[spoilers] Pindicator Steals the Mapmakers Naming Theme

[pindicator]

061

Only took me 60 turns to remember to check this screen:




Commodore bulbed Paper, but it appears he teched Guilds straight-away. Now he's whipping knights. We're going to switch to Slavery here soon and start whipping pikes, elephants & catapults. I have to expect he's going to mix in some crossbows, since I have only showed pike & mace to him lately.

I'm going to research Philosophy next. Perhaps my aversion to Guilds will get me killed, but I just feel I need to go a different direction to get ahead. Maybe I change my mind by next turn, when I turn on the slider again.

[pindicator]

Commodore has been getting all the events lately. World's leading supplier of tin is +2h to a mine, very nice. And then I think it was the very next turn he got free flanking on all his mounted units. As if they needed to be stronger.

He attacked Scooter last turn. Scooter asked for horses, but I see scooter has plenty of war elephants. I also see a complete lack of knights over there, so I suspect this is a ruse for my benefit. We swap back to slavery and start shopping next turn. Goal is to have a dozen units and 3-4 cats. We're halfway there now.

I guess I should explain the Philosophy play more. Like I've been mentioning, the goal is Gunpowder and Military Tradition. Philo is on the Mil Trad line, but it also will let me start running spurts of Caste+Pacifism. I realized a few turns in that I probably will want to run Vassalage as well during these stints- the capital is the most likely place to run the specialists, so bureau doesn't really carry much water there. Also, Vassalage will help defray the pacifism costs.

In fact, if I open the next turn and find the scooter-comm war still looks cold then I'm going to switch to Feudalism straight away. If we need to whip the capital then it's going to set back any pacifism play by 5 turns anyway.

Oh, so what do we do with these great people and what are they going to be? Scientists. I'll tech Paper, then the bulbs go Education (opens up gunpowder), Printing Press (opens up Replacable Parts), Astronomy (obvious). Finally this gets me down the Liberalism line, so I'll at least prevent someone else from sandbagging a good tech. How fast can I get 3? Depends how many cities I run specialists in. Which in turn depends on Commodore.

[pindicator]

065

Invasion looks real enough.


I revolted into Slavery anyway, as I have a couple settlers to whip out. Alhambra and Matsumoto-Jo are my two weaker cities and so they both are 3-pop whipping out settlers for me to use to fill out my borders. I might push south towards Commodore again, however, and try to refound on the ruins of Casa Loma.




Whipped a market in the capital this turn - that's the only one I don't feel great about. But since I'm not in Serfdom the watermills aren't doing so much, and also I'll be starting to earn gold again next turn so I really wanted to get that building in place. We'll get the library in place next and then that city will at least have the basics set. Unless I decide to also do a Theater and try for Globe somewhere... Ugh, that National Wonder.

Also whipped a mace complete in Wolfpack Tower




First building I chopped out here was the theater, because Yuri has been contesting the cow since I captured the city. And as I've grown past the improved tiles I've put the extra citizens on as artists to make sure I keep the tile. Well, this turn I whipped away the artists. Do I try for a forge next? Considering it. Otherwise another caravel.

Speaking of caravels, we are exploring.




And the one of the center island didn't take, but there's a barbarian city on it now.

Anyway, considering whipping out half a dozen horse archers and burning Friesian. I'd probably have to whip all that out right away though.

[pindicator]

066

Finished PHilosophy - and then remembered we need Ramk to give me a religion somewhere.




I guess it should go in Matsumoto-Jo, but honestly I don't care where it goes.

[pindicator]

067

Scooter sent me




I returned it. I hardly see any units inside scooter's borders with my scout - I think Comm might either test the waters against me again or just hope to use his knights as a deterrant and expand more into the space he's claimed.

I don't feel I'm in a good place to move a slow army up against him. So I either need to go Guilds myself but fighting knights with weaker knights seems like an awful idea. So I need to tech up and push for drafting muskets & unlocking my UU.

Yuri lost a decent sized city. At what point do I think about stabbing him in the back and keeping Thoth from taking all of him?

[pindicator]

Tech thoughts:

Really want to get to Gunpowder and Nationalism. We get there by:
1. Tech Paper
2. Bulb (most of) Education
3. Tech Gunpowder

Gunpowder is roughly twice the cost of Paper, so we're looking at roughly 20 turns away at current research rates.

But we also want to fill out some other techs: we really do want to go one of the XP civics soon - either Vassalage or Theocracy. I've mentioned before that Vassalage is the better fit with running Pacifism, but Theocracy can be run more often. Theology is also cheaper than Feudalism and gives another pre-req bonus to Paper.
Feudalism also gives longbows, and it will be nice to have an all-around defender units instead of all the specialty units that I'm using now. Further, it leads to Guilds and Banking. Guilds I've desparaged a bit, but I shouldn't think of it as a lesser Knight - rather that my army is going to be based more on 1-movers (until Conquistadors), but a knight could still be a good support unit to mix in for certain situations. Guilds also gives +1h to workshops, which I've built a couple of for my island - and probably will add more to Wolfpack Tower. Finally, Banking opens up the very good Mercantilism - which is especially good for us! Without Banking I might just ignore the whole line, but I really do want to get there. I'm just not convinced it's worth the cost.

Finaly consideration: can I get by 20 turns of the same tech level? And I think not. I think I do need to pick up a tech to improve my situation before then - and that's where I think I need to grab Feudalism next. Because I will eventually want to get to Mercantilism, because I do want to get the +2XP going so I can make 10xp siege and 5xp land units, because I want more help with a good defensive unit, and because I want to make a little bit of headway towards Banking - for all those reasons I think I fit in Feudalism next.

[pindicator]

068

Settled my 7th city (for the second time), Killyleagh (Castle):




I have a settler for city #8, and I think I'm going to settle on Casa Loma's ruins. Even if I'm not going to attack Commodore, I want to push him here and give scooter some breathing room.

Though if Yuri loses another city before I'm ready to settle, I might just switch plans and try to poach what bit of the north I can.

Spent 150g and upgraded my triremes to caravels.

Edit: I could also settle that central filler location - or 1S of the sign. It could take the furs away from La Fontaine and just work some cottages in the middle of the empire.

[pindicator]

069

Scooter has done a good job of leveling the power.  Comm, him and I are all about even now.  Thoth continues to be a beast.

I stumbled upon Comm's 3-move galley.




Yeah, I'm not letting that thing go.

So let's see what Comm has going on:




At the very least this makes Comm tech Optics.  And if he goes a different direction then I land a stack on his island. I did switch off that missionary at La Fontaine.

Another idea is to move a settler, 4 workers, and some as-of-yet-not-built horse archers to the city site marked. Settle, road, and try to raze the southern city. I guess I dont' even need the settler.

Meanwhile, the east coast is getting built up:




2pop whipped the forge at Bacon's. We'll build our missionaries there and continue putting down windmills on those hills. Meanwhile we chopped out the work boat from at Killyleagh. That will be a production city: mines on the hills and farms on the grassland.

[pindicator]

071

After my attack I saw Commodore whip frantically on his half of the turn.  Then I opened up t70 to find a peace offer.




I hadn't really thought about giving him peace, but I wasn't really in any position to attack him seriously.  Then I started thinking about all the things I could do with 10 turns of enforced peace.  5 turns of serfdom laying down more cottages and windmills, followed up by 5 turns of caste & pacifism .... yeah, that is really starting to appeal to me.  Add in the sweetener of seeing Commodore's world map, and I decided to take the easy win.

I immediately got out of Slavery and into Serfdom.  Then I settled my 8th city and switched up to a round of missionaries.




With 10 turns to build this up I feel solid about planting this here.  It's a little exposed, but I have a plan to develop it and pop borders.  We're going to start with the two workers on the forested hill to Fasil Ghebbi's north - they will chop out a work boat next turn.  Those workers will road the hill and then move south where they'll chop into a theater next.  After the theater will be a citadel & walls.  I'll need to get roads down on the hills around the city, but I feel confident that we'll be able to defend it from Commodore.  Besides, Comm has taken a beating trying to invade Scooter - and for all his effort he's only gotten 2 angry neighbors so far.

I've decided that my tech plan is going to be to get both Feudalism and Theocracy next.  With Yuri retaking a city from Thoth and doing a decent job of contending for the seas, I don't think there is any risk of him falling.  In fact, my next move may be to watch for a turn where I can sink some Thoth galleys and try to help Yuri that way.  But I need to think about this more still, as it could still be better for me to take out Yuri myself...  This is all down the road considerably.  I'm also getting sidetracked:  my tech path will be to finishi Feudalism in 3t, with some help from a Wealth build at Wolfpack Tower.  Then we'll grab Theology and Paper next.  (Though going for Banking and getting into Mercantilism is really appealing too...)

On t75 we are going to revolt into Vassalage+Caste+Pacifism and will pump out at least one great scientist from the capital (for Education).  I'm still looking for a second city to dedicate to getting half of a great person out of - possibly Alhambra or Matsumoto-Jo.  I'm going to need 3 great scientists overall, which means 2 out of the capital and 1 from a second city.

After that I may go straight back to Bureaucracy ... but I'm also tinkering with an idea of staying in Vassalage for 5 more turns and then going into Vassalage+Theocracy for 5 turns to get some 2-promo ships out.  Getting some 3-move galleys and C2 caravels could be nice.  I probably should take advantage of being in Bureau then and build a forge in the capital next if I'm going to be out of it for that long of a stretch.

Graphs and Demos in spoilers:

Internationally:
Yuri retook a city from Thoth, as I mentioned, though I don't have great sight on exactly which one.  Thoth has been working hard to retake the seas, as Yuri had gotten a brief tech advantage with Optics.  Now I'm seeing some Thoth Caravels as well.  Yuri also picked up Engineering this last turn, so I guess I should start to see other people grab that.

Scooter has done very well against Commodore, as the semi-shark fin in the power graph shows.  He's also pushing farther towards Commodore on the map in that direction - I'm seeing stacks of mace & elephants get closer to Commodore's lands.  Commodore likely picks up a tech next turn, as he's been spending down gold.

[pindicator]

074

Scooter isn't going to just sit back and take Commodore's aggression.  He's crushed Commodore's Knight/Keshik attack and now is going on the offensives.




Meanwhile, Commodore is resorting to 3rd ring chopping.




He just switched out of Slavery a few turns ago, and scooter might make him pay for it.

He's moved his maces out of Freisian and is just leaving 4 longbows there for defense.  I could absolutely come here with a couple trebuchets as I expect everything is going west.  I've been holding off on finishing any units to wait for my next civic swap, as I expect I'll be going into Vassalage for a short amount of time.

My strategy is that i need to take advantage of my neighbors all being at war.  I am fairly certain I can get Paper, Education, Printing Press, and Astronomy in the next 20 turns.  The plan is to switch into Caste & Pacifism for 5 turns starting t76.  I'll run 9 scientists in the capital and 5 in Alhambra.  The first great scientist comes out of the capital t79 and I'll get halfway to the next great person in Alhambra.  Then when I run my second Caste & Pacifism stint on t86 I'll be size 8 in Alhambra, running 6 specialists.  I'll also be running 9 specialists again from the capital.  I'll get the 2nd great scientist end of t89 from Alhambra and the 3rd out of the capital end of t91.

Currently I'm sitting on 49 population, so I'll say 1650 beakers for every Great Scientist.  If you subtract the 1650 beakers from Education (2,152), Printing Press (1,913), and Astronomy (2,392), we get costs of 502 + 263 + 742.  All 3 will cost less than Paper.  From there I can go for Liberalism to pick up Replaceable Parts (+1h to windmills and watermills, which I'm building plenty of) or Nationalism.  Or I can just go straight for Gunpowder > Chemistry and rush Frigates.  I actually really like the sound of that one.