[Spoilers] Boldly Going...on a Bender and Pissing Off Xenu

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Got busy at work, still haven't finished the turn. I did a little sandbox run for the presumed upcoming battle. This gives away what I did, so forget the lurker question from the previous post.

longbow = 6 * 60% (cultural defense) + 25% hill + 50% walls + 70% (LB hill/city bonus + CG 1)

Sian:
Knight combat 1
4 Knights, no promo

Me:
Knight, 2 promos available
2 LB CG1
Spear, combat 1

Terrain: walls, hill, 60% cultural defense

---

Knight combat 1 vs. LB - 12.5% (11 vs. 15.5)
Knight vs. LB - 9.5% (10 vs. 15.3)

Knight vs. Knight (combat 2) - 27.2%
Knight vs. Spear (combat 1, healer) - 28.1% (10 vs. 11.8)

--

It appears after a few runs that I should go ahead and use the promotions on the Knight. In one scenario it actually had to defend, and if it defends I would hate to lose the coin flip when this is most likely prevented by the promo (improves defending knight's odds from 50% to 67.8%). The axe never defends. I'll position my attacking stack on the tundra hill NE of the sentry stack to clean up on Sian, if he attacks. I REALLY hope he will. This would be the best way to get rid of those knights and sack his capital.

[spacetyrantxenu]

Even with you about to sack his northern city he presses the attack? He's consistent, I have to give him that.

"
L'attaque, l'attaque, toujours l'attaque!

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Even with you about to sack his northern city he presses the attack? He's consistent, I have to give him that.

"
L'attaque, l'attaque, toujours l'attaque!

At what point is enough actually enough? Apparently not yet, so let's serve up some more disappointment for the enemies of the Incan nation. First, though, I upgraded the defense at Cobra Commander:



I could have 1 turned another spear to make it impossible for Sian to take the city, but I want him to attack. I'm willing to take the virtually zero chance he can capture the city to encourage him to waste a unit on the attack, but he probably won't attack. Probably, except for that's apparently Sian's AI script for this game. So, anyway, I feel good about CC, let's bash heads. After thinking things over, Sian actually outnumbers me with knights right now, and my HAs won't do much against them, so they're more expendable. I figure I can spend two HAs killing his city and get my knights back into position to mop up what's left of Sian's knights, should he decide to press the attack on CC, so that's what I do. Here's what we have available:





I take my no promo HA and get a withdrawal at 18.2%! Better than a scratch, by a country mile.



Odds I can certainly live with. Predictably, I win.




I had intended at some point to keep some of these cities, particularly this one if I ever had a hope of doing anything to Commodore on the high seas. However, Sian could easily recapture this city next turn, and I'm not playing that game. Burn it.



I wonder what Sian whipped for 3 pop? Guessing the forge. Hooray spite whips! Well, spite raze >> spite whip. After capturing the city, I moved the rest of the mobile stack to the sentry hill so I can counterattack Sian's invading Knights, if they come in. Or, I can move them on his capital, but I know we'll be seeing pikes very soon from him, so this is bound to bog down. Probably I should just play defense over here now and wait for the incoming attack from Commodore in the north.



Speaking of the north, I was an idiot and let Slow kill two axes, a spear, and two workers last turn. I was trying to irrigate the grass on his border and I covered the workers with the units I just mentioned without giving it much thought. Yeah, Slow may not be making many moves in this game, but he's not totally asleep at the switch, and he mopped up my pitiful little stack. Well, shit. I'm short of workers now when I could actually use a few to chain some irrigation here and there. Oh well, live and learn.

This game is all but decided. Looking at the score can tell you that much. Generally, I don't put much stock in score, but here the gaps are so wide that it really sums up the game's standings nicely. Demos, then charts and some city grabs since I haven't done that lately:



GNP is with everyone running a defect of some degree. I'm running 100%, not sure about the others as I'm not checking how much gold everyone has left each turn. Concerning is Com's power lead. I better get my units back in position soon. Particularly, I could use a scouting unit south of Swiper, as that city is woefully under-defended.

Graphs:

Com has alphabet, required for printing press. I can't see if he has PP, but he does have paper, so my guess is that he does have PP. In fact, his towns yield what my towns do, I am financial and he is not, so there you go, Com has PP. Annoyingly, Com never had to waste the 800 beakers I invested in HBR and Feudalism. Which, of course, means that Com has Education and not Guilds, because he has Musketeers on the board. So he can't get Banking, and therefore can't get Economics, but more importantly, can't get Replaceable Parts on the way to Rifling and an agonizing steamroll of Rifles just yet. Also, he has not researched Philosophy (nor anyone else), so he's not blazing a path to nationhood and drafts. But, since he does have Education, he will get Philosophy as soon as he's ready to slingshot Liberalism. Best guess for a slingshot would be either Steel or Rifling. He can get Steel much sooner, so that would be my guess. Game over at Cannons and Musketeers.

Cities

Some tile micro is off because I replayed the turn quickly for screenshots at work today.




Not working coast here. I still need to get my GP completed. If only I could tech Philosophy and pop my GP, force another GP in pacifism, and actually get some use out of the MoM. That's my only hope to stay competitive, perpetual Golden Age.



I can't remember if I swapped off the coast onto production tiles yet, I think I did. Finally (mostly) regrown after the whipping hell from Sian's failed (but close) invasion.



No change here, ever. This won't even be a speed bump when Com comes calling.



If only I could get the Heroic Epic built... You can see here the grass tile I tried to farm, stupidly.



Coming along nicely. I chopped my newly acquired forest last turn into a library to TRY to get that sheep tile (I'm not holding my breath). Barracks, then LBs probably.

That's the update, and pretty much everything I can think of. I would concede to Com any time, but I don't want to deprive him of his well-deserved stomp to victory, so I'll let him paste someone for a while before bringing it up.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Not pictured: Swiper



Remember what I said in the last post or so about wanting to get a sentry down to Swiper to get a look at the invading enemy? Well, I never got around to it in time. I knew Com had Engineering and so could combat road to the border and move a 2 mover for a quick strike at Swiper, but I never got around to doing anything about it. What I hate the most is my last build was a catapult that finished at 32/33 when it could have been a longbow at 33/33 if I had been smarter.

So, where do we go from here? In all likelihood, next turn Com will pillage my horses and my ability to counterattack will be gone. Even now, with him having pikes on the board, all the knights can do for me is counter his invading musketeers, which is a tactical necessity. Lacking engineering myself, I don't really benefit from interior lines with my strong defenders, Longbows and now Muskets, as they'll cover as much ground as the invading musketeers. Dark Heart is in a bad position without some reinforcements, but somehow I forgot to pull anything back from Monty Burns toward DH. I will have a handful of knights/HAs that can counterattack Com if he comes in closer, but I think probably he opts to retreat with his stack and wait for another chance, after pillaging my horses. Or, another good move would be to take that guerrilla II musketeer and sit on my deer/hill, as that would cause major problems reinforcing DH given the lack of alternate roads over the hills from CC. I hope he doesn't do that.

I'm not as worried about an attack at Monty Burns now. The best move would be a direct assault on DH with a swarm of musketeers before I can reinforce. I can always whip the great city, but I'm terribly loathe to do it. I'd probably rather concede, honestly, than have to whip that city into nothingness to survive.

Assuming the game continues, I'm going to have to whip CC hard. Before I do that, I'm going to get out a GP to start a golden age:



Realistically, I should have done this long before now. I kept waiting for the perfect opportunity, then kept being pressured by Sian to have to build more and more units. Tech goal would be save gold, Meditation, then Philosophy and a swap to Pacifism to generate another 2 GP in rapid succession to extend the GA. I really don't expect the game to last another 18t, though.

The real reason I'm not so keen to play on:



Highlighted, what remains of Sian's knight/army. Note the event log. You can see that Sian went ahead and tried the attack on CC, with terrible losses. Here's how the fight went:

C2 Knight vs LB (12 vs. 15.3) 24.1% = Loss, damage to LB (49/100)
C2 Knight vs LB (12 vs. 15.3) 24.1% = Loss, heavy damage to LB (15/100)
C2 Knight vs C2 Knight (12 vs. 12) 50% = LOSS, flawless.

Terrible luck here for Sian, not that I'm saddened by it. However, at this point, why press the attack? He doesn't have enough units to take the city, and he clearly can see my counterattack force on the hill that will easily clean up any surviving attackers who are fortunate enough to win. I don't get the decision to continue to attack here. Stack attack, maybe? I don't get it. It just seems like there is very little thought or effort, at best, in continuing to attack. I'm not here to grudge match, I wanted to compete for a win. I can't do it if an opponent insists on a grudge to the death and I want no part of bad feelings, so right here is when I decide that I think it's best to end this game. The rest of the attack:

C1 Knight vs C2 Knight (11 vs. 12) 32.6% = Loss (43/100) Why keep fighting? I don't get it.
C1 Knight vs C1 Spear (11 vs. 11.8) 33.6% = Win (5/100) Sian certainly had a low odds win coming his way, but this unit will just get murdered. Not an even exchange, and it accomplishes nothing. I don't get it.

Anyway, I'm committed to allowing Commodore to play on to the victory he's earned, if he wants to. But, if Slow and Sian are willing to concede, GG Com, you deserve the win.

[slowcheetah]

Ok, finished reading. I very much enjoyed the thread . I really don't understand why Sian spent so long throwing units at you, a player who could match him in production ,rather than going after me, who couldn't despite the CKN's. If someone had taken my capital site it would have made a world of difference to their game. That's why i was turtling I was expecting units to come out of the fog at any moment.

Maybe next time for byzantium, ey?

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Ok, finished reading. I very much enjoyed the thread . I really don't understand why Sian spent so long throwing units at you, a player who could match him in production ,rather than going after me, who couldn't despite the CKN's. If someone had taken my capital site it would have made a world of difference to their game. That's why i was turtling I was expecting units to come out of the fog at any moment.

Maybe next time for byzantium, ey?

Lol... yeah. I think it was scooter who said CRE Inca Looking back, Inca did absolutely nothing for me. Anywhere I needed culture, I founded a religion (Cobra Commander/Megatron) or built a wonder (Monty Burns). I didn't even use the Qs as much for cheap HR garrison as I had thought I would. The way the gamed turned out, there were nearly enough happiness resources once we got to Calendar, and I had to build real defensive units (archers) that were nearly as cheap as the Qs in the first place. Nearly any civ would have given me more value. Live and learn.

As for Sian coming after me, well, my culture crushed his borders, even after he invested in Stonehenge. That made me a necessary target, but I think at some point he lost focus on where he could make more efficient gains. I didn't know he had taken your horse city; the entire game that area showed as orange on my map. All of my cities were defensively placed on hills (thank you CRE trait!), so I was a tough nut to crack. His cities were forced right up on my border, giving me the advantage of surprise whenever I decided to attack. The same way I sniped Holly out of the fog, I took two of his build queue cities where he never saw units coming until I built a road out of the fog. One of the things I feel ok about from the game is I razed more cities (4) than Com razed of mine (3), and two of my cities were brand new.

Next game, I want someone with some good sense to pick my civ for me.

[slowcheetah]

Next game, I want someone with some good sense to pick my civ for me.

If you do that don't team with Xenu. You'll defintely get Mao :P

[spacetyrantxenu]

Next game, I want someone with some good sense to pick my civ for me.

If you do that don't team with Xenu. You'll defintely get Mao :P

You know, I was going to suggest you let the RNG decide your leader and civ since that's all I've ever done, that way you can complain about the results and escape any ridicule, but look where it got me. Protective. Every. Time. (Not that it's so horrible the third time around, thank you RB mod, but still. I don't see the RNG giving anyone FIN three times in a row!)

Now I have to go read the other threads. GG slow, thanks for sticking it out.

[Commodore]

A few things happening this turn. First, I open the email with this little dandy...

Foreboding? What precisely (although it certainly doesn't look good)...

Not pictured: Our camp completed, our demos aren't THE worst of all time, but we're still behind a smidgeon. All in all, though, Commodore is a little further behind me in tile development at this point. Small victory. I want to find Sian's lands and sit on some of his tiles, he seems to be doing quite well.

This was a fun little tilt. The image is of a broken choke, by the way. Good play!

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

A few things happening this turn. First, I open the email with this little dandy...

Foreboding? What precisely (although it certainly doesn't look good)...

Not pictured: Our camp completed, our demos aren't THE worst of all time, but we're still behind a smidgeon. All in all, though, Commodore is a little further behind me in tile development at this point. Small victory. I want to find Sian's lands and sit on some of his tiles, he seems to be doing quite well.

This was a fun little tilt. The image is of a broken choke, by the way. Good play!

Ah, now it makes sense. I think in the future, we should have a pictures/video only banter thread, with no civ-related pics allowed. No words, no maps, just near-certain inane commentary, or the occasional YouTube video that only tangentially makes sense so that nothing is given away. AW is fun, but I found that I would have enjoyed trading the occasional barb during the game.