[SPOILERS] Watch pindicator get distracted by shiny bonuses

[pindicator]

Save just came in and I'm looking stuff over. Some important things to note from GNP scrying:

* Nobody has HBR yet, so no need to worry about Horse Archers in the short term
* Only Seven has Calendar (and the MoM)
* Only Scooter has Metal Casting (and the Colossus)
* 3 civs have Monarchy. The civ without Monarchy is either Seven or Scooter.
* Also, 3 civs have Meditation.
* The Great Artist I saw taken a few turns back was actually the Music Great Artist! (How'd I miss that one?) Nobody has Drama yet either, so it's quite possible I'm in a race to The Great Library! All the same, I finish the wonder at end of turn, so I hope someone isn't building it yet (don't want to give them fail gold )
* Other techs nobody has researched yet: Theology, Alphabet, Civil Service, Compass, and Construction

Tech pace must be lagging. I wonder if everybody has over-expanded?

[pindicator]

All right, so here is arguably my best city. Or the 1B to my capital's 1A:



Oh wait, we need some context. Jester sent me an email with his thoughts, and one of the things he hit the nail on the head about was the great person coming up and how that combines with tech path. We had a bit of a back and forth and it's probably a bit long, so here's the relevant part of his observations:

Once GLib completes, you should get the next GP in ~8 turns (without adding additional specialists). You will either get a GS, GE or GP (most likely a GE). Options for each…

GS : The least useful right now imo. You would need Meditation and Alphabet to open up the Philo bulb. The follow up would be research Music for the free GA to leverage pacifism during a GA. I assume that you were first to Lit.

GE: If you research MC, then a GE would bulb Machinery (definitely going to need this). You could also bulb MC with a GM but probably quicker just to self tech it.

GP: You can research Meditation then Theology to open up the CS bulb (can’t research Monarchy for this bulb path iirc but you have Rep anyway).

As you can see, you really want a GE or GP so I would change the scientist slot in American Maid to a prophet (you’ll gain 2 scientists in 2 turns anyway). I say this because the sooner you get samurai the better…very good unit if you get it before knights.

(You can see I've already changed the scientist over to a priest.) Thinking of bulbing Civil Service was not even on my radar, but I think it's a very heady play. In fact, I like the option enough that I may run max priests in American Maid even after revolting to Caste.

Now, I agree that we want to maximize the Great Prophet odds. Teching Meditation + Theology is 555 beakers; teching Civil Service is 766. So it's getting Civil Service at about 73% the cost - and being spiritual it's not like Theology is a bad tech. Theocracy will be handy for sentry chariots or formation spears out of the gate, and also gives me the option of the AP should I choose to pursue that.

So I'm thinking about the following timeline:

• Turn 69 (this turn) - Great Library finishes. Hire an additional (2nd) priest spec (at cost of the plains farm) GP: 119/201
  
• Turn 70 - Revolt into Caste. Hire 3 priests + 2 merchants in American Maid. Hire ~8 merchants empire-wide. Meditation finishes at end of turn. GP: 147/201
  
• Turn 71 - GP: 175/201
  
• Turn 72 - GP: 203/201. Great person at end of turn. Odds should be approximately: 22% GS // 29% GE // 40% GP // 9% GM
  
• Turn 73 - Depending on the great person born, we choose our tech path. GS is Alphabet for a Philosophy bulb (although I may settle a GS or keep it for a later bulb); GE is Metal Casting for a Machinery bulb; GP is Theology for a Civil Service bulb; GM is likely settled in American Maid (or I could tech Metal Casting, Monarchy, and Alphabet to open a Civil Service bulb, but settling is probably better)

I think that's the plan, unless I can come up with a way to up my odds for a Great Person. I'm guessing I'd have a nice chunk of gold around for when I turn on the research.

Speaking of turning on the research, I guess you can leave your tech unselected and still gain beakers for when you eventually choose a tech later? I had no idea it let you do that outside the first few turns; so after Meditation we won't be selecting a tech until we get our great person born (and yes, i tested this in SP to make sure I wasn't just losing beakers )

[pindicator]

Yeah, I'm sold on starving AM a little to get the highest odds at a Great Priest. I guess I could have lifted another tile to get a 3rd priest this turn, but that's a little far for me.

Can't think of anything else that happened this turn...

[Commodore]

Ah, the grande GPP Roulette. I love those.

[pindicator]

Ah, the grande GPP Roulette. I love those.

You have a lot of experience with these. Any good luck routines I should be aware of?

Also: I need to learn how to read the rules. Alphabet isn't such a bad tech because spies are allowed. All their missions are banned, but they're still great sentry units.

[pindicator]

Turn 70

Dazed has updated his status from quasi-jerk to full on ass: He stole my worker!



Granted, I was probably asking for it. Wasn't even thinking about him having a galley in the water. When I saw he kept the worker alive I thought I had him: counter attack with a chariot and win back the worker. But then I found I had scattered all 3 chariots that used to be stationed near Bi-Polar Bear. The next best thing was to lay a trap: if his Vulture gets greedy and tries to pillage the copper mine I have an axe waiting on the desert tile to the south of it, out of sight.

I also boasted revenge:



Sadly an empty boast and an empty boat. But if Dazed ignores the threat I'll load the archer next turn and move the galley in.

Metal Casting is sounding like a better tech all the time -- gonna need some triremes if my plan is to fight dazed for naval control of this waterway.

There was also good news! I planted the city of Human Bullet:



A workboat will hook up those clams next turn. The city dropped me down to 16gpt at 0%. But there was a solution for that:



I did not hire as many merchants this turn as I originally planned. I wanted to finish some military builds in case dazed is following this up with more shenanigans. (Emotional response: rush for samurais and kill dazed, who cares if someone else wins? He stole my worker and must pay!!!!!!)

Demos:

[CFCJesterFool]

But if Dazed ignores the threat I'll load the archer next turn and move the galley in

Probably better to let the worker finish cottaging (especially if he doesn't road those tiles i.e. big tactical mistake). You can then pillage the cottages with 2 chariots. More than one way to get research gold.

[Partisan]

Nothing like a blurry zoom for dramatic effect. I like it.

[pindicator]

Probably better to let the worker finish cottaging (especially if he doesn't road those tiles i.e. big tactical mistake). You can then pillage the cottages with 2 chariots. More than one way to get research gold.

I need to build a few more of those guys. The chariots i have are mostly roaming just beyond the edges of my lands as sentries and there are none at home.

[pindicator]

I played the next turn this morning, sneaking it in between getting ready and catching the bus for work, so this update will be pretty brief.

First of all, Dazed gets a pass. Because he is being whooped by Seven. Could be Scooter or Yuri instead, I guess, but I bet it's Seven building Praetorians. Now that I got graphs on dazed, I can see sharp declines in Food, MFG, and Power - and then I found his capital had been moved to the city he built beside Bi-Polar Bear. That can only mean his capital was taken (or he wasted a ton of hammers building a palace on the edge of his empire). But why is he committing hammers toward a galley & vulture to harass me when his capital was under fire? Are things really bad for him?

He didn't do anything to counter my galley in the north, nor did he move his worker, so I loaded the archer and moved my galley right beside his worker. This means Fishboy is undefended, but there's no way someone can get to it outside of a galley from Dazed, so the city will be fine.

What else... Founded a city (BlowfishAvenger) to the northeast by Seven. It's not very defensive, but it does establish a border. I don't plan on settling farther northeast - actually, I don't plan on settling much more at all until I can get some Courthouses going. Without the merchants my economy is pretty bad - so much that I think I am going to mass build Courthouses and/or Markets after I swap out of Caste.

I also miscalculated the GP points at American Maid, so I fired a merchant. Slightly better odds of getting a Prophet this way.

Still doing awful in food & mfg. Well, MFG is to be expected - I've pretty much lifted all my citizens off mines and put them onto merchant specialists. But food is a problem.