[SPOILERS] Seven Russias Into the Periclous Fray

[SevenSpirits]

Here's the state of my tech tree for Ichabod.

IMO, notable missing techs are feudalism and maybe in this mod, compass. The second tier there is guilds and engineering, but I think they are on almost the same tier as nationalism.

If I had more threatening neighbors (with guilds and good attack paths) I would have needed at least one of engineering/guilds by now, and maybe would have gone for that before philosophy. (My 3 most recent techs were meditation, philosophy, nationalism.)

Here's the 20% Taj plan:




The result:

Success!

I don't think mackoti has nationalism yet, because he has turned on tech after saving up gold and still has a giant stockpile, and top GNP (probably him due to massive research at 100%) jumped up after the turn roll (suggesting, perhaps, increased beakers from known tech bonus) rather than falling (which would suggest finishing a tech). He did get a lot of points this turn though so I won't rule it out completely. If he did get it then we'd be in a coinflip situation after each spending an engineer.

[NobleHelium]

Epic cheat man.

[SevenSpirits]

Turns out mackoti definitely doesn't have nationalism because he just researched alphabet. I expect him to run up to liberalism now, racing wetbandit who already has education (but lacks philosophy). (And who knows, maybe racing gawdzak too, or another player.) My own plan is to get paper + education (using 1 bulb) over 4 turns (maybe 5), then save gold for 3 turns, then if it looks possible go alphabet-priesthood-liberalism in a turn each. However, I'm not expecting this to be an option for me. In general I don't think the player who gets taj should also be able to get liberalism in a well-played game.

[NobleHelium]

I'm not buying that you're in the bottom quarter of players in terms of tech. Or at least the spread is so small that it's not really relevant.

[Ichabod]

Thanks, Seven. Getting the 20% requires a bit of luck, but setting all the plan to work perfectly is really well done.

Just a minor thing, could you use the screenshot tag for the pictures instead of the img tag? With the img tag, the pictures are too big for my computer screen; the screenshot resizes the pictures.

Ah, it was just in this last post that thw images are in the img tag, the previous ones are okay.

[SevenSpirits]

Whoops! Should be fixed now Ichabod.

I want to emphasize that the main part of the plan was to get to nationalism before anyone while in a golden age that lasts long enough to build taj. I figured under these circumstances I would only lose it to an engineer. The 20% engineer was basically the added value backup plan to make success more likely. I failed on the part where no one else got an engineer but succeeded on the die roll.

Noble, when I am not in a golden age I have been hovering around 7.5th out of 10 in GNP, and for most of the game I was lower. And that's despite being creative, having a well-spread religion and owning stonehenge.

I don't actually know what technologies the other players know, so I can't compare that. I just know that my GNP is near the bottom.

[SevenSpirits]

Going for liberalism is definitely not an option for me - mackoti started a golden age. I also got research visibility on him, so I know it will fall this turn. Last turn mackoti was showing 1t to education, and this turn it's 1t to liberalism. wetbandit, who has had education for a while and now has philo too, asked for a 100g loan, which I could not afford since I was aiming to get education to start on all the research institutes on a certain turn. But I did build some wealth in several cities to scrounge up what I could for the "let someone else maybe get the prize" fund, and sent wetbandit 44g. I am expecting to get it back later plus a bit more. It will probably only be worth it for me if it actually helps wetbandit land liberalism, because it was almost all wealth I would rather not have built.

In other news, donovan zoi offered me deer (which my capital needs) for iron, and I accepted. Gawdzak then made some sort of offer indicating he was pissed about it (don't remember the details). I offered him 10g and a sheep (latter so I know whether he accepted the deal). I had considered offering him some gold the previous turn when I accepted the deer trade, but decided against it.

Amusingly, immediately after that, wetbandit declared war on donovan zoi and captured his city with the deer, therefore cancelling our trade after only 1 turn. When I logged in I didn't know this; instead I saw 20g being offered to me for free from Gawdzak! I took it and then figured out what it was for.

Now that I have education and the research institute build times figured out, I'm shopping around for stone, and I decided to ask Gawdzak first, with an iron + 2gpt for stone offer. I still have 3t to make more offers before I start on oxford. I couldn't start trying to get stone before now because oxford finishing was over 10 turns out. (The iron, being one of two that I own, represents not selling to donovan. donovan did offer 10gpt for it, but I declined.)

Not only is it a time of education and, despite the increased tech costs from the mod and settings, players 1-turning renaissance techs, but it is also a time of war. GermanJoey is pushing back against haram with a gigantic stack composed mostly of ballista elephants and catapults, and may recapture his first lost city. Grimace has been taking turns with haram owning a city at the other end of haram's empire, but it seems to have finally settled into grimace's control. Donovan zoi is being dismembered by the other purple players as I mentioned above, and now I'm finally moving out against HAK's last two cities, with forces of HAs, cats, maces, and change. (I did draft about a dozen maces in the past 4 turns, as well as building some earlier.)

[SevenSpirits]

t156:

Gawdzak took my iron for stone offer. I then also gifted him my exploring galley that found an island of his with an extra knight on it, so I thought he might find it useful. I asked for 53 gold back (all he had). He offered it back to me in the form of 5gpt + 3g, which is fine. I also asked him for a map trade and he took it. I want to be on good terms with Gawdzak as he's the best counterweight to mackoti.

Wetbandit showed up with an offer of 6gpt, paying back my 44g loan and throwing in a bit extra.

The stone is going to be used here, to build oxford in four turns. I delayed the research institute here a turn, giving up a scientist-turn, in order to line up the capital with the rest of the 8 required institutes finishing. (I build 9 institutes in 3-4 turns, and started some more at a slower pace too.)



Here you can see the research institutes, as well as the other stuff I'm building.



You may also notice a forbidden palace build nearing completion...



And some new conquests getting up to speed. Here also, the last stand of the spanish. It looks to me like he's started striking, but I'm moving in for as quick a kill as I can get regardless.



My tech rate is improving and will continue to jump up with all the infrastructure being built now and for the rest of the golden age, but here you can see how poor it's been. The recent low area around 600 AD is from the gap between my golden ages.



The player with 300 MFG more than anyone else is Mackoti. Also: this is the first turn I have top land area!

[SevenSpirits]

Since I have full maps now, I checked out everyone's capitals. Four players got a lake fish (probably alongside a forested plains hill, but I can't be sure since most forests are chopped now), one player got a forested deer, and one player got a forested fur in addition to their food and copper. Three players got double AH resources as their only food. 5 players got riverside copper, 5 players got non-riverside copper, and one player didn't get any copper. These are things I'm not a fan of.

In my opinion, the coppers should have been equally available for all players. Everyone should have had at least one first-row food, as the script gives by default. And if any super-tiles like lake fish were granted to players, there should have been compensating factors. I guess there is an argument to be made that when you can see starts and tech cost scaling is on making AH pretty cheap, it's not so big a deal to have double AH food, and in fact it gives you some flexibility that players with a grain and a animal don't have. But I don't think there's any good reason for the lake fish.

Stepping back, the map has been very fun to explore, and I enjoy the asymmetry of the terrain. It seems clear that Krill put good effort into the overall shape the map and the territory available to players.

[SevenSpirits]

t158 I captured HAK's last city. It had 21 defenders.




I turned on tech after finishing the Research Institutes and picked up Compass for wharves. This turn I decided to go full bore for Printing Press next - should take 3 turns including alphabet. I'll finish Oxford in a few turns and also run a trade mission so I can keep teching. I also have a few more GPs, all likely merchants, in progress.