[Mjmd #52 no players] Working on the Homestead

[Mjmd]

I mean I have a good shot at another golden age atm, so hopefully can build taj during it would be the plan. The most likely person to steal would be Mr Cairo. He got a great scientist two turns ago though so assuming he is trying for a second golden age atm and working merchants somewhere? I also expect some decade he will invade AT. He has military superiority (and has had for a while) He is actually #1 in power atm. I've scouted what AT has to defend. All Cairo is doing by waiting is letting AT build pikes and crossbows. Most of his army is still old junk though. If Cairo invades AT, all AT can do is just huddle behind his walls.

I kind of just want to get to rifles and kick Pin in the teeth before he can get his empire up in running. No sense letting him get back into this. I also do have a ton of villages, so printing press is worth a lot.

[Mjmd]

I also want to take care of Pin before Jowy takes care of Charriu, which again I have the harder task there.

[GeneralKilCavalry]

I also want to take care of Pin before Jowy takes care of Charriu, which again I have the harder task there.

But bigger rewards

[El Grillo]

Yeah, the urgency re: pindicator regrowing his cities and recovering from whip anger is a good point, and Printing Press is a strong pick-up as well.

[Mjmd]

-Pin definitely thought I was attacking this turn. He double whipped 4 cities last turn and there are a couple new pikes and knights this turn. Pin cleaned up mainland last turn and got optics this turn. Sooo very soon my nets are just dead if he wants. He also gets easy access to circumnavigation thanks to being on the end of the continent. whereas Charriu and I have longer travel times once we build caravels.
-Other news is that AT either got bored with the game, thought Mr Cairo's army was elsewhere, or thought he had to be proactive? and declared war vs Cairo last turn and retook his city. Of course now instead of just sitting around Mr Cairo will do what he should have been doing for the past 40-50 turns and go conquer AT. I'll rebuild an eastern stack and see if he ferries away his crossbow on the island. At least  he isn't protective. 

I had the pleasure of watching gold I was losing per turn at 100% go up by 18gpt thanks to stupid inflation changes when I picked my tech. I mean I guess it depends on viewpoint. Should you punish person doing well or try to help people catch up. 
Anyways 45% inflation!!!!! Anyone know offhand what it is supposed to be right now? I meant to take a picture last turn for worked tile comparison and just totally forgot. 22 turns ago on turn 150 it was 386 so I'm about 200 higher!!!! (both during golden ages too so it is comparable). Also 25% inflation vs 45% inflation.............. I'm assuming some natural increase occurred in there but wowzers.

Order of day is banks, courthouses, and forges. Courthouses count extra thanks to inflation........ Maple Sugar would make a good forbidden palace city, but its also my heroic epic city making building anything there super awkward. It does have a pair of 3rd ring forests I could chop into it on Pins border. If I'm going to do I should do soon.

[Mjmd]

T175 and I'm very glad I'm going rifles instead of taking nationalism. My incredibly rough guess on rifling is like 12 turns.

First empire overview. The round of infrastructure builds is about to come to an end.

Notice both Evaporator and Pancakes starving. I'm starting to get a little nervous and want that next golden age already! Obviously running some small risks here with other GP percentages. I'll start working a spy at both when available. Just made sense to go all out at least during the golden age. I will evaluate after that. If amount needed didn't change evaporator would have one in 4 and Pancakes in 6.
The world is changing fast:-AT's decision to attack Cairo in order to get himself out of this game faster is working. Cairo is proceeding with minimal loses. BAD. WHY AT WHY. Who knows what Cairo would have attacked given his own timeline. Now I'm moving some units over there atm to take that island city and probably border city. Obviously this will put me in contention with Cairo, so little risky. Hopefully I can be close to rifles by time I attack and or AT puts up a good denense, or it just takes a while for Cairo to bombard. Plan to move most knights east for defense, while most new rifles move west.
-Charriu while absolutely correct to attack Jowy did not do well...... That means my buffer states are going to disappear. Jowy is whipping atm, so its good he is using whips now instead of on rifles later.
-Pin is doing something? My SW spy got caught again, but its fine I have good vision still (horse archer with vision keeps darting to hill and back). I think he still expects me to attack. I'm insanely curious what his plan is. To note he wouldn't KNOW what I took with lib per se. If he was watching GNP it would have been easy to figure out, but other than that.

Tech situation hasn't changed much. Question of the day is what is Cairo teching. On one hand him teching to nationalism is bad because if he gets an engineer he could grab Taj. On the other hand he is further from rifles then.

Demos: I'm in a golden age and they are silly. Mind GNP is with me at 0%.......

Finances. Reason I'm at 0% this turn is because I'm trying to save myself 1 more turn of increased inflation. I think it makes sense to all out the rest of the golden age still though. Should have enough gold for 2.75/3 remaining golden age full tech turns.

Power: all bad news for me. My plan is to build knights and cats until its time for rifles most places. Charriu got massacred, but I trust him to hold out better than AT and again if Jowy wants to fight not at rifles that is great for me.

I need to figure out a plan of attack where I don't get dog piled. First step as mentioned is to start building military again and try to get to rifles. Larger picture?
-I could try to plow my knights into Jowy's stack at a moment of weakness right before I get rifles to slow him down while marching on Pin. Would require a moment of weakness.
-Obviously what will Cairo do? Hopefully his attack takes a while, but I doubt it. With travel time though and maybe some bombarding enough time for rifles?!?! Cairo doesn't seem like the type to attack and take one for the team. Hopefully he just wants second place and invades Jowy!
-What is Pins plan. I'm sure he would love to eco up, but is he aware of the rifling timeline? He has barely whipped recently and his production base is currently pretty bad so I don't expect a large amount of extra power incoming, although obviously 25 cities once regrown will be great.

I'm winning, but world events are starting to turn against me (to be fair they have been with me all game, so rather now than earlier)

[Mjmd]

Turn just rolled. Mr Cairo teched Paper, which is interesting.
GNP at full is 1049 for the record. 850 beakers a turn.
Also, with banks and courthouses finishing gpt increased at 0% from 575gpt to 637gpt in 1 turn. Who knew building infrastructure was good? (I did, I love building infrastructure, see me going into organized religion without a golden age)

[El Grillo]

Hmm, I see two broad paths forward, a risky one where you try to end the game somehow with a concession in the near-immediate future, or one where you accept going into a 4-player late-game face-off. If you're content with the latter, then it probably makes sense to keep growing and developing, then snipe the last of AT and Charriu's cities once they're out of gas in their current wars, razing and replacing where necessary to get defensible borders against Jowy and Cairo, while keeping a defensive force and an eye on pindicator. The risky plan instead involves trying to instead prop up AT and Charriu while taking down pindicator somehow, but could also look like fighting both AT and then Cairo, or Charriu and then Jowy, and just carving up the continent.

I'd personally lean toward playing a longer game with an eye for Cannons and Cavalry or maybe even Tanks. Part of that is I think you have the tools (FIN and shrine) to compete (and a Taj GA would certainly help in getting there sooner), and part of it is that even with Rifles, collateral still makes attacking very difficult. In either case, I expect that you'll need to take cities off of one or more players to maintain the lead going into late game, but I'll leave it to you to decide against whom and how.

[Mjmd]

1st off got a MERCHANT!!!!! Means I would have to have some truly horrid luck now.

I still think I want to try to take advantage of my tech lead sooner rather than later. Right now I have a main enemy Pin who has captured and whipped cities, but letting him mobilize a fresh army seems bad. Cairo will take some time to heal and move through AT, so that gives me a little time there. Charriu is protective with lots of hilled cities and walls and Celtic hill promotions. If I wait I let people consolidate their holdings and I'll have 1 neighbor with rifles (no one else is even close) and no safe borders. I'm still chewing on a military strategy, but I'll post about it at some point soon. Have a worker scouting out Charriu Jowy situation.

In the meantime I have a decision. This is the last turn of my golden age. Do I switch to Free Religion for beaker bonus or stay in organized? Main draw for organized is I'm building a few universities still and more important I was going to try to squeeze in Forbidden palace in Maple Sugar (heroic epic city). I have 1 chop that will go in this turn (couldn't build until this turn as I just got 6 courthouses) and then obviously a few more. Have some other buildings finishing up, but not many other long term building projects. I currently have 562 beakers left of Replaceable parts and then 3588 beakers of rifling. Going full bore this turn and not worrying about inflation to make full use of last turn of boosted golden age. I'll then have about 5 turns (rough rough guess) to rifling. Not sure if free religion would shave a turn, but probably worth roughly 40 beakers per turn (I'm pure guessing a break even tech of 50% about 400 beakers a turn post golden age). El Grillo thoughts? If you want to go in and take a look up to you. I'm also pretty sure I'm going to starve Evaporator down to 9 working specialists, will evaluate more next turn after golden age.

[El Grillo]

I like the switch to Free Religion here. You're mostly done using whips and chops to build basic infrastructure, and not chasing any particular wonder, which is when I'd consider OR to be most effective. Only half of your queues are buildings right now, and I'd expect that to skew even more heavily to units in the near future. Also worth considering, do you want to spend some time out of Slavery? Your cities are large enough and have mature cottages that whipping is starting to lose its luster, and I could see strong upsides to either Serfdom or Caste System. You could always fire the 3-man GA to swap back to Nationhood/Slavery in case of a dire emergency.

While looking through the cities, Mixed Drinks, Sugar Cookies, and Mud are all working Citizen free specialists when they have Engineer slots available.