Because I went through and looked at Kathlete yesterday, I really wanted to check out the same for our other main rival, Nakor:
Overall Stuff - Nakor
Total Cities: 18 -> 18 (us)
Total Population: 158+ (#2) -> 189 (us)
Total Beakers: 25,933 (#1) -> 24,101 (us)
Soldier Count: 692k (#2) -> 1186k (us)
We don't have visibility on 3 of Nakor's newest cities, so the total population figure is unclear. I would guess roughly 165-170, depending on how developed those new cities are. (We can see the borders of one of these, on a small island in the icy north. Probably the others are up there too - have to scout them out once we get some caravels.) Note that next turn we will discover Replaceable Parts, and then our beaker count will be 25,941. We're basically even in tech at the moment.
25 Turns Ago
Total Cities: 13 -> 18 [
UP 5 cities]
Total Population: 90 -> 158+ [
UP 68+ pop]
Total Beakers: 10,061 -> 25,933 [
UP 15,872 beakers]
Soldier Count: 463k -> 692k [
UP 229 units]
Unlike Kathlete, Nakor has improved substantially in every category. It's really quite amazing how one of our competitors stood still and/or regressed backwards, while the other one surged ahead in such dramatic fashion. Credit to Nakor for getting the Taj/Mausoleum combo and leveraging that into this extended Golden Age.
However - it has to be mentioned that part of the reason why these numbers look so good is due to the fact that Whosit cheese gifted two mature, well-developed cities over to Nakor's control. Ironpass (former Dathomir) is size 11, with Granary, Lighthouse, Barracks, Forge, Library, University, Theatre, Rathaus, and Confucian Monastery. It's easy to look good when you get awesome cities like that and don't have to do a damn thing to work for it.
Soldier Count Breakdown
Population: 85k
Technology: 94k
City Improvements: 46k
Units: 467k
Nakor has a solid defensive military, nothing spectacular. The key question is what he decides to do now that he has Rifling tech. He can't get enough rifles to threaten us, at least not immediately, but Dantski or plako might be in some trouble. Nakor's researching Theology tech next - let's see if he pulls the same Nationhood + Theocracy civics swap that we did. Lots of drafted rifles would make this game more interesting, at least.
City Improvements Breakdown [our team]
15 Granaries [16]
14 Rathauses [6]
11 Libraries [11]
9 Monuments [5]
8 Barracks [14]
7 Forges [15]
7 Universities [9]
7 Lighthouses [5]
5 Confucian Monasteries [12]
5 Theatres [6]
2 Grocers [6]
2 Academies [1]
1 Confucian Temple [12]
1 Buddhist Monastery [0]
0 City Walls [7]
0 Markets [5]
0 Stables [4]
0 Banks [2]
0 Aqueducts [2]
0 Castles [2]
0 Jails [1]
3 National Wonders (Palace, Heroic Epic, Hermitage) [7: +Oxford, +Moai, +Forbidden Palace, +National Epic, +Globe, -Hermitage]
2 World Wonders (Mausoleum, Taj Mahal) [4: Notre Dame, Colossus, Hanging Gardens, Apostolic Palace]
Amusingly enough, Nakor is sort of the opposite of Kathlete when it comes to empire development. Kathlete had tons of gold-boosting improvements, 8 markets and 6 grocers, but not a lot of buildings that added to science. In contrast, Nakor has 5 universities and 6 total monasteries, but he has only 2 grocers and 0 markets! This actually makes some sense for Nakor's team, which has low costs (from spamming rathauses) and can support a high science rate. Still, Nakor spends half his turns oscillating between 100% and 0% science. You'd think that he would build at least a market and bank in his Bureaucracy capital! He's had Banking tech for a long time now, there's no reason not to have at least a couple of banks in his top commerce cities... especially since he's been in Golden Age mode for the last 17 turns.
Overall, Nakor's civ is in vastly better shape now than it was 25 turns ago. He stopped building monuments in new cities (although Rillanon actually
did build a monument since I last checked this stuff 25 turns ago, which is totally insane for ~Turn 180!!!) and corrected his two glaring flaws: he only had 5 libraries and 3 forges before. Now those numbers are much more respectable at 11 and 7, respectively. He also got up to 7 universities, great progress for a non-Philosophical civ. Still missing Oxford though, which is likely under construction right now in Rolan. No stone however, sucks to be them.
While we're nitpicking though, I'll add two points here:
- Still not enough focus on national wonders. Yes, Nakor has Heroic Epic up and running (although not in a great city at La Mut), and the Hermitage was extremely well placed on the border with Dantski in Krondor. But there's still no Moai or National Epic, both of which would surely help out Nakor a lot. Even without stone, no Moai this late in the game is just a criminal waste. Nakor's got a million coastal cities, one of them surely could have had Moai long since!
- Overbuilding of Rathauses. Yes, it's a very good unique building, particularly when Organized and on a Toroidal map like this one. Nevertheless, I think Nakor has overbuilt them and slowed down his overall growth curve. His new cities are going Granary -> Rathaus, which seems unnecessary to me. Sure, the Rathaus helps your overall empire, but it does nothing to benefit new cities themselves. Early forges or even early lighthouses can do so much more to accelerate the growth curve of a new city. Then you can build the Rathaus later, once the city is more mature. Maybe it's a bit of a minor issue, but that's how I'd play things.
Still, this is now a legit competitor instead of the quasi-laughable state Nakor was in 25 turns ago. I think that DMOC's return may have had a lot to do with the improved condition of Holy Rome in this game. Ultimately though, Nakor doesn't have enough land to just build his way safely into a culture or space victory. His cities are REALLY spready out (8 on the mainland, 5 on the center island, another 5 dotted across outer islands) and will be extremely difficult to defend against a determined attack. Nakor has done nothing but build the whole game, and watch his allies crumble around him. Eventually we're going to be finishing knocking off the rest of our hit list, and we'll see how well he does when the enemies show up at the gates.
...
But the big difference is that gifted cities keep all their buildings and population, where captured cities (especially those that have been slaved down to nothing) do not.
.![[Image: smile.gif]](http://www.garath.net/Sullla/Smilies/smile.gif)
