[PB75 Mjmd] Call to Power

[Mjmd]

Logged back in briefly last night and SD wants help with Gav. He even tried bribing me with one of his 2 gems. DUDE. I need him to bring you down and buy me time. I need SOOO much time. 

Anyways, its been a while since we had a game summary, so finally here is PB62.



Anyone want to know why every game I'm involved in has a minimal tile capital distance now? Ya its this game. Its a good lesson of how much water matters for tile count and how tight map distances are. There was little water and therefore we ended up in a dagger fight. Which if people ever want to play this type of game I have some good ideas, but it wasn't really what we were expecting. 

Game summary

- Extremely tight lakes map with most people being just 8-9 tiles from each other. Also had some interesting tile yields.
- Fabled was chariot rushed by Tarkeel / Civac. Bing was axe rushed by naufragar after both settled on coppers pointed at each other. Both Fable and Bing didn't delete their workers.
- Superdeath lost a city to barbs at 4%, but eventually recaptured.
- Mjmd settled a city that made both Vanrober and Nauf wanted a food from on opposite ends.
- Mjmd therefore ended up off and on warring both of them. Razing their cities, peacing, and then they kept being replaced.
- SD also attacked Nauf to no effect, but it did make Nauf keep units in Bings old capital.
- Mjmd then executed a very late chariot lightning offensive razing multiple Nauf cities and the games only wonder in Pyramids.
- Game was called when it became clear that Mjmd and Vanrober were about to go to war again leaving Tarkeel / Civac who had tech peacefully the clear leader.

So ya a lot of this game came down to greens being rushed. The other part was all about ME!!!. I had chosen Victoria of Mali. We had told the map was 'small', but considering its tile / player was fairly medium and more than a map like PB56 I had hedged. I got a lot of use out of the Imp and skirmisher part of this pick. Only a little use out of financial. And 0 use out of mints. Pin was ded lurking me this game and he was responsible for a lot of the good decisions made. The rest are a combination of me, Vanrober, and Nauf. 

So Vanrober had moved capitals to a marble hill spot that somehow escaped review. It was also closer to me. It also meant he had good enough production of warriors that I didn't feel he could be skirmisher rushed (although Pin really wanted me to). Now on T14 I had identified our border situation with notes on where it would be fine for him to settle. I was willing to give up a little territory and resources because I hoped that the tight map would lead unproductive wars elsewhere which then I could fill in the extra territory. Here is a T32 screenshot showing one of the worst coppers ever that I ended up not connecting until T60 something because I would rather have the gems. Lacking copper I built skirmishers and a much larger than usual number of chariots. The larger than usual number of chariots would end up being key this game so maybe the bad copper was a blessing in disguise.



So take a look at the Van ok settle spots and the ones I wanted him to settle. 

Vanrober settled on his copper. Not entirely crazy with how the rest of the game developed and fact it was hill tundra. He was creative as well so it got the deer, horse, and an ice floodplain. This created a problem though. I had been willing to give up the sheep, but now the only places he could settle for it were in the "no" spots. 

I therefore made the decision to move my city 1S onto a hill to grab both resources second ring. And indeed the border looked very nice.



Nauf had rushed someone and had room to expand. He would also end up building Mids. Surely someone ahead, expanding, and building a wonder isn't going to pick a stupid fight? Obviously with two greens being knocked out and SD being slowed down there was plenty of room for Vanrober to expand to as well. Clearly everything will be nice and peaceful here RIGHT?!?! 



It should be noted that is Naufs 2nd city on that site. He plopped down the first city before he could get a spear to it and I razed it with a chariot. I gave him peace and he resettled (a trend that would continue to happen). Then Vanrober settled a city that would dissect my empire with its culture. I razed it. I gave Vanrober peace and then he resettled his. Have I mentioned how frustrating this game was yet?

Eventually after I razed Naufs city again I offered Vanrober open borders to TRY to make the border work. I did this multiple times. Having learned nothing from PB56 he kept declining. Anyways I ended up in a 2v1. I had a lovely hidden chariot attack vs Vanrober planned. And then he popped culture giving him extra visibility. But I just pivoted to attack Nauf and luckily Van gave me peace. Burned Nauf's original copper city and converged from two directions on his mids city.



At this point I sent one last open borders request to Vanrober.

Smoke rises from the lands of Naufrager. The hour grows late when Mjmd the Conqueror asks for open borders from Vanrober once again. The world has one last chance. Vanrober has but to reach out and accept it and the Spanish can still be defeated. Will Vanrober abandon reason for madness again or join together for one last ray of hope?

Vanrober did not open borders. Razed the games only wonder and very shortly after the game was called as it was clear the 2nd and 3rd player were preparing to fight each other while Tarkeel / Civac just kept expanding and teching peacefully.

[Mjmd]

So I do still play a bit of casual civ with a friend, but we only play civ maybe once every two months. Anyways finishing up a fantasy map. Because it randomly limits which resources spawn, there is no iron and no coal. But capitals are immune from the rest of the script so my capital (which is uber and I should have taken a pic of) has THE only oil on the map. But it led to this funny picture.



My friend had given me all his workers to railroad my territory and I had just done sensible pathing and needed tiles for extra hammer. I then gave him all the workers and the oil and he set forth to transform his land with the hammer.

[Tarkeel]

Game summary

- Extremely tight lakes map with most people being just 8-9 tiles from each other. Also had some interesting tile yields.
- Fabled was chariot rushed by Tarkeel / Civac. Bing was axe rushed by naufragar after both settled on coppers pointed at each other. Both Fable and Bing didn't delete their workers.
- Superdeath lost a city to barbs at 4%, but eventually recaptured.
- Mjmd settled a city that made both Vanrober and Nauf wanted a food from on opposite ends.
- Mjmd therefore ended up off and on warring both of them. Razing their cities, peacing, and then they kept being replaced.
- SD also attacked Nauf to no effect, but it did make Nauf keep units in Bings old capital.
- Mjmd then executed a very late chariot lightning offensive razing multiple Nauf cities and the games only wonder in Pyramids.
- Game was called when it became clear that Mjmd and Vanrober were about to go to war again leaving Tarkeel / Civac who had tech peacefully the clear leader.

Dear Mjmd, I don't think you're the right one to write a summary for this one. Case in point, your summary of the Fabled war is extremely wrong. A shorter one-line would be:

Fabled decided to settle aggresively against Tarkeel/Civac denying them capital-adjacent resources, without any power to back it up and died to retaliatory axes.

We actually didn't research AH until after the war had started.

[Mjmd]

Ya to be fair, I have my memory of the game, my memory of the post game, and then quick skim of the lurker thread and maybe a bit of my own threads and once in a while someone elses thread when I write these.

-My memory of the game for your war with Fable: Green got rushed.
-My memory of when I was reading about it after the game: WAIT BOTH T/C AND NAUF got free workers!!!! Anything else I read about your war with Fable did not stick in my brain after that. Plus there was lots of discussion about borders and open borders after.
-Rereading lurker thread - Krill saying mids would decide the game - Mjmd still being confused why someone who took a capital, got workers, and built mids ruined his entire game over a corn .

[pindicator]

So I do still play a bit of casual civ with a friend, but we only play civ maybe once every two months. Anyways finishing up a fantasy map. Because it randomly limits which resources spawn, there is no iron and no coal. But capitals are immune from the rest of the script so my capital (which is uber and I should have taken a pic of) has THE only oil on the map. But it led to this funny picture.



My friend had given me all his workers to railroad my territory and I had just done sensible pathing and needed tiles for extra hammer. I then gave him all the workers and the oil and he set forth to transform his land with the hammer.

I've always wanted to see a fantasy script game here.

[Mjmd]

After playing the above I really do to. Maybe I'll start signups in a month or something. Give the new pitboss time to get going and give this one time to advance.

[Mjmd]

T131

Both SD and Civac finally noticed I don't have much natural happy and offered me happy deals this turn. But I am only two turns away from hooking up my 2nd happy resource in silver. Its mattered a little. Drunken Sailor is currently working two specialists and working a 1 food tile instead of coast to not grow at size 4. But it wanted to work specialists at some point, just you know after it grew a bit, but alas. Rep solved my happy for a long time but I have a lot of cities growing atm with no more whips planned so my top six cities are pretty well spoken for. This has also stressed my measly 9 workers, but so far its been ok.

Ginger / Civac continue having all the fun and landed Sankore and great artist this turn. Their food and econ are just leagues better. No will Ib pull an Amica and hit them as they are sinking tons of production into monk wonders? Or is he going after GT. I honestly don't know which would be better for me. I need Nauf to focus on SD and as long as Ginger/Civac are contained on 13 cities its probably fine. Dreylin has been gifting silver for crab peace, so assume he is more worried about low power Greenline? In general I'm confused why Dreylin looks so mediocre this game. He is 2nd in food in this game and has had strong food throughout.

My loan did help Gav get to construction. While it 100% looks like a hot war I am renewing our peace deal because I need fish.......... Have two health resources not hooked and just crabs for seafood so have capital with 1 unhealthy this turn. Will have to find worker turns to hook the corn.

[Commodore]

Both SD and Civac finally noticed I don't have much natural happy and offered me happy deals this turn. But I am only two turns away from hooking up my 2nd happy resource in silver. Its mattered a little. Drunken Sailor is currently working two specialists and working a 1 food tile instead of coast to not grow at size 4. But it wanted to work specialists at some point, just you know after it grew a bit, but alas. Rep solved my happy for a long time but I have a lot of cities growing atm with no more whips planned so my top six cities are pretty well spoken for. This has also stressed my measly 9 workers, but so far its been ok.

There should be a tech that opens up civics to both eliminate happiness issues and also boost workers. 

[Mjmd]

Researching it right now off of pure rep beakers (2 priest and 2 scientists). I wouldn't have gone into serfdom the first GA. Not unless I was able to delay the GA and I needed the early GA too bad for currency. Also, just completed last round of whipping in lot of cities with courthouses, but I had all the post currency cities that I needed settler for and then their infrastructure to get up and running (those whips ongoing where applicable). Also, the happiness from Rep has been better than happiness from Monarchy and like I said I JUST ran into the first time its mattered. Right now monarchy would only be outperforming rep in two of the six cities rep is currently giving happiness too and the other four would be very angry. At the time I didn't know Gav was going to go to war with SD so while right now I could distribute my pathetic military (if I was being risky), I couldn't then.

I'm also looking into the only way possible to make my land competitive with my next GA (15 turns?). Mercantilism specialists with rep, which wouldn't have been possible without mids. I don't know if it will be enough, but it will be hope.

[Mjmd]

PB63 history



Realized I should be including players and what they played

1. Fabled: Mehmed II (ORG/EXP) of Ottomans
2. Cornflakes: Boudicca (AGG/CHA) of Egypt
3. JackRB: Victoria (FIN/IMP) of Vikings
4. Mjmd: Napoleon (ORG/CHA) of Sumeria
5. Ginger: Gandhi (SPI/PHI) of Rome
6. Mr. Cairo: Suryavarman (EXP/CRE) of China
7. Superdeath: Augustus (IMP/IND) of Maya
8. Pindicator: San Martin (CHA/CRE) of Greece
9. Bing: Zara Yaqob (ORG/CRE) of Mali

Tarkeel if you can kindly provide a map description, but here it is for people to see.


1st draft of history

- SD Holkan rushed Pindiactor who was playing a tall start.
- Cairo razed 3 island cities from Mjmd but couldn't keep due to Mjmd having already Oracled Metal Casting
- SD got Stonehenge, Ginger got mids, Bing got Great Lighthouse and Great Wall. Mjmd also got Colossus.
- Cornflakes built a good early game Boudica economy and turned it into a successful knight attack vs Fable
- Dog pile on Jack stopped after he gifted cities away for peace.
- Mjmd attacked Ginger and razed a city after Ginger settled aggressively. Bing joined in vs Mjmd and Mjmd was forced to gift a city to Ginger in peace.
- Mjmd then pivoted and took some of Bing but had to give it up with impending peace with Ginger expiring.
- SD attacked Cornflakes and Mjmd did a sea invasion to vulture some of old Fable, but Cornflakes was able to hold vs SD and got peace. Mjmd evacuated and Cornflakes retook.
- Ginger to MoM, ToA, AP, and Sankore. Mjmd got HG and Parthenon. Cornflakes got Great library and SD built Chichen Itza.
- Ginger then invaded Cornflake with Mjmd once again vulturing old Fable territory.
- There was an overall coalition forming vs Ginger while he was tied down taking over Cornflakes. Mjmd had an attack ready to go and then Cairo invaded his central island again. Mjmd eventually was able to hold off but time had allowed Ginger to pull far ahead.
- A last coalition was formed but attack was launched at a poor time and game was called.

A random quote I found in my thread that also has some history.

Every game requires a bit of luck to win, and make no mistake Ginger has played a good game but he's gotten quite a bit mainly thanks to opponents actions not making much sense lol:
-Cairo random stupid attack weakening me early. How the hell I'm in second right now is only due to the rest of the field failing.
-Bing choosing to 2v1 me. I'm still not sure if this was just geography or he actively meant to help the leading player (Ginger was just starting to pull into that position at the time). This one honestly might make sense geographically, but I'm salty over it so its obviously stupid.
-The first Jack war ending. SD confuses me. The 3v1 Jack first war made 100% sense to me especially from SD perspective. Geography dictated he would get the majority of the spoils and he peaced out to
-SD attacking Cornflakes. Listen I helped in this, but only because I knew SD was going to do it anyways and I figured it was a good deal not only for me but overall. Again Geography if Cornflakes folds I end up with 5 cities, Ginger with 2 exposed, and SD with the rest. Edit: this also made Cornflakes detour to the top of the tree a bad decision for him and bad for me as it cut off a catch up path.
-WHIP SD WHIP - his GNP has been crap most of the game, his best chance was to go all in on 1st Jack war. Failing that to go all in Cornflakes war. Failing that go all in on
-2nd Jack War. Again SD needed WAY more units. Then he peaced out once Bing joined.....
-2nd Cairo stab. I had an alliance set up with Bing and  a stack of knights ready to go unto Ginger. I could have given up on winning then and still gone to war with Ginger, but I try to at least give myself a chance and I didn't see a chance that way.

This was one of my few games where I opened up AH and it worked out quite well. The map was actually a bit tight for Sumeria but overall it worked out. Even with org already cheap sumerian courthouses I do wonder how much different this game is if I whipped an axe vs a ziggurat in a city which could have helped vs Cairos original island invasion. Its weird what random things you remember. In general this was a game where I kept pulling myself back up and then a player would go "you will die because we say so and we know so". I do wonder if this game was more decided by Cairos actions or SDs.