[SPOILERS!] I am Molach. This is my thread. Kublai Khan of Rome

[Molach]

Hm.
WillLP has just declared on Oxy, and captired a city off him.
On vacation again, so I am just playing my turns without pics or reporting...but a part of me is quite happy that my neighbours are engaging in warfare...all the while there are so many shiny things to build. I thought I was supposed to be the aggressive civ seulement, but apparently not.

[Molach]

I am doing a turn-100 style report as it just turned into turn 101 now.

I played some turns without reporting, as I was travelling again. Diplomatically my situation is pretty good - I have 4 neighbours who have been at war. I'm the peaceful one...

However I have one glaring problem - happy cap. I've been waiting for a religion spread for a while now, no dice. I suppose I might have gone for monarchy rather than civil service. I can:
* Get calendar, improve spices + 1 happy.
* Get a religion spread, adopt religion and build temples, +2 happy.
* Get metal casting, build forges. +1 happy.
* Monarchy. +1 happy, +2 in border, +Lots in a capital.

Definately monarchy here, I could stuff my army in capital and work a gazillion cottages with bureaucracy + academy. Good enough. So after Civil service I'll probably go myst-poly-priest-monarchy, probably also grab masonry and monotheism so I can double-revolt into org.rel and hereditary rule. I'm bound to get a religion spread by then. Right?!?

We take a city! This was later named "Trappenjagd".


Chariot went through WillP lands.

Boldly going nowhere's borders can be seen to the east of the water here..yellow. I met him, but did not send him any EP's. I'm putting it all on wetbandit.

The west - Azza's city on the island is defended by a warrior - since Azza is about out of the game, this island should belong to me at some point. Galley build can help this. But no rush, I want Azza to have metals to better fight wetbandit for a while longer.


My cities: (If anyone wants to take a peek at my civ for better overview, password is 'rohan')
Overlord:

Mutter happy cap. I can build a worker I guess, or grow into unhappy and whip something useless. Like a praet.

Weserübung:

Same as capital, really. Whipping this means 10 turns of one tile less worked.

Fortitude:

Serving as my GP city for now. Worked 3 specs to get 9 GPP so forum's +25% adds 2 more. Next turn I can work the grain again, to stay food neutral. And 11 turns from now I can work 4 specs, 15 GPP. GP here will launch a golden age in 20 turns' time. Hopefully for a switch into monarchy, monotheism and some state religion. And a boost at a time when it really might be needed. Just need to survive in peace that long.

Bagration:

Well it was solely to grab iron. Courthouse is being chopped as we speak, then it will build nothing but praets for a while.

Chariot:

Camp is up. I've been whipping stuff and overflowing into moai - courthouse will take a while, I fear. But after that moai.

Barbarossa:

I really should defend this better - important frontier city with just a warrior hanging out. Triple-whipped forum with max overflow - but not sure how useful it will be. Can't whip wealth, otherwise that would have been better. Suppose I can overflow into a spearman for a little security here.

Uranus:

Grow on clam, work cottages. Library's just as much for culture towards Oxy as extra beakers/scientists. Mine finishes in 2 turns, then it has a bit of everything - decent food, hammers and commerce.

Rome:

New city. Gets a second cow in range when culture pops, along with some mountains for better visibility. Good frontier city.
Need a good name for this...thought 'fortitude north', but that is pretty unimaginative. However it is 'norwegian' operation...

Annnd Numididan, later Trappenjagd:

Came with 2 citizens, improved sheep and a worker. Thanks, I guess. Granary and some heavy whipping here is in order. Could have built moai here as well, but Chariot is just as well.

Demos:


I'll try to translate this:
Lots of land, good GNP, but small cities. If I can go vertical soon I can profit and turn this into a winning position. However I need HAPPY FACES for that. My going for max GNP via currency and civil service is to blame here - however it will enable me to get monarchy pretty fast later on. Pray I won't need the hammers/food until then. So no attacking mr. Praet, please. I'll promise to go medieval on whoever who does.

[Cornflakes]

Courthouse in Chariot is probably a poor build. It's so close the the capital that you'll not save much. 120 hammers to save maybe 2gpt after growing a couple more sizes.

[Molach]

Good catch. Poor build, yes. Changed to a workboat for Trappenjagd fish. Prolly another whip to overflow max into moai.

[Molach]

I am sharing some wonderful screenshouts [sic] today.

First off, tactical. Here is a new city next turn.


Settler founds, workers chop one forest each into a ...granary? Next build probably library for extra culture. Borrowing the cow from Bagration to get a head start. Praet already present for guard duties. Down the line I see myself building walls here. Expendable frontline city - or an advance base if I need to take the offensive. It can work both vs. wetbandit and WillLP.

East - my chariot finds Oxy's gold city with a single warrior on defense.


I could probably have taken a chance and struck here. Not ready for an attack now, I've two praets healing in Uranus after barb city capture. Send them and a few extra to take this city? Perhaps, he should be weakened after the war with WillLP. However the chariot will keep moving, scout a bit. Even wanna send him further east and see what Sisu/Halvgud is up to.

North-East - City ruins! And some WillLP troops.


Gonna take a closer look at this.

Here a shot of western city Fortitude. It will lose one whip unhappy in 8 turns.


GP coming in 15 turns. I wanna revolt into Org.Rel and Monarchy. Civil service takes 6 turns, 600 beakers left. Then there is Myst 80, Poly 160, Masonry 120 , Mono 200, Priest 100, Monarchy 500. Without pre-req bonuses the tech advisor tells me 12 turns will be needed, but probably less as I revolt to bureaucracy and get the prereqs. Monarchy itself will get double-prereq bonus as I pick up priesthood.

So in balance, I need the GP in 15 turns, and will fire off a GA turn 120-125. Is this too soon? My cities probably won't be as big as they should be, but it should give me a good boost at a time when I should need it. Am I too focused on anarchy? I plan to run Caste while in GA so I can get some GPP in two choice cities, back to slavery after. But I can do that if I delay the GA some turns. Org.Rel + Monarchy should still be a 1-turn anarchy thing, right? At least for the time being it seems two swaps is 1 turn.

I can grow my cities a bit in preparation for monarchy - grow them into a bit of unhappiness. So when I hit GA and revolt, they instantly can work more tiles. I shall also convert to a state religion at this time - whichever gets the most cities from now till them. I got one Confu spread already, but hindu is getting big. However I might end up controlling confu down the line as that is Oxy's religion.

Otherwise - been busy chopping buildings in new cities, keeping my big cities from growing by building settlers and workers. I guess I can't go wrong building a few more praets, now can I - just as good as macemen attacking archers/longbows in cities, eh?

By the way, WillP made peace with Oxy this turn. So no Oxy backstab, and I'll need to beef up my defenses a bit more.

Also gained research visibility on wetbandit, he is researching currency, 3 turns on the clock. I'm ahead in tech, but he is getting big cities - size 10 capital. And he is financial. I really really should be ready to mess him up next time he goes after Azza.

Azza is still whipping heavily. Not really sure what he is up to. Maybe I should build some scouts and keep them around. If I ever get the free time I should.

[Molach]

I am sorry.

a. I am sorry for not using my praets, or indeed formulating a plan to use them. I suppose one could say that I used them deterrently and defensively, but that is not what you'd want from aggressive Rome, eh?

b. I am sorry for going for civil service before monarchy. I guess I was hoping for some religion to spread, but with 1 happy resource I should have prioritized happy much higher. I've been teching okay, but am falling behind otherwise. My rivals have big cities, I have tiny dirty hovels. Actually not dirty, my health is very high.

I suppose this is a lesson learned in MP - in SP I could have traded away some health for happy with moronic AIs. But that didn't work out too well here. But we shall see, I'm atleast not being bothered by my extremely bloodthirsty neighbours.

Check it out:

Wetbandit having a go at poor Azza, for the fourth time this game. I need to do something here, I guess. Either dogpile on Azza or Declare on wetbandit. Wetbandit can't be allowed to have all the Azza lands, then he would be three times my size, and completely encircle my lands. Only question is when I intervene.

And Suttree Declared on Oxy. Oxy was already attacked by WillLP, lost a city but peaceful now. I just found Suttree lands this turn, good thing Sisu/Halvgud didn't have all that space to expand into. But looks like Suttree is feeling confident about expanding forcefully.

Oxy has 7-ish units converging on "Ashes", so hopefully he can beat back this invasion - I'm not ready to take advantage of this situation yet.

Oh and Civ service in 2 turns - will revolt immediately. Capital will gain 15 commerce and 4 hammers. Then full throttle to grab monarchy. And grow my capital to size 20.

[Lewwyn]

Oh and Civ service in 2 turns - will revolt immediately. Capital will gain 15 commerce and 4 hammers. Then full throttle to grab monarchy. And grow my capital to size 20.

Why not revolt after monarchy so you can revolt to HR and Burea at the same time?

[TheHumanHydra]

I forgive you, Molach.

[Molach]

Oh and Civ service in 2 turns - will revolt immediately. Capital will gain 15 commerce and 4 hammers. Then full throttle to grab monarchy. And grow my capital to size 20.

Why not revolt after monarchy so you can revolt to HR and Burea at the same time?

First, monarchy is still a ways off. I need to research myst, med/poly, priest first. At least 5 turns, maybe as much as 8 turns, and I think 20 commerce plus 4 hammers for that long is worth immediate revolution.

And second, because I have a GP coming up who will throw a nice party for our civ - in time for the switch. I'll probably go caste temporarily and use one or two cities to gather some GPP while the party is on, but ending up with a new state religion, OR, HR, Slavery and Bureau. I think I can work with those civics a while.

And third, I'm stubborn - if I don't revolt right away, it proves I was wrong to go for Civil Service before monarchy. So therefore I must revolt right away. QED.

I forgive you, Molach.

This is a relief.

[Lewwyn]

Oh and Civ service in 2 turns - will revolt immediately. Capital will gain 15 commerce and 4 hammers. Then full throttle to grab monarchy. And grow my capital to size 20.

Why not revolt after monarchy so you can revolt to HR and Burea at the same time?

First, monarchy is still a ways off. I need to research myst, med/poly, priest first. At least 5 turns, maybe as much as 8 turns, and I think 20 commerce plus 4 hammers for that long is worth immediate revolution.

And second, because I have a GP coming up who will throw a nice party for our civ - in time for the switch. I'll probably go caste temporarily and use one or two cities to gather some GPP while the party is on, but ending up with a new state religion, OR, HR, Slavery and Bureau. I think I can work with those civics a while.

And third, I'm stubborn - if I don't revolt right away, it proves I was wrong to go for Civil Service before monarchy. So therefore I must revolt right away. QED.

You think between 5-8 turns for monarchy. That's between 100c and 20h vs 160c and 32. So you have what 9 cities? Open Demos and look at your GNP, MFG and crop. Is 160c and 32h less than the amount of food, hammers and GNP for that one turn? Please post demos so I can see for sure.

You probably were wrong. Don't compound the mistake by revolting before you need to. Burea is highly overrated IMO. It's only good in smaller empires with a large vertical capital and high modifier buildings like Oxford.