[SPOILERS]Zara Yaqob of Byzantium and the Melancholies of Gawdzak and BaII

[Gawdzak]

What's wrong with this picture?

Iron.

[BaII]

So possible Praet rush against us?

[Gawdzak]

Yea, that could be worrisome, although I wouldn't call an attack after turn 100 a "rush". I did some test in the world builder and the combat results against Praetorians are ridiculously swingy depending on promotions.

I don't have the exact numbers but

C1 Axe vs Green Praetorian (starts with C1) -> Axe wins with ~65% odds
C1 Axe vs C2 Praetorian -> Praetorian wins with ~65% odds
C1 Axe vs Shock Praetorian -> Praetorians wins with ~73% odds

C1 Shock Horse Archers vs Green Praetorian -> Horse Archer wins with ~66% odds
C1 Shock Horse Archers vs C2 Praetorian -> Praetorians wins with ~66% odds

Anyways I should probably give you an update for the game:

Turn 100 Empire Overview:




Top Cities:




We got the Great Scientist on turn 101:




I turned on tech for Code of Laws, the demos looks good:




Confucianism still not founded, I think we got a good chance at it. I did say religions are overrated in an earlier post but they do have their uses.

After that we got a few choices.

Horseback Riding: Build horse archers, strong military unit
Civil Service: Strong economic tech.
Feudalism: Strong defensive tech.
Calender: We got silks and incense. Possibility to build MoM, but no good spots to build it.
Aesthetics:
->Literature: National Epics/ Great Library, we have a chance at grabbing marble.
->Drama: Unlocks our (cheap) unique building
->Music: the Great Artist

What options do you like BaII? I can elaborate more on the pros/cons about some of our options.

Ultimately I think our best chance at winning is to reach Cataphracts asap and own our continent. It seems more and more likely that we are on a 3 man continent with Gavagai and Zanth. Why do I think this? Because we don't have a trade connection icon to anyone we haven't met yet, I found it hard to believe that neither Zanth nor Gavagai wouldn't have a trade connection to the 4th person if he was on our continent. Finally, the shape of the land I have revealed doesn't seemed to suggest there's enough land for a 4th person.

[BaII]

I think we should take Calender for the extra happiness. I think it looks worthwhile with 2 happiness resources. Then Civil service since we can probably throw out a GA with the GS, then beeline for Phracts. Although CS might not be worthwhile if our Cap doesn't have enough commence or Hammers.

[Gawdzak]

Hmmm, is 2 happiness worth it for that many beaker? I'm not so sure. I don't think we need Calender just yet.

Oh and we founded Confucianism. The religion sure went late this game:




I whipped in a bunch of courthouses, I'm going to try to get research visibility on Gavagai. If he goes for Construction, he could really wreck our game. I think HBR may be the way to go here. We are already ahead, just need to play it safe.

Oh and it seemed like Barteq built Hanging Garden. He settled 4 cities in 2 turn just before this. Interesting...

[Gawdzak]

I logged in to the sound of La Marseillaise:




GermanJoey found us! I accepted OB even though we get no benefit. Joey's been at war with Suttree, who's doing quite well, so I don't mind helping Joey out a little bit since he's been consistently low in score.

Excuse the lack of detail updates recently, I've been watching the LoL WC.

[Gawdzak]

Turn 108

I thought galley couldn't enter ocean?




Our religion's been spreading around really well considering the fact that we only founded the religion 5 turns ago:




Confucianism has even spread to a bunch of Gavagai's cities. In fact, Confucianism have more followers than Buddhism despite being found much later.

This sort of spread has never happened in one of my SP games before, was this dumb luck or something else I'm not aware of?

Maybe we should make a half hearted attempt at making one of those "Schrine things".

Edit: Also note that Gavagai is researching Aesthetics.

[BaII]

Wooh that's really interesting. I guess we just gotta praise RNGesus. Gallery's can't enter ocean tiles unless they are within ur cultural control. A praet Cat army is pretty scary but I'm not sure HA's are the best units because I don't think they get odds.

[Gawdzak]

Settled another city, and now we are out of room to expand on the mainland. That's 15 mainland cities.

Gavagai got a Great Scientist and he bulbed Math. He is now researching Currency (ETA: 3 turns).

I turned on tech, Civil Service in 5.

[Gawdzak]

Turn 111

We got research visibility on Zanth and he's saving gold on Metal Casting. He's got Iron Working too since the jungle on a rice tile recently disappeared.

Our demo looks good:




Here note that we have 174 tiles of land under our control. In the early game I said there's supposed to be ~260 tiles per player. We've settled everything we got on the mainland. So there should be around 80-90 tiles of islands out there for us. I think I've been underestimating how big this map is. I've been sending out exploring boats but I still haven't found anyone off our continent so far.

Anyone have any questions or things you want to see?