The BIG Picture

[Marquis de Sodaq]

Citizens! Some talk has surfaced about the direction our glorious empire is taking. Much support has been shown for various strategies. We are currently milking Rome for gold, bent on taking wonders from Egypt , waffling about war with America, "at war" with distant Carthage, and keeping the Babylonians and Indians at a chilly distance. Perhaps it is time to open a discussion about what we citizens hope to accomplish. We have a slim tech lead, but only focus on trade in a portion of our cities. Much of the world is left undiscovered.

Should we continue our split personalities? That is, continue to produce caravans, wonders, and improvements in the core cities while training bad guys to beat up the neighbors in the outlands? A strong core will produce much science and tax revenue. The conquest of the enemy allows access to more gold and any techs we have not yet discovered.

Should we focus on becoming a research giant, with the ultimate goal of reaching the stars? A strong tech lead will keep us safe from the AI, even if we are uninterested in conquest. As a democracy, we could vastly outpace the enemy. No need to take tech from them, we know all they do and then some.

Should we become a military machine, rolling out bad guys to assimilate the neighbors? World conquest, improvements be damned?

What direction would you like to see the empire take? Of course, this is not a policy choice. It is merely to find out what the masses have to say, to guide our ministers in their choices. Speak, comrades!

[-Jrabbit]

While my kindler, gentler nature thinks wistfully of a future colony on Alpha Centauri, I think the greater chance of success lies in a policy of exploration and KILLKILLKILL domination.

History is written by the victors!

[civman2000]

keep a nice core and weak (infrastructurewise), military edge

[Bigcash]

Core cities pumping up the pace of research with research oriented improvements and wonders like Library and SETI. Maybe a few to do capitalism if we need extra money for the military. Frontier cities churning out units works for me. Conquer them all!

[Kropotkin]

While I feel that some borderline wars is a nice break from the dull everyday of socioeconomic development I feel that the best way to win in the long run is focusing on building up the production-capacity so that we can roll back enemies everywhere when we get a superior technology in one apocalyptic war instead of wasting time and efforts on long colonial mock-fights.

[cavebear]

I hesitate to express my personal views on the direction our civ should take, since my primary responsibility as President/Premier is to carry out the wishes of the Citizens. I shall continue to do so regardless of personal preference.

However, I do have my own opinions, and I should make them known. I began my elected career here as City-Planner, and that was no accident. My personal preference is, therefore, to build an industrial civ and crush my opponents through overwhelming science and productivity as a Democracy.

But we have gone beyond the point where that is very likely. Like it or not, we are a military civ, focussed on conquering, intimidation, and building Wonders through Caravans. It is a valid and successful path, so I support it whole-heartedly. It is working well so far! It has also been a novel experience for me to play the game in this manner (and I have learned a lot through doing it this way).

As I see our path developing, it seems we should have several long-term goals that seem mutually inclusive:

1. Our city productivity is very low (compared to what I am used to, anyway). Our future plans should include some serious production-enhancing infrastructure (like refining plants, etc). Some 20-shield cities would be very helpful. So would Hoover's Dam.

2. We need to establish embassies with the remaining 2 civs. Our lack of foreknowledge of their research could present some nasty surprises in upcoming Wonders. As we have learned, it is easier to build Wonders than to take them from other civs.

3. We need to continue our campaign against the Egyptians , and possibly extend that campaign to the Americans. We have many units in Heliopolis, and we have 3 cities there to build more. With the addition of a few excess Musketeers from existing cities, it is probably time to turn the support for that campaign over to the local cities there. We need to turn the attention of our resources in the core cities to other projects.

4. Our outpost cities have firmly established themselves now, and they should expand locally. A tight defensive group of 3 cities in each location should be sufficient to disrupt the actions of our enemies and defend themselves.

5. We do need to explore the rest of the world. Yet, we also need more ships. We recently lost 2 ships. They need to be replaced. We should have 2 exploring, 2 carrying trade goods, and 3 for military transport. We currently have 4 Caravels, and 1 in production. We need a couple more. Since we have Magellan's, we should take advantage of the extra moves we get from it.

6. We should decide if we are attempting to eliminate all the opposing civs or be satisfied with a Powergraph victory. AC is probably out of reach now, even if we become a Democracy and maximize production.

[Kropotkin]

I'm with you Il Presidente!

[Xenozod]

Cavebear states exactly what I think.

[cavebear]

Originally posted by Xenozod
Cavebear states exactly what I think.

Xenozod has a great future around here.

[Xenozod]

LOL.

[atawa]

Originally posted by cavebear
6. We should decide if we are attempting to eliminate all the opposing civs or be satisfied with a Powergraph victory. AC is probably out of reach now, even if we become a Democracy and maximize production

AC out of reach

We're playing AI guys

Just rush to clads, take all coastal city's in the world, capture Sheakespeare for an expedition army, and start sending caravans to every island.

With spies destroying our enemy's city's and us going 1 tech a turn I dont see any troubles in getting to AC quite early .

[Kuciwalker]

I vote for the banana strategy: a thick, hard, yucky exterior (hopefully an expanding one) with a nice, soft, juicy interior.

[MrWhereItsAt]

My personal thoughts are that we should stagger our campaigns - once we are done with our current glorious war, perhaps we turn to rapid development and maybe eben in Democracy for a while. Then, when we have developed enough and upgraded our armies, the next campaign shall commence... We have SoL - let's change Govts whenever we want to change priorities - even a few turns of Demo in well chosen moments could make a world of difference (and we can always instantly change back to Communism if the happiness issues are too much).

[JCP]

Quick reply :
I agree that we are on a military path which leads to domination of the world.
But AC is not out of goal : after reducing the menacing AI Civ, we may turn to Democracy (with Mike's and JSBach's) and affect citizens to science and money production.
With WLTPD, Newton's... we can reach one tech/turn and think about stellar exploration !
This thread is important and needs various contributions.

[Immortal Wombat]

Tech tech Tech. We must leave this world to descend back into natural beauty. We must leave for Alpha Centauri as soon as possible, but in the most non-polluting way possible. No crashes, no oil spills, no more than about 30/40 production per city, and no global warming.