Epic 16 until 1500AD

[Kylearan]

Hi,

I was unable to complete this game unfortunately, which is really a shame as I love this kind of scored games. :mad: But I played until 1500AD at least, and so will throw my score in the ring all the same.

After reading up on corporations a bit (I've never used them before), I noticed that they are only a drain on your economy if you spread them in your empire. So to avoid an economic crash, I decided not to spread it in my empire at all, and only to foreign cities. Even the first executive wasn't used until my first galley was ready to sail out.

Since number of cities with Sid's Sushi scored the most points, I decided to delay expansion in favor of spreading Sid's. That meant as soon as I had founded a second city (south at the great production site), my capital produced executives, and executives only. All further expansion and military was handled by my second city. The consequence was one of the slowest expansions I ever had, but since that didn't influence my score for this event, I didn't care.

In a similar vein, I noticed that building wonders wouldn't help my score at all, at least not for the 5AD and 1500AD scoring deadlines. So I decided not to build any wonder at all, not even the recommended Great Lighthouse or Colossus, and invest all the hammers in executives instead.


So this was the result of my plan:

In 5AD, there were 7 cities with Sid's Sushi, for 35 points. I also had 11 Sushi resources for another 22 points, for a total of 57 points.

In 1510AD, there were 25 cities with Sid's Sushi, for 50 points. Unfortunately, Brennus and Justinian both were in Mercantilism, which meant that Sid's Sushi didn't show up on the map. I had to enter world builder and go through all of their cities manually to count my corporate branches. In addition, I had 16 Sushi resources (yeah, slow expansion, I now) for a total of 66 points.

Then I had to retire unfortunately, but at a strong position. Brennus and Gilgamesh were eating up Genghis, who only had two cities left, but I was the undisputed tech leader and strong in military and had nothing to fear.


I'm not sure if I get the x2 modifier for not declaring war. I "abstained from declaring war throughout the whole game", and wouldn't have if I had finished it, but I'm not sure if you have to win the game to be eligible for that.

So I either claim 123 points, or 123x2 = 246 points total.

-Kylearan

[sooooo]

Hmm, isn't the drain on your economy tempered by the food you get? For example if you're in caste system each 4 resources gets 2 food, which is 6 gold from a merchant specialist, and that's before multipliers for banks, grocers, representation etc. Plus you get gold from the headquarters. Or you could use that food for production etc. It just seems a bit strange not to take advantage of starting with the strongest corporation. Spreading it to your opponents will certainly hinder your opponents because they won't know how to use the food, but most of the points are for your own progress in comparison with other players, not for the margin of victory compared to your opponents.

Not criticising, just curious.

[Kylearan]

Hi,

Hmm, isn't the drain on your economy tempered by the food you get? For example if you're in caste system each 4 resources gets 2 food, which is 6 gold from a merchant specialist, and that's before multipliers for banks, grocers, representation etc.

Keep in mind that I have nearly no experience with corporations, but in my understanding the drain on the economy for spreading the corporation to the second or third city cannot be outweighed by the extra food that early in the game. Lee wrote in his report that he had trouble spreading the corporation while keeping science at 50% - I never had these problems. Also, extra merchant specialists, caste system, banks etc. come so late in the game that they do not matter at all for the 5AD, and not matter much for the 1510AD scoring deadline.

I focused only on the two scoring deadlines, and not on long-term empire growth - I mainly feared to hit the 50% science threshold. I hope there will be some more reports to compare to - I'd be glad to be proven wrong and someone used the early corporation better.

Plus you get gold from the headquarters.

For that gold it doesn't matter if you spread the corporation to domestic or foreign cities.

-Kylearan