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

[Dhalphir]

Whats the plan for rifling?

[Molach]

I might be able to take some Oxy cities without loosing too many hammers (a secondary objective would be to get a 10 xp soldier to unlock the H Epic).

But unless wetbandit is aiming at space he'll come after me next, so I'll need my own rifles online before long anyway.

[Molach]

Here's my islanders.


Newest city, 'Fork', was apparently code name for the 'invasion' of Iceland by britan in 1940.

1 turn to PP, 2 turns on the Notre Dame...probably WillLP will steal from me as well.

[Molach]

It must be time for a post - Sisu(b) has been eliminated, yet still has a more recent thread update than me.
Suttree is still behind me, but I guess it is time.

What I've been doing:
Teching.
Building units.
Building buildings.

I fired off a golden age with 2 GPs. Used the +GPP to spawn a new GP, and will in a not-too distant future spawn 2 more, one of them from my capital. During golden age I teched to rifling, debated getting nationalism (but I couldn't do it before GA ran out). So I got philosophy and economics instead. Revolted into pacifism (!) and free market.

Pacifism obviously costs me a bit with unit costs, but low civic upkeep helps a bit with that. And it will let me generate 2 more GPs in about 20 turns, at which time I'll revolt into something better. I do not plan to stop building units, I've got plenty old stuff I can replace with rifles.

My neighbours are both bigger and better than me, and both are researching steel. wetbandit isn't too scary power-wise just yet, and I think WillLP is going after Boldly going nowhere very soon. (Retep is taking cities from Boldly, having access to rifles for a while now. Retep is to the east, WillLP will attack in the west any minute now)

Oxy is of course smaller, but still has higher power. I should perhaps go after him with rifles+cannon soon - but with his huge army it will be costly, and then wetbandit will steal a march on me. I guess I'm boldly going nowhere too.

Settled a new city on the border - flood plains for food, and nice hammers. Operation Archery was the code name for a series of raids by British and Norwegian commando units on the norwegian coast - among them the famous Måløy-Raid. This will perhaps be my last northern city this game....


Here's my tech tree - in full. Teching calendar to build a harbor and probably custom house in some of my hammer-heavy costal cities. Possibly 1-turn optics for +1 happy from whale. But after that?
I can go for chemistry/steel/steam power, to be able to defend from rifle/cannon attack effectively. I could go nationalism/constitution/democracy or corporation...or go for biology, something like chemistry/steel/scimet/biology.



Happy to have successfully avoided archery, think about what I save, not spending those 95 beakers. Also HRB, but I might have to enable cavalry. Would rock to skip on to gunships instead, ha.
I'm not very used to playing in the industrial age - I usually just click one more turn vs the AI, while I stomp them with units. Not used to thinking what is actually best.

[Dhalphir]

Did you end up getting Notre Dame?

[Molach]

Yes I got the Notre Dame, so good call starting that.
+2 happy everywhere will come in handy when whipping or drafting.

Went for Optics, next need to decide nationalism-constitution line or chemistry-(steel) biology.

[Dhalphir]

In WillLP's situation I would be thinking about attacking retep, not Boldly. The best time to strike his rival for the top spot is while said rival is busy annexing a weaker empire.

[Molach]

In WillLP's situation I would be thinking about attacking retep, not Boldly. The best time to strike his rival for the top spot is while said rival is busy annexing a weaker empire.

Indeed. But Retep is on the far side of Boldly, so might be hard.
Also Retep has rifles, WillLP does not. He does have cannon soon, and not far from rifling, but still.

[Dhalphir]

If I were you, I'd be waiting for one of the world powers to make their move, and seizing that as your opportunity. Whether that be willlp attacking boldly or retep, wetbandit attacking william, oxy attacking someone - just sit tight and defend with your relatively compact dense empire and use the defender's advantage to your benefit.

[Dhalphir]

So what's happening in this game lately Molach?