[SPOILERS - PBEM17] novice and spaceman - Suryavarman of India

[novice]

So that prompted me chatting with Dave and suggesting trading rifles for east indiamen. Somehow the chat log is lost. Dave said he would post the chat in his thread, Spaceman will have to make do with my summary.

I told Dave that we're 4 techs from Rifling - he can find this out for himself anyway on the F4 screen. His estimate on our ETA for Rifling was 18 turns. I didn't comment but I think that's pretty accurate if we beeline it. I suggested trading Rifles for East Indiamen, at an unspecified exchange rate. I said the East Indiamen would most likely be used for an invasion. Under confidence, I told him that possible targets were Rego and Shoot the Moon. He didn't balk at either, but seemed to prefer Rego.

He was going to think things over until tomorrow. His closing thought was how he would leverage an invasion if he were to provide the ships - my thoughts on that are that he obviously will have rifles as well that he can use, and either way we can work out a way to divide any spoils. But I didn't bother starting that discussion at this point.

I suggest we tech Gunpowder next, that way we can still choose between beelining Rifling (Replaceable Parts->Rifling) and Biology (Engineering->Chemistry->Scientific Method->Biology).

[novice]

[COLOR="DarkSlateBlue"]
I have no idea how we're going to compete with fin cottages
[/COLOR]

How about the hammer economy?

After Biology, pick up Nationalism and Communism, and adopt Representation, Nationhood, Caste System, State Property and Pacifism / Free Religion. This gives us 4 food farms and 2 food 4 hammer workshops. Use specialists and build wealth and research. Nationalism provides the security lost by leaving Slavery, and also provides +2 happy from Barracks. (Happiness will be a problem for us). Free Religion might provide additional happiness.

State Property also eliminates distance maintenance, and maintenance from #of cities is capped at 6gpt, which we've almost reached already. So if we conquer any lands they will be productive immediately.

[novice]

Another chat with Darrell:

darrelljs: congrats
Sent at 20:20 on Monday
me: thanks
on what?
darrelljs: escaping international pariah status
me: not sure I know what you mean?
darrelljs: oh dave hasn't contacted you yet?
me: we chatted earlier today
instigated by me
darrelljs: I meant lately
yes
I think you will find you achieved your ojbective
me: oh good
darrelljs: but I don't watn to steal his thunder
me: so you've talked after that, I deduce?
darrelljs: indeed, and shoot as well

So it sounds like our three neighbours would like to gang up on Rego.

[spacemanmf]

Rather than spamming posts, it was easier for us to chat this through online:

19:41 me: ooh plenty of posts to read

19:42 novice: yeah, no pictures though

me: no

i've read them all anyway

constitution gives us mausoleums at some point

that will help with happiness

19:43 novice: yeah, true

SoL would be nice as well

me: not sure about pacifism if we're building an army - i still like theo

novice: sure, theo if we're in war mode

19:44 Constitution and Democracy are hefty techs though

me: ah ok - you're talking econ mode

yeah they are a bit of a diversion

but mausoleums would be nice

novice: and at the moment SoL and Mausoleums are the only benefit

we already have unlocked Universal Suffrage

me: yup, i'm less bothered about demo

novice: But we'll need Constitution eventually for Corporation and Assembly Line

19:45 I guess we slip it in if/when happiness starts becoming a problem

me: yeah

useful for EPs too

19:46 novice: SoL has a really short payback on the hammers invested, but the tech just feels like such a detour

me: chemistry/steel would be nice

novice: for ironclads?

or cannons?

me: cannons and frigates

19:47 novice: ironclads get easily outrun

me: is that where frigates are?

novice: yeah frigates are at chemistry but also require astro

me: ah

novice: I was hoping to skip astro for a while and let Dave produce ships

me: yeah, well if we can get them then that would be good

novice: although observatories enable a third scientist

then again, if we're going Caste...

19:48 lots of options

me: heh

i would prefer to attack shoot

not sure what we would get out of attacking rego

and he's done the least wrong towards us

19:49 except dave i suppose, heh

novice: I'll post a chat log now

19:50 sounds like Rego is the preferred target

19:51 me: i also don't like a 4 vs 1

novice: we probably won't be able to sell Shoot as a target, and I think we need allies to make headway, not least because we'll be at the wrong end of a gangbang otherwise

19:52 well then I guess the other option is getting Rego's aid against someone

becuase the other three seem pretty joined at the hip

19:53 me: yeah

novice: or just go for the hammer economy and try to keep up

let's see what Dave's response is

me: ok

19:54 cos then it could be us, dave, rego vs darrell & shoot

novice: yeah that could work

me: or darrell and dave could stay neutral

but then not sure how close rego is to shoot

19:55 novice: yeah he doesn't seem close to anyone really

but he wouldn't volunteer information anyway

he = rego

me: i meant geographically, sorry

novice: ah

they're pretty close

19:56 me: dave offered a map swap yesterday

novice: shoot is to his nw

me: he has everyone's map but ours

so we'd get a lot of map info

novice: if/when we know we're not the next pariah, I'm all for it.

me: heh

19:57 novice: but I saw the offer, it was very generous actually

19:59 feel free to post this chat

[spacemanmf]

Ok, I played the turn. I believe I called one of these two builds...



I'd guess rego got the other, but I haven't checked what techs people have. Here is the north of our land. I whipped a courthouse in Net Profit, and a missionary completes next turn in Gold Rush - this can head to ChannelledFunds. That will, I think, just leave Net Borrower.



In the south-east, we are building universities everywhere.



In the south-west, a settler (on the eastern hills) tries to catch-up the three-move galley, and can get picked up from the seafood tile.



We got Printing Press at the end of the turn, and our finances were improved (a courthouse completing also helped).

[spacemanmf]

Tech screens:





GNPs are erratic.



Demos.

[novice]

We still need three settlers and missionaries for four new cities, though.

[spacemanmf]

We still need three settlers and missionaries for four new cities, though.

Four rubbish cities.

[novice]

In other news, Shoot got GP to enable his UU. We'll get a 1.46 modifier on GP next turn.

Four rubbish cities.

Each city will cost about 12gpt in maintenance and will immediately make 9 commerce and 3 beakers. So I see no reason to delay these cities. Do you?

[spacemanmf]

In other news, Shoot got GP to enable his UU. We'll get a 1.46 modifier on GP next turn.

So are we delaying Economics?

Each city will cost about 12gpt in maintenance and will immediately make 9 commerce and 3 beakers. So I see no reason to delay these cities. Do you?

I reckon it's more than 12gpt, since there's the maintenance that gets added to all the cities' maintenance. Plus there's the opportunity cost of not building something like a grocer, bank or university.

But your turns are for building settlers, not mine.