UNGY-03 The Gods of the Aztec

[silverbullet]

Turn 90 - switch the capital to worker, switch Teotihuachan to worker. Let Texoco borrow clam tile from the capital so we can whip monument in 4 turns.
Moving our axes towards barb city.
Opening borders with Boudica and Qin. Gift copper to Sitting Bull.

Turn 91 - request 40 gold from Zara - he agrees. This lets us have 2 more turns at deficit research.

Turn 92 - whip library in Tlatelolco
Sitting bull is about to settle the horse spot.


Turn 93: Tlatelolco: library->barracks
Give the clams back to the capital
Teotihuacan - whip worker ->library

Turn 94: Trade copper to Sury for Gold. Open borders with Sury.
Whip monument in Texoco, queue barracks next

Turn 96: We capture Minoan and lose 1 axe in the process.
Cancel the clams gift to Boudica, and instead trade clams for gems with Qin.
I also just noticed that china has founded Confucianism a few turns ago. I suspect they will convert soon, leading to a war with us.

Turn 97: Everyone wants Aesthetics. WK is the only one who will trade mathematics.
We could spend 2 turns on deficit research to trade for Alphabet.
Next I think we should self research meditation. We need culture urgently in our northern cities. We are getting pressured from Bull and Boudica.

 

[Atropos]

I also just noticed that china has founded Confucianism a few turns ago.

YES YES SO VERY MUCH YES

They were my preferred target anyway, and now we won't lose points with anyone else for attacking them, plus we'll get a nifty religion which all those prophet GPPs can be used to make a shrine for. It's just a pity that SB is holding up our supply lines (I had hoped that Qin would get that city so that we could capture it from him), but we can take care of SB in the renaissance - he doesn't seem to have much land and therefore is unlikely to become overly strong.

 

[Rusten]

Nice trades/lookout--getting gems and gold for a higher happy cap is very useful!

It seems Zara is the only one with currency and unfortunately he has knowledge of both mathematics and the alphabet.

 

[Atropos]

By the way, I still think that finishing that workboat for scouting would be helpful. Knowledge of the world is always useful.

 

[mystyfly]

Will comment after glance at the save. BTW I'm pretty about the Roster:

Ungy
Rusten
mystyfly
Silverbullet - just played
Melior
Olodune
Atropos

I played 3rd last set, melior and olodune were skipped IIRC, atropos played 2nd last set and Silverbullet just played. Who's up now? ungy??

 

[Rusten]

silverbullet can continue if wanted (very short set--was mainly meant as a pause, not a hand-over). I think Melior is up next as we're patched to 3.17.

 

[mystyfly]

You're right Rusten, he stopped to consider our techtrading options. BTW noticed that none of the AI is willing to trade poly? All building ToA? I think we should be able to get quite some gold when it finishes so I'd hold off any trades and start partresearching currency. Also we could backfill poly and sell it as 4 AIs still lack it.
I don't think we're going for the GLib (right?) as we're planning on attacking soon. BTW we should always have some military around, just in case someone demands something and drops to annoyed. Also, do we have to refuse if the AI wants us to stop trading, convert or adopt anything? It's no "one-sided" trade but it would fit our theme.

 

[silverbullet]

Atropos: I already sent the WB to explore forgot to mention it in my report.

I noticed that Alphabet is discounted now since everyone knows it but us. We could trade it for Aesthetics without partial research.
This makes getting Alpha, math, iron working quite immediate.

I am not sure about waiting with trade. Our northern cities desperately need food and we need iron working for that.
Also, we are getting culture problems so we need monasteries. I am not sure we should trade for meditation, but if not, it is definitely a research priority.
Do you think Sailing is worth trading for?

Do we agree that the first GS is going to be settled?

 

[mystyfly]

I noticed zara gives us ABC and 10g for aest. I say go for it.

I think we should trade neither for sailing nor for meditation But I agree Medi is a priority.

RE GS: I'm not sure, do we have an academy in tenochtitlan? If yes, I'm for settling. Otherwise I'm for academy. Bulbing isn't worth it at this point as the AI isn't that advanced.

Are you planning on playing more turns, silverbullet?

 

[ungy]

I think we need to do the math trade with WK.
If alpha is available, I'd be inclined to also do that.
I'd prefer not to trade with Zara as we could concievably get lucky and get currency (or part of currency) from him.
We could delay one turn by trying to trade math to Boudaca for IW which would help preserve aesthetcs.

QSH as conf is a huge break for us. We can get a war w/o getting blocked by AP or risking getting dogpiled and picking up relations hits.
Now we just have to figure out how to win it

I'm a little torn on research. We need currency big time--but we might be better going COL then we should be able to trade for currency. COL usually the AI won't trade until the wonder gets built big time. Col (+ med) will open up the lightbulb as well.
We should send a unit to scout China while we still have OB.


As for a roster, I think we've played:
Ungy
Rusten
Mystyfly
Atropos
Silverbullet-- in action
Melior??
Olodune??

Why doesn't silverbullet finish out and if we don't hear from Melior or Olodune I'll take the next set?

 

[mystyfly]

Judging by the techscreen, the only tech Zara lacks are MC and Poly. Poly is way to cheap and MC is still monopoly so no trading for that. I'd rather take cheap alphabet.

 

[silverbullet]

Before I play, I just want to make sure we agree with this general plan:

This is what I think
Any AI will give us alpa for Aesthetics.
We can do the following trades:
Aesthetics for Alpa to Sury
Aesthetics for Math to WK
-Wait 1 turn-
Math for IW to boudica
Next self research meditation and sailing.

 

[Rusten]

That sounds good. As long as you manage to trade for mathematics, IW and alphabet somehow and stay clear of Zara it's all good.

 

[silverbullet]

Turn 97 continues:
Alpha from Sury
Math From WK

Turn 98 - Boudica will not trade IW for math, neither would Qin. I trade Aesthetics to boudica for IW

Set research to meditation - 2 turns at deficit.
Zara will not trade currency.

Turn 100 - Zara requests Aestetics and we refuse. He is still pleased.
Meditation done -> sailing.
Cancel copper gift to SB and change it to copper+clams for horses.

Bad news: Mound city has reaced 100 culture.
Also, it seems like sitting bull is about to switch to hindu side. We have no counter to dog soldiers. We should consider building some chariots soon.

In addition minoan just came out of revolt, making our research slower. Sailing will take 7 turns at 20%, losing 3 gpt. We only have 31 gold in reserve.

I decided to stop here.
Monastery in the capital will take 10 turns with no whipping or chopping. I think we need it sooner.

 

[Atropos]

Forget SB, how long has Boudica had too much on her hands? Hopefully she is going for Hammurabi, her worst enemy, but if I were she I would be thinking we look as if we would go well with ketchup.

Our research is awful. Right now, we would actually make more beakers with a settled GS than with an academy because our research rate is so low.

Do we really need sailing? Our cities are already hooked up. If we want a backup in case SB declares, it would be better just to road through Qin, I think. Our research is painfully slow and I think we need to be ready for the chance of trading for construction. SB is researching it and needs aesthetics and meditation, so going for masonry and part-researching construction might lead to a trading chance and costs us nothing as we need those techs anyway. Zara doesn't have construction yet. Could be a brokeraging chance there, although almost everyone else has it so he will probably get it by the time we can research it.

The diplo screen is depressing, all those lovebirds ...

Micromanagement-wise, I would move the grassland citizen at Minoan to either a plains forest or the sea. The monument is not urgent.

Otherwise, I suggest this plan as a possibility:

1. Move citizen at Minoan to the sea

2. Hire scientist at Tlatelolco

3. Switch off research (still get masonry in 6 due to scientists)

4. Ask Zara for 10 gold

5. Rush monastery at capital after 1 turn

6. When GS pops, build academy in capital

7. If there is still a trade chance with SB or someone else, switch to max research. We would have about 80 in the bank at that point. A rough calculation of AI depreciation on aesthetics suggests that we should be able to trade for construction after a couple of turns - if the opportunity still exists.

 

[silverbullet]

I didn't notice boudica had too much on her hands. I think she didn't have it in the previous save I posted (turn 97).

 

[ungy]

actually I'm going to be away until 7/14 so mayber Rusten can take the reins.
don't have save but I think we can make do w/o sailing for a bit.

 

[Atropos]

We might want to make a library at Minoan instead of a monument.

 

[Rusten]

The captain is abandoning the ship--we must be in deep trouble here!

Sure, I can take the save. Things are looking tough, but it will improve soon as we'll be able to irrigate the plantation resources soon and work more scientists (in addition to settling the 1st GS).

I agree with postponing sailing. It's not a big issue as it's very cheap to tech given everybody knows it, but as we don't need it right now we can wait and go for more urgent techs.

I don't have the save in front of me right now so I'll make some more comments later on, but we might want to consider producing research in our copper/ivory city as it has a lot of production.

 

[mystyfly]

I'll be away at least until friday but probabely longer, I don't know yet. If you want to move the game on and I'm up, please swap me.