[SPOILERS] Land of Chaos - HitAnyKey

[HitAnyKey]

Took a few days to get to this, but now I have more data for the screenshot. I also now know for sure that I need to settle that not-so-great spot as my second city after the desert. LP & Xenu are both expanded such that the hill by the Incense is a useless city for me at this point. Especially since I have no aim for getting Fishing at any time soon, that city would be worthless for me. So after I settle the desert in either 2 or 3 turns (it'll depend on how many turns it actually takes my settler to get to the spot), the city after that will be on the plains hill. It's the only spot that seems to make any sense to me.

I'm a handful of turns away from getting my Great Spy. Now, it's been forever since I've played, and probably even when I did play actively I've only gotten a Great Spy once or twice. Anyone have any insight on what some of the best uses of a great spy are? As of right now, I truly have no clue what I'll use him for. I assume I'll first send him over to plako to explore and get me a full layout of those lands. But what else is he good for at this stage of the game? Anyone know? I think I can theoretically steal a tech, but how probable will that be? I know regular Spy's are useful for that, but is it a waste to use a Great Spy for that? I really don't remember what Great Spy's can do.

[Rowain]

You can't steal techs (or do any other action the normal spies can do) with a Great Spy.
You can a) use him as invisible Unit to scout out whomever you want
b) settle him
c) build Scotland Yard (doubles espionage point output of this city)
d) Infiltrate an enemy. Happens in an enemy city and gives you a huge boost on Espionage points against this player. This points you can later spend to steal techs, revolt cities etc etc (with normal spies).

Just check what actions are allowed or banned in this game.

[Bigger]

to steal a tech, you'd need the great spy and regular spy. Do you have alphabet yet?

If that is your plan, hold onto him until you have alphabet. Identify who has the tech you want, build a regular spy. Send the great spy to that person and infiltrate him. This should give you 3000 EP's against him, which you can use with a regular spy to steal a tech. (it is just a normal EP action for a spy, but it costs a ton of EP's, which is prob why you've never done it before).

scottland yard would probably not be useful to you.. settling him will give you 9EP's a turn and 3 beakers, which might be useful. Infiltrating someone would have the advantage that you could do a lot of scouting before you decided who to use him against.

Can great spies be caught like regular spies? I dont think they can, but I'm not certain of that.

[HitAnyKey]

[SIZE="5"]STATE OF THE CHAOS - TURN 100 UPDATE[/SIZE]

Well, I survived to Turn 100. And even though I'm not doing particularly good, I'm also not absolutely horrible. LOL

Took a whole bunch of screenshots this morning before heading off to work. So you guys will get a full dataset of my reign of chaos.

First up, the Graphs & Demographics:
The graphs tend to be mostly useless for me, other than a general sense of how things look, so this is mostly for you guys:

The Demo's are a little skewed for this turn though (especially in Food & Production) due to some MM of my two main cities this turn. I set two Scientists in PoD to get my Great Spy next turn (instead of in 2 turns). But I'm somewhat happy with my GNP at the moment. Finally above average for the moment. I'm sure a handful of people already have Currency, so that obviously gives them big boosts. That's still 2 techs away for me.

That brings us to our next update. Tech:

That's what I have right now. I'll have Theology in 8 turns (unless someone gets to it before me, which if they do I'll switch to Math). At that point I'll run out of gold and will spend a couple turns or so building up cash. Then I'll grab Math & then Currency. I'm holding off on any further Chops until I get Math (since I have limited forests left) and I'm also going to try not to whip anything for awhile. Need to build up my population so I can maximize tile working.

Now for the cities:
Puddle of Doom

Next turn it pops out my Great Spy (7% chance of a Great Scientist which I would be even happier with, but most likely won't happen). I'll then go back to working all the tiles, and crank out some military. I'll need the military as a deterrent if I get Christianity in 8 turns, since them plako will probably want to conquer me to get the religion. I'm really hoping no one else has done a beeline for Theology. As a Spiritual civ, being able to switch back and forth between Organized Religion & Theocracy will be a big thing for me.

Hard Knocks

Obviously still in hard times. It has pitiful growth (and I don't even have a Granary there yet). Probably should make one next, or maybe should switch to it now. Not sure yet (any suggestions? finish my Archer, do a Granary, or do a Library to battle plako's culture?). Also need to get a Cottage on one of those grass-rivers.

Dragon's Mouth

This is one of my better cities, but I just need to get it growing. I've had to whip it a few times, but I'm not doing so again for awhile unless there comes a major need to do so. I haven't even improved that last Gems since my workers have had more pressing things to do, and I haven't had a lack for other improved tiles yet. Haven't decided how long I'll have him with the Scientist, but since it's able to grow this turn with the scientist I decided a turn of it was a good start. Next turn though I'll be working all the tiles for some quick growth to the next population size.

Mt Whacko

Another slow-mover, and another one without a Granary yet. After it grows, I'll decide whether to whip out a Granary or something. But in 2 turns that jungle hill to the north of the city will have a Mine on it and the river-grass tile (which can also be shared by PoD) will have a Cottage. So it will have improved tiles to work. So I probably should refrain from whipping here until after it gets to size 5.

And here is a full overview of the entire Land of Chaos. To the north on the desert, my 5th city will be founded next turn. I have two workers up there who will immediately improve the Pigs. And then they will mine the hills, and other such things up there.

The other two workers that will be finishing up their tasks in 2 turns will be moving around improving things for other cities. I eventually need to pick a city (maybe even the new one) to make some more workers. The 6th city will need to go on the plains-hill north of Hard Knocks which can be seen in the next screenshot which was taken last turn. My chariot has been exploring northward, but I should probably have him return next turn or so. There isn't really much of anything up there other than a skinny strip of land on the ocean next to the mountain range.

Well, there you have it. All comments & questions are welcome.

[kalin]

I'd say that in most cases if the choice is between a granary and something else, it's the granary.
Kalin

[HitAnyKey]

I'm guessing the answer is No, but can a Great Spy be used to meet other Civs for the tech researching bonus? I suppose not, since they won't have "met me" because I'd have met them with an invisible unit, but it's not something I've ever thought of.

Also, I love the name of my spy. Speaker. Does that name actually correlate to the Speaker on this forum? I Google'd it, and from what I read, the names of some of the Great Spy's were based on playtesters of the game.

[Bigger]

no, its counts as meeting them if you a spy (great or regular) makes contact with a civ. At least it does with the AI, I don't see why it would be different. They "make contact" with you too, although it may confuse the heck out of them since they won't see any of your units.

The question is, can great spies get caught like regular spies? I don't know the answer to that, I've never used one for exploration before.

[waterbat]

THe most recent discussion about Speaker the Lionhearted:

http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/showthrea...post233499

[HitAnyKey]

Man, have I been slacking...my thread has fallen almost all the way to the bottom. Anyway, I'll give a brief update right now since I just had a chance to log in during my lunch hour at work (love that I can cart around my USB HD with Civ on it) to check some needed MM of my cities. I still have a few workers that I need to decide what to have them improve next (maybe I'll post a screen shot tonight to see if I can get a little input on improvement priority if there is time). Three of just them finished making a river cottage NE of Dragon's Mouth after clearing some jungle previously.

But the big news....after some micro of my cities, I get Theocracy next turn!!!! (I had to remove from working hammers to get enough science output to get it next turn....I think I'll have almost no beaker overflow) With any luck no one else is going for it, and that'll get me my much needed Christianity Religion. If I get it, hopefully it gets founded in either my capital. I definitely don't want it in that city near LP. I also don't think I want it in Hard Knocks. Mt Whacko or Dragon's Mouth would also be good ones for it to be founded in. If it gets founded elsewhere, the free Missionary will head straight for Puddle of Doom. I've been stockpiling military in the queue in PoD (and even a couple other cities) with partial completion awaiting Theocracy. Once I get the religion (crossing fingers) I'll be able to pop out a handful of nicely promoted military. Which will definitely be needed since it'll put a target on my head. I currently have military moving around and positioned between cities, so that if I see something happen I can get reinforcements to places quickly.
There's LP to the NW, though I'm hoping he's wanting to concentrate on Azza and it looks like he's going to settle next to the mountain range by Xenu (I saw a galley while I was up there).
Then there's my nemesis plako to my East. He's my biggest threat. I'm glad he was gracious enough to pull back the chariot he had on the jungle (which he is now clearing after roading it), because I definitely want as few units as possible near Hard Knocks when I get a religion (especially if it pops there).
And lastly there is yuri to my SW across the water. I need to keep an eye on the area down there for incoming galleys. That used to be my least defended area until I saw he had galleys sailing around me. I have no idea how far away he is, and I can see at least a small island (or part of a larger landmass) just across the coast.

And with my leader being Spiritual, this getting a religion is a big deal for me. I'll be able to switch back and forth between Theocracy & Organized Religion depending on what type of builds I'm concentrating on. And since I know I'm low on Power, I need to get units out fast. I'm praying that I can get religion into Puddle of Doom & Dragon's Mouth as my first two cities. Those are the ones that are ready to crank out multiple units in rapid succession.

[T-hawk]

No, Great Spies cannot be caught. They are invincible explorers.