[SPOILERS] Four Score & Seven Dynasties Ago: Pindicator plays Lincoln of China

[pindicator]

How about a trade-mission to moogle

Considering this is always war, I may have to stick to trading arms with him

I've decided to bulb. I could try to spin my head around 3 times looking at the math, but I'm going to go with my gut that getting irrigation and Bureau faster is going to make this worth it. Also, there's a chance that my next great person will be a Merchant as well. I'll know in 4 turns. If that happens we will skip the Engineering plan entirely and instead tech Alphabet -> Code of Laws and then bulb Civil Service. The second GM will be settled in the capital. Why the capital? Better hammers to take advantage of building the gold multiplier buildings. And the food will indirectly benefit from Bureaucracy.

This is another one of those situations I'd love to see lurker input on. But I get that it could be spoilerish, so I'll again request you put it in the lurker thread. If you need any additional information request it (and if you think that requesting one piece the info is spoilerish then request it and 10 other things at the same time )

[Rowain]

I'm guessing you'll pop a GM (shortly if that wasn't you that popped one this last turn)

[treskies]

I've been just been getting up to speed on PB7, and this is definitely a super informative/entertaining thread, as others have said. Well done.

I guess you might be done founding cities, but in case you need more mario enemies (perhaps some renaming of captured cities will be in order?), here are some of my favorites.

Boo
Swooper
Chargin' Chuck
Pokey
Lakitu
Dry Bones
Rip Van Fish

[pindicator]

Thanks for the city names, treskie. By no means am I done expanding! I just have to expand through people now instead of peacefully, but there are still a few peaceful filler spots.

Double turned Moogle this morning and grabbed two of his workers. I was goin to double turn his main stack but he moved that into the city and his workers away from the iron. Maybe he doesn't have IW yet? Maybe he thought he could sneak them around another direction? Either way, sentry chariot spotted them and my chariot in Angry Sun was able to double turn them. Since they were in range of his large garrison at Proxy Pylon I just deleted them and the chariot.

[pindicator]

Turn 129 was last night and I got my great scientist!
We'll get alphabet in 2- just shy of getting it this turn. So we should have Alphabet on t131 and Construction on t135 or 136. Then Engineering and we'll start Notre Dame.

Civil Service around t141

I need to give a real update but I'm heading out for the weekend. I can try to give one later.

[pindicator]

I need some more settlers... But right now if i take off wealth builds i'm running breakeven at 40% so i think it's a good idea to get a couple more production fill cities that can focus on Wealth Builds in the short term or units if it comes time to make a push.

I like going after moogle when i get CS. Maces, CKNs, cats, and pikes should do nicely. 3-move on roads to help with reinforcing.

Thinking about pushing north to claim the pig/banana spot because it has ivory in 3rd ring but it will probably be better to settle the marble/clam and the filler spot east of spiny next. After CS we'll decide between Fishing & Lit. Need to get those National wonders up, including Moai down in Cheep-Cheep. HBR can't be ignored either.

[pindicator]

Turn 131

Alphabet is in. We're adding a few more Wealth Builds and will have Construction in 3 turns. This is ... wow, it's a bit faster than I anticipated. But we've been laying cottages in Bullet Bill and those are starting to help out finances some more. Just need to find another city where it makes sense to plant cottages now

So yes, construction in 3 turns. My population is 73, so a great scientist bulb will give me 1500 + 73 x 3 = 1719 beakers. Engineering costs 1725 so it is very likely the scientist will pop the whole thing in one go. So we are looking at Construction and Engineering on t134. Code of Laws on t138. Civil Service on t139.

Then we go after Moogle with maces, CKNs and cats.

Alphabet came in this turn. Moogle has Construction and Horseback Riding, so i need to watch out for Horse Archers. Will need some pikes in my stack as well.

Ideally we can have a stack whipped together by t150 and ready to go after Moogle. Engineering will let me double move Proxy Pylon and take that city down.

[pindicator]

Turn 132

Been too long since I gave you guys a real update.



My core and the great people just waiting to bulb techs for me. See last turn's post for how I think that will pan out. By the way, I look forward to shocking Moogle a bit by grabbing 3 key military techs in the next 7-8 turns Of course, he could grab Feudalism and make things tougher on me.

The workers are mostly roading right now. The big worker push will be for my next two cities. I thought about trying to push north of Bullet Bill and grab the pig/banana location but it feels too hard to defend. I'd have to dedicate more military to that instead of attacking SleepingMoogle. I'd rather attack Moogle. But the two cities I want to build are going to need lots of work with moving around irrigation, and some current cities are also going to need that kind of help. Anticipating that we're building roads everywhere, especially on hills, to help with workers moving around later on.

What my cities are building:



Notice that the Wealth builds account for a far smaller proportion of my total MFG as they did before. Actually, these new cities are going to largely be Wealth Build cities -- at first to sustain themselves and then later on to hopefully free up more developed cities for producing troops and infrastructure. I just noticed Cheep Cheep is building nothing. I think that's this turn only; last turn I whipped a Monument there. Why a monument? So the borders will be expanded by the time i get fishing and I can whip a work boat then. For now it will build Wealth.

Now, since I have Alphabet I can also see everybody's technology. (See my tongue-in-cheek comment in the diplo thread I have no grand plan there, just some friendly banter.) And what I see is this:



I'm not as far behind as I feared I would be. In fact, once you break it down, things look a bit like this:



In order of total beakers, the list would be:

Team FFH - 7959
sunrise - 7339
pindicator - 6683
SleepingMoogle - 5148
Team Rome - 5081
Lewwyn - 5028
yuris125 - 4081
slowcheetah - 3580

Surprises are Rome and slowcheetah. Rome must have some awful land to be FIN/ORG and be so underwhelming. Slowcheetah is Wang Kon and I know he has a wonderful stretch of land from pictures Lewwyn posted earlier. He must not have expanded far enough, or maybe he's getting some military pressure. Either way, I'd like to get through Moogle and on into those greener pastures.

I'm going to be over 11000 total beakers by turn 140, so it will definitely be the time to push against Moogle.

Demos

[pindicator]

Note to self: do not tech Fishing before bulbing Civil Service.

Reason being that Sailing comes before Civil Service on the GM bulb chart. I was hoping to sneak in fishing while going for Code of Laws and start making work boats in Cheep Cheep and my soon-to-be-settled clam/marble city north of the capital. But alas

[pindicator]

Turn 133

The big turn is next! We finish Construction at end of this turn and next turn we will bulb Engineering with the Scientist. I grew 1 population to 74 this turn, and next turn I will grow another to 75. The scientist will then bulb 1500 + (3 * 75), or 1725 beakers into Engineering. How much does Engineering cost? Why, 1725 of course. Obviously this bulb was meant to be.

I got a good chuckle from reading yuris' comment in the diplo thread. Not because he's a long ways away from pikemen, but because I'm about to get them next turn and he doesn't realize how timely what he said was.

My forge finished in Hammer Bros, so my top 3 hammer cities all have forges and a few of my smaller ones will whip them in soon. Then it's nothing but units until we attack Moogle. Actually, with how much production I plan to be throwing around, I may be able to attack before t150. We are going to have to see where things are once Civil Service comes in.

Here's the scene of future war:



I'm trying to figure out the best way to go about this. With a stack of 2-movers it would be easy: stage everything 1E of Bob-Omb and have 3 workers ready to road the desert north of the pig. Move the stack over the iron to the tile south of Proxy on turn one and take the city on turn 2. Or even with a stack of guerilla CKNs & LBs - move to the desert tile 2SW of Proxy on turn 1 and attack on turn 2.

But I won't have enough units to pull that off; i'll have a slow moving stack of mace/pike/CKN/cat. Actually, I may build trebs instead of cats to take down city defense faster. Never thought I'd build trebs in a MP game. But they may work here: for the cost of 1.6 catapults (80h vs 50h) they have double the bombard rate and HAs do not flanking damage to them. (At least, so says civfanatics - please correct me if I'm wrong here. Or don't say anything and I'll get paranoid and go into worldbuilder to test.) Plus, with a large amount of CKNs, moogle can't move his stack out of the city and hope for a better outcome. We will probably bring 2 or 3 - enough to take down the cultural defenses in 1 turn.

One option is to move 3 workers onto the tile 2SW of Proxy and stage my army on the sign that says "stage". But I'd have to defend a stack like that and I'd clue Moogle in to what I was planning. The workers would have to move to the desert the turn before I do my double move. So I would be giving Moogle 2 turns notice I was attacking Proxy.

I think better is to just move in without workers. Stage the army 1S of the sign and use the double move to bring everything to the gates of Proxy. Moogle has 1 turn, maybe 2 to react. And then I smash the city. I'd like to have a stack of 20 for this. 10 CKNs, 2 or 3 trebs, 3 - 4 pikes/spears, and 3 - 4 maces. Right now i have 6 CKNs. and a spear or 2.


Let's finish the turn by showing off a neat trick you can do with Build Wealth. Take a look at Piranha Plant:



Have I chopped 4 forests in on 1 turn? Not a chance. Ever since it's market finished I've had Piranha Plant on Build Wealth and left a single worker behind to individually chop the forests around it. I am not using them to build a forge - that is just to show off how many hammers I've built up with this. Instead, as soon as I get Literature all those hammers will go into National Epic. If I chop one more forest then I will have enough to 1-turn that building. I'm actually pretty close right now. 119 x 2 = 236 and the building costs 250. But as long as I am set on Build Wealth then those hammers will just wait around for the next unit or building to go into, like the roll-over was trapped in time.

Can't wait for next turn.