Strategic directions - long-term planning

[kjn]

No. Apolyton have lower costs and a higher science multiplier than us. On the other hand, they're currently in Free Market, so it's quite possible they're headed for some other tech target.

That said, they have a far smaller benefit from State Property than us, since they have a far smaller empire. Right now they're in Free Market and they are PHI, so I imagine they might be going the corporation route.

[SevenSpirits]

I would normally expect a team in Apolyton's position to head for rifling to try to gain some land, or like kjn said for a corp.

I am a bit disquieted by the fact that they stole liberalism, however.

[Mardoc]

I like the idea of an economic beeline, with a supplemental spy economy. Hand research things that have nice first-to bonuses, and steal the rest.

If we can't steal Rifling and MilTrad because no one else researches them, then we didn't need them, right? And if we do need them, then we get them at a discount.

[Speaker]

I'd need to run the numbers (Speaker: perhaps in a basement!)

In Jobe's mom's basement?

[antisocialmunky]

No. Apolyton have lower costs and a higher science multiplier than us. On the other hand, they're currently in Free Market, so it's quite possible they're headed for some other tech target.

That said, they have a far smaller benefit from State Property than us, since they have a far smaller empire. Right now they're in Free Market and they are PHI, so I imagine they might be going the corporation route.

They'll probably rush towards assembly line or something predictable. Safest move.

We really need to flip the German land around. Our gains look very impressive right now but we are in the hole in terms of hammers and commerce spent on vs recovered from Germany so far.

[NobleHelium]

Just because Apolyton has lower costs and a higher science multiplier does not mean that they are teching faster (they are right now, but that is not derived from that statement). I really don't understand why people insist on thinking higher science multiplier = faster tech. The only thing that matters is bpt at breakeven, plus bulbs.

[novice]

So, we need to decide between a Communism or Rifling tech path going forward, that's being discussed in other threads at the moment. We could ask UCiv for funding, that's a diplo aspect, so see the diplo thread.

Anyway, another strategic issue is how to deal with spies. I can see those non-banned spy missions becoming a huge pain in the ass for us, especially the civics and religion revolt missions, where we'll need several turns of anarchy to get back into our preferred civics. How are we going to deal with this?

Here's what I get from my own initial brainstorming:
- Christo Redentor
- NAPs with clauses against these missions with as many teams as possible
- No-spying deals with teams that refuse to sign conventional NAPs???
- Continuous counterespionage missions with everybody else
- Huge army so our rivals don't dare inciting war
- Revolt hostile teams into our civics, so they can't revolt us into theirs (doesn't work against SPI though, or is the "no revolts" counter started by the spy mission?)
- Defensive spies in our cities

Does anybody have any other/better ideas for what we can do?

[SleepingMoogle]

Regardless of what happens, we will need to take into account that sooner or later another team will try and use these missions against us and prepare accordingly. Given our perceived position as the top dog and the reluctance of other teams to sign NAPs with us, any no-spy agreements that we can make with other teams should be considered a bonus.

[scooter]

Alright guys, I'm going to suggest something heretical. We need to delay Rifling and tech Military Tradition next. My case for it:

1) We're going to face cannons. We need to be able to flank them away with strong 2-movers. Knights are fine, but Cuirs are a big step up. EDIT: Also, Knights CANNOT flank cannons.

2) Cuirs, Muskets, and Catapults is a perfectly acceptable defense against Rifles. There won't even be that many Rifles as of right now.

3) Besides, if CFC is heading for Grens next to go with their cannons (they almost definitely are), Cuirs are way better for that type of attack than Rifles. Remember, pinch Cuirs get positive survival odds on drafted rifles. The step up from Knights is not insignificant here. Cuirs ignore walls too, so it's a lot easier to snipe random cities with them.

4) I believe we need to be pretty aggressive here when the NAPs end. As of right now, there's quite a few fairly exposed enemy cities on our various borders. I'm not interested in waiting around and letting them dictate when and where the battle happens. If we can strong-arm someone into a NAP, awesome, but if not we can at least damage someone who was coming after us anyway. You guys see CivPlayers border and lack of advanced military - really think we can't raze a city of theirs? Of course we could, and Cuirs makes that a lot easier since there's a few vulnerable places. I think our enemies biggest weakness is lack of tactical experience, so we should exploit that.

5) Given all the goals in #4, I think Military Tradition helps those out the most. It's simple, we queue up Knights everywhere, whip/complete them as we finish Military Tradition, and we have a ton of Cuirs just like that. We need more cats, too. Rifling is important yes, but it's less important if we lose 10 cities before we finish it. Military Tradition will be a lot quicker.

Thoughts? The reality is Rifling is just not going to come in quickly enough I don't think, but Military Tradition would be a significant boost in our ability to both defend and be opportunistic with our neighbors.

EDIT: made an addition to #1

[spacetyrantxenu]

How much sooner could we research Military Tradition vs. going through with the current Rifling plan?