GKC's BadGame PB13 Thread on RB (Now with Ladder Game Reports!)

[Old Harry]

360 degree projector?

[GeneralKilCavalry]

Building 4 settlers, and I have 1 on the move. I think after this wave, I really need to settle down, build wealth, and focus on my econ.


Still looking solid, but not in GNP. being 1.5x behind the leader is fine, 2x is not.
Perhaps popping a golden age to reach bureaucracy/hereditary rule is the best option at this stage?

[GeneralKilCavalry]

Took Mausoleum with an engineer (hopefully no one steals it on turn roll) next great person in 11 turns, which will kick off a golden age that should hopefully knock me out of GNP hell.

Building a ton of workers right now to get my second-wave cities operating under maximum potential. Lots of cottaging, lots of plantations being built.

[GeneralKilCavalry]

Demos are looking good. The aesthetics/lit wonders are all but gone, and I'm a bit behind in tech, but damn the demos look solid. Ahead of next competitor by 2 cities, and I have a settler ready to go and settle somewhere else, just can't afford the maintenance before i get a couple of courthouses down. Conqueror's plateau should be coming soon, though.

The plan right now seems to be - get code of laws, build courthouses while saving money for the next 7 turns, pop a 12 turn long golden age during which I can hopefully grab bureaucracy and machinery. Then, finish settling whatever land remains, and march ahead to conquer gashbears for colossus.

[GeneralKilCavalry]

Here's a general overview of the situation on all fronts and potential expansion. I have the most options in the direction of Juri who has wronged me, and boak.

The turn pace is about 3-4 turns a day.

[GeneralKilCavalry]

Moai is up, and with the golden age in 3 turns, I'll be cranking out a bunch of infrastructure here to make this city amazing.


Low GNP is plaguing me, but here's something to cheer me up. TBW is spamming sac altars, which give EP and inflate GNP, same for bingo. Gashbears is wonder-spamming, and has stonehenge and a lot more culture than anyone else.



Here's a better representation of where everyone stands. It's not like I'm not behind in GNP, but at the same time, it's not as big a catastrophe as it is in the above image. With golden age + bureaucracy swap + finishing libraries + first courthouses coming out + more cities with TGL @conqueror's plateau, I should be able to really bolster the economy.

Crop still looking very very solid, and being #1 in pop with #2 approval rating means I have a ton of potential to grow my cities out which other civs don't.

Side note, I'm really enjoying this morrowind naming theme. Best RPG I've ever played.

[GeneralKilCavalry]

I often accuse myself of not doing proper long-term planning and just doing good micro on cities, leading my civ nowhere.

So let's brainstorm how to proceed here on a few different levels.

The short-term economic plan (probably the best aspect of my game) - I have a GA planned, that will let me get into bureaucracy and possibly hereditary rule? (Is monarchy even worth researching?).
I'm still in the part of the game where workers and settlers need to be built, so let's talk expansion.

I MUST secure the south towards borsche/gashbears. Without a buffer zone, Sedya Neen and my entire south will be unprotected. This means I need to find somewhere to pump 3 settlers out of. Probably Mournhold + Sedya Neen, 2+1. Ebonheart needs infrastructure and isn't great for settlers, so until it hits pop cap, it will get a library, market and other goodies.

I need military to protect my lands. Tel Fyr will build a couple of 5exp triremes to protect Mare Nostrum, and Vivec, with every building available complete, will pump military (axes/holkans/swords every 2, cats every 3 turns). While running wealth straight up here might be a better choice, badgame is rife with aggressive individuals like Juri, and I need to make sure I'm safe in the west, and safe in the east/northeast from bingo.

To secure the remainder of the north/northeast, I need four settlers I reckon. Sadrith Mora, with its huge food surplus and lack of rivers for cottages and already -5 whip unhappiness looks like the perfect place. It should be able to 6 turn settlers, and I'll whip 1 pop off the end each time, so that should take about 15 turns overall for the 4 cities, since I have a worker ready to chop forests there. Once again, military coverage and worker support is absolutely needed. Where to get these workers? Well, Tel Vos is an option. It doesn't have many good tiles, but has a high production iron mine it can work and surplus from the pig. 6 turn workers from there with some overflow on top, but I really can't whip, and the city needs the iron mine to be built in the first place, but I have a worker coming there soon. Perhaps a granary there was a mistake. Oh well. The north is the least developed area so far, and it seems it will unfortunately stay that way.

Next is Balmora in the southwest towards gashbears. It doesn't seem like I have defensible spots in that direction, however maybe I can try to cram in a city directly west. As for Balmora itself, it's getting some TLC with grassland cottages popping up. Not a great city, though, and I will mostly use it for military production+worker production. If I can get 3 more workers out of there to complete infra in the south, that would solidify my control there.

Then comes the Northwest area, the most dangerous and active one. I have 5 cities there. Caldera is the only one that is developed. Right now it is building a lighthouse, and needs a few plain grassland cottages. It has little in the way of production, but with large food surpluses and whipability, I will use it to pump settlers for the west. I need about 6, so it will be on duty until about turn 125.

Next is Gnisis. Eventually, it will be a great city, lots of riverside cottages. Just needs work. Then is Khuul, which Juri almost burned. has plenty of food and will server two roles: worker production for the western front, afterwards transitioning to naval production to counter any boak shenanigans. Finally, two newer cities are being developed, with Pelagiad being the most interesting one. Pelagiad will be a production center, with tons of GH mines. The plan is for it to be the center of military production against Juri and Boak.

Let's look longer term now that we've specialized all of our cities.

There's barb cities popping up in the west. I need to find a way to cram in sword builds to take them. It is imperative to settle into Juri's face, as he is a menace.

Invading east is not a good option. I have a narrow set of chokepoints with bingo, and he will always have the naval advantage in his sea, even if I build three cities on it. Though, I can build a fort to transfer my navy to that sea (unlike the sea that's towards juri but so far only I have settled on).

Invading in south at Borsche is similarly futile, and awkward.

Invading gashbears, despite the narrow chokepoint is feasible. He has diverted too much attention to wonders at the expense of civ development and is low on crop/mfg.

There's an option to go to boak, but I have no power projection to his sea up north, even if I can eventually divert ships there, and he has taken Rome, so it is a bit early to piss him off. Whipped praets can still easily take cities if they get to them.
Plus, I'd rather collaborate with him against gashbears.

Finally, there's Juri. Now, Juri is far and I have no naval access to him, but neither can he reach me by sea, nor is he doing so well developmentally. He's like that child in kindergarten who pisses the other kids off and then find out he can't read in first grade because he spent all his time walking kids up during naptime or something to that effect. Claiming his lands would actually give me a surprising amount of backline,

however he's boudicca of the US. I don't want to go against uber-promoted shit, it's just annoying.

So for now, I keep an aggressive stance towards Juri, while eyeing those wonders gashbears has built.

Tech plans:
Well, with CoL down, Bureaucracy is next obviously.

Is it worth backfilling all the religious techs and feud? I don't think I have a single spread, and no one is signing OB with me (not that many have alphabet). Hereditary rule gives basically unlimited happiness, but I have a ton anyways. Wines are nice to have, but maybe all those beakers are better spent on immediately teching HBR and machinery to be safe and secure. Engi would be nice too if people are rushing guilds.

Then again, Feud is necessary for guilds anyhow, so I can't truly bypass all of this. I guess I'll blitz hereditary rule, swap at the end of the golden age, and finish feud by its end as well, then move on to those oh-so-vital defensive techs. With torusland, the main place I can use knights is against Juri, most other directions are blocked by chokepoints, so building sea + catapults + maces + pikes seems like the best option for the east, while knights towards the west.

I can't really make any huge economic plays, besides pressing onwards with city growth, most of the classical wonders are gone.

[GeneralKilCavalry]

Losing my lead in CY and pop all of a sudden, three players declaring simultaneous golden ages. However, I plan to be at 20 cities in a few turns, when most are still at 12-14. This will probably be the last phase of expansion, depending on how Gashbears and Juri behave. Getting out a lot of infrastructure in cities, but there's just not enough workers to manage the rapid growth and chop everything out and keep pace with city growth on this steroidally-charged Hulk of a map.

[GeneralKilCavalry]

Having the 4 extra golden age turns is great. Going to wrap up engineering, get paper, and then guilds.

[GeneralKilCavalry]

Conqueror's plateau, baby.

With juri at war, I believe I can fit in 4 more cities to the west, and 2 more still to the north remain. Looks like I'll be leveling off at a cool 25 cities.

Trying to get courthouses asap for forbidden palace towards the west, since juri is probably a spicy target next.