Lewwyn, we need to decide what to research after lit. I'll make sure to finish lit this turn regardless. I see 3 options:
1. Go for liberalism. This would mean paper next, then education, philosophy, liberalism. plako doesnt have paper yet, meaning the only person that could have it (and our biggest competition) would be slowcheetah.
serdoa has the most beakers but has detoured for guilds and banking and I think has given up on it. commodore has philosophy, but no paper yet. we have a lot of stored cash and still have a 1 person golden age, so i think we'd have a half-decent chance of pulling it off. we'd have to lib nationalism, of course, no chance of astronomy or anything else.
PROS: if we pull it off, most beakers. free golden age from taj. we will be able to track commodore's, plako's, and serdoa's progress and abort if we can't do it. quickest path to education and universities - sooner we can build this important but expensive building, the better - and the sooner we get oxford built in gilgamesh.
negative: we can't really tell how far aware slowcheetah is, and won't make contact w/ him in time to do so, unless he finds us soon. our workshops are missing +1 hammer from guilds and we can't build grocers for awhile.
2. accept we would probably lose it to slowcheetah or commodore - but go for nationalism (and the taj) the hard way. we need meditation-philosophy-nationalism. meditation I would take for free once we finish a library in shahnahmeh and ramhadaboiejrf. the latter has a chop coming in and will probably finish in 5-6 turns, I can whip one out in shah before then. so we'd turn research down in the mean time, park it one drama, and finish drama the same turn we get the free meditation to breeze through philosophy and half of nationalism. (drama would give us an additional discount on philosophy). we can still use the golden age to power through nationalism, and with a 200% bonus on the taj we should be able to complete it fairly quickly in gilgamesh (pretty sure we'll be at peace w/ azza by then).
PRO: safer than #1, I think we can still get taj first this way even w/o liberalism (education and liberalism are both about the same cost as nationalism w/ the rbmod). 16 turns of golden age will really help us catch up. the only way we miss out on taj is if commodore has the same plan.
negative: same as #1, putting off guilds.
3. go the safe route, mirroring serdoa. feudalism>guilds>banking.
pros: +1 hammer from workshops, can build grocers to help economy. a quick banking would allow us to whip a bank in the iliad before we revolt out of slavery, which we'll need to get wall street built there. more military units (long bowmen and knights), both of which will help us defend against serdoa. don't risk investing in goals of #1 and #2 and falling short.
negative: no free beakers, no free golden age. neither long bowman nor knights will be very useful against knights, since he's going to have pikes by then and probably won't be able to attack us ever.
I'm leaning towards 1 or 2 (maybe slightly towards 2) but need your input. you might want to log into the game if you haven't done so in a bit .
1. Go for liberalism. This would mean paper next, then education, philosophy, liberalism. plako doesnt have paper yet, meaning the only person that could have it (and our biggest competition) would be slowcheetah.
serdoa has the most beakers but has detoured for guilds and banking and I think has given up on it. commodore has philosophy, but no paper yet. we have a lot of stored cash and still have a 1 person golden age, so i think we'd have a half-decent chance of pulling it off. we'd have to lib nationalism, of course, no chance of astronomy or anything else.
PROS: if we pull it off, most beakers. free golden age from taj. we will be able to track commodore's, plako's, and serdoa's progress and abort if we can't do it. quickest path to education and universities - sooner we can build this important but expensive building, the better - and the sooner we get oxford built in gilgamesh.
negative: we can't really tell how far aware slowcheetah is, and won't make contact w/ him in time to do so, unless he finds us soon. our workshops are missing +1 hammer from guilds and we can't build grocers for awhile.
2. accept we would probably lose it to slowcheetah or commodore - but go for nationalism (and the taj) the hard way. we need meditation-philosophy-nationalism. meditation I would take for free once we finish a library in shahnahmeh and ramhadaboiejrf. the latter has a chop coming in and will probably finish in 5-6 turns, I can whip one out in shah before then. so we'd turn research down in the mean time, park it one drama, and finish drama the same turn we get the free meditation to breeze through philosophy and half of nationalism. (drama would give us an additional discount on philosophy). we can still use the golden age to power through nationalism, and with a 200% bonus on the taj we should be able to complete it fairly quickly in gilgamesh (pretty sure we'll be at peace w/ azza by then).
PRO: safer than #1, I think we can still get taj first this way even w/o liberalism (education and liberalism are both about the same cost as nationalism w/ the rbmod). 16 turns of golden age will really help us catch up. the only way we miss out on taj is if commodore has the same plan.
negative: same as #1, putting off guilds.
3. go the safe route, mirroring serdoa. feudalism>guilds>banking.
pros: +1 hammer from workshops, can build grocers to help economy. a quick banking would allow us to whip a bank in the iliad before we revolt out of slavery, which we'll need to get wall street built there. more military units (long bowmen and knights), both of which will help us defend against serdoa. don't risk investing in goals of #1 and #2 and falling short.
negative: no free beakers, no free golden age. neither long bowman nor knights will be very useful against knights, since he's going to have pikes by then and probably won't be able to attack us ever.
I'm leaning towards 1 or 2 (maybe slightly towards 2) but need your input. you might want to log into the game if you haven't done so in a bit .
Please don't go. The drones need you. They look up to you.