[SPOILERS] Cornflakes PB53

[Cornflakes]

Curious how you are sustaining research. Besides the bulbs,  is it more Rep specialists or just coast and GLH?

He did burn a Great Merchant for gold - and that 1300 gold is probably more effective beakers than a bulb honestly.

I updated the opening post with the log of great people I’ve used this game. I have used 2 merchant trade missions for 1300 gold each, which fueled 100% research. I bulbed Engineering and Philosophy. 

Right now I’m getting 174 beakers per turn at 0% research from about 30 Rep specialists. But I’m running the specialists for GPP, not for the beakers (although 90 bpt from Rep/Pyramids is certainly a nice bonus!). With the trade mission gold I’m running 495 bpt at 100% research for the next 8 turns ... and I have another high-odds merchant timed for another mission to keep the 100% research going.

[Cornflakes]

Great Lighthouse is about 25, Colossus is much less now in the GA since most of the coast-working citizens have been recruited for specialists. I’m just working about 10 seafood resources currently.

[Cornflakes]

TBS completed Great Wall. I'm a bit sad that I didn't get it, but considering that I'm planning for offensive warfare I wouldn't get many GG points off it anyway. TBS on the other hand will get some good use out of it when I eventually attack. I was going to put that in my island city for the GPP after National Epic, oh well.

Scooter and Commodore made peace (as best I can tell, it's 10T enforced peace since the foreign advisor still shows peace between them a turn later). Immediately after peace, Commodore snipes 3 of AT's 4 remaining cities! And scooter can't do a thing about it since there's 8 turns of peace for Commodore to reinforce. Commodore is set to unlock Knights at Guilds end of current turn. I am anticipating some escalating bad blood between those two and likely resumption of hostilities over former-Japanese territory at expiration of their peace treaty. Commodore's culture bomb will start likely claim another ring of tiles in the center by that time as well, and Scooter's position will be precarious indeed. I'm not ruling out scooter as a target for my territorial expansion, but I think a strong China is in my long term interest in order to slow down Ottoman advancement. The last thing I want is to provoke collapse of the Chinese, giving Commodore all of Japan and half of China.

   

Culture bomb now shows on the graphs. AT's power dropped precipitously when losing those 3 cities, so that wasn't just sniping of lightly defended backlines cities while AT defended against scooter. Commodore was really feinting in the center to lock down a peace treaty, while positioning to attack Japan in force. Well played, Commodore 

Carthage GNP spiked almost as much as mine. I will keep an eye on the tech advisor. TBS researched Feudalism so far, still needs Machinery + Guilds for knights but only has 85g in the treasury.

Notice my research bar at the top of the screenshot. Nationalism was still just over 3 turns to research which was slightly longer than I was expecting/hoping. Overall though that works out OK. Paper will now be a 1-turn tech with the overflow, and I have a little more flexibility with timing of the GScientist which is bulbing Education.

[Cornflakes]

TBS completed Parthenon this turn, thankfully at Carthage where the culture will not pressure a border. I’m curious if that was a denial build or if he genuinely wants that wonder. For me I find the investment questionable, boosting my GPP multiplier from 2.5>3 is only +20%, but I’m looking at 40 of the next 50 or so turns (Quite possibly the end of the game) in golden ages where the multiplier is 3.5>4 which is just +14%. I would rather have the few military units I’ve built in my hammer city instead. In any case I’m quite please to see infrastructure builds in the Carthage GA, including the above wonders and Cothon graphics which have popped up across his empire.

VERY curiously, TBS adopted Slavery this turn Yep, the log shows him adopting slavery, and my screenshot of the foreign advisor from 3 turns ago (not posted) shows him in Tribalism! But the log doesn’t show him adopting tribalism. I wonder if that was a cost saving measure during the golden age, and if civics swaps back to the base civics don’t appear in the log?

[NobleHelium]

Swaps to Tribalism appear in the log.

[Cornflakes]

T100: Stepping on the accelerator:

   

Overview screenshot: 10 cities, 80 pop. Here's the city list:

   

Note the GPP/turn. Maastricht, Middleburg, and Amsterdam will get a Scientists, Artist, Scientists, respectively by the end of the GA (4th-6th great persons in the GA, 7th-9th overall, not counting the free Music artist). Nijmejen has been growing at +13 fpt while building National Epic. Starting in 2 turns it will sustain 30 GPP/turn base ... 165/t in GA+Pacifism, 105/t without either. It won't quite get a GPerson by the end of the GA, but will be close.

   

   

   

Now that TBS has dropped out of GA, my production is respectable again ... but only while in the GA. Mr. Cairo is clearly bottom of the pack, and I would be as well if it wasn't for my enormous GNP that I've been able to sustain thanks to Great People and the wonders.

   

I have pursued a radially different tech path than my rivals. They have all beelined Guilds, however my plan is to bypass Knights completely and leapfrog straight to Cuirassier. I'm down Monarchy, Feudalism, Guilds, and Banking vs. top-tech-rival scooter. The key at this point is determining when I let off the research gas pedal, and shift gears to the militarize gas pedal. Military Tradition + gunpowder is a given. I also really really want Astronomy for EIM. Taking another look at the bulb paths, if I delay Gunpowder I could bulb Printing Press (useless bulb blocking tech, since I only have 2 villages), then research Compass > Optics and bulb Astronomy. If I hit Gunpowder first then I also have to bulb Chemistry ahead of Astronomy. Frigates would be helpful for coastal bombardment, but speeding up the timeline by skipping Chemistry I think will be overall more advantageous. 

Tech tree and financial advisor screens are in spoiler.

   
   
   
   

[Jabah]

What will you do with all your surprisingly numerous still pristine grassland tiles (too late to cottage I guess so workshop for production or farm for growth/draft/slave ? )

[sunrise089]

So for Rifling would you need Monarchy, Feudalism, Guilds, Banking, Gunpowder, Printing Press, Replaceable Parts, and Rifling?

And for Cuirs you just need Momarchy, Feud, Guilds, Gunpowder, and MilTrad?

[Cornflakes]

So for Rifling would you need Monarchy, Feudalism, Guilds, Banking, Gunpowder, Printing Press, Replaceable Parts, and Rifling?

And for Cuirs you just need Momarchy, Feud, Guilds, Gunpowder, and MilTrad?

Monarchy, Feudalism, and Guilds are NOT required for Cuirs. That is what I meant by leapfrog. I will skip knights entirely, hitting Gunpowder via Paper > Education (w/ bulb). Education will let me build PHI-boosted Universities + IND-boosed Oxford, as well as clear the bulb path to Astronomy. And I'll use Liberalism (1771 beakers) to grab Military Tradition (2530 beakers).

Screenshots of sim-confirmed leapfrog past knights, strait to Cuirs:

   
   

[El Grillo]

Very neat, I had never thought about that.