The big news of the turn is that dtay started a Golden Age and adopted Hinduism. It`s not ideal for us but I`d probably do the same in his shoes. As you can see of the screenshot I chickened out and went for the plains forest tile. We`re settling it next turn. The border on gold island would indeed be extremely awkward but if Gavagai still hasn`t claimed it when our galley returns with another settler we`re taking it. The jungle banana does have a seafood close to the mainland so we wouldn`t be keeping it forever.
2 more Markets are finishing eot to further help us saving gold. Sugabala has a lot of overflow and can build a Missionary for Oljei Baajii. Atm we`re easily 2 turning Code of Laws. Civil Service is 5 turns, Monarchy is 2 turns and Machinery and Feudalism are 5 turns respectively. That`s not an easy choice. Going for Feudalism would make our cities incredibly hard to attack.. Construction would be a decent choice as well. Let`s save gold for another turn at least.
Oghul Qaimish started an axe. Is it a waste of hammers? I`d like to be able to 1 pop whip it if an emergency occurs. Toregene is 2 turning the second Jewish Minssionary so soon we`l (hopefully) spread the religion to Muqa. We really can`t get that Shrine built quickly enough.
From next turn on, Muqa is available for other duties. I still haven`t decided what the next build will be there.
Graphs and demos: We got Krill`s graphs this turn. Check out the crop yield of his. That`s pretty extreme. He`s far behind the rest of the pack. His military is quite low but that`s not unexpected.
Just to answer the question of the islands SW of Babukhan: Joey has claimed them (Krill`s map told us that) so there`s no room for another city of ours down there. Also, I really like the plan for an early Moai in Nambui! The sooner we get it the better. If we can get a settler out of it as well, that`s helpful. At worst, we have that banana tile on the SE edge of our mainland which is close to Nambui.
At Oghul Qaimish: I feel like we have enough axes already. We could switch that to a spear (a good second unit for any city that already has an axe, and a better long-term unit in general) or an Archer (faster to produce, leaving more hammers for other stuff) or a Ger if the need for the unit isn't immediate. Or even a Buddhist Missionary; I think we still need a few more of those.
At Muqa: If it has a Library + Market and we're getting the Missionaries we need for the Eastern sea from elsewhere and we don't need another archer or spear urgently, a Ger would be a good build here.
And a quick suggestion at Toregene: Since it has that farm, we might as well work it in lieu of the lake, especially when building a Missionary (on which the city can grow a little bit).
Agh, looks like I was too late with those suggestions again - the fault of my horrible sleep schedule. Sorry about that! We'll obviously be fine without any changes made anyway.
Looking further ahead: Much as I liked the Moai plan listed above, and nice though it would indeed be to get a Settler out, I like this one better: It shaves another turn off of Moai, with the city already a size larger than it would have been a turn later under the other plan, has the same whip anger remaining, still gets the temple at the same time, and in lieu of the Settler, gets a Worker to help improve Nambui's soon-to-be-reclaimed second-ring tiles:
T115: Jewish Missionary moves to Nambui and attempts to spread Judaism. If it succeeds, Nambui starts a Jewish Temple and works Crab + Grassland Cow + Ivory + Grassland Farm + All Four Lighthouse Lakes. (Working the farm instead of the plains cow is a pure loss of 3 hammers, but it means we'll be able to generate a lot more whip overflow for Moai, which in turn completes it 1-2 turns sooner, which more than makes up for the 3 lost hammers with >3 hammers per turn.) The Worker on Nambui's farm can move to the Horse and put one turn at a time into a chop while waiting for Nambui's second-ring tiles to be reclaimed. (If the Worker on Toregene's farm has no other pressing assignments, it can move to Toregene's banana en route to roading around the west side of our lake toward those same tiles, which it too can help improve later on.)
T116: Nambui is now size 9, with one unhappy face. If last turn's Judaism spread was successful, it WHIPS its temple (9 pop to 7) and works Crab + Cow + Cow + Ivory + 3 Lighthouse Lakes. (Back to working its best tiles.)
(If Judaism did not spread successfully there, it now starts a Worker, working Crab + Cow + Cow + Ivory + 3 Lighthouse Lakes + Scientist Specialist!* With the angry citizen eating no food because we're building a Worker, we should be putting exactly 19 food-hammers into the Worker, the maximum that will still enable a 2-pop whip. The remainder of this plan assumes that the Judaism spread was successful however: I'll update it before T117 if that's not the case.)
T117: Jewish Temple complete at Nambui, which is now size 8. It resumes Moai, working all its resource tiles and all the lighthouse lakes.
T119: Nambui is now size 9, with one unhappy face. It starts a Worker, working Crab + Cow + Cow + Ivory + 3 Lighthouse Lakes + Scientist Specialist!* With the angry citizen eating no food because we're building a Worker, we should be putting exactly 19 food-hammers into the Worker, the maximum that will still enable a 2-pop whip.
T120: Nambui WHIPS its Worker (9 pop to 7) and works Crab + Cow + Cow + Ivory + 3 Lighthouse Lakes.
T121: Worker complete at Nambui, which resumes Moai.
T122: Nambui is now size 8, and works Crab + Cow + Cow + Ivory + 3 Lighthouse Lakes + Priest Specialist!* This should just complete Moai to the exact hammer!
T124: Moai is complete at Nambui, which works Crab + Cow + Cow + Ivory + all 4 Lighthouse Lakes.
* - Note I am assuming we'll eventually get at least one Great Person out of Nambui with a mixed bag of (at a minimum) priest, scientist, and probably artist points. There were going to be priest points involved anyway because of Moai itself. If we want to have a pure Priest Points pool here instead (bearing in mind that Muqa is definitely going to get the first GP for our Buddhist Shrine) then if the Judaism spread fails, Nambui would work a Priest Specialist and two lighthouse coast tiles instead of a Scientist Specialist and two lighthouse lake tiles, again just to get exactly 19 food-hammers into the Worker on that turn. If we want a pure priest pool and Judaism does spread successfully, then everything is the same except that we work two priest specialists instead of a lake and a scientist on turn 119.
Another note: Hereditary Rule happiness would be very helpful for our empire, I think. Landing Confucianism would be kind of hilarious, but obviously isn't needed. I think I like the idea of teching CoL first, then Monarchy, whipping in Courthouses and other infrastructure and/or missionaries just before the latter comes in, and then revolt to HR/Caste/Paganism(!) and No State Religion(!) for five turns, during which we basically just slow-build units for five turns (Workers, Settlers, and Workboats to the extent we still need them, plus Keshiks in Ger cities, Swords if any cities have Barracks without Gers, and Archers and/or Spears everywhere else). Paganism would just be to save maintenance costs when we aren't building infrastructure or missionaries, and No State Religion would get us a bit of extra culture from Judaism (and Confucianism if we land it) on the assumption that HR happiness and the ability to stagnate on scientists and/or merchants and artists in certain cities would render the +1 happiness from Buddhism temporarily unnecessary. If we actually want to do this though, we should probably plan it out in more detail; it's just an idea I thought was interesting....
It looks like I just went offline before you wrote that first comment.
Hmm, Toregene should indeed prioritize growth. Those lake tiles are not the best tiles to work now. Oghul Qaimish could build another unit instead, I really like to have the option of 1 pop whipping something. It`s wise to prepare for the worst. Muqa could build a Ger next.
Getting out an even quicker Moai is good. I`d rather have the settler all other things being equal but another worker is certainly needed to help clear out the jungle down there.
I agree that Hereditary Rule is a very good civic. Especially our border cities would appreciate a bit more happiness. Monarchy is very cheap now so we can get it quickly after Code of Laws. I`m thinking CoL - Monarchy - Construction/Civil Service/Feudalism here. The plan of revolting out of Organized Religion is pretty hilarious! The happiness from HR would be needed if we were to pursue that plan. If we revolt out of Slavery we`ll get a big tag on our back so we have to step carefully. If we are in Caste System getting a GP of our choice quickly is an advantage. Also, as you noted, getting Courthouses built everywhere will help our economy a lot.
Our 17th city, Monggutsar was settled this turn. Note that Gavagai has an archer on the gold island. presumably on its way down to the banana. An axe/worker pair will make landfall in Empress Gi next turn. I don`t think even Gavagai would attack the new size 1 city so at least we have 2 defenders in place in Empress Gi and Babukhan from then on. I`d still like to slip in another good defender in Babukhan as the chariot is just standing there.
Oghul Qaimish will grow into unhappiness for a turn. We could start a settler or worker this turn instead of letting it grow. Nambui is following the micro plan, we`re whipping out the Temple next turn. Yes, Judaism successfully spread to Nambui! Oh, it finally expanded borders this turn, giving us very good vision on the SW area. We`re getting control of the banana tile next turn (it showed 50-49 in our favor).
Muqa did start a Ger. It`s probably good to get those Gers done early in case of an emergency. Borte gave up a hill to work a cottage. Maybe we should let it take the rice from Toregene.
A Galley on the eastern sea is shipping a worker over to Bayan Khutugh`s pigs next turn, just in time for the border expansion. Kokejin whipped out a Library, so that it`ll contribute next turn already. I decided to save gold for another turn as we`re still losing gold at 100 % science. We need those Courthouses and we need them badly.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that the settler moved from Borte towards Bulugan. It can build the strong corn/clams site on t117.
Graphs and demos: Dtay`s Golden Age is helping him out a lot. Also, someone`s crop yield increased with 27 (!) from last turn. It looks like Krill is catching up in food.
Really nicely done! Let's see if I can add anything before I finally turn in for the "night."
At Oghul Qaimish, we should really just build whatever you think is most needed. If that's a Ger, do that and just whip it next turn (for 2 pop and significant overflow).
I don't think Borte needs the rice at the moment; it can work all its cottages and resources if it wants to at this point, right? I haven't looked at it (or Toregene) very closely in a while though. Has either one run out of whip anger altogether? (Or will they anytime soon?)
Hmm, Radnashiri will grow to size 5 next turn, right? And I think it'll be able to 2-whip the library at that point - if so, I think doing so would be a good move.
(August 26th, 2017, 05:23)JR4 Wrote: If we revolt out of Slavery we`ll get a big tag on our back so we have to step carefully.
True, but if you're going to play tricks like this (and how else are you going to leverage SPI?) then it's good to try it before Engineering and Astronomy appear for more movement and before other players have built up large cities on the islands that could be whipped to provide a quick attack force. You should be OK unless someone already has significant forces near your borders, and hopefully no-one is lining you up as a target right now.
Worst case, even if someone could grab cities on your border, they're not going to kill you, and they'll have made themselves a blood enemy with nothing better to do than use their (signficant) remaining resources in ruining their game...
I'd be surprised if you can't get away with it at this point in the game. Doing it later when there are 6-move (inside borders) knight stacks around would be much riskier.
It may have looked easy, but that is because it was done correctly - Brian Moore
You`re right that we most likely will get away with the Caste swap in the near future. It`s only 5 turns until we have the option of going back to Slavery after all! The timing is very important here. We certainly would like to swap to Hereditary Rule asap as well. Getting all those Courthouses whipped out is going to take a few turns so we probably want to wait until Monarchy is done before doing any civic changes. It will indeed be more dangerous to stay outside Slavery as we enter the Renaissance. Part of the fun (and strength) of playing SPI is the possibility of switching civics around often. We should try hard to gain as much as possible from it. No one else have that option. Right now the Organized Religion bonus is helping us to build all that infrastructure faster than the rest of the players. When we can reduce our expenses by building those Courthouses, I think we`ll have a lot of flexibility going forward, targeting an economic tech like Civil Service or a military one like Construction.
I think it`s time to discuss concrete plans for aggression. We`ll have a lot of teching power after the Courthouses are done. I`m still positive to a knight rush, perhaps going for the weakest looking neighbor. We`ll have Gers in basically all our cities, we have to use them to our advantage. Also, Guilds, with Mercantilism (and access to banks) is just one tech further on the tech tree. So, basically, if no neighbor is deemed to look weak enough we`ll still have an awesome civic and options for building up the economy even further.
So, who is our preferred target? Right now I`d say 1) Dark Savant and 2) Joey, in that order. Taking State of Zijin would be pretty fantastic for us as the forking potential would be reduced significantly. I see Dark Savant as a slightly softer target, though the logistics would be difficult to put it mildly! We`d have to build a lot of Galleys to attack a few of his cities out of the fog. I don`t like the idea of hitting Gavagai. Yet. And as for dtay - he hasn`t really left us any targets. If he starts building those border cities with us, then maybe I`d change my mind.
