RMOG: Renaissance Men of Genius

[oledavy]

I wouldn't whip too hard before the GA, simply because we already have so much whip unhappiness at the moment, and we want to work as many GA boosted tiles as possible. I also wouldn't mind just running a couple specialists in a few of cities to stack up some GA/Pacifism boosted GPP for down the road.

I'm thinking we should get one settler out before the golden age to get to the stone location. We pick 6 cities for universities (PC, KND, JAO, OS, ???, ???). At the end of the GA, we whip all of them to completion and start on Oxford. 

Have any ideas for what we should be doing with KND during this golden age?

I would be down with running some artists in Peaks if we can grab the lake clam pretty easily. I'll check the culture on the tile next time I log in.

I do feel it would be worthwhile to pick a city or two (RD perhaps), and keep pumping out military to stop Mack from overrunning us. I'm thinking cats, pikes, and maybe some wellies. Whatever it takes to not be in the same situation we were last turn 10t from now. I would rather not have to pay the Danegeld every 10 turns for the rest of this game.

[WarriorKnight]

Whip unhappiness isn't a huge deal considering how abundant we are in happy resources (even if we don't have any gold/silver, we have ND). That said if we can't think of anything to whip then there's no reason to, I'd be happy with just the settler whip from JF for stone/sugar city and the uni whips afterwards. I wouldn't work many specialists if we aren't producing GP's though, most/all cities would rather be working the land instead, esp. since we're FIN.

Good idea re: universities (although don't whip cap ever). As for the last 2 cities, RD should almost certainly be one. Unsure on the other, Peaks maybe? We could whip a Library before pulling the trigger and grow back on a uni. Actually saying that out loud makes me like Peaks, we could even use the culture there.

No specific plans for KND, we could probably give the deer back to PHS so that city can grow and just work cottages while building a uni.

I am assuming PHS, NC and eventually GW will be devoted to full military builds. RD can do it too, although it may be more useful as a uni builder.

[oledavy]

Turn 244

Founded our 14th - I mean 12th city:



Named in memory of that jungle growth that threw off WK's micro.  

Abroad, the Ottomans birthed a GS:



At home, we're still working on missionaries, and finishing up a round of barracks. Mostly infrastructure builds, continuing to set up for our GA. The cities we're pumping GP out are now established. I marked all the cities for universities, and as a final touch, marked where I think all our currently available national wonders should go.  

I'm excited to really get our economic machine humming along nicely. The storm cloud on the horizon is this: 



On the one hand, we might be able to shove a castle and a smattering of pikes and catapults into our border city and be fine. It really is pretty difficult for Mack to attack us. Our only coastal city near him is Peaks, which is pretty well fortified already. Attacking us head on would necessitate a shit ton of units or a stack with considerable siege. Still, I would not rule it out. He might also just bypass our border and land like 12 phracts behind our front line. That would be awkward if we don't have a large enough cat/pike stack to kill it. Hopefully though, he turns that army on someone else. That being said, we certainly need to be very cognizant of this power graph in the turns to come. If he doesn't declare on someone else, we may need to switch from partial to full on military production for a bit instead of universities.

I'm also a little worried about Global Warming (pun intended). I've rerouted a longbow to get in there soonish. REM still only have galleys, but 1 longbow in the city is just begging to be sniped and I would like to keep the two island cities we have left. 

Just keep calm, and remember, EIs in 3 turns. Then rifles. Rifles will make everything better.

[oledavy]

While there's almost no doubt Civ6 is a better game than Civ5, I'm not sold it will replace Civ4 as the MP game of choice on RB

Good luck with this game, I'm watching you!

Thanks for the support

[oledavy]

Turn 245

We have a big decision to make. Mackoti offered a pittance: 



Why you may ask?

This is why:



The dismemberment of Alhazard has begun.

Mackoti's power is far above Al's, and on the second turn of war he took a city in the center of Al's subcontinent. I expect Al will crumble quickly.  

This does mean we can do our GA in peace, get Oxford up, and get in essential infrastructure and our last three cities in the south. 

However, on the other end of this, we'll have an ascendant Mackoti next door.  

Alternatively, we get astronomy next turn. We could whip our an army of EI's and knights, and grab as many cities as we can off Al, before eventually turning on Mackoti when the peace treaty is up to reclaim our islands. This would forestall Mack becoming a regional hegemon, and could encourage Scooter to pile on. Alternatively, it might just put us further behind the curve while REM and Scooter tech off into the sunset.  

We're definitely not in the best position to really kick off a war, we're still in expansion/infrastructure mode. But, I'm worried if we focus too much on this will let an opportunity slip us by. Mackoti being the runaway doesn't benefit anyone, but I'm sure everyone is thinking: Well, it sucks Mackoti is eating Al, but hopefully someone else will deal with him, and we'll just do economy.  But if everyone does that, and lets this happen, everyone loses. We perhaps would lose most of all because we'd be the next obvious expansion target for Mack or REM might feel compelled to also eat someone to stay competitive.

The old prisoner's dilemma strikes again. 

Anyway, I have left t246 unplayed for now to mull over this. I'm going to sleep on it, and give it more thought. 

I realize how weak our position is globally, and how badly we need infrastructure, more cities and Oxford. I wish Mack had kicked off this war about 20 turns down the road from now.  I would just hate to fall into the classic CTON Realms Beyond trap of: Well, he's getting really strong, but someone else will deal with it, I'm going to beeline economic techs. I feel like if anyone has reason to rise to the occasion and is in position to take advantage of both Mack and Al, it's us.  

Mackoti delenda est

[WarriorKnight]

Very, very interesting...

I wouldn't accept OB with mack under any circumstances. We don't need the happy and doing that will just allow him to travel through Peaks into Al's backline, which is pretty much the only way we'll be able to get any land from Al at all.

I wouldn't mind sniping some cities from Al but I find it difficult to believe that mack will accept it without redeclaring on us, since there isn't really a way to counter massed Phracts. We can probably get Jandra without a fight but anything else will probably be very difficult to secure. I'm hoping Iron Man gets razed but we will see...

mack being a potential runaway isn't our problem, remember that we're kinda screwed regardless and have the least to lose if he does run away. Despite being in the best position geographically we're in a terrible position politically, fighting for 4th. REM and scooter should be the one's angsting about what to do about mackoti, not us. Run the Golden Age and reassess when it's over. If it looks like REM/scooter will do something, we might want to jump in but anything else is suicide.

EDIT: Logged in and you already accepted OB with mackoti?!? Why??? (I can only assume you accepted before realizing there was a war). Scratch everything I said about sniping cities from Al, there's almost no way we can get anything now. We better whip some Knights in NC ASAP if we want even a chance at anything.

[oledavy]

Didn't see that he was at war with Al yet.  And figured we might as well accept since we  can cancel the deal at any time. 

He has no reason to use our territory to invade when he presumably controls the water between him and Al, and already has a substantial army in the middle of Al's territory.

[oledavy]

Turn 246

Quick turn before another wedding weekend. 

Going to mostly stay in infrastructure mode, but we're going to see if we can snipe something off Al. Post-Oxford and GA we'll look more into asserting ourselves internationally should the chance arise. The fact of the matter is that even if we prop Al up and stop Mack from overrunning him, that still leaves an ascendant REM on our western border who has the scariest demogs of anyone in this game.

City Screen:



Accepting open borders from Mack was a mistake on my part. I accepted it before seeing the war. I just assumed he was trying to buy us off from attempting to reclaim the islands. While he is unlikely to send a land army through our territory, OB does give him access to the canal city of Peaks and Jandra beyond. We'll see if he accepts it. Hopefully for my ability to not beat myself up over mistakes, he does not.  

I think after Astronomy we should beeline rifling and steam power, forgetting about communism for a moment. It's a big scary world out there, and I don't want to be eaten.

[Zalson]

Really appreciating the reports. Keep it up!

[WarriorKnight]

I'll agree on Rifling being important but not sold on Steam Power over Communism. Both are about the same cost (Steam Power also needs Chemistry) but Communism is a lot easier for us to integrate into our empire, only needing a civic switch while Dikes need to be built everywhere first.

Hell if we get Nationalism drafted rifles + our UU may allow us to go on the offensive, but by that point Al may be dead and no-one else is an appealing target. Let's just get Rifling next, build some EI and reassess.