[SPOILERS] Cornflakes PB53

[Miguelito]

Maybe we can be best buddies after all....

... he said, having assaulted  his neighbour twice
(not arguing against your moves, just amused)

[Cornflakes]

Updated mid-term plan:
- T92 Music artist will fire Golden Age, probably waiting 2 turns so that I can swap into Caste immediately (also most cities are growing a pop every 2 turns so that will be another
- I'll pop a high-odds scientist from Nijmegen (>80%) and pure scientist from Maastricht for Philosophy and 75%-of-Education bulbs
- I'll pop a high-odds merchants from Amsterdam and Rotterdam (>90% each) for Civil Service bulb and Trade Mission
- The other smaller cities will trickle out smaller amounts of GPP, potentially starving one down if needed to get a different-type GPP for the 2-man GA. Middleburg as a border city will probably work on a pure artist (4 beakers / 4 culture is not a bad yield for an artist specialist)
- Nijmegen will get a 2nd scientist (>95%) which will be combined with a non-scientist from one of the other non-mentioned cities for 2nd GA
- Amsterdam will get a 2nd pure merchant to either make up for a low-odds roll above, another trade mission, or possibly bulb 75%-of-Economics for Free Market and denial of the free GMerchant. Although I really would prefer Mercantilism given PHI+REP.
- Gold from the trade mission will fuel research of Paper, which is cheaper than Civil Service, and will finish the last 25% research of Education.
- I take Liberalism > Nationalism for denial and because Liberalism is cheaper than Nationalism.
- Build Taj Mahal
- Trickle out military during the GA to make sure I'm not a target. Build castles at key points.

[Cornflakes]

Sorry for lack of screenshots in these updates. I have littered the map with signs for the upcoming golden age so the T86 overview is the best reference. Given the peace in our present time not much is changing anyway.

As calculated, I have enough overflow from the previous techs to 1-turn Music this turn, and only need one city worth of wealth building to fund the 80% research. The music artist should be mine EOT. I will then save gold for a turn, research Monotheism at 100%, and then should be able to get Code of Laws from the overflow and about 60% slider (which will require a couple wealth builds I think). Then I'll launch the GA with immediate swap into Buddhism/Organized Religion/Caste. I'll use Organized Religion to build a couple missionaries in the first few turns of the GA and then bulb Philosophy and convert to Pacifism on T6 of the GA. Even though I'm Philosophical I still want to use the normal tricks to maximize GPP output.

Commodore just completed machinery and is saving gold on Guilds. He is sending a straggling guerrilla force into AT's territory, apparently planning to aid the resistance there. Honestly I'm not sure if that is good or bad for me. Ideally I would like Scooter to be fully committed to conquering AT over the next 20 turns so that he doesn't look in my direction. I don't want Commodore putting up so much assistance/resistance that Scooter gives up and looks for other targets for his knights.

Scooter does not yet have Construction (no bridges) and is therefore not yet imminently close to Engineering road movement. Scooter burned through 400+ gold after researching Guilds without researching Construction. I'm slightly concerned about a possible coinflip on the Music GArtist (him targeting Literature first for Heroic Epic). Code of Laws still only had 5% KTB from Commodore. Compass has 0% KTB. The only other tech option I see is Banking ... which makes sense given FIN +100% bank construction.

[Cornflakes]

Got the music artist another hiccup was revealed though as I went through the bulb preferences again to confirm ... Monarchy is ahead of Civil Service for merchants, meaning I can’t both research Monotheism for OR before the GA and then builb CS. In the long-run using the first Merchant for trade mission will come out ahead since 1300 gold will fund more research than the 850 raw beakers from CS bulb. In fact I’ll probably break even time-wise by the time I hit the end of the GA since I’ll be able to run 100% research for 10 turns straight, if not more since I’ll be running merchant specialists as well.

5 turns of OR for a couple missionaries, followed by Pacifism first the rest of the GA still sounds like the optimal play.

[Cornflakes]

Now the lurker thread starts getting comments, after I reloaded (I did wait 8 hours this time instead of 1) 

Regarding unit trades, I’m not in favor because war can already be conducted openly in another players territory. And the source/quantity of the extra gifted units is unclear. Just fight openly.

[Cornflakes]

Launched the golden age Food dropped by about 75 (about 30%) while break even GNP spiked, and GPP production is off the charts. If my neighbors let me get though this GA unmolested, I will be very optimistic about the future. I’m set up to research 2-3x the total beakers in the next 12 turns as I’ve researched in the whole first 90 turns 

If Commodore was my neighbor I would expect a DoW any turn now. However Commodore has already intervened to slow down Scooter’s conquest of AT so I’m hopeful. I will have Alphabet in 2 turns so I will be able to better track research of TBS. I gathered the following from GNP-gazing

- Three people know Monarchy: Scooter + Commodore for sure. Which means only TBS or Cairo for the 3rd. The other is still a very long way from Knights. 
- Nobody has reached Civil Service! I was mistaken about Commodore. I thought I saw CS pop up from EP research visibility, but apparently not. Maybe he saved gold for a few turns with it selected?

I have tentatively changed my research plans to hit Nationalism directly rather than using Liberalism. Timing of a 2nd GScientist for the Education bulb is slower than simply researching Nationalism. I can start on Taj earlier, but more importantly I can begin drafting earlier if an emergency arrived. I’m projecting to reach Nationalism Golden-Age-EOT 8!!! And from there it’s conceivable for me to hit Gunpowder within a couple turns of the GA end. I could potentially hold Liberalism to hit something like Astronomy since it can’t be bulbed easily (or Military Tradition for cuirassier).

[Cornflakes]

I'm a bit tight on time but here are some screenshots of my cities in GA. Sadly no Moai Statues for this GA ... not that it matters anyway since I'm working specialists instead of coast at my islands:

Demos in GA: 

   

Note this is at breakeven. Slider was reduced to 0% this turn. Biggest concern is the low MFG. I will compensate for low MFG with the draft, and that is one of the main reasons I'm targeting Nationalism. With our absurd happy caps on this map I'll be able to stack 3-4 drafts everywhere and still maintain draftable size!

   

First GP ... 70% merchant GA-EOT2 turn. Hopefully I get the merchant so that another trade mission can fund research through the duration of the golden age After this GMerchant I will continue running merchant specialists for a 100% GMerchant, probably GP #6 at the end of the GA.

   

One more turn of growth while the grass hill mine to the east completes. Then max production. I'll pump out a couple military units to keep the power graph relevant, then switch over to Taj once I hit Nationalism.

   

2nd GP ... 85% scientist GA-EOT3, to bulb Philosophy

   

3rd GP ... 100% scientist, for Education bulb. I'll starve down a pop or two to get this ahead of Rotterdam (see next screenshot).

   

4th GP ... Roughly 60-70% merchant, 90% non-merchant. Anything non-artist would be OK. I'm planning to pair this with a GArtist for 2nd GA. I will delay this to 4th GP to get higher mix of non-artist points.

   

5th GP ... 100% artist. I'm running the artist specialists here to push back the orange borders and claim a culture buffer.

And that, folks, is how I'm planning to get a tech lead. Stage 1b will continue with another GA stacked after this during which I'll try to hit Astronomy for naval supremacy and movement advantage. Stage 2 will be to convert the tech lead into land via conquering ... probably Carthage.

[NobleHelium]

Huge development on the diplomacy front this turn. TBS mirrored back the fish-fish I have to trust him here, and hope that he trusts me. After mirroring the fish-fish, he requested a gift of my spare silks as a separate offer. I accepted! Maybe we can be best buddies after all.

And that, folks, is how I'm planning to get a tech lead. Stage 1b will continue with another GA stacked after this during which I'll try to hit Astronomy for naval supremacy and movement advantage. Stage 2 will be to convert the tech lead into land via conquering ... probably Carthage.

That was fast.

[Cornflakes]

Hey, 15-20 turns is plenty of time for the fish-fish to cool off. And at the end of the day ... "might makes right". The key is to ensure "might" is achieved before trying to enforce "right", or it can backfire spectacularly (e.g. Commodore's attack on me in PB49, or my attack vs. Wetbandit in PB43).

[sunrise089]

Where are you planning to settle the trade mission merchant?