The Escapist Plays: Civilization V (MOAR PLAYERS PLS)

[Doc Gnosis]

My main suggestion for Colony 1337 is to expand its borders on the east and west before the Inca swallow up the sugar tile or the stone tile. As for a construction project, I'd recommend building a forge or workshop so we can boost productivity in this city. My second choice would be constructing some city walls in the event that the Iroquois face war from Elizabeth of Pachacuti. While I'm on the subject, I'd recommend the same for Gnosopolis and Ragnorak.

For Eumersiania, my top picks - in case we already have them - are barracks, a colosseum, and a temple.

On another note, I plea that we connect Gnosopolis, Colony 1337, and Ragnorak to the Capital. Not only for trade benefits, but so we can better move our units in case the scenario of a war on the western front happens.

 

[Mr Thin]

For Colony 1337, I say Granary! Because I like the noms.

For Eumersania... I forget what we have there, so my vote goes to whatever increases our culture rate the most. MOAR CULTURE! If there aren't any culture increasers, then get whatever increases our income the most. MOAR MONEY!

 

[Bohemian Waltz]

Another possible location may be on the coast where there are two sources of whales, cattle, and what looks like stone. Downside is we may upset the Inca for settling there, and it's next to a barbarian encampment;

I'm not sure where you're talking about because I'm pretty sure those are fish rather than whales. If there are whales within our reach I'd most certainly love to be proven incorrect.

-----

I agree with Doc on the connecting cities to our capital, but we don't have the workers to do so quickly enough and the one or two we have in the area are better suited building a plantation on that source of cotton for the luxury. We should use our forests count as roads through our cultural borders to rig up a road minimal route.

My votes:
Diplo: Make any sort of reasonable trade with the English even if it's a one way 1 gold per turn, we need the we've traded recently diplo bonus. Denounce Alexander again simply for giggles.
Colony 1337: Monument, Aqueduct, longhouse, temple, market.
Eumersiania: Longhouse, Monument, Univeristy, Temple, Colosseum.
Misc: Do some tile buying to connect the closest city in the west to Knackopolis through forests, Tile buy to gain access to sugar in Colony 1337.
Tech: Queue up Machinery next, Sign a RA with the Incana if they'll go for it.

Request: a list of queues of our cities (w/ an estimated total finishing time on each city) and a list of any possible luxuries we can acquire and their rough locations. Sorry if it's a pain, but it's hard enough to remember what was built where and even harder to keep all our cities busy enough to advance the game quickly.

 

[lacktheknack]

Colony 1337:
Workshop, walls vs. Granary vs. Monument, aqueduct, longhouse, temple, market

Eumersiania:
Barracks, coliseum, temple vs. temple vs. Longhouse, monument, university, temple, coliseum.

YOU ARE TEARING ME APART, PEOPLE!

Here's my best compromise... (Doc, remember that Iroquois workshops are longhouses. Also, let's reserve Barracks for more faster/more endangered cities.)

Eumersiania:

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/542903423191440072/77A8C7D312769F782F2066822DD060402A8FDF19/

Colony 1337:

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/542903423191443343/FEC34443CC28C7CC124D73A13F1D47F8DF507E0E/

Notice that we've bought the two tiles over to the Sugar tile. (Also notice that ANY COMMENTERS ON THE SHAPE WILL BE DESTROYED.)

Also, buying the tile between Knackopolis and Ragnorak has connected them via trade route!

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/542903423191449198/583595BE26C8E473689E50E9689F178D1D2A7380/

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/542903423191445511/431C96F248D232107345A926621003D084EB515D/

Perfect. Queuing Machinery as per request.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/542903423191442014/30278BBF733867AB764FA5B596DC37406149E891/

That won't take long. What do you people want next?

Sadly, the Incas could not afford a trade agreement right now.

Also, we cannot re-denounce the Greeks at the moment.

Also, this is the best token of friendship I can offer the Brits.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/542903423191438472/4B3F4E021543A77A63DEA72981DE55340D0600CC/

Finally, we're building a small army down beside Gnosopolis. I have to throw you at least ONE bone, right, Doc?

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/542903423191435778/5CF83F5AFE12A5980EFD72E86540D0AC40C079FA/

Our Settler is completed. Where do we send them? And what on Earth can we name it? (Sadly, there are no whales.)

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/542903423191446738/C016CD637AACA313D8E760D3F1FE83D6BFE4FD79/

LIST OF QUEUES:
Knackopolis: Mohawk, Mowhawk, Longhouse (~15)
Thinville: University, Mohawk, Mint (~17)
Waltzburg: Longhouse, Granary, Market, Library (~35)
Eumersiania: Temple, Longhouse, Colosseum, University (~20)
Ragnorak: Library (3) (!!!!! Quick, extend that queue!)
Gnosopolis: Mohawk, Granary, Worker, Market, Library (~25-35)
Geneva: Courthouse, Worker (~15)
Colony 1337: Monument, Longhouse, Granary, Aqueduct, Market (~Who knows?)

LIST OF POTENTIAL RESOURCES:

... NOTHING!

Our only chance of getting more luxuries would be to annex Genoa (Incense and Bananas). Looks like we're in for some hard times... we may want to wait for some more trade routes and that courthouse to finish before settling another city.

 

[Doc Gnosis]

Mmmmm....bone... *clears throat* uh that you threw me... uh anyway. Please don't destroy me.

I wonder if it may be time to explore the lands surrounding us; with the means to build a frigate it should be possible. Potentially we could meet new city states to befriend or betray, or new land to colonize. This is less of a recommendation and more of an open question to everyone here.

 

[lacktheknack]

Mmmmm....bone... *clears throat* uh that you threw me... uh anyway. Please don't destroy me.

*burbles with rage*

I wonder if it may be time to explore the lands surrounding us; with the means to build a frigate it should be possible. Potentially we could meet new city states to befriend or betray, or new land to colonize. This is less of a recommendation and more of an open question to everyone here.

I'd be up for it. I can chuck it into the Thinville queue for speed if we want.

 

[Bohemian Waltz]

Geneva should have spices right next to it. Is there a plantation worked on it?

I was thinking the same thing, though about throwing a Frigate on the end of Waltzburg's production and freeing up Thinville with a barracks/armory/catapult in prep for an invasion of Greece.

If the cities already have these buildings disregard it. It's mostly a list of preference

My votes:
-Knackopolis: +Colosseum
-Ragnorak: +Longhouse, Market, University, Colosseum, Monument, Temple.
-Geneva: +Market, Library.
-Waltzburg: +Frigate/Caravel (Whatever?)
-Thinville: +Barracks.
Economics: Switch Eumersiania, Knackopolis, Waltzburg, and Thinville to Production/Gold focus. Unless they're a <8 turns away from growing. The idea being to avoid growth, you can check the avoid growth box (even though I'm not a fan I'd prefer if you fiddled with it manually.) We want our new colonies to catch up in terms of growth and if we grow too fast we'll reach a happiness wall.
Tech: Queue up Banking next.

 

[lacktheknack]

Derp, yeah, we have incense by Geneva... my bad.

So, I tacked on some more queues based on Waltz's recommendations.

Also, no one said where to put the Settlers, so I'll just go plunk them wherever the computer tells me to.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/541778247852960320/3E45A8FDB20F4C48345D0C46FF67C02B3A7682B2/

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/541778247852945125/984E4D2894AD62AF4C44A957F602F6F694B3FBD5/

I'm pleased that we stay in the top half of all these lists. Good work, guys!

And now, our workers have completed the Road to Geneva, successfully connecting the Northern Cities to the main network!

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/541778247852947373/962207A61B58F71834CB9E11CCDC0596D81DCB22/

Well, almost. We'll have to purchase the last tile connecting Thinville to Waltzburg.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/541778247852941047/5DBE4F2A5A9204F42ABFA8A6A9A48AD31EEE2EDA/

Colony settled. We'll call it "Purgatory" for now until someone thinks of a better name (Or: First new person to post gets it named after them).

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/541778247852957198/9FD62DA90A21A430AF5A5153BBCA62EEA4E7302E/

What should we build here?

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/541778247852951295/69D57EBA297882B3A3E2038F6C13526C22803D20/

 

[Mr Thin]

In Purgatory, I vote thusly: Monument, Granary, Library, Colosseum, Market.

After Machinery I say Banking, because it can only lead to more money.

And when that Mohawk is finished in Thinville, I say TO WAR!

 

[Bohemian Waltz]

Here's a random collection of thoughts:

There is a gold source north of Eumersiania the tile buy for the 3 needed to snag it up might be expensive, but probably worth it. It's not a priority or anything, but I'd keep an eye on that city-state's borders and try to tile buy just before they expand into it. A second source of gold would free up our only source for possible trade.

There is also a source of silver to the far north west just outside of Incan borders. Had I recognized this I'd have suggested planting Purgatory there even if it's not too diplomatically friendly. If in 20-30 turns the Incans haven't claimed it (which they will) move a settler double time to take it. Otherwise expanding any more cities is a bit unwise.

We could also consider wonder building, though the AI is designed to be jealous so having a large amount of wonders is a bit of a diplomatic mine field (with obvious benefits of course).

Spoiler: List of Wonders the WALTZ party is interested in

We can currently build:
-Chichen Itza - golden ages increased by 50%. (+4 happiness, +1 culture/turn, +1 Great Engineer point) Cost=300H
-Machu Pichu - +5 gold, +20% gold from trade routes. (+1cul/turn, +1 great merch point) Cost=300H

We're close to being able to build:
Taj Mahal - starts a golden age, +4 hap (+1 cult/trn, +2 great art points) Cost=500H & Printing Press.
The Forbidden Palace - -10% unhappiness from population. (+1 cult/turn, +1 great art point) Cost=500H & Banking.
Sistine Chapel - +25% culture in every city. (+1 cult/turn, +2 great art points) Cost=500H & Acoustics.

*Note: Chichen Itza & The Taj Mahal work well together if building either one the other becomes more powerful.

Spoiler: As for technology I believe we have 3 routes.

Militaristic: Physics > Steel > Gunpowder > Metallurgy > Rifling.
-This is a straight B-Line for Rifling to get riflemen. A low cost STR 25 unit would allow us to dominate our enemies or keep up a strong defense without worry or the need for a large military as a smaller more technologically advanced one will do.

Scientific: Banking > Printing Press > Economics > Acoustics > Scientific Thought.
-This is more or less a B-Line for Scientific Thought; while our military gets put on the back burner. The noted improvements can be measured in gold from banking and the extra production from lumber mills for unlocking scientific through as well as the option of public schools to increase science output.

Middle Ground: Banking > Physics > Steel > Gunpowder > Chemistry > Printing Press > Economics > Military Science.
-This approach is more tech intensive, but balances both positions it provides for gold from banking then gives us basic musket-men for defense then switches gears to jump to Military Science rather than rifling giving us Calvary and leaving us only needing Acoustics before we can research Scientific Thought.

Spoiler: On War with Greece

I'm not sure how well advisable a war with Greece would be. While we might have been at advantage earlier it's been quite a while and they might have built up adequate defenses. Considering their reliance on Hoplites and that we've only seen Pikemen it might be a safe assumption to assume they don't have a source of Iron or Horses.

My biggest fear is that they do have a source of either or at the very least traded for such sources. Our MW and company can handle pikemen/archers, but will have serious trouble against catapults/swordsmen/longswordsmen/knights. In any case I'd prefer at least 1 more catapult to support our melee units and help with crushing cities. It also doesn't help that the English will go mad upon our declaration.

My votes:
Purgatory- Lighthouse, market, monument, (whatever)
Thinville: Queue up another catapult in front of the mint. By the time it's done we should have machinery so upgrade our archer(s) into a crossbowmen then I'll give my approval for war with Greece otherwise I'm voting against war.
Misc: We need to spend spend our money on something. Try to find anyone that will commit to an RA with you spend 100 gold and/or an extra luxury in order to get it done, otherwise sink the lowest cost bribe onto Genoa or tile buy north and pick up that extra source of gold.

 

[lacktheknack]

Gah, more stuff came up. Will update this mid-day tomorrow, I hope. In the meantime, let's rename Purgatory (pls).

 

[NerfedFalcon]

For Purgatory, I agree with what Thin says, except put the Granary first. As for technology or what to do with our army, I say go for military tech (down the bottom, whichever is fastest) and go pick on another city-state. Just make sure nobody is defending it first, okay?

And do I count as new enough to replace 'Purgatory'? Because I'd really rather it either stayed Purgatory or became Hell.

 

[Bohemian Waltz]

And do I count as new enough to replace 'Purgatory'? Because I'd really rather it either stayed Purgatory or became Hell.

I think you already have a city named after you, our 2nd newest edition "Colony 1337".

I honestly don't care what goes in purgatory's queue or what it's re-named, but I think a lighthouse would be best as first or near first as the best hexes it can work are fishies/coast. It's also not much more expensive than a granary and due to it's sandy location will probably work more than 2 coastal tiles which gives a lighthouse a higher food bonus than a granary at the same maintenance cost for a 2-6 more turns of production. The rest of the queue isn't very important as production will be poor in the city anyways.

 

[lacktheknack]

I had a very rotten day today.

I can't summon the strength to do the update right now, but WITHOUT A DOUBT it'll happen tomorrow.

 

[lacktheknack]

My best compromise at the Purgatory queue is as follows:

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/541778247914670303/8A98C4C22F35B4601C0DCD3CC1F93B81AF378C72/

Also, I tried to by up the goldmine north of Eumersiania, but our influence doesn't reach that far!

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/541778247914668369/407B0169DC5ECE748EE3D1406DE595631CC1E2E9/

Attempts to negotiate for Research Agreements were cut short, seeing how we're the only Civilization in the known world with any freaking money.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/541778247914673517/FD512FB1A820C33B32DC06C2FCDEF4675BE447A4/

Ooh, a new city-state! This one's protected by England, though.

Speaking of England, we've scouted their whole country by looking in.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/541778247914666186/51B7D6AB250AB132BDBD4006591D2BAD39A49552/

A defense of fourteen in their ONLY CITY? War with England will NOT GO WELL for them.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/541778247914662609/86ECA8AB98F9C8B799A9067E916F86BBDA44A420/

Done. Majority vote says Banking next.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/541778247914663758/8DD281DB02B8021AB73F5AF526C530395F3098E5/

We have a ton of money, and our friendship with Genoa is running out... time for a bribe.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/541778247914672285/FD0387A32051BB85648BEE489C179D71D71A3577/

Boom, Japanese trade agreement complete.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/541778247914664832/FEF35AF8F2C8FCD50B8D7FFD4517A0FA085D91DF/

Seeing how the remainder of the Science boost got dumped into Steel, we should probably go for that.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/541778247914674435/970EDF633455E363188098E151C4E61A20DE94A9/

The trade agreement could not be renewed, sadly, as the Japanese are out of money.

So let's pick a social policy instead.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/541778247914675652/F8B60CC4F105E35EBB8348808DD390328C5FD862/

All our queues are good, but more feedback on our technological future/future wars would be appreciated.

 

[Mr Thin]

Secularism! FOR SCIENCE, BITCHES!

Wait, do we have any specialists to take advantage of that? If not... still Secularism. I want those two free techs from the final policy.

As for future technologies, I say Acoustics, followed by Scientific Theory.

 

[lacktheknack]

Waiting another day due to lack of response. (Mr. Thin can't hold us all up on his own while Waltz is away! You're still welcome to come back, Eumersian! I highly value everyone's input! New players are still more than welcome! Guys? GUYS? AAAAAAAAUGGGGGH!)

 

[lacktheknack]

Escapist ate my post. Yet again.

 

[RagnorakTres]

Secularism, definitely.

Row, row, fight da powah.

 

[Doc Gnosis]

In regards to science, my only concern is that we don't pick a technology that renders our Mohawk warriors obsolete; it would be a shame if that happened. As long as that doesn't happen, everything's fair game.

As for policies, I'd pick Secularism, with legalism second so we could unlock the other two Tradition policies.

On another note, I have another question to the masses: Does anyone think it's time to take on another Wonder project?