SPOILERS : Twinkletoes' Mystery Thread - PBEM7

[novice]

I know what I think.

[Kyan]

There is a stupidly long msg on your answerphone. As i'm a lazy schmuck nowadays, i can't be bothered to type it all out also. It's your thread so you can do it if you want

[Whosit]

Hmm. Not sure.

HR would certainly be good if you built up your garrisons to make use of it. On the other hand, you probably don't need it that bad since you're Charismatic with Stonehenge.

Metal Casting ... not a bad choice.

Currency is certainly good. I dunno. I'd lean towards that simply because it's not Metal Casting. But, really, getting it earlier would be a nice boost to your economy, especially if you got some Open Borders going (or plan to get them). It would certainly help you expand just a bit longer than you could without it. So I'd vote Currency.

[Twinkletoes89]

Well next turn is the big turn guys!

I will be settling the final city between me and Moogle (which does have some fish like Alesia woohoo!)

Also I whipped big this turn - completing a Monastery in Actium, a Library in Pharsalus and a Granary in Alesia. Alesia grew back to size 2 straight away and Actium and Pharsalus are now at size 4 and 6 respectively. The oveflow will go into a 4 turn settler at Actium and a 2 turn Galley at Pharsalus. As you can guess, the next settler is securing the silver and horse on the eastern landmass.

In terms of the Oracle, I have 3 maths chops ready to complete it next turn so if it hasn't landed at the end of this turn it *should* be mine.

I want to pick Metal Casting for these 2 reasons.

1) The Colossus would be fantastic with no financial civs and 4 coastal cities with good commerce potential.

2) Triremes will be a good deterrent on anyone attacking me as I will be able to tear up all the fishing nets that the opponent will have. Also gives me better insurance against any barbarian galleys turning up unexpected and losing my own fishing nets.

Currency is nice as I have had Open Borders with Serdoa and Moogle for a while now and signed them with scooter too a couple of turns ago, but I can research it pretty quickly at 100% (5 turns). I will have 1 turn at 0% to save up enough gold to burn on it and then will research currency so we have them both in relatively quick time.

Does that sound like a good idea?

Will post pictures next turn.

[Twinkletoes89]

[SIZE="5"]DAMN!!![/SIZE]

Ahem, well as you can probably guess, we missed out on The Oracle. Luckily it was landed before I chopped the three forests so I have those chops saved for another time.

Situation at end of turn:



Phillipi was settled to complete our border with SleepingMoogle at long last. Settler for city 6 will be whipped for 1 pop in Actium next turn, ready to board the completed Galley along with an archer the turn after.

Now with the loss of The Oracle, I need to come up with a new plan for these chops.

I can research Masonry in 1 turn and then build a Hammam and go for Hanging Gardens (a common target and likely has someone close to working on it already). Obviously a very nice pop boost but also runs risk of being taken elsewhere as I haven't beelined for it very much.

OR

I can go Aesthetics->Literature and go for Great Library as I doubt anyone even has Aesthetics yet. I could then perhaps build N.Epic in Actium (with 6f Corn and 2 5f Fish) and run 2 scientists and churn out some great people. Zama can be a decent commerce city but would the Great Library be profitable enough? It could also work with N.Epic if I farm most of the river grassland and go into Caste System later on.

OR

I can go for Calendar and get MoM and then aim for a quick beeline to Liberalism and grab Nationalism and try and pinch Taj Mahal as well. This has the benefit of being the most likely to succeed with the early wonder as Calendar currently holds little use (unless as I suspect there are calendar resources to my East), but then I have to go quick. To complete this plan I would likely have to get a Nat.Epic in Actium and switch into Caste System to get some quick G.Scientists to bulb my way there.

Downsides are self-evident - very risky. Also a quick Liberalism would be better to pinch Gunpowder so I can get my Janns out quickly.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have thrown these ideas out just to see if they are any good. They are all wonder based and I am perfectly happy just using all the chops to get units and infrastructure out - but I don't want to commit to anything until we have considered all other alternatives.

In the short term, I am looking at researching this way:

Masonry -> IW -> Monarchy -> CoL -> Currency -> Aesthetics -> Literature

Speak now or forever hold your pieces!

[Whosit]

Now with the loss of The Oracle, I need to come up with a new plan for these chops.

blah blah blah etc.

OR

You could forget the wonders. Wasn't one of your intentions to kick that addiction?

Hanging Gardens: Pop boost is good, yes, but do you really need it? Most of your cities look like they'll grow quickly, anyway, so I wonder if the benefit is worth the cost of chasing it.

Great Library: Again, not sure if the cost is worth it here. If you had Marble, maybe. You might be better off running two normal Scientist specialists.

MoM: You'd really only get to use it once, and only if you build the Taj first, or if you decide to burn Great People for it. I wouldn't chase this one.

I would save the trees for, say, Jannissaries?

I'd suggest a research path that's more like:

something something > Currency > Code of Laws > Aesthetics > Drama > Civil Service > Paper > Education > Philosophy > Liberalism. Slot Philo earlier if you want Taoism, but it could tip people off. Grab Gunpowder. No, wait, that's dumb. Gunpowder costs less than Liberalism. So.

some stuff > Currency > Code of Laws > Civil Service > Paper > Education > Gunpowder.

OR

Metal Casting > Machinery > Monarchy > Feudalism > Guilds > Gunpowder. But I think that the above path gives you more useful, economic stuff to sustain you.

Basically: Just beeline Gunpowder and ignore anything that doesn't help you get there. Your UU is pretty much useless if you don't get Gunpowder before anyone else.

[Twinkletoes89]

I am happy to skip the wonders, I just was listing ideas I had in my head, especially with the amount of forests I have.

I don't want to wait until Gunpowder to use those forests unless I get a massive NAP with Moogle as leaving all those forests surrounding my border cities is just asking for trouble!

The problem with your two beelines is one compromises military terribly, and one compromises economy considerably.

I would be very surprised if my neighbours allowed me to get to Janns unhindered, but if I had to choose one path it would be the economic one.

I am going to try and extend my NAPs as far as I can before I decide but it could be difficult.

Time to get my diplo hat on!

[Square Leg]

Hanging Gardens: Pop boost is good, yes, but do you really need it? Most of your cities look like they'll grow quickly, anyway, so I wonder if the benefit is worth the cost of chasing it.

One way of looking at the benefit of the hanging gardens is in the number of whips it provides. Each whip is worth 30h so it doesn't take too many cities to actually pay back the hammers spent on the wonder (especially if you have stone and/or are IND)

Don't forget denial, Gpp's and culture also...

[Twinkletoes89]

Well here's another update from the new turn.



Masonry came in at start of turn, so I put on a couple of Hammams for the boost of happiness and health. One chop has gone into both cities (with Zama's also providing a mine in the process). I am building a missionary out of Actium so I can spread it to the capital so I can get a monastery out for a 10% beaker boost. Alesia is building a workboat for Philippi's fish so it can build a granary as quickly as possible.

Galley will unload Archer onto a hill on the other landmass next turn to see what it can uncover. Hopefully then I will see a perfect spot for our settler.

Here's an overview of all our units.



5 cities and 8 workers - not bad average there. Will churn a couple more out of Alesia and Actium once their builds are complete to get the average back up as I will soon be at 6 cities.

Military is wafer thin but I have extended our NAP with Moogle until Turn 80 and am in negotiations with Serdoa about extending the other (currently turn 75). I shall not neglect it but I have a bit less need for it straight away.

Here are the demographics



Not bad but not brilliant either. Competitive on GNP but taken a bit of a hit on population, production and food. Nothing too fearsome to worry about yet, but improvement needed.

[Twinkletoes89]

Ok well here is what the archer has revealed - and its pretty lovely!



It has the makings of a pretty nice production city. Clams and Wheat plus at least one plains hill, a couple of grassland hills, horse it can work and the silver.

Unless I hear any objections I will settle on the tile I have marked next turn.