[Mjmd #52 no players] Working on the Homestead

[Mjmd]

Saving gold for a while when you don't need the tech immediately, so you can tech with more modifiers later, seems reasonable to me. You always have the flexibility to spend earlier if something changes.

Ever time I do something slightly weird I triple guess myself because I have no clue what the normal is. This will mean I have something like 2300+ gold going into the golden age, which wills surely be noticed....... Assuming I don't speed it up by a turn or two, which I'm still kicking around in my head depending on infrastructure development in the west, but still will be more than I've seen anyone take a screenshot of (that I can remember)

@Hitru - Poor SD   I could almost feel sorry for him if Pin hadn't been playing such an amazing game. Hes been at war for 100 turns now and is the game leader. Meanwhile my early war slowed both Charriu and I down and we are each paying costs for that still. I just got luckier with positioning and global events. I am wondering if Pin has given up on hitting SD until he has knights, but we do not have open borders so unsure where his army is. I vaguely have thought about teching alphabet for spies. To be clear I haven't opened borders with him because my army is on the other side of my VERY long empire, which I don't want him knowing.

AT and I do have a demilitarized border, but its mainly a factor of his entire army being in Charriu which I've been tracking, plus with the mountains I have pretty good vision. Mr Cairo and I do both have scouts in each others territory, but Mr Cairo's stack has been very centrally located. Again he re-accepted the fish for fish I sent and hasn't stabbed AT yet, which makes me think he wouldn't stab me either.

Charriu is a safe border atm, but won't be once Jowy is next to me. Part of the reason I'm fine delaying my invasion of Charriu is that it means more units Jowy has to slog through, I don't really have the army or position to extend too far that direction atm anyways. I figure the 3 cities to the SE are pretty easily mine and ExploringFauns I would like to snatch as a production city in the east. The pig and floodplains would be in my 3rd ring culture for a while, so AT couldn't make good use of it right away anyways, hoping he is going somewhere else.

[Mjmd]

I think Charriu just "won" a pretty big battle vs AT. 3 great generals were born.  ATs power dropped by a lot. Charriu's power dropped too, but not by as much and Charriu didn't lose a city.

In any case Charriu left 1 unfortified slightly injured spear in ExploringFuans. I moved my 6 horse archers to the staging pt ahead of the main stack. Depending what he has in there next turn I might send in just the horse archers. 1 of them can get shock and rest have just 1 promotion available. I'm assuming withdraw chance depending what he has. Obviously a little risky if he can reinforce with a spear and literally anything else. Probably* just wait on the main stack, but will see next turn.

I could work a merchant for a golden age in 10 turns, but will probably wait for Pork Chops to grow in 3 turns and decide then. Workers are finishing prechops on a mausoleum tiles though, so more workers can start chopping libraries and building cottages for those cities, which is what I'm waiting on. Also, need to fit in some 1 pop whips on horse archers sometime.

Question: is it worth doing the same upgrade trick with axes to macemen as well?
General mechanics question I think anyone can answer freely: what happens to the whip overflow if a unit is held in que for a while? Does it degrade or ?

EDIT: Jowy did take a city of Charriu this turn. I think its time to start to get moving.

[Mjmd]

Charriu took back his city from AT; AT had a medium size stack there, so that isn't nothing. Meaning AT now has nothing but garrison units..... I moved my horse archer stack to Pork Chops and resent Charriu our Pig for cow trade deal dating back to end of our war. Mr Cairo also finally moved his stack east. Pin has put some elephants and workers on my western border, the obvious mission being to chop down the forests there. As I'm finishing Mausoleum next turn, I'm a little suspicious. I've actually moved all my non horse archers to the west atm. Moving slow movers into AT land would be dangerous. I recalled a couple of garrison units from both Cairo and Charriu borders.

AT has correctly not chopped a jungle, which will give him 1 more turn if I decide to invade. Those workers are cottaging, but I double played the turn, so its not like AT won't be suspicious.



Mausoleum was completed with just 2 more chops and working 1 odd tile for 1 turn. With this many players this has to be one of the slowest builds ever! As you can see I'm also going to start working a merchant next turn, which will accelerate golden age by 3-4 turns. I need to start putting horse archers in some of the slower ques next turn I think.

[El Grillo]

Wow, now that's a welcome surprise. Launching a boosted GA with ~2500 gold sounds very nice indeed. There are a number of things to think about, but the ones that seem to require the most planning are:

- Making use of civic swaps into and out of the GA. Since the Mausoleum extends the duration from 8t to 12t, you can fit an additional swap in the middle. Using anarchy turns to swap civics becomes increasingly painful later in the game, so you'll probably be in these civics for a while unless you have a plan to make another GA like Taj Mahal or getting two more Great People from techs or GPP. I haven't looked closely at the mod, but you could run a brief period of Caste System/Pacifism or Serfdom before swapping back into Slavery, and decide if/when you want to swap into Bureaucracy, Vassalage, Mercantilism, or Theocracy.
- Using the GPP boost to make more Great People. You'll want to note which cities have enough food surplus and specialist slots to do this, and grow them and not whip them leading into the GA. Caste System is usually used to make pure GPP pools for specific plans, or you can just use a city with a Library/Market/Forge/Temple for a mixed pool. GPP aren't worth anything until after you cross the finish line, so it's pretty effective to lean on the GA GPP bonus while it's available.

Back to your earlier questions, what's the upgrade trick for Axe->Mace? And for items that sit in the build queue, after some time they start decaying hammers (units faster than buildings), but the BUG mod interface should tell you when and how many. Separately, any hammers overflowed or chopped into a city while it's working on Wealth/Culture/Research are banked indefinitely and do not decay.

[Mjmd]

World news Pin swapped into vassalage this turn; I think this is his last turn of golden age. I did not invade AT, he actually managed to play before me turn I would have invaded and only made peace this turn so I couldn't invade when I wanted to. He has now reinforced with a bit; I could probably brute force it, but no point throwing away my horse archer stack when I'm this close to knights. Edit: Also Mr cairo is goign to hit AT in a turn or 2, so assuming AT will move a few units up as well.

Only 1800-1900 gold. Decided to work a merchant to speed it up by 4 turns. So now 7 turns away!

As far as civics, this is like the least bureaucracy caps I've ever owned, but most of that is French Toast is getting a lot of the good commerce tiles as it has a market and capital doesn't. I actually find it interesting that most people got an academy in PB51, but then I don't think there is a single one in PB52. I have to admit I hadn't considered mercantilism until you mentioned it, but seems like a good idea and banking is a cheap tech and financial has the buff to building them in this mod version !!!! Ya good sell El Grillo. Do I tech theology for theocracy instead of organized? That is the question. I'm not going to lie my favorite civic is organized religion. I should be able to tech 10/12 turns I'm in the golden age.
Techs that I want
Tier 1: will definitely tech.
Feudalism first so I can swap to monarchy vassalage.  Machinery, Guilds, and Engineering*** (this empire would be long with railroads, plus better to surprise people)
Tier 2: Get to after
Banking, code of laws, civil service

So again I'm super noob and have only played this game casually for a long time, but the whole whip ancient units so they pop out as upgraded when you tech the relevant tech is what I was talking about. So preparing the horse archers to whip now. I would imagine a rd of whipped axes would be well worth 12+macemen to buffer an army. I actually vaguely thought about going macemen first as Pins army is very anti cav and territory I would be moving through is slow mode anyways, but opportunity for knights aganst AT, Charriu, or Jowy is promising. My noob preparation from last turn:



Even with forges up in a few cities I'm still 5th in production. Mind I'm 2nd in GNP behind Pin in a golden age. Western cities should be up and functioning to some degree by golden age.

[Mjmd]

Mr Cairo entered his golden age, although his army has been sitting on AT border now for a couple turns...... AT built Paya, for reasons? Pins power is starting to go back up. I'm getting itchy; think next turn I'm going to work another merchant starting next turn to bring golden age down to 4 turns. With increased costs I only will have gold for 9 turns anyways. Might split it up get to guilds, finish a couple libraries in Time and Waffles and then tech again. Have libraries in finishing or finished in sap, few tress, and evaporator, which are the main commerce western cities before golden age.

Whipped units start decaying in 5 turns fyi, so I'll likely have to whip right before golden age which is awkward. Probably just whenever it makes sense growth wise is the correct course.

[Mjmd]

Let me know what you guys want to see. I haven't been reporting a lot. I've just been improving cities and waiting on this golden age.

-Did Pin discover Machinery or Guilds this turn. Hmmm. Only 3 whips recently so hopefully machinery.
-Mr Cairo FINALLY has moved his army where he can attack into AT. Just to be clear, I'm very fine with him taking his sweet time for the same reason I'm fine Jowy grinding against Charriu. I really don't want another dominant power atm. He actually posted for once last turn, so assuming he is going in this turn.
-AT used his golden age and Paya to go into Free Religion. Assuming he will switch into theocracy end of golden age. BTW El Grillo I loved what you did in PB51 with Paya and pacifism.

Demos. Note library finishing same turn golden age starts not coincidence I swear (seriously been trying to get those suckers up in the west). Also all the grassland river tiles are now cottaged (farmed the far west ones for prod cities). Still need to cottage a couple plains ones at Few Trees and Waffles. Also, note two people are in a golden age. I'm still 5th!!!! in population with 2nd food, but all the river cottages are being worked and that's what I care about. Not happy with soldier, but that should jump with a rd of knights. Plus production is improving. Empire shot next turn.



El Grillo, thanks for making me think about the next golden age fyi. Made me think about where those specialists are coming from and what to run. So for instance instead of working the plains hill when Pancakes grew back to 5, it is now working an engineer. It will also get a library(?) for when I get mercantilism as it will lag behind Salmon. I also switched Salmon to working merchants a few turns ago. Pancakes should have predominantly priest engineer chances and Salmon should have over 50% for getting merchant. Now I could instead build a temple at Pancakes literally just for the priest slot instead of the library...... I have to decide next turn. Thoughts? I would probably do temple and then library. I think at pts it will work 4 specialists to catch up to Salmon, but obviously working 2 scientist is slightly dangerous because I could get like a 25% scientist and a 45% one. Pork chops will be switching to working 3 plains cottages and growing as it has both a bank and grocer to whip in plus give it some natural production. With all its food it will still be working 2 scientists full time; whipped pop will be taken from the plains cottages instead of specialists. Probably for an astronomy bulb. Assuming I'm taking nationalism with lib (yes I'm just assuming I'm winning that race).

Any questions, comments, random thoughts? Anyone able to tell me how many people have noticed me stockpiling gold? Not who, just how many? Also, how do you insert youtube videos? Never seems to work for me.

[Mjmd]

I think its time to blow this thing. Ok 3 2 1 lets jam. (picture of me pressing golden age button I forgot to take)
You think anyone will notice?

Empire Overview:

So currently to achieve 9 uninterrupted turns of tech I'm having to work 2 merchants in Pork Chops instead of scientists. I'll have to do a break somewhere anyways, but question is when. Guilds should be 6 turns, engineering is currently showing 3, but I'm wondering with overflow if I can get it in 2. Plus I'll have some other markets coming online, but I would rather those cities work tiles during a golden age, except maybe Evaporator as GP pts are worth something there.

There are a lot of horse archers in que behind other things. I think every city except for French Toast, Pork Chops, and Salmon will all be 1 pop whipped before guilds. Obviously trying to time so they all instantly regrow ect ect.

[Mjmd]

Mr Cairo FINALLY invaded AT. I doubt AT will put up the defense Charriu is sadly. Charriu took another of his cities back despite being down in tech. He extended some kind of health for health resources trade I don't remember. I accepted. Keep giving me a safe flank please.


SOOOOO I'm obsessed with this golden age power already. What if I tried to stay in a golden age for the next 47 some turns......... I switched some tiles around and Salmon can produce a great person in 11 turns (remaining time on this golden age). Instead of banking and engineering, I could instead after guilds go get the free great artist..... POWER PURE POWER!!!!!!! Ya im corrupted. The next golden age could then come from a combination of Evaporator, Pancakes, and Pork Chops, then the next golden age would be Taj. Sound like a plan?

Worried about a dog pile, sure, worried about not having enough units, sure, but it sounds like a plan to get Taj nerfed.

[GeneralKilCavalry]

I love the civ 4 perpetual golden age. What's your plan for the great people for the 3rd golden age? Produce 3 in rapid succession during the second GA?