[SPOILERS] scooter's Industrial Revolution

[scooter]

I'm currently leaning slightly towards Fascism next FWIW. I really like the possibility of using the GG to unlock West Point way before anyone else.

Any chance we could see the inside of each city? I'm interested in how well the production plan is working in the less commonly mentioned cities.

Yeah, I'll try to do a full city dump soon. Any specific cities you'd like to know more about? Sullla has done an amazing job planning out worker turns to ensure we're completing improvements at just the right time, which has always been a bit of a weakness for me once I get past 4-5 cities.

[Dp101]

Any specific cities you'd like to know more about?

Telegraph, induction coil, and radio would all be nice, haven't seen too many pictures of them. Also interested in how fast the new cities develop under the glorious 5 year plan of godemperor Monty.

[shallow_thought]

I'm currently leaning slightly towards Fascism next FWIW. I really like the possibility of using the GG to unlock West Point way before anyone else.

First to AL (+ cheap factories!) => first to WP and Pentagon would be ... interesting.

Will you need to dip into Theocracy & Vassalage (or one of these plus a stable) to get enough starting XP to get to level 6 with a GG? Or has there been enough barb action to get a unit to 6XP already? Not a huge problem for you, but it's one more little cost compared to just plowing down the main line.

[scooter]

Will you need to dip into Theocracy & Vassalage (or one of these plus a stable) to get enough starting XP to get to level 6 with a GG? Or has there been enough barb action to get a unit to 6XP already? Not a huge problem for you, but it's one more little cost compared to just plowing down the main line.

We have a 5xp Gren, but that leaves us 1xp short. We may have to come up with 6xp on a new unit via one of the other methods since we're unlikely to see another barb city nearby.

[Sullla]

I also think we should pursue Fascism next. We need something to distinguish us from the other teams with more land/cities, and super promoted units with Aggressive+ Pentagon + West Point can hopefully help us punch above our weight in a fight. I also think it's just not that expensive of a tech at only 2000 beakers, and with Combustion tech fully 9000 beakers away, I'm not too worried about anyone getting there that much ahead of us. The only teams that have gone down that path so far are Donovan and pindicator; neither REM nor Dreylin have Steel tech yet. I think that gives us enough time to take a short detour.

We do indeed need a unit with 6 XP so that we can attach a Great General to it and reach 26 XP. That grants us the Level 6 unit we need to open up West Point. (The national wonder itself is quite cheap to build; once we hook up our offshore stone resource and build factory/power plant, I think we can finish it in 3 turns in Haber Process.) There's a couple different paths to get there. We could just build any unit in a city with a barracks + Vassalage + Theocracy, although we probably don't want to jump into those civics just yet. We could also use barracks + Pentagon + either one of the XP civics. In addition, drydocks produce 4 XP instead of the 3 XP of a barracks, so any naval unit + Pentagon or Vassalage or Theocracy would work. Finally, we could also build a stables and then build a cav unit + barracks + stables + any one of Pentagon/Vassalage/Theocracy. I think we'll be able to use one of those paths. First step: getting the Great General from being first to Fascism tech.

Quick notes from the current turn before playing:



Pindicator was the big mover this turn. He picked up a Great Engineer and has settled 3 cities in the last 3 turns. I think he's at 11 cities right now, not 100% certain about that. His Golden Age is being put to good use. He also picked up a new tech:



Steel tech for pindicator. Tech has been moving so slowly in this game that any new tech for any team is big news. Pindicator has picked up Steam Power and Steel as his only two techs this game; I'm not quite sure what his tech plan is supposed to be. No one else has discovered anything in some time; Dreylin still hasn't discovered anything beyond his initial Scientific Method/Communism combo. He's a long way from Assembly Line even if he would pick up Steam Power next turn. Everyone appears to be saving gold right now, ranging from REM (+200 gold/turn) to Dreylin (+100 gold/turn) to BGN (+40 gold/turn). Donovan has 1100 gold in the bank, and I wouldn't be surprised if he's intending to upgrade a bunch of catapults to cannons. Not much point to all that money in the bank otherwise.

I thought I screenshotted this but apparently not: scooter, we need to Build Culture in Induction Coil for at least this turn, and maybe a couple more afterwards. Pindicator is running a bunch of Artists via Caste System in his border city to our east, and he's going to gain control of the disputed tiles on our border if we don't get some culture to match. We should be able to hold our first ring tiles without any problem, since we'll pass 100 culture and then we'll be getting the first ring versus second ring bonus. We can also Build Culture to the tune of something like 25 culture/turn, with more incoming as the city grows, so I think we can match pindicator until his Golden Age runs out and he flips out of Caste System.

The worrying thing would be if he decides to generate and burn a Great Artist on our border city. I don't think there's a lot we can do to stop that, so let's hope that he isn't planning on making such a huge investment just to screw with a neighbor that's been peaceful up to this point. (I think we have a safe and reasonably fair border arrangement, but who really knows. Pindicator does some strange things to entertain himself when he starts to get bored with a game.)

At the very least, we can always build more infantry and hope to make ourselves an unattractive target. (Pindicator borders BGN - I would think that he would go for Boldly if he wants to pick a fight with anyone.)

[scooter]

Turn 303

Another turn, another new city. First though, I'll apologize for Spinning Jenny fatigue, but I need to mention this first.



Sullla - your spreadsheet was slightly off for Spinning Jenny - it seems to be 2F behind the game. With your plan we would have grown into unhappiness this turn. I decided to adjust by working an Engineer this turn over the coast. The end result is the food output is the same as what your plan expected, but the hammers are higher. Draft unhappiness will be gone after next turn, so holding off on the growth made sense to me.



I decided to go with the Dynamite suggestion. Everybody knows that if you aren't careful with dynamite, you will definitely dye.

I'm so sorry.

(Also shuffled the Gren into Haber and the Haber rifle into Dynamite.)



Here's the culture situation by pindicator. We're in no danger of losing first-ring or the sheep, but that coast tile up there would be nice to have. By building culture this turn, we pop borders end of turn. We can go back to the planned Rifle next turn.

The odds pindicator will use a great artist here is like 5%. That would be a terrible decision, and he's not an idiot. Far more likely he's using his golden age to generate a couple great people for a second golden age. Great artist bombs are basically useless in any context other than a hot war.



REM is spending EPs on us, denying our opportunity to get his graphs. I think he's built a couple jails. Building one in at least our capital would probably be a worthwhile decision at some point. Bigger fish to fry in the short-term though.



We'll add this city next turn, and we'll chop the two forests E and NE of the city immediately. I also moved the pictured Frigate straight north to show him to Dreylin. We've yet to see a Frigate of his in the area, so this'll hopefully help dissuade him from messing with us. We're also building a SotL in Haber.



All that stuff about our MFG growing is nice and all, but REM's is doing the same thing.



A few rifles queued up to upgrade to infantry. I did take screenshots of every city, and I'll dump those in-thread tomorrow.

[Sullla]

More great reporting as always. Two quick suggestions:

Here's the culture situation by pindicator. We're in no danger of losing first-ring or the sheep, but that coast tile up there would be nice to have.

We actually are in danger of losing first ring tiles if we don't pop the borders at Induction Coil again. Fortunately, one turn of Build Culture will put us over 100 total culture, and we should be safe after that. Let's hope that your impressions of pindicator and Great Artist bombs are correct.

REM is spending EPs on us, denying our opportunity to get his graphs. I think he's built a couple jails.

REM built five or six courthouses in his territory, and that's why he has more EP than any of the other teams. Keep in mind that he's Organized trait, and he spent a long time with huge maintenance costs before reaching State Property. Those were pretty smart builds for him. I haven't seen any jails in his territory. (I would like to get the jail + espionage bureau combo in all of our high production cities when we have a chance, but I agree we have more immediate concerns at present.)

I will make the minor adjustment to the sandbox for Spinning Jenny. Good call on the Great Engineer as opposed to growing into unhappiness.

[shallow_thought]

Is coal coming on line in the next couple of turns? I can't remember where your supply is, and couldn't see it in the screenshots.

[Zed-F]

Coal is near Telegraph.

[scooter]

Alright, let's do a dump of all our cities. Maybe I'll come back and spoiler this whole thing later, but I'll have some comments on a few cities.



Settler is headed for the silver "Photography" spot. You can see the coal NW-N of the city here. We haven't bothered hooking it up because it actually will cost us a hammer to do so (pre-Railroad). But we'll hook it up when we need it.



It's not as ridiculous as a couple other cities because mines are pretty inferior to workshops in this setup. This city will get a decent boost at Railroad, though.



This is our best beaker-producing city that isn't getting a free 50% commerce boost.





Haber and Radio are at the stage where they can start growing onto specialists with their extra food. Rep Scientists are so, so much better than coast when not trying to grow, so there's not a whole lot of need to work the coast.





This city will actually be pretty good. Also this city and most of the previous cities are still dealing with draft unhappiness that they're about to grow out of, so they're not nearly as close to the happy cap as they all look.



Induction is probably a military pump.



I believe the "1/3" sign is lying here, and it's actually 2/3. There's two workers on the dye, and next turn chop completes and plantation begins.



The city that makes me wish Moai was possible on Industrial starts. Honestly I think this city just fills out its land tiles and then works scientists.



Similiar story here I think. Not a lot of land tiles to work with.

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Any questions here? A lot of our core cities are getting pretty close to being out of land tiles, so most of our MFG growth will come from factories next. I do expect to see some tech rate improvement as several of our largest cities grow onto some scientists as they run out of land tiles.