[PB79] End of the beginning?

[coldrain]

Seems like time to decide which way to go; do you 2v1 Miro or Xist? Miro's (remarkably straight) land border might be less complicated to assault, but it seems like Xist may already have concluded that you've chosen a side. Though I do hope you are taking advantage of the Miro open borders to scout him out!

If you have naval superiority, you can always decide to bypass xist's islands and go for his mainland coastal cities first, then turn around.

Looks like the decfision was partially made for me. I also got a fish trade offer from Miro just before my golden age, which I resent to keep the agreement hidden from view. I forgot to send diplo to Miro this turn, I should send something soon to organize cooperation against Xist.

Why do you see Xist as a greater threat to ignore compared to Miro?

While Miro has more cities, Xist has had the best economy of this game for quite some time now. He is pulling ahead in tech, I'm barely keeping up with the military yechs. He might get to steel much earlier than me.

[coldrain]

As I mentioned in the main thread, I moved an explorer and two privateers before remembering that I have to wait for Miro to play in order to avoid double moves. Here's what my explorer move looked like:




Explorer was 1NE where it is now, on my main stack. No other land units were moved and no combat was initiated.

These two isolated privateers were moved 1 tile north-west and 1 tile south-west. No combat. That Miro fleet towards south-west has been there for several turns, so I didn't gain any new information here with the move. I have been moving the privateers forward and back like this for couple of turns now. I always left them out of reach of Miro's ship of the lines.



I'm fine with "sacrificing" these units if needed to avoid reload. Or did I gain too much information with the explorer move? I would have made the same exact move on my turn, if my stack was unhurt after Miro plays. Can lurkers give advice what is the best way to proceed? Again, apologies for the brain fart here, I had no intention to break order-of-play.

[Dreylin]

It sounds like the sea approach you are not getting any new information, but how much info have you gained about land defenses that you didn’t know before? Still, if Miro is still to play before your full turn, the position can have changed significantly, so I don’t see this as giving significant additional information. I’d say you leave the units where they are and Miro plays on; as you say, potentially losing the units if he decides to attack is likely recompense enough.

[coldrain]

Turn 212

Oof, I really dropped the reporting here… I blame the very demanding work conditions in the past two months and also my motivation to report dropped temporarily because of rushed turns and poor planning. And this shows in my current situation clearly. So what does the situation look like? I have been in peace for several turns now (already forgot how much exactly). A very brief summary of the past 60 turns:

Unsuccessful war against Xist

I lost an island city and a medium sized knight + catapult stack back in the turn 158 war against Xist. I managed to wipe out a small harassing stack in return. I built a large navy during the war, which is still mostly intact as of now.

Disastrous (?) war against Miro

I need to go back and check when exactly Xist and I made peace. I became worried of Miro running away while Xist and I battered each other, so we made peace and started a joint war against Miro. Xist invaded with grenadiers and catapults (later cannons) and managed to raze two Miro cities I think. I invaded with a large stack of rifles + cannons with some grenadiers and knights sprinkled in. I was able to capture the closest Miro city in west (Smash up). Miro was first to wield machine guns, but I still decided to march further into his territory. This was foolish, I got completely stack wiped there. Power graph of current turn shows my loss:


Yeah, not great. I mismanaged my army quite badly. I got railroad myself couple of turns after the stack wipe too. Miro captured his city back and we made peace. One positive about both previous wars: I kept my navy intact.

Current status and plans



I sacrificed a lot of development to build the rifle + cannon stack. After peace was declared, I started to fill in levees and other infrastructure. I completed education on turn 210 I believe (great use of PHI production bonus, right? Better late than never I guess).
I’m very behind in economy and infrastructure. Miro and Xist have been ahead in city count since splitting Rome and Gira has been able to stay in peaceful builder mode the whole game. Tech status:


Actually, I think my game started to unravel when I let Rome be split uncontested. Maybe I should have invaded Miro when his cho-ko-nus were on the opposite side dealing with Rome? Or would I have just handed the Roman lands completely to Xist? Maybe. Right now I really don’t see a path to victory. I’m still motivated to play and learn, at least so see how well I can pull up from the slump. I’ll build up machine guns and make myself costly to conquer while trying to follow this recovery plan:





I get a great person next turn form capital (hopefully a great scientist). Then next one I need is a merchant from South Wetlands. I’m teching towards literature to build national epic in the latter city if needed, to have the great person faster. Why? I have a great engineer and prophet stored. If I get the planned great person, I can launch a four man MoM boosted golden age. Hopefully I can use it to swap civics and industrialize. Is this the most optimal plan? Not sure, but having four MoM golden ages in a single game would be fun. If get wrong type of great persons, then I’ll have to think about what to do instead.

One aspect that I’m struggling to understand in this game is who is winning? Miro got the best corporation (mining inc.) and was first to railroad tech. He has most production and power. But Xist just completed Kremlin, has assembly line (I think) and has better economy. So I think Xist is leading? Rest of the graphs and demos:

[greenline]

MinInc is good, but CreCon is also pretty good, usually it is only 3 or 4 hammers less per city.

What civics are you hoping to get with a 4 man golden age, compared to your current civics?

[coldrain]

I'm in monarchy, bureau, slavery, decentralization and paganism now. I want to switch to free market (need economics ofc) and maybe org rel if I can time golden age and building of factories correctly. I haven't calculated the timings, and I need to land the 64% scientist and 82% merchant for GA. I guess representation wouldn't hurt either. I need to avoid nationalism to keep MoM active for a while though.

[coldrain]

I got the scientist, but it will take a while to get the great merchant out of South Wetlands. I whipped a partially completed cannon there to overflow to national epic, but it will still take several turns to finish. Maybe I have to research nationalism (-> constitution + corporation) soon to follow Xist to assembly line, even if I have to obsolete MoM before my last golden age. Infrastructure builds continue, levees are mostly done, universities and grocers/markets/banks next in best commerce cities. Poor commerce and frontline cities continue military builds.

[coldrain]

After building national epic and waiting for what felt like an eternity, I finally got the great merchant and started a four man golden age. Swapped to representation, serfdom, free market and org rel. Kept bureucracy for now. Factories are being built, soon power plants. Trickling in machine guns and infantry from my heroic epic capital and military academy city of Vain. Meanhile the two juggernauts of Xist and Miro are trading blows, with the latter seeming to have an advantage. Screenshot from start of golden age (couple of turns old now):




Also finished Oxford uni at capital some time ago. I'm still behind in technology compared to others, but I'm maybe very slowly catching up thanks to resarching full KTB techs like assembly line and combustion. Been upgrading some guearilla II or city garrison II machine guns too, just to not appear as an easy invasion target while mainly building infrastructure with org rel. My navy is horribly outdated and parked in my capital and Moai city. .

CtH serfdom is surprisingly viable with all the windmills I've been building. Probably will swap to something else at the end of GA.

Diplomacy news: Xist lost Royal Valley (my former island) and another island to my southeast. Miro sent a message that he will keep Royal Valley island and let me settle the other razed Xist island. Tempting option I think. But I need a modern navy to guarantee any new holdings. Both Xist and Miro have asked me to cancel open borders with the other super power. I declined both offers for now.

[greenline]

Do you have any settled great generals from your previous wars? Any plans to use CHA for extra promoted units?

[coldrain]

Do you have any settled great generals from your previous wars? Any plans to use CHA for extra promoted units?

I have one settled general at capital, to have extra promotion on siege units. I've already benefitted a lot from CHA with totem pole archer/melee/gunpowder units. I guess with an aditional +2 xp (theocracy, vassalage or additional general) I could build triple promoted gunpowder units at capital. Not sure yet if I want free religion or theocracy after the GA ends.

Drydocks are nice too for double promoted navy, even without xp civics.