REM goes on the Sudric Express [Pitboss 33 spoilers]

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Holding on as unsure about timing of pushing the GA...

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

The long awaited update... Or rather an update for those who are mildly interested. Glad work is light today so I can get images.

So I was dithering about when to throw a GA. I will soon have communism and wanted to obviously enter SP as fast as possible as I have been optimising my land for it - basically all non resource flatland is either a watermill or a workshop, with a couple of farms to carry irrigation. I decided not to last turn and immediately regretted that this turn. I entered a GA and instantly realised that I will delay entering SP by a turn if I switch to FR and caste now... I decided that 4 turns of 10% more science and extra workshop hammers is worth it however, so I will go into SP in 5 turns. I think then my civics will be set for a while in rep/beuro/caste/SP/FR. The only 1 I am not 100% on is beuro... It IS powerful, and the cap is decent... But should I be thinking more militarily? Vassalage beckons. Nationhood I think is a fasle economy here, and without cottages free speech is pointless. So vassalage vs beuro... I will probably hold beuro until the second GA where I will go for a full war economy with PS too and not look back.

My current empire

I'm in fairly good shape with 11 cities and another settler due EOT. He will go onto the ivory. Whilst it is somewhat of a filler city, I do not need to worry too much about garrisoning it at all and it can use the spare tile improvements from Henry for the time being. The other possible slot would be the PH x on the island between BGN and I, however I do not have enough worker support currently to make this work.

Overall my cities are working quite nicely, just close enough to trade improvements between the cycles I was doing, and yet enough distance to make them worthwhile later. I have 18 workers currently and worker time might get a little tight now I am not in slavery, but with rep/caste and a GA specialist worked turns are hardly wasted turns so I am not too concerned. No city is particularly impressive, but none are junk fillers either.

I do lack some infrastructure, apart from the buildings that cities come with I have a library in the cap and soon an observatory, and then just libraries in Percy/Donald/Gordon/Henry, Courthouses in Percy/Gordon/James and Barracks in Percy/Donald. The extra food in Percy and Donald has allowed me to whip heavily there. Overall I am not too concerned at the lack of buildings. I will be using a hammer economy which will finally pick up steam in SP. Once the cities have grown to their largest sizes I may even scale back the use of watermills to eek out more from the land.

SoL is coming along grand. If I hadn't had the merchant at 5ish% odds and got the engineer instead I would have had it 3-4 turns ago. Next turn I will give the food back to Henry, and starve Toby to run 2 more 6 hammer workshops. I will get it in 6 maybe 5 turns. I won't bother chucking a GE at it if I get one from Edward which has a GP due in 2 turns, as by the time it arrives I will only get about 200 hammers out of him, maybe less. The failgold will be good enough compensation for the hammers invested, if not ideal. I could have started something else, but I felt I might as well save the GP. We shall see if that is a bad idea... Actually idiotically I could have a good idea if anyone is going for it looking at the espionage mission availability. I will probably do that shortly.

As you may see my core is rather lightly defended. BGN I have no idea what he is doing, but he has very little power and I will see galleons a long way off with other cities. Pindicator is a bit more of a worry, however I do have one of my explorers on the shared island for visability and my galleon on that side has not seen anything concerning. It would be a stretch for either of them to come at me.

However I have been becoming more concerned with DZ and his power buildup. Percy is a little in his face, rather encroaching into his land and makes it hard for him to settle other spots. It also didn't pass me by that HE declared back on OT4E/Dreylin but they seemed to immediately end a war giving them a peace treaty (admittedly before their Gaspar invasion) and I think he declared on BGN too however no peace treaty there. I feel he may try something so I am going to bolster my defences to 4 rifles there, and I would like to get something on that island too to save it from galleons as he has had a city on the water there for about 10 turns.

Gaspar seems to be dying quite quickly to OT4E/Dreylin, like I would be if I were facing that solider count! Maybe they were caught sleeping. Another 2 cities lost... And his capital seemed to build a Dike last turn as I am sure it wasn't there before. I hope he does something, he has held his 2 rifles in our border city there rather than sending another one into the combat. I am undecided whether I should jump in. I would like to claim at least the 2 cities closest to me, but I do not want to antagonise OT4E, and nor do I feel I should help them finish off Gaspar quicker - a protracted war for them now the frontrunners with the Taj free GA, the communism spy, the Kremlin - I need to be watchful of them.

Demos

Are obviously good as I am in GA, however I was top in both MFG and GNP before launching it so perhaps this is helpful to mask my growth. The island city really helped me with the extra commerce in all the other cities, and a second will boost me hugely too.

So plans? Try and snag SoL (in an easy to defend city ), continue to grow. Not get attacked for a while, and then go forth and kill! Next settler will probably be built in Thomas after the observatory.

Questions? I'm off to check sabotage mission costs. Ask them quickly and I can get more images.

[BRickAstley]

I've never seen the trains named Tokyo and Kyoto before.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Can anyone point me to espionage cost guides? I have a feeling OT4E might be building it in Goats...

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

I've never seen the trains named Tokyo and Kyoto before.

They have been renamed Douglas and Oliver now!

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Actually unlikely... I think it is just because we are far away as it is a toroid. The mission there would cost 1600ish. But we have no shared religion and no route, there is a huge distance and neither of us have put a point of esp on the other. It is 50% more than a civic swap mission which is fairly standard cost. Compared to another game I have sabotage prod is 300 to kill 37 hammers whilst the civic switch mission is 800, I think there are not likely to be many hammers in there actually.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Mechanics question for lurkers - Dutch can build a dike in any city, which is an upgrade to the levee. On city capture there is a chance (unsure what) that a levee will be left, and buildings revert to types you can build. So, can I be left with a levee in a city I would not usually be able to build one in if I capture a dutch city?

My gut feeling is yes. I cannot think of any other building where this would be possible.

[BRickAstley]

I just did a quick WB test, capturing 12 waterside cites with dikes that aren't riverside, and 0 of those cities had a levee after capture.

EDIT: And both Dikes and Levees have the following like for capture probability in the XML:

Code:

<iConquestProb>66</iConquestProb>

So I think that it's safe to say that those weren't all just capture failures, but confirmation that you won't keep the dike/levee.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

I just did a quick WB test, capturing 12 waterside cites with dikes that aren't riverside, and 0 of those cities had a levee after capture.

EDIT: And both Dikes and Levees have the following like for capture probability in the XML:

Code:

<iConquestProb>66</iConquestProb>

So I think that it's safe to say that those weren't all just capture failures, but confirmation that you won't keep the dike/levee.

Thank you for simming for me!

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Lots to think about when I logged in for the next turn.

BGN has a settler/gren pair on our shared island (odd choice IMO for a sole escort) so glad I am gonna go for the ivory spot. However he does have a scout locked in that Ivory spot I want to settle. I don't want to show him an unescorted settler when he clearly has a galleon on the waters there... Neither do I want to lower my defences in any border cities either mind.

Gaspar lost another city... But he did empty our border to a single rifle. I have no road on the adjoining tiles but could easily make one for next turn. This needs to be decided fast as I would want the first part of the turn. I have a rifle defending the worker and one in the city that I can spare, and a cavalry that will be built with the making of the water mill on the defended square. I would hope he could keep his cap for a short while but who knows against the Khmer onslaught?

I would like a city or 2 from Gaspar however I do not think it would be worth having an opportunistic strike being received from. Especially from DZ. if I had that power difference in my favour and that neighbour started a war then I would definitely probe their defences and give it a shot (plus we have no TRs to torch) other thing is I will be in SP in 4 turns so I need to start thinking about finding some trading partners. Maybe that will spare me the Khmer ire?

I think I will place myself to attack Gaspar next turn. Hopefully he will be grateful to be out sooner?