[Spoilers] Commodore as Darius of the HRE

[Gaspar]

This is absolutely, totally, the one million dollar question. One would think that Egypt would be the target, and maybe I'm not being trusted and so this is all part of a disinformation campaign. I smell a rat here. I really, truly, do. There is something odd going on, be it a successful bluff by GES, MNG somehow angering RL7, or, most worrisome, a dastardly conspiracy by the old-hands teams. I ain't jumping nowhere until this thing makes more sense somehow.

+5 points for use of the word dastardly.

[Commodore]

+5 points for use of the word dastardly.

Why thank you, sir. Forgiven me for the paranoia-baiting yet?

In the news, turn four of the first Golden Age of Hyboria was played, full of many interesting and fun events. An Academy was built, more chops went into various building projects, and workers worked.



I'll miss you when you go, Mr. Top GNP. Why can't we be friends forever? (Please also note, soldier count is still #2, but holy crap that's a high spike over there in Mali.



The good news is, I should be first to Printing Press. Ceil, feel like opening the save and delving into the new information bonanza? Its good to know where the opponents are, I feel less behind than I could be. Feud (1t), Guilds (1t), Gunpowder (2t) are next up for my own path, and then it's HBR for knights if the MNG hit is carried out or Education towards rifles if not.



So, what takes up most of my turn-time this GA? Why, moving my meager worker force into maximally-efficient paths of course! Here's my empire, explained in three areas.

In the hub I've mostly finished hooking up what I need. The deer have just come online, alleviating the unhealthiness that Nemedia and Aquilonia currently feel. The only other two objectives are finishing the long-awaited canal fort in the snow, and the worker that just chopped moving westward. I just realized with Guilds about to drop I have an excellent alternative to the annoying snow mining, a workshop on those plains works every bit as well.



More fun is the western core area. Zingara is growing at an insane rate despite working the mine. This turn it grew to size 4, just as my two workers there to its north finished the sugar plantation...which, as it's a 4-food tile, means I'll be growing next turn too. There are two more workers to Zingara's east, having just come up from Sistine-chopping duty near Aquilonia. As they didn't have anywhere else they could reach this turn each chopped as he sat on the forest, leaving 1-turn more on the woods.

Next turn, all four will head to 1N of Zingara to make a 1-turn farm, which will ensure another quick growth. Then it's three to the jungle, one to chop those offending woods eastward. (the overflow pop starts getting tossed into the sea for decent 2/0/3 tiles). It's then another 1-turn farm that coincidentally also irrigates the corn. By this point, my surplus is nuts and I need to start Zingara's insane growth. A windmill next, then it's time to cottage the floodplain for the new city and improve around Nemedia a little more. Make the most out of those little workers!



Even more fun is out east. The three cities focused on in this shot are growing at much more sane rates, although Koth is tempered only because after the Cat it'll be pumping more workers/a settler or two, plus it's always trading its sheep with the capital. Currently, there is one worker just west of Koth and two north, where they just finished a cottage after the scientists got fired. Koth grows in one turn, Zamora in four, and Khoraja in three (although it has the desert mine to use after growth).

Koth's newest citizen will get a 1t plains cottage. Then all three go to chop 3E, which chops out a Rathaus in Khoraja. The next turn two workers head up to 1S of Zamora to start a 2t farm, which naturally finishes just 1 turn after Zamora's next growth (also, irrigating the wheat). This is fine because Ophir will have just enough food to allow it to donate a river village for a turn without retarding growth. The other worker farms in place for 2t by his lonesome to be joined with one of the northern workers to speed up the farm one more turn. This kind of rotating thing will continue to give each city a new improved tile every time it grows/donates to a neighbor.



Maybe it's boring to you, but this kind of thing is why I love the game.

[Ceiliazul]

Horay for alphabet, I'll do some analysis on Saturday...

Yes the GA has been nice, but what you need is some good wars involving GES and RL7.

[Ceiliazul]

The overall picture is of RL7 ahead in production techs, but GES ahead in research techs. MNG and Yuri are hurting badly. Disregarding the free tech by GES, you would be the leader here.




MNG: -3300 beakers approx
Commodore: The Standard! (0 beakers)
RL7 here?
Yuri here?
GES: +950 beakers approx

MNG has: Feudalism
MNG lacks: Archery, Meditation, Alpha, Aesth, Lit, Music, Engineer, Paper, PP

GES has: Theology, Philosophy, Education, Liberalism, Nationalism
GES lacks: Archery, Alpha, Aesth, Lit, Music, Construction, Machinery, Engineering, Printing Press

Your citizens are relatively few but they're sharp cookies! If you were an American immigrant pool, you'd be Asian Americans. :-p

-ceil

[Commodore]

The overall picture is of RL7 ahead in production techs, but GES ahead in research techs. MNG and Yuri are hurting badly. Disregarding the free tech by GES, you would be the leader here.

MNG: -3300 beakers approx
Commodore: The Standard! (0 beakers)
RL7 here?
Yuri here?
GES: +950 beakers approx

MNG has: Feudalism
MNG lacks: Archery, Meditation, Alpha, Aesth, Lit, Music, Engineer, Paper, PP

GES has: Theology, Philosophy, Education, Liberalism, Nationalism
GES lacks: Archery, Alpha, Aesth, Lit, Music, Construction, Machinery, Engineering, Printing Press

Your citizens are relatively few but they're sharp cookies! If you were an American immigrant pool, you'd be Asian Americans. :-p

-ceil

Hah! Nice work, thanks for the analysis. It's a pity RL7 is fully committed to a MNG attack, I mean yes, he's only got lots of maces to counter knights on one side and LKs/Crossbows with cats on the other, so we should crush him, but GES is benefiting hugely from running a farmer's gambit without even having a source of collateral damage. Even muskets aren't enough if you don't have either stack-busters or knight-level horse units. We need to force him to stop that.

I'll drop RL7 a line to see what kind of NAP they have in place with GES. We don't need to war on him yet if they want time to use MNG's core, just as long as he's forced to build defensive units and tech, it would be fine. RL7 is set to go grens so forcing him to go rifles wouldn't be the end of the world.

Heh. We're Asian Americans. That's cool. You might be underselling how big the population disparity is though...maybe we're Ashkenazi?

[Ceiliazul]

MNG: -3300 beakers approx
Commodore: The Standard! (0 beakers)
RL7 here?
Yuri here?
GES: +950 beakers approx
-ceil

Obviousy, I typoed there. Should be GES > Commodore > RL7 > Yuri > MNG.

C'mon, you're not outumbered quite that badly... just keep working the vertical growth. I'm not convinced that any war is in your interests,especially with RL7 insulated completely from sea attack. If RL7 pulls you into a war and then doesn't send enough army, it'll be you that gets the French retaliation, not Seven.

[Commodore]

Obviousy, I typoed there. Should be GES > Commodore > RL7 > Yuri > MNG.

C'mon, you're not outumbered quite that badly... just keep working the vertical growth. I'm not convinced that any war is in your interests,especially with RL7 insulated completely from sea attack. If RL7 pulls you into a war and then doesn't send enough army, it'll be you that gets the French retaliation, not Seven.

I'd actually think Yuri and RL7 are about even for tech potential. Once Yuri gets the MoM-boosted Taj golden age, he can go on a Janissary spree. Fortunately, relations there are quite jovial.

I actually agree about the danger if MNG survives a war and goes looking for trouble. Fortunately, RL7 has been hitting me up constantly on chat with reminders to not tip my hand, so as not to spoil the surprise...and if indeed they blitz, then it'll be obvious...Orleans falls this turn, Paris next turn. Did you notice my war chariot was headed back up through MNG's land?



I have been specifically requested to not declare until I see them attack...which means, I have been specifically requested not to join in the war until I can see how it is going.

[Commodore]

Also been playing turns, of course. Golden Age turns have carried me to a decidedly better position, advancing me in eras as a good GA should.



Printing Press is a ridiculously good tech for me with all the mature villages and towns on my core riverland. I'm pulling in a ton of beakers, here's the final GA demos:



What's that? Crop Yield and Manufacturing at nearly-average levels? Bully. I'm now trying to pull up my most marginal cities into their final-level populations. Poor Ophir is a low cap, but I'll be using Aquilonia's wheat to help me until I get there. Once one of those plains and both remaining grasslands are farmed, the final size will be 13.



3E, 2N will have a filler city settled for clams that can also use the unavailable plains hill mine. After that, it's nothing until biology.

Grow, grow, grow your civ...

[Commodore]

[Ceiliazul]

So "Zen Sleeping Moogle" means using the secret "minimize hammers" governor in all your cities? :neenernee

All I see is your population and food primed to give up the coveted turtle prize. Grow upwards! I see your Feudalism research, may I presume that guilds and HBR is next?

I'd like to throw out a suggestion: pit stop at drama, if only for the benefit of your GES border city. Egypt gained 2% culture in your first ring in 2 turns... since no one is going caste system any time soon, drama is the way to go.

...especially for someone with visions of a dark horse cultural win.

...especially for someone who built Sistine!