[SPOILERS] Cornflakes and Q Eat 'Em for Breakfast!

[Cornflakes]

I think we should cash in on GM (escort with AT LEAST 3 units).

Here's a slightly outdated picture of the region, but it has the city distances.




Escort is not guaranteed to work. DoW will kick out the escort and leave the GMerchant inside his territory UNLESS on of AT's units is on the tile, in which case the GMerchant and escort would both be kicked out. But the rules for "kicking out" are rather random and may divide up our escort stack, or even put the escort on one tile and the GM on another tile. Also, what would we send as escort? The only tiles that we can have any guarantee of AT having units are in the city squares. We have no knights in the area, and the distance between SWAT and MASH is greater than the movement of slow movers.

I think it's best just to just take the risk and gun through AT's territory in 2 turns. I wouldn't go so far as to say intentionally double move, but if it happens it happens (I don't know that it's even possible given that we are first in a war timer split, and he can log in and play whenever he wants). Because of the war(s) we are going to be playing next turn with more than half the timer left on the clock when we end turn, so I don't think it'd be unreasonable for me to move the GMerchant right before logging our next turn and right after I log in to play the following turn.

[Qgqqqqq]

The escort is not for AT, its for 2metra and co. I don't want to send it without as its too much of a dice roll - at the very least I want a HA or two...(can't remember how many were passing through there.)
As for GA - it is a possibility, but will make the SP one all the more hard to get (especially if we lose the spy).
For me to consider it, wed need to trade for rep and go into that. The problem is that this is a really bed time for a GA as we are drafting/building units rather then working pop, and we're not ready for it GP producing wise. On balance id rather wait a while.

[Cornflakes]

Duh, completely forgot that we may meet marauding 'Ninja or Commodore units in AT's land Fixed the escort problem just now ... NOTE: we have to remember that we are not allowed to change anything once 2metra or Commodore log in. So far neither has been on so we're still good.




Moved a mace to SWAT since it only has 3 moves along a road. Next turn mace + 2 impi + GM will land 1NE of MASH, and the following turn we'll run the Trade Mission and return the escort to Blimp.

[Cornflakes]

I do not want to trade Constitution for Chemistry with AT at this time. It does us no benefit, and Chemistry can be quite valuable through it's prereq for Steel, it's on the line to Communism, Prereq for Grenadiers, +1H to WS. Let's keep this benefit to us. I'd trade with TT if he researched something useful (hint: Replaceable Parts) ... Right now he's set his research to Divine Right, obviously a dummy research since he wouldn't want that.

So what do we do with our GEngineer? Are there any wonders that we want in the near future? Possibly use it for National Epic? When we prioritize a city for National Epic we don't care if it's terrible at hammers or other infrastructure. I actually like this idea. We build only farms at Umbrage. Skip Forge/Courthouse and build 12-turn lighthouse with the 1 Chemistry-boosted WS totaling 5hpt (with city center) ... we already have Granary so lighthouse would be the only urgent infrastructure here. We can slow build a courthouse afterwards and it finishes whenever it finishes. (EDIT: actually we have 2 WS already so we can build Lighthouse in 7 turns).

Using the GEngineer on the NE would save us 20+ turns in getting the NE up and running. We could prioritize only growth at Umbrage instead of having to build (and work) WS to get enough hammers. With the NE up early we can easily generate another GP by the time Communism rolls around.

[Qgqqqqq]

I think its a bit of a waste of a GP tbh. Can we afford to save it for the Kremlin or something of its ilk?

[Cornflakes]

Here's my thoughts regarding tech after Chemistry:

Great Merchant TM will give us 1700 beakers. We'll have 600 in the bank. Deficit it approximately -300gpt for about 550 bpt (after factoring in 50% prereq bonus). This is enough gold for 7.5 turns of research, or about 4200 beakers. Break even is in the 200bpt range

Options
– Replaceable Parts > Rifling (6700 beakers) ... Gives us Rifles. Great because they can be drafted. Would take us about 18-20 turns.
– Military Tradition (3800 beakers) ... Gives us Grenadiers, will take 7 turns (also option to build Military Academy). I don't think Grenadiers are going to be all that useful. We're drafting muskets now, building cats and knights. Compared to Cannon I think Grenadiers are inferior.
– Steel (4500 beakers) ... Gives us Cannon, will take about 9-10 turns. Great because cannon shred anything prior to Rifles, and are decent against Rifles. We'll have knights and drafted muskets to clean up after the shredding. As a side bonus it unlocks Ironworks.

Your thoughts? We can hope that TT heads for Rifling. (EDIT: If it wasn't clear, I favor Steel)

[Qgqqqqq]

I also favor steel. With the hope of rifling from TT.

[Cornflakes]

I think its a bit of a waste of a GP tbh. Can we afford to save it for the Kremlin or something of its ilk?

Sure. I guess you're right. Really it just uses a GP to create another GP, which is rather un-useful. Kremlin won't be great for us because we're not in Slavery and cash isn't exactly plentiful in our nation. We're also pushing hammers really heavy so rushing won't be too useful.

What else is coming up soon in the tech tree?

[Qgqqqqq]

SoL which we won't get, corps, which we won't get, Pentagon at assembly line and then I can't think of anything until radio.

[Cornflakes]

Options for GEngineer (obviously not an all-inclusive list, just things that occur to me now):

– Rush Westpoint (in another hammer-heavy city the +4XP from Westpoint is enough to get us 3-promo mounted units just like Porcupine, and the hammers saved from building Westpoint are enough to build 8 knights, or 12 knights if we get a Military Academy in that city too).
– Rush part of Pentagon ... The XP is nice, and otherwise the Pentagon is much too expensive and doesn't have a doubler resource.
– Found Mining inc. After all, we aren't committed to State Property.
– Settle somewhere. The +3 hammers in the HE city are +6. Probably not the best use though at this stage of the game.
– Rush Wall Street ... Will save us 10 turns of building it in Doughnut, earning us about 400 gold.
– Save for GA
– Bulb something at some point. It gets about 1300 beakers, or 2.5 turns of research.
– Rush Ironworks ... No doubler resource for this national wonder. It would save about 15 turns of building in a city with 25 base hpt. It would only get 50% from iron since we don't have coal, so about 13hpt*15turn = 200 hammers into something else, plus the initial 700 hammers earned from the rush.
– Half of SoL (or less than half probably). SoL would get us 20cities*3gpt from free merchant specialists = 60gpt.