Intersite Game - Turn Discussion Thread

[NobleHelium]

I agree that they're terribly narrow-purpose, and so I wouldn't want more than a handful, but their terribly narrow purpose happens to perfectly align to the largest threat we currently face, allowing us to divert less effective resources to the other 2 fronts. We're going to be sacrificing a huge pile of stuff here. I don't see much point in fretting over things becoming obsolete. If half the crap we're currently building lives to become obsolete, then we will have handily won the war, and probably the game.

Muskets out of HF are probably better at this point because it's a better use of the GG. 7 exp knights do not get more promotions than 5 exp knights, whereas 5 exp muskets get more promotions than 3 exp muskets. We can build 5 exp knights pretty much anywhere else.

[pindicator]

You know, the 3 amigos (Apolyton, CivPlayers, CFC) would almost be better served by quickly carving up CivFr. At least it would be easier for all 3 of them to make gains in that war. It'd also let us build infra in peace.

[Ceiliazul]

Haha, the "3 amigos" name has been reassigned? (Used to be it meant to the Germans, SPoly, WPC.)

[Sullla]

Turn 164 - 1040AD

An uninteresting turn for the most part. Domestic city management takes up the lion's share of our attention.



Our Welcome Wagon scout seems to have reached the end of his journeys. Apolyton won't Open Borders with us anymore, and there's nothing else to do on this miserable little spit of land. I plan to delete the unit to save on support costs. Speak now if you can see any alternative here, I don't.



I'm planning to order the mace to attack the barb city at the stated 88% odds. Winning would grant 2XP and a free promotion to City Raider, allowing us to attack again the following turn. I held off only in case the team had some sort of objection. Keep in mind two things here: one, there are no barbs on the southern island to threaten Jack Frost, and two, CFC cannot see our mace. Yes, the mace is actually not in their vision, so no worries about that. I think we should attack and remove this blight from the map.



Three ex-German cities came out of resistance this turn. It seemed appropriate to rename Warendorf "The X Factor" (Civ3 Epic) given all of the turmoil surrounding it. Willhelmshaven becomes "The Middle East" (also Civ3 Epic) because it's in the east, and it's in the middle of the three cities we captured from the Germans up here. Truly inspiring name choice, I know. The eastern tundra city came out of resistance as well, and I named it "Soyuz" because, uh, it's in the tundra and that goes with the Soviet theme? Not all the names are great fits!

The last German city will come out of resistance next turn, the western tundra city up there in the north. These cities have been adding on to our maintenance costs as they come out of resistance, but the good news is that we're sitting atop the conqueror's plateau and per-city maintenance is a flat 7 gold/turn everywhere now. New cities no longer add to the cost of older cities. Combined with the lush cottages of some of these new cities, and the Great Lighthouse trade routes from the coastal cities, we're in decent shape for the moment. Decent, not great. Break-even science rate is almost 30% now.

Militarily, most of our big stack up here is resting on the tile east of The Middle East. The Great General Medic 3 chariot is inside the city itself. Happily, every single maceman here will be healed to full next turn, and ready to move out; they will have time to reach the front lines in the west before T170, albeit just barely. About half the catapults will be full health next turn, the rest will need a second turn of healing. Every two-mover will naturally be able to go anywhere needed in plenty of time.

Our unit supply costs for out-of-territory maintenance dropped to zero this turn for the first time since the German war started. Now to look at some cities. I've already drafted Starfall for a musket, we have 4 potential drafts remaining to use.



Forbidden Fruit seems like a natural location to draft. Regrows next turn, no current draft penalty, and we need the 5 turns available to walk over to the west. I think this is a no-brainer.



The Covenant is literally the exact same deal as Forbidden Fruit. Note that we will also likely be whipping the courthouse here soonish, as the cost has dropped from 4 pop down to 3 pop. But draft first to get the draft unhappiness clock ticking. That's three total drafts with Starfall included.



I would draft Cutting Edge as well. It also regrows immediately and we kind of need the transit turns to get over to the western area from here. Yes, there's still 4 turns of draft unhappiness from the previous war, but if this turns into a hot war, we're almost certainly double drafting this city again in 4-5 turns for another musket. We have the happiness overhead to do so. Why not?



French Riviera is the 5th and last city that I would draft this turn. Same analysis as Cutting Edge above.



Non-drafting city micro question: when do we whip the granary here in Splendid Isolation? Is it immediately, or half food box? One of you will let me know, thanks.

Overview:

We'll finish Banking tech this turn at 90% science. Amusingly, cities coming out of resistance just prevented us from running 100% science this turn (which costs ~640 gold) but cities coming out of resistance also increased our total commerce by enough that 90% science was enough to finish the tech. We'll be able to swap some of our oldest cities over to banks starting next turn; probably Adventure One, for sure Mansa's Muse, and likely Gourmet Menu and Tree Huggers (after finishing the market).



Demographics. All of the other teams appear to be running 100% science at the moment, making our GNP continue to look bad. Which I suppose it is, but consider this: Apolyton ran 0% science last turn and made 400 gold. When we run 0% science with 35 cities to their 20 cities, and everything in ex-German lands still sitting at size 1 or size 2, we make 250 gold. Growing those cities + Forbidden Palace + State Property (eventually) will pretty much be a win button.

Our advantage in Food and Land continues to be ridiculous, and will only become more so as cities regrow and pop borders. Soldier count rating is also pretty funny. We'll go over 1 million points after we draft this turn.

Some interesting techs from other teams this turn:

* CivFr finished Education. This was the first tech in 10 turns.

* CFC finished Chemistry, one turn after finishing Gunpowder tech. Keep two things in mind here: prior to Gunpowder last turn, they had not researched anything since Drama on T155. They obviously teched Gunpowder to 99% and then overflowed a huge sum into Chemistry. Number two, CFC is currently in a Golden Age, and therefore getting a huge boost to all their numbers.

* UniversCiv teched Feudalism (T162), then Engineering (T163), and then Guilds this turn (T164). I still don't think they have much chance to do anything in the larger picture of this game, but their tech level is roughly comparable to CivFr now, albeit with some gaping holes. Them picking up so many military techs in a short period suggests they think they might be attacked soon, which is probably good new for us. (Apolyton should be looking to attack them with rifles, not us, by far the strongest team on the map in military.)

That's all for now. Please advise with your thoughts on city management.

[Sullla]

Oh, and Sirian's One More Thing ™: There has been no major whipping/drafting pop action from Apolyton or CivPlayers so far this turn. "So far", at least. Apolyton has done a single draft. CivPlayers has carried out two 2-pop whips. I'll keep an eye on them for the rest of the turn, but this is tentatively very good news.

[antisocialmunky]

This is toroidal wrap right? Can we just get the scout with a galley? I don't want to give Apolyton the satisfaction.

[Sullla]

Sure, after 15 turns of moving our only galley... for a scout. I would suggest that this is not worth the effort.

[T-hawk]

Splendid Isolation: whip granary at half food box. Makes no difference re food or hammers, but keeps the lake tile commerce for the interim turns. Also a small chance to catch a free Hinduism spread before whipping for Org Rel.

[sooooo]

Drafts all look fine to me. I'd been thinking to do FF and CE next turn, but if we need to do it now to make it to the western front, then let's go for it.

Can we afford to put hammers into AO's university this turn instead of wealth? That's one university that will not be useless to us, so hammers here seem wisely invested even if we do switch to a bank next turn. When the university is finished we'll be on at least 40% breakeven slider.

No objections to the maceman attacking the archer. No opinion on the scout, I suppose the only advantage in keeping him is to send him on a suicide scouting mission during a war, but in that case apolyton will probably just kill him on the first turn.

EDIT: What do you think about the suggested tile swaps at Let it Snow (work furs over cottage for faster courthouse and more commerce) and Seven Tribes (Work plains cottage to speed up market)?

[NobleHelium]

Splendid Isolation: whip granary at half food box. Makes no difference re food or hammers, but keeps the lake tile commerce for the interim turns. Also a small chance to catch a free Hinduism spread before whipping for Org Rel.

A little earlier than half food box, whip with 10f in the box since the box will shrink to 22f after the whip.