(October 7th, 2017, 16:04)JR4 Wrote: Somehow we got an extra land point this turn. I`m unsure where that came from tbh.
I just looked closely at the screenshots you took, and it looks like Vulcania (with some help from Radnashiri and Oljei Baajii) is finally starting to claim its first-ring tiles for us! [EDIT: The screenshots aren't 100% clear, since it's hidden by the interface, but it might even be worth checking its tile assignments....]
Also of note: As far as I can tell, Krill responded to GJ's conquest of China by planting several new cities - probably north and east of Animal Farm in territory that was swamped by Chinese culture until that culture stopped existing. GJ is clearly the victor to whom the best of the spoils go, but Krill did't have to invest nearly as much to get what he got. Or I might be totally wrong about the three ciites he appears to have planted in the last two turns; they might just be random fillers or more island cities or something!
Buddhism is now the most widespread faith in the world!
So, I just checked which tile we got control of this turn and it does indeed turn out to be a tile close to Vulcania, the mountain is now ours! The deer and the plains hill have 37 % of our culture. The project of claiming those tiles is a long one.. Well, at least we`re making ground every turn.
I took a screenshot of the border region between Joey and Krill. Krill has settled at least one city there (and he might have settled at least another after the map swap).
And so to the big (maybe controversial) decision of the turn. I changed my mind and offered Gavagai Open Borders. The reasoning here is that the last couple of turns have brought to light that Gavagai (and Krill for that sake) can act as counterweights to Joey. We should help out the Ottoman Empire imo. Getting Open Borders with Gavagai is by no means a horrible deal, we`re set to earn quite a bit I think. Right now I see only Joey and dtay as existential threats while we don`t share a long border with Gavagai. As he hasn`t played yet, it`s very likely that he accepts the deal so we`ll get the benefits of it this turn already. Also, getting a little bit of goodwill won`t hurt, though it`s obviously not going to stop him from declaring war if he spots a weakness. The point you brought up regarding how long it takes before the trade routes are back to normal after a war- well, I guess we`ll see. I don`t have any experience with that. At worst we`ll get a little bit now and more every turn to come - at best we could make ourselves a small fortune. Gavagai really has a lot of island cities now.
As expected, Gavagai accepted the Open Borders deal. Our beaker output at 100% science is up to 845. We might want to avoid provoking him too much as he is going directly for Frigates. We really haven`t got any counter to that until we research Chemistry ourselves. The two wars are still raging, our Caravel got a view of Gavagai`s newest conquest. Gavagai seems to like building Crossbows! We`re building Wealth in Borte and Oljei Taikhu in order to finish Astronomy eot. The option of building Observatories and Galleons a turn early is surely worth the trouble.
Notre Dame will, if all goes to plan, finish eot! 3 Workers are building a Workshop for even more production. It can be reverted to a farm if we want it to grow instead.
As all our unit builds completed this turn, we`re actually up to 3rd in soldiers. That`s reassuring. We have between 30 and 35 units capable of hitting the suspected stage tile of dtay if he comes for us. As long as the Ottomans and the Zulus stay at war I`m not so concerned, (but we shouldn`t let down the guard). Muqa is building another Longbow, I think it needs to go to one of the island cities. The overflow will come in handy as well.
Graphs and demos: Dtay is being pulled back to the rest of the pack. Joey is the new leader in crop yield, cementing his position as the frontrunner. Still, Krill and Gavagai are still very much in this game. Dtay also has a chance, but frankly he probably needs more land to compete with Greece.
Our demos look excellent in the Golden Age but they won`t be that good forever. After the Open Border deal with Gavagai was signed we still keep a healthy plus in trade balance and that`s good. If only we had a bit more land we could be more competitive. As it is, we need to play catch up with the rest of the field. Well, our Shrine in Muqa is really helping out here.
Our military power is higher than two thirds of our rivals' and yet still below the average! The graphs bear out the reason for this: There's GJ, and then there's dtay, and then there's a huge clump of Everybody Else. (So ... our two land neighbors? Yeah.)
I don't know our unit make-up right now, but my suspicion is that we need more cats. If we want to take another island or two from Dark Savant when we have Galleons (first hopefully establishing our neighbors' good intentions) then what we need instead is a lot more cats. (I don't like trebs in general; they're too expensive and specialized.)
Yes, Joey is far ahead in military power so he could possibly take one of our border cities if he commits 100%. We have 9 Catapults on the northern border iirc and about 4 on the southern one. I agree that we should build more of them. The power level of the remaining civs (other than dtay and Joey) is very close indeed. When our Golden Age shortly comes to an end we could whip out a bit more military and Catapults in particular to have enough collateral.
What about waiting for Chemistry to come in and then look for options with Frigates (the most likely target would have to be Dark Savant)? It`s a nightmare to defend against those in a naval war. Frigates could also help bombarding down defenses.
The last turn of our Golden Age brought no peace deals. Dtay being fully occupied elsewhere is a very lucky break for us. As both our land neighbors double moved us this turn we`re safe for the time being. Gavagai has 3 Galleons and a Caravel near Angle. It looks like he can blockade the port this turn if he wants to.. Next turn we`ll get eyes on Angle`s garrison. The Caravel on the western sea is just looking for incoming threats. EDIT: Krill finished the Dai Miao this turn so Animal Farm is going to be a monster (both his religions were founded there).
Oh, we finished the Notre Dame this turn! That`s 2 happy in all mainland cities for the rest of the game. It produces 10 culture per turn, which probably won`t make a difference but will help us reach 80 % defense quicker. The added GP points are nice as well.
Observatories were started in Borte and Muqa. Getting a turn of GA production will help getting them done quickly. Bulugan was whipped (a Knight would have completed anyway) to give us a massive overflow. I`m thinking about getting the Apostolic Palace built there. We`re finishing Theology at 70% science. Taking one of our best hammer cities away from unit builds could be a bad decision, though.. Thoughts!? Bulugan gace up a grass farm, hence the starvation (-1 food).
Next turn we`ll whip a lot, to finish buildings and/or units as the GA comes to an end.
Graphs and demos: We`re 4th in soldiers now which is still fine. I think Gavagai just overtook us. He`s surely building units everywhere as the war with dtay is still real. Actually, we`re not that far behind the others (except Joey and dtay) in crop yield, so that`s encouraging.
Apostalic Palace: Since it sounds like we're not going on the offensive, I guess it's a question of how safe we feel right now. Taking Bulugan off of units for ~8 turns so we can generate more production empire-wide in the future (and teching Theocracy instead of Gunpowder now) will be a very good move if we're left alone, and a very bad move if we're attacked. (Theo has a significant beaker cost, and the AP costs almost as many hammers as 4 three-promo Knights, but if we finish it, it will pay for itself after just a few turns. It might help GJ and Gav as well, but they're not Spi, so it's not as advantageous for them to build temples as for us.)
More general comment about MP planning: If we decide to wait for frigates (or any other given advantage we imagine we're going to have) without a specific plan to get there, prepare, and execute an attack, this the same as deciding not to attack at all. We could still mount an attack before Dark Savant gets Astro: Offer fish for fish to dtay and GJ again, and then if they both offer it back, mount an attack ASAP, including Galley -> Galleon upgrades (110 gold apiece). I don't know what we'd be up against though, and it might indeed be best to mount an attack later, when we have another tech edge, have had time to prepare properly, and/or have other players positioned to pile on (or already attacking him so we can pile on). If we want to attack at Frigates though (bearing in mind that the impact of their bombardment will be small) I think we should start planning for it now.
Hmm, I think the advantages of The Apostolic Palace you describe belong to another mod.. I do remember lurking a game where Temples gave extra production after the Wonder was built but can`t remember which. According to the changelog it still does has the same effects as in base bts, except the most fun resolutions are no longer available.
"AP Resolutions: Declare War (on a non-member), Force Peace (between two members), Religious victory, and Assign City are no longer eligible resolution actions".
That`s not according to my evil plan of using the Apostolic Palace to turn the geopolitics in our favor. So, it probably wasn`t a good call to go for Christianity after all. Well, at least we have access to Theocracy which has some value to us as a SPI civ. I`m really unsure of whether it pays off building the AP at all. We really need more units to counter the constant threats to our safety. Remind me to check the changelog carefully next time!
As for attacking Dark Savant now or later: As always, I like having options. Let`s start some Galleons now (Upgrading Galleys sounds too expensive) and look for openings. We need a lot of units to break down +125 % defenses. I`m all for planning to go to war when we get a crucial tech edge, most likely Chemistry.
