[spoilers] Commodore's 69 Techniques

[mackoti]

Yes, PRO only affects domestic routes, so in the case of trade missions it only gives you a slight bonus in your own cities. Conducting a trade mission in a foreign city most of the time has better or equal results.

You cant do a trademision with yourself...  at least not in bTS.

[Charriu]

Well that should also answer Commodore's question. Thanks

[Commodore]

This is why I had to be patient. I lost three chariots at 21%, 61%, and 64%, but thanks to more cover melee units being available:

...which, um, makes me the first to double digits in city count. Dun Wall on Nougurfug’s side is an amazing city, getting silver and somefood, going to be a careful and suspicious border. Glad I’m pushing another archer here to help defend:


Capture gold was a huge help, I’m currently at 8 turns of savings for 1 turn of research, ouch. And this is with me doing some stupid/silly things like working an unlighthoused tile in Bock because the micro could spare 1f. But hey, I have a village next turn...


Demos show how under-grown we are because of the horrendous happy cap until these last half dozen turns. The fix is just patience, growing onto cottages, but it’s a long slow roll.

Only three more cities possible to settle without war.

[Qgqqqqq]

Who would the war target be?

[Commodore]

Who would the war target be?

I have no idea, I value coalition partnerships over ideal territory expansion. But there are definitely top contenders for border tension:
   

[Commodore]

Some calculus, if I get the 40% roll on a Great Merchant:

I want my own religion, and it’s important to beat out one of the Currency-holders to Code of Laws if it’s to be Confucianism. The simple plan was just to research Metal Casing, so the GMerch bulbs CoL. This is bypassing Math/Currency, desperately needed for economic stability, but I’m Spiritual, so that’s also overcome-able with a stint in Caste for scientist/merchant specialists as the brute force fix.

The other way to go is of course the riskier and slower trade mission; current burn rate is 75gpt, so with the 3t Math and 6t Currency at max burn I have economy again, finally, but it’s a long trip for the trade mission and then a long research stint, so I’d expect someone to get CoL before me in that case. And don’t mistake me, either way my goal is Code of Laws; not only do the Peaky Peninsula cities need courthouses and do I need Confucianism, Caste System is where Spiritual really opens up as the power trait; easy access to golden ages on demand is great because once the economy is firing on all cylinders, it’s massing up catapults while diving hard for Engineering, Guilds, and bulbing CHEMISTRY. Early grenadiers with a proper 40-50 catapult stack should crack someone even with a frontal assault. That’s the goal.

[Commodore]

Well, it's the simpler of the two results I guess. Let's see how our buddy down here receives the visitor.
   

[Commodore]

Settled the fair city of Helles this turn, to take advantage of the fact that both Pilsner and Hefeweizen's whipping days are over; it's not much, but it's a plains hill, works the marble, gets another wine, and the cow will be "enough" to grow. The settling of the city also puts me into strike, I was at -3 initially but I rearranged things to -7 to take advantage of not getting negative accumulated debt. First turn of strike is "free" (no deserters), so might as well lean in.
   
I'm just 3 turns from the trade mission, which will solve all my woes with 2t Math and 4t Currency. Let's put a lot of faith in Noaflegrow and get ourselves some cash money.
   
I tried to single friendliness by offering Me: War With Bing and Nowfle: War With Bing, War With Ginger, but then Ginger DoW'd, so who knows how that was received. 

[Qgqqqqq]

Re strike, should it work like debt, to avoid gimmicks like the above being positive? Should the first turn be free?

[Commodore]

Re strike, should it work like debt, to avoid gimmicks like the above being positive? Should the first turn be free?

Eh, seems okay to me, just one of those rare cases, like the granary avoid growth trick.

Moved all my tiles to carefully get to +1gpt. I'm done a few food from my micro spreadsheet though because I forgot I was at a different cap than just happy:

Stupid. Two more turns and then I can hook my corn.