34th Turnchat is finished!

[FeMme]

1358AD Demographics - looking good except for the expected low approval rating

[FeMme]

1358AD The German Civilisation is eradicated!

[couerdelion]

OK there’s lots to think about here but I would like to make a couple of suggestions which are relevant to the current polls on civics and exploration.

1) The Valley is the only place where we can build a Caravel now so we should spend one turn building then whip it before we switch to Caste System. We need to know about other nations technology level as soon as possible. First move to sight “French” lands and then move north (See 3)
2) Not sure exactly how many courthouses we have but can we whip these quickly before switching to Caste. The Forbidden Palace in Iron Tusks is needed quickly to allow colonisation of the north west. Obviously don’t want to whip in The Valley which has other priorities.
3) Why is Rubygrad building an aqueduct? It has a health surplus of 8!! Far better to build an explorer to link up with Caravel and journey to “India”. Then the two of them can explore but the Caravel should concentrate on circumnavigation.
4) The time to discover Astronomy is too long. This is a big investment for us but will pay back handsomely. Despite the fact that we will shortly be able to concentrate more heavily on science using specialists, I would also note that we have a HUGE surplus which we are not using. We should use this to speed up Astronomy.
4) No boats in Berlin

[ChrisiusMaximus]

No boats in Berlin

But irony of irony is Berlin will one day be an excellent sub base

[Zoid]

We definitely need an icebreaker in Civ IV

[fed1943]

1) Optics just discovered; Valley will switch to caravel this same turn.

The normal 8 build turns shall be reduced by a chop. No whip here.

2) The last courthouse before FP is on the way; no whip possible.

3) Rubygrad will switch to explorer this turn; then will finish the

aqueduct and build one (may be two) more explorers.

Rubygrad, as Chuckfort, shall need all health points because also

shall build all unhealthy ground buildings.

4) Research Astronomy takes too long... I heartly agree.

Let's hope it pays to do it now, that we gain more that we lose.

Best regards,

[zeace]

Re 4) I would suggest that we hold the science rate down until we see what we can trade for in the other lands. We don't want to agressively research something that we'll end up easily trading for. If we are going to research Astro next, then it's unlikely anyone else has it, but any other reaserch should not break the bank. Once we know the tech situation we can "catch-up" on the research we could have done earlier by running a large deficit, if we see the need to get something quickly. I think this is especially important if we're going to go for a religion. We might even turn our research off until we can trade for the pre-reqs for DR. Then use the built up treasury to quickly get the final tech.

Ze Ace, MoF

[couerdelion]

Originally posted by zeace
Re 4) I would suggest that we hold the science rate down until we see what we can trade for in the other lands. We don't want to agressively research something that we'll end up easily trading for. If we are going to research Astro next, then it's unlikely anyone else has it, but any other reaserch should not break the bank. Once we know the tech situation we can "catch-up" on the research we could have done earlier by running a large deficit, if we see the need to get something quickly. I think this is especially important if we're going to go for a religion. We might even turn our research off until we can trade for the pre-reqs for DR. Then use the built up treasury to quickly get the final tech.

Ze Ace, MoF

There are two reasons why we should aggressively research Astronomy

1) We have lots of spare cash which we are not using. For me the upgrade question is a bit of a red herring because we have very strong production base anyway so can always upgrade our army simply by building using our 12+ cities to churn out some pikes, knights and maces. In any case we have plenty to research before we can get these and we can always run a lower science rate later
2) The returns we will get from overseas trade will be very big


On the question of whipping the caravel, first I have to ask what it is that The Valley is doing for us if it is not building ships. We need that caravel out quickly and 2 turns is much better than 8 turns given that it will give us earlier links to foreign civs and for tech trading and give us a fair shot at acquiring the circumnavigation bonus. I don’t see the benefit in doing thinks slowly when you can do them quickly and contact overseas is pivotal this stage in the game

As to there being no possibility of a whip for the last courthouse, this is just not true. Whether it is desirable is another matter – although clearly I think it is because we need the Forbidden Palace up soon if we are going to develop the north and also continue without a CH in Povo Este.