[SPOILERS] Fire and Blood: Nyles Standish and Zalson watch the world burn

[Zalson]

Research targets:

I think we've got 2 targets:

* Monarch (via meditation/priesthood)
* Code of Laws (writing, math, currency, CoL)

The question is: what method do we want to take? I think that maybe we go ... Monarchy first to grow our cities taller, then fill in with Math chops and markets and courthouses?

Or do we focus Math/Currency first to get some commerce so we can get CoL after we pull Monarchy. I think, either way, we can wait for max bonuses on CoL. A religion would be nice, but sac altar is what we're really going for, along with HR happiness.

I think we try for Writing, then we go for the cheaper religious techs leading to monarchy. Does that make sense?

[NylesStandish]

Been a while since I've posted and there's a lot of stuff to go over; sorry if I miss anything.

With regards to research targets, my first thought was Code of Laws before Monarchy for the Sacrificial Altars. We also get Confucianism if we get there first. Hereditary rule happiness would be pretty significant given the amount of military we have, so it's probably better.

We could also get Code of Laws via Polytheism and Priesthood, all we need that Monarchy doesn't is Writing.

The Oracle would be a nice way to get either one of those, if possible. Dcodea doesn't seem to have touched the forests around his capital at all, so it won't be difficult to chop it out in Alison even pre-mathematics if we have enough workers. Metal Casting wouldn't be a bad choice for Oracle either.

Or, we could build units with all of those forest hammers and try to kill Pindicator or OT4E next. Pindicator is the obvious choice there, I think. Karego-At is in a position that allows Pindicator freedom to put a stack of one-movers right next to Volantis without warning, or threaten the capital with horse units the same way. Going for OT4E first would also make for longer supply lines and a more lopsided and thinly stretched empire post conquest.

The worker roading the plains hill was partly to save worker turns: if there is no road on that hill, in the future, when a worker wants to mine it, it will have to spend a turn moving back onto the hill. With a road, not only will the worker most likely not waste turns moving back, but multiple workers can move there without all wasting a turn. It also has the upside that we don't have to spend movement points getting back onto the road network to do whatever else the worker could do.

The road is also a connection to a future city to the north by the sugar. IIRC a city on the sugar will get Ivory in its BFC.




I took one of the warriors out; didn't use the C1 warrior because it got slightly worse odds and we don't really have enough to take the city immediately without reinforcements. Sandor is still injured and gets better than 50% odds, but not good enough to risk a well promoted axe against a warrior before healing. The spearmen get slightly better than coinflip odds against the warriors as well and I don't want to send them in unless there's only a warrior or 2 left or all the warriors left are injured enough for an easy fight.

Put the overflow in King's Landing into a lighthouse, since we've got plenty enough units already and they're costing us a significant amount of gold.




Still number 1 in power, but almost everything else is garbage, especially GNP. Part of that is due to unit support costs, part of it due to us running gold instead of research this turn. Since Borsche is eliminated and ipecac/wetbandit and dcodea are almost dead, 9th place is the real last place.

We could change the spears over to the Dornish if you'd like; also feel free to name any unnamed units when you log in.

[Zalson]

I'll be sure to make that august contribution. Naming semantics are my forte (sic).

Speaking to power: I'm not sure what we can build other than units while we're growing... I mean, we desperately need more workers. I think, if we can get Monarchy quickly, the extra units should significantly bolster our happy cap and allow us to catch up via GNP. That might be the saving grace. it also allows us to keep pace with additional powers/maybe snipe workers and exposed cities without severe consequences.

I don't think we should chase down pindicator unless he does something stupid like leave Karego-At completely undefended.

So, i think we're in agreement there: barrel toward Monarchy whole hog, then follow with writing and CoL?

Or do we want to prioritize writing first so we can get some libraries going? I think that's a little bit of a fool's errand at this point. We need 5 improved tiles per city and really only have that at Alison, a city we don't control yet.

So I guess it's workers and barracks for the time being? With maybe an archer or two for cheap defenders + HR happiness?

+10 GPT at 6 cities means we need more cottages, which is something we both know

[Zalson]

The worker roading the plains hill was partly to save worker turns: if there is no road on that hill, in the future, when a worker wants to mine it, it will have to spend a turn moving back onto the hill. With a road, not only will the worker most likely not waste turns moving back, but multiple workers can move there without all wasting a turn. It also has the upside that we don't have to spend movement points getting back onto the road network to do whatever else the worker could do.

The road is also a connection to a future city to the north by the sugar. IIRC a city on the sugar will get Ivory in its BFC.

This totally makes sense. I'm not sure what I would have done, given the situation. Probably, it would be the same thing!

[Zalson]

Aaand we're back. I'll do my best to get logged in to review our lands tonight.

Each turn, I'll try to have the city list posted. Lurkers, is there anything else you'd like?

[Ichabod]

The idea was that spearmen would be the kingsguard. Maybe we update it so that spearmen are Dornish?

No need to change, I was just poking some fun. Then again, the spears being Dornish makes more sense to me.

And you need to generate a Great Spy to name it Varys.

[Zalson]

So, I totally didn't get into the game yesterday... will try for tonight but it's not looking good (my brother is leaving for Australia tomorrow so ... need to see him off or something).

Ichabod:
I think your suggestion was still a good one.

[Zalson]

1st things 1st: let’s make sure we don’t accidentally move all our workers terribly.

None of them are actually on actions so that’s nice. Still we’ve only got 6. It looks like they’ve been cottaging our silks: which isn’t a bad deal. Eventually, it’ll lead to a better yield.

It looks like we’ve also got ready to road down toward dcodea, woot.



Alison is down to size 3. We’ve got 2 spears, 5 axes, and 1 chariot in Dragonstone. There’s also an archer in Dragonstone.

Sadly, it looks like our scout got whacked. Also, it looks like some of our units took a beating: dcodea has 6 warriors in alison; 1 is combat 1 at 1.8 health.



If we attack this turn with the healthy units and get 3 victories (maybe we only have 2 healthy axes that can attack?), we should easily be able to clean up next turn.

Nyles, I will leave that to you. Even if we waste some hammers, it will be nice to have this done.

Demographics:


We’re doing well on manufacturing but that’s because we are working lots of hammer tiles to get units out to kill dcodea. Once we kill him, i think we’ll be able to convert that into a lot of GNP and crop yield; we just gotta get the happiness for it.

Cities:


And the land.


I think, once the war’s over, we should:

• Switch to and whip a worker in every city.
  
• Crank writing so we can build libraries.
  
• Build cottages everywhere.
  
• Tech monarchy so that we can grow past size 7.
  

[Zalson]

Valyria completes a chariot so I switch to a worker. Didn’t move the chariot.

Ottomans have Stonehenge and the Oracle; good job OT4E.

Other than that, not much has happened. We finish 1 more chariot next turn and hopefully, we get over the hump and kill dcodea. That poor guy. It looks like Nyles didn’t attack.



For some reason, we cottaged a flatland plains instead of a grassland. I noted it for Nyles and move the workers 1E to cottage there.



We might want to switch Myr to the cottaged silks and give the pigs to Volantis to grow?

Didn’t move the other workers. We’ve got 2 on forests outside of Volantis; want to chop into and whip settler? For the 2x fish spot in the north? Or just double chop/whip a few workers?

[NylesStandish]

So, we killed dcodea. In doing so, we've become successful in our dick-hunting mission.



Who's next?