[SPOILERS] Back to Basic - Mardoc plays Augustus of China

[Mardoc]

High teching opponent wastes gold on espionage rather then beakers when they have no intent to use it economically and most of the visibility can be achieved simply with caravels, let alone spies == win for you, however annoying.
Especially considering you aren't even going to be stealing from him for a while.

Well, maybe. It does mean less tech for Sian, but it also probably means less for me in the long run.

But you're right, short term it's only good, presuming he intends no war.

[Mardoc]

Wasn't planning on invading Ruff - glad he's thinking defensively!




Maybe *this* will be the magic bullet for GNP? Probably not, but it'll be a significant help, and also some Spy GPP.

Edit: Oops! If I was going to work a bare hill, it should at least have been the riverside one . I'll try to remember to fix that next turn.
Edit2: Or, um, this is actually pretty embarassing. What if I'd instead just swapped the spy to engineer, and kept growing? I think I'm going to have to make myself a rule for the next one, no playing turns in the morning. This one's still 'casual' so I'm not as fussed.

[Mardoc]

So, the big thing of the turn is the construction of the Forbidden Palace. Along with the fixing of my stupid, stupid, micro at Tarquin:



How much did it help?




47 gpt knocked off my costs! Maybe three of which is from that 'We love the Prime Minister' business? Holy cow. I expected it to help, but not *that* much. Should have built it sooner.



Also, you can see that my EP ratios are getting pretty good. Still have about ten turns before my first steal - whose bright idea was it to make spies only 1 move? Still, once I get started, the catching up ought to go rather quickly. Up to five spies in hand now, and the limit still looks like their march rate, not the EP to support them. Aiming for about 15 total, plus whatever replacements I turn out to need.

[Mardoc]

Had a couple turns this morning. Demos are starting to look respectable; I'm within 200 GNP of catching up to Ruff - 500ish to 700ish during his GA, and that doesn't account for the EE discounts I'm going to be getting on my beakers. I've got my first spy in position and the next one a turn away; now they just need to wait. Several more still moseying their way east.

I hired two scientists in Nale, knocking its Great Person ETA way down, below 20 turns. That'll go up when Haley births its GP, but I still like the rate of progress. I noticed something I'd forgotten - Haley's got a 33% chance of Great Prophet. I'm actually hoping for that, it would let me hire 2 more merchants in Nale and really speed up the Golden Age.

I'm now getting a little worried about Ruff, instead of Sian. He swapped to Nationhood/Theocracy, and has built three Rifles already. On the other hand, he's still got half a dozen banks in queue, so if he's intending anything hostile, it's not imminent. I've got everything in motion to catch up to him if he just gives me a few more turns. I think I've got to put Roy and Elan back to ChoKoNu duty, though, instead of building me spies. I'm confident that Chos can stop Rifles, but only if I have enough of them. And I'll keep an eye on Ruff - if need be I'll whip a round of Chos from all my cities. At least the eastern cities are getting to a respectable size and food surplus now.

Sian is still tooling along at half the Power of Ruff and I, so I'm less worried there. He could have already had Rifles on the mainland if he'd pushed it, but it looks like he's aiming for something further down the tree. I did get Hindu into one of his cities and a spy onto his island, so I'm well placed in the event Ruff makes espionage with him expensive - the other plausible Theocracy explanation. Or if I catch Ruff and still want to run EP rather than turn on research. The spy's going to defog Sian's interior, then park himself in the Hindu city and wait.

I'm still basically just planning to aim for parity and growth. Nothing long term in mind, not until I've got the demos to superiority. Guessing that won't really happen until Communism or so.

[Mardoc]

So, here's what the prices look like for techs, with no stationary spy discount yet (and only 66% on the EP cost ratio, which continues to fall with further investment). Compare to the cost in beakers - we're already getting a deal. But since it should get significantly better with a little bit of patience, I"m going to wait. We do have a lot of catching up to do, it wouldn't do to use up our EP too early.







Also in the news, Ruff's Golden Age ended!?! I'm surprised, I thought he'd have pushed to get Great People ready for a chained GA. That does make the numbers look a lot better for demographics:





We still have a lot of work to do, particularly on GNP - but we're within spitting distance now . Add in those dramatic EP discounts, and things should start improving shortly. Plus, of course, improving once we get the tech to boost our yields.

I've got six spies working, and two more in queue. Not quite to the level I want to be, but moving in the right direction.

At end of turn, I got the first half of a Golden Age:



Nale's still sadly pretty far away from the second half, though. I might have to put up some temples here just for the Priest slots. Either that, or gamble with Merchants.

[Twinkletoes89]

Things certainly look interesting in this game! Kind of glad I get to lurk it rather than be still clinging on by my fingernails!

Given the wait for a second GP, does the Merchant not become attractive to use as a trade mission for gold to run EP slider at 100% as that would prob take less time to happen?

I honestly have no clue if that would be better or not, just interested to hear your thoughts as I am pretty iffy when it comes to using GPs wisely.

[Mardoc]

Things certainly look interesting in this game! Kind of glad I get to lurk it rather than be still clinging on by my fingernails!

Given the wait for a second GP, does the Merchant not become attractive to use as a trade mission for gold to run EP slider at 100% as that would prob take less time to happen?

I honestly have no clue if that would be better or not, just interested to hear your thoughts as I am pretty iffy when it comes to using GPs wisely.

I don't think so, but I'm hardly an expert either. Still, here's what I'm thinking:

I want to revolt into Nationalism and Caste System as soon as I can, and ideally into State Property soon as well. With a humongous empire, that's a lot of revolt time if I don't have a golden age. At least 2 turns. Two turns of my current 500ish GNP is, well, quite possibly as much as the Merchant could make.

I actually think I may run out of useful targets for the EP by the time I go broke. My GNP is into the reasonable range and still climbing, and you can see that I'm looking likely to buy my techs for 1/3 price or so.

With a huge empire, golden age pays off very well, too. Many, many tiles to boost. And Great People points to double.

[Mardoc]

Well, looks like Ruff is going to call my bluff, about 10 turns before I'd have been mostly caught up in tech . Whipping Chos everywhere, I'll put up a fight, but I expect him to win this. Sian doesn't have the aggression needed to stop him before he gets all those cities I worked so hard to build up.







This failed, of course.

[Mardoc]

Huh, he didn't invade yet. Well, that's one round of whipped Chos completed. Round two, coming up.

I'm also doing a bit of hand research, I want to steal Nationalism from Ruff but I'm running low on spies.

[Mardoc]

Hmm...lesson from this game: Don't take Krill's advice if you're not prepared to execute it in a Krill-like fashion! I should have either done exactly what he proposed - grab the jungle, gimp Ruff while I had the advantage, and keep the pressure on while claiming the east - or ignored the suggestions and expanded at a pace I was comfortable with.