[SPOILERS] Commodore, Mist and the Weed. A Farce in three acts.

[Commodore]

Dangit Lewwyn, you chose poorly. I was on a path to maximize your chances of winning, tackling Serdoa's freight train. But you had to get scrappy, you had to be aggressive, and now that plan is scuppered because I have no secure border that borders you. So, my angry bird friend, you will have to die. Inna fire. Stoked by 'phracts.



The Colossus is actually coming along fine, emergency whips nowithstanding. Dumped overflow from a trireme will polish it off and then we'll have 2/0/4 towns wherever there is fish until Astro. Hint: If we have to obsolete the Colossus, Serdoa's won this thing.



It's going to be fun to push Lewwyn in the gems region and then send the main stack up fast into his southlands (giggity). Those distant yellow borders promise lush and inviting inroads...and once we kill Lewwyn, we'll just start flowing through here SE into Brian.



Why are we the only ones who went heavily south? This is darned good land. Maybe Bronte biased things, I think most people sought incense and the alluring lighthousable crabs with their second cities. How's this for an ICS grid?



This is the last big settler push before going on the rampage, so might as well enjoy it. Horses actually come inside the borders in two more turns! Yay. Serdoa's chariot is nosing around, he'll need to be popped by a HA or something soon.



Confidence in The Plan aside, we're doing pretty crappy right now. The score chart is actually a pretty good indicator of how we're all doing.



Here's the demos. Soldier points are good, although tech does boost it somewhat. But then again, so do Gers...I wonder if Scooter knows Gers count double over stables? It looks scary, you can bribe a brace of settlers out of someone with those.



Hoy. Now let's watch it all far apart next turn.

[Commodore]

So I feel a bit picked upon.



Lest we feel like that war elephant is stopped, our crossbowman was a terrible shot any only mildly winged him. Yep, we might lose Kipling again. Totally going to settle it inland next time.



I burned our GG on the warrior in Verne as the only real reinforcement that could reach Kipling in time, so a Morale/C2/Formation warrior is joining the other crossbow. I'd add more, but furthering the abuse...



I'd really like to settle Wilde if at all possible. I think the Scooter vector is safe, but Brian might have a bit of fun too, because hey we're only second-to-last in score.



Lewwyn withdrew, but I suspect we'll be seeing more of him soon. That's a lot of chariots massing, no doubt sir.



I'll two-pop whip the spear next turn in Dostoyevsky, which ought to both secure the city for the nonce and also finish the Colossus with overflow. Only two more turns...will Serdoa land it?



Probably. I think I need to go back to greens games, man, this is no place for congenital defectives.

[Mist]

That's a bloody lucky combat for Serdoa again, 66% odds for him and we only win a round? Seriously?

Next time, resettle it with a spear and *two crossbows* and whip a bloody trireme there as a first order of business. Didn't I tell you to whip some bloody triremes in our ports last time that happened btw? We still seem to have none :P

[Commodore]

That's a bloody lucky combat for Serdoa again, 66% odds for him and we only win a round? Seriously?

Next time, resettle it with a spear and *two crossbows* and whip a bloody trireme there as a first order of business. Didn't I tell you to whip some bloody triremes in our ports last time that happened btw? We still seem to have none :P

Kipling is our only port on the whole side thataway. There is another CG crossbow in there, but I expect Serdoa to get coinflip odds at least to kill it, and then then inevitable axe in there ought to have >75% odds on the warrior. RNG screwed us, certainly, but that's life. It's a bitch and then you die.

[Mist]

Kipling is our only port on the whole side thataway.

But we have ports otherways that *still* don't have any triremes in them either :neenernee

Damn, even Lewwyn has a galley in his new city threatening Dostoyevsky. And guess what, we're only about to attempt to float a trireme there :neenernee

[Commodore]

Okay. Triremes would be lovely. But we would not have been able to float one in time. Also, the music artist is now in Kipling.



Ironically, our plan is going off without a hitch.



Except we're about to lose the only iron we have.

[Mist]

Yeah. That's game.

Was fun though

[Commodore]

So here's what greeted me upon opening the save. Good news: We have iron for another couple turns. Bad news: Holy crap that's a lot of archers. Oh, and also Melville is under attack again.



Against anyone but Serdoa, I'd feel pretty good about holding the city, with a crossbow and spear facing off against a CR2 axe, vanilla WE, and lurking chariot. Sadly, Serdoa wins all attacks, it's his special trait. If for some weird reason he opts to accept the worker-bait, I can kill whichever unit, or both units, that move 1SE.



Nothing like a little ole' war to death can stop the REX, though. Meet Longfellow, newest city. I'm a bit proud of the instant-wheat farm upon birth. I hope scooter realizes this is a sub-optimal settle specifically to show non-aggression. It'll still be a fine city either way.



Daft McBrian took a break from spamming chariots to make a Great Wall. Some combination of failgold need/boredom maybe? Darned if I know. Keep on at it, dude, if you're having fun down there don't let me stop ya.



The empire is increasingly southeast-biased, obviously reflecting where I feel the safest borders are. If Brian or Scooter has a fit of despair it's going to hurt a lot, but that's just Civ man.



Game over. But it sure wasn't a clean kill.

[Ceiliazul]

Daft McBrian took a break from spamming chariots to make a Great Wall. Some combination of failgold need/boredom maybe? Darned if I know. Keep on at it, dude, if you're having fun down there don't let me stop ya.

How soon will Dostoyevsky reach 3rd ring borders? Don't give up the iron yet.

Also, Longfellow is an amazing city site!

[Commodore]

Also, Longfellow is an amazing city site!

Heh, yeah, it's great, but look at the sheer insanity 1S...hill plant with first-ring wet wheat, sheep, and fish, not one, not two, but three lighthouse-able Fin lake tiles, and plains sheep for spice. So the message to Scooter is "I'm being cautious, not settling in your face here bro."

Now the mirror location between us and Lewwyn...