[Spoilers] Commodore as Washington of the Mongols

[yuris125]

Sounds like you have pretty much everything covered! When do you plan to turn the culture slider up?

Just one note, I didn't see you mentioning Biology anywhere, I would get it right after Communism. Biology = more food = more specialists = faster Great Artists. And I don't think you can research anything else culture-generating, unless you think you will have enough time for Broadcast Towers to make an impact

Also, about no option for AP victory, it is unavailable if a) one of other players doesn't have the AP religion, or b) you have enough votes to win by yourself. If it's b), you can check how many votes who has on the F8 screen, and then starve your cities to bring the number of votes below the threshold for the next vote. Worth it only if you're sure someone else will vote for you

[Commodore]

Sounds like you have pretty much everything covered! When do you plan to turn the culture slider up?

Just one note, I didn't see you mentioning Biology anywhere, I would get it right after Communism. Biology = more food = more specialists = faster Great Artists. And I don't think you can research anything else culture-generating, unless you think you will have enough time for Broadcast Towers to make an impact

Also, about no option for AP victory, it is unavailable if a) one of other players doesn't have the AP religion, or b) you have enough votes to win by yourself. If it's b), you can check how many votes who has on the F8 screen, and then starve your cities to bring the number of votes below the threshold for the next vote. Worth it only if you're sure someone else will vote for you

The culture slider question is related to the tech one, and with the news of an extra 1-week hiatus () I suppose I have no excuse not to figure it out. My current plan was to only possibly even tick it up enough to finish Communism, although it's probably worth it given the speed UoS/artist beakers give my tech at even 0%. The slider I plan to turn on when I have enough gold to get to turn 165 at 100% culture the whole way.

Biology would be nice, but I'm not sure if there's enough growth time to make it worthwhile. The big deal there would be Sphinx, with its tons of plains farms and no towns, but I've been pumping extra %modifiers in there for that reason. The artist cities are going to be literal deathcamps, starving down to a tiny size, popping a GA, then doing it again, with the possible exception of Naga. I need to be careful with that GP farm, in Pacifism even out of a GA it can 6-turn and then 7-turn GArtists, at the expense of getting anything out of the deathcamps. I'm thinking of squeezing out two deathcamp artists in the GA, then 3 in Naga for a total 7 Great Artists (which, incidentally, would be enough to instant-legendary one of the backup cities, Naga or Mermaid).

Twinkletoes is a mite bit erratic, on a good day he might be willing to vote for me...I'll have to see what can be done there, I'll be starving some big Hindu centers in any case. Hinduism is a worldwide religion, I think actually the best-spread in the world. Gryphon's shrine is a monster.

[Commodore]

And now we're back, ladies and gentlemen. Lest anyone forget, when last we left off Mackoti was setting up to trounce poor Twinkletoes with canal'd in transports. That's still about to happen, and next turn I'll take a look at what TT has in each fortress city to turn that. (Hint; not enough, defending is losing).



Despite the Holy Roman trouncery, the newest city thinks Buddhism is the bomb-diggity and wants to join up. Silly citizens, those abandoned towns you're playing in are abandoned for a good reason.



Anyway, here was the big deal of the turn: [strike]Driving[/strike] Starving Miss [strike]Daisy[/strike] Manticore. Yes, that is a slightly less than one in five chance of disaster striking on a royal scale...







Nice to see ya, feller. How's about we have you and mister engineer there get together and make us a golden age? Pay no mind to all the emaciated corpses, there will be a lot more before this is all over.

[novice]

Starving Manticore - nice way to leverage a pop point.

[Ceiliazul]

Nice to see ya, feller. How's about we have you and mister engineer there get together and make us a golden age? Pay no mind to all the emaciated corpses, there will be a lot more before this is all over.

They can be emaciated now, or carpet bombed later... protruding ribs are patriotic.

[Commodore]

Starving Manticore - nice way to leverage a pop point.

You ain't seen leverage yet. I think the Mongolian empire is definitely under the Kali cult now. My people have some impressive stones, let's see what blood can be squeezed from them.

[Commodore]

Here's Turn 144 at a glance:



Fired golden age and swapped to culture, making me a royal pain in the butt to all my neighbors, I'm sure. Meh, they're a little distracted anyway. Mackoti wisely bypassed both fortress cities, striking Leave Right Now in the center of Lake Holy Rome (highlighted is the garrison of Aachen).



The awe-inspiring garrisons of these two cities are going to ensure that even an inland strike isn't going to have much success. Here's Pencil Full of Lead in the southern pass, it's going to be brutal when the times finally come here.



Let's Get Loud, TT's Basilisk equivalent, is guarded by a tiny rump garrison but the canon and cavalry in range means that Mack can use the city only briefly before TT retakes, unless he wants to just raze the place.



I am somewhat concerned by the "swinging in the breeze" nature of the Gaspar-Mackoti border, I'd expect to see the beginnings of a military buildup here. I'm considering gifting this scouting airship in Frijoles Chinos, as paranoid as Mack gets that might be the best use for it.



So, golden age; first I swapped civics.

Before:


After:


Next, I looked into starving my rump cities. Shedu, the little lake filler city near Manticore, is going to starve down to size 8 before regrowing again post-GA. Once the farther empire crumples from Gaspar and/or Mackoti, this spot will be starved to the nubbin for a last artist.



Big distant city of Faun is also starving, although not "down to the last drop" in this case. Next turn I'll turn up tech enough to get Communism and keep working the towns, and only then will I touch off the mass-starvation artist push.



The most swift artist spawn (slightly polluted pool, but a third GA is still an acceptable use if I get something else) is out of Jackalope here. The city will still work both riverside towns to push out a missionary, but the extra fishermen go into the charnel house of art next turn to ensure the artists pop right.



So what about the Big Three? Well, keeping in mind each is due one more cathedral, here's the set:

Manticore, ticking in at >700 per turn, will manage to get the desired goal in roughly twenty-five turns, assuming one Great Artist used and a final starvation mode of +6 artists from the non-town squares.



Gryphon is performing about at expectations too, running 500 now and closer to 600 once the Confucian Academy goes up in two more turns. This place is still going to need two Great Artists to make it in time.



Finally, we have Sphinx, which was always going to be the problem child. Two turns until a mosque goes up to bring the bonus to a massive +400%, but this place is going to need five Great Artists to pop up to legendary in time. Fortunately, starvation mode artist spam will be very profitable here once the final countdown begins, and of course all those mines will be artists once the last cathedral is in.



The GNP spike is a mite bit impressive, you guys think someone will notice?



Death and glory await! [SIZE="1"](Mostly death)[/SIZE]

[Ceiliazul]

Wow, what an update!

stuff that stuck out at me (in random order):

• Mackoti is going to blitz through TT's core very very soon.
  
• Manticore should be working the super-starvation plan with only a small amount of food... you cant strve more than one pop per turn.
  
• gifting the airship sounds like a good way to make mayhem on the Gaspar border, but Gaspar has to be close to physics too, right?
  
• Mighty nice of TT to name the cavs "5th mercenary" and such to broadcast your gift.
  
• How will you prevent a similar canal massacre in your lands?
  

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Is TT even close to rifling? Because if he isn't, he may have done you a favour .

[Commodore]

Is TT even close to rifling? Because if he isn't, he may have done you a favour .

Yep, he's nowhere near rifles or, if you note, Aesthetics let alone Military Tradition. I did the naming to do myself a favor, strictly business here Mr. Mackoti, entirely your evil nemesis' purchase, not me basically giving them away for a promise and a prayer to prop up my puppet.

Manticore should be working the super-starvation plan with only a small amount of food... you cant strve more than one pop per turn

Yeah, but the output of an artist is at most 4x3=12cpt, whereas those nice Free Speech towns are 7x3=21cpt, if I'm running the 100% slider, plus the hammers for culture building/buildings. I might do a mass starvation if I need that last artist, but otherwise, Manticore is relatively safe.

How will you prevent a similar canal massacre in your lands?

I have another twenty turns of NAP from my caving a bribe, at the very minimum, plus the culture (heh) to make canal sites nonviable just from Mermaid and Gryphon's 5th rings. If I can delay for half as long as TT there I'll be golden.