[Spoilers] GES, Roland & Friends (Mansa of Egypt)

[Gold Ergo Sum]

Unfortunately, DLs, I am moving right now. So I may not be able to really update for a week or so. I will do my best.

[Brian Shanahan]

Unfortunately, DLs, I am moving right now. So I may not be able to really update for a week or so. I will do my best.

Well if you need help with the save drop me a line (with instructions).

[Gold Ergo Sum]

Thanks. I should have internet in the next few hours.

[Gold Ergo Sum]

Turn 96:

I've moved into my new house now. It is an utter disaster right now, with boxes everywhere and contractors doing repairs all over. But I do have the interwebz.

Quick update:

Big decision to make on Taj if it is still available next turn. I started looking at yuris's land and realized they have a ton of forest left, are in Bureaucracy now, and have marble, OR, forge, and IND in the capital. That means each chop is worth 30 hammers times 200% bonus. So each chop I think is worth 90. I count 5 forests left. If he chops all five, that is 450 hammers into a 467 hammer wonder. So he can finish in one turn. Now, I doubt he has Nationalism already, but he founded Theology 10+ turns ago I think, and has been in Bureaucracy for 6-7 turns, but according to RL7, he doesn't have Paper yet. So what is he teching? Getting paranoid, I checked my old chat logs and found this:

GES: I just expect to start on Taj pretty soon
Ranamar: mmm, shouldn't be a problem, at least for us
GES: I'd be pretty surprised if someone could beat me there. We'll see. I am not sure anyone else has Paper or Philosophy yet. I should probably sandbag Liberalism, but I am not going to.
Ranamar: We told Yuris we didn't have any plans for it. I'm sure you working on it will be good for amusement on our part.
Anyway, I should go to sleep now. >.<

So that means yuris came inquiring about Taj to RL7. That would make sense, because they probably don't know RL7 sold me their GEngineer and are worried about a GEngineer rush.

So I hit up 7 to ask if he knew anything about yuris's wonder plans and he played it pretty cagey. All he told me was that yuris couldn't trade maps yet, so no Paper. Given that I know from Ranamar that yuris came to inquire about Taj, I suspect 7 knows more than that.

With the failgold from AP, he might just be able to get Taj out this turn or next. According to his GNP bar, he has been at max research for several turns in a row. It is due T98 for me, but I can whip it this turn. Honestly, I think I probably will. As Krill says, playing against humans is different. I didn't go all out for TGLH in 11, and Amelia embarrassed me in that race. If they finish it this turn, well, I get enough failgold to pay off RL7 in full, and then I can rush out Oxford and I get my academy up next turn, and then PP will come next.

Sankore should be due in 2 turns. If yuris doesn't have Paper, that should be mine, because he lacks stone.

I founded Divine Right EOT last turn. With stone and a GAge, I should be able to get Minaret pretty quickly at Alpine, maybe like 5 turns. That would allow me to work on universities and Oxford at Stone and Ballast Point. I think I can have both up by the time the Taj GAge ends. I really need that GAge. I don't even have any GPPs anywhere in my empire. So it is going to be a while before I can get another.

Speaking of which, maybe I need to whip a library in Karl Strauss next turn if Taj is still available, that way I can work 2 scientists and a spy for the extra GPPs during the GAge.

I haven't even checked the demos in a while. Too busy. No screens either. I did take the score lead, not that I want it.

[Gold Ergo Sum]

Turn 97:

Opened the save and realized a potentially big mistake last turn. I set the slider too low and missed out on Divine Right by like 1 beaker once the turn processed. That could cost me Minaret, which would be a real shame. That is the wonder I really wanted all along.

I talked Taj over with Luddite and he said to whip. I still wasn't entirely convinced, but I checked yuris's land, and last turn it looks like he 2-pop whipped his capital. I felt that was a pretty big red flag towards Taj. So just to be sure, I went back and loaded the past few saves (is that kosher by RB ethics?), and yuris was at max research every time and appears to have blown through about 1000 gold in the past few turns on research. Fine, it pains the hell out of me because I am probably nerfing my sweet, sweet capital for nothing, but here goes nothing . . . . Last turn cost 8-pop, so I couldn't whip. This turn: 6-pop.

Sankore is due end of next turn. Hopefully nobody finishes it between now and then.

With the GAge, it looks like I can build Minaret in 4 turns in Alpine. Hopefully that is fast enough.

I can get universities in Ballast Point and Stone within 3 turns in the GAge. Then I think I can get Oxford in about 4 more turns. I just finished the Academy in Stone. The question I have for lurkers is this: should I run max tax for all 6 turns of the GAge, and then blow it once I have Oxford built and Stone regrown? Or should I use the GAge to rush for PP/Gunpowder? If no one gets cute, I think I am inclined to run max tax, and then run max beakers for like 8-10 turns after the GAge once Oxford is up.

Every small city is working on Confu temples and monasteries to maximize the religious trios.

After PP, it will definitely be time for Gunpowder, Construction, and Engineering to start to get credible defenses up. The good thing is, the only person with a really high soldier count is RL7, and I don't think 7 would break an NAP that has 53 more turns. MNG has troops, but surely doesn't have Astronomy, which means he is too far to attack. Comm is NAP'd for at least 13 more turns. And yuris's soldier count is as bad as mine.

Demos:

Taj put me way ahead in all the demos, even at 10% with no tech selected. Assuming I get Sankore, Minaret, and Oxford soon, I am going to become a real dogpile target I suspect. Oh well, once I get my "buildering" done, it might be time to turn this over to Luddite to blow the whole thing up. I guess I could entertain myself going for SoL, but once I have to start building military I find the game to turn into a slog. That is why I've won all of about 2 games ever by Domination, and never by Conquest.

[Gold Ergo Sum]

Turn 98:

Boo yeah!

Great pop for Islam, as now if I decided to do culture, my two non-capital legendaries are holy cities.

My goal is to regrow Stone as quickly as possible, so I will probably be dumping my hammer tiles until I need to start on Oxford. At that point, it will be max hammers until Oxford is up, and then max commerce to regrow to size 15.

Starting on Spiral Minaret, due in 4 turns in Alpine. Hopefully that is fast enough. Unless someone else is already researching it, it should be I think. Yuris might head that way, and if so I am screwed. I guess I might whip it too when it is due in 2 turns. Have a real decision to make there. Missing Divine Right by 1 beaker may really cost me.

Otherwise, just trying to get Confu buildings up everywhere.

Demos:

[Gold Ergo Sum]

Turn 99:

Finished Univ of Sankore. Added about 40 bpt to my empire. That should eventually be around 70bpt.

Whipped markets at Port and Mission because the 25% gpt was higher than the lost commerce at max tax.

Finished a Confu monastery at Green Flash.

Finished a Confu temple at Coronado.

Whipped a library at Karl Strauss so I can work 2 GScientists and a GSpy for double GPP during the GAge.

During the GAge, Ballast Point is just crazy sick:

Alpine is really strong too, and gets 25gpt + 25% from the shrine. All 3 of those river hills will eventually be windmills, as this city will be my Wall Street city for the shrine.

Overview:

Demos:

Very much #1 GNP despite being at max tax.

[Gold Ergo Sum]

Turn 100:

I didn't realize it was T100, or I would've done more.

RL7 has captured a size 13 Orleans, and MNG's capital city, Paris. Those are MASSIVE spoils in the war. According to my espionage, MNG is 3 turns from Gunpowder. If he can hold out, he might just be able to make it really rough on RL7.

I finished my last university EOT in Ballast Point, and then I will go max hammers in Stone towards Oxford. I might be able to get it built in 3 turns if I starve it some. That will allow me to go immediately into max beakers for a long time just as the GAge allowed me to build up a 3000g surplus.

Spread Islam to Stone. Once Oxford is finished, I will build Islam and Taoist monasteries for further tech boni there.

So I checked out the GNP graph to try to decide whether to whip SMinaret or not. Yuris looks like he is teching, but I don't think it can possibly be Divine Right, because his GNP graph looks much higher than when he was teching his prior tech, suggesting whatever he is teching definitely has a pre-requisite bonus, and Divine Right has no arrow bonuses at all. So I think I am safe on Minaret. (Edit: Crap, that could mean he was teching Divine Right before, and that is why his prior GNP was so low. Too late, save already sent. Fingers crossed. Re-edit: Seems unlikely though, because he stopped and took a turn of gold before teching, so he would've already chopped out Minaret if his last tech was Divine Right, assuming he has any micro skills at all.) Yuris also lacks stone, so I am not even sure he will try. If I were him, I would try to beeline Democracy and use those forests on SoL. Gunpowder will also be good for him, with Janissaries. If I were him, I would definitely be concerned with RL7.

Whipped a library at New England.

Confu temple finished at Rock Bottom. The clams are netted and deer camped there too. I am moving two more workers up there so I can hook up the furs, and chop a LH and Confu monastery. I need culture there, so I will probably also whip a library, and possibly a university eventually.

One more city to settle, on that small double crab island.


Overview

Demos:

[scooter]

I'm getting to be caught up on this thread... I said some of this via chat, but I'll stick it here too to ++postCount on the thread and to hopefully bring some of the other ded-lurkers back to life . My understanding of the current situation is like this:

1. GES is the dominant force technologically and economically - easily winning Liberalism, landed Taj, and is in Golden Age now blowing everyone away.
2. RL7 is plastering MNG and will have the most land when they are done, which sounds like it will happen soon .
3. Hardly anyone else has a real shot at winning.
4. Economics and Rifling are not too far away, and Oxford is about to finish.

I suggested the following plan to GES by chat, as a way of establishing himself as the clear leader, rather than giving RL7 a chance to catch up via their new-found spoils:

1. Run straight to economics, land the Great Merchant
2. Finish Rifling and immediately launch single person Golden
3. Cancel Commodore NAP
4. Draft Rifles every turn, while also producing Rifles with your GA-enhanced production
5. Kill Commodore
6. Do whatever the heck you want because you have won the game at this point.

[Gold Ergo Sum]

Turn 104:

Sorry for the lack of updates. My roughly 5000 year reign in charge of my civilization is now coming to an end. I am a builder and I wanted to see if I learned anything about building since I failed at PBEM11. I think I have learned a lot. But it is time for someone to leverage what I have built to go crack some skulls and keep up with RL7. I really don't have a lot of interest in doing that. Luddite does. So Luddite is taking over for me. We are the clear economic leaders, but we need more land given RL7's gains.

There is one more city to settle, a crappy double clams fishing village on the island in the NW.

I am finishing up my remaining Confu buildings, and several cities should whip those next turn. After that, barracks are being cued at any cities with decent production, and any cities that have them already are beginning to build maces, and then muskets, and then rifles.

I just finished Machinery and I cued Alpha for next turn. I would say a reasonable tech pattern after hopefully 1-turning Printing Press would be Gunpowder, Construction, Engineering, Feudalism, Guilds, Banking, Replaceable Parts, Rifling, Optics, Astronomy, Constitution, Democracy, Economics, with possibly Aesthetics and Literature thrown in somewhere to get NEpic up in Karl Strauss to start producing GPeople wholesale.

Revolting to Free Speech will become reasonable pretty soon. I think I already have 5-7 towns, and once that number reaches around 10-12, it will be worth getting out of Bureaucracy.


Here is the overview of my empire:





My suggestions:

1) Finish roading the furs to cure the unhappy at Alpine and Alesmith.

a) Micro Alpine to get an extra town from Green Flash with the unhappy worker.
b) Micro Alesmith to the river grass mine with the unhappy worker and move one worker from coast to another grass mine. Build a barracks and then pump units.

2) Fire the lousy engineer hired in Green Flash.

3) Replace all river mines with windmills at Stone and Alpine, my Oxford and shrine/gold cities respectively.

4) Whip Confu monastery in New English.

5) Whip LH at Rock Bottom.

6) Whip Confu monastery at Port.

7) Never whip Iron Fist, as it is only +2 food surplus.

8) Decide whether to whip Confu monastery at Karl Strauss, or to change to market for 2 merchant slots, and grow up to prepare to whip NEpic?


Here is a look at every city in my empire, in the order of founding:

F1 screen:




F2 screen:




Demos:



So my GNP is murdering everyone, and that is down 150 from what it was pre-turn flip. Once Printing Press rolls in, I will add exactly 50 base cpt, plus an extra 10 from Bureaucracy.

Right now I tech at -154gpt at max, but I have 3100g. Once Printing Press comes in, I think Luddite will be able to tech at 1200 bpt easy, and will be able to do so for 25 straight turns of max science. That should get REALLY far past anyone else in the tech tree. And I still have ~10 more Confu buildings to come, which will add 20 more pure gold. All this is to say nothing of the fact that I have only produced 2 GPeople all game, so I have a ton of untapped potential there. Another is due in 11 turns. So really, Luddite will get 6 turns of GAge mixed into the ~25 straight turns at max beakers.