[SPOILERS]PB46: (In Search of) Fine Foreign Dining, by Hannibal of England

[TBW]

T151:



There's no peaceful reason for GKC to build a road here that I can come up with, and he's pouring on espionage, so I think I made the right call on bringing down my pike and war elephant garrison from the north. I'm going to go ahead and drop a castle in Sneatonthorpe (which makes sense anyway, being a chokepoint city on flat ground) and drop a barracks in Lucker, which I'd forgotten didn't have one since I'm using it to put out missionaries. I'll be dropping a missionary in Scarrow Hill next turn and I can keep building them from there, it just seems prudent to make sure I have enough longbows to stop a 2metra style human wave suicide charge, if GKC has that in mind. There's a chance that GKC doesn't even have Feudalism or Guilds yet, and it's extremely doubtful that he has Engineering, but you can't take these things for granted.

Outside of those foreign concerns, I finished Compass and I'll be doing Optics in one turn at 10% slider. I'm up to 800 bpt at 100% slider outside of a GA, and that's just going to keep going up as I pack in the stock exchanges. I can build harbors in a lot of cities too, but I don't want to spend too much time on infrastructure when my most powerful neighbors have steadily increasing power scores.


Also, while I'm still working on circumnavigation, I found this city of Dark Savant's. I wonder if he's saving them up for a commando pump later on? That's what I'd be doing in his position.

[TBW]

T152:

I settled a filler city, Long Eaton, this turn. Since I have so many OB agreements, Mercantilism, and I'm basically maxed out on number of cities maintenance everywhere, there's no reason for me not to start plugging filler cities in everywhere I can stuff them. This city should grow decently with two flood plains farms and a couple CS farms on top of that.


GKC revealed that he has Optics this turn. Since caravels in this patch can carry offensive units, this could be a very dangerous moment for me if he's planning a preemptive strike.


At least, it would be if I hadn't planned ahead and put enough hammers into a longbow in Skinningrove to be able to one pop whip one out in case of emergency. There aren't any other cities along the coast that he could theoretically murk with one unit before I can get a longbow in, so crisis averted without having to cash upgrade a warrior to a pikeman. Also, from what I can see, he's not showing any military stronger than axes/spears, but I should definitely get some more intel before I make a move. He's dumping 100% of his espionage into me, and I'm going to actually track the numbers this turn and next so I can take a guess at how many cities he's got.

On the enemy tech front, Rusten finished Paper this turn. He's ahead of me by Calendar, Theology, Civil Service, and Philosophy, and I've got Compass, Optics, Aesthetics, and Literature on him. A lot of people seem to be skipping Literature in this game, which seems odd to me because I think both epics are two of the most important buildings in the game, right up there with Oxford University.

AT also finished Paper this turn, and he's lacking Horseback Riding, Feudalism, and Construction, but has Optics. I wonder if he's planning on just griefing someone with privateers, because he's totally irrelevant at this point otherwise. Dark Savant's army is tied up along his border with Superdeath, which looks to me like the only reason he's not rolling AT right now.


Circumnavigation is looking closer all the time.

[TBW]

T153:
GKC put 34 espionage into me this turn, which is honestly less than I thought he was putting out. Courthouses are worth 2 per turn, spy specialists are worth 4 per turn, and the palace is worth 4 per turn. We take 4 away for the palace, that leaves 30. At the most, GKC has 15 cities. I can see 9 of them. Every spy specialist he's running means 2 fewer cities with courthouses. Since there's no way for me to tell which specialists he's running anywhere, that's the best I can do without going through an entire game's worth of score changes and piecing it together, which I am absolutely not going to do. Overall, it seems like he has somewhere around 11-13 cities and I have 6 knights right now, I'm pumping one per turn from my HE city and other knight cities will be coming back to that when they finish their courthouses in the next couple turns. The sooner I rip a chunk out of him the better, because my rivals are all making progress on their weak neighbors and I don't want to be left behind. He seems to be in bad shape overall, but I'm still not going to launch an attack with just 6 knights and a few catapults/pikes.


On GNP, when I run 100% slider I'm in second place and first place is either Rusten in his 2-person GA or pindicator. Pretty happy with that GNP. OH is in the driver's seat right now when it comes to being the first to grab important techs. He'll almost certainly win the race for Liberalism and turn that into Economics for the Great Merchant. It might be a good idea for me to chase Nationalism for Taj, but we'll see how it works out. There's a 20% chance Wormelow Tump will produce a Great Engineer next turn, and that makes Taj a complete no brainer.


Circumnavigation is in sight now, it should hit around T156. I think I'll either be third or fourth to grab it.

[TBW]

T154:
Got a GS this turn. I can get another GP out of Wormelow Tump with pretty good odds of a non-scientist in approximately 13-14 turns, so I have a spare scientist this turn. Right now, Philosophy is my available GS bulb, but without a Great Engineer I don't think I'd win the race for Taj. If I was going to guess, I'd say going for Taj is Rusten's play right now.

OH finished Liberalism this turn. I didn't have any idea when he'd finish it but I knew he'd get there first. Since I took my turn first this time I won't see what tech he picks until next turn, but Economics seems to be the obvious choice to me, though he could also decide to grab Astronomy and just research Economics since the people closest to him in score can't beat him to it. I'm finishing Civil Service this turn and grabbing Paper next, Rusten doesn't have Education, pindicator doesn't have Paper, and I don't have contact with Commodore. Nobody else seems to be in a relevant position on Renaissance techs.

Outside of that, I don't have any really interesting insights or tactics to report on this turn. GKC is keeping his caravel in place as a sentry (and his scout is in an area where he can keep an eye on my defensive stack; I can keep my knights separated from it, though he's seen a few of them and unless he's completely oblivious he knows what's eventually coming). There aren't a lot of interesting ways to keep saying "I'm building courthouses and stock exchanges". Is there anything anybody wants me to post about?

[Juri]

There aren't a lot of interesting ways to keep saying "I'm building courthouses and stock exchanges".

big corn up in this bitch

[Juri]

When I get to Paper, I have to start thinking about privateers as an option. I've never played an MP game where privateers were relevant, since they're normally Chemistry + Astronomy and by the time you're at Chemistry, ironclads and frigates are already out there. It seems to me that the key to them is making it look like they came from somewhere else when you're using them to smash up somebody's coast. I'll have to think about that in a few turns.

I think Krill removed the hidden nationality on privateers unfortunately. I wonder if it was just because of turnsplit logistics or if there was some balance idea in mind.

[Juri]

The sentry promotion on 2metra's chariots isn't coming from an event, it is coming from the Ethiopian monument UB, which has been changed in RTR to give the sentry promotion and a merchant spec slot instead of 25% culture.

You know what they say when you ctrl-f "sentry" on a Civ 4 events list, it makes an ass out of u and me.

oh neat I didn't realise there was an event for sentry at all
I guess the food event kind of pulls one's attention, since I remember seeing that part of it before

[Juri]

Are any notable wonders still available or are they all off the table? I have to imagine they'd go pretty fast in a 17-man game.

[TBW]

When I get to Paper, I have to start thinking about privateers as an option. I've never played an MP game where privateers were relevant, since they're normally Chemistry + Astronomy and by the time you're at Chemistry, ironclads and frigates are already out there. It seems to me that the key to them is making it look like they came from somewhere else when you're using them to smash up somebody's coast. I'll have to think about that in a few turns.

I think Krill removed the hidden nationality on privateers unfortunately. I wonder if it was just because of turnsplit logistics or if there was some balance idea in mind.

Well damn, that means they're just regular combat ships that make a triangle with ships of the line and frigates. Still useful to have, especially when they're the strongest ship in the game for a while, but not a lot I can do with them right now.

Are any notable wonders still available or are they all off the table? I have to imagine they'd go pretty fast in a 17-man game.

Notre Dame, Temple of Artemis, and Shwedagon Paya are still available for me. Dark Savant built Chichen Itza last turn. Nobody has Sistine Chapel, University of Sankore, or Spiral Minaret yet either.

[TBW]

T156:



I see now why the Elkad/OH war is at a standstill. That's an absolutely brutal stack to try to break with knights, even bombarding the city down to 0% culture defense. On the other hand, Elkad can still ferry in CG3 longbows if he's got 4 move galleys, OH is blockading the wrong tile to prevent them from being directly shipped in. I don't have complete information about what's happening up here, so I don't know if he's got a tactical reason for having his ships there, but based on the way he's played so far I doubt he's making a tactical mistake. We'll see what happens up here. Personally, in this situation I would blockade the city with my ships and then just sail around and grab the Statue of Zeus city while all those longbows were stuck.

Rusten sent me a fish/fish trade and also OB. I accepted both so I can scout him and also so we stay on relatively good terms while he, presumably, finishes off 2metra and then easily destroys Borsche. At some point, it might come down to me being the kingmaker between OH and Rusten, unless I figure out a way to get ahead of both of them. I sent a wine for fur trade to AT, since he's the highest person on the list who doesn't have wine and does have gold. If he hooks it up, I can fit in some more whips; if not, then it's no big loss, I'm still in good shape on happy cap.


As long as I don't jump the gun and end up in any stupid, grinding wars for a while, I can get these courthouses and stock exchanges whipped out and be in good shape. I'll get a guaranteed non-scientist GP in 14 turns, I can shave 3 turns off of that if I'm willing to pollute my GPP pool with a minuscule chance of another scientist. I'm finishing Paper this turn, and then I have to pick out my next tech path. If I can launch my 2 person GA in ~14 turns, I think a good goal to aim for is to have Representation available by the end of it. Bulb Philosophy -> research Nationalism -> research Constitution gets me there in 10 turns of 100% research at my current tech rate. I also want to get Education in so I can get as many GA hammers into universities and Oxford as possible, and Theology so I can swap out of Organized Religion on my last turn.

Right now my civics are Hereditary Rule / Vassalage / Slavery / Mercantilism / Organized Religion. I think ending up in Representation / Nationhood / Caste System / Mercantilism / Theocracy would work out well. I have more workshops than wind and watermills so Caste System is more important for me, the only thing I really need OR for after my universities is factories if the game progresses that far, and I think having drafting available as soon as I unlock redcoats is going to be extremely important for me to take advantage of my power spike. Since I don't have any neighbors giving me any grief (which can, of course, change at a moment's notice) I'm going to keep building my economy and backfilling cities.

I also signed a peace treaty with Rome this turn. I'll just blow him out in one turn with cuirassiers or redcoats later on, he can't make any meaningful progress or threaten me in any way with longbows.