[spoiler]Pindicator's pb80 thread

[pindicator]

124

Really need this chariot to win next turn...




Loaded up the galley out of Pug with a sentry chariot and a longbow.

Got a low-odds Great Engineer at end-of-turn. Now what could I use him for? I had planned on this being half of my next golden age, but now I may need to rethink this.

[pindicator]

125

You might understand how I was nervous going into this turn.  I needed to win a roughly 80% battle with a chariot against the barbarian axe, and considering I had just lost a 70% and a 80% fight to get into this position, I could easily see this going sideways.

But we did win, thank goodness.

Now how do we get this wrapped up the fastest?




Edit: You can also see Yuri has landed a settler on the cow/copper location in the lower right.

I loaded the settler and missionary this turn, since i couldn't unload by Aryan next turn anyway - but now I'm thinking perhaps it was better to shuttle the workers over first.  I will unload the settler & missionary by Laika next turn and they'll have to make the trip overland towards Sheep & Iron (unless there turns out to be more by the deer). I'll still be able to load the workers next turn and unload them on 127 before loading the first two chariots. Unload the chariots on 128 and the keshiks can traverse the forest to keep up with the galley and unload the following turn. Hopefully we get the barb city by t130.

Although... perhaps it is better to load the keshiks first? I would unload the keshiks 127 and immediately load the chariots, and the chariots would have odds of taking the city directly from the boat. More likely to lose a unit, but it would also speed up taking the city by a turn if it goes as planned. The biggest problem here is that I don't have a good way of getting 2 chariots onto the galley in 2 turns (unless I don't shuttle the workers over). So we're still TBD on how to crack this.

After the barb city I am going to need at least 2 more settlers to fill out the lands here. The currently settler is aiming for the best spot (though getting the fish island is tempting because it's the closest to other players), which is the Sheep-Iron on the east coast. This is where losing the keshik hurts doubly: it was supposed to be my scout for the rough tundra terrain.

Guilds finished end of turn, and I probably go Banking for the last tech of the golden age. Civil Service could also be an option for getting irrigation in a few spots for the desert border cities, but I think getting Banking in the holy city is a better play. We had to hire more specialists at Portie to get there, but we'll be able to go straight into a second golden age if that's what I decide i want to do:




Still, I'm not sure that is what I want to do. This first golden age was needed to get me caught up. I'd like my next one to be triggered after I've grown some of these new cities a bit and will be able to take more advantage of it. I'm trying to map out the great people for the 3rd golden age and am running into issues with cities just not being large enough.

It's also tempting to switch back to Slavery for a bit, but I don't think that is right. The new cities are working fine with 1f4h workshops and we're able to build infrastructure at a good clip.

A few more notes:

• Colosseums were built in select production sites: Basset Hound, Poodle, and Chihuahua. Those three are going to pump out knights now, and the Colosseum gets them to 10xp for mounted units.
  
• I finally landed a settler on the western peninsula as I've put some defenses in at Phrygian. Maybe I should rename the barb city.
  
• Economics is still the goal, but I think I need to go for Literature after Banking and build the Epics. Still: where do they get built?
  
• I've scouted everybody entirely except Krill. First caravels are done and they will start exploring the ocean.

[Hitru]

Have not been following closely, but at very least you finally have some quality islands!

[pindicator]

Yes! I've been holding off on Forbidden Palace in anticipation of putting it out here, and I likely will start building it in Malamute soon. But I really need to keep pushing out settlers so I can get this all settled soon - I doubt 2 more is really going to be the final tally.

[pindicator]

128

I got cocky




And it's the wounded trireme, so i knew i was gambling. Well, the other one can mop up: it just killed another barb galley south of Aryan.

Unloaded a chariot & keshik at Aryan this turn then loaded two more up. I think I will attack next turn and if they both win then we'll attack off the boat to try to take the city straight away.

You can see I'm starting more settlers to fill in these lands. I'm running out of time here - I might not be able to keep Yuri off the fish island. I'm hoping to move the settler that is in the area over to claim the sheep + iron site, but that is going to depend a lot on what happens with the new barbarian galley.

Now that we're out of the golden age, I'm decidedly 4th place:




Will need to kick off the next GA soon.

[pindicator]

130

I did indeed lose that wounded trireme, though it did a lot of damage to the barbarian galley.  The galley stayed back and didn't move up to threaten my galley and other trireme, so we picked up the settler & missionary as planned.  Then my chariot & keshik both attacked at Aryan and won, so I decided to risk the 50/50 with my chariot attacking an axe off the galley.  It lost, but it weakened the barb axe enough for my second keshik to clean up:




3 new settlers have finished out of the nearest 3 cities, so I decided to unload the workers I had just picked up in exchange for one of those settlers and a longbow - they are aiming for the Fish island.

Quite the logistic quandary I have going on:




Next turn the settler & longbow pair will unload onto the corn: the settler will need to move overland to the whale and the longbow is going to help screen for potential barbarians in the fog. We'll load up another galley+longbow pair and that galley will head east towards Fish Island. The third settler is just going to have to wait - oh, perhaps it would have been better to load two settlers instead of the longbow this turn.

Meanwhile, wounded galley is going to unload its settler + missionary to the northeast, where i can settle the Sheep+Iron location.

We're going to want more garrison units here, so I've stopped most infrastructure to build those. Malamute is going to pump out my work boats as well - we are going to need 3 total. And we'll also need 3 more missionaries for the tundra cities.

I'm going to build a pair of National Wonders here: Forbidden Palace is going to go in Malamute, and National Epic goes in Pug. I might rethink that last one, but NE out here would let Pug handle most of the unit needs for this part of the empire. Having a stretched empire is such an additional strain. I think Krill is the only other player with a similar wiggle, but he didn't have to worry about islands with his.

Speaking of Krill, he started his golden age and switched to Mercantilism. Thoth built Sangkore. I might need to switch to Merc myself...

[pindicator]

Commodore kicked off a golden age and used Lib to take Astronomy. I'm sure he's going to go after Krill, as he sees him as his main rival (and low on the power graph). Thoth might be the bigger rival, and is the one I'm most worried about, oddly enough - well, in the short term. We have a NAP through 150 (or I'm mixing up my Thoth NAP with the general Yuri one).

Trying to figure out when I kick off my next golden age, and I think the answer is "as soon as I know I can generate the GP for the 3rd one". Which means I need to grow Phrygian and need to get a Natl Epic built at Mutt. So hopefully in 5 turns.

I need to grow all my cities, somehow I'm not good at this

[pindicator]

136

We have finished settling the far north:




5 workers are improving around Newfoundland and Laika.  2 more are loaded onto a galley this turn to start helping the Terrier/Setter/Hound trifecta of cities.  Then 3 more coming from the mainland so that I'll have 5 on each of the taiga islands.  In general I plan on lumbermilling everything, save for the forests east of Terrier: those will be chopped and turned into workshops.  I'm still debating the forests around Laika but I think I'll keep them as lumbermills.  Then there are 3 missionaries which have been built or landed on Pug Island, which will be shuttled over after the workers.  Finally, Malamute is pumping out the two work boats needed for the crab and the whale.  That should take care of the improving of these new lands.

Sadly there weren't any more resources to be found, but we will try our best to make this profitable.  Forbidden Palace finished 2 turns ago in Malamute, and we're going forward with plans to make my Heroic Epic city be at Pug.  Once the city hits size 11 we switch over all the land tiles to it's use; it will be at 32hpt after the golden age (41 during), and largely be responsible for pumping out the eastern garrison and navy.

Speaking of Navy, I've decided to postpone Astronomy.  I don't see any way I can settle any more islands (really need to focus on consolidating and building up what I have settled over the last 20 turns), and even though this will leave me open to aggression from Krill or Thoth, I really need to gamble a bit for my economy's sake.  So we are pushing straight for Economics and getting into Free Market / building Custom's Houses everywhere.  Because even during a golden age, our demos are rather pitiful:




The only leverage I really have right now is to milk every drop out of MoM, so we are working towards Golden Age #3 with great people coming out of the following cities:

Labrador will be the next great person, due in 8 turns:




The bank is also a priority, and I don't think I will be targeting any more great people out of Labrador after this one is done.  Still, we had to transfer a cottage over to a neighboring city in order to get enough specialists running here, otherwise other cities would overcome this one.

Aussie Cattle Dog is targeting the 600GP mark with artists. 




I think we can get this one in 11 turns, or 1 turn after the golden age is done.  We'll run 6 artists for 7 turns, until the city is almost out of food, then 6 artists to hit 0 food - that will put us at 495/600 GP points the same turn that Labrador gets the next great person.  The city then gets starved for the last 2 turns of the golden age, putting it at 585/600 at the end of the GA.  Then we likely have to starve it again to run 5 specialists (the city will be size 6 at this point).

The 3rd great person comes from Mutt, where we are building the National Epic:




After the National Epic finishes, we'll hire as many scientists as possible without overtaking the previous two cities.  I haven't looked too much at this, but I think at worst we can get the 3rd GP two turns after Aussie's is done.

[pindicator]

143

It was hard to believe when I saw it in the tech tree, but it turns out you don't need to tech Astronomy in order to make Privateers:




I've picked up Economics and Gunpowder and will base my sea defense on privateers. Diverting for Theology so I can switch to into the civic at the end of the golden age, and I'll swap to free market at that time too. (Shoot, swapping out of Mercantilism means my GP plans are off and I will need to start starving Aussie Cattle Dog down next turn to get its next GP in time!)

Economically I'm building customs houses everywhere. I'll be going for the top half of the tree next: Philosophy, Nationalism, and probably a diversion to Music & Mil Trad because I really expect Commodore to be pushing for Steel and cannons. My land defense still consists of a bunch of catapults, but I will always need MORE. I have finally given him open borders because it really doesn't matter any more. (It was nice to see that he had to overdefend in a lot of places at least...)

Still don't think anyone has a chance to catch Commodore. That vast greenness...

[pindicator]

145

Last turn of the golden age:

Swapped civics to Free Market and Theology and my income went up something like 40%. Science at 100% was around 800 and went up to over 1100. That feels rather amazing considering when I switched from Decentralized to Mercantilism I didn't notice much change at all (Does Merc need a buff??). And this is really with only having foreign trade routes going to Thoth:




Look at those trade route yields! And we still haven't finished the Customs House yet.

My Great Artist came out of AussieCattleDog at end of turn - we can go back to building things there again. I need to shuttle the artist away because I don't trust anything on that peninsula as being safe. Third Great Person is due out of Mutt and hopefully won't take too long - we are up to 591/700 GP points, so I think 3 turns. I plan on going straight into the next one and trying for a fourth MoM-fueled GA. It's really all I got.

Also, i probably need to stick to the bottom half of the tree. Going for Corporation isn't quite as big a boon as I was first thinking because it also makes the castles go obsolete, so it's not much of a gain. Instead I will get to cannons and try to get into Rep by the end of the next golden age.

Demos at the end of the GA: