[SPOILERS] Back to Basic - Mardoc plays Augustus of China

[HidingKneel]

How do the demos look after the revolt?

[Mardoc]

How do the demos look after the revolt?

Ridiculously awesome. That's probably mostly due to the Golden Age, though.



Roy's giving me fits. I want to grow it. I'm out of useful buildings here, though, at least until I finish Engineering and can build Notre Dame (and even there, it's arguable how useful it is except as denial). I'm also nearly out of food surplus. But I can 2-turn settlers! Maybe I should start stacking up Cho's, though, and/or Maces. But I can 2-turn settlers!

I think what makes most sense is to windmill most of Roy's hills, and put up cottages on the rest of its flatland. While I'm waiting on the workers to get that done, Roy's going to mass produce settlers, hopefully enough to claim the bulk of the rest of the continent. Along with a big cathedral to make sure that Sian doesn't get it.

Then, when it's got a food surplus again, Roy will focus on growth, which means mass producing military. I'll be able to use Cho Ko Nu's for a long long time, so I can overproduce them - and some other medieval units wouldn't go amiss either, to ensure I can keep the lands I stake claim to.

[Mardoc]

Ok, I guess it *is* possible to have too much civ in one weekend. Skipped reporting the last couple turns.

Had an annoying event this turn:


Fortunately the cottage was brand new and not quite needed yet, so I only lost the worker turns.

Back to Haley, I'm discovering that I really don't want to whip things during a Golden Age. They finish too quickly on their own! Plus the food -> Other exchange ratios are better. Sometime after the GA ends, we'll stick a worker or settler in Haley's queue and whip back off these mines, but for now I think I'd rather slowbuild things.

Haley, with its shrine to a well-spread religion, is definitely keeping me funded. Isn't worth a whole lot else, but that's enough. I'll be adding some windmills to various hills, but mostly it's going to stay around this size and just build things for the empire. Or stagnate on a couple Scientists. Haven't decided yet.

[Krill]

Nope, you don't want to whip things in a GA. In fact, GAs generally shouldn't be triggered until after you've just grown to the happy cap (and you're in the process of raising it). It's a rule of thumb that's often ignored though, and for perfectly good reason.

[Mardoc]

Heading toward Guilds. I want Grocers, and Knights/Longbows wouldn't go amiss either. Ruff has flashed both Pike and Crossbow at me recently, so HA and axes won't cut it much longer. Plus I really ought to garrison at least the ports near Sian.

Only one more turn of GA, I'm sure my pace slows a bunch once I wrap it up, but it should still be pretty good.

[Mardoc]

I've mixed feelings about the timing of that GA. On the one hand, it's true, on an absolute level, I didn't get nearly as much as I could have if I waited for my cities to grow. On the other hand, I did save a lot of turns - overdoubled my net GNP, spent Golden Age hammers on vital infrastructure like Granaries and Lighthouses and Courthouses, and of course got into Bureaucracy without losing a turn to revolt. I think it was worth it - but also the next one should wait a while, until at least the current cities and maybe the new ones scheduled are maxxed out.

Ruff is flashing all kinds of modern units at me lately. Not in numbers, yet, but enough to definitely prove I don't want a war. I think he's going to beat me to the jungle, though, I just didn't push hard enough early enough. He's got garrisons and a lot of workers in place, presumably the settlers are close behind. Well, I'll still aim to grab the southlands. And maybe if he takes too long to get his settlers out this way, we'll be able to take some jungle for ourselves anyway.



As expected, we're starting to pull ahead on EP - and that's with only 5/15 cities having finished their Courthouse, and no Spies being run yet. I'm thinking I ought to use an espionage econ - or at least an EP supplement. Need to find a chance to sneak Hinduism into a Ruffian and a Sianic city.


End of turn demos, post-GA, show that we're pretty much caught up to the rivals. A bit behind yet on GNP and MFG, but that food lead ought to translate to those demos sooner rather than later!

And yes, this probably does mean that I haven't pushed expansion hard enough. Well, now that the GA is over and the whip is back in play, we'll see about correcting that.

[Commodore]

Erm...so how are those GP counters looking?

[Mardoc]

Erm...so how are those GP counters looking?

I'll post a shot of the F1 screen next time the turn comes around...but let's just say that a near-term GA isn't exactly an option even if I wanted one

Nale's growing nicely, though. I'll probably be able to fill spec slots there as fast as I can get them opened.

[Mardoc]

Had another request from Sian waiting:



This time I said yes. Three reasons:
1) It might not do anything pre-Astronomy anyway, beside being a friendly gesture. End of turn suggests that's the case
2) It's slightly in his favor, but I would still benefit a lot, since Ruff couldn't fill me up.
3) Sian's not really ahead in GNP anyway, I think. Maybe leading, maybe just even with us, but it's not a clear case of boosting a runaway. Even if it works. Which it doesn't seem to.



In other news...GP counters are pathetic, as predicted. But it's not that far away from being able to start running specialists. When I do, I'll want them all over the place, thanks to Rep, so my pace ought to increase rather a bit.

[Mardoc]

Did actually have a turn this morning - apparently yesterday morning Sian was distracted by 54 and getting the tracker for that ready. Still no sign of Sianic trade, apparently that'll have to wait until Astronomy. Well...or maybe a scouted route to a city. Which would require Optics.

Ruff settled a city for the gems, guarded by a pike, crossbow, Samurai, and axe. Not cracking that anytime soon! I'm going to settle a city for the coastal rice next turn, and then race settlers into the open grassland to the east. Leaving the rice/dyes for Ruff, I think. Got three settlers in existance right now, and more queued. Finally have a nearly sufficient number of workers, 18 of them them now for just 15 cities. Which would still be a bit skimpy if those cities didn't include so many that are absolutely finished on improvements.

I've just been piling up gold, I'm not really sure which way I want to go for tech next. On the one hand, it'd be nice to get to naval parity. On the other, Knights are shiny and so are Grocers. On the third hand, Liberalism is out there, but Ruff's got two Great Scientists now and is up Paper on me, so he can certainly beat me there if he wants it. There's also the option of just pressing straight for Nationalism - although that would require leaving Bureaucracy.

Plus I could maybe research Alphabet to enable tech stealing and spies in general. Oh, speaking of which, something just occurred to me that I ought to do: build some missionaries, and roads, and look for an opportunity to get Hinduism into one of Ruff's new cities. Time it right and it might even look like a natural spread

Actually, hmm...Ruff's tech rate is better than mine, and he's ahead of me by several techs - and same with Sian - maybe I shouldn't bother to actually research anything here. Just steal my way back to parity. Which would suggest I want to research Alphabet and up to Optics, and then just spread Hindu and spies. And start working some Spy specs at home, and turn on the EP slider. The fun thing about that is that as I understand the math, once someone's well ahead of you in espionage, it's not worth the investment to catch up. And that would be a fun little minigame on top.

Commodore convinced me not to worry too much about getting Notre Dame, not when I can be stacking up failgold at a x3 rate. I'll build it in a couple places before finishing it, and if someone should happen to beat me there, I won't cry.