Gandhi of France II - Assuming Direct Control

[oledavy]

[SIZE="7"]Turn 82[/SIZE]

Commodore built the Colossus.



First game in a long time Yuri didn't get it. Colossus + Financial Coast is going to make Commodore's scary GNP even scarier.



I'm keeping pace however. Thank god for Representation.


Yuri appears to have a peninsula backline similar to my own:



I settle my 10th city next turn, the last of my main cities. After that, three backfills, and I'll be done with peaceful expansion.



End Turn.

[oledavy]

A couple turns have passed since my last turn report. However, so little has happened that I can easily roll it all into one, and I need to take a moment to review the micro for each of my cities, and what exactly I'm doing with them.

First off, though, tentative National Wonder placement.

The Citadel: Oxford
Thessia: Globe Theatre
Palaven: Heroic Epic/Forbidden Palace
Irune: Ironworks
Kahje: National Epic
Earth: Moai Statues
Taoist Holy City (Rakhanna Seems Likely): Wall Street

Hermitage, Mt. Rushmore, National Park, Red Cross, West Point: N/A

There are several good locations for Ironworks once I get SP Workshops up and running, namely, Sur'Kesh, Irune, and Palaven. However, with Palaven's two NW slots already assigned, and Sur'Kesh farther from the front lines, Irune seems to be the best location. Still, plenty of time to figure this one out.

When I bulb Philosophy, Taoism seems most likely to land in my newest city, Rakhanna. I would normally put Wall Street here, no questions asked. However, Rakhanna has little commerce potential otherwise, and it may be better to put Wall Street in a commerce monster like Tuchanka. Still, I have a lot of time to consider this one as well.

[SIZE="4"]The Citadel[/SIZE]



What I'm planning here hasn't changed much since my early post on the micro for the city. I'm still going to try to grow it for maximum commerce potential, the problem is just the excess of plains tiles with only a +7 food surplus. With the current farmed food surplus, I can work all the tiles in the BFC without any more farms or windmilling any of the grassland hills. Right now, I'm using the food to run merchants. However, once I pop out that GM, I'm going to switch back to working all the grassland cottages, and cottage all the plains as well.

[SIZE="4"]Thessia[/SIZE]



Since the last time we saw Thessia, I've decided to make it into my future Globe Drafting Camp. It really is a pretty decent place for this endeavor. At five pop working the rice and four grassland farms, it can rock a +10 food surplus to draft and instantly regrow every turn. The mines and cattle will mean I can get the Globe up and running without too much difficulty, and its proximity to the front, especially if I'm at war with Commodore, means I can deploy those drafted musketeers with ease. I've highlighed the tiles that will be used by the capital and backfill city I have one more grassland farm than I need too. When it's not drafting, I can use the surplus to run specialists.

Late game, I can convert all the riverside farms into watermills, and maintain the food surplus while getting extra hammers.

[SIZE="4"]Sur'Kesh[/SIZE]



Really waiting on Bureaucracy to do much with this city. For the short term, I'm grooming this city for the highest food surplus I can manage, and leveraging that into working the mines and running specialists. Long-term, I'm going to workshop everything I can and make this into an extreme production centre. Like Thessia, Sur'Kesh is also going to help grow a cottage for the capital.

[SIZE="4"]Palaven[/SIZE]



One of the true jewels of the empire, the pink dot of Palaven. The city just recently completed the Courthouse and is not so crippled by maintainence any longer. The plan here is to farm as big of a food surplus as possible, and leverage it into production and specialists.

One of the main problems here is getting irrigation to all the grassland tiles. For now, I've secured the tile 3E of the capital along the river. However, Commodore's city of Kusari is going to be applying some pretty intense pressure to that tile, and might be hard to hold long term. I can always pipe in water from the west, and will eventually. It's just a longer route. Right now, I'm taking the opportunity CS provides to run Artists instead of Scientists, and crank out some extra culture. I have a forlorn hope that I can get to 250 culture in Palaven before Mistabod reach 50 culture in Bravery, and thus claim the silks tile to the south. However, with a Hippodrome already in the Byzantine city, I doubt that will happen. Still, I can bolster my cultural borders and get up to 60% defense sooner.

Being the remotest part of my empire in the very center of the map, it makes a lot of since to put the HE here, to deliver troops directly to the front. I'm also planning on putting the FP here to reduce the costs of any potential conquests to the east.

[SIZE="5"]Irune[/SIZE]



I could groom Irune to either focus on commerce or production. However, I decided that since it's on the frontlines and with all those hills available, it would make the most sense to focus it on production. Even before workshops and watermills, it's going to have pretty amazing hammer potential. A strong contendor the the Ironworks.

[SIZE="5"]Tuchanka[/SIZE]



The commerce center of my empire, Tuchanka. I'm focusing this city on growing cottages on all the eligible tiles. The plains hills mean I can maintain pretty decent production too. Once I have it up to the desired size, I'm going to have my backfill city to the southeast work the pigs.

[SIZE="5"]Dekunna[/SIZE]



Dekunna is the weakest of my core cities. However, it's still a fairly decent city site. I'm going to stagnate it at size 12, working the three mines and three specialists.

[SIZE="5"]Kahje[/SIZE]



I was divided for awhile on where to put my National Epic. However, after some debate I decided the best location would be the newly founded city of Kahje. I'd normally prefer putting the NE in a city that is better established by now. However, Kahje will be the best location down the line.

There's going to be a lot of tile-sharing going on in the west between Kahje, Rakhanna, and the future backfill city. Kahje is getting all the food I can give it, for a potential +14 food surplus when not working any hammer tiles. The horses and three mines in the BFC mean I should be able to build the Marble-boosted NE in a hurry, so Kahje's late founding won't be too crippling to getting an effective NE city up and running.

[SIZE="5"]Earth[/SIZE]



Welcome to my future Moai city!. Earth has the potential to become the most amazing city in my empire. With two food tiles, enough hills and forests to get the Moai and essential infrastructure out in short order (not to mention stone), and 13 water tiles, this is going to be a gorgeous city once I get it up to size.

[SIZE="5"]Rakhanna[/SIZE]



Finally, the last of my 10 core cities, Rakhanna. ME fans may appreciate it's fitting proximity to Kahje :neenernee As I said above, there is going to be a lot of tile-sharing involved on this end of the empire. Rakhanna is going to be focused towards production. It's probably going to end up being my main naval base mid to late game, positioned at the very tip of the continent looking out upon the great western sea.

Just to summarize the focus for each of my cities:

The Citadel: Commerce
Thessia: Globe Drafting Camp/Specialists
Sur'Kesh: Production/Specialists
Palaven: Production/Specialists
Irune: Production
Tuchanka: Commerce
Dekunna: Specialists
Kahje: Specialists
Earth: Production/Specialists
Rakhanna: Production


Anyway, that's all my core. I have three marginal backfill cities to found, which I'll probably get to around ~t100 once I finish up some infrastructure, and provided I don't get dragged into a war in between now and then.


Last turn, I completed my research of Aesthetics and am set to 1-turn literature (albeit with a few wealth builds). If GL is still up turn after next, I rush it in The Citadel. If Mistabod build it first, I rush the Parthenon in Kahje. If both are somehow gone by the time I finish Literature, I research MC and bulb machinery.

I now realized I made a mistake going for Alphabet before Aesthetics + Literature, as I could have potential rushed the GL by now and still be set to bulb Philosophy. I just developed a sort of tunnel vision trying to found a religion. And while that does need to be a big priority, I could still land Taoism while already in possession of the GL. Pacifism is going to be pretty huge once I get it, enabling me to really run my SE in high gear. Even if I end up losing both wonders, I won't be that upset. I needed Literature anyway for the NE, and I'll need Music eventually for Military Tradition, so the research will not go to waste. With Alphabet, I have everyone's tech standings, so I will have that up for your viewing pleasure in the next post after I finish my Excel Spreadsheet.

[regoarrarr]

I have to say I like your city micro posts - with the food breakdowns

[oledavy]

Spreadsheet Complete, here's where everyone stands:





Please note, that it's entirely possible I've made an error or two (I usually do when I first make one of these up since there's so much to note).

Commodore has a commanding lead, Mistabod are looking solid, NoGas are in surprisingly bad shape, and Yuri is beginning to lag badly.

I'm in the middle of the pack techwise - not bad normally, but depressing once you consider I'm the only one with Representation Specialists. Then again, we've rarely seen a Representation SE taking on Financial Leaders, so this may just be the unfortunate consequence of playing in a game where FIN is not banned - it's too early to tell for sure. Note that both the civs with a tech lead are Financial. My opening definitely was not very good, so it may be an unfair comparison to begin with since I managed to put myself behind the ball all on my own.

At any rate, I'm not terribly worried since I'm about to start bulbing like mad and get a Trade Mission going. My Crop Yield is what concerns me more at this point.

So, let's break down things by Civ

[SIZE="4"]Mistabod[/SIZE]
They Have: Horseback Riding, Literature, Drama, Music
I Have: Meditation, Priesthood, Code of Laws, Calendar, Alphabet

They only have a couple hundred beakers on me, however, their position is about to get a lot scarier.



That's a lot of gold they have saved up, for a push at...something.

Anyway, Mistabod made some curious tech choices - hitting up the top of the tree very early. However, considering their UB, it's not all that surprising. Their possession of marble means they can make a play for the GL, Parthenon, and get the epics early. They already have a Chariot Supermedic to unlock the HE, so now that I consider it further, this was probably a really good move. Their possession of gold and ivory means they can also build a cheap SoZ and Schwedagon Paya if they so wish. The one big surprise to me is their lack of CoL (something I'm going to be saying a lot). Given the expansion costs on this map, I would have thought the other players, would make it a bigger priority.

[SIZE="4"]Commodore[/SIZE]
They Have: Metal Casting, Iron Working, Literature, Monarchy
I Have: Meditation, Alphabet

Commodore is just plain scary. That Darius of HRE combo seems to be working for him very well. He's knocked out all the essential technologies and is now heading for the next generation of state of the art stuff. His research of Aesthetics and Literature seems to indicate he may be making a play for the GL as well. Considering he just resettled Aylee for marble, the threat of him trying to nab it is quite high.

[SIZE="4"]NoGas[/SIZE]
They Have: Construction
I Have: Archery, Meditation, Aesthetics, Alphabet, Code of Laws.

Running a little behind, and curiously, no CoL.

[SIZE="4"]Yuri[/SIZE]
They Have: Iron Working, Metal Casting
I Have: Polytheism, Monotheism, Aesthetics, Alphabet, Code of Laws.

Not much to say here. Yuri is in trouble. His GNP is awful and the nice tech he does have is courtesy of the Oracle.


Please note that due to my position in the turn order, Mistabod, NoGas, and my own tech standings will all be slightly inflated compared to Commodore and Yuri.

One unrelated note. I just checked the map and Mistabod did not build the Moai while they had my stone? Curious. I would have thought they would make that a priority. Yuri, in the meantime, has already built the Moai in his provisional capital of Bursa. It must have been very painful to do so without stone.

[oledavy]

I have to say I like your city micro posts - with the food breakdowns

Thank you

[oledavy]

[SIZE="7"]Turn 85[/SIZE]

Okay, so a couple important international developments:



NosGas unsurprisingly landed the AP, and Mistabod surprisingly beat me to the GL

Really don't like being repeatedly beat to the best wonders. Welp, I went ahead and rushed the Parthenon in Kahje:



Mutter Mumble....

Anyway, since NoGas were so nice to build the AP, I decided to capitalize on it in my city with Judaism.



I may end up spreading it around alongside Taoism. And yes, I know it's generally not a great idea to spread around more than one religion. But this is a rather special case. I have one religion which get's AP hammer boosted buildings, including Temples which I get a discount on; and a self-founded religion for which I get a shrine from day one.

And I just remembered that I forgot to move my GP towards Rakhanna this turn

Well, that may turn out to be prescient if the religion falls somewhere else, you never know. I'll find out next turn.

I have considered just not using the Prophet on a shrine. However, neither bulbing, settling, or GA seems as good an option at this point compare to the long term payoff of a shrine.

The borders of Irune popped a couple turns ago, putting my culture on the doorstep of Jumping:



I really don't know why they couldn't have founded that city 1S so our BFCs do not overlap. If I wasn't so desperate to build in peace, I would have burned that city by now. As things stand, everybody else seems to be mobilizing.



From what I've seen, Commodore's mostly seems to be defensive in nature. He has +4 units in his three border cities with Gaspar, another few in Kusaria, and yet more staffing Sasha and Zoe. Spears for the msot part, with a smattering of axes and chariots. Yuri seems to have entered bulldog mode and is not letting Mistabod off easy. I'm quite glad that he's keeping my Byzantine neighbors occupied.

My GNP is looking pretty solid:



Well, if you disregard that obscene GNP coming from Commodore. Still, he's gotta be almost out of MoM failgold, right?



Infrastructure, infrastructure everywhere.



Finally, due to my scouting, I think I probably have the most complete picture of the world of all the players. So for your viewing pleasure, the world, starting clockwise from the Holy Roman Empire:











NoGas and Mistabod both researched Meditation last turn. NoGas I'm sure to capitalize on AP buildings. As for Mistabod....I'm not sure why.

I swear if they somehow nab Taoism from me....



Anyway,



End Turn.

Btw, I'm sure this has been asked a dozen times before on these forums, but what is the formula for Great Merchant Trade Missions?

[Catwalk]

Under Commodore you put that you have Metal Casting on him, that should be the other way around based on your list. How did you derive everybody's techs, careful monitoring throughout the game? I vaguely recall GM mission being 500 + 200 * trade route value with target city at Quick speed.

EDIT: Nope, that seems to be at Normal speed. So 2/3 of that value.

[oledavy]

Under Commodore you put that you have Metal Casting on him, that should be the other way around based on your list. How did you derive everybody's techs, careful monitoring throughout the game?

I just looked above and I have it right. Did you read it before I edited it earlier? I can't recall if I had to fix anything there or not.

As for how I derive techs, I mostly look at what the player can research and work backwards through the tech tree. Careful monitoring through the early game is too much effort with very little payoff.

[Krill]

Please note, that it's entirely possible I've made an error or to (I usually do when I first make one of these up since there's so much to note)

Irony.

[oledavy]

[SIZE="7"]Turn 86[/SIZE]

Upon opening the save, I was greeted by this (well, after I watched the Parthenon video )



Voted for them, no real reason not to.

Checked the event log, nobody researched Philosophy. So, I bulbed Philosophy, advanced into the Medieval era, and founded Taoism in the city of Tuchanka:



As my commerce center, this is the best possible city the religion could have fallen in. Tuchanka was already a strong candidate for Wall Street, and now will be definitely the future location of it. This also means my decision not to move my GP west last turn was for the better, though it will still take me until t88 to build the shrine due to travel time.

The free Missionary is headed for The Citadel. I'm planning to use the capital as a missionary pump while it grows. I could have revolted into OR and started a missionary immediately in Tuchanka. However, the city has pretty weak hammer potential right now with none of the surrounding hills mined, so I left i produced a market and revolted into Pacifism instead.



That actually saved me 1gpt compared to Paganism, and I get it's effects on the specialists I'm running in the city:



My 5th GP will be coming out of here, a Scientist to either bulb Paper or go for an academy in the capital. Probably the former.

I would be feeling very good about my tech situation were it not for this graph:



That 458 GNP last turn was Mistabod, now granted, that was them researching Priesthood with double pre-reqs. Nonetheless, they are looking scary. I didn't check the map, but I'm betting that Scientist of theirs went for an Academy in First Touch.

Their target seems to be Code of Laws, knocking out pre-reqs along the way. Lsat turn they nabbed Meditation, this turn Priesthood. I expect next I'll see them one-turn CoL and then, finally land Civil Service. While neither has researched a tech the last couple turns, I expect to seeCommodore research Civil Service and NoGas tech Code of Laws next. Meanwhile, Yuri teched Horseback Riding. In every city I've passed, he's been whipping axes like crazy, and his power is spiking faster than anyone else's. I expect Construction next from our dogged friend. I hope he takes a serious chunk out of Mistabod and makes them continue to devote resources to military.

The situation cannot be terribly good for the Byzantines, between Mistabod holding the turn, and most tellingly, them scaling down the garrison of Bravery from 4 units to just a single archer, I feel pretty sure they're concerned about holding Yuri off.

Bravery, a size 7 well-developed city working lots of flood plain cottages is just sitting there.

And I have a large garrison two moves to the northwest.

I didn't really consider it while playing the turn, but now I'm seriously thinking about it.

I could just reach out and raze one of the best Byzantine cities.

But would I really want the whirlwind that would ensue. My military is the weakest in the world, and I do not have Construction or HBR myself.

Yet it would be so easy....

I shall have to think on this.

I should have bulbed Machinery for easy access to Maces once I complete Civil Service

End Turn.