RB PBEM #1 - Pericles (SPOILERS!)

[sooooo]

Made two new cities this turn.



They look pretty junky don't they? But they immediately both hire a merchant (3 gold, 3 beakes) so they pay for themselves before they even develop. Eritrea is supposed to be there to spread irrigation through the desert, so when I farm the wines and the forest it will irrigant Thebes' corn (finally!).

Pergamon is there solely to work the coast tiles.

Optics due in 2 at 0% science, as is Oxford university. Then I'll go 100% for my next tech.

Realistically though, Dreylin has probably won. Athlete says he's going to use his money to upgrade his troops rather than research rifling. He says he will fight as hard as he can vs Dreylin. I've tried to persuade him to finish rifling for me. I might even supply him money to do so.

I asked Ruff permission to settle another city in Death Valley.

I also proposed a trade of chemistry + 100 gold for MT with Dreylin. This is because mh can't trade with me any more and athelete is going to die soon, so I can't really be expected not to trade with the other two any more. Not sure if Dreylin will except, but we'll see.

[sooooo]

A mean, mean response from Dreylin:

Hey sooooo,

What was it Sirian always said, "better to be lucky than good"?

Let me guess, the "few turns time" is to coincide with your completion of Optics research and allow you to smoothly progress onto Steam Power or Steel, while simultaneously denying me access to Curassiers for the maximum amount of time?

BTW, how does athlete feel about you offering me a military technology whilst we're engaged in a war?

I think that I'm going to have to refuse your offer, but as you said to me: "Chin up, you still have lot of cities!"

Dreylin II.

[sunrise089]

So war with Ruff then? Or trying to maintain tech parity long enough for Ruff and Dreylin to turn on one another?

[sooooo]

Well, presumably and eventually I suppose war will happen. I don't expect Dreylin and Ruff to turn against each other - Ruff I predict will let Dreylin win and then Dreylin will proclaim that it's a joint victory or something like that. When athlete dies the game will in-effect be over, with me having to research on my own versus two strong techers. I'm going to keep trying my best until the outcome is more clear though.

[sooooo]

This turn I founded a new city and started a golden age with the GM that was born last turn.



I hired some scientists in Athens so that it beats Thebes to the next great person. Hopefully I'll get the last GS from Thebes just before I research Scientific Method.

Chemistry in 2 with no overflow

[Mortius]

Hopefully I'll get the last GS from Thebes just before I research Scientific Method.

Can I ask, why do you want to research Scientific Method

[sooooo]

I'm glad you asked that because it lets me point out a mistake that way too many people make: delaying Scientific Method due to not wanting to obsolete GLib or monasteries.

Scientific method leads to biology, probably the most important tech in the era. I haven't counted, but I probably have over 20 farms in my empire. Adding that amount of food to my cities is huge. Even if I were to just hire specialists with that food then I could hire 10 scientists across the empire. With a library and university in those cities, the effect would be worth 90 beakers per turn. That's all a big approximation of course, and it's probably not going to be quite that much. I'd probably put a lot of the food into production.

Secondly there's physics, which is a free great person to use for a golden age or settle in Thebes.

But I am going to research steel first though.

[sunrise089]

I welcome this discussion Soooo. I obsessively put off Scientific Method, and since I no longer find the democracy path appealing (I prefer to back trade for it since SoL is so expensive) I tend to research steam power at this point in the game. My reasons are the ones you listed - GL and Monasteries. I know SciMeth unlocks Biology, but I find Bio to be a very "meh" tech that just forces a lot of tedious late-game micro to keep my cities from growing into unhappiness.

I guess in a MP game it would be different, but in SP I rarely find the game outcome in doubt by the time SciMeth comes around.

Anyways, I'll be watching to see how you micro the Bio tech.

EDIT: Is 90 beakers per turn (assuming you don't have happiness issues) from specialists impressive compared to a cap with multiple monasteries, the GL, an academy, and Oxford? Seems like it would be close there before even accounting for monasteries in other cities.

[Mortius]

But I am going to research steel first though.

I thought you want to research Scientific Method just after Chemistry, and before any of the military techs (Steel, Rifling), that's why I asked my question

[sooooo]

That 90 beakers figure is if I solely wanted all my food as beakers from scientists. Probably I don't - I'd want the young cities to grow quicker. Growth is difficult to measure as to how many beakers it gets.

But let's calculate the beakers I'd lose from Sci Meth (before the golden age was set off).

At Thebes, at break-even science (30%), I get 24.6 beakers per turn from commerce (base rate) and 36 beakers per turn from specialists (also base rate). That gets reduced to 24 beakers from specialists after the GLib goes. So I'd make 24.6+24=48.6 base beakers per turn post-Sci Meth. Multiply that by the new factor of 300% (with monastery it is 310%) and that's 146 beakers per turn. Currently I'm making 186 beakers per turn here, so at Thebes I'd lose 40 beakers per turn total.

The only other city with a monastery is Thebes, and here I lose just 1 beaker per turn.

I currently have 17 farms. I am building 2 more currently and have plans to make about 8 more in the immediate future. And I might take over 2 from Ruff soon culturally.