[spoilers] Commodore: Worse than Toku, it's Giggles of Siam!

[Thoth]

Moar cities definitely. Perhaps swap the Lib in TM for another settler? That would give us 4 inocoming over the next 8 turns or so. Plenty to digest for the moment.

And yeah, time to get rolling on a real (HA, BE, Cat) army.

Also this would be a good time to think about where we want our borders to be with Serdoa and seeing about settlement plans/timing for that area.

[Commodore]

Thanks to Xenu's commitment to self-murder, we are now uncontested kings of the high-pop city. Here's Barry with yet more food. Also notable, foreign trade routes actually being worth something.


I agree about the settlement. The fourth city is going to be a battle, which is fine. Barbarian archers keep on spawning, and the 7th Battalion keeps on murderin' em. That's a fifth XP and now we're going to go claim the rice tile. This city will be up and running fast on those old ruins.


I keep seeing GSes born and flinching. I think this one is from Slowcheetah/FredBob360, because while I'm prepared for Plako to be scary, birthing a GS 2 turns after his first would be magic. Still, got a little time to go yet. MC, Aesthetics, Civil Service and watch is the plan. Maybe a Nationalism run?


You want pre-improved cities? I got pre-improved cities for ya. Northcorner will begin its life with a granary chop and working sheep, and a copper mine/riverside farm to follow for the early growths. I see no reason these fellows can't all hook stone next, as Poplar Point nets its own settle. This is going to hurt, economy-wise. Courthouse time.


Next turn, Sandhurst. Incoming workboat and farm, then its overflow-building games to 1-turn the Parthenon if its still available. MC is down to a 2-turn tech, so the workers will build workshops under those pre-chopped forests while we wait around. Verah nice!


That's the Generics folks, 520 AD.

[Thoth]

Nationalism is very expensive. We could get Feud/Mach and most of Guilds for a similar price.

LBs, Maces, Xbows and a head start on Knights vs draftable axes and Taj.

We'll also want Calendar soonish for the Silks happies, Lit for our Epics, and a Pony.




Note that the two riverside grass in Sandhurst will want farms rather than workshops. We'll want the food to boost up our growth rate early and support WS as we grow. One could be replaced with a Waterwheel post machinery (IIRC they start at 2h in the mod?)

Trade route growth is nice in LSG. Note that we can help offset the cost of far flung cities by growing Raven's Bluff up to size 14. It will then be worth a +3 trade route in cities that are far enough away.

[Thoth]

A run at Printing Press would do the economy the world of good with all the villages we'll have soon.

[Ceiliazul]

We'll also want Calendar soonish for the Silks happies, Lit for our Epics, and a Pony.

Laughed out loud, woke the baby. Bad Thoth!

[Commodore]

Growth of the most general sort is very much needed now. At Swallowdale, finally, is about to be able to work a complete riverside cottage set as it bangs out a courthouse, which it will whip off the mines in time for Amazon Circle to start its own. Forbidden Palace, and we can make Old Zululand hum along very nicely indeed.


Economy-wise, we're not doing terribly. The GA out east is making all kinds of noise and Plako will, probably, be able to hit Lib/Nationalism first anyway. We're about to 2-turn MC and then dump enough overflow to bring CS down very nicely. Still, you're right, we have a lot of ground to make up and to stop expanding is to die. Real forces are needed, too.


HA are nice, but the two big 'uns are going to be catapults and mammoths. Catapults because, well, duh, but ballin' pants are going to be almost as good...not only do they match maces for less cost and trample crossbows, they make us effectively knight immune on the defense. Willowbrooke will knock out a few cats and stables in time for rice to come online; once we can cancel the trade it's going to be all elephants all the time. Beyond that, this worthless little turd of a city is good for nothing but a third-ring border to boost stone city.


Hawk's Ridge is growing, hopefully to start Moai shortly. I want those +3 trade routes post-haste, I think I can manage them at size...10? 11? In any case, this is going to be a huge city with the Moai, easily one of the top cities in the empire. Fingers crossed for holy city, it's the third-best gold maker already.


First is the capital, naturally, but second place is Tranquil Meadow, still growing very nicely. This is an unbelievably excellent city for a second-settle feeder drone. Good grief, it's sexy as all hell, pity about the Hindu spread. Until a few ex-Zulu core cities come online this is our second best for quite some time, despite the hammer-hunger.

Note that the two riverside grass in Sandhurst will want farms rather than workshops. We'll want the food to boost up our growth rate early and support WS as we grow. One could be replaced with a Waterwheel post machinery (IIRC they start at 2h in the mod?)

Right, and we're getting the north tile farmed next turn. Plan is to grow to whip for ~30 hammers overflow from granary, and ~20 hammers overflow from an archer (alternate: just dump/whip into a HA to 1t everything), which couples with the 150h in the forests to perfectly complete a Parthenon. If it falls, no big deal though...we can make this all timed to be a 1t build so risks are minimal.


That's where we are, folks.

[Commodore]

Success! We now have highly lucrative Open Borders with Arabia, and he's given me his maps too!

Arabia


(some)Azteca


(hints of)France


Plako and Slowcheetah are both in GA.

[Thoth]

Nice work on the Sandhurst prep. If we miss Parth, we have the forests for gran, LH and 1/2 a forge. Those hammers would go a lot further if we had a state religion spread here.

Either we get a nice wonder or we get a nice city quickly set up. Ok.

As far as military builds go.....

All Mammoths, all the time isn't a very good idea.

HA's give us mobility and a degree of tactical flexibility that slow movers can't match. We also have a large empire, so a fast moving reaction force is a good idea.

And catapults. Lots, and lots of catapults.

Maces and Xbows for counter melee as well.

And lots of mammoths (and a few spears as well to help handle Formation Mounted units )


TM looks sexy right now....but it'll look less sexy once the capital claims it's last two Villages. Still, it'll push out some solid commerce and enough hammers to build it's multipliers in decent time. We can either whip it down to size 11 and stagnate working Corn, Horse, 7 cotts and two specs or keep it at size 12 working Corn, horse, 7 cotts, grass mine and plains tile (8th cottage) and one specialist.

either is ok, but the size 12 option steals the grass mine and the plains tile from VA. I think we're better off with a slightly weaker TM and VA as a stronger production centre. High hammer ports are very handy on watery maps. We'd also eventually get a GP from TM (either Merch or Sci. by the time it finally pops, either will do us just fine)

Western Heights I haven't looked at closely in a while, but we want that city growing as fast as possible onto lots and lots of cottages as soon as possible. Coast is fine to tide us through for the short term, but we'll want some serious commerce happening once we start running up on Ren era tech costs. I'm willing to work coast for commerce when needed, but I hold my nose when I do it.

A ws or two once WH hits size 15 or so would be nice so we can actually build some multipliers on the cotts. We'll need a few Archers or Chariots to cover the short term happies (don't bother with a col/Ch in WH for the moment, those hammers are better spent towards Market/Lib (I haven't run the math on Forge first, then MP/Lib but it might be worthwhile. Hammers and +2 happy is very nice.

[Thoth]

Had a quick look around ingame.....FP in ex-zulu lands looks to be overkill. Once we get CHs down, our city maint costs in the area will be pretty cheap.

Current Zululand or Serdoaland.....now them be fine places for our FP.

And Nationalism is 600b more expensive than Machinery, Feud, Guilds and Banking.

Given what we get for our extra 600b......I like Banking.

[Thoth]

We'll also want Calendar soonish for the Silks happies, Lit for our Epics, and a Pony.

Laughed out loud, woke the baby. Bad Thoth!