[Spoilers PB27] REM tries to get a handle on this mod

[GermanJoey]

Yeah, taotato had circumnavigated ages ago, but we couldn't really say anything to you before now - it wouldn't be fair for one guy to waste his time but then to save someone the effort later. It was supposed to be explicitly turned on for this game, but Krill forgot to set the threshold to 0 in the XML, and thus it is back at the default 55% water, luckily for you.

Very lucky for me! Most surprising thing about this though is the amount of land on the map!

Heh, we ended up having to trim the overall dimensions very aggressively (pushing continents closer together, etc) in order to reduce the overall map dimensions. The original map was 112x88 IIRC, and this one is 100x80 - so we cut almost 2000 tiles.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Yeah, taotato had circumnavigated ages ago, but we couldn't really say anything to you before now - it wouldn't be fair for one guy to waste his time but then to save someone the effort later. It was supposed to be explicitly turned on for this game, but Krill forgot to set the threshold to 0 in the XML, and thus it is back at the default 55% water, luckily for you.

Very lucky for me! Most surprising thing about this though is the amount of land on the map!

Heh, we ended up having to trim the overall dimensions very aggressively (pushing continents closer together, etc) in order to reduce the overall map dimensions. The original map was 112x88 IIRC, and this one is 100x80 - so we cut almost 2000 tiles.

Now you say that I can see it - it is rather unusual to have the 2 main continents bumping together and culture touching in quite a few places. All just not travers able by galleys.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

I've got a really interesting one here. One of the islands to the north of plako and to the west of gavavi has had quite a nice barbarian presence on it. I took a pic a few turns back. Last turn I was miffed to see it captured by gavagi as I was gonna land my city raider gg rifle to clear it out and probably resettle the other city to better grab resources.

I decided to have a display of power landing the rifle anyway, and throughout the inter turn actually thought that this was a bit of a 'dick move'. Needlessly aggressive. Risky having an uncovered aggressive gg. Plus of questionable intelligence given anything doing would result in loss of routes, and I don't want to get sucked into a naval war at the moment. It also isn't like there is a shortage of island land at the moment either.

However I was greeted this turn by the city defenders changing from 1 damaged knight to nothing. It's like he is allowing me to have the city basically, as long as I don't kill his knights. I'm never quite sure of conventions around this and I was actually not gonna bother declaring, but now I think a capture along with perhaps a peace offering of some gold MIGHT ensure no hard feelings. He is still at war with HAK after all and has dtay to think about a lot closer anyway. The only issue is it making taotao bolder... But I am gonna offer DZ a defensive pact for that after this turn anyway. (Didn't last turn as the gavagi war would have nullified)

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

It's been quite a while since I did a full report and a moderate amount of time since I posted about a possibility of war with Gavagi. I see however that there have been only a few updates - I guess a lot of people are not bothering now.

So firstly I did decide to declare on Gavagi. He had moved all of his 3 knights to a location that could not counter me taking the city and then removed them from the island the turn after. Immediately after this I offered him peace and 50 gold which he did accept. Perhaps the 50 gold wasn't needed, afterall he is still at war with HAK and regardless of power disparity HAK has quite a long stretch of territory to get through. Plus with Adrien and Boak back at war neither of them will probably jump in and shorten the war.

Also I noted this other turn that Barteq with his decent power is right on top of Gavagi. This should also help keep him honest.

Now it looks like this

I will finish settling the south of the island next turn and then move to get the north done probably after getting the island to the west which taotao has started getting too. Hopefully I have scared Gavagi off contesting with me and will have a few rifles there before the enforced peace is out. He is starting to get a few frigates out and about so I will need to get some over here shortly too. I burnt a barb city on the deer and settled it on the hill, and that also gained me 3 free workers for next turn.

Taotao and I carved up this island slightly in my favour.

He has 4 and I have 5 cities on it, plus one tiny island for me close by.
It is quite rich and my only source of wine too under Volodga so quite important. Omsk here could be a cracking city shortly. I now have 8 workers around here and a stream of workboats coming from the mainland to help, although they are incredibly slow. I have the upper hand militarily here with about the same amounts of knights as him plus a GG rifle and a few pikes.

This is the island to the west of the Gavagi one. Taotao and I have both started to claim it.

I think IMP is helping me here as I am chucking out settlers left right and centre moreso than a lot of other things with the 60% bonus. I have another 2 and a knight just 1 off the coast there to land next turn and claim more. If I can keep that parallel going with taotao to the north I will be very happy with this place. The whales will be annoying to hook but unless I went in that spot I would block off fish. In fect this whole set up is rather hard to dotmap currently.

Still no time to settle the small islands here yet

Looking around this is interesting.

A Forbidden palace. I have not actually thought about this wonder too much until I saw this a couple of turns ago. This would be important to hit in a war. His empire is more NS so this is a much more obvious choice for him. Since I am feeling staying out of SP will suit me best I should start planning one of these. I have an empire that kinda goes North up to old commodore land and beyond to islands, and East to Elkad land and islands. However I also have expansion ability further NE and probably East with plako and Borsche being weak. I think therefore the best place would either be as east as I can in Elkad land or on the new shared island above Elkad land... This could help costs quite a bit so it should be a priority.

This I also need to keep an eye on. My visibility has been reducing in the last few turns but I can still see a small stack forming here.

I think a stack cossacks should be adaquate, with a few covering cannon.
Most of his power is still down here.

Vilcas will fall either this or next turn depending on how cautious he is and then we shall see where those knights go. He could cause me a headache sending them out on the East Indiamen to the newly contested islands. I do have a spare bit of gold to upgrade to rifles as needed all sorts of units.

The English/Dutch border will prove to be interesting.

I believe the tile 2w of Zinnar will go to dutch from their razed city a while back, making this really awkward for them both
I still cannot ask for a DP as neither of us can be at war... Or declare a war. They are definitely still active though as the only other player on the map not in a war(!) Barteq can have one with me.

Plako and Borsche have been carving up Yuri and plako is definitely winning. THis will create a horrible border however it works out which will definitely be in my favour in keeping them both in line.

Yuri should only be alive a few more turns as well.

Looking west, Dtay could be able to really springboard here. Unfortunately for him most of the Ichabod cities he razed although he can resettle them fast with IMP, and make them fairly cost effective with ziggaruts and good civics (he has rep but really needs merc I think) although I still am outpacing him well in all aspects despite him being in GA at the moment. I shouldn't have too much to fear from him as he will build build build for the next turns.

Ichabod just has the one city so will probably be dead in a few turns as well.

Demos

GNP still really good comparatively, MFG moderately so. CY very good. Dtay is now far outpacing me in land area. Still not making much of a comeback with regards to troop numbers. After the round of drydocks I need many more units. In fact I may have to delay levees and factories for them with the Inca war ending soon unless I can get my DP.

GP

Just had a new GM from Captive. So now I have 2 GMs and a GS. Need 2 for the next GA, so I have a spare GM currently. My next GP will probably come from one of these cities, and should be a GS. However this turn I realised that Communism has lost it's GSpy! Argh. Loosing the ability to claim that has made it really awkward to get a different third GP. I will probably get the Physics GS so I need to work out getting a different unit... Not in caste it might be easiest getting a spy from a courthouse and jail and security service. I could easily combine this with artists to make a 50/50 for one or the other. Or just hope for a low chances roll.

Techs

I will get corporation next turn and then save gold until I get the OU in Moscow. Now without a GSpy to try and claim there is limited use of Communism for me at the moment. Therefore I will go corp - steam power currently. I will hold off democracy for the SoL currently as it isn't under threat at the moment, and the place I will build it is currently Getting a 12 turn Ironworks making 81 hpt. Maybe more with coal pops!

State of nation

I am getting really annoyed here

I've wasted a fair few worker turns trying to get a watermill on the tile with the workers and the one below where there is a workshop. It seems like they cannot both be watermilled despite having free space to the left on either one? This is confusing me

Amusingly, here the city is smaller than the towns and villages around it! Hard to see it is one without the name when zoomed in :P

So where are we now? I still am rather confident in doing well here. Dtay has warred very well, so he is something to watch, and I need to be careful what taotao will do next.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

City counts
Me 50
Taotao 47
Dtay 58
Gavagi 33
DZ 22
Barteq 26
Plako 33
Borsche 20
Adrien 17
HAK 11
Yuri 3
Ichabod 1
Fenn 1
Boak 14

[spacetyrantxenu]

Thanks for the update.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

I think it's strange that 3 people are gonna be killed within like 5 turns of each other. It isn't even like they are being all killed by runaways either... These counts do make me think twice about other wars... Borsche would be easier to take but plako I could do a devastating first turn on with many more coastal cities. I'm not sure I will be able to muster enough power whilst being safe from taotao any time soon

[GermanJoey]

Thanks for the update.

+1!

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Thanks! I have a couple of lurker questions.

1) when in the versions did communism lose the Gspy?
2) should it be lost?

Base bts without corps it almost certainly should, but I really can't see it being stronger here... Workshops have lost a lot of juice and emancipation affects more tiles and also there is serfdom giving mines bonus hammers all to compete in that column. Then the workshop/water mill food bonuses only affect hammer cities really as opposed to the 2 specialists affecting all cities (and all the good labour civics giving specialist slots now for border pops in new cities and use of good specialists right off the bat)

Admittedly I have an extra specialist for free with the UB, likely an extra per city with SoL which I BETTER NOT lose, early rep with the stolen mids and lower civic costs with org giving a perfect storm for this setup being best, but I can't see it being superior or a beeline target anymore... You need lib for communism.

If not here in the lurker thread I would be interested in opinions. I have decided that peacetime wise I should not change and I need to find a forbidden palace city asap (and if Versailles has not gone with DR being cheaper it might be worth a detour for a third mait reducing location)

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Wow. I just looked at CivStats and it seems like DZ declared on taotao. If this is true... I will need to really mess this up from here out to loose now!