[SPOILER] Nicolae Karpathia Khan of France

[Nicolae Carpathia]

For the first time in millenia, we have peace upon our world. Now is the time for wonderspamming and infrastructure. It should be noted that GE traded me Marble for Stone a few turns ago, and I've used to opportunity to get my Epics up.



Good and bad news on the Sareln front. The good news is that I've finally wrested control of the disputed border, meaning Sareln can no longer 2-move me, but I can 2-move him (guess who's the aggressive one who will do it if the opportunity presents itself). The bad news is that Sareln spawned a GEngineer, and rushed the MoM in that border city, meaning I need to contend with more culture. Luckily I have the Sistine Chapel under construction in my capital. The worse news is that (a) Sareln hasn't used any golden ages yet (and I expect him to pop one soon to revolt into bureaucracy), and the (b) Sareln spawned the GEngineer from his capital (likely at low odds) instead of his 'mids city, meaning he will likely rush the Taj as soon as he gets the chance.



I'm therefore going to have to prioritise Nationalism, and finally take this barb city (who has been spawning a stream of barb archers against me). What a magnificient city, 5 forests in the 2nd ring and another 3 in the 3rd ring. The worry of course is Sareln poaching it from me, or just straight up capturing it, but I've had a chariot in the area for a while and can hope he hasn't even seen it yet. Let's hope GE doesn't cancel the Marble for Stone deal.



I think I did something clever a few turns ago, did a 2-pop whip on a missionary and a 1-pop whip on a forge the same turn, finished the forge first, overflowed onto the wonder. I made a mistake though, and should have put more production into the GLibrary instead of Nat Epic. I'm going to be dumping a load of whip overflow into this city to get the wonders out. Oh well, my worry about losing it to the GEngineer is moot, I'm the only one with Literature (Ioan is 2-turns for Aesthetics, I should check if he's saving gold or not).



I was originally hoping to whip into the MoM in this border city as well, but oh well, such is competing against PHI leaders in the mid-game. Started whipping into the Parthenon instead.



Here's the city I've settled on the ruins of Lacrimiora, and the resting grounds of many many Aztec bodies. First things I chopped were a Theatre, Walls and Granary, I've been running a pair of artists for a while, and fired them as soon as I gained control of all my food resources. I'm hopeful of cementing my control of the area by gaining control of the forest and furs, but that may take a while.



Here's a nice little barb city I'm going to raze for shits and giggles and 2 free workers, it's nice though a bit hard to defend. I'm surprised it still hasnt grown yet.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Nope, Ioan isn't saving gold, which suggests his beaker rate is a ~100bpt or so. Mine is ~170bpt, still quite sad in the scheme of things.

Some demos.





Some pictures of my core. I made what adjustments to builds to match my memories, and I didn't end turn teching Engineering, instead dropped down to 0% and switched to paper (lets me 100% it next turn).

[SevenSpirits]

I think I did something clever a few turns ago, did a 2-pop whip on a missionary and a 1-pop whip on a forge the same turn, finished the forge first, overflowed onto the wonder. I made a mistake though, and should have put more production into the GLibrary instead of Nat Epic. I'm going to be dumping a load of whip overflow into this city to get the wonders out. Oh well, my worry about losing it to the GEngineer is moot, I'm the only one with Literature (Ioan is 2-turns for Aesthetics, I should check if he's saving gold or not).

Probably not clever.

You lost some pop earlier than necessary (can't complete both builds on the same turn anyway) and the missionary overflow will be divided by 1.25 because you have the forge when it completes, even though the missionary hammers weren't ever multiplied by 1.25 in the first place.

[Commodore]

Here's a nice little barb city I'm going to raze for shits and giggles and 2 free workers, it's nice though a bit hard to defend. I'm surprised it still hasnt grown yet.

Whoa those barbs did a nice job dot mapping that one. +14 food surplus with that many ice/peak/tundra tiles? Heck yes. I hope you'll be sending a settler that-away soon?

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Probably not clever.

You lost some pop earlier than necessary (can't complete both builds on the same turn anyway) and the missionary overflow will be divided by 1.25 because you have the forge when it completes, even though the missionary hammers weren't ever multiplied by 1.25 in the first place.

Yeah good point, I should have elaborated on how it was probably a mistake, I only got 18 base overflow from it. My rationale at the time was that there are few things that could be 2-pop whipped at the time, and I really wanted more missionaries then. Oh well, live and learn. I better hurry, both my neighbours have Aesthetics now.

[Bobchillingworth]

I'm no expert, but that barb city you plan on razing looks like the exact opposite of "hard to defend". On a hill, a single ridiculously roundabout land approach that gives you vision on any invading army well before it can hit the city, 1-tile water chokepoint leading up to the town in case someone tries an amphibious attack. Presumably it can't grow because you're standing on the only food tile the barbs can work (I guess they lack fishing). Personally I'd keep it.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Good points. I wasn't thinking things through, I played just after waking up and had to rush off, it had actually grown a while ago but shrunk down because I had the option of keeping it. Oh well, I've been making alot of stubbornly bad decisions recently.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Holy crap, someone finally posted in the lurker thread, I wonder what shenanigans are going on elsewhere.

Anyways, it's good to have this game back on track, I much prefer the diplomacy in this game. Who are my friends? No one! Who are my enemies? My neighbours!

Parthenon came in at EoT and gave me 166 failgold in another city. It turns out I screwed up my micro the turn before and chopped my forests a turn early, oh well, no real loss.

Teched Philosophy the turn before, always useful because it sets me up for Nationalism and Liberalism, and denies it to Sareln. I always expected him to make a play for Liberalism, after all he teched Alphabet just to free up a bulb for philosophy. Oh well, his bad. Anyway, Sareln is 5 turns to tech Philosophy, he's on +4g/turn, hence his breakeven rate is ~100-140bpt (no idea if he's wealthbuilding). My massive GNP is actually distorted by the culture I'm outputting, and this will be even more obfuscated once the Sistine Chapel appears in ~3 turns.

A picture of the barb city I should be taking in ~6 turns. The probem is defending it, it's pretty isolated from the rest of my empire, and it's trivial for Sareln to gain vision into it. Hmm, maybe I should station that mace on the forest hill tile to make any incursions extremely costly.

Here is the replacement city Sareln settled. Note that it has no source of culture, hence I should be in position to pillage its fish tile in 2 turns and escape without being trapped in his cultural borders.

My beautiful Heroic Epic city. It's been pumping out 1 mace/turn for the last 5 turns. It's a bit isolated a la the infamous Cape Town, but I have sentries in the area to pick up any trouble a turn away. The only worry is a mounted stack, but I have walls, 2 spears and an axe permanently garrisoned in the city, and will have 2 maces in range of the city as long as it keeps pumping them out at 1/turn. Sareln isn't particularly aggressive, so I should be fine streaming units out of it onto other fronts. I will need engineering at some point in the future.

I'm thinking of making Mama, oooh my Globe Theatre city. All I need is a +10 food surplus at size 5, which is dirt easy. This is actually a better National epic site than Killed a Man, but the difference is this city is underdeveloped and exposed, and I'm better off whipping or drafting off tiles. Alternatively, I make my Globe Threatre city Now he's Dead, it's much easier to put up National wonders if you have hammer tiles.

Here are what my sentries reveal of my fronts. The Garofita sentry is going to have to make little looping patrols to reveal the tiles of interest, from my south eastern most cottage, moving 3894 and back again, which reveals all tiles of interest.

I've had a think about it, and here is a tentative tech plan. I bulb Education, save gold, and try to make a run for Gunpowder, Nationalism and Liberalism in the same fit of deficit research. I slingshot Military Tradition, and stomp whichever neighbour seems weaker. How's that for a plan?

Finally, a GScientist came in at end of turn. I already had a GScientist waiting to bulb Education, I may use the next one for Printing Press. GScientists are cheap at this point, I have a lock on the GLibrary, and my National Epic should be appearing in a few turns. Actually, my next GPerson is probably a GArtist, he'l always be useful for a golden age or a culture bomb in some unlucky person's capital/front city.

[spacemanmf]

Holy crap, someone finally posted in the lurker thread, I wonder what shenanigans are going on elsewhere.

Nukes on horseback, I suspect.

I've had a think about it, and here is a tentative tech plan. I bulb Education, save gold, and try to make a run for Gunpowder, Nationalism and Liberalism in the same fit of deficit research. I slingshot Military Tradition, and stomp whichever neighbour seems weaker. How's that for a plan?

It sounds like fun which automatically qualifies it as being A Good Idea.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Let’s have a look at the save…

Gunpowder costs 958 adjusted beakers, Liberalism costs 1118, Nationalism costs 1436. With wealthbuilds, I can get up to ~200bpt. Otherwise, I make ~130bpt (Christ that’s terrible). At 100% science, I get 490bpt at -279gpt. At 0%, I get +101gpt. At this rate, I’m going to need save ~2000 gold for nearly 20 turns before I can make a run for that plan. In other words, not going to happen, I’m going to have to slingshot Nationalism directly or else I’m going to lose the Lib race.

Otherwise, I’ll want enough cash for Gunpowder and Liberalism before I decide to sandbag for Military Tradition. That means saving for another 10 turns. I’m just concerned about what Sareln is going to do next, is he going to go for his first MoM-powered Golden Age, or will he start bulbing? I would recommend the former, he’d be in a great position to get a 36 turn golden age and put the smack down on someone.

Oh yeah, and FML, but I made the mistake of letting up a single artist specialist for a turn. Great, now Sareln regained control of the centre. Oh well, I have Sistine finishing next turn, and I just whipped out a Buddhist temple. Why don't you suck on my 52 culture per turn!

Oh yeah, and Ioan just chopped a perfectly good forest just before I gained cultural control over it.