[SPOILERS] WillPlunder as Mehmed of Arabia: Noobs meet world

[WilliamLP]

I'm seriously bummed about getting that second Prophet, at 10% odds. The random roll changes our game fairly dramatically for the worse with no golden age for a while. I guess there's nothing better to do with him than save for a potential 3-man golden age someday.

The next GP was scheduled for 7 turns in the NE city, but it's polluted by madrasa priest points (at 29%), so I'm taking those out and so it's due in 8-10.

Retep declared on Boldly. I'm still sort of paranoid that we're going to see galleons full of rifles to the west, which I neither confirm nor deny is related to another game. If Retep is going for the land snake of iceball cities it eventually connects to us, but it was take 1-movers ages to get there unless he's going Sirian Doctrine. (Someone in another post said it was obligatory to mention that as soon as anyone researches astro.)

We need Nat and Rifles very badly at this point, in case someone like Bandit decides to go into full militarization mode.

[WilliamLP]

There's not much going on. 3 of us (including Bandit and Retep) are going to get Frigates at nearly the same time. But I think I need to ramp up the ground war engine. Molach is showing some signs he's thinking of a ground war, like roading border tiles (could be his workers have nothing to do). And he has a ton of catapults. And he's watching the rest of the world whip and draft into a frenzy. (He'd have to deal with castles and longbows and muskets with maces, but still, numbers can make that work).

I tried gifting him sugar. It would be great if it forces peace (like vs AI) or if it's interpreted that way.

[Qgqqqqq]

I think you know this, but to clarify, non-treaty deals between humans do not force peace.

[WilliamLP]

Chemistry and Astronomy are finished, and the most important thing that enables for a Pastafarian civ is Privateers. Seriously I'll probably build at least 1 or 2 for the sentry ability.

Retep is going on a sea rampage over Boldly:




I hadn't realized that he's England and has Redcoats! I probably scoffed at that unit before ("Bah, they're too late to matter, the game is probably decided by then.") But they are really scary here! What's the counter? They absolutely crush muskets of course. This assault is also getting really close to home and our underdefended east coast.

For tech, as usual I feel completely lost at this point in the game with no intuition for what's the strongest play. I've gone down the Chemistry line first (for navy) and that opens up both Steel (cannons) and Military Science (grens, Ship of the Line). And as always, Nat, and Military Tradition, and RP->Rifling are all the more normal first path (I think).

I'm thinking the absolute priority here is to control the coast. Caravel to Frigate is 110 gold and that's actually a pretty good deal so I think I'm going to upgrade all of them. For whatever reason, Galley to Galleon is 220, so it's probably better to build those, or just keep using galleys for transportation. And I'm a lot more interested in defense right now than troop transport for attack.

The efficiency of drafting rifles is well known. I can't compete with that on the ground right now but owning the seas would give some time to get up a force of cannon, for example.

To this end:




I realized we can actually build a canal out of Noodle Lake into the sea! I think just the one fort shown can do it. This enables 5 more cities which can produce navy. And produce navy they shall. The east-west passage to the north will also be enabled next turn when culture expands. It's such a shame we only just lost Circumnavigation in this game.

The next attempt at a Golden Age will be in 6 turns, with a 25% chance of a third Prophet which would make me cry. If that happens... I guess I think about burning anarchy to get into Caste / Pacifism anyway to accelerate the next one or something.

[NobleHelium]

Cost of an upgrade is 25g + 3g * hammer difference.

[WilliamLP]

Well the news is that the British are coming...




I've got enough muskets, longbows, camels, and other trash in Cannelloni that I don't think it's in any danger until my navy gets assembled.

I'm actually kind of proud of my completely accidental navy pump empire around Noodle Lake, in a similar way to how a brain has wrinkles to maximize surface area. And also with the canal from east to west, Retep might be surprised how functional our naval logistics are if we're in an extended sea conflict.




My navy so far, with more to come. My land forces are rather pathetic now.

Boldly has been looking for trades where they get cash, surely for upgrades.

I'd kind of like to help them out, so here's my attempt to offer 450 gold and make it clear it's a loan:






Wetbandit is showing Steel now. I have to be pretty careful not to over-commit to kindness, lol.

I'm thinking Steel should be our next tech too, as TMIT said in one of his videos: "with cannons, you can". I think they're the only thing in sight that can deal with Redcoats cost-effectively. Maybe grens, but even they are gunpowder units. Enabling the dry dock is another perk.

As usual I feel like I lack long term vision and am just playing reactionary. Wetbandit's Financial trait is showing as he may out-tech us (but only by a little). He also may be pulling ahead in all the other important metrics.

I feel like going back to our first golden age, a better and more experienced player could have been in a dominant position right now. At least I've learned quite a lot so far.

Other than the horrible war error with Kuro, and poor use of great people, one thing I should be doing better is the logistics of getting settlers and workers to the western islands. I have 4 settlers in transit, but I know with micro and planning I could have been much more effective at it. I could have used more galleys to get a full caravan going, actually. (To ferry units from our mainland all the way out to the west, in just 1 turn.)

[WilliamLP]

First, I'm reminding myself to not ever try to play and report two of these games at once! These games really consume a great deal of mental resources every day.

So the big surprise is Boldly gifted a Great Scientist! I'm assuming they're expecting cash back from it and aren't just really generous. I gave them 450 gold last turn (expecting it to be a loan), and 410 this turn (what was left after upgrading 1 more caravel). I'm not sure what's a fair price for it. The bulb tech is Scientific Method, which, though crucial eventually, is a long long way from there now. So it's worth much less than than 2100+ beakers it would bulb. But it's obviously more useful for the 12 turn golden age. Probably 1000 gold is pretty reasonable, or more than reasonable since they are the ones initiating the "deal".




I love the "land yacht" in the canal! It's a nice feature though, even without art assets. It's completely accidental but it's really nice that lake is there to make this work.




This is after all my boat moves. I could have sunk Retep's galleon there (there's a trireme under it) but I'm feeling like I'm not ready to initiate that until consolidating my navy a lot more, if ever.




So, with 2 cities taken last turn, Retep now basically owns that island chain. Boldly got a general, so it must be pretty exciting and tense over there. I think the only island city he has left is the appropriately named "I Burn".

The critical question is, do I want to intervene in this, or just play my game of Sea Fortress over here. I have no idea! Obviously at least 2 people would be thrilled if I went on a sea war, and 1 person would be not as thrilled.

If at war with Retep, one problem is that he has open borders with Kuro for access to our north over land. I'm hoping to get Steel soon enough to cash-upgrade some catapults to cannons, which are again the one thing I can get that can stop stacks of redcoats dead in their tracks.

I started the golden age! I also am going to use it to pump some great people this time. I revolted to Caste + Pacifism + Mercantilism. The calculations and variables are complicated and making my head hurt, a lot. And... unfortunately for Boldly, being in an economic golden age with no whips really seems to favour staying out of world affairs for now.

So the first question is how many Great People do I want? I can actually get one next turn, which is the 700 point one. There is a little less than a 20% chance of a crappy prophet. So maybe I could get 4 more for 5 over 12 turns? It's very doable. Since I have a saved prophet anyway, earmarking 2 out of 5 for a third golden age after this one seems obvious. And with Caste I can control the type.

Here are my techs:




I have everything to the left of this except Theology and Divine Right.

What are the relevant bulb orders?

Great Scientist: These go to Scientific Method right now, which obviously can't be cleared to something else. So despite their very high beaker yield (over 2100 now) they aren't that useful in the moment. I don't think I'm nearly ready to support a run for Biology or Communism, without military techs to keep up with the world.

Great Prophet: Theology, then Divine Right, then Liberalism. Clearing Theology and Divine Right for a partial Liberalism bulb seems crazy, but I guess if I had a zillion prophets I'd do it. It is a prereq for Communism. Also it could deny the Minaret from Retep's monk econ, but I need other techs way too badly for that.

Great Merchant: Probably best used for gold. The bulb would be Economics, but it wouldn't give as many beakers as the gold would be. I guess these are the default GP I want?

Great Artist: Theology, then Divine Right (ugh), then Nationalism. Again, the religious crap I don't need, and not that many beakers.

So I guess the plan is: see what spawns next turn (I hope not a prophet...). Then build one more GP, probably a scientist for a set of 3, and the rest are spammed merchants.

How much gold can I get for a merchant mission? Would I have any trouble finding a destination? Surely Boldly would let me but he may not have island cities... Bandit maybe? Would get get upset if I sent a couple to his islands on caravels?

Doing the basic math on it, Merchants will still be a good deal for a while. 1 pop yields 9 gpp. That's a pretty good return up to (or past) at least the 1100 point Merchant. Though, it might not actually be worth giving up grass cottages when the counter is that high, just on a back of the envelope estimate that a point of food is worth 2-3 commerce.

Another problem is that I'd want the city with more food to spare to build the later GP because it costs more, but working a constant number of specialists, those are the cities that will get it first. So some trick has to be managed with starvation and tile sharing or something. The whole thing makes my head hurt, a lot. (Sorry if this paragraph made no sense, because it's too much work right now to articulate it properly. )

[WilliamLP]

I haven't played any moves turn: I'm trying to reserve the option to play after retep.




We got an artist, which is a relief! There was an 18% chance of yet another duplicate prophet or so, which after the last 10% spawn would have really hurt.

Boldly gifted a galley. It's a pretty clear signal that he's out of the water game.

I decided to go for just 4 great people this golden age, the 700, 800, 900, and 1000 pointers. It will be this artist, a scientist (for extending the GA), and 2 merchants (for gold). The issue is I just don't have that many cities with a huge food surplus. Also, the cost over benefit for a merchant at 1100 gpp seems good but not a slam dunk the way it would be at half that many points. (Especially factoring in stopping city growth for lack of food or even starvation).

With this few GP, I'm questioning Mercantilism, though I'm stuck with it for 5 turns. It doesn't really shine without Rep, and trade routes are really nice with lots of juicy island routes to Wetbandit. I might want to veer to Economics after Steel to speed the following techs up, and cannons, frigates and camels can probably keep me alive. I should do the arithmetic on Economics vs Merc, but I really really don't want to.

The big question is still: if I just leave Retep alone does he just roll over this game? I'm kind of thinking not. Bandit has more land, and Boldly's island cities aren't actually worth that much. Can Boldly keep defending his mainland? I don't know.

Also sometime I really should work in a plan to finish off Kuro. Frigates for bombarding and camels (or Cuirs) for the invasion itself should be fairly easy if I'm not in an international naval war.

Conspiracy theory that is a PB13 spoiler:

I still wonder if Retep offered peace in that game so that I wouldn't wage war in this one, that he actually cares about.

[MindyMcCready]

Well you know what I think:

[TheHumanHydra]

Dang, I want to click that spoiler so bad ...