[SPOILERS] Magic Science and Mr. Cairo in Pitboss 40

[Magic Science]

   
Look to the lower right corner.


 

[Charriu]

One step closer to the south pole.

[Hitru]

GG MS. I really admire how you saved your civ with astro and how you kept playing on after that. You even reached that 3rd spot before the end!

[Elkad]

GG MS.

Astro has been on my list for a long time. I never felt I had time to do it. I'd have been fighting uphill against your established fleet in the north, and I had a single coastal city in the south (granted, a very nice one). I'd even scouted the southern islands with a single caravel, which were just as nice as yours, and didn't even have barb cities to clear.

Sofia was abandoned. Things were so close on the mainland, and the city of such poor quality, that it just wasn't worth attempting to save. Sistine-powered culture from shallow_ means it would never amount to anything.
White Bear was a surprise - or a calculated risk on my part that didn't pay off. You taking a mainland city from super convinced me you were going to leave it alone, and I really needed those troops on the mainland.

[Magic Science]

GG MS. I really admire how you saved your civ with astro and how you kept playing on after that. You even reached that 3rd spot before the end!

Thanks, Hitru. It was a fun and unique journey piloting the Incans from a razed third city to a third place finish. I'm sure you Orphans were glad I was still alive as well...

GG MS.

Astro has been on my list for a long time.  I never felt I had time to do it.  I'd have been fighting uphill against your established fleet in the north, and I had a single coastal city in the south (granted, a very nice one).  I'd even scouted the southern islands with a single caravel, which were just as nice as yours, and didn't even have barb cities to clear.

Looking at it now, I agree that there was never a great time for you to research Astronomy. Your research rate had always been better than mine, but probably not better enough to beat me to Astronomy without making serious sacrifices in the standard Medieval economic and military technologies comparable to the sacrifices I made, and we all saw how badly I did because of those sacrifices when push came to shove on the mainland. Maybe you could have done something after my exile but before the colonies were well grown, but I would have seen it coming (I had tech visibility from Turn 194 onward), and it didn't take that long before I was out of strike and had population, culture, barracks, etc. everywhere. Then once I had frigates and muskets there was just no way you could have broken through to take much, and of course you were distracted on the mainland by then anyway. I think that the best time to research Astronomy for you would probably have been a little before capturing Liquid Flame. You could have built the colonization force in other cities and just built galleons in Liquid Flame to settle the unclaimed southern islands. Still, that would have required knowing that Liquid Flame would fall to you, which I don't think was certain until it actually happened (am I wrong?), and that there was going to be an interim period of peace after the conclusion of the War on Foreigners (dogpile on Charriu), which also wasn't certain.

Sofia was abandoned.  Things were so close on the mainland, and the city of such poor quality, that it just wasn't worth attempting to save.  Sistine-powered culture from shallow_ means it would never amount to anything.

That makes sense to me. Would you have tried very hard to recapture the city if I had tried very hard to keep it? I could have garrisoned Sofia with nine muskets and some other junk from my island north of that if I wanted to.

White Bear was a surprise - or a calculated risk on my part that didn't pay off.  You taking a mainland city from super convinced me you were going to leave it alone, and I really needed those troops on the mainland.

Did you have any suspicion at all of what I was planning? From my perspective, my galleon moves were really sketchy despite my efforts to make them seems less so, but of course I'm biased there.

[Elkad]

If you'd kept Sofia, I would have let you have it. On the other hand, I'd have likely kept a few more troops in Rungholt after that, so your raze later may not have happened (which if I counted galleons right, you almost came up short anyway?)

White Bear was a surprise, but mainly from overly trusting you to stay in vs super. Since you were attacking super, I'd expect your galleons to be transiting my culture w/troops onboard anyway. I may not have even looked at your galleons.

Liquid Flame was a goal for a long time (even before I took over the civ - it was a very nice city). I never knew I was going to win it (and even when I did, I was planning for shallow_ to try to snatch it from me immediately after). But we rolled right into the next war after that. Oh, it didn't kickoff then, but it was obviously going to happen. And I was about to be facing cuirs with pikes and praets. So 1000 hammers worth of settlers and boats went into more troops instead, and I continued researching towards MilSci and Steel.

[Charriu]

I think everybody wanted Liquid Flame at some point, except for you, Magic.

[Magic Science]

If you'd kept Sofia, I would have let you have it.  On the other hand, I'd have likely kept a few more troops in Rungholt after that, so your raze later may not have happened (which if I counted galleons right, you almost came up short anyway?)

Well, that's interesting. I was sure you would have tried to take it back. Still, the Orphans would probably have taken it away from me if I did stay (am I wrong?), and holding the city wouldn't have made a difference if your overall downfall didn't happen, so I think that having all of those muskets in the water pinning your defenders down was the better choice.

EDIT: Elkad, I actually had plenty of units to spare: six musketmen and two swordsmen. Another two or three muskets in Nobiskrug might have been too many, though.

I think everybody wanted Liquid Flame at some point, except for you, Magic.

It was owned by every civilization in the game but me at one point, wasn't it? RFS-81 founded it as Lighthouse, you captured it, then Elkad took it, then Superdeath took it, then the Orphans razed it at the very end. If I could have gotten in on the fun, I would have, though. How was I going to satisfy the lurkers' demand that I reach the Antarctic without a southern port?

[Charriu]

Yes that is right. Orphans even tried capturing it earlier. It was also the first city in the game being captured and held.

[Magic Science]

The game is over now, and I want to do some post-game analysis, but first I should report what I did during the last few turns.

TURN 247 – END
   
When the Orphans declared war and Elkad started to fall apart, I continued doing my small part by bombarding the defenses of his coastal cities and pinning down his units with the attackers on my galleons. Of course, at this point it wasn’t going to make much of a difference in rather or not I got third place, since my “friends” were doing all the real work (and I now know that the others didn’t take my support into consideration when deciding who to attack anyway), but I kept at it. I didn’t realize we were so close to the end of the game, so I wanted to burn down Elkad’s ports before the Orphans could take them. That would help to maintain complete supremacy over the Northern Ocean even after they finished Astronomy (fewer mature ports means weaker shipbuilding capacity), which would allow me to keep those troublesome cavalry and riflemen away from my weak musket garrisons. My frigate fleet was intended to contribute to this effort as well, of course. I was building more and did not intend to allow any Orphan ships on my ocean, trade routes and resource gifts or not.

   
On Turn 250 I was able to partially achieve this goal when Elkad left only three muskets in Nobiskrug, which was particularly satisfying since the Orphan cuirassiers were right there, about to take it. Two foiled enemies with one raze! Sadly, when they took Canoel they garrisoned it with too many defenders for my marines to handle. It was also notable that Rungholt itself was not very strong defended on the turn I burned Nobiskrug: only one musketman, two wounded knights, and one very wounded horse archer, all promoted. I thought about trying something, but certainty of success did not seem quite as high, and I figured that Superdeath, who showed no signs of pursuing Astronomy, was more likely to capture it.

Oh, and despite what I may have implied when I first posted that screenshot, burning Nobiskrug did not actually push Elkad below me in points. That had already happened earlier in the turn.

   
Next, with the fate of Elkad and his ports sealed, I looked for another task for my marines (already mostly rebuilt from capturing Nobiskrug) and found one: burning more of Superdeath’s coastal cities. My caravel had found some of their garrisons to be weak, so capturing them wasn’t impossible. The reasons I wanted to was that burning things is fun, I had decided that The Flash was not sufficient retribution for Old Hong Kong, and the sooner Superdeath gave up, the less chance the Orphans had to build boats and cause me problems in the Northern Ocean. Only the first one was truly needed, though.

   
Unfortunately, apparently by coincidence, Superdeath improved his garrisons just in time, so I left my galleons lurking unseen off the coast instead and didn’t attack. I think that I could have burned at least one city if I really wanted to, but that would have required just about every marine I had, and I didn’t realize the game was mere turns from ending, so I wanted to conserve them.

   
Then the Orphans declared war on Superdeath, burned two of Superdeath’s revolting conquests, and the lurkers gave the go ahead for the game to be called. GG.