Dave Leads the Thousand Nations of the Persian Empire

[Injera]

Some quick thoughts:

Where's the next city going to be founded? If it's by Mason then "Dixon" might work.

With all your peaks have you considered trying to get Machu Picchu when you get Currency (in ~10 turns I'd guess?) What's your thoughts on that wonder in general? In SP it's not overwhelming but it's pretty easy to nab, and scales really nicely like the GLH in Civ 4.

I think the big danger in the game right now is that Mist gets himself in a mindset where he thinks the only way he can stay relevant is to stab you. I'm not sure how to fix that. You can get a frigate down the coast in ~8 turns now, right, to dissuade him sending anything north and signal you'll support him against Seven?

[oledavy]

Where's the next city going to be founded? If it's by Mason then "Dixon" might work.

I like it

With all your peaks have you considered trying to get Machu Picchu when you get Currency (in ~10 turns I'd guess?) What's your thoughts on that wonder in general? In SP it's not overwhelming but it's pretty easy to nab, and scales really nicely like the GLH in Civ 4.

I've been vaguely considering it. I imagine other civs have had currency for quite some time now, but if it's still up when I get to currency, I'll make a run at it. While not amazing, it would still be nice to have. Between my golden age and marble I can get +40% hammers on it in Auropolis, so it would be a pretty fast build.

I think the big danger in the game right now is that Mist gets himself in a mindset where he thinks the only way he can stay relevant is to stab you. I'm not sure how to fix that. You can get a frigate down the coast in ~8 turns now, right, to dissuade him sending anything north and signal you'll support him against Seven?

Agreed, that's my biggest concern. Still, I've gone well out of my way to prove my good intent to Mist; if he backstabs me after all this, I'd be shocked. But ignoring how much I've gone out of my way to befriend him in game and by providing subtle hints in the denouncement thread, it just doesn't make all that much sense militarily for him to assault me. My military may be weak, but with only two mountain passes to defend, I'm extremely hard to attack. The only way he could really get at me is with a naval invasion, and I'll be impervious to that in a mere five more turns. Seven does have the bigger army, but in the west Mist can deploy his knights on the wide plain. They won't do all that well in the cramped mountain passes of the East. Nonetheless, the first frigate I launch will be going down the coast to remind Mist that he shouldn't attack me.

On that note, I need a naming theme for ships! Any ideas?

[TheArchduke]

I agree, sending one of the newest frigates just in his sight and let it sit there to make a point whilst telling him that you want to attack Seven with it. Co-ordinating against him is also important.

[oledavy]

Quick update for Turn 81:

Seven loses the city-state of Almaty from the fold, and made peace with fire&ice Additionally, it looks like he flipped into a golden age, perhaps courtesy of a GG? Founded the city of Dixon for dyes this turn, now at break-even happiness. Growing out all cities, going to try to time them to all grow simultaneously to flip past the happiness threshold. First University completes next turn, four turns to astronomy.

[oledavy]

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

So, last turn, I offered Mist a research agreement. He came back at me with the following deal:



He wants 500 gold for a research agreement! I know that RAs are 50% more valuable to me because of the Porcelain Tower, but that is completely absurd. If he wants gold to help pay unit support costs, he needs to make it a separate offer so it doesn't come across like he's trying to gouge me. Even if that was the case, I just cannot spare that much gold at this point. I have already sent him four units, returned him the 16 gold I didn't need, and ignored the fact that he declared war on me early on. After all of that, this deal is a bit of a slap in the face. At any rate, I shot him a counter-offer:



50% more of the 167 gold to sign the research agreement is 83.5 gold. I went ahead and made it a 4gpt deal, mostly because I do not have enough gold saved up to pay that fee and the RA cost, but also because it adds incentive to stay at peace with me. If he does not accept this deal, I'll look at making a deal with the devil by signing an RA with Seven, should he be willing. I'll just have to check out if I have enough time to execute the deal before I start going after his CS buddies.

Overview shot of my core:



Gibraltar went into WLTKD, because of my acquisition of dyes, doubling its growth rate. I'm going to try and grow all six cities excepting my capital to the next size on t87 and flip into -5 happiness (It would be -6 but I'm about to get +1 happy from linking Dixon to the trade network. At that point, I'll be waiting until Humanism, more luxuries, and colosseums to start growing again. In the meantime, I'll be stagnating my growth by running artists; and scientists in all the universities that are being thrown up. Nifty plan, no?

[Commodore]

Gibraltar went into WLTKD, because of my acquisition of dyes, doubling its growth rate. I'm going to try and grow all six cities excepting my capital to the next size on t87 and flip into -5 happiness (It would be -6 but I'm about to get +1 happy from linking Dixon to the trade network. At that point, I'll be waiting until Humanism, more luxuries, and colosseums to start growing again. I'll be stagnating my growth running artists, and scientists in all the universities that are being thrown up. Nifty plan, no?

I...dunno? What is Humanism's gimmick, and where are the luxuries coming from?

[oledavy]

I...dunno? What is Humanism's gimmick, and where are the luxuries coming from?

Humanism's gimmick is +1 happy from Universities, Public Schools, and Observatories.

I'm assuming Yuris will have a couple luxuries I can trade for whenever I make contact with him. At that point, I'll have a spare gems, in addition to all the spare sugar I have. So, I should be able to trade him for 4-8 happy faces.

[oledavy]

Mist, by all means kill city states if you want, but you not taking interests of other empires into account is unacceptable and scummy! You killed Monaco 1 turn before I would meet them! You owe me 15 gold now

And I thought Mist had made peace with all Seven's city-states, apparently not

Monaco was an irrational cultured CS aligned with Seven, with pearls as its luxury resource and no strategic resources. Since it has pearls, it had to be coastal, probably in the south somewhere. With it gone, Seven is now down to two city-state allies - though I expect he'll be able to buy another one soon with all the gold he is saving up.

As a side note, it now occurs to me that Seven's earlier declaration of war cost me 60 gold total from meeting Monaco, Singapore, Vienna, and Alamaty Jerk.

This does answer the question: why did Seven make peace with fire&ice? He's losing his allies left and right, not to mention access to their luxuries, and needs to fight back before he loses any more. Given Seven's huge power rating, I expect he'll soon declare war on Mist and seek to liberate Helsinki and Monaco, which will give him a massive influx of influence with both. With any luck, my frigates will arrive around Helsinki in time to give supporting fire, should Seven choose to launch his attack there. We'll see what happens. I just really wish I could read the other threads right now and follow the brewing conflict.

[NobleHelium]

black sheep wall?

[luddite]

I'm really interested to see how your frigates do. When I played the game after it came out, sea units were hopelessly weak- like, often they wouldn't even damage the unit they attacked. I seem to recall that sea units got their attacks strengthened in one of the patches, but I have no idea what they're like now.