[SPOILERS - El Grillo & Charriu PB51] One step at a time

[El Grillo]

We got research visibility on Plemo just in time to see him 1t from Guilds, which has cost him all of his saved-up gold, so he's in the ballpark of spending ~350 gold to make ~500 beakers per turn at 100% tech, judging from his last big point increase as Machinery. That's more than our expenses and more than our max tech rate, as you'd expect given the 40gpt Shrine on our side and Representation on his. I think we have no better choice than to follow him to Guilds with the help of the Great Merchant, whose Galley I unfortunately misclicked, delaying its payload by a turn. I will save gold after finishing Machinery in 2t though, in case Plemo starts whipping in Knights everywhere and a detour to Engineering seems warranted. The only goods news on this front is that our scouting Sentry WC has managed to spot all of Plemo's border cities, and we should get passive espionage visibility in time to warn us of an attack headed our way.

Mjmd lost Oregon Trail to superdeath with no time taken to bombard, but you can surely read all about that in their threads. GKC on the other hand has stalled out after the one city capture and Lazteuq can walk into gira's empty cities whenever he feels like it. I feel like it's only a matter of time before Plemo devours a weakened GKC next. What's our play here, look to conquer vanrober or Ramk and punt the confrontation with Plemo down the line, when his EIM and Dikes can come into play and massively widening our land border in the process? Hope that Lazteuq-post-gira cooperates provided that superdeath-post-Mjmd doesn't attack him next? I'm just not seeing a great window of opportunity here.

Maybe we double down on the current scrapped plan and beeline Astronomy by bulbing with the incoming Great Scientist instead of building an Academy, and hope that Plemo tries to milk the Colossus commerce longer and delays EIM? I would have to research some duds in Alphabet and Philosophy in addition to Calendar and Optics while continuing to avoid Civil Service. Then we could try and raze some coastal cities as an offensive action against Plemo, with enough movement range to do it at multiple points along his Lazteuq coast from out of vision. And in case he does go for EIM soon at least we'd have a chance to complicate his operations by throwing C2 Galleons at his EIM... if they're loaded with units then it could still be an even hammer exchange...

[Charriu]

Just wanted to say you are doing great and I'm still here rooting for you.

[El Grillo]

Thanks Charriu, appreciate it. It speaks to the caliber of player that Plemo is that I haven't yet found him to be militarily vulnerable, and meanwhile it's been all I can do to not fall further behind economically. The usual caveats apply that a better player than I am probably could have found timing windows I overlooked, and certainly could have played my early-mid game to a more effective snowball. It'll be interesting to look back on those turns with the benefit of hindsight.

At present, the passive espionage bonuses will help tremendously in identifying strategic opportunities. I'll continue to bide my time and wait for him to slip, but it's still up to me to prepare for and seize them if and when the time comes. It'll be interesting to see if my upcoming city founding provokes a sharp response like the last one did.

[El Grillo]

Yeah, so much for not falling further behind economically. Plemo launched his 2-man GA and is 1-turning Banking. I'm betting he'll crest 1000 GNP by the end of the GA.

[El Grillo]

The geopolitics in the north are a mess. GKC made peace with gira after taking one city and losing enough units to get gira another Great General, as Ramk is gearing up to attack his southern flank. Meanwhile, Lazteuq declared war on gira and is bringing Maces, though I haven't actually seen his units. Gira seems to have been handling his defense remarkably well so far, and with Catapults might even hold briefly against Lazteuq, but if the French commit to the attack he should be able to finish the conquest.

The south is simpler. Superdeath conquered Mjmd's western port city of CalltoPower, so now his island city is isolated. I'll have 2 Amphibious Crossbows and 2 Swords on the way to claim it shortly, along with a Settler and Worker. No sign at all that Mjmd is putting up much resistance, or maybe superdeath is just getting good RNG for once

I'm considering waiting to plant my forward city against Plemo for another couple of turns to get passive espionage city visibility, such that the 3 CG2 Longbows plus chopped-in Walls on a hill are actually sufficient to defend a city that could be hit by 1-movers from his culture

I'll probably start uploading screenshots again soon once the pieces start moving, though I may give up score-tracking at this point since I'm not really getting any insight from it.

[El Grillo]

I took a bunch of screenshots for a T140 overview, but I worked a bunch of unplanned overtime this weekend so I'll have to upload later. Quick hits are that I decided to commit to Astronomy, getting Compass and Optics and finding some really sweet land between Plemo and me. I just made a Great Scientist so the plan is to tech Alphabet and Philosophy to unlock the Astronomy bulb, which I think is still worth it over an Academy at this point in the game. Plemo matched me for Optics and is finishing Paper, on top of being ahead Civil Service, Guilds, HBR, and Banking.

Plemo is building up a Knight stack but I think I managed to dissuade him from attacking me by showing him that my Catapults were in position. GKC is likely his target. Plemo has used his GA to run Caste artists to cause me some headaches, so there will be issues later.

Plemo and I each sniped an island city from Mjmd, who lost his capital to superdeath and is well into his death throes. Sorry buddy, better luck in PB52.

Lazteuq took gira's capital and looks primed to fully eliminate him.

It remains Plemo's game to lose with his tech lead, population lead, and EIM right on the horizon. At least I don't have to whip down my cities and play war turns while work is busy (knock on wood). I'm pretty confident he'll simply run over GKC and bring us to a concession shortly thereafter with 5-move EIM if we don't all work together against him, but who dares to go first?

[Hitru]

Without particular knowledge on this game and its diplo situation usually 2nd position player must initiate dogpile as there is no reason for other players do the heavy lifting for him ( but they might join in if they see an opportunity )

[Suite]

With circumnavigation-EIM I'd gladly dare to make the first move :D How is your food and GNP situation? Are you still catching up to Plemo?

[El Grillo]

Plemo still leads in food and is far in the lead in GNP. Rep+Merc and FIN Colossus coast are pretty strong, who knew? Anyway, apologies for failing to update. I felt paranoid about burning all my gold into Philosophy without any recourse to Knights so I teched Guilds + HBR instead. Just in time too.

I must not fully understand the passive espionage visibility mechanic because there was a turn where I lost track of Plemo's Knights despite having more than enough EP, and he used the opportunity to mobilize for an attack next turn using a tile he culturally flipped a few turns ago. It's truly terrible timing because I only just finished HBR+Guilds so I had to whip in my first Knights at the swapping penalty (I foolishly forgot to prebuild anything in the queue), but I'm not in a position right now to play long thoughtful war turns so instead I'm going to let my last few Forges complete and then whip Knights into the ground like I wanted to a couple of weeks ago.

[El Grillo]

I logged in to see no attacks against the city. Plemo sank a Caravel and tried to war-peace me. Not this time buddy.

Will play the turn later. Plemo lacks Construction entirely somehow so I don’t see what he hopes to accomplish here other than rip up some nets, even if I weren’t intent on whipping down.

I wish I felt more invested in this game still, but I suppose there’s a balancIng act versus getting too invested, and all this IRL work has really done a number on me. Ah well, I do hope the other players are having fun.