[Spoiler] RB Pitboss #2 - Shaka of Rome

[Whosit]

Edit: I've posted a few times in a row, so you may want to check the previous page.

I've been trying to develop a more coherent plan for my empire, and as part of that, I've tried to determine the most logical build choices and configurations for my cities.

Imperial Center
Build: Praetorians @ 6 hpt.
~Continue to build Praetorians.

Estimated # of Praetorians by T150: 6.

Carida
Praetorian: Complete on T108.
T108: Praetorian > Worker (5 turns).
T113*: Worker > Parthenon. Configure for Max Production.
*Great Person generated.
~T125: Parthenon > Worker
~T128: Worker > Monastery
~Monastery complete. Alternate Missionaries/Praetorians.

Estimated # of Praetorians by T150: 5-6.

Byss
T105: Lighthouse.
T114: Lighthouse > Galley.
~Continue to build Galleys.

Estimated # of Galleys by T150: 4.

Kuat
T108: Praetorian > Settler. Configure for max Settler production.
T113: Settler > Praetorian. Configure for max hammer production.
T115: Praetorian > Settler. Configure for max Settler production.
T120: Settler > Praetorian. Configure for max hammer production.
~Continue to build Praetorians.

Estimated # of Praetorians by T150: 11.

Nar Shaddaa
T106: Library 88/90. Configure for 11 hpt.
T107: Library > C. Monastery.
T108: C. Monastery 20/60. Configure for 8 hpt.
T109: 2-pop whip C. Monastery.
T110: C. Monastery > C. Missionary.
T111: C. Missionary > C. Missionary.
~Continue to train C. Missionaries @ minimum production/max commerce.*
*Prepare Walls before T150.

Ryloth
T105: Walls @ 1 hpt. Max Commerce.

Walls should be finished before T150.

Total estimated Praetorians by T150: 22

I'll try to make fancy turn-by-turn spreadsheets in the next few days. I've altered my plans a little and haven't had a chance to re-calculate in detail. Carida originally build nothing but Praetorians after the Parthenon, but I've realized the value in getting Confucianism spread to a few key cities, and Nar Shaddaa just won't have the production to push out the Missionaries. I have calculated that I can bump Carida up to 20 hpt at size 7. Imperial Center can work it's Iron tile, and Ryloth needs Confucianism for the extra culture to battle Seoul (and it can work an additional cottage).

Even so, 22 Praetorians in 27 turns isn't awful. I can probably spare most of those to fight Korea. Hopefully 18-20 Praetorians will be enough to overcome 60% defenses, siege, and whatever else plako builds up . . . . However, Athlete and Jowy have promised military aid in the form of Horse Archers and Catapults, so if I get those in time, I should be golden.

Settlement
Bestine (northeast): T115.
Alzoc III (filler): T123.

Worker Actions

Still needs work. I've made a list of priority jobs, but I'm finding more and more to do, and I still have to coordinate my Workers over the next 25 turns. Mainly, I will prep the sites for the two new cities, lay down some roads where needed, and generally try to keep my land improved.

[Jabah]

I am pretty sure a city (or any unit as well) has visibility on water on the diagonal, so if F-burg has expand its borders, Spulla should be able to see your boat with 1t notice. (but there are no other option anyway)

There is also almost no chance you can get (peacefully) Seoul lake and furs, as it is in their 2nd ring (same as your city) so it must have massive culture in those tiles.

[MWIN]

When are you planning to settle centralia? After turn 150? Didn't you say that silver city will pay for itself?

[Whosit]

There is also almost no chance you can get (peacefully) Seoul lake and furs, as it is in their 2nd ring (same as your city) so it must have massive culture in those tiles.

:P Absolutely right . . . . Got carried away there. Well, I should still get that hill, which is more important, anyway.

@MWIN: I plan to start settling Centralia once my boats get back. I haven't yet determined if the Silver city will pay for itself, but it probably will, or be close. First I have to see how badly the other two cities hit me.

So, Kuat may end up making a third Settler, but I'll still end up with 20 more Praetorians by 150.

[Whosit]

This isn't much, but I've tried to analyze my spreadsheet on the Killer Angels' production more closely. I think the reason there are so many "holes" in my data is because of the number of whips they have made. All that overflow has probably gone into relatively cheap units. Especially if they had forests to chop, they could have gotten Archers and/or Axemen out turn after turn after turn.

Kind of scary. They may run out of forests, but they're not running out of population any time soon. And because they are in hereditary rule, they're not going to hit a happy cap any time soon (since each new unit nullifies that whip's penalty).

[Whosit]

OK, I'll post some recent mail, and then a proper report on the recent turn later this evening.

The Great Person deal with Nakor:

Dear Whosit,

We'll have our Great Scientist in about 8-9 turns.
We discussed your offer, and though it is tempting, we can't trade our first GS away.
We are willing to discuss trading our second GS to you for a Great Prophet, but that one will be about 35 turns later.
We can agree to your proposal about 1gp per city with Confu if you are willing to try and spread Confu even behind your borders.
If that happens we might be willing to offer a bit more then 1 gp.

How does that sound?

Kind regards,
Nakor of HRE

My response:

Dear Nakor and DMOC,

We understand your reluctance to give away your first Great Scientist, so we will accept the deal you have suggested. If we generate a Great Prophet with our first GP, we will send him directly to your territory. If you have any spare units to escort him, or to stand sentry in the wilderness between us, that would be appreciated. We may be able to make due ourselves if necessary. If we do not get a Prophet, we may try running a Priest specialist later when we are able to build Temples.

What sort of "bounty" are you offering for spreading Confucianism further? Any bonus would be much appreciated.

God may not roll dice, but Civilization does, so we'll see what happens in the next few turns.


Best regards,

Whosit, Galactic Emperor

So before anyone says, yes, I realize I'm not getting the best deal in the world. Honestly, I'd probably be just fine with popping a Great Scientist. I could ensure that by cutting Carida's GPP, but I don't want to intentionally nix this deal. However, odds for the Prophet are dropping each turn (2 GPP for the Prophet vs. 6 for the Scientist), so who knows. I figure at least setting up the deal can't hurt, and shows that I'm willing to deal with Holy Rome.

As for the plan for Fredericksburg, Jowy has changed his mind.

Hey Emperor Whosit! (And Athlete)

Let's raze Fredericksburg. I was thorn between keeping or razing it, but I've decided keeping isn't worth the risk of losing it back to India. Anyway that shouldn't affect our attack negatively, just makes my own empire a bit smaller than it possibly could be I'll still bring that chariot for you though, tell me when India has vision on you so I can bring it closer without giving pre-emptive notice to them.

~ Jowy

I'm OK with that, because I can order this:

Jowy,

Very well. I shall relay the orders to my soldiers: Base-Delta-Zero. >=)
(Perhaps Athlete realizes the significance of that code?)

If my calculations are correct, the Killer Angels should not have vision on my stack until I land, Turn 109. The city will be attacked and (hopefully) razed on Turn 110. I will probably withdraw surviving soldiers to the nearest hill to heal.

-Whosit, Galactic Emperor

There was some Coalition mail about micro which I have trouble following since some key parts of Killer Angel territory are not visible to me, but it sounds like the Copper should be taken out next turn. Hope that works out for us.

Not much else mail-wise at the moment. Oh, though I may as well draft my declaration of war letter to Sullla and Speaker. Let me know what you think. I'm going for "reasonably polite considering that I'm coming to kill you." I don't want to be a big jerk and make threats, partly because I'm not sure how much of it I could back up at this point.

To the Honorable Speaker and Sullla,

We fear that you are becoming too advanced.

Therefore, we have agreed to assist in liberating you of your excess assets. Nothing personal; just business.

-Whosit, Galactic Emperor

I suppose there's no way to write a declaration of war that leaves good feelings between both parties, but my main goal is to come across as not a total jackass.

[Bobchillingworth]

I might edit the "we have agreed" bit from the declaration, since it implies the existence of some sort of mysterious mastermind behind your decision. Although there may be legitimate reasons for giving that impression.

[Whosit]

I might edit the "we have agreed" bit from the declaration, since it implies the existence of some sort of mysterious mastermind behind your decision. Although there may be legitimate reasons for giving that impression.

I actually wouldn't mind giving that impression. Who knows how this whole thing will shake down, so perhaps if I leave the impression that I can be negotiated with, I can leverage that. That's part of the reason I included the "just business" bit. Of course, once I burn down one of their cities, they probably won't want to negotiate with me. If nothing else, it will make it clear that I'm in with everyone else, which I'm sure they would figure out on their own.

OK, picture time and stuff!



I'm basically just going to explore Incan territory and connect some of the dots until they [strike]ask me to[/strike] make me leave. I am fairly certain that the Inca are the ones who possess the lowest power rating right now, but I'm not sure what to do with that information right now.



This is why I think I'll get the drop on Sullla. On T108, my fleet will be where the circle is (relative to their own culture). Not sure why there's no visibility, but I expect it to be similar for them. If not, again, nothin' I can do, but I think I'll catch them by surprise.



Nothing important here, but I snapped it since R2-D2 and C-3PO are working together. I should send an e-mail to Athlete to ask if Owen and Beru are paired up, too.



Times like this I wish I had a dozen spare Praetorians to march in and take what's rightfully mine. Stop chopping my forests!



Kuat, geared for max production. Isn't it grand?



I have no idea why I took this picture. I guess I'll include it, though.

My fleet will move into attack position next turn. I'm breaking even at 20%, 4 turns 'till Aesthetics. 2 Praetorians will finish training next turn, so my finances will crash a little, though I think that Ryloth grows, too, so maybe it will balance out. It's going to hurt when Carida shifts to full production mode, as I lose 4 commerce and 6 beakers from the Scientists.

I haven't had time yet to make fully detailed build plans, but I should be able to during the weekend. So far, everything is going as planned. Byss is ahead of schedule because a forest chop finished that I had forgotten about, so it's lighthouse is due in 3 turns. I guess it will still build Galleys, because I need a fleet on the outer sea, and there's nothing better for it to build at the moment. I wish I could build Triremes, though, but getting Currency is probably a lot more important.

[Whosit]

I'm the first non-"Spullla" team to break 300 points. That's kind of cool, I guess! My boats are in position. I can see one of Fred's tiles. Maybe they do have vision on me, but looking at all of my cities on or near water, it doesn't seem like they should. Oh well. Soon it won't matter.

[Whosit]

Speaker earned himself another Great General. Not terribly good for us. Plako just finished teching Monarchy and is now in Hereditary Rule. I think that he's going for Feudalism, which would kind of suck for me. I haven't been keeping good track of tech pacing, so I'm not sure when he started research on Monarchy.

Moment of truth tomorrow. Kalin thinks that Speaker diverted troops to Antietem and Chancelorsville, so it may be alright.