[PB75 Mjmd] Call to Power

[Mjmd]

T193

SD wants to split Scooter. I couldn't tell from his message exactly what he wanted, so sent my proposal below.



Basically he gives me 6 and I give him just Alexandria. Honestly any other split is going to have really weird borders. I do kind of want to leave Gav/Scooter with Byblos they deserve to live. Wish they had sent a settler to the desert (I would have by now). I actually was originally debating leaving them with Alexandria, but giving SD Byblos makes no sense.

Anyways, I turned my rifles back west because as I'm sure people know this thingy happened.



Hopefully this game continues. Ginger spoiled some info in tech thread and evidently is depressed because he lost some high odds fights.  I'm pretty sure Ginger still has enough to finish wiping or at least come close. This must have been a spur of the moment decision. There isn't any reason he couldn't have had cats there in time if he had them on Drey border and moved them in / down once culture was gone.

I birthed a merchant and moved it the worst direction: north. Pretty sure it should trade mission so either of east or west would have been better. I'll probably send to Gav border city. Might do trade mission turn I declare war, which feels weird. In general its going to be weird going to war with Gav / Scooter. I mean sure Gav razed a city early, but he has been a solid meat shield. It helps he got subbed out, but I think I will offer to leave him with Byblos and Scooter can decide if he wants to log in and hit end turn until end of game.

[Mjmd]

So Krill is taking over for Ginger; very nice of him. Not sure anyone will ever trust Ginger to join another game especially after also ghosting out of PB77. Definitely a good player and better than Ginger (although not sure how much Civac was inputting as both together its probably about same). I do appreciate it and it is nice of him to do. Will see how it affects the current war as I would like an inconclusive war with Ijub for a while. 



Time for PB66 history!!!! 

So PB66 I started out as the map maker. I spent hours and hours working on the map. I presented the starts and Krill HATED them. I tried changing based on feedback, but nothing was good enough for him. I'm going to let you all in on a secret. At the time there were 11 people signed up for the game. I had played or ded lurked 11 games. Ya the 11 starts I originally put out there were modified versions of previous map makers / lurker review, but either made better or toned down so I thought they were even ish. I had thought this a fairly safe way for a newish map maker to do starts (IE steal them), but man Krill thought they were bad. Now I had been on the fence about joining, so I offered him the map maker job, he accepted, and I became a player. 

Now I fully believe Krill thought he was doing the right thing. Most people do. While I won't debate if his starts were more balanced, the map was NOT. Amica had requested Torusland and I had gone with causeways as it made balancing neighbors much easier. Krill went with inland oceans and I'm pretty sure didn't balance much beyond the capitals. The neighbor and land quantity differences this game were VAST. There were multiple people with 1 neighbor. Two of those 1 neighbor players had large isolated backlines to such an extent some people actually started colonizing them (but obviously they could never be held long term). There were also some strategic resource issues, but I have some empathy there due to my own experiences making a large map for a lot of players in PB74, which I took over from Q because I really hated seeing the bad neighbor imbalance in PB66. Although I had Q do capitals and some other things specifically to avoid A) being too much of a jerk taking over and B) avoid a repeat of me doing PB66 capitals.

Overall game summary

Map - inland oceans with varied number of neighbors and space.

- Superdeath (T48) Stonehenge
- Great Lighthouse (T66, Superdeath - tie break with Plemo) Oracle (T75, Miguelito), Colossus (T90, Magic Science) Pyramids (T95, Miguelito), the Hanging Gardens (T99, GKC)
- Mjmd eliminated JackRB T83 with an impi / chariot rush
- Piccadilly & Plemo lost a city to barbarians twice (T72 and T77)
- But that didn't stop them waging war against Magic Science and starting to take over their land. Note Magic Science built Colosuss while being taken over, but in a lull in the fighting.
- Amica and Miguelito engaged in multiple wars.
- SD and Vanrober warred, but eventually made peace with little changing hands.
- Mjmd declared on Plemo and took a former Magic city.
- T104 Great Wall (Amicalola), T112 Temple of Artemis (Tarkeel), T119 Mausoleum of Mausolos (Gavagai), T135 Apostolic Palace (Tarkeel), T136 Great Library (GKC), T141 Shwedagon Paya (Plemo), T142 Statue of Zeus (Plemo), T143 Parthenon (Plemo), T145 Chichen Itza (Vanrober)
- Gavagai conquered GKC.
- Gavagai invaded Mjmd and took a border city.
- Mjmd came back with rifles and eventually Gavagai gave the city back.
- However Mjmd being distracted and army distant allowed Plemo to Split Amica with Miguelito.
- Mjmd tried to invade while Plemo's army was abroad, but thanks to railroads Plemo got back in time.
- T156 University of Sankore (Tarkeel), T170 Notre Dame (Superdeath), T185 Angkor Wat (Gavagai), T186 Spiral Minaret (Miguelito), T160 Sistine Chapel (Piccadilly), T163 Taj Mahal (Piccadilly), T186 Spiral Minaret (Miguelito), T196 Kremlin (Mjmd), T198 Mining Inc (Piccadilly), T199 Cereal Mill (Mjmd)
- Gavagai and Superdeath split Vanrober.
- T208 Creative Con (Gavagai), T218 Taoist Shrine (Gavagai), T220 Pentagon (Plemo), T224 Statue of Liberty (Tarkeel), T225 Broadway (Piccadilly), T230 Eifel Tower (Piccadilly), T236 Sid's Sushi (Piccadilly)
- Plemo was starting to pull away, but there was a 33 turn modern era war involving hundreds of ships, planes, and tanks. Also, involving nukes, paradrop commando (along with multiple tank commandos), and landings. Plemo razed Mjmd's Kremlin city along capital containing oxford, walls street, and cereal mills headquarters. Also, razed some other border cities, but couldn't take them. However, Mjmd managed to push Plemo back and actually take territory. 
- This war pulled both of them down. Eventually Plemo finally signed peace and gave up the 1 former Mjmd city he had taken. 
- Plemo then turned on Gavagai who was now looking like the leader but was behind in military power (Tarkeel / Civac were power lead). After Plemo razed a few cities Gav was willing to declare a draw and other three accepted.

I've tried to cover my own game throughout current game, so not going to write it up separately. I'm glad I played it though. This is actually the game I'm proudest of atm. I remember how bad PB52 felt to play and my mental state there. Quote from my end game thoughts

Again, I think some people will forget this game that Plemo had such a forward presence. I also managed to knock him from 46 cities to 39 with 3 of those being recently refounded. T/C of course also got 4 cities from my efforts. AND we won't talk about the cost to me. Still, I'm rather proud of the campaign. It was long and grueling with tons of little decisions. But I executed my strategy of pushing Plemo from west to east and then south. I never got my stacks nuked, which took a lot of time to try micro let me tell you. There are obviously things I wish I had done differently, but for my first foray into modern military in civ4 it was both fun (mostly) and interesting. I also was proud I didn't crack under the losses. Mjmd of a couple years ago could not have been able to play this game.

Also, final kill numbers, because what other game has produced this much air fighting?

[El Grillo]

Yeah, PB66 produced some great screenshots showing lategame positioning when you throw in air units, nukes, and modern navy movement ranges. And some mind-melting commando+road/railroad+morale math

[Mjmd]

I tried to do a good job reporting that late game war as I know they don't happen that often. I know people still go confused with understanding what was happening, but ya it was pretty intense.

[Tarkeel]

I think that game slightly changed how I report. I did a big border overview which seemed enlightening, so I've tried to keep that in mind and not just show my own lands.

[Mjmd]

I usually assume other people are showing their lands so I mainly focus on mine. That being said T200 is coming up here so will try to do a big overview then (or whenever I get back as I suspect T200 will be while I'm gone).

[Mjmd]

PB66 General Taylor



One of my better commerce cities. Here is the whole south.



T195 

First lets do my land and then I'll try to go around and cover other relevant stuff. Empire overview because its been a bit.



SD did not mirror back my deal and he hasn't invaded. If I jump in there is a pretty good chance I will get the split I want, but without an agreement I'm building up a bit more first. Plus Greenline might come calling for his city back so rerouting some troops that way just in case.

Plus Scooter is spreading Buddhism and its adorable. That is already the 2nd most valuable shrine city just sitting right there on my border, but ya I 100% am going to leave Scooter with 1 city if he wants to live.

While I'm looking good atm, I do need more land. I've built all my banks and all my universities. SD and Ginger with much better land have more room to grow.



I'm very much debating what to do with this merchant. Trade mission to push the first to bonuses ect or save for cereal mills. Cereal mills wouldn't be that great for me, but it would offset some of the factory and coal plant pollution and of course keep from someone else. I will get the economics one, but I'll need 1 of the 2 for a 3rd GA unless I just wait A LONG TIME, but a GA would do more immediate good than a trade mission.

BTW I'm not sure how much of that GNP is culture; it makes me look stronger than I am. This brings up the question if I SHOULD have built literally any culture win stuff. Answer is 99% probably not, but eh you got to do the thing once in a while.

Some other graphs.

Power



Production.



Food. Line slowly go up as I 2f growth at a time across cities. Some of them are fully grown now, but some others are still slow growing. I was even 1st in food for like 2 turns.

[Mjmd]

PB70 WhereToGoJohnny




I don't settle cities without roads often and especially not 4th cities, but there are exceptions. See north city:



This city was an absolute BEAST. But ya with having settled Roots that needed 2 workers, this city just got 1. It ended up getting some key fail gold on GLH, built a 5T LATE Stonehenge, great wall, and maybe something else? Key city in my T90 17 cities. Definitely showing off power of creative both here and Roots.

T196

Lets look at tech situation. GNP graphs is now SD and Ginger tied but mostly same as last turn. This is a very pleasing sight.



Relevant civs only:
- Only Ginger has the key economic techs of printing press and replaceable parts (which is why he is only one near me in raw production). He has built few banks (2-4 including in hindu shrine city) and doesn't have education. With his land he has massive potential though.
- SD of the many military techs has the land but even if he wanted to go on an infrastructure bender the best he could do is grocers. I believe he has 2. Even though he is creative he is missing libraries in mediocre cities because he has been at war a lot. Plus he has a BAD habit of building wealth WAY TOO MUCH. He is ages away from rifles and seems to be going grenadiers to counter my rifles, but will he make it much past that?
- Nauf recently was 2nd person to education. His land isn't nearly as good as Ginger or SD, but he may be able to come the new Mjmd and sit back and build. Phil universities and somewhat better land than me could mean long term he is relevant, but I think overall he is too far behind to be relevant in time. He is also missing easy expansion opportunities.
- Ijub - Did you look at his GNP??? His tech looks ok now, but he can't be teching fast anymore. He has the most cities, but its not SD or Ginger quality and there isn't much pop in that land. Seriously go back and look at the food and power graph. Gotta give him credit for good army building; not a lot of people can stomach that type of thing but its often required. That being said taking all of Greenline and just being huge would have made him very relevant long term. Its not shocking Ginger is trying to hinder him. I have trouble seeing him making much progress vs Ginger and by extension Greenline as long as Ginger is supporting. And mind you Ginger is up in tech vs him. I just am mainly hoping he slows down Ginger. If nothing else should cause Ginger to keep building some military.

So how has Mjmd of the bad land but isolated forever and not building army gotten good GNP and production? Stats by built.



I'm curious what people noticed first? Was it that I'm already nearing same # of rifles as knight numbers? Was it that I'm 1 grocer short of my number of libraries? It will be even in 5 turns. With my lack of health resources its been required. Is it the bloody 68 windmills and 64 farms. The VAST majority of those farms are serfdom plains farms I've painstakingly grown onto (same with the windmills). CtH serfdom is viable, but it takes a while to really get going.

But ya it looks good now, but there isn't much better its going to get, so have to decide WHEN to expand. I am pretty sure a golden age is in order assuming I win the 48% roll and get a non priest non merchant great person in 6 turns. Sure it would be nice to wait until I have more cities, but I think I have to push my advantage while I have it. Plus doing some civic swaps would be nice.

Questions?

[Mjmd]

T198
PB70 border Charriu city. Very slow to develop, but on a hill behind a river border city can't complain too much.



He said the German was the correct type of German for a sea song. Anyways, PB70 will be known for two things, but the 4th reason I won is this Charriu city. The first no one will remember is America is broken / it can be.



Charriu's GNP was looking rather good, but for some odd reason people were getting nervous after a 17 city turn 90 with HG into American UB + HG engineer into MoM. Anyways him, Scooter, and SD organized a trade embargo. Despite evidently delaying the embargo for getting units in this city, Charriu didn't garrison it with more than an axe. I reacted to the news of the trade embargo by razing his city. The capture gold got me to MC which is good because SD was late on a loan promised. Charriu also gave me 400g for the spot back and opened borders which allowed me to open borders with the rest. I loaned 200g of that interest free to Bing and despite this and detouring tech wise I beat Charriu to Music GA.

T198

Decided to grab economics merchant. Just making sure I get the first to bonuses I can. Will be interesting to see what tech path Ginger goes next. He stopped JUST short of finishing chemistry (guessing he is at 10%) and its almost certainly to keep me guessing. SD GNP went back down.

The question on my mind has been civcs assuming a GA.



- Government is easy. Especially with somehow getting Notre Dame despite being 7th to and leaving engineering until late as possible it means I no longer need Rep for happy. While the beakers are nice, police state is going to be the name of the game until end of game.
- Free Speech - while my town stats aren't great, its still worth it over bureaucracy. Plus you know that cultural victory thing.
- Economy - I was debating merc during the GA for literally 2 cities GP chances, but I will just starve them a bit instead and switch right away. With switching off rep merc loses quite a bit. It does open me up to trade embargoes, but yet another situation the Ijub Ginger war benefits me.
- Now the hard one. I LOVE LOVE LOVE org during a GA, but there actually isn't a lot to build. Sure the 3 levees I can build would be nice and I could do a couple grocers, but I THINK I'm going back into org at end of GA. I hopefully will have lots of new cities to get up and running plus factories and coal plants to build. So I think during the GA I'm going Theocracy. Realizing this I will try to have both a cannon and rifle in queue where possible (wish I hadn't been sick last two days I may have gotten this started earlier). Is it greedy to go back to org after the GA? YOU BET!!!

Mind you I have a 40% chance of being an almost complete dud in a prophet. If that is the case after railroad I'll probably tech Theology and bulb Divine Right.
10% of a 3rd merchant. If this happens sub can just run one to trade mission in Gav / Scooter capital. Its not a bad outcome, but not great.

BTW if someone ever does another revision of CtH lets improve Angkor Wat. A minutely slightly better engineer specialist is not great. Have I mentioned I'm going off merc soon hopefully. This is another culture victory build I 99% should NOT be doing.

[pindicator]

How would you improve it? +1h and +1 gold for priests?