Silly Rules succession game

[rjmatsleepers]

I think I'm up next. I'm inclined to use the JR exemption to avoid "bad" government types and hence no need to build granaries. Anyone who thinks this is a bad move, please post withing 24 hours. Also any advice on trade, war, diplomacy. etc welcome.

RJM at Sleepers

[Old n Slow]

I think we're behind in trade, and have too few cities -- but we also need to be able to defend the ones we have.

[Straybow]

You can stay in Commie—it does have its advantages. Celebration gives the extra arrows, and with martial law and Colosseums that's no prob. Sometimes using the coupon to skip the mid-round change of gov't is more efficient.

[rjmatsleepers]

The thoughts of Chairman Soupy

Thanks for the input guys.

I've had a look at the save and I now have some revised thoughts. I won't start playing my turn till about 25 hours from this post to give anyone who wants to a chance to comment on these thoughts. I have never played under communism before, so if there are any special features I should exploit, please let me know. I wonder if it's worth going for Adam Smith's in a big way since we already have 4 food vans waiting?

1. I think I will follow the silly rules and take communism this turn and the republic in 4 turns time.

2. Adjusting tax or workers (or both) would get a lot of cities celebrating. However I'm not convinced the benefits of this are large enough or would last long enough to make it worthwhile. I'm inclined to reduce luxury rate to zero and employ a few entertainers to cope with unhappiness.

3. I propose to try to obtain peace with the Zulus and then build a ship chain in that direction to deliver any undemanded goods to their size 17 city. I'll try this after rushing some vans, but before delivering any in the hope that they will settle for one of our technologies.

4. I'm not inclined to try to deliver the salt to Moscow. It will take quite a few turns and I have no idea when Moscow's demand will change. However, it is tempting to build a ship chain in that direction to deliver to those Spanish cities, so I might change my mind - particularly if I can't get peace with the Zulus.

5. I think that we have enough in the kitty and coming from deliveries that we can afford to set the science rate at it's maximum.

6. Assuming everything goes OK, I expect to use the rule exemption to choose our next technology target.

I'll keep an eye on opportunities for new cities, but not high priority. I'll also look at building granaries before city growth takes place, but since our next two governments are benign I probably won't build.

All comments gratefully received.

RJM at Sleepers

[Straybow]

True, we don't have so many ships that we can easily spare one for a journey to Spain and Russia. As for the granaries, I mainly mean Beeble and SW. It takes our cities so long to grow that granaries would make a big difference.

We face a tough choice on WoWs. JSBach, Adam Smith, and Newton would each give us a good return (in roughly that order). Unfortunately, Theology and Theory of Gravity are rather low in the alphabet. (Unless French might yield a different result, Mr. La Fayette?)

I'd say wait for JSBach because 1) my silly rule is more evil than I thought it would be, in combination with all your silly rules, and 2) it applies to every city right away (great for newer cities), and 3) it gets applied after war unhappiness (great for representative gov'ts).

[-Jrabbit]

Nice post, rjm@. A few thoughts...

Regarding JSB, Straybow has me sold. I'm a huge Adam Smith fan, but we need to make our WoW choices based on the (silly) rules of the game we're playing.

Regarding 'van delivery, I think it's a waste of effort to divert a lengthy trip that we don't have infrastructure for just because one good MAY be demanded on delivery. Pursue all deliveries along the established chain to the Zulus to maximize efficiency through continuous camel flow.

This will keep the "kitty" full while our tech rate zooms.

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Originally posted by Straybow

I'd say wait for JSBach because 1) my silly rule is more evil than I thought it would be, in combination with all your silly rules, and 2) it applies to every city right away (great for newer cities), and 3) it gets applied after war unhappiness (great for representative gov'ts).

I thought Bach only works on cities that already have a Cathedral?

[Old n Slow]

JSB works for every city, regardless of other factors.

I think that we should set up a ship chain & work it.

[Straybow]

I think it was worded in the manual that it worked on Cathedrals, or maybe that was Civ1. I know that several WoWs were altered between Civ1 and Civ2. I've been trying to remember if JSB was in Civ1, or added in Civ2?

Anyway, it was in these progression games that I came to understand the true power of JSB adding its effect after war protest—can't match it with any normal city improvement.

[rjmatsleepers]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

I'll start playing in a little while. I'm not sure whether I'll complete my turns in a single session or not. Either way I'll post something around this time tomorrow - either an interim report or the log plus save.

RJM at Sleepers

[-Jrabbit]

I am jealous of your civtime, rjm@. I'm at work and have a open house for parents at my daughter's school... (sigh)

Enjoy!

[rjmatsleepers]

Silly Log 1867 - 1875

1867 Set 80% science, 10% tax, 10% luxury. With a few entertainers and taxmen, this gives 269 beakers and a budget surplus of 1. Unconditional cease fire and peace treaty with the Sioux. Swap Communism for tactics. Give tactics for cease fire with Zulus. Swap economics for metallurgy. Gold: Bozo -> Wounded Knee (252) Hides: Goodie -> Umfolozi (88). Buy 10 shields in Sticky; 14 in Silly. Rush a diplomat in Ritter. Start engineers in Droofus and Jerry intended to colonize the islands to the north, and an engineer in Bullwinkle intended for colonization of the islands to the east. Cross fingers and hit enter. Zulus start Adam Smith's.

1868 Bribe the barb knight near Ritter for 124 (I didn't realize it would be so expensive.) Beads: Monty -> Ceder creek (55). Buy 31 shields in Fright wig. Hit enter. French develop corporation.

1869 Hides: Silly -> Umfolozi (91). Buy 30 Shields in Silly. French demand Communism; I refuse and we are at war. Kill 2 french units N of Verdun, but leave my dragoons exposed. Hit enter. Zulus have nearly completed Adam's. French change to Republic

1870 Buy 21 shields in Fright wig. Revolt and sort out the unhapiness and hunger. Hit enter. Zulus build Adam's.

1871 Choose Republic. Delay delivering vans to avoid loss of beakers. Hit enter. Discover corporation and use JRabbit's rule to start researching theology. Beeblebrox celebrates.

1872 Dye: Goodie -> Umfolozi (107) Hides: Silly -> Umfolozi (111) Hides Fright -> Umfolozi (94) Salt: Beeblebrox -> Umfolozi (148) Buy shields to complete freight in various cities. Hit enter wondering what to do about a new ship chain.

1873 Found Third Rock east of Sticky Moose. Hides: Silly Walks -> Umfolozi (111) (last delivery to Umfolozi for a while!) Hit enter. Sioux and English sign peace treaty. Zulus discover electricity. Spanish land on neighbouring island to Ritter.

1874 Zulus ask for the corporation, I refuse, we are at war. Revolt. Hit enter. We lose one of our dragoons near Verdun

1876 I choose democracy and save the game. The next player will need to make all the adjustments, and can use the JRabbit rule to choose another form of government if desired.

The military situation is bad. Our main island is wide open to invasion. The island colonies are not well defended. Even around Verdun and Old Chuckles, our forces are out of date and suffered losses. I planned to destroy the French units in the area and then give them communism for a cease fire while I delivered a caravan in safety. This cunning plan was foiled when the French refused to talk to me and destroyed my exposed dragoons.

The science situation is not much better. We take 5 turns per technology even with 80% science in a democracy. And of course we lose 1 turn in 4 because of the change of government. However we did discover one tech, we have nearly completed another and we swapped for two more.

We had a good ship chain going to Umfolozi and there were some deliveries left over from the previous turn set, so we did quite well out of trade. We have one demanded gem caravan about to be delivered. Unfortunately, once we started producing freight, the chain started at the wrong end of the island. I have begun moving the galleons to make a new chain to Spain and Russia, but it will take a while to get in place.

Our reputation is very bad, so it is difficult to maintain a period of peace and also difficult to swap technologies.

Beeblebrox celebrated for three turns on 20% luxury, but I'm not sure how easy it will be to get it going again. In anycase, without a sewer system there is room for only one more citizen.

Good luck to whoever is next.

RJM at Sleepers

[La Fayette]

Jrabbit next ?

[-Jrabbit]

Confirmed.
D/L complete.

[-Jrabbit]

Started last night, painfully preparing sacrificial engineers so we can buy JSB as our 2nd WoW.
Hoping for some WLTP growth and techs through trade...