[Spoilers] Celto-Mede Commo-Weed

[GermanJoey]

Oh man, that's pretty slick! Way to think out of the box in such a weird situation.

[Commodore]

Oh man, that's pretty slick! Way to think out of the box in such a weird situation.

Thanks! Spiritual is THE awesome trait for getting thyself out of AI weed (although Hashoosh using Exp to spam out more workers is helping too). Sadly, someone else is spiking in power; I think via...*shudder*...whipping. Something is depressing global crop yield. My GNP is intensely amusing to me; I'm researching 100%. Only one more tech to knights, but darned if I can find the beaker source...


So, basically, I'm gambling on being able to dogpile the Top GNP Dog, Ruff. Moving this lovely pile in view next turn, then we DoW and see if 15 is enough catapults to start an offensive.

That and we see how honest Hashoosh is; he might be suckering me into hitting Ruff so that I'm exposed in my west. Gambles upon gambles.

[Commodore]

I open the save to joyous news! Ruff has decided to give us hammers on cheap Jewish temples! Plus, that's several hundred hammers that aren't ballistaphants...


Wisely, Ruff pulled back from his town, which autorazed on me. I then routed an immortal farther to scout for his stack...found it!

I farmed it for a bit of XP and then sought Ruff's ballin'pants with my remaining two immortals. Only two? Sweet, I might very well be able to cover my wounded high-XP horse units with fresh low-XP units. My stack is a bit split, which I certainly hope suckers him into an attack. I can take the losses much better than he can.

Hashoosh has a little mini-stack of horchers that will do for a couple of tiny Ruff coastal villages; I'm more curious about what Whosit opts to do here. He can relieve quite a bit of pressure on 'murican cities by joining the dogpile.


Molach, meanwhile, techs more awesomer.

[Commodore]

Ruff's on a wonder spree, for some damned reason or another. It's like he doesn't respect me, guys. Also pictured: Hashoosh pooshes into Khmer.
   
Hashoosh's own autoraze does clear up a lovely site for gold and a Brick Special (deep ocean clams). He needs to push farther in to successfully make the gain, though, at least razing this iron city. His horse archers can do it if he is willing to sustain some gnarly losses. I would, but that's just me bein' me.
   
My own stacks are pushing deeper into Ruffiania. I think I may just hammer forward to that super-cultured Hindu Holy City along the considerate forest road Ruff's left me, but his capital is 100% the main prize here. I just don't know; I have superiority now but Ruff knows how to play this game, I don't think it'll be long. I'm massing more crossbows on the train; they can 2-move to his capital along the hilly road he's got.
   
I hope you all like knights. Guilds, maybe Engineering, are the last techs I'll be researching. My CY is just embarrassing, everyone should be beating me with their green lands. MFG actually makes a bit more sense, and maybe some Mackoti-style hammer economy work will be done eventually. But that GNP should tell you all you need to know about Persia's long-term tech prospects.
   
My economy is actually perfectly shown in sunny Atacama. Look at all those yummy riverside plains farms! It looks pathetic, but it'll grow two sizes bigger onto three riverside plains hill windmills...1/2/2 tiles are kind of life here in the dryland. At the very least, we should not worry overmuch about hammers...
    This is an incredibly fun variant exercise, to be honest. The AI, bless their weedy little hearts, still do grow cities big and tall whenever possible, so this script, which normally would be kind of miserable to play on as a human, actually comes with some decent options thanks to the Deity AI's "18 grass forests means a size 19 city!" mentality.

[Commodore]

Three turns; that's how long Ruff has to get enough dudes in here to survive. Allies don't fail me now!

[Commodore]

Ruff just did the only sane thing to do when your opponent shows up with seventeen catapults and a big mess of other crap...



Mine is certainly not to mind, however! Mohave, my newest acquisition, owns a stunning five wonders, ranging from decent to excellent. Plus some pretty sweet tiles and actual honest-to-Confucius FOOD!


Ruff's forces are still intact, and withdrawing to his next capital. This is going to be riskier; there are no safe paths to get there...


Molach, the real rival, is researching like a madman and massing knights. If he's dumb, he'll crumple them into me right now aaaaand...who know who benefits. Retep, probably. If he's smart, though, he'll roll up Whosit like a tasty fat blunt.

This is such a fun variant game.

[Commodore]

Impressive landmark reached! Considering there are only some twenty million people on the planet, that feels pretty good. Here's the problem; Molach and Retep are both researching at a complete insane clip that I cannot now, nor shall I ever, match. So I need to use my current huge hammer to smashed myself to at least twice either rival's size.


Here are the forces in opposition deep in Khmer lands. Three more catapults lurk in his new city, at that. Ruff may choose to go back and recapture his healthy and vast wonder pile, but that's still attrition.

[Commodore]

Here's the problem; Molach and Retep are both researching at a complete insane clip that I cannot now, nor shall I ever, match.

Yup. Retep just landed Liberalism; coupled with his recently popped Great Engineer that's the Taj. Impressively done, Hashoosh/retep! All I have to my name is a sexy vast pile o' cats. I'm burning half of those next turn, if they don't get burned first...

[Commodore]

Ruff: Good enough to not die. He managed to slap together a strong enough scratch force to maul my stack; not a surprise, really.

So what remains...is still enough of a force to be top power in the world by a lot, but the offensive is mostly over. It was always a long shot.

However, what was completely stupid was this right here; I left Ruff's iron unmolested despite having archery units easily able to use the "hill road" to unhook it. I'll try that if the war continues, but the AP vote might yet finish it end of Whosit's turn.

Just in case, I have made moves to save my catapult stack from utter decimation; the pillaged roads mean he can only hit me with knights. They might still be able to flank them to death, but I have hopes my threat on his northwestern city will distract him.

Ah well, we knew we were pretty screwed from the get-go here. I'm not quite sure what comes next, but I'm not sanguine about my odds as this grinds forward; my research is basically stalled out.

[Commodore]

Welp, looks like the measure went through. Despite Ruff's commentary, I don't think this matters much, I still had enough to hold.
   
That being said, I'm in one hell of an awkward position now. Let's take a look at the radar, Jerry:
   
-Ruff is tiny but advanced, and lusts after Mohave, his former capital.
-Retep is advanced and has some decent land (coasts), but needs to expand...and I'm the only one he can hit.
-Whosit is small, lush, and backward, but utterly at Molach's mercy; I'd rather him be a potential target for Ruff and Molach than eat him.
-Molach is big and wet (best CY), advanced, and strategically impregnable.
-Commodore is big, dry, powerful, and backward. Plus, strung-out and middle man.

Basically, I'm rapidly switching gears, thus the 2t Philo. I'm going to revolt to Caste/Pacifism, pop some decent Great People, and head for Nationalism, Engineering, Constitution...then the Chemistry line. Why? Nationhood, Castles, Jails. Oh yeah, baby. Pure, 100%, EP economy time.