[PB 55] Miguelito and Mjmd help Amicalola avoid a repetition of last time

[Tarkeel]

It's generally accepted that the best part of golden ages is GPP boost, allowing you to maybe pump out enough to start the next GA. (Hence why MoM is popular)

[Amicalola]

My current thinking is to grow Aperol as fast as possible, then generate more great people there during the GA.

[Miguelito]

It's generally accepted that the best part of golden ages is GPP boost, allowing you to maybe pump out enough to start the next GA. (Hence why MoM is popular)

So the best thing about the GA is that it can lead to another GA with some effort? I suspect there may be more to it (But yes,  that part should be planned before firing)

Also do we want to get into mercantilism at the end of the GA? I suspect international trade isn't doing all that much for us?
And on banks,  mind diminishing returns: they give you a great boost to income,  which increases your tech rate,  which in turn can lead to the banksnothaving all that much of an effect on the lesser cities.  So even if they're cheap,  build them in the most commerce heavy cities first and see from there where else they will contribute a significant amount at your then current tech rate.

[Miguelito]

My current thinking is to grow Aperol as fast as possible, then generate more great people there during the GA.

You'll typically want at least two dedicated GP cities during the first GA I think,  to get going the 2 GPS needed for the next one.

[Amicalola]

My current thinking is to grow Aperol as fast as possible, then generate more great people there during the GA.

You'll typically want at least two dedicated GP cities during the first GA I think,  to get going the 2 GPS needed for the next one.

Ohhhh ok makes sense! I could have Pisco Sour be the other! It is currently growing on 8 food per turn. Each city could theoretically work 5 specialists. More with Caste System(?).

And the banks thing makes total sense. I think they would be worth it in the commerce cities at least though, and also mercatilism I am thinking would be good. We could definitely reach banking by the end of the first GA, maybe in the middle. I don't really have time tonight, but I will make a report with pictures+concrete plans+numbers tomorrow.

[Mjmd]

Why engineering? I always view engineering as a very defensive tech. Even facing ballista elephants I would think you can skip.

Just as a reminder because it was a lesson I learned painfully, but tech choices when getting this high in the tree start mattering more.

[Miguelito]

So, have we conquered the Khmer yet?

[Amicalola]

So,  have we conquered the Khmer yet?

Why engineering? I always view engineering as a very defensive tech. Even facing ballista elephants I would think you can skip. 

Just as a reminder because it was a lesson I learned painfully, but tech choices when getting this high in the tree start mattering more.

Sorry I missed these posts!! Christmas-NYE is crazy. Don't know how you guys do it with kids as well.

Re: Engineering. I had actually wanted it for the pikes and the road movement. Because I wasn't sure which way we were attacking, or even if we were attacking someone, I wanted to be able to hit Civac or Jowy faster in a plausible attack scenario. In retrospect, I think Guilds would have been a MUCH better pick, doubly-so attacking Jowy, and again I should have posted; I'm sure you guys would have known that as well. I do think the pikes will be useful though, against both future BE's and Knights which are coming soon I fear. 

While I would like to finish Engineering now that it is started, I do not know what to research next. Guilds is a possibility, as it is on the way to banking and unlocks knights. Feudalism for Vassalage might come first. Any thoughts?

Re: Conquering. Errr, not quite. I logged in today and found a Lewwyn peace offer + war dec (the previous treaty ended this turn). I decided to accept the peace. Lewwyn has razed 2 of SD's eastern cities which I have highlighted here in red dots. Their next war is probably their last.


Those two made peace last turn, which is part of the reason I have decided to accept Lewwyn's peace offer. He has more and better units right now, partly on account of my peaceful building the last 10 turns, and partly on account of my inadequate whipping for the first war. Yes, Lewwyn can use this peace to build unthreatened. However, we can use this peace too..

Commodore and I have been trading diplo messages for the previous 2 turns. He is going to attack Jowy in 3 turns (I THINK; that's what 3gpt in the offer means right?) and we are in 4 turns. I am moving the units on a diagonal towards Civac/Jowy for the next 2 turns, before they will head directly to Jowy and cross his borders in 4 turns. More concrete plans to come, but in essence I would like to start by splitting the stack into 2 (hopefully) before he can respond effectively, and attacking Elementary and Cursed Crater at the same time. 


However, protective NA longbows are no joke, so there is a decent chance this turns into 1 city first. That feels... not great. But I have already committed in diplo with Commodore, and the best time to hit Jowy is now before he reaches knights, so... Torn. But staying at peace will do nothing, and attacking Lewwyn/Civac will fail, so I am mostly committed to this plan. 

Worst case, the 3 of us are dragged down, and Civac wins the game quickly instead of slowly. He seems hilariously far ahead now. I am having fun (the shite reporting is thanks to time, not boredom), but if others want to I would probably concede. Gavagai has been seriously chomped by Commodore and especially Civac, and seems probably out of contention to me. Jowy is probably Civac's best competitor thanks to an absurd GNP, but has low power and many island cities, not to mention Commodore and my plans. Commodore and our positions are both compromised, and Lewwyn despite having the opportunity to attack SD again soon, has been set quite behind.

In domestic news, forges are mostly done. Units being built around the empire. 







Here is our current stack. We have maybe 12-16 more units joining it en-route, though some are classical metal units. I am going to try to learn from the last war's biggest mistakes, and whip myself silly. Many of the current units are quite outdated so this is perhaps absurdly optimistic, but only one way to learn, right? Jowy also still has very low power (although he is finally building longbows), so hopefully we hit quickly enough in tandem with Commodore, for quantity to be a quality of its own. I have built a few crossbows in case the war ended up being with Civac, but otherwise we have lots of Ele's and Catapults, with a smattering of metal units from a while ago.


Worst case scenario, we may be in for long turns of bombarding. Jowy's units will be great at holding up inside cities, but completely useless on the open field. Famous last words. 


Retrospective question for lurkers and myself to think about later: Should I have hit Jowy 25 turns ago instead of warring with Lewwyn? He wouldn't have had longbows yet, but Lewwyn would have likely devoured SD by this point and then we'd be REALLY screwed. So I'm not sure the answer here...

[Miguelito]

Imo correct to finish engineering now with our 1-mover stack. Also pikes for Khmer (and possible Roman knights )
Good news - the decision what next is easy, as you can't research guilds without feudalism . And yes, definitely that line up to banking.
If we're still building units, might swords actually be better against longbows than eles? They can take CR and are a good bit cheaper. Factors are do our eles get two promos (stables?), does Jowy even have axes (dogs?) in relevant numbers? Also expect to lose many catapults so prepare to replace those.

[Amicalola]

Oh, ha, great point about Feudalism. That is convincing reasoning.

I have been avoiding building more swords as while Jowy doesn't have many macemen or crossbows yet, he can build both and so I feel that they can be quickly whipped against. Then again, so can WE's with pikemen, so maybe I should build some swords to join the stack. Thanks for the idea! Yeah, I'll queue up more catapults in most of the cities building units right now (general idea I have is whipping the queued unit, then overflowing into a catapult in mostly every city).