Poll: '53 Colony Build Orders

[Bloody Monk]

Now that we are about to start many more cities, we need some general standing instructions for our Consul as to what each city should build. Of course, an emergency puts the ball strickly in the Consul's hands.

Loosely, I recommend the following "Consensus"...
--Keep building Settlers until we get a workable mass of cities
--Add Temples and Colosseums as needed
--Keep a force of Settlers on hand for roads, etc
--Give the Consul limited discretion to build other units (boats, fighters)
--Give the Consul limited discretion to start Barracks in a timely manner

There are so many permutations I feel it best to make this an "idea" poll, which means please make your write-ins clear and concise. Other suggestions as to how to handle this in the future are welcome. Thanks.

Monk

[Ben Kenobi]

We need to get out of republic if we are trying to get on a war footing.

That's the first decision we need to make. If we go to monarchy and try to celebrate our capital, it may prove far more beneficial than a republic, without loss of science.

[Bloody Monk]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
We need to get out of republic if we are trying to get on a war footing.

That's the first decision we need to make. If we go to monarchy and try to celebrate our capital, it may prove far more beneficial than a republic, without loss of science.

At this point, in Monarchy Apoly' will need ~50% Lux to celebrate. With the addition of a Bank, Apoly' will celebrate in Monarchy at 30%, I think. The advantage is one less food per Settler and three units are free per city.

Who is responsible for a change of Gov't Poll??

Monk

[Sparrowhawk]

Originally posted by Bloody Monk
Who is responsible for a change of Gov't Poll??

I found this in one of the threads from January, please note the portion that I bolded for clarity (as it directly answers your question.

Originally posted by Cavebear

Despotism

1. In Despotism, we have one (initially-elected) leader who will play the game as usual in short (generally 5-8 turn segments) and report on the progress of the game.
2. In Despotism, the Despot is encouraged but not required to ask opinions and advice.
3. The Despot may or may not ask some players to fulfill certain functions of planning or advice.
4. The Despot may be cast out by majority decision at any time by citizen poll (not to be less than 3 days).
5. A “Remove the Despot Poll” will be phrased as “I propose myself as new Despot” yes/no.

Monarchy

1. Upon achieving Monarchy, play will stop and an election is required.
2. The Monarch will choose the positions of Minister he desires and appoint them (subject to acceptance by the appointees).
3. The Monarch must have at least 3 Ministers and is expected to follow their advice.

Republic/Democracy

1. Upon achieving Republic/Democracy, play will stop and an election is required.
2. There will be elections for Ministers of Trade, War, City-Planning, and Science. City-Planning includes new locations.
3. The Consul/President can be removed at any time for not following advice of Ministers.
4. The Consul/President can remove any Minister for bad advice and appoint or allow election for a replacement.

Communism/Fundamentalism

1. The same Secretaries/Priests as Republic/Democracy except that any can be removed at any time for any reason by the Premier/High Priest.
2. The Premier/High Priest can be removed only by majority decision of the Secretaries/Priests.

Citizens

Any Citizen can post a poll at any time demanding a change of government available at the time (3 days minimum poll and specify kinds of governments to be considered).

Having posted this, I will tell you now that I will strongly oppose a change in Government at this time and suggest that we stay in Republic until either we are ready to go to war or we have a higher form of Government (Communism, Fundamentalism or Democracy) or until we are under attack and need to move our units outside our cities in large numbers.

Until any of the above, I think Republic is key to giving us at least a somewhat reasonable tech rate for new advances and if we can't begin to catch up in the tech race we are doomed regardless of our Government choice.

/me

[Bloody Monk]

Upon further review (see elsewhere) I came to the same decision. Republic suits our needs very well at this time.

Monk

[cavebear]

I also think we should remain in Republic for now. We are not yet on a war-footing, so we should use the advantages of Republic while we can.

[cavebear]

As for Monk's question about handling polls...

Sometimes there are so many possibilities that you just have to have a first broad poll to determine what thing to focus on in a second poll.

[Bloody Monk]

Okay. But youse guys need to vote. Four have posted, no one has voted but me.

Monk

[cavebear]

Thought I did. Now I have.

[rjmatsleepers]

I go along with the consensus plan, remembering that the devil is in the detail.

How many is a "workable mass" of cities?
There is a lot of discretion in deciding when a coloseum is "needed"
What limits are we proposing on the Consul's discretion to build units or barracks?

I'd like to see us continue building cities while there is suitable land for a new city to reach size 4 or 5. (But we may have to stop city building once we get into a major war.)

I'd be inclined to hold of on coloseums until we are ready for more celebration in Apolyton. As far as possible we should cope with unhapiness by recruiting scientists, taxmen or xining.

I'd give the Consul full discretion on building units or barracks where he believes there is a good operational reason to depart from the "consensus" plan.

RJM at Sleeper's

[Bloody Monk]

Colosseums are necessary

RJM

Cities can not work more than three citizens without colosseums, making Xinning a faint hope.

We can go on building cities that top out at size 3, or 4 with entertainer, until 2020 if we choose, or until the Zulus(?) land on AC, or until we are discovered by the AI, which will probably trip a War. There is lots of available land in this peninsula and some nearby islands, too.

But, if we want to try to win this thing, I think the sooner we can gear up and go take some cities the better. I mentioned 13 cities because that is the extent of our current exploration AND seeems a good place to start building Col for city growth, barracks for vets, and Crooks (which will be here soon) to shape up a fighting force with. Our only hope of catching up in Discoveries is to take cities and win Scrolls.

If you can see and describe an alternative path, please, please share it with us. We are getting very close to that proverbial fork in the road that cavebear was thinking of when he offered the strategies thread.

Monk

[rjmatsleepers]

Re: Colosseums are necessary

Originally posted by Bloody Monk
RJM

Cities can not work more than three citizens without colosseums, making Xinning a faint hope.

Monk

My experience is based on early landing games with a smaller number of cities, so it may not apply here but ...

a temple plus mysticism takes you to size 3; the fourth citizen can be an entertainer and there is usually still a food surplus to get to size 5. At size 5 the unhappiness can be dealt with by 2 scientists or 2 taxmen. Alternatively at size 5 you can xin. Xinning is tedious for our noble leader, particularly if the city goes into disorder when adding to the food box. It involves a lot of micro-management. The result of all this is more science (or tax), but less shields. The reduced number of shields is compensated for by more rush building and we get a bigger bonus from van delivery because we can switch 5 citizens to trade tiles.

I think that in our current situation we need to play catch-up in science. In due course, we will need more production muscle, but at the moment I think beakers are more important than shields. Once we are strong enough to start taking AI cities we can stop all the fancy Dan stuff and simply kick sand in there face. Are we ready for that yet?

RJM at Sleeper's

[Bloody Monk]

The hinge of this plan is trading, it would seem. Who are we to trade with and from what cities?? Sparrowhawk has mentioned some trade testing that showed no benifit from intra-continent trade with Egypt.

Monk

[rjmatsleepers]

Originally posted by Bloody Monk
The hinge of this plan is trading, it would seem. Who are we to trade with and from what cities?? Sparrowhawk has mentioned some trade testing that showed no benifit from intra-continent trade with Egypt.

Monk

This isn't a plan. I voted for and support what you describe as the consensus. I support building temples and colosseums as needed. I suspect that if I were our noble leader, I would regard a colosseum as needed a bit later than you would.

BTW I don't think Sparrowhawk showed that there was no benefit from trading with Egypt. You always get some bonus gold and beakers and until a city has 3 trade routes you (probably) get some extra trade arrows. The questions are how much you can afford to spend rushing the van and which city gives you the best return to trade with - particularly remembering that sometimes a small trade bonus is acceptable if it can be used to unblock something in a larger city.

RJM at Sleeper's

[Bloody Monk]

I believe the bonus mentioned was 40g/beakers. Not much for a 50 shield investment; a real loser if the camel was rushed.

Monk