And we finally have a new turn, and it brought a lot of action! The reload situations seem to just take forever to resolve but we`re rolling again. First of all, according to Civstats there had been some drama on the end of last turn. Couerva took a big city from Krill (Krill got a 23 point decrease)- and he kept it! That`s probably the kind of big play that will win this Pitboss game. I`m very impressed with Couerva`s performance thus far. That`s a blow to Krill`s chances of course. I figure he didn`t really want to use his Golden Age to whip out a lot of defenders in his island cities. Btw, here`s a screenshot of the city that was captured. The Event Log showed two very important things, Dark Savant got a Great Engineer but look at which religion Gavagai swapped to. That`s good news for us! Gavagai is in Organized Religion now.
In order to finish Banking eot, 3 cities are building Wealth, Borte, Oghul Qaimish and Bulugan. At 70% we`re definitely finishing it eot. I still think swapping to Mercantilism a turn early is worth the trouble. We`re probably doing a double swap (Caste and Mercantilism). The option of hiring Artists/Scientists is very useful. Now every potential front island city on the eastern sea has a Longbow (and more units) so Dark Savant would have to have massive superiority to take a city there. Kokejin and Borte are probably making yet another pair of Longbows, to be a strategic reserve. A Knight could also be shipped out from Muqa to the front quickly if we`re desperate. After Banking is in an option could be to 1 turn Calendar, which we`ve delayed too long already. We`re pretty close to doing that but may have to build a bit of Wealth to finish it next turn.
9 cities are growing eot, helping our stats a lot. We`ll probably have to whip a few cities next turn if we want to go for Caste System.
Graphs and demos: Joey had a pretty massive power increase so he might be planning an attack on someone now (or maybe more likely just after the Golden Age is over).
In Gav's defense: I don't think the reload situation was responsible for the delays. Krill's trans-atlantic journey and sheer exhaustion looked like the limiting factor on finishing T147 to me.
Meanwhile, the world continues to heat up; this game is crazy! And with the fall of Russia sometime next turn, it'll be interesting to see what dtay does with his surviving (and no doubt highly-promoted) knights. I think you're right that GJ is getting ready to launch an attack too, and China seems like the obvious target: He'll hope Krill is distracted by Coeurva's island attack, and he'll figure between the fish-for-fish offers we recently exchanged and the State of Zijin garrison, he should be pretty safe in the north. If it works, we could end up sandwiched between the game's two juggernauts, so that should be exciting!
(September 24th, 2017, 14:01)JR4 Wrote: We`re probably doing a double swap (Caste and Mercantilism). The option of hiring Artists/Scientists is very useful.
Cool, but ... I don't like the way our military is looking right now if we're about to drop out of slavery. (I'm glad we at least have a few workshops for Caste to boost...) Either way, I'd be tempted to do something like whipping infrastructure next in cities where there would be lots of overflow, then revolt to Paganism along with Merc (and proably also No State Religion). If we're leaving Slavery though, we probably need to whip units wherever possible, and then build more units ~everywhere for five turns. The point of dropping OR would be: 1) Telegraph the fact we're building units everywhere (especially if we do use Caste) so we don't look like too-tempting a target. 2) A few extra "free" hammers: The whip overflow (but not the regular build hammers) already received the OR multiplier, but will be "demultiplied" as though we weren't in OR. This effect is pretty small though, especially in cities that have forges. 3) Saving on maintenance costs when we're not using (expensive) OR for infrastructure or missionary builds. 4) A little bit more culture in a few key cities. (This last one is a minor point at best, and we should instead stay in Buddhism if the extra point of happiness is important anywhere.)
One of the counter-arguments to leaving OR: A Bank in Muqa would pay for itself very quickly right now, and we could probably get it a couple turns faster in OR. (Of course, we'd get it faster than that if we stay in slavery....)
If we do switch to caste, where will we take advantage of the specialists it opens up?
- Oghul Qaimish has plenty of specialist slots anyway, but Caste will let it run Artists and try to make some headway on the border tiles.
- Vulcania will be eager to run one or more artists, I'm sure.
- Presumably Bayan Khutug could run artists if we think that would accomplish anything (and be necessary) ... dunno.
- I guess the few cities without any spec slots from buildings can get a Merc scientist instead of a Merc citizen? How many cities like this do we have? I guess soon to be 2 at least, including one that might run an artist instead, to try to push back Dark Savant's culture....
Also, as mentioned, we'll get a few extra hammers from workshops. All of these items are quite useful - but are they worth losing the whip?
Quote:After Banking is in an option could be to 1 turn Calendar, which we`ve delayed too long already. We`re pretty close to doing that but may have to build a bit of Wealth to finish it next turn.
To what purpose? It gives us one happiness resource (x2 with our markets) that we won't need at least until we open another civic in the left-hand column, plus another copy of the same resource, which in theory we could trade for ... another happiness resource that we also don't need? The two silks will be decent tiles with plantations, but not actually good ones - not as good as towns, for instance; arguably not even as good as 3f/0h/2c farms. Also the tech is a prereq for Astro, but we need the other prereq (Optics, which in turn needs Compass) more urgently, I think. Is there anything else Calendar gives us? We've already centered the map....
Yes, the world is a very dangerous place to be right now. I suspect that China will go down in flames, just as Russia. The wild card in the geopolitics is Gavagai, as he has a number of options to get more land. If he goes for Dark Savant he has a very good chance of clawing his way back to contention imo. If Krill can stop the bleeding he`ll still be a contender but he shouldn`t lose more cities now.. We are about to be sandwiched between the two biggest civs but I don`t see how we could have avoided that tbh. We`ll just have to make ourselves look thorny and keep looking for opportunities.
Calendar would give us something like 6 food (for the plantations on the bananas) and the 2 Silks. Not much, but it`s something. We`re probably not keeping the Sugar-for-Stone deal forever so we can`t delay the Silks too long. However, I do agree that getting optics asap is more urgent. It`s a potential risk that our two island neighbors both have Optics while we don`t. So, let`s go for Compass - Optics next and then reevaluate.
As for the potential Caste swap this turn - hmmm, I`m unsure if we`ll get away with it. My thought was that our island cities look pretty safe, we have a non-binding fish-for-fish deal with Joey and dtay is occupied elsewhere. We could delay the Caste swap until the Golden Age (it`s only 6 turns away iirc). We have a lot of cities which benefit from the whip. There are 3 or 4 cities that will have to work a Citizen instead of a Specialist, hopefully it`ll be down to 0 when the GA starts. I don`t like the thought of swapping out of Organized Religion yet. Getting those Banks constructed will give us a nice boost.
Ah - good point on the bananas wanting plantations; since the map and mod made it necessary to find city sites that could do without their extra food, I keep forgetting they exist! 2 more food at Chubei, 1 more at Toregene, and two apiece at Nambui and Daliyetimishi will indeed have value. I still support Compass + Optics first, hopefully in time to stop or deter further island attacks, but Calendar will be good when we get it too.
Another very interesting turn! As you can see, we`re now in Mercantilism. Caste System was delayed for the time being. Joey got a Great Engineer and Dark Savant started his second Golden Age. As he`s got the MoM that GA is going to last like forever. Well, it` s better that Dark Savant built it than say dtay or Joey. Also, in that first screenshot, note that Couerva has no less than two Galleons right next to Nambui. As the Longbow went to the banana tile this turn, to act as MP for our soon-to-be city, let`s hope I didn`t do something insanely stupid by underdefending Nambui. It`s getting a 6th defender, a Knight eot so we shouldn`t be in any danger. A couple of Longbows are next in the build queue for Nambui. Anyway, one of the Galleons is wounded, so there is fighting going on between Couerva and Krill yet. Couerva should be occupied elsewhere.
There are 4 cities that have to work a Citizen right now. Oljei Baajii completes a Market and can work a Merchant from next turn on. The other cities are also close to completing a building to let them work a Specialist instead. Muqa, Borte and Radnashiri immediately started Banks. Bulugan`s Knight will be 1 hammer from completing so we`ll get a lot of overflow there. The Confucian Missionary is on its way down to Oghul Qaimish and will try to spread the faith. If it succeeds it will be pretty awesome. D-mishi desperately needs some infrastructure, I`m pretty happy about its garrison now and we have the option of shipping out 4 more units on the same turn if there is a stack on the deer. Btw, Gavagai built a Knight in Babukhan so we shouldn`t relax..
Rtr Workshops are really good. Our Workers are building a lot of them. Finally, I agree that Compass - Optics is the right tech path for us. Galleons are on the seas already and we need to be able to counter them.
(September 25th, 2017, 14:11)shallow_thought Wrote: There are galleons out there?
Yup, it`s a dangerous world! Fortunately, I think those Carthagian Galleons are going to trouble someone else. It really doesn`t make any sense for Couerva to attack us. Maybe he has a scouting unit (or a Great Merchant) on the Galleon closest to Nambui, we`ll see next turn. Our island cities are pretty well defended right now, but we have a few of vulnerable port cities on the mainland that could be hit from the fog. Getting Optics asap is ever so important, to give us at least a turn warning.
The tech deficit should be narrowed a bit after our Golden Age. Let`s just hope no one is plotting an attack on us. Building more units should make sure that we don`t look like the easiest prey.
Well, we have survived until turn 150. That`s something, right? We built another city this turn, Chabui! It`s a long way from Chubei, so hopefully we won`t mix up the names. Our break even rate is pretty much exactly 50 % now (we`re making +4 gold at 50 %), so our economy is in good shape. The big problem is that we`re quite a ways off the big guns in tech and we need to follow them as best as we can. We`re saving gold for another turn just to be able to switch to Engineering if something is happening. We might be able to 1 turn both Compass and Optics over the coming turns, though I doubt it.
Couerva`s Galleons sailed out of sight. I`ve no idea what he was doing with them. Perhaps he was pursued by some Incan boats? Our triremes on the eastern sea have moved a tile away from Dark Savant, just in case he`s attempting something. He`s got that Circumnavigation bonus.. Most of our Catapults are on the desert hill N of Muqa, in case dtay is coming for us. We`ve got research visibility on everyone else now. The EPs are distributed evenly among the rest. Maybe we should target city visibility on a civ of choice next.
The Banks are under construction. They`re annoyingly expensive but are really good buildings. Only Mandukhai, Chabui and Vulcania will work a citizen next turn. Oljei Taikhu will get an Engineer t151. Mandukhai will whip the Forge next turn and can hire an Engineer on the following turn. Vulcania should whip a Temple on t152.
