[Spoilers] Dtay's first PB: When you play a game of CIV, you win or you die

[dtay]

Realistically, I think I need a successful war (almost certainly against TBS), and I need Mackoti to get bogged down in a not-so-successful war. That probably means OH. This means I want OH to be strong, but also to not attack me, which would be the worst of both worlds (I'd be hurt and Mack would have an open target).

The war with TBS is looking like it will occur with nationalism and drafting. If I get the GS roll (85% odds) I can bulb education next turn and tech liberalism in in 6-7-ish turns. That lets me grab nationalism. I really really really hope I don't miss liberalism. I'm not sure how it could happen given the lack of necessary great scientist births by other people, but I would feel a LOT safer about it if I could see Mackoti's techs.

Once I have nationalism I'm going to try to chop out the taj mahal in south city. That i'm less certain of getting than liberalism, since someone else could be teching nationalism raw. I've been at the top/near top of GNP for a while though cause of my double golden ages, and i'm only 600 beakers behind a raw nationalism tech (900 for paper - 300 for cheaper liberalism), and I can track Pind/Scooter's techs now and they don't seem to be particularly aiming at it.

I'll need to decide whether to immediately switch to nationalism (well probably wait to grab machinery first) and begin drafting or try to hit it with an uncertain golden age. Substantially leaning towards the golden age. Backup plan for losing taj could be to try to get 3 different GP for yet another golden age, which would take about 18 turns from right now, or 4-ish turns past a realistic taj end date (that's an extremely rough guess).

I'm considering sending a chariot down south through OH's lands in order to meet mackoti so I can watch his tech progress, but I don't want OH to think I'm scouting him out and cancel open borders... I'm going to see if I can find a non-threatening route to do so. Or maybe do a map trade right before in order to make it clear I'm not after scouting info?

Final thing that could go wrong is I get an artist not a scientist right now. That will delay education by 5 turns while I make another GS. Hopefully THAT one doesn't miss, that would suck. Really suck. Honestly the first one missing also sucks, I might just tech half of education and bulb then and use the next scientist for a potential 3rd golden age or astronomy bulb.

If all that goes according to plan (or at least CLOSE to according to plan), I'll then tech to guilds and other military relevant techs whilst building/drafting otu an army of maces. TBS has longbows as defenders, taht's not good, but i'll have a massive production advantage and can hopefully overwhlem with numbers and quick alpha strikes on the 2 frontline cities.

So that's the current plan. You can see it depends on a lot of uncertain variables. This next GS. Winning liberalism. Getting taj. Successful war. Taj is probably the least certain, but its also the least critical, it would just be nice. But Mackoti has a strong position right now, catching up is going to be tough. I can out research him at the moment but that won't last.

[BRickAstley]

Sounds like a good/well thought out plan! good luck.

[dtay]

Got an artist...



need


So now I have two options.
1) Save money for 4 turns and try for another GS then. This actually doesn't slow down liberalism much or at all since I just run full burn on liberalism for longer/the whole time. The next GS shoudl have 8/9 odds, slightly better than this one but not much.

2) Make bloody sure of this and run full wealth, except for a few choice cities and put science on full burn. I can finish half of education in 3 turns, then bulb the rest, and be sitting on 600 gold and ready to go for liberalism. I'll then have a scientist+artist left over in 4 turns, for 2/3 of another golden age or 1/2 of an astronomy bulb.

Right now I'm set up for option 1. I put it to option 2 briefly then decided to go back. But I might change again.

Let me repeat though:

[dtay]

Option 2 is more certain, and has more GP at the end, but is a bit slower to liberalism and delays military buildup and some infrastructure.

[Ceiliazul]

Got an artist...



need

Good luck on your plan! And anyway, you can always save the artist for war...

Really impressive if you could hook up 3 different GPs in 18 turns without a GA... that's crazy!

[dtay]

Well 1 of the 3 would be done during the golden age (the slot this next scientist is taking up). Then 2 over the next 14 turns. Riole really cranks out the GPP right now given pacifism+philosophical+NE+Parthenon+Golden Age, for a total of +450%. I need to turn off pacifism at the end of this GA though if I don't plan on another non-taj golden age soon, cause I don't want to get stuck in it as my military builds up.

My thoughts on the war use of the artist is TBS's capital is really irritatingly placed for that. Its super border expanded and has dumped massive amounts of culture into its 2nd and 3rd ring, so I don't think an artist can make a great deal of headway. I could think about other tactical uses, maybe opening up a mace/catapult alpha strike instead of strictly knights. We'll see. I'm certainly not using the artist in the immediate future so I have time to think about it.

Actual turn report to come though, this has been a lot of text.

[dtay]

All right, I went with option 2. Full burn. This gets education a turn earlier and for sure, but doesn't allow full burn the whole way through liberalism. I'd be interested in whether the lurkers/other players think this was the right call, i reconfigured my empire 3 times in trying to decide which one to do.

Here's what that looks like:






I'm scaring people GNP wise... though whoever has 581 has a great "true GNP". Mine is so inflated by my wonders, golden age, and excessive wealth builds.


WE SHALL BE WEALTHY:



Managed to get a top 5 city spot back, in my wonderless capital. I was kind of expecting Riole to make it on before Central did



We're still churning out a great scientist here. It'll be useful for either a golden age or an astronomy bulb.



I'm thinking actually of switching that to merchants though. That would hopefully give me merchant+artist, so it'd be easier to get a unique 3rd for another golden age given scientists are the easiest for me to pop out. Something else to consider going back and changing i suppose.

You can see I slowed it down a turn, since I don't need it as fast as possible I'd prefer working the village.

I finally grabbed this hut that's been on a northern island forever. Got 60-ish gold, good haul. Lets see if this island is worth settling.

[dtay]

Changed everything for a 4th time... we're back to plan 1. Dice rolling.

1/9 this blows up in my face and I risk losing liberalism. 8/9 i'm on track as if I had the scientist the first time. 4t to great scientist, I'll have 1659 gold, enough to burn right through liberalism at 100%.

[BRickAstley]

Sorry your first Great guy pop didnt go well, but i'm impressed at your ability to adapt to that and still likely get it. good luck!

[dtay]

So I'm not sure what happened, but I seem to have a lot more contacts than I did 2 turns ago... did a ton of galleys go by while I wasn't paying attention? I'm really not sure. Anyway, I've met mackoti somehow now, so I can see the techs and:



Yessss. Looks like he won't be able to contest liberalism. He doesn't have paper or philosophy yet. Its still possible that he's about to finish paper this turn then bulb a ton, but unless he births the scientists in the next 2 turns (or I missed a ton of scientists on the notification screen) that seems unlikely. Given I somehow met commodore as well, that's basically all the contenders who could reasonably contest liberalism. At worst, somehow is going to have to play catchup to steal it from me.

My gold building is no longer tops in GNP, science goes back on just as the golden age ends, wonder if that net brings me up or down



I really like the new border with TBS. Much better than the old one lol: