[Spoiler] Island hoppers

[Alhazard]

T136
Well looks like war is about to start so I will share a big pic dump. The city I am most concerned is with Dijon since that city is supposed to generate a GArtist. I can do a backup at the capital for a 40% chance and build the NE at Hawulti if that doesn’t work.

[Alhazard]

the 2nd big problem I am facing is the race for the communism spy, which I have a great chance of losing, so I cannot spare any money for upgrades

I can get it in 3 turns, EOT139.
T137 Lib
T138 Sci meth
T139 Communism

Yuris had saved up 1 turn of research so his line can be
T137 Gold
T138 Research
T139 Research

Now if he can get communism with 2 turns of research, I am boned. Argh turn order. My hope is that his research is actually not that good and that his GNP is inflated by culture...

[Alhazard]

Well no war yet but I dont get Comm's movements. What is he trying to accomplish by showing his frigate stack? If I had twice his current fleet, I would sink his stack of frigates and he would have a serious naval problem. I do see some stray galleons so need to whip more G2 grens. Brest, the triple dye city, really worries me.

[Alhazard]

Commodore gathered 12 frigates to the north. I have now 1 SOL, 12 frigates, 6 galleons able to attack. I have 3 more frigates along with a galleon in position next turn. Yuris gathered gold again so Communism is mine 100%. 3rd GA ended and my research went down 300 beakers. Ouch considering that I have not built a lot of science multipliers, but losing monasteries hurt a lot. Good news is that there are some oil water patches that I can work for production.

[Alhazard]

I feel I made a huge mistake in this game and I want to impart some knowledge, even though I fear this might be the last civ4 PBEM on RB. 3 Whipping all thoose G2 grens was a huge mistake. Should have 3 whipped frigates overflowing into muskets and have some turns to put hammers into infrastructure. Even though the G2 Grens can get 24 str when fully fortified (lol culture defense with all those fridges), a G2 musket gets 18 str and that is more than enough as a deterrent. Its just that 18 str doesnt cut it against cavs, which is not happening right now.

[Alhazard]

I will see what he does with the GE. Maybe he will use it for the 2 person GA? If he does, I will start my 3 person GA next turn, and adopt bureau temporarly to see if I can race. If I do lose the Kremlin, well I know who I will be cav rushing

[Alhazard]

Yuris did start his GA and 1 turned communism so it will be a race. Started my GM-GS-GA golden age. The wildcard play is to cash rush the wonder. Commodore is researching steel so there is a lot to this game left.

[Alhazard]

Eh I just realized that yuris went into free religion so there will be no race.

[Alhazard]

So in 5 turns, I will adopt Police State, Vassalage, Slavery, Free Market, and OR. Police State is the best considering I will be whipping a lot of cavs and 2 whipping them is a lot better than 3 whipping. The smaller cities will probably have a lot of whips stacked. Even if I don't strike right away, the follow-up tech will be combustion if I wait that long and then I will attack ASAP. Another option is Nationalism and Theocracy, but I do want to keep OR since the few big hammer cities I have could use it, especially the capital. Not sure on Free Market vs State Property yet. SP is only saving 39 gold so FR might be better especially when I plant my fillers?

With PS and Kremlin, each unit whip will be 20H(1.5)(1.25+0.5) = 52.5H. Ships with dry docks will be 20H(1.5)(1.25+0.5+0.5) = 67.5H. Therefore whip cavs at 27/80 or less and overflow into a ship.

[Alhazard]

oh I lament the loss of beakers without rep. Cant 1 turn steel next turn. Will see if its possible with research builds.