[spoilers] Regoarrarr teams up with your mom

[regoarrarr]

The other thing is that with Oxford coming online in 8 turns, I probably want to turn off science at some point. The idea of course being to save gold now, so that I can spend it at max research in 8 turns, when my commerce to beaker ratio is much more favorable.

The only exception I think would be any techs that are time-sensitive.

Militarily, Sian and Yuri are not going against me, and (at least for now) I feel confident in my alliance with Pindicator. Gaspadore is a bit of a wildcard. I'm hoping he won't mess with me for a few reasons:

1) He's still dealing with Sian (in fact Sian retook a city last turn)
2) His power is still right in line with mine
3) Militarily, he doesn't have anything that can touch longbows (though he did just research Construction and is one tech away from both maces and knights). He also does have a naval advantage with Optics.

So Machinery as a possibility to research there, as that would allow me to get maces, and once I tech Nationalism potentially be able to DRAFT maces, which should be a pretty good deterrent.

The only other tech that could be time-sensitive would be Philosophy, for the religion. Now, I don't particularly need / want the religion, but both Gaspadore and Yuri do not have a holy city. Yuri has adopted Buddhism (Pindicator's religion) and Gaspadore is probably hoping to take Sian's Confucian holy city.

So Philosophy and Machinery are probably my next techs. Thankfully I have research visibility on Yuri and Pindicator has it on Gaspadore and we have been swapping information. So unless they 1-turn it (which is possible), I should be able to see if either of them start heading for Philosophy (Yuri is on Machinery and Gaspadore has just 1 turned Construction and Calendar on successive turns). It is annoying though that Gaspadore plays before me and Pindicator plays after me, so if he alerted me that Gasp was heading for Philosophy I might not have a turn to react.

Next techs are (in rough order but subject to change):

Philosophy, Machinery (wait for Yuri to finish it to get a 4th known-civ bonus?), Nationalism, Optics, Alphabet, Printing Press (part bulbed), Astronomy (1-2 bulbed), Scientific Method (double bulbed), Liberalism -> Communism.

I did count my villages and towns, and I only have 12, so Printing Press isn't that great of a tech for me - but it is a pre-req to Scientific Method, so I do need it sooner than later.

[regoarrarr]

I feel like I'm getting back to my old thread-spamming ways!!!

I wanted to do a bit more analysis on my tech path

Philosophy, Machinery (wait for Yuri to finish it to get a 4th known-civ bonus?), Nationalism, Optics, Alphabet, Printing Press (part bulbed), Astronomy (1-2 bulbed), Scientific Method (double bulbed), Liberalism -> Communism.

But as I started to do that, I realized that a lot of it depends on what my 2 upcoming great people turn out as, so that is getting its own post. Current odds are

1) So Poor, due in 2t: Sci 58 / Eng 35 / Spy 7, but it's working 5 Scientists and an Engineer, so if my crude math is right, that should make the odds in 2t about 67 / 28 / 5. I might fire a few of the engineers to increase the odds of an engineer.

2) So Dumb, due in 3t: Sci 53 / Eng 44 / Spy 3. But again, it's currently working 4 scientists and an engineer, and will actually probably hire a 5th scientist this turn to make sure it can get a GP out in 3t. So crude odds in 3t are about 68 / 30 / 2

So, combining the two, here are my odds:

1 SCI, 1 ENG: 44%
2 SCI: 32%
2 ENG: 15%
1 SCI, 1 SPY: 5%
1 ENG, 1 SPY: 4%

So I have about a 76% chance of something acceptable happening. Hmm in looking at this, I should probably fire the 2 engineers I'm running. While that would decrease the chances of my most preferred outcome (1 SCI, 1 ENG), it also raises the odds of 2 SCI, which is a much better outcome than 2 ENG.

[regoarrarr]

Okay so back to tech path

Philosophy, Machinery (wait for Yuri to finish it to get a 4th known-civ bonus?), Nationalism, Optics, Alphabet, Printing Press (part bulbed), Astronomy (1-2 bulbed), Scientific Method (double bulbed), Liberalism -> Communism.

As far as bulbing goes, an Engineer is going to bulb Machinery and then up through Construction -> Engineering. A scientist will bulb Printing Press, Scientific Method, Alphabet, Philosophy, Optics and Astronomy. And a spy will bulb nothing (jerk)

So at my current tech level, a scientist will bulb
1) Alphabet
2) If I tech that, then Philosophy
3) If I tech that, then it will bulb LIBERALISM!. I should have realized that from playing high level SP games, where the trick is to avoid Machinery so you can bulb Liberalism. I'm not sure that's useful here, since I want to take Communism. Still, it might be useful to bulb it (so it's within 1t of completion)
4) If I tech Liberalism, then a scientist goes for Machinery
5) If I tech Machinery (either before or after I tech Liberalism), then it will bulb Printing Press
6) If I tech that, then Optics
7) If I tech that, then Astronomy
8) If I tech that, then Scientific Method
9) Then Physics, but we're probably getting a BIT ahead of ourselves...

I thought I could get an earlier bulb of Astronomy by avoiding teching the pre-reqs of Printing Press but that won't work.

Here's what I'm thinking, based on the GP scenarios outlined in the last post:

1) SCI, ENG - in this case, I tech Alphabet, Philosophy, Machinery and use the scientist to part bulb Printing Press. Slip in Nationalism somewhere along the line and use the engineer to rush the Taj Mahal
2) SCI, SCI - same tech path - Alphabet, Philosophy, Machinery and use the first scientist to part bulb Printing Press, finish that off and tech Optics and use the 2nd scientist for Astronomy.
3) ENG, ENG - first one rushes the Taj, but second one I dunno. Maybe I use that to kick off a GA (with my prophet)? There aren't a whole lot of other wonders coming up that jump out of me
4) SCI, SPY - Spy kicks off the GA and Scientist bulbs Printing Press
5) ENG, SPY - Spy kids off the GA and Engineer rushes Taj. I will be very cranky if this happens

[oledavy]

I feel like I'm getting back to my old thread-spamming ways!!!

Glad to see this thread getting really active again

1) So Poor, due in 2t: Sci 58 / Eng 35 / Spy 7, but it's working 5 Scientists and an Engineer, so if my crude math is right, that should make the odds in 2t about 67 / 28 / 5. I might fire a few of the engineers to increase the odds of an engineer.

I think you meant fire a few of the scientists here. Where are the spy GPPs coming from? Did you build the Great Wall?

What are your plans post-communism? I assume you plan on building the Kremlin, what do you have in mind for the Communism Great Spy?

[regoarrarr]

I think you meant fire a few of the scientists here. Where are the spy GPPs coming from? Did you build the Great Wall?

No - I think I fire the engineer and hire a scientist instead. This lowers the probability of the preferred outcome of 1 SCI / 1 ENG but increases the relative odds of 2 SCIs compared to 2 ENG. The spy points come from the stupid governor and me not catching when he hires them on a few turns, I guess.

What are your plans post-communism? I assume you plan on building the Kremlin, what do you have in mind for the Communism Great Spy?

Yes - I plan on building the Kremlin. The Great Spy I'll probably save to kick off a GA with my prophet, assuming that I avoid getting a spy or 2 engineers with these 2 great people

[regoarrarr]

What are your plans post-communism?

Realized I forgot to answer this part of your question. And why edit my previous reply when a new post will do???

I don't have any concrete plans at this point. Depends on where the rest of the world is. I could certainly use Galleons and drafted Janissaries to harass Gaspar. But really, at this point I am mostly concerned with just maintaining my lead and not doing anything dumb.

[regoarrarr]

I goofed up - I ran max tax last turn (which was correct) but I got distracted by "shiny" alphabet being able to be teched from overflow and Scientists, so I took that, when I think I should have put thsoe beakers on Philosophy

[Cyneheard]

Ooh! Shiny!!!

Yeah, that happens.

[regoarrarr]

Okay so after the delay, we're back to T109.

First thing - fire all the specialists (which jumps me back up to #1 in food - 434 to Pindicator's 397). Then revolt back to Slavery and Organized Religion (costs an extra 26 gpt).

Then we spread Judaism in Teeth so Yellow, which leaves our religion screen like this



That's important because it means that no cities lack a religion. So when I discover Philosophy at EOT, it should go to one of the established cities, which would be preferable.

University check:
* So Skinny - already complete
* So Fat - at 115/134, putting in 18 hammers this turn, so I can whip into Oxford next turn
* So Ugly - 90/134 - 24hpt, due in 2 naturally
* So Poor - ready to 4 pop whip
* So Greasy - ready to 3 pop whip
* Like a Potato Chip - this is the one that I messed up. I thought I'd be able to whip it this turn, but we just finished the library last turn, so it can't be whipped. It has 0/134 and will put 12 hammers into it this turn, which will let me 5 whip it next turn (it's at size 13)
* So Smelly - ready to 4 pop whip

I took a look at the 3 that are available to whip this turn, but to maximize overflow, I think it would be better to whip them next turn. I plan on running max tax next turn, so the 25% science bonus probably won't be a factor.

I did whip away 13 pop though, mostly into lighthouses and such. I'll probably whip a bunch more next turn. I have to say - not being in slavery is hard

At end of turn, Taoism was founded in So Skinny (Moai city) which was pretty much the ideal spot for it.

[regoarrarr]

Worse news is that I lost the battle to get an engineer. It wasn't QUITE the worst news, which would have been a really low odds Spy, but it was another Scientist. So I think next I have to go for Nationalism, since Pindicator is going for Divine Right, and may very well try for Nationalism on that path.

So the Scientists currently point to Liberalism, but once I research Machinery, they'll point to Printing Press and then Astronomy. I can use 2 more, maybe 3 more, to research the other half of Astronomy and then double tap Scientific Method, so I can Liberalism -> Communism.

The only benefit to bulbing Liberalism would be that it would allow me to finish it off if I felt someone trying to "Krill" me - but since nobody has Philo OR Paper (and I have Alphabet to keep tabs), that doesn't seem like a high risk at this point