Gandhi of France II - Assuming Direct Control

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Who cares if I get the opportunity to get a free +10h in a few of my cities, I'm taking it!

[luddite]

On the downside, we don't have a single granary, cottage and are more broke that Greece.

Money and granaries are so overrated.

[oledavy]

Money and granaries are so overrated.

On that note.....now presenting, Hipster Luddite

[oledavy]

[SIZE="4"]Tech Goals[/SIZE]

After I knock out Writing, Monotheism and Meditation, I'm going to have some choices for what tech I want to target next.

Aesthetics -> Literature - Hook up marble and make a run at the Parthenon and/or Great Library. Both would be very good wonders for a PHI civ equipped with Representation.

Mathematics -> Currency - Traditional, solid, would be a welcome boost the economy. I could even make a run at the HG since I have stone.

Alphabet - There if I want to open up double pre-reqs on currency, or need to clear it out for GS bulbing options. Spies would also be nice.

Metal Casting - On the way to Guilds & Banking, Forges are crucial buildings as well.

Iron Working - Would be handy to clear the jungle around Thessia and hook up dyes and sugar.

I've vaguely considering prioritizing calendar to nab the MoM and hook up Spices. However, I feel sure some other player is going to put a bigger priority on the wonder, and when push comes to shove - I'd rather have the Parthenon and GL. Still, something to bear in mind.

My most important mid-term tech targets are Civil Service and Code of Laws. Longer term, I want Guilds, Gunpowder, Education and Banking. The problem is that I'm not very well set up to bulb the lower part of the tree, so there's no easy way for me to get all those techs in a hurry. One thing I've been considering is going hog wild with Great Scientists, knocking out alphabet then bulbing Philosophy, Paper, Education and then hard researching Liberalism and taking nationalism for Taj and early access to drafting. I can then research Military Tradition and go nuts with cuirassiers. Could be promising. Albeit there are a lot more techs I would need to research along the way to make that work. Let's hash that out:

Writing
Monotheism
Meditation
Bulb Theology
Mathematics
Alphabet (Could move to after Currency)
Currency
Priesthood
Code of Laws
Civil Service
Aesthetics
Literature
Music
Bulb Paper
Bulb Education
Liberalism
Lib Nationalism
Gunpowder
Iron Working
Horseback Riding
Military Tradition

Notable tech Gaps: No Metal Casting, No Guilds, No Banking, No Construction, No Calendar

Would probably need to fit Fishing, Sailing and Archery all in there somewhere as well.

Once I get all those techs out, I draft a horde of musketeers, build some cuirassiers and go ruin someone's day. Would be a lot of fun

Unfortunately, not sure I would be able to survive that long without a state of the art defensive unit. Most notably, it leaves me without any counter to Cataphracts. I don't think I'll be able to avoid warfare for that long.

Nonetheless, spamming GS's to bulb through Paper and Education for early access to Oxford (sped up by PHI) sounds promising. With Stone, UoS would be a pretty cheap build and would dovetail well with SPI temples and the AP.

Again though, I expect I will not be able to avoid the jealous gaze of my neighbors for that long. Meh, we'll see what happens. Does anyone happen to know the earliest Oxford has ever been built in a PBEM on the forums?

[luddite]

Once I get all those techs out, I draft a horde of musketeers, build some cuirassiers and go ruin someone's day. Would be a lot of fun

heh, I've always wondered what would happen if a French player rushed for nationalism/gunpowder and just went nuts drafting musketeers. I've tried it in single player, but the AIs always build stupid amounts of longbows. In MP... Well it probably would Still fail miserably lol. But it would be fun to watch!

[oledavy]

Extended cut released today, and Bioware is officially forgiven.

[oledavy]

In non "joyous celebration that the ending of my favorite video game series is no longer awful" news, we'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming sometime later today after I get t59. However, he are the bullet points:

- I settled Irune (named for the Volus homeworld, the species who, fittingly, stabilized the galactic economy in the ME Universe).
- My economy is still shit, but I'm about to finish Writing so it won't be for too much longer.
- I'm considering chopping out the Great Wall in Irune, and will definitely be chopping out the Apostolic Palace in Sur'Kesh.
- Commodore settled the city of Riffington towards me, and is probing towards Thessia (and screening Kaiden Alenko away) with a chariot menacingly named Vimire.
- Yuris nabbed Currency, and finally settled a city that is not backfill. We're now tied for last place in city count.
- Gaspar and Mistabod are both now at 7 cities, and Mistabod settled the grassland hill on the flood plains southeast of Palaven.
- I noticed in the diplo screen, Commodore declared war on Gaspar at some point.
- I now have two granaries, vs. the zero I had a few turns ago.
- Judaism still has not fallen
- I have lots of good land to bacfill to the south on a long peninsula, including an awesome Moai location.

The biggest news, however, is the settling of the Byzantine city of Bravery. There's now way around this now, Mistabod and I will be going to war. Why?

Welp, the BFCs of the city do not overlap. However, the BFC's of both of our cities do control the tile needed to one-move the opposing city with 2-movers. Now, let's say I'm the guy with Cataphracts, and I'm looking for an easy target once I get my OP UU online. I would definitely hit the pink dot city, especially considering how lush it is. The aspect that makes things even worse is that I'm expecting to pop a religion in the city. I really need to secure a third ring border to get enough warning of incoming attacks on the city. However, that will definitely prompt a war declaration from them at some point.

So, meh, I feel as though I'm damned if I do, and I'm damned if I don't. Either way, as a result of my Pink Dot, I'm the one who get's phracted. Opportunity cost of claiming the stone I suppose. Though I feel like claiming it and landing it was the only way for me to be competitive this game, they have FIN to go cry to....

I wouldn't be terribly surprised if they want to go for an earlier attack. Mist has a history of liking early, despoiling attacks, and they may decide to crank out a horde of chariots and HAs to invade. Without a way for them to get visibility on the city, they can't know that I have walls already and a sturdy garrison.

So, for now, I'm going to be friendly to them any way I possibly can, while watching the power graph like a hawk for any indication of a build-up. I'm going to complete that spear in Palaven sooner rather than later, get a spear in Irune ASAP to cover my southern flank, and try to get a third spear in the city after the worker and granary complete. That should be enough to hold off any early aggression, unless they go all out. With any luck, Yuri will do something to make himself a more obvious target in the meantime before they reach guilds, and I can peacefully coexist with the two of them.

Ironic that the civ I characterized as the Reapers is now very likely to attack me at some point. Always a hazard of starting next to Byzantium. I can say this though, I'm not dying to phracts. If they do decide to come after me, it will be a battle to the death, winning be damned.

[oledavy]

I pretty much covered all the major goings on in the last post, so this one will be mostly pictures:





















If I still have any ded-lurkers out there by chance, I would appreciate a second take on dot-mapping the land south of Sur'Kesh

[Shoot the Moon]

I'd maybe do 1E of the rice and 1W of the pigs? Your not FIN and don't have GLH, so cramming in 3 cities to work 2c coasts doesn't look quite as appealing as that layout I think.

[hinaru_23]

I agree with StM