[PB59 Amicalola] The Vespertine Hour(s)

[Amicalola]

T191
Cairo loaded a bunch of his cuirs onto galleons over at the other holdout. Looks like next turn we might both be landing on our respective islands.


I'm running quite a bit of wealth at the moment, since I hope to swap into Organised Religion in 7 turns. This picture overstates my economy somewhat.

[Amicalola]

T192-193
We storm the beaches of Calcutta.


At this point I have enough military (especially cannons) on both fronts to feel vaguely comfortable with this. These guys can get back to the mainland to defend very easily, heal with a GG medic, and Hornblower pops borders next turn to stop any potential advance. I have money to upgrade rifles, and I also have 3 frigate stacks that can pillage his seafood, if he goes that route. It would still suck if he attacked, but in a "mutually assured destruction" way.

To be honest, I was half-hoping Cairo would go in first just so I could finally get a kill in a pitboss. Somehow, I've still never done that. Doesn't look like I'll get one yet. 

I finished Steam Power last turn, and Ironworks completes at the end of this turn. 


I have coal and iron already hooked up, and right now it's 29 base hammers with some room for improvement, especially with the levee that will follow. Not game-changing, but this map doesn't have many hammers so I'll take what I can get. I think the city can get to about 50 base hammers, which is pretty decent. With Electricity (lol), the commerce won't be awful either.

[Amicalola]

T194 - Amicalola Hatches a Ridiculous Brilliant New Plan
Naufragar goes out not with a bang, but with a whimper. He opted not to attack my stack on Calcutta island, and deleted the forest troops for some reason. I guess I'm not complaining.


We got a third promotion on quite a few cannons, which is nice. Even better, Cairo landed troops on his island! He will almost certainly eliminate Naufragar next turn. I wonder if he was waiting for me.


There is more good news this turn. Kremlin should be a safe build now:


No one else even has Communism, so I'm not especially worried. I guess Communism isn't a high priority once the Spy's gone.


Demos, which you haven't seen in a while:


Keeping up in food thanks to a lot of farms and windmills. Falling behind in MFG, thanks to a lot of farms and windmills. 



I'm researching Biology before Railroad or Assembly Line. That's because the plan from here is to create a half-baked specialist economy in the Industrial era, to combine with our Custom House-powered trade route economy. Yeah, you heard me.

We'll try to grow our cities on Biology farms, as tall as possible. I've already been minimising whips in the past 10 turns, which is why my food stat is inflated. Just before launching the GA (~5 turns, hopefully. 15% scientist roll...), we will whip a series of levees/observatories, and the bare minimum of universities to build Oxford at Unison. Then, we will launch a GA and convert to Representation and Serfdom, getting that extra commerce on all of our Biology farms and putting our excess population into scientists and engineers. 

At the end of the GA, we will convert back into Slavery, but try to keep whipping minimally for a little longer as we desperately try to keep up our economy with people who did the Cottage Thing. Eventually we will get to Assembly Line, and then will reassess from there. We sure will have a lot of excess population banked.... 


Brilliant Plan FAQ 
Q: What's the Tech Path?
A:

Pre-GA: Biology first so we can start growing our cities ASAP. Then Constitution to grab Representation at the start of the (hopeful) GA. 
During-GA: Railroad next for defensive purposes, alongside Military Tradition. Then Combustion to get some oil-powered ships out before Cairo.
Post-GA: Corporation and Assembly Line for factories, and to sadly damage our trade routes significantly. 
General: Democracy is for suckers. The Vespertine Empire will never research that useless tech. 

Maybe we swap Combustion and Assembly Line around, depending on how safe we feel at sea. I'd really like to just be friends with Cairo from this point, but I don't know if that's realistic. As I mentioned, he doesn't have the alternative continent that I do. 

Q: Are you really building Kremlin just in time to convert away from both rush civics?
A: Well, sure when you put it like that it sounds silly. But I think the farms with Representation is really the way to go here, it's too late for cottages now. Kremlin is more of a future-proofing thing, giving me an edge for a fight if/when I need it, and a way to get the expensive buildings out quickly. 

Q: You keep mentioning the trade routes. Is that still a thing?
A: You bet it is! We cracked 1000 commerce a few turns ago.  



Q: Instead of this ridiculousness, why didn't you just do the Cottage Thing like everyone else?
A: Next question.  

Q: Possible options after Assembly Line?
A: I think either we try to avoid whipping for a while longer and get to tanks, or we use Infantry to try and conquer Westwards. I don't think it's realistic to attack Cairo with Infantry, even with the Kremlin, because he just has so many whipping/drafting spots now. Not to mention being Aggressive and in Police State. That is one tough cookie.

[Amicalola]

T195
Kremlin whips don't work like I expected them too. I had thought the remaining cost of building queues was discounted, but it actually seems to just make the base hammers 45 for a whip. So with forges, that's 56.25 hammers (or potential overflow!), and with a factory/coal plant it's 90 hammers. That's like, 2 Infantry with a 2-whip and scant base hammers!! 

Assuming we don't get the Great Scientist, I'm going to whip a science building in nearly every city on the turn the GP is finished (T198; waiting until that turn in case we get unlucky). At the same time I'll run 0% science that turn, which combined with the current saved gold will fund several turns of 100% research. This is the second GA in a row that I'm whipping most cities the turn before, for multiplier buildings. I always heard that you shouldn't whip before a GA, but to me this seems like a no-brainer: GA-multipliers = Amazing. It definitely seemed strong to whip the banks before my last GA, which reinforced my plans for this one. I wonder where the disconnect is between popular wisdom and my view. Or maybe I just have the wrong perception of "popular wisdom."

[Hitru]

So "minimal whips strategy" did not live long . Probably right call with Kremlin

[Amicalola]

T196


And then there were two.  

You were a great rival, Nauf. Just like Pindicator, the game feels just a bit more empty without you.

So "minimal whips strategy" did not live long . Probably right call with Kremlin

Hah, not really. Although, I am still planning to convert out for the 8 turns of the GA. I think I can get Serfdom up to something like 120 base commerce. Not a huge amount, but it's also the hammers from mills which is another 60-ish per turn, so I think it's worth it. Obviously we start whipping our hearts out at the end again though.

[Amicalola]

I spent an hour doing the whip micro for every city. Today was great anyway (sun is finally out!), but this was the most fun turn in a while.   Some cities are still cranking out cannons/ships, but most are now doing economy-stuff again. The plan took proper form this turn, so here it is in specifics:

We're whipping a science building in nearly every city with max overflow (most frequently an observatory for 3 pop.) on the turn before we convert, that we are then overflow-dumping into another building with an Org-Religion bonus. Most frequently that's a custom house, which are WAY better than markets on this map even post-GLH, or a grocer (for factory-prep) in the largest cities. When cities become able to max-overflow whip early, we're just sinking a couple of turns into the 2nd building, to finish that faster as well. With a forge and Org-Rel, the overflow is nearly 70 hammers - I love this wonder! Here's a sample shot:



In the Golden Age itself, I'll convert to Representation/Bureaucracy/Serfdom/Free Market/Organised Religion. That should be the best civics for a quick growth spurt, and we have enough cities whipping/overflowing into units that 'no slavery' should be ok.


A plan is also solidifying more generally, for after the GA. I think we'll get Assembly Line before Combustion and just eat the lost trade routes. Then we can get Combustion while building whipping factories and coal plants. After that, it might finally be time to pay Old Mate Superdeath a visit.  

...Well, 85% of the time that's what we're doing. If we get the 15% Scientist, I guess we'll just salt the earth with our tears.

[Amicalola]

T197
Cairo returned a fish/fish which is promising.


Hopefully that means he wants to rebuild, instead of keep conquering. Pretty much everything hinges on that Scientist roll now.

Miguelito sent a more perplexing offer: a bunch of health resources for a bunch of mining resources. I get why he wants Mining resources (he founded Mining Inc.), but why would I want excess health resources?  It was a mixture of seafood and grains, so perhaps he's signaling that if I found a food corp., he'd be happy to exchange resources. Sid's Sushi Co. was possibly over-nerfed in CtH and kinda sucks now, so it would be Cereal Mills if we found one, at Refrigeration (yuck). Sushi Co is somehow significantly more maintenance for significantly less food - the culture doesn't come close to making up the difference.

Of course, that's dozens of turns away even in the unlikely scenario that we get another merchant, so I declined. Unfortunately, the next GP after Unison's one is very likely to be a Prophet, who are not known for their capitalist tendencies in Civ4 (there's a joke here somewhere...). I tried re-offering some mining resources for gold, but Mig didn't go accept that. I'll try again when he's got Mining Inc. spread to more cities.

[Amicalola]

I am very nervously refreshing PBSpy every hour or so, because once the turn rolls I can see what we got for our GP. Curse civac's internet problems!

Vanrober mentioned in a chat just now that the lurkers are struggling to see what's happening in the game. It's quite hard to report the game at this point, because it's just so vast. But if you guys have any questions (about my civ, or the game overall), as always feel free to ask. I'm not sure that I will report everything, or even every turn, but I am always happy to answer questions. Especially in light of oncoming T200, where I'll try to do another big overview, but also just in general.

[Amicalola]

T198
We're in business! 



I only whipped about 2/3rds of the cities this turn, about 100 food's worth. Growth timing made the other third better to whip next turn. We'll probably save gold to some extent next turn too (maybe 50%), which made whipping science buildings less crucial. I realised I won't run many specialists in the GA, they're more for afterwards, so going for Constitution beforehand was probably a waste. Could have just saved gold and blasted 100% for the whole GA. It might have also been better to build wealth everywhere for a turn, and research Constitution in 2 turns (delaying everything but saving an extra turn's gold). Unfortunately, I didn't consider that until after I'd excitedly started whipping. 

But I'm too happy to let that bother me now. We get to launch a final GA! We get to abuse Kremlin overflow with OrgReligion! We get to make a big push to factories! Wheeeeee!