Thanks, BGN, I'm using your quote to frame this likely convoluted response, so here goes:
What is your take on the overall current state of the game? I'm looking at your development vs. the development of your neighbors and other opponents you have information on, the diplomatic situation, etc.
Mack is potentially a runaway. I am second in population and nowhere near him in land. His land competitors are the trio of Seven, Gawdzak, and Grimace.
F8 is striking, especially taken in conjunction with the demos:
It's potentially a matter of time before Mack translates that land and pop lead into a crushing tech lead, as he is wont to do.
Grimace and I exchanged maps, which gave me a good picture of the other side of the world. That land over certainly seems a hell of a lot more like a continental land mass, as opposed to this snaky bit I have. He's currently trying to bite off some land with haram, I believe, don't remember exactly who declared the war.
Seven will need lots of time to digest HAK, though he has nearly finished the meal. I've offered HAK 10g for his map, just so I can get an idea of what is left of him. Seven is heading towards Nationalism and will try to land Taj for a MoM-boosted GA, but that might be too late to catch up with mack.
Gawdzak is attempting to do the same to DZ, having taken two cities already. I've also offered a map trade and a Clam-for-Clam trade. I see that we have a mutual interest in carving up DZ and some pretty defensible borders. He will surely be worried more about Mack as I believe he has a border with him. I really have no idea what Gawdzak's land looks like though, and if he is on the same sort of snaky land that I have or has a more defined land connection with everyone else.
Haram seems to be doing alright, but he lacks guilds and engineering and is fighting someone who has at least guilds, but also probably engineering. The remaining players are in a state where they are probably going to be gobbled up (HAK, DZ) or rendered irrelevant (DZ and retep).
I am the tech and GNP leader. I'm hoping to leverage that into landing a few First-To bonuses, as discussed later. I have cities with lots of infrastructure due to not needing more than a veritable Terracotta Army to defend myself. My fast workers have more or less developed every available tile, save for three tiles down south, that can be worked. I definitely need more land though to compete, unless I try some crazy run for Sistine, right now (as I'd need Drama and Music), for a cultural win.
Here are the techs of everyone, except for HAK:
What opportunities are there for you to improve your position?
DZ:
Ideally, capturing a swath of the Viking homeland will give me more of a base to add to my land. DZ has almost no troops on his coasts. I have a galley with two knights heading towards Audiac and Knights finishing for the galleys ready in the south. I don't have enough galleys to really support a bite-and-hold in the Audiac area, but my navy is far greater in the south. If DZ looks like he will collapse, I'm ready to strike.
This island is also a decent spot, I have medieval troops with siege support here, retep does not.
I will get control of that wheat tile next turn which will add about 15 food to my empire. What a mess that earlier war was and look how it slowed me down.
Potential first-to bonuses and getting Universities before everyone else is also a plus.
What threatens your current position?
My own misplays.
Gawdzak could be a pain if he decided to all-out attack me, but fighting someone else with a tech-advantage is a better move for him.
Tech path for the next 25-30 turns?
Here's my tree:
I am up Alphabet and Paper on the bottom half of the tech tree. I recently lost my monopoly on banking to Gawdzak. (Mack is about to land Alphabet). I am heading at 100% towards Education, will whip in Universities, save some gold, and research Lib to complete in one turn. Mack could, because of his crazy MFG, decide to build wealth/research and race me. I can certainly compete with that if I changed my own builds to wealth/research. If he doesn't give me a race, I will finish optics and then Lib; deciding then on Astro or PP. If it's close, I will get to Lib and take PP.
If I get Astro, I will try and be first to Economics, for the GM, and then get PP-Gunpowder-Chem. I would want to get Constitution for Rep and the almost-useful Mausoleums at some point, Rep would certainly help with the amount of food I have available to run specialists.
Late game tech is interesting. I have the option of going hellbent on State Property, Bio farms, and workshops to leverage the extra AGG and PRO bonuses or making a run for Sid's Sushi. ToW nerfs Sid's to .2 food and 1 culture per resource, but lowers the resource cost by half. I currently have 21 Sushi resources and can expect to grab a few more if I have any luck taking Viking land. An extra 4-5 food per city is interesting, plus the 4g/city for the corporate HQ stacked in a shrine and future WS city is a tantalizing prospect. This option interests me almost entirely because of the novelty of this route in RB games. 100 hammers for an executive plus the gold costs, not to mention the opportunity costs of losing SP hammer and maintenance savings, pose the problem. The nerf from .5 food to .2 food, despite the reduced costs, severely hampers this option.
The SP route would have less set up costs, can be researched sooner, and would rely more on paving over quite a few towns and building more FWs to get the job done quicker. It's also:
I'll discuss the my take on the mod later, I'm not sure I'll be able to add much that hasn't already been thought of by anyone else here.