 3 gold/turn. A city would give us more profit IMO. I want it to settle near the sheep (there's a sea resource there too). It will give us a new health resource, making Ploughland healthy again.

 

[1889]

Well, until we get gold I'm not so concerned about growth in our core cities. Also I'd guess that a new city would cost something like 3-4 gold per turn in maintenance and also increase maintenance someplace else by at least 1 due to number of cities maintenance. At 80% science the new city would have to produce 10 commerce to pay 2 to the treasury, with 3 more coming from trade routes and religion, is that correct? So I think its best to plan for it being an additional drain on our economy for some time. But please post a screen shot of the tile for us to consider.

 

[dutchfire]

Port Tropicana (site 11) costs us 4 gpt, and I think it's this one is closer. I'll open the game to check.

 

[dutchfire]

Tropicana was 10E, 5S of Wheelville, this site is 7N, 3E of Wheelville.

 

[Theoden]

I don't think that location is good enough to settle at the same time that we're going to have lots of military upkeep soon. Fishing villages, as this one will mostly be, are more longterm investments better suited for solid ecomonies, which ours will be once we've recovered from the war. So I suggest building it after the war with Loco.

The courthouse, on the contrary, saves us 3gpt. Hard to match.

 

[dutchfire]

Turn 145
Chowderton grew, is now unhealthy and starving, but can produce cats in 1 turn. (19 base , 125% bonus!). Not much else to report. I think I'll disband the north galley next turn if he finds ice to the west too.

Next turn a courthouse completes, I think it's in Glassport. I'll see what's best there, but would like a worker or a settler.

North workers starts roading around the bay.

Aloha has paper.
We have guilds and will finish hbr in 3, running at -5 with 54 gold in the treasury.