[spoilers] OT4E is gonna try something special

[OT4E]

I took Gameboy without losing anything. The first trebuchet had ~50+%, other battles were about 85% each.

Granary survived.

Only 3 units in Stardoor's cap so far, no whips during the last turn.

Mr. Cairo GNP dropped from 580 to 380 on the turnroll, so if it was Code of Laws with let's say 45% multiplier, then it means MR. Cairo is making 450-500 beakers at 100%. I believe this is with research builds since he had 220 GNP just 3 turns ago.


Meanwhile I offered OB+silks to both Nyles and Nicolae. I think this offer has slightly worse chances to work than Stardoor's attempt to bribe me, but whatever is worth trying.

[OT4E]

To my surprise both Nyles and Nicolae accepted deal, so I suddenly ran out of silks, but foreign trade routes are great considering there is no islands on this map.

Stardoors is only slaving cities right before I take them, I rechecked civstat log and I am sure in this. So he is not going to throw everything to try to resist. This is good for me, but I wasnt going to take all his land, so I need to think what to do about it.

[OT4E]

T113

This turn luck was definitely on my side. Stardoors only added walls to the city defenses and popped 60% culture, but I wasnt going to bombard it since there were just 2 axemen in. I lost 1 trebuchet, but then won a decisive battle with sword with rather low odds, after that I also won a few skirmishes around 50%. So I got 99 gold from the capitol. Forge and granary both survived. I also noticed the just planted city below it. For some reason Stardoors decided to move archer on the forest hill and leave it empty so I hope to take it with chariots next turn.


On the domestic business I am pushing towards Theology. The plan is to get it and start GA with recently born GS. I build wealth almost everywhere.


Pindicator's power has started to grow, but nothing to worry about yet imho.


Nicolae declared on Elkad. I expected this crusade from him. He was slaving hard and he got hwachas, and Elkad's production capacity is very low because of bad geography and low pop.

[OT4E]

Christianity was found at 1 AD in RustyHorshoe, my wonder tinker farm. I ran GA as planned with GS though it can be a mistake. I couldnt convince myself to hurry Hagia Sofia by 6 turns with GE, so I will be building it by its own.

But now I again dont know what to do with GE.
Mr. Cairo has got Taosism, so he is probably rushing towards Nationalism and I doubt he give me chance for Taj, so I guess I conservate my GE for some later needs, may be Kremlin or SoL. Or there is an option to hurry UoS. AP will hardly be popular as HS.


So may be it was better idea to keep GS and use GE for golden age. Indeed.

I need to consider going for  aestetics+literature, may be.I could get some useful wonderor at least draft some gold to cover maintance

I made peace with Stardoors, because I am not interested in advancing any further. I also sent a cooper offer to pindicator showing him that he can finish Stardoors. He can choose a harder path and try to get something from me, but I doubt he will put everything on the table.

I have just realized that the map is toroidal. Nations are places so well that it looks like cylindrical but I found southern route to Nyles.

[OT4E]

Finally, Mr. Cairo's GA is over, but I am sure he is spamming specialists for the next in pacifism. He was dropped by about 50 food when he popped Philosophy.

I cant say I am happy with my GA. It didnt give me crazy GNP and technological lead. I only get civics changed and cover some wholes in economy. So its a kind of routine.

After/during GA I start settlerspamming . I think I will build cities and try to chop settlers in them. Logistics is horrible, I even start thinking of Engineering for domestic purposes. Also I lack workers. It is stupid to build HS and emphazise on Serfdormbut not having enough workers to use its potential. I now have 18, but I estimated I need 30 at least to perform expansion.

Pindicator continues growing forces, lets hope he ha got my signal right.
Nicolae has made peace with Elkad. Why? I have no idea. May be it was another missclick?

[OT4E]

I decided to skip Aestetics and go for Feud first. If all wonders are gone when I get to the Literature, so be it and I will only build epics.

I turned into representation during GA, but I will probably go back to police state when it finishes. I dont want to use much specialists, it is not what my economy needs, it needs exp potential growth on coasts, cottages and mills. And I want to be sure I am the worst target for everyone. And who knows may be I visit Mr. Cairo if he fingers on pacifism?

[OT4E]

So I met Mr.Cairo. He is indeed in pacifism/caste and is making +100 gpt.


Nobody got Aestetics yet, so I dont think that everything is decided with GL, may be I schedule some overflow and try to build it in my cap.


I also found nice spot for AP, it is InChopWeTrust. Once it will bring me Shrine.


Sad thing is that Stardoors will pop 40% soon in Nintendo64, so he will pressure his old cap with culture. I can use GE to make Parthenon when I get to it. It wont overcome Stardoors culture but will at least bring me 40% soon and if things develop in the way I expect pindicator will take that annoying city. Parthenon worth that since I am generating GPPs in several cities.


So wonderwhoring a little..

Some screens of surroundings to think of a settling plan:






Demos:

[OT4E]

T117

Pindicator opened borders and I can now watch what he is doing a bit. Here is his power spike.




2 turns to Feud, bye bye Slavery.
4 turns to Hagia Sofia
4 turns to Parthention (possibly)
6-7 turns to Apostolic Palace

I need to start thinking about religion buildings and this along with settlers and workers everywhere.

Meanwhile chumchu has adopted bureaucracy giving discount to Mr.Cairo. Everything is good with chumchu but he didnt even go into GA to change civics and his academy is not in his capitol...

[OT4E]

The main question I need to answer is to go back to Police State or keep Representation?

Seeking for a special way of playing is not the goal by itself. I want to make reasonable decisions. So it is up to how many units am I going to build within lets say next 30 turns? 

It seems that I dont need war to expand and I just need to develop my land. I am still relatively top power and will unlikely be attacked. So I dont need to follow Sun Tzi.

OTOH I started to notice a room for specialists in my strategy. If I get Partention then I will be able to make several GPs in different cities, thanks to early wonders. I may consider settling merchants and scientists to consume food extras when I run out of useful tiles to work on. It can happen that I make GL, will be a shame to have both Mids and GL and not use them properly.

[OT4E]

So I need some more solid reason for Police State than 25% bonus on workboat which is considered a military unit for some reason (Sid was rushes by workboats in his first game).

Also I need to take in account that if I am going to build 10 knights PS will only bring me 2 more. Can it be game deciding? Earlier when I was in slavery it was important to increase 1-pop whip output which allowed me to build an army with just 2 cities I captured from wetpecac leaving my core on domestic builds.