[SPOILER] Darius of Ottomans - Vets - Krill

[Krill]

Also, yes, I'm now bored unless people start dog piling me.

[novice]

and then it's time to spend money like it's 2008.

[Krill]

+319GPT at max tax eot, set research to Engineering for minimal amount of overflow, PP due in either 3 or 2, can't tell till next turn, and drafted my first jan in front city next to Cyneheard.

sunrise is due Nationalism due in 4 at breakeven, giving him about 8 turns to get Taj (7 if he revolts to NH). He probably will if he wants to and has any forests left to chop, which is a pity, but it's not like another 9 turns in a GA will save him from the hordes of Cav I'll be able to buy.

[Krill]

PP due next turn (2 total), eot 601bpt, -115gpt, break even is around 73%. OU due in 3, so I'll save gold after I finish PP with the ability to finish Engineering in 1 if needed. Sped up Taj to due in 8 turns, so sunrise has 7 turns to research Nat (now due in 2) so 5 turns to build Taj. With forge, marble, and OR sunrise only needs about 37 hpt base to beat me. Add in Bureaucracy and he would only need about 32 hpt.

[Gold Ergo Sum]

Impressive game so far.

[Krill]

Not really. I lost city #3 to sunrise on turn 40ish and by t80 I'm in the lead for population, with the slowest leader in the game. I shouldn't have been allowed to do that, not when starting next to Egypt and Inca. FWIW I feel this is probably the least impressive game I've played on this board.

[Krill]

Hehe. Finished PP eot, bpt rocketed up to 679bpt from 604bpt from PP (and maybe 1-2 cottage growths). Still -115gpt. The PP bonus is pure tech profit (reference T-hawks argument about trade routes in the Poly DG)

I'm maybe 100 beakers short of teching Constitution in 2 turns, but only have 1 turns worth of gold left and OU is finished in 2 turns. Taj in 7 if possible but I'm not banking on it any more. Now I'm left considering how and when to revolt to the new Civics, and how the GM from Economics changes things. I'm thinking that the simplest choice is to just say screw it, balls to the wall and stick with Emancipation after a GA. I have 25.8% of world pop, so that will have to hurt others happy caps, and I only need maybe 15 turns worth of teching at break even to get Democracy, Economics and Cavs into play without a GA, FS or US.

Actually, looking at it I might break 900 bpt in 10 turns, maybe 1k in 15.

[Krill]

OK, in addition to the above post, I really need to get to Communism for the Kremlin which will make the rush buy economy as strong as I ever can make it, which means I need Chem, SM and Communism for an addition, what, 10 turns worth of teching.

So that is 25 turns worth of teching, ignoring cottage growth (and Emancipation cottage growth!), golden ages, possible short term usage of Rep (worth about 50-55 base bpt) and Free Speech/Free Religion. FR is an interesting choice, considering that if I'm not going to be drafting I don;t need Theo and if I'm not going to be building city improvements I don;t need OR, it might actually be a no brainer, but if I'm going to be buying units I can use the US hammers through the OR multiplier for a little extra boost. But that is just a mathematical calculation, do the extra 60bpt from FR mean that the commerce I don't use for beakers give me more hammers via rushbuy than US/mine hammers give me via OR?

I think I need to come up with 2 plans: if I get Taj, and if I don't. I have calculated that if I build wealth, I can get Constitution and Democracy researched in 5 turns total, which is pretty sad because I can't even make 115 hammers atm to cover my deficit. If I got Taj, I can revolt on the first turn of the GA, and then the last if I wanted to readjust due to changing circumstances, if I didn't get Taj I can tech to Democracy then Economics, trigger that GA and revolt immediately. However, the first GA I really want to abuse the US hammers for, I don't have many banks up, and I still need to tech, so I'd be best served using the GA to get infrastructure and blow through the tech tree even faster. however, I could bite the bullet, revolt to Emancipation/FR (or just Emancipation if I have too many cities) and wait until I have all of my banks up, a load more towns, then trigger the GA, revolt to US/FS/Emancipation/Merc/FR and just about double my productivity.

Long story short, I need to calculate whether the lost earnings from revolting asap can be recouped, and how likely I am to need NH instead of FR (likelihood of being invading and not having a single rush civic enabled).

I'll try to upload a fiew screenshots when I get the turn, but it depends on what happens today. It's probably going to be a very busy day...

[Krill]

OK, screenshots:

The second F8 is taken after ending turn, and shows I now have about 50% more pop than second place. F1 shows that my bpt has increased by about 50% in 12 turns as well from merc (but not every spec is a sci), PP, cottage growth and the additional 27 pop points I've grown (OK, 34 after ending turn).

I'll also point out that because sunrise tipped his hand to me by queueing up Mil Trad after Nationalism, I've changed my tech plan. When OU finishes next turn I'll be at 750+ base bpt with enough gold for about 7 turns worth of teching, with Taj due in 5. I can tech Const and Demo in 5 without any issues, overflowing something in the region of 250 base beakers. RP and Rifling I can tech in 4, maybe needing a city or two on research. Eng, Chem and Steel I can tech in 5, again maybe needing a bit of a research push, so add in 2 turns for the saving gold and 2 turns after sunrise gets MT and cuirs I can have either cannons or drafted rifles, or be ready to revolt to US/Emancipation/Theo.

I'd like to point out that this is why the Janissary sucks as a UU. It'll have been available to me for a mere 10 turns before I get rifles, if I play the only vaguely safe route forward tech wise. Yes, I could have beelined GP as I originally planned to do, but as I said before that plan, getting Lib is always the smarter choice in this type of game when players know that warring only sets yourself back compared to a third party. And I'm still not using any of the Hammam happiness in any city, so as far as I'm concerned the Civ was a complete dead weight loss. I suppose one could argue deterent for jans, but in a 60% city on a hill muskets beat the shit out of knights, so Jans don't give you anything you don't already have.

[Krill]

As expected sunrise gets Taj, but he got it in 1 which makes me think he used a GE. If that's the case, then meh, not the greatest deal in the world for him other than denial.

He is in a GA and techs a 1750 beaker tech in 4 turns at breakeven. I can do it in three without OU being up which it is eot. Taj is irrelevent. Plus sunrise is going for MT which is completely meh when I'll have drafted rifles in 4 turns and Democracy in 9 (thanks to the gold pay off from Taj I'll have 10 turns of straight teching now). I've also rejigged my GP plan so that I'll get, hopefully, a Gspy in 4 turns for a GA, and then push out 2 GP from capital and other front city next to sunrise during that GA which I'll use to revolt to US/FS/Emancipation/FR (I'll be drafting rifles prior to the GA ) and keep the economics GM in reserve for a third GA and try to use the second GA to push out another GP to use with the Gspy from Communism (which after a detour to MT for Cavs is the aim) for the third GA to use for military build up.

Total time? I will have Communism in 20 turns from now. And I'm at 800 bpt, not 750 as I said last turn. And I've now decided that sunrise is my main target of aggression I think. Cyneheard is not that scary atm, he lacks Paper and Philo, I expect he is saving gold (at 960) for a push to Steel. By the time he can get Steel IMO I'll be halfway through Democracy.