[spoilers] OT4E is gonna try something special

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

I HATE the move from nicely untouchable cities on the sea to suddenly being very exposed. Luckily you got paper in time!

[OT4E]

I HATE the move from nicely untouchable cities on the sea to suddenly being very exposed. Luckily you got paper in time!

Yeap, I was sure that Astro will not appear on this map. The only reason to go for it could be to spoil my Colossus. I hoped to use it for at least 100 more turns.

[OT4E]

I must admit I screwed this game badly. I had Oracle Pyramids, Colossus and TGL (both), but I prefer we not to try to runaway to avoid being the most hated target. Funny, yeah?

 But just mention you want some and you get exactly opposite. Nyles and pindicator are playing against me without any sight of aggression from me. Nyles screwed my Serfdorm +Rep and golden age, pindicator is working on making my golden idol fall. Also I am locked in the defense for eternity from now.

I failed to make proper attack, overestimating my forces, doing stupid mistakes like not taking trebuchets and honestly because I didnt put enough efforts in that attack.

Meanwhile I could work on rising my GNP and creating basic infrastructure. My research rate is pathetic ~250 beakers per turn at 30%. This is average level on the map, probably pindicator is making more. Here came the moment I need 5000- 6000 beakers which and I cant do anything with it. Shame on me!

Mr. Cairo's GNP is 1400 and he will finish his GA with Liber and Constitution.

Ok, the moment of self judging is over and I will come back with a proper recover in plan. I give myself 10 turns to double my research.

[OT4E]

Screenshots without comments:

[OT4E]

T150

Mr. Cairo got liberalism and took Constitution as I expected. He also built shrine.


He is on top in all the main graphs with +511 gpt. It shows that he has over 21% of world population which is minimum 275 pop with something like 60 free specialits.



I am finishing Optics, I need at least it for the safety. Hopefully it is enough from me as long as pindicator's power does not grow.


I am still going to build some walls and castles to be sure that the minimum garnisson I leave in the core is not takeable from sea.


This sea is in danger also, but I hope that pindicator couldnt have galley/galleons there yet, because it is his new former Stardoor's colonies.



I am working on my own shrine. Unfortunately Mr.Cairo was lucky enough to get his one from ToA, but mine will give +2 hammers as the compensation.


I currently have GS and GM and it will not be easy to get something different for golden age. Actually wasting 2-men GA screwed my game hard, thanks to Nyles and my blindness.

Anyway I will not gamble with 20-25% of GE in Three Rabbits and will leave this one for further GA (4 pop)


The plan is to get Shrine in RustyHorseShoe and assign 3 more Priests there:


It will take 16 turns from now. If nothing special happens I aim to get Nationalism by that time. If it does I need Nationalism even more, so this is my primary goal.

I must admit that I messed micromanagement of this city hard. Mainly I had to slave it urgently and several times, but after all it was planted to be production center, but now it is working on commerce while cap is emphazising on hammers while building UoS.



Actually I think that UoS will fall in 1-2 turns, so I should find a better spot for building it than Cap. I am a bit crazy on clean GPP generation and I feel that I regret it more often than people get something wrong with 90% chance of the proper GP.

I am diversificating my economy building cottages in many places, though I dont see enough reasons to tech Astronomy and throw away bonus from Colossus. My other focus is trade routes, I am finishing harbors in main cities and growing them up. This helped me to manage to solve problem with lacking of international trade routes.



So I no longer have 1-coin routes anywhere.

The main question for now is what path to Nationalism shall I pick.
1) I want Divine Right for Spiral Minaret and probably Versalles. But it is expensive and the whole path will cost me 5366 beakers.
2) If I get Philosophy I can build Angor Wat. Thinking of 2 free specialists from Mercantilism priests with 2 hammers and 1 coin seems to be very nice thing in my situation since I get free hammers from temples. This path costs 4480 beakers total.
3) I can probably get both though I need to calculate how it suits in 16 turn timeframe. Getting both takes 5962 beakers to tech.

Anyway Mr.Cairo with his 1200 GNP+ on ~0% is clear leader and I fully understand that he can either get Rifles and start conquaring his neighbors or directly head to the further tech advantage. With my 3 libraries and current tech rate of 30% I have no chance to compete with him.

I also changed my mind about expansion. Chopping settlers in new cities is the worst mistake I should have never done. In fact it takes 3-4-5 turns for almost any of my cities to build settler while chopping the only forests from the newest cities cripples them. It is very important not just to plant cities and "let them be" but to develop them as fast as possible to get some outcome. It takes ~40 turns to get regular city into proper condition and if you can lower this timeframe to 30 or 25 it is great.

[OT4E]

T153

Mr.Cairo has completed Angkor wat. Not sure was it just a back up plan to generate GP or he wants to change focus on priests too. Anyway this makes my path through Philosophy less attractive. If I skip it I will be behind in Communism race and wont be able to use Liberalism civics, but I must admit I am deadly behind in any race and if I want to compete I need to skip tech leading to nowhere.

I am saving gold and will stay on 0% for 4 more turns. By that time I complete libraries in most of the big cities. This is probably the first smart idea came to my head in a while. In fact I was rushing somewhere all the time and had no single second to stop and take a breath. Now the time has come.

I am also happy that Mr. Cairo is now on the top of the score. I dont have illusions that someone will play against him finally but may be they wont play against me as they do. His GNP is now 1800+ and he is heading to Economy I guess.

I am considering building Chichen Itza and Notre dam. The first one will make me harder, really. Those castles with 125% and Janissaries in, imagine. It will expire as soon as I get Rifles, but with Rifles do I need anything else?

Though Notre dam is probably better. I have no problem with happiness yet, but if I once get in the war and continue wastingmy armies like I did with Nyles then I can need it. The bonus stays forever and stacks with my hammams bonus also. To make it clear my happy limit will be around 30.

[OT4E]

T154

I whipped UoS with 5 citizen to save 1 turn. There is still a chance for the tie, but I had to try it. It will instantly give me 50 raw beakers per turn and the number will increase in time.


Mr. Cairo got Printing Press and is now making +625 gpt I hope it is on 0% but I dunno if he is using merchants or scientiest. Anyway with represenation he has at least 150 base science output.

[OT4E]

T157

Checkpoint. On T147 I was making +250 gold/science per turn and promised to double this value. It happened!


But GNP is not very inspiring:


The plan is to go directly for Nationalism, then take Banking and Drama and after that switch to Military Tradition. I dont want to switch on Environmetalism because Liberalism is outside of the tech tree, so I will stay on Nationhood. And I am going to return on the war path and build precedentless stack of janissaries and cuirassiers. I will also build some more trebutchets while being on the police state.

[OT4E]

The minumum plan for golden age is to reach MT and start building Cuirassiers. My path to Rifling will cost ~12k of base science from that point which I can cover in 10-15 points at most. Then Cuirassier to Cavalry upgrade is very cheap. So by T175-180 I will be in a good position to attack. Mr.Cairo will be far though I doubt he will get some significant advantage in military compared to Cavalries. But my neighbours are in definitely worse position.

[OT4E]

T159
Shrine is up and brings me +50 gpt (33 cities with christianity). 
7 turns till GA.
8 turns till Spiral minaret.

I have started scheduling units but without any rush. By the way pindicator's power is growing, so last 2 circles of whips could be units. 

Mr. Cairo teched Replaceable parts and is now heading towards something with 2700 GNP. I only have 1700 on Civil service with 40% and high KTB. But I expect to get raw 1k income with all the goods I gain in 7-8 turns and much more during GA.