[SPOILER] Asoka of the Vikings (Nakor & Gaspar)

[Nakor]

I think we still have chances as well, Gaspar.
Let's tech Paper- PP - Edu (bulb, build Oxford) and then head for either Astro (for Navy and Observatorys) or go the Rifling path, picking up some small tech we need along the way (HBR, Literature).
That way we should be ready to hit someone in about 50turns. That's when our current NAP's with Locke and LP end. Locke still seems like the best target to me since we can attack his island city as well as his mainland and with Naval superiority he can't do a thing about it. Maybe we can get Luddite and Plako's help as well.
If that is our plan, I do suggest we make a NAP with Plako, but more like untill T225 since then the war with Locke should be over.

Do we have the beginning of a plan here or do you want to pursue something else?

[Gaspar]

I think we still have chances as well, Gaspar.
Let's tech Paper- PP - Edu (bulb, build Oxford) and then head for either Astro (for Navy and Observatorys) or go the Rifling path, picking up some small tech we need along the way (HBR, Literature).
That way we should be ready to hit someone in about 50turns. That's when our current NAP's with Locke and LP end. Locke still seems like the best target to me since we can attack his island city as well as his mainland and with Naval superiority he can't do a thing about it. Maybe we can get Luddite and Plako's help as well.
If that is our plan, I do suggest we make a NAP with Plako, but more like untill T225 since then the war with Locke should be over.

Do we have the beginning of a plan here or do you want to pursue something else?

I think Paper -> Printing Press -> Education is clearly the only logical route to take at the moment. So yeah, we can't attack plako anytime soon if we're going that route. Though, if we're going to bulb Education, perhaps we should instead grab Liberalism pre-req's after Paper and see if we can get lucky there? Just seems silly if we're going to burn a GSci that way to use any other option. Maybe its a lost cause, but Liberalism's a good tech for us anyway, as a Spiritual civ. How many turns are we currently on to a GSci and how fast can we get Philo? Philo makes sense for us anyway, it's worth being able to run Pacifism occasionally. I'll take a look at both of these in game. If I feel like we can beat Locke to Liberalism, let's take that path, even if means delaying PP. That's a lot of free beakers just to cede to him. I don't think anyone other than Locke can beat us there at this point. Wish we had EP on him.

As far as attacking Locke goes, the problem with Locke is he's ahead of us on tech. Can we catch him in the short term? Maybe. But unless he gets into it with Adlain in the short term, we're kind of screwed, he can definitely out-produce us. Maybe we should load a few Nav1 galleys with zerks and threaten luddite, who we have no NAP with. Tell him he agrees to go full bore on helping us war with Locke or he loses a few coastal cities. Because neither Adlain nor mackoti can actually help us against Locke.

But logistically, Locke is the player we can threaten the best. We're closer to his cap than he is to ours, we can boat most of his cities, and they'd fit neatly into our empire. Those two cities on the island, the city on the peninsula below Horseland, and that key choke point city east of Fishfood would make a pretty decent haul, and all could be one-moved on T1 of a war with Galleons, especially if they were holding Amphibious Rifles. Still - I think he'd probably just take all that stuff back in about 5 minutes.

Let's see what we can do with either the Liberalism or PP/Education plan and what it really does to our tech rate. Then we can go from there. If you want to NAP plako, I suppose I can't come up with a reason not to, but if you sign another NAP with LP we're going to have words.

[Gaspar]

Loaded up the new turn because I will be inconsistently available today.

Parkin built both Sankore and Parthenon this turn. No words. He also must have founded Islam. Way to prioritize Divine Right, Parkin. I'm sure getting Spiral Minaret a few turns earlier will be way more useful than getting Liberalism instead of Locke (or us.) Meh.

Let's try the Liberalism thing. We get Paper in 2, Philo will take 4 more after that. If we revolt to Caste right now, we'll get a GSci in 6 turns, just in time to bulb Education. Then we research Liberalism @100% which will take ~5 turns. It delays PP, but if nothing else, it ensures Locke can't take anything good with it. I will say, if we somehow manage to get to Liberalism first, even though we can't take anything great (though wouldn't building Taj be hilarious? Unfortunately, not really enough forests anywhere) it would feel like a giant middle finger to everyone who keeps treating us like some poor relation. Most likely, it'll just let us rush FS a little sooner. Regardless, we'll take PP after this gambit is done, shouldn't cost us more than about 8 turns on PP.

With the revolt to Caste, decided to run an Artist in Fisherman real quick for a border pop. Nowhere else really needed the boost, though I did do a fair bit of tile micro. Didn't really move anything, left that for you. Currently running 307 bpt @ breakeven. Wish we had more land.

[Nakor]

I'll take a look later.
Going for Lib and a war with Locke is the deal then. Good we have about 50t to prepare! I'll try to get our other flank (Plako) save for quite some time with a NAP untill t225 and maybe some other plans.

Can we get more out of running CS/Pac once we have Phil?

[Gaspar]

I'll take a look later.
Going for Lib and a war with Locke is the deal then. Good we have about 50t to prepare! I'll try to get our other flank (Plako) save for quite some time with a NAP untill t225 and maybe some other plans.

Can we get more out of running CS/Pac once we have Phil?

I think its an option. I think realistically the next GP should probably go for a GA, though we could make use of another scientist or a merchant. Regardless, times like right now, Pacifism is a better option than OR, as we're not really building anything mission critical. I mean we're spiritual, we'll switch situationally. Definitely need to backfill Theology eventually as well, for the same reason.

As far as war with Locke, I'm okay with accepting its the best option, but I'm not quite ready to sign it in blood. What I think is we should refrain from signing any NAPs with him. I also think LP gets no more NAPs until the end of the game, I'd rather he were nervous about getting boated and had to build a few more units in between every wonder in the game.

[Nakor]

Ok, we're set on the short term plan then. Did the last moves and ended turn.
I think we're teching better then Locke and we have saved some money to do even better for a short while.

Now all we need is a long term plan. Still think attacking Locke is the best option. We might want to convince someone to go after Locke before us, or convince Locke to go after Adlain and build crappy units...

[Nakor]

We got a few new messages. How do we respond to Rego?

[Gaspar]

I saw them. Let's let rego sit a moment and I'll get back to you tonight.

[Nakor]

LP wants a map trade, said "what have you got?" :neenernee
BUT that means LP got Paper as well and will probably head towards Lib as well....

Riverland finished a Monastry, started on a Barracks before turning out some military. Feel free to veto!

Ironic did the Granary, Forge next for better production.

That brings me back to my earlier question: do we want Windmills or Mines?

What more can I say, we totally screwed with our neighbours!!!

[Gold Ergo Sum]

Did you ever finalize that T225 NAP with plako, or is that still up for debate?

What kind of diplo did you get from Rego recently?