[Spoilers] Boldly Going Nowhere and Mr. Cairo go to Florida. Hilarity Ensues.

[Mr. Cairo]

See all those moneybags? Those are not ordinary moneybags. Those are double moneybags. Those are ten commerce cottages. And they're beautiful.

So the plan for this GA is to get the expensive techs of Constitution and Democracy, so I can swap into what are likely to be end-game civics of Universal Suffrage/Bureaucracy/Free Speech/Caste System/Organised Religion.

Bureaucracy because my cap is still amazing with it, and OR because going for a Culture Victory means I'll be building plenty more buildings, so that bonus will remain relevant. Also, Theocracy prevents me from spreading any more religions, which I'll need to do to build more Cathedrals in my Culture cities. Pacifism is a thought, but I'll need units, and those additional costs will be unpleasant. I'm spoiled by my very low expenses and a constant gold source in the shrine.

At the moment, with every single city on Science builds Constitution takes two turns and Democracy says it'll take 4, but probably three with overflow of pre-req bonus. I only need it by turn 7 of the GA so I can swap on the last turn. So once I get Constitution I'm going to see how many cities I can take off of Research to build useful things. I will however try and do the math to see if it'll be worth it, hammer-wise, to try and get Democracy as quickly as possible and swap in 5 turns instead, and get the GA bonus on the Town hammers for a few turns. Getting Democracy faster means starting Statue of Liberty earlier, and since wetbandit just got Constitution, I might be in a race for that Wonder.

Here's my Bureau-cap in all it's Oxford and Golden Age glory:



And the Demos:



After Democracy I want Divine Right for the Spiral Minaret (worth 52 Gold/turn). Then probably Astro, as much for the Observatories as the boats. Also, getting Harbours will let me build my extra cheap Customs Houses. Then onwards to Assembly Line and Factories+Infantry. Or go to Steel and Cannons.

Getting US is also useful for the rush-buying. Which means that Communism is a target for the Kremlin, so I might go that way in the tech tree, although I still think that getting to Assembly Line asap is probably the best choice.

[Mr. Cairo]

And here's my 3000+ GNP on the graph:



So now I had a choice to be made. I could keep almost all of my cities on Research and get Democracy in 3 turns. Of start building stuff in all my cities and get Democracy in 4 turns. With wetbandit currently saving money before continuing to Democracy, I felt it was worth it to get my cities working on more infrastructure and delay Democracy by the single turn.

Here's what my cities are working on now:



And here's a closer look at my three most important cities, and the three cities that'll I'll want to get to Legendary culture for a culture victory:

Capital is building a Bank, for obvious reasons. After the Bank I'll build cultural buildings starting with more monasteries and temples for my tho other religions here (three when Islam is founded and I send the free missionary here). I'll want a Harbour and Customs House as well, once I get Compass.


Here is my number one hammer city (48 non-GA base hammers), soon to get me another great person. I'm building Wealth here because it has 40 overflow hammers available that I'll want for the Statue of Liberty.


And my number two hammer city, and the HE city. I'm building the Hermitage here because this is the furthest behind in terms of culture, and after that I'll start work on West Point. I'll interrupt West Point to build the Spiral Minaret here. With West Point a Cav will start with 13 XP, which is halfway to Commando  

[Mr. Cairo]

Interestingly enough, I got a great Engineer this turn. In my cap he'll produce 800 hammers, or a bit over half of the Statue of Liberty. But I think I'll hold on to him for the Kremlin, which is probably more important long-term than the SoL. Also, wetbandit ate a turn of Anarchy to get into US, so he won't even have a headstart on me for SoL, and hopefully, he won't even try seeing that I have a Great Engineer. Or he has one of his own, in which case I'll get a fat load of fail-gold.

[Mr. Cairo]

Aaaand I can't build more than 2 National Wonders in a city, so West Point can't go in the same city my HE because I just built the Hermitage there....

[Hollybombay]

What do you think is everyone's chances of winning right now, and how would they go about it?

[Mr. Cairo]

What do you think is everyone's chances of winning right now, and how would they go about it?

Right now, that would be me, via Culture. It's still a ways off, but everyone else needs to go through someone else to win, and I don't. I just need to ensure no-one goes through me.

Wetbandit is still tech leader (very impressive recovery considering the cities he temporarily lost), JR4 is the most powerful and hasn't fought in any wars lately so hasn't had that dragging him down at all, while SD is ahead on land, but quite far behind on tech.

I do however think that my post-GA economy is probably the best right now. My GNP while saving cash is still #1:


And I get nearly 5 turns worth of research from 1 turn of gold.


And I'm still building a few more Banks and other eco buildings, including Harbours now that I have compass. Customs Houses will only really be worth it after I get Corporation and then only in my biggest cities.

Here's where everyone is in tech:


Chemistry and Astronomy are the big techs that I'm behind JR4 and wetbandit on. wetbandit also has Constitution, Democracy, and Economics, which I also have, but JR4 does not. The next big thing is going to be Factories, but I also probably should get Astro before then, just so I can build ships if necessary. I'll probably go Corporation -> Astro -> Chemistry -> Steam Power -> Assembly Line. After Chemistry I'll build some Frigates and just keep my coast protected.

SD needs to catch up and get Rifling at the very least. Infantry aren't as big a leap forward in power (from Rifles) as Knights to Cavalry, but against Muskets and Knights, Infantry will be deadly. SD needs Cavs and Rifles soon.

DZ and Cornflakes are mostly out of the running, and quite far behind. They're only alive thanks to the balance between the four of us at the top. Especially with those Defensive Pacts. I do think the next one to fall will be DZ, and wetbandit will be the one to start it. If he does, I'll probably join in. I would prefer to take apart wetbandit with help from everyone else, but that needs JR4 and he refused to join the earlier dogpile hen wetbandit was in a much worse position, so I don't expect him to do it now.

[Mr. Cairo]

I'm optimistic, and this is why:

My teching rate is getting really good. I'm almost back to my GA peak, and it should only go up from here and I finish some more infrastructure.


My goal now is to survive, get too far ahead in tech to be killed, and win Culture. To that end I need to focus on defense. I'm going to build Frigates on each of my coasts (the lake with SD is going to be tricky, my cities there don't have a lot of hammers. But I'm not that concerned there. He still doesn't have Rifling (although I have to assume he's going for it, and if I feel threatened there I can always rush-buy them).
My more immediate concern is JR4 hitting either my cap or my other main culture city on that coast. So I need Frigates, and possibly more Rifles in both those cities. I might also go for Railroads to get Machineguns for defense. I'm hoping though that the network of Defensive Pacts prevents war for as long as possible. I signed one with SD a few turns ago after wetbandit signed one with Donovan Zoi. Obviously they wont do anything about a determined and fore-planned attack, but they do a lot to keep opportunistic strikes down.

I do need to keep and eye on JR4 and his Galleons, so the Frigates are important. On that coast with JR4 I want quite a lot. But maybe I'll build a smaller number of Frigates and use Caravels to spot for possible attacks? Although so far at least, JR4 is keeping his fleet closer to wetbandit and in plain sight of one of my spotters. Once those ships move I'll be worried.

Tech path atm is Chemistry -> Steam Power -> Assembly Line. Going Steel -> Railroads after Steam Power gets me Cannons and Machineguns, but that's a lot more beakers, Infantry are alright on the defense, and Factories are so very good.

I'm catching up on the others as well. JR4 has Chemistry and Steam ahead of me, and I have Democracy and Corporation up on him. Wetbandit is further ahead, with Chemistry, Liberalism, and Steam Power, while I'm only ahead on Corporation (and Divine Right, but that doesn't count).

Short term plans are to switch back focus to more military stuff to keep safe, while slowly advancing the culture agenda with religion spreads and occasional temple/monastery builds. I have 4 religions in my empire so with enough temples getting built that's 4 Cathedrals in each culture city. I definitely want to keep on teching to get to Assembly Line and Factories/Infantry, and I need to keep an eye out to make sure I don't lose any of my vital cultural cities.

I might also save cash for a few turns, it'll let me keep teching steadily for a while, and give me a reserve of cash to rush-buy things if needed. Maybe I can save cash and rush-buy Observatories in my main science cities to make up for the lost teching? I'll have to see just how many beakers they'd be worth, and how many I'd gain/lose rushing them with cash.

Overall, I'm feeling good. Which means, prior experience has tought me, that it's also time to ramp up the paranoia. The fact is, everyone else is out to get me. I just need to make sure that by the time they really realise it, it'll be too late.

[Mr. Cairo]

It is so annoying when every other player in the game is putting their EP into you... After I get Assembly Line (4 turns away) I'm going to have a turn of 100% espionage.

[Mr. Cairo]

New Update. Both SD and Cornflakes posted so I'm not going to go over what I've seen over in that area, suffice to say, they're not at war, but Cornflakes sure is inviting one. Which would be good for me, since it would remove SD's defensive pact with wetbandit, and give JR4 a target to attack.

At home I just finished Assembly Line, and I've started factories in almost all of my cities, and thanks to ORG, they're getting built quickly:


The one exception is Athens, a new city I founded in some dead space by DZ:


It's going to be pretty good, and I'll probably rush-buy the Forge to help it along (the Temple was built in order for my border city with JR4 to build a Hindu Cathedral, to try and fight back culturally up there).
I'll probably also rush-buy the Factories in some cities, like this one:


With the Forge, Factory, and Coal Plant, this otherwise useless filler city can actually be productive, and can build a Bank and University in reasonable time.

I also got a Great Scientist this turn, which I'll probably use to make an Academy in the cap, which would be worth almost 100 beakers/turn while teching.

My economy is my greatest strength right now:

I'm still #1 @ 100% even while wetbandit is in a GA, and my gold/turn at 0% science is really good at around 1300.
All told it's let me keep my power up, even while teching, which JR4 at least, can't appear to do:

They also haven't built any Infantry yet, while I was able to get 2 by pre-building Rifles in a couple cities.
I also spent the last few turns upgrading Knights to Cavs at a steady(ish) rate, to keep my power climbing:


I only have 6 Knights left, 2 of which are GG Medics. I plan to continue the upgrades over the next few turns, including upgrading some Rifles to Infantry. My Frigate fleet is surely the largest at this point, but I really need it to keep control of the seas and protect my coast.

I also decided not to follow through with my earlier plan to run 100% espionage for a turn to deal with everyone spending their EP on me. Instead I've turned all my Statue of Liberty specialists into Spies (where possible), which should help me get back graphs on SD, and tech visibility on JR4 (and DZ for that matter).

My tech plan is Steel next. I had planned on SciMeth and then Communism, but there's no way I can get Kremlin before wetbandit, he's had Communist for a while and is in a GA. Also, I'd lose all my bonuses from the Monasteries. But that being said, I do want the Physics Great Scientist, and Airships will be useful for keeping an eye on my enemies.

So I've not yet decided if after Steel I bite the bullet and get SM, or delay it further to get Railroad. Machine Guns will make my cities invulnerable to sudden attack, at least until Tanks arrive.

[Mr. Cairo]

Built 4 Factories and my MFG goes to #1 . Those cities will have their Coal Plants done in 2 turns, and I've got 4 more Factories that'll finish at eot.



JR4 and wetbandit signed a defensive pact. JR4 didn't end ours, so I'm not sure what's going on. In any case I offered a defensive pact to DZ, and one to Superdeath, with an additional 25 gold/turn. If he counters with anything less than 50 gold/turn I'll take it.

Now, a question on defensive pacts for the lurkers:
If a player with multiple defensive pacts declares war, do their pacts end before the target's defensive pacts trigger. For example, if I have a DP with DZ, and wetbandit attacks him, do wetbandits other defensive pacts end before I'm forced to declare war on wetbandit due to mine with DZ. I'm assuming that as soon as one declares war all their DPs are cancelled, but I'd like some confirmation.