Next turn plans up to 50AD

[vondrack]

Plans for 1275BC:

1) Angus S, attacking the camp

2) Leonardo to road the horse hill

3) most recent Legopolis Merc to Jackson & fortify
I moved the most recently built Merc outside Legopolis and moved him along the road to Jackson, as Jackson will grow to size 6 in 6 turns and we will need another MP unit there. I plan to send our next Legopolis settler down to Farmerville unescorted - there are units enough along the way to keep an eye on him and lend him a hand, if threatened by a wandering barbarian.

4) Galleyleo Galleylei S-SW-W
Trying to get to the southern side of Mystery Island, while leaving the other barb galley to attack the GoW galley (the first one, the one we saw at the Northern tip of M.I., attacked the GoW galley this turn and lost without inflicting any damage nor causing a promotion).

5) Rover & Jimbo to road, Conan to guard them
It is important to do this before the next step, so that the road is there for the Settler+Merc combo.

6) Mighty Merc + Settler SE-SE-SE
I would then split the combo, sending the Settler S, S, S, SE & found Karina (MercG joining him along the way - the settler would be safe all the time), while the Merc would go E, NE, N, then sentry and watch over the Zargonia Bay area (as I suppose that is the next city we will want to build).

7) Charlie to road

8) should we get Code of Laws, set research to The Republic at 100%, otherwise, keep it at 0%
There is a complication now, 'cause GoW is supposedly breaking a trade treaty with GS, trading CoL to us. It may eventually happen we will not get it from GoW... I hope that's not the case, but if it is, we better keep our research at 0%, saving the cash. Apparently, techs are very cheap to buy once discovered... 100 gold can buy us pretty much anything, I believe, even if it is just three turns of 0% research for us...
EDIT: if there is a possibility of removing the CoL from a deal with GoW, we shall remove it, delaying the tech deal by one turn (this is the solution proposed by GoW - we shall get CoL for free from ND on the next turn). I would also waste no more time and start researching either Currency (my preference) or Construction at 100%.

9) if our contact with RPers shows up, gift them 20 gold
Fulfilling our part of the agreement.

I would hold on embassies for the moment. An embassy with GoW would cost 42 gold last turn. That's quite a bit to establish it without proper consideration... let's discuss what we need them for first.

[Tiberius]

Upgrading our warriors will be highly costly. AFAIK only one upgrade will cost us 40 bucks. 4 warriors=160 gold.

[Tiberius]

1. OK
2. OK
3. if we road the dye, we no longer need the extra unit in Jackson. At least, not now; and I'd prefer to have troops in the south, because it just takes longer to get them there.
4. OK
5. OK
6. OK
7. OK
8. OK but should we find out that GS can research it faster than us and they accept the treaty, we stay on 0.
9. OK

[vondrack]

Originally posted by Tiberius
3. if we road the dye, we no longer need the extra unit in Jackson. At least, not now; and I'd prefer to have troops in the south, because it just takes longer to get them there.

Unfortunately, we would not be able to connect the dyes soon enough - we would have to use the luxury slider for a couple of turns (messing with our Republic research & deal, if it is signed), or entertainers in Jackson (messing with our wonder build there).

One more unit should make little difference, plus the later we send it down to the South, the faster it will get there thanks to the road being built in the meantime.

[vondrack]

Originally posted by Tiberius
Upgrading our warriors will be highly costly. AFAIK only one upgrade will cost us 40 bucks. 4 warriors=160 gold.

That's correct, but what would we use the money we have for? Even without any more funding from barbs, we should be able to upgrade all our warriors (perhaps omitting Gaul, as he is just a conscript)

[Tiberius]

I was talking about the embassies. I didn't say I'm against upgrading the warriors, just pointing out how expensive it is. We won't have money both for embassies and upgrades.

As for the jungle, I forgot how long it takes to road it.

[vondrack]

Originally posted by Tiberius
I was talking about the embassies. I didn't say I'm against upgrading the warriors, just pointing out how expensive it is. We won't have money both for embassies and upgrades.

That is a good point, we will have to prioritize, that's for sure. I would vote for upgrading the warriors prior to building embassies.

[lmtoops]

I see limited value of embassies at this time. When playing against people (vs the AI), relationships are not swayed by the embassy. MPP is out of the question, as is ROP. I don't know if embassies effect the score, but even if it does...who cares. Is there some other value that I am missing?

So upgrading the warriors is definitely the priority.

[vondrack]

Originally posted by lmtoops
I see limited value of embassies at this time. When playing against people (vs the AI), relationships are not swayed by the embassy. MPP is out of the question, as is ROP. I don't know if embassies effect the score, but even if it does...who cares. Is there some other value that I am missing?

IIRC, you can do some limited spying through the embassy (primarily looking at cities, paying with gold).

[Tiberius]

We can't trade until we have an embassy (AFAIK) So, should we have the opportunity to trade (iron, horses, luxuries, etc) we will need those embassies Forget it, this is not true.
Until then, what we need is REXing to grab land and military power to discourage amphibious settlers

[Sharpe]

1) Angus S, attacking the camp
Agreed

2) Leonardo to road the horse hill
Agreed

3) most recent Legopolis Merc to Jackson & fortify
To Jackson, yes - but not to fortify - if necessary we can use this merc to pop the hut at Mystery Isle faster perhaps

4) Galleyleo Galleylei S-SW-W
Actually I prefer W-SW-SW (or W-SW-S) if possible - we can always scout out more of GoW's coastline later - but the Mystery Isle hut is a time sensitive situation (may be hopeless if a unit is aboard the GoW galley of course).

5) Rover & Jimbo to road, Conan to guard them
Agreed

6) Mighty Merc + Settler SE-SE-SE
Agreed and to separate them soon to send Mighty Merc to Zargonia city site

7) Charlie to road
Agreed

8) should we get Code of Laws, set research to The Republic at 100%, otherwise, keep it at 0%

With the recent developments it appears that GS might beat us to Republic, so maybe we should go for Construction instead - we will probably need the aqueducts and colosseums very soon after we get the Pyramids finished (and even more so when we switch governments)

In a pinch we can temporarily shift one of the RedBricks production squares to the Rich Hill square and that would increase our arrows by up to 4. But as we currently sit at 31, we will add 1 from Jackson, perhaps 1 from Panama, 1 or 2 from Karina and 1 more from RedBricks at least - without the Rich Hill ploy we may max at 35 plus or minus 2 - with the Rich Hill ploy we could temporarily max at near 40. At 35 beakers per turn (max), Republic would take 19 turns (Turn 88-89). I know it is unrealistic but 40 beakers per turn would be 17 turns (Turn 86-87), and in the conversation with GS they said they would be done before that (Frankly I don't see how necessarily as we are #1 in GNP, despite our larger amount of corruption - don't forget that GS isn't commercial and may be hitting the optimum city level sooner).

However, as Tiberius said, REXing is more of a priority right now, over a tech race. Probably better to go for a safer tech such as Construction.

9) if our contact with RPers shows up, gift them 20 gold
Agreed

[ZargonX]

Sharpe, I think the only issue is that Jackson will hit size 6 soon, and we'll need the 2nd Merc to deal with unhappiness. I'm not sure if he could make it to mystery isle and back in enough time, but I'll look into it.

[Sharpe]

Sharpe, I think the only issue is that Jackson will hit size 6 soon, and we'll need the 2nd Merc to deal with unhappiness.

I had forgotten about the size 6 Jackson problem - from what I can guess it would take a minimum of 11 turns to pickup the merc, pop the hut and bring it back to Jackson - and we only have 6 turns until Jackson reaches size 6.

I guess Angus is still our best choice as the only other viable options (Conan and Gaul) would take 8-10 turns just to get up to Jackson while Angus and Galleyleo can be at the hut in 12 or so turns - but with that much time I think that it is moot.

Even if the GoW galley has no one on it, they might retreat it back to GoW and be back in less than 6 turns with a unit to pop the hut. It would take them around 4 turns to "see" the hut from the galley if they head around the south. So a total of 10 turns versus our 12 turns.

One possible alternative is to use the Jackson merc for the hut, but to shift the other units northwards (ie the Legopolis merc moves to Jackson, the RedBricks moves up to Legopolis etc.). Unless their galley has a unit on it, using the Jackson merc would beat GoW to the hut.

Perhaps we can find out if their galley has unit on it by simply asking them - perhaps warning them about the barb galley or something.

[vondrack]

Steve, I do not think the hut is worth so much hassle. Keep in mind that not all huts are as nice as our past ones were. If GoW beats us to it, well... we won't get a heart attack from it. And it will slow them down several turns.

[ZargonX]

Ok, I just loaded up the turn to let everyone know what the trade situation is.

GoW has accepted our trade and sent Literature as well. All we need to do is accept. We also have contact with ND, though they didn't offer anything yet.

Discuss!