[SPOILERS] Pindicator emerges from the wilderness to play pb74

[pindicator]

66% - Gav
25% - Comm
5% - Mig
4% - Me

[pindicator]

205

Miguelito sent us a proposition to attack Gavagai in 15 turns.  I'm less concerned about the timing and more relieved that he has seen which way this game is going.  Can he finish Railroad and then get Scientific Method & Combustion plus build an invasion fleet in 15 turns?  I'm skeptical.  I'm even more skeptical that we can get there.

Plemo and Commodore also signed peace.  I went ahead and offered Plemo Open Borders again.  But I need to keep an eye on this:




Only 3 turns of enforced peace left and there are honestly a lot of vulnerable cities down here.  I would prioritize putting more units in my coastal cities but we're so behind in tech it seems silly.  Still, Finisterra & the capital at least should have a good garrison.  Probably the eastern continent as well.

Anyway, while we're waiting for next turn's Golden Age to kick off, let's look at what we've done with Amicalola's lands (or Amicaland, as we've been calling it):




Much of this land is unit production.  Waimea has become a production city, and the cities along Tarkeel's border as well.  Glacier Peak is taking some time out to build Forbidden Palace.  We've already posted shots of our National Epic city, Cape Perpetua, and of Koko Head.  Koko will be a ship building city later on, after it generates a great person.







Cretto di Burro is going to be our Oxford city later - I think.  It's the major cottage city in the area here.




Demos show Commodore has slipped behind us in Crop Yield and behind Miguelito in MFG:

[pindicator]

206

Kicked off the golden age!

Civic swap to get us into HR-Vassalage-Caste-Free Market-Pacifism.  It's going to cost a pretty penny but we need it for the GP generation.  Then we set up our 3 Great Person cities and realized I had made a mistake in calculations (I always do!):










In my notes I had Koko being at size 13, not size 12!  (Got it mixed up with Cefalu.)  So I'm not quite getting as much GP points on the starve turns and come a bit shy of 600 points at the end of the golden age.  But I did find a solution:  we have to hire 9 specialists now, as we can run -8fpt for 4 turns since we have 32 food in the granary.  Then we starve down.  We still only need to be in Pacifism for the first 5 turns of the golden age - and really, being in longer won't speed anything up since the trick is getting Koko to produce a great person at 600 points before Pereptua reaches 600.

I also need to watch the capital and make sure Cefalu gets its great person at 500 before the capital reaches 500.  I hired an extra specialist this turn, but I'm going to have to fire him for a couple turns, otherwise the capital will get there first!

Other than that the golden age looks great.  We're 2-turning Replacable Parts at break-even tech rate.  I think we're going to go straight to Steam Power and Railroad after. 

Golden Age Demos:

[pindicator]

207

Finisterra may have won favorite-city status away from Cispus Pass:




With Ironworks finished we can build almost everything in 1 turn.  Getting a University first as one of the few 2t builds, then I think we get an Observatory and pump units.  We're at an odd spot where building boats doesn't really make sense until we get oil, so we'll probably try to get some muskets out and build up the coastal core cities' garrisons.

I'm convinced Plemo is going to burn McMurdo Station as revenge for us taking Crab Island from him:




Enforced peace ends this turn.

And since there wasn't a lot going on this turn, here's our eastern continent holdings (camera turned 90 degrees to fit it all in):




We managed to snag a solid set of cities here on the western end of the small continent. Cefalu has already been raved about. (Note to self: need to turn all 13 citizens into specialists next turn there.) Angel's Rest is a great commerce city. Tamanawas Falls is going to be a great all-around city with all the river tiles. But I've been sleeping on Smith Rock: once we turn those plains tiles into workshops it's going to be a nice unit producer here. Cape Lookout and Olympic Mtns are kind of middling cities, but decent enough.

And Gozo -- every time I look at Gozo I wish Metal had settled it on the hill so it could share the rice. Could have been a very nice island city. Now it's kind of mid.

[pindicator]

Oh, forgot one of the most important parts. Comm and Gav signed peace while I was playing. Then Comm signaled he wanted me to fight Gav in 12 turns. Not sure I can be ready by then so I signaled back 15t. I think that will be about the same timeframe I gave Mig too.

[pindicator]

208

Replaceable Parts is done, Steam Power is next - due in 3t.

Our 43rd City is not much:




Work boat is 8t away.  Workers probably a little sooner - 4 or 5 turns.  They are workshopping at Metal Island right now, but I'm setting up a galleon chain to get them up to the marble straight away.

Our island cities are building Customs Houses, as we're seeing some decent returns on those trade routes:




Really it's all about getting to Combustion as soon as possible.  Currently my estimate is 12 turns.

At Cefalu it's time to hire all specialists:




We'll drain the granary reserves perfectly this turn.  Then we starve 2 population away.

[pindicator]

211

Steam Power is done and we have 3 sources of Coal, narrowing missing out on a 4th (which is just across the border in Tarkeel-land):







And we did get our first great person last turn, an artist out of Cefalu. The city has done it's GP duty and now can start working its tiles again.

With that Great Person done it was time to get out of Pacifism:




Which saved us 125gpt. Still, it was the only way to get a 3rd great person, and I would trade ~600g for a great person any day.

Finisterra is a bit of a production monster now that it has Ironworks done with Coal hooked up and in the middle of a golden age:




It's also out of infrastructure to build. I could 1-turn a Customs House, but I think it's more important to get to Railroad. With some select Wealth builds we can get Railroad in 3 turns at 100% science. Finisterra pulls in 110gpt just by itself. Need to keep in mind that Commodore's loan payments only last 2 more turns, but I found it only took 6-7 more cities to get to -80gpt. The economy is shaping up, but is it too little too late?

No levees started right away, though we've identified 6 or 7 cities that will be getting one. We just don't have a lot of rivers in our empire, and we didn't really put down our cities early on with levees in mind. (Pity that Cispus Pass misses out here.)

Internationally, Tarkeel offered us Open Borders and map swaps. I'm not in any rush to invade him again, so I agreed. We have about 25 cannons on his border right now, though we're a little shy on hitters. I think once we get Railroad we'll switch over to Machine Guns everywhere.

Also, Gavagai declared on Superdeath. Now the entire western end of the continent is at war with each other.

Demos:




Keep in mind that GNP is with about 260gpt of Wealth Builds added in. But I'm more encouraged by that crop yield.

[pindicator]

212

Had a nice event!




Went with the Drydocks since we're still a long ways off from Factories and Coal Plants. But half of our cities are coastal so this will be a nice boost for our shipmaking.

Sorted out where the remaining universities are being built, and started the first Levee at Cretto di Burro. Mather Point's uni finishes this turn, and then it will build its levee, finish that t220, and then start Oxford. So we need to finish up the rest of our universities by t220.

[pindicator]

213

Last turn of the golden age. Ginger/Miguelito have started their own as we both race to catch up to the leaders.

We're getting the pieces down for our next golden age. Plan is to take that as soon as we can, letting us switch into Free Speech & Representation at the end. But we need two more great people first, which should come out the next 2 turns if everything goes to plan.

After that we have the capital chugging along, and will get the 800-level GP out, but something like 10-14 turns later - depending on when we trigger the next GA.

Graphs, since we haven't posted those in a while:













Added a few extra Wealth builds, to make sure we have enough to make Railroad at the end of this turn, even when Commodore ends our gpt deal.

[pindicator]

214

Out of the golden age, fired all our wealth builds and Commodore has ended our loan payment: we are sitting at 3s across the board in Demos (except food!), but we are at least a lot more competitive.

5 turns to Combustion.

Great Merchant was born out of Koko Head, and next turn we get either a Scientist or Engineer from Cape Perpetua. There is a low-odds chance we get utterly screwed with a 6% artist. Considering we've also been trying and failing with a couple Great Engineers in the teens, I might just rage a bit if that happens. We'll kick off that golden age soon, but we need to make sure we finish Liberalism and Constitution before the last turn of the GA - I would guess we need to get most of the way through Combustion before firing it at least.