Couple of comments, I did not change anything because Mardoc had already played. Mardoc captured Infrared back and has a wounded HA there, next turn we can take it for good.
Next steps in war:
- I think we might want to take Troubleshooter next. It has a nice wet corn in the first ring and it's nearby. After that we could take Yellow or release Azza from his turn-playing duties. The main reason for diving deeper with Mardoc immediately is the fact that he can build relevant units while Azza not, and thus destroying Mardoc's production power is more valuable. Mardoc's current engineering ETA is 10 turns and pikes could be annoying. He has one source of iron available at his current capital, "Green", which I think we could disconnect in time. However, of course there is a fair chance that BGN or someone else would gift Mardoc iron so I would not sacrifice enormous amount of resources for that. And after all, I guess Mardoc has whipped himself down already and we can also catapult us through some pikes.
--> Anyways, let's not give our catapults a single turn of rest and start heading them towards new engagements immediately so that we keep increasing our city count. As said, Troubleshooter is a decent option for the next fight, or how do you see it?
National wonders (reg vA question):
- 8 banks/universities is quite much so we are not talking about super super fast Wall Street/Oxford. However, I think both are on the near-term agenda for our capital, Alfie, which will beautifully reach size 19 in 3 turns. Due to cheap Financial banks and our break-even rate being pretty much 50 % (at least before awesome Free Market), going Wall Street first is very likely the case here.
Tech path:
- I guess the quick comment here is that we are thinking along the same lines here
- Economics is now obviously the next tech and I think we should try to get it EOT148 as every turn in Free Market is worth a load of commerce. I can do some math next turn as our overflow goes into the tech and we can calculate the exact amount of gold that we are currently short of finishing it in 4 turns. I think we could try to go for a loan anyways and see if e.g. Krill+novice would loan us 250 gold for 26/27 gpt. I think we now have a common enemy in dtay and we might as well start assuming that it makes us friends.
- After economics I like Printing Press quite a lot (dtay is now going for it so we might as well follow and it brings almost +50 base commerce immediately). From economic perspective Philo-Nat-Constitution-Corporation would be after that a way to go, but I think we want to reach the next level in our militaristic capabilities. Philo-Nat-Military Tradition and Gunpowder for Cuirs and Astronomy for Galleons seems like a solid path. However, this is something we already chatted with OH: RB-wisdom generally values 2-movers highly for a good reason. But in this game, once we have conquered the whole continent, our warfare will basically be navy-based for the rest of the game and 2-movers lose lot of their value. Thus skipping Philo-Nat-Mil Trad and just going for Galleons, Frigates, Rifles and Cannons is a better option than it usually is. (The downside of this is that we will be far away from Corporation, but I guess + 1 trade route is not thaaaaat good.)
- I haven't yet thought through about the Astronomy bulb, 2-man GA plan, but assuming you are correct it sounds attractive to me
Macro position:
I think dtay now has 4 more cities than we do and higher quality land. So unfortunately we are not going to become a huge early run-away that I dreamed of. I think we have played a solid game and we have been lucky with our Azza-Mardoc continent. However, it seems that dtay has had even more luck with Whosit-CH-combo. CH spilled some dtay blood, but it's clear that Mardoc is giving us a harder time. Party due to our weak RNG luck, which slowed our attack crucially, partially because Mardoc has played economically a stronger game than CH, who could not reach Feudalism during the whole war.
BGN is ahead of us in score, but I would not say that he is really ahead of us when it comes to game position. He has lots of score from wonders, but is behind in city count. However, it seems that his catch up phase has begun and it looks like he will be one of the strong ones in the game
Assuming we will finish Azza+Mardoc eventually, our third neighbor will be pindicator who is now just behind us (4th in score). Yay for having a conquerable continent, but damn for being squeezed between 3 opponents with highest score after that..
However, pindicator has significantly less cities than we do and there is still some hope that he will start a war with Cyneheard or even dtay and we can benefit from the situation. Let's hope he does not see us a realistic target or even as an enemy that he simply wants to hurt.
Krill+Novice are sitting in the 5th place in score, but have most cities in the game after we and dtay. I actually wonder how did they manage to get so many, because I haven't noticed them really fighting that much. Yes, couple of cities from Whosit and there was something with Ruff back then, but somehow they still have way more land than they should.
There is still many things that can go wrong, but the fact that Azza+Mardoc still have 12 cities combined and there filler places to settle I like our chances of reaching 45-50 cities in semi-near future. After that we might be squeezed between strong neighbors, but 50 cities would still be more than what dtay has currently and if he wants more he needs to start fighting stronger opponents. Well, plako could actually be a completely realistic conquest target for dtay in a while, but that will still be a much harder task + he surely needs to commit some resources for his borders with us, Krovice + pindicator.
Misc:
- Cyneheard has a galley in range of Upland Cress, I think we want to cover it with a knight next turn just that we don't tempt him too much,
- dtay indeed has knights in his nearby cities so simply burning couple of cities from him is not too attractive. Let's just consume Azza and Mardoc first and then see if we can backstab him. I would imagine this is one of the situations where earlier games bring some burden. After PB13 I doubt that neither of us will ever think that our border will be completely safe..
- I like the way Cornelius has now grown closer to its potential (at size 12), at next sizes it can pick again mines/specialists and get that bank and possibly a great merchant done.
- I think we are now playing it correctly with Butterscotch and Daisy. Size 9 is probably the proper size for Daisy forever so that it can work all those workshops and use corn every second turn while we should get B to size 12-14 so that it can work the coast as well.
- That hindu missionary is going for zucchini, right? We want those pigs inside our borders asap..
- Once we are sure that we don't lose Aspargus we want a missionary there also. That own source of incense will be extremely useful. Another option is to simply found a filler NE of the resource. Actually, now that Free Market is coming soon we should totally do it.
- Actually, for the same reason, could you build us a city in the extreme south that I have noted as "great city". Galley NW of lucky should be the transport, Twinkle can be useful and whip a WB and e.g. Rocky or Snowdrop can whip a settler
- I don't see other fillers as important/useful/practical before we have finished Azza off.
- Gertie has -1 health- I did not check if we could trade us something, but regardless the city could get a grocer after it has finished the bank
- I think Lucky should give up on that tundra hill mine and just work coast. I guess that's just for being able to whip that cat next turn, but just saying so that it does not become a habit
- I think Nina should give up on that plains workshop pretty soon and grow couple of sizes onto coast even if that's a bit slow and coast is not thaaat valuable.
- Is zucchini plains mine instead of grass mine on purpose? Does it speed up the knight/next build in a crucial way?
Ok, that's enough for now... Too tired to actually double-check for typos etc, so apologizes!
Next steps in war:
- I think we might want to take Troubleshooter next. It has a nice wet corn in the first ring and it's nearby. After that we could take Yellow or release Azza from his turn-playing duties. The main reason for diving deeper with Mardoc immediately is the fact that he can build relevant units while Azza not, and thus destroying Mardoc's production power is more valuable. Mardoc's current engineering ETA is 10 turns and pikes could be annoying. He has one source of iron available at his current capital, "Green", which I think we could disconnect in time. However, of course there is a fair chance that BGN or someone else would gift Mardoc iron so I would not sacrifice enormous amount of resources for that. And after all, I guess Mardoc has whipped himself down already and we can also catapult us through some pikes.
--> Anyways, let's not give our catapults a single turn of rest and start heading them towards new engagements immediately so that we keep increasing our city count. As said, Troubleshooter is a decent option for the next fight, or how do you see it?
National wonders (reg vA question):
- 8 banks/universities is quite much so we are not talking about super super fast Wall Street/Oxford. However, I think both are on the near-term agenda for our capital, Alfie, which will beautifully reach size 19 in 3 turns. Due to cheap Financial banks and our break-even rate being pretty much 50 % (at least before awesome Free Market), going Wall Street first is very likely the case here.
Tech path:
- I guess the quick comment here is that we are thinking along the same lines here
- Economics is now obviously the next tech and I think we should try to get it EOT148 as every turn in Free Market is worth a load of commerce. I can do some math next turn as our overflow goes into the tech and we can calculate the exact amount of gold that we are currently short of finishing it in 4 turns. I think we could try to go for a loan anyways and see if e.g. Krill+novice would loan us 250 gold for 26/27 gpt. I think we now have a common enemy in dtay and we might as well start assuming that it makes us friends.
- After economics I like Printing Press quite a lot (dtay is now going for it so we might as well follow and it brings almost +50 base commerce immediately). From economic perspective Philo-Nat-Constitution-Corporation would be after that a way to go, but I think we want to reach the next level in our militaristic capabilities. Philo-Nat-Military Tradition and Gunpowder for Cuirs and Astronomy for Galleons seems like a solid path. However, this is something we already chatted with OH: RB-wisdom generally values 2-movers highly for a good reason. But in this game, once we have conquered the whole continent, our warfare will basically be navy-based for the rest of the game and 2-movers lose lot of their value. Thus skipping Philo-Nat-Mil Trad and just going for Galleons, Frigates, Rifles and Cannons is a better option than it usually is. (The downside of this is that we will be far away from Corporation, but I guess + 1 trade route is not thaaaaat good.)
- I haven't yet thought through about the Astronomy bulb, 2-man GA plan, but assuming you are correct it sounds attractive to me
Macro position:
I think dtay now has 4 more cities than we do and higher quality land. So unfortunately we are not going to become a huge early run-away that I dreamed of. I think we have played a solid game and we have been lucky with our Azza-Mardoc continent. However, it seems that dtay has had even more luck with Whosit-CH-combo. CH spilled some dtay blood, but it's clear that Mardoc is giving us a harder time. Party due to our weak RNG luck, which slowed our attack crucially, partially because Mardoc has played economically a stronger game than CH, who could not reach Feudalism during the whole war.
BGN is ahead of us in score, but I would not say that he is really ahead of us when it comes to game position. He has lots of score from wonders, but is behind in city count. However, it seems that his catch up phase has begun and it looks like he will be one of the strong ones in the game
Assuming we will finish Azza+Mardoc eventually, our third neighbor will be pindicator who is now just behind us (4th in score). Yay for having a conquerable continent, but damn for being squeezed between 3 opponents with highest score after that..
However, pindicator has significantly less cities than we do and there is still some hope that he will start a war with Cyneheard or even dtay and we can benefit from the situation. Let's hope he does not see us a realistic target or even as an enemy that he simply wants to hurt.Krill+Novice are sitting in the 5th place in score, but have most cities in the game after we and dtay. I actually wonder how did they manage to get so many, because I haven't noticed them really fighting that much. Yes, couple of cities from Whosit and there was something with Ruff back then, but somehow they still have way more land than they should.
There is still many things that can go wrong, but the fact that Azza+Mardoc still have 12 cities combined and there filler places to settle I like our chances of reaching 45-50 cities in semi-near future. After that we might be squeezed between strong neighbors, but 50 cities would still be more than what dtay has currently and if he wants more he needs to start fighting stronger opponents. Well, plako could actually be a completely realistic conquest target for dtay in a while, but that will still be a much harder task + he surely needs to commit some resources for his borders with us, Krovice + pindicator.
Misc:
- Cyneheard has a galley in range of Upland Cress, I think we want to cover it with a knight next turn just that we don't tempt him too much,
- dtay indeed has knights in his nearby cities so simply burning couple of cities from him is not too attractive. Let's just consume Azza and Mardoc first and then see if we can backstab him. I would imagine this is one of the situations where earlier games bring some burden. After PB13 I doubt that neither of us will ever think that our border will be completely safe..
- I like the way Cornelius has now grown closer to its potential (at size 12), at next sizes it can pick again mines/specialists and get that bank and possibly a great merchant done.
- I think we are now playing it correctly with Butterscotch and Daisy. Size 9 is probably the proper size for Daisy forever so that it can work all those workshops and use corn every second turn while we should get B to size 12-14 so that it can work the coast as well.
- That hindu missionary is going for zucchini, right? We want those pigs inside our borders asap..
- Once we are sure that we don't lose Aspargus we want a missionary there also. That own source of incense will be extremely useful. Another option is to simply found a filler NE of the resource. Actually, now that Free Market is coming soon we should totally do it.
- Actually, for the same reason, could you build us a city in the extreme south that I have noted as "great city". Galley NW of lucky should be the transport, Twinkle can be useful and whip a WB and e.g. Rocky or Snowdrop can whip a settler
- I don't see other fillers as important/useful/practical before we have finished Azza off.
- Gertie has -1 health- I did not check if we could trade us something, but regardless the city could get a grocer after it has finished the bank
- I think Lucky should give up on that tundra hill mine and just work coast. I guess that's just for being able to whip that cat next turn, but just saying so that it does not become a habit
- I think Nina should give up on that plains workshop pretty soon and grow couple of sizes onto coast even if that's a bit slow and coast is not thaaat valuable.
- Is zucchini plains mine instead of grass mine on purpose? Does it speed up the knight/next build in a crucial way?
Ok, that's enough for now... Too tired to actually double-check for typos etc, so apologizes!