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Ellimist · October 2nd, 2011, 09:33

So here's another early morning turn... T112 played.

We got border pops in all the new cities(except Procyon which doesn't need one.) I've managed to coordinate the micro well enough that several cities are ready to be whipped, mostly for essential infrastructure, with the desired amounts of overflow. Next turn we go back to slavery, and 5 turns later we'll adopt bureaucracy. We'll easily be able to have CS by then and still have some gold on hand to do some more deficit research. After that, I'm thinking of doing Aesthetics-Literature to get the Nat Epic up and maybe the Great Library. Lately our MFG has dropped a lot as cottages and coast has taken priority over mines, but we can get those hammers back if/when we need them.

I chatted with Kuro. He's expecting a GP soon and it's about 60/40 Scientist/Prophet. Our GP will be soon after and it's about 50/50 Merchant/Prophet. Are there any objections to giving him a Prophet for a Scientist if the RNG works out that way? He also said he's teching HBR and thinking of invading Jkaen. This sounds fine to me, so long as NH doesn't get that land.

Ellimist · October 3rd, 2011, 09:45

The turn came in just as I was leaving for work, so it won't be played until tonight.

I want to check some more numbers before playing, specifically, when the earliest we can get Civil Service is. If we swap back to slavery as planned this turn(113), we won't be able to adopt bureaucracy until T118. If we choose that option, we may as well complete CS at eot117. Right now, I don't think we can get it sooner than 115-116 anyway, but it's worth verifying this.

Our current # of cities based maintenance is 72, out of a maximum of 87(six per city across fifteen cities, with one courthouse). Some of our larger cities are already at the 6 gpt cap on "# of cities" based maintenance, so I expect the smaller ones to get there soon as well. We're currently in the phase where each new city has a total marginal cost of about 9-13.

Ellimist · October 5th, 2011, 12:49

T113 and 114 played.

On T113, we went back to slavery. Our second courthouse was completed in Arcturus, with overflow completing a workboat next turn. Also thanks to whipping, all of our cities now have granaries except Procyon. I've changed my mind about using our next settler(out of Canopus) for the fourth home island spot. Our next three cities will cost us a fortune in maintenance(about 33 gpt) just from the "number of cities" component. There's no reason to settle marginal locations next. We can use that settler for either the Alnilam, Mintaka or Betelgeuse sites I marked earlier.

NH has figured out that we're spending EPs on him and refocused all of his EPs on us. Fortunately, he's the only one spending on us and we can already see his research(Compass, 309 turns). So I'll keep putting 8 EPs per turn on him, more as we get more courthouses up.

I'm thinking that in order to beat NH, our long term game plan is going to have to involve grabbing Nationalism after beating them to Liberalism. If we do, we'll be able to start drafting the heck out of our empire before they get a chance to, plus we'll probably get the Taj Mahal.

This plan would work very well with the Mausoleum of Maussollos. It would help us get Liberalism faster using a golden age, and if we get the Taj it will help there as well. I think it's reasonable to assume we'll be able to get two golden ages with great people, so MoM adds the equivalent of a third one even if we don't get the Taj. I do expect the Elementals team to try to build it, but they just built the Gardens and the Pyramids, so they probably will give it some time before they start on another wonder, especially without any doubler resources.

Most of our cities are currently busy on infrastructure, including Canopus. Sirius, however, is in an expansion phase and doesn't really have any other priorities at the moment. Bureaucracy is coming soon and Sirius can put out some decent production already thanks to Moai. Sirius can get MoM in around ten turns if we whip the market once we're in Bureau and overflow into MoM.

Ellimist · October 5th, 2011, 18:12

Okay, here's something significant from T113.

Here we see that the Elementals team has a 3 exp chariot facing south toward Jkaen. It is a bit odd that the chariot is facing due south, the tile 1N of it is not roaded while 1NW and 1NE are. This suggests that it was unloaded to the donut from their home island, and then proceeded to move SW-S. It also tells us that they don't have construction yet, otherwise the roads would be more significant to them.

After some contemplation, I sent Jkaen/Ioan a warning about it. Why? Well, NH is our primary opposition to win the game. According to Kuro, the Jkioan cities are hardly defended at all. If NH gets those cities at a very low price, it would be very difficult for us to recover from that. On the other hand, if Jkioan are able to repel an invasion or at least make it more costly, that could be the opportunity we need to move into first place.

This also says to me that they are de-prioritizing wonders after the Gardens/Pyramids. They probably still expect to get the key wonders they're after, but we should be able to sneak the Mausoleum by them.

Another thing of note in the screenshot is their technology. Oddly enough, they are researching Compass and are 242 beakers into it(out of 552 total). They are also not working any scientist or artist specialists, and also apparently missing the point with regard to binary science. After Civil Service, Compass is looking even better due to NH discounting it for us.

Ellimist · October 8th, 2011, 19:33

Sorry about the recent update frequency/quality. I'll get some pictures this turn, but here's a quick summary.

Our newer cities are growing rapidly and chopping/whipping basic infrastructure. All of them currently have adequate worker labor, but we could definitely use some more, so Pollux and Denebola are building them.

We have almost all of our luxuries hooked up already, so our cities are currently well below their happy caps. Sirius, Canopus, and Regulus are growing to take advantage of this. Our culture-war city of Vega has a pretty solid hold on the contested tiles, while Arcturus is in the 40s. Next time we go to caste, we should be able to flip the stone.

I started Sirius on the Mausoleum wonder. I think it will be big for us, and Bureaucracy will go a long way toward it. I'd like to get the following techs soonish in roughly this order: Civil Service, Compass, Aesthetics, Literature, Music, Construction. If we get the Mausoleum, we use the Music Artist for a Golden Age and make good progress toward Liberalism/Nationalism. If we can get some catapults/longbows/macemen, we ought to be able to defend ourselves until that point.

Ellimist · October 9th, 2011, 00:56

Here's some serious T117 C&D, with many thanks to T-Hawk for his new hammers formula.

Elementals:

Kuro:

Jkioan:

Ellimist · October 9th, 2011, 11:56

I know I promised T117 pictures, but it'll have to be T118.

My take on the data above is that we're in a "sweet spot" second place while NH is big and scary. He's obviously our greatest rival for winning the game, but we do have a tech lead on him. The only obvious wonder currently being built in the last post is Kuro's AP, so the Mausoleum should be ours easily. I'll have better numbers for its completion date after we adopt bureaucracy(T118).

We currently have 79 population in 15 cities, and the majority of our cities are still quite small. Our citizens are prioritizing cottages and Colossus coast while building infrastructure. Once our newer cities finish getting set up and start growing to more useful sizes, we'll be in good shape to trigger a golden age and race ahead on tech. It'll be Compass and Cothons after CS.

Ellimist · October 10th, 2011, 20:30

So... It would be nice to get the saves somewhat earlier than 2 am. How does it even make sense that Kuro(who is near the west coast) is before NH and me(in the eastern USA)? He's three hours after our time zone and has an erratic sleep schedule.
Is it possible to hack the save so that Kuro comes after NH in the turn order? Or possibly move Jkaen to after Kuro, which would have the same effect. Obviously this would have to have unanimous consent but there aren't any wars going on that could interfere.

We'd still be waiting on Kuro whenever he takes ~23 hours to play his turn, but I'd be able to play at an earlier time most of the time.

Ellimist

Okay, we're up to T121 and I've been pretty lousy about updates lately.

I changed directions with my scout and spotted some Elementals chariots. The fact that they're trying to hide them is suggestive.

Here's some Elementals C&D:

I also ran the numbers for the other two players, but nothing really stood out except Jason Bourne has 175 hammers invested in something.

Helium is the main concern. It's gaining 44 hpt on a non-multiplier wonder. If Helium is building the Mausoleum, it will complete on T124. Sirius would complete it on T126, and we'd lose. However, we CAN whip Sirius on T124 and complete it then if we think they are indeed building MoM. The whip would take the city from 14 down to 11, but then it grows back to 12 at the end of the turn. If we get to T124 and Helium is still building the same wonder, I'm going to go ahead and whip.

Our "core" area is getting nuts with the cottages. They're not that productive now, but it shouldn't take too long.

Pollux and Regulus are pumping out missionaries, and Regulus has more mines completing soon to help with this. The Regulus satellites(Denebola, Castor, Rasalas) can grow some of the Regulus cottages so we don't lose any progress there. Regulus will also start building Archers/Spearmen soon in preparation for our NAP ending with NH. I don't really expect an attack but we'd be foolish not to prepare for one.

Denebola is just pumping workers for now. Once the city has Hinduism we'll complete some more infrastructure.

Canopus completes a settler next turn, going to either the Alnilam or Betelgeuse spots. We need to settle both soon, but probably Betelgeuse first.

Polaris is working on getting 46 hammers into a forge so it can be 2-pop whipped on T124. A Hindu missionary arrives next turn and a chop completes at the Betelgeuse city site. A library can probably be whipped on T125, and the Great Library completed on T127. I'm also considering putting the Nat Epic here instead of Fomalhaut. The first or second Scientist can be used to bulb Education, and it shouldn't take too long to get there once we have access to Pacifism.

Aesthetics is in, currently I'm planning on Drama and Literature next. Literature for the Great Library and Nat Epic, and Drama for theatres in our border cities. Both techs are cheap and the Great Artist from Music can provide our first golden age.

Ending turn gave us a Great Prophet in Canopus, which we'll be giving to Kuro for his Great Scientist. I think an Academy in Sirius would currently be best, the city will be putting out about 98 commerce per turn once a Cothon completes. We also got a free Christianity spread to Antares, so now we only lack Buddhism and Kuro's providing a Buddhist missionary soon.

Ellimist · October 13th, 2011, 00:26

We can 6-pop whip Sirius for it next turn if we think it's worthwhile. Sirius can achieve a food surplus of 12 to grow back rather quickly. If we don't, they can whip Helium for 5 population. I'm not sure if I see them doing this.

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