[PB59] Charriu welcomes all the townfolk

[Charriu]

T179:

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Ey, Superdeath. What is this shit. 2 turns ago you ask for a loan of 300 gold for 31 gpt and now you cancel that via a war declaration. There's better gotta be a good reason for that. Now it looks like somebody asked him to declare war against all the players on our continent. Maybe Miguelito did that. But then again Superdeath changed civics before he declared war. So this was not a trade deal? Let's just say I'm pissed about this bad tradesmenship.
In war news Miguelito still hasn't captured CousinJack, which means I will be able to attack RisingOfTheMoon next. That's great. In other bad news I discovered that Frozen and Picadilly already have coal hooked up as the only players. Looks like the civforum players start to run circles around RB again, especially if you consider that Frozen has not a big empire like other players. Very curious to read their playthrough later.




But most importantly this turn. My workboat made the trip around the world and it only took it around 130 turns.

[Charriu]

T180:

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Well I took RiseOfTheMoon with ease as Mjmd abandoned it. Unfortunately he abandonded WorstOldShip too, which will fall to Miguelito next turn. This of course will leave us with a somewhat tense border here. I can only hope that I will be able to take RollingDown next turn. Likely I realized in time that there is a forest on the deer tile and moved onto it. At first I wanted to collect all my troops 1E of RisingOfTheMoon.
The question that I am pondering right now is if I should keep or raze RollingDown. Razing it would give more good tiles towards RisingOfTheMoon and as long as RoyalOak is there, Miguelito can't resettle RollingDown. Keeping it will enable me to put more culture pressure on Miguelito and will secure me the whale resource, but the city will be drowned in Mjmd culture.
Would like to know your opinion about this after I made my decision next turn.

[Charriu]

T181:

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Mjmd abandoned RollingDown too, so it was an easy capture. As you can see I decided to raze that city. My main reasons for doing so are:

- It will be drowned in Mjmd culture from RoyalOak
- I have no way of landing and taking Royal Oak in the near future.
- I don't want RollingDown to fall into Miguelito's hands
- I would have to defend another city on my border with Miguelito.
- All it's tiles can be worked by other cities.
- More tiles to work for RisingOfTheMoon

Speaking of RisingOfTheMoon. Here is the provided song from Mjmd:

https://youtu.be/ZjpLjJQ2qN4

Now as you can see I also moved in a settler to settle the former Mjmd land west of DirtyOldTown. I see no settlers from Miguelito so I might actually benefit from razing a city in that area some turns ago. The only question remains were to settle that city. I had 3 spots in mind. The spot in the screenshot negates a lot of potential city spots for Miguelito while also taking up some good tiles. It's also somewhat safer from sea bombardment. Now I could also settle a safer and friendlier city for Miguelito 1E of that spot. But that spots risk loosing food tiles to any cities settled by Miguelito west of it. The last interesting spot is on the hill 1SW of my spot. It's the safe hill that I'm interested there, but it also risk loosing the sheep to a Miguelito city up there. We'll see what I will do there in the next turns.





I'm surprised to see that I'm actually doing not that bad in GNP. Now importantly I just left a golden age and I right now on the hard non-modifier route towards Astronomy, but then again there are a lot of people below me. But you know who really surprised and shocked me? Frozen! He's purple line right on top. Right now he's in a golden age but even before that he was doing very well and he's doing that with "only" 17 cities compared to all the others in the top field having more cities. Now Tarkeel and I are also on a similar city count as Frozen and we both had a mainly peaceful development this game, but still we are far away from Frozen. Very curious to read his thread after the game.

[Charriu]

T182:

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Just a quick report without images as it was to late for me to do that after I played. I signed peace with Mjmd. I won't be able to land a sizeable force on his island in the next 10 turns anyway. But maybe the peace and open border with Lazteuq will allow me to do that. Should think about that.

Miguelito and I also PMed about our turnsplit and we agreed that it's no longer necessary even though I have a settler in the area, which by the way can settle next turn on the planned spot.

[Charriu]

T183:

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Well now that I'm at peace with all of my neighbors I can plant some more cities. Next is Wendel from Seiken Densetsu 1 aka Final Fantasy Adventure for the original game boy. The second town in the game and the first visually "larger" town. This once again a case were the town itself is heavily caried by its accompanying music:



Oh and did I mention that you can hit NPCs in this game to move them out of the way? Best game mechanic ever!

Wendel's main purpose in this game is to remove city spots from Miguelito while also being somewhat useful. It's on the unsafer flatland tile, but even on a hill I doubt I will be able to hold this city in a serious attack by Miguelito. Thanks to trade routes the city should still be a net plus for me. I also noticed that Ramk's former territory is very empty with a lot of city ruins. I try to settle that area in the upcoming turns. Lastly not shown in the screenshot, but I went around and get rid of the weak aka killed some of my warriors and axeman. With enough good units on my cities for defense and more then enough happiness I see no reason to keep those units that just cost me money. Thanks weeding out those units my maintenance dropped from 141 down to 124, so 17 gold. I think this may be the right way to go with this.

Miguelito also send me a fish for fish deal which I returned. Now the big question is where to go from here. Do I try to wrestle Miguelito from our continent or do I hit Lazteuq again. He soon is done with his GKC conquest, but for now he is weaker then me military and technological. His core is right around the corner and I soon can build ships of my own. Lastly I soon will get a critical tile for any offensive back in my border. I will think some more about this attack.

[Charriu]

T184:

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I feel like I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place and don't ask which one is which.

As you may know the next player, GKC, left our continent and Mjmd might follow him in the near future. This leaves me with just two neighbors in Miguelito and Lazteuq. Let's have a look at me and my two neigbors:

Me:




Cities: 19
GNP: 2nd place between Miguelito and Lazteuq

I'm doing better then I had anticipated. I make almost 5 times the gold that Lazteuq makes and my GNP is closer to Miguelito then to Lazteuq. I have cuirasiers available and as of this turn galleons and privateers. I'm teching Banking->Replacable Parts->Rifling which will give me more security in the form of Cavalry and Rifleman. I also have tech vision on Lazteuq which I try to keep thanks to my courthouses in place. I was able to add 4 former Mjmd cities which unfortunately makes the border situation with Miguelito more difficult, but this gave me an important new luxury of wine. I may also be able to take the inner island from Mjmd, but we'll see about that. Former Ramk land is very empty and littered with forts which Ramk built to annoy his conquerors. I'm sending a settler towards there and will settle a city which will give me access to spices. I feel very confident in my teching speed. My overall beaker rate is not as high as others (demos show 8th place there), but my maintenance is very low and I'm making way more gold thank to the holy city and Spiral Minaret, which let's me do more 100% science runs. I want to mention that Spiral Minaret was very important for mainly because I made sure to built the religious buildings before the wonder making sure the benefit comes immediately. Biggest problem for me is expansion as all directions will have my two neighbors in front of me.

Lazteuq:




Cities: 29
GNP: 3rd place between Miguelito and Me

Lazteuq just finished his conquering of GKC. As you can see he has more cities then me, which will give him an advantage is the far future. But for now this hinders him. He's doing way less in gpt then me and his GNP is on the lower side with all the other failed empires (even Mjmd is doing similarly good like him). He only has a big advantage on the sea with frigates, but on land he's further away from me. Best option for him is to go for Military Science for 12 strength grenadiers. This is actually my biggest fear as it is a counter to rifles. But thankfully Rifling also unlocks Cavalry for me. I feel with Cavalry I would finally have a chance to break him. He also started settling the last astro island, but I think this will hurt him more in the near future due to maintenance. He has a very good expansion target in TBS in the east though.

Miguelito:




Cities: 47
GNP: 1st place between Lazteuq and Me

He's the juggernaut here. Unfortunately Mjmd and I were not able to kick him from our continent. He has taken most of Mjmd's land and is now looking northward towards the rather empty Ramkland. He has cannons and naval superiority in the form of Frigates and Steel. He has no rifles or cavalry yet, but he could just tech it next. Attacking him alone is absolutely futile. Now the good thing is that he has an equally strong neighbor in civac on his more important main continent. Civac may be the sole reason why I could survive as I would be the next best target for his expansion.


Now I see 3 possible scenarios in the future:

1. Attack Miguelito: This is rather suicidal. I would need help from either civac and/or Lazteuq. The problem is that I suspects neither will come to help me in this. Civac is soon in a similar situation like me with two superpowers (Miguelito and Piccadily) as neighbors. Lazteuq will most likely try to develop his economy before another war. He also never made any attempt to join in defending our continent against Miguelito. He could have done that easily by only joining in with his navy, but he refused. My trust in Lazteuq is very low. All in all I think attacking Miguelito is not worthwhile.
Now there is one scenario in which I might attack Miguelito and that is if a major war between him and civac breaks out. This would open up some room for me to take more cities in the Mjmd area. But this totally depends on other players.

2. Attack Lazteuq: Lazteuq is right now weaker in most areas especially military power (Power ratio is 1.4), but thanks to conquest he might get bigger. I could start a war with him any time in the next turns, but I fear this will weaken both of us, which Miguelito will just use to swallow the whole continent. Another big problem is that I have serious trust issues in him for the whole of the game, but unfortunately I have nobody else left. The good thing is by growing tall I might be able to keep the upper hand in technology towards him.

3. Sit tight and develop: This would involve attacking nobody and develop further. I have a few cities in the west to develop and I might add some more Mjmd cities. The important thing here is what to do with Ramkland. There is enough room for me to settle cities peacefully at the moment. The problem though is that if I settle to many cities then Lazteuq and Miguelito will never be direct neighbors. I think this would be a big mistake. I need both to be direct neighbors to establish some kind of balance of power. With me between both of them they will attack me very soon. Therefore I think it's the best option to settle just the spice city there and let them have a border with each other. What gives me hope is a player like Frozen, who's also small in city count, but is doing very well in tech. This option also gives me the option to jump on any of neighbors if they start a conflict.
Lastly another important question here is what to do in a conflict between Lazteuq and Miguelito. Which side should I support if any? But this won't happen the next turn I leave that to future me to decide.

I'm very curious what you guys would do in a situation like this. You can tell me at a later appropiate time, when it's out of spoiler territory.

[Charriu]

T185:

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And the game of great diplo messages starts.  

So my first instinct was that he tries to warn me about a mounted attack with iron units. So knights? That must be an attack by Lazteuq. I went ahead and improved my defense on that border. But then I thought back to the message. If he wants to warn me about an attack by Lazteuq then he would have added 'war against Lazteuq', right? So maybe he is warning me about an attack by Miguelito. He's at war with him and I still have 2 turns of peace with Miguelito, so he could not add that 'war message'. So I will also improve my defense on the western front as well next turn. Looks like an attack will come in 3 turns? Or 2? I don't get the 2 gold. But wait. Now that I'm writing this. Is he warning me about a dogpile coming in in 3 turns? 

[Charriu]

T186:

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More diplo from Mjmd. I still don't understand what the 3 and 2 gold should mean, but at least the aggressor is now clear.





Sometimes the 3D models just clip into each other perfectly. Looked even better when the windmill-wheel is moving.

[Charriu]

T187:

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More diplo




So Lazteuq do wants peace and even work together military. Good




Ok, now Mjmd wants me to attack Miguelito. Let's look at his side. OH MY GOD Miguelito has rifles.  

Good thing I'm already on my way to Rifling. Now if I can maintain peace with Miguelito for the next - lets say - 10 turns I will be able to field some rifleman of my own, especially because my globe city is drafting like crazy. I also took the option to return Lazteuq's diplo message and even send him a defensive pact to really get home the message. We need to work togehter here. If we start fighting we are both dead man walking in front of Miguelito.





I also settled a new city in former Ramkland: Quelb. This is from one of my favorite Final Fantasy games: Final Fantasy 5. Why is this city great? Well the inhabitents are all werewolves (except for a crazy old man in a well). Do I need to say more. Also it houses a "dark" secret. You know how there is a werewolf in the INN giving out free meals that heal you? Well next time you go there count the sheep outside before and after the meal.

Now I mentioned that this will be my only city in former Ramkland. As soon as Mjmd's city is gone I will get access to spices and the city has more then enough food to sustain the draft. Mh maybe I should take the western Mjmd city too. But then again I might be already to late for that.

[Charriu]

.T189:

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Lazteuq accepted my defensive pact and moved troops away from our border. I did the same. Meanwhile on the other side Miguelito returned my fish for fish deal, which is a good sign. It's eeriely quiet on our continent. What surprises me most is that so far neither Miguelito or Lazteuq look like they want to settle/conquer former Ramk land.

I also have to say that I'm disappointed in you lurkers. Nobody ever complaint that I never posted a bigger T100 or T150 report. Well I just finished Replacable Parts and I think that is a great moment to present you my realm.








First I want to start with an overview about the game and its remaining 15 players. By now we settled in distinctive groups:

The big players club:

Amicalola: Started the game by splitting pindicator together with naufragar, which continues with him splitting naufragar with Mr.Cairo (formerly known as mackoti). Great tech rate, weak neighbors except for Mr. Cairo. They soon could end in a similar situation like civac and Miguelito. Curious to see how they solve that. They also own an astro island. Just like Miguelito they also have a war-torn continent to their west.

Piccadilly: They managed to conquer 1.5 players so far, but it looks like now they have no easy targets for conquest now. Like Frozen they too have a lot of the big players as neighbors. But they still have a potential conqeust in Ichabod. Overall great tech rate and game so far.

Civac: Great early conquest. Has on of the largest empires for the longest time, therefore well developed. I don't have his graphs right now, but expect him to do good there. Problem is that he only has two big neighbors on both sides.

Mr. Cairo (formerly mackoti): In a great twist managed to conquer himself. Great position so far, but I lack the graphs for more insight. Has 1.5 neighbors by now and only big players as neighbors. Also owns an astro island.

Frozen: Wow just wow. They were and are in a similar position to me and Tarkeel without any big conquest, but what they did with that is amazing. They have only 17 cities, but these cities brought them to the best tech rate out of all players here. Unfortunate for most players here they seem to only report on civforum, but I expect their thread there to be very interesting. Of course the have the big problem of being neighbors to a lot of the big players. Without thech tech edge they would most likely be dead by now.

Miguelito/Rusten: They already own a half of their continent, which they share with civac. Most importantly they own a astro island and managed to be the first to conquer some land on a different continent. They still have a lot of land to expand to in former Ramkland. But it feels like they run somewhat into a wall either by overexpanding or being slowed down by me and Mjmd. Their tech rate is similar to mine and I would not consider me in the big players club. They have one of the - if not the - biggest army in the world, which might be another reason for their tech rate. Of course another big problem is that they have another big player (civac) as a neighbor, who does not have any further easy expansion targets.

The midfield:

Lazteuq: My archenemy in this game. He managed to conquer GKC very easily at just the right time. Also owns an astro island. I was very suprised to see his tech rate go up that high this turn, but he needed to collect a lot of money to run those turns to get to Steel. Luckily his conquest did not materialize into a tech advantage over me yet, but that may change. Of course his biggest problem is being behind in tech compared to me and Miguelito. Especially Miguelito might be a big obstacle for his future in this game.

Tarkeel: So far had a great run as the only player no involved in the everlasting war between TBS/Commodore/Superdeath. Of course that also meant that they did not expand into other players territory as much. I don't know where they are right now in technology but I would say a bit better then me. Now the current problem is that Superdeath declared war on them, but I suspect them to be victories and maybe even conquer Superdeath. They have a very good chance of conquering their continent completely and get access to the big players club. The only question is will the do that before the game ends. It feels like we were in a similar position on our respective continents, but the big difference is the presence of a big player on my continent.

Ichabod: Managed to split Cornflakes with Piccadilly, but last time I saw his graphs he looked to be weaker compared to Frozen in tech and of course smaller then Piccadilly. Only has big neighbors by now, but hey also managed to grab an astro island. Good for him.

Charriu: It's me, Charriu. Well I don't really know so far how to get out of the midfield. No easy conquest target is there as there is always the dangerous Miguelito in front of me. Next I will try to go for Rifling->Education->Economy->Corporation to improve my tech rate further. Building Oxford and Wall Street might be the next best way to get out while also using my traits.

The chopping block:

Donovan Zoi (former? TBS): Part of the longest lasting war in this game. Looks like TBS was out to a great start by conquering joshy very early, but then found himself against an unlikely alliance from Commodore and Superdeath. Since then they managed to stay on top of this dog pile. They do have a bigger empire, but their tech rate is so bad for so long a time, that I doubt they stand a chance against a technologically superior power like Tarkeel. Still they look like they manage to defeat their enemies and may manage to get themselves out into the midfield.

Superdeath: Looks like he managed to play a solid game for a long time, but the recent war against Tarkeel might be a big mistake in hindsight. I expect him to die by Tarkeel and Donovan now.

Commodore: Similar like Superdeath, but without the mistake of declaring against Tarkeel. Might let him survive Superdeath, but then again he already is loosing cities against Donovan and is low in power.

Mjmd: Attacking Ramk looks like a bad decision as Ramk turned out to be a very resilient player. Now he's continue to live in former Ramk land, but as a shadow of his former self. Interestingly thanks to being Portugal he shares an astro island together with Lazteuq. It's really unfortunate that Miguelito took the chance for a conquest against him.

naufragar: Great start together with Amicalola against pindicator, but then something went wrong and he now is most likely the next player to be eliminated.

Stay tuned for an overview of my cities next.