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[SPOILERS - PBEM19] Huayna Capac of Ottomans - yuris125 & Maestro

There's also a message from Seven, the first specific number, which is 600g for a NAP of undiscussed length. This is... shall we say optimistic? I'm definitely not paying 600g for a white NAP

Anyway, how long a NAP do we want? 30t sounds about right to me, it should be enough to capture MNG's cities and build up the defences. How much are we ready to pay for it? I can see myself paying 600g for 30t NAP + 5 Galleons, although I'm sure this price could be knocked down. What's your take on this? 600g is a lot, but it's just 3 turns of 0% research; if they allow us to take 2 MNG's cities, I'd say it's money well spent
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We need 5 universities to build Oxford. Here are some candidate locations, including their commerce and the number of turns needed to complete the university.

Ultra: 81c - 4t
Maximum: 15c - 6t*
Best: 40c - 9t (Has a forest we can chop. Should go to 7t)
Nashe: 46c - 14t
Rock: 47c - 6t
Europa: 30c - 27t
Echo: 36c - 10t*

The *s for Maximum and Echo indicate that they would need both a library and a university. The production time takes that into effect. From that list, I've decided to ignore Maximum (too little commerce) and Europa (too long to construct). At 14 turns, Nashe will be the slowest. To accelerate Nashe, we can whip or chop. Chopping isn't ideal, since the forests are on ivory resources, so we'd lose that 1 hammer per turn forever. Whipping also isn't ideal because Nashe is at a sad 2 food per turn surplus. We could steal Wheat back from Ultra, but Ultra has become dependent on the extra food. For now I will whip the Market for overflow. In 7-9 turns, when the other universities are finishing, we can look at it again and decide if we want to whip to completion.

For Gunpowder, I crunched some numbers and the short version is that we should be able to 2-turn it by building wealth at Ultra for a turn. I decided that delaying the university for a turn was worth it, so I'm going with that plan. We'll go 100% this turn, and whatever we need to finish it next (should be 60%). Edit: after I founded City FM the numbers changed a bit. The extra increase in maintenance means we'll need a turn of wealth from Rock also. Still think it's worth it.
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Fast turn 101 update:
  • Did the stuff mentioned above
  • Tours fell to RL7. RL7 got a Great General in the process.
  • Commodore declared on MNG
  • GES finished Spiral Minaret
  • Gifted our Buddhist missionary to Commodore. Turned the Galley around, toward Maximum, in case we try to load up 2 Jans to get Lyons.

Poor France is not long for this world. I don't think there will be time to grab any of the land unless the others explicitly leave it for us.
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Checked the save, but didn't play. RL7 and Commodore both captured a city this turn (RL7 got Rheims, TGLH city). Lyons is being heavily whipped, I wonder if MNG is going to make his last stand there. Not good for us, if we want it

Don't forget to switch City FM to the winery. Maximum has an engineer specialist, do we want him?? Ultra has a scientist specialist, we should probably fire him, and work the grassland mine again. We can take Ultra off Wealth and build a Cat. We will still have enough to finish Gunpowder this turn

Rock FM - I would build a Worker there next, we need Workers to improve the land around the southern cape location, which will be very poor otherwise

Forges can be whipped pretty much everywhere they're being built

Radio 7 - whip the Market, build a Forge

Love Radio - whip the Granary, build Lighthouse

Next FM - I would give the gems to Next FM, at least until it has the first farm ready
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And one more thing, the map trade with MNG didn't go through, did you offer it?
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Turn 102:

Followed all of those suggestions. I thought for sure I'd given the gems to Next FM last turn... <head scratch> Stole hill mines for both Ultra and Max, fired the respective specialists. Lots of forge whips. Catapults in Ultra and Maximum. Rax at Rock. Jans buildable next turn.

Echo is turning into such a great city. Excellent food surplus, great tiles (thanks Moai!). Finishes the forge this turn. I'd like to toss in a rax (should only be 1 turn) then go to Jans.

Talked to Commodore, and he said Lyon had an Axe and a spear as garrison. Could change, but that's the situation right now.

MNG lost cities to both RL7 and Commodore. There's not much left of him.
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I forwarded Seven's mail to you, he wants 200g for a Galleon. While I see his point about 50g being too cheap, 200g seems to be too much

With this situation in Lyons, and no clarity about whether we will be able to get the Galleons, I would consider building 3-4 Galleys in Echo and Maximum. If we don't find a way to bring a stack to Lyons soon, we will never get it; even now could be too late

Then, Echo needs to get at least a Lib and a Uni before thinking about military. Although I would argue that it should continue developing infra (Market, Courthouse, etc.); it is indeed an awesome city, and will benefit a lot from multiplier buildings
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Decided to have a chat with Commodore about the plans against GES, to know how much military we need short-term. Apparently the plan is to attack him "eventually", nothing firm yet, and he's still trying to learn how long the GES/RL7 NAP is. In any case, if we decide to cancel the NAP with GES, he will be willing to follow suit. He will also be getting Gunpowder next turn (T104)

Also, a lot of valuable info about the situation in France:

1. MNG has a lot of Knights and Maces in the north. RL7 could lose one of the cities they captured
2. MNG doesn't have any collateral (!). I mean, having Maces and Knights, but no Construction?? Hard to believe, but don't think Commodore would try to mislead us
3. It could be worth to talk to MNG about capturing his cities, he seems to be furious towards RL7, and could allow us to take them easier. Not sure if we want it though, sounds cheesy
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So, here's Seven's mail on the price of Galleons

Seven by email Wrote:Galleons are 53h. 1h is worth 2-3g. (You are way overestimating the value of gold.) So minimum 100-160g each. We'd possibly take a deal for 125 per, though also maybe not, with someone who also has astro. That's not even a good trade for us in a vacuum, it's breakeven. Not worth it.

But also, you lack astro so they are worth more than that. Further, astro is a terrible tech for you. So they are worth still more. Minimum 200g I'd say. (Maybe paying in hammers would be easier. But I guess we're not needing troops too much at the moment.)

Galleons are borderline broken on this map.

As I said, I see his point. 50g definitely was a lowball offer. But 200g... at the moment that's a whole turn of 0% research

On the other hand, having Galleons when your opponent knows you can't build them could be very powerful. Especially if we have aggressive plans

Which brings us to the current geopolitical situation. As of last turn, it looked like MNG's death was imminent. I'm no longer sure about it, taking into account what Commodore said about him having a lot of knights and maces. If we join the war, it will probably seal his fate. But we need Galleons to join the war

After the war against France, we're likely to turn our attention to GES. He is definitely the fastest researcher at the moment. Right now, we have the best units available, so now is the only chance to attack him with superior units. But again, we need Galleons to bring in our stacks. We can get to his land by Galleys, but they're 1.5 times smaller and 1.5 times slower

So, I do think that it's very important for us to get Galleons. And we definitely don't want to research Astronomy ourselves. Maybe Commodore could research it and sell us Galleons cheaper, but don't think he's anywhere near Astronomy right now (and he said he was going the Gunpowder branch). So, RL7 have a monopoly, and can dictate the price

We do need to think if we have any chance against GES. Maybe ask Commodore to check whether GES has Gunpowder. If he doesn't, and is only able to draft Maces, I would say we should definitely go for it. We can try to bring the Galleons price down to 170-180g, and offer to pay part of the sum in Janissaries. But even going 0% research for 5 turns and paying all of 200g per Galleon looks acceptable to me

By the way, how many units can be drafted per turn on small map/quick speed?
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Firs the turn report for 103:
  • RL7 popped two great people this turn. A merchant and an engineer. yikes Merchant must have been from Economics.
  • Started a round of Janissary production. We should switch to Universities pretty quickly after this. The tech bonus from oxford is too good to delay for long.
  • GES's golden age ended. Jerk. wink
  • Went 0% research, as I'm not positive what we want next. I believe it's Fuedalism-Machinery-Guilds, but I thought I'd double check. Printing Press is available, and we should consider it. Extra research!
  • MNG is down to 2 cities: Lyons and his capital. We can't see the capital on the minimap, so I'm pretty sure it's the northern location.
  • Offered the map trade with MNG that I forgot the last 2 turns. duh
  • What do we do with Europa Plus? Still 1 hammer per turn (awesome!), but a moderate commerce producer at 31/turn. Whipping gets stuff, but kills the commerce.

[Image: 103%20-%20Production.JPG]
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