[SPOILERS] Donovan Zoi and AdrienIer: Slümhund Millionaires!

[Donovan Zoi]

Next Tech

With the new developments going on with the Dutch, I think we may want to have another conversation regarding next tech. We will have a few turns to discuss this since we will be at 0% for at least the next 3 turns.

Iron Working

- Cheapest of the techs we would consider
- We get to see where Iron is on the map.
- If connected, can start building buffed Swords with 50% city attack.
- Will possibly boost our production by already having Iron mined somewhere in our empire.
- Can start clearing jungle in order to prepare for Calendar resources.

Calendar

- Really needs IW first in order to remove Jungle
- Can add Incense, Dyes and Bananas to our list of resources
- Gold yields from Incense and Dyes would be pretty significant.
- Could try for Maussoleum of Maussollos

Metal Casting

- A chance to enter the Colossus race.
- Cheap Forges!
- +2 happiness in each city that builds one, allowing further growth.
- We get to build Triremes in order to provide another level of defense against Gavagai, retep and Elkad.
- Will be able to start building Workshops.

Construction

- Cats and Jumbos to use for either offense/defense, keeping us ahead of the curve militarily in a huge way.
- Removing the movement penalty across rivers.
- Colosseums, which we really won't need for the moment.

Code of Laws

- We could be the first to Confucianism, but may not win the race.
- We get to start building Courthouses in trouble cities.
- We could go for Chichen Itza (though I would rather have Pyramids for the same price)

Aesthetics

- Gets us a shot at SoZ
- Puts us the path to Literature and the Great Library.
- Puts us on path to get Drama, where we could asjust the culture rate to get our Pigs back.
- However, we are not ready for Heroic Epic, a big reason for choosing this path.

Horseback Riding

-Horse Archers
-Stables

Alphabet

- Open Borders and Spies

To me, the only two viable choices right now are Metal Casting and Construction. Iron Working > Calendar is a close 3rd because of the boost in growth and commerce it would give to several cities. But Metal Casting lines up nicely with our IND trait, and the Colossus plus cheap Forges fits beautifully into our Lighthouse growth plan. And I think we may have a good shot to get the Colossus since other players may downplay it for the lack of water tiles in their empires. Lastly coastal defense via Triremes to halt any ideas of invading us by sea for now.

Metal Casting appears to be the most versatile choice here, and there may even have a good KTB factor here as well since MC is such a go-to tech. But let me know what you think, and if may have changed your mind.

[AdrienIer]

Remember that WEs need HBR. Therefore I suggest Construction first, build a small stack of catapults, followed by HBR for WEs. When we have 4 or 5 WEs and whatever cats we built before HBR we attack (with a couple axes and spears just in case, maybe one or two chariots roaming the countryside as scouts). Of course we'd keep building units even after that.

Then we can discuss the other tech choices. I'd rather have Elkad's land than the MoM or confucianism. Early MC would be great if there wasn't a clear frontrunner, but here it will have to wait.

Does Elkad have ivory ?

I don't care too much about the GW. He'll get a medic GG early on but that's only useful if he has a stack of units which I doubt. The only wild card is GJ. He's stated in other threads that he didn't enjoy this game, apparently from having too many neighbors. If he was fully invested in this I'd say he'd be likely to join the war if we managed to take down one or two cities from Elkad but here I have no idea what he'll do.

[Donovan Zoi]

Considering the current climate of the game (Gavagai spiking; recent whips by retep, Elkad) I don't think we have a choice but to pursue Construction. I really didn't forsee having to wait this long for MC though.

Oh well, this way we can at least grow organically without stunting production too much, so I am cool with it.

BTW, Gavagai went up 90 points this turn so I think he may have beaten us to HG. I don't see any other way he could have done that.

Please don't play the turn. I should be home in a couple hours.

[AdrienIer]

I keep looking at civstats but can't figure out what happened : How could we gain 5 points after the turn rolled ?

[Donovan Zoi]

We settled our 10th city (Red Bank) across from Duquesne. I decided to break our turn order with Elkad so he hopefully stands down a bit.

I'll have a full report on the turns in a few hours.

[Donovan Zoi]

Turn 96 - 475 BC

The hits just keep coming from the Hague...




Not sure if you can tell or not, but Elkad just researched CoL and guess where the new Holy City is?

That's right, the Hague! I was wondering why culture on this tile jumped to 54-45 in Elkad's favor. Luckily Civ4 is gracious enough to give you one last turn to say goodbye to your beloved tile, so I used that opportunity to let our Pigs run free.



At least those Dutch poachers will not get as much of a growth benefit from their stolen land. You shall be avenged, Pigs!

Market Report

I started Markets in 3 cities, with a 4th on the way:

Salmon Falls: Market in 3
Duquesne: Market in 4
Niagara Falls: Market in 6 (less with current chop, so 4?)
Oswego: Barracks finish next turn, with all of current chop plus some overflow going to new Market.

So, no whipping for these, which is nice! Also for consideration are Sainte-Foy and eventually Carillion, two cities that both have over 10c now. So our binary should get an even bigger boost soon.

Two If By Sea




Our FW finished a second road on our western shore near the capital, to give migrant military access to Chesapeake and Yorktown (formerly Quebec). All our troops have to do is get a good running start and jump onto the waiting boats, which will tranpsort them to their new base. I have added a third line to the Wine site in case we wanted to pinch the Wine city from retep. More on that in the next post.

Incidentally, can you get me the next batch of city names? I may or may not use Savannah, but it would be good to have some new names on hand for retep's cities when the time comes. I think we may keep the Dutch ones.

[Donovan Zoi]

The Last Settlements

It's interesting to note that with the addition of Red Bank, we are now tied with 5 others at 10 cities! So it appears that Joey and Commodore may have reached critical mass, and I think the same is coming for Gavagai and Borsche. That just leaves us to battle it out with retep for the remaining spots.

We are going to 3-whip another Settler out of Carillion next turn, perhaps its last. I am also thinking about supporting that with another Settler from one of our post-Market cities. But where do we send them?

Wine City




The good: We get a shot at another 3 happiness (1 immediate), and push retep's Chariot out. This strategic site, along with Yorktown, will also put cultural pressure on the landbridge site and possibly give us a chance to keep tabs on the goings-on within. Perhaps it is vulnerable?

The bad: The city wont grow very quickly, and retep won't take too kindly to it. He could also beat us to it, leaving our commited Settler out to dry for a few turns. Next turn we should have enough EP to see how many troops retep has. Also, if we do settle here we may have to bring a full Axe/Spear/Archer combo to keep it safe.

Clam/Sheep City




The trick here would be to bypass the second site across from Red Bank and go straight to the new world to claim it before retep does. Also, in order to snag it, we would need to settle W of the 4 in order to accommodate the 2nd Red Bank city.

The good: This location gives us a fallback plan if we fall short, though retep could settle on the 4 and deny us both northern sites, so time is of the essence here. It also kicks out retep's Chariot and pushes back any naval resistance from retep, putting us in a position to take the city to its west if it is poorly defended.

The bad: City will grow slowly in the short term, putting a drain on our economy. Some chops in the meantime though. We'd also have to devote more troops to keep it safe.

Second Red Bank City

The good: We could hedge our bets and settle on the near landmass, devoting less troops to its founding. We could get it quicker too by just roading a route from Red Bank and walking the Settler over from that city.

The bad: This city will compete with Red Bank for growth if built too early.

Tall Island site (Near Side)

Forgot to grab a screenshot of this one, but it is near Gavagai. I think we would have to settle on the Sheep in order to claim it. Should we offer a map trade to Gavagai?

Tall Island Site (Far Side)

Retep settled a his 10th city on the far side of the island, but there is still space just north of it for another. However it is mainly fogged out, so I am not sure what it contains inland. Nothing coastal though.

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In Conclusion

After typing this, I think I have talked myself into the site 1W of 4 (Sheep/Clam). It gets us northern access to the new world and opens up some possibilities if retep leaves his remote holdings poorly guarded. In fact, retep is looking more appealing than Elkad at the moment, though that may change once I get a look at the powergraph.

For a second Settler, I think we should go for broke and try to get that Wine city. If you like that, I can see which city could build it the fastest.

Let me know what you think.

[AdrienIer]

Why 1W of 4 ? Cities on different landmasses can be 2 tiles away, so I'm still in favor of settling 4 for first ring crab and overall being closer for better defensiveness. Also 1W means the city can't use its own first ring at the beginning !

Oh and confucianism in the Hague is such a downer. I hope the RNG makes it up to us later.

[AdrienIer]

Quick thoughts :

Did you notice that Elkad has sight inside Duquesne ? The tile 2NE can see the hill where the city is.
We're losing sight of The Hague next turn because like the pig tile the mountain is 54% Elkad culture.
Chesepeake will need a WB for its fish in 7t
The only site on Chesepeake's continent that we could take is W of the sheep. It's inland but we can make it a canal with 2 forts (one on each side).
Oswego will need a farm to make up for the lost pig. You have 18t to build it before the city starves, I'm sure it will be alright.
An other city on Red Bank island gives us no additional land tile except ice. I'm not sure we really want to settle that spot until it's a net gain from the get go. Site 4 on the other hand will be relatively useful.

We're back in the game GNP-wise. At 100% at least. I put it back at 0 for now which is like 77 GNP.

[AdrienIer]

Oh and the next city names are Shimonoseki, then WWI with Le Bois Belleau, Château-Thierry and Sechault (the US leaders didn't want American soldiers to be split and used as reinforcements to French and British regiments, but they made an exception for African-American soldiers were merged with the French divisions who participated in those battles). Then we have the second battle of the Marne, the battle of Amiens, and litterally dozens of less important battles like the battle of Blanc Mont.