Gillette Turn Discussion

[Old Harry]

Turn 169

First up we got lots of border pops along with our great scientist last turn. We have three caravels not doing much now that the whole map is uncovered - how about setting up a sentry net around Trolls (who didn't finish Gunpowder and have swapped to save cash on Astronomy now) to give us warning of any incoming galleons? I think we may need to settle those south-coast SFL cities if they do research astro and damn the damage to our economy just to shut them out of the continent.


Isaac can put 1959 beakers into education leaving us to research the other 600 at break-even. We'll research Monotheism next turn, then attempt to put 329 beakers into PP the turn after meaning that the bulb will complete it. Once we have PP I think we turn off research until all the universities are built. We only have one observatory (in Occam) right now but once we've got OR and slavery in place we could build more. I've no idea if we can get Communism in 15 turns, I'll make a guess once we're out of the golden age...


Two more settlers and a worker will board the galleon (via the selected galley) to be dropped off at Blunderbuss t172 (can settle t173 if we decide its a good idea), and Carbine t173 (t174 if needed).


Settling Xiphos took our break-even cash down 20 (but increased research by 6) once Arquebus is settled we're down to 40% break-even (with several wealth builds).








Everyone but TEAM has Printing Press and Pirates and Trolls have Education, by bulbing we're losing out on bonus beakers - but by hoarding our money until we have universities we get more bonus beakers... It might even be more helpful to get a great merchant from Gladius (although more hassle to use him properly.)


Doesn't look like a lot is happening with the war.


After the turn rolled I set all the university builds - all due to finish t175 - Gladius, Pike and Machette can whip libraries followed by universities. That's two more unis than we strictly need, but I think we want that learning...

[YossarianLives]

Woohoo first firearm city settled!

[Cheater Hater]

How bad would we be if we didn't have all those Wealth builds? How much are they contributing, and would it be worth building units instead?

We'll see how badly our economy tanks after the Golden Age regarding the remaining SFL cities--how bad would it be to let Trolls settle a city or two for us?
Seriously, do we get any advantage, especially since we'd be settling those cities after we move out of Caste System? Their settlers could just slip in-between our culture and take those good inland spots--the only problem is that they'd be hard to defend, but I doubt Trolls would try to take SFL territory without bringing considerable backup, and then we'd have to move troops to defend SFL during our war.

Don't forget those University builds will slow down after we leave the Golden Age (by how much?), so don't forget that in your plans.

So when is the Gladius GP coming? The problem is that we need to remain solvent until we get to State Property, which is easier said than done--the Great Merchant would take a while to mature, and we need all the econ we can get now.

[Old Harry]

Turn 170

Offer of Marble from Trolls, I don't think we need it so I turned it down. Oxford is doubled by stone and we're not building the Sistine Chapel are we? They're now seven turns from Astro and are saving 164 gold per turn. Their cash reserve is ~800. M3 aren't far from Astro either - they get Optics this turn. We may have to settle Blunderbuss and Carbine if they come sniffing around...


I've started building five universities (I have eight cities earmarked rather than six - just as insurance) and I think I've taken the end of the golden age into account (lets see how good my maths is!) In one of the candidates, Pike, I've taken the odd step of working a citizen over a farm - this finishes the forge with exact hammers, doesn't slow the growth to the next level and gets us four bonus hammers from the forge next turn, so I think it's the right move. If not its too late to tell me!


Our wealth builds are netting up 55 gold a turn - a quarter of our surplus! There isn't a lot else going on - mostly granaries being built in our new cities! We have ten size one cities right now, but once they start hitting size two they will all grow like invasive plantlife. Gladius produces a 50/50 merchant/scientist at the end of next turn. I don't know what my fingers are crossed for - a merchant gets us more beakers, while a scientist gets us sooner beakers...


At the moment I'm just improving food, but we need to think about city specialisation - should I just build workshops everywhere, or do we want to set some up as commerce cities? I think Woldo, Xiphos Yakuza and Arquebus could be commerce candidates, but the rest suit production.




With the techs we're going to get over the next couple of turns and the population explosion you can expect to see this graph become a lot more healthy.


I haven't wanted to look at GNP recently, but I'm happier with it now (although our golden age is about to be over )


We've stopped building settlers and workers but still have golden age boost here.


As more SFL cities come online I predict this will shoot past Trolls...


Are TEAM and Pirates gearing up for war now that the Troll-TEAM one is over? Or are they just thinking that they need at least some units?


Demos


And finally I don't think anyone is going for a cultural victory just yet.

[Old Harry]

Just logged in for a look around - Trolls got a great scientist, a great merchant and a big score increase, so that must be economics. And showing off...

[Old Harry]

Turn 171

No time for a proper report, suffice to say everything seems in order. Trolls have Economics and I guess they'll launch another golden age soon or bulb further into the future...

After the turn rolled we got the great scientist , so we'll grab printing press next turn and then concentrate on saving money until the universities are ready...

[Old Harry]

Turn 172

Apologies but there won't be any pictures for the next couple of reports - I'm on my hols with a laptop that struggles to load the game itself...

Pirates want to trade for maps - we don't want to give the new world away, so I'll say no - but we could counter offer for some gold if you'd like? Chatted with theStick and he said they'd make an offer later. I'm tempted to suggest they get astro to colonise the island to their north as we'd rather have them get it than any of the other teams. What do you think?

Trolls got Astro and seem to have forgotten that they asked for no ROP in our open borders deal, so I've just send this:

Hi Plako,

Hope you are well, has Zak taken over as turnplayer or are you sharing it around a bit? I see that you've just researched Astronomy so will probably be keen to visit Smoothfoundland (the other continent) soon but you seem to have forgotten that you asked to keep out of your territory in return for you keeping out of ours.

We would like you to keep to this deal as we've held up our end of the bargain for these past turns when our desire to spectate on your war was unbearable...

Best Regards
Old Harry

They've just launched another golden age, and will probably pop a whole bunch more great people :/ They are researching scientific method too, which has me worried that they'll beat us to the communism spy...

Mikhail Lomonosov gave us 2007 beakers towards Printing Press, meaning we complete it at 10% science. We also revolt from Caste and Pacifism (making 340 gold at 0%, unit cost 67, city 308, civics 101, inflation 114) to slavery and organized religion (making 370 gpt, unit cost 33, city 308, civics 137 and inflation 114) and start building the infrastructure we should have installed ages ago...

And the golden age finished.

That is all.

[Cheater Hater]

Yeah, they'll beat us to the Communism Spy if they want to--however, that means they won't have rifles for a while then. I wouldn't mind them researching just Scientific Method though--they have the Great Library I remember; do they have anything else that obsoletes there? Is that the 3-person GA, or only the 2-person one? (I know they've had at least 2 GA's from Taj and the 1-person one, but I remember them popping one right after we dodged their NAP renewal--was that Taj or the 2-person one?

Yeah, we're certainly not trading our map to anyone (other than possibly TEAM)--do Pirates have Optics for Caravels yet?

That's good that we decreased maintenance after switching to Slavery/OR--how much did getting Printing Press improve those numbers?

Any movement on the power front? How many units are we building at this point on the mainland? If they settle a city on SFL through our culture we're justified in breaking the NAP and taking it right?

[Old Harry]

Yeah, they'll beat us to the Communism Spy if they want to--however, that means they won't have rifles for a while then. I wouldn't mind them researching just Scientific Method though--they have the Great Library I remember; do they have anything else that obsoletes there? Is that the 3-person GA, or only the 2-person one? (I know they've had at least 2 GA's from Taj and the 1-person one, but I remember them popping one right after we dodged their NAP renewal--was that Taj or the 2-person one?

It could be that they are saving gold on a different tech to their next one - they've done that before. In fact they are going for Gunpowder (3 turns) now. Anyway if they get some great people will they do some bulbing or launch the 3-person GA? This is their 2-person GA, but with the MOM it seems like they've had more... Sci Meth also obsoletes the parthenon, so I guess they wouldn't go for it until their GA finishes...

Yeah, we're certainly not trading our map to anyone (other than possibly TEAM)--do Pirates have Optics for Caravels yet?

I'd be tempted if they offered 300 gold, but they aren't going to do that. They don't have compass yet...

That's good that we decreased maintenance after switching to Slavery/OR--how much did getting Printing Press improve those numbers?

I can't say, since our golden age finished the same turn - I think its 24 commerce in Occam and another 15 or so elsewhere, so about 40 before bonuses...

Any movement on the power front? How many units are we building at this point on the mainland? If they settle a city on SFL through our culture we're justified in breaking the NAP and taking it right?

We aren't building anything except in Smooth Criminal, Trolls have had a big dip while TEAM have gone up about the same amount - are TEAM going after Priates using Troll material?

That reminds me - our M3 NAP ends in 18 turns - they've mooted going after Trolls again t210 and I don't think we're going to be in a position to hit them t190, so how about offering them an extension to t230?

[Cheater Hater]

Right, Trolls still don't have Gunpowder at the moment--that gives us some leeway at least (how many techs are left for them until Rifling?

So what are we saving money on at the moment? Are we heading for Liberalism or Scientific Method first once our Universities complete, and what's the ETA on restarting research?

That's weird that Trolls would offer favorable peace to TEAM? I think it would be worth asking them about that.

So T210 is when our NAP with Trolls runs out, or theirs? Offering the NAP extension should be fine; we certainly shouldn't be attacking anyone besides Trolls anytime soon.