[Spoilers] Slowcheetah Slinks Ahead (Well Hopefully)

[slowcheetah]

Moi

1st Row, 2nd- Archery, 3rd Row, 4th Row, Aesthetics, Maths, Alphabet, Monarchy, Literature, Calender, Currency, Machinery, Code of Laws, Feudalism, Philosophy, Civil Service.

Total-7518 Beakers

Sian

Has- 1st Row, 2nd Row-Med, 3rd Row- PH, 4th Row, Maths, Monarchy, Calender, Currency, Machinery, Code of Laws, Feudalism, Philosophy, Civil Service, Guilds.

Total Beakers- 7660

Sian has pretty much beelined guilds, skipping the aesthetics line completely. This is irritating because his creative borders are pressing firmly into mine, and a horse based army would be hard to deal with at this point. He's probably aiming to get a workshop economy similar to mine going, although he is yet to really use great people. He's currently in a golden age so he may be planning on generating them during that (although he isn't in pacifism or caste)

MusicMan

Has- 1st Row, 2nd Row, 3rd Row, 4th Row, Aesthetics, Maths, Monarchy, Literature, Calender, Machinery, Code of Laws, Philosophy, Theology, Music.

Total Beakers- 6496

Musicman is in the second rung of researchers below Sian and I (although he does have a lot of gold saved up). He's made some odd choices with his techpath in my opinion. Firstly he doesn't have currency yet??? Secondly he still lacks civil service. If I were farmers gambitting Elizabeth, I'd try to use Phi to get to education as quickly as possible for a fin cottage super capital. He did win the Music artist so they were some well leveraged beakers.

bRICK

Has- 1st Row, 2nd Row, Monotheism, BW, 4th Row, Aesthetics, Maths, Alphabet, Monarchy, Literature, Calender, Currency, Machinery, Code of Laws, Civil Service, philosophy.

Total Beakers- 6289


bRICk joins musciman in the second rung of technology, although again he has a lot of long term potential, he's also done by far the best from the medieval wonders. Snagging the GLib, Shedwagon Paya and most importantly the MoM. Can probably get ot liberalism first considering the beelines of Sian and me.

Azza

1st Row, 2nd Row -(Med+Poly), 3rd Row- (Mono, PH), 4th Row, Maths, Calender, Construction, Engineering, Currency, Code of Laws

Total-4489 Beakers

He's doing terribly beakerwise, thankfully he has engineering so Sian won't be able to roll through him easily with knights, but Eng isn't really a good technology for him. Will obsolete completely soon and is annoyingly positioned between Sian and bRICK.


Overall

It currently seems like there is a four way stalemate plus Azza. Sian and I are ahead on technology, but we have a weaker longgame than the two financials. We could do with more land. Consequently, we have both (sort of) rushed for guilds (I'll be there in the next two turns). This makes Sian an unattractive target for me, musicman would be a possible target but if I attack him I leave my flanks exposed to Sian. Additionally, getting drawn into a prolonged war would let Willem of bRICk tech away happily, and chain some MoM golden ages.

A big sigh goes up from the lurkers as they realise what I am going to say...

Currently war is not the plan.

Instead I am going to use my trade mission trade merchant to tech guilds and then nationalism and snatch the Taj mahal away from bRICK. Then go banking->gunpowder->Chemistry to get mercantilsm->my UU(good on defense)-> Nice workshops.

If an opportunity to attack Sian comes about (i.e. he attacks Azza) then I will follow through, but until that moment the main aim is to deny the Taj Mahal to the guy with the MoM.

If anyone has any questions feel free to ask

[slowcheetah]

I don't have time for a full report right now, but I just finished off nationalism. Espionage says bRICK will finish lib this turn (almost certainly into nationalism). Taj mahal race incoming. I also sparked a golden age and finished Moai, so went from last in production to first.

[Catwalk]

A big sigh goes up from the lurkers as they realise what I am going to say...

Currently war is not the plan.

I realized that the moment you signed up

I'm spoiled so I won't be able to comment much, but I'm certainly rooting for you! Gogo win the Taj Mahal race, I assume you have a plan for it.

[slowcheetah]

Aren't you, sort of on Sian's team

I've got a pretty good place lined up for Mr Mahal, although how fast it goes will depend on whether I whip or not. I'll work out that next time I have the save.

One of these days I'll instigate an offensive war. One of these days...:neenernee

[Catwalk]

One of these GAMES I'll instigate an offensive war. One of these GAMES...:neenernee

Fixed it for you!

[slowcheetah]

I got paranoid and six popped whipped Drasnia. This means the Taj Mahal is mine next turn.

Also used another Great Merchant in the city (now Sian's) bordering my Moai site. I payed Sian 100 gold for the privilege because I couldn't sneak my merchant in there undetected.

Next turn, I switch from Nationhood, Slavery and OR -> Bureau, Caste, Mercantalism and Pacifism. Plan is to blast out great people in my Taj Golden age. Minigoal is to steal the economics great merchant from bRICK. He's currently up Paper and Edu in the race, however I am up Feud-> Guilds-> Banking. Sian could potentially get involved, however, I think he's going for chemistry with his previous engineering research and musicman is down Edu, Feud, Guilds, Banking.

Hopefully my polluted pools will give me a bulbing scientist .

[slowcheetah]

So, as always it has...uh... been a while.

However, in more positive news there is soon to be a war. Next turn in fact, although I doubt they'll be any actual bloodshed on that turn (it's like swimming I have to dip my toe in the water first).

We'll get to the war in a second but firstly lets have a look at my empire.

The North:

The Northern Middle:

The Southern Middle:

The Southwest:

Overall Cities Screen

Sadly, aside from a few main cities. I'm rather lacking in infrastructure, and the land is pretty much filled out now. Individual cities I'm not going to bother discussing unless requested, because i'm not a microwhizz like some on this site and they aren't really doing that much interesting anyway.

Capital and Maragor (main commerce)- Are building Infrastructure to give me a livable GPT during this war. I'm currently at +65 GPT at max tax.

Established cities- Are building catapults (upgrade to cannons in the queue next turn) and being drafted.

New cities- Granaries, Courthouses + Lots of farms + Draft when reaches six.

Civics

I'm currently in Rep, Nationhood, Caste, Mercantilism and Theocracy. Next turn I'll be switching to Slavery and Bureau/Vassalage. I haven't quite made up my mind on Vassalage yet. It'll get me 7XP cannons out of most places (pretty much everywhere established has a barracks), however that only puts me closer to a third promotion, not to the crucial ten. It also costs more in GPT than nationhood. Bureau would probably be a better option with bank soon to be completed which makes my running merchants in my capital more economical.

Capital currently has a +110% boost in beakers and a 50% (before bank) boost in commerce.

So, apparently i'm switching to slavery, bureau and leaving the rest as is. Only a couple of cities are missing courthouses so there will be at least a Rep spy to run using Mercantlism.

Ok, so onto the war. There are four players still in the game with a chance to win. Sian, bRICk, musicman and myself.

Summarising their positions

Sian- Has the most cities in the game having shot up to 26 recently. I have 18 and am by far the closest in city number. However, a lot of these are very recent settles (the last 15 or so turns), and he doesn't have a much bigger crop yield than me. He has Knights, Muskets, the ability to draft and experience of defending in these PBEMs. His technology rate isn't quite flying as of yet, although he'll be dangerous if I don't close the city gap.

bRick- Only has 13 cities, however he's just about to finish rifling and I don't have many borders with him. Has the MoM and is Willem, although me stealing the Taj from him probably set him back some. Presumably he's going to attack somebody soon (probably Azza) but he doesn't even have construction so will have to spend some time building collateral.

musicman- My eastern neighbour, has a very low powergraph, a very high GNP, no nationalism and access to Knights and Muskets. He's also currently in Serfdom, and isn't spiritual. His power's barely escalated even though I cancelled our rolling NAP on turn 120. I can take his horse city on the second turn of the war and deprive him of horses on the third turn. He's in free speech ()and has lots of well developed cottages that I want to add to my empire. His border cities are currently defended by crossbowmen and the occasional mace If you hadn't already guessed he's my target.

War plans

My actual plan is baby simple. The picture below displays my stack of

8 Knights (6 unpromoted with 5xp)
16 Janissaries (2xp each)
2 Pikes
7 Cats
2 Trebs
2 Chariots (for scouting)



I am admittedly currently a bit light on siege, however, these troops are just meant for an initial push in order to take down NUFC and deprive musicman of his horses. They're going to advance to the sign t128, then on turn 129 the siege will get rid of the defenses, and I'll probably promote a couple of knights to flanking for the first couple of assaults, (Currently he has a mace, crossbow and a warrior in the city), with the Jans finishing off the city. I'll then probably pull back a few of the Janissaries, while advancing the rest towards musicman's capital. While I threaten his capital I am going to use my northern cannons to take Solano, and then hopefully work forward from there. I would assault solano first, but music's got cultural control of a very annoying peak tile, making it difficult to have my troops unseen.

Score

GNP

MFG

Crop Yield

Power (my favourite)

Culture

Espionage

Demographics

If anyone has any questions feel free to ask, although I'm pretty much going for a my hammer is bigger than your hammer strategy here.

[Catwalk]

Looks solid! This war has all the signs of profitability about it, I hope you will be able to execute a smooth campaign.

[slowcheetah]

I hope so too. Now I just need the turn to come round.

[slowcheetah]

Main worry is that Sian uses the time to attack me, I've got a couple of cities bordering him I wouldn't want to lose. However, I'd imagine he'll use the safer border to concentrate on Azza.