Depraved Danish Debauchery - Catwalk cooking up a storm [SPOILERS]

[Ceiliazul]

t104

At first I was afraid, I was petrified.

Kept thinking, I could never live with this empire on my side

but oh I will survive!



The above shot shows the Reborn Empire as inherited. Three religions founded, no state religion, decent defense at least, but no strategic direction at all.



The numbers look bad but not horrible. Catwalk is in much better shape than I expected from his notes above. He's last in every category that matters, but not horrifyingly so. Also, there's some strategic changes we can make quickly that will make a big impact.



First of all, the civics. Here on t104, with a PHI leader, we haven't had a single golden age! We're running the same civics since 3000BC, and no religion at all. What makes that especially odd is that Catwalk delayed his early economy to found the dreaded Cuban Hydra: Bud-Hin-Jew the Magnificent... make that Bud-Hin-Jew the oppressed. Time to break that pattern. To add to the oddity, Catwalk actually built the Schwedagon Paya. Why is he still Pagan?? In another twist, Catwalk is PHI and owns the parthenon, yet isn't working a single specialist anywhere in the empire. In total, there have only been 3 GPs spawned in 100 turns for a civ with +150% GPP... kinda sad.



Well, actually that helps us a bit: The GPP pool is still pretty shallow. So, lets fix this up. The city that is closest to a Great Person is actually the Heroic Epic city. It's 100% useless artist, but Honey Badger don't care. Honey Badger can turn any GP into a golden badger of civic swappery. Still, at 12 turns away, that GP is much too slow. So the very first action of the Reborn empire is to whip a Forge and run an engineer for the next 4 turns. And that should also help us pump out some serious defense. In fact, Achilles is a really NICE Heroic Epic city, and should have problem printing any defender I want one per turn... which is good because my second order of business is to buff the defenses a bit.



Now, Catwalk has kept up in power with the leaders. Enough, at least, to avoid looking like easy meat. He even has a formidable stack in Gandalf, the Northeast city. That's the city that's facing AutomatedTeller, our current score leader and apparent big stack bully. However, other cities are defended by (for example) 2 axes and a spear. That would be fine in 500AD, but not any more.

Next problem: an economy with breakeven at 10%!

You think I'll crumble? Lay down and Die?

No! I'll survive!

[NobleHelium]

Nice, very nice.

[Ceiliazul]

t105

The horses in the south of the empire were found unpastured, for some strange reason. This has been resolved. A worker was found on 'sleep' in the center of the empire, doing nothing, he's been put to work.

Here's my capital, rocking the FIN cottages:



(picture taken t104, before it swapped to a settler) The settler was triple whipped this turn, giving the city room to grow. This empire needs a serious economy boost, and I'll look here for many more cottages in the near-to-mid future.

5t to Golden Age of Swappery!

[Ceiliazul]

t106






Progress! We are no longer last in absolutely everything... and quickly recovering in economy.

. T104: max cash = 5g
.
. t107: max cash = 25g

Lets project this into the future:

. t110: max cash = 625g
.
. t1120: max cash = ONE MILLION DOLLARS.

Awww, yeah.

[NobleHelium]

Any plans to work the dry cottages over the coast in the future?

[Ceiliazul]

Actually, that picture was taken on t104 as the city was when I first saw it. On the Economy Makeover plan, the cottages are already receiving priority attention. Silly not to, with FIN.

[Ceiliazul]

t107

Introducing The first newborn city of the Reborn empire... Aristeas!

This city will claim fish and wines, and eventually corral those whales in the south sea. This will be a production city, but those lake tiles will help ensure this city can support itself. This will probably take me off the Dr. Evil cash pattern, but I have a feeling that wasn't going to work out anyway.



And next turn, even more shenanigans are prepared. I have a settler and 2 longbows in place to recover Catwalk's toehold in the Southwest. Those fast workers in the area will allow me to pasture the sheep on t0 of the cities' existence.



Between these two cities we're bound to bring the economy crashing down toward zero percent... but there's hope!
My next Great person is due in 2t from Phonnix, and will send us into a golden age that will power us through Code of Laws and Civil Service... This tiny map is crying out for Bureaucracy, and cannot be left waiting any longer!

One thing that Catwalk did really well is push out his cultural borders. With the current low city count, the Indian empire would be doomed without some kind of expansion. However, because of the large band of cultural control from his cities, we can do something like this:



The city to the West is actually reclaiming land Catwalk previously held, but hey, it's better than a skirmisher in the eye! Speaking of which, that guy on the gold mine has got to go!

[Commodore]

Nice REX plan. Also, damn you Ceil, and damn Gloria Gaynor.

[Ceiliazul]

Flush from your duel victory and still a angry cuss.

Well, the rex plan continues next turn. The 2 horse archers will pick off the skirmisher on gold hill, 2 workers will road the indicated tile, and allow the longbows to pile onto the marked city location. If a horse withdraws the axe will cover him, else he'll pile onto the hill. You can see a settler completing in Phoenix, and a Jewish missionary in the capital. We need that gold, stat!



Long term, the plan is mapped out below. I inherited an empire with five cities and zero economy. By t109, the empire will be out to 8 cities, each with at least 2 longbows. Two generals have appeared in the last 5 turns, it appears there's hot wars elsewhere on this toroid. Better get while the getting is good, eh?



You think the economy is bad now? Just wait!

[Commodore]

Hah! I approve, in 34s (a map even smaller than this) I played it so that I was striking only every other turn, prevented mass desertion well. And nice to see the ole' hex grid again. You think this is a winnable position?

I'm never angry, I just play angry on TV. Or when someone puts an earworm song in my head that gets passed on to my wife and has been bouncing back and forth for a day now. :P Seriously, "I Will Survive" is terrible, and a weak objective. You need to be singing instead "We Shall Overcome". True cultural challenge win?