[SPOILERS] yuris125 as Gilgamesh of China, or Protective is the new Financial

[yuris125]

Well, T100 is here, so I can no longer leave an update until "tomorrow probably, or next week for sure, or by the end of the month definitely"

This is how my empire currently looks

North


Centre


South


West


I'm doing reasonably well. I managed to steal a chunk of Dazed's land, and am up to 16 cities. However, I foresee difficult times for my empire

* Krill has 1 city on me, and his cities are better. He's a clear leader, and while I'm trying to keep up, I don't have much room to expand left



* A large part of my empire is water tiles. When I obsolete Colossus, it will be a blow
* This is a Greek city of Rhodes, which MH culture bombed, blocking several of my planned cities, and stealing no less than 3 of my food resources - corn and pigs in the north, fish in the south



* The only iron source I have is right on the border with Krill (see the empire north screen). I'm eyeing this spot, which is far away from me, but nicely isolated from land access. Should be a good remote production city. I will need a good navy to get use out of it, but I will need it anyway, seeing how much water I have around myself



I suspect the main reason Krill is doing so well is Serfdom. It seems to be a very viable option in RBMod: Workers build improvements 75% faster, so he can build almost any improvement in 1 turn. Looks like it's huge

I'm going to finish ToA at the end of this turn, then will try to get MoM too



Other cities are either building infra, or units, because I foresee a war soonish



I would strongly like to attack MH and at least raze Rhodes and capture Eretria. The main problem is, the minute I attack him, I will lose gems he's sending me, for -2 happy in most of my cities. The only other player who has gems is Krill, and I don't have anything to offer him for it, and not sure he would have accepted even if I had something. So... I'm still thinking about it. Attacking Dazed is another option, when I sufficiently protect the cities next to him; he's at war with TT right now, and I suspect it's the main reason why he offered OB to me (which I obviously accepted) - it's as good as a NAP offer for a TGLH owner. I'll see how that war progresses, and whether I'll get a chance to backstab

Demos (GNP at 0% research)



Krill is catching up with me in MFG, and killing me and everyone in CY. My land area is a huge concern, and the main reason why I think I'll have to go to war sooner rather than later

Graphs

Science:





I'm going for Paper with a detour to Drama for my UB, then HBR. Then probably Liberalism, but I'll decide it later

Hope I didn't miss anything interesting, but if I did, ask and I'll answer

[yuris125]

Well, the game is on hold with Dazed's save crashing. I suspect it could be related to how the mod handles failgold. This turn, Krill completed MoM; I had it started, and received failgold for it. If Dazed is also due failgold for MoM, can it cause a crash?

[yuris125]

The Lib race is going to be tense. Krill, MH and I all have Paper now. This turn, I discovered Philosophy and founded Taoism. I also had a GS popped, just in time to bulb most of Education. Hopefully at least someone will get confused and think I used him to bulb Philosophy - that of course would've been a big mistake when I could research it in 1 turn

The main problem is, my economy is not in too great shape. I'm getting about 200 gpt at 0%, and losing about 300gpt at 100%. Could be my downfall in this race. MH is in a golden age, too, although my GNP at 100% science is still higher than his

[yuris125]

T114

At the end of last turn, I discovered Education, the first civ to do it. Lib is due in 4 turns at 80% research (same as at 100%), I don't quite have enough gold to get it, but I expect some science improvements in the next few turns (the first Universities, an Academy); I should be able to lower the research on the last turn, and build Wealth in several cities as the last resort. I think only Krill still can beat me to Lib: he's the only one other than me who has Philo, and his research rate is better than mine, so if he gets Education next turn, he still has a chance I guess

On the other hand, Krill can go straight for Nationalism. If he does, he has a good chance to beat me to TajWe'll see which way he goes. If he researches Nationalism before I get it from Lib, I can consider giving Taj up and taking something more useful long-term, like Printing Press. I don't want to do it, but I doubt I can beat Krill to Taj if he goes all-out for it (and he can, he's the MoM owner, Taj is an important wonder for him)

[yuris125]

T115

Well, Krill did discover Education this turn. He also started a golden age as soon as he saw that I had Education. I have my own GS who I wanted to use to finally build an Academy in the capital (due to misplanning and bad luck, I still don't have one). However, I may want to use him for a GA instead. Next turn I will be 2 turns away from Lib, and I'm almost sure a GA can reduce it to 1. So if I start a GA next turn, I'll get LIB at EOT. I think spending a GA for it (and probably for denying Taj to Krill) is worth it. So if Lib is not discovered next turn, I will start a GA to win this race

[yuris125]

Well, I lost the Lib race. At least I can blame it on turn order I didn't even have to burn a GA, I could get it just by building Research everywhere. But Krill got it, and took Astronomy. Don't know if I still have a chance for Taj, doubt it - Krill has almost 900g in the treasury, should be able to get Nationalism in a turn or two, and I won't be able to compete with his GA production

Pity, I felt I had a chance, but there was nothing I could do to get Lib last turn

[yuris125]

Well, I have to say it feels like I'm doing the same things Krill does, but a little too late, 2 turns behind him on average. After the Lib fail, I decided to go for Economics and the free GM. And again, Krill apparently goes the same way, he got Banking the same turn I did. But he's still in GA, his research speed is better, so once again I suspect I will lose the race

Damn it, what do I do to stop him???

[yuris125]

T122

Well, I have some kind of plan. I'm building Oxford, due in 4 turns. I also have a GP popping on the same turn. I discovered Printing Press a couple of turns ago, which helps my economy (I actually can exceed Krill's GNP now at 100% research). I'm building Unis and Banks like a monkey. If I can get the best economy in the game, I'll be happy

At the moment however, I'm at 0% research, getting Compass by building Research in the most productive city. I actually think delaying Compass and Optics was a big mistake I made in this game. I've had health problems since times immemorial, and Harbours would've helped a lot. Also, the map has a lot of whales resources, which I still can't connect

Anyway. In 4 turns I expect to have over 2000 gold, and a GP to start a GA. This treasury should let me have research at 100% throughout the GA. The goal is to get to Corporations. In a normal game Corps would've been a bad tech for me, obsoleting TGLH. But since I only get 1 extra trade route for TGLH, the extra trade route from Corps will compensate its loss. And Corps is the next tech which provides known civ bonuses, so it will help me strengthen the economy further

The next goal will be Rifling and MilTrad. I'm certain I won't win this game peacefully, with Krill being so strong. I need to kill someone. The obvious target is TT. He's the weakest out there, with just 9 cities and a huge tech disadvantage, and Cavs should kill him easily. Then I can start making further plans, depending on how the campaign goes

The main problem of the campaign will be that I will definitely need a decent navy, and for that I will have to research Astronomy and obsolete Colossus. That will be a huge hit to my economy. But what can I do, Astronomy is a key tech, and one has to research it sooner or later

One good thing that happened was that MH was the one to build Taj, not Krill. He's getting annoyingly close to me in score, but his GA is not MoM-powered, and I still think he could be the best ally in a possible future war against Krill. Our relations, apart from the culture bomb he used on me, have been as friendly as it's possible in a no diplo game, and he was my partner in the only tech trade I made so far (my Education for his Nationalism)

[oledavy]

I'm building Unis and Banks like a monkey.

Never heard that expression before

[novice]

I actually think delaying Compass and Optics was a big mistake I made in this game. I've had health problems since times immemorial, and Harbours would've helped a lot. Also, the map has a lot of whales resources, which I still can't connect

I thought the mod moved whales to Sailing?