[SPOILERS] Dtay in PBEM53

[Ceiliazul]

Basically I need to do some math next turn.

dontcha hate it when that happens?

i like your gameplay and reports in all your games so far. you've got the right stuff, dtay.

So dles TBS, incidentally, which makes your rivalry in all games so far a very fun experience to see.

[dtay]

Yeah, the rivalry with TBS is interesting. I'm really interested to read his PB13 thread once that's over to see how he was perceiving our interactions in that game.

[dtay]

Golden age in progress. I decided to go for liberalism instead of taj mahal. TBS beat me to philosophy by 2 turns, which is probably enough to get the Taj from me. But it does mean liberalism is mine. MINE.

I'll start with some empire overview shots then show a few things that are interesting

Core



Islands



West



You'll notice I finally got around to renaming everything. Firefly 'Verse planets. Such a sad cancellation.

I just researched paper. Plan is to 1t the next 4 techs then grab liberalism (bulbing Education)



What 4 techs you ask? I think I'm going to aim to bulb astronomy. I'll bulb/grab education first, so I can start on the universities for oxford. This should deter TBS from following me along theliberalism path, since he'll be able to see I have education (Ren buildings + map trading should give it away). He'll then go do w/e he needs for his war v azza. That should give me enough time to grab 1/2 iron working, compass, optics, then liberalism for Astronomy.

Powering this as well will be another great scientist and merchant standing by. With them, I can either declare another golden age or great merchant mission for extra gold to power research. Unless TBS goes right for liberalism he won't be able to beat me there even with my detour, and I should see him coming since I'll have research visibility in the next 2-3 turns.

Oxford itself is quite a prize. Capital powered empire!



Grabbing astronomy as well means I'll have +225% beakers (and +50% commerce) in my supersized, almost all towns, capital very early on. This should keep the research advantage in my court.

The other logic for Astronomy is I believe a war of conquest is a lackluster option right now. I didn't stop settling a ton because I couldn't. I stopped settling a ton because its becoming an iffy economic investment. Yes I want to take over Azza or BaII sometime, but I don't need to yet, and the economics and military-ease of it will be better later.

But what I CAN do is try to deal a knockout blow to the only rival, TBS. Galleons (and frigates soon after) will let me boat and fork his islands and coast. As a great lighthouse civ, he's pretty island and coast dependent, so muskets or something (grenadiers if I get there?) off of boats will hopefully let me keep TBS in check.

Also since Astro has no prereq arrows, its the most efficient to lib-bulb.

Entirely different topic. I haven't yet converted to hinduism b/c it hasn't mattered. But now capital hit unhappiness, so finally about to do that:






That Taoism there is how I knew TBS got philosophy incidentally.

I've set up my great person pump. Great Library + National Epic



Next step, Temple of Artemis.

Also completed Schwegadon Paya. Once I'm done with caste (in 4t), I'll switch back to slavery and to org religion (to help whipping in universities). Then whenever my next golden age is I'll switch back to Free Religion.



I bet I never tech Monotheism or Theology this entire game... Are those required for anything I'm forgetting? (I also don't care about Divine Right).

[dtay]

Oh note I forgot. I'm going to go put a city on this island to my east for Stone, since I don't wnat to be building Oxford raw like I had to in PB13.

PB13 spoiler:

(WHY WILL NO ONE GIVE ME STONE IN PB13!!! Argh. Super Frustrating. I've offered like 30 gpt to people for it)

[dtay]

Final thought is I wonder when Free Speech will become better than Bureaucracy. Is it kosher in PBEM's to revolt to it as a test just to see what the results are? Or is that thought of the same way as the (obviously cheating) reloading after combat rolls.

[Hashoosh]

Well, it'll curb your upkeep costs by a lot. Could you post a save? I'd love to go ahead and calculate it for you (or is posting it not kosher).

[dtay]

Not sure how to attach a savegame, forum software won't let me. Anyone know how? (Feel free to poke around in it once i've got it up, though you don't have to do the tedious calculation if you don't want to)

[Hashoosh]

Not sure how to attach a savegame, forum software won't let me. Anyone know how? (Feel free to poke around in it once i've got it up, though you don't have to do the tedious calculation if you don't want to)

I love tedious calculations though It's one of my favourite things to do for keeping my maths non-rusty

The easiest way would be via dropbox or just email-ing i think.

[dtay]

PM your email then?

Also I just realized Optics requires Machinery. ugh. Forgot about that.

There isn't really anything that great to lib-bulb without prereq research. Maybe get nationalism and lib-bulb military tradition? Build cuirs, go massacre someone with my comically more advanced units? Runs into that whole maintenance problem I identified though.

Printing press? Good for the econ, pathway to rifling, aim for drafted rifles?

Stick with astronomy? That'd be tricky, with 5 more tech prereqs required. I can 1 turn all of them I believe, but that's still a 5t delay. All the techs on the way are ones I want though. I'll need to be super careful about TBS stealing Lib from me...

[dtay]

Ended up shooting for astronomy. Just researched optics last turn, going to 1t Liberalism next turn, lets see if the bet payed off. I think it did, from the look of the power graph TBS is gearing up for war so probably went for a military tech. I need to start arming myself.

I can't remember the last time I didn't 1t a tech... before the golden age? It's somewhat ridiculous. TBS too from the look of the score changes. We're roaring ahead of the other 3.

My strategy right now is I think I'm going to shoot off another golden age in 1-3t then blast through to communism. Just need to time the golden age such that I can use it to switch to state property. State property will make a war of conquest actually profitable, and printing press (which is on the way) is also really useful. At that point I'll evaluate what the best military option is, tech to that, and probably conquer BaII.

I just need to make sure to have enough military to hold off TBS. I should be able to take control of the seas with Galleons, but b/c he got circumnav he can 1t me out of his own city in 1 place. He could also kill azza and come at be that way. Killing azza shouldn't be too hard for him, everyone is really behind compared to us two.

No pictures, sorry forgot to take them. Next turn I'll do it.