Part 9: Shit gets real

UPDATE 9: Shit gets real



Oh, no. Swordsmen and knights. Whatever will I do?
My allied city-states are also attacking his invasion force. It's not just me he's got to worry about, but all my friends, too. They're going to rip him apart before he even gets close to Dublin.




Okay, skipping ahead just a couple of turns… we research Compass because our naval tech is sorely lacking (but since we're almost all on one continent, it didn't seem necessary at the time).




It's time to get INDUSTRIAL on these medieval bastards.



This increases the cost of missionaries again, gives us a second Spy, and allows us access to the next Social Policies of the modern era, Freedom, Order and Autocracy. I'll elaborate on all three of them once we get there.



Kamehameha did not know who he was fucking with. My muskets and crossbows and cannons are tearing the absolute shit out of his invading swordsmen, and I'm already counterattacking. It's a good thing I left so many troops home on the western front.




This is the relative damage of ONE shot from a cannon on Aoteroa, almost half of the city's hit points gone in one blow. Honolulu will no doubt take a lot longer to destroy, but this is a sign of good things to come.




Astronomy is important on continental maps, it lets you cross deep ocean and explore with better ships. Less important on big one-continent maps like ours turned out to be, but it would let our troops on the east side of the map simply swim to the western side if necessary.



Faith-buy costs go up for Holy Warriors units in later technological epochs, too. I'm buying one Musketman and this'll probably be the last time I use Holy Warriors. I honestly thought I'd use it more. C'est la vie.



And here you see the selected musket man about to attack the Polynesian catapult and wipe it out in one hit. For being such populous nation, Polynesia is surprisingly under-scienced.




This is something I've been waiting for: Militaristic City-states are able to give you unique units from other Civs if you research the right prerequisite techs. Tercios are a replacement Spain gets for musket men, they are essentially a mixed formation of musket guys and pikemen, so they're good against mounted units. (This is before some genius came up with the idea of putting a bayonet on the end of a rifle).




We are now in the Industrial Age (at 1330 AD, haha) and this unlocks the final three, mutually exclusive policies, Order (representing Communism) Autocracy (Fascism) and Freedom (Capitalism).

Believe it or not, there are pretty good options in each of these. Let's list all the benefits of each:

ORDER: "Best for large, sprawling empires"
Adopt: Happiness +1 for each city in empire
United Front: Militaristic city-states grant units twice as often when you are at war.
Nationalism: +15% fighting bonus in friendly territory
Planned Economy: Factories increase science in a city by 25%, and are built in half the time.
Socialism (needs Planned Economy): Reduces building maintenance costs by 15%.
Communism (needs Socialism) +2 production per city, +1 production from each mine and quarry.
Finisher: +2 Food, Production, Science, Gold and Culture per city.
FAITH BONUS: May purchase Great Engineers with Faith.

This would make us into a production powerhouse. We already have a lot of militaristic city-state buddies, but United Front would make it ridiculous, a donated unit every 5 turns from each of our three allies. The world would drown in volunteer soldiers. Planned Economy would also give us a pretty hefty science boost to make up for our not using Rationalism this game. Being able to purchase Great Engineers with faith would let us snipe World Wonders at will.

FREEDOM: "Best for small, focused empires. In particular, provides bonuses for Great People and specialists."
Adopt: +25% Great People production.
Constitution: +2 Culture for each World Wonder
Free Speech (needs Constitution): 8 Units are maintenance-free.
Universal Sufferage: +33% Attack Strength for cities.
Civil Society: Specialists consume half Food
Democracy (needs Civil Society) Specialists produce half the amount of Unhappiness
Finisher: Great Tile Improvements double in yield, and length of Golden Ages increased by 50%.
FAITH BONUS: Purchase Great Artists with Faith.

The Specialist Bonuses are better than they sound, as that would let our cities produce a ton of bonus science, faith, culture production and money each, competitive with Order's Finisher bonus. We still only have three cities under our direct control, and with the ability to make at-will Golden Ages that last longer we'd be one amazing country.

AUTOCRACY: "For militaristic civilizations, dreaming of world conquest."
ADOPT: Reduces unit gold maintenance costs by 33%, letting you field a larger army. Receive 10 Culture points as plunder for each culture point produced by target city when you conquer it.
Populism: Wounded units do 25% more damage.
Militarism: Purchase price of units down by 25%
Fascism: Quantity of Strategic Resources increased by 100%. Great Generals +2 Movement.
Police State: +3 Local Happiness from each Courthouse, courthouses build faster. Effectiveness of enemy spies reduced by 25%. Counterspies have a 25% increased chance of catching enemy spied.
Total War (Needs all of above): +25% Production when building military units and all get +15 EXP when built.
Finisher: For the next 50 turns, all units get a +25% attack bonus.
FAITH BONUS: Purchase Great Generals with faith.

Autocracy is predicated on the notion that everyone is trying to kill us and we need to kill them all as quickly and brutally as possible. You want to spy on us? Too bad. You hurt us? We hurt you MORE. We'd get double strategic resources: double iron, double oil for more ships and tanks, double aluminum for double submarines and double helicopters, double coal for double factories, double uranium for double nuclear missiles and double giant death robots. Courthouses would make annexed cities actually happier than ones we built ourselves. Oh, you're a cultural civ with lots of culture enhancements ALL YOUR CULTURE IS OURS NOW.

Since we are already pissing off nearly everyone else in the game, Autocracy seems like the logical choice. The only problem I have with Autocracy is that it's a bit brainless and inflexible compared to the other two trees. Order is great for science victories as well as for pure militarism and even Freedom isn't brainless or toothless.

This is a shorter update than normal, and I might make my own call when it comes down to it, but what do you all think?