[spoilers] pindicator goes off the deep end

[pindicator]

Turns 117 & 118
Viking Golden Age Edition

First off, we needed to settle with Commodore:



Rego is getting a lot of heat from Commodore; I guess I'm now known as his "hand puppet". I'd rather have Commodore thinking that Rego is the one calling the shots than me. Of course, Rego doesn't appreciate that so I won't push it. Rego actually asked if he could have some of that gold from Sian since Commodore was upset. I already did that, Rego.

Domestically, we are still spreading the faith:



I'm gifting a missionary to Rego on turn 120, and we're building missionaries for some of our newer cities now.



Spiral Minaret is finishing at the end of turn 121, and we are emphasizing buddist buildings for that payoff.

I also gave Yuri that Christian missionary he asked for:



And took the moment to look at what he had defending Cuzco. You know, if I can gain cultural control of the tile 2SW of Cuzco I could open any war against Yuri with a nasty surprise.

Then we revolted:



I thought about Pacifism also, but I need the Org Religion bonus. I may still switch to Pacifism (or Theocracy) later on. Speaking of great people, I got a Great Priest at the end of turn 117. My odds on a priest were probably 10%, so I'm a little miffed at the bad luck. So he's chilling in New Deal, waiting to set off my 2nd golden age, which right now looks to be coming in on turn 128.



I feel like I'm gambling by hiring that priest, but he gets me the next GP a turn earlier. After the market finishes I'll switch to merchents here.

At the end of turn 117, I finished the Great Wall and cashed in:



299g worth of Great Wall-ness, enough for another turn at max science.

I found Sian's fortress of solitude:



Build more xbows!

And finally, here's some demographics from the end of turn 118. This is with no tech selected, since I just finished Divine Right.



Anything people want to see specifically during the golden age?

[pindicator]

Oh, I forgot to mention again that I think Gaspadore and Yuri have come to some kind of deal. For one, it's worth noticing where the berserkers have and have not gone. Second, the day after I told Commodore of my NAPs, Yuri asked Rego for a NAP extension and switched techs immediately from saving gold on Philosophy to spending gold on Optics. So I think it's safe to say that when turn 134 comes around I need to be ready. We'll continue with the Oxford plan and then we'll have 10 turns for war production.

[Ceiliazul]

Anything people want to see specifically during the golden age?

I'm considering for my own games, and wondering your opinion: Is it better to use a GA for the extra production, or the GPs?

With both given bonuses, I'm not sure how to quantify the trade off.

[oledavy]

I'm considering for my own games, and wondering your opinion: Is it better to use a GA for the extra production, or the GPs?

With both given bonuses, I'm not sure how to quantify the trade off.

I usually gravitate towards using them for GPs, but that's because I like running a specialist economy. I think it's really situational. For example, if you set off a late era game golden age, you'll probably be using it for production over great people since GPs are less useful late in the game. Likewise if you need to make a infrastructure push or build up for a war. If it's your first golden age when you haven't produced a lot of GPs yet, it's a good opportunity to churn out a lot of GPs quickly.

It all comes down to the in game situation, but in general, I use earlier GA's for GP and later GA's for production.

[pindicator]

Well, I think this map is really good for GA boosting commerce because of how many water tiles - this is a big reason why i went for MoM and Taj was for the commerce bonus off water tiles: you're getting 50% more, like financial. It isn't so hot for production because the are so few production tiles to get a bonus off of. Of course its awesome for Moai statues, but it's also counter to the biggest source of production for most of your cities: the whip. I'm trying to whip less while in the GA but that means i don't do infra on a lot of my developing towns.

I plan on getting quite a few great people over my next golden ages, enough that i could go 3 in a row if i wanted to. Maybe 4 even.

[pindicator]

Just finished turn 120 and Sian is no longer with us. GG Sian, and well played to the last. RNG and the whims of others are fickle beasts. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the game whenever you read this, or when I join you in the lists of eliminated players.

Pictures to come later when I get back home, but we got Optics on 119 and then Paper on 120. My next great person came at the end of turn 120 and it was not a scientist. So we'll need to hand-research Astronomy, perhaps right after Education. I may throw in Feudalism first to get some longbows going.

Oh, and I decided to 3-pop whip Globe this turn. We'll start whipping that city like mad now.

[pindicator]

Turns 119, 120, & 121
Golden Age turns to go: 4

Catching up to the current turn!

Let's see, we left off having finished Divine Right. So where did our Islamic faith end up?



On the border with Gaspadore. I probably should delete the missionary, but I don't have any unit cost yet (which is probably a sign that I need to build more units!) You can also see the events of the day: Sian lost his island fortress. Well, we have a galley in the area, so let's check it out...



I love the ship names!

Here's the obligatory Moai-city-while-in-a-golden-age screenshot



My next great person was due at end of turn; remember that I had hired a priest to speed it up. We were really hoping for a scientist, but would I be cursed with yet another prophet?



On turn 119 we 1-turned Optics, and got the splash screen on 120:



Gifted Rego his buddhist buddy:



And saw that Sian had been eliminated. But funny enough, the same turn that Sian was eliminated I received my first choice of things to vote on:



No, I didn't go with the vote. Rather not cause any bugs, so I just abstained from bringing anything up.

We whipped the Globe at cost of 3 pop this turn:



And will be whipping many more things in the turns to come. Actually, I need to get into Nationalism so I can start drafting zerkers. But Bureaucracy gets Oxford out a turn earlier. What I think I'll do is wait until Oxford finishes and then switch to Nationalism / Theocracy. That would get me 6 turns of drafting before the NAP ends, or 24 berserkers. Yeah, I'd be happy with that to start with. Well, until then it will be whipping out boats.

Turn 121 announced the advent of Paper.



Lots of great people were also born:



I got an engineer!



We are keeping that dude; Mining, Inc. here we come!

Rego got bit by the Priest bug, like I did. This really sucks for him because he wanted either a GS to bulb half of Sci Meth, or a non-Prophet so he could enter into a GA of his own. I'm not trading him his GP for my GE; maybe when my next great person comes; it's due in 6 turns.

But I'm saving the biggest for last. After ending the turn, I got this announcement:



I was making +7 gold at 70% before the wonder completed; now I'm looking at +90. Some of that was cities growing and finishing markets, but most of it was this:



(Forgot to circle all the temples and monestaries I've built.)

So what are demographics looking like now?



Finally passed Rego in Crop Yield, and I'm starting to get a lead in total citizens. If my C&D is right then Rego has 192 total citizens with 23 cities; I have 204 citizens in 27 cities.

The GNP is with no tech selected. I 1-turned Education this turn, and could have done the same with Astronomy if I wasn't set on Oxford. Astronomy is next; I guess this means I won't build Statue of Zeus, but naval defense is paramount. Wait, actually Feudalism is next so we can whip in some longbows and then we may pick up HBR or Lit just to overflow everything into a 1-turn Astronomy. Right now it looks like it'll be a 2-turn tech.

Rego still has a healthy tech lead, though. I've got him pegged at 17,643 total beakers researched. I'm only at 13,827. Commodore is third place with 9,990 and Yuri last with 7,083.

[pindicator]

I think we have a Denver fan among us. I left google chat open and came back to this:

Regoarrarr: TEBOW!

[Ceiliazul]

I think we have a Denver fan among us.

[pindicator]

Please tell me you posted that in Rego's thread as well!