We have Guilds, one knight and a great scientist, Banking is next. If Mack gets something other than education next we'll use the scientist to bulb education and win the race to economics. If not then we're probably grinding to rifling and can use the scientist to start the next golden age, once our cities have recovered enough to make it worthwhile.
On the assumption that Mack is going for economics I've switched Agincourt to merchants so our plan is:
t150 GS from A - Done
t154 95% GM from K
t155 GM from A
t157 90% GM from O
t168 80% GS from Cannae
I've just switched Cannae to scientists this turn so it should end up with 565/700 GS points and hopefully the scientist t168. If we do use the GS we got this turn to bulb education then our next GA will have to wait until t168, otherwise it'll probably be t158 - or whenever our cities have recovered and are ready to start starving again and the scientist from Cannae can bulb towards Astronomy. Meanwhile we'll use two of the three GMs to run trade missions.
If we're unlucky and get a GM from Cannae on t168 when we need the GS then Omdurman will produce a prophet/scientist/artist a while later (maybe as late as t180 - we'll need another spell in Caste to speed it up). None of this really matters though, because Mack should be heading for economics.
On to more frivolous matters - let's find out where Lunch teleports to from here...
Balls. Closing borders with plako costs us 3gpt and sends Lunch the wrong way. Guess we either send him all the way back around to Ichabod or delete him. I'll do the latter unless you have a strong opinion THH? I offered back the OBs as 3gpt is 3gpt.
As expected Suttree isn't thinking of attacking from Madrid next turn, so I'll send the troops back towards the Mackoti border. Shock knights will get 68% against these spears, meaning we'd need about 10 to take the city if that was our desire...
On the deciding-if-we-want-to-race-to-economics-front Mack is teching with 273 gold in the bank, is ahead Paper and Banking and has a nice turban. Commodore is third to Paper - he's behind Guilds, Aesthetics, Alphabet, Calendar and Philosophy but ahead Theology, Paper and a lovely necklace.
Looks like TBS is settling for the cows. Better not go any further dude.
Our first spy is going to try and find Suttree's stack - if it's not in Barca (will check with a sentry chariot in a couple of turns time) or on the sheep tile it might be 2S1W of Madrid or further south towards Mack.
Eridu popped 100 culture this turn, Peterloo is still 5 turns from that mark (3 with an artist), so I don't think we're getting the corn tile - also Mack is trying to scare us with a trireme, I'd like to keep an eye out down here to see what other ships he has, but I need to head back north and load up with units to attack from galleys with. Decisions eh?
Madrid can be hit out of the fog, and cheaply - that's tempting. We'll just have to keep casing his positions and see what happens.
I don't have a strong opinion about the scout - if he's costing gold, delete him if you want, though it's always nice to have more eyes, even if not particularly usefully positioned.
Got an odd offer from Dhalphir this turn - world map for 5 gold. I like gold more than maps so I think that's a no.
I was wondering why Plako's golden age hadn't finished, so checked and of course he has the MoM - he also got Paper this turn, and it looks like we are just up Philosophy and down Paper on him. Pindicooter also got Paper and are up Engineering and Compass (Optics->Astro soon for the Vikings I guess) too and only down Meditation and Alphabet. I guess that means Pindicooter are tech leaders (Mack is missing Calendar and a few others and Dtay may have Nationalism and Liberalism but he's missing a lot of older techs - Feudalism, Alphabet, Archery, Iron Working, Guilds - which he'll probably never need as he's about to grab gunpowder, so actually lets call him the tech leader.) We'll have Banking eot152 and possibly Paper eot153, at which point I forget what the plan was.
On my work machine so only two screenshots today - this is how good our HE city is - we'll pump out four knights in the next four turns! Next turn should the new pop work an engineer or steal a cottage tile from Hastings? (I'm leaning towards the latter as we've got more tiles to grow onto elsewhere.) And should we workshop or watermill the stolen cottage tile and the other two cottages? And is whipping a pop who costs 25 (ish) food for 67 hammers a good return at the end of the golden age? (probably not possible with overflow cutoffs, but worth a look.)
Demos show we're second on GNP and MFG thanks to the golden age, we're second on Approval Rate too, but I'm not so happy about that.
I war dec'ed Suttree and offered white peace. I feel bad about continuously doing this, but we need a secure border for next time our peace with Mack runs out...
Map for 5 gold sounds dirt-cheap to me; how recently has our scout been there?
I'd need to see Hastings to know for sure but I'm inclined to say run the engineer - Jamestown has no economic infrastructure to benefit from the cottage and the Heroic Epic to benefit from the engineer. I don't believe in paving over mature-ish cottages; maybe if they help us consistently reach military build-targets in Jamestown (ie. one-turn knights [sounds like that's covered], cannon, etc.), but that's it. I don't really know, but a one-pop whip off the engineer might be worth it depending as you said on overflow.
Don't feel bad re: suttree - he caused us enough angst as it is, and we need to do what we need to win.
We just scouted Dhal and our map knowledge is now near-perfect, so I don't really want his maps at all.
Is there any way to turn signs off for a prettier overview map?
At Jamestown in the short term I think you're right - the engineer gets us +5 hammers (and an extra 1-turned knight ) while the cottage gets +4 commerce and +2 food for another pop point in ten turns.
Longer term there are two hamlets and a village at present - making 3/4 gpt outside the golden age, Jamestown has no commerce multipliers, but it has *2.25 hammer multiplier. Two watermills get us 2 extra hammers each for 4*2.25=9 hpt and a workshop gets -1 food and +3.5 hammers (I plan to run caste and dip into slavery for short whipping binges for the rest of the game) for 3.5*2.25=7.875 hammers.
The upshot is 10 commerce (rising to 12 in 15 turns and 15 when we get printing press) vs 17 hammers minus one food. Jamestown is only at +2 food now, so the workshop essentially stops growth, but there are no other tiles it needs anyway. I think this is a pretty good trade off, it'll have Jamestown producing 71 hammers per turn for units outside the golden age (rather than the slightly crappy 54 it would otherwise).
Where's the second hamlet? I see only one and the village in the shot above.
But anyway, I see your point. 71 hammers per turn would let us one-turn macemen, or alternate one-turn knights and catapults for attack, or pikemen and musketmen for defence. Sounds good to me.
Slowcheetah is gone, Lewwyn declared on Azza and I think Plako will eat Dhalphir pretty soon. Its annoying that the only neighbour we're likely to fight is Mackoti. Speaking of whom - Mack has OBs with Suttree and can attack us on t156. I've offered Suttree plain OBs but will reoffer them with a happy resource if he turns it down. We badly need to know if a stack of 2-movers is flanking us.
On techs Mack wins yet again - he got Education, so is going to easily beat us to Economics. So I guess we're grinding towards rifles instead now... Sigh.
I've got a bit of time today so I thought I'd do a city-by-city post (for my reference as much as anything else), spoilered for the number of pics - shout out if you spot anything dumb THH:
Agincourt hits 396 GPP the turn Konig pops its merchant, the next three turns the silver tile isn't getting worked, which is horrible in a golden age especially, but we need that great guy!
Bay of Pigs will grab the fish to grow onto all its great tiles in a couple of turns time.
Cannae isn't working three great tiles to be in a position to get us our 700 Great Person sooner. We hoped to get a Great Scientist to bulb education in the race for Economics but I've switched back to a Great Merchant as we think the return for GMs is higher. If we do get the scientist I'll try and bulb Astro with him. Although it could be time for an academy in the capital. I'll have to do some sums.
Dunkirk is one of our best military pumps, allowing 4 turn (GA) knights. I'm wondering about 2-pop whipping a knight once we're out of the GA, but its probably best to wait and 1-pop whip.
Endor needs a grass mine to stagnate, and it's growing this cottage for Agincourt.
France grows quickly - I think it'll 1- or 2-pop whip a settler after this trireme.
Some day Gallipoli could be our best commerce city. Still a way off though. We need a bank here. Although we're going to be running a great Merchant economy for a little while, so it's not that urgent anymore. In fact I might switch tech to Paper to get the increased bonus on our research.
Hastings has a Longbow decaying in the queue that we won't build, at the end of the GA there are a few places that can keep producing Knights, so the question is do we switch from vassalage to Bureau and build stables to keep pumping 5XP knights?
Issy is another good military pump.
Jamestown is the Knight king though.
Fingers are crossed for the Great Merchant from Koniggratz.
Light Brigade could also do with a Bank soon.
Midway pays its way. It'll probably just pump navy for the rest of the game. It's also good to have the spare sources of iron.
Nuremburg is our most food-poor city, but if we farm the available grassland it can grow to be a reasonable commerce place. Forge then Courthouse next?
Omdurman still hasn't produced a great person, and will continue not to until Konig and Agincourt have popped again. After the GA it'll whip the temple and work 3 specialists while growing big and working lots of specialists in short Caste breaks. I think we'll generally dip into Caste after we sign peace with Mackoti.
All Peterloo's lovely forests are gone, and what do we have to show for it? Some cultural buildings and a longbow. It's going to be a commerce city, although not a great one.
Quantrill already pays for itself, we need more crappy cities!
It turns out we've been behind Mack not Plako on GNP. Sigh. At what point do people normally say GG in games he's playing in?
Power makes me a bit happier, Demos are still reasonable, even two turns after Fintourist left!
I haven't ended turn because I have some units unmoved on dtay's border that I need to wait for him to move so as not to double move/leave a city stupidly vulnerable. Also I don't know if I'm going to switch research to Paper...
and the scientist from Cannae can bulb towards Astronomy. Meanwhile we'll use two of the three GMs to run trade missions.
- also Mack is trying to scare us with a trireme, I'd like to keep an eye out down here to see what other ships he has, but I need to head back north and load up with units to attack from galleys with. Decisions eh?
) while the cottage gets +4 commerce and +2 food for another pop point in ten turns.
