[SPOILER] The Steak, Beer, and Cigar Saloon

[Catwalk]

Took a sneak peak at the turn before leaving for class, pondered where I wanted to whip before switching into Bureaucracy and Caste System.

I'm sitting slightly bored in class and decided to calculate how much my impending GA is worth. Quick tallies:
Commerce bonus = 59 per turn = 708 commerce total
Hammer bonus = 44 per turn = 528 hammers total
GPP = 29 per turn (ignoring Moai) = 348 GPP
Anarchy = 2 turns saved = worth lots, but leaving it out in this analysis

Nice! Those values are calculated based on minimal growth, I mostly took the current status of cities. It's hardly surprising that it's good, but this analysis can help me figure out what to use future GPs for. Right now it's obvious that GA is a far better use of a GP than anything else, and I'm guessing it will be the case for the next GA as well. I've seen a 3:2 commerce comparison rate before, so I take my bonus to be worth 1060 commerce. GPP I'm less certain about. If I guestimate that 1 GPP = 1 gold then a specialist has a value of 6 gold. That sounds close enough to use for further analysis, provided that you're able to convert the GPP into a GP in a reasonable time frame of course.

Using those rates of comparison, my GA is worth 1408 gold + 2 saved anarchy turns. If not for the anarchy turns (which are great), that's really not all that impressive compared with trade misisons or scientist bulbing. It makes me think that stringing a second GA on to this one is not a great deal, compared with saving it for later and using GPs for other purposes. There won't be anymore anarchy turns saved, and there's also the very real cost of making future GAs more expensive. So in a situation where I can gain 1500 gold per great merchant or 3000 gold from a golden age, the great merchants are by far the better option because they don't increase my GA cost. I'm not sure how to quantify that, but I'm guestimating that the break-even point is somewhere around +25% output from a golden age compared to the best alternative.

My GA plan is to work 5 specialists in Always Wrong and 4 in Foot Rubs. I wish I had more high food cities, as I'd much prefer working specialists during a GA in multiple cities rather than just one or two. That way I'm able to utilize a much greater total food surplus for specialists, and I'll still get them in a reasonable time frame due to the GA. On that note, I'll have a hard time putting the National Epic in Always Wrong as I've pretty much eaten all available hammers there. All that's left is 3 base production and whipping potential. I'll be working all merchant specialists, as I deem trade missions to be worth more than scientist bulbs, both in terms of output and flexibility. slowcheetah's city of Delft still seems to be the closest island city available. I get an extra 200 gold for that, seems well worth the wait. Several size 11 capitals are also an option, but sending a GM there seems risky. Payout on specialists seems quite weak, I wonder what I was thinking earlier on. Even without MoM, going straight for GS bulbs and GM trade missions seems far stronger than a small bonus each turn. Even with Representation and Oxford in my capital, I only get 25 beakers per turn from a scientist. Contrast this with an easy 1500 gold from a merchant by that time (5c trade route required). I'd be spending the next 60 turns chasing a profit on the settled GS, and by that time the game will likely be over. Money now is supremely better than money over the next 60 turns.

My military plan is to build a handful of archers on my Nakor border and make sure to put them where he can see them. I'll also build a stable in Vacuuming and produce a single horse archer which I'll make sure to flash to Nakor, using both upgrades on it. If he sees that I have archers behind walls and suspects that I am producing an army of horse archers with two upgrades, that may well be enough to make him abandon imminent plans of a military invasion. I'm guessing that I did indeed misread his research points (I messed up on how much pop points accounted for, I think) and he researched a level 2 tech instead of a level 1 tech (unlikely he'd spend 5 turns on one) or a level 3 tech (could only be Machinery). So, I was too cautious here and gave away a little bit of cash for free. Even so, I think that was cheap for 10 turns of not having to worry much about military. Especially given the timing of my GA plans, of course.

[Catwalk]

Turn 118


Civil Service has been discovered, a Great Scientist has been born and a Golden Age has been triggered:

Demos at start of turn and end of turn. GNP is at zero research, I decided to get Horseback Riding in 1 turn at 70% research, GNP is around 360. Tech path will be Polytheism => Priesthood => Monotheism => Monarchy, each one taking 1 turn and revolting to Organized Religion and Hereditary Rule in 5 turns when anarchy cooldown wears off.

I'm not quite sure what I want to research afterwards. Long-term, I don't think I'd want to do any invasions prior to Rifles. Jowy is so far behind he might be easy to roll over before then, but a military buildup just seems so expensive compared to the stomping I'd be able to do with Rifles. I'm also not sure what to do about Nakor. He will fall behind in the long run, and he's falling fast unless he does something amazing with the power lead he has at the moment. Am I better off with him as a buffer between me and zanth, or do I want to take him out in order to get closer to zanth? I've recently started feeling a little more confident that I might be able to keep up with zanth long-term. Conquering Jowy might give me sufficient territory to win, I'm not sure if I'll need Nakor's lands as well. I might be able to take out Jowy first, then send a stronger army against Nakor's 4 border cities for quick gains. Until I get rifles I have several more cities to plant, a lot of pop to grow and a ton of buildings to put up. I'm still very low on infrastructure in my cities. I'm a firm believer in using war as a means to win when you run out of growth options that are both profitable and peaceful, and I just don't think I'll be exhausting those growth options for quite some time. I have nothing to gain by weakening Nakor and Jowy either, in 20 turns or so I don't think they'll be a threat to me for the rest of the game.

haphazard1 and Max, advice is still welcome

[Catwalk]

Turn 120


Nothing much going on, and I'll be switching to minimal reporting due to time pressure. I'm exploring zanth's coast, yuri's lands and 2metraninja's coast. I'm finally able to jump higher than zanth's GNP at full research, but he still has a significant lead on me in most categories outside of the Golden Age. I'm not sure how important Monarchy really is, as I'm swimming in happiness at this point. Dishes and Always Wrong will be able to grow a bit taller, but they're already on their way to completing markets for +3 happiness. I'm building several farms around my empire to try to take advantage, I have a lot of growth potential. Still pondering what to research after Monarchy.

If anyone has any screenshot requests, feel free to say so.

[Catwalk]

slowcheetah made some bizarre demands last time I logged in: I give him 100 gold, I give him stone for free, and I give him 50 gold. In 3 different proposals. I wonder if he's trying to tell me something, possibly to do with buying stone? Or maybe he will hit me with a big rock if I don't give in to his demands?

[Catwalk]

Turn 121

I decided to have fun with diplo, so I declared war on zanagai and sent 10 gold each to Nakor, BaII and slowcheetah. Maybe some of them will declare or at least close borders with him. zanagai also declared war on slowcheetah this turn, and my scouted reached their borders this turn. All I'm hoping for is making zanagai think they're not entirely safe and make them build a little more military. Probably won't work

In other news, I've falled into my standard mid-game micro amnesia. I seem to keep forgetting to supply new cities with workers and I always end up puzzled at what I'm going to do next with a worker or a city finishing something. Need to quit being lazy. Also, still don't really have a long-term plan. I'm still tentatively planning on building sand castles until I hit Rifling, then go stomping. Problem is, that's what zanagai are doing as well and they're doing it better.

[MaxPower]

I've been on vacations for the last couple of weeks nowhere close to an internet connection. I just caught up with the whole action today.
About the potential crossbow rush, can you tell if Nakor has iron? No iron, no crossbows. IW should be a cheap tech by now, so it might be worthwhile to research it just to be sure. Even if he charges with crossbows, a swordman behind 20% culture+walls+fortify bonus is stronger than an expensive crossbow and Nakor is still lacking construction. And get Construction yourself.
On Jowy's, I think you should wait until knights and crush him. I don't think he will be still alive by the time you get rifles/cavs. He already caused a lot of bad blood with his other neighbor(Yuris?), and he will be too weak in the near future. You could definitely use his lands and you can't afford to have them fall to someone else.
About great people, GM have a great pay off and should be prioritized during the GA. I think two of them in different cities should be doable.

[Catwalk]

Good point about Iron, but no Nakor isn't about to crossbow rush me. That was me doing awful C&D and getting a little too paranoid. I'm getting a handful of archers in border cities to diversify my defenses a little, and don't think I have that much to worry about.

I just logged in to finish my turn and saw slowcheetah switch back into Slavery. I was about to mock his terrible play with so many wasted turns of anarchy, then I noticed he's Spiritual. He was using Caste to fight a culture war with zanagai it seems, good news for me. slowcheetah is no slouch in this game, he has 14 cities and is keeping up decently in demos.

I'll be getting 1100 for a trade mission, btw. It's 500 + 2 * trade route value, and I won't be going above 3 commerce anytime soon. I also need a safe island city to land in, if a great merchant is sent by land I'm pretty much asking to be blackmailed. slowcheetah's island city of Delft works out decently.

[Catwalk]

I messed up a little with my prank war declaration, seeing as zanagai were in the middle of their turn when I declared. They asked when they should play, and I answered that I was fine with either first or second half of the turn.

[Catwalk]

Turn 122


Turns out zanagai used their Music GA to piss off slowcheetah:

Great news for me. Not only will slowcheetah be pissed off enough to mobilize against zanagai (slowcheetah has Construction, so there may be collateral bloodshed), they also spent a Great Artist that could have triggered a Golden Age for them instead.

slowcheetah made me a bizarre offer of 1 clam for 30 gold, and flugauto made me an almost as strange offer of 1 clam for nothing. Are we all speaking AI code here, with noone understanding each other? Clam... clam up? I pay slowcheetah 30 gold and he clams up on zanagai's leg? I'm almost tempted to give him that 30 gold just to see if there'll be more cool code messages. Not tempted enough, though.

[MaxPower]

I don't understand crap about this clam code but it is definitely good news about the culture bomb. Zanagai is probably attempting some kind of attack on Slowcheetah. Hopefully it will slow him down.