Turn 57
Score report is out of date, to be done tomorrow morning. I had good intentions of doing it tonight, but I ran out of time:
Scores are updated! Some interesting things:
Archduke is building a commercial hub in his second city, and he's received a Great Work from Emperor. That's why his culture is so impressive. I hadn't thought about it, but that's another way I might be able to use my archaeologists - I can stuff Woden with artifacts, too. Basically, I'm not worried about losing to a culture victory. If the game lasts into the renaissance and industrial eras, we can hold our own culturally.
Sullla has built two campuses, Emperor is building a campus in his second city. Really need to start getting districts down soon.
Again, I largely agree with Woden - Rome/China are leading, but that's mostly a product of Rome's superior expansion and China's wonder-building. Our scores should start spiking soon as we switch to infrastructure-mode, while hopefully Team Empire has to build at least a little military to stop our incoming "attack."
Let's take a look at Team Empire, shall we? Here's what I explored this turn:
More Chinese borders to the west. I'd like to contact their cultural state, but I may not be able to get around China to do it. Furthermore, if they've settled close to each other - and with so many cities, I think they have - I may not be able to get through at all. What should I do in that case?
Well, I've been noodling over how to speed up my dash to defensive tactics. The Limes-powered chops that will enable are the single biggest way I can see to give my economy a shot in the arm and speed up my growth curve. So, I need someone to declare war on me, and with DOFs with both our neighbors (yay!), that someone has to be Sullla or Singaboy. With that in mind, I think I can make my scout annoying enough for them to kill it purely to stop. If I can't get through to keep scouting, I'll trade the scout for a bunch of free culture - 10 turn's worth, in fact! I can pillage roads, threaten traders, block their movements, pretend to pillage improvements or snatch workers in a bid to get them to declare war. If they cotton on and refuse to give me that, then, eh, fuck it, I can always grab a worker or something to spite them in that case (although it may not be a good idea to pick a fight, honestly).
So that's the plan on the scouting front. I also detected more interesting news while crafting the score report:
The Romans have contacted Japper and Cornflakes! Either Sullla finally sent a scout over the landbridge after my arrival, or there's a Relic scout on my heels somewhere. I hope it's the latter - that way Sullla and Singaboy might still assume Woden and I are closer than we are. If he's realized that Japper is his nearest neighbor, well, then our bluffed attack won't work. Might still kill my scout though!
Closer to home, the settler is 2 turn's march from Leyte's planned site, and Salamis finishes its settler next turn (with a much shorter walk to Aboukir Bay). Here's a look at my core:
Trafalgar is pre-building a warrior, to be Agoge-chopped into an RND once Celestial Navigation is in. Next turn I will likely switch to a builder for Salamis, while IT prebuilds an archer to be chopped into its own RND. I'll need at least one more builder on top of that to execute the chops I need for the Mausoleum, but that's still 20 turns of research away (so tentative ETA turn 80? Is that fast enough? We'll find out!). Actium is building a builder, then will get to work on a galley. Leyte is 3 turns from founding, Aboukir is 7 turns out. At Leyte, I need to purchase the crabs for ~50 gold, to finish CN, and at Trafalgar I need to buy the lake tile for ~70, but my income is picking up a bit so that should be manageable. Finally, the two slingers around Actium are going to park themselves on two plains tiles south of the marsh to block all north-south movement. The rest of my army is marching on Kabul, where it will join my navy and assault hte city around turn 70 or so.
My last two warriors push into Khmer’s continent, unveiling thick, tangled country of woods and jungle everywhere. Kongo’s UU is a nightmare in this terrain, and production is abundant, but is there fresh water? I guess not, otherwise Mike wouldn’t have bothered with that insane forward settle. Terrible country:
I’ll push these guys as far as I can until turn 70, then start marching home to arrive as the DOF expires and I can upgrade them to swordsmen.
Okay, so plan of economic development:
Salamis: Chop the forest hill through archer ->RND. Mine hill. Worker 2 removes quarry, then harvests quarry through walls into Mausoleum. Harvests Stone #2 through galley into Mausoleum. Might need one more worker for an additional chop? Need another tile to chop. Must build galley (wait for Maritime Industries though) and ancient walls to 1 turn before Defensive Tactics is in. I think I can manage all that in my timeline.
Trafalgar: Build worker for self and worker for Aboukir. Build watermill for Construction eureka. Chop out RND, mine hill. Dunno what to do with the final worker charge yet. After the workers and water mill are out, should be able to pump out traders to Muscat quest and other utility.
Actium: Next worker will want to pasture sheep for growth. Chop forest through galley for RND, mine hill. Need ot build worker, then galley. Then walls? Granary?
Leyte: Worker from Actium grabs whales and crabs, then plantations the tea. Initial production will be limited, but Woden can have the luxury and improves my SPT/GPT. Need to build unit to chop for RND, rebuild walls.
Aboukir: First worker will mine iron, farm wheat for growth, plantation silks for culture/GPT. Send spare silks to Woden if he needs ‘em. Worker 2 can plantation tea, mine hill, and use the one available tile to chop an RND. Will need to build 1 unit to chop RND, need 1 more worker.
Kabul: Gonna need 1 worker to chop RND, then take a look at what the city needs. What the hell is an Afghan naval battle I can name Kabul after? I might name it after Navarino, or Sinope - a couple of battles against Turkey, which is KINDA near Afghanistan, won by Russia. I like Navarino.
Okay, that’s really vague compared to others’ plans (Woden, Singaboy, and oledavy had much more detailed plans in PBEM4), but gimme a break, guys, I’m still learning this stuff. Within 30 turns, I should have 6 cities with districts and basic improvements in place, the vulnerable ones with walls ready to go up, a galley to explore the final sea I border, and a wonder ready for me to try and imitate China with.
Score report is out of date, to be done tomorrow morning. I had good intentions of doing it tonight, but I ran out of time:
Scores are updated! Some interesting things:
Archduke is building a commercial hub in his second city, and he's received a Great Work from Emperor. That's why his culture is so impressive. I hadn't thought about it, but that's another way I might be able to use my archaeologists - I can stuff Woden with artifacts, too. Basically, I'm not worried about losing to a culture victory. If the game lasts into the renaissance and industrial eras, we can hold our own culturally.
Sullla has built two campuses, Emperor is building a campus in his second city. Really need to start getting districts down soon.
Again, I largely agree with Woden - Rome/China are leading, but that's mostly a product of Rome's superior expansion and China's wonder-building. Our scores should start spiking soon as we switch to infrastructure-mode, while hopefully Team Empire has to build at least a little military to stop our incoming "attack."
Let's take a look at Team Empire, shall we? Here's what I explored this turn:
More Chinese borders to the west. I'd like to contact their cultural state, but I may not be able to get around China to do it. Furthermore, if they've settled close to each other - and with so many cities, I think they have - I may not be able to get through at all. What should I do in that case?
Well, I've been noodling over how to speed up my dash to defensive tactics. The Limes-powered chops that will enable are the single biggest way I can see to give my economy a shot in the arm and speed up my growth curve. So, I need someone to declare war on me, and with DOFs with both our neighbors (yay!), that someone has to be Sullla or Singaboy. With that in mind, I think I can make my scout annoying enough for them to kill it purely to stop. If I can't get through to keep scouting, I'll trade the scout for a bunch of free culture - 10 turn's worth, in fact! I can pillage roads, threaten traders, block their movements, pretend to pillage improvements or snatch workers in a bid to get them to declare war. If they cotton on and refuse to give me that, then, eh, fuck it, I can always grab a worker or something to spite them in that case (although it may not be a good idea to pick a fight, honestly).
So that's the plan on the scouting front. I also detected more interesting news while crafting the score report:
The Romans have contacted Japper and Cornflakes! Either Sullla finally sent a scout over the landbridge after my arrival, or there's a Relic scout on my heels somewhere. I hope it's the latter - that way Sullla and Singaboy might still assume Woden and I are closer than we are. If he's realized that Japper is his nearest neighbor, well, then our bluffed attack won't work. Might still kill my scout though!
Closer to home, the settler is 2 turn's march from Leyte's planned site, and Salamis finishes its settler next turn (with a much shorter walk to Aboukir Bay). Here's a look at my core:
Trafalgar is pre-building a warrior, to be Agoge-chopped into an RND once Celestial Navigation is in. Next turn I will likely switch to a builder for Salamis, while IT prebuilds an archer to be chopped into its own RND. I'll need at least one more builder on top of that to execute the chops I need for the Mausoleum, but that's still 20 turns of research away (so tentative ETA turn 80? Is that fast enough? We'll find out!). Actium is building a builder, then will get to work on a galley. Leyte is 3 turns from founding, Aboukir is 7 turns out. At Leyte, I need to purchase the crabs for ~50 gold, to finish CN, and at Trafalgar I need to buy the lake tile for ~70, but my income is picking up a bit so that should be manageable. Finally, the two slingers around Actium are going to park themselves on two plains tiles south of the marsh to block all north-south movement. The rest of my army is marching on Kabul, where it will join my navy and assault hte city around turn 70 or so.
My last two warriors push into Khmer’s continent, unveiling thick, tangled country of woods and jungle everywhere. Kongo’s UU is a nightmare in this terrain, and production is abundant, but is there fresh water? I guess not, otherwise Mike wouldn’t have bothered with that insane forward settle. Terrible country:
I’ll push these guys as far as I can until turn 70, then start marching home to arrive as the DOF expires and I can upgrade them to swordsmen.
Okay, so plan of economic development:
Salamis: Chop the forest hill through archer ->RND. Mine hill. Worker 2 removes quarry, then harvests quarry through walls into Mausoleum. Harvests Stone #2 through galley into Mausoleum. Might need one more worker for an additional chop? Need another tile to chop. Must build galley (wait for Maritime Industries though) and ancient walls to 1 turn before Defensive Tactics is in. I think I can manage all that in my timeline.
Trafalgar: Build worker for self and worker for Aboukir. Build watermill for Construction eureka. Chop out RND, mine hill. Dunno what to do with the final worker charge yet. After the workers and water mill are out, should be able to pump out traders to Muscat quest and other utility.
Actium: Next worker will want to pasture sheep for growth. Chop forest through galley for RND, mine hill. Need ot build worker, then galley. Then walls? Granary?
Leyte: Worker from Actium grabs whales and crabs, then plantations the tea. Initial production will be limited, but Woden can have the luxury and improves my SPT/GPT. Need to build unit to chop for RND, rebuild walls.
Aboukir: First worker will mine iron, farm wheat for growth, plantation silks for culture/GPT. Send spare silks to Woden if he needs ‘em. Worker 2 can plantation tea, mine hill, and use the one available tile to chop an RND. Will need to build 1 unit to chop RND, need 1 more worker.
Kabul: Gonna need 1 worker to chop RND, then take a look at what the city needs. What the hell is an Afghan naval battle I can name Kabul after? I might name it after Navarino, or Sinope - a couple of battles against Turkey, which is KINDA near Afghanistan, won by Russia. I like Navarino.
Okay, that’s really vague compared to others’ plans (Woden, Singaboy, and oledavy had much more detailed plans in PBEM4), but gimme a break, guys, I’m still learning this stuff. Within 30 turns, I should have 6 cities with districts and basic improvements in place, the vulnerable ones with walls ready to go up, a galley to explore the final sea I border, and a wonder ready for me to try and imitate China with.
I Think I'm Gwangju Like It Here
A blog about my adventures in Korea, and whatever else I feel like writing about.
A blog about my adventures in Korea, and whatever else I feel like writing about.
