[SPOILERS] William discovers a source of horse. FDR of Mongolia

[Commodore]

Actually, I wish I had made something like this:

Speaking of triangle theory, I had a dream last night that the map was of this character:


Like an isometric grid world. (You know you've been playing too much Civ when...)

...except with more of those "long islands" in the channels and big blobby islands in the apexi.

[WilliamLP]

I'm screwing up my attempt at an EE pretty badly! While building jails everywhere I mistakenly got Demo before Communism, because I confused Security Bureaus with Intelligence Agencies. The latter are the ones that give +50% EP, the former are just a flat +8 EP for 220 hammers... obviously not a good short term investment though I'm sure you want them when the EE is running full force.

And, this plan leaves me without Arty / Combustion (and Flight) for a long time. I think I'm ok? Harry has to be a little war weary (in real life) after the strike on TBS/Yuri. I don't have enough experience in this part of the game to know if TBS is actually a threat for cultural victory, or how far away the space crunch dates are from now... It can't be that far, right?

And I think TBS's window to make permanent gains is past... Once I get former HRE lands cranking and fully industrialized, my empire production will actually be pretty formidable, and sheer numbers combined with the chance to strike first with siege (even if it's cannons in the modern era vs tanks + infantry) is always winning in this game.

[WilliamLP]

Whew! Having this game finally finish feels like a life event in a way that probably nobody I know in real life could possibly understand. (What am I going to do with that extra 30-60 minutes every couple of days...)

The controversy is a bit of a shame, but this is hardly new.

As Ceil summed up, the interesting part of my game was over when HRE was eliminated, obvious to anyone what I was up to after that:




Starting from Combustion and Artillery I pilfered my way up to the John Adams music. I had a pretty near perfect target, in TBS, who I knew would have no interest whatsoever in trying to make espionage difficult for me, with every point of his commerce being needed to contribute to a victory condition.




Yasod had 13% same-culture bonus, and it's kind of hard to get more against a guy running 100% culture slider. I built Hermitage and a Cathedral in Trojan, which was a waste because I thought Hermitage affected culture builds, which is doesn't. As a side note I'm not sure how I had culture across the continent at all since I never owned a city on TBS's side. Perhaps there's some game mechanic quirk related to MYKI formerly owning the city and another across the channel and having had culture cross over for him.

Anyway, my opinion about espionage econ for tech is: meh. It's a late game come-from-behind mechanic, but extremely situational, as far as spots where it would actually allow you to actually win a game. In particular it requires a target who isn't going to push back much. And the opportunity cost is pretty reasonable, all those jails + intelligence agencies and obsoleting prebuilt science buildings. So I think modding it out it may be hasty without letting the meta-game adjust first. But on the other hand, the mechanic itself isn't that fun, especially the part about tech steals being pure RNG rolls.

Final demos:




I think of fifth in most metrics as respectable, including score. I beat out TBS, who squandered his perfectly fine opportunities on the scoreboard in order to achieve a victory condition.

Kill / death rates:

I'm looking forward to a thorough break from Civ. And I'm not sure if I'll ever play another big game. The thing is, I've proven myself as a solid tier 2 kind of player, not the brilliant level of TBS / Finarry, as far as later generation players go, but the next step behind, and nobody would be squealing in delight to start next to me, I'm pretty sure.

The people better than me, simply in terms of time, they devote a _lot_. Multiple hours per turn in many cases. Emotional effort, too. I'm not sure there's any appeal to me putting that much into this game beyond the more than small amount I already have and do! However, as short term memories are replaced by the fond long term ones I'll probably be tempted again. So I'm not totally ready to ride off into the sunset.

[Commodore]

The people better than me, simply in terms of time, they devote a _lot_. Multiple hours per turn in many cases. Emotional effort, too. I'm not sure there's any appeal to me putting that much into this game beyond the more than small amount I already have and do!

Counterpoint: Plako.

[Qgqqqqq]

GG LP! As I type that, I'm reminded of an incident from ages past, and I must say I doubt anyone will ever mistake you for Lord Parkin ever again

[spacetyrantxenu]

As a side note I'm not sure how I had culture across the continent at all since I never owned a city on TBS's side. Perhaps there's some game mechanic quirk related to MYKI formerly owning the city and another across the channel and having had culture cross over for him.

As I read it you had cultural influence on the other continent in that area only on the tile Yasod was on. You could check your cultural overlay or mouse over other tiles adjacent to the city to fact check that, but the way I understand it you can get culture on tiles on another landmass on any tiles that could be within the BFC of a city on your side of the water. Or maybe the rule doesn't use a BFC distance and instead says within 2 tiles or something. There's a more technical explanation around here somewhere. But it wouldn't have anything to do with MYKI's old culture, that's all gone when he's eliminated.

[Old Harry]

GG William, I enjoyed this thread and I hope your break from civ isn't too long. In fact I spent a lot of time wondering if you'd like to play an always peace dual at some point .

Your comment about forcing your opponents to bore-quit due to pig-fighting should have been a qotm btw!

I wanted to know in retrospect what you think of Mindy's suggestion to attack HRE with knights, extract peace at a price and then eat myki... Would that have worked?

[WilliamLP]

Hey, thanks for reading. I'm still in vacation from Civ but I'm sure I'll be back for another game at some point. At this point, there's not much question, the game the team of you and Fintourist are playing is superior to mine, and to compete on that level I'd need to do some serious analysis and study... probably starting with your thread in this game. I didn't report on that point of the game so much, but from my point of view the way you guys blitzed through China with commandos and artists, that certainly showed me that there are still elements I need to learn about!

Attacking HRE first, yeah, I'm sure I dismissed that without as much thought as it deserved, drooling so much over how vulnerable MYKI was. But, I guess he still would have been just as susceptible afterwards too, if that plan worked. I think winning the Horse Whisperers event could really have changed things (ultimately coming down to RNG on when it was given out?), and might have allowed an upper hand on HRE, and allowed me to ultimately take over the continent a lot earlier. However, I still doubt it would have been fast enough to contend seriously with the speed you, BGN, and TBS were growing at.

Anyway, I look forward to reading your future adventures, if not being a character on the stage in one or two to come.