[SPOILERS] Parkin brings the rain down in Africa: Churchill of Zulu

[Old Harry]

Cuirs would save you getting rp and rifling straight away... they're also a good offensive option.

What is your ep ratio, how does your espionage graph compare to his, how much does visibility on his cost you?

[Grimace]

Cuirs would save you getting rp and rifling straight away... they're also a good offensive option.

What is your ep ratio, how does your espionage graph compare to his, how much does visibility on his cost you?

Ah, forgot about Cuirs. Have to look at the tech tree to figure out how long that would take.

Espionage graph...I'm generating a lot more than haram, probably because I have courthouses almost everywhere.



Espionage screen...I'm honestly not sure how to read all the data here. I'm working on getting city visibility right now, but my costs for him are much lower than anyone else except for the small civs like DZ and GJ. I'm guessing the 78% cost means I'm putting more EPs into him than vice versa, but I'm not sure about that.



So what do you think? Can he see my research? If not, he's almost certainly going for Grens to protect against my knights and trebs. He may not even know I'm going down the Rifling path.

[Grimace]

Ok, so to get Cuirs I would just go down the Drama/Music/Military Tradition line. Hmmm. Maybe not a bad idea. They would do well against Grens or Cannons. Then after that go RP->Rifling for Rifles and Cavalry. I don't have a lot of forests, so RP is only necessary for the techs it opens.

[Old Harry]

The 78% is because of the total number of EPs you've both spent (not necessarily on each other). It means the amount of EPs he'd need to see your research will be higher than yours to see his. So if you point to his score on the civ list it'll say what you've spent on him and what he's spent on you (you've spent 232). If he's spent a lot more than 174 there's a chance that he can, but I'd bet he can't.

If he can't I bet he'll be heading for cannons.

[Grimace]

The 78% is because of the total number of EPs you've both spent (not necessarily on each other). It means the amount of EPs he'd need to see your research will be higher than yours to see his. So if you point to his score on the civ list it'll say what you've spent on him and what he's spent on you (you've spent 232). If he's spent a lot more than 174 there's a chance that he can, but I'd bet he can't.

If he can't I bet he'll be heading for cannons.

Ok, I'll check that when I play next turn.

Why do you think cannons? I would think grens would be a more useful unit overall, certainly a step up from maces, whereas cannons are of more limited utility. Unless he wants to try to break Sitatunga. I have a large force sitting in there right now, partly for defense partly for potential offense. 9 knights, 3 cats, 4 pikes, 4 maces. I'm sure he'd love to take that city back. He'd need a lot fewer cannons to hurt me there than he would cats or trebs. Plus being a gunpowder unit they ignore the walls.

In any case, it sounds like the best techpath is to go for cuirs first, then follow up with rifling which will get me cavalry and rifles at the same time.

[Old Harry]

Because Cannons and Maces will beat anyone up to Machine guns, while Grenadiers and Cats probably struggle...

Do you know if he's got many great generals? If he does go for Military Science you need to start looking out for Commando units.

I like that tech path. Do you know what Mackoti is up to? Will he be a threat in the near future? Perhaps by sea?

[Grimace]

Because Cannons and Maces will beat anyone up to Machine guns, while Grenadiers and Cats probably struggle...

Yeah, but cuirs against a stack of cannons/maces will hurt them badly.

Do you know if he's got many great generals? If he does go for Military Science you need to start looking out for Commando units.

He's had 2 great generals that I've seen during his war with GJ. One of them was definitely used for a super-medic because I've seen that unit running around. I don't know what happened to the other, but he was most likely settled.

I like that tech path. Do you know what Mackoti is up to? Will he be a threat in the near future? Perhaps by sea?

Mackoti finished scientific method this turn but as I played before him I don't know what he's researching now. His power level is well below mine, so he although he could provoke a war with me, I suspect that's not his plan right now. He's been going for mainly economic and "builder" techs. I don't even think he has gunpowder yet (though I can confirm that next play). He's well-ahead in score, so I think he's consolidating and building his economic base right now. He might be building up and planning for a modern-era war with tanks and infantry, and just letting the rest of us beat up on eachother in the meantime. I think the only way he doesn't win this game is for the rest of us to dogpile him, but someone always has to be first.

If I can subdue haram and build a decent economic base, I would even be willing to be the first one to jump on that. The reality is that every other player knows that if mackoti wins that war the game is definitely over, so I can't imagine many of them not trying to help knock him back at that time.

[Grimace]

I logged in because I remembered that we had a large beaker overflow from gunpowder, and I don't want it to go to RP if we're not going that tech path. Also turns out I don't need Drama to get Music, so new techpath is Music->Nationalism->Military Tradition. Overflow goes into Music and we have it in two turns, with a bunch overflowing into Nationalism. I think that will take 4 turns, then 6 for MT. So haram might get to steel first, but it will be very close, especially if I can beat up on a couple of his cities in the next 10 turns.

I checked out the EP ratio while I was in there, and it's 199/232. So he's allocated 199 to us, which may be enough to see our research...I honestly don't know. I do know I need more than that wetbandit's research, who is closest to us in score.

[Grimace]

Turn 167

In world news, Donovan Zoi has been eliminated, as you probably already know from the comments on the tech thread. Amusingly enough he got a great general in his last city AS IT WAS BEING CAPTURED.



Strangely, Seven gifted us a galley that had been exploring our territory. We have a two-tile point in the water where our cultural borders touch, so he would have had no trouble getting it back to his territory, so that was just odd. The galley in question is in the bottom left of the screenshot.



A lot of stuff happened domestically. We planted our newest city, Wildebeest, in the proposed spot. I’m working the iron grassland hill right now to take advantage of the extra production from our GA for the next two turns, then I’ll switch to the farmed grassland for growth. I had a Confucian missionary with the settler, so we got a religion right away and will have our border pop in 10 turns. I moved two settlers onto the forested grassland hill to begin chopping next turn. Once the borders pop I’ll move them to pasture the cows with a covering unit or two.



We completed the University of Sankore in our capital, boosting research by almost 200 beakers. We have 11 beakers left to research on Music and we’ll generate almost 1300 this turn. Lots of overflow into Nationalism!

Sitatunga is well defended from any counterattacks from haram.



Domestic advisor – lots of unit builds, but still doing infrastructure in some cities.



Civics that everyone is running…sorry about the hovering window:



Here’s the tech situation…of the leaders, we’re in last. Kinda sucks, but hopefully we can start making some more progress…UoS will help.



Haram has 4 turns left on chemistry, but I don’t think he can sustain that tech rate. He had 867 gold last turn, and has 582 this turn, showing a 285gpt deficit at 100%. That means he can only go 2 more turns at 100% unless he gets an infusion of cash somehow.

[Old Harry]

You'll be able to pop the borders in your border cities with culture builds next turn.

Also: Trebuchet?