[PB59] Charriu welcomes all the townfolk

[Charriu]

T200:

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Miguelito really wants me to fight Lazteuq, but no way I do that alone. Right now he wants me and Lazteuq to weaken ourselves so that he can steamroll us both. That won't happen. At the same time conflict against Miguelito is hopeless for me. He has Machine Guns and better ships on the field and he is only 2 turns away from Assembly line and therefore Infantry. I send Miguelito a iron for iron with him declaring against Lazteuq. I would rather Miguelito starts the conflict and takes out most of Lazteuqs naval power, which is the main hinderance for me.




Lazteuq also established a border with Miguelito. Now I said that fighting Miguelito together with Lazteuq is hopeless. Main reason for that is Lazteuqs weak position in tech. He can only build Musketman, Cannons on land, which is no match against Miguelito's or even my land army. Really hope Miguelito starts conquering Lazteuq, which might give me more time to advance technologically, while also vulturing Lazteuq.

[Charriu]

T201:

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Miguelito send me a similar deal about Lazteuq war again, which I declined. Like I said Miguelito has to start any war. He also asked me for 1 copper and 1 iron for only 3gpt. That's way to low considering he gave me 5 gpt for just one copper. At the same time I did not see a reason to reoffer anything right now.




I finally took over the whale tile to my north from Lazteuq. Being a nice guy I already ended our fish for fish and whale deal, because of that deal Lazteuq now has no more whale. Hopefully he sees it as a sign of peace. By the way if you wonder what I'm building on the wine island: It's a fort. Most likely the best way to connect that resource in the future and also the most peaceful way. Placing a city there just cannibalizes all the surounding cities too much.

Most importantly I switched into Free Market this turn which increases my beaker rate by 124 and my maintenance rate by only 9. Expect another 124 or so when I finish Corporation in 2 turns.

[Charriu]

T202:

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Well well well. Miguelito declared war on Lazteuq last turn. Right now their turn order is Lazteuq->Miguelito. I had hoped that Miguelito's messages meant just that and made sure to log in before Lazteuq this turn, mainly so that I can avoid any diplomessages of him until next turn. Miguelito also asked me to stop trading and declare war against Lazteuq. Now I do want to declare war against Lazteuq as he has no chance against Miguelito with his tech level and I also only have the chance for a stalemate against Miguelito. Only problem is...




...a very big chunk of Lazteuq's land and naval army sits just right in front of me right now. I don't think Lazteuq planned to attack me, rather he was shifting units around to finish off Mjmd. Of course this is very awkward for me, because if I declare now I would have to deal with the bigger part of Lazteuq's army as well as his navy. Better Miguelito has to deal with those in the next turns. But I did send Miguelito a message signaling that I am willing to join him in war:




Now I may start the war earlier if an opportunity turns up. In any case this gives me a bit more time to finish more universities before I switch back to Theocracy for the war, which I can do in 4 turns. Best case scenario would also be if Lazteuq's scouts in my territory will be gone in the next turns so that I can move my units against him. Don't want to cancel borders right now as this will tell him immediately what will happen.

[Charriu]

T204:

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And here we are at the brink of war. Lazteuq didn't really move many units away, so I will try to make the best out of it. Fortunately it is a lot of siege, which I may be able to move around with my 2 movers and eventually eliminate it thanks to flanking. So far the best tile to move into looks to be the tile 2E of Esther city, which is out of range of his siege. Lucky for me a lot of his ships are out of sight.
I also have a galleon ready in the southern sea to capture a former GKC island city.

Miguelito conquered all of Ramkland so far and also killed two scouting Lazteuq units in my territory. Unfortunately there remains 1 knight, who might be able to spot my 2 mover stack. Right now I'm in 2nd turn behind Lazteuq and before Miguelito. I will try to get behind Miguelito too next turn, just to be sure he doesn't peace out of the conflict now that he took Ramkland, which might be a possibility. Should he do that then I won't attack Lazteuq.

[Charriu]

T205:

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Turn started with the usual diplo spam. Miguelito asked me to declare war on Lazteuq as I have promised for this turn. Miguelito also offered the above diplo. Fish for fish is ok, but what about the 100 gold? Does that mean peace for 100 turns? Please tell me after the game, Miguelito. Now Lazteuq also asked for fish for fish. All offers were rejected for now. Let's see how the future front looks like. I do expect that Lazteuq knows about my invasion.





Well this sucks. As always in this game I am very disappointed in Lazteuq. Not only is his main army stationed at our border he also emptied almost all his cities and I expect GKC-land is also fairly undefended. He's basically gifting our continent to Miguelito, since he must have had his main army near our border since the war with Miguelito started.
Now I admit I bungled this war preparation too. I did not build that many units and Lazteuq could expect me to move towards him. Then again the plan was to profit from a weak neighbor without heavy military involvement.
So the war is off the table. I reinforced my defense on Lazteuq's border since there is a lot of crap there. I also kept my mounted units in range just in case. I also send Miguelito a fish for fish deal as well as "me stopping trading with Lazteuq" as a gift. I'm sorry Miguelito that I have to break my promise on a joint war, but I see no reason to take more losses in this war when I am the weaker player. By the way this is what I have at the border.




Well here is to hoping that Wall Street and Oxford are a leap forward. At least I'm teching fairly quickly still.

[Charriu]

T206:

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Well well well. I think I dodged a bullet there. Miguelito signed peace with Lazteuq, which would have left me alone in a war with Lazteuq. Still I wonder why he signed peace. He's way more powerful then Lazteuq and this should be a great opportunity to add GKC land to his empire. Miguelito also did not accept my trade embargo against Lazteuq. Strange.

I switched into Bureaucracy for the next 5 turns to get Oxford out faster. I'm also saving pop to start drafting infantry when I get to Assembly line after the next 5 turns or so.

[Charriu]

T208:

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Steam Power is in and we have coal. I was able to pinpoint the location of coal thanks to mirroring and prebuild the mine.





I'm a little bit nervous because of these 3 Miguelito ships one of them a 5 move galleon. Therefore I moved more units towards Crysta which holds the important shrine. Miguelito wouldn't just raze this city would he? Not when he could need the extra gold, right?

[Charriu]

T209:

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So much for my paranoia. There were no troops on the galleon. Just a Great Merchant from Miguelito conducting a trade mission in my capitol.
That was a relief and enabled me to shift around some tiles to get the levees up quicker. 
I also bombarded Frozen with copper/iron/coal deals for gpt. I don't have much use for them right now and why not make a quick buck on the side. I bet he takes it since he runs some Mining Incs. Didn't want to prop up Miguelito more than necessary

[Charriu]

T212:

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Nothing really to interesting happened during the last turns. Lazteuq kept his main army at my border, while the Miguelito border stays rather peaceful. The only reason Lazteuq and me are not in open war right now is because of the presence of Miguelito. I don't know what will happen if either one of us three will be involved in a war with a fourth party. Speaking of which:




What are your plans there, Civac?

As you can see I finished Assembly Line and the first factories and infantries are being produced. Next turn I will switch into Nationhood again for drafting. With the advent of Levees some cities changed focus, which will be a nice overview post for the future. With the changed city focuses some cities need to be drafted down to a lower pop size. Better to draft them then to starve.
Next tech plans are to fill up my small backlog in the form of Philosophy and Liberalism. Main reason is that I can research Philosophy with just overflow, while producing gold. That way I won't "loose" a turn later when running 100% science. Also Oxford will finish this turn which will increase my tech rate from around 1800 to roughly 2000. It will also allow me to run more scientist in Clock Town. By the way I think I now have the biggest city in the world with Clock Town at 23.
Liberalism won't be start important next turn and I may research it with another overdose of science beakers. I do want to research it before I get Scientific Method. As we all know Monasties go obsolete with that, which not only will loose me the 10% science from the building but also the 2 gold from Spiral Minaret on it. Now there is the option to switch into Free Religion after the discovery of Scientific Method, but I will have to calculate if it will be better to keep the +2 gold on religious buildings or the general +10% science in addition to lower maintenance. My guess is that Free Religion might be better.





On the diplomatic front I offered Frozen my metal resources for gpt. Frozen is the only other player investing into Mining Inc. and therefore was the natural trading partner for these resources. Now I may need those resources back in the future, but for now they can earn me some money. Also the gifted hit singles was a nice addition. Thank you for that even though I have enough happiness for now.

[Charriu]

T214:

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Amicalola founded Cereal Mills and promptly negotiated the deals above with me. Now I think this was a mistake for two reasons. First he just founded it and the corp isn't widespread yet. Doing the deals a few turns later wouldn't have hurt. Second eventually I will want those resources back and that will leave his cities starving. But for now this helps me with getting closer to the others in tech.

As you can see Steel is being done this turn and I will follow up on that with Railroad. I already moved my lazy workers in position to place railroads on important production tiles and I also found the first city to place Mining Inc in. I have planned which cities should get which corps already and I will report on that in a few turns.