RBP7 [SPOILERS] - The Chronicles of Nyania

[Lord Parkin]

Hmm, an alternative option to going Writing -> Mathematics after Pottery would be heading to Monarchy. This might actually be better for us in the long run, especially with our large and growing military. We could do it via the quickest path (Meditation -> Priesthood -> Monarchy), or detour to try to grab Judaism on the way... though it's probably too late for that at this point.

[nabaxo]

It would be nice with a religion. Doubt we'll get it though.

And I think that writing -> maths is a better deal for us. Libraries for science and better chops will help us catch up.

[Lord Parkin]

Yeah, I doubt we'd get the religion too. Would be nice, but probably unrealistic.

Hereditary Rule is pretty good for the economy/MFG too. I guess we could always go Writing for Libraries and then head for Hereditary Rule. Although, there's no point in getting Libraries until we can actually build them. Will probably need to focus our spare hammers on military for at least the next 10-15 turns to reinforce our holdings.

Wondering if we should slot in Archery at some point... it'd delay all subsequent techs, so probably not worth it if we think we can get by with an offensive defense for now.

[Lord Parkin]

Another minor point is that if we research to Priesthood first (prerequisite to Monarchy), we'll get a small bonus on researching Writing. Not huge, but potentially worth considering.

Settler finished in the capital. He'll reach the spot for the new city next turn. In the meantime, we switched to Slavery.



Still haven't decided whether to go for a Worker or Chariot next in the capital. Probably a Worker though.

A Lighthouse might actually be a decent idea after the Work Boat in I'm on a Boat! We're Organized so it's half price, and that city only has the one food resource so +1 food will make quite a difference (2 -> 3 excess food per turn). Thoughts?

As for the new cities, we'll stick with Steles first in Aybabtu and Trololopolis. Could still go with either a Worker or Warrior in Pwnage, though I think a Worker makes the most sense. Still deciding what to go for after the Stele in Aybabtu while we kill time before getting access to metal... Worker, Warrior or Barracks I guess.

[nabaxo]

Nothing to add really. A worker is good for now and you make the call on what to tech at the moment. Soon we might have copper hooked up. I hope. Maybe we can start building axes too?

Can we send something to scout out what's going on in TTs last city?

[Lord Parkin]

Nothing to add really. A worker is good for now and you make the call on what to tech at the moment. Soon we might have copper hooked up. I hope. Maybe we can start building axes too?

Well, we have a few turns to wait and analyse ASM's forces before making a decision. He definitely has Horse within his reach (not hooked up yet)... can't see any Copper but he could have it in some fogged tiles. Spearmen will obviously be better against Horse units, and Axemen against metal units.

Can we send something to scout out what's going on in TTs last city?

Yep, will do so... was just waiting on some other units to heal so we can send more than one. Though just sending out a Scout might be an idea.

Not sure what to make of the following exchange in the public diplo thread:

Good luck getting through my 3 Spearmen in my final city...

Why aren't you deleting your workers yet? Are they my present?

They aren't workers, they are spearmen...................

I wonder how serious each of these posts are. We know from the power graph that TT can't have 3 Spearmen, but he could have 1-2. Hmm, guess we'll see soon enough.

[Lord Parkin]

Everything's in position for Trololopolis to be founded next turn.



Lewwyn got the Oracle this turn. Apparently the bounter hunter thing may have been a ruse after all. Ah well, hopefully he won't just be left alone to continue building wonders. And at least he's not Industrious, so there's a fair price involved if he continues along that path.

Speaking of that, actually - with TT pretty much out of the picture, we'll soon be the only Industrious nation left in this game. (There were just two of us to start with, and he was the other one.) Interesting... although it won't do us any good at all in the near future, as right now every hammer is still critical and we can't afford to invest in long-term items like wonders. Down the track though, once we've got a solid empire with decent defense, being the only Industrious nation in the game may well come in very handy.

And talking about traits reminds me... we're Organized, so there's an added incentive to get to Code of Laws fairly quickly. Especially considering our sprawling empire. Plus if we get there early enough, there's the bonus of a religion too, which would be nice. Something to think about anyway.

[Lord Parkin]

Okay, I've simmed out the situation a few times, and thought a few things out a lot more in-depth. Here are a few changes I'm proposing.

* Capital switches to build/whip/chop/spam out more Chariots to tide us over until our borders expand to hook up metal. It's CRITICAL that Aybabtu and the metal remain ours, so doing everything we can to keep it assuming a worst case scenario (ASM attacks us rather than TT) is very important. We have (barely) enough Workers to tide us over in the meantime anyway.

* Pwnage switches to a Stele. Assuming a worst case scenario, we need units as fast as possible. If we build a Worker there, come 10 turns and we're not going to have any pop to whip for potential emergency Axes/Spears. So growing is actually the best thing we can do there right now. And a Stele also has the bonus of boosting defense shortly down the line (+20%), whereas a Warrior would be useless at this point in the game - especially as we'll have no gold to upgrade him. Although a Warrior just before T74, which would turn into a whippable Spear on T75, might be a good idea.

* Aybabtu builds a Barracks after the Stele. We can either complete this on T75 and get our first Axe/Spear on T76, or put hammers into a Warrior before the border expansion and whip a Spear on T75.

* Get the maximum leverage out of our traits and available resources. Perhaps surprisingly, I think this has to mean researching Polytheism next, and locking in Literature ASAP. Why, you ask? Because we're Industrious with Marble, and Aybabtu would be an awesome Heroic Epic city. Further, even working just the Copper + hill at size two - with no chops and no whips - Heroic Epic would be an 8 turn build there. That's crazy fast. If we can keep that city and lock that +100% unit building wonder in, it'll pretty much lock in our military security in the region.

* Potential tech path: Pottery (finish) -> Polytheism -> (Priesthood?) -> Writing -> Aesthetics -> Literature. Note that this has the added bonus that - if we're doing well in defending our territory - we can switch to one of a number of Marble wonders, including the Great Library. That's assuming we get the tech before anyone else, which might be dubious (someone has a GNP of 83 this turn!!)... but it's perhaps an outside possibility.

Thoughts?

[Lord Parkin]

Hmm, forgot one thing... we also need to slot in Masonry to be able to use the Marble. Ah well, it's fairly cheap. So the potential tech plan is:

Pottery -> Polytheism -> (Priesthood?) -> Writing -> Masonry -> Aesthetics -> Literature

Have to figure out exactly how many beakers we spend/save by researching Priesthood before Writing. From memory I think it's something like half the cost of Priesthood... so it still takes extra time, but saves beakers in the long run. Will check anyway.

[Lord Parkin]

I guess Twinkletoes deleted the Workers he and ASM were talking about, because I don't see any. At least, I hope he did... I'd be mighty annoyed if it turned out he'd gifted them to ASM. I don't think he would have though.

Remember he doesn't have AH or The Wheel, so any Workers he has/had wouldn't really have anything to do. Getting rid of them would probably be the sensible option at this point, to deny the conqueror additional spoils.



As to the city defences: there's a fortified Spear and Archer, along with a Warrior. To be honest, that's not worth us taking on immediately. It'd require unacceptably heavy losses for a city which really does us little good (maybe even just a razing). And don't forget we may have to be worrying about ASM before too long.

So regarding TT's final stand, I think we should wait it out for now. If ASM throws himself against that city to take it for himself, that's fine with me. If not, we can always make a serious attempt later on once we've got a few Axemen on hand. Although of course, if TT makes any further moves like moving units out of the city, we can always rush in to take it early.

Oh, and Lewwyn switched to Buddhism. That confirms it was definitely him that founded it, as we suspected. And he built both Stonehenge and the Oracle. Real warmonger that guy...